Fly Eagles Fly, Red Carpet Interview with Shaquille O’Neal & Fixing the NBA Slam Dunk Contest

I don't like him. Why? I don't like him.
Why? Because I love you. It didn't feel like a joke.
Alright, welcome to another episode of Throwbacks. We're alive.
We're kicking. We've made it back from New Orleans.
Barely. Barely.
I pulled my back yesterday, so I'm not in good shape right now. Are you at the age now, though, where you...
I mean, you were a football player, so it's different. But you're at the age where you pull stuff not really doing anything? Or is that just football life? I was back in the gym this week.
And I I just moved a certain way, just tweaked my lower right back. It's a little pulled muscle, nothing bad.
Last night I was walking around and Josie's like, are you all right? I said, no, I just, this is terrible. I'm 41, I just pulled my back.
You're not at the point though where like you wake up and you're like, how did I get injured sleeping? And you sneeze and you pull like a hand. That's the age.
That's where I'm at. I get injured like that.
I'm definitely not there yet. I'm getting closer though.
My right shoulder is starting to bother me when I lift weights and now, and now I'm getting pissed. I honestly, that is starting to get me to get pissed.
because I'm not the biggest dude. Actually, this week, we're going to recap the Super Bowl.
But this weekend, I got the biggest insult from Colin Coward. Colin Coward saw me in the hotel.
He's like, dude, are you on Ozempic? What's wrong with you? That's so messed up now because you're a fit. You're a fit dude.'s just i i just yeah i feel like i'm fine like i i think i gained eight pounds this weekend just from drinking and eating shit but it's but he did he saw he saw it in the hotel lobby and he we were talking and he's like he's like are you on ozempic and i was like colin come on bro come on it Come on.
It's a compliment. He's basically saying your skin looks thin.

Speaking from a guy who almost just passed out on

live TV last week.

Did you see that? He almost went down. Yeah, that was

kind of strange. I talked to him about it.

I think he got hit with the flu right there.

So, I'm good.

Body's breaking down a little bit,

but I feel good. Well, we got a good

show for you. You can follow us on all

socials at Throwback Show. Subscribe to the YouTube, which a lot of you did for our live stream of the red carpet.
Big shout outs. We're going to recap that, and then we're going to talk a little NBA All-Star break.
Our Throwback 3 today is going to be greatest dunk contest performance of Throwback 3. So it's one guy performance.
It doesn't even necessarily have to be the winner some guys had great performances and did not win which are you are you teasing that maybe maybe not there's a couple obvious ones i didn't want to go too hard in this and just be like just oh okay i'm gonna overthink this no you just you i respect some of the greatest dunkers of all time let's put it that way so let's recap a few. Let's recap a little bit of the red carpet live show

and then maybe give the audience what they didn't get to see

once we got inside the party.

But you mentioned that Cal Herd said you look skinny,

but a lot of athletes on the carpet.

Was this the first time at moments you felt short in your life

when Shaq rolled up?

When Shaq rolled up, I haven't seen Shaq in years.

I know he's huge.

When he rolled up, I felt like how you feel standing next to me.

All the time?

All the time.

Did you see the story I posted of you next to Shaq from the back?

I showed it to my kids and they were like, wow, it's a giant dad. You look like four feet tall.
Yeah. But it's okay.
By the way, you can't even see me through him. That's how big of a man he is.
I fell short next to him. He's now, I guess, our first repeat guest.
We had Jack Flaherty stopped by. And Jack's a big dude.
And Jack is at least 6'2", 6'3 two six three right at least he's not that much shorter than you and we were talking with him he just signed with the tigers really cool and then he walks out shack comes in and as they walk and as they switch positions jack even went holy shit he walked away just uh but when you stand when you stand next to him and you look up because I looked up and I was like, wow. He felt a foot and a half taller than me.
I'm 6'5", and in shoes, I'm over 6'5". He's 7'1", 7'2", in shoes, and I felt like he was 9'9".
Can you imagine Wemby? Like, Wemby's four inches taller than him. Think about that on the court.
There was an uncomfortable moment, let's call it what it was was for me. I'm still reeling from this moment.
And again, if you haven't watched our live show, it's up on YouTube. Go watch the whole thing.
It's about an hour, hour and 20. You can rifle right through it.
But we have a clip for you of what I feel like was one of my awkward, disappointing interactions with the great Shaquille O'Neal. Let's play the clip so you can see.
Look at the top part of the clip mainly. How are you, man? Good to see you, dude.
How you doing, man? Now I feel short. I'm good.
We ready? I know. Yes, we're good.
I know you want to get in there. I don't like this fucking guy.
How was your party? I don't like him. Why? I don't like him.
Why? Because I love you. See how scared I am? My voice went, why? I feel like we talked about power back in the day.
We did, yes, you did. You actually did a wonderful job.
TV and music is always, and you understand what I'm about to say, so much pressure on us to perform. You can't think about it all the time.
So you need two or three hours to go away, your show, listen to music, doing something else to take your way, and then we can come back to it. If we can get away from Vokka and then come back to it, it always makes our performance.
That's what I was thinking about the other day. I don't know.
You popped up, and I'm like, I was thinking, I think I even heard, like, true foo schnickens. I'm like, Shaq was doing music, doing so many different things.
Now it's like everyone's a brand. Every athlete does so many other things.

You were the first, man.

Everybody's not really a brand.

They just think they are.

You were the first.

I mean, it's cute watching them.

Like I tell people all the time, you have to be yourself.

What I love and respect about you, you've always been yourself.

I'm going to be myself.

I don't do the... I am who I am.

Like if I make a mistake, I want people to learn from my mistake.

The smartest thing I said in a meeting one time, because they were trying to create an image, I said, I'm not doing none of that shit. Image is reality.
I'm not, I don't talk like that. I got tattoos.
I like wheels. I like ice.
You can't accept me for me. We can't do business.
So a lot of these people need to understand image is reality. Because a lot of times in our business, you see a lot of people show us this.
But in real life-, not them. No, but them too.
Like, they show us this. Yeah.
They show us this. They show us this.
And then when reality kicks in, they get all fucked up and they lose everything. You just got to be yourself.
So I'm always be myself. And I got to take a shit right now.
Go in there, Chuck. You don't want to stop that, baby.
If you ever need me on your podcast, you know I got you, brother. We had Chuck on.
Fuck Chuck. I need- I don't know Chuck.
Love you guys. Good to see you, man.
Appreciate it. Have a good time, man.
There's a lot to unpack there. I was about to say, there is a- First, let me- You don't look that short, by the way, Matt.
You look short, but you actually stacked up okay. That was the first thing I noticed is I didn't look that short, but you did.
Is your neck sore still from looking up at him? I don't know why. I don't have the deepest voice in the world, but my voice went up a few octaves.
You got nervous. It's okay.
You got nervous. When he came over and there's so much going on and he just starts going and throwing it away and I don't like this fucking guy.
Yeah, twice that. It didn't feel like a joke.
He said he loved it. And then he felt like he saved it.
Like, oh, because I love you. I felt like he saved it.
And even with you, like he said, you know, we understand. He's pointing right at you, you know.
He's talking about athletes, dude. He's talking about athletes.
And by the way, let's get Shaq on my pod because apparently it's just my podcast at the very end hey i'll do your podcast

matt your podcast anytime you want great takeaways the height discrepancy shack probably took a monster shit when he got into the fanatics party oh but he loves you inside that party and he wants to go on my pod it was a win that was the best shot lineart's throwback he said fuck charles Barkley, who we love, Charles.

So number one,

I saw the bathroom

situation. the best shaq leinerts throwbacks and he said fuck charles barkley who we love charles so number one i saw the bathroom situation in the party there's no private bathroom it's an event space what's shack doing in there uh if he did destroy it i sorry i mean i just honestly i think he just wanted to go inside you cannot ask someone to stay longer if someone says i gotta go take a fucking shit, you can't be like, wait, wait, wait, one more question.
I think it was, he's out with that. He's a savvy dude.
Ends the interview. It's over.
You cannot ask a follow-up question. Do you think he really had to take a shit? No.
If I had to bet money, I would think if he had to shit, number one, if it was dire, like, hey, it's going to happen, he wouldn't have stopped for us. I think if he had to shit number one if it was like dire like hey it's gonna happen he wouldn't have stopped for us yeah i think if he like had the early rumblings he would have just fucking left the party and came back i don't think he goes into the fanatics party and just drops it can you imagine shut the party down could you imagine go i went to i went to i i peed at some point during that party i remember i went in there and again like you said no private bathrooms you're in there it's a couple stalls could you imagine being in line to take a piss or shack comes out and you just start to hear just no if i'm like i've been doing entertainment stuff for almost 30 years if i had to bet money he's so savvy he knows like all right he did liner his boy liner the favor gave him a sound i'm gonna give him a sound bite because that will be a viral clip and also it ends the interview but i did like some of the stuff he was saying about brand and no one's really a brand i do think that's a very overused word and i really thought it because i knew he was to us.
I really thought a lot about it. And I went back and looked at his old stuff with all the rap and music and just, he wasn't doing it because, hey, this is how I expand my brand.
Now he's like the spokesperson for every brand. So if anyone knows about brand shit at Shaq, he was just doing stuff he liked to do.
And he was fortunate enough because of the NBA to be put in the spotlight and it showed off some of his other talents. I think the biggest thing that, and I'm nowhere near Shaq's status as far as everything he's been able to accomplish, and business, on the court, all those things.
But I think the most important thing that I've learned when you're putting yourself out there and when you're doing a lot of stuff is just staying true to yourself and authentic to yourself. And I get asked that question all the time with social media and all that.
And my biggest thing that I've learned and am learning is I'm just going to be me. And whether you are annoyed by me, you like me, you love me, you relate to me, all of those things, that's what it's all about.
And you're not going to have everybody, you know, not everybody's going to like you and whether my opinions, it doesn't matter, But that's who I am. And I'm glad Shaq said that because in this day and age, it's a lot harder to do that because you're getting put with social media.
Just the more access that you're giving people. So you have to be very careful of what you do.
But Shaq, like you said, Shaq is a pioneer. And he's been into DJing and music forever.
He's like kind of like a legit, he's a legit DJ. Oh, he certainly is.

He's always been the same fun,

unique personality and he can turn on when he's serious and he can goof

around and all those things.

But that's how he is.

That's how he's on TV.

That's how he was with us.

And it's,

it's a,

he was,

he was awesome.

It was awesome to see him.

I hadn't seen him in a long time,

but we got to get him on the show.

Cause I really want to,

I've tried figuring out why he came in like that. Like, I don this fucking guy meaning i don't know if he was maybe because my character on power or could be a little some people didn't love him in the end maybe because shack we shack and i i think you're one of the overthinking this i think it's a joke he was just he's a prankster he was just at one of the nba all-star games years ago in LA, the LA one.
I went to one of his parties and he seeked me out and was like, dude, I love Pat. Like it's our favorite show.
He was trying to get spoilers out of me. So I thought when he rolled up, it was going to be so friendly.
Like, I love this guy. This is my guy.
He was like, oh, fuck. I like this guy.
I'm over it now, but I would like to talk to you. Clearly, clearly you've been thinking about this it wasn't the first insult your boy went through everyone loves liner no one really likes me or gives a shit well we i did not expect we were pretty well prepped for everyone on this red carpet and shout outs to everyone who made that red carpet happen but the thing i think we both learned from doing a live event like that is prepare all you want.
We had these iPads filled with questions for everyone and well thought. Did you look at the iPad once we got going, really? I did not, but you might've had a worse day than Drake did during the Super Bowl.
Well, we didn't, the one person that was not in our packet, we didn't, first of all, we didn't know Kevin Costner was coming and we didn't know he would stop and talk with us. You have your draft day experience.
We've talked about it. Matt auditioned for draft day.
So you guys have a connection. I've never met Kevin Costner, although we've been at the same agency for a thousand years and, um, talk about just feeling awesome.

Let's do we have the clip?

Let's roll the Kevin Cox clip again.

Pay.

It's quick.

Pay attention to just what he,

what he says to me.

My,

my second snubbing of the day,

you know,

Jerry Ferrara.

How are you?

I don't know you.

Good to meet you though,

which is fine.

That's fine.

You don't have to know me.

It's fine.

The best part is because I mean, he knew, he knew who I was. So I was like, Kevin, Matt, how's it going? So, yeah, you know Jerry.
This is what I said. You know Jerry Farrar.
And that's what he goes. Jerry, I don't know you.
I do not know Jerry. I looked at you for a brief second.
And honestly, my heart sank for you for about three seconds. And then I'm like, this guy's a big guy here's my thing gonna roll with the punch I don't expect him to have sat and watched entourage or power or think like a man but I do think it's a little strange to be like no no I don't know like if you could say oh no we've never met hey Jerry never met before I don't think good to meet you now supposed to be like no Jerry I don't I don't know i don't think costner really gives two shits about how he greets somebody well go watch it too because we did ask him his favorite sports movies he was he honestly he didn't put himself in there which i thought for sure he didn't remember me interviewing him for the press junket either i've sat with him i remember i was shit in my pants i had this for i was i think i was working for extra and i did the whole press junket for all of them it was it was it was awesome i had a one-on-one with jennifer jennifer garner who i you can actually youtube this uh one-on-one with jennifer garner actually we should roll this uh we should roll this in this episode when it comes out we'll put it out um i i teased her or i talked to her about a playbook and I wrote, I gave some plays

to her just like I've done to you.

And I said, can you, can you recall these plays?

And that was my extra thing.

It was awesome.

And she was great.

She tried to do it.

She was fantastic.

Costner was great.

And we talked about sports and baseball and all this.

And I had a one-on-one with him for about 15 minutes.

And then, uh, Tom Welling and the other quarterback in there that I put them through like the

football gauntlet as well.

It was awesome.

So that's what I led with.

Cause I'm thinking he's going to remember.

He goes, oh, I don't remember that. Oh, that was in New York.
Right. No, it was actually in LA where I'm from.
Anyways, he was, he was great. He was great.
And then I guess we could go to our third snub. This wasn't a blatant snubub we got the chance to talk to michael rubin uh at the fanatics right carpet big shout out to rubin because he was the only person obviously all the people all the athletes and and actors come down the carpet you ask them at the end who do you like in the big game everyone's like the overwhelming consensus was eagles and I thought there was way more eagles fans but ruben was the only one when we asked him we said the eagles are going to win decisively and he said no one will say because they don't want to just in case look like assholes monday but ruben walked up again carpet was hot josie liner texted you your wife this was at the stop saying you're sweating because we can't see it and she was right that's an old veteran entertainment move just because you're sweating doesn't mean the audience knows you're sweating and he kind of came over and he wasn't rude or anything he just wanted to go in his party this was toward the end it was the very end we were wrapping up we did 45 seconds with him it was clear like Mr.
Rubin wants to go inside. So he walked off, but then came back.
Roll it. You got so skinny out here to recognize you.
You got too skinny. And I'm, like, thinking in my head because he doesn't recognize anyone.
I got too skinny. You got too skinny.
By the way, I just lost all this weight on this carpet because it's so hot. So basically, again, he wasn't rude.
He was just kind of like, what? He was looking at me like, who is this? Why is this guy asking me questions? His wife is the one that said, hey, that's Turtle from Entourage. It was from Entourage, right? Yes.
Well, Ruben was great. He was ready to go in, but he was great.
Obviously, shout out to Michael and Fanatics for letting us be there. But I don't think I said two words in that interview.
And because we talked about favorite jersey which we'll play dr j dr j was his first throw the first jersey and then they left and then all of a sudden they came back and you basically i mean talk about you just getting slapped in the face all red carpet by shack by costner live tv baby and then they come back and the man of the hour, the man that runs it all, basically said how great you look because you lost 80 pounds. He gave you the best compliment he could possibly give you.
So, you crushed it. You took a couple backhands, a couple backhands early, maybe a backhanded compliment from Shaq.
He's pranking you. But then Ruben comes back and says, I didn't recognize you because you lost all that weight, which means he was a true fan.
Well, again, if you want to watch all these interviews, they're up on the Throwback Show YouTube page. Go watch.
As far as we have Miles Teller, the first person that came on, we didn't know when guests were going to roll up. Jameis was the first person on the carpet and the last person off the carpet.
And Jameis was – so go check it out. There's a bunch.
MVP of the week, man. He was all over the place.
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So Matt, we had, we had like our mantra before the live show, which was like, get to the drink, meaning do the carpet. It's going to, hopefully it's going to go well.
We have no idea how it's going to go, but once we get in that party, we're going to get a fucking drink and we're going to celebrate either way. Cause it's over.
We did. I got loose in that party for a couple hours by the way so we go in we do our shot of tequila we grab a few drinks we walk into the party can i tell you one of the cool moments for me so this happens to me every now and then when me and the entourage guys get together when the three or four of us are together in one place it happened most recently in the bahamas at a craps table a lot of people came over.
It was like, whoa, they're all together. We were there hanging and Reggie Bush walked in and seeing you and Reggie embrace and chop it up.
It's like, man, that's so dope to see like this duo, which we all know and love. Like it just was really cool.
And I get why people maybe get like to see me in the entourage. It's just a warm feeling of nostalgia that you love.
Yeah. I think that's exactly it.
I mean, you guys were a part of an iconic show, and that still lives on 20 years later. And you don't see each other very often, but when you do, it's a huge moment.
It's bigger for you than probably fans because you get to see your boys and you just it's like time never passed yes i work with jerry or i work with reggie for years at fox i was around him for a long time i don't see him that much but when we do it is it's it's it's just there's just a love there that's you know there's a bond and a love there that you always have no matter how many times a year you see his wife, his kids, all of those things. It was great to see Reg.
I saw him Saturday night as well at a party and hung out with him a bunch there too, had some drinks, but it was great. And the party, I was trying to explain this to somebody because it is the A-list kind of most exclusive party of the weekend.
Yeah, Travis Scott performed. It is impossible to get it.
Ludacris performed. At some point, I looked up and it was Ciara, Ludacris, Travis Scott, Post Malone, and Quavo performed together.
I think maybe like Sexy Red, which I don't really know who she is, but she's been all over my time on Instagram because I think she performed at a bunch of parties this weekend. It was, and everybody was just kind of standing there watching.
Like there wasn't, there were private sections or this and that, but everyone was kind of out on the floor watching, which I thought was really cool. You know, it was one of those things.
I mean, we hung out with Miles Teller for a bunch talking, just talking about life and stuff for a while. Ran into old friends, new friends.
It was great and by the way just you know what what a fucking crush we we crushed it it was a great it was an awesome experience it really was throwbacks throwbacks is in that we're in the newborn stage and we got to we got to be on the red carpet our name was on the floor i was like this is pretty fucking cool we had awesome people We had awesome people come by. You weren't 100%, but you went out there

like MJ in the flu game. A little bit of a flu

game. Yeah, a little bit of a flu game.

We were sweating our ass off.

We got in. We had a couple drinks.

You Irish could buy me. It's okay.

We also

played our game, Flag No Flag, where we

talked about some of those things. Everyone says the Irish

goodbye is approvable. Irish goodbye, famously,

is you leave a party without saying

goodbye. The only thing I took away

Thank you. We also played our game, Flag No Flag, where we talked about some of those things.
Everyone says the Irish goodbye is approvable. Irish goodbye, famously, is you leave a party without saying goodbye.
The only thing I took away from playing those games, is it okay to leave a party without saying goodbye? Is it okay to wear sandals on a plane? People are going to see these clips throughout the next week, but we should have made it a little bit harder because everybody pretty much agreed that everything was acceptable. That's what I took away.
I'm like, damn it. FaceTime guys, FaceTiming guys.
I'm a huge fan. Brady Quinn hates FaceTime.
You're not a big FaceTime guy. I'm not.
I need to be prepared for a FaceTime. I get made fun of for FaceTiming all the time, but pretty much everyone said it was okay.
Also, shout outs to Reggie because there's a moment that happened that he took really well i don't think he had the drink but people were over talking to him he was hanging out and oh someone just swiped down for like a dab and just knocked a drink down and the glass broke and the shit spread and he got hit and like he made that face you know in that hat everyone's had a drink spilled or poured on him and you want to for a minute go, man. But you know it's an accident.
He took it very well. He just was like, all right.
Yeah, I remember that. All right.
And then this has to be said. And I'm sure I think someone else, I heard some other show say this because he was out and about.
And this is not meant for disrespect. I'm saying this in a respectful way.
You know Bryce Young well.

He came up, showed you love.

Him and I said a quick what's up,

and he was walking around,

and I swear to you, Matt,

I thought that that was someone

who looked just like Bryce Young

and was just walking around the party.

Maybe like his little brother.

He is not big.

He is.

I know everyone talks about

who's an undersized quarterback.

I think what he's doing in the NFL

Thank you. He told me.
He's not big. I know everyone talks about he was an undersized quarterback.
I think what he's doing in the NFL is actually crazy at that size. He's way closer to my size than your size.
Kyler Murray is shorter than him. Russell Wilson's not very tall.
He was at the party. He's not very tall either.
Yeah, Bryce Young. Well, that was the thing.
Bryce Young's 5'10 with shoes on, maybe. I couldn't believe when he walked up.
I'm like, wow, that dude looks just like Bryce Young. And I did like a dog.
I'm like, that is Bryce Young. Wow.
So that stuck out. And then we were at the party when AD pulled his groin.
And I had the pleasure of, I was, I just was talking with Jalen Rose. And Jalen Rose.
Jalen Rose came by. Jalen Rose is the best.
I love that dude, man. He's a good dude.
He has a great, first of all. I want to get him on.
Yeah, we got to get him on. Because the coolest thing about Jalen too is he started a school, the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy in Detroit, JRLA.
Every year I go up to Detroit to the charity golf tournament. I mean, I just think it's the coolest thing.
Like, dude, you started a school. That's not even like, oh, we have this charity donate money.
He started a school. That's crazy.
He's such a good guy, clearly. And I just, I appreciate, because when I was in Arizona, I think he was doing, he was doing a lot of the like in stadium or in arena mic stuff.
He was like, he was not like a DJ. I don't know what they call him, but he was, he was doing in arena stuff.
And this was after maybe he was, I don't know. It was definitely Jalen Rose.
And he was always so good to me. We're boys.
He's obviously a little bit older than me. And then throughout just the last decade, I see Jalen in the airport during the season because I travel all the time.
I run into him maybe once or twice a year in some airport, probably Detroit a lot of times, or I see him in LA or I see him at a party. And he always, always comes up like he did to us and just says, what's up guys? Love like he is just he's a he's a great guy i i really anytime i see him i just i'm always like man jalen rose is awesome dude like and i was a fan of his growing up when when he was playing michigan and then in the league but shout out to jay i'm gonna get him on the pod but it was funny too though i did irish goodbye i was done at some point i was just done But it was funny talking to everybody, even our boy Frankie.
Everyone just like, where are you going after this? Hearing everybody's moves, like Acho came about. I'll tell you what I did.
Where's everybody going after this? I took down two cheeseburgers in the hotel lobby bar. See, I went back to my room.
And I continued to drink. I had a tequila.
I still kept going. I slowed it down a little bit.
Real fan life would know. The Knicks played the Celtics, which was unfortunate, at 830 Eastern.
So I Irish goodbye'd you. I went back to my room to watch that game, and I ordered $200 a DoorDash for myself.
I was wearing anything I could get my hands on. Am I ever going to see you just let loose? I mean, are you going to let loose one of these days.
You saw it. That was kind of it.
That was a little, that was a little. If that was let loose, then I'm, then.
No, I can't let loose in an environment like that. Cause I know I have to talk to people and who knows if Shaq's going to roll up and says, Hey, I just took a shake.
Could you come, could you come in the bathroom for a minute? You know? So. The parties were great.
The weekend was great. The game, not so much.
Well, let's get in the game i first i just say new orleans was a great host city i i had a little over i had i had i haven't had great experiences in new orleans i'm just gonna put it that way it's just for my own reasons i've been there a couple times i will say this for the super bowl and for it's a, it really is a perfect host city for Superbowl. It really is.
And I saw everybody say that it should be in the road three or four city rotation. I totally agree with that.
You could walk everywhere. It was a little hot, but the weather was great.
It wasn't bad. You know, the, the weather was great.
The energy, the vibe, everything you could imagine. It was awesome.
Like I had a, I left thinking New Orleans was awesome. Like they're going to have a Super Bowl there every handful of years.
Next year, it's in Santa Clara. That's going to be a, that's going to be a buzzkill.
Yeah. I only had one other experience in New Orleans.
I did a movie in New Orleans. And I think I say my experience in New Orleans wasn't great because that movie wasn't great.
So it's linked together. But I did remember halfway through our trip just saying to myself, I got to change my attitude about New Orleans.
This is incredible. There's a billion people here and it still feels like you could breathe and everyone had energy and the food's good.
So shout outs to Newleans you guys did it the game however and we're not gonna spend too much on it because everybody's giving their two cents we all felt that this eagles team or at least i did that this eagles team that this could have been a blowout now i didn't say that but it could have it felt like the eagles could win by twos. The way they were built, the dominant lines, the running back.
But the mystique pulled us all in. But the mystique of Mahomes, which rightfully so.
I wasn't, I got to be honest, I wasn't surprised watching the game. I was not surprised.
Now, I didn't ever say I wasn't Ruben and picked them to win by a blowout. I don't know.
My biggest takeaway wasn't the Mahomes narrative. It wasn't, you know, it just was more super pumped for Jalen Hurts.
I thought the best team won the Super Bowl. Clearly.
I didn't. I thought Mahomes played, as we all did, probably his worst game he's ever played, which is crazy.
And didn't have a lot of time. And you saw him.
You saw that defensive line. When things start to go like that for a QB, even if you're Mahomes, it's really hard to just settle in.
And that's what happened. But Chiefs are great.
They got their ass kicked, and they got to regroup. I mean, that's as simple as that.
But shout out to the Eagles and Nick Sirianni and all the storylines and narratives this year and Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, your former giant, gets a Super Bowl ring. Great season, but ended in the Eagles championship, man.
So yeah, my quick two cents, everyone in New Orleans, I said it when we were there, I felt that the Eagles fans showed up way more.

I don't know what it was like in the stadium.

Some people have said there was a lot of Chiefs fans in the stadium. I think it was like seven.

It looked Eagles dominant to me.

Burkhart said it felt very Eagles dominant.

I think 70-30 or something like that.

And obviously our red carpet, we have Miles Teller,

we have Ruben, all these Eagles.

Everyone's picking the Eagles. In New Orleans, and I talked to some analysts that we know that are on tv everyone i spoke to even shady mccoy at one point was like how do you bet against my homes but i mean look at the eagles right we talked to shady at the party so i i picked the eagles earlier in the week with bet mgm and then i i actually bet on the Chiefs when I got back home because I said, no one's ever right.
The consensus is never all correct. It just doesn't happen that way.
The public is usually wrong. Now, fortunately, I hit a lot of good prop bets, so it equaled out.
But for me... I was shitty on all my bets.
Look, you're you could spot this way easier.

I kind of I had a bad feeling after the first Chiefs possession, not because they didn't score anything. I just thought from the first possession, the way the Chiefs front four pushed the offensive line back, even though they didn't get to him right away, then they got to him a billion times.
Mahomes looked instantly sped up. everything.
The first or second throw

from Mahomes

rushed.

You missed Kelsey on the

game. then they got to him a billion times mahomes looked instantly sped up the first the first or second throw from mahomes rushed he missed kelsey on that one because it was ross kelsey and that was where i saw as a quarterback it was just like oh it just you just sometimes you just know it's not gonna be your night after the first couple throws and then all of a sudden you start to combine the elite pass rush and you don't have a lot of time and it just and they're the eagles were great i mean the eagles were dominant the secondary dominant the d-line wasn't close the linebackers dominant barkley dominant o-line dominant like that team is nasty like that is that is a nasty team and they made the chiefs look like an average football team.
And now the, the one thing I was disappointed by is it was very, like I said, first possession I saw. Oh boy.
He's, he had that Tampa super bowl feeling where his feet, he had a little happy feet and he just looked like he was out. They're only rushing for it.
I blitzing anybody. They didn't do anything crazy on defense.
So that was concerning, but I thought, okay, they'll figure it out. Even when it was like 17, nothing, they threw that other pick.
I just thought Andy Reed and the coaching staff would have made some kind of adjustment. Again, maybe you can't against that defense, whether it's one step drops, just get rid of the damn ball.
Maybe they don't have the receivers to do that. and that could maybe be their issue next year.
But it just became so clear it's one step drops just get rid of the damn ball maybe they don't have the receivers to do that and

well that could maybe be their issue next year but it just became so clear it's not happening it's just hard when you can't it's very hard and they didn't run the ball at all they were handed it's very hard when you don't run the ball it's very hard when you're overmatched up front it's very hard when you're down 17 nothing against an elite defense and then then against an offense that can control. Your playbook just shrinks to this big.
And then you start to run out of time. And Andy Reid is still one of the best.
You just couldn't get anything going. And then they had penalties.
They had some costly penalties. Get rid of the penalty.
Chiefs get all the calls. They even missed Jalen Carter double- him in the face.
They didn't even call that. It just felt, it just was one of those lopsided games.
The best team won. What I would like to put to rest is the whole, and this has been talked about all week, is the Brady Mahomes debate.
Oh, yeah, but it's i just it to me it's the same as jordan and lebron and when people talk about who's better again i put kobe in there number two but brady's brady's the best there patrick mahomes is the best quarterback at whatever maybe we've ever seen kind of like lebron just lebron is the best specimen we've ever seen play basketball, right? I mean, that's fair. But winning.
But winning and greatness and the moment and just in that category, it's Brady. And Mahomes may or may not get there and it doesn't matter.
Mahomes is going to go down as probably the second greatest quarterback to ever play. Maybe he catches Brady.
Maybe he doesn't. But two Super Bowl losses, they got completely routed.
Completely routed. I would have thought too, armchair quarterback situation.
Well, this is more about the running back spot. I thought this before the game.
I said, I wonder if, and I even bet a few props around this. I wonder if the Chiefs are going to feature Pacheco more.
He kind of lost his starting job. He did lose his starting job to Hunt.
And he really had that injury, never quite came back. Hunt was a great comeback story.
I just looked at it like Hunt is great, but he's kind of a bigger bruising, a little slower foot. They could just never get, they just, they never got it little smaller, a little more elusive, not saying he would have ran for a buck 10, but maybe could have gotten them a little breathing room.
That didn't happen. And you know, Saquon didn't have a huge monster day.
He didn't break any runs. Clearly the chiefs prep for him, but I think Jalen was great.
He was unbelievable. He led the game in rushing.
But I really do think the amount of effort that Spagnuolo and the Chiefs defense probably put into game planning to stop Saquon, I'm not going to say it made it easy for Jalen Hurts, but it just probably opened it all up. Because that threat is so big back there.
There's just the difference when, look how they played the Bills. Now the problem with the Bills game bills game is because the bills don't have a defense so that was just a shootout back and forth and you can you can take some more chances because you know your offense is going to score a lot of points but when you look at the bills you have to game plan for josh allen okay how do you keep them in there you have to on the back end that's when you disguise that's when you blitz that's when you do all of these things because you know they don't have receivers that can really you're not worried about shakir you're not worried about these guys james cook like they can make some plays but you're worried about josh allen the eagles it's opposite and it's it's you do everything you you you do everything to stop saquon barkley so you're gonna give less looks you're to blitz as much because you're going to do everything you can to focus on stacking the box, as they say, and let Jalen Hurts beat you and do some stuff on the back end.
But the problem with that is you have A.J. Brown, who's an elite receiver.
You have Smith. They all showed up.
Goddard's a very good player. You have Devontae Smith, who is just...
He's a very talented receiver. He's a great number two receiver.
And then you had Jalen Hurts. And Jalen Hurts...
I was going to talk about this later in the show, but Jalen Hurts deserves to be in that category as the elite quarterbacks in this league. He just does.
You don't have to throw for 300 yards every game in 45 touchdowns in the regular season. It'd be great.
And he, he deserves to be in that conversation as one of the elite quarterbacks in our game, because a lot like we view Eli Manning and a lot like we view some of these, these quarterbacks where when Joe Flacco, when it matters the most, these guys shine on the biggest stage. And he's done that his very young career every time he's had a chance.
Every single player. Even in the first Super Bowl, he was the best player on the field.
Every single player showed up for the Eagles to the point where after the pick six from Cooper DeGene, I did a little. Shout out to Cooper DeGene.
Just a little YouTube search on him. Like, let me see some highlights.
Yeah, he's a white corner, Jerry. No, no, no you seen it ever seen his basketball highlights i saw that i saw high school or i don't know if it's college he's just dunking on everybody on his combine throwing it on people on his we covered him at iowa went for for fox we were i saw him play a bunch of times he's he's nasty on the court i think his vertical was 40 something at the combine he was like an-3 something he's a freak if you got two minutes out there and you don't know much about Cooper DeGene do a YouTube search of his hoops highlights and he is just throwing it on 70 different dunks I'd rather see him in the dunk contest and some of the guys who were in this year's dunk contest.
I know. That's a good segue.
That's a professional segue. So we're saying farewell, NFL.
I'm sure at the draft, a lot of D tackles and guards. I just feel like front four on both sides of the ball just rose up the draft class watching what the Eagles did in the Super Bowl.
Before we tabled, we're going to table in the NFL. Yes.
Combine comes up here in a couple of weeks.

Yeah.

And then the whole draft process is pretty crazy.

Should we go?

Should we go?

The combine?

No,

the draft,

the draft,

the draft.

Well,

I was going to say,

I think,

I think we're going to the draft.

I don't know.

I don't know if that's confirmed,

but I think throwbacks will be at the draft in green Bay,

which will be pretty cool.

The draft is a massive like spectacle now.

So that'll be a fun event. We'll be live there.
Not exactly sure what we're doing, but we'll be doing something. And it was a great year.
It was fun. It's going to be fun to cover your Giants here, this pre-draft, to see what they do.
This did make me want to... I'm very happy for Saquon as a Giants fan.
I'm not one of these Giant haters. I do think Strahan went too far waving the Eagles flag while interviewing Saquon.
Bridge too far for me, Michael. I love you.
You're the best. I'm happy.
Nothing. I have no ill will as a fan, but it did make me be like, come on, Giants.
Let's get back in the fucking game now. Let's get back in the fucking game now.
We've been out. We're far away.
Let's get back in the fucking a little bit a little uh let's get competitive little birdie maybe matt stafford maybe cooper cup let's go let's maybe team up with malik neighbors go draft an impact player their number what do they pick three four three trav you're gonna get hunter you're gonna get that's gonna be interesting If Stafford is available, because he'll be an elite free agent. You guys, cousins...
I mean, his wife announced it and that it seems like he's moving. So it has to be real, right? Well, anyway, we'll table football for a bit.
There'll be lots of football to talk about across the next couple of months with all the different stuff. But we'll heat up for the draft.
And you know college are way better than me. So this is going to be my first real experience.
I only really follow stuff for the giants, but now I'm locking into everything. So I'm excited to hang with you draft time.
There's some, there's some good, there's some, it's a weaker quarterback draft class. Uh, but you have guys like Abdul Carter, who's kind of a Micah Parsons mold.
Yeah. There's some, there's some Travis Hunter.'s some big-time impact players outside of the quarterback position that are going to be Ashton Kinky, the running back for Boise State.
And sweat for me through the first half was the MVP. So you get an edge rusher like that, you could see what could happen in the biggest game of the year.
So we love you, NFL. That was great.
We're going to hit a quick break, come back, because we got some NBA stuff to talk about. That's time.
You're going to start seeing Farrar on a whole different level. Everyone, if you follow me, you know I'm a big NBA guy.
Matt really likes the NBA a lot. He doesn't leave the Fanatics party to go watch the nick celtics game in his hotel yeah but i actually enjoy socializing at a sick party watching like a free concert with friends and people but yeah i mean it's fine go ahead the problem for me too is you're tall so you're able to see the show i couldn't really see the concert stop couldn't really see the concert let's just talk about your nba okay let the concert.
Let's just talk about your NBA, okay? Let's talk about your NBA. Well, obviously All-Star Weekend's coming up, but we got something dropping tomorrow that we're pretty excited about.
We obviously talked a while back about Matt and I. We were talking a little shit to each other.
We were going to have this three-point shootout because I really think I could beat Matt, and Matt thinks I have no chance. So you got us the USC basketball court where they play and we have an official quick trailer because this video

is now dropping tomorrow where you'll see the winner. So five foot six Ferrara versus six foot

five professional athlete. Which means nothing when you're shooting.
Matthew Liner. Nothing when

you're shooting. Let's roll.
Let's roll the trailer for the three-point shootout. What do you think the total number needs to be to win? 50 shots.
How many makes you think? You're both taking 50. We're both taking five from each spot.
Five from each station. I go, he goes, I go, he goes.
I'm going to say in this particular drill, I'm going to go 21.

Wow.

Per round?

No, you're doing 50 total, right?

50 total.

21, coach?

21 makes out of 50?

You think I'm shooting like low 40s?

Hold on, Musselman right there.

His face is so great.

Coach joined us. He was sick as a dog.
Shout out to Mus when he did that. He was super sick, I remember.
So that's dropping tomorrow on our YouTube. Again, it's a throwback show on YouTube.
Subscribe to it. It'll be up there tomorrow.
And you will see the winner from our time out at USC. And I just can't wait for people to see it.

I'm proud of a lot of things that happened there.

And I'm not proud of some other things,

but it'll be good.

You're proud of your, okay.

I was making sure you're proud of your performance.

Matt, we made content, buddy.

I'm proud of that too.

We also made content.

We did.

In this day and age, I don't even know what that is.

That was fun.

That was a fun day.

That was a fun day.

Okay.

First thing.

What do you got? Yeah. Well, all-star break's coming up.
And I know NFL and NBA are different, obviously, with the breaks. And so I can't really ask you this as a former athlete.
But I feel like once you make the All-Star game, and if you're one of those guys, like you're three or four years in, I feel like you want the break. I know, funny, because I'm a Knicks fan, Josh Hart, there was a minute where they're like, oh, Josh Hart could actually maybe make the All-Star game.
He's been fantastic this year. And he doesn't want it to interrupt his vacation, man.
He's going to go put his feet in the water and in the sand somewhere, he said. I mean, do you think, obviously, it's a huge honor to be an All-Star, but if you get that once or twice, do you think you could be like, ah, pass.

I'd be fine if I didn't make it.

I'll go to Cabo.

Tough call.

It's a tough call because you have guys like LeBron

who just appreciate it every year, and they're there,

and you never hear them say,

Never.

I wish I was in Mexico.

Someone like Josh Hart, who's not an all-star.

He's kidding. Yeah, he's probably kidding.
I'm sure if that guy was an all-star every year, he would be there every year. There is something about those guys getting that big break in the middle of a season for sure and enjoying that.
Especially when you're not an all-star. You'd rather go to Mexico or wherever you're going to go anyway.
Football is different. Football, there's no, the Pro Bowl and all that is after the season.
It's probably very similar to a bye in the NFL. The first thing when we get our schedule in the off season is where's the bye? Literally, we just, where's the bye? Did you always travel? Like when you get a bye, is it like vacation or do you just stay at home and relax? I would come home.
I would come home and see cole or just my family come back to california no matter where i was a lot of people family going a little family you don't really go on a vacation because you're you're only gone you're only on off a couple days maybe you go get away at a hotel or you just spend time with the kids and the family um that's sort of become thursday night football now with the nfl which is great too, because that is we hate Thursday night football because it usually follows a Sunday game where it's three days of rest. But you get to two games done in four days.
If you go to know it's there's nothing better. And then you're Friday, Saturday, probably Sunday off.
So it's a built in by as well. So you can get multiple buys.
It's very different than the NBA. So I think Josh Hart probably joking there.
I can't imagine someone not being an all star, not being grateful or being an all star. Of course he's joking.
Yeah, of course. My problem, my problem with the all star game and weekend, and it could be NHL, it could be NFL with the Pro Bowl weekend, which they continue to try and change just to try and get eyeballs there it's just not the same as it was before and what I mean by that I just grew up in an era where it was East versus West it was Jordan and Shaq and Kobe and just the the guys that you and I grew up watching that yeah just, it was great basketball then.
And it was,

they cared.

I mean,

remember when D Wade broke Kobe's nose in an all-star game,

it just like,

and Kobe didn't like,

he kept playing.

Yeah.

He was like,

fuck it.

This is great.

He actually loved it.

It's just not,

it's just,

it's a glorified,

it's a,

what is it?

I know,

I know the format is different this year.

I get it.

It's all different.

We're going to talk about that.

250 to 247.

It's not fun to watch. There's nothing fun to watch about the NBA All-Star game.
Can I give you one quick fix? Go for it, dude. I just wish it was.
Well, I think the dunk contest, and again, our throwback three coming up in a minute is the dunk contest stuff. I am of the thought with the dunk contest that it's very clear that the big stars that we used to get all the time are not going to do it to be in it they're not they're not going to do not why why because injuries i'll tell you why i'll tell you injuries potential injuries and also potentially looking like an asshole if you if you are young up and coming If you're Ann Edwards, who you're a super duper star.
How is he going to look like an asshole. If you are a young up-and-coming star, if you're Ann Edwards, who you're a super-duper star.
How is he going to look like an asshole dunking? Because so many times now, the bar to do crazy dunks has changed. Ann Edwards is an amazing in-game dunker.
And I bet if he took time and worked on dunks as opposed to his game for the nba he could probably come up with three or four just bangers to guys like that don't have we've seen every we've seen every dunk so guys are pushing the envelope now so much further that it takes them like five tries during a dunk contest to pull it off because they're trying shit that's crazy it's not fun to to watch. It's not terrible to watch.
Matas Buzalis. Who's that? I don't know who that is.
Andre Jackson Jr. Who's that? Oh, he's nasty.
Ajax is nasty. By the way, Max McClung is a doll.
He's going for a three-peat. That's the real three-peat we're going to see.
I get it. I get it.
But I would love to see Ant Edwards. I'd love to see Ja Morant.
I'd love to see... Well, the famous thing is LeBron never...
LeBron could have carried it forward like MJ did, and he never did. He never participated.
Kobe did it. He never did it.
Kobe did it. Vince Carter.
We'll talk about all these. But hear me out.
I do think there's some good dunkers on that list you just said, but the Matt McClung thing, which is what I've been saying. I've been watching Matt McClung's overtime highlights since he was in high school.
Amazing dunker. Works at dunking.
He's probably going to win. He's going to be the heavy favorite to win.
Why not have two or three NBA guys on like a bracket? Here's the NBA one. And then have two or three just dunkers.
Professional dunkers. Professional dunkers will win dunkers.
If you go look in YouTube and Instagram, well, but maybe we'll get this amazing matchup with Ajax, who's not a huge name, but is an amazing dunker against some dunker that has a big social media following and has all the dunks in the bag, and maybe then we'll get a cool NBA versus pro dunker clash, and we'll get some drama out of it. That's fine.
These guys dunk for a living. It's what they do.
I used to love waiting up to watch the dunk contest. It's the best part.
It was the best part. Even the three-point shootout I would watch.
The three-point shootout should go last now. That's how much it's overtaken the dunk contest.
The three-point shootout is still the same. It's still fine.
But the dunk contest, it just doesn't do it for me anymore because there's no big name. Mack McClung is great, and watching him jump, it's like Spud Webb because he's not the biggest guy.
Right, he's like 5'11". It's just there's nothing.
The last, I think the last one that I enjoyed was, and I might talk about this later in throwback, was Zach Levine and Aaron Gordon. Let's save it.
We'll save it. But to me, it's like...
All right, you ready? I'm going to fix it. So don't contest.
We're getting, say, two to four NBA players that we have,

or maybe narrow it down to three, and then we get two to four professional.

And we could even do a fun social media vote leading up to it,

how we get the pro dunker and who that lineup is going to be,

and we tournament style that.

And then here's a fix for the NBA three-point contest.

And I know it's branded by Sprite. I know it's

brand. I get it.
Get

rid of the fucking money ball.

Get it out.

Get it out. The money ball's iconic.

Get it out. Get rid

of it. So I could hit more

shots than you, but you

could hit more

money balls than me and beat me.

I could hit 17 shots. You could hit 14 shots, But because you hit three money balls and I missed two, you could beat me.
Yes, so hit the money ball. Fine, sure, hit the money ball.
I like the guy who makes the better percentage. It's been around for decades.
And Matt, if we hold on to these things that have been around for decades, that is what now baseball is fighting so hard against to fix because they held on for things for decades and slowly everything dropped. And now they're trying to get back up to speed with changes of modern day stuff.
And it's working. Shout outs to baseball.
But if you hang on to the thing that, oh, we're back. The dunk contest, the three-point contest is fine but you need your stars to play the the the dunk contest was great when when there were stars when there were people you actually wanted to watch dunk i don't care well that's why we got to get the pro some of the best some of the best dunks of all time aren't the most creative ones they're just like the ones where you just you you're watching them and you're just jaw drops like oh my god yeah vince carter just jumped it's just like they're like jordan back in the day i'm telling you i'm i'm right there's no contest there's no there's no star power in the dunk contest the three-point contest is fine it's just fine i think it's just get rid of that money ball get rid of that money ball.
Get rid of that money ball. Everything is tired.
And again, I understand all like how many, I mean, the Home Run Derby has been rebranded. The Home Run Derby is one of my favorite things too.
It's been rebranded a million different times. But the problem is, is you're just not getting the big, the big, big guys.
Wow. I don't know.
Let me know if you guys like any of my pitches. I got some really quick, cause we have not talked a lot of NBA.
I'll tell you what, if I miss the NBA dunk contest this weekend, I'm not losing sleep over it. I'm just letting you know.
I'll probably watch it. I have a few big takeaways from the first half of the NBA season because we have not talked a lot of NBA since we had Sir Charles Barkley on.
I'm just going to shout him out. You can agree or not.
But from everything I've seen, we could talk OKC, Denver, Cleveland. It is just not even close that the Celtics are the team to beat.
It's not even close. I know that some teams are having amazing regular seasons.
When those dudes turn it on and want to clamp up and hit threes. That's just because they whooped your Knicks ass, dude.

They're having a bad season,

and they're going to walk to 56 wins with a bad season.

They're having a bad season by their fans' eyes.

Cleveland's nasty.

Cleveland is nasty.

DeAndre Hunter, right?

That's who they got?

Yes.

I love that they got DeAndre Hunter and the 3D guy they've been looking for. But for me, you could talk.
OKC's having an amazing season. So is Cleveland.
Knicks have been fun. Lakers have been awesome lately.
It's the Celtics to lose. It's the Celtics to lose.
You're just saying this so you prepare yourself when the Knicks lose and the Celtics. I have been saying this for months.
I'm not saying this as a Knicks fan. I'm saying this as a basketball fan.
The level that they can go to is far greater than any level any other team can go to. An interesting shout out that I thought, too, with the last few champions we've had with coaching, right? Joe Mazzula with the Celtics was much maligned as a coach.
This guy sucks. He inherited Emei's team.
He needs help on the bet. Wins a championship.
Ryan Day. He's like 38 years old, too.
Ryan Day. Oh, get this guy out of here.
He lost to Michigan. What a bad season.
Wins the national title. Now we got our guy, Sirianni, who was much more on the hot seat coming into the season.
This could be it. Wins the championship.
So shout outs to Joe Maddon and all those guys. By the way, those three sports teams, Boston fans, Philly fans, and Ohio State fans, three of the most savage fan bases in all sport.
I'm telling you. So that's it for the Celtics.
My Knicks, not as close as we may all have thought. By the way, your Knicks are not as close.
We're not as close. They're not that team, buddy.
They're a really good team. Trust me, I've watched enough Knicks this year to know that they are not that team this year.
We have help coming. They're tough.
We have help coming back. That fills every single thing the Knicks need.
Let's move on to more important things. Did you see Luka suit up on Lakers? That's my other big takeaway.
LeBron. LeBron giving Luka the option.
Hey, where do you want to be announced tonight? We'll do it. Like, LeBron's playing it perfectly.
He's deferring just enough while still being a leader. And it's going to be a problem for the NBA.
It's going to be a problem. Lakers are going to be good.
I'm telling you. I know the size.
I get it. Trust me.
I get it. I love basketball.
Just don't run into the nugget. Jackson Hayes has the greatest opportunity of his lifetime to be a 10 and 12 guy and just be a presence.
That's all. You don't need to score.
Just be a presence. And the other night, he was a presence.
I think he had six points. He was three of three.
He just did exactly what, and they blew out the jazz right it's not a big game

well you talk about my knicks might not be it but you're pinning a lot on jackson hayes it's a shame what happened with the mark williams stuff it is shout outs to the lakers for avoiding the trade i don't know what the hell happened well like trying to get shams on by the way to discuss lakes are lakers are smart for not doing it you look at the guys let me just say this about the the Lakers. Everybody's so worried about, well, the D for the center and all this.
Well, let's just say, okay, well, who's going to stop their offense? Who's going to stop their offense? Boston could easily. Yeah, I'm talking about the West, though.
And OKC's great. And I know Denver.
But I'm just saying, there's not a ton of bigs you have to go through that scare you in the West outside of Jokic. And nobody can guard Jokic.
Nobody. If I were the Lakers, I know, like, seeding is very fickle and you don't really duck people.
And some people have even gone as far as last year, the crazy stuff people were saying of, you should just tank into the play-in so you could avoid the... No, but they should try to avoid the Nuggets at all costs round that is the worst matchup for them they're two and a half games out of the two seed right now the lakers and they're coming on strong and they're coming i just i just luka lebron is lebron when you talk about him luka in the lat luka is led his team single-handedly almost to the finals luka is a dog in the playoffs we know our our guy hillbilly bogey, Austin and hillbilly bogey.
He, he is the X factor because everybody's going to be on LeBron. Everybody.
I mean, Reeves dropped 45 the other night. Reeves is a, Reeves is an animal and he's an elite ball handler as well.
So they are going to be a nightmare matchup for other teams as well. Last few takeaways for me today I have, obviously the AD getting hurt.
We don't have to spend much time on it. That just sucks.
Cause we, we, it was looking, he was on demon time. My last thing I want to just say, and this is a big picture stuff, but we are inching closely and I've been watching this cause it does affect the Knicks.
Cause I think this could potentially be the first round matchup. The Detroit Pistons are good, bro.
They're really good and fun. And I know the Tigers just signed our boy Flaherty.
Detroit Sport, the Lions had a disappointing but good year. Detroit Sports is back.
Cade has been unbelievable. Ivy might be on the way back.
They've been smart all throughout this whole season.

It almost feels like

kind of what the Knicks went through. There was so much

dysfunction for so long.

Similarly, even with the Lions. Now you're looking

at it and you go, wow,

this is actually starting to work out.

Cade Cunningham's having a season.

Lions-Knicks might be the first

Pistons-Knicks might be the first round matchup.

By the way, you guys will,

you got,

you'll handle the Pistons.

They're tough,

dude.

They're looking at the roster.

They're all right.

Jay and Ivy's coming back too.

I just,

I love what I love is I love looking like a guy like Malik Beasley.

He's having a great year.

He was a Laker.

He did nothing with the Lakers.

I just,

I look at all these guys.

He's like four threes a game.

Malik Beasley.

Dude,

he's averaging almost 17 points a game just,

and he was a great shooter,

but he barely played for us.

And they try,

but it's like,

Thank you. I just, I look at all these guys.
He's like four threes a game. Malik Beasley.
Dude, he's averaging almost 17 points a game. And he was a great shooter, but he barely played for us.
And they tried, but it's like. That was a rough look because you could really use Malik Beasley right now.
That would be perfect player to go with LeBron. Well, you stick that dude in the corner with LeBron and Luka.
Gabe Vincent's going to be an X-Factor this year too. He was hurt all of last year.
You accused me of being a homer and you're talking Gabe Vincent's going to be the ex-fac. Okay.
Well, it's time to move on to other stuff. It's now time for Fresh Moves of the Week, brought to you by Wendy's.
Go to Wendy's. Taste the difference in a hamburger.
All right? Let me get a sip real quick before I talk about my Fresh Move of the Week. Okay.
All-star game is upon us. I love what the NBA has done.
Refreshing this all-star format. I'm with you.
What you said earlier, Matt, though, 250 to 240 game, it just wasn't working. The guys, I get it.
You don't want to fully go hard. You don't want to get hurt.
I understand all of it. It was not working.
And I don't fully know if this is going to work. What I like about it is, so we're going to have four teams, three of which were drafted by our boy Shaq, our boy Charles, and our boy Kenny.
And then the four teams are going to be the winner from the Rising Stars game. So that makes me interested in that game a little more.
The four team will be the winner of the Rising Stars game Friday night. Coached by Candace Parker.
So I'm now more interested in that game. You check that box off.
You got a little more Friday night heat. But you could get till 40, right? It's basically a pickup game now.
The All-Star game was always described as this is supposed to be the greatest pickup game we've ever seen where guys are playing to win the hold court we sort of have that now so guys come on the court you're only getting till 40 if you phone it in you think it's going to make them play harder i think so because if you phone it in a 40 point game which could last minutes long, you are going to get absolutely flamed online for not

even attempting to win

a 40-point pickup game.

I think it might lead to...

These guys don't care.

I'm sorry to shit on your brain.

They don't care when it's

literally a 40-minute

game and they're

just going up and down.

I don't know the answer to this.

What's the incentive of winning the whole thing?

Is there an incentive?

It's financial, I'm sure.

Is it?

I don't know.

I haven't seen anything.

Andrew, is there a financial award for the All-Star game?

I do believe there is.

I know now that the baseball used to be the winner

got home field on the World Series, which was bananas. I think Shaq, Chuck, and Kenny have done a good job with strategies.
Like Kenny is going for like the younger player who hasn't made his mark yet and wants to maybe go score 30, which you always see. Yeah, it's a good way to look at it.
You know, Shaq said he's going star studded because their egos won't allow them to lose. There's some financial rewards.
There's a pool of $1.8 million. Each player on a championship winning team receives $125,000.
I know to these guys, that's a drop in the bucket. But it ain't nothing.
Money's money. Money's money.
It's not nothing. So a prize pool of $1.8 million to the winning team? Yeah.
And that will, with each player on in the championship player in the championship winning team gets 125k uh 50 grand at each player on third yes there's there's a decent so basically you get 125 grand if you win yes matt you have to win you have to win what two you have to win two rounds to 40 so you have to win two pickup games to 40 to pick up 125 grand i get it but i get it we'll see we'll see you're mean to tell me too but think about like this what what they did so well making the origin the all-star game to a total and not timed the thing we got from that is what if it's 38 38 okay and lebron's team has the ball a bucket to win. Who's taking the shot? And you don't think that other team is going to want to try to get a stop? You think they're just going to let them walk in and just lay the ball in and kick them off the court? No, if it gets to that point, look, they're going to play.
38-37, you get the stop there. You can go for the game-winning three to hit 40.
It's going to be fun. As a casual fan in the NBA, I would love to see how it all plays out.
We've never seen it before. Let's see how hard they play.
Let's see the intensity factor. Let's see if these guys want to show up.
If 125 grand is worth these guys playing their ass off. I think it's going to be awesome.
I think it's going to be a good refreshing take on a format that was dying a very, very painful public death. So awful.
That is my fresh move of the week brought to you by Wendy's. All-Star Game is back.
It's going to be fun. We are going to take a quick break and come back and do our Throwback 3 greatest dunk contest performance.
All right. It's time for the Throwback three dunk contest happening this weekend we've

talked about it we're gonna go back in time because it is a time honored tradition the dunk contest closing out saturday night matt we're gonna go back and forth we got our top throwback three would you like to start at number three i'm pulling up i i didn't put the year so help you

Zach Levine and Aaron Gordon

2016 the year so can we help you uh zach levine and aaron gordon 2016 2016 so i put both because i just remember there were a couple good years before that and 2016 was nine years ago so i was 32 still into it still love watching that but there were it was starting to fade a little bit for me just some of the years some of the players zach levine and and i'm going to say this about all my dunkers but i loved i love the dunker who's like six four to six six six seven now aaron gordon's bigger than that so i get that. Yeah, he's 6'10.
Yeah, I love that where they really truly feel like they're flying. That's why I just love Jordan and those guys.
But have you gone? I watched this. It's the most rewatchable one ever.
I watched it, and I was like, wow. So, I mean, Zach Levine had the one where he threw up, and he put the ball behind his back and then like the one hand reverse thing i think it was his very first dunk of the whatever i was like it was insane i i would say both of them i know aaron gordon had the one where he jumped over the ball went under his legs and then whatever at 6 10.
it was one of the best dunk contests of all time

with two of the best dunking players of all time.

Do you know what's so special about it too?

These guys were hitting those on the first try.

I know.

There wasn't that awkward 30 seconds

of this guy trying to dunk that.

And then when he does it,

it's not even that overwhelming anyway.

These guys were hitting dunks like first or second try.

They both had swag. They both were getting the crowd.
It was a very fun dunk contest to watch with two rising stars at the time, like two very, very talented players that you knew could play. So that's my number three.
Okay. My number three is, we're going back to 2003, Jason Richardson on the Warriors.

And an honorable mention that year to Desmond Mason,

because also it's something just so amazing

that he was wearing the old Sonics jerseys.

And he had some amazing dunks.

But Jason Richardson, who is a guy, he's 6'4".

He falls right into that category of guy you like.

One of the best dunkers ever.

But yeah, he was just doing, it was like so clear and i thought desmond mason any other year wins but he just ran into a beast so oh three another very rewatchable one go scope it out oh three jason richardson and then i also had young amari stoudemire in there and i think your boy richard jefferson was in that one i think rich rich was a high flyer he a few good ones he got old good ones uh all right all right i'm going look i'm gonna go jordan 88 and i think there's a lot of guys you could say that just are it's hard to say even better dunkers but you just guys that some of the dunks that you see in the dunk contest are like crazy like wow but jordan 88 against dominique and i believe the year before dominique won right was that it was that it was some mj was trying to beat him and two of the best dunkers of all time and that was that was the free throw line where he's just flying through and apparently the first time he did the free throw line dunk he didn't plan it and dr j had said some dr j originated that pretty much he dr j had said something to him during that dunk contest that you should i think he pointed i just read the article so mj just said screw it i'm gonna do that i'm gonna do the free throw line because dr j said it to him from the sideline or from the court so i mean that that dunk that was just prime it's the most iconic most iconic but that's when the dunk contest iconic. By far.
But that's when the dunk contest, and again, we were kids, but that was when the dunk contest, you just, it was a must-see TV. You couldn't miss it.
In Chicago, Dominique Wilkins, by the way, who might be the best dunker of all time. And that era of dunkers, and just, that's when you wanted to watch the dunk contest.
And that's because the biggest stars of the game were in it and for me oh it also launched my favorite shoe of all time the jordan 88s the white cement 88s like that to me that when i saw that i had that poster that oh the poster to me it's still the best shoe it's my favorite. I buy a new pair every year or so.
I just love that shoe. Even the black cement ones off, those are amazing too.
The greatest poster, sports poster of all time. Outside of Muhammad Ali standing over, what was he standing over? Sonny Liston? Sonny Liston, yeah.
That's a pretty, I had that picture hanging up in my house in Arizona. That MJ where he's just...

I hope this doesn't step on your number one

because we did not discuss this in advance,

but I got to give a shout-out to the little guys.

No.

You got to give a shout-out to Spud Webb.

We'll never see that again.

He's my height. Well, Nate Robinson did it.
Yeah, but Nate's still a little bigger. Nate's, Nate's five, eight, dude.
Five, nine, maybe. No, Spud's five, six.
Yeah, it's incredible. So it's the difference of me and Bryce Young, essentially, who Bryce Young, not a big dude, but if you look at him next to me, he's a bigger dude.
So shout outs to Spud Webb. Never seen anything like it.
That's it for me. That's number two.
Number one, I went through all his dunks. Vince Carter, 2000.
The greatest dunker of all time. The greatest in-game dunker of all time.
The first one, he started with just the reverse kind of 360 windmill. I don't know if you watched this.
Then he goes like a little bit of the baseline windmill. Then he has Tracy McGrady bounce the ball through the legs windmill.
And then the fourth one, he hung his elbow. Remember when he got really high, he hung his elbow.
And then the last one to win, a two-hand off from right inside the free throw line, a two-hand dunk from off of one foot. I re-watched it.
I watched about six minutes of dunks last night. So fun.
It's so fun. Vince Carter made the dunk contest fun, a lot like Michael Jordan, a lot like some of these guys.
So he's my number one. So my number one was the 2016 Gordon.
Oh, was it? Maybe we could start doing drafts for some of these so we could just sidewind it. So I'm going to just rip off some honorable mentions really fast.
Isaiah Ryder, 1994. First time you really saw that East Bay threw the legs.
And then obviously I thought for sure you were going to maybe mention Kobe. Kobe was great.
Well, it was great because here's a young star who's clearly on the cusp of being elite, and he participated and not afraid. So I always respected that Kobe did that.
So those are my two honorable mentions. But yeah, the Gordon Levine, I'm sorry.
It is iconic. It's the one.
That might be the great. I mean, it's just awesome to watch it was just awesome I mean and the cameras are better like even like the Jordan one in 88 which is awesome and obviously it's the most iconic but like we finally like it all happened we had good cameras we had two charismatic dudes who were very very physically different the dunks were like nothing we've seen before and they were doing it first time it was awesome Dominique wilkins was great he was just they yeah so they dunked so like physically they dunk you know what i mean it was just so sean kemp had a few amazing ones he flipped one like behind his back over his head and had a few amazing ones uh i never got into the dwight howard i don't like when seven It's seven to one.
Seven, seven. I just don't, it doesn't happen for me.
I'm telling you, that 6, I mean, anything under 6'4", for sure. But that 6'4", like Vince Carter's 6'6", Kobe, those guys were all 6'5", 6'6", maybe 6'7".
6'3", the 6'7", is awesome. Who can just absolutely fly.
Those are the most fun guys to watch. I don't know, man.
We'll see. Matt, last quick thing.
You flew back. I know it has now been announced.
I want to publicly congratulate you on the throwback show. You are no longer Matty Ice.
We are going to rename you on this show. You are Matty Girl Dad.
Congrats, buddy, to you and Joseph. You had a baby girl, man.
We had a baby girl. It's true what they say.
I'll just say that. There's nothing like being a girl dad.
And I have three boys. You're already getting feelings.
You're already getting different feelings. I had feelings the second she came out and we found out, because we didn't find out this one.
Again, I have three boys. I had feelings the second she came out, and the moment that I had with Josie, when I told her, I told her it was a girl, was one of the moments I'll never forget.
And not to get too emotional, but I said this after. I said, there's been one or two times where I've cried in my life that it was like that deep, deep, just you can't control cry.
When my mom died about eight years ago, just that hit us clearly. And that was tears of sadness and grief and all that.
And then when my baby girl was born, the tears of joy that I had when I got my girl and all of my kids. And, you know, I love all of my boys and they're all amazing.
But to experience the love of a girl and it was instant, dude, it was instant. And it just felt I felt like I was her protector.
It felt like she could do no wrong. It felt like all is OK.
It was just, it was, it was, it was something I can describe like this, but until you are a girl dad, which now I can say, because I've never experienced this before. Now I know what my boys all told me who have girls are like, it is there.
I hope you experienced that because it's just different. And I have both.
And a lot of my friends have both and it, it truly is. So's been great she's a rock star everything was great our baby girl camila may may is after my mom's middle name may that's great she's beautiful she's the best she's been a saint so far knock on wood she's our little angel and uh we're finally we're finally happy to shout out people we did a a story with People Magazine, which is pretty cool.

Yeah, go check it out if you haven't already. It's a really great story.

They wanted to announce, so we did that.

I will be flooding my

storyline now with pictures.

I'm here for the baby pics.

Two quick things, too.

It's really cool to think

that that little girl obviously

has a great dad, but is going to have three

big brothers. That's fucking awesome.
and i'll say this really quick cole my 18 year old just in love he's been just the way he looks at her and talks about it's it make it makes me happy because you know he's older and 18 years a big gap case in our five-year-old right it was real pissed when she was, when she got out. Of course, what's the, what's this? But now he's, he's very sweet and Cannon, our little Cannon, our little guy, three and a half, is just, was kissing her when they, when he met her.
He's, he's in love. So, but they, and I tell them every day and Cole knows this.
I told them, I said, your job is to protect your baby sister all the time. And that's, and I say, what do you guys got to do? Protect your daddy.
And that's what they're going to do. And I feel bad.
She's going to be real tough too. She's going to be a tough kid.
Very solid chance. She might be the toughest liner yet.
And really cool. The other fanatics party moment we didn't say.
We did get a Camila appearance. You FaceTime Josie real quick.
i forget who we were talking with me frankie a bunch of people frankie our boyfriend for a minute she was up in the fanatics party she was she was she was bumping to ludicrous i think josie i hope you're getting sleep we miss you on the show you got to come back on when you feel up to it but yes that is that is nothing but great news over there and let's just say i don't think my wife's watching right now, but I feel like we're on the show. You got to come back on when you feel up to it.
But yes, that is nothing but great news over there. And let's just say, I don't think my wife's watching right now, but I feel like we're on the clock now.
I feel like we're on the clock. Oh, buddy, you've been on the clock.
It's just a matter. It's just a matter of when that clock just sits green.
Just floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee. Don't want to sting too much, though.
You're definitely floating. You're not stinging.
You need to start stinging, bro. All right.
We're wrapping up here. Last bit of housekeeping.
A lot of you, at least on my time, have been like, where's the Entourage episode? Where's the Connelly? You guys taped it a year ago. We know.
Good news is it's dropping next week. So look out for that.
Me, Maddie Girl Dads, Connelly, Dylan, it was in studio in LA and we even have a fun accompanying piece of content with it let's just say it involved Kevin Costner at one point a little sneaky messaging so look out for that episode 2 next week that's coming, we'll be all over socials at Throwback shell matt go uh go see if you need some relief

good episode and uh peace out nfl we miss you see you already