Russell Wilson to the Giants, Building our Perfect QB and Raymond Felton Talking Hoops

Raymond Felton is just not dunking four times a game in the NBA.

You think like, oh, he probably doesn't really have a dunk package.

You should have dunked more in the NBA.

You're throwing it down.

I could really get up.

But once I got into the league, man, listen, when you get knocked out of the air by Shaquille O'Neal and some of these big dudes, you learn to shoot a floater. all right everybody welcome into another episode of throwbacks

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us some questions, thoughts. We're doing

some mailbags. Feedback

at Throwback Show. Did you see

my post about golfing?

I said, golf is

speaking to me this year. It's just speaking to me.

And it's because of you.

You went to a Bryson DeChambeau

launch event, right? I saw Bryson DeChambeau launch balls with his new driver, LA Golf. LA Golf.
At Bel Air Country Club a couple nights ago, pitch black with lights and he was trying to tag these drones in the sky. It was actually pretty funny, but he was just hitting absolute laser beams.
My goal is to get you to a place and you have have a lot of hobbies, and you work out a lot,

and you got three, four kids.

I don't really have a lot of hobbies.

I don't.

What I mean is like you'll go,

you have beach volleyball, right?

You coach your kids and stuff.

You have things.

It's not like you have tons of free time.

However, my goal for you,

and I'm glad you went to that,

but you had a nice little blazer,

like a sport coat, a blazer.

What was that?

You had a nice piece on.

Yeah, you know, I got to step up every once in a while. My goal more than, I got more than hoodies and sweats in the closet.
You know, I would love to get you to a place where you golf like once a month, once every six weeks, like, you know, just get you in the mix. Once a month is great.
Um, I'm actually, I hit up my boy because we have a couple par three courses right by the house. That's a great place to start.
So we have Topgolf, which is a par three. And then there's a par three behind a hotel over here.
That's actually pretty good. I used to play a decent amount.
So I'm going to try and get one in this week. And then, yeah, I just need to get out there, dude.
It's calling me. It is.

I think since we've been doing this together,

I've talked more about golf,

been invited to really cool shit that we'll get to later on the pod,

you know, in a couple months

where I'm going this summer,

which is freaking ridiculous.

But yeah, man,

like it's going to be part of my life.

It just takes up so much fucking time.

It does.

But can I say,

and I'm going to tell you about who our guest is today. I'm not going to spoil who the guest is in the coming week or two all i'll say is you got a little we have a major champion from the pga tour coming on we'll talk we're going to talk a little man not today not this episode coming i think maybe next week we're looking good good teaser buddy but you're buddy.
But you have a chub right now. I mean, this was the easiest.
I'm already prepped for that interview next week. But we have a great guest today, too.
I'm not trying to outshine our guy today because also he has some Nick's blood in him. Raymond Felton, former Tar Heel.
Raymond Felton, man. National champ.
Obviously, you know, the college tournament's coming back tonight. will be going back on i did think of you though maddie because we had coach gottlieb on a few weeks ago and i know it's been talked about but the juju interview and heartbreak women's college basketball yeah heartbreaking for so many reasons also it happens in the tournament we were on a collision course for uconn which i think that could have really broken a lot of viewing records I still think that's going to be a good game now here's what I'll say and hopefully we wish Juju the best and hopefully a speedy recovery and a just a full recovery I'm not counting out this USC women's team just yet I know going into UConn that's going to be a massive upheaval without Juju but I'm'm not so fast to say that's a wash.
I feel like that locker room gets fired up now to get into the spotlight. Just to echo really quick.
I mean, you know, we're, we're thinking about Juju. She'll make a, she'll make a full recovery.
She's going to come back stronger. We all know that it is just hard.
It's just, it's part of sports. It happens and it's unfortunate, you know, and it's, and, and just what she's done for USC, I mean, the fact that those seats are full because of her and her team, but she's a star, man.
She's a superstar, and Coach Gottlieb talked about her a couple weeks ago. So, look, at the end of the day, it happens.
She's going to be fine. She's going to come back bigger and better and stronger.
But to your point, they've recruited really well through the

portal, through high school. And this team is built to continue to make a run.
I think it's

going to be challenging if they do line up with UConn and Paige Beckers in the lead eight. I think

that's a difficult game the way UConn. I mean, UConn might be the favorite to win it now.

But yeah, they've, Kiki is a stud. Like they have eight or nine deep that they go.
So

So they're going to be tough. You know, Lindsey does a great job there.
So, but shout out, you know, we're thinking about Juju. Obviously she'll be better and shout out to USC women's basketball.
Let's see, let's see what they can do. But yeah, Ray Felton, what a stud too.
I mean, just growing up because we're the same age. So pretty much the same age, right? He's 40, 41.
I think he's 40 on the dot. About to be 41, I think.
Yeah, so those, I mean, UNC years, I mean, they had a squad back then. They had an absolute squad the year they won the national championship.
I'm a little mad at UNC, though, because I had them on the fourth leg of a nice little opening parlay, and they just didn't come through. They came back from like 25 down, and they suckered me right back into, okay, I might still win this bet.
Didn't pull it off. You took UNC to win? Well, no, no, just for that game.
Yeah, just for that game. Ole Miss is playing good.
You know what? Here's a take, and then we'll get to Ray. So I used to, you know, avoid flying during things like March madness or an NFL playoff game or a basketball game.
I really wanted to watch because if you didn't get that jet blue direct TV seat, you couldn't really watch the wifi. Now they figured it out for the most part, every now and then you get on the flights where the wifi doesn't work or the airline, airline whatever but for the most part for the most part it's really really good so i flew home i did that movie in florida i stayed a few days and played some golf with the boys no surprise and then i flew home for that colorado state maryland game on the plane so i was able to order a drink pop open the laptop it was like a sports bar in the air the point where when we landed, I was like, taxi a little slower.
I saw the ending while taxiing to my gate. And it was an awesome flight.
And now I'm going to start making flights for games I want to watch as long as that Wi-Fi holds up. So this Thursday, it's a sneaky good day because the tournament kicks back up.
And then we got Major League got major league baseball opening day and busting this out for you, Matt. Although I think my boys are going to have a lot of questions, but listen, here's the bigger question.
How much baseball are you going to tune into early? We'll talk about baseball in, uh, in September. Okay.
Three, four months from now. Yeah.
Maybe the all-star break, maybe that let's talk about baseball. There's too many games, dude.
We might go on. We might win 120 games this year.
I mean, we might win 130. Uh, honestly, I just go back in.
Talk about, I just really want, I want to say like, thinking about Mookie Betts, man, really sick. That's the only thing really I care about.
He's been sick. What's happening with it? Have they got to the bottom of it yeah he's lost like 30 pounds i just been reading the report so nasty virus flu whatever but um not eating he's not able to like hold down food so he'll be fine um but yeah think about it but yeah but you you catch me on the bay you catch me baseball in the summer dude we talk about this i was so back in last end of last season into the playoffs but to the point where i said i'm gonna really pay more and it's not that i don't pay attention i don't love baseball i think when you have kids and as you get older you have to let go of some things you have to make some tough choices and for me i'm not letting go of football college and pro i'm not letting go basketball and baseball is one of the things that i let go a little bit and ufc some fights that are on like after midnight because i just can't stay awake however at the end of last season i was saying i'm back in on baseball i'm gonna the true test if you're back in on baseball especially if you're t if you don't live in the city that your favorite team is in is are you getting the package? I am not yet currently subscribed to the baseball package.

Let me just say something really quick about my team.

And for all the Dodger fans listening,

this might be the greatest pitching rotation of all time.

And now, they got to stay healthy,

but let me just read some names off. Go ahead.
First of all, Snell, just a minor pickup this offseason. He's a Cy Young.
So annoying. Tyler Glasnow, a monster, who, by the way, just hurt most of last year.
He's back. Yamamoto, okay? Yamamoto.
Sasaki, the other guy we picked up. Oh, and then let me just throw in Shohei Otani, by the way, who's probably a top four's probably a top four pitcher in the forgot he pitches because he took some time off last year there's probably guys i'm leaving i mean kershaw came back you know obviously shout out to kershaw i mean it is unbelievable and then you just just throw the lineup in there with mookie and freddie and i mean look dude that's what i'm saying we're gonna coast okay i'm gonna follow my lakers here the next couple months we're gonna make a deep playoff run it's a long long MLB season dude a long one I'm not worried about what happens in April and May and June you get me you're a bucko five like 105 wins is like a down dude I'll check the standings like every four days and we'll be up 14 games by the time Juneune comes around and it's like all right let's go you'll watch them up at bats right you'll see like oh tiny's up with two on and they're down two in the ninth let me just see what happens i'll take the boys to a game we'll go to a couple we go to a couple games every year i'll take the boys this year probably the first time um we'll see casen's ready cannon might not but you know those things we go for five six seven innings and we leave and it's a pretty fun day for them so well it's one of the first things we truly bonded on with this podcast was the yankees dodgers world series i will say for my yanks uh interesting offseason and i just can already tell you we might not pay attention to it now but when it gets into september you're just going to hear a lot about that fifth inning or sixth or whatever it was you're just gonna that is gonna be the real if it's a fox game or whoever has the game nationally their espn they're gonna bring that clip up we're gonna see that a lot this year being brought back up hey happen i want to ask you about the the the kids i think brie posted something on Instagram or maybe it was you about, I mean, are we raising a little point guard in the Ferrara house or what? Matt, does that not get you pumped? I'm trying to keep my emotions in check because you know with kids, right? Like it's this for two weeks and then next week, who knows? It could be, I don't do that anymore.
But since going to that Knicks game and I showed him when we were in Florida, I showed him a clip of that Bridges game winner against the Blazers. Right.
Cause he's never seen a game winner. I'm like, Hey, come on.
I was in the morning too. So So the next day, I'm like, watch this clip of me.
I showed it, and we watched it again in slow motion, and he heard Mike Breen make the call, and that was it. He kept it moving.
So they come back here. I'm still in Florida, and Brees sends me a video of Jacob in his Carl Anthony Towns jersey, driving and shoots a basket, and when he hits it, he goes, Bridges for the win.
Bang. It's good.
Knicks will. He did the Mike Green call.
That's great. Ask me every morning.
Dad, did the Knicks win, even if they didn't play last night? And he's he's in two different basketball camps right now. So I'm going to ride this thing out as long as it lasts.
I don't know if it's forever, but man, do you keep a good spot right now. It's a good start.
Because typically, if they don't care, they'll just show no interest. Or they'll hate if you drag them to something.
They'll hate if you want them to watch something with you. But if he shows interest on his own, then, dude, you just keep milking that.
Keep watching a game with them. Keep showing him some highlights because he's going to get the bug, dude.

That's just in him. You really don't know what your kids hear you say.

When he was wearing the Towns jersey, someone asked Jacob,

why do you like Karl-Anthony Towns?

He's like, I like that his nickname's Kat, but he has too many dumb fouls,

which is exactly what he got that from.

He heard me bitching about Kat for having too many dumb fouls,

and now that's in his brain.

Well, the word that's going around our house is ass cheeks. I got to be honest.
It's not for mom and dad. I have no clue.
Kids cursing is super funny, but you really have to manage your reactions because then it's just going to be for ass cheeks. It's ass cheeks.
And then this morning when I dropped the boys off at school, Cannon's going to get kicked out of school at like age seven. He goes, butt cheeks.
He said butt cheeks this time. And I go, he cleaned it's in he's in uh he's in preschool right so like i walk in the teacher's in there like it's it's pretty low key it's it's awesome walk in put his bag around case and follows me and i dropped case and case and start school after and he just goes in and he's just like butt cheeks and i'm like i looked at him i said dude you cannot say that in school yeah stop you're about you don't do that.
And I said, the police are going to come and get you. And he goes, daddy, really? I go, yeah, man, you can't say that word.
You're going to get locked up. Dude, ass cheeks, man.
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Well, speaking of ass cheeks, this is a perfect transition for me. Speaking of ass cheeks, let's talk.
Can you, can you join me on the New York Giants rollercoaster for one second? Speaking of ass cheeks, uh, I don't know. Is that how you feel? You feel, do you think it's just ass cheeks? Well, I meanis winston's a throwbacks you know he's a he's a friend of the show friend of the show i love that signing by the way i love the jamis signing i was fully ready the russell signing and me and all my group chats and all that we were fully ready to just embrace look we ain't really going anywhere malik neighbors probably gonna break their wide receiver receiving yards record with jamis it's gonna be a wild ride to six or seven wins but it'll be fun we'll have some weird comebacks it'll be it just is gonna be an entertaining bad year and then and then look while still maybe drafting a quarterback and who knows the russell wilson signing now not my favorite player in the world either not my favorite yeah why is that i just uh he's a little bit of a history there there's a little bit of a history there um but also what well no no no no you can't just throw that out there and not talk about well if you really want he came on entourage right yeah and doug ell Doug Allen and Connolly talk a lot about it on the Victory Podcast.
Like when we were promoting the- First of all, he's in the Entourage movie along with Gronk and Edelman and a bunch of cameos, right? And he's the one who threw the pass that Connolly broke his leg on when I was guarding him. It was a Russell Wilson pass that got Connolly's leg broken.
Not his fault. And he was all about it.
Had us up to Seattle after the movie was done. We screened the Entourage movie for the entire.
By the way, we were trying to get into the facility. And we were locked out.
And no one was coming to get us. And Pete Carroll walked up chewing gum.
Like, what are you guys doing? And he had no idea who we were right away. And we're like, we'reuss we're scripting and then he p carroll let us in we ran the 40 we did that tennis ball machine where you're catching the tennis balls we did a bunch of drills kick some field goals screen the movie for the entire team all this stuff um and he's like him and doug are like friends like they come in and just movie gets close to coming out you know it's doing good not great, strand and then people start saying oh entourage is toxic and then i think russell just ghosted everybody from entourage ghosted doug ghost everyone like just unfollows like just high knees on the plane something something happened there i don't think something specific happened other than maybe he saw it wasn't a giant hit.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Nice guy.

Nice guy.

A few times I have hung out with him.

Very nice guy.

So you're holding on to a beef for like 14 years.

So there's a half a beef.

But then when you dive into the actual...

So the former Steelers quarterback room is now in New York.

You got Fields with the Jets. Russell Wilson with the Jets.
Where are you going? Where are you going? And Matt, do they not draft a quarterback now? I know Wilson's like 10 years guaranteed, one year. Yeah, I mean, the Jameis signing, okay, all right, we got a bridge guy.
Let's go see if we can get Shador i i think cam ward's a lock to go number one right that's all i think that's a lock right so what does cleveland do at two um and then giants at three and we talked about it this week on the phone just like i think giants if should i would think giants would take shador in a heartbeat and now this signing of of Wilson makes me believe that there is no chance Shador is going three, that he's going to go number two. Right.
But what if Shador does go three? But the Browns don't have a quarterback. They have Kenny Pickett.
That's it. Maybe they're in the same boat.
Maybe they're just like, you know what? Is it going to be Flacco? There's no one left. It's Flacco and Rodgers.
The only two left. We'll'll take our chances this year and then we'll go get arch manning next year take our chances with kenny pickett no offense to kenny pickett like you said go win a couple games and then and then go get and then set yourself up to get arch manning next year who i think will be the number one pick all that's being said is is i saw i understood the james thing yes me too um and why do you need both? Why do you need both? Exactly.
And listen, Russell Wilson is a starter. I don't think there's going to be a competition there.
Maybe they told him there is going to be a competition. I can't imagine Wilson's not the starter.
He actually played pretty well for Pittsburgh last year. But I just don't see...
That's not a move that's going to get the fans excited. And it's not a move that's going to get the fans excited,

and it's not a move that's going to say, all right, well, now New York is, I mean,

now they can compete in that division and get to a playoff.

It doesn't say any of that, which is why give them all that money, you know,

and go draft, go try and get Jackson Dart, you know, trade back, trade, by the way, maybe.

I'll start talking Milrow over this situation. Like, you could talk me lot of other— I talked myself into Joe Milton before this.
There's some drafts that have Dart going in the top 10. I know.
It's so crazy. You could trade— That's the thing.
Yeah, I don't know, man. I've always been able to spin it, Matt.
I'm excellent at spin. What I mean is I was able to spin the Daniel Jones draft pit

when they drafted him, even though it was way too high.

I tried to spin it, and it made sense.

And then I was able to spin the contract, right?

It's like what quarterbacks could you even pay at this point?

There is no spinning this.

And for me, anything short of a playoff appearance and win, it's a failure. If they win eight games, what does that get you? If they go eight and nine, that's bad.
They're not winning eight games, dude. No, I know that.
What was their record last year? They won, what, four games? Something like that. And by the way, their over-under wins total was three and a half.
signed both these quarters three and a half still

it didn't move at all

that's going to be another long

fall for you buddy

and now I know we'll talk about it because we're going to be doing a lot of fun

draft stuff but now do I got to start

getting my mind ready for Travis Hunter

it just

I don't know if this is

is this keeping your job if you're like Dable and Shane

is this the move this is a thing that's going to

allow you and buy you more time

it's awful man

I don't know if this is, is this keeping your job? If you're like Dable and Shane, is this the move? This is a thing that's going to allow you and buy you more time.

It's a, it's awful, man.

Yeah.

I, I, I don't, I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't have an answer for you.

I don't know.

Nine starters since 2020.

I don't know the reasoning of both.

And, you know, I know, I think obviously Rogers is, I think that's going to happen quickly.'s got to be steelers now there's no right steelers or browns or retirement cleveland shador and kenny pickett you know prime wants him to go to new york so bad probably number three they should the jetsets and the Giants at this point should be allowed to combine teams. They still could draft Shador at three.
Maybe what we could do for the NFL draft that could be fun before the actual draft is we'll sit down and let's do a draft if we combine the Jets and the Giants to make one team. What players are we taking? Because that's where we're at.
Already talking Giants in March. No, I'm not talking Giants, but come on.
What did you, your mind must've been a little broken when you saw that. No, my mind immediately went to you.
I said, oh fuck, Jerry's going to be so pissed. Poor guy.
Poor son. I was like, fuck why? But it's just why I don't get it.
I don't get it. We've mentioned a few times how much we appreciate the rating, the ratings and reviews on this show.
It does help on Apple and Spotify particularly. And before we give you the Wendy's, uh, fresh moves, we want to just, we're going to take a second.
We're going to read another one. Hold on.
Let me see. I got a few.
Okay. I like this guy.
I promise this one's not me. The name is NYC football.
So someone right now who wrote this review, not too happy, either Jets or Giants fan. But NYC football says chemistry between these guys, that's us, is great.
Show's getting better every episode. Feel like I'm in their real life entourage.
Did your boy write that? That does seem like someone I would know that wrote that, or maybe even me. It wasn't me.
This is a real review. You could see it, but it does help us.
If you get a second... What would our

real-life entourage look like?

Am I Vinny Chase and your

turtle, or am I turtle to your Vinny Chase?

I don't think...

Are we just fucking rocking?

We're just rocking and rolling, just

fucking Matt and Jerry. I don't have Vinny

Chase vibes. I just never have...

You're Vinny Chase, bro. That's it.

You're Vinny Chase. I think I could be a good e right now like i think you're i think you're a good e i think you're i think you're more than so we have two spots open we have johnny drama open and we have turtle open so i still can't look like it's so funny dude because obviously now that i know you i can't look at you in in pictures of turtle and just look at you the same early years you were fucking 250 pounds i wasn't 250 that's a little extreme i was 205 you got oh shout out i mean you look you look like you look fantastic dude i'm just saying it's crazy you gotta remember something too matt i came in like a little heavy but also once something starts working but once something starts working you just add then it's just you know and look the fat jokes worked and it became a thing played it up and you've been on sets before you've you you're in sag you know uh you get around those craft service tables at six in the morning when you haven't eaten anything yet and there's fresh hot crispy cream donuts just sitting there on the table

with good cod they'll take your coffee order you know it's just a great place it's great

great place to put on some weight when i was when i was super fat when i was little

my brother my brother would go to my mom and he would be like mom like what are we gonna do about

maddie he's so fat this is when he was like 15 he's fat shaming you when you're 10 years old you know and god bless my mom my mom was like don't worry he'll grow out of it he'll grow out of it and sure enough i grew out of it but dude there's some rough years bro how tall is your bro six feet dude i'm a so is he considered is that more normal like are you is your height and aberration in your family you're what about six we used to say uh it was a mailman but it couldn't have been the mailman not one person in my family is over six one and that's extended everything so i'm just i'm an anomaly well you got some like great great great grandfather who don't grandfather who like somewhere. I had a great, I think a great uncle who might've been six to maybe.
Dude, my grandparents were short. My mom was tall.
My mom was like five, eight, five, seven, five, eight. And growing up, you know, in the 60s, 70s, that was pretty tall.
My dad's five 11. So like, yeah, man.
I don't know what happened. But yeah, dude, shout out to all the fat kids.
250-pound turtle. You can change.
You said I was... If I was 250, I'd have to be hospitalized at 5'6".
Well, dude, you're 5'9". 5'9".
I love it. Yes.
Keep it coming. Did I just give you 5'9"? You gave me 5'6".
If I was 5'9", I'd be Vince. Bro, 5-6, two bills.
Yes, 2-0-5. Look at you now, bro.
Hosted throwbacks. Well, again, give us some more of those ratings and reviews.
We do appreciate it. And now it's time for Fresh Moves of the Week, brought to you by Wendy's.
Head to the Wendy's app to get a $1 JBC or a $1 double stack with offer and additional purchase. All right, Each week we're going to pick our fresh moves of the week.
And it's hard for me to ignore. Again, I'm new to NIL and trying to keep up with transfer portals and all that.
750 men's hoops players, student athletes entered the transfer portal. Gone.
Already. There was already 250 there from other coaching changes and stuff like that they're expecting oh like well over a thousand maybe two thousand who knows matt is this now just free agency it's free agency right well yeah i have a question for you we talked about during college football remember the backup quarterback for penn state yes for the play he bounced and because because that's when the portal window opens so it leaves the student at these players a limited amount of time to either stay or go find another home somewhere which then obviously you're leaving your team and i think uh pippen like scotty's pippen's son did that he was on michigan yeah michigan playing, obviously, in the Sweet 16.
And he wasn't, you know, he's not playing a lot, but he left his team in the portal. And along with over 700 players that you said, it's the same thing that we talked about in football.
The windows need to be changed. Yes.
It's just, it's crazy. Like, there's not really an answer that we have like the windows are open this time players are going to leave and go find another opportunity somewhere else if they can and and that's the way it is but how crazy is it even i think um one player so st john's right gets bounced in the second round they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn they couldn't hit water if they fell off a boat in that game and i i hate what happened to lewis and how that team how the fans started like going at him that's horrible but anyway they clearly the shooting was always a thing they need to shoot they already got a shooter kid from arizona state transferring six five wing could shoot they like already addressed one part of their thing that was a loss so it felt like a free agency isn't it crazy like a lot of these schools now are are hiring general managers you know yeah they have to they have to so you have coaches and we'll just take march madness college basketball coaches and gms that are playing in the, but have eyes and ears and people already looking to uphold or upholster the roster for the following year because they know they're going to have guys that leave and they know there's going to be guys available.
So that first day of the portal, when you get 500 kids, boom, you already have guys. And by the way, you have a coach practicing for a March Madness game while you probably have a GM on the computer doing all their recruiting rankings, reaching out to these kids.
It's just, it's crazy that that's happening. But that's the way this system is right now.
And it's just, the hard part is like, it feels like there's not a lot of loyalty anymore. That's what I was going to ask you.
You know what I mean? And again, the argument from the athlete's perspective is coaches can leave and take more money, and they can leave the team, and I get that. And so now the players have a lot more say, a lot more power.
They can kind of control some of their decisions, which is great. But you just don't see, like back in the the day, when you sign a letter of intent, you sign a letter of intent to go play for that school.
And they were being loyal to you by offering you a scholarship, and you were being loyal to them by committing to that school and competing and doing your best and trying to, and hopes it works out. And then in the opposite, like, maybe you would transfer a couple years in and all of that kind of stuff.
And that just doesn't happen anymore. And to that point, there was a crazy graphic going around this week.
And I want to ask you this, a little trivia question. Oh, boy.
Okay. Not ready for this.
No, it's wild. We're talking about the portal and just the constant change.
So there's 16 teams, right? Sweet 16. There was a graphic out there that basically had the starting lineup for each team and

where those players started in college.

So they could have started at the school they're at and they're still there.

For the Sweet 16.

From the Sweet 16.

There is one team in the Sweet 16 where all five starters started at their school and

have stayed at their school. One team.
Can you guess that team? Oh, man. All right.
There's a couple teams that have four, four of the five starters. And their fifth, it's not so much that they went to the end.
They switched schools. They're at other schools.
Yep. Got it.
One team in the sweet 16. I'm not confident, but I'm going to say Maryland? Nope.
Same conference, though. Big 10.
I don't even know. I got to pull up who's remaining, too.
I'll tell you. Tell me, please.
Purdue. Purdue.
So all five starters on Purdue started at Purdue. They haven't left.
Whether freshmen. And they have some older guys, too.
Michigan State, four of five. Start at Michigan State.
Duke, actually. Four, yeah.
Four of five. That I knew.
I knew Duke wasn't the. And then you go into some of these teams like BYU three.
BYU's got a player coming in next year though yeah i mean houston three of five maryland i think two of five based oh my guess was terrible maryland yeah tennessee only two but like there's a couple that all five or one like auburn i think just one from auburn the rest of the starters all came from somewhere else if i'm not mistaken it's just crazy and it goes to the point it's like, especially in hoops where you can be one and done and all that kind of stuff. Yeah.
So two things for you on this. Look, I totally get if you're not getting playing time, but you were a big recruit and you've shown some promise.
And for whatever reason, you're not getting playing time, you go in the portal. Got it.
I also get the coaching change. Hey, it was this guy brought me here.
It's totally different. I'm just new start for me.
Great. How much, if at all, though, is this really saying I just could get more money here? You know, like, is that do you think that's becoming a main reason why some of these things? because the playing time part is like tried and true.
And in football, I really, really get it. You know, you just want to get reps and get seen.

Basketball, you know, you could still go off on your potential even if you don't get the playing time. I mean, isn't it as simple as some of these guys just could get more money elsewhere? Dude, same as football.
Absolutely. And that's why we've seen sort of the Cinderella kind of fade this year in the first be careful with that.
Cinderella will be dead soon. It's the first time since 2007 that there are no teams seeded number 11 or higher in the Sweet 16.
The top 16 teams in the tournament all won their first-round games. That's the first since 2017.
Yeah, to your point, I think a lot of lot of these mid-majors lower level schools you have a really good player that it's it's this it's the same it's the same um thing in college football and i tell a lot of kids this if you're a quarterback especially or whoever and it's like to go play for a smaller school group of five school compete start compete, start, ball, then in two years, Georgias are coming, Colin, Oregon are coming, Colin, because you have the experience and you're going to go get a bag. It's the same thing in basketball.
I mean, you go out there and play for a mid-level team, a mid-major team, and you average 15 to 20 a game, or you have a nice little tournament where you have one or two good games. you're getting a payday somewhere else.
That's what we've seen. That's what we're seeing in the portal now.
It's just wild. Yeah, so I think a lot of it, I would say most of it is chasing the money and a better opportunity potentially.
Shout out Wendy's because we gave you 750 fresh moves right there because 750 players went to the portal. Before we bring in Raymond Felton, you know me.
I always try to think how I could equate sort of my job and my business into sports. So what's like the transfer portal in Hollywood, and can there be one? The answer is no, of course.
It's a silly thing to think of. But I racked my brain trying to think what would be a good equivalent, and I think I came up with it.
A transfer portal for characters killed off of shows. Now, here's why they need the transfer portal.
I'm going to bring you quickly through the process of getting killed off a show. It's happened to me multiple times.
Josie got killed off a show. Well, the biggest thing is, you know, with Power, and Power had multiple deaths a week uh they bring you in like hard knocks courtney kemp would call me in say bring your scripts like when they're cutting the player on hard knocks bring your script you're like oh it's happening but the biggest thing is it's not that you can't take another job right away you just got to be really secretive because if we shot my death scene and i take a job the next day and then it gets announced in the trades oh Jerry Ferrara is on uh the office you could kind of say oh we know he's getting killed off power then it tips the ending off so a lot of times they want you to wait to take a job and really do a good job about not announcing it I think a transfer portal for characters killed off would be a good, easy way with rules written in to transition on another show.
So what show, what show would you go to? Like when I was getting killed off power and if I was, let's see, I mean, it might've been nice to pop up on, I don't know, like a handmaid's tale or something, something dark. I don't know.
Keep the drama going. It's a good show, Matt.
It's fucking great. Maybe pop up on Ted Lasso, even though there's only two Americans on the whole show.
You just went from Handmaid's Tale to Ted Lasso. I'm just trying to think of the last two shows I watched while Power was on.
I don't know. Watch White Lotus right now.
That's good. We'll do a White Lotus recap at some point.
We should start doing recaps on here. White Lotus got weird.
I binged the last kingdom. White Lotus is at all time HBO.
Are you caught up on White Lotus? No, I'm not. Okay.
We'll talk later. I guarantee you'll watch it and you will text me.
I've been trying to get like, everyone's talking about it online. So I'm trying not to look into like what happens.
I don't know anything that happens. We've only watched two episodes.
So we're far behind. Well, you at some point, well, I guarantee I'll get a WTF from you at some point as you get along in the season.
All right. Again, thanks, Wendy's.
And now let's bring on Raymond Felton. It's one of the best times of year for sports fans around the country.
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All right. Thanks for joining us.
We were just talking a little bit before you jumped on too. I celebrated the 20-year anniversary last year with Entourage.
It was 20 years since Entourage started. And then we were kind of looking back.
You're coming up on 20 years since your national championship with UNC. There's something about that number, that 20-year number.
I don't know why. It just really starts to reflect back.
Makes you feel old. Has it hit you yet? There's been 20 years since the national championship? Yeah, man.
We just, early in the year, we had our reunion. We did it during football season just because a lot of guys coaching and a lot of guys can't move around like that during basketball season.
So, it was just fun, man, to get back with my old teammates. We still keep in contact.
We all like brothers. We still have our group chat.
We keep in contact with each other throughout the year. But just to get with everybody and see everybody, man, it was so real just to relive that moment and just to see videos.
And we had a little slideshow that we did and everything. So it was fun to see.
It was fun for my family to see it, who wasn't there to be a part of it when I was when I was a young buck so um it was um it was one of those moments where you can you can never take that from me that's probably one of my biggest parts of my career is winning that national championship because it's not easy to do it's not easy to do I remember you know we were we were in college the same time I was at USC and I i when you when you look at usc football it's a football school the cardinal gold there it's just something about wearing that jersey and then you look at all the the former players you know marcus allen ronnie lots and all those guys i can own and i'm a i love basketball i grew up playing. My oldest son played basketball forever.

Like, what is it like wearing like a North Carolina basketball uniform? Like I just as a fan, I got to imagine like walking around that school, being the starting point guard for a national championship team. It's got to be like pretty electric.
Best colorway in the, in the, in all. It is.
Best colorway ever. Best colorway ever.
one thing I can say man Carolina fans is amazing

they in all the groups too, man. Best colorway ever.
Best colorway ever. One thing I can say, man, Carolina fans is amazing.
They travel. They everywhere you go.
I don't care where I played at. When I was in the NBA, there was always Carolina fans there.
There was always fans at the games. And it's, I don't know, man, it's like a fraternity, you know,

like guys like Vince and like even MJ, you know, James Worthy,

Shea Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, the list goes on.

You know, even Julius Peppers was like a real good friend of mine

who played football, you know, and he also played basketball in Carolina.

He could hoop, right?

He could hoop too, right?

Man, he could really jump out the gym.

You should have seen him coming off the edge though. That shit was scary.
I believe it. But, you know, the history goes on, man, and it's like a brotherhood.
Like I could call any of those guys to this day, you know, and I didn't even play with them, and it's like family, you know. So I think it means a whole lot more than just the name and the colors and just the history.
It's like a big fraternity. We all look out to each other.
We all like family. I don't care how far it goes back.
Some of these guys I never even played with. Some of these guys I watched playing growing up.
Some of them I never even seen play. I just see clips of them and it still doesn't matter.
It's like family, man. So putting on that jersey and being a part of that is special.
You know, something that is going to be with me for the rest of my life. So I had the pleasure of going to a UNC Duke game.
Woohoo. But at Duke.
So I didn't go to Chapel Hill. I was at Duke.
But it was, I've been to a lot of sporting events. It's like, this one was a bucket list one.
And do you have any funny, any unique stories about that rivalry? And I know you played against Redick, right? Yeah. And Redick is literally outside of Christian Leitner.
Like the most, I always thought like Dukeke always has you had like leitner you had reddick you had grace and allen you had like three of the top five probably most hated college basketball players of all time do you have any stories playing against jj or just that rivalry in general well nah really don't have no stories you know jj you know me and jj have been battling with each other ever since high school you You know, we was in the same McDonald's game, just AAU and just going to college, him going to Duke, me going to Carolina. And it's just always been a rivalry and a battle.
JJ is one of those guys that, you know, he didn't really get up on my skin, but I know Jackie Manuel got up on his skin. Because Jackie Manuel was on him like white on rice, man.
But it was fun. I think the rivalry and the junk talking and all that stuff really comes from the fans and the students more than me.
You know what I'm saying? Because actually, Sean Dockery is like one of my good friends even to this day.

And he went to Duke

and it was never no bad blood.

But when we stepped on the court

against each other,

it was like we wasn't friends.

It was time to compete

and was trying to win the game.

But when it comes to J.J. though,

you know, J.J. was always

one of those guys

that, you know,

he could shoot the piss

out of the ball.

And I guess people just didn't like him. He always had that little arrogant look about him.
And guys just didn't like it. But, you know, it did bother me.
You know, J.J. cool with me.
We got a chance to play with each other, with the Clippers in the league as well. So, you know, everything comes in full circle, man.
But that rivalry is like, man, playing in Cameron. Yeah.
It's crazy. You got the students and the fans on top of you.
They can barely, sometimes when you take the ball out, they can touch you on your back. That's how close they are.
So, but it's fun though. It's electric.
Yeah. We talk a lot on this show about rivalries, even at professional sports.
And it feels like, look, there's certainly rivalries in professional sports still. You got Celtics, Lakers, which they might be on a collision course this year, who knows? But it really does feel like the college level and a lot of that might change now with NIL and transfer portals everywhere.
And maybe those rivalries will start to fizzle out. But it really does feel like Duke UNC is one of the last few remaining that even if you're not a fan of either the two teams you're still putting that game on i want to ask you though um just going back to how aware were you guys as players does this even come up when like you know you know coach roy williams you know he hadn't gotten that monkey off his back of winning the title like is that something that any you know you guys are all young players at the time is that ever even discussed, like getting coaches first or just you're just so locked in on the mission at hand? Because I feel like I would know, like, this guy's been at it for so long.
He's never we want to be the team to get him that first one. No question.
I mean, that that was definitely part of it. You know, we wanted to do it for the school.
We wanted to do it for ourselves. We want to do it for our families.
And of course, definitely want to do it for Coach, you know, because he's been there and he could never get over that hump. So to be able to be a part of that first team to get him his first, you know, national championship, I mean, that's, you know, all of them is going to be special to him.
All the players are going to be special to him. But I think the one that he got with us is going to be always stuck in his mind and his head because, you know, it was his first one.
You know, it was his first one. And, um, it was a, it was a beautiful run, man.
It was, it was tough, you know, battle against Michigan state in that final four and then go on playing against Illinois in that championship game with a lot of talent. Great game, man.
You, I mean, right now such a good game. I watched some of it back and I will have to admit, Raymond, I did look back at the Villanova game.
Have you looked though, only because it's so funny all these years later, Alan Ray and the travel. I don't know how often you've been asked that, but I watched it 10 times.
I'm trying to figure out, man, by NBA standards now now this isn't even like this isn't even close like have you even have you seen when's the last time you even seen that play because it was you guys i think you guys win anyway i really do i don't think that was like the deciding factor of the game but at the time i remember being a kid watching it and like yeah he kind of took an extra half step there which now that's not even debated no travel, right? Right, right, right. I mean, it was a big play.
It was definitely a gutsy call. But, hey, listen, I'm glad he made it, you know, because I got in foul trouble that game, and I actually found out.
I found out. But, you know, my guy, Melvin Scott, he stepped up, and he hit four free throws to steal the game, to win the game at the end right there.
So, you know, one thing I tell people, man, it don't matter, you know, who's supposed to be the best player on the team, who's supposed to be the man, who's supposed to be what. It always be somebody that comes off the bench or don't play as many minutes that steps up in order for you to win the championship.
All of that stuff happens, man. Injuries, everybody being healthy, all kind of stuff mixed into that.
And I think, you know, it was just it was just it was just God's plan for us to win it that year. Everything just came in our favor.
Everything was working for us. We was playing great basketball.
We was locked in. You know, it was just, you know, for real.
Now, look, I'm, again, admittedly a huge Knicks fan, so I know a lot about your career. You're one of my favorite Knicks.
So I start looking at that McDonald's game. I see you in the dunk contest, man.
This is what I'm saying. Normal civilian fans don't realize because Raymond Felton is just not dunking four times a game in the NBA.
You think like, oh, he probably doesn't really have a dunk package. I saw some of the dunk, man.
You should have dunked more in the NBA. You throwing it down.
Well, you know, I did used to have a pretty, I actually had a 42-inch vertical. 42? Yeah, so I could really get up, but once I got into the league, man, listen, when you get knocked out the air by Shaquille O'Neal and, you know, Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, some of these big dudes that was in the league at the time when I first got in the league, when you get knocked out the air trying to go dunk, you learn to shoot a floater.
You learn to shoot a floater, so there ain't no more dunking. There ain't no more trying to jump.
These guys like John Moran and Anthony Edwards, these young guys now. Scary.
Man, the way they get up now and jumping like that, I would like to have seen how they did that with Shaq and those guys up under that rim. We talked about this a couple weeks ago, and there was a lot of talk about the NBA All-Star game and just how you fix it, how you don't, what's wrong with it.
I'm more curious of the dunk contest because you were a dunker back in the day. Why don't the Anthony Edwards of the world, John Morantz of the world, some of these high flyers, why don't they enter the dunk contest? Like it used to be, because back in the day, I mean, LeBron's ever done, I don't think, right? Kobe did it.
Vince Carter was the greatest. Like we just don't see the faces of the NBA that can get up, do that.
Why is that? I have no clue. That's something that I've always asked and always just been like, like just why? And I never really got a legit answer.
But I don't know. I would love to see that.
I would love to see John Moran, Anthony Edwards, Zion Williamson, Zach Levine. I would like to see a dunk contest.
Aaron Gordon. These guys who can really fly.
I would like to see a dunk contest with all of them in just one contest just to see what happens. Jerry, I've always wondered what it was like to, because I could dunk back in the day, but I had the lazy hops.
Yeah, you had that little... Yeah, I mean, you weren't throwing it on someone.
I've always wondered what it's like to dunk on somebody and what it's like to run a 4-4. Just what it's like to be fast.
That's it. As an athlete.
I was a pretty good athlete, but I never... I didn't have any fast twitch, though.
That's for sure. You know what I wanted to ask you, too, before we dive into some other NBA stuff? We're talking about JJ, and I kind of came to this thought the other day.
But I was just wondering from your perspective, someone who played the game at the highest level, right? So JJ's in year one. Is it any kind of an advantage? And I know we saw it with Steve Nash, who was relatively recently retired.
You know, like JJ is played against 80% of the current NBA, right? He's only been out of the game two years. You know, I guess from a player perspective and from a coaching perspective, do you think that's any sort of advantage that he's played against these guys within the last three years? I always wondered that like he's drawn up plays with guys, obviously he knows LeBron, but he's coached.
He's played against Jason Tatum.

He played in Dallas

with Luka. He's played in the NBA

recently.

I think that helps with relationship-wise.

I think that helps with the level

of respect that you

have with each other because you are literally

a player's coach.

I just... It also helps that you got LeBron James on your team too.
Right. Very – yeah.
That helps a lot because just the things he can do, the things he's doing at the age of 40. Like, listen, it hurt to get up this morning.
So to see him do that at the same age I am right now is nothing but amazing. But I think JJ is doing a great job.
You know, I think he's a really good X and O, you know, guy that draws up some good plays and he makes good adjustments, you know, in games, before games. And, you know, I just, you know, be interested to see what he does, you know, over the next few years.
But I think he's doing a great job so far, by far having a good year as a first coach, you know, and I think, you know, with his knowledge of the game, I think he'd be fine though. You mentioned a little bit ago Shaq and just some of the old school big guys.
And there's a lot of chatter about the eras, right and i think tim hardaway was on i think gilbert's podcast just roasting the dudes like literally like swaggy who's my boy from se to his face like these guys just like you couldn't play you guys suck blah blah blah um you i mean you played in this current era but you you had a cross right because you played against shack you played against, you played against some of those, got Kobe in the mid-2000s. Where do you stand on this whole era debate on whether or not the old school guys could play in today's game, which is a lot more open and fast and shooting threes and all that, or whether or not the current guys are, you know, quote unquote, tough enough to play back in the 80s and 90s.
Where do you stand on that side? I'm just fascinated by it because I love, like I grew up, I'm a diehard Laker fan. I grew up, you know, the Shaq and Kobe era, even Showtime.
I was a little kid, but like, it was different back then. Like everything was through the center and it was more physical, felt like today.
It's just a different game today um well put like this professionals are professionals athletes are athletes of course and i think you know back in the day was very physical the game was totally different than what it is now um it was a lot of just pound the ball in the paint get the ball in the post um come off pins pin downs um you know ball screens and just there was more physical guards back then you know when I came in the post, come off pins, pin downs, you know, ball screens. And just there was more physical guards back then.
You know, when I came in the league, point guards like Chauncey Billups and, you know, Andre Miller and, you know, these guys were physical dudes who would post you up. And just, you know, the game was a whole lot different now.
You know, point guards now are scoring 30 points a game and, you know, shooting threes from half court. Like, you know, the game is just evolving.
The game is different. Now to say that, you know, these young guys couldn't play back then.
Now I can't say that because, you know, these guys are very talented, very athletic and very skilled. But to say that these older guys couldn't play now, it's absurd because these dudes was physical,

they was mean, and they was talented,

and they was skilled.

You know what I'm saying?

So I think a lot of the old school guys

think that the game is soft now,

which the game is.

You know, they do, you know,

they can't touch no more.

Just the fouls, man.

Yeah, like if you stick out getting knocked out of the air now,

you might get inflatement and get thrown out of the game. D Dudes would get knocked out the air left and right back in the day.
Like in the 80s. Bill Lampier just coming.
Oh, man. Bill Lampier would probably be banned from the league at this point.
He wouldn't be in the league. There wouldn't be no Bill Lampier right now.
He'd be banned from the league at this point. Who was the toughest? I mean, because Ben Wallace...
I'm trying to think back. Ben Wallace was was a dog inside.
Like Rasheed was nasty. Those grizzly teams probably weren't fun to grow up against.
Zach Randolph. Yeah, the most physical team was probably back when I played, the most physical team was, yeah, by far Detroit.
Detroit, yeah. But even with them being physical, it wasn't like a nasty physical, like the old Detroit band boys.
Right. They would beat you up.
Old Detroit would beat you up. It wasn't like that.
Then you got, you know, Indiana too. Indiana was like that as well, where Ron Artest and all those guys, you know, those guys were really physical, you know, played a lot of great hard defense.
But, yeah, to answer your question, man, I don't believe that neither one could not play in the era. Like, I feel like the young guys could play then.
I feel like the older guys could play now. So, that's not- You just would have had so much more space to operate, you know? Like, even if you look at, you know, I know your game well from watching you in the NBA.
and you just would have had so much more space to operate you know like even if you look at you know i know your game well from watching you in the nba and you just would have had so much more room so i just think look at all your score you just would have scored way more because this would have been more space i feel like you know space and then nobody could really touch me and i was right i like to play physical so yeah just with uh and i and i and i know a lot of people don't like this debate when it comes to mj and lebron you know to me they both are they both are goats you know mj is mine because that's who i grew up watching of course you know saying but they both are goats but if mj played in this time where they couldn't be physical with him then i mean who who tell how many points this man would have had. 38 a game.
He would have averaged. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy.
So, I mean, the game is different. And that's all I can say.
The game is different now. You know, they score way more points.
It was unheard of to see two teams score over 140 points in a game. We got Tom Thibodeau and the New York Knicks scoring 140, man.
That's a box score I never thought I would see. A Tom Thibodeau coach team scoring 140 points.
I just never thought I'd see that in my lifetime. Exactly.
Where do you put Kobe in that conversation? Because I feel like I'm like MJ, Kobe, and LeBron is great, clearly what he's been able to to do. But I just – I don't know if Kobe doesn't get enough credit or he does –

because I've seen a lot of guys come on and say Kobe was a top –

is closest to MJ than anybody.

And I have some people who don't even have him in his top 10.

That's crazy.

You played him.

I mean, that was the same era.

Like, where does he stack up against basically those two guys, right?

That's the debate.

To me, he's number two. That's the debate.
To me, he's number two.

That's my opinion.

To me, he's right behind MJ for what he's done to the game.

And like you said just a second ago, he's the closest thing to MJ.

He's the closest thing to it.

Just his work ethic, the way he puts him to the game,

the way he studied the game, student of the game, always learning.

Like MJ said, he always used to call him and ask him questions, trying to get better.

And just what he's done for the game and what he's done during his time of playing.

I mean, what can you really say?

For somebody to say that he's not in their top 10, that's crazy.

I don't know who. Jerry barely had him in the top five.
I think that's not true. Yes, it is.
You relax. You said that.
I'm just older than you, so I remember Magic and Bird a little more than you because I'm older. But, like, come on.
I feel like if you look at Jordan, Kobe, like Tiger, and even – Oh, you're going all sports now. No, I'm just thinking – and thinking and lebron and this isn't even a slap like we always talk about the killer instinct and like the greatest greatest greatest greatest athletes like those four in my opinion are like the greatest athletes and like i put serena up there and you gretzky like you have all these guys but like that killer instinct is just like either hat like tom brady played to 45 and like people could say he was – I trained with him.
People would say, oh, he wasn't a great athlete. He was an absolute just psychopath when it came to like, I want to be the best of all time.
That's to me what Kobe was. You know, it's like he was a psychopath.
And you hear stories talking about like the guys that played with him and his work ethic and all that. It's like – to me, he's – yeah, MJ is 1Ab it's not even close i totally agree with you i feel that lsm la roots too we're gonna we gotta talk about some new york things for a second probably put you probably put jalen brunson in your top five right of course of course well speaking of brunson all right um so you know die hard nick fan i very very happy with brunson and all that but i've always said this is something like on all my nicks group chats and i'm in 10 million of them right even before brunson it was like who was the last point guard the nicks had it's like it's easy it's obvious as raymond felton that's the last point guard before brunson that we nick fans had that felt like real leadership, all the things you want out of a top point guard.
So you get to the Knicks and you were balling, man, balling. Right.
And I'm still like, don't know how to feel about the Mellow trade because I love Mellow and, you know, came one of the great great nicks but like was kind of short changed because

he didn't have a ton of weapons around him because most of the weapons went in the damn trade so like

all i could say is as a nick fan i was super happy to get mellow but i remember being a little younger

saying like but he's got to play with felton man that's like the whole point so like i don't want

to go too far back in the past and make you relive that stuff but like before that trade happened

Thank you. saying like, but he's got to play with Felton, man.
That's like the whole point. So I don't want to go too far back in the past and make you relive that stuff.
But like before that trade happened, were you really feeling like New York was home for you? Because you know how it is in New York too. When we latch on to a player, man, that love lasts forever, ever.
Listen, I still get love to this day from New York, from the fans when I go out there and go to games and stuff. That trade, man, I think that's the one trade I think hurt.
That hurt because it was my first – actually, it was my first time getting traded. And I was just – I was having such a great year, man.
Yeah, you were like 18 and 10. Yeah, I think.
I got snubbed from the Art Stock game that year. You know, I thought I was make it, and I got snubbed.
And just, you know, just having a great year in a big city. And, you know, if you went to New York, you know how it goes.
You went to New York, man. New York loves you, man.
It was beautiful. So, you know, when they was talking about getting mellow, I was like, okay, you know, we're going to have a chance to win this thing, you know, because we was already, were already top five, top six in the East at that time.
But you add a guy like Melo to that team and still be able to keep some pieces. I said, we're going to have a shot.
So I wasn't even in that trade at the beginning. The last minute, I got thrown in the trade the last minute.
And I was just like, oh, my damn, it hurt. And I ended up coming back after that, but it hurt, man.
It was just one of those moments where it was just like, I did what I had to do when I got together. It was just unhappiness because I just didn't want to leave New York.
It was just good times and it was fun. It was fun like, it was just, it was just, just unhappiness because, you know, I just didn't want to leave New York.
You know, it was just a good times and it was fun. It was fun.
So yeah. Like, so you represent for a lot of Knicks fans, like this kind of last moment up until the recent two, three years of this team where it's like the last time we had an all-star level point guard was you.
And then you come back to the Knicks right now. I i don't know if that was like i don't know how that feels coming back for you were you like okay i'm finally back now we could do this thing because that 2013 team wins 54 games that up until again the last two three years that team that was the last nick team to get out of the first round in a year.
And everything kind of collapsed once that team fell apart. But you get back to the Knicks, was that bittersweet? Or was that like, okay, no, I'm back where I belong.
Let's run this because now I can play with Melo and all these guys. Right.
No, it was one of those situations where I wanted to come back. And I i got the phone call mellow mellow actually called me coach woodson called me and you know they signed jay kid so and i was you know before i even got there and it was so i was a little iffy about going at first i'm like listen this is jason kidd like this is hall of fame point guard somebody that i idled somebody that i looked up to and it's like if he's going there then you know what am i coming there for you know what i'm saying and it was just a phone call that i had with him and you know i decided to come and then when i got there the the crazy thing about it when i got there and jason kid was just like this is your team yeah i'm like what he's like this is, this is your team.
We're going to go as you go.

You're going to be the guy who will be the leader of this team,

who's going to run this offense,

and we're going to go as far as you take us.

And I was like, wow.

So to get that type of confidence coming back from a guy like Jason Kidd and him to just learn from him.

I mean, he used to tell me things on the court with plays before I even saw it. He would tell me what was going to happen, and it happened.
Shout out to him, man. He's just a great coach, great teammate, just an all-around great person, man.
He did a lot for me in that second stint when I came back to New York, man. Freaking Roy Hibbert turned into Bill Russell in the second round out of nowhere, man.
I don't understand what happened, Matt. You probably don't remember because you don't watch much.
Beat the Celtics easily, J.R. Smith ball, and all of a sudden just control this year.
And then Roy Hibbert turns into Bill Russell, blocking Mello at the round. Never seen anything like it.
I'm still pissed about it. And then Roy Hibbert was gone.
He did that and then that type of center was like out of the NBA. So mad, Ray.
I'm so mad about it. Still.
Yeah, me too. I thought we had a chance, man.
I felt like we was the one team that could compete with Miami because we beat three times out of one that year. So, you know, we was one of the teams that I don't think Miami wanted to see that year.
Stat was on that team? Yeah, Stat was on that team, too. Yeah, I used to— Tyson Chandler, Defensive Player of the Year.
Tyson Chandler, yeah. I was in Arizona when Stat was in Phoenix, man.
Those Phoenix— There's probably around— When did Stat go to Phoenix after New York? No, no. He was there before.
Yeah. He came up with Nash, and then he signed.
Well, no, it was like Nash, Boris Diao. had a Barbosa, they were like running With Dan Toney, you played for Dan Toney Yeah, that was the first time I came to New York Yeah Is all that true with Dan Toney of like I forget, there's like this urban legend story Which you never know is true Where they're like, I don't know what I don't even know if it was a Knicks or a Suns team Where he's like drawing drawing up plays, and one of the players is like, Coach, what about defense? He's like, don't worry about it.
Just outscore him. Was he really that offensive mind? I mean, I'm sure he talked defense with you guys, but he goes down as like an offensive guru.
Oh, no, he's an offensive like, wizard. It's crazy.
You know, the things he can draw, the way his offense goes. If you

are guarding his offense,

point guard in his offense, you're going to

have some of your best numbers

playing up under him.

As far as

defense,

everybody has a defensive coach.

Coach Mike Woodson was actually

the defensive coach on that team,

which was crazy.

He ended up being the head coach.

Right.

Next time I came, I came back around.

But, and what's so funny is that I've known Coach Mike D'Antoni

even when I was in high school because his brother, Dan D'Antoni,

was my AU coach.

Oh, really?

He's an offensive dude too, right?

Yes, he is.

Yes, he is.

Wow. Just run and gun, man.
Just run do you i i'm curious because we talked before you jumped on a little bit about club club hoops and i've witnessed it kind of firsthand at like the like the uh the made hoops tournament and my son flirted with a little bit of eybl, but, um, do you teach? Cause you coach and do you teach? Cause the game has changed so much. We talked about earlier where it was, you know, center driven, you throw it in the post and you work around a big, and obviously that now the bigs are, are shooting threes and they can, you know, they can run the point and all that.
How do you teach the game to your kids? Cur because when i when i teach quarterback it's hard now because the game is run out of the shotgun and the game is run of the rpo that you hear and it's not as much under center with the old school play action which i still believe we all know this like you still make your money and win games from playing within the tackles throwing the football i what is your perspective and approach on coaching like the next generation of kids um these generations of kids are definitely different but i think you know as as teachers and as as coaches we still have to still teach these kids the basics you know i think when you look at a lot of these kids now they are very talented they are they're probably way more talented way more athletic than we were but the things that the thing we knew about the game is we knew the basics you know what i'm saying so if you could put us in any type of offense and we we could survive we knew how to play that's why you see a lot of these kids now they struggle now because a lot of them don't really understand how to play. They just turn off raw talent, raw athleticism.
You know what I'm saying? And I think with me as a coach, what I do, I still teach the basics. I teach the little small things.
You know, these kids now want to just come out and do a straight step back on the three. I'm like, no, that's not realistic.
Steph Curry screwed everything up. That's my oldest son's only move, the step back.
Steph Curry screwed everything up. We blame Steph for that.
I begged him to go in the post. I begged him to go in the post.
I was like, dude, you're a 6'4 guard. You're big and strong.
The dude's guarding you. Might be like, but you're big.
Use your body. I would at i would always say like kobe's game kobe would go in the post as like it's just it's so it bothers me man because you're too old matt you're too old bro that's like me and jerry man when we play the 40 year old pickup like i'm i'm by the way i ain't going in the post no more i just shoot outside because i don't want to get fouled but i'm saying like the post is like the old school man these kids don't know they don't man.
But, you know, I just, you know, I can relate to the kids because I was able to play in both eras. But at the same time, like, I still have to be, you guys still got to be firm with these kids because, you know, a lot of these kids now, unfortunately, you know, they're spoiled.
You know, they didn't come up and was raised the way we was so you know these kids now spoiled they're a little softer than we are in certain ways and i don't mean i don't mean softer sensitive let me say that word they're a little more sensitive than we are by far you know and you know we didn't have transfer portals and you know these in i love the nil deal part of it and the transfer part I really don't like because you know a kid now if you hard on a kid and you holding a kid accountable if you don't like it now I'm leaving the school and you're not going to get better that way you know I don't like that part of it but it is what it is but we just got to just keep teaching these kids the basics, man, and really staying on them and really teaching them how to play basketball rather than just throwing the ball out there and just say, look, who's the most talented? That's who's going to win this game. That ain't going to work when you get in college.
That ain't going to work when you get into the NBA or even overseas. You know what I'm saying? So you got to really just teach them the basics.
A lot of people ask me about NIL, and I'm all for it. And we shout out the O'Bannon brothers, man, because they spearheaded the whole thing.
Everyone used to say, I took a pay cut from going to USC to the NFL. You probably did.

That's bullshit. I didn't.

I can't speak for other guys.

Was there

any story you could tell about?

I can only imagine

20 years later, because we can speak

freely about this now because we can't get in trouble.

Being a North Carolina

basketball player had

to come with its perks.

Oh, 100%.

I was okay in college

I'm good. I was okay in college.
I didn't have to meet the worries when I was in college. I'll put it like that.
But now, though, in these NIL deals now? It's crazy. You guys would have cleaned up.
the two of you. I'm acting like AJ, the number one kid in the country that went to BYU.
I need $7 million. No, I'm kidding.
It is. I hear some of these stories and the things they ask for.
Wow. I love the game so much, man.
I was just grateful and happy to go to Carolina. And I was the number one player in the country coming out of high school.
I was a Nate Swift national player of the year in high school that year in 2002. And I just wasn't on that type of time.
I was just grateful. Just a little kid out of Atlanta, South Carolina.
Yeah. That was just grateful to be in a situation I was in to go to school and play college ball at a dream school and had an opportunity to you know better myself there and possibly get to the NBA and that's all my focus was I really wasn't thinking about how much money I can get or you know anything and the great thing my parents wasn't my parents wasn't like that too you know i'm not going to call the school out but we was offered millions of dollars you know from another school you know plus a house plus cars all kind of stuff and my mama just looked at me said where do you want to go and i said i want to go to carolina and she said okay and they turned the deal down that's great yeah they turned the deal down and you know end up working out for all working out for all of us at the end.
So, you know, it's one of those things now, man, where the game is just not the same no more. You know, you have parents out here selling their kids for money.
Even in the AAU game, man, I'm dealing with that now in AAU. The teams are offering people money, kids' money, families' money, to get their kid to just come play for their team.
And to me, what I'm telling parents is, what is that teaching your kid? You're not caring about what are these kids are learning, how are these kids developing? You know what I'm saying? And I'm just not with that. I don't like that.
I remember one kid. I remember, I think it was seventh grade or eighth grade, where it made hoops.
I think before the third stop, you could switch a team or whatever, and then after the third, whatever, you couldn't. I remember seeing a kid literally play for three different teams in one day.
I don't remember that, but he was a top kid, and he would just take his jersey off. He'd go throw that, and I was like, what the fuck, dude? What's going on? It was the same shit.
It was just like parents, like these coaches are poaching the kids. There's probably some handshakes going on to get the kid to come play for them.
And I was like, man, like to your point, Raymond, like parents are almost just as bad. Not all the parents, and you're lucky.
Obviously, you had a great one, but like they're not all like that that. It's unfortunate.
Yes, it is. Yes, it is.
That's all very unrelatable to me. No one ever offered me money to play anywhere or anything.
I don't think they're going to offer my kids any money. I'm going to be a good sports parent because my kid's going to be playing.
We're going to just be talking about playing time. Last thing, Raymond, then we're going to let you go.
So for you, your all-time UNC team. You could put yourself on there.
You could leave yourself off. We're talking about the UNC greats.
And again, it could be guys you played with that some of us might not put on there. But who's your North Carolina five? Ooh, that's tough.
Can you go any direction? No, no, no. It's tough.
For me, point guard, I'm going to go with field forward. Okay.
Great. I told you, Jerry.
I told you. I'm going to go with field forward.
Two, I'm going to go with, obviously, MJ at the two guard. I'm going to go MJ.
Now, the three spot is where it gets tricky. That's tough.

You know, three spots where it gets tricky because you can go, man, you can go Vince.

You can go Jerry Stackhouse.

You can go.

It's tough.

That's probably the toughest spot.

You're right.

Man, you can go so many places, but I'm going to go with Vince at my three.

The four is tough, too, because you got my big bro, Rashheed. Rasheed.
Got my big bro, Antoine Jameson. You know, you got James Worthy.
James Worthy. Yeah, that's tough.
You got James Worthy. But for me, if I just had to choose one just off the history, just off, you know, what I know about, you know, James Worthy, I'm going to go with him at the four spot.
And then for me at the five spot, I know when I when I said this before, a lot of people was like, oh, you ain't going to go with Tyler Hemsborough. I like Tyler.
You know, I think he's a he's a great player. He did a lot of great stuff in college basketball.
But for me, I'm going with my big fella at the five spot. I'm going with Big Sean May.
Big Sean May. That's a great squad.
I'm going with my guy. I had Hansborough in there.
Hansborough was a dog. I went to Felton, man.
In college, he was a dog. Anytime you got bloodied, you're just bloodied and you're just bodying people out there.

Obviously, you can't go wrong picking James Worthy.

It's one of the best players. I love the way the legend of Rasheed Wallace continues to grow.

Even former NBA players talk about guys who would have thrived today.

When we had that conversation of what guy backed it. Yes.
Yes, sir. I mean.
Rasheed Wallace. He had the whole pad.
He had everything. He'd shoot threes before big men shot threes.
And can shoot threes. Oh, yeah.
Left hand. Left hand.
Just as good as his right. Just as good as his right.
I'm so serious. Listen, I was playing for the Bobcats, and that's when Detroit was Detroit.
Right. And they was beating him so bad that he started shooting threes left-handed.
And he hit like three in a row. I got to see if we can find this footage.
That's crazy. He was shooting threes left-handed, man.
It was bad. It was bad.
Can't thank you. One of my favorite players to watch over the years.
I appreciate it, man. I appreciate y'all, man.
Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Ray. All right.
Should we do some mailbag now? That was awesome that Raymond Felton stopped off. Still, I just still will never be over the mellow.
I know we talked about it in the interview. It's still, it's like the big what if for Nick fans.
But anyway. You've just been haunted being a New York fan your whole life.
Yeah. You're a pseudo LA guy too though.
I never caught on to any LA team. I enjoyed watching Kobe and the Lakers all those years.
As a fan, I went to a lot of games. Can't get into the Kings.
Rams weren't even there when I was living in LA. Definitely not rooting for any LA football.
It's not a football town anymore. It's not.
All right, let's do some mailbag stuff because that's been working. I think I pulled two good ones.
You want me to take, I could take the first, you take the second? Yeah, what do you got? All right, we're going to go to Leonard in Detroit who is probably happy that the Pistons are doing well. But he says, Jerry, there are a lot of big-time cameos in Entourage over the years.
Any of them cause you to feel starstruck? I think he talked about that once, right? A little bit. Was it Phil? Well, Phil was definitely, it was starstruck early, but then he's so good at disarming you and being a normal dude.
We played some golf, too, while he was shooting. So that went.
The Brady thing was definitely a little starstruck at the time because also the way he came in. But again, that went quick.
Kanye didn't have me starstruck. And again, this is Kanye 15 years ago.
There was a moment there where he was so late, we wondered if he was coming at all for his cameo. I will say the one that got me a little bit was Matt Damon.
Matt Damon got me a little bit. Also, it was like Matt Damon, LeBron James, and Bono all shot on the same day.
So that, and even some of the scenes I wasn't in, I said, I have to show up for some of these scenes. This is like one, but when you look at a call sheet, you know, I'll give you the scenes for the day and the time.
And it's like, yeah, first up, it's Matt Damon and LeBron James. And then second up, we have this quick thing with Bono.
And then we're finishing with this like Matt Damon meltdown scene that he's going to improv. I'm like, I got to show up.
You know, it's for the kids, Vince. It's for the kids.
That's his famous lines for the kids, Vince. I love it.
All right. Uh, David at Orlando, uh, saw your guys build your perfect quarterback video on Instagram the other day, uh, where you were allowed to use quarterbacks from any era.
Now do it just the quarterbacks playing today. I got a lot of heat for mine, but my Peyton Manning accuracy for all time.
I got a lot of heat. No, you did.
Well, you know, you put Eli Manning in there for clutch. Yes.
I got more heat for Peyton for accuracy. I got a lot of heat for that.
Okay. Arm strength.
I'm going to go Josh Allen. I'll just build mine really quick.
Arm strength, Josh Allen, accuracy. I'll go Tua.
Athleticism. I'll go Lamar.
Clutch factor, I'll go

because I want to make this different. Clutch factor, I'll go

Joey B.

And then overall, I'll go Patty Mahomes.

I'm going to go super

specific. You're going to hate this.
You are going to

absolutely hate this. You're going to go Daniel

Jones, Eli Manning,

Tommy DeVito, Russell

Wilson, and now Janus

Winston. Wait, we might, and now Janus Winston.

Wait, we might still sign Aaron Rodgers, too.

And Aaron Rodgers and Shador Sanders.

Aaron Rodgers draft Shador six quarterbacks.

It's like what people do in a fantasy draft.

They draft all quarterbacks, and they build their team through trades.

Yeah.

Arm strength.

We've heard all about it.

Why not put Joe?

Why not Joe Milton for just arm strength? We're only talking about the strength of one's arm. Joe Milton hates it.
Just keep going, dude. Accuracy.
I know he's only a rookie going into his second year. It's hard to overlook Jaden Daniels when you're talking accuracy.
Dude is putting it pinpoint accuracy. Athleticism, love Lamar.

You have to take Lamar.

I still don't want him taking too many hits,

but you were right on that.

Clutch factor,

look,

you ready for this?

This is going to be

a controversial take.

Who was more clutch

in the biggest game of the year

than Jalen Hurts this year?

Love it.

So how do you ignore that?

I'm giving Jalen Hurts.

Give the man his flowers.

And overall,

that's where I put in

the Josh Allen

because Josh Allen

has just enough

of all of these things

This is the first time I was going to be able to do this. So how do you ignore that? I'm giving Jim Hurt.
Give the man his flowers. And overall, that's where I put in the Josh Allen because Josh Allen has just enough of all of these things that I think Josh Allen's a good overall.
Good question, though, David. Appreciate it.
All right. All right, well, let's get some more.
Don't forget, it's feedback at Throwback Show. Thank you to Raymond Felton.
Next week. Next week.
Bro, we can't even say it, but you are so fucking excited.

In the words of DJ Khaled,