PMS 2.0 1345 - Tom Cruise Wednesday With Jamal Crawford, Tom Cruise, Kyle Larson LIVE In The ThunderDome, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Hello beautiful people

and welcome to our humble abode the Thunderdome on this Tom Cruise Wednesday May 21st 2025 this program starts now

Sports are happening and decision was made to wear jerseys on this particular program about four minutes ago.

So

everybody has scrambled Connor was certainly the motivator and the driver behind this.

That is the talk to table at Boston Connor wearing the Will Campbell jersey obviously left tackle and that is at Ty Schmidt wearing the left tackle of yeah this is the uh 2024 D-Bone Murphy Stag Bowl champion uh official jersey what wow stag bowl is the d3 national champion for those that don't know game ward

what yeah so he didn't put we need to put that into that uh he did

there's no scuffs on that there's no dirt obviously he was uh he was the alpha that entire game uh d3 football player obviously committed to the game that's right d3 left tackle very committed to the game i think he had to wash that jersey, and he also had to wash his own pads.

And I don't know if they had a locker room.

He tells me they did.

I've never seen it, but I am incredibly proud of you supporting D-bone, especially after the things that you guys have been saying about D-Bone over the last couple weeks.

But you know what you've been saying.

Actually, Bruce got in on today, took a picture of him eating as if it was a zoo animal and sent it into the group text today.

That's because he was eating bacon, and that's cannibalism.

You got to kind of grab that when you can't.

I am disgusted.

I didn't say that.

I didn't say that.

One half of the hammer.

Dad.

Cowboys, AP-10.

Love what you're doing with the Jersey Brother.

Yeah, it's not.

A lot of people think it's a Pat Fryer Moose jersey.

It's not.

It's just a moose.

Oh, it's possible.

Mooth.

Moth.

Yeah, Fryer Moose, obviously, absolute dog for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Who's going to be his quarterback?

Is it going to be Mason Crosby or is it going to be Aaron Rodgers?

Hopefully it's Mace Dog.

I don't want Aaron anymore.

Wow.

What?

No.

We are live.

We're in the room.

I mean, Mason showed up a week early.

He was making no cards forever.

All of his teammates writing down plays.

He's just the leader of the team right now.

And what's Aaron doing?

Squirting squirt guns.

It's concerts.

What are you talking about?

And where?

Where was that?

You're talking about Don and Mike Studs?

You're talking about Don and Mike Studs.

I believe that's where I saw it.

Okay.

One of them's focused on football.

One of them's at a concert squirting squirt guns.

One of them is in Mount Rush Remoor football players.

One of them.

I don't care.

Little bit.

Sweet goatee.

Yeah, great goatee.

Great goatee.

It'll get all sorted.

Didn't a biographer come out and say this week?

Yeah, that Aaron's going to make a decision this week.

That would make no sense for everything that Aaron has said.

Aaron said, I'm not committing to OTAs for anybody.

I'm 41 years old.

I got a lot going on in my life.

And I don't want it to become a big scene like it was for the Jets.

I was at 98% of their workouts, and I had to go to Egypt.

I think it had been planned.

Obviously, June 12th, 2024, 6, 12, 24.

I had to go over to Egypt.

And that just so happened to be whenever this was happening.

Everybody said I was a terrible teammate, even though I was at all of them before that.

So I wasn't going to commit to any team and tell them that I was going to play for them, make a big scene out of it, and then miss the entire OTAs, which was going to happen because of things going on in his personal life.

And then everybody has said, Well, this week he's going to make a decision.

This week, he's going to make a decision.

Biographers say he's going to make a decision.

It's like Aaron has said that he's not making decisions until after OTAs.

That is what he said.

Now, maybe he lied, which is what a lot of people think.

Or maybe he just said exactly how this is going to roll out, and he doesn't know if he's still playing.

I think that is all to be determined as well.

To be honest, my real motivation for Mason to be a quarterback is so I could shove that 0-6 up Dan Orlofsky's ass this week, this

season.

You think?

So they're going to.

So Mason Rudolph.

No, Dan said with Mason Rudolph, the Steelers are going to start 0-6.

Oh, so you want them to prove Emmy award-winning?

Yeah.

Dan Orlovsky wrong with Mason Rudolph?

Yeah, so if Aaron signs, I don't get to dunk on Dan as hard.

Congrats to Dan Orlovsky.

Maybe Dana.

Oh, yeah, Dan.

Hard work.

Always,

always,

always.

Pays off.

That's not true.

This represents a lot.

Can I finish?

Oh, starter.

Not your NFL vet, Danish bothering you.

But I love Dan.

We love UConn.

Marcha as well, but I love you.

We will get into the Marshawn conversation because it feels as if there is a chance that Kaniaks just started something with the Panthers that is going to make game two electrifying from Puck Drop.

I do believe there's a chance a five-on-five fight is about to happen in game two of the Eastern Conference finals in the NHL, which is a beautiful thing.

It's great for hockey.

Hopefully, nobody gets hurt.

hopefully the boys are able to survive but dan rolovsky and nfl live win uh the outstanding daily show emmy sports emmy

very happy for dan dan put out a uh tweet in the morning and we

hand up our fault had no idea those emmys were last they did it did nobody knew no i didn't tell us nobody said a thing

big game i don't think it was meant yeah exactly the conference finals are happening here we it was not mentioned one time in this entire thunderdome i don't think nope kind of bummed out about that because I was kind of looking forward to, because, you know, Coach Sabin was up for an award, and I was incredibly pumped for him.

Congrats, Coach Sabin.

Now, outstanding emerging on-air talent, Coach Sabin, I sent him a text way after he won because once again, I had no idea.

So it's hours later, which is why he might have seen it because I couldn't even imagine how many things.

And I just told him, like, I don't think I've seen anybody that has been portrayed as a stiff

be able to transfer into a television legend as quickly and as smoothly as he was able to do it.

And I told him, like, the resume only gets you a few weeks.

Like, hey, it's greatest of all time.

I've got to listen to what he says.

This is the greatest of all time.

I've got to listen to what he says.

It's greatest of all time.

It's like when celebrities go and do like a stand-up tour, like their name gets them like the first couple of shows, people will buy it.

But at some point, you got to be good.

At some point, you got to keep them there.

It's not just your resume.

It's not just what you're able to do as a coach.

You got to be a TV person and you got to be able to be good at giving your message.

You got to be good at having your message.

And you got to have Moxie.

And I'll tell you what, the thing that set this man, Old St.

Nick up, the greatest of all time in college ball, his moxie was.

Stupendous.

His amount of swagger, his confidence, his ability to just kind of let loose a little bit more than people thought while also being able to deliver messages that I think all of college football was wanting him to say and all of college football was listening to him say.

He became one of the best people on all of television very quickly.

And it was an honor to sit next to him.

Congrats, coach.

He did it.

He's passionate he's very passionate yeah loves college ball loves college ball there's some times where i think he wants to say something he's like i i don't know if i want to burn it down you know like he like he's watching him like pick and choose what he wants to it's been it's and so prepared i mean like of course overly ridiculously prepared because his entire life he's been watching film so now he just watches film for you know, college game day.

And it's like, we all get to benefit from it.

I don't know if we need to do 100 film sessions with him, but I do love whenever he is talking bull.

You know, like I think in letting him just kind of do his thing, he has certainly

earned that, put a lot of work in it.

And I assume that's the first of many that are coming to Coach Saban's trophy case, which is so awesome.

You've seen it, right?

His house, yeah.

He's got that wing.

He's got a wing of his house that he built for recruiting.

So they would like host, basically.

So he's got this beautiful home, beautiful home.

And Miss Terry is a phenomenal cook

and they have a they have like the perfect setup to like host like it was very clear that this house was set up to like host and then they added an entire wing basically for like recruiting trips for families that's where you see him doing uh yeah the two-step the two-step and whenever he's uh doing the entire electric slide i saw somebody on the internet doing the electric slide the other day i thought for sure they would know the electric slide

i'm not gonna say anything but i watched the video and i was like i don't think i've ever seen that style But yeah, that's the room.

They have all the jerseys of guys around the room.

Imagine with that room.

It was trophies everywhere.

So cool.

Yeah, and then they got a card table over here.

He's like, I play cards over here now, dude.

Do you ever see me dancing?

McConnell Spades play.

Yeah, I think he's a good player, too.

I think he felt like he obligated to be great, too.

That probably helped.

So let me get you straight.

If I'm good at spades, this is good for recruiting.

Yeah.

Sounds good.

Somebody needs to teach me how to play spades.

And I assume that this is the first of many for Coach Saban.

And speaking of first of many, congrats, congrats College Game Day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Congrats College Game Day.

Obviously, that show is an institution.

That show shows up at campuses and every person there feels obligated to go show up for their school and represent for their school.

And what College Game Day has done for so long is, in their eyes, I think the way College Game Day says it, is like just showcase college football.

Like that is basically the goal, is to showcase the sport that they are obsessed with.

And I've talked about this numerous times after getting a chance to meet the people behind the scenes who've been with game day a long time.

So they've been with ESPN a long time and they've been with college football a long time.

So those are two groups that,

you know, I don't think are the biggest fans of

Mont.

Those people have, you know, like if you just look at the people, been around ESPN a long time, probably not the biggest fan of ours.

Old school college football people, whenever I got in college, hated my guts.

So both those people were the people that were running college game day behind the scenes.

So it was an interesting dynamic them trying to adjust to me being dropped into their world because that hiring came above them.

So I'm just dropped in the middle of the season into their world.

So the way they have treated me and like kind of adjusted to me has been very cool.

But watching them just be the wagon that they have been for 30 years and how they do things and their passion for college football is just very real.

And I think that's why when people get all pissed off at ESPN for things that happen in the college football world, oh, ESPN's doing this, ESPN's doing this.

It's like, I know you love college football and that's why you are passionate about it.

But the people that are working in the college football world at ESPN are obsessed with, like, the people that are actually making decisions.

They like literally eat, sleep, and breathe college football.

So it's nice to see them get acknowledged by their peers for all their hard work.

And shout out to Daniel and Devance.

Yeah.

Shout out to Daniel and Devance.

Congrats to you, though, man.

Obviously, you play a huge, huge part.

They've been doing it for a long time.

College football's been around forever.

Football, obviously, has to evolve, but the coverage and the shit that we watch has to evolve.

I know at least my age group, my friend group, in Down for sure, like huge growth.

I don't know the numbers and what they have been or what they're doing.

Highest rated seasons the last three years.

So, yeah, yeah, big, big part of that.

Not only those moments, but what you guys do.

You and Say have been working together.

I think you had a big part of, you know, teammates.

It's all dope.

And the whole crew, Kirk,

everybody that does their thing.

Des.

Desmond, Des.

Grease, sexual professional.

Everybody.

Pete, Jen Lada, Jeff Sims.

I mean, you start rolling through the people that are on camera for that.

I think Marty even did some stuff for us.

McGee did some stuff

right for the season.

It's like a really talented group of people.

And then the crew, the truck drivers, the camera people,

Ruhlman,

Mike, Johnny, Mike, Johnny Violence.

Mike Ruhlman.

Yeah, Johnny Brosio, obviously behind the scenes, his entire crew.

There's a lot.

That's a whole...

That is a village of people that kind of pick up and move all football season.

So congrats to College Game Day.

Way to go.

congrats saving congrats to nfl live winning that's where uh dan rolovsky won the people

i don't want to undersell it i'm not going to do that a friend of the program peter shraeger yep came on the day after good morning football won an emmy a few years back

and it was like when alexander ivetchkin won stanley cup first time best day of his life

kids

yeah for real and uh i think it's just because i didn't grow up in the tv world and i don't think i went to any tv i didn't never really had the didn't know this was going to be life.

So I don't think I fully understand and comprehend.

People get really pumped up about those.

Oh, yeah.

It's like a career defining thing.

Yeah, they get really, really pumped up.

So congrats to everybody.

The one last night, shout out to Molly, remember from NBC?

Oh, yeah.

The Olympics.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Legend.

Absolute legend.

We got a chance to meet her.

She came out here.

Yeah.

She wanted to come out here and talk to us.

She really did.

It was before we, um, before I end up licensing my show anywhere,

Molly came and pitched for us to be a part of like the Olympic coverage.

And she was like, we need you in the Olympic coverage.

And I'm like, I don't know if that's going to be possible if we end up going anywhere else.

And she was like, well, let me show you why we need to make it happen.

Gave a full, she had a full presentation.

She's a dog.

Sold us.

Yeah, she definitely did.

We're like, all right, we're going to try to figure that out.

So assume that we would do something with the Olympics at some point as Molly continues to run it, if we are still welcome.

But watching her give a speech, I was like thinking to myself, like, that's a lady that is fully committed.

to the Olympic coverage and she wins.

It's like, congrats to all of them over there.

That was a big night over there in New York City, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Think of the amount of humans over there that despise us.

Could you imagine we walk into that place?

We walk into this place, the suits would just

everything would just yeet.

The ties would just get super tighter over there.

What an interesting world.

Interesting world.

Orlofsky, though, Emmy Award winner.

Yeah.

Love it, Danny.

Well deserved.

Damn right.

You think it was for that virtual reality shit they did?

No, they were up for one, two.

I'm not sure if Hawk won.

I know he won.

He's a part of HFL Live, too, but Andrew Hawk is.

Oh, Hawk.

Yeah.

But I know they were.

Hawk has Emmys, bro.

Yeah.

Because of the thing that Dan was doing with the status pro on air.

It was dope.

All right, let's talk about sports that took place last night.

Conference final started for the NHL Eastern Conference.

The Kaniacs and the Florida Panthers.

This one started out as a physical fight, didn't it, Conman?

Yeah, they were kind of going at it right off the bat.

I believe there was one shot in the first eight minutes and 17 hits, something along those lines.

And it was incredible hockey.

Last night was a great reminder that this week and next week, hopefully, you know, God willing, that these sports continue to go and that we don't have a lot of what was last night continues on.

But you love the conference finals.

The Cats were just dominant.

They scored early on the power play and their power play hadn't been good.

I'm pretty sure the Hurricanes had the number one penalty kill in the playoffs.

And the Cats, I think, were 10th.

But yeah, that backhand right out the top.

Ekblad, top right, piping in shortly thereafter.

Filthy goal.

That's actually the Canes captain, Jordan Stahl, turning it over.

And then Ekblad, how you doing?

Right where mama hides the cookies.

That was wonderful.

And it continued.

Carolina got one at the end of the first period, but that was basically all she wrote.

The Panthers continued to roll.

3-1 here.

Beautiful one-timer on the break.

Another one on the power play in the third.

And that was basically it.

And what you're not really seeing from these highlights is that once the Cats got up, they said, okay.

The Cats who are the Florida Panthers.

Florida Panthers.

They basically said, yeah, time to hunt.

And we're not really going for the puck.

We're not really going for the goal.

Let's hit some people.

Marshie goes into Shane Gossespeer, almost takes his head off, but that's what they're trying to do.

Gossespeer fires a wrist shot at Marshie.

It was disgusting.

That's a clapper if I've ever seen one.

That is not a clap.

That is a clap shot.

Stronger than a wrister.

I'll tell you that, Marsha.

120 feet away from his net.

I'm trying to go bart ass.

That's a textbook wrister.

That's how they teach it.

Yeah, a lot of people saying clap bomb, a lot of people saying wrister, but but they drop the mitts immediately.

And Marshi, I think he got the last laugh, to say the least.

Well, not only the last laugh, he ends up getting a four-minute five.

He ends up getting kicked out.

But like a lot of people in the hockey world, including the Panthers locker room, were asked about old buddy clearly just firing a puck at Marshawn.

This is not happening hockey.

Like this is not a thing that just happens, especially that far back in their own end or whatever.

That guy was clearly trying to hit Marshi with a puck.

And Marsh, what?

I don't think so.

This is not how this is going to go.

And decides to go fight it.

He's like, I don't think that's how it works.

All the Panthers were talked about, asked about this afterwards, and they all just basically said, no comment, no comment, no comment.

And the Florida Panthers are a team that is very scrappy.

This guy is not.

the guy for the hurricanes.

He just, you know, he just caught a little bit in his feelings, I guess, and thought he was going to do something.

And it's like, I think game two is going to start with the Panthers saying, what was that?

And then Marshi let the refs know that they don't know ball either.

He said, you're going to kick me off for what this guy did.

This guy just disrespected the entire game.

Darius, I know all of South Florida has been following hockey a long time.

A long time.

Obviously, the team's only been on there for 31 years, but we've been pretty successful.

We've been on a good run here.

We got some good history down there.

And we love the makeup of the team.

They're physical.

Con man talked about how physical the game was.

I mean, that plays right into our wheelhouse.

And then we're also skilled enough to put the puck.

Now, they outshot us, but that doesn't matter.

Bob was on his thing as well.

And they took a little dirty shot at Bob, I thought, and he was very unbothered as well when they talked to him after the game.

So I can't wait to see how game two starts off.

And to your point, when they were asked, I believe it was Greer asked immediately from the TNT broadcast.

He said, got no comment on it.

Paul Maurice, and we know how vocal he can be about some things.

He said, I definitely have thoughts, but won't speak on it.

So they'll handle it.

This is going to be a national anthem type thing

with the Canada thing.

You don't normally see that because nobody wants to take any penalties.

because it's this far along in the playoffs and it's Eastern Conference finals.

So if you fight, you're going to take a penalty.

But if it's five on five they're going to have to figure out who's all yeah who's all going to get the penalty here is how it's going to be uh who's the goalie for the kaniacs nick freddie anderson i'll tell you what glove side high seems to be the tape i mean that is where everybody was going with the it was clearly where they were headed and we talked to patty maroon and we talked to some of the other hockey lads and they talk about how during the playoffs in a seven game series how much film study you're doing on your opponent mostly on the goalie high glove side appears to be where they think they need to pepper and it was certainly working last night If I'm, what's the buddy's name for Carolina?

Oh, the goalie, Freddie Anderson.

Freddie Anderson needs to figure out how to play catch.

Yeah.

I think that is going to be a pretty high-targeted area, if I had to guess.

Also, NHL tonight, we have the Panthers.

Yes, we have the Oilers taking on the stars.

Cannot wait to watch Connor McJesus continue his run to hopefully his first ever Lord Standing Cup.

And on the other side, in the net,

American Otter has been standing on his head.

Can't wait for the NHL to stand in the cup.

Playoos to continue.

Last night in the NBA, the Oklahoma City Thunder demolished the Minnesota Timberwolves, although that is not how the game started out at all.

Timberwolves had a lead.

Looked like the Timberwolves are going to win that game in Oklahoma City, set the tone.

And I was feeling like I was a genius because I was starting to think to myself, like, who is going to stop Ant-Man?

He's going to be able to, he rolls his ankle pretty bad, goes to the back, comes back out later.

I don't know how these basketball guys are able to roll their ankles and then come back so quickly, legitimately.

I don't understand it at all.

If that happens to me, I'm out three, four days.

My ankle is the size of a beach ball.

He's jogging back out with a smile on his face going out there.

But by that point, Oklahoma City had turned that thing around.

This guy, SGA,

he's good.

He is good.

He's a good player.

No doubt.

MVP.

He is.

He ain't better than yoke.

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen.

Legend

in the basketball world.

20 years he was in the NBA, former eighth overall pick.

He's now a head coach.

Okay, he knows ball.

That's right.

He's coastal elitist as well.

Don't forget it.

Lives in Seattle.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jamal Crawford.

Jamal.

How you doing, crossover?

What up, y'all?

How you doing?

Okay, I was about to say it.

SGA,

I'm going to say.

What you going to say?

You're kicking.

I see that foot moving.

What you going to say?

Yeah, a lot of,

you know, and there was a couple,

and there was a couple not even touching them were falling on the ground, getting the calls.

Because with how physical the NBA has been not only this year but certainly this this playoffs there's been a lot more banging seemingly getting back he's like a throwback to like five years ago four years ago when everybody was flopping all over the place is that a skill is that like how should I be viewing this should I not I hate it I shouldn't hate it

you you shouldn't hate it because look if you took out all his free throws he would still lead the league and scorn okay

Okay.

Yeah, you can't hate it.

And he's not, it's not like we're playing the summer and it's 14, 14, he's calling all these bad calls at LA Fitness.

Like, the refs are actually calling the calls and people, it's a narrative out there about it.

Excuse me, that's my coaching voice.

And people are still calling it.

So it's not his fault.

He's just playing the game.

Yeah.

But he was still leaving scoring.

Okay, so I appreciate that stat and understanding that.

So I need to appreciate everything that he does on the court, not just this shit.

That is tough to watch.

Five, huh?

Okay.

Yeah, it is tough to watch.

I think the world told the NBA that was tough to watch whenever that was happening over the last couple of days.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that, hey, this is not what we're looking for.

SGA is taking advantage of the rules.

I guess we shouldn't blame them.

I guess we shouldn't blame them.

Congrats to Oklahoma City getting a big win.

Now, with that being said, they're down early to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and then they come back and demolish in game one.

OKC, is this their year?

Is this expected at this point with how great their season was and how great they've been throughout the playoffs?

Well, think about it, Pat.

They lost 14 games.

the whole year.

Like, they're something different, and they're young.

Most of the time, you shouldn't be this good, this young.

And their coach, like I said before, he's a star on the sideline.

He's so in tune with how they're playing, but they're they're like a really, really good college team.

All their boys stuck together and they just went on to the same team.

That's how they're playing.

They have no jealousy.

You know, we used to clown them like, why is there eight dudes in an interview?

Like, there are eight dudes in an interview because that's how tight they are.

And you see it now.

They're my pick to win the finals.

Man, in Oklahoma City, too, it feels like the perfect place to have that type of team.

Yeah.

That like leads to the conversation about tonight.

Here in Indiana, this Pacers team matches the city perfectly.

The way they play, the way they operate, how they talk.

Coach Carlisle, the way he operates.

Tyrese, like perfect superstar for Indiana, because he's, yeah.

He's kind of a nerd.

He talks about Katan.

Yeah, he plays Katan.

Katan, he's a WWE Master fan.

But when he gets on the court, he's a dog and he's a showman and he has the ability.

And they run and they play physical, they play great defense, and they're having great success.

This Pacers team fits our city perfectly.

And it feels like the Knicks team fits New York perfectly.

How pumped are you for this Eastern Conference finals?

And what are your expectations out of it all?

I think it's going to be great.

Like you said, Indiana's playing fast.

They're playing physical.

And like you said, Halliburton's a magician.

He sees things on the court where he's no looking.

He looks, he locks eyes with this defender, throws it over here, locks eyes with both defenders, jump past his pass at the last second, and they're feeding off of that.

And he has a tenacity and a nature of hitting the big shot if it's a close game we talk about clutch brunson and how good he is in the clutch which he is holliburton you know he can do his sample sill big you know what walk as well because he he has some heart and he yeah you know what you walk i'm talking about

sorry about these balls they keep hitting off my legs that's what he said i think he's talking about basketball yeah yeah he said basketball he's talking about basketballs there i think that was

the middle of cleveland there uh but it's not just him and i think i hear every nba person person on television that talks about it.

They're like, the depth of the Pacers, the depth of the Pacers.

You never know who it's going to be.

It might be Nemhard, might be Nee Smith, might be Miles Turner, might be Pasquale Siakam.

Shit, TJ McConnell might come in there and put up some points.

And obviously, it might be Tyrese as well.

Is that what you need for a deep playoff run?

Obviously, because injuries are going to happen, guys are going to have off nights.

Do you think that's the most important part of it?

And do the Knicks have the same thing?

You definitely need that for sure, but you also need the guys who don't regularly play to be engaged the whole time because you can win two minutes and when you go in, that changed the whole course of a game.

So it's not like you have to go in the whole game and play well the whole game.

If you can play well for two or three minutes and that spurt to get your starters back, to give them some life, to give them some rest as well, give your coach a little bit of confidence, that's where the games are won.

When those other guys step up, that's when the magic happens.

And Indiana is rolling.

New York is rolling as well.

They figured it out.

New York is at its best when five guys are in double figures.

Indiana kind of the same thing.

And I think Carlisle's doing an unbelievable job.

Like, he's been there before he's won a championship he's not afraid to go zone he'll do whatever it takes to win he's a genius on the sideline so and tibbs has done well with New York so I'm ready for this could go seven games okay I like that sounds like he likes what the pacers are doing go ahead d-buck I like what the pacers are doing too so yeah we all get it don't we damn right playing these uh I want to ask you about the markets though kind of the outside noise especially at this time of the year with the playoffs you're playing you played and played a handful of years in New York so you know a lot about it how different is that playing in a city with a fan base like New York and that media market compared to other places, especially on this stage?

It's been so long since New York has hung a banner?

It's unbelievable.

It's been 25 years since they didn't meet the conference finals.

Game, I think, five of the last series when they play in Boston,

I think it was a game Tatum got hurt.

Myself, Vince Carter, Reggie Miller, Mike Tarico, we're in New York handling business on the NBC upfronts, and we're watching the game.

And when they're playing well, the whole room is going crazy.

And it wasn't us.

We're not biased, but you can tell that the city is electric on all fronts right now.

So it's going to be a great series.

I know Halliburton loves playing there.

Obviously, the Knicks feel like they're on a mission.

And both these series right now could go seven games.

And that's what we want as fans because the whole world is watching.

You're putting your best product out there.

You're at the upfronts, huh?

Yeah,

I graduated.

I graduated to the upfronts.

Wow, big money in those upfront rows.

Oh, yeah.

Shake some hands in there, crossover.

Shake some hands.

Trostome people, they ask about the handle.

They ask about the handle at all time.

Yep.

They don't make that face when they do it, but they ask about the handle.

Mr.

Jamal Crawford, how you doing?

You go, oh, I still got it.

I still got 40 fly.

Still got it.

Those 55-year-old suits that control like $100 million worth of advertising.

Like, I'll tell you what, Juicy Cross.

I saw you crossed me up earlier today.

I thought I had

making dreams come true over there, Jamal.

It's good business.

Smart idea.

You know, ball, too.

You're great at talking about it, which is why we're thankful you're here.

Connor has a question for you.

Yeah, Jamal, you played during kind of the dynasty eras almost, you know, with the Lakers and then the Spurs and then the Heat.

Warriors.

Yeah, Warriors, of course.

Of course, yeah, I'm trying to think of them all.

There's been a few, but how do you feel about the, you know, the difference, the parody now?

I think this is the seventh straight year with a new champion.

It's kind of a different NBA.

That's kind of a conversation people are having now.

Is the dynasty better?

I know during the dynasty, people don't like it.

And then when there's not a dynasty, people kind of want it.

Is it one of those situations?

And also, I hope your pinky's okay.

It looks like you got crossed up, possibly fell on your hand and broke your pinky there.

Nah, nah, nah, Connor.

I finally played defense, and I don't know why, and that's where it went bad.

I should have stayed offensive, doing my thing, putting on the show, played some defense, and broke it.

Don't worry about that.

But

I think I like it better like this.

As a kid growing up, I love the Celtics dynasty.

I love the Lakers because they had Magic and Kareem and Scott and Worthy.

I could identify the guys were staying, you know, one team for eight, nine years.

But I like it now having one or two stars and guys around them because you feel like everybody has a chance.

You feel like it's parity.

You feel like you don't know, you know, who's going to step up.

And that's where stars really write their greatness, when they have the least amount of help and still find a way to get it done.

So for me, I love having the parody right now.

I think it's great for the NBA to see more teams winning, more success, more cities experiencing championships, more cities experiencing parades.

Okay,

conference finals here.

Who's going to be

who's going to continue?

Who's going to continue?

I know you're going to end with this but with all that indiana stuff you have on and around you and just the aura you have right now the pacers i see it but i got to go with the knicks in this all right now don't all right don't don't don't do i need to blow the whistle on that is that is that a whistle yeah

all right all right laser gentlemen jamal crawford coastal elitist like i thought going with the big city how about in the west how about in the west In the west, I got OKC.

I think they've been the best team.

I think if they just win their home games the rest of the way, they'll win the championship because they have that home court advantage.

So I got OKC winning it.

We appreciate the hell out of you.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jamal Crawford.

All right, ladies and gentlemen,

he's the best.

Yeah.

He should be on TV more.

I don't know if he wants to be because he's coaching and doing all that with his kids and everything like that.

He is always so cool to us.

So very thankful to Jamal Crawford.

With that being said, we had the opportunity yesterday, last night to be exact,

to find some time within the Greatest Actors

schedule.

And what was supposed to be a 10 to 15 minute conversation, because I believe he's doing it, he was in a different country, obviously.

He was in a different country.

He was in New York, I think, two nights ago.

Then he flew.

He was filming, I think, again.

We'll get into it.

He's in a different country.

So we're able to find, supposed to be 10 to 15 minutes.

Strap in, okay?

Because not only is Mission Impossible about to be insane tomorrow, final reckoning, but also we just, We got a 35-minute conversation with Tom Cruise here, and I think he

dodged into some stuff he's maybe never chatted about.

Yeah, I think that's the case.

No doubt, we're incredibly thankful and lucky for this, and uh, let's get to it,

ladies and gentlemen.

Mission Impossible final reckoning is in theaters tomorrow, and we have an exclusive from Paramount.

Jeez

with low-level flying,

there is absolutely zero margin fare

at altitudes between five and twenty feet

above the water, above the rocks.

If there is a downdraft, there is no room for correction.

The plane is going in.

Jeez, ladies and gentlemen, the man who is dangling from that wing, the man who has been captivating audience for decades and decades and decades, the man who has $12 billion in box office, the greatest actor on the earth, the man who Spielberg said saved the acting and movie industry.

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, Tom Cruise.

Thank you.

Tom.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Oh, Tom.

Oh, can we get a shot of the boys here real quick, just the pure joy?

It's great to be here, man.

Let's go.

It's great to be here.

Hey, guys.

Tom, it is an honor.

It's great to be here.

It is an honor to have you.

It's an honor for me.

You look amazing.

You look like you're glowing and for good reason.

We had a couple of the boys check out Mission Impossible Final Final Reckoning this morning.

They've been hovering above Earth.

They'll ask you about that in a moment.

I want to dive in to a conversation about you.

And every time we see you do a promo or a video, you're jumping out of something, you're flying something.

And it's always, see you at the movies, see you at the movies.

In our world, the sports world, all the GOATs talk about their love of the game, their love of the sport.

It feels like you love the movies.

You love love.

love everything about the industry.

When did that start?

Was that like, were you a kid?

Did you know this was going to be it?

How did you kind of get into this i look honestly i hoped that i would be able to make movies my goal i remember when i was four years old i wanted to make movies i wanted to travel the world i wanted to fly jets and airplanes i wanted to visit and work in different cultures uh that was just a lifelong dream of mine i've always been had an adventurous spirit and

you know just that kind of life i wanted so it's and it is it's something that is not what i do it's it is who i am and my whole life life is dedicated to it.

How, you know, I look at a body as like kind of a car and how do I train my car so that I can do this for the rest of my life, had that opportunity.

You know, I didn't go to film school.

I didn't go to acting school, but I studied movies.

And when I got onto a movie set for the first time and, you know, I just studied every single department and really started to understand.

you know, what the culture is and how to create a culture of that where people can really flourish and

do their their best work.

And those are the kind of things like as a kid, I learned a work ethic.

I always had jobs when I was growing up.

You know, we all in our family, I just worked.

I had paper routes and cutting grass.

And it's very interesting.

I kind of reflected upon this as I was making movies and kind of always ran my own business.

And just knowing that the better I was at what I did,

It made it that, you know, if I didn't cut the grass right, I didn't get the job.

So I better learn how to understand how to do the best I can with cutting that grass.

And that would ensure, you know, that I was able to do a great job for the neighborhood, for the person, and they were happy, you know, and that they wanted me back to do the job.

And so I, you know, those kind of basics of discipline, of learning a craft, of.

my interest in life.

I'm not just, you know, it's movies encompasses cultures, encompasses engineering.

And, you know, I fly jets, aerobatics, and aircraft.

And I sing and train in dancing.

And I'm constantly studying engineering and

mechanics and history and architecture.

And also studying to be what it is to be a leader, you know, and

so all of these things, it's just it's life, and I love it.

I love it.

I absolutely love it.

Well, I think you found the right place.

I think you found the right professional.

Yeah,

because

I think they all, all those things.

You know, beforehand, when I started, it was like, look, you know what it takes, you know, and my door is always open to everybody.

Like, I'm always a student.

I'm always studying.

I'm always learning.

And my door is always open to everybody to go like, look, these are the things that I did.

Because knowledge, there's so much knowledge out there.

But what knowledge can you learn that's going to improve your ability for your goals?

So that I'm looking for knowledge that I can apply, that I can get the result every single time and how to.

that it's effective.

So those things that I evaluate for myself.

And, you know, I'm very much looking at what works for me, what is storytelling for me.

But it takes a kind of passion and real discipline and relentless pursuit of this field.

And you know that from what you've done in your life.

I mean, we talked about it earlier of what you've accomplished in sports and then what you did, you know, to get to where you are with your show right now.

You have that mental state.

And I tell people, it's like, you want your goals.

You just have to think about how, what you need to know to get there.

Yeah, I think think work ethic is the most important thing that you can have.

I have a daughter now, two years old.

And I just, yeah, you too, I think.

You were thinking the same thing, it sounds like.

Yeah, same thing.

And it's character.

You know, with success, it does reveal character and your discipline.

And, and also it's, it's understanding, you know, my movies are not me.

It's all of us.

It's a, it's how do I, how do I help every single person?

And when you're producing films and I produce movies, it's understanding every single department.

You know, you have to be able to do those jobs.

You got to have understand what everyone's going through and how to help them and align everyone so that you can create the best possible film for audiences.

And my goal is I make movies for audiences.

Whatever, however, the wide range of cinema that I make, you know, I have a wide range of interests.

And so I'm constantly studying that particular genre, whether it's a thriller, action, comedy, I'll go into it and go, how can I entertain the audience that's going to love that?

And that is my goal.

My goal is that global audiences.

And how do I do that?

Well, mission accomplished.

Amen.

Someone say the mission was impossible at the beginning.

Mission accomplished.

I know.

It's impossible.

Many times I've been told that.

So I appreciate that.

Many times.

I'll do the low-hanging fruit right there, especially on the eve here

of Final Reckoning.

So you talk about the work ethic and wanting to know every part of the business and obviously the full team that goes into everything and the team effort to make these massive, massive movies that obviously do numbers and entertain the entire world and make people escape from life, which is a very important part of our society.

But I feel like you do what I want to do.

Yeah, and you do that.

I just want to let you know that.

As a person who has been a fan of yours for a long time, you certainly make us all forget about life and also realize that there is an alien walking among the amount of things that you can do.

You just talked about it.

I'm learning engineering.

I'm learning how to be a helicopter pilot.

I'm flying jets.

I'm hanging off the air.

When did you decide?

Is that just your view of what an actor is supposed to be when you do all your own stunts?

And because there's not a lot of that, right?

I mean, that's not a very normal thing.

I've seen the clips of you running, breaking your leg, and continuing to do it.

Like, when did you decide you were just going to do everything?

Like, literally, everything?

Always.

Yeah, always.

You know, always.

I just my interest in life and things that I want to know about and how can I accumulate.

The derivation of art is skill.

And I've always just kind of wanted to live my life like that and develop skills in many different areas.

I have a wide range of interest in life.

So whether I'm parachuting, skydiving, flying aerobatic helicopters or airplanes, or I like to dance and sing and, you know, I love music.

So I take time to study these things.

It's always been my whole life.

But if you look at the history of movies, Movies, they used to take an actor and they would say, here are these abilities.

And if you look, my films are when I'm working with people, not just actors, but people in all different aspects of filmmaking, what I'm looking for is that ability and to utilize those abilities, increase those abilities.

And when you look at cinema, they used to take actors and train them in singing and dancing and elocution and different languages and

they taught them about acting and lighting and

lenses.

So all of these things that I was just doing naturally,

I didn't quite realize what I was doing.

I just, my natural curiosity to know things, you know, to, and not just, look, I'm not someone who just reads things and does it.

I want to experience it.

I'm looking at it.

And I'm kind of viewing what's true for me.

What are storytelling for me personally?

Not just what someone says it is.

So

those things that are just natural to me.

And so what I've also done is as I'm learning these things and I studied film in every department and I studied the studio system, then I studied distribution, and my ultimate goal was really understanding culture and life and how I can make my movies to engage in those different cultures, celebrate them, and also to understand them and go to see their movies in different cultures and how can I communicate in that way.

So if you look at way Hollywood was, and that's how I structure it, like I get actors and crew and I'm training them.

I'm teaching them and I encourage artists to go out and not wait to get a job, but you got to train like what kind of movies do you want to make and if you want to do musicals like go train on musicals and tap and I'm I look at an actor and I'm I'm not just having a script that's there's the character and let's find the actor to play this character I'm looking at I'm looking at the actor and going boy look at the light that this actor has look at the ability that this actor has and I'm looking to take a light and shine it on that and then let it grow so if you look at movies like when I'm hiring you know Renee Zellwiger for Jerry Maguire or any cast member that I'm doing,

I spend more time on their performances with the camera on them and then I, as we're exploring the story and developing it, it's very much,

you know, like the, I think, the great coaches.

There is the relevance of someone looking at the ability of the talent you have and how do we how do we structure the defense or offense for that?

But I'm looking at here's the story, emotional story I want to tell.

Here's the enormously talented artists that I have in every area.

And how do I maximize that talent with this story?

And what is that story?

So that it's that kind of engagement for everyone and that I'm celebrating these artists.

I have a thing where I want people to do better after working with me.

I want them to go out and be able to

have a broader sense of the craft, have greater opportunities.

So that's always been kind of a quiet goal of mine.

Well, you're listening to your passion, not just in obviously this conversation, anytime you speak.

I mean, your promoter right now going around to these different movie theaters, talking about your passion for the popcorn in the movie theaters is certainly something that'll be brought.

And it's going to be brought up.

There is quite a discussion happening on our show about that.

I love popcorn.

Oh, we've heard.

Yeah, we've seen too.

That'll definitely get brought up.

But your passion is obviously very evident and it radiates through the screen whenever we watch you, no matter what you're doing.

Whether you are Jerry Maguire or you're a pilot American made or you're a collateral bad guy or you're a fatso and tropic thought or any of these, like you are, it radiates, okay, through the screen.

So whenever like Spielberg comes out and says like, hey, this guy saved the industry, and that's obviously something that I assume you want to deflect to the entire team.

And obviously you talk about your team in a way that any great leader would, any great coach would.

You're talking about wanting to draw the best out of people and what is the talent we have.

And then let's make the movie around that.

That's a football coach.

That is a sport coach.

I love to hear your leadership.

But whenever that is bestowed upon you during COVID, when they thought the movies were going to be dead, like everybody was going to stream, did you take that upon yourself?

Did you feel a little bit of weight of the industry?

And how have you kind of navigated that?

Well, what I did was, is basically, yeah, I did because.

Look, my friends, it's not just about the films I'm making.

The difference in movies, I guess, and other sports is I've never felt competitive with other people.

I'm like, I want everyone to do well.

And

so, yeah, I did.

I just made sure that that mission got made, that when everything shut down, I really worked and had to take it on.

And, you know, I talked to McHugh, who writes and directs and produces these films.

And I was like, we're going to have to, we're going to have to really do this.

And I'm going to stay in.

Are you in?

And

so what I did was I just worked with the governments.

I had to,

I called one studio and

I was

this is what I really did I called a studio I was like yeah you guys shooting he's like no no no we can't we're all shut down for that I said oh wow I said you know we're shooting our movies and they're like what I said yeah yeah we're making our movies and then

so I called back a week later and I was like how's it going they said oh yeah we're shooting our films I said because we're coming out next summer you know and I said so you know, we're on this date.

I hope you're not on this date.

They're like, well, you know, we're making our movie and we're coming out next summer.

And then I called the studio that I was working with.

I said, look, all these guys are making movies.

We got to make movies.

So, and I just kept everyone working throughout.

So they were like, okay, we got to make movies.

So then I was like,

you know, we had to finish Top Gun Maverick in post during COVID.

And I was basically, everyone was kind of like, no, you can't do this.

No, you can't do that.

I was like, always going, I don't take no for an answer, really, Pat.

I'm like, okay, well, there's got to be a solution.

So I was calling like, we have to set up the rules.

Let's make agreements so that we we can get back to work.

And then I was calling governments and getting agreements with them.

And then I was telling, sharing it with the other studios and my friends saying, this is how we're doing it.

And then just kind of saying, my crew is going to get paid during this time.

I just kept everybody working.

And then slowly and not so slowly, before you know it, we're able to just make sure that we're creating even our orchestra for Top Gun Maverick.

We were able to.

get mics to people's apartments all over the world where they're recording their instruments and then combining those instruments to create a live orchestra and just showing people look we can do this we can do it safely let's create whatever rules so that we can move forward and that's what I did and I ensured the Top Gun Maverick did not go to streaming that it was held for distribution I was calling all the theater owners globally that are my friends for decades and the studio heads and all of us kind of said look this movie's coming out period it's coming out in theaters and and just kind of worked with everyone and said look we're all going to get through this.

We're going to get through it.

It's going to be okay.

It's going to be okay.

And just working with friends and how to do it, how to navigate these channels and just keep people moving in the most efficient, creative way possible.

And,

you know, just kind of night and day.

It was, it was seven days a week, night and day, and creating these things.

And you look at the film today, we made it through COVID and two strikes.

you know, just be relentless about it and

just make sure that people had jobs and that we were moving forward.

And that's what happened.

And it was very nice what Stephen said.

I've known Stephen since I was a kid, you know, and

very grateful and grateful to everyone that everyone kind of picked it up and everybody got back to work.

But I was definitely kicking some doors through and kind of helping people to understand that this can be done.

And

we can move forward and that the theatrical experience is very special.

Yeah, and we needed it too as a society.

Top Gun Maverick.

I want to let you know that.

Top Gun Maverick is one of the moments I look back.

I think there was an Ole Miss baseball home run that I remember.

It was the first time there was a crowd and Ole Miss hit a home run and the crowd went crazy in the outfield.

I remember going to see Top Gun Maverick.

That's like one of my rollouts of COVID here, like changing my life.

And I'm sure there's nowhere near, I'm not the only one.

This is a lot of people.

So we are incredibly grateful for what you did.

And I assume the movie industry echoes what Spielberg says in that entire thing.

Now, speaking of the movie industry, we have somebody on our, no, you're very nice, Tom.

You're very nice, Tom.

You're a spark plug, brother, for everything.

You make everything better.

You're an igniter, a trailblazer, a dog in every sense of the word.

Cannot wait to watch Mission Impossible Final Reckoning tomorrow.

The world is going to watch alongside of us, and I can't wait to see what you put out next.

But we have a guy on our show, film major at Iowa,

graduated, has studied your...

basic entire life.

One of your biggest fans, Ty has a question for you, Tom.

Yeah, Tom, first and foremost.

I know you, you, Ty.

Thanks, man.

Hey, Ty.

Hey, brother.

I love you.

Wow.

Wow, Ty, good for you, Ty.

Well, I just, I wanted to start by saying I think you just gave a quote that said, like, hey, listen, I'm still going to be doing this when I'm 100 years old.

I'm not going to stop making movies anytime soon.

110, I think.

110, exactly.

I just personally want to say thank you because I don't want to live in a world where you're not making movies anymore.

So, you know, when you're done, I'm going to be done.

I may never go see one again.

But I do want to ask you, when it comes to the Mission Impossible franchise as a whole, and then this film specifically,

how difficult has it been kind of raising the bar with these set pieces that just get more massive and more massive?

Like that, you know, it becomes a big part of the promotion of the movie.

How have you kind of continued to push the envelope with each of these while also making it make sense within like the story of the film?

Listen, that is really the collaboration with Christopher Macquarie.

His storytelling ability, and he and I have been working together for almost 20 years.

The guy's genius.

And it's also,

look, it's, I'm always setting goals for myself my whole life.

Even as a kid, I had goals.

And you know what it's like?

Like, sometimes you don't share your dreams or your goals with people because sometimes it's so outrageous that they...

It's okay.

Like you don't want to hear their comments.

And I always have many goals.

So when I accomplish something, I already have a list of goals lined up there.

Like I have so many other sequences and things that I can create for various films.

I've already finished a film with Alejandro and Yaritu.

Constantly pushing the bar, it's always something that I know

that's, it's, it's just,

I take one sequence and I look at it and I go, how do I improve it?

How can I do it better?

You can always do things better.

And I remember as a kid when I was making this movie, Taps, I was laying there And I was like, man, I realized there I was working with these great cinematographers, great filmmakers, great actors.

They knew so much more about everything than I did.

And I was trying to absorb everything.

And I thought I was so tense because I was trying to just remember everything and remember it and remember it.

And I just laid there.

It was like literally in the middle of the night and I wasn't sleeping.

And I just started laughing.

I was laughing till tears came out.

I said, man, you know what?

I can only do the best I can.

And

I don't know what I don't know.

And that's okay.

And there's always like I can always learn.

And I remember I thought I'm going to dedicate everything.

And that's it.

Like, good or bad, whatever people think, I know that I did everything I could.

And that's what I've dedicated my life to.

So when you look at mission, for me, there's always another mountain.

Or cinema, there's always another mountain.

There's always a new story.

There's always something that I can do better, bigger, in different ways, shift into

different genres.

I never think, you know, that I can't.

And that doesn't mean I'm not, there's things that I don't know.

I just don't mind not knowing.

I don't mind feeling that fear or that anxiety of I don't know.

And I use that to pursue knowledge.

I use that to pursue pushing myself to create something special.

And all of us, you know, and it's not just me, it's the whole team.

So it's this.

It's just that interest in the next goal.

It's, and it's, we're just pursuing it, pursuing it, pursuing it.

And when you're working with such talented people that are, you know, that are there kind of throwing it all in, it's, we're, we're going for, you know, I want to entertain that audience.

And that's the goal.

So it's just, uh,

it's an interest.

I, you know, it's like people go, why?

It is a passion and an interest in life, a pursuit of excellence, a pursuit of knowledge, a pursuit of.

And that's just excellence for excellence.

It's like I'm defining it by my, by,

for the audience.

I'm doing this for the audience and

I don't know I get real passionate about yeah how about

it's an obsession at this point I think for you to entertain people yeah it's like and that's a giving mind it is it is a passion it's just it's literally like it's just as a kid I used to write stories and characters just to make my family laugh and I'd create characters and I was jumping off buildings when I was four years old you know I was that kid who climbed the tallest trees you know I was like I think I was like two and a half years old where I climbed out of a window onto a roof, you know, to look at the stars.

And the neighbors would call my mom.

She'd be like, where is he?

You know, he's on the roof.

I think there's a child on a roof at 2 a.m.

in the morning to look at the stars.

You know what I mean?

And I just had that natural sense of adventure

that I guess carries over into my passion for people and life and cinema.

Well, we're appreciative of those things combining because when you just decide, you know, I'm going to jump, I'm going to jump motorcycle off a cliff here and i'm gonna do it 20 times and see how it goes i'm gonna climb what the bird uh polluting

with no thing and just sit on top of that thing i'm gonna do i'm gonna fly on the wing of a plane that is five to fifteen feet above the ground over a creek and it's like uh we appreciate the fact that you do that i get nervous for you i have no idea i get scared for you now we know you're a very busy person i get nervous too do you okay so you get feelings or no do you have like fear

oh yeah it's it's i just don't don't mind it.

Look, here's also the thing that

when you're looking at that plane flying five feet over, we're doing things.

I'm not just hanging off that plane.

I'm also the amount of time that it took to develop the understanding the aircraft and how it flies, understanding the airplane when it gets into a place where it's no longer going to fly.

Me training the pilot to do it.

We're developing knowledge and we're developing technology.

So also when I'm there on the wheel, I'm worried about these downdrafts that are coming in.

I'm perceiving the bumps.

I know what that pilot is going through.

Because also when I'm flying in between the two wings and I'm zero G in there, I also have to know my body position because I'm creating drag and reducing the airflow over that wing.

And I have to know what that pilot is doing.

What is he going through?

Are we in the middle of a stall?

When that airplane's going and doing a loop and we're right on the top, I have to know where I need to be and position wise so that this airplane doesn't start falling out of the sky and we get into a spin.

So he has to, and I'm training him, and I have to know where the camera is and I have to also know where the helicopter is and where, and I'm acting as I'm moving through it.

So there's kind of different spatial orientations and perceptions that I have to have

so that as the airplane and that airflow is going over and we're traveling anywhere from, you know, 95 to 145 miles an hour hitting G.

So

I don't know if you've ever taken your hand and stuck it out of a window at that point.

Oh, yeah, dolphin.

So how do I train my body?

How do I train my mind?

How do I train myself spiritually?

And McHugh and I are working on ourselves, on the story.

And what does that lens say?

So there's layers upon layers.

You know, it's like when you see a quarterback come up to the line and they're quick perceiving everything.

You know, where they have to know where everyone's moving.

You have to have that spatial orientation of the guys coming around you.

I have to, that's what you have to have.

And I have to know how close is that airplane to the side of the mountain?

Where's the downdraft?

What's happening?

It's split-second precision.

And if I make a mistake and I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time, you know, and I have to be able to perceive if I do that, I'm going to...

put the pilot and the airplane into a bad position.

So, and if I'm thrown into a bad position, I have to know as a team, like where

we need to go.

So all of these things are happening with all the stunts we're doing and that kind of training.

And

it's not just years that it took to develop these sequences.

It's decades of knowledge that I've accumulated, even on how to hire the people around me to do this.

And so

that's what McHugh and I, like, even I'm talking on the wing to him.

We have hand signals at times where he's in the helicopter and he's opening the helicopter and he's talking to me, but we have hand signals so that we can move very quickly.

And on that wing, you have to understand it is the toughest weight work you've ever had so you know when you have a brutal weight workout and you literally cannot move yes you just can't you can't even get up that's what this being on the wing for a couple of minutes is from a hard aerobatic workout traveling the forces and i have to just rest on the wing to the times where i'm almost like in a different state of exhaustion where and i have to rest to let my my body, my muscles refuel so that I can get just from the wing to the cockpit.

Because also we're limited in fuel.

So, and the guy, you know, my pilots cannot land with me on the wing.

And the way I start is I go from the cockpit out onto the wing, then we start our maneuvers.

And I'm also hand signals with the pilot.

So

all of these things and the amount of training and drilling and safety procedures and step by step moving up to these procedures, because also when the airplane goes inverted,

the engine stops.

stops it it does stop because it's not fuel injected

so while I'm hanging and you'll see stuff of me hanging upside down in that airplane and and how do I hold it and how do we do it and understanding the maneuver and how that plane moves around

and putting myself into a position because I'm being flung and also understanding what happens so that I'm putting myself in a position on the wing or the fuselage you'll see me take hard hits very very hard hits on that wing and it's just like oh, you can't take many of those, you know?

Yeah.

It's like going across the middle.

You know, a receiver going across the middle.

Hold on,

catch the ball.

Tom, you said that.

And I know it is going to hurt.

Yeah, you said, hold on.

He said, it's like a quarterback having to check an audible.

Yeah, there's a chance you get blindsided.

Yeah,

I guess.

In your world, there's a chance you're falling off of a plane

into

earth.

So, yeah, I guess it is like a quarterback.

Yeah, I guess so.

Physics.

Brother.

Physics.

Listening to you talk is both inspiring and also like with an understanding that you're one of one, brother.

There's never going to be another.

Never going to be another.

Now, speaking of never going to be another, Boston Connor got a chance to watch Final Reckoning this morning.

Yeah, after that promo, TC, I wore my GOAT shirt today because you are the GOAT, and it's very nice to be able to show that right after you said all that.

But yes, I was able to see Final Reckoning this morning at 7.30 a.m.

Thank you to your team for setting it up.

I did, in fact, get popcorn for you.

And just just so you know, coffee and popcorn are a fantastic combination by the end of the movie.

Is that right?

Oh, yeah.

7.30 a.m.

show.

I got to try that.

Yes, we do.

I got to try that.

I got to say, I got to say the other day when I was in New York, I woke up and I did eat some more popcorn.

I didn't try it with coffee, but chocolate popcorn's good, you know?

Oh, yeah.

I'm going to try coffee now.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

I learned something new every day.

Boom.

It's evolving.

I can't wait to see what a coffee popcorn scene is going to look like.

Yeah, it's energetic.

I want to know what that's like.

It's a lot of juice.

You'll eat even more popcorn probably because of it.

But, you know, with it being the final reckoning, and all of us have been a massive fan of this entire franchise, did you become nostalgic, you know, during certain scenes after filming certain things

because of it being the final reckoning?

And when everything was wrapped and filming was done, did it get emotional for you once, you know, Ethan Hunt was finished with this Mission Impossible?

I'm very much,

you know,

we didn't finish the film until the day before we released it in Japan.

You know, we were in Japan and we had three days.

Yeah, the day before the subtitles got done, literally the day before we premiered it.

So

we haven't had a chance to take a breath.

And I'm already, I'm working on so many other films.

And I have like, there's, it's never, you know, we're just constantly on the next.

I did a movie with Alejandro and Yari too, and McHugh and I are, we haven't had a chance.

It's like, we're just, we're on a bullet train and we're, we're prepping, you know, so many other films right now.

It's just been a bullet train.

Yeah, you're standing on Twitter.

I'm just enjoying right now.

I'm enjoying every moment right now of sharing it with people.

And I'm going to try that coffee and popcorn.

And we're going to see.

Okay, last question here, Tom.

I know you're very busy.

Darius Butler has a question.

Speaking of sharing moments with people, I saw you.

Oh, this is fun.

How are you, man?

Let's go, man.

This is fun.

This has been an awesome conversation.

And I saw you with the people in the theater eating some popcorn now.

This is a big journalism show, so I got to get to the bottom of it because there are questions.

And now you're Tom Cruise, and you do everything a little different.

I've never seen anybody eat popcorn like this.

Are you actually eating popcorn?

Or are you full of shit right here, TC?

I got to know.

Got to know.

Man, I'm eating popcorn.

They know when I'm going to these movies that I'm watching, and I'm eating popcorn.

Okay.

So

is your love of popcorn because it is like a movie theater thing?

You think that is why?

Yeah.

Movies.

I love, I love going to a movie and getting popcorn.

I love, for me, it's just like comfort.

You know, I love the comfort of a movie theater and I love like, you know, setting it up and I'll see several movies, you know, on the weekend.

I'll kind of chart my weekends for the movies and, you know, I look forward to it.

you know, like what these guys are throwing down.

And it's inspiring to be seeing these movies, you know, like you see sinners.

i'm like i see what those guys did i'm like i'm pumped to see that you got brad pitt you know with formula one coming and you know all the guys like jerry bruckheimer i can't wait to see those guys what they're creating you got kianu you know with the wick series that i love with anadarmis and these guys are laying it down this summer and i'm just you know and i i i get really uh excited and inspired by what these guys are doing you know they're they're they're going after it and uh so and i love getting popcorn Everyone knows the theater owners.

I get there.

They got my popcorn ready for me.

You know, I get with my friends and we get in the back.

I've got the seats.

You know, I show up.

I see the trailers, you know, packed cinema.

And I'm watching the movie and I like watching other people, you know, as we're doing it.

And that's what I love.

I love seeing people's response to it.

Seeing what people are doing.

I love it.

God, you're the perfect representative of the movie industry.

We can't thank you enough for joining us.

Quick tip, if somebody's to make an acting debut in a couple months, maybe me.

yeah what's what's up what's it what do you want like what do you what should i think what should i think what should my mindset be what should my mindset be uh

what should your mindset be well depends the kind of movies war movie war movie war movie

oh good well first of all just try to understand what the tone of the film is you know what's happening on set Show up early so that you know and you feel comfortable, you know, with the surroundings.

I'm always early and I always leave late and I'm constantly kind of working on it.

I work on things seven days a week and usually working on several films at the same time.

But I think the most important thing is to just be there and present, like be present and perceive what's going on, you know, what's happening right in front of you and reacting to it.

And just understanding what the tone of what the directors are going for and just responding, just being in the moment.

You know,

I'll prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, sometimes for years.

Some of the films that I've made, you know, Rain Man, it took two years, Born on the Fourth of July over two years, you know, Mission Movies or Samurai spent two years preparing for them.

And sometimes like Les Grossman or whatever, it's months and months.

And, you know, so

these things, just be present and just find things that interest you with that character.

And all you got to do is listen and respond to the people there.

And just kind of feel, you know, when you're a kid

and

children are, they're great actors.

They're just so free.

You know, you're playing with your, your toys and you're that truck and you're doing all this and it's, you know, you are that character with those toys or, you know, whatever.

You want, you want that cookie, you know, that you're, that, but it's not, you know, it's dessert after dinner, you know, and you can always see the kids and they're like, well, you know, you can't have the cookie till later and we're going to do it.

No, I want it now.

I want this cookie now or the toy.

And you can see that they could just generate the tears, you know and you just start looking at them and they're looking over that eye like are you paying attention i really got the tears going now they're creating that they're making it happen right now and that's acting where you know you kind of create a character you understand the world and then you're just present and creating those things and it's just use your imagination have fun I appreciate the hell out of it.

I hope that's helpful man.

It is going to be fun.

And I can't wait to get to the movies tomorrow to watch your latest work and Mission Impossible Final Reckoning.

Thank you for the time.

You're the greatest of all time, brother.

Hey, thank you for the time.

You guys are awesome.

Have a great summer.

You know, enjoy.

Hell yeah.

You too.

Enjoy your life, Tom.

Yeah.

You're making all of ours better.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Cruise.

Unbelievable.

How about that?

Huh?

Huh?

Tom Cruise.

I'm real.

35 minutes.

35 minutes.

We had Tom.

I don't know how everybody

in his

team

felt about the 35 minutes?

Probably didn't love it.

I mean, what were we supposed to do?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It wasn't plan, but

that was not the plan.

It was not the plan at all.

And then he gives that first answer, and it's like, oh, Tom's giving us answers right now.

It feels like Tom is giving us answers right now.

And then just one thing leads to another, yada, yada, yada.

I don't, I look up and I'm like, we are 25 minutes into this thing right now.

No end in sight in my eyes.

There was no.

Kylo's talking, Phil.

There was no smooth exit at all.

So we get another 10 minutes.

And that last question there about the tip for acting.

And, you know, maybe for me, but also maybe for those who want to get into acting, like, sure.

How often do you get to hear Tom Cruise give a

full breakdown of what you need to

be?

You need to be.

Exactly.

That's what he was saying, basically, in a roundabout way.

After the conversation ends, he wanted to stick around and say thank you to us.

Yep.

Okay.

And

there was another.

10 minutes.

Yeah, 10 minutes of like

diving into, is it you that is acting?

and then like true passion in telling me how I need to think, what I need to think, the questions I'm allowed to ask, what I'm not allowed to, what I shouldn't think about, what I should, like everything like broken down.

I am nothing short of

truly impressed.

Yeah.

I mean, I am nothing short of impressed with that man.

And he's one of one.

And I don't like

you.

Amen.

I feel and Bubba.

Yeah, Bubba.

Bubba Watson.

Bubba Watson.

was so loud.

Even at the WNBA game, he was like, ah, he's BS.

Show you how to eat popcorn.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It's not hard.

Is that how you're going to eat?

No, you're not eating.

We know you're not eating.

We know you're not eating.

It's clearly faked by you.

You don't have popcorn.

You don't.

Oh, yeah.

See?

This is my mission impossible.

I'm a rookie at popcorn like this for the rest of my life.

I've been acting for 40 years.

Hey, thank you, Tom.

Thank you, TC.

Love you.

Love you, TC.

That was awesome, though.

Yeah, it was incredible.

We did not expect that.

We had no idea what to expect.

10 to 15 minutes, they said, going in.

And

I don't know whether that's on us for being unprofessional.

Hopefully, Tom is okay with it.

Hopefully, everybody else is as well.

There was a couple, because he's in a different country.

Foxy added some pictures to kind of splice some things up because we didn't know where the conversation was going to go.

Foxy, great work on that, bro.

Thank you.

Thanks, Anna's awesome B-roll to use in there.

It was sweet.

Yeah, they were a cool team to work with, too.

Oh, yeah.

To be clear, they had it all, hey, here's some B-roll if you want to make it for any of the clips.

Here's a teaser you can use.

Nobody else has.

It's like, thank you.

And it all makes sense.

Whenever you hear him talk, he's a leader.

Like, I think he views himself as like the coach, obviously.

He says, when I'm producing a movie or I'm doing this, I'm trying to, there's a lot of like leadership lessons in there.

There's a lot of like work ethic lessons in there.

Obviously, we're talking about acting.

He's talking about acting.

But if you apply a lot of the shit he's saying about how he goes about his business to your particular life and whatever you do, I think that is a, I mean, that was a quote machine.

That was like a quote board machine right there with Tom Cruise.

What an honor.

Ty, you've been a big fan, massive fan.

You've been banging the drum, obviously, since the beginning.

He was superb, I think.

And I don't know,

I don't know.

I don't watch enough of his interviews and everything like that during his press junkets, but he was so kind to us.

He blessed us, man.

Oh, yeah.

He really did.

For sure.

I mean,

I wouldn't say I watch those press junkets a whole lot because typically for those movies, it's just the same thing over and over again.

You know, like they get asked the same questions by these outlets.

And by the end of it, it's like you can tell they're done, but they need to promote the movie.

but you mentioned it like he's he is one of one we will never see there will never be another actor there has never been another actor and there will never be another actor who's doing these kind of stunts and then for this kind of stuff like you talk about being a leader like for a movie like this like and you're doing these type of stunts like they need to make sure that this stuff goes off without a hitch because if it doesn't like a movie like this like the more days you tack on, that production budget goes higher and higher and higher.

And you hear that about movies getting made all the time it's like well the the production process was hell because they went 45 days over what they were supposed to and that added another 75 to a hundred million dollars to the budget licensing renting exactly working all that all that kind of stuff yeah getting the you know I mean these are massive set pieces that they're doing and obviously like the the production budget of this movie alone was like $400 million this is one of the most expensive movies ever made so you don't really have the luxury of like oh we need to go another month.

I mean, it's just TC is the goat.

You know, I've been saying it, and I'll continue to say it until I'm blue in the face.

Yeah, and it's sweet too, like learning how he knows all those aspects of the film.

Like him understanding, like, he's always studying, he's always learning.

And to your point about the people that work for him, the person who showed us the movie yesterday morning, super nice.

I assume it's someone from his camp or Paramount or, you know, from Mission, as Tom says it, but it is the greatest film.

I'm not joking.

If you're a Mission Impossible fan, it's the best one.

You are going to love it.

At the end of it, I thought there was going to be another half hour, hour.

I was hoping for more time after just because you don't really want it to end at any point.

And especially if you're into the entire, like, you know, nostalgic throwback, you know, some kind of callbacks, if you will, to the earlier movies, because I'm a sucker for those when it comes to any, you know, big franchise.

It feels smart.

And it feels like big brain.

It feels like you're bringing your people in.

That, and it's like, you know what?

It was worth watching.

Like, it's not like I was just watching those movies because they were trying to make another.

Like,

there is a legitimate long-term storytelling in these films.

And the Final Reckoning, it truly was one of my favorite ones.

The movies they called back to in it were some of my favorite movies in the entire series, too.

And the cast, the cameos.

He mentioned during the interview, you know, the commander for the submarine.

And there's another commander in the film as well who is just magnificent.

That's not how he eats popcorn.

Yeah, it is.

No, he eats popcorn.

No, yeah,

he's actually eating the popcorn.

Don't do this, man.

I'll rip that fucking jersey off your back.

I don't care.

Yeah, then Marci will come beat your ass, too, buddy.

Why is he first Will Campbell?

Well, he just missed bad.

That was a bad miss.

You can't be doing that.

Tom didn't do that.

It's going to happen some.

Yeah, and how about whenever he said

in 2020, he calls the other

production companies.

You guys making movies over there?

No, we can't.

Oh, we're doing it.

Oh, that's fine.

All right.

We'll see you.

Then call back next week.

How's it going over there?

Oh, we're making movies over here.

Oh, okay.

When are you guys launching?

We got a date next summer.

This is when we're going.

Are you guys going the same date?

Yeah, we'll do it this summer or whatever.

Okay, cool.

Then he calls Paramount.

Hey, other people are making movies.

They're going to movies.

Okay, other people are making movies.

Brilliant.

What a work.

What a work in that thing.

And the way he explains this is because he didn't want his people to lose jobs.

He's like, hey, if there's going to be other people that are doing it, and in my eyes, there is an ability to do it.

I don't think no for an option uh many times past absolutely he is obsessed

if you've ever been around like you know i i you know play with tom you know and you play with payton and like you know i'm sure like jordan and coping like you see like these guys tiger like you get obsessed with that shit and you tell like talking to him you could tell sometimes he just caught himself like oh shit like me yeah

i could talk about this one question for 35 more minutes but it's great to see somebody especially who's been at the top of the game for so long that still have that drive and obsession about their craft and how awesome is it you you said playing with tom i obviously got a chance to watch peyton do his thing it's like and he mentioned it he was like i want everybody to be better after they work with me and with us it's like me watching payton made me better yeah at this job at every job at life at punt at you know i assume you the same with tom yeah with tom brady yeah and it's like that he's There's not many of those ever going to exist again.

Nope.

No.

101.

110 years old, though, Ty.

You said, once you're done, I'm fucking out of here too, bub.

Yeah, and I I stand by that.

All right.

Start rewraving.

That was one of the most ridiculous things.

As you were kind of unraveling, I was hearing you talk, I'm like, okay, I'm excited to hear what Ty says to Tom here.

I'm excited for the opportunity.

And then you say, hey, Tom, when you're done, I'm dying too.

Okay.

He said he's going to live to 110.

I believe him.

Don't worry.

Me too.

At least.

So do I.

I believe him.

He's got another 48 years, he says.

I think if we're doing the math right, he's absolutely jacked.

Looks young.

He was glowing.

Oh, yeah.

Just wonder how cool his hair was.

He looked incredible.

He did look incredible.

He looked so good.

And shout out to Aiden.

Shout out to Kevin.

Kevin looks really good.

Great hair.

Shout out to Eric.

Eric figured it out.

Eric was under pressure a little bit there

about two minutes before everything went live, before Tom got there, because it was obvious that he was coming from one thing into, because we watched it all on full.

So we were waiting, eagerly waiting.

Oh, yeah.

We were so juiced up.

We were 10 minutes early for what it was supposed to be sitting in the Zoom call.

Okay, that is very rare for us.

Pre-recording, very rare for us.

But whenever it's Tom Cruise, he said, I guess so many other films right now.

I haven't even really thought about Mission Impossible being

over.

Like that, that was basically his thing because he was in the middle of like so many different jobs.

So us getting a chance to squeeze into the, is a big deal.

Oh, yeah.

First of all, so we're very thankful, especially as a sports stooge show.

So we're just waiting because, first of all, just like the LeBron situation, just like the Tom Brady when he was on, and just like this, I thought it was all rib.

I thought there's no way Tom Cruise is coming on our show.

There's no, there's no chance he's doing this.

So as we're watching his team kind of piece it together and they're like setting up the mic and the lights and the seed and the connection because it's a different country, obviously.

So you got a lot of stuff going on.

We meet them as they're sitting down and we just take that as an opportunity to kind of learn what's going on there.

Kevin had good lettuce.

He was a guy sitting in for Tom Cruise.

He did have good moxie.

He had no idea we could see him for about the first 90 seconds, I think, as he was sitting there and hear him, which we certainly could.

So it's this stage staring down a guy who's in a different country who doesn't know.

So obviously our reactions were awesome to that.

He had great, that guy, great Moxie.

He was a great troubleshooter.

Troubleshooting was his thing.

Yeah, he said, he said, we're troubleshooting the issue right now.

Eric's going to figure it out right over here.

And then Aiden pops his handsome ass in.

Aiden was the driver behind this entire thing.

And shout out to Mike Foss.

Yeah.

Fosso.

Faso found the email.

And Faso, you're the man.

And so are you, Tom Cruise.

All right, let's take a break.

We have Kyle Larson joining us in the studio here.

I'm about to eat too much.

This popcorn.

What do you mean?

What do you mean?

Too much popcorn?

10-15 minutes.

Obviously, it's going to be 500 a week.

Indy 500 a week.

Kyle Larson's looking to do the double yet again.

Run the Indy 500 into the Coca-Cola 600 Diner.

I don't know how many drivers have done it.

I know nobody's really been successful.

And last year, he was trying to do it, and the Indy 500 got delayed because of weather.

Tough.

So really, I mean, it really, he flew down to Charlotte after the Indy 500 ended much later than it.

ever has probably.

And then he hopped in a car because the race was already started.

So it was, it wasn't smooth at all.

No.

But during the Indy 500, Kyle Larson was learning how to drive an Indy car.

And it was cool to watch.

And he was doing well.

It was like, oh, this guy, like 75 laps in, you hear him in the radio basically say, like, oh, I didn't know I could do that.

And they're like, yes, you could do that.

And he's in the biggest race in IndyCar.

And he just kept getting better, kept getting better.

They're saying this guy might go down as the greatest driver of all time.

He can race anything, whether it's go-karts, dirt cars, sprint cars,

you name it.

Mass cars.

What's that?

F-1.

I think he would be a guy that I think the race community in America would be like yeah we would like to see kyle larson go over there he's a driver though like those sprint cars you know those things are like rubbing they're they're dangerous they're they're rubbing they're spinning the back end's just they're literally drifting around in this thing and then going around the track they're flipping people are dying i mean that's that's where he that's style of racing he comes from yeah just ask him about f1 he done he done come from He don't come from Rolex

sponsorship his whole life.

He's a driver.

That's right.

We'll talk to to him about 15 minutes or so.

This Indy 500 weekend here in Indianapolis is going to be alive.

Obviously, Knicks and Pacers tonight.

Good luck to all parties in all conference finals.

But boy, it'd be sweet if Indiana Pacers went on a run to the finals.

Oh, yes, it would.

For the city, for our show, and for a friend of the program, Tyrese Halleberg.

I love that Knicks team, though.

Yeah.

I enjoy the way they play.

Fun to watch.

Don't love them, but...

No, I actually kind of do love the Knicks.

You're right.

Love that they exist in the sports world because we talk about sports.

So I like that the Knicks are very good because just all the shit that comes alongside of it.

When it doesn't get too much, the scenes outside MSG are really good.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Like there's so many good things that come from their team being good.

They're fans with Hans knock.

Exactly.

When it becomes too much, that's when it's with Wendy.

Yeah, but it's a huge.

And with Wendy, I didn't even see that video until later.

Yeah.

He's really going through it.

He's really going through it.

Damn.

All right.

Let's get to a break.

We'll be back on the other side.

We hope Debutch is okay.

Yeah.

That looked like a tie, John.

I know.

I know.

I've been there.

That looked like a.

Yep.

And we saw him eating the BK flapjacks.

Yeah, during the...

All right, be a friend, tell a friend something nice.

Say prayerful, Debutch.

Yeah.

We'll be back in about three.

Thank you, Tom Cruise.

Thank you, T-Tom.

Mission Impossible final reckoning tomorrow in theaters.

Only in theaters, obviously.

Yeah.

Tom might be in your theater tomorrow.

Could be.

Wherever you may be.

That's right.

Eyes peeled.

Have a good one.

We'll see you in three.

Thank you, Tom.

Jif Peanut Butter.

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Sports.

Debotch is shitting his pants.

Yeah, that's bad.

Talks of tables here at Boston Connor at Ty Schmidt.

One half of the hammer.

Dad.

Cowboys AP Tone is here and joining us live from an attic in Ohio.

In an attic in Ohio, is a man who maybe manifested that Tom Cruise interview.

Back in 2022 on our program, we were chit-chatting.

We were just a small, little, tiny little show.

Had a pretty good studio though.

And because our studio was so big, we were actually able to continue through the COVID times, you know, because we were able to get the spatial distancing.

And

because we were on radio at the time, Westwood One, while also being on the internet, we were deemed like a necessary something just in case news had to be in there.

We had a certificate.

It was a big deal.

We had Indianapolis Health Department coming in and checking to make sure we had signs in enough places, enough hand sanitizer around the building,

enough space amongst all of us.

They could randomly pop in whenever they wanted to.

What's that, Tone?

Goggles because the eyes were

at one point.

There was a don't look at each other thing.

That was at the very beginning.

Also, the cardboard boxes from the delivery.

Don't touch them for two, three weeks.

Correct.

Eat those things outside.

What's that?

The APOC burgers.

We ate a lot of burgers because they came in a massive box.

Once again, they sat outside for two, three days, which is not good because they were frozen burgers, but somehow the APOC burgers were able to survive.

We had new handshakes.

Anyways, we did it through all of COVID.

So

AJ started joining us during it because AJ's at his house, four kids.

I certainly think he probably just wanted to escape or whatever.

Yeah.

You know, probably just wanted to escape.

He started joining us.

And that's really where this whole thing kind of really started going.

And AJ said in 2022, he said,

we need Tom Cruise on the show.

And I go, Tom Cruise not coming on our show.

Yeah, let's just, yeah, we'll have Tom Cruise on the show.

And I go, how's that going to work?

You're going to call him?

He goes, this is my plea right now.

And then Boston Connor immediately afterwards goes, yeah, and we'll just get LeBron James on the show too.

Yeah, let's just start.

So now that LeBron James has had the LeBron version here and we've got a chance to talk to Tom Cruise, we can

solidify the fact that we are living the dumbest lives of all time.

We're so incredibly thankful.

And the fact that this man with a massive face, massive head, and he's the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, potentially put that in the universe.

And Everse responded.

Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hop, we appreciate you.

Got your jersey on.

I like you.

Got your jersey on.

Yeah, I saw it was Jersey Day, so I ran down to my 12-year-old's closet, got my Devontae Jets jersey on.

So, yeah, I know he's not there anymore, but it's a little bit tight.

But yeah, Tom was amazing, man.

Dude, what an inspirational whole situation that was.

Yeah, and that is a little tight.

Is that game worn?

A little tight.

A little tight.

Not game worn.

This is a youth large or used XO, I believe.

I appreciate you doing that.

Love it, Hawker.

This is Big Connor.

Connor's been pushing this one hard this morning, wanting it to be Jersey, Wednesday.

I was kind of torn because I haven't worn this ever, and the Pacers are on quite a run.

Yeah.

But I wanted to support the team.

and do Jersey Day and I put it on and it was literally a

full-time, I hate wearing these.

These in my head.

Then also, did I just ruin it?

Because I put this thing on.

So I decided post-Tom Cruise interview, don't have the jersey on.

Before Tom Cruise interview, had it on.

Feel like I am celebrating with you guys.

Sure.

But also potentially not ruining it for the Indiana Pacers tonight.

Yeah, exactly.

Now we know.

You know, we'll judge it off tonight.

If they win, guess what?

See you for Jersey on Friday.

And then if they lose,

that's not how these are going.

It feels like that should happen if they win.

No, no, no, no, that is not enough.

You and Cole have a good bet.

Yeah, Michael Cole and I have a good bet on the Knicks in Pacer series, which is

if the Knicks win, I have to wear a full suit,

which would suck.

I could wear one.

With a tie, a tie, and everything?

Tie.

He wears the full clon suit.

All day, every day.

I feel like that dude wears it for 18 hours straight.

He does.

He shows up at the arena or the stadium dressed in full suit, tie, has the tie all the way up to

not going to be out of place at all at any moment.

So so i'll wear his little clon suit uh full thing which i don't i would have to buy i don't know

suit pants what are they those are just sweatpants that people say are nice right that's basically what people say i'll do that whole thing and then if the pacers win when the pacers win michael cole will wear a tank top for uh an additional monday night raw now i don't think either of us got that cleared by anybody so I'm excited to see Michael Cole in a tank top on Raw and how quickly that is like, we did it, right?

We did the whole, we did the little gimmick.

we did the little game here uh but nonetheless pacers knicks this evening aj did you see uh hockey game last night did you see float of pounds fireworks coming fireworks coming huh you're reading it the same way we are right you're reading it the same way we are my goodness yeah i mean how many people are going to tune into the start of this next game like i i will well the fact that the panthers are even like kind of alluding to like hey yeah By not answering and not saying anything, they are basically saying, yeah, noted.

This is all very duly noted.

Guy wants to take a cheap shot at our new guy.

Okay.

Okay.

Our guy who has become one of us so quickly, a guy that was meant to be on the Florida Panthers, you're going to take a shot at him.

Because I feel like they're going to have to showcase DeMarshi that they got his back too.

Like, there's so many things that kind of go into this in the hockey culture world that indicate that very rarely in an Eastern Conference finals, and I might be speaking out of pocket here, but just from watching it.

My entire life basically, I don't know the ins and outs.

Okay, I can dump the bucket there.

I can't skate.

So I never, you know, not my thing.

But very rarely in the Eastern Conference finals is anybody trying to fight.

Okay.

Fighting has been a part of hockey for a long time.

It kind of disappeared for a little bit.

Now it's kind of making a comeback a little bit.

And Commissioner Bettman said, we just don't want the staged fighting.

We don't want the stage fighting.

We don't want the bullshit fights.

Like if somebody wants to get somebody back, stick up for a teammate, wants to fight somebody, that's okay.

But we can't just have like a staged fight happening anymore, is what the commissioner of the NHL said, because they were kind of trying to get rid of fighting is what everybody thought.

In Eastern Conference Finals, you fight, you go to the penalty box.

That is quite an advantage for the other person.

Feels like this is going to be a massive brawl to start it.

And very rarely does that ever happen in an Eastern Conference finals game.

The NHL, I know they're not going to say publicly that they're happy about it, but to your point, all eyes are on that opening puck drop.

I mean, just like whenever the United States took on Canada and at Four Nations up in Canada and They booed our national, I'm getting choked up thinking about it right now.

They booed our national anthem.

It was like you knew that the United States team didn't even have to say anything to each other.

It was just like, oh, is that okay?

Now we go.

That's how this is going to go.

And hockey's one of the only sports where that's possible.

Hockey is literally the only sport where that is still a thing in 2025.

And I have so much respect for it.

And that is why hockey is awesome.

And I absolutely love it.

Well, and there's no need to like give the Panthers more fuel.

Like if anything, the Kaniaks are probably looking for some sort of, you know, some momentum to carry in to the next game, whether that be someone on their team, you know, having a huge hit and then fighting someone for the Panthers.

But it was completely flipped.

This gives the Panthers all the momentum.

I don't love how you said Martian was born to play for the Panthers, too.

That's not true, but I understand what you mean.

He fits their culture perfectly.

He fits exactly everything that they are about.

He was born to be a Bruin.

He's a Bruin for Life.

But again, he wasn't a Bruin for Life because you guys said, don't be a Bruin.

He'll move back to Boston.

With Martian being the guy, too.

Like, it's, of course, he's the new guy, but he's like the elder statesman, too.

Like, sure, he doesn't have the assistant captain or the captain, uh, you know, marking on his chest, but he is the vet, the guy that kind of sets the tone for this team.

So it's one of those things where it's not even like a Shane Gossespear, where he's not, you know, the tone setter on their team.

Like we were talking before the show, he's a finesse offensive defenseman, not really.

He's got his feels a little bit.

Exactly.

I love what he did.

He's got a little soft.

Yeah,

I don't know.

I don't know how many hockey people love what he did, but I do appreciate that some some people.

Well, it's dangerous, guys.

It's pretty dangerous to be doing that.

And there is like lines in this entire thing.

I think there is like a code that people would say.

And it's very rare that you see somebody from their own blue line shooting it directly into somebody, hitting them in the arm, too.

Not a lot of pads there.

And it's, you know,

a lot of people

that I know from Canada were saying.

This guy takes a slapshot from his own blue line right into a guy, disrespecting him.

Not a slapshot.

People from Canada said that.

from i've been watching hockey my whole life i've never seen somebody do something like this and i'm not being egregious i haven't you find somebody who does this in game one of an eastern conference finals when your team's down 3-1 the canes have no hope the rest of the series it's bush league you've all and you've already shown you're like you're down 3-1 you're losing your mind already taking slappers at guys on the other team well i wasn't a slapper

whatever you guys say it was it's bushley shouldn't have done it and you're done it's over cats are going to sweep them.

Really?

But you're already, you're down 3-1 and you're doing that to Marshi already?

And then Marshi ragdolls the guy.

There's no answer from your team.

Yeah, no one coming to his age

is tough.

I do believe, and I might need to be fact-checked, I know for a fact that they have lost eight straight Eastern Conference finals games or nine straight in the game.

13.

Yeah, so it was three.

They've been swept in three straight conference finals.

You know why that is, from what I've been told?

Nikki Skates told me that they run a system, basically.

The Hurricanes run a system.

They don't care who they're playing.

This is how they're going to play.

So when you get to the Eastern Conference finals, you're playing a team that can probably adjust and do different things.

So they figure out a way to beat your system and then it's over, right, Nick?

Isn't that kind of the...

Yeah, and this has kind of been Brenda Moore's M.O., the coach there.

He was a great player for Carolina, won a Stanley Cup with them,

played.

multiple years in the league, 20 plus years, I think, close to it.

And now he's the coach there, and this has kind of been his MO is they can make it to the second round.

Maybe they make it to the conference final like you've seen here a few times, but they can't get over that hump.

And they're cuz they're playing great teams at that.

You're playing like great teams at that point.

So they can like maneuver around what you're trying to do.

You need adjustments, I think is what people were saying.

And they just play the way they play and they keep it moving.

It's like the Panthers.

Now they're at a point last night, AJ, I don't know if you heard this,

where they're mic'd up and they say, all right, let's go beat the hell out of these guys, basically.

Yeah, we're up 3-1.

Basically what Pat Maroon said,

let's get some hits on these guys.

Let's run these guys a little bit now that that we're up in this thing.

That's an actual plan by the Panthers.

Yeah, Paul Maurice, a clip was going around of him, and I think it was from last year's playoffs where they were winning 3-1 and they were trying to get a little fancy.

And he basically just said, Hey, pound their demon,

which I'm sure Q Rich would love to hear that as well next time we have him on.

But they were just yelling, I don't know why you're getting all fancy out there.

Go pound their D so they got nothing left for game seven.

And that's exactly what started to happen.

Like, that's why Marsham was going after Gostas Beard.

Later on, I think it was a fourth liner for Florida.

He got a roughing penalty because he hit one of the, I think it was actually Gossespeer's linemate, one of the defensemen for the Panthers, and he gave him a couple extra shots, just something to feel.

Wear them down.

Yeah, wear them down.

And it's legit.

Like, that's a great style, and that's why the Panthers have won, and it's great to watch.

You talked about being fact-checked earlier on.

the 13 straight losses in the Eastern Conference Finals for the Carolina Hurricanes.

A lot of people on the internet, I I read while we had our three-minute break there, were saying that I should have fact-checked Jamal Crawford a little bit.

Jamal Crawford said that if you took away all of SGA's free throws, he'd still lead the league in scoring.

I don't know if anybody was fact-checking, but I saw 30 responses that were like,

that's cap.

That's crap.

I guess I believed him.

I believed him when he said it.

He sold it to me.

Me too.

As I was listening, I was like, okay, yeah, respect it.

Yeah.

Respect Jenna Ralph.

You know, I mean, it was.

Hey, man, big time respect, Jen A.

Row.

I understand what you're saying, but I guess a lot of people on the internet are saying that's not true.

I assume that would get figured out by somebody.

Trust crossover.

Yeah, Jamal Crawford.

Internet or Jamal?

Oh, I don't know.

Well, also, yeah, would Jamal just say that with no reason at all?

Yeah, but I believe he is six, unfortunately.

Okay.

Yeah, I was killing him.

Yeah, that's not on you.

I did.

I did fix it.

This is what he's saying.

It's on the P.

No, no, it's not on you.

It's what he, it's, it's on all of like, because it's believable because the guy is getting to the bucket all the time.

Like, he is electrifying to watch.

And then the flopping stuff, it's like, man.

It's kind of weird, isn't it?

Yeah, because I guess it'd be really tough as the ref because it does, when you're watching it as fast as it is, you're like, okay, that could be a foul.

And then you watch it back.

Like, no, the dude, like, they just fall down a lot all the time.

Yeah, but the reason why you fall down a lot is because there's a lot of feet in a very confined space.

Like, it's an off-balance sport, I think, especially whenever you're around.

I would do it too.

I would do it too, though.

I wouldn't blame them.

These refs are calling.

Like, it's what Jamal said.

Like, hey, these refs are calling.

This isn't a rec center game where D-Bund's getting his lips split open or, you know, Gary Vee Vee is fouling dudes from behind.

Like, these are professional referees making the call.

Yeah, it's not his fault that he's getting the calls.

And it's just like when Patrick Mahomes was on the sideline and he was doing the shit and he was getting the calls, it was like, I guess you can't blame Patrick Mahomes.

We don't want it to look like that.

We don't want that to be what it is.

But in Patrick Mahomes, I was like, I can get 15 yards right now.

I'm going to take 15 yards right now.

And they probably view it as like outsmarting the game.

And this is a part of the game.

And LeBron said that.

LeBron said, I'm the least called fouls in the league or whatever.

And somebody told me to fact-check that, I guess.

There is people with less fouls than LeBron James.

But whenever he was flopping, he was like,

this is giving me two shots right now for my team.

Like, I don't know what you want.

Tell them to change the rule then, if that is the case.

If you don't want me doing it, tell them to change the rule or stop calling it.

And it feels like the NBA has gotten to a tougher brand of basketball, which I think is why whenever you watch SGA, it's like, he's like an outlier right now when that used to be what all of basketball was.

I did look it up.

Points per game, minus free throws made.

He is still number one in the league.

Yeah, so

I assume he meant like when everyone gets had the most points per game, free throws per game this season.

Oh, you're saying most points per game?

No, that's points per game minus free throws made.

So

the dash is not an explanatory.

That is an actual minus.

I think they should have spelled that one out, but I appreciate what they're doing at the top of this.

Who's this from?

This is from StatMuse.

StatMuse, great.

Hey, great.

Love them.

All sports.

Yeah, we appreciate the shit out of StatMuse.

I I don't know how many of them are back there behind there,

either posting or doing the research, but StatMuse, you're a good group over there.

Yeah.

We are very grateful for you.

So he's right.

So with Terrence Crawford, so he's right.

Yeah.

Jamal.

Jamal Crawford.

I think that's sweet science on the movie.

It might be total points, not points per game.

I could be wrong.

Anyways,

what's going on with that Crawford Canelo fight?

I have no idea.

So it's very interesting.

Yeah, what is going on over there?

That's sweet science movie.

Dude, that business.

We learned we got a chance to really beat him.

Yeah.

Drop kid.

Yeah.

Get a PhD.

For like a weekend, and it's like the business behind it.

It's like,

this is a wild world over here.

Yeah, it is the wild, wild west.

Yeah, it genuinely is.

Yeah.

Which is why I think they view it as a great opportunity for that entire thing.

And if Canelo Crawford's the first one, I mean, that's, is that what's happening?

I don't know.

Good luck.

I hope so.

Crawford was cool to us.

Yeah.

Both.

Yeah.

And I'm sure there's other Crawfords that have been cool to us as well.

Carl.

Joining us now, ladies.

SGA is so good.

Oklahoma City looks unbelievable.

Jamal brought up another stat.

He said they've only lost 14 games all year.

Yeah.

You know how many games NBA teams play?

All of them.

They play 100 and some games.

Yeah.

Whatever it is, whenever you get to the end of this thing.

And it's like they've lost 14 of them.

So you start thinking about this team.

It's like they have it figured out.

And he talked about the coach a lot.

Everybody talks about the coach a lot.

They're like, this guy's the guy.

And I think it's just viewed as like a college team, college atmosphere.

But if you have have a great coach with that college atmosphere it feels like the nba is a league you can take over especially with superstars yeah and he's worked his way up from the g league the thing with sca is like he is so good one of those highlights we just ran he beats a guy and they does a spin move through the lane they lays it in it's like you don't need to do all that extra shit and because of the fact that they haven't been calling it for everybody when you're calling it for just one guy i think that's why people get so frustrated by it like last night he had 14 free throw attempts and had the next most with seven and and I'm not saying like Ant was getting fouled a ton and they weren't calling it.

It's just the small, small things that it felt like the NBA was getting away from when it came to fouls is like still happening with SGA.

Tonight we have Oilers, Stars, Pacers, Mix.

Massive conference final Wednesday night here on this Tom Cruise Wednesday.

Still crazy to even think that that guy was on our show.

Oilers.

With McJesus taking on Otter in the stars.

Gumpy was walking around earlier with an Otter mask on.

Yep, awesome.

And then he was saying, he can't take a clap bomb at a guy.

Yeah, there he is.

That was Gumpy this morning.

Good luck to Texas Hockey Gumps.

Boys are ready.

It's our time.

It's our time.

It's Otar time.

There it is.

He wants to represent for the United States of America, I heard.

Absolutely.

I like that.

Should be number one at the Olympics, no doubt, at Boe too.

Win the cup, start for USA.

Those are his dreams.

Good luck, Otter.

Got McJesus coming right down the pipe.

Yeah.

Got McGee's coming right down the pipe.

I can't wait to watch.

And then obviously, Pacers, Knicks, Knicks favored by four and a half in the garden.

That doesn't matter.

We know that.

I agree.

But I would like to say

this game goes however it goes.

Yeah.

Okay.

This game goes however it goes.

Yeah, it'll be what it'll be.

It'll be the situation will certainly be the situation.

I'm not worried about nothing no matter how this game goes.

We win one, steal one, the first one in Madison Square Garden, possible.

This Pacers team has done that before.

Cool.

We'll be pumped tomorrow, certainly.

We'll see how we did a little gardening, didn't we?

Just like we did last year in the playoffs against the Knicks.

If the Knicks win, which, hey, favored by four and a half in Madison Square Garden, they've been locked in.

This is the run.

Everybody on ESPN.

Knicks, Knicks, Knicks, Knicks, Knicks.

Everybody's saying, if they win, there'll be no panic because Coach Carlisle will have the boys ready for game two.

Without a doubt.

And then game three three on indy 500 sunday

here in indianapolis are you kidding me uh that's gonna be this is gonna be a fun series to be a part of and uh can't wait to watch it get started tonight now speaking of indy 500 sunday there is a man okay we got some stats here

got some stats here i don't know who wrote the stats okay sure could be bruce sure I think it is Bruce.

Okay.

I think they sent stats to Bruce.

Bruce put a little pizzazz on it.

Okay.

That's Bruce didn't write him, he said.

Bruce did no pizzazz from Bruce?

That's what he's saying.

Do you not care?

No pizzazz.

This first one, you do not put any pizzazz on it?

No, no, this is as given.

He's all business with that Knicks jersey.

Hey, good luck to your Knicks team, Bub.

Thank you.

Do you love or hate that everybody on TV is picking the Knicks?

There are a lot of Knicks fans on the morning lineup at ESPN for sure, but I think due respect has been given to the Pacers.

I don't think anyone's just chalking it up like we already won.

That is a former Knicks player, a Jets player, and then two Knicks fans on that graphic.

Yeah, that's exactly.

All on TV, allowed to do whatever they want to do.

Yeah, I mean, allowed to say whatever they want.

Greeny, they are in the epicenter of Western Civilization, New York, filming their show.

Greeny, born and raised in New York City.

Yep.

Massive Knicks fan.

I appreciate him multiple days now doing things like, hey, I don't know if he's trying to do it to reverse.

He is.

That's exactly.

Without a doubt.

I think so too.

I think he really wants the Knicks to win this.

So he's doing like a

kind of a, let's not take the, please, let's not.

I think, yeah, just like Bruce, probably a little bit nervous that everybody's picking him.

But he's been doing his real, he's been doing real journalism shit on the Pacers.

He's been doing his Mikey monologues, you know, right at the Rand's camera.

Here's the one from today.

Say it again.

Underestimate the Pacers at your own risk.

Let me count the ways.

First, Indiana has won 21 of their last 26 games.

That dates back to March 17th.

That is the best record in the NBA over that span during the same time the Knicks are just 17 and 11.

The Pacers are a four and a half point underdog tonight.

They are plus 125 in the series.

As an underdog, in these playoffs, the Pacers are 5-2.

They eliminated Cleveland as an underdog in their last round.

They eliminated the Knicks as an underdog last year.

And finally, while the Knicks have Jalen Brunson in clutch time, Tyrese Halliburton has been equally spectacular.

In fact, even more so.

He's 10 of 11 in the final 90 seconds of the fourth quarter and overtime on shots to tie or take the lead, which is the highest percentage in a season since at least 1997.

And we say it that way because that's when we started keeping track of these things with that level of specificity.

I love that.

Thank you, Greeny, for the journalism.

Right, AJ?

Thank you for that.

Yeah, when Greene has his glasses in one hand and his papers in the other, you know, like he means business.

Like, this is something you need to listen to.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it's just him.

And then we even got a big LED board right next to him that's going to amplify.

Hembo is going to get a little showcase in there with some things.

And I like the Mr.

Clutch question mark at the top.

That was a good graph.

That was a good graph.

Their debone over there, you know, did his thing or her thing for sure.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who on May 11th just won a race in Kansas.

Wow.

Super duper cup out there in in Kansas.

Yep, boom.

This guy, if he's driving it, he's probably winning.

He's raced on parking lots and go-karts.

He's raced on dirt and sprint cars.

You put him on maybe one of those little kid cars, he's going to win.

Ladies and gentlemen, NASCAR superstar, rookie of the year in IndyCar last year.

Ladies and gentlemen, Kyle Larson.

It's supposed to be a very awkward walk.

Y'all ready for this?

How you doing, brother?

That was good.

You already did.

Hey, it's supposed to be a really

backdoor bid.

I like that.

I like what you did.

Hey, that's driving.

I was going to say that.

That's inside.

Exactly.

Everybody goes this way.

You said balls.

I didn't know where to go.

No, it's a passion.

You made the right play.

You made the right play there.

You got to corner that.

You went right for once.

Respect.

I like that.

Good driving joke.

Okay, let's talk about it, Kyle.

So last year, when you were doing the Indian 500, the double, how many people have done it in the past?

Five have attempted it.

Only Tony Stewart's the only guy to finish all 1,100 miles.

Okay, 1,100 miles in a car one day.

Obviously, the Indianapolis 500, the biggest race on earth every single year, the grandest spectacle on earth every single year.

And with so much history, tradition, this city and state, like it's the biggest thing that happens in the world, basically.

So you attempting that as a mass car driver and then going and doing a 600-mile race, which is long, right?

Isn't that a long race for you guys?

It could be four to five hours, probably.

Depending on cautions, yeah, it's long.

Okay, so, and you're a thin lad.

I don't know where all the sweat's coming from while you're doing this and everything like that.

But when you were doing it last year, there's been some F1 guys that have come in and tried the Indy 500.

Obviously, there's been some rookie.

There's a rookie this year on the poll that everybody's excited about.

But whenever you came in to do this last year, there was people that were flocking.

from all over the country to come here.

People were showing up at our, at our, out here, and they're like, hey, we're coming to Indianapolis.

First time we're here.

We're from North Carolina.

Hey, we're first time we're here.

We're from Virginia.

Hey, we're from Illinois.

And they're saying, we just want to come take a picture of the Thunderdome.

And we asked them, we're like, what are you here for?

They're like, Kyle Larson.

We're here to watch Kyle Larson do his thing.

They call you a man who's the best driver of cars maybe in the last two, three generations or whatever.

How does that make you feel?

I've never people say that.

And have you just committed your entire life to racing?

When did you start like with the dominating of folks in a a car?

Well, starting off with your first question, it does make me feel really good, you know, when people compare me to like Tony or Mario, AJ Foyt, guys like that.

But I try not to pay much attention to it just because I'm still only 32 and I feel like I got a lot of racing left in my career before I should be allowed to be in that category.

But

no, I started when I was really young.

I grew up in California racing go-karts and dirt track stuff, all really dirt track until I got to NASCAR.

And

I always wanted to do the Indy 500 too.

So it's pretty neat to get the chance to do it and get to do multiple races in the same day is pretty awesome.

What do you have?

You have a no fear thing, obviously.

And I think there's a couple different speeds.

I guess over 200 miles an hour, I guess now you guys are 235, so over 220 probably.

I think there's a separator between drivers is what I've heard from living here in Indianapolis.

It's like, hey, there's a difference.

People that can go over 220, it's like people in baseball.

People that can hit the curveball and people that can't hit the curveball.

It's like whoever can control themselves at a higher speed.

There's like a certain group of people and everybody else is below that.

For the Indy 500 for IndyCar, much faster than NASCAR.

Yeah, and it felt like last year, as I was watching, you were learning what you were doing basically throughout the race.

I actually put a tweet out about it.

I was like, it feels like Kyle is literally learning his car in the middle of the Indy 500.

Is that true?

And how much more prepared are you for this year's?

I would say, so last year, you get so much practice time during these two weeks at Indy.

Like, you learn your car, you know, pretty well, but it's like I've never raced in an IndyCar race.

So, like, the race procedure is a lot different.

The restarts, just the drivers, the pit stops, like all the little details that are different for MASCAR.

But I did have some mistakes on one of the early restarts and fell back and then had to overcome that.

So that was, that was cool.

I found that.

That was a shifting thing, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

I like, I restarted, I think, in like first gear and I hit the revlimmer right when I shifted.

So then I like maybe overreacted and grabbed another gear and fell into third.

And then I was just bogging.

And yeah, it was a bad deal.

But learn from it.

So hopefully this year is a little bit different.

Yeah, so with the driving, the racing, have you raced against these guys or everybody in in their own little worlds just only in the indie 500 last year a lot of these guys you know have a totally different background than than me you know racing in europe and stuff so um you know me coming from dirt tracks and stock cars like yeah the only time i race these guys is on sunday okay so um what's the difference robbins racing's national that's right

here there's not a lot of there's a lot of racing but there's not next to no rubbing right because the cars open wheel yeah yeah you've already we've already seen a lot of cars or a few cars turn over upside down potentially mclaughlin Yeah, yeah.

I spun out on Fast Friday.

Thankfully didn't flip, but

no.

We don't want to do PTSD here, but I believe this is you.

Yeah, yeah, that's me.

Yeah, I got lucky.

That was a pretty generous rec for the speedway.

But honestly, too, like going back to the stock car versus IndyCar stuff, like...

I think there's more similarities than there are differences.

I know they look different and you're going way faster at Indy than you do in NASCAR.

You know, we probably go 195 at Indy there.

But the overall feel of the car, the down force, the, our new NASCAR cars are much similar, like independent suspension, the underbody of arrow effects.

So what I feel behind the wheel is pretty similar.

So I feel like it makes the learning curve not as, not as steep as maybe it would for others.

How much do you weigh?

135.

That's an advantage, right?

Like horse jockeys, the lighter they are, obviously the better for the horse to run.

Modern racers that I've met,

smaller body.

Connor Daly's built like a middle linebacker.

I was not that was potentially working.

He looks like he's thinned out though I seen him this week He's he's

no

I would say it's an advantage, but it's not like an extreme advantage because we all have like our cars weigh the same So like even though I'm light and Connor or and he's not even the biggest guy there Say there's a guy that weighs 200 pounds like I just have to add more weight to my car to make it equal.

So you have to

kind of position that weight, you know, balance where you'd want it.

So that's where I think the advantage comes from.

Got it.

Ty ty has a question for you yeah just curious uh like because you're not full-time and i think like the race community as as a whole you know i mean i'm not like a huge race fan but when you come here like what is your relationship like with the other drivers like do they kind of scoff i mean everyone knows what you've done in nascar but i assume none of these guys want to see you come in and win the indie 500 in your second running yeah do indianapolis people want to see i think exactly

yeah i think indie indianapolis fans and stuff do and and honestly i don't know like i i haven't really personally asked them but i would feel like at least for me, coming from NASCAR, when guys have come in, like Shane Van Gisberg, and he came and ran a cup race at Chicago a couple years ago and won.

And although it's like not the coolest thing, you know, because not that it makes you look bad or anything, but

you have an immense amount of respect for all competitors.

So when they come into a new form and do a good job, I think it's really cool.

So I would imagine, you know, maybe not all the guys want to see me do great, but I think there's a respect level there that, yes, you know,

you'd be happy to see somebody do good.

You do all that.

You do any dirt racing in Indy?

I raced at Kokomo

last Monday.

But growing up, did you?

But yeah, yeah, so I grew up in California and then my path kind of followed Jeff Gordon.

So I moved to Indiana in 2011, ran USAC, so I ran around a lot of these tracks here.

2010.

You're up in Anderson up there?

That's pavement tracks.

I didn't do much pavement racing, yeah.

So I've never raced there, but Gas City, Kokomo, Putnamville, Lawrenceburg.

I'll be at Lawrenceburg next Friday.

So I do a lot of dirt racing around Indiana.

So I feel like the fans love me.

Yes, I think so too.

Like, I think it was a very welcome thing.

Like, you mentioned him coming in and winning the Indy 500.

I think that's the only reason why they would be okay with it is because they feel like he's cut his teeth here.

Yeah, he's cut his teeth here in the racing state, you know, because that's how people in Indiana genuinely view it.

Is it different, the Indy 500?

That energy?

It's huge.

Yeah, like not only just the race, but like all the days of practice that you have.

You know, I'll go practice, like we'll have a practice day in NASCAR and there might be 5,000 people there.

At Indy, there's like 75,000 people you know every day so it's kind of crazy that the event is that big spread out over two weeks and there's fans there all the time so yeah the amount of pictures autographs and all that you sign is crazy but it's fun it's cool it makes you just feel like the event is just unlike any other which it is so it's cool to be a part of well you're immortalized forever until you win an indie 500 right yeah i mean that's like the racing world I mean, you get your face on the trophy.

So

Connor has a question for you.

Yeah.

So when did you like know, hey, I am going to be a racer?

Like obviously moving was a big deal, but before you even moved, was it something where you were in California, knowing just beating the shit out of a bunch of surfers?

Like, oh, I'm going to be really racing.

Are you surfing fast?

Yeah.

I was in Northern California, so I didn't do any surfing.

Okay.

No, I did.

Yeah, yeah.

For me, for me, obviously, I'm not.

built to play other sports.

So thankfully, I think, you know, my family had a big passion for racing.

I did too.

And it was just something I was good at and

made a lot of friends and memories and all that.

And then just wanted to chase

heroes of mine like Jeff and Tony and guys like that.

So just fortunate to have a passion for something.

So you said you started go-karts?

Yeah, yeah, out in California.

And dirt jerks?

Dirt ovals, yep.

How fast were you going?

How old were you?

So the carts that I grew up racing, they were...

They have like a two-stroke 500cc engine on them.

They weigh, back then, like 400 pounds.

So the power to weight ratio is crazy.

Like they're

popping wheelies and spinning the tires.

So no power steering, no suspension.

So they're beating.

How old are you?

How old are you?

Oh, I was probably 11 then.

When I got to that class, I started in like, you know, box docks, which would be like a Briggs and Stratton engine, like a lawnmower style engine from like seven to nine.

But then you go like a big step to the next, you know, division, which is crazy.

And then you go from that.

Then I went from that to sprint cars, which is another huge step.

Dangerous.

Yeah.

Those are super dangerous, right?

Yeah, oh yeah.

950 horsepower, 1,400 pounds.

They're crazy.

Yeah.

Drifting around.

Trint cars and midgets and yeah, dirt track.

And then gotten to stock cars.

You ever do like Smoke right now?

I was doing the drag race.

Yeah, I haven't done that.

Yeah.

Yeah, he's in.

He's in a funny thing.

He's top fuel.

He's top fuel.

So he's picking butt.

He just wanted in this weekend.

I feel like he's getting the hang of it.

Smoke, baby.

I mean, he's the GOAT.

He's the best.

So he can figure anything out.

When you were a kid, you were just seeing better lines.

Better reaction time?

I don't know what goes into it, but just like what we did right here.

I think when you're

in the case of the case, you can just see.

I think when you're young, you just kind of have a natural talent, but then when you get older and your racing gets all good, you know, adults and kids or whatever, not kids, but adults, that's when you kind of have to work at it more.

So,

but yeah, I would say in the beginning, and probably still now, a lot of it's natural, you know.

Yeah, I would say.

Yeah, there's a reason why people are here.

Yeah, it's probably most athletes.

You know, everybody works hard at it, but you got to have some sort of natural ability.

Yes, definitely.

Yeah.

But you have to work hard, though.

Yeah.

Like TC.

Yeah, Tom Cruise has natural ability.

Yeah.

He works his ass off.

And then he says, you know what?

I think I can stand out on this wing right here.

And then I can flip it upside down.

And then I can fly a plane with my foot.

He's got a great NASCAR movie, too.

Yeah, damn, he does.

And Brad Pitt's got an F1 coming out, which we will continue this conversation with Kyle Larson on digital, YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, and more.

We'll see you tomorrow.

Goodbye.

All right, we're off ESPN.

We're still on digital.

We're still live.

Okay.

Very live.

Yep.

F1.

D-Butt literally is pooping his pants because

we had some...

Yeah, I don't know if we should have done...

We found some popcorn that had been in our office for maybe a couple of years.

Extra salt, extra butter.

Yeah,

it's not bad, but he's a massive F1 fan.

Yeah.

You guys probably

have seen, especially in the NASCAR world, because NASCAR used to be, you know, the thing.

I think it still is, obviously, still sells out.

Tracks.

Yeah.

Still sells out everything.

Like, NASCAR is still a big deal.

F1 had that reality show

and just became like

yeah, it did blow up.

I, living in Indianapolis, Indiana, did not grow up in the race community, but I did watch the Indy 500, got to meet a lot of the drivers, like kind of started learning about it.

And I watched the Indy racing and they're racing.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's a lot of racing.

I watch a NASCAR and it's a lot of, hey, we're trying to win.

I watch these F1 races and boy.

I'm pretty bored.

Sucks.

They're big cars.

They got a lot of money around it, a lot of superstars around it.

The reality show show was obviously awesome.

But as somebody that was like kind of just dropped into Indianapolis and then given like full, like, hey, you can go down the pits.

You can, I can literally like learn about this however much I want to or however little I want to.

How do you guys feel about F1 driving?

And have you ever been asked to go drive in F1?

I've never been asked to drive in F1.

I think it's tough coming from my background of dirt tracks and Ovals, but

I've been, I went to Abu Dhabi in 2021.

It was sick.

Like the event was awesome.

I mean, like, it was, it was incredible.

But yeah, the racing, the racing's not what we are accustomed to in America.

Like, I think, you know, there, it's, it's crazy how big it is because, yeah, you're right.

Like, it's not super exciting, but I think it's the stuff outside of it, the celebrities that are there, the engineering, the money, just everything

about that.

You know, the big brands, you know, on the cars and stuff.

But, you know, I feel like NASCAR and IndyCar here in America, like you can't find much more exciting racing than what we have here.

So I'm fortunate to get to run both of them, but I would definitely never turn down the opportunity to go.

And I think you are a guy, if I'm getting the temperature of the race community right, just because you've been here the last two years, I think you would be a guy that America Racing would be like, yep.

we would like to see Kyle go ahead and represent for us over there.

So hopefully one day that's able to happen.

Didn't they shut down an American team?

And then they...

Yeah.

Yeah, I think they're like European soccer.

Yeah, Haas is out there and then Cadillacs coming next year.

Yeah, they're based out of here.

Yeah, they have a nice, really nice facility right by our race shop in Charlotte.

It's big.

It's cool.

So Charlotte calls itself.

Charlotte's like the Indianapolis of NASCAR.

NASCAR, yeah.

I know, because I'll go down to Charlotte and they'll be like, it's the home of race.

I didn't know that.

Nope.

It is Indianapolis.

Yeah, Charlotte is

that is the home.

Hendrix Motorsports has a whole campus.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

Yeah, I was there.

Yeah, that's where you went to do

that.

Yeah.

That was where I went.

You got like, they have ex-college football players running the pits.

Oh, yeah.

They have like weight room.

They have gym in the morning.

They have food.

They're making a huge facility now for like a new fitness center.

It's going to be, it's going to be legit.

Like it's college like level campus.

You know, like they, I think they went and toured Alabama, so it'd be pretty similar to that.

Yeah, it was a college campus.

We literally, we went over to practice with the pit crew.

Then we went over to the gym to lift for some another team's pit crew.

Then we went and had some food.

There was a big, obviously a diner, and it's like, it's kind of all-encompassing down there.

Yeah.

And

what a sport NASCAR's been.

moonshiners right isn't that how it all started yeah I guess yeah running running some moonshine back in the day so you can build engines and shit I'm not no I'm not I'm not a car guy at all I just hold the steering wheel press the gas pedal I don't know much about building a car yeah I like to hear stick me in the seat and go and I'll try and make it go as fast as it can

a lot of drivers a lot of drivers when it doesn't go their way what I've learned from an extended period of time here in Indianapolis is it's the car's fault.

Okay.

A lot of the car getting blamed.

Yeah.

Yeah, you've heard that in a race.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So that is.

Thanks, Renner.

Yeah, I gave it all I could today.

The car, the boys,

all we had.

That's all we had.

Bingo.

Is that real?

Is that a real excuse, Peach?

It is a legit, you know, excuse a little bit, but I try hard not to, you know, do that too often because I do feel like, you know, the driver obviously means a ton.

So, but yes, there's always only, you know, so much you can do with your car.

Like, if you got a 20th place car, it's really hard to win with it.

It's hard to crack the top 10 sometimes.

But, you know, if you get a car that, you know, is 10th, you can do some things and execute, out execute your competitors and win.

So, can you explain to people who maybe don't know the race world as much?

If you have a 20th car or a 10th car, what you're talking about is literally the fastest that this car can go.

It's probably about the 10th fastest in this particular race because of some bolt being tightened a little bit more on some other car or what?

No, no, just like the setup of it, you know, the shocks, the springs,

all the mechanics and the engineering that goes on with making the most grip and speed and aerodynamics out of the car.

Not necessarily just a bolt being tighter than another's, but

that is like potentially something, though.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, if you have something fall off, for sure, yeah, you can.

But, like, what I've heard is you all get similar chassis or something like that.

And then there's like changes to like one little thing.

Like, we're going to drop the front fender just like this.

Oh, yeah.

And then, not even a quarter of an inch, you're talking like less.

Yeah, and that can add like three miles an hour for a lot.

Down force, whatever.

Yeah, it's finicky.

Like, all the cars, even IndyCar, IndyCar is probably more so.

Definitely.

It's pretty similar though But yeah, just with spec racing like yeah our cars are pretty similar So like any little advantage that you find could be worth you know a decent amount and that's why these engineers are getting paid so much Yeah, and that's why you have you know hundreds of engineers The guys on the computers and girls on the computers during the races They're like reading how every part of the car is reacting.

They'll be studying pictures of other teams cars and looking you know at little features they might have on there tweaked from what you would have or like trying to judge their tire pressures and it's it's yeah it's like it's a very scientific thing that's going on super i think back in the day used to be a little bit more run and gun right like have a pick crew we're going to build the engine and i don't think they had regulations on how much like if you could get more power you can get more power so it's a little bit out of control now there's regulations on it it's like being able to win within it is a massive part of it it's going on with the penskey team right now and they're saying it's not just the penskey team it's been happening throughout the entirety it's like that is racing as a whole i think always trying to rush you're always trying to yeah you're always trying to push the limits on everything, you know?

So any small advantage.

And I'm sure it's the same in stick and ball sports.

You're trying to, you know, find the edge of the rules and get your advantage within that.

So it's no different in racing.

Yeah, just super, super, super smart people.

Yeah.

With like this guy's in professional sports.

Yeah, he's lead engineer for a car that blah, blah, blah.

It's like, what does he do every day?

He tries to make the greatest,

most,

what's that called?

Aerodynamic.

Aerodynamic.

Yeah, boom.

Aerodynamic vehicle of all time while having more power than any car has ever had.

How fast will you go during the race?

Indy?

Yeah.

I would say in the draft, yeah, we're probably still in the 230s, 235, like top speed.

You need Tom Cruise in there.

Yeah.

They need to drop Tom Cruise in there.

Drago and fast enough for TC.

Yeah, 405.

When that gets to 300 miles an hour, let Tom Cruise know.

Go ahead.

So the situation happened last year with Dewgarten, I believe.

All right, so say it's the last lap, Indy 500.

Would you rather be in first or second?

Whew, ah, that's a good

man.

Like, looking at where Pato was last year, I don't see how you do anything different really.

You know, like Newgard in his car was so extremely good, and it was hard for others to build those runs on the back stretch.

So I think, you know, he had his run on the front stretch, and he took his, you know, opportunity.

And then you're just hoping that you have just enough, which he almost had just enough, you know, speed and distance before he got to turn three.

So, man, I don't know.

I'd be curious what Pato would think, but if you've got the opportunity to take the lead on the last lap, you have to take it.

Like, you can't, I feel like you can't wait until turn two and, like, hope that you're going to have this run or not.

No, you guys are setting up the move, aren't you?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I think, yeah, I think you got to get to the lead, you know, when you can.

The weather made last year

chaotic for you.

Yeah.

Tough.

It literally.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Literally.

Midwest.

It literally pissed on your entire play.

Like, that was actually what happened.

It did.

The same storm, literally, the same storm that delayed the Indy 500 got to Charlotte in time for me to get there.

Literally, right, right when I got there.

It was such a sick plan, too.

Plane, helicopter, we're in.

McGee was following us.

So you kind of got McGee on the trail.

Obviously, that's great, but weather's a big deal for these cars, right?

Like this weekend, I think it's supposed to be 60s.

Yeah, it'd be colder.

Is that good or bad?

I mean, drivers would prefer like hotter conditions, probably.

Although it'd be tougher in the car because it'd be hot in the car like the tires don't stick to the surface as good so it would be sliding around more and more mistakes which allows for more passing when it's cooler the tracks got more grip drivers are making less mistakes the speeds just kind of stay faster

so yeah typically I prefer warmer conditions okay so when it's colder you said more grip yes

yeah Yeah, more grip.

I don't know why.

You want less grip for more mistakes so you could take it with you?

Yeah, yeah.

That's an awesome theory.

I did not know that was I assumed because they always said the weather and I always assumed hotter was faster and that would be more grippy because it would be stiff.

I just think because the surface gets hot, your tires get hotter so then it just becomes like slimy

on top of the surface.

And you're looking for all you're looking for is somebody to accidentally slime a little bit to the right.

Just a little bit.

Miss it a little bit.

What's the move?

Do people watch film on each other?

Like, what is your move?

I mean, it probably depends on like...

track and type of car I might be in.

But yeah, I mean, you're always studying like your competitors or previous races to see what moves worked, like restarts, especially.

What's a standard move?

You think like a setup and then like a duck?

I mean, at indie, it's pretty simple.

Like, you have to get this big run off of, say, turn two or turn four, and then catch the draft.

And then, yeah, you just make your move.

It's pretty simple.

But restarts is where it gets crazy.

You know, the field's bunched up.

It's hard to pass.

So you're trying to make the most of the restarts.

And yeah, I mean, it'll fan out three, four, wide.

The draft, the draft is like crazy big in the Indy car, which is weird to feel you know compared to thought car we have drafting but like indie car it's like you get in that pocket of air and it's like a full boost you can feel it oh yeah yeah it gets quiet because the the wind is now like you know you're inside of this pocket of air so it gets like kind of silent it's it's it's kind of that's like out of a movie yeah

that's like out of you feeling it for the first time oh shit i'm in here right now yeah well then you pull out and then you have all the wind back on top of your car and it gets like loud you like your car starts moving around a little bit it's it's different did it rattle you a little bit the first time you felt it in the race?

No.

Oh, you're a dog.

Yeah.

All right, yeah, you understood what was going to happen there.

You guys and NASCAR are there for a little bit.

Remember when you guys were doing the F1 style of racing where you guys were literally just nose on tail?

Oh, yeah.

The tandem style.

That was before my time.

Thank God.

That was terrible.

I turned that on and I'm like, how do they think this is what?

How do they think?

And I was being told I didn't understand draft and all this shit.

It's like, I just know that that looks stupid.

You guys look like literally caterpillars rolling around the entire race.

Do you like what the changes that NASCAR has made?

What is it?

The three thing now?

Yeah.

What's that?

The three

stages.

Oh, the stages?

I don't.

I could take it or leave it.

I think for me,

I would like to not have stages because I think it makes the strategy of the race way better because you don't know when the caution's coming.

When you know that the caution's coming, it's so easy to plan your race and like, all right, you know, we're going to pit midway through this stage and that's going to get us.

And then you never get to really like pushing the length of your tires to where they're like completely wearing out so um i think if we didn't have stages we would you would see more drivers like pushing early in the run and falling back later in the run and and things like that so but also i think stages is good because where life is and like the attention span of of younger adults these days so like the timed caution is probably better for them and and tv to getting their commercials in and all that so there's more that goes into yeah but the playthrough brother you can have the

way to market.

I wish they would do more of that, but yeah.

Okay, I'm happy you said that.

And I think you saying that will have a lot of say because all of us, we're outsiders in this entire thing, but you'll turn on a NASCAR race or whatever, and it'll be like, we're in stage one, we got this many laps left, and it's like, I don't care.

Stage one.

Does that mean you win the race?

No, you don't win the race.

Okay, so they're having a quarter.

They're having a period.

I'm sorry.

And then I, so I need to get to the third, I want to be here in the third period.

That's where I want to be.

So for me, that it's done that.

Especially when you grew up when it it was just like oh you start on lap one on lap 225 the race is over yeah and they have to go yeah and they like to your point about strategy gas is a big deal right yeah tires is a big deal tires more so than gas at a lot of the tracks but yeah somebody won the 500 uh two years ago they ran out of gas as they finished uh that was there's a gas strategy you know the gas strategy at any 500 have you and the boys talked about the gas strategy you've got like different fuel mappings to like lean your engine out which cuts power but saves fuel and then you're yeah I mean, you can steal some first laps, yeah, which laps to check.

You can steal some, just stay out longer than everybody else.

Yeah, steal some first.

Like, people don't want to be leading the race because then you're burning the most fuel.

You want to be in that draft so you can like be off the throttle, saving fuel, just extend your runs and stuff like that.

Okay, so that's a big piece for us to know.

Yeah,

there's so much strategy that goes into every race, but yes, especially indie with the fuel.

Fuels, I feel like, from what I've learned, most important there.

Good, AJ's wearing a youth large Devontae Adams New York Jets jersey.

Yes, I am.

Kyle, you talked about your 135 pounds.

I wonder like your, what you have to do physically to get ready for you know a big race season.

I imagine there's not a whole lot of time when you're actually out of the car for an extended period, but what also like what is the most grueling racing that you think that you do on your body physically?

Yeah, so I'm unique because I do get to race a lot of different types of racing

and I'm racing all the time.

So I'm not really home at the gym all the time.

But when I am home, I like to get in there and do gym.

I really enjoy riding my bike.

I feel like my cycling for the endurance of it is good for like NASCAR.

But then when I do my dirt track stuff, those are 30-lap races.

And in the intensity, my heart rate will spike right away.

In NASCAR,

I wear this Garmin watch and I track my heart rate at all my races.

In NASCAR, I'll be

average of 140, 150 throughout the race.

You might have your moments where it gets up there and whatnot, but sprint car racing, the 950 horsepower, 1,400 pounds, you know, it might be a seven-minute race, but my heart will be, my heart rate will be like 195 the whole time.

Jeez.

Just gassed.

So

I like the intensity of that.

So I think with the training, that part of it's weird for me, probably because, you know, I should do more like endurance, but then I also have to like be ready for intense moments too.

So

don't you guys do a lot of this shit?

I've been to a couple indie car

like the rolling.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

A little bit of that.

That's part of it.

Yeah.

The forearms.

Yeah.

And then shoulders.

Yep.

I've tapped out of one of those.

The reflex thing, too.

Oh, I have a question.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We do a lot of that, yeah, hand-eye kind of, you know, cognitive stuff.

That's good for your brain.

Anybody smoke weed over there?

No.

We're not allowed to.

No, it's home.

You're talking about the shoulders and stuff.

In both the crashes this weekend where they flipped over, their hands immediately went here.

Is that taught in just Indy or NASCAR?

I would say mostly Indy is where, so like, we never did that really in NASCAR until Danica came.

Yeah.

And I think it's because when you hit, like, when you spin or hit the wall in an IndyCar, like the wheel is just spinning so fast.

So a lot of people break their wrists if you

keep your hand on the wheel too long.

So yeah, like you've kind of just naturally got trained now.

Like whenever you get ready to hit the wall, I just brace.

And mostly just so I don't break a wrist or anything like that.

Then the sparks flying.

Yeah.

Yeah, I didn't know they both did that on purpose.

Didn't always have that top, what's that halo, I guess?

The top halo?

IndyCar didn't used to have that.

That's crazy.

Think about that.

That's why it's called open wheel, right?

Open wheel just because the tires are out there.

Like there's no fenders, you know, around the tires, yeah.

Okay, open-ass wheel.

Okay.

They will take a trip out of the speedway.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Seen it?

Yeah.

Seen just what last year, the run out of gas, Alexander Rossi.

Oh, yeah, that was 2016.

He won the race by running out of gas just before crossing the finish line.

He stretched his final tank of fuel over 90 miles and with the help of a tow, finished the final lap at a slow speed, allowing him to take the checkered flag with an empty fuel tank because everybody else is going in.

So they're going in and he's just stealing laps while they're going in.

And then you get so far ahead, you just,

because the entire commentator is like, is he going to survive?

Is he going to make it?

And then he finally finished and he won.

Congrats to Rossi.

Absolute dog.

So I'm saying that's a strategy.

There's also

smaller race teams that I potentially sponsored a car in

that.

You talk about being in first, not great for if you're going to win.

But if you're one of those smaller race teams,

when everybody else is pitting, yeah, we're still

laughs.

We're top five right now.

Top five right now.

That was me.

So last year I ended up speeding on Pitt Road at the end of it.

So we got our strategy kind of off and like my crew guy or the strategist, he kept me out so I could lead some laughs.

I was like, man, that's kind of embarrassing.

That's not really the way I wanted to lead laughs at Indy 500.

But

only people that really know know what's happening.

The majority of fans that are watching are just like, oh, shit,

I know.

Like, I would read, oh, he led laughs in his first NE500.

He's so great.

I'm like, man, I kind of like

sat on Pitt Road and like had to lead some laughs while everybody else did it.

You said you were doing dirt track racing with next week?

Yeah, Lawrenceburg, yep.

So you would just stay out here?

No, I'll go.

So I'll race 600, yeah, and then

I'll get to hang out at home for a little bit.

Okay, so night before we're doing pasta, we're doing water?

Yeah, a little, I don't know, probably some pasta would be good.

I like some pasta, but always have pasta.

What's that pasta we do?

You like rigged tongue?

Yeah.

Chicken on spaghetti.

Spaghetti meat sauce.

Oh, I bet.

I would say before, like before the race, though, I'm pretty standard, like chicken, veggies, rice.

Got it.

And then after, I think before, like, when I'm on the plane going to Charlotte, I'll probably do like a Mexican-style bowl, you know, protein bowl.

And then last year I got an IV and was ready to rock.

Those are amazing, the IVs.

I'm happy we've gotten to a point in society where nurses just show up with, hey, you don't feel good?

No.

All right.

Give us 15 minutes and they just plug us in.

Takes me.

That's a big deal, AJ.

I think for the humans as a whole, that that is possible.

I think Vegas is credited with probably starting this, right?

For the hangover cures, yeah, that's the biggest thing.

I think Vegas used to drive around and you could get picked up on the street and get them.

Legitimately, I think Vegas kind of started it.

Like, hey, you're going to be dead tomorrow.

We got the answer.

We got four nurses that quit their jobs.

Now they show up with IVs.

Right to your hotel room.

Right.

Bam.

We're going to go do your.

Yes.

Okay.

So you.

Yeah.

Boy, Luxembourg.

Yeah, it's got to get that.

We like that a lot.

And then like now everywhere has it.

Like now everywhere has it.

I think Gumpy was getting an IV drip every single Sunday, basically.

Grave spot downtown.

That's what I'm saying.

It's just like unbelievable.

We're just at a period of time now where it's just normal.

Like, yeah, just go get an IV, kind of get figured out.

Locker rooms of football teams used to do it at halftime.

And it would be all the doctors trying to prick them.

Remember?

They wouldn't travel with nurses.

It would be surgeons who are like 60 years old who haven't set up an IV in 30, 40, 40 years.

Tyrod Taylor.

They're going to do it.

Yep.

Damn near.

Well, that was a shot.

Shot, but yeah.

Yeah, similar thing.

All right, I'm happy you're getting plugged in.

Good luck for the

600 and the 500, 1,100 miles of racing.

I think everybody's excited to hopefully watch it go off without a hitch, without Mother Nature getting involved.

It looks like early indications that a Doppler is, it's going to be a beautiful Sunday for you to go racing.

Yeah, thanks.

I

keep my fingers crossed that the rain stays away this year.

Okay, so who all do we got to give credit to?

I know you racers have to fucking.

Oh, HendrickCars.com.

Yep.

Chevrolet, Aaron McLaren, Prime.

I got Amazon Prime following me around for the last couple of years.

We're doing blacks.

Yeah, yeah.

No, so that's how you got that car out there.

Still owner.

I can't believe you're driving that in Indiana.

Yeah,

so I realized there's no license plate on it right now either.

So I'm like, no idea if I get past it.

You're getting cops.

You just beat them.

Drive fast.

You don't get pulled over.

No, the cops understand.

There's an old story here in Indianapolis where somebody was driving on a highway,

like a car like you were driving, they get pulled over and a cop like as the cop's walking up goes who do you think you are mario andretti and then pink said it is mario andretti yeah like that is uh this city is ready for you to do whatever the hell you want in a car out there uh but the potholes i guess you dude yeah you got that eye bad hair bad so bad good refluxes just so everybody knows what we're talking about he showed up in a mclaren i think is that what that was yeah that's

this high off the ground nasty yeah absolutely nasty and our first thought everybody's first thought when it pulled in was how did he make it here yeah from

the odds in our population.

Yeah, it's like there's crazy.

Yeah, even down here.

Yeah, we have not helped these situations.

Beautiful car, as are the IndyCar and NASCARs.

And we appreciate you taking the time.

And we appreciate you committing to Indianapolis like this, not only as a child, you know, raising.

I love Indy.

I love Indy.

I lived here for a couple years, so it's always like another home.

Well, good.

We love the fact that you're doing the Indy 500.

Maybe do it every year.

Are you going to do it every year?

We'll see.

I don't know.

Right now, this is it, but

it's so fun that I feel like I'll have FOMO if I miss it.

So I think everybody wants you to do it, too.

Yeah, need to see it happen.

Yeah, you need to win both of them.

You need to win both of them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just do it.

I got a lot of friends that are in that.

I got a lot of friends that are in.

We got a lot of friends in that ME500.

Okay.

And I'm a big fan of all of them, especially with the mindset that New Gordon's going in to this race after what happened with the Qualies.

You know, he wasn't able to run his car because of something that was happening I don't think he knew about or Penske knew about it clearly.

Fired.

Fired everybody.

Fired everybody today, just a few few days before the biggest event of the year in the season.

But to those boys, I say, you guys had your shot.

You need to go win these days.

That'd be great for racing.

I mean, that'd be great for racing as a whole.

And everybody thinks you're the guy to do it.

So good luck out there.

Thank you guys.

Stay safe.

Stay safe.

All right.

Shout out to Tom Cruise.

Shout out to Kyle Larson.

T's and P's to D Bunch.

Yeah.

And

we're going to get the hell out of here.

AJ, you really crushed it on this Jersey Wednesday, brother.

Yep.

Thank you.

Yeah, this is my last Jersey day, I think.

So, yeah.

I'll send you a new one.

We'll figure it out.

Thank you.

Connor loves the jersey.

It was literally four minutes before we went live.

He goes, We're all wearing jerseys.

Aren't we all wearing jerseys?

That's all we were.

He said, You have a jersey right over your shoulder, right there.

Here's your jersey.

Just put the jersey on.

And then I thought I fucking ruined it for the pacers.

So I'm kind of in a bad spot right now.

Shout out to Tom.

Shout out to Kyle.

Shout out to you, AJ.

We'll be back tomorrow.

It's conference finals tonight.

Here we go.

Enjoy the hell out of that.

Good luck in that car, brother.

Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change your life.

We're in this thing together.

Team on me.

Team.

Not yet hold on

catch a racer yeah there you go

team on three

one two three team goodbye

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