Charles Barkley on LeBron & Bronny, JuJu vs Caitlin Clark, KAT Trade Verdict & Angering the Celtics

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You know, Matt,

you can text me other than to be on the podcast every now and then. Oh, I like that.
Tell him,

Charles. Tell him.
All right, here we go. Another episode of Throwbacks.
Jerry Ferrara, Matt Leiner, as always. However you're listening today, we appreciate it.
Subscribe to us on YouTube. Follow on Apple and Spotify.
Also, all our socials are at Throwback Show. And again, we actually respond to you.
Yes, we do. As a podcast and as a people, we respond to you.
Some of you were responding to me a little too much recently. But we love that.
We love it. We love it.
How's it going, Matt, before we dig in today? How you doing? It's been a week, dude. I'm good though, man.
You can see my hair. got a i need a haircut this week man a little disheveled this week got the beard growing but i'm still recovering from last week's uh college football slate which is wild five of the top 11 teams lost including my trojans we don't need to beat a dead horse talking about usc i've talked about usc football all week um but it was wild man that's why college football is the best and another great uh slate of games big games coming up this weekend too so how about you man you are again i i feel like one of us is in the news or on in the social sphere of just like whether it's my jersey take or whether it's you rooting for like rivals and stuff can you just explain yourself please okay let for clarity, yes, we'll talk about this before we get into other amazing things we have for you with this show today.
This show is maybe my favorite so far, but, you know, as we know, baseball playoffs are in full swing. This goes back to when the Mets were, you know, in that playing situation with the Brewers and Alonzo hits the home run.
I made a video saying, look, this is actually more related to the Knicks. My hatred of Philly fans, mainly Sixers fans, is so deep that I would actually love nothing more than to see the New York Mets, which I am not a fan of.
I'm a Yankee fan. I would love nothing more than to see the Mets bounce the Phillies out of the playoffs, If for nothing else, it pisses off every Philly fan.
That take, and that's why I know I can never be in the take business, because instantly, Mets fans told me to go fuck myself. Phillies fans told me to go fuck myself.
Yankees fans, my own mother, called me up, Matt, and said, Jerry Charles, how could you root for the Mets? She was disgusted with me. Exactly.
It doesn't matter who your rival is playing. I understand your point because you hate Philly so much.
I hate them. But at the expense of seeing your rival, where you grew up, another team that you hate win? So, all right, let's unpack that for one second.
That's out listen we're gonna we're gonna dive all into we're gonna dive all into coach Sala getting fired and we're gonna talk about our guest in one second because it's related to Philly the take is simply this I am not threatened by the Mets or their fans meaning I grew up a Yankee fan in Brooklyn Brooklyn is one of the weird places you grew up in the Bronx Grew up in Queens, Mets. Brooklyn is maybe even 60-40 Mets when I grew up.
So yes, there was some hostility growing up. And the Mets in the 80s and early 90s were better than the Yankees till about 94.
Since then, I mean, we beat them in a Subway series. It's really not, there's nothing left to prove about who's the, I don't have hatred.
not F the Mets but I'll tell you what that Knicks Philly series it became F the Sixer fans for me real quick so yeah I'm living on that take because I don't want the Mets to win the World Series I don't want them to beat the Dodgers or if the Padres whoever they play I don't want that to. So I just want the Mets to beat the Phillies.

That's it.

I would never root for the Clippers to beat anybody in the NBA.

Never.

And talk about non-threatening.

Why are you threatened by the Clippers, man?

I'm just saying you grow up in a town where fans,

fans aren't even split here.

This is a 95% Lakers town.

We all know.

But when the Clippers got good a decade ago,

when they had all those Lob City

and everyone was like, oh, they're the best team,

they still choked.

They still never.

And when they were in the playoffs, I hated them.

And I didn't care if they played whoever.

I just would never root for that.

I would never root for the San Francisco Giants

to win a World Series. Okay, so if it were if it were Clippers is something that's not going to happen.
If it were Clippers Celtics, arguably the biggest Laker rival, because I guess you could say the Warriors, but I don't know, like in the West only, but Lakers Celtics, they used to make video games based on the rivalry. If it were Clippers Celtics, you who are you rooting for? Jerry, if it was the Clippers, Sixers, knowing your hatred for the Sixers, I would still root for the Sixers, dude.
And that is not a shot at you. I would hope Philly won an NBA two.
I can't believe it. Your take is hotter than mine.
I hate the Sixers, therefore I'm rooting for the Phillies. You just are all out on the Clippers.
I can't believe you're threatened

by the LA. By the way, I'm not

threatened by the Clippers, trust me.

If the Giants, okay, Giants,

Angels, San Francisco Giants, Anaheim

Angels, do you even care?

The Angels. I know that never

happened either, but I'm just saying, I'm trying to

find a comp here. There's no comp.

I just wouldn't do it. I root for my teams and that's it.

I will just say to all three franchises that cursed me. And Giants Angels did happen.
Giants Angels did happen. I was at Troy Percival, close the game.
I was at one of those Did you care? I cared at that time because I grew up right there. So it was like the team.
But I've never rooted for the Angels outside of that when I was 17. Well, here's where I'm going to wrap it up with to all three fan bases and my mom, okay? Shout out to mom.
Shout out to mom. But mom, I love you.
I don't care what you say. You're not going to publicly pressure me into backing off this take.
I want the Mets to beat the Phillies. End of story.
And then whatever happens to the Mets after that, I don't care. And Yankee fans, I am worried about the Royals.
This is not a, I'm overlooking the Royals as well. I'm terrified of the Royals.
So calm down. I did not expect that to go that way.
But speaking of Philly fans, Matt, we have someone joining us on the show today who knows exactly what it's like to play in front of the Philly fans and might even be a Philadelphia Phillies fan himself. We sat down yesterday and I got to thank you and Andrew Gundling, our producer for this.
We sat down yesterday with a man who has great nicknames, Sir Charles, the round man on the rebounds. Charles Barkley joined us yesterday.
We're going to play that interview in a little while.

But he was awesome.

Awesome.

And yeah, shout out to Andrew.

We mentioned, you know, we had Don Trell on last week

talking baseball and great stories.

And he's like, what about Charles?

And I'm like, man, I used to hang with Charles back in Arizona.

I'll shoot him a text.

And he responded.

He's like, yeah, let's go.

And he, I mean.

What a dude.

Dude, what a guy, man. Shout out to Charles.
We love Charles. It's epic.
It's a good one. It's going to be epic.
Going to love it. Yeah.
We actually didn't get to ask him this because I had this on the list of things to ask him, but we went so far off the menu that I just left it that way. And I know you did too.
But obviously everyone's talking about, and we have to talk about it, Sala getting fired and i know rogers yesterday was on mcafee and saying you know he's you know basically pissed i'm paraphrasing but anyone who thinks he had something to do with it that you're wrong which i believe so i thought the timing of this was really interesting obviously anytime it happens in season and i asked you on text but you've never played with a coach getting fired mid-season in season right i never have i you know denny green drafted me and got fired after my rookie year after um and then i mean i had a very terrible relationship with wizened on um in harzona that's well documented was there ever a coach on the hot seat while you were playing where like it could happen maybe no again this is this is I mean this this happens um it's never happened to me you know and and and again too just like the bit like it's just so polarizing because of bringing in Rogers last year and then he tears his Achilles and and we talked about on throwbacks the first episode I like we made the bet if the Jets win the Super Bowl like I literally this is a Super Bowl contender and obviously they've struggled and now they're you know what two and three are they two and three two and three going into Monday night football against one of the top two or three teams in the NFL with an interim head coach that's my biggest thing when I looked at looked at this, you know, and again, not a Jets fan, but again, I want to, I just want to see, I just want to see it. I wanted to see Rodgers with this team and all the weapons.
The offense has been underwhelming. People will blame Rodgers.
Some of the coaching stuff, time management, all that, everyone's always been on Salah about that. But the timing of it, because if he, you know, Jets are at home Monday night versus Buffalo.
If the Jets, if Salah doesn't get fired and they beat Buffalo, he's not getting, he's got job security for at least another few weeks, if not the rest of the season, maybe. But I do think though, because there's always more to this, Like this has been brewing, right?

And even last year, you lose Aaron Rodgers for the year.

So you kind of have a pass.

Salah has a pass.

Right.

But we don't know.

And I've been around enough teams where there's just other stuff that's happening

that's not public.

And whether you said, whether it's time management,

whether it's how to be a head coach

or if it's player stuff in the locker room.

I mean, now, obviously now there's more exposure because we just have more access to everything. You could either look at it, too, like this.
Like, this could, in a way, galvanize the team. It could bring them together because we don't know the relationship between Saul and some of them.
And Ulbricht now is the interim, and players have been speaking out about him and how much they love him as a defensive guy and all that.

Rogers even said this week, obviously, different styles, but the respect that he has within that locker room.

And maybe it does the opposite.

Maybe it lights a fire in that locker room.

Those are the things that I'm sure will come out over the next couple days, weeks. You know, I like to go dumb fan on you every now and then.
You know, now, but is he going to be able to call the defense? You're getting elevated now to interim head coach. You were calling the defense, which also was like a solid thing as well.
You know, offense was clearly the problem. I don't know.
Does that, do you think that, is he still calling the defense now? Yeah, he'll still call the defense. He'll still do it, right? It's not like an impossible thing.
Yeah, I mean, I think you take on, as a head coach, you're taking on now meetings, right? During the week, you're taking on now clock management, time management, game situation stuff. But, you know, when you have, you know, basically now he's going to go, all right, Hackett.
You have Rodgers who's, I mean, Rodgers who's been around forever, obviously can take a load off that too. So it doesn't, it's not going to change that.
Plus, Ulbricht probably has his guys now that he'll elevate and be, you know, be the eyes up in the booth or whatever. So that won't be a distraction or that won't play a bigger role probably as people would think.
It's wild though i mean yeah two and three it's it's kind of a shit show i mean it is a shit show and if they win people will forget and they'll move on and they'll be three and three and tied for first yeah they actually in first because they'll have the first division win over buffalo so they win monday night they're they're in first place but they're but they're i mean there's a lot bigger problems too. The offense has been terrible.
And Aaron probably be the first to tell you he needs to play better. He didn't play great last week.
But the line. There's just more to this.
There's a lot of issues right now on that team. Getting Garrett Wilson going.
Getting this offense going. Running the football.
All those things. So we'll see, man.
We'll be watching Monday night. You know, we usually do who needs it right before our Wendy's segment.
So, I mean, who needs it? Did we just do it? Did we just do the Jets, right? They need it. They need it for a lot of reasons.
Well, honorable mention, I agree. It is the Jets.
Honorable mention is Niners 2- three on the road against seattle three and two now i the niners riddled with injuries they certainly need it because you would think they will get healthy at some point and well i mean don't want to fall to maybe not but you don't want to fall to you know two and four and then the seahawks in first at four and two cardinals had a nice win last week. Cardinals are coming.
By the way, the Rams are going to get healthy at some point, too. Yeah, I mean, they've got to get those receivers back.
All right, well, we're going to now do my favorite part of the show, the can't get enough sauce moment of the week brought to you by Wendy's. I went off with mine last week with Goff I think I still, I think I still, uh, I'm correct with that one.
I have a good one for this week. Do you want to lead off? You want me to go? You go.
I got, I got, I got to say my boy, my boy was all over the place this weekend. So you're going to love it, but you go first.
Okay. Well for me, and I have not talked much WNBA this season so far, but I've obviously been watching the playoffs a lot.
I did not realize, I mean, I knew it, but I did not realize the Liberty were 0-5 in the finals and are yet to win it. I knew they were yet to win a championship.
I didn't realize it was 0-5, but they're kicking off tonight in the finals. And Sabrina Ionescu, I mean, she's- They got some stars on that team, man.
She's averaging 20 points a game. She's shooting 46.5% from three.
That's saucy right there. 95% basically from the free throw line.
And they're going tonight versus Minnesota. For me, it's so clearly, Sabrina, that is my can't get enough sauce moment of the week.
And I'm really hoping that the Liberty hang a banner so we could also get rid of some of this New York basketball deficiency that we've had, so to speak, for a long time.

Hang a banner, Sabrina. Go hang a banner.

Did you happen to watch Vanderbilt beat Alabama this weekend?

Oh, I did. I did.
That was saucy.

What was saucy was their QB, Diego Pavia.

Yes.

Okay, this dude. So his story is wild.
How we got to this point,

I won't get it, but just bounce around, gets, gets to Vanderbilt and I try to compare it to like, it's probably like a 16 seed beating a one seed in the March madness, right? We saw that we've seen that a couple of times. I think we saw Purdue a couple of back lose to a 16 seed.
Like Vanderbilt in the SEC against Alabama, it's like David versus Goliath. It should never happen, and it happened.
And our boy balled. And after the game, he starts talking.
I'm not going to use the F word, but Nashville's going to get effing turned up tonight on live TV. Just didn't even care.
And then goes on X and starts putting out his agent's cell phone number. Give me some NIL deal.
Hey, Wendy's, let's shout out to Wendy's. That's Honey Barbecue, Wendy's.
That's Garlic Parm. So that is every sauce in the book.
Shout out to Diego for just one balling and then season the moment, man. And to me, that's what NIL is about.
And like that, that's what makes it cool, right? The platform to do that. The biggest upset we've seen in college football.
And gosh, I don't even know how long, man. But he went full and he was NILing.
Dude, he was NILing with no shame. And by the way, shouldn't.
I mean, just, dude, take your moment and take your moment. Spicy Honey Barbecue.
It's a little bit spicy. It's a little bit sweet.
And it's barbecue at the end of the day. He was dipping the saucy nugs in everything at the same time.
He did not care. Thank you to Wendy's.
That is our Kicking Enough Sauce moment of the week. Real quick before we take a break and bring on Sir Charles.
I did did in thinking about the sala stuff have i ever been a part of with when enacting a firing and i've been a part of several um and it's a little bit different because you don't want to film stuff and then have to fire an actor say because then you got to reshoot that stuff right but we did do that on entourage unfortunately

and this story has been told before so i'm not breaking news doug ellen told it i believe on his pod but you know richard dreyfus the great richard dreyfus legend jaws holland's opus marathon just legend he was cast to play uh the murray manager role that the e-character goes to work for. It's the same episode we were filming Tom Brady.
It's the same golf episode. So we filmed the stuff with Brady.
Goes well. Now we have to film with Richard Dreyfuss.
This is like we're all fired up. And didn't really know his lines.
Wasn't really down. Didn't want to come out of the trailer right away.
And that he was replaced the day shot like a half a scene with him who replaced shut george siegel who did a fantastic job also another legend in his own right uh but i've seen actors at table readings get fired all the time we have table readings on tv where you get the script i know you were an all-american i don't know if you were at the table read but you met yeah that My sister-in-law. Matt, you're Matt's an All-American.
She loves that show, by the way. It's a great show.
But yeah, you show up to a table read and it's known, hey, we're just reading. We're not really acting here.
So you can't really judge it. The writers just want to hear the words.
But especially with network TV, if you have three jokes in an episode and you deliver them at the table read and they

don't get a laugh, you could either A, lose the joke. So that kind of sucks for you.
You have one less joke. Or B, you get fired after a table read.
It used to happen all the time. Actors would get cast on guest stars and co-star roles, show up to the table reading, didn't work out, replaced.
So, okay.

So real quick, the only table read I've ever been to was The Simpsons.

And it was awesome. What a great table read to go to.
I was in an episode of The Simpsons. It was really cool.
Next week, we're going to go down your IMDB list. We're just going to do it next week.
You referenced a few projects already. We're still getting residual checks.
Okay. But let me ask you this and and you kind of answered it, but mid-TV and movies are a little different

probably, but like mid-TV or mid-movie, you've never seen anyone get fired.

Like you're two weeks into a shoot and obviously you'd have to reshoot everything.

Or do you like you shoot them out of it?

Maybe they die in the show, whatever.

Like, have you ever seen that?

Not like a guest appearance, because obviously Dreyfus had that role, but before even he was fired, before he started. You're right.
TV and movies, way different. TV, much more functions like sports.
Right. Because it's such a longer season.
You're doing a season, so that in itself makes it feel like a sports team. I've never seen someone while too much was, so the Dreyfus stuff was probably the most I've seen where we actually

filmed the scene. Now we got to reshoot it.
I'll tell you what was weird. I've seen directors

fired, which is similar to like a coach because the director is almost like the coach with TV.

And then the next day you're like, all right, we got this new director. Let's hope this works out.

I've seen directors quit. I saw a director go to lunch and not come back.
Went to lunch, never came back. I would love to be a fly on the wall of, I would love to be a fly on the wall of the Entourage set.
But just in general, man, we got to do a whole episode on just day in the life of Jerry Farrar on a set of a movie or whatever.

Well, I tell you what, most of my goals with every acting project I've ever had was to not be fired.

So sorry to Robert Salas.

Seems like a really good dude.

I'm sure he'll be at DC somewhere.

He's a great dude, man.

Very, very soon.

And you know who else would have been a great cameo in Entourage?

Our guest coming up, Charles Barkley, who we sat down with yesterday.

Let's just roll it. Let's just go to Sir Charles.
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Of course, this man needs no introduction. Charles Barkley joining us.
But Charles, when I was looking at some of the stuff with you, you got five sports Emmys? Five? Is that true? Do you keep them? Do you have them out? I don't have them out. I have them in Atlanta.
Ah, okay. But what's really crazy, number one, they pay us to talk about sports.
Now they're giving us trophies. This has got to be one of the most scam jobs in the history.
Sports announced, and I tell people, this is the greatest. We should go to the bank with like a mask on.
We're going to watch sports anyway, but to get paid to do it is like highway robbery. Now they're giving us trophies.
That's how crazy it is, man. What's really crazy, I'll tell you the truth story.
I have gotten nominated for an Emmy every year, which is thanks for the people. I went to the ceremony the first 12 years that I lost.
You have to sit there with that shit-eating grin on your face like, yeah, I'm just glad I got nominated. I just want to thank you.
Yeah, okay, okay. And out of your breath, you're like, fuck, I lost again.
And then I told TNT, I'm not going ever again because, you know, I'm competitive. And, like, you have to sit there with that stupid look on your face.
And then I win like that. Y'all send one of these flockies around here to go.
Then I win like the next five, Jerry. I couldn't believe it.
Charles, we at Entourage went 0 for 6. So with Emmys, we nominated six years in a row, lost six years.
But like you, you go there, you start there you start saying I don't really care if I win or lose it's happy good to be here but once you get there and people start making speeches and their tucks it's like the competitiveness kicks in and you want to win yeah we lost to the office every single year for 6 straight years well like I didn't I'm 100% correct I didn't really give a shit the first one, two, three, four, five. After like six or seven, you're like, because I, you know, because the main reason you want to win, you want to get to thank everybody.
These guys out here thanking everybody who on the show and blah, blah, blah. Because I know the people on our show, they work harder than me, Ernie not Ernie worked harder me me Kenny and Shaq we probably we work at least and so I just want the opportunity to thank all the people who were there and for being there all the time so but when I found but I've never actually been there when I want I'm not gonna lie we just we uh we're on bigoff track, and this is actually hilarious.
We had our first Emmy nomination I think last year. And of course, we get the list of names, and it's us, and it's College Game Day, and it's the TNT crew with you guys.
And we're like, shit, man, we got no chance of winning this thing. And we did it.
But they were telling us we had one of our producers would go. I think it might be in New York or wherever, but they go to that sports awards and they're just sitting in the crowd like we got no shot for college football, but we're 0 for 1, but we were just happy to get nominated, and we knew we'd lose to you guys.
I think if you have a show like you guys you just happen to be nominated. Think about Ernie Johnson.
He lost before Bob Costas retired, he lost to Bob Costas like 23 straight years. And I'm friends with Bob.
I said, Ernie, you want me to put a head out on Bob? Get rid of him. Get rid of him.
Take a year off, Bob. Yeah.
But Ernie's won a couple since then, so man, we're really proud of him. But he's the guy, he used to glue the whole our show together how how how did you get into tv you know you were obviously part of you know crazy interviews while you're playing and all that was that something that you always wanted to do or it just kind of fell in your lap you know matt it's really difficult when you play sports trying to figure out the next aspect of your life because it's not a lot first of all all, you're not going to get a real job.
That shit's out the window, okay? I mean, Jared's probably unique. He's probably the only one of us three who've actually had to work like a nine-to-five job in their life at some point.
Several. Fired from several.
Fired from several. Hey, so Matt, me and you, we've never had a real job in our life, so

okay, I'm not gonna go get a nine to

five. Coach is like

way too hard on work

and then it's like

we got lucky and got one of these TV

gigs. So my mentor

is a guy named Dick Ebersole.

Of course. And he

said my last couple years he said, what do you think about TV? I said, well, you know, I don't know. Because it wasn't as popular as it is now.
Let's get that out the way. I said, I haven't figured out what I'm going to do, blah, blah, blah.
He said, I think you should think about television. He says, now, I will admit this.
You're going to be in trouble all the time. I said does that mean he says you know people tell you they really want to hear the truth they don't want to hear the truth fans want two things tell me my team is going to be good and tell me my favorite player is going to be great that's all fans really want and a lot of times you have to be honest with them all these, three and four, all these guys can play.
I would never downbrief it. They're not superstars, but they're all good players here in the NBA.
But you know when their team sucked. And they want you to say, tell me my team is competing for a championship.
Let me tell you something. If your team make it to the playoffs, you have to throw a damn party.
I mean, no, y'all are not going to win the championship. If y'all get to the playoffs, just like a win.
And he says, fans always said they want the truth, like most people. You know, but yeah, they don't want the truth.
So Dick Ebersole hired, he talked me into it. And I've been so lucky and blessed.
I made one of the great decisions of my life to go

to Turner to work

with the great Ernie Johnson and Kenny and then

Shaq came along. I love

the people I've worked with and worked for and I'm not

just saying that, you know, man, we have a

we've been nominated

every year because of the people

and Matt, you know this

and Jerry, you know this from

television. I

always say

we go on at 7 o'clock at night

Thank you. people and Matt you know this and Jerry you know this from television I always say we go on at seven o'clock at night and I always talk to the crew they're like yeah we've been here since noon I'm like what the fuck did y'all do since noon all right and they're like every day at noon and I'm like this is crazy we don't go on to 7 o'clock at night Ernie shows up around lunchtime like cause he has he does all the show stuff me kid and Ernie me kid and Shaq show up around 6 just in time to put on a suit and get in the makeup and I'm always amazed at the crew like what the hell have y'all been doing here all day and Matt you, you know, when you're on the road, y'all got, man, it's

going on the road, you got

a gazillion people.

Especially trying to do it live in front

of an audience.

Because I know how hectic, because we only travel

doing the conference

finals, and there's a lot of stuff that goes

into it, being outside,

dealing with the weather. So, man, it's a lot.
stuff that goes into it being being outside dealing with the weather so man it's a lot you didn't say the same thing with you when you uh i've shot some commercials and things like that i can't imagine what it's like being on a real show when you're taping all those hours man that's got to be crazy for the crew well that we talked about this last week like one of the biggest offenses with acting is showing up and not knowing your lines because there's hundreds of people standing around who've been there way longer than you who want to go home so at least come ready to to go that's why you say you come in you put the suit on but you're always ready to go because and you know you're talking about what fans want to hear you have to know like do you stuff where you're like, all right, everyone in Milwaukee is going to be mad at me now because I said that about the fun. Like, do you know when you say something that's going to elicit some emotions from a fan or you don't even, like, you're just keeping it real? Well, it depends on two things.
Number one, I like to make fun of certain cities. Yes, we know.
Yeah, but you know, first of all, if they don't have a sense of humor, they shouldn't be watching our show or sports. True.
I said, come on, man. Come on.
You know, everybody, some people are always offended about something. You should be able to take a jump.
First and foremost, I try not to ever get personal. I never talk about guys' personal relationship.
That's their own business. I would never discuss another person's personal business.
But I like to make fun. Like San Antonio, they call it the river walk.
That's not a damn river. That's a creek.
If anybody, I don't know, man, I think you're from the West Coast here, you're from the East Coast. But down south, we call them creek.
Just a little body of water. It's not a river.
It's not a lake. They call that thing the river walk.
I say, hey, that's not a river. I've seen a river before.
That's a dirty creek is what it is. I love it.
You know, I don't want to. We were talking off the air a little bit.
you know, it's basically time to go back to work because basketball's a pause. I don't want to send you back to work too soon because I'm enjoying this, but I did think of you guys because I'm a diehard Knicks fan when they traded for Cat.
And I was almost like, man, I wish the season would be going on because I would love that moment to happen. And then you would have been the first group that I would have wanted to hear talk about it.
Have you even had a chance to sit and think about that for Nick Vans? We now want to know. Please talk Jerry off a ledge.
Talk me off a ledge because I was very emotional, Charles, when that train went down. Well, let me say this.
You know, it's so funny. I was telling you guys, I've been on vacation since like June, the second

week of June. Good for you.

I played golf every day since the

second week of June. Yes.

The season starts two weeks

in two weeks. And I have these

fools say to me, man, you gotta

be excited to go back to work. I'm like,

why would I be excited? I play golf every

day. I can never get tired

of playing golf. I said, no, I want to play golf.
No, I said, I'll be ready when it hits. But who wants to go to work when they can play golf and have fun every day? I've enjoyed the hell out of my last three months of just slinging.
I've been playing golf. I smoke two cigars per nine.
Life is good. So no, I ain't ready to go back

to work, but Jerry,

love the trade for

the Knicks. There you go.

There you go. Don't

like it, love it.

And let me tell you something.

They had to do something

because number one, they were not going to beat the Knicks.

Excuse me. They were not

going to beat the Celtics.

And when Paul and George went to Philly,

they probably were not

Thank you. Because, number one, they were not going to beat the Knicks.
Excuse me. They were not going to beat the Celtics.
And when Paul George went to Philly, they probably were not going to beat the 76ers. And first of all, they lost to the damn Pacers last year.
So they were not better. I picked the Pacers in that series, number one.
You did. And I said, I don't think the Knicks can beat, I don't think they can beat the Pacers.

So the Pacers are just as good or better.

The Knicks lost Hardenstein, who's a huge loss.

Yeah, yeah.

And so I tell you, man, I'm really proud of those guys with the Knicks

because I hate saying this because I sit there,

I'm a Phillies fan.

And man, let me tell you something, I was throwing shit at my TV last night when the best was scored because there's a different energy in sports when New York teams do well like I tell people when I hang out with you guys I'm doing absolutely jack shit today because there's four baseball games coming out.

Yeah.

And the really cool thing about living on the West coast,

I'm going to do this.

I'm going to get on my bike,

my treadmill and just watch sports for the whole day.

And that's all I'm doing.

That's the cool thing about even when I do Matt,

when I watch his shorts,

then you come on at nine o'clock in the morning,

eight o'clock in the morning.

I'm like,

this is so awesome.

You wake up,

Thank you. the cool thing about even when I do Matt when I watch his shorts then you come on at nine o'clock in the morning yeah eight o'clock in the morning I'm like this is so awesome you wake up it's time to just watch sports all day I love it uh but I'm doing absolutely nothing because my Phillies man I when that place was going crazy last night for the Mets and the day you got the Yankees in Kansas City this is a a great time for sports.
The weather finally broke. Well, it's not broken on the West Coast yet.
It's still hot as hell out here. They said we got another week of 110s.
But between college football, pro football, hockey started last night. We know you love hockey.
We know you love hockey. I love hockey, man.
I do. I love hockey, love hockey man that's something so special those guys they're kind of like football players to me because they're tough players man that's their mindset is we they step on a football field you have to have a certain mindset you have to be all in you can't be be a coward.
You can't be soft.

If you step on a football field, something bad can happen. That's why football is my favorite sport.
But there's something about these guys in hockey who they don't have none of the NBA BS. They don't have no prima donnas.
They're like, we just want to win the Stanley Cup. and the one thing I could always say about myself, man,

I never worried about how much money I made. I don't care about how much money these guys make today.
Bless them, bless them, bless them. But the number one thing has always got to be the sport.
You can make as much money as you want, but the number one thing, I can always go back and tell people, man, I was so lucky and blessed to have the best job in the world. But basketball was always the number one thing.
I didn't care about all the extracurricular activities, how much money I made. I ain't worried about the nightlife.
All that stuff is just a bonus. But I've always said, hey, man, I love playing basketball and it was an honor and a privilege.
Chuck, for basketball players, Austin Rivers, I don't know, did you see that take when he came out and said 30 NBA guys could play in the NFL? You know, first of all, that was stupid. And I'm going to tell you this, Matt.
I'm going to tell you how much of a wuss I was. Please do.
I played football one day in my life. One day.
Linebacker? And I remember the last thing the coach said to me. My hands were all beat up.
Everything was hurting. I was dirty.
I was stinky. And I had my head down.
And the coach said, I'll see y'all tomorrow. I said, what? I said, what? He says, we got practice tomorrow.
So I waited because I didn't want to be a wuss in front of the rest of the team. I took my time showering, waited around.
Last thing I tell as a coach, this ain't for me. This is not for me.
I don't have it in me. I wasn't even a good basketball player at that time, but I know I did not want to play football.
We used to joke later. He says, I put you at the wrong position.
Because on the defensive line, on the offensive line, I said, Coach, I just ran full speed into a dude for two hours. What kind of talent does that take? It takes zero talent.
I said, I just ran full speed into another big old dude for two hours. He's hurting.
I'm hurting. No, I'm not doing this.
But he said, I should have put you in tight end or something like that. But I said, no.
First of all, it was a great decision by me, but man,

football is no joke. You can't go out there messing around.
It's different. Totally different.

Especially if you play one of those positions where you really get to have to hit every play.

I mean, you cannot hide on the defensive line or the offensive line. Somebody going to hit you in your face mask every single play.
Like, in other positions, you can get away with stuff. Like, if you're a wide receiver and you're not involved in the route, you know, you can hide out 80% of the time.
But, like, on the offensive, defensive line, you're all in every play. Also, also I, I tell, I talked to Mark Ingram about this at running backs, like to be a running back and to play for, he played for like 12 years and he's not the biggest dude, but I'm like, God damn dude.
Like, and he's in great shape. And I'm like, every, every play is a collision as a running back.
And these dudes are – they're your size, Chuck.

Like, they're massive human beings at, like, 280 and run four fours.

Yeah.

What's really crazy is all these running backs are done, basically.

I know.

On their 30, 31.

You might get squeezed a couple years out.

They won't be productive years, but you probably can squeeze out a couple years.

That tells you how demanding. There's no other job in sports where you're done at 30 except an NFL running back.
Because, you know, there's a cumulative effect. I mean, remember you go back now, you're taking these hits in high school, you're taking these hits in college, and then early in your career, they're just running you in the ground.
I think they've got to find a way to make sure these guys get paid better if you know their career is going to end sooner. You can't run them in the ground and say, hey, we're going to draft another running back next year.
I don't think that's fair. I don't have the answer, but they've got to find a way to make sure if you're going to run these guys in the ground they're fairly compensated yeah so you said at this point though you played the one day football you aren't good at basketball yet so at what point for you when you're in high school you're starting to say oh all right I found my sport I know I'm good like when did that click for you with basketball? Well, let me tell you something.
Unfortunately, it didn't happen right away. Jerry, I grew from 5'10", because at the time I was a 5'10 guy.
You know, because people always feel like I was not on any recruiting things or anything like that because I grew from 5'10 to 6'5 in one year. And it It was kind of weird, too, because everybody always, the first question, man, were your bones hurting? I said, dude, I didn't feel a damn thing.
I didn't even know I had grown. I'm not even going to lie.
I get back to school, and my coach says, dude, how big are you? I said, like, all right, I didn't. It ain't one of them things where you get the i'm in a small town in alabama anyway we got a place to check our height you know i went back to school and i was like six four and a half six five and uh that's the first time that i really got recognized and uh it was a blessing though i mean that growing like that changed the whole dynamic of my entire life and then then you go to auburn and we were talking yeah this is crazy bo jackson right who who uh won a heisman so i've seen him at the heisman stuff and just maybe the best athlete ever frank thomas who i spent some time with at fox when he was doing of the baseball.
What was it like? The three of you. I mean, the three of you at Auburn.
Well, first of all, I hate both of those guys. I hate both of them with tremendous conviction.
So, but, uh, you understand this playing football at USC and playing playing football at auburn well and it's probably worse at auburn because in in in la you got everything where i'm from you got you got alabama and auburn football yep when i even to this day and i'm not even joking even to this day as success as I've had in my life, when I'm walking around Auburn with Bo Jackson, people are knocking me out the way to get to Bo Jackson. That's the same thing.
Him and Frank, because people don't understand, I don't even know Frank was good at baseball because he played football at Auburn. Yep.
And obviously, and then until I went to see Bo play baseball, I'm like, oh, Frank played baseball too. But Bo, man, when you walk around Auburn with Bo, you better get out.
You keep your head on a swivel. So those fans are trying to get to him.
And if you happen to be in the way, you're going to get knocked over quickly because football is king yeah and listen uh like you know in usc football is always gonna be king over basketball no matter how much success uh but that girl that young lady y'all got a usc right now juju incredible hey i tell all them bitter angry girls in the wmba the upset about clay caitlin clark

move over more because juju is special number one i would give a shout out to caitlin for what she's

did for women basketball the last three years man it's been incredible and i wish those women would

embrace it but matt that girl juju she is the real real real deal. I went to their game last year.
They played Kansas in the Sweet 16. And I sat with our AD and Lincoln Riley and some of the guys.
And it's my first time seeing her live. And I was like, God damn, she is special.
And we, and I mean, Caitlin Clark,

and I actually, I wanna,

I have a question for you about Caitlin Clark.

Cause I actually, I met her a couple of years ago.

We did a football game in Iowa.

She was great.

She was balling them, but it was like,

wow, this girl is a star.

And clearly she is.

I see Juju and I'm like, she's just different.

You know, when you see an athlete,

doesn't matter, you're like,

like Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State. I don't know if you've watched him, the freshman.
You're just like, that dude should different. You know when you see an athlete, it doesn't matter.
You're like, like Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State.

I don't know if you watched him, the freshman.

You're just like, that dude should be in the NFL right now.

Juju Watkins is like, she's going to be bigger than Kaitlyn Clark.

And I don't even know if that's possible for what Kaitlyn Clark has done for women's basketball.

Yeah, you know, Matt, that's what's going to be interesting.

Kaitlyn is a supernova. And Juju probably is a better player.
So those two women are going to be running the WNBA for the next 10, 12, 14, 15, 20 years, basically. And I advise those other women to shine.
I mean, A's just the best player in the world.

This girl, Nafisa Collier, is a flat-out monster.

I tell you what, I'm going with the length to beat the Liberty.

I do.

I think they're going to shock the world.

I really do.

Because I worry about the Liberty,

that they just give all their juice to getting rid of the ghost of the Aces. And I tell you what, this Minnesota team, man.
They're good. They might be a team of destiny.
It's going to be fun to watch because I'm a big WNBA fan. And I just hope those girls like, you know what? We got Caitlin.
And we got Juju. We got Asia.
Paige Becker's coming in from UConn. Oh, my God.
I forgot about Paige. Yeah, I watch her workouts.
They're insane. Because if that girl stays healthy, she's in the conversation with Juju and Caitlin for the next 20 years.
People forget. People forget this.
You know, she was considered one of the best high school players ever. She just can't get a break.
It's like she keeps getting hurt. Yeah.
And she finally was healthy last year. And I tell you what, that game they had in the tournament, man, she was special also.
But so, so man it's a great time for the WNBA I hope they milk it for the next because this is a great time I think I think uh I think USC goes out and plays UConn this year I think those two are going to battle early in the preseason that that should be um it's somewhere like the Boston Garden or Madison Square Garden or somewhere like that. You need that in a big city.
It should be like a game of the week. You know, UConn and Tennessee used to do it every year, but if Juju and Paige are going to play, it should be at the Boston Garden or, I mean, because you know or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or

or

or

or

or every year. But if Gitu and Paige are going to play, it should be at the Boston Garden or, I mean, because, you know, or New York City at the Garden.
It should be somewhere special. Not on campus.
It should be, they should get all the bells and whistles. I was going to ask you, because later in the show, we're doing our throwback three iconic places to play, like sporting venues.

When you were playing, what was your,

and it doesn't have to be like your favorite,

just the place where you were going on the road to play,

whether it was this is going to be some shit

or I'm just hyped to play here.

You don't have to give a top three, but which ones?

Because I'm with you.

It would be insane to watch those games at MSG

or Boston Guard.

It would be nuts.

So when you went to the Boston Guard, you're like, because you had only seen that dump on television. And you're like, wow, this is amazing and special.
And then the same thing, you went to the Garden in New York. You're like, wow, this and you knew it was special the spectrum in philadelphia was spectacular because you had seen it because really and you count the form in that but i will say in my time in nba those three or four places but also when you went to chicago stadium when mich was at the peak of his superpowers, he turned it into the Boston Garden, Baskara Garden, the Spectrum, and the Forum.
The thing that was really weird about and amazing about the Forum, you would sit there like, I remember the first time we played there. You see Denzel.
You see Stallone.

You see like another 10 stars.

But what's really cool about it, Jack Nicholson was sitting right beside the bench.

And he says, Charles Barkley, you got a bright future young guy.

I said, thank you, sir.

I went and called all my friends. I was like, Jack Nicholson knows who I am.
And it was like, Jack Nicholson knows who I am. And it was the same way when Denzel came up to me at a game later.
Jack just had to be, he sits directly beside the team. But man, when Denzel Washington came up and said hello to me, I called all my friends.
You know, from a town of a couple thousand people in Alabama. That was the cool thing about the forum.
I remember sitting there watching Stallone and Schwarzenegger and all those guys. I'm like, this was at the peak of their powers.
And you're like, damn, this is crazy. Rocky sitting over there.
You know, this is so crazy. Oh my God, that go to Terminator.
That go to Diane Cannon. And then they had Magic, Kareem, James Worth, and all those guys.
It was crazy. That's how the Knicks feel when Jerry sits courtside now.
Yeah, I don't know about all that. My first ever sporting event, I grew up in Orange County, but my dad grew up in Inglewood.
So we're die we're die hard you mentioned the phillies earlier my dodgers uh gosh that were in trouble but we grew up dodger fans lakers showtime that era and the la king so my first two ever sporting events were at the great western forum nosebleeds because we couldn't afford anything but nosebleeds last row i think gretzky was on the team then back in the day and then the Showtime Lakers man and that was my introduction to that era of sports I think I was five or six when I first went there what I tell you what man first of all that Dodgers-Pardews games last night was bananas it was so crazy when they got off to that 6-0 lead my man hit that grand slam I'm like damn like, damn, this is going to be a great game. At the end, there was really no more.
No more runs. There was no more scored.
It was crazy. But, man, that place, that San Diego, that home thing is really amazing.
Have you been to Petco, Charles? I've never been to Petco. It's incredible.
It seems like it. And like I say, when I was watching that Met game last night,

pulling for my Phillies, I'm like, man,

that's why we need the Knicks to be good.

There's some type of energy.

Yeah.

There's some type of energy in New York.

I tell people, and I'm not trying to be a hater.

Every time you say this, everybody on the West Coast whining,

bitches that complain.

I'm like, yo, man, there is a different type of energy

Thank you. creator like you know every time you say this everybody on the west coast whining bitches that complains like yo man there is a different type of energy on the east coast i says no disrespect to anybody i live on the west coast that's no disrespect but new york boston philly there is a different energy in those fans.

And like I tell people, I say, yo, man, when you go to a Celtics game,

you go to a Patriots game, you go to anything in New York,

Mets, Yankees, Knicks.

Or when you're in Philly, when the Sixers are doing great,

it's the Eagles town. They're going nuts for the Phillies right now.
And we're going to win today. We're putting an end to this mess reign of terror today.
We're going to win today. And they're going to come back to Philly tomorrow and it's going to be one of the greatest game five.
I'll tell you what my goal is. Would it be great? If the Dodgers win tonight and there's a game five, the Phillies win tonight and that's a game five, man, that's not – So good.
It'll be crazy. It'll be crazy.
Like, I'm pulling for my Phillies, and I don't care who wins, Dodgers, Padres, because they're both terrific. Yo, man, what the hell is going on with Ohtani? That dude is an alien, man.
Never seen anything like it. By the way, he's as big as you.
He's 6'5", too. And still in bases and hit home runs? Thank God he can't pitch.
If he could pitch, it wouldn't be a fair fight. I mean, it would not be fair.
I mean, that's how great he is. And so I really want to, I don't want his season to end.
I just want to, I want more drama. That's what I want.
I want more. And listen, I can't watch the Yankees play KC.
I mean, I mean, sports are so amazing. I tell people, people do, why do you love sports so much I say man there's something

happening in sports every week

every month

I was watching UConn

UConn against Temple

and

I was in a sports bar

and I root for Jim Morrow Jr.

at Temple

because they're in Philly I was watching

they're at the one yard line they get two cracks at it to win the game and on the last play of the game the dude fumbles and UConn takes it back 99 yards and I'm sitting there like dude this can only this is crazy they're this far away from losing the game, and the kid jumps and fumbles, and UConn takes it back 99 yards. I'm like, are you kidding me? This is why sports are amazing.
It's the best entertainment in the world. Having worked in TV my whole career, I'd still rather watch a sporting event over any television show or movie.
It's the best theater in the world to me. It is.
I watched the Cincinnati Ravens game the other day, and I'm like, whoa. And I'm like, one of the best.
We're like, this Lamar Jackson dude got his way out of the pocket like three or four times when he should have been sacked. I'm like, that would drive me crazy if I was a defensive lineman.
I had this dude dead to right like five or seven times. He runs out and he throws one of the most amazing touchdowns.
But I do. I love watching these guys, man.
It's amazing. You know what I always wanted? I was always hoping to run into you at one of these golf events again because I always wanted to ask you this.
I almost asked you this in Canada. We were talking about the Gretzky golf event years ago that we were at, but I don't think we got to it.
But, you know, your famous commercial, I'm Not a Role Model, right, which I'm sure people ask you about but I always wondered was that something that that campaign Nike did Nike come to you with all that already done like with like the I am not a role model all that stuff was that campaign like ready to go or did you put your imprint on it when they came to you because to me obviously we'll talk about Jordan talk about Jordan and the commercials, and of course, but as a kid,

that was the commercial for us.

That was the one.

Yeah, you know, so, Jared, I went to Nike.

I said, hey, I got an idea for a commercial.

They're like, excuse me?

I says, I got this idea.

I wanted to make a commercial.

They're like, you fucking nut.

And I says, no, no, no.

I said, you got to trust me on this.

We're going to start a great debate.

I know athletes are role models,

but I want to start a better conversation.

They're like,

this is a bad idea.

It took me a while to talk them into it.

And

finally we did it. And it took

over the country for a while.

But what I was trying to do,

so, when you

Thank you. and finally we did it and it took over the country for a while but what I was trying to do so when you play sports you do a lot of speaking at different schools and unfortunately we have too many segregated schools in this country and so I would go to I took like a survey over two or three years before I decided to do the commercial.
And I go, wow. And I says, man, when I go to white schools, these kids want to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, firemen, policemen.
But when I was going to these black schools, they're like, I want to play in the NFL. I want to play in the NBA.
I'm like, okay. And I hear this same bullshit, Jerry, for three years three years I says are black kids are brainwashed to think they're going to be athletes and entertainers I'm like dude they can be doctors I said well first of all they got a better sense of being a doctor and a lawyer and an engineer than they do playing in the NBA I said dude your dad's 5'7 you're not going to play any sport stop.
So when I sit down with Nike and told about, hey, this is what's bothering me. I just want to start a debate.
People are going to get mad when I made the commercial. I said, dude, I'm used to people saying bad shit about me.
I play in Philadelphia. I'm good.
I'm a big boy. I can handle it.
And I give Nike a lot of credit. They came to me later and said, yo, man, you were right and we're wrong.
90% of our letters were positive. And I said, guys, all I was trying to do was talk to black kids through a commercial like, dude, you're not going to play in the NBA.
Think about being an engineer. Think about being a doctor.
Think about being a lawyer. And Jerry, to be honest with you, I've never been more proud of anything I've done.
Because like I say, I can take the heat. People would actually listen sometimes instead of jumping to conclusions.
I would just try to start a debate in the black community. Because a lot, no disrespect, it is what it is.
White people don't tell their kids, well, you going to play in the NBA or the NFL. They tell their kids, hey, be doctors, be lawyers, be engineers, and things like that.
Most of these black parents got to do a much better job of telling their kids, hey, you're not going to play in the NBA, but you can be a doctor. You can be a lawyer.
You can be an engineer. You can be a teacher.
And that was the objective of the commercial. Yes.
I have an older son who's 17, getting recruited in football. But so I'm around and I was around like the club basketball scene.
And you've seen it, Chuck, like all these parents are nuts. And just the expectation, the pressure, I don't even put that on my kid I'm just like hey if you want to play go and work and try to put it in and see see where it takes you but I've never once told him like like you're gonna make it this you just I think it's a false expectation speaking speaking of kids and you know this is a big story is Bronny and LeBron shared the court this week for the first time.
I don't know if you saw that. Just, I don't know, big picture thoughts, Charles, on that and Bronny playing for the Lakers with his dad, which is crazy to say.
Crazy. Is your son a lefty? He's a righty.
And he's a good hooper, too, man. I like it.
So, Matt, I'm going to answer that question first. Number one, man, you can't force.
Nobody can like, oh, you're going to play pro sports. It will shake out in the wise.
Right. What I tell these kids, yo, man, get an education.
Get a free education. Play sports to get a free education.
And if you're good enough, which is 99.9% or not, 99.9% or not, you get a free education, get to dictate your life and your future. So I tell kids, man, I ain't no hater.
I'm just telling you, are you going to be one of the 450 best basketball players in the world? More than likely not. Let's get that out of the way.
So to get to your final question, man, number one, I'm so glad Bronnie's healthy. Yesnie's healthy yes of course because man that was such a scary thing for our nba family like i can't imagine what lebron was going through they said hey your kid had a heart attack man that's got a plan basketball you like to get that call has got to be terrified right and you know what's really terrifying is trying to figure out if you're going to let him play again.

Sure, that wasn't an easy decision.

That's not easy.

Hey, mama, we got to sit down because, you know,

the kid wants to play.

But God forbid if something happened,

you will never forgive yourself as a parent. So I'm glad he's just healthy.
And we're all reading for him because we have so much respect for LeBron. It's not going to be easy because he has a target on his back because of his last name.
There's going to be a certain amount of petty jealousness of people who are like, you don't deserve to be in the NBA. You're not as good as some of these other players.
You only got in because of your dad. So everything LeBron did for the NBA, I've always said this, I don't get into the silliness of the GOAT debate.
Michael Jordan, my parents, the greatest basketball player ever. I actually got Kobe ranked ahead of LeBron

if you want me to be honest with you.

And I love LeBron.

I think LeBron's done everything great.

I've said this about him before.

I think it's probably

one of the greatest stories

ever in sports,

if not the greatest.

We've never had a kid

because people forget this.

Kobe Bryant struggled

in the NBA early.

So did Kevin Garnett. Tracy McGrady, everybody.
The only player, the only player I ever seen who came out of high school that was ready is LeBron. The only one.
And for him to go never really get in trouble, never done anything wrong, lived up to to the hype is one of the greatest sports stories of all time I've said that many times for that kid to never get in trouble and be as great as he's been he's one of the top five basketball players ever in my opinion it's one of the greatest stories ever and I'm really looking forward to you know they got to handle this thing with kid gloves literally because they can't just put him out there because he's not a finished product yet but man it's a great story I think we saw the Griffiths play together in baseball, but I can't think of anybody else where a father and son played a pro sport together. no not in this way and um yeah i mean like like you said lebron was on the cover of sports illustrated in high school how many high school kids could then i mean the last person i think

before that was Felipe Lopez,

who was from, you know, Queens and Brooklyn, like where I grew up.

And that turned out much differently.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

He's lived, like, you know, Jared, to have that type, especially in our today,

because in my day, every fool didn't have a video camera. Right.
We didn't have the internet. Hey, thank God.
You're telling me. Matt and I have discussed that off air.
Yeah. But for him to go these 20 years, never really get in what, because everybody has a phone now, they're filming like everything you do publicly, privately screenshot.
You see guys screw up all the time with screenshots. So I'm, it's amazing what he's accomplished.
So I'm excited to see, I'm excited to see some teeth because Jerry, you're Knicks, man. They had a great goal this summer.
Actually, believe it or not, I actually like to trade for Minnesota also. Joel Embiid, I said to him about this summer, he needed to consider playing less weight.
And he came in 30 pounds underweight. And I think it's going to help him because they got Paul George.
I'm excited for that. Oklahoma City going out.
Did your boy Hartenstein and Caruso. Caruso.
I said Hartenstein earlier, but Caruso going there. Zion Winston came in and shake.
I know. He's a little beard going.
I'm in on the Zion season coming up. I'm hoping that kid, you know, because when I got to the NBA, I was fat and overweight and beard going I'm in on the Zion season I'm hoping that kid

when I got to the NBA, I was fat and overweight

and Moses made me lose 50 pounds

and the rest is history

I hope he has a vet like that

to get on his behind the yard

and I'm really proud of that kid

so man, I don't know what the hell

I'm going to have with my Phoenix Suns

they finally went out and got a point guard. Yes.
Oh, the wild card. The Memphis Grizzlies.
Mm-hmm. Tell you what, if Jock can stay out of trouble, man, the Memphis Grizzlies got a chance of being really, really good.
Delando Magic went out and got KCP. They got a bunch of young guys the paces are going to be solid man that's the beauty of basketball we can make all these trades and talk all the crap we want to until you put ball to the court and that's the beauty of this thing I cannot wait to get the season started because I know Oklahoma City is going to be good.
How good is the

question? I know your Knicks

are going to be good. How good is

the question? I know the Sixers

are going to be good. How good is the question?

You know,

the NBA did something they had never did

before.

They managed to piss the champs off.

Yeah, I know. I don't

understand this. I was like,

damn. They just

crapped. They crapped on Jalen.
Like, this dude just went MVP twice in the conference. I was like, yeah, you still ain't going to make the Olympic team.
And then Tatum. Then you got Tatum.
Benched. That was wild.
We know you just won a championship. We're still not going to play your ass.
I'm like, how in the world did we piss off the champ? It would never happen in your day, Chuck. That would never happen in your day.
I'm like, whoa, man. Jerry, that's just so beautiful.
I'm like, because if I'm Tatum and Brown, I'm coming for the NBA. Y'all totally disrespected us this summer.
You know, can y'all imagine? Because Michael Jordan was petty. Like, he talked bad about people who did stuff to him in high school and college.
Can y'all imagine if they left Michael Jordan off the Olympic team or didn't play him? He'd be going for like 45 a game. He'd be like, no.
And I'm expecting Tatum and Brown to send an NBL message, man. I can't wait for some of this stuff to happen this year.
Yeah, I hated all that, Charles, because it's like you're right. I don't think we've ever seen a more disrespected championship, or at least the two-star players of the team.
Never. And it seems like it's so hard to repeat because you just won it.
Maybe you're believing that you're good. Maybe you don't work as hard.
I don't know. I'm not an athlete, but you just won it.
Repeating is hard, and now they're coming in with a chip on their shoulder. How does the team that wins a chip then get a chip on their shoulder? Hey, first of all, not only are they coming in with a chip on their shoulder,

they're well-rested.

Didn't even wear them out.

You know what?

Let's do this.

The Celtics are going to be the favorite.

Let's play Jalen and Jason.

Let's let them play the whole game all summer in the Olympics.

Then they'll be tired coming in the training camp. They're like, no, let's just piss them off and let them rest.
If Tibbs was the coach, Tibbs would have ran them into the ground during the Olympics. Listen, I think you just got 1% excited to go back to work, Charles.
I think I just finally found you just got 1% excited to go back. You can see it.
You can see it in your face. Hey, i will be excited when that day comes of course i'm a i'm not gonna be excited not to play golf for the next two weeks well that's what i was gonna say go enjoy baseball i hope you're playing a ton a ton of golf because and i hope i get to play with you one of these days every day since june the 15th somewhere like that i'm good well i'm coming to arizona next off season to play with you.
No, first of all, I'm in Philly all the time. Nobody comes to Arizona during the summer.
It's 195 degrees out here. I meant winter.
I'll come to Philly in the summer. Let's play in the winter.
We'll come out there in the winter. Well, Matt, so I think Arizona's decent, but Arizona State is mediocre, right? And football? And football.
They're both pretty good this year. Wait, so wait, you bringing the big group out here or something? I mean, you tell us.
We'll bring whoever you want. Can you sell? USC is mediocre.
They can't play defense. They lost last week.
Get them, Charles. Get them.
UCLA stinks. So, you got it.
Y'all got... Where y'all at this week? Penn State comes to SC this week.
No, that's a dangerous game for Penn State. Yeah, Chuck, real quick before we let you go.
And this is totally random. But me and me and Jerry got a bet.
Who's a better three point shooter? And I don't know if we have time to pull these clips, but I not an athlete charles i know this real quick i played basketball in my day modern day i played with uh jamal sampson i remember that name uh ralph sampson's nephew played with all those guys i like to say i modeled my game after chris mullen your former teammate on the dream lefties the white guy who just stuck around the thing and shot even though chris was great we have video footage of me shooting, and apparently Jerry played in all these celebrity all-star games. You coached against me in San Antonio at the Creek Walk.
At the Creek Walk, you and Shaq were the coaches in the Ruffles game, and you were coaching against me, and I went off a little bit. We got a bet, and I want you to tell us right now.
You don't even have to see. Who do you like? We're going to do it at USC.
We're doing a three-point contest. Next month.
Matt versus me. We're going to go around the world.
NBA three-point line. Oh, here we go.
Watch, watch, Chuck. This is Matt.
Mullen. By the way, in a Patagonia jacket like six years ago.
God, that does look like a good stroke. I'm not going to lie.
He got it on his forearm. He put his legs into it and everything.
All right. Now, I don't have like a – I have just like a highlight video.
Oh, you didn't see the jumper. I think I was looking at you right there, Charles.
Look, the jumper. That's from deep.
That's from like 30. I need a three to the dome.
Is that a set shot? Is that a set shot? I don't know what that is. It's not really set.
Well, I had a lot of time to find the seams. I had time to find the seams.
It's like a free throw. They're leaving me open.

They got to get on me.

Look at this. Are y'all going to have any type of timer?

No, because we're old.

I say no timer, but, and I will say, I think Matt's got to be minus 250.

I'm easily plus 250 as the underdog.

He reminded me he's a professional athlete.

So, if you had to make a bet, I'm plus 250, Matt's minus 250. We're going around the world, five shots a station.
Who comes out on top? I'm going to go with Matt. Okay, fair enough.
So I'm going to tell you, because I always go with the old job. Thank you, Charles.
Because I always say this. Once you get older, job you lose something but you have to remember something about who you're competing against they never had it very true Charles you are the best go enjoy baseball and golf seriously can't wait to watch you on the show you're the man man.
Thank you so much. And yeah, man, just keep being you.

You're the best. We love you.
Hey, man,

it was my pleasure. Continue to

ask Matt. You know, Matt,

you can fucking text me

other than to be on the podcast every

now and then. Oh, I like that.

Tell him, Charles. By the way, after

the season, I'm going to come see you, man. We're going to golf.

Honestly, it would be so awesome.

Come on, brother. I would love that.
Hey, Jared, thank you for having me. You guys have a great day.
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This is all the vacations. Come seek the caribbean chips registry bahamas okay it's kind of hard to do the rest of the show now knowing that uh we have to follow our own interview with barkley i love that he called you out though i love that he called you out that's like i was like chuck i'll be i'll text you every week if you want text him you put me in a group chat him, and he's going to get memes and witty band.
Let's get the Barkley group chat going. By the way, the Barkley group chat's going, and we will golf with Charles in Scottsdale at some point.
And also, shout outs. He's on Instagram.
I don't know if he needs just to plug it, but follow Charles Barkley on Instagram. I hope he posts.
He's not going to, but I hope he does. I literally saw his name pop up on my following.
I'm like, why is Charles following me? That's so good. Never thought I'd see the day.
Me neither. All right.
So last week we did a poll for Sam Darnold getting a nickname. I'm still all about it.
You recommended the Sam Darnold, the Red Hammer. The Red Hammer, dude.
In honor of his granddaddy, Dick Hammer. We asked the internet.
No one likes it. 63.8% said no.
36.2% said yes. I just think that's people not disliking your nickname.
I think that's them just not wanting to give him a nickname. He hasn't earned it yet.
Well, he's earned the hammer. I mean, after his grandpa, Dick.
I mean, the red hammer. Come on.
We're going to try to make it work. I'm going to keep it going.
Screw it. So also last week, we did our throwback three of Nick's names.
We mentioned now this week, we have a great one. We even got a little tidbit from Barkley about some of his iconic venues that he played in.
So we're going to do our throwback three. Matt, you picked this one, right? So I picked this.
I think the cool thing about this is every week we want to do, whether it's sports or pop culture, just anything. Anything that kind of creates that debate and stuff.
And I was thinking, being an athlete, I had a chance to play in some of the coolest stadiums. As a fan, you've been to great events and great stadiums.
It got me thinking of the all-time sports iconic stadiums, places. It could be any sport.
It could be center court Wimbledon. It could be anything you want to either play in as a player or just to go as a fan.
i'm curious i'm curious to know what you what you picked so should we go backwards three to one because i have a i have it in order in specific okay yeah let's go backwards let's go well you go three i'll go three okay now first off too i i am leaving out madison square garden because i think we could all say that's unanimously would be my number one in a lot of people. So leaving that out, we're trying to dig a little deeper.
My number three, and I'm going a little off the menu because you could argue, is it a venue? It sure is. Augusta National.
Oh, yeah. For sure.
Not only do you want to play that course one of these days, but that is the one golf trip I haven't been on yet. A lot of my friends do.

You got to lock your cell phones up and go into Augusta. It's not the easiest ticket to get even.
And for me, that's number three. That's on my bucket list to play, which I probably never will, but that's on my bucket list to go witness the Masters.
That's a great, okay. So my number three, you may have been to this place, okay? It is not what you would think, but I can imagine that the history, the stories, and the epic games that have happened in this place.
Rucker Park. Woo! Maddie! That's pretty good, right? Yes.
That's fantastic. That absolutely counts.
It counts, right? Yes, for sure. I'm just thinking of like, I love hoops, right? And you love hoops i'm thinking like some of the most like some of the like legendary players have played that in the street ball and like we both grew up in a time where it was like above the rim was was out and um uh what were the guys that were why am i above the rim above the rim yeah above the rim yeah so like all those guys and one and all that yeah uh the professor and one.
That's right. And one.
Above the Gr. Above the Rim, yeah.
Above the Rim, yeah. So like all those guys.
And one and all that. Yeah, yeah.

The Professor.

And one.

That's right.

And one.

Above the Rim also, well, great movie.

Tupac, shout outs.

By the way, great movie, great gear.

I used to wear Above the Rim t-shirts all the time.

Yes, yes.

But I'm shouting out Rucker Park, number three.

Well, I love that because it's one of those, and this is what makes it an iconic venue in an era now

where everything is the Wells Fargo Center or the smoothie.

Everything is branded.

Great.

It makes financial sense for everyone to do that.

The Rucker part, Rucker.

You just say Rucker.

Say it.

Everyone's pulled up.

Kobe's pulled.

Everyone pulls up when they can.

That's great.

By the way, something we could do in New York as well, Matt,

if we're there in the summer, we can go cruise by Rucker and maybe we could have our three-point shootout there. Doubtful.
I'm not doing it there. That would be good.
Oh, I'll do it there. All the outdoor stuff.
Not me. Not me.
All right. What do you got? Two.
All right. My number two, only because I did feel like I wanted to put a football place and this is part of my LA heritage.
I went to a Giants game a couple of times when I was a kid. Didn't always love going out to Meadowlands back then.
But when I went to the Rose Bowl for the first time, and I don't know if this bothers you, me saying this, but when I went out there, and also I lived in Burbank for a while, so I was close to Pasadena. Used to play golf at Brookside over there all the time.
So we used to sneak into the Rose Bowl after a the golf and just look at it. I went to a few Rose Bowl games there as well, but that place is pretty freaking cool, man.
It's the best. It's the Rose Bowl game.
Yes. That particularly is the best setting and backdrop.
I think in college, there's some great ones at college football, but one, because the magnitude of the game and what it's meant to college football

history.

And then also the mountains behind it,

the sun setting,

like it's a beautiful,

beautiful stadium.

And yes,

I did lose to Texas,

but I did whoop on UCLA in that stadium a bunch.

And I wasn't,

I wasn't bringing it up,

but you would do agree that I look at you.

It's iconic.

So I'm torn. I'm going to, I had one.
I'm going to get rid of this one. I'm going to go – not this one.
I'm going to go Wrigley Field. Okay.
And only because I grew up a baseball fan, my first love, Dodgers. We're actually most likely going to Wrigley field this year for big noon we have northwestern who's going through the stadium renovation it's gonna be so versus ohio state at wrigley so it's my first i've never seen a baseball game at wrigley i've never seen a baseball game at fenway or the old yankees like i i just we don't you know growing up we just didn't travel like that.
So I would love to see a Cubs Dodgers game at Wrigley in my lifetime. But I will be there in the month of November for a football game, which is pretty cool.
But I just feel like growing up, you know, with the Ivy on the, on the wall and just that it's just an iconic baseball venue. One of Bree's cousins lives like three blocks from there.

So we've gone and seen.

And Chicago is such a great,

like it's just a great city.

Like,

I don't know.

It's an awesome stadium.

I do think baseball has some of the more memorable ones that have lasted the

longest,

which brings me to my number one and it's no longer around.

You briefly mentioned it.

And I feel this way for so many different reasons. And if you've been there, you'd know the old Yankee Stadium.
If it's not MSG, then this is my number one. I could still close my eyes and smell the beer and the mustard.
My mom almost caught a line drive there. I know I mentioned her several times in this episode.
She literally got knocked over by some drunk dude,

whole cup of beer spilled all over me.

I could still smell it.

And there was just ghosts.

You know,

if you go watch the best thing to do,

if you don't really,

if you want to just even see,

go watch the Jeter documentary,

the captain,

cause it runs you through those 90.

And now we can go way back to the seventies,

sixties Yankees too,

but those nineties teams,

you know,

Tino Martinez hitting the home run off a young way. Cool.
It's like, oh my God, the ghosts are coming out. And especially with Aaron Boone notoriously against the Red Sox.
And, you know, it ended, but that place was special. That's a memory.
That's a memory like you're a kid growing up and that's the ballpark. That chair back there is from the old Yankee Stadium.
Oh yeah, that's awesome. That chair right there, I won in an auction.
That is from the old Yankee stadium. Yes.
Um, all right. My number one, and I don't know if you've ever been to this.
I've been Cameron Indoor, Duke Carolina. Yes.
I've been to that game. It's insane.
And it was, have you been? I've been it. Nothing like it.
Nothing like it. It was, I love college sports and I love rivalries.
I love tradition. I love, there's nothing like it.
And to, to, that week I went, I was hanging with coach K. I got to know coach K over the years.
He's the best. And that place is tiny.
Like I didn't realize how small it was and which makes it even even better and i was there center court two rows up watching a duke carolina game in like 2008 or 9 i don't even remember what it was actually duke duke blew them out wasn't like north carolina wasn't great that year but i was like thinking like this is like this lived up to the hype for me and the expectation of going like if anyone ever go see a college hoops like that's a bucket list that i got to check off yeah that's it to me that place is the difference of college sports and pro sports meaning like the fandom right and it's just different it's a little different yeah it's just different the the shit talk and they're right i'm telling you when it's small i say it's's small. It is small.
And the, the, the student section, I mean, they were, I will never forget. They had, they had like a little chant and a little thing for every single player on the team.
And I was like, this is so, this is what it's all about, man. Like that place is epic.
Wow. That is our top three, our throwback three, most iconic venues.
So many good ones. We want to hear from you.
We're at Throwback Show on all socials. Remember, we will respond to you.
We're going to wrap up here, Matt. As we wrap off, I don't know if we're going to play some music, but fire up the Barkley group chat.
We could have a great segment going. Every week we could ask Barkley something in the chat and just read his response.

We'll probably still be better than some of the things I say on this show.

I'm going to text him right now. I'm texting him right now.

Thank you, Andrew and Adam and everybody behind the scenes. This episode was awesome.
We had a

blast doing it and see you next week. Peace.