PMS 2.0 1314 - THE LEBRONVERSATION: 72 Minutes With LeBron James LIVE In The ThunderDome Uncut & Unfiltered

Speaker 1 Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this LeBron Versation Wednesday, March 26, 2025, this program starts now.

Speaker 1 Big Day!

Speaker 1 That it is. Obviously, we are incredibly lucky that we get to talk about the sports world every single day.
We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this. It is literally a dream job.

Speaker 1 And just yesterday, we got a chance to catch up with a dream guest. Ladies and gentlemen, this is something that I think a lot of people have been seeking or hoping for for a long time.

Speaker 1 If you host a talk show, having conversation with notable human beings is like a part of the gig.

Speaker 1 Getting a chance to talk to these greats is a dream part of the gig, to get to learn from the people, to get to kind of meet the people that you know and the people that kind of make the world run and the sports world kind of drive day to day.

Speaker 1 We are incredibly lucky that we get to chat with these people.

Speaker 1 And we take every single opportunity and we try to hold it with the most amount of gratitude and appreciation that could possibly had, possibly be had, because not everybody just has time to come talk to a bunch of dumbasses.

Speaker 1 Like, for instance, for LeBron here, he's playing the Pacers tonight and he'll get to the arena shortly here. And we'll learn about that in a conversation we had with him.

Speaker 1 He flew in yesterday after the show ended, drove from the airport. to the Thunderdome, which is like hour drive because we're on the opposite side of where the International Airport is.

Speaker 1 So flight from wherever comes in, long time, hops in black SUV, drives an hour around the city to get to where we are, and then comes in here and spends two, three hours and an hour and 15 minutes chit-chatting with us on the show.

Speaker 1 And I saw a bunch of people say, well, why isn't it live? Why is that? He's in the middle of a basketball team. He's got a game tonight against the Indiana Pacers.

Speaker 1 And the fact that he took any amount of time out of his life at this stage of everything to come chat with us, Incredibly thankful. We covered damn near everything.

Speaker 1 Damn near everything in this chatter. And obviously we're going to run it just straight through.
So it's an hour and about 12, hour and 15 minutes, uncut.

Speaker 1 There's some pictures that have been put on top of it. But I think this is going to be a convo where you're going to learn more about a man who has been a superstar since he was a kid.

Speaker 1 Than maybe ever.

Speaker 1 I don't want to do too much, but I think we learn a lot about this guy. And we're so incredibly thankful.
The talks of table is here.

Speaker 1 Bruce Brown sitting in for Boston Connor, who traveled back home with Talk for the rest of the week. Send some love to Connor and Talk for sure.
At Ty Schmidt here, Ty, it was a big convo.

Speaker 3 Yeah, unbelievable. I mean, you mentioned it.

Speaker 3 We've done so many cool things, but for whatever reason, and you didn't even get like, like, he was so comfortable when he got in here, which was so awesome.

Speaker 3 But, like, you didn't even have the chance to really be like starstruck. Like, I mean, you said it.
Been watching LeBron since for my entire adult life, since I was like 12 years old.

Speaker 3 It was, it was incredible. It was by far one of the coolest things we've we've ever done.

Speaker 1 I've seen him on the court, obviously. I've seen him on TV.
I've seen him play

Speaker 1 much taller.

Speaker 1 For sure. He's so tall.
Yeah. Nine-year NFL vet, Darius J.
Butler is here.

Speaker 1 Steve Butcher. He's so tall.
And I think

Speaker 1 you go watch the games, and all the NBA guys are standing next to the guys, you know. And we talk about how big LeBron is.
Like on a, LeBron's six foot eight, six foot nine. This guy's huge.

Speaker 1 Then he walks in. It's like, oh, yeah, he is fucking

Speaker 1 gigantic. This guy is a tall lad.
Also, Also, just

Speaker 1 like the way he operated was like so cool, like just human, you know? And I thought that was incredibly impressive of him because he's walking into a building he does not know.

Speaker 1 into a bunch of people that he's never met before. And he was welcoming and cool with everybody.
And it did feel like from moment one, it was like, oh, we're going to have a great convo here.

Speaker 2 Great convo, like you said, super comfortable, almost like you were in a locker room or a barbershop, just shooting the shit more open than I've really seen him on any platform that uh outside of any platform that he's on you know obviously the shop and other things like that he's mind the game and things like that you hear him speak you know with no cut so that it was great so i i mean i can't wait to re-watch it because having the conversation was one thing but now being able to re-watch i'm sure i missed some things and you mentioned it we kind of hit on most things that you know you would ask if you had a conversation with braun and he was pretty open about it you mentioned he's been you know in the spotlight since he was 15 16 years old and he's kind of around our age but he's had to deal with so much before us and be on such a bigger stage.

Speaker 2 So it's going to be dope to see. I think it'll be dope for the people to see.
And I think it'll be a lot of things taken from it going forward.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think there's going to be a lot of reaction. I think that's safe to say.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think the internet is about to eat. because of everything that happens here.
Now, before we get to that, a couple quick NFL notes. Let's go to one half of the hammer.

Speaker 1 Cowboys AP Tone. AP Tone, you know how I know Russell Wilson isn't going to be the quarterback for the Pittsburgh Seales? How's that?

Speaker 1 Because Russell Wilson is now a a member of the New York Football Giants.

Speaker 1 Unbelievable, $10.5 million guaranteed on a one-year deal, up to $21 million in incentives. Obviously, we saw a rebirth of Russell Wilson in Pittsburgh last year.

Speaker 1 It didn't end the way anybody wanted it to end, but I think he showcased the fact that he still got it. Dayball not only brings in Jameis Winston a couple weeks ago, now brings in Russell Wilson.

Speaker 1 They were in on Matthew Stafford. They were in on Aaron Rodgers.
The New York Giants understand the situation over there. We got to win now.

Speaker 1 We need a veteran quarterback that's going to be able to do so. They have two in their quarterback quarterback room with Tommy Cutlich, also hanging out as a third stringer.
Good luck to Dayball.

Speaker 1 Good luck to Russell Wilson. Malik Neighbors has a new quarterback in the building and actually a couple of them.
Also, news, Stefan Diggs takes a trip up to New England.

Speaker 1 He is now a member of the New England Patriots. Last year was on the Houston Texans.

Speaker 1 Got injured, but I guess he's back fully healthy, they're saying.

Speaker 2 Well, I would say fully healthy, but he is moving, moving well, running routes, pulling sleds, doing full workouts down there with Dr. Reeve.
He trains down in South South Florida.

Speaker 2 He's always been a worker. He's always been a grinder.

Speaker 2 And Drake May, who was he compared to during the draft process coming out, like a lot of young, big athletic quarterbacks are compared to Josh Allen.

Speaker 2 And obviously, Stephon Diggs played a huge role in Josh Allen's development to become the MVP quarterback that he is now. So I'm sure Mike Vrabel wants to see that same jump with Drake May's play.

Speaker 2 So getting a professional wide receiver who's used to being the guy, getting open, catching balls in big moments. I think this is a pretty good move for New England.

Speaker 2 And salary-wise, it it kind of looks like a one-year deal if they want to get out of it after one year. And also good money for Stephon if he can make it work and stay there in New England.

Speaker 1 Hey, and in a variable culture, we assume Stephon Diggs will be able to just... jump right in.

Speaker 1 I think a lot of people in Houston, his teammates have come out and said how much they enjoyed being his teammate.

Speaker 1 Whenever the conversation, obviously, with Buffalo went the way it did, Minnesota went the way it did. Teammates have come out and said positive things about Stephon Diggs.

Speaker 1 And obviously, as a football player, he is an absolute dog. But Russell Wilson goes to the Giants.
Stephon Diggs goes to the Patriots. Who's the quarterback for for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tone?

Speaker 4 Right now it's goateeed Mason Rudolph, and we are just, you know,

Speaker 1 waiting on Aaron. Okay,

Speaker 1 obviously, Aaron Rodgers still making his decision. Let's assume that that comes at some point relatively soon because it's going to have to.

Speaker 1 Speaking of all of the soon-ness that needs to take place, we need to showcase the greatest conversation we've ever had.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, we got a chance to catch up with the king yesterday. It is time for the debut of the LeBron Vision.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen,

Speaker 1 goat

Speaker 1 and i would say uh child stars okay nobody ever talks about that been famous since a teenager uh basketball obviously and life as a whole dominating through and through just a kid from akron ladies and gentlemen lebron james

Speaker 1 lebron james

Speaker 1 i appreciate it man uh Definitely been seeing you guys up in here, man. So it's great to come here and be in the studio with you guys.
I told you, as soon as you pulled up out there, I walked outside.

Speaker 1 Black SUV pulls up, turns around, your door opens, and literally I go, holy shit, you're actually here. I thought this was all bullshit.

Speaker 1 Thank you for taking time and coming and visiting and chatting with us. We're obviously massive fans, dude.
I'm 37 years old.

Speaker 1 Obviously, you're a little bit older than me, but watching you, because I have, you know, because my demo in high school was the one that was watching you dominate.

Speaker 1 You actually came to Pittsburgh, beat the Pennsylvania All-Stars, which is your high school team. And the whole story.
So I've followed your entire career. Massive fan of yours.

Speaker 1 Thank you for doing this.

Speaker 1 I I appreciate it. Appreciate it for having me, man.
It's going to be fun. Let's talk about it.
You're 40 years old now. Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 You've been in the league 22 years, longer than you were not in the league. You're in the league.

Speaker 1 And you're playing like one of the best seasons you've ever had. Why is that, you think? Is it comfort?

Speaker 1 What is it about this year?

Speaker 1 I mean, I think obviously I've been in the game for a while, so I kind of know what to expect.

Speaker 1 And, you know, obviously, one, you got to take care of your body, but more importantly, you got to take care of your mind.

Speaker 1 You know, being a professional athlete, if your mind is not as sharp as possible or as clear as possible, then you're not going to be able to perform at a high level.

Speaker 1 You know, I think seeing what our team is capable of doing,

Speaker 1 even before the big acquisition of picking up Luca, I thought we had a good chance of making a good run.

Speaker 1 So I wanted to make sure that I was there, not only physically, but also mentally and just give to the season. But I felt pretty good, man, throughout the whole season.

Speaker 1 I know I had a little small injury that kept me out two weeks, you know, two weeks ago, but I'm back and I feel great. We watched you do the sprint down the court thing.
It was hilarious.

Speaker 1 It's like 40 years old doing the same thing you were doing whenever you were 18, 20.

Speaker 1 And we'll talk about the Luca trade and we'll talk about the Lakers, but you talked about, you know, having clarity in mind and feeling good going into the season because you knew you could go on a run.

Speaker 1 There was that, say, what, you spent like a million bucks on your body or something. Man, I don't know where the hell that shit came from.

Speaker 1 That's a very fair assumption. Yeah, I don't know where that came from.
But I mean, listen, man, I do take care of my body, but I have no idea where the amount of money came from.

Speaker 1 But I do invest in my body for sure, you know, trying to do a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Speaker 1 Obviously, a lot of soft tissue work, a lot of massages, a lot of hyperbaric chambers, ice tubs, ice baths.

Speaker 1 Whatever I can do to continue to play at this level, man, I'm going to continue to do what I'm playing. You've committed your entire life to ball, right? That's safe to say.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you love the sport. Is that your drive? Is how much you love the sport? Or why do you think at this age you're still going to sport?

Speaker 1 Listen, there's no way I'd be still playing, you know, at this level, Pat, if I wasn't in love with it or didn't commit to it.

Speaker 1 You know, I've had an opportunity to be able to be blessed with a crazy God-given talent. And

Speaker 1 a lot of us are, to be completely honest, when you become, when you find your niche in sports, you know, there's a lot of people that's born with unbelievable talents, but it's literally the ones that like really commit to their craft and literally commit to the sport in general.

Speaker 1 Being able to pour yourself into it is what you're going to get out of it, too.

Speaker 1 So I figured, shit, when I knew I had a gift at like 13, 14, that I was out there on the court and I was running past guys and jumping higher and

Speaker 1 making passes and doing things that the other 13, 14, 15, 16 year olds wasn't doing.

Speaker 1 I was like, oh, shit, I'm. This could be it.
This could be it.

Speaker 1 This could be it. And like, I'm living in, you know, Section 8 housing as me and my mom.
You know, we're trying to figure it out. And I'm like, oh, shit, if I commit to this, I can figure it out.

Speaker 1 I can figure it out for not only myself, but for my mom, get out of the, you know, out of the, you know, the inner city and make something out of it. So, you know, big time for sure.
And your friends.

Speaker 1 You've taken care of everybody. And I think that is one of the things that I love the most you know we have Rich on here

Speaker 1 multiple times we love I love Rich he's been very good to us but just like the way you take care of your people the way you've kind of done everything is admirable and never gets talked about obviously I appreciate it and the chat the chatter that's around you

Speaker 1 since you have been a guy since you were 13 and I remember the Hummer story and the shooting deal and everything back then what's going on now with the NIO I mean it's completely

Speaker 1 right right I mean I could imagine if I if NIO was around when I was a man

Speaker 1 I would have loaded up I ought to load it up big time for sure. Well, I think you already were, which is part of the problem.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But literally, since that you were a superstar since you're like a teenager,

Speaker 1 as soon as you get in the NBA, obviously the chosen one, here we go. This is it.
You're in Cleveland. You immediately start getting compared to like greatest of all time.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And as a person that's in sports and we are all sports fans, we saw that happen. I assume at the beginning, massive compliment.
Is that a massive compliment? No, it was. It was.

Speaker 1 I can remember like my first game, you know, when I watched the replay, my first game on national television, it was like,

Speaker 1 will he be one of the one-name guys that ever played this game? It was like, he's like, Wilp, Kareem, Magic, Bird, Jordan, all these first-name guys. And then at the end, it was like, LeBron.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, fuck, I'm 17 years old.

Speaker 1 I was like, what the hell is this?

Speaker 1 You guys are giving me this already. It's like, I haven't done anything.

Speaker 1 And it's it's like, it was a compliment to be able to be, you know, in the in the names of those guys, but it was also like super fucking scary and intimidating, too.

Speaker 1 It was like, I'm just a small kid from Akron, Ohio. I don't even know what.
Well, very tall. And at that point, I think they were a little bit more jacked at the time because the game called for it.

Speaker 1 But whenever you talk about it being a scary situation, you never let that image out publicly. And I think none of us ever saw you being scared.
None of us ever saw you like

Speaker 1 kind of flapped at all. You were an unflappable force.
And you've been in the public eye for so long.

Speaker 1 I think you would probably admit that you probably fucked some things up on the way, but you haven't really.

Speaker 1 You're like the, and I said it earlier, child star. Like most people, especially you talk about section eight housing, coming from nothing to everything,

Speaker 1 being in the public eye, at some point that is going to collapse a human. Yeah, for sure.
For you, it feels like it hasn't. And there's been a lot of things said.

Speaker 1 There's been a lot of fires that you've been put into, either you walked into yourself or thrown into. Why do you think that is the case? Do you think it's because your mom?

Speaker 1 Do you think it's because of what you're talking about?

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, obviously, I give her shit, a lot of credit for the way she raised me, the way she taught me, the things that she was able to instill in me.

Speaker 1 It was also me also just looking at her, the way she moved, and the way how determined she was to be able to make my life better, even with the circumstances that we were growing up in.

Speaker 1 So I give her a lot of credit.

Speaker 1 I have some little league coaches too that, you know, taught me about not only just playing the game and teaching me the game of basketball, but also being a young man, you know, throughout my small adolescent years.

Speaker 1 And then just like, to be completely honest, like, I didn't want to fuck my opportunity up.

Speaker 1 Like, I knew that the statistics for an inner city black kid to be able to be in a position that I was in, especially from my hometown,

Speaker 1 shit, it never, ever happens. Never.
It never happens. It never works out either.
It never happens. And if it does happen, it never works out, you know.

Speaker 1 And, you know, it was a, I mean, I don't like, I don't want to throw him under the bus, but the only inspiration like we had was like Jerome Lang, the guy who like dunked and shattered the backboard that played for Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 He was from Akron, Ohio. Like we saw that and we was like, oh shit, that's an inspiration.
And then I went through high school and all my boys know this too.

Speaker 1 Like I went through high school and we was playing against the inner city kids because we went to an all-Catholic high school. And fucking Jerome Lang was like hating on us.

Speaker 1 I was like, oh, this motherfucker.

Speaker 1 Like he's back in Akron hating on us, like going against us. And I'm like, oh, shit, you was like our only inspiration.
We like looked up to you. And I was like, you know what?

Speaker 1 I can't fuck this opportunity up, man. If I get the opportunity to make it, I got to do what I have to do to put my city on, to represent my last name on my back, man, my family, my friends.

Speaker 1 And also, like, it's sport. You know, sport has given us so much.
I mean, I look around here. I mean, fucking baseballs and...
NFL helmets and basketball jerseys and like

Speaker 1 seriously, like a putt, a putt-putt thing. Like seriously, like, it's giving us so much.
So, like,

Speaker 1 I couldn't mess the opportunity up. Well, you've done, hey, I think you figured it out.
Yeah, you've done good. Now, we'll see what's left.

Speaker 1 You know, now the conversation is how many years is he going to play? You look like you could probably play forever. Debut has a question for you.

Speaker 2 Kind of on that note, and one of the things people got on you about was when you went to Miami.

Speaker 1 You made the city and go to Miami.

Speaker 2 I know there's some great things behind that as well. Me, lifelong Miami Heat fan, I loved it.

Speaker 2 But what was it like coming down there, winning your first championship, and what was that kind of load lifted off your back?

Speaker 1 Because you talk about being being amongst the one-name guys yeah championships obviously got to come with that so what was that like going down there and getting that done yeah i mean listen um my aspiration was a lot bigger than just you know winning mvps and you know being an all-star and you know

Speaker 1 whatever the all the individual things is i've i've before i even got to the nba i've always won

Speaker 1 and and it doesn't matter which level you win on if you're in a winning environment that shit carries on throughout the rest of your life.

Speaker 1 My first year ever playing organized sports, I won a little league football championship that year and then it backed it up with a basketball championship. Undefeated season.

Speaker 1 My second year, we did the same thing, you know, and I was league MVP in basketball and football. Through middle school championships, through high school, I won three state championships.

Speaker 1 You know, like I was just always born winner and I knew how to win because of the culture that I was around. I knew how it was supposed to be done.

Speaker 1 And at that moment, you know, my seven years in Cleveland, I had some good years, obviously, some great years. One, I was able to take the team to the NBA Finals.
I was 22 years old.

Speaker 1 I had a moment in Detroit where I went insane, 25 straight, 29 out of 30, you know, and took a team that

Speaker 1 you look back at our roster, you're like, what the hell? How would that even possible? There's a lot of those, but we don't want to dive into all of them. You were in the finals like

Speaker 1 45 straight either. You know what I'm saying? So like, but it got to the point that that final season, I was like,

Speaker 1 I've maximized this potential.

Speaker 1 I've squeezed all the juice out of this damn lemon here. And I know it.
And in order for me to get to where I want to get to, I have to make a choice for my career going forward. And

Speaker 1 Miami was the best choice, you know,

Speaker 1 at that moment. I felt like it was the best choice for me.
You know, the conversation I had with D-Wade, had with Bosch, had with Eudonis Haslam, you know, D-Wade and UD have been there.

Speaker 1 They had 1-1, had beat Dallas. They had been in

Speaker 1 some big

Speaker 1 playoff matchups with Detroit where Detroit beat them and then they beat Detroit, things of that nature. And then you look at the big four that Boston had.

Speaker 1 Everybody talk about the big three, but everybody always decides that for some odd reason that Rondo wasn't as great as Rondo was.

Speaker 1 It's always just the big three. He's from Boston.

Speaker 1 LeBron always said that. They said the big three, but fucking Rondo was when he was a dog.
He brought it all. He made it all work with those guys because Ray wasn't bringing the ball up.

Speaker 1 You had Ray flying around. You know, you had Paul when he get it at a certain spot and Paul was a killer.
And then you had KG was anchoring the defense.

Speaker 1 And also, you know, you throw it to the low post. But it all started with the mind.
And that was with Rondo. So for me to go down to Miami, man, one, it was.
a terrifying experience for me.

Speaker 1 You got to think, I don't know a lot of people. No, it's the first time I ever left my hometown.
I was 25 years old.

Speaker 1 You got my first seven years, even though I played for Cleveland, I still lived in Akron.

Speaker 1 You know, so for 25 straight years, I was awesome house. You had an awesome house.
We've seen that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's a great house. Yeah, so I'm comfortable.
That is my comfort. My comfortability is being in Akron, Ohio.

Speaker 1 You know, I drive, you know, 30 minutes to Cleveland, play my games, and then I shoot right back down to Akron. I'm good.
So for the first time, it's like, I've always used the analogy.

Speaker 1 Like, I felt like this was my college moment. You know, I didn't have to go to college.
So like going to Miami was my, you know, moment to basically get out the house with my parents.

Speaker 1 You know, I was going off to college, and uh, I learned a lot, man.

Speaker 1 And shit, two championships, four, four finals appearances, you know, two more MVPs, you know, and things that I can just, I can always look back on and say it was a hell of an experience.

Speaker 1 And you guys were the Heatles, you know, that was, yeah, you guys were shouting out everywhere. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 Well, while we on that, while we on that, you mentioned you didn't wait, and I forget which one of them it was, but they told a story about Pat Riley fucking with your cookie.

Speaker 1 Is that a true story?

Speaker 2 Is that a real story?

Speaker 1 He's no, it's a true true story. Okay.
It's a true story. Now, like, Rouse wasn't like, it wasn't like Riles was on the plane and I was about to get my cookies and Rouse snatched them out of my hand.

Speaker 1 You know how stories can become a little bit, they kind of build to Sasquatch at some point.

Speaker 1 But it was. I mean, I was, you know, there was a time where everyone knows I fucking love chocolate chip cookies.
It's like my

Speaker 1 biggest vibe.

Speaker 1 No, it was literally the plane that we were getting on,

Speaker 1 the ladies on the plane were making chocolate chip cookies. Oh, they shit.
Yeah, so they knew. Wow, man.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so they were making them and bringing them because we had the same with the same ladies all the time. You know, it was a party of six.

Speaker 1 You know, they were rotating every time they knew I love chocolate chip cookies. So they would get on and I would, hey, soft, soft, soft, with a little crispy edge.
Oh, yeah, perfect. Yeah, perfect.

Speaker 1 And I would get on, and they already knew. They bring me two cookies, and I'll get the gambling with the guys, and I got my cookies, and we good.

Speaker 1 And then one flight I got on, I looked at them, and they looked at me, and I'm like, oh, those, that look didn't look familiar.

Speaker 1 And I asked them, I was like, we got the, it was like, no, there, we're not allowed to no more cookies on these flights. What?

Speaker 1 And we all know where it came from. I looked at D-Way.
D-Way looked at me. He was like, basically, without even saying, he was like, fucking Ryls has done it again.

Speaker 1 Ryles strikes again. I was like, damn.

Speaker 1 So what was it like then? Because they talk about the heat culture. Damn, Pat Riley.

Speaker 1 And obviously him just saying, no more cookies. Yeah, they'd be like, oh, it's LeBron's cookies.
I don't care. Yeah, he don't give a fuck.
One thing about Rylos, he don't give a fuck about nothing.

Speaker 1 Listen, if it ain't about that heat shield and covering that heat culture, culture, you know,

Speaker 1 I mean, we see what's going on now. I mean, well, not anymore, but we see Jimmy and you know, and it was at one point where even I left and it was time for D-Wade to get paid.

Speaker 1 And he didn't want to pay D-Wade, and D-Wade left. I was like, oh, when that happened, I was like,

Speaker 1 yeah, when Wade County had to leave and go to Chicago, I looked at the cookie situation. I was like, oh shit, maybe it wasn't that bad.

Speaker 1 I was like, okay,

Speaker 1 yeah, I was like, okay, fuck it. I mean, mean, D weighs millions in my cookies.
I was like, okay, maybe I made it. I was the same.
I was like, okay, it wasn't that bad. Let's talk about the cultures.

Speaker 1 You know, because Cleveland, you talk about getting your career,

Speaker 1 trying, making, feeling like you had to go to Miami. You obviously do that.
You go back to Cleveland, win one. Hey.

Speaker 1 For El Cops. That parade was bananas.

Speaker 1 And then obviously out at L.A., what is it about J.J. Reddick's culture that you have felt, experienced? And obviously, a couple games have not won, but fourth in the West still on a playoff push.

Speaker 1 What is it about JJ Reddick and his culture, or what you guys have right now that you like?

Speaker 1 I think the best thing about JJ is that he's just a great podcaster. Yeah, he is.
Yeah, he is. We learned a lot, bro.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 you guys were talking about like when he fucking doubles here. Do we round here? Do we know this? JJ's, he's just a podcaster that, for some odd reason, became a head coach and all because of me.

Speaker 1 You know, it's just the weirdest thing in the world. And those conversations have died down.
But

Speaker 1 no, no, I think one thing about JJ, man, he bleeds the game and he breathes the game of basketball every single day. He's one of those guys that it's kind of just like me.
Like,

Speaker 1 if we lose a game or we didn't play up the par, there's no such thing as sleeping that night.

Speaker 1 There's no such thing as sleeping into the next match, into the next game. And he's just determined to like,

Speaker 1 he's a dickhead. Yeah, gotta be.
And

Speaker 1 I love it. And I love it.
And when I was a kid, I used to watch Duke. Now I realize it.
I hated Duke when I was growing up.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 when I got a little older and I started playing with Coach, I started matching up with Coach K. We played with, you know, I played with him for

Speaker 1 Team USA. And then I was like, okay, I see why he's great.
I see why he's great. I see why I hated JJ Reddick.
You know, I see why I hated Shane Badier.

Speaker 1 And then Shane came over to us in Miami and helped us win a championship. I was like, I see it.

Speaker 1 He's like the greatest guys.

Speaker 1 slash dickheads that you ever knew.

Speaker 1 That off from Coach K? You think JJ has a lot of Coach K in? Absolutely. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
He's just,

Speaker 1 he's meant for it. You know, and there's just some things that can't be explained, but when you've got the it factor, it's just like, oh yeah, he's...
Is he still a shooter? Is he ever still shooting?

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Yeah, let's see.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
He'll let us know for sure. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about a guy who made a shot the other day in warm-ups that was, I don't know how, it defied physics, I think. Luca, he did this.
He did the shot up over. From the complete opposite.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and then it, I don't know how that works, actually. Like science.
I don't know how, but then he'll do one off the fucking Jumbotron. Yeah, here it is, right here.
Here it is, right here.

Speaker 1 You've seen this, obviously, I assume. Yes.

Speaker 1 He probably does this type of stuff every single day. What has it been like being his teammate? And I think it was the first game.
There was, you guys were calling it up or whatever.

Speaker 1 And you looked at Luca and it was a big deal because you said, you don't change a damn thing. We'll change for you, actually, is what you said.
And then broke it down.

Speaker 1 I think it was a big deal for people to hear you say, but obviously Luca as well. What has it been like? And why do you guys have such good chemistry?

Speaker 1 I mean, his name is Luca Magic for a reason. And you see that.
You see his play on the game.

Speaker 1 He's a very transcendent player. And

Speaker 1 you're talking about that moment, that moment,

Speaker 1 you got to think, you know,

Speaker 1 I can't put myself in his shoes because I've never been traded before, but I can...

Speaker 1 have a sense and be a human being to know you commit to a franchise for seven years and you feel like, you know, this is the place where I'm going to be. This is my comfort.

Speaker 1 You know, I talked about my comfort before I went to Miami. And then out of nowhere, bam, you just get traded.
I don't give a damn where you're going. It doesn't matter who you're pairing with.

Speaker 1 That is a shock to your system. It's a shock to your system.

Speaker 1 And, you know, even though, you know, he was ready to play that moment, I feel like that had to be said

Speaker 1 because he is still that guy. You know, in order for us to reach our potential, he has to be that guy.

Speaker 1 He has to fit out. And we'll figure it out.

Speaker 1 Let us figure it out with you, you know, because we need you to be who you are.

Speaker 1 But it's definitely, you know, I lost a dear friend and a great friend and a champion, you know, duo with AD, you know, miss him to death.

Speaker 1 But we was able to gain Luca Magic, you know, and, you know, I think both sides will. A lot of people thought you two wouldn't be able to work together because ball dominant, you know.

Speaker 1 LeBron James, too much of a Prima Dawn. Yeah, sure.
Not going to let Luca come in and do the Luca shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and he won't be able to figure it out. Yeah, it must be the idiots that don't know the game of basketball.
Oh my goodness. There's so many of those guys out there right now.

Speaker 1 I would say your league, you're, you, you,

Speaker 1 and your league has the most absurd chatter. Oh my goodness.
It really is. It is every single day.
And then you realize, you was like, I'll be looking at it and I hear it. I'll be like,

Speaker 1 you know, those guys just, a lot of those guys that played the game or did not play the game, it was just they played the game while they were talented.

Speaker 1 I don't think they ever thought the game. I don't think they were ever smart.

Speaker 1 I just think they were bigger and stronger and maybe faster at the time. And they dominated.
And

Speaker 1 when it was over, it was over. You know, they don't.
That's why I'm able to still play at fucking 40 years old. Well, that's what everybody talks about.

Speaker 1 My mind is just like, I can play the game because I can outthink the guys out there. And as my athleticism has went down a notch, not a lot, but a notch.
Don't you a little fat too?

Speaker 1 You know, as my athleticism has went down a notch, like, I'm able to still bring up other facets of my game to be able to still,

Speaker 1 you know, do what I need to do every single night. But the talking heads of our sport, oh my goodness.
It's a lot. It's a lot.
Especially for you.

Speaker 1 I mean, you are in a much different situation than maybe any other human in history

Speaker 1 of sports, if I had to guess. And like I said, at the beginning, it's a compliment, though.

Speaker 1 Like, they're immediately telling this teenager that we need to talk about him as if he is Michael Jordan, who obviously transcended the sport, changed the sport forever and everything like that.

Speaker 1 But then it gets to the point where it's like, hey, this is a real conversation, and it almost immediately becomes divisive. Do you? So

Speaker 1 this is an interesting concept here. You probably lost a lot of trust in media, I would assume, because of the things that happened.

Speaker 1 Not just what was said on TV, but what it led other people to probably think they should say. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. I mean, it all started with the decision.
It all started with the decision.

Speaker 1 The decision really like had me like sit back and like, because people literally like,

Speaker 1 I give a moment. So, the decision, you know, it was brought to me to be able to, you know, do something cool on TV,

Speaker 1 you know, do a kind of college style. Like I said, never had went to college.
I was like, you know, this would be pretty cool.

Speaker 1 Made the decision, put the hat on, but also, you know, raise $2.5 million

Speaker 1 for

Speaker 1 a great cause, you know, and also be able to, you know, make it make it cool.

Speaker 1 And the funniest thing is, from that moment, it was December 2nd, 2010 was my first game back to Cleveland. So

Speaker 1 I stay at the hotel, stay at the Rich downtown in Cleveland. And this one I knew that it was

Speaker 1 people did not even really care or didn't even understand the situation. They just wanted to be a part of the nonsense.
I hit the elevator to go downstairs to the bus, catch the bus, to go over to...

Speaker 1 I think it was the queue, the Quick and Loans Arena then.

Speaker 1 And the elevator opens, and it's two guys random guys on the elevator i don't you guys can always pull this up they used to have these uh

Speaker 1 f-u-k-l-b-j t-shirts okay black t-shirts red letters and uh

Speaker 1 i see the two guys they see me they say uh oh my god oh no listen this is man we love you so much man

Speaker 1 we're just here we're just here for the spectacle man we're just here for the spectacle like seriously we love you man and have a good game.

Speaker 1 And the door, in the elevator door closed. I was like,

Speaker 1 those are two white dudes, by the way. Yeah.
Oh, for sure. I didn't want to say it.

Speaker 1 I didn't want to say it because we're outnumbered right now.

Speaker 1 Now we're all together.

Speaker 1 We're all doing this together. It was like, oh, my God, man.
We fucking love you, man. Like,

Speaker 1 oh, shit, don't. And the elevator closed.
I was like, you know what? This is all part of the spectacle. And it's about to go.
It's about to get haywired.

Speaker 1 So the decision, you think, is whenever the conversation kind of changed a little bit about you? Yeah, because they just needed something. They needed something.

Speaker 1 Everything was so positive, you know, and

Speaker 1 I gave them no reason to make it negative. It wouldn't fuck it up.
But they needed anything.

Speaker 1 You know, I'm doing everything I need to do in the court. I'm not out in the streets.
I'm not doing, I'm not being caught in all the bullshit that doesn't respect the game and respect my craft.

Speaker 1 It was like, oh, you decided to go on TV and make a decision for your career. We got you.

Speaker 1 We got it. We finally got it.
We finally made a little chink in the armor. We got something.
We got something. It's selfish.

Speaker 1 It's selfish. He's selfish mother.
Yeah. And then that caught a little bit of fire, right?

Speaker 1 Because a lot of people don't like seeing people that are successful in anything, especially if somebody is taking happiness from them and their team, which you were doing, obviously, with the Cavs.

Speaker 1 And then that just got, you're saying from that moment is when,

Speaker 1 which leads obviously to you and Stephen A.

Speaker 1 Hey, legit. That feels like a moment that had been brewing for a long time.
He's like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now. Oh yeah.
Yeah, we're watching it. We're awesome.
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 You're seeing it as well.

Speaker 1 He literally, it started off with, I didn't want to address it. Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 I didn't want to address it. I wasn't going to address it.
But since the video came out, I feel the need to address it.

Speaker 1 You would have been ought to talk about it.

Speaker 1 Are you kidding me? If it's one person that couldn't wait to the video to drop so you could address it, it's your ass. Like, seriously, I, I,

Speaker 1 it's,

Speaker 1 and like another, he completely like

Speaker 1 missed the whole point. The whole point.

Speaker 1 Never in my,

Speaker 1 never would I ever

Speaker 1 not allow people to talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court. That is your job to criticize or to

Speaker 1 You know, be in a position where, okay, if a guy's not performing, you know, that is all, that is all part of the game that's all part of the game but when you take it and you get personal with it um it's my job to not only protect my damn household but protect the players you know and i think and i think a lot of the media including him and i know he's gonna he's gonna be happy as hell He's gonna be smiling from ear to ear when he hears me talking about him.

Speaker 1 Oh my God, he's gonna get home and grab some ice cream out of the fucking freezer and sit in this chair and his tiny whities on the couch.

Speaker 1 I hope at some point you two do get a chance to

Speaker 1 be like, relax, bro. Like, relax.
Like, seriously. Just, you know.
How do you feel about the way the game is covered and you players are covered?

Speaker 1 Because this is a big topic of conversation with the NBA. We have Tyrese Halliburton who comes through.
We love Tyrese. Oh, he's the man.
Tyrese loves you, too. Tyrese is great.
Love that guy.

Speaker 1 So Tyrese gave me the heads up.

Speaker 1 Like, hey, LeBron coming on your show is a massive ordeal because everybody in the NBA does look up, like LeBron is our guy like I think Pat Beverly told the story down at the bubble whenever everybody was like we need to take a stand and yada yada yada and then I think he was the person that went up and said hey you if you're fucking playing we're all playing if you're not playing we're not playing but I think that's how everybody in the league feels about you so congrats on that by the way respect amongst your peers

Speaker 1 I had a respect for my peers that means a lot and I carry that man and um and I take that with a lot of responsibility because there was uh too many years years went by when players did not have an opportunity to just speak and their voices to be heard or allow the narrative to get so much outside of sports.

Speaker 1 Like, if I listen, if I miss a game winner or if I don't show up in the finals, you know, like I was supposed to versus Dallas in year one in Miami, you can say whatever the fuck you want.

Speaker 1 You know, I should have been a lot better, I know.

Speaker 1 But like,

Speaker 1 don't take it to, you know, my household or take it to what's going on and other guys like i've seen something with in be where a reporter came into the locker room and started speaking about like i think his brother or something yeah like like how weird is that like that's so weird like why are we taking it to that point and we're taking it to that point because people have gotten too comfortable i think people in the media have gotten too comfortable especially with our sport it got too comfortable where You know, back in the day, like, for sure, you would never bring up Charles Oakley's brother.

Speaker 1 Charles Oakley will smack you through his his brother

Speaker 1 all right yeah mad max like his name was mad max for a reason it wasn't because he picked you up 94 feet it was because if you said something about mad max like

Speaker 1 he's gonna he's gonna separate your jaw and there was no repercussions from that like we they they got to the point where they knew like oh you know these guys can't really do anything to us anymore because there would be a fine suspension and you know or or and don't embarrass the league yeah yeah and don't embarrass the league or or you know you now here come your sponsors, they're coming after us or coming after you, and they're going to be like, What are you doing?

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 that's when they decided they could, you know, thought they thought. So, the conversation about old school basketball is a real thing.

Speaker 1 Like, because that's the new narrative now: it's a nostalgia issue.

Speaker 1 Like, a lot of people who grew up in a different era of basketball and get introduced to basketball, they're going to like that era regardless of no matter what happens in the future.

Speaker 1 You've played through what, now, three years, yeah, three years, back whenever Koozie was doing no-look passes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the first ever no-look pass. Yeah, Koozie.
Yep. He's a dog.
Hey, he was an exciting white, wasn't he? He was an exciting white. Koozhad game.
Kuzat game for sure. Boom.
Koo's that game.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but we're watching these highlights, and I'll speak for you.

Speaker 1 For that era. Exactly.
Thank you. You don't have to say this.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'll say this.
I'll say this. Yeah, game for that.

Speaker 1 I grew up in Pittsburgh. So we didn't have an NBA team.
So I was more an NHL guy, but I would watch the Lake Show at night because I couldn't sleep.

Speaker 1 So I did know the NBA, but not like, I didn't follow it as closely.

Speaker 1 When I watched the last dance I was watching a lot of highlights and I was watching people dribble a ball like this and I was like I don't know how that works in modern basketball I think you guys have played a couple different sports I think there was a koozie era of sports where a no-look pass holy shit then there was an era where people were starting to get like nasty there's some well you had the crystal pete mirror rich he started coming in and started you know getting a little bit natural then that the ball was hitting off guys heads and stuff so they looking at him like oh what are you doing like never see those low lights though only see the highlights.

Speaker 1 Highlights are the only bangers survive. Then, obviously, Jordan comes in and transforms everything.
You know, him dunking from the foul line, mass board deal. He made a whole fucking brand off it.

Speaker 1 He's flying. Now, kids are like dunking from the three-point line in high school.
It's like, it was just like the game has evolved so much, I think.

Speaker 1 But there is like a nostalgia combo that takes place with you guys, this modern era. Do you feel that? How do you address that? No, no, no.
I definitely feel it. And I think,

Speaker 1 you know, we just have to recognize that evolution is just a part of life, man. Like, you know, shit, you look at the hummer hummer from the 1970s to the hummer of today.
It's like,

Speaker 1 you're going to be like, okay, you might be nostalgic about it. You loved it in the 70s, but do you really want to drive that every day right now in 2025?

Speaker 1 You're going to get out the car and your goddamn neck and your back is going to be hurting so bad.

Speaker 1 Like, seriously, you're going to be hurting so bad. You're going to be like, okay, you know what? This might be just a Sunday chill car.

Speaker 1 Like, I drive it up the street, get some ice cream, come back home, but I. Refill it because it gets too much.
Yeah, exactly. I got to just start it it up, let it just

Speaker 1 crank the gas for about two hours just to make sure it's still running. But like, you know, like, we have to understand that there's, there's players and eras and things of that nature.

Speaker 1 Like, we get it. But like, you know, you watch some of the, you know, you watch some of the NFL games as well from the 70s and the 80s.

Speaker 1 And you got like, you know, Jack Lambert and those guys like coming through, like completely decapitating people.

Speaker 1 You know, like murder Ronnie Lott, like Ronnie Lott tore pinky off and then went to the sideline. I was like, just tear the rest of it off.
I'm going to get back out there.

Speaker 1 Like, I get it. Like, those are nostalgic moments, but like, the game has, the game is different.
And we should respect all eras in that era.

Speaker 1 You know, we can't be saying, okay, just because Wilt was great in the 60s and 70s, that he'll be great now. And we also can't say to some of the guys now be great.
It is what it is.

Speaker 1 Respect that era and we move on. But the whole every single day that he's better, he's not better.
He wouldn't. You're trying to tell me me Giannis wouldn't be able to play an NBA game in the 70s.

Speaker 1 He wouldn't be able to deal with that. Yeah, neither would you.
Neither would you.

Speaker 1 Giannis and the Coupo would have 250 points in a game in the 70s.

Speaker 1 250. Is that Kuzi? One was Kuzi player.

Speaker 1 Dude, Kuzi's walking up fucking Giannis.

Speaker 5 And that's no disrespect.

Speaker 1 Like, it's no disrespect. But, like, seriously, like,

Speaker 1 Kyrie Irving.

Speaker 1 They would have called him a witch. They would have called him a witch.

Speaker 1 No, no, they would have told Kyrie, you're not, you know how they used to tell Lou Al Cinder at the time that he couldn't dunk in high school gangs?

Speaker 1 They would have told Kyrie, you're not allowed to dribble anymore. That's what they would have told him.
Dribbling is out rude. They would have seen that.

Speaker 1 So how tall are you? I'm 6'9.

Speaker 1 And how heavy are you? I'm give or take in between 215 to 280. I don't know.
Depends on the day.

Speaker 1 Depends on if you give him my cookies or not.

Speaker 1 Pat Ryan's like,

Speaker 1 Yeah, Pat Ryan's like, we're tipping too close to 280, LeBron. The Beatles are becoming a heavyweight battle.

Speaker 1 So 6'9?

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's say you're two.

Speaker 1 You look very thin, right? Yeah, yeah. I feel good.
So 215, 6'9, 220. Could easily get to 260, though.
I think that would play in a lot of different eras. Yeah, I could.

Speaker 1 Yeah, come on. I could play it.
Just like we're doing. I would be able to play in any era.
It's funny you hear some of them older guys like LeBron James couldn't play in this era.

Speaker 3 Never been fouled by Bill Lambeer before.

Speaker 1 yeah i think i seen like dennis robbins say that one time it was like

Speaker 1 lebron james not skilled enough

Speaker 1 yeah not big enough he's not nah doesn't weigh enough he's not strong enough can't handle it nah yeah i'm like okay

Speaker 1 okay let's talk about you flopping all over the place that's why people get mad yeah i know yeah i know now why do you do that patrick mahomes does the same thing he's greatest of all time uh for us in the conversation of the greatest of all time the rules indicate in the conversation that that if you're to hit him he gets 15.

Speaker 1 No doubt. Is that the same thing for you?

Speaker 1 I wish. I wish.
Because I am like literally over like the last five, six years why everybody's been claiming I flop all the time. I'm like in the bottom half of free throw attempts per game.

Speaker 1 Oh, they won't give you the whistle.

Speaker 2 You don't get the whistles. No.

Speaker 1 Superstar treatment?

Speaker 1 You know, the funny thing is, I have a lot of teammates that'd be like, they come to the Lakers and they'd be like, man, when I used to play against you, I used to think you got every goddamn call and I hated it.

Speaker 1 And now that I'm your teammate, it's like, oh my goodness, you don't get any calls.

Speaker 1 I'm like, hey, you know, don't worry about it. Just keep playing.
No, I'll just wait for you. Do you see me in the third quarter? I got to go flop calls.

Speaker 1 I practiced on this one last night because there's a video from the last dance where I think the ref says to Michael, Jordan, he goes, I didn't see it, Michael. I am so sorry.

Speaker 1 I would never, never do it to you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I believe you, Michael. Yeah, that's the clip.
Oh, y'all saw that. I saw that.
And Michael's like, oh, God damn my mother.

Speaker 1 Y'all saw that. Oh, we.

Speaker 1 Okay, so you and Michael at a good spot. Who, me and Michael?

Speaker 1 jordan yeah we're in a good spot there we go we don't talk why not you think uh because i'm still playing i think i'm still playing i'm still focused on my craft right now when you're done you think you two will be i'll hope so we can have a conversation

Speaker 1 you know you know the funny thing is me like me and me and kobe besides our you know the late great kobe obviously me and kobe never had a real relationship either until We was on the Olympic team.

Speaker 1 We had a great relationship there. Olympic team eight, Olympic team 12.
But it was always competitive between us.

Speaker 1 We were always like, I was on the East Coast, he was on the West Coast, and it was like, even though we never,

Speaker 1 I fucked up one time in, you know, 09 and didn't beat Orlando. And I think it was 09, didn't beat Orlando and didn't get him an opportunity to play him in the finals.
But like,

Speaker 1 until I became a Laker and then he retired, that's when our relationship like became really, really good. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, he like welcomed me, called me like, bro, anything you need in L.A., like, I got you. You a Laker now, you family, you you know, and we would have multiple conversations.

Speaker 1 He was, obviously, you got Solomon coming to a lot of games and things of that nature.

Speaker 1 And when I, when I passed him in the scoring record in Philly, you know, I think he had a tweet out there, like, keep on going, like, keep transcending the game, keep going.

Speaker 1 Like, and that shit like meant so much to me. So, like, I think it's because I'm still playing, you know, and MJ's, we all know MJ.

Speaker 1 Even if you don't know him personally, he's one of the most ruthless competitors there is. And till I'm done, and he doesn't have to to look at me run up and down wearing the number 23.

Speaker 1 And every time my name is mentioned, it's mentioned with his, he's like, I don't want to fucking talk to you. Yeah, I'm on a golf course.
Yeah, I'm on a golf course. Don't talk to me right now.

Speaker 1 I'm on the back nine. Do not call me.

Speaker 2 It was great to see y'all at the top 75.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, that was dope. That was dope.
Yeah, that was dope.

Speaker 1 That's straight respect, admiration, and just like,

Speaker 1 you know, me for sure. I mean, shit, like I said, I wear 23

Speaker 1 because of MJ, you know, and that shit, the inspiration that he gave me as a kid in Akron, Ohio, that don't have much inspiration in your hometown. You look at something.

Speaker 1 It got to be somebody in sports, somebody in music, somebody on the TV screen. So like Will Smith from Fresh Press,

Speaker 1 Fresh Press of Bel Air, Michael Jordan playing for the Bulls, Jay-Z Biggie and Tupac.

Speaker 1 That was like,

Speaker 1 that was my inspiration. You know what I'm saying? Like, I needed that because I didn't have.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 couldn't be fucking Jerome Lang. He's like, they know me and shit.
So like,

Speaker 1 you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 Kind of on that note, Bronny, your son, he's obviously had that inspiration in the home. And you've talked about it since years ago, wanting to play long enough to play with your son.

Speaker 2 So, you obviously visualize that. How was the real moment with that happening? Because I know me seeing it, you know, seeing the Griffies there, just seeing it.

Speaker 2 Like, that was just an unbelievable moment. So, what was that like for you really actually being in it?

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 you know, seeing

Speaker 1 that pop fly, head towards King Griffey Sr., and then see Jr. over there right before the ball got to his glove and he snatched it out the air and run back to the dugout, like laughing at his pops.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 that was a cool ass moment. And

Speaker 1 for that moment, that game opened at the home opener versus Minnesota, and then just over there and see Griffey Jr.

Speaker 1 man, the kid, and seeing his pops over there, and us getting that picture at half court, and then us going out on the floor and having that moment.

Speaker 1 I wasn't, physically, I wasn't even there.

Speaker 1 I wasn't even there. You're floating.
I'm floating. And

Speaker 1 I can only imagine where Bronnie was. I don't know.

Speaker 1 We haven't even talked about it yet. At some point, we will, but I wasn't even there.
Like, I was so,

Speaker 1 I wasn't, I might have been in the rafters. I might have been at home.
My body may have been at home watching the game, watching the moment.

Speaker 1 I completely was not there.

Speaker 1 But damn, that was an unbelievable moment, man, for

Speaker 1 me to be able to like have that dream, be able to speak it into existence, for it to come to fruition,

Speaker 1 for my mom and my wife and my daughter and my youngest son to be there. It's like,

Speaker 1 you know, I started thinking about everything for what the hell he went through

Speaker 1 less than a year before with his

Speaker 1 almost died. Yeah, his cardiac arrest, man.
That came out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 That came out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 It was a birth defect. That

Speaker 1 practically, you know, quite honestly, if he never played sports or he never like started to become strong and run fast and all those stuff, we probably would have never, we would never have to worry about it.

Speaker 1 But as he got stronger and things of that nature, it was just something inside his heart that, you know, was just pounding at his heart and pounding at his lungs that unfortunately we had the incident.

Speaker 1 Thankfully, you know, a lot of these kids we've been seeing a lot lately in sports, not only in basketball, but in football.

Speaker 1 And unfortunately, we was able to catch it. And to all the families out there that haven't had the opportunity to catch their kids before it gets to the point where they're not here anymore, like

Speaker 1 to see that happen to Bronny and for him to be able to play that same year after that happened, you know, at USC and then less than a year later, be drafted by. the Lakers.

Speaker 1 And then in that fall, we go out there together. So that's why I wasn't there.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like I was, we walked in together, but I was not there. That's a dad moment.
That's really cool.

Speaker 1 People forget, you know, you're only one name now, LeBron, but you're still a human, too. And I assume seeing for sure.
You know, your baby boy. Yeah.
You know,

Speaker 1 man. And then obviously that led to the thing with Stephen A talking about him and how critical everybody has been of Bronny.
And I think that's a pressure that a second generation star has on him.

Speaker 1 Yeah, for sure. His whole life he's had that.
It feels like he is very,

Speaker 1 I mean, he's like a 55-year-old, it looks like the way he kind of handles it all. And I think you've even said that as well.
But how about his development? We had Rich Paul on the day after the draft.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Because there was a bunch of rumors about Rich Paul was telling teams, hey, you draft him, we'll send him Australia.

Speaker 1 There was a lot of those types of things happening. Allegedly, the Suns were involved.
There was a chance they could get you, but he ends up with the Lakers with you.

Speaker 1 And obviously, it's a whole storm. Like, LeBron James is bullying, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 The way it always goes. Of course.
This guy's not good enough. This guy's not this.
And he does start out a little bit rough, NBA-wise. But now, I mean, he just dropped 39 last night in the G League.

Speaker 1 I think he had like a double-double or something. He had his best game in the NBA last week.
He's obviously getting better and better. You have to be loving every moment.

Speaker 1 And how proud of Bronny are you from what he's going through? Listen, for me, as a dad,

Speaker 1 shit, it doesn't matter if he never scores ever. For me, as a dad, I'm just super proud of him, period, as a young man.

Speaker 1 For me, as a mentor and as a teammate of his, and that wants to see him thrive because I've seen the work he's put into the game, I am super proud of his development to where he is now.

Speaker 1 From the moment that, you know, he was drafted in June of 2025 to us being now in March of 2026, his development is skyrocketed, you know, and I just think I had a good friend of mine,

Speaker 1 you know, who went through a cardiac arrest as well. And

Speaker 1 he told me that, you know,

Speaker 1 It took him, and he played basketball as well. And back then, when it happened to him in the early 2000s,

Speaker 1 they wasn't with

Speaker 1 going back to performing. It was like, if it happened, it's over with.
When does it roll the dice? Yeah, we're not rolling the dice. There was not enough data on it.

Speaker 1 It's like you have a cardiac arrest, it is over. We don't want this on our resume.
They was not going back to performing, performing to play.

Speaker 1 And he told me, he was like, Man, I'm going to be honest, it took me about

Speaker 1 two and a half years to finally get back to just normalcy. Like my body, my mind.

Speaker 1 And, you know, he said, when it happened to me, I was 23 years old. Bronnie was 19 years old, you know, and he's like, it's going to take a little time.
And I reason with that. But also,

Speaker 1 he's doing things right now less than two years. Yeah.
You know, and it's because of his determination and his will to want to get better and his will to like, I don't really care what y'all saying.

Speaker 1 I hear it. He did an article the other day.
He was like, y'all hear the noise. I use it as motivation, but I also know what I'm capable of.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I've always told my kids, like, all of them, you know, they all play sports. Two basketball players, my youngest son going to Arizona.
I'm on a full ride. My daughter's.
What is he?

Speaker 1 Seven foot tall, by the way. That came out of nowhere.
Lil Bryce, right?

Speaker 1 He popped up out of nowhere. Because we follow your family on the internet, obviously.

Speaker 1 We see it all. And it's like Brownie, okay, and then Lil Bryce.
Lil Bryce with the glasses.

Speaker 1 Exactly. And then all of a sudden, one video popped up of an official.
And Bronnie's a little bit more.

Speaker 1 Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Speaker 1 So he on his way to Arizona my daughter's you know she's playing 12 and under volleyball she just turned 10 so like and I just tell him like it doesn't matter about the noise that's gonna happen it's only about like if you love it go out and practice if you think you want to if you fall in love with it you only can fall in love with the process Don't worry about the outcome.

Speaker 1 Fall in love with the process and that's that shit will take care of itself. So super proud of Bronny, man.
I know very long-winded when you talk about the kids, I just start thinking about him.

Speaker 1 But super proud of his

Speaker 1 game and where he is today, you know starting off the g-league season with like you know just trying to figure it out and now

Speaker 1 like you said last night 30 you know 39

Speaker 1 and more than anything when i talked to him he was more pissed off at the technical free throw that he missed more than anything he's like i could have had a 40

Speaker 1 he said i could have had a 40 ball and i missed that dev technical free throw so man the kid is uh he's awesome he's been fun to watch yeah it is and the story has gotten so loud and i think that's why listening to you talk and you say you get long-winded about the kid it's like, well, that's why everything happened.

Speaker 1 That happened a couple of weeks ago. But like you playing with him, obviously was a dream.
You said that years ago. Bryce now, though, I mean...
Very possible. That is.

Speaker 1 Oh, don't do that to me. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 You said you're 215, nowhere near 280. You're the best shape.
Exactly. The best shape you've been in.

Speaker 1 That conversation's loud. about now about how many more does LeBron James have.

Speaker 1 I think fans, I think the league, I bet you Adam Silver is wondering the same exact thing because of what you've done for the league, for how long you've done it. That convo pops up every year.

Speaker 1 Is it for you two or is it just for outside people? No, no, it's popping up more and more every year. Because obviously I know I'm on the other side of the hill than the previous side, you know.

Speaker 1 So I've done this for a long time. And then obviously I know it's started like, okay, now you get to the top of that roller coaster.

Speaker 1 And it's like, okay, when is this damn roller coaster going to go down? Kennywood, yeah. I tell you what.

Speaker 1 You know, like, so I understand that. So

Speaker 1 I don't know, man. It's all about, for real, for me, it's my mind.

Speaker 1 If I could, if I could continue to,

Speaker 1 I am all about the process. Like, I am all about the process.
And if it gets to the point where

Speaker 1 I don't feel like showing up to the arena five hours in advance, or I don't feel like training, or I don't feel like studying the scout sheet of guys. Like,

Speaker 1 if it gets to that point, like, I know, like, you know, what, Brian?

Speaker 1 It's a wrap. Yeah, you're kind of, you'll be able to tell.
Yeah, you'll be able to tell. Yeah, you will be personally.

Speaker 1 Five hours before the game, you're showing up every day? Yeah, 7:30 game. I'm usually there around 2:15.
What do we got? We got a cold tub. We're drinking some, putting some wine on our feet.

Speaker 1 Sure. What are we doing? We're doing a little bit of everything for sure.

Speaker 1 Wine, you know, drink a little wine too. Oh, I saw you walk into the game.
Remember the big booze bath?

Speaker 1 Yeah, guy was walking with the wine to the game. Yeah, I remember that.
Mailed it in, LeBron's showing up drunk. Everything you do is

Speaker 1 talked about. Yeah, I had one former Laker.

Speaker 1 I wasn't even playing. It was preseason.
I had worked out before the game. I wasn't playing like a former Laker.
I was on the bench like, you know, eating fruit. Like, you know, I worked out.

Speaker 1 I had, okay, shit, I got a shower. Let me get out here to watch the guys, support the guys during a preseason game.
It's like year fucking 20 for me, probably.

Speaker 1 Why am I even going out here for a preseason game? But I'm a good guy. I love my teammates, and I'm a good teammate.

Speaker 1 So I go out there, and the next day I wake up as a fucking Laker guy played for the Lakers. I know you guys are going to look this up.
It's like,

Speaker 1 oh, yeah. Yeah, look this up.

Speaker 1 Like, that's very selfish, LeBron. Why is he over there eating fruit? What are you doing? He could have did that in the back, or he could have had that at home.

Speaker 1 I'm like, bro, I'm literally just trying to like replenish everything I just lost in my workout in the weight room.

Speaker 1 And in the back that you didn't see, but you worried about me about a damn bowl of fruit. Everything is.

Speaker 1 seriously. You're not being committed.
Is it conversation?

Speaker 1 That is LeBron James. This guy's not committed.
Not committed. Yeah, like I had steak and eggs over there or some shit.
I don't know that. Something to think about.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that might be Nick. Give him something to really think about.
Yeah, a little protein in there. Connor, massive Boston Celtics fan.
Has a question for you. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 Who's Boston Celtics fan?

Speaker 1 If you can, you know, who knows? This might not be the year.

Speaker 6 But looking at the league and looking forward, the big convo is, you know, once LeBron is gone, who's the face of the league?

Speaker 6 Everyone's talking about the face of the league you know as a celtics fan of course i say like why doesn't jason tatum get more love but even even talking about the future when for you uh did you become the face of the league like when what year was it obviously right away you're getting talked about as yeah you know a one-name guy but when did you feel like okay this is officially my league like i am taking over this entire you know what i never had that notion I never had that notion and never like woke up like after I brushed my teeth like yeah this is my league

Speaker 1 you know I'm the face face of the league. God damn it.
Shiny's up. I'm going to shine these up.
But I did know there was a responsibility put on me to carry the league in a certain fashion.

Speaker 1 And you got to think that like before I entered the league and like right after MJ retired, after he came back the third, second or third time. Yeah, he came back and he was down with Washington.

Speaker 1 There was a big like, you know, a fan

Speaker 1 player separation with our league. You know, they just wasn't resonating with a lot of the players or

Speaker 1 a lot of guys was

Speaker 1 didn't really care

Speaker 1 or whatever the case may be. And

Speaker 1 I felt like in order for

Speaker 1 myself to make a name for myself, obviously I knew the play was going to take care of itself because I knew how much I committed to it, but also had to, I wanted to handle the responsibility.

Speaker 1 you know, of

Speaker 1 showing a face of the league in the sense of like a modern citizen, you you know,

Speaker 1 being a role model. You know, it was, you know, we have guys who, you know, didn't want to be a role model to

Speaker 1 the sport or didn't want to be a role model to the game, didn't want to appreciate the game or commit to the game.

Speaker 1 And I felt like, you know, I had an opportunity to not only play the game that I love, but also I wanted fans to follow me. I wanted people to follow my journey.

Speaker 1 And what came out of that was me kind of being, I guess people say the face of the league. Yeah, the sprite commercials.
You know, like, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 So, like, I never went out to be like, I want to be the face of the league. Like, you know, I've seen

Speaker 1 a lot of shit too. Like, I seen Brian Winhurst on one of these shows not too long ago.
Like,

Speaker 1 Wendy. Yeah, you played, Brass.
Wendy, you guys played together in high school. Yeah,

Speaker 1 yeah, yeah. This guy was like, you know, says he's like my fucking best friend.
These guys are just weird. But

Speaker 1 Wendy,

Speaker 1 you know, like, that's not real. Yeah, it was our forcer, huh?

Speaker 1 Knew it. Yeah,

Speaker 1 he went on his show and said, you know, like, oh, don't let LeBron fool you. Like, he wears number 23 because of Michael Jordan.
Okay, that's a fact.

Speaker 1 He signed with Nike because of Michael Jordan. It's like, no, the fuck, I didn't.

Speaker 1 I signed with Nike because I got a hell of a signing bonus and they gave me a seven-year, $90 million contract.

Speaker 1 And I moved my mom out of the hood the next day I signed that contract. Like, and ultimately,

Speaker 1 my whole thing is like, what do I want to wear off the court? It's like, I want to wear fucking Nikes. Like, I want to wear Jordans.
I want to wear pennies. I want to wear Bo Jacksons.

Speaker 1 I want to wear Air Maxes. I want to wear like,

Speaker 1 you know, so. Primes.
Like, you know, like, what are we talking about? So, like, I knew there was a responsibility for sure. Like,

Speaker 1 listen, Matt, during the ball drop, you know, during the lottery drop,

Speaker 1 Cleveland got the number one pick.

Speaker 1 That's, I just don't think that was.

Speaker 1 Whoa, what are you talking about? What a coincidence, don't you think

Speaker 1 with the spurs that was

Speaker 1 oh my gosh

Speaker 1 let's keep let's keep lebron home you know what patrick ewing to the knicks you know derrick rose to the bulls but i understand the assignment guys i'm you know so you know it's i had to make sure that you know i had to do my part i didn't want to be a fuck up i just didn't want to be a fuck up man like like i said earlier in the show like

Speaker 1 No one gets this opportunity, man. It's zero to none.
And I couldn't be a fuck up. So that's what came with it.
You've done a great job representing it all. Do you feel like we are at a phase, though?

Speaker 1 And you talked about before you got in the league, there was like a potential disconnect between the players and the fans.

Speaker 1 Felt like that was almost starting to happen again until, I don't want to say, back half of this season feels like most momentum you guys have had in

Speaker 1 a while. Do you agree with that? Yeah, I agree with that.
You know, I agree with that. I just about, I think it's all just understanding, you know, understanding.

Speaker 1 you know, from a, from a player perspective. And also, we're getting closer to the playoffs.
You know,

Speaker 1 it's a long-ass season, season, man. You know, the difference between us and the NFL, man, there's so much excitement, but it's one game a week.
And you get an opportunity to get excited.

Speaker 1 Like when, you know, that's Sunday or, you know, you got Thursday night games now. Monday.
I mean, shit, even occasional Saturday games.

Speaker 1 Christmas.

Speaker 1 And it took Christmas for me.

Speaker 1 Christmas year.

Speaker 1 It's not even a fucking Grinch.

Speaker 1 But in all seriousness, like, you know, it's one game a week. So you like, you know, the excitement, you know, is there.

Speaker 1 So, you know, you have us, you know, we just, we just came out of playing six games in eight days. You know, six games in eight days is like, oh man, man, and three sets of back-to-back.
So,

Speaker 1 but the playoffs is on its way. The weather is getting better.

Speaker 1 The excitement is getting, you know, the crunch time is like, you know, in the West, you know, you got four or five teams, one or two games from behind each other.

Speaker 1 You know, so I think that's the connection is coming back. Everyone loves it.
And now you got March Madness going on in college basketball.

Speaker 1 So I'm going to be honest, no,

Speaker 1 I don't follow, man. I don't do the brackets.
I love the sport. I watch occasionally some games, but it's hard watching college basketball for me, man.
Different sport. Yeah, it's a different sport.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a different sport from what we play.

Speaker 1 And, you know, and, you know, every time a kid drives, you know, a kid can just come out of nowhere and slide up underneath him, and it's always a charge. You can't do a Euro step.
It's a travel.

Speaker 1 Well, Derek Queen, actually,

Speaker 1 kid from Maryland. I don't know if you saw this or not.
Gather, step. I love it.

Speaker 1 He's easy. Pick that ball, gather one, two off glass, game time.
You know, and I just don't, you know, you shouldn't need 35 seconds to shoot the damn basketball. God.

Speaker 1 You know, you know, it's, you know, but it's, you know, it's the game. I hate two halves.
Why is that a thing? Yeah, the only sport, right? The only level.

Speaker 1 Women went to, I think women went to four quarters, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 What do we want two halves for? It's long. It's so, I don't want to watch one half.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's too. It's too long.
It's long.

Speaker 1 It's long. It's long.
And then they got to stack the timeouts because of commercials, too, whenever the gameplay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think the four quarters kind of helps TV as well. It does.

Speaker 1 It does. And it helps the players too.
Like it's four quarters and it's too long. You get a kid who gets two fouls in the first half.
He can't play again.

Speaker 1 He's sitting over there for an hour of real time. Like, you know, it's like, you don't want to see your favorite player in college because that's what the game is built on.

Speaker 1 Like, you get your favorite player. Like, if Cooper Flagg right now gets two fouls in the first half, you're like, I don't...
I don't want to watch this Duke game anymore.

Speaker 1 Do you feel like this next generation? Because Wemby is obviously

Speaker 1 a stud. He's unbelievable.
He's unbelievable. But this is, I mean, Joker is also, what, six foot 11, whatever it is.
KD obviously says he's not seven foot, feels like he is.

Speaker 1 And then he's always taller than everybody at the all-saw weekend cold always for some odd reason.

Speaker 1 He obviously, whenever he came into the league, and I think Dirk also big shooter, but like the tall,

Speaker 1 multifaceted player is the next generation, right? Yeah, that's their inspiration. Their inspiration is, you know, Dirk.
Their inspiration is KD.

Speaker 1 You know, their inspiration are those guys who like, you look at KD, you know, like, you know, six, nine to seven foot, depending on what he wants to tell you.

Speaker 1 You know, that great handle, the smoothness, to be able to, you know, shoot off the dribble and also be able to catch and shoot and be able to look silky smooth out there while being the tallest guy on the court.

Speaker 1 And they're doing koozie stuff.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Some high ball though.
Some high. I don't know how you're doing.
Hold on. I don't know how they're doing.

Speaker 1 You know, so Katie's biggest, you know, KD's big time inspiration to guys like Wimby, to guys like Cooper Flag, who's coming in. You know, you have a lot of these guys.
So Chet.

Speaker 1 Chet has

Speaker 1 Chet as well. This Derrick Queen kid, six foot ten.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's in the, I don't know if you heard about him saying, give me the motherfucking ball. Yeah, I'm from Baltimore.
Yeah. Yeah, that is absolutely famous.
I'm from Baltimore.

Speaker 1 One of my best friends from Baltimore, Carmelo Anthony. So I get it.
I get it. I get it.
Give me the damn ball. And he wanted the ball.
That's what I told him in the conversation.

Speaker 1 I was like, Baltimore is one of the cities where if you give an answer on why are you a confident human, I'm from Baltimore. Everybody's like, okay,

Speaker 1 there's no follow-up question to that.

Speaker 1 Okay, I got it. I got it.
Ty has a question for you.

Speaker 3 So obviously, you could play another 10 years if you really wanted to. I mean, it really does seem like that.
But as you've gotten older, I mean, you have all this other shit off the court.

Speaker 3 You have the production studio,

Speaker 3 the podcast, all that kind of stuff that you're doing, all these different business ventures.

Speaker 3 How hard is it focusing on a lot of that stuff and not letting everything you have to do basketball-wise kind of suffer? Because

Speaker 3 you don't seem like the kind of guy where it's like, you're going to start a production studio and just be like fuck it you guys handle everything you know I'll attach my name to it but like how difficult is that balancing those two because this is obviously some stuff that you seem like you're passionate about yeah

Speaker 1 for sure I definitely got some great people in place you know you know my right-hand man Matt Rick Carter he's unbelievable dog he's a dog and one the greatest thing about him is his ability to you know create relationships that last long and we've never been just one-off guys like we want to be able to create partnerships you know and not like endorsement deals like that was like a thing of the past that was something that we didn't want to do so the trust that i have with him i i allow him because of shit i've been knowing him my whole life you know and when you have that type of chemistry and you have that type of brotherhood and that type of trust you allow him to do it but also he's always checking in with me like hey listen this is what we have going down the pipeline yay or nay you know this is what i why i feel it would be beneficial to us and but ultimately like do you want to do it or not?

Speaker 1 You know, so like in this instance, like, you know, I got to the point where, you know, you brought that up and why I started, you know, the podcast, Mind the Game, with JJ, you know, last year.

Speaker 1 It was like,

Speaker 1 it was a looseness of the sport being covered and how the sport should be covered.

Speaker 1 It had got away from the essence of the game of basketball of why I fell in love with the game, why I teach the younger generation the game, why I am in the position, you that I am, that I am in.

Speaker 1 And we have that

Speaker 1 conversation. Me and Matt is like, okay, I got what you're saying.
Okay, let me go figure it out. And he goes to figure it out.
So

Speaker 1 I learned so much from that show. I legitimately did.
Now, obviously looking back on it, it was just you interviewing JJ

Speaker 1 that entire thing. But I assume JJ was going to become a head coach.
after that show, regardless.

Speaker 1 Because the way you guys talked about it, to your point about never hearing it be discussed like that, legitimately, as a football person, as another sport person, never played basketball, whenever you guys were drawing up plays and like why you do this and debating on how to cover and all that, I felt like I got smarter as a basketball fan.

Speaker 1 So first of all, I'd like to thank you for that alongside JJ. And also, congratulations.
Season two, my name is. Season two.
Season two. Wow, it's back.

Speaker 1 I've been clapped all night, but I'm going to clap all night.

Speaker 1 Yes, sir. Season two, man.
With. Steve Nash, man.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 The great Steve Nash, man. So he's been a coach before, obviously.
And obviously he's played a long time in the NBA. I had one chance to interview Steve Nash, and I learned about him in real time.

Speaker 1 And I think he played

Speaker 1 a lot of years. Legend.
For sure. Imagine.
Top time MVP or something. Whatever he learned.

Speaker 1 I looked at him and I said, you played blank amount of years. And he goes, yeah.
I go, holy shit, man. I literally learned it in real time.
Legend out there. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 But also loves the game, obsessed with the game, which feels like why it could potentially be a great fit for season two of Mind the Game. Absolutely.
We're looking forward to it, man.

Speaker 1 We got an episode, two episodes in the bank. We're going to get a couple more soon, and we're going to just like continue to,

Speaker 1 you know, preach the game,

Speaker 1 how it's supposed to be taught, you know, how it's supposed to be viewed. And,

Speaker 1 you know, we understand that,

Speaker 1 you know, some of the other things is going to be said, it sells for them. But, you know.

Speaker 1 What we've grown to love, why me and JJ did it in the first place, why me and Steve are doing it now, is because this is how we grew up loving the game. This is what brought us together.

Speaker 1 This is what the essence of the game should be talked to to not only the generation that's playing now, but the generation that's going to come up after us.

Speaker 1 So, Mind the Game Season 2 coming, y'all, man. Can't wait.
Congratulations. Appreciate it, man.
Thank you. Can we talk about a couple of things real quick that we have to cover? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Talk of the Tuesday, you thought.

Speaker 1 Is that real? It's today, Tuesday. Yeah, it is.
Oh, today is Tuesday. Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1 Tuesday.

Speaker 1 That was quite a situation. That was quite a situation.

Speaker 2 Barbershop, another one.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, man. The shop.
Oh, yeah. I grew up in it.
That was easy. That was easy.
That was another easy one, man. It was like too many conversations that's going on right now.
That's not

Speaker 1 the essence. It's not the essence.
Man, I remember getting dropped off. As a five-year-old, mom dropped you off.
She go do what the hell she had to go do, make her errands.

Speaker 1 She talked to the guy that's cutting your hair.

Speaker 1 How many he's behind? About three or four. Okay, about three hours.

Speaker 1 Shit. You're being there about three hours and I got to wait there and sit there and wait my turn.
And in that moment, that's when you hear everything.

Speaker 1 You start hearing about the best MC that's going on right now, the best hair product, the best beard oil, the best people in sports.

Speaker 1 Your music.

Speaker 2 It is everything. Drama.

Speaker 1 Everything. Yeah, yeah.
Every single thing goes on in a barbershop. So, you know, for us to be able to create create that platform, the shop,

Speaker 1 to be able to bring on all the beautiful minds that we've brought on to the shop, men and women,

Speaker 1 it's been a pleasure, it's been an honor. And we're keeping that thing going, man, because it's like it's a comfort place.

Speaker 1 You know, I've been to the barbershop from when I was like five all the way through high school.

Speaker 1 And, you know, to be able to have that sense of like truth, it's the one place of truth where you can go out there and be like, this is who I like. All right, that's who you like.

Speaker 1 And we're going to fight to the battle about it.

Speaker 1 You know, and it'd be a new topic the next day. And, you know, I think it's pretty cool.
So you guys did a couple watch-alongs too for Thursday football.

Speaker 1 Yeah, man. Oh, that was dope.
I mean, y'all, I mean, you guys know my love for the sport of football. So to be able to do that.
You wouldn't be able to take a shot, though, remember? Yeah,

Speaker 1 six foot nine, 250 pounds, wouldn't be able to handle four. Yeah, man.
You know, a lot of, you know. I wouldn't be allowed to do a lot of things, they say.

Speaker 1 Oh, I got a lot of my little high school highlights up there versus Benedicting. That's where Rich Paul went to high school, by the way.
Yeah, yeah, I was playing against Rich Paul high school there.

Speaker 1 One of the greatest American hustlers of all time. Yeah, for sure.
Legit, I think the record will state that Rich Paul may be one of the greatest hustlers of all time.

Speaker 1 You're from Ohio, so obviously football state. Yeah, man.
Obviously basketball as well. But you love the game.
I think you like, you've talked openly about how much you like, love ball.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure.
Football is my first sport, man, my first love.

Speaker 1 You know, I grew up big time primetime Deion Sanders fan,

Speaker 1 big time Eric Metcalf fan, too. Dope.
Growing up in that, you know, growing growing up in Akron and seeing him up in Cleveland, seeing Eric Metcalf do his thing up there too, man.

Speaker 1 You know, Seattle's finest, Eric Metcalf. And, you know, just grew up just always loving the sport, man.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, seeing, you know, Jerry Rice and, you know, and, you know, seeing some of the old clips of like Walter Payton sweetness and, you know, seeing Barry Sanders.

Speaker 1 That was another topic of conversation in like the barbershop. Barry Sanders versus Emmett Smith.
Oh, yeah. You know, you know, so you hear that conversation, you know.
So,

Speaker 1 you know, I remember my mom buying me a pair of Barry Sanders sneakers. You know, I was like, oh, man.
I felt so quick. Yeah, I felt so quick.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, and, you know, they had, they was like, I don't know if they was one of the first teams.

Speaker 1 Obviously, I don't know that for a fact, but like seeing Barry Sanders on turf, you know, wearing sneakers, you know, that was super cool as a kid. So, yeah, I just, it's, it's a great sport.

Speaker 1 I mean, I love it. I love football and I love, and I love the new guys now.
Like, they're super cool. My favorite guy, Derrick Henry, without a, you know, seeing Saquon out there.

Speaker 1 And I got guys wearing my shoes now. You know, when Saquon did that move where he turned backwards and did a pirouette backwards and jumped up in the air.
And like he had my kicks on.

Speaker 1 I was like, oh, my goodness. I didn't know those were yours.
They were sick. Yeah, they were awesome.

Speaker 1 He had the LeBron Retro 4s on in a spike. When he did that, like, I was like, spin move nasty.

Speaker 1 Oh, my goodness. Those are in the bronze.
Yes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was like super, like, I was going crazy. I was like, I couldn't couldn't believe it.
You know, I didn't even know that. So, yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's talk about something else that we have to address at the Olympics. You saw your eyes blink sideways?

Speaker 1 What was that all about?

Speaker 1 What was that? What the fuck was that? Hey, I need to know what happened. Does that always happen? Your eyes always blink like that, or is that just at the Olympics?

Speaker 1 I don't know. That was probably like my Michael Jackson thriller video moment.

Speaker 1 You know, when he went from like, you know, he kind of turned it to that beast of his. I don't know, man.
It was, I saw that. It kind of freaked me out, too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I missed that.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay, so you, you also saw it. Oh, terrifying.
You also saw it and thought the same thing everybody else did. Okay.
Yeah, there was people like, oh, my God, he's actually

Speaker 1 there in Paris and he may be at his home in California at the same time. This guy's not a human.
Yeah, this guy's not human. Yeah, that's real.

Speaker 1 That was a real conversation that was happening. Oh, yeah.
And I watched it a couple times. I was like, hold on.
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1 I mean, I can't. The fucking eyes aren't.

Speaker 1 I can't sit here and say that it was not real. It was not real.

Speaker 1 Just leave it at that.

Speaker 1 Just leave it at that. Fair enough.
Okay. When you think about the rest of the season and you think about this Lakers team,

Speaker 1 you guys will have success if what?

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Well, obviously, we could go without saying any team, health,

Speaker 1 health. That's the most important for our team.
We are not in a position where we can afford anybody to go down.

Speaker 1 And then after that,

Speaker 1 Luca, myself, and AR 15, we got to be all clicking at the same time.

Speaker 1 And we know there's going to be games where, you know, it happens throughout the course of a playoff game where, you know, I may not be making my shots or whatever, or AR is not making his shots, or Luca might not be making his shots.

Speaker 1 But as far as when I say clicking, we have to be in tune.

Speaker 1 on what we got to do every single night because we got to we got to make sure everybody's in the right place every single game you know the playoffs is literally one possession to have you losing uh a series

Speaker 1 you know one possession can make you lose a series and it's up to us three you know obviously i know i'm a you know

Speaker 1 my voice and what i command out of guys that's going to be heard lucas play some people lead by example and his the way ar his affections play we have to make sure we have everybody in tune and um because we know that our coach staff gonna give us the game plan jj's not gonna send us out there on a wild goose chase.

Speaker 1 Nope. We're going to be,

Speaker 1 he and his coaching staff, they're going to make sure we know what the hell we need to do in order to get the job done. And then it's up to us to go get it done.
You guys are going to mind the game.

Speaker 1 You guys are going to mind the game. Always do.
Buck.

Speaker 1 Season two, Steve Night. Season two, season two.
Available soon.

Speaker 1 We can't thank you enough for stopping by. I appreciate it, man.
Yeah, dude.

Speaker 1 Legitimately. You're aware.

Speaker 1 I didn't know we were snapping after. I feel like I missed it.
Yeah, when I found out you was a Celtic fan, I thought you were going to throw a beer on me. Like, what what happened? No, no.

Speaker 1 What is that? Is that what's the problem? Yeah, after I went for 45 in there, you know, that threw a beer on me. Yeah, the heat was.
I mean, if you're still in the heat, that's still wrong.

Speaker 1 But I also do have one kind of mythological, whatever the word is, question.

Speaker 6 You don't read those fucking books before the games, right?

Speaker 1 All those books.

Speaker 6 You open it to the first page, and then you don't read those fucking books ever again.

Speaker 1 Great room. Listen, listen.
I actually

Speaker 1 finished those books. Oh, hold on.
Like, if you were to hold this. Hold on, hold on.
Hold on. People say you would say you read it.

Speaker 1 This is how.

Speaker 6 That's the art of winning. Someone take a photo.

Speaker 1 All right, take the photo, please. Pat, take the photo.
Yeah, we got it.

Speaker 1 I'll take it from this angle. You probably read Rich's book.
We got it.

Speaker 3 Yeah, first page.

Speaker 1 Wow, holy shit. Braun read it.
And then that's it.

Speaker 1 That's it. I didn't even talk to you guys this whole time I was up here.
All I did was read the whole book. Meteor, man.
That's it. That's it.
Meteor. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Everybody might not even know that movie, but.

Speaker 6 It's a classic, by the way. It's a classic.

Speaker 1 So you get

Speaker 1 talk about the books, music. Music is another thing.

Speaker 1 If you see the future in music,

Speaker 1 acting. Acting.
Yeah, everything. Who's next in the music world if you had to give a prediction?

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because we've heard you say, when I heard this guy, I knew. You know what? I don't know, man.
I don't know. That's a good question.

Speaker 1 I literally go to,

Speaker 1 when it comes to like the new generation, now, this is the best thing about having teenagers as well. You can literally go to them and get the whole like.
The scoop. Yeah, the scoop.

Speaker 1 But I don't know, man. I don't know who's next up, but

Speaker 1 I do love music, though, man. But I've definitely been listening to it.
I got ready for the game yesterday listening to Eric B and Rockham, man. Like,

Speaker 1 I'm an old school guy, too.

Speaker 1 But we'll see. We'll see.
Music and sports go hand in hand for so, so much. No, for sure.
And no question about it. Your knowledge of it has certainly been something that people have chatted about.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I appreciate it. And you mind the music as well.
That's true. You ain't mind the books.
No, you do. Do you mind the game? Mind the tacos.
Yeah. Tuesdays only on the movie.
Mind the movies.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you mind the movies. As long as they don't take away my mind the cookies, we'd be fine.
Damn. Pat Riley's

Speaker 1 Riley.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we'll be fine. The Hato's are done.
Still love.

Speaker 1 Not the last one. The Hadoes are done.

Speaker 1 This guy doesn't have any fucking cookies. That's old.
That's old.

Speaker 2 We still got Spo. We still got the...
Look, we good.

Speaker 6 I don't know. People are saying the D-Wade Kurs statue is now carrying on forever.

Speaker 1 I haven't seen it yet. Oh, well, in person.
You don't want it. I've seen it.
I've seen it on.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I love my guy. Hey, when you get your statue done, just let's make sure it's a good one.
Trans Air Force. I'm not going to undevelop it to the world.
What do you mean? Got to.

Speaker 1 That's what a fucking statue is. No, no, fuck that.
No, no, no. You're going to put it in your bed? I need to see it multiple times.
Bail before we let it out. Yeah.
Because if not, that'll happen.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
What the hell?

Speaker 2 I mean, Wade saw his, he says.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he said he saw it. He liked it.
Yeah, but I think he was just sticking out for the dars. Yeah, him and his son.

Speaker 1 Expression.

Speaker 5 Good teammate. He looked like they didn't like it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's a good team, man. I remember that moment, though.
Yeah. Yeah, when he stood on the table.
Well, if he's squashing it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right, LeBron. We appreciate you.
Ladies and gentlemen, go talk. Yeah, okay, we're clapping.

Speaker 1 I'm clapping for y'all. Ladies and gentlemen.
I'm clapping for y'all. LeBron, James.

Speaker 2 What up? We're clapping for y'all, man.

Speaker 1 I'm doing it. We're snap for y'all, man.
Yeah, we're snaping. I appreciate that.
I appreciate that, man. Snare the man.
Ladies and gentlemen, LeBron James. All right.

Speaker 1 That was obviously an incredible honor to get a chance to chit-chat with LeBron. I hope you had a chance to learn some things maybe you never knew about.

Speaker 1 Why don't you go ahead and use the hashtag the LeBronversation on X and let us know and we'll read some of the reactions on the other side.

Speaker 1 Shout out to ESPN moving this break that we were supposed to have about 25 minutes ago this long into it.

Speaker 1 It was unfiltered, unedited, and raw on YouTube, ESPN Plus, and TikTok Live, which you can certainly go back and check out. And we can't wait to hear your thoughts on it all.

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Speaker 1 Big day!

Speaker 1 It has been a big day. Yeah, huge.
That was a big conversation. Cannot wait to see the big reaction coming from it.

Speaker 1 Obviously, there's been a lot of parts of that that I don't think any of us knew about. And then some stories that were confirmed true.
You know, that cookie one, nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler.

Speaker 1 I guess from the responses and reactions that I'm seeing on X and on social media, I guess the Miami media said that that story was not true.

Speaker 1 I guess that is what a lot of people down in South Florida were saying on X. I don't know if that's true or not, but I guess it was reported that the cookie story blown out of proportion.

Speaker 1 And then right there, good journalism, we confirmed that those crispy-edged, soft, home-baked cookies were certainly a part of the real story down there.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you know, some people call the Pat Riley petty, or is it just, you know, heat culture? Is it just the top, the pinnacle of discipline?

Speaker 2 But one thing I think we can all agree on, you take away a man's. Soft baked, crispy-edged chocolate chip cookies.
I mean, any consequences that come from that, you better be ready for that.

Speaker 1 You understand? Yeah. That's right.
I got a little bit more clarity on it, the entirety of it all. The talks at table is here, Bruce Brown and Ty Schmidt.

Speaker 1 Boston Conner traveled back home alongside Talks. Send positive things to Boston Connor.
He'll be back next week. Ty Schmidt, what a moment there for the program.
And we let off the show.

Speaker 1 We talked about Russell Wilson, Gavin of the Giants. Congrats, Ross.

Speaker 1 Giants fans are saying, let's ride already. Very excited.
Stephon Diggs, 26 million, going to New England. Also huge.
Huge.

Speaker 1 Trey Hendrickson, I guess they're Cincinnati's trying to get a deal done with he. Okay, good luck there.
And then we also said, like, yeah, there's some things that we get to do that are outrageous.

Speaker 1 Talking to him yesterday was an absurd thing. And then watching it back, like, I literally watched it, I think, probably just like everybody else did.

Speaker 1 That's the most I've ever heard out of LeBron ever. And wow, as soon as it ended.
Okay, as soon as it ended, and they filmed an episode of Mind the Game Season 2 with Steve Nash.

Speaker 1 Steve Nash was here too afterwards. We did not know that was happening.
Another legend. We had no idea Steve Nash was going to be here.

Speaker 1 And then all of a sudden, Steve Nash walks in and it's like, holy shit.

Speaker 1 Steve Nash is here. And Steve Nash then,

Speaker 1 I mean, absolutely beat the living shit out of me and Foxy. Okay.
He didn't miss a shot. Didn't miss a shot.
I don't think he missed one shot.

Speaker 1 He said he hadn't shot in 11 years, you know, since he retired. He's in incredible shape.
He's playing tennis every single year.

Speaker 1 He was at the TST. His form was absurd.
He started with a couple warm-ups, you know, and he was like, oh, I don't know. And he rims in.
Okay. First one from like, let's say four or five feet.

Speaker 1 Then he backs up to six feet and then splash. And he

Speaker 1 backs up to seven feet, splash, eight feet, splash, ten, splash, and then he goes back to three splash. And then the game is shooting from all five spots.
Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash.

Speaker 1 Kids come back around. Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash.
It was absurd. And then, you know, Ty, you walked out there and you go,

Speaker 1 It's a multiple time MVP on here. Yeah, yeah, there's levels.
There is. There's levels.
It is a multiple time. So Steve Nash was here.
It was awesome.

Speaker 1 But literally sitting over there, we sat there for probably three, four hours. We were here until about 8 p.m.
last night,

Speaker 1 watching them record, do their thing. They took over.
Shout out to Jason and Uninterrupted. He was a little bossy.

Speaker 3 A little bit, but you got to do that.

Speaker 1 He was a producer. He had to do what he had to do.
And Kevin came through and worked. And, you know, it was great.
But we were chatting over there and we all thought it was pretty surreal.

Speaker 1 And then watching it back, it's like, he was so cool to us. Like, I can't believe he did that.
Now, granted, there's some internet chatter happening about maybe the reasoning on why he did it. Maybe.

Speaker 1 Okay, and there's been a lot of places that have certainly been wanting to chit-chat with LeBron James for a long time like that. And those people are probably going to be

Speaker 1 haters haters of some of the things and how we conducted said conversation. If you would like to ask the questions, do it.

Speaker 1 Get a conversation and have it your way. But everything we talked about, I feel like we addressed a lot of outstanding things.
And he blessed us with a lot of fucking answers.

Speaker 1 And I'm very thankful for that. You know, we've been doing this a long time.
Remember, we're in the back of a box truck down in Louisiana with no air conditioning, 135 degrees. Correct.

Speaker 1 Everything's crashing, but we got to go live. We've been through, that moment is a wild one for us.
And

Speaker 1 I enjoyed the fact that we enjoyed it last night afterwards, yeah.

Speaker 3 And I think we should have because you know, I mean, we were even saying right up to like when, you know, right, hey, we'll believe this when he actually shows up, you know, because like it's happened plenty of times.

Speaker 3 You always talk about hey, we don't really promote stuff for the show because there's a chance like you book someone and then you make a big deal about it, and then 20 minutes before they're supposed to come on, something falls through and it doesn't happen, and then we're kind of just sitting here with our dick in our hands.

Speaker 1 Well, you look like ass.

Speaker 3 Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 3 But for him to come in, and it, I don't know if it really, you know, like you, you could tell in in the interview He literally walked in sat down and we got right into it like there was no preamble like him kind of feeling it out a little bit seeing like oh, okay, so like yeah, people can say what they want about the reasons he decided to to do it here But regardless of that fact like there could have been multiple moments in that when we did it when he was just like Nah, stop like cut that like I don't really want to discuss that.

Speaker 1 I don't really which a lot of people were saying was gonna happen exactly as soon as we announced it There's a lot of people saying

Speaker 1 LeBron's yeah pre-record was like he's in the middle of an NBA season. He's got a game.
Yeah. He's flying in from the West Coast.
Like, there's a lot of moving pieces and a lot of things happening.

Speaker 1 So the fact that he even made time was awesome. Then he added an extra two hours of travel

Speaker 1 to come here to do the entirety of it all. And

Speaker 1 yeah, a lot of people thought I was going to be at it. We ran it.
Yeah. That was.
Exactly. That was literally the entirety of it.

Speaker 3 And that's what a lot of people are saying. Like, you know, why is the audio dropping out? It's like, because he was real.
He was dropping F-bombs.

Speaker 3 Like, he was super, he was super comfortable, which, you know, I just, I don't know, it's crazy.

Speaker 3 Because, like you said, you know, for him to come in and for, you know, like you guys are professional athletes, like that's one thing, but the amount of people that want to talk to him or have opinions about him or have said, you know, out-of-pocket stuff about him, for him to just sit in the pocket there with, you know, me and Connor up here, too, and just whatever.

Speaker 3 I'm going to, I'm going to go with the flow. I'm going to have fun with these guys.
Like, it surpassed my expectations of what it was going to be.

Speaker 3 And, like, I'll remember yesterday for the rest of my life. Like that was insane.

Speaker 1 There were some LeBron haters in the Thunderdome, D. But you know, there were some LeBron haters in the Thunderdome.
And then immediately afterwards, like,

Speaker 1 he did a lot there for us. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He seemed cool too, didn't he? Feeling human. Charming.
Charming.

Speaker 1 I got texts from people that are in the bids.

Speaker 1 This is a fascinating conversation.

Speaker 1 What do you mean a fascinating conversation? Like LeBron was just like kind of, it did feel like LeBron was just hanging.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It literally felt like that.

Speaker 2 It was the most candid that I've seen him. Like I said, I've even seen him on platforms that he owns.

Speaker 2 And obviously he's, you know, probably, they probably have, you know, pre-production and know what they're going to talk about. Like you said, walking in, just sitting down.

Speaker 2 And you know how free-flowing the show is. Like you, you didn't even know necessarily what we were going to ask when you went to us.

Speaker 2 So for him to be that candid in that moment, in the middle of the season, to take the time out, all the things that you mentioned. And he is a person that, you know, with all the...

Speaker 2 deals and things that he has partnerships and things you want to you know protect that in some sense so for him to go into detail and talk about certain things, like it was huge things.

Speaker 2 I know, even like when I asked him about the Bronny thing, like I kind of forgot about Bronny's heart, which that's huge. Like that's a huge thing.

Speaker 2 And for him to even go in detail about that and then why these moments mean even more to him.

Speaker 2 Because you do, we do, you know, especially in the media now, we talk about athletes and sometimes even as former professional athletes, you forget about the human aspect

Speaker 2 side of it, the family side of it. So see him going in detail about that and clear up some other stories.
The cookie story, obviously, a lot of people from home are

Speaker 2 pissed off about Pat Riley and how that all went down. But yeah, it was dope.

Speaker 1 A million dollars on the body. Yeah.
Because he was probably in his head like something more. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's never added it. People are kind of undercutting.
Like, I took a couple of trips, did this. At his stage, 40 years old, you know, he is a physical specimen.
Yes.

Speaker 1 And when he walked, when you forget that, I think, when you see him just on TV, I think you forget that he like almost hits his head on the exit

Speaker 1 when he's walking in here.

Speaker 1 And the pictures, like

Speaker 1 it was funny whenever we lined up for the photo that we showed there, he was like, I'll get in the back. He like looked around and was like, I'll get in the back.
I don't want to block anybody.

Speaker 1 And Gumpy, you know, Gumpy's five foot 10, we'll say. Okay.
We'll do that. He's the one.
10. Yeah, he's the one right in the top.

Speaker 10 It's a very good day, brother.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's 5'5.

Speaker 1 This guy, he is a little fella in his shoes somehow. He got these cute little shoes.

Speaker 1 i mean it is unbelievable it is unbelievable one of the greatest humans and hardest working humans of all time obviously a canadian but lebron literally looks right at him he goes i'll get in the back and gumpy goes oh no it's your show pal and gumpy just pokes his head around there and lebron looks down at him one time and just like shakes his head and it was like uh I assumed that he had never been in a room like what we had, you know?

Speaker 1 And I'm appreciative of him knowing our program because when he sat down, he said, I've seen this place so many times. I had no idea what it looked like, which is what a lot of people say.

Speaker 1 So the fact that he's watched is very cool to think about because as I said at the beginning, like I'm 37, he's 40. So

Speaker 1 I'm a sports guy and I like people that are like, I've always been infatuated with the greats, like always have been. Always want to know what makes the greats great.

Speaker 1 I always want to know how they tick, you know, the work ethic. And there's always going to be things that come along with greats now, you know?

Speaker 1 And if you pay attention to the greats, you'll find those.

Speaker 1 There's always going to be some sort of flaw or offset because you have to sacrifice something to get to a level that nobody else has ever been. So like nobody at the top has ever been perfect.

Speaker 1 Nowadays, everybody's been covered more so.

Speaker 1 Now, even more so than whenever LeBron came out of high school in the early 2000s or whatever, because how much social media is, but his entire life has been documented, you know?

Speaker 1 And it's like for him to, now, granted, he's pissed off people with his politics.

Speaker 1 He's gone public with his politics, which is going to happen anytime you do politics.

Speaker 1 He's taken stances for things that some people think, a portion of people think like this guy shouldn't be talking about this. He has no idea.
But then he's also done like

Speaker 1 so much good. And like the way he worded that is just not wanting to fuck it up.

Speaker 1 That's an interesting, I think that was like the most human thing that I think I've ever heard out of like a Lebron, LeBron, like a LeBron James.

Speaker 1 Like there was an actual fear there, like, hey, there's a lot of stories in the past of people having this type of opportunity and ruining it. I don't want to be somebody that does that.

Speaker 1 That was cool to hear the reason. Like his, that felt like his why, you know? And I don't think I'd heard it before.
And the way he laid laid it out, I was like, there's a reason this guy is the one.

Speaker 1 There is a reason why he's been able to do it. And you look around now, and I don't want to do, like, Paul Skeens feels like a similar, you know, situation with like baseball right now.

Speaker 1 This doesn't happen often, you know, him understanding the assignment he said. He talked about the lottery.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Cleveland.

Speaker 1 Okay. Lottery.
Yeah. Scratch off.

Speaker 1 Migo Mexico. I understood the assignment, you know? And it's like, it takes that, I think, to, and I bet you the league is very thankful for everything, LeBron.

Speaker 1 And it's probably why LeBron has so much sway, you know, amongst players, amongst the league, because he has been it for 22 years. Literally day one, he's guy.

Speaker 2 Yeah, when you talk about expectations, and I know Skeens is a guy, and we've had other, and now with the media that we have, like expectations are larger for a lot of different individuals.

Speaker 2 But to go back to, you know, when he was 16 on the cover of Slam magazine or whatever it was

Speaker 2 His like at that point he was already being compared.

Speaker 2 Okay, is he gonna be the next Michael Jordan and for him to you know live up and surpass those expectations I know you know Lua Sinda Kareem Abduj Bar was before our time But he kind of had those same expectations like before social media was really a thing like LeBron everybody knew who LeBron was everybody expected him to be kind of what he became So I couldn't imagine the pressure it is to kind of live up with that and him growing up You know saying that he you know didn't have have necessarily those role models around him and then to become what he's become and then, you know, be that role model for so many young kids, you know, the young boys in his house, first and foremost, like that's just dope to see.

Speaker 1 $2.5 million was raised in the Boys and Girls Club. Yeah,

Speaker 1 built the school.

Speaker 1 Look at school.

Speaker 2 And people, to your point, people are always going to be, especially people that are viewed on the mountaintop or as the greats, people are always going to be on both sides.

Speaker 2 We speak very, very glowingly about michael jordan now but when michael jordan was in in his heyday a lot of people hated mj too a lot of people spoke on you know his weaknesses or whatnot everybody you go up and down the list it's always going to be people on both sides just like you say it may have been some lebron haters in the building it's definitely lebron lovers in the building as well and that's going to be in every building every barbershop every group chat you're going to have those conversations it's kind of what comes with it when you when you kind of enter that mount rush more conversation not only in basketball but just in sports in general business you name it yeah Human.

Speaker 1 You like everything. When you get to the top of the mountain, a lot more people know you.

Speaker 1 I think, you know, and this is going to sound so

Speaker 1 narcissistic to bring up like our story, but like the more people that know us, you know, and the more people that get introduced to us, like the louder it gets.

Speaker 1 I think, I don't know if it was Herbstreet who told me, he was like, but as you climb up the mountain, the windier it gets. You know, like that is real life and that is how it all is.

Speaker 1 You know, but the height comes a lot of benefit, but the negative is it gets louder too.

Speaker 1 The more people that know you, the more people that are going to like you, but the more people that are definitely going to hate you. LeBron's been known

Speaker 1 by,

Speaker 1 and we talked about it before social media. That was flip phone era.
Everybody remembers him at the WWE, the WWF at the time, I assume, and in the front row with his little flip phone.

Speaker 1 It's like, you didn't need social media to know who the hell LeBron was. The whole world knew who LeBron was.
And the way he has operated, I think he should be incredibly proud of himself. Legit.

Speaker 1 And coming in here, and he's, forever, there's going to be some story or controversy. He's a human, you you know, like things do happen.

Speaker 1 But it's like what he did here for us, I will forever be thankful for. You know, and that was very, very, very cool of him, especially because we're football difficults.

Speaker 1 You know?

Speaker 1 I think we had some good NBA questions in there.

Speaker 2 Big time. I think we did journalism.

Speaker 1 I think we did a little journalism. There's people doing emergency broadcasts right now to respond.
And we're sure they. Yeah, yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 We did expect that.

Speaker 1 In the conversations that we were having there afterwards, as they were filming, there was a lot of like, oh, I wonder if Insert Name here knows that there's something and then oh i wonder if definitely they know they would know that something

Speaker 1 and then oh kind of a ricochet uh ooh like a couple of those yeah but other than that i learned a lot about lebron james and the human he is and uh he's got the pacers tonight on espn and i'll tell you what we facetimed tyrese heilenberg immediately after the conversation and said look out bub yeah look out he's locked in right now just want to let you know they're they're figuring it out and tyre said so are we i don't want to hear you know tyrese doing his uh his thing but it's uh it's nice to get to know these nba dudes so it was great he was uh it was awesome to hear him just as a a human a lot of times like even him bringing up the the finals against dallas or that series against orlando and like saying like hey i those up like that was cool of him to hear and just being a human talking about bronnie and then i love like you talked about i love hearing the greats talk about the greats and like the conversation about him and kobe not being super tight and kind of a rivalry even during those U.S.

Speaker 4 Olympic teams until he became a Laker, until Kobe was retired, like, and then talking about how that's probably what's going to happen with MJ just because, like, him saying, he's definitely tired of seeing me running up and down the court wearing that 23.

Speaker 4 Like him talking about that stuff was just awesome.

Speaker 1 Well, and then in that same sentence, he mentioned, like, since I'm in high school, they've been talking about my name with this guy, you know, so he can see how George. And we all know Mike.

Speaker 1 And even if you don't know Mike, you know Mike. And it was like, oh, I guess we could see how that could be true.
And I wonder if LeBron's going to have to deal with the same. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, whenever it happens. I wonder if he's.
Maybe if there's another one. Well, you know, we can take this over to football because, like,

Speaker 1 Brett to Aaron, Rogers, and then how Aaron wanted to do Jordan Love. Yeah.
I wonder if there will be a way that LeBron, like, for the next, whoever it is, is it Wemby, potentially,

Speaker 1 a vastly different player, but whoever it is next, I do wonder how that relationship will go.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it'd be interesting to see. And these guys.

Speaker 1 How long is this guy going to play for, too?

Speaker 2 That's the first question. But the Michael, and we all know him, you know, just, I would say him and LeBron, just from the outside looking in, are different when it comes to that.

Speaker 2 I feel like, you know. Everything? Yeah,

Speaker 2 a lot of things. A lot of things for sure.
And Kobe was more similar to Michael when it came to that. So I think he'll be more open.
And you mentioned it being around so long.

Speaker 2 Like, he's playing with his son, but he's faced like... I don't know how many players now he's like, oh, I played against your dad.
I played against your uncle. I played against.

Speaker 2 I've coached, you know, Steve Nash. He played against Nash.
He played against Reddick. Like, Reddick has come up after him, retired, went to TV, now become a coach, all while he's still playing.

Speaker 2 So I think he'll definitely have that type of mentor relationship with whoever the next person is.

Speaker 1 Steve Nash and LeBron James, season two of Mind the Game, debuting on Tuesday, April 1st. I do believe it is an Amazon property, but I think you can see and watch it everywhere.

Speaker 1 We talked to Steve Nash off air, and I assume he thought it was off the record, but we're definitely going to say it because it was a great line.

Speaker 1 He said that all the people that didn't think LeBron and Luca were going to work is because they thought that, you know, a star, whenever he's not getting the ball and he's used to getting the ball, can sometimes pat a little bit.

Speaker 1 You know, like that's a real thing that can happen. You know, humans, egos, pride, everything like that could take place.

Speaker 1 So I think the people thought that they weren't going to be able to work because one of them wouldn't be able to buy into the other one being star. Normally, it's like people take turns.

Speaker 1 You know, that is kind of how like that would work.

Speaker 1 And he said instead, it feels like what he's watching is LeBron's taking advantage of the fact that Luca is getting a lot of the attention of being a ball.

Speaker 1 So he's able to do stuff he's never been able to do before.

Speaker 1 Cutting, backdooring, being able to kind of do the off-the-ball shit out that I assume he's been wanting like others to do, you know, like everything that he has maybe wanted.

Speaker 1 And he's fully committed to that. So I think that goes into an even more of a conversation of like, maybe this guy isn't just a prima donna prick, you know, like maybe

Speaker 1 he has been painted into an image that, you know, a couple different things that have happened, people just automatically assume the absolute worst.

Speaker 1 It's like, this dude's willing to give up like his ego in his 22nd year in Los Angeles with him already being a goat for another guy.

Speaker 1 Trade, he wasn't even, if you listen to all reports, he was not talked to about, he talked about how much he likes Anthony Davis, and it's like, he's just like, yep. And he's called J.J.
Reddick.

Speaker 1 What a dickhead.

Speaker 1 So it's like, there's obviously coaching happening. It's like, I feel like I have a much.
different perspective of LeBron after talking to him. And I just keep saying, I can't take him enough for it.

Speaker 2 A lot of people will take shots at him early on. Even

Speaker 2 in high school, like he was always

Speaker 2 more passive. People would say like, hey, you know, take the shot, take the last shot every time.

Speaker 2 I don't care if you double team, don't pass it up to the better shot because that's kind of who he was as a player was, hey, I'm going to be a team player. I'm going to get the best shot.

Speaker 2 I'm going to put my players in the best position to succeed. And people wanted him to be the Kobe who's going to take the final shot, be the MJ who's going to take the final shot.

Speaker 2 So once you're in that position, you're never going to make everybody happy. I feel like he's definitely stayed true to himself, and that's what I also admire.

Speaker 3 Well, to your point, I think he's just at peace with everything now.

Speaker 3 He doesn't give a shit about the

Speaker 3 argument between him and LeBron because when you get to his level, in his head,

Speaker 3 you're never going to win that anyway.

Speaker 3 He probably thinks he's the best of all time. He should.

Speaker 3 It doesn't matter what he does at this stage of his career.

Speaker 3 The Lakers could win the next two NBA finals, and that's not going to sway how anyone who is on the Jordan side thinks anyway. So, like you said, like, he's at peace with it.
It's like, you know what?

Speaker 3 I can put, my resume is signed, sealed, and delivered. Like, it's set in stone.

Speaker 3 So, I can, if it takes me just sitting in the corner and hitting open threes or cutting to the basket and dunking, and I can kind of pass the torch on to Luca to be like the next star of the Lakers, I'm good with that.

Speaker 3 And people are going to say what they're going to say regardless.

Speaker 1 He was awesome.

Speaker 1 Hey, thank you, Brawny. Hey, and Foxy,

Speaker 1 you've been a braun enthusiast, a braun enthusiast your entire life. Yeah.

Speaker 1 As soon as it was over, you admit, oh, man. Dude.
He was a big brawn guy. We were like, that was awesome.
It's so mind-blowing.

Speaker 11 So he mentioned that night in Detroit where he scored 25 points. I was probably 12, 13 years old.
And ever since that night, I'll never forget it. I was like, this is the guy.

Speaker 11 So I've been on this LeBron journey, ups, downs, championships, losing championships, all this stuff the whole time. And countless, countless, countless LeBron Jordan arguments.

Speaker 11 I mean, you have to do that. But to see him in the flesh, like Ty said, didn't know if he was actually going to come.
I didn't want to get my hopes up.

Speaker 11 And then to see him, we do the interview immediately. I couldn't have got out of this seat faster.
Walked out there immediately. Legend dapped him up.
He was so cool. He was so nice.

Speaker 11 I'll literally never forget that.

Speaker 1 Did you guys snap after the dap up?

Speaker 11 No snap from him or me. So we were kind of on the right page there.
That was interesting.

Speaker 1 He dropped that in there out of nowhere, you know, because he's got handshakes for everybody.

Speaker 1 So I didn't know what took. many of them.
I thought this might be your handshake. Yeah, they got this.

Speaker 2 Okay. I didn't get a snap either.

Speaker 1 The rhythm of the snap was something I've never experienced before.

Speaker 1 It was very quick after the, you know, usually there's like a boom and then like a little, like a little, oh, we're doing all boom in there. Instead, it was like.

Speaker 3 He's got those massive hands. They get there just right away.

Speaker 1 You know, boom, big fingers. You know, it's like, well, because he probably doesn't want to take them away.
That's a long trip. Exactly.
You got to get back. Yep.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 huge.

Speaker 1 He's absolutely huge. He had a couple bars in there, too.
Everything becomes Sasquatch,

Speaker 1 I think, was one of the things that he said. It was like, oh, I bet you he explains that about a lot of stories about him.

Speaker 1 How about the two kids, two guys, Caucasian gentlemen,

Speaker 1 who are outside the elevator? Oh, my God. It's LeBron.

Speaker 1 Oh, oh, I didn't.

Speaker 1 What a moment. F-U-K-L-B-J.
He's heard a lot of that throughout his life, and we're thankful that he stopped by. I don't know what the hell we're going to talk about.

Speaker 1 Nobody. There's going to be.
We We would be wasting every conversation that we have right now. For instance, for instance, Trey Hendrickson in Cincinnati might get done.
Oh, wow. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 Maybe. What makes you say that?

Speaker 1 Well, there's been a report, you know, a little latte, Starbucks heir and Starbucks

Speaker 1 jouster. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Basically saying that they're looking to basically complete a sweep of paying all of their players. This has kind of been the MO or the statement coming out of the Bengals since the beginning.

Speaker 1 They said they want to be able to pay Jamar Chase and T. Higgins.
Everybody said that's not possible. Remember, he said ideally we'd keep both Jamar and T.
They did. Congratulations.

Speaker 1 And then as he spoke about, Duke Tobin spoke about Trey Hendrickson, would like to keep Trey Hendrickson here as well.

Speaker 1 Didn't think it would be possible to be able to pay both wide receivers and Trey Hendrickson.

Speaker 1 Didn't think it would be possible to pay one of the wide receivers and Trey Hendrickson and pay the other wide receiver. But now it's being reported that they're going to try to do it.

Speaker 2 So I'm not going to doubt them just strictly because they dunked on me pretty good for not thinking that they'd be able to get both wide receivers done but if they're able to get all three of these guys done they're gonna have to hit on the draft that is gonna have to be the case but other teams have been able to do it yeah but other teams have been able to do it i mean what a lot of the good teams that people always refer to the eagles being one of the examples one of the best i would say the best example of defending super bowl champs is they pay their guys early so they don't you know when you get to this point and now the market jumps up year by year by so much you don't put yourself in this situation and we talk about it all the time when you when you're not on a when you're not with the quarterback that's not in their rookie deal So Joe Burrow has already been paid you paid your two receivers and now you're gonna pay the the reigning sack king right now It's like, hey, it's gonna be a tough time filling out the rest of that roster.

Speaker 2 Maybe bring in the Thunderdome squad. We can get some shit done.
Yeah, yeah, we do got some shit.

Speaker 2 It'll be interesting to see how Duke Duke Tobin gets this done, but obviously he is one of their best players. I'm bummed out to hear this as a Colts fan.

Speaker 2 I was hoping some way, somehow, we got him back with Lou over here with our defense.

Speaker 2 But most importantly, I hope Trey gets his well-earned money because he's been a dog since stepping foot in the league.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Trey's been good to us, obviously. And what he said on our program at Radio Row was kind of the big, like, well, wait a minute.
Are they going to be able to get Trey done?

Speaker 1 Are they trying to get Trey done? And Trey's like, I love Cincinnati, but like, also, at some point, I need to.

Speaker 1 be given what I'm worth. There's been a couple years now where they've kind of extended it.
Hopefully he's able to make his money, get his money.

Speaker 1 And if they're able to keep him in Cincinnati, that's phenomenal work by Deutov. And we'll see how it all goes.
Go ahead, Ty. Well, and ultimately, like,

Speaker 3 are they going to have to meet in the middle somewhere? Because I understand they're trying to get it done. But if they come back to him and they're like, hey, how does $32 million a year sound?

Speaker 3 It's like, well, I'm the reigning sack king and you got guys making $39, $40 million a year. So

Speaker 3 do I need to take a hometown discount? Like, I know he said he loves Cincinnati, but like the proof is still going to be in the pudding.

Speaker 3 Because, you know, is that necessarily fair that because they've already paid those two guys, they want him to stay?

Speaker 3 Like, that doesn't necessarily mean that he should have to take a big big pay cut for what he thinks he's truly worth.

Speaker 1 Okay. I don't know if it's a pay cut or not.
Uh, Russell Wilson last year was getting paid $1 million by the Pittsburgh Steelers and like 36 or 40 or something from the Denver Broncos.

Speaker 1 Yesterday it's announced he signs a one-year, $10 million guarantee up to, or $10.5 million guarantee, up to $21 million in the one year.

Speaker 1 They obviously signed Jameis Winston to a $4 million per year job a week ago or whatever, and they got Tommy Cutlitz in there.

Speaker 1 Day Bull and was obviously on a mission this offseason to get a a veteran quarterback, understanding the situation, especially what has happened over the last couple of years, and understanding that Hardnock's offseason basically showcased the Saquon Barkley decision.

Speaker 1 And then Saquon goes on to be the offense player of the year and MVP, basically, and have the greatest season in the history of any running back. So that's tough.

Speaker 1 But now we got a chance to win. They bring in Russell Wilson.
Let's go to New York Giants football fan,

Speaker 1 Bruce Brown. You guys young Super Bowl or what? I don't know about the Super Bowl.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 1 I'm fired up.

Speaker 12 It seems like Giants Nation is a bit torn. And to all the Giants fans that are upset about us signing Russell Wilson, I would just say, who do you think we are? Like, we tried to get Matt Stafford.

Speaker 12 He stayed home. He didn't want to move across the street.

Speaker 1 100 million guaranteed you guys are going to get.

Speaker 12 Yes, exactly. To come be a New York Giant.
I would imagine we offered Aaron Rodgers much more or at least a few million more than what the Steelers are offering.

Speaker 12 But obviously, he would probably rather be a Pittsburgh Steeler.

Speaker 1 We are what we are.

Speaker 12 And we got to build something here to attract future free agents that might want to come here and just put a respectable season together.

Speaker 12 And I think Russ is a great, you know, first, really second step

Speaker 12 behind Jameis, you know, coming as

Speaker 12 the backup

Speaker 1 towards that goal.

Speaker 12 I think our roster is a lot better than a lot of people, you know, might think, especially on the offensive line end of things. But, you know, still certainly holes to fill and steps to take.

Speaker 12 But I think this is a great first step.

Speaker 12 And, you know, now looking at the draft, we could still go Shador 3 and have him sit behind Russ for, you know, maybe eight, nine games and then let Shador go out there.

Speaker 12 Or we go Travis Hunter, maybe Trey back in, Jackson Dart.

Speaker 1 So okay, here we go. Now we're working.
Now we're wheeling dealing.

Speaker 12 More options on the table for the draft. And, you know, I'm pumped up about it.

Speaker 1 Hey, I love to hear that. And Russell Wilson's post, obviously, he won the Super Bowl there, but they beat the Broncos.
So he says, I know this place pretty well.

Speaker 1 He goes, this is the place where Zito took the top off an RV right on side.

Speaker 12 Yep.

Speaker 1 A lot of people saying he's the first guy to ever be excited to go to Metlife Stadium. See, that's not good.
Place is a shithole.

Speaker 1 That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 Brush is an eternal optimist.

Speaker 1 He is. He loves going to Medlife Stadium.
Metlife Stadium. That quarterback root.
Let's ride. Is he going to let's ride? What do you think it's going to be?

Speaker 1 He didn't do anything with the Steelers, right? Never tried riding at the end of the day. No,

Speaker 1 and it...

Speaker 4 That kind of, maybe that's why he lost the juice in the last half of the season.

Speaker 1 He hopped off the pony. Yeah.

Speaker 4 But fun fact, ESPN Bet came out with their win total for the NFL. Giants are the lowest at three and a half, so they don't believe.

Speaker 1 With Russell Wallace. What was it before? Three and a half.
Yeah, our. So, yeah, Brush changed.

Speaker 12 Obviously, we have our division, then we play the entire NFC North and the Chiefs, pretty much.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 12 the Raiders, Saints, Patriots,

Speaker 1 that's a tough schedule.

Speaker 12 Maybe DeBers.

Speaker 12 Maybe DeBroncos.

Speaker 1 Man, DeBoll, your head coach? Yeah. Looking at this thing going, what did I do? Yeah, what the hell do we do to deserve this?

Speaker 12 They better not be on prime time. That's all.

Speaker 1 They will. They will.
Five straight weeks of it, brothers. Oh, yeah.
Five straight weeks. We're going to be forced to watch it.
Good luck to Russell, man.

Speaker 2 Good luck, Russell.

Speaker 1 Congratulations to Stephon Diggs. Obviously, he has a leg injury.
He secures another $26 million in another proven-it-type contract, which he certainly can and would be able to with Drake May.

Speaker 1 That's a huge deal for New England as we have about a minute here, D-Bud.

Speaker 2 Yeah, good deal for New England. I think a great deal at this point in his career for Stephon Diggs.
He's made a ton of money in his career. He knows what it's like to be a number one receiver.

Speaker 2 And from what I've seen online, at least from Dr. Reef and him and his posts, he looks looks like he's trending in the right direction health-wise.

Speaker 2 So I'm looking forward to Drake May getting another certified weapon on offense.

Speaker 2 This makes the draft even more exciting for what the Patriots to do at the top.

Speaker 1 Oh, Travis Hunter and Stephon Days.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow. That'd be pretty crazy.
But the way those first four picks are going, literally anything can happen right now. Especially with what the quarterback stuff is happening.

Speaker 1 And then there's some Browns quarterback conversation happening. There's a lot going on.
We'll continue to cover it all

Speaker 1 every day that you'll allow us. We can't thank LeBron enough.
It's been LeBron Versation, Wednesday, March 26, 2025 here on ESPN. We roll on on YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, and TikTok Live.

Speaker 1 We'll see you tomorrow. Be your friend, tell a friend something nice that might change your life.
Goodbye. That was a pretty good sign off.
Hell yeah. I felt pretty good about that.

Speaker 1 Nailed it. Felt pretty good about that one.
People are not happy about the muting of the swear words on ESPN. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We should have put on the bottom unfiltered on YouTube.

Speaker 2 They should know it this one.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but a lot of people that do not know a show are watching. A lot of people know LeBron.
They were tuning in. Have you just looked at the amount of followers? He's got a lot.

Speaker 1 I checked that out last night. You know, because we started talking about it, we're like, this is the biggest, this is by far the biggest that has ever been on the program by far.

Speaker 1 Like, Aaron Rodgers is a megastar. Yeah.
Peyton Manning,

Speaker 1 insanely famous. What about Dewey? It's the thing, though.
The Rock.

Speaker 2 Dewey, that's the thing. Like football.

Speaker 2 Obviously, America, but these basketball dudes like James Harden, Steph Curry, like these like U.S., you know, numbers-wise, probably not even the top three when it comes to like actual people.

Speaker 2 Not money-wise, yeah, but soccer, soccer players, same thing. So, yeah, when you get those big-time basketball players, like their brands are so, so wide.

Speaker 2 It's crazy how many people follow.

Speaker 1 We're getting quoted in different languages, obviously. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. And I hope they,

Speaker 1 if they do a lip dub of me,

Speaker 1 I hope it's a good one. I'm sure it will be.
I hope in their language they go, oh, possessed.

Speaker 1 You You know,

Speaker 1 I hope they get it right. Because I've been dying this international road before.
Sure. It was not for a conversation with LeBron James.

Speaker 1 It was for a conversation with Aaron Rodgers during a time where it was a shot, you know. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 he didn't want, he was not. No.
He was never going to. I wasn't getting it.
That was Dr. Aaron.
Not doing it. He consulted with Dr.
Joe Rogan at the time.

Speaker 1 Also, like three other actual doctors. Nobody talks about that.
Had a 500-page report. Boy, I was getting murdered in different languages.

Speaker 1 I mean, just the entire, the entire planet was just burying me. Look at the flappy arms on the guy next to me.

Speaker 1 This fat cell is going to be in a conversation about health. I don't think so.
Jesus. What language is that? And I'm asking the internet to translate.
And I'm like, stop translating, please.

Speaker 1 It was better when it was just a bunch of letters and I didn't understand what I was saying. Let me get out of here.
Let me keep it moving. I assume the same thing here.

Speaker 3 Miles teller saga.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's a whole other animal. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Different languages get

Speaker 1 buried. Swedish tabloids tell me I'm the worst human of all time.

Speaker 1 Let me translate that. This piece, all right.
The Swedes, I think so. Come on, I'm telling you, I think it was them.
I forget who it was, but LeBron here, he certainly. Uh,

Speaker 1 I assume shows are gonna use that for the next uh year, uh, two long time, two years,

Speaker 2 long time.

Speaker 3 Put that in the bank for the next decade, I think.

Speaker 2 Be okay, quotable moment.

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Speaker 13 Big day!

Speaker 1 It has been, and what an honor it has been to be here. The talks at table at Bruce Brown and Ty Schmidt looking fantastic.
Opening day tomorrow. Oh, God, I cannot wait.

Speaker 1 Opening day of the baseball season is tomorrow, Ty Schmidt. And

Speaker 1 I'll let you two Yankees diehards know. Tomorrow on the program,

Speaker 3 Derek Jeter. Oh, my God.
What?

Speaker 3 The captain.

Speaker 1 Holy shit.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I'd take a bullet for Jet any day of the week for the rest of my life.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 you're just saying that would be the day of my life. Yeah, you wouldn't be able to do it every week, but you're saying if a week comes.

Speaker 3 If, like, Jeet's 95 years old living in a nursing home and some like Colombian hitmen in Miami decide, hey, we got to get rid of this guy. And I get wind of it, I'm down there.

Speaker 3 Diff, doof, doof, diff, dif, dif, dif, dififf. I'll take every single one of them.

Speaker 1 For your captain. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Oh, Captain, my captain, yes.

Speaker 1 He'll be on tomorrow. Hell yes.

Speaker 1 What are the storylines? Are the Yankees going to win this year or no?

Speaker 3 Well, see, that's what's kind of tough is because, as you know, the baseball season is so fucking long that, like, there are storylines, but I mean, we are

Speaker 3 nothing matters for the next like month and a half.

Speaker 1 You know what does matter? What's that? Shohei Otani's back on a bump. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Shohei Otani, last year, end of season. Now they would go on to win a World Series and all that.
He was. taking pitching sessions.
You know, never played, never pitched.

Speaker 1 We were hoping that there would be a moment where he would come out and maybe close the game out, whatever it was, because Shohei is obviously a phenomenon.

Speaker 1 This is a one-of-one, an anomaly in every single sense. He's back doing it.
So we got a chance this year we're going to see the Shohei Otani experience.

Speaker 1 You know, people chit-chatted about Babe Ruth was basically the last guy who pitched and hit as well as he did, but inevitably would just go on to hit there.

Speaker 1 Normally, if you're as good of a hitter as Shohei Otani is, we're not wasting any of that. in a chance to ruin it with pitching.

Speaker 1 And if you're as good of a pitcher as you are, Shohei Otani, we're not going to blow any of that with having you hit. So he's the first guy, offense, defense, special teams.

Speaker 1 He's playing every single position on the field.

Speaker 1 And there was a conversation that maybe he would never get back to pitching because how good he did hitting, how much money they paid him, how well the team did.

Speaker 1 This feels like maybe he is going to get back to pitching. And how do the baseball people feel about Shohei Otani's ability to be able to do both of these things?

Speaker 3 I mean, it definitely can. I'm of the thought that

Speaker 3 the Dodgers' pitching staff is so deep, like they went out and got a bunch of starting pitchers so like they don't really need him to pitch per se and I just always worry when a guy has had issues before like it would suck if Shohei does something to his elbow that kind of to the point where like he can't even hit and they lose him for a season and we potentially like start to you know not not saying like what could have been because what he's already done in his career is you know like will probably never be replicated but I just worry because they're so deep like he's unbelievable obviously.

Speaker 3 So it's kind of like, I mean, are we really going to, you know, limit what this guy can do because he's unbelievable?

Speaker 3 But it's also like he is so good at the plate, too, that do we even want to take the risk of him potentially getting hurt? Because we have the best pitching staff in baseball, too.

Speaker 3 We went out and spent a bunch of money on that. Like, they don't necessarily need him to do it, but it's one of those things where it's, you got a guy throwing 100 miles an hour.
He has nasty stuff.

Speaker 3 Like, he, as a competitor, I'm sure he wants to continue to pitch.

Speaker 1 So you two are Yankees guys. Yes, yes.
Okay, as the coastal elitistness has made its way out here to the Thunderdome. And I hate that we're just part of the problem.

Speaker 1 You know, just pushing the agenda of the Yankees. Yep.
Because you know what I heard, Debuck? What's that? Well, the Mets run New York now. I heard those.

Speaker 1 Scott spreading the news.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 3 We'll see. No.

Speaker 1 Gains left yesterday.

Speaker 12 There is no Sinatra at Citi Field, but they did have.

Speaker 1 I saw Jerry Seinfeld there.

Speaker 3 He is a Mets fan. Yes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I've seen him there. I've seen the trumpets there they also got

Speaker 1 he's back the rizzler

Speaker 1 the riser twitter

Speaker 1 there

Speaker 1 was

Speaker 1 it that's it

Speaker 3 the rizzler don't know shit about sports you see his bracket everyone's saying oh no he was four and out oh yeah he picked st.

Speaker 3 johns to win the national championship they didn't even make it to the fucking sweet six wow

Speaker 1 so did this show yeah yeah we did too we bet pretty heavily on that so austin and rizzler seeing the field the same damn way yeah we didn't have yale in the Sweet Six or the Final Four.

Speaker 3 You know, come on, Rizzler.

Speaker 1 He's trying to get patience. He's going to get in package.
He understands. He's working.
He's working a little bit.

Speaker 3 I don't give a shit if the Rizzler's a fan of the Mets because, once again, once we do the blood sacrifice of Big Boom AJ and his son,

Speaker 3 the Yankees are back.

Speaker 2 Big time. Who else got a shot outside of the Yankees?

Speaker 1 Dodgers, Sauce, Red Sox loaded up.

Speaker 12 Red Sox.

Speaker 3 The Phillies will be good.

Speaker 3 The Braves are always tough.

Speaker 1 Pittsburgh Pirates? Yep.

Speaker 3 They could be a dark horse. Yeah.

Speaker 3 pitching staff. They can stay healthy.

Speaker 1 They're pitching staff.

Speaker 3 Yeah, if they can stay healthy, they will be a dark horse.

Speaker 3 Skeens, a lot of people picking him to win Cy Young. So it's, yeah,

Speaker 3 for the first time in a long time, you might be, you know, keeping a close eye on the Pirates.

Speaker 1 Pittsburgh Pirates have to be sent to the state. Some September.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Paul Skeens. Paul Skeens does that to a city, to a franchise, to a team, to a league.
Okay. Paul Skeens is coming there.
Humble.

Speaker 1 I mean, super humble.

Speaker 1 So much moxing. Military, man.
Understands exactly who he is, what he can be. And I think he understands what he means to like the sport of baseball.
Definitely to Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 He gave a promo in a press conference, I think, last week that was like, the city of Pittsburgh deserves our team to be good.

Speaker 1 We're all getting excited about a wildcard win. I think we won a wildcard game a couple years back.
Cuts was on a team leading fans.

Speaker 1 And he was like, the Pittsburgh fans still talk about the wildcard game being the thing. He was like, I respect that.
I appreciate that. But that can't be what the standard is.
Like,

Speaker 1 we need to do this.

Speaker 1 He gave like a motivational speech to the city of pittsburgh love that and i think it's radiated through the pirates kind of organization now the ownership always going to take money okay always going to take the money but i think they're being like publicly forced to kind of do a little bit more maybe and this other hundo boy but jones they feared for the worst turns out he's going to be able to get back the pitching not only skeins they got some pitchers they got some people they can hit look at the pittsburgh pirates with the best ballpark in the damn league about to do the damn thing with paul skeins i cannot wait until we can get skeens and some pitch stripes

Speaker 1 Right?

Speaker 2 I mean, I was just fast. That's

Speaker 2 the thing about this MLB.

Speaker 2 He's got to spend six more years in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 Gotta expect it. He can turn it around.
He can turn the

Speaker 2 franchise around, you know, pitching. What do they pitch? Once every five, seven days? Once every five days.

Speaker 2 I hate that as well. But yeah, I'm wishing you guys the best, but that shit ain't happening.

Speaker 1 You really Marlins look just as bad.

Speaker 2 Probably ten times better. They got the Bacos came on.

Speaker 1 That's why the captain.

Speaker 2 Make sure you guys ask the captain about the Marlins and how shit went down there and why he got yeah, he loves it down there.

Speaker 1 What happened?

Speaker 3 A lot of people say that he was like a sleeper agent for the Yankees and kind of got in there, got rid of all the Marlins' best players, traded him to the Yankees, got kind of set him back like 15, 20 years.

Speaker 5 Fucking got out of Dodge. It's not true.

Speaker 12 He was in a can't win situation.

Speaker 2 It is not true, but that's a lot of people

Speaker 1 dodge.

Speaker 1 Listen to two Yankees fans go, our captain. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. What's another team to work for us? Santon.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it was awesome at the time. Now, you know, John Carlo, Jesus.

Speaker 1 can't use his arms yeah can't use his arms i can't hold a fork he's the most jacked guy in the history of humanity and he yeah yeah can't unzip his pants having trouble because he needs coffee

Speaker 3 surgery on both of his bionic elbows he's got a hammy problem now too he swings the bat like five mile per hour faster than anybody else in major league baseball i think o'neil cruise was like second highest and now he just can't even why what are you talking about his arms hit his body he squeezes the bat so tight that now he can't straighten his arms when he makes that was the report this offseason when he makes contacts he hits it like 10 000 miles an hour and hits a homer like every time he makes contact but when he doesn't he usually strikes out and tweaks something you don't want to see that guy rounded third on his way to home either he's so injury prone that they told him last year not to run fast so he was just jogging around yeah so it's basically like hey if you don't and even like he's too strong yes yes can he not dial it back has anybody talked talked to him and just said, hey, bud, let's.

Speaker 1 He's too strong. Yeah.
That's not true. They tell him not to run.
You can't really put the genie back in the box.

Speaker 3 No, I mean, we're talking hitting bombs out the center field that like tear him off the wall. And like he just, he'll dog the first and just stay there.
Hey, we don't need you legging out a double.

Speaker 3 We don't, God forbid you try to get the third. We don't need you pulling a hammy.

Speaker 1 He's healthy to start this season though. No, no, no.
He can't use cars.

Speaker 1 No, yeah. He literally.
Squeezing the bat down.

Speaker 3 He literally can't pick up a grain of sand right now.

Speaker 1 Hey, Jean, we hope you're okay. We hope you godspeed on the way back.
He just stands. He worked too hard.
He was too strong. Yeah.
Too explosive.

Speaker 12 Was dealing with it in the playoffs and just kept mashing dingers anyway.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 3 Just need him for the playoffs.

Speaker 1 Tortal. He's an absolute damn dog.
And with that being said, all this comes from the amount of hard work he puts in. Yeah.
You know, you don't sleep that fast just because you woke up that way.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Granted, there is a gift, but then he's got to work.

Speaker 1 He's just too jacked, you guys say. Yeah.
You guys have a player that's too jacked on the Yankees.

Speaker 1 You have Aaron Judge. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He was MVP last year.

Speaker 3 Yeah, he's won MVP too too the last three years. A lot of people thinking he may win MVP again because he is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 Season hasn't even started. What are they talking about? Boom.

Speaker 1 Kind of the same thing.

Speaker 3 We think there's a good chance Paul Skeens wins Cy Young.

Speaker 1 We know that's going to happen. So

Speaker 1 Skeens is a favorite. We know Joe Hay is going to pitch and hit, right? That's going to be sweet.

Speaker 1 And we know that inevitably the Pittsburgh Pirates start spreading the news. Yeah.
That they, are they in the same

Speaker 3 as the Yankees? Nah, it'd be in the World Series where they would present you.

Speaker 1 So you guys would have Russell Wilson.

Speaker 3 I believe.

Speaker 3 Holy shit. Yankees, Pirates, I believe, are in town when we're in Pittsburgh for Big Man Out.

Speaker 3 That week, I believe the Yankees are in town.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 So we'll try to make that happen for sure.

Speaker 3 That would be sweet.

Speaker 1 You think Russ plays or no?

Speaker 3 I'll tell you what, we need a third baseman.

Speaker 4 That's what I'm saying. He lives in New York now.

Speaker 1 Utility guy.

Speaker 4 He can do this finally.

Speaker 1 This is something. Maybe this is why he chose the Giants.
You know, maybe there's conversations elsewhere and now he can put it on. I don't think there was confidence elsewhere.

Speaker 2 Has been done since his prime.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 2 I saw on the internet, you guys have been above now since he signed with the girls. So there were conversations.
I don't know what you're privy to.

Speaker 1 You're buying and way behind.

Speaker 4 I'm privy to that the Steelers did not want Russell Wilson back. He wanted to be a Steeler until he said, well,

Speaker 4 Giants are really the only team left that wants me.

Speaker 1 So when you say the Steelers didn't want him back, that's the fans you're talking about? No.

Speaker 4 I'm talking about the organization, the fans.

Speaker 1 Jeez.

Speaker 1 I mean, Caboli wanted him back, it seems.

Speaker 12 Scored too many points against Bengals, and Artie Smith said, hey, stop audible at the line of scrimmage. Tone it down.
I don't think that's it. Hand it off to Naj.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about the Steelers quarterback situation. You know,

Speaker 1 the Ohio State Pro Day is happening. Mike Tomlin, Omar Khan, and Arthur Smith all in attendance.
Guess who they're watching? The running backs. Of course.

Speaker 1 And also

Speaker 1 national champion quarterback Will Hyde, who's being compared to seven. Big Bang Bang Rollers.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he is.

Speaker 4 Yeah, they went to dinner last night with two running backs, Trayvon Henderson, Quinshaw Jutkins, and a quarterback, Will Howard.

Speaker 1 Love that. Where'd they go?

Speaker 4 Somewhere in Columbus, probably Chop House. Probably Urban's Chop House.

Speaker 1 Nobody was dancing.

Speaker 1 Nobody wanted to dance for.

Speaker 4 Stayed away from him. But no, they took those three to dinner last night, it was reported.
A huge pro day today.

Speaker 4 They've brought running backs in. They're going to bring both those running backs from Ohio State, I believe, in for a top 30.
And it feels like Will could be on the board.

Speaker 4 And I'm pretty pumped about that. I'm down to two quarterbacks that I would potentially want for this draft.
Number one is Jackson Dart. Number two is Will Howard.

Speaker 1 And if it is anyone other than that, I'll be pissed.

Speaker 1 Quinn? Huh?

Speaker 4 How was Quinn? Quinn's a good guy. He's got a great arm.
He's got Moxie.

Speaker 4 He's not a Steelers quarterback.

Speaker 1 What team is Quinn Ewers good for, you think? It's not the Steelers.

Speaker 4 Like a McVay offense, like a KOC type offense.

Speaker 1 Dolphins?

Speaker 1 Great with the fence. That's what you're talking about.
Yeah. Pittsburgh Steelers, we got play action.

Speaker 5 We got to be a big boy.

Speaker 4 We are in the AFC North. We were driving the ball through the wind.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, we're driving.
Now, Will Howard's going to have to throw the ball today.

Speaker 1 Like most pro days,

Speaker 1 nothing bad can happen. Right? Most pro days.
It's like, hey, this is

Speaker 1 a choreographed

Speaker 1 workout. Exhibition.
This is a routine, basically, that has been practiced.

Speaker 1 But with what happened at the combine, the way people were talking about that, Will Howard should throw the ball well today to his people that he don't know.

Speaker 1 He will throw the ball well, but also like kind of has to. Yeah.
Yeah, I think, like, kind of, and if he does, I think he quiets a lot. That happened from the combine.

Speaker 1 But if he has a day, like, I think the NFL posted Quinn Ewers throwing a duck.

Speaker 4 Did you see that? They did. They posted a bomb, and then they said, look at the gun.
And it was, I mean, it went far, but it didn't was not a spiral.

Speaker 1 That was a wobble. That was safety corner.
We talked about that. That was literally all night.
We talk about this all the time. A social media person just sent Quinn Ewers into a fire.

Speaker 1 Like, literally into a fire. Didn't know ball in that moment.
Like, yeah, traveled far, but that thing, that looked bad. I think Quinn Ewers did not win from that particular clip.

Speaker 1 But nonetheless, they say Quinn is a guy and can spin. We all agree that he can.
But Pro Day, I think, matters more now. Yeah, they posted.
Oh, shit. I mean, that's a long throw.
That's a long throw.

Speaker 1 It looked like a bunch of people.

Speaker 2 I didn't know it was that.

Speaker 1 Did you see it?

Speaker 2 No, this is. I didn't know it was that award.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Especially with the white backdrop. I mean, it looks like it was a punt, you know?

Speaker 1 It got there, I guess.

Speaker 2 You know, Payton used to throw some ducks that got there.

Speaker 1 There were a lot of touchdown walls. Exactly.
As long as they get there. Yeah, you're right.
I agree. But who knows if he's throwing every ball like that or if that's just the one ball.

Speaker 1 Texas put out another deep throw that was a nice pretty spiral. Yeah, because Quinn has that.
Oh, yeah. You know, he's got that.
Quinn's got a good ball, good release.

Speaker 1 Will Howard, though, I think needs to show that he can throw the NFL ball, I think, personally.

Speaker 2 Big, big pro day for him.

Speaker 2 Obviously, we talked about, we talked to him after the national championship, so he didn't go to the senior bowl to compete and throw throughout that week in in front of evaluators and coaches so big big pro day for him uh one of his receivers also ibuka ran uh he ran a pretty good time i think he would probably sneak into that uh first round running the 4-4 so uh big big day for those buckeyes uh we're getting some footage here this is from chase brown at chase a brown underscore we'll hire the brandon innish

Speaker 1 and that is in a

Speaker 1 bucket.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Big boy throw. Tight spiral there too.
You know, we were actually in a room that was right over attached to this facility that has like 10 recliners,

Speaker 1 six TVs. It's that window up there.
Yeah, it's right on the.

Speaker 11 Yeah, right. There's a basketball court down there.
Very kind.

Speaker 1 And there's trophies from the 1910 all the way through now. Yep.

Speaker 1 Littered through that building. They have a showcase room that has, I don't know, a thousand trophies.
Give or take? A thousand trophies? That's my quarterback. That's why I went.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's a hell of a ball. That's a big deal for Will Howard, man.

Speaker 1 Especially, like, the only reason why I know that is because how loud I was about Will Howard after watching his playoff run from the sideline and being like, this is a guy. He's big.
He can run.

Speaker 1 His teammates like him. He's making all the biggest plays in the biggest moments.

Speaker 1 I mean, third and 11, I understand Jeremiah Smith's wide open, but still got to make the play in the national championship to win the game he did.

Speaker 1 How much football he has played has been something that a lot of people talk about over the last couple of years for rookies. How much ball do they play in college? He played a lot of football.

Speaker 1 So I was a big fan. I was very loud about, hey, why is nobody talking about Will Howard? Love the Cam Ward conversation.
Love the Shador Sanders conversation.

Speaker 1 Jackson Dart came into the convo a little bit more. We were missing out on that, I think, as well.

Speaker 1 But I just wanted to know why nobody was talking about the national champion, Will Howard, who just had a run that was phenomenal.

Speaker 1 I know he's throwing two great wide receivers, but he was putting the ball in places. And when the lights were the brightest, he played his absolute best.
So I thought, this is a guy. This is a guy.

Speaker 1 And then the combat happens. Everybody's like, just like we fucking said.
Nobody's talking about him. Today can change all of that.
And I think when draft comes, somebody's going to love Will Howard.

Speaker 1 I think somebody's going to love Will Howard.

Speaker 4 Agreed. And you saw what Hall of Fame quarterback, you know, quarterback guru, guy knows quarterback.
Kurt Warner said that was the greatest four-game stretch he's ever seen in his entire life.

Speaker 1 No, I think he said it the season.

Speaker 1 I don't think he said it your entire life. Maybe.
He said any quarterback from the entire season, I think. Well, okay, well, he might have said, but it was, he said it was great four games.

Speaker 1 Well Well, hey, Will. Well,

Speaker 1 oh, so you think Will Howard's going to the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Speaker 4 Science he'll deliver. He's ours.

Speaker 1 Okay, because they went to dinner last night, yeah.

Speaker 4 And they're just standing right behind him saying they're basically running his workouts.

Speaker 1 Oh, so you say it's like whenever Urban Meyer was with Trevor Lawrence, yeah, and when the Chicago Bears are with Caleb, yeah, you're saying like this is uh, this has been decided.

Speaker 1 See, hey, picture this: this QB room: Rogie,

Speaker 14 the goatee, Mason Rudolph, and Will Hyde, Will Howard.

Speaker 4 Rejuvenated.

Speaker 1 Go win the Super Bowl. Win the Super Bowl.
And then you got the future, right? Years to come. Will hired.

Speaker 1 I think he'd be a good Pittsburgh Steeler, too.

Speaker 4 I think he would, too.

Speaker 1 He was throwing 11 o'clock at night in parking lot cold.

Speaker 4 Oh, he likes to throw to good wide receivers? We got him.

Speaker 1 You do.

Speaker 1 And one changes number because the other one's going to wear the other number.

Speaker 1 Everybody thought maybe that wouldn't be a tandem or duo. It sounds like it might be.

Speaker 4 14 is GPs. That's his legacy.
I'll make mine in four. That's what DK Metcalf said.

Speaker 1 After getting paid $30 million a year

Speaker 1 for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Rich Eisen mentioned it to Cam Hayward.
It's a great take.

Speaker 1 If we were told you 13 years ago that the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to pay $30 million a year to a wide receiver that has never played for the Pittsburgh Steelers before, what would you say?

Speaker 1 And Cam Hayward was like, we just, we know. We know that it's time.
So we got a lot of vets here. They're trying to change it.
They're trying to attack it. They're trying to go get it.

Speaker 1 That's why the Aaron Rodgers conversation is so loud because it's like you listen to any player talk about aaron rodgers and they say yeah would be able to go win right now if aaron rodgers you listen to media people talk about aaron rodgers they say is it worth the poison by all that that's that's how media and a lot of fans uh you know think that as well but you listen to any player it's like you get aaron in here game's going to be better like that's just how it's going to go Minnesota still in the game with Aaron Rodgers?

Speaker 1 Really? The Pittsburgh Steelers still in the game? I don't know.

Speaker 1 That's what Quasi, who's the general manager for the Minnesota Vikings, had a press conference today, and he was asked about Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 1 And he said, I never want to be 1,000% on anything, or yada, yada, yada. But then, yeah, here it is.

Speaker 1 Vikings GM Quasi, Adofo Mensa, confirmed Coach Kevin O'Connell talked with Aaron Rodgers and that Rodgers was a consideration. A player like him is always going to be in those conversations.

Speaker 1 But from our delineations at that time, we're happy with where we are going forward. Obviously, the caliber of player he is, it had to be a part of our conversation.

Speaker 1 Then Adofo Mensa added, right now, we're happy, right now is a big one. We're happy with our quarterback room.
On J.J.

Speaker 1 McCarthy, he said, at every checkpoint, whether it was the draft process or practice until the injury or the offseason now, he's met the bar. So at right now and

Speaker 1 delineations at the time, you know, it's like we talked about it. We certainly did.
We moved on.

Speaker 1 But never says, absolutely not, because I guess there is a moment in time where it could happen and you don't want to ever have to put your foot in the mouth or have one of those moments.

Speaker 1 But it's like, is Aaron just waiting on Pittsburgh Steelers and potentially retirement? Is there another team that we haven't heard about potentially that Aaron wants to? What is going on, you think?

Speaker 1 And people are going to ask us to tell them.

Speaker 1 I have no fucking idea.

Speaker 1 I have reached out.

Speaker 1 We are in the dark.

Speaker 1 But also, we understand that he's got a lot going on, probably mentally, thinking about everything, how it was the last couple of years, what his career was, how Green Bay ended, what he's accomplished, how much money he's made, his

Speaker 1 philanthropy that he's doing. Obviously, he's award-winning and giving back his experiences.

Speaker 1 We all know he likes to travel, get out of the country, go do stuff we never heard of, and everything like that. So I wonder what all is being contemplated right now.

Speaker 2 I mean, the graphic that was just up said, then there was two, but obviously that was probably put together before the Russell Wilson signing in New York. So

Speaker 2 I can't think of another place outside of Pittsburgh where he'll end up. I know Questie, you know, didn't really speak in like

Speaker 2 absolutes, but it kind of feels like that's J.J.'s job. J.J.
McCarthy, you know, I saw him yesterday on my timeline draining a big clutch putt.

Speaker 2 Saw 10-0 talking about how just impressed he's been with his presence around

Speaker 2 out there in Mexico. So I think it's J.J.'s job.
He drafting the top 10. He was obviously, look at this.

Speaker 1 Look at this, but what a read. Wow.

Speaker 2 I got a little Billy Ho in him. Good guy.

Speaker 1 That was good.

Speaker 2 Stans was interesting, but he got the job done. But I think they'll start that clock with J.J.
McCarthy and see if that's really their guy for KOC and the Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 1 Excited to watch it. And

Speaker 1 the thought of J.J.

Speaker 1 McCarthy being the starter for that Vikings team it's like welcome to the nfl and you're this is a good situation and jj mccarthy in good situations has performed very well yes delivered he has always delivered high school i think he did college he obviously did dropped in as a freshman then he gets given the job over another quarterback who took michigan to the college football playoff like in real time so he's always been a guy and you listen to like herb street talk about him you listen to other people talk about him they're like

Speaker 1 he's he's a guy and he needs to be talked about as if he's a guy It's like, all right, I'm excited to watch if that's the case, especially with Kevin O'Connell.

Speaker 12 Big time. I mean, it is a lot like Will Howard coming out.
Like, he had that run to win the national championship. I think the one thing that he might be ahead of Will Howard is on the accuracy side.

Speaker 12 Like, he's always, you know, kind of putting it where he wants it, at least in the college game and what we saw in the preseason. I'm excited for him to get this opportunity.

Speaker 12 I personally believe in J.J. McCarthy and think that he will win at the NFL level, especially with all the talent around him.
What about like backup and all that, though?

Speaker 12 Like, are they looking for a veteran anywhere?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Didn't Tannehill's name was? Yeah, he was.

Speaker 4 When you were in Glasgow, we talked about it a bit with.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Schultz saying,

Speaker 1 Schultze saying that Ryan Tannehill's name, they've checked in on him. It's like,

Speaker 1 where'd Flacco sign? Nowhere. He hasn't yet.
He was with the Giants for a second. He visited.

Speaker 1 I mean, Flacco with Kevin O'Connell. Brissette son? Jacoby?

Speaker 1 Where did Jacoby sign?

Speaker 2 No Jacoby's still free agency. Okay, I remember it was Conversation.

Speaker 1 Yeah, wasn't there like seven? Yeah. No, New England, right?

Speaker 4 No, that's Dobbs and Josh Dobbs.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And Milton.

Speaker 1 Jacoby, where was Jacoby?

Speaker 1 Wasn't there link? Was it Colts?

Speaker 2 He was linked somewhere and had conversations somewhere. I've just

Speaker 1 Cardinals.

Speaker 1 We just pulled some things up. I guess the Cardinals.
Was it the Colts?

Speaker 10 He signed with the Cardinals.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. Okay.
Okay.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I thought we talked about him, Johnny.
What was that? Cruise signs with the Cardinals.

Speaker 1 That must have been in that week, Free Agency Week. Must have been.
Go down, scroll down.

Speaker 1 March 11th.

Speaker 1 Yeah, two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 We should have known this. Hey, Jacoby, we appreciate you, man.
Good luck everybody in Arizona.

Speaker 1 Beautiful city over here.

Speaker 1 Beautiful. Phoenix.

Speaker 1 What a place. Okay, Russell's there.
Stefan's there. LeBron Versation's out.

Speaker 1 Trey Hendrickson.

Speaker 1 TGL, Billy Hoe. Yeah.
Billy Hoe in Atlanta. Atlanta.
Big Putt.

Speaker 2 Congratulations.

Speaker 2 Got a championship. Yeah, he did.

Speaker 1 That was awesome. You know, congrats to them.
They had their championship.

Speaker 1 Now, we don't know how the ratings did throughout the entire season, but we do know whenever there's big moments and a big play is made, we will celebrate the hell out of that.

Speaker 1 Look at that celebration. First ever TGL champion.
Are you not entertained? Love the juice. Are you not? I'm the fucking guy.

Speaker 1 Congratulations to Atlanta getting getting a huge win. What a putt.
Yeah. You know, you never do that on an outdoor, in actual golf.
You know, you never have a full throw and a hat toss.

Speaker 1 I'm the fucking guy, you know, anything like that. It feels like in that arena, in that setting, there is a little bit more juice, a little bit more electricity.
You watch every single week.

Speaker 2 Not every single week.

Speaker 2 You watch every single day.

Speaker 1 And look, every single week.

Speaker 2 It's tough to keep up because they change, you know, days of the week and the times. But I'll tell you what, when it was like, you know, random Tuesday night or even last night, like it was electric.

Speaker 2 I think this is

Speaker 2 kind of what golf needed, a part of what golf needed. Obviously, we need the best players playing against the best players more often.

Speaker 2 But for this to be something, especially for somebody that's new to golf, you know, I've only been watching it and playing it for two years.

Speaker 2 Like, just the pace that they play, you talk about the personality, seeing more of their personalities, more the juice, more shit talk, you know, seeing because obviously these guys all know each other.

Speaker 2 So, the way that they talk, but most importantly, the pace of playing in the moments, you know, the heightened moments, the people in the crowd. I think it'll continue to grow.
This is the first year.

Speaker 2 I'm sure the ratings, you know, up, they've been probably down since that Tiger-Rory matchup.

Speaker 2 But I think if they get a schedule and we know the teams and the plays, I think it'll find some legs for sure.

Speaker 1 I was just reminded, you know, Billy Hoe drains that massive putt from the big moment to, you know, kind of put a stamp on the end of that TGO first season.

Speaker 1 Do you know that Billy Hoe had Ty Schmidt blocked on Toronto? Oh, I forgot. Long time.
Yeah. Long time.
Forgot. What? Years.
What happened? This was a year. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Billy Hoe got beat?

Speaker 1 I think Ty's tweet was that he always pisses Dinah's leg in the big moment like that.

Speaker 3 In the big moment.

Speaker 1 Did he block it? He blocked it. Oh, yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 With the quickness. He said, I don't got time for this shit today.
Fuck this guy. And, you know, rifley super, but we put that to bed.

Speaker 1 And then you put it to bed when he came on the show. Yeah.
But him making that massive part right there.

Speaker 1 Nick, Nick obviously was at the back going, hey, do you remember Billy Ho had Ty blocked for saying he always jokes or whatever? And then literally I was remembering you guys did put that to me.

Speaker 1 We did. We put the unblocked, right? He did unblock me.
Okay.

Speaker 2 He was kind of telling me, you know, some of his story, so I became even more of a fan of Billy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, blue-collar dude. Blue-collar golfer.

Speaker 3 Well, I didn't know any of that stuff either at the time. You know, I just figured, oh, this is a prep school rich prick.

Speaker 1 Fuck, I hate this guy.

Speaker 3 Fuck this guy. And then he comes on the show and it's like, you know what? I shouldn't have been hating this guy.

Speaker 1 May 21st, 2017, Ty Schmidt says,

Speaker 1 Hey, Riggs, what are the odds old Billy Hoe ships down his leg and chokes down the stretch today? Simple question. Six retweets at the time.
Simple question. quits.
19 likes.

Speaker 1 Billy Ho saw it and said, fuck this guy.

Speaker 1 Bingo. I think Billy Ho bookmarked him.
He might have. He might have.
They were able to put it to bed, though. I love it.
And by the way, Billy Ho,

Speaker 1 complete opposite last night. Yeah.
Championship putt. Yeah.
Good for him. Yeah, he was good on the show.

Speaker 1 Because that was whenever Liv was making massive offers for people. Yes.
And he stayed with PGA. And we learned his story.
He was like, hey, you're like a blue-collar dude. Like,

Speaker 1 $100 million.

Speaker 1 And he talked about like legacy wanting to play in the best tournaments and everything like that like loves the game i think very appreciative of the game so him having that moment last night was dope that was cool i haven't i haven't followed his close because to your point

Speaker 11 when's it on you know like when was it on foxy probably watched a little more than me he watched yeah so the issue is we didn't know when it was on and then if you guys remember at the beginning of the season All of them were blowouts.

Speaker 11 The first like three weeks, it wasn't even a close match every single time. And what they did is they changed the hammer rule before

Speaker 11 the hammer went back and forth, and like it didn't really do anything. Then they changed it mid-season to where each team got three hammers and it changed everything.

Speaker 11 Every match after that was very close, exciting. I enjoyed it, but to your point, it was very hard to find.
Sometimes it was on ESPN 2, sometimes it was at 9 o'clock, 7 o'clock. It was very random.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there were moments which I think all you're looking for

Speaker 1 in sports.

Speaker 1 I'm not going to get into it. Now's not time.

Speaker 1 It's a great day here. It is a great day.
It's a great day.

Speaker 1 I know what you're going to say.

Speaker 1 I'm bummed out about it, too, to be honest. They throw Matt Berry

Speaker 1 in just one man that thing. What sport have you ever seen just one person up in a tower being able to just like very difficult task? Impossible.
You're voting Matt Berry in the terrorist.

Speaker 1 Then they had Marty Dunn. I'm not getting into it all, but I think there's a lot of opportunity with TGL.
I hope they continue to do it. Like, I hope that is the case.

Speaker 1 And I hope they, like you said, they changed the hammer rule. They changed, like, I think they were trying to figure it out too throughout the season.
So good luck to all parties down there.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 EGL.

Speaker 1 Ovechkin's only six goals away from catching Wayno and breaking Wayno's record. How many games are left, Nick?

Speaker 14 I believe he has 11 left for him to be able to pull this off.

Speaker 1 11 games left. Needs to score six after scoring another goal.
Alexander Ovechkin, an absolute dog. goes by Ovi and also is going to be remembered as the greatest goal scorer in the history of the NHL.

Speaker 1 Has to score six more times in 11 games.

Speaker 1 For people that don't follow hockey, yes, that would be a very impressive run.

Speaker 1 And yes, he would be able to accomplish that. He's already had a couple of those runs this season.
A lot of people thought him catching this record would take multiple years.

Speaker 1 And instead, he just showed up and just scored basically every single game that he played to start the season. Then he was out for a couple of weeks, and then he got right back into ripping net.

Speaker 1 And this is history in the making. Wayne Gretzky, obviously, the greatest of all time.
He has the most goals in the history as well. And then assist as well.
So he just was great at everything.

Speaker 1 Ovi will go down as the greatest goal scorer of all time. And six goals from now, it'll be justified.
Nick, how is everybody kind of covering? This Capitals also number one in the East, too, right?

Speaker 1 I mean, their team also going to go on and win this whole damn thing potentially.

Speaker 14 Yeah, and it's crazy because this has kind of overshadowed the team's success. Not in a negative way, but the team is dominating.

Speaker 14 They are cruising through this regular season, and it reminds you of the Capitals teams of old. They always finish first.

Speaker 14 They get these president's trophy runs, and they had these early bowouts in the playoffs. But this team feels different.
They're inspired by this OV magical run here.

Speaker 14 And if he pulls this off this season and then they go into the playoffs, they're going to be really hard to beat.

Speaker 1 Tom Wilson, still on their team?

Speaker 14 Yeah, still a menace. Still a problem.

Speaker 1 Tom Wilson's always. It's a problem.
Tom Wilson's a problem. Just a dog.
Always has been. So handsome, too.
Yeah. Just like so, so handsome.
And then just,

Speaker 1 well, I hate that guy if you're on any other team. But if you're the Capitals, got to be the most beloved player, probably in their building.
I mean, Ovie, I would assume, after everything he's done.

Speaker 1 But Tom Wilson has to be beloved by that entire place. He's a problem.
He's a menace. And he'll stick this right in your ear hole.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 Little chicken wing.

Speaker 1 And you'll have to rethink about that for the entire game.

Speaker 1 What was it, the fight?

Speaker 1 Who was the full fight? Was it the Capitals? Or was it the Bolts? Who was the team that

Speaker 1 Rangers maybe or the Islanders? It was Rangers.

Speaker 4 It was the Rangers and somebody. It was definitely the Rangers.

Speaker 12 They all dropped Mets right at the start.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they had to fight. Remember, something happened.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I think Tom Wilson was just embarrassing our entire franchise, so we just took a stand and dropped the Devils and Mitts all at once.

Speaker 1 Who was it? Devils and the Rangers. Okay, so it wasn't Tom.
So it was Devils and Rangers.

Speaker 14 No, that happened with the Devils and the Rangers. This also happened with the Capitals and the Rangers because of Tom Wilson, what he did to the Breadman or Temmy Panerin.

Speaker 1 Okay, so I'm remembering that.

Speaker 14 And then, you know, guys just kept lining up, and he kept knocking them down.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, it turned into a Tom Wilson show.
Yeah. When really it was supposed to be a get back by the Rangers.
Yeah. And everybody just had to be like,

Speaker 1 I got to go fight this guy.

Speaker 12 They went and signed Ryan Reeves, like a big enforcer dude, just to combat Tom Wilson. And then they built Rempey in a lab so now we're good forever.

Speaker 1 How's Rempey doing? Hasn't been a lot of Rempire State Building conversations.

Speaker 12 He's trying to play real hockey, you know, like pass the puck, shoot the puck, stand in front of the net, and, you know, maybe deflect it in a little bit.

Speaker 12 But he still gets penalties just for being gigantic. He'll just be skating around, minding his own business.
Maybe his elbow gets up a little bit and he just nails somebody right in the mouth.

Speaker 12 And then he gets, you know, suspended for eight games and shit. So

Speaker 1 he's working through it.

Speaker 12 He's got to get the target off his back a little bit more, I'd say.

Speaker 1 That's never going to happen because how we got introduced to him, and I think a lot of people are introduced to hockey maybe for a while, is that this guy in Madison Square Garden, since he's beginning of being a Ranger, would stand in the middle of MSG and he would throw bombs at people.

Speaker 1 And it was like, we love this guy. He was a great fighter.
He was built for it. He's big.
And a lot of attention was drawn to him.

Speaker 1 So that got every other fighter on every other team go, oh, you're the oh, the Rempire State Building, huh? Okay, I know you had a fight last night. Well, guess what?

Speaker 1 There's another one coming tonight. And it became must-watch, must-see.
And I haven't heard about as much of it this year. Makes sense.
He doesn't want to just be known as the face mask whacker guy.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, he just can't be, you know, in the penalty box, giving up power plays every time he steps out there.

Speaker 12 Also, I think he spent this offseason like actually just boxing and like fighting.

Speaker 1 All the fighters do that.

Speaker 12 Yeah, yeah. So now I think people are a little wary about trying the young lad.

Speaker 1 Let's understand, though, that there is still one name synonymous with greatness in the NHL.

Speaker 1 And although the team might not be having his best year, Sidney Crosby's still doing it. 37 years old.

Speaker 1 Pittsburgh Penguin legend. First in the NHL in 5v5 score.
So whenever everything's fair,

Speaker 1 balanced. He's better than everybody.

Speaker 1 Did you know that? Of course I did. No.

Speaker 1 You haven't been talking about it enough. Two points away from a record-breaking 20th point per game.
Season. Are you kidding me? Close to 57% from the face-off dot.
What?

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 2 57%.

Speaker 4 A little respect, e-button.

Speaker 1 That's right. Are you shitting me? Yeah, like fine wine, they're saying here at Bleacher Report, which we couldn't emphasize more.

Speaker 6 Oh, that's what we should have.

Speaker 4 We should ask LeBron, hey, maybe put some money into the pens.

Speaker 1 Penway Sports Group. Next time.

Speaker 1 Will there be a next time?

Speaker 1 Fascinating question.

Speaker 2 You guys still packing out the house?

Speaker 1 Yeah. That's it.
The Penguins? Yeah. Sell it every night.

Speaker 2 It was the last highlights we shoot.

Speaker 1 Don't you worry.

Speaker 1 They got a lot of draft picks. It's going to be big offseason.
Oh, draft picks every day. You can trade those picks for players.

Speaker 1 Okay, you need to stop. Yep, I said it.
It's big night out, and they're still filling it up.

Speaker 10 They're still filling it up. Another late season meld by the Red Wings, unfortunately.

Speaker 11 We stink. We just keep losing and losing and losing.
They get our hopes up. They say, we're making the playoffs.
First time since like 17.

Speaker 11 The first 23 years of my life, the Red Wings made the playoffs every single year. It's one of the longest active streaks in any sport ever.
And then they haven't made it since.

Speaker 1 back since and now they fucking they're not gonna make it again because they keep losing it's it's insane yes we're back remember stevie is stevie eiser stevie wise

Speaker 11 people are getting sick of it i love him so he can stay as long as he wants they fired the coach like really early in the season and then they they went on this run they won a million games games in a row, and then they stink again.

Speaker 1 Oh, so hockey town is currently floating around.

Speaker 11 It's terrible. But

Speaker 1 where's it at right now? Washington, I guess. Yeah, maybe the Bruins.

Speaker 2 Oh, no, still down there.

Speaker 1 The Bruins are horrendous.

Speaker 1 What are you saying? South Florida?

Speaker 2 Yep, Atlantic Division, Atlantic Ocean, right down there in that area.

Speaker 10 Not without Chuck E. Cheese.

Speaker 1 There are some rumblings.

Speaker 14 Brad Marchand will make his debut for the Florida Panthers on Friday.

Speaker 1 Oh, whoa. He hasn't played yet?

Speaker 14 No, he's been hurt.

Speaker 1 I thought I saw him skating on Boston's ice

Speaker 1 immediately after you.

Speaker 14 He just had like a skate with the boys just practicing, warming up and stuff.

Speaker 1 Oh, so he has not played for he has not played yet. Oh my, they said he jumped into group chat and just started roasting people.

Speaker 1 What he does,

Speaker 3 classic Marshie.

Speaker 1 Is that you saying you guys are hockey tongue?

Speaker 2 Yeah, right now.

Speaker 1 Hockey Beach. Yep.

Speaker 1 Everyone calls me hockey beach. I like that.
Visit. Beach is pretty sweet.

Speaker 1 Going down to Hockey Beach down there. Sunrise, Florida.

Speaker 2 Is that the Florida?

Speaker 1 Yep. How's that going? Miami? Lauderdale? Yep.
Sunrise?

Speaker 2 Sunrise is kind of in Sunrise will be like

Speaker 1 Carmel, Lawrence, you know, in Indianapolis. Oh, Lauderdale?

Speaker 2 So Fort Lauderdale would be Indianapolis. Caramel would be like Sunrise.

Speaker 1 Miami's down at the bottom. Miami's at the bottom.
Fort Lauderdale upright?

Speaker 2 Yep, that's Broward County. So that's Fort Lauderdale.
Let's say Hollywood, like Fort Lauderdale Airport. Okay.
In between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Okay.

Speaker 2 So Miami, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, then let's say like Boca.

Speaker 2 Palm Beach. Here we go.

Speaker 1 Jupiter. And it's in Sunrise.
So it is still. So it's a little west.

Speaker 1 South Florida. Yes.
It's kind of the

Speaker 1 ownership group. Exactly.
So if you look in Port Lauderdale, Pompado Beach, kind of that area, and just head a little west.

Speaker 2 Sunrise, right? So you head west, yep. Yeah, I got it.

Speaker 1 Okay. And that's hockey town.

Speaker 2 That's hockey town.

Speaker 1 Hockey Beach. Hockey Beach.
Well, it's inland, brother.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So they just hopped on Sunrise Boulevard, took it all the way east, and then you run right into Elbow Room.

Speaker 1 I miss. I miss Elo.
Really? I miss Elbow Room. Did you go? Who? So no.
I went three days in a row.

Speaker 1 You said you didn't think you were going to go because it was so packed out.

Speaker 4 Yeah, night when I took that picture, put it on the story. You DM'd me.
I said it was too packed to go in night two, three, four. Or not day two, three.
And then, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's always packed, brother. That's Elbow Room.
Yeah. You just got to get in there.
We got there early. We posted up.
Yeah. Yeah, Smart.
You get your play. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then everybody's joining your partner. Come on in.
Yeah. Welcome to the Elbow Room.
Love it there. Did you tell them?

Speaker 1 Did they know who you were? No. Okay, so you were able to just do your thing and

Speaker 4 bought some merch, even though they sent us a bunch. But I bought a new hoodie down there, yeah.

Speaker 1 That became the hockey room. room yeah it did

Speaker 1 it became the hockey room here's live cam down there at the elbow room obviously having a good time down there I'm surprised Lord Stanley isn't in that man's pocket right there walking through congrats to all the boys down there having a day having a day

Speaker 1 All right

Speaker 1 the LeBron Versation Wednesday that we had here will be one that we talk about for a long, long time. Shout out to LeBron doing that.
We're going to gather the LeBron Versation tweets.

Speaker 1 We realized that that would have been an impossible task to do during the break. So we'll run those tomorrow.
Okay. And that'll help us out for tomorrow.

Speaker 1 Speaking of tomorrow, opening day for the MLB, we'll have Derek Jeter joining us. Let's go.
We'll also be chit-chatting about everything else that's happening around sports.

Speaker 1 In the back, great work, boys.

Speaker 1 Great boys.

Speaker 1 Graphic department, way to go. Way to go.
Work, boys.

Speaker 1 Boys, good worker. Hell yeah.

Speaker 3 Good work, boys. Good work, boys.

Speaker 1 Good work, boys.

Speaker 1 All right, we'll see you tomorrow. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice.
It might change your life or anything together. Team on me.

Speaker 1 Team on three.

Speaker 1 One, two, three. Team.
Goodbye.

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