Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Whether you're grinding over a 3-footer or squeezing in 9 after work, what you wear matters. Adidas is built for performance with apparel and footwear designed to help you move freely, stay comfortable, and play your best from the first tee to the final putt. Looking for your go-to on-the-course gear? Check out the Ultimate 365+ collection. Need something that transitions seamlessly from the course to the rest your day, Beyond the Course has you covered. Explore the latest golf apparel and footwear from Adidas at adidas.com/4playpod. On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we've got a twofer. Charles Barkley, our good friend Chuck. I think we can say good friend now because he came back on the show. Great talking with him. And then we have the man who just signed a massive contract for the Los Angeles Lakers, Austin Reeves. Great time with him. He also told us a story about JJ Redick. That, uh, it was quite something. Great interviews. We're gonna do the Mount Rushmore of birds.
No Google.
We have Fyre Fest. We're gonna talk some World Cup. LeBron still hasn't picked the team. He's making us all wait. It's a great Friday show, and it's brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. Summer's here, and so is the Twisted Tea Summer Party Pack. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. They also have a new Summer Party Pack It has a brand new Twisted Lemonade. It's a refreshing hard lemonade made with real lemons. It's only available in their new party pack, so grab it while you can. Whether you're hanging out at the bar, hitting the lake or the beach for a weekend, or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Keep the good times going all day and all summer long. Keep it twisted. We love the new Twisted Lemonade. Also the original and half and half, the old classics. Twisted Tea is the absolute best summer drink out there. So grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today and let's get summer going. Okay, let's go. Hey, football guy, but you know, hey, W.
Harris.
Part of my take. Yeah, part of my take. Yeah, part of my take. Hey, part of my take.
Yeah, part of my take.
Welcome to Part of My Take, presented Presented by DraftKings.
The crown is yours. Today is Friday, July 17th, and we are all living in Messi's world because Argentina has gone on to the final. It is not coming home, PFT.
It's never going to come.
It was—
it's edging home.
It was an incredible, incredible game. I would like to read it in— listen, I don't want to make it about this other guy, but I'd like to read a tweet to you real quick, PFT. From BobbyBS_. He said, the dumbest person you know still thinks Ronaldo is better than Messi.
That's so true, Zach.
I don't know, maybe—
well, you're just sitting here. Sorry, that wasn't— that, that wasn't directed at you.
You're not the dumbest person.
Yeah, you're not.
You also think that Ronaldo's better than Messi, but he's talking about a different guy that thinks— the dumbest person. You're not the dumbest.
All right, I'll take that.
Yeah, it was— what'd you say? What was going through your head, Zach?
On the game yesterday?
Yeah.
Uh, I'm honestly unbelievable. I mean, that second goal, the cross with the— the cross in the second goal. I want to be a hater a little bit. I really can't.
You can't anymore.
I, I can't.
I don't think anybody— I don't think it's possible to.
If he wins the World Cup again, there's not really— I don't know where anybody goes from here.
Okay, so if he wins the World Cup again, I'm, I'm prepared to say he might be the GOAT GOAT. Yeah, like the goat of goats. I'm right now. I think Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali are both tied for the goat goat and secretary and secretary. But Messi could get on the Mount Rushmore of goat goats. And like, if he wins the— was it the Golden Boot?
Yeah.
Right now I think he's tied with Mbappé. Mbappé is playing the third place game. Very excited to see England's performance in the third place game.
Yep.
It's the most hilarious thing that the World Cup makes these guys play. The losers of the semifinals, you have to go play in the, in the third place game on Saturday. And I actually, I did some research this morning on the history of the third place game at the World Cup.
Okay.
England has— they've got the possibility to set the all-time record for most third place game losses.
Wow.
Right now they're tied with Brazil with 2. If they lose another one, then that would mean that they have that record on their own. And if you look back through history, or at least recent history, 3 of the last 5 champions of the World Cup go on to win the third place game the next year. So that would mean that France would win this third place game and England would etch their names into history as the losingest third place game team in World Cup history. Okay. Now we have the conversation of like, did Argentina win it or did England lose it? I think England lost it. Well, it was— so here's a crazy stat.
Yeah.
Okay. So they parked the bus, they scored a goal, immediately put on defensive substitutions. They telegraphed what they were going to do. They're just like, we're going to park the world's saddest bus in the penalty area and hope that Messi doesn't do it to us. So in between 66:05 in game time and 84:42 in game time, so about 20 minutes of game time. Guess how many accurate passes England hit to each other amongst themselves? How many, how many passes, accurate complete passes did England have in those 20 minutes? 4. They had 2.
2.
They had 2 passes in 20 minutes and they were from the goalie to the center back and the center back back to the goalie.
I saw the stat that they had 12% possession from the moment that England scored their first goal to the game-winning goal. 12% possession. They completely turtled. They went into— let's just hold on. They did the Herm Edwards, you play to win the game, but they did the opposite. You don't play to win the game. They were just essentially the last 25 minutes, especially after the hydration break, which they— we can all agree Argentina is the best fourth quarter team in the league.
That's not even—
without a doubt, they've just been doing this in every single game.
They're the New York Knicks of football.
It's been insane. The But, but from that moment on, it was England just basically standing with everyone in the box and get in. Argentina taking shot after shot and then England kicking it out and doing nothing with it. And like you said, they put in their defensive subs. They had no speed on the field. They couldn't— like, I don't even know what the plan was if it went to extra time. They, they, they basically were just playing to try to win it 1-0, expecting Messi not to do it. And here's the greatness of Messi. Because you could go through the stats and the stats are insane for, for— he's 39 years old and he leads Argentina in goals, assists, shots, shots on target, chances created, big chances created. It's literally the entire list. He leads the team in that. Um, but it was crazy to watch because you could just see in the game that England was essentially saying, we're not going to let Messi score. Yeah. And Messi realized they're not gonna let me score. They're sending 3 guys at me every time I have the ball. Why don't I just have the most sublime assist possible with the cross that, that was the game-winning header?
That's what he did. He was like, I, I will adjust, and I don't have to be a Ronaldo type. Yeah, right, where I try to, you know, tap it in. I'm just going to win this game by setting my, my teammates up.
And even the first goal, it was a great shot.
It was awesome shot.
But also it's the same thing, like 2, 3 guys were running at Messi.
It's the gravity thing. It's like Steph Curry where he's like, I'm going to lay it off.
You're going to— if you can make a 25-yard shot. Yeah, go for it. It was a pretty good shot. I think what's his name?
Pickford.
Pickford. Yeah, he should have gotten it.
It's, it's the gravity thing of Steph Curry where it's like even if Steph Curry is not making threes, the defense has to focus so much on where this person is at all times that it tilts the whole field. And Messi realized that and was like, okay, you're going to just keep sending guys. There's going to be a mismatch somewhere else. It was brilliant. He's— we're blessed. He's 39 years old. He's 39 years old. And he's basically saying, I will find a way to win this game even if I don't have— even if I'm not the one scoring the goal.
Zach, tell me what you think about this. You're a Bucs fan. You love Baker Mayfield.
Both things true.
Teams should have rules that say, do not fuck with Baker Mayfield during the game. Because he's just going to use that and he's going to get back. That's what they did to Messi. They poked the bear with Messi.
Bellingham. Bellingham.
Oh, Bellingham. He got in his face and Messi gave him the look like it was like, okay, okay.
It was, it was essentially he was just basically doing Robert De Niro in countless mob movies where he just gave him the, all right, I'm going to kill you or I'm going to kill you. And that's all that's going to happen. And then he backed it up and killed him.
What's that? Is it Bronx Tale, the one where the guy goes, now you can't leave?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's what Messi said. Like, he was like, Fuck you. Okay, you want to do that?
It was one of the most badass looks you could ever have.
It was stupid. It was stupid. And you know that look because you've seen that happen to Baker before.
He should have known better. Yeah, he had no business doing that. And then for him to throw his hands up in the air when they do inevitably let that second goal in, like, oh, we've— how have they lost the game for us? Like, well, you kind of started this fire. Yeah, why are you—
I don't know, you should have left it alone.
And for them to like— we've seen this throughout the entire World Cup. Teams think they can get up on Argentina and they'll just like, all right, we'll just park and try to survive. There is no just trying to survive. They should have tried to win the game.
Yes.
Because if you just sit back, they're going to just chip away and do what Argentina does.
It was so tilted. It was just shot after shot after shot.
Another crazy stat about Argentina in the knockout stage: they have not led the game in the 90th minute of any of their knockout games. You just can't kill them.
That's crazy.
You just can't. It's— that's Probably the craziest stat that I read about him.
Also, this goes to speak— I know there's a third place game, PFT, that you talked about, England versus France. The third place game has already been decided.
It's Cape Verde.
Cape Verde won the third place game. Yeah, they took the finals of the World Cup, Argentina versus Spain. They took both of those teams to tied into extra time. They tied Spain overall. They lost to Argentina in extra time, 3-2. But they had both of the World Cup finalists on the ropes.
Yeah.
As a country, after 9 minutes.
Yeah.
Pardon my takes. Official 3rd place winner of the World Cup is Cape Verde. I wish Hank was here to celebrate this with us.
It's a, it's a great day. It's a great day for— what's his name? Vizinho.
Yeah.
The 40-year-old goalie. He was—
that they—
that is incredible to look at and be like, they took both these teams to the wire.
Here's the stats. So against Cape Verde in the knockout round, they won in the 111th minute against Egypt in the knockout round. They won in the 92nd minute against Switzerland. They won in the 112th minute against England. They won in the 92nd minute. They have not led after 90 minutes of any knockout game and they're in the final. It's just that's just what they do. And it's just kind of like, I don't know, you can't kill them.
It's his World Cup.
It is.
It's his World Cup at 39 years old.
Is it his to lose now?
No, I think that— I mean, look, I—
he's in a situation where he either becomes the GOAT GOAT or it's still— it's a passing of the torch or passing of the bathwater to him. It's just like he anointed the next GOAT.
Yeah.
So that we can spin ourselves into that if we have to.
Also, I just got to say, shout out to Argentina because they know—
they—
if I were the Indiana Fever head coach, I would watch Argentina games with my entire team there and say, see this? Because every time Messi is fucked with or hit or anything, it is instant that the entire team is over there being like, that's how you protect your GOAT. They are a perfect team in that respect.
They all—
they are all there to serve Messi. Yeah, in one way or another. And and Messi will then give it back to them being like, hey, I'm not going to score, I'm going to give you that. That cross, I, I must have watched it 100 times. It is the most picture-perfect cross you could ever have. It's, it's insane, Zach.
It, it was special, man.
Yeah, unfortunately.
Yeah, like there's, there's nothing good things you can say about this team and Messi at this point. It just— we won't see something like this again, did you? I don't think—
did you ever think going into this World Cup that it would be this bad for you and Ronaldo?
Safe space. No, right?
Not even because like it's, it's actually getting— we were on it early. We were like, it's getting mean. It's getting to the point where it's like he's— Messi's doing stuff that is awe-inspiring. Ronaldo is sitting, you know, putting, you know, coconut oil on his abs somewhere, being like, well, I was back for a second against Uzbekistan.
And, you know, he's watching his every move.
Does sound pretty good. Yeah, Uzbekistan game was special though.
I think that should lead one shining moment.
Yes. So back.
Yeah, so back.
I felt good with the Uzbekistan game. I was like, okay, this could be Portugal's World Cup.
What do you guys think about Argentina's jerseys? Love them. The alternates?
Always. I love all their jerseys.
The blue ones. Yeah, I don't have a problem. I think in terms of all the alternate jerseys out there. Yeah, they're the best.
Yeah. And their classics obviously are the best.
Right.
But they— you can't have the white stripes on there without Diego Maradona. Yeah, he would love those.
No, they have— they have great— they have great jerseys.
They're great.
Really good jerseys.
Yeah.
It's like it's UNC. They're the UNC of South America.
What do you guys think about the collars on the jerseys?
I always think it looks soft.
Fair.
It feels like you should be like golfing or something because England had collars and England— I mean, poor England. I don't really feel bad for them, but it is all they have and they just lose. We said it a couple of weeks ago where it's like, remember when I think it was the Mexico game and someone asked me who I was rooting for? I was like, I'm actually rooting for England because this wouldn't be tragic enough. Like if they lose to Mexico in the Azteca, it's like, hey, you can put your hands up. We weren't close. I think I need, I need England heartbreak in an exceptional way. And they always deliver.
And they—
yeah. So originally we called it in the Norway game and then we said that's too easy. It feels, it feels right that they would lose to Argentina. Yeah. And then losing to Argentina, I didn't even expect it to be this bad. I don't know that they can do any worse. I feel like This is silver lining, probably as bad as it gets if you're England.
Oh, I know they'll find a way to make it worse.
I don't know how it can get worse against Argentina and a 39-year-old Messi in extra time. And it's when you do it to yourself, like they had that game and they just said, we're going to be giant pussies.
Yeah. And it's especially twisting the knife because their manager, Tuchel, was supposed to be the master and the tactician and not like the old guy and be able to be like, hey, we're going to put our foot on the gas. We're going to build this team. To play all 90 minutes. And turns out they're the exact same.
It's kind of beautiful that you can depend on England for that, isn't it?
It's great.
It's never coming home all these years and they just— they can't help themselves. I had a debate in the Gambling Cave yesterday. Would you rather lose? And let's just not talk about what round it was in. Let's say for both these two teams, it's the quarterfinals that you lose in. Would you rather lose a game in the knockout stage like England did, where you have the lead and you play really, really well for most of the game? Or would you rather get your teeth kicked in like the United States against Belgium? I would rather get curb stomped by Belgium than have a lead and then become the biggest bunch of chicken shits ever and then have to live the rest of your life being like, we had that game and we just, we just mentally shat ourselves.
Were you shaking your head, Max?
Disagree.
Disagree.
OK, embrace debate. Embrace debate.
I'm thinking about my answer because we got absolutely shit on by a team that wasn't even that good. If we made it to the Final Four and were competing in the 90th minute here, you didn't hear that would have changed.
You didn't hear the start of the hypothetical.
I may have missed the start.
It was throw out what stage it's in. Let's just say it's got it. Both quarterfinal games are both round of 16 or whatever. What about just the nature of the loss?
And I know I still think the nature of the loss, it would have been— we were like, we're competing against one of the best, best nations in the world.
Disagree.
We belong on that level. No, the US just got embarrassed and was like, oh no, there's—
we were never in that game.
Exactly.
Against Belgium. So it's like we did—
we—
I never had the opportunity to get excited about it. I think back to the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship game.
What happened in that game?
You smoked the fuck out.
Okay.
And then the Bills go on to have the most heartbreaking defeat ever later on that day. And I'm like, thank God I got my ass kicked. That's way better than how the Bills lose.
I disagree. Well, go ahead, means I'm as a former loser. I, it's—
turn your mic off. It's, it's kind of addicting to lose in heartbreaking fashion.
Well, so that was, that was kind of where I was going. I was thinking about because you have to kind of take the US men's national team out of this hypothetical just because we suck at soccer and it's like But if it was just, let's say, two European countries, there is something about the battle scars of losing in that way where when you get embarrassed, you're like, well, there was never even a chance. I don't know. It's a tough— it's a good question because losing like we lost, you're not— you're not even replaying the game in your head. No, you're not like, oh, if this went different, if this went different, you burn the tape. And man, that England— I think I'd probably go the 4-1 loss because England, like, they had it. All they had to do was not be pussies about it.
And they couldn't.
And they couldn't.
Winston Churchill would be so furious.
Oh, man.
We'll fight on the beaches.
So we got Spain, Argentina. By the way, DraftKings, the cup is down to its final matches. One trophy, one champion. DraftKings has you covered for every single one. The DraftKings app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets, bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are. From Florida to Texas to California, you're in on the excitement at the speed of sports. Follow every clash. Every final whistle, every stoppage time moment with everything on the line. Sweat the biggest matches in the world in real time with a seamless experience built for the world's biggest stage. No matter where you're watching, you're always connected and in the game with one app. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKE and spend $5 to get $200 in rewards within 21 days. That's code TAKE in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours.
Bet with DK Sportsbook.
Gambling problem?
Call 1-800-GAMBLER, 1-800-MY-RESET. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org.
On behalf of Boothill Casino and Kansas. Bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois.
21 and over. Void in Canada. Event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss.
Availability varies.
Bet to get bonus bets that expire in 7 days. Trade to get $50 in predictions dollars that expire in 1 year.
Issued every 7 days via click to claim for 21 days.
1 non-withdrawable reward redeemable. Predictions offer void in New York.
Ends July 19th.
Terms at dkng.co/audio.
So we have Spain, Argentina, memes. Zach and I won the King's Cup thing we did at the Barstool office. So we will be on stream. PFT, will you be joining us on stream?
I'll be joining.
Okay. We'll be—
we'll be streaming the World Cup final.
We have— I'll be there too.
We have a bonus bet that we have to— we have to figure out what we're going to bet. I don't really want to bet a side. I'm nervous to bet a side. If I were to bet a side, it'd be Argentina. I think we got to do something fun. I don't know what that fun is.
Corners.
Corners. Corners and goals. But Spain's so annoying.
That's the thing.
Spain is so annoying. They just hold the ball and they're so good at holding the ball and getting the ball back.
Can you bet cards? Yellow cards?
Good.
That would actually— cards might be fun if we can find that market. That would be fun.
Yeah.
I think for the World Cup, they just let them play.
I don't know.
Right. I don't know. But, but also the guys who have no cards are like, hey, fuck it, we don't care. There's no game after.
Got no rollover minutes right now. If you're Zidane, you just let it all fly.
Do you guys think— I mean, Zach, we know you're rooting for Spain. I want Argentina to win.
I got to root for Argentina. Yeah, I think Spain's defense is really, really good there.
Everything is really—
that one dude that looks like the Bustamante, former CIA guy that goes on the podcast.
Yeah.
You know, the professional podcaster just talks about like what it's like to be a spy. He's probably still in the CIA. The guy that looks like him, I forget his name, on Spain's defense. That dude's a fucking monster.
Mm-hmm. He is a monster. What do you got, Zach?
Those guys are eerily similar with the hair. Yeah, unbelievably similar.
Mm-hmm.
You think he was actually in the CIA? Yeah, I get that another time, I guess.
I think, I think it's going to be a good game.
Definitely going to be a good game. Neymar just has his entire, entire life still to win the World Cup. And Messi, this is it.
Yeah, it's a big time passing of the torch game.
If Spain wins and none of it makes like the baptism stuff, none of it makes sense. It's like, how are we here?
No.
Out of all the outcomes that have come together, this is where we're at. Yeah.
And in that pic, he's such a funny looking baby too.
I know.
He's a hilarious, absolutely hilarious looking baby.
His little brother's the star of the World Cup.
It's, it's, it's so crazy. And he needs to learn what offsides is, though.
Yeah.
I haven't seen a more offsides player in the World Cup than he loves being. He loves hanging out offsides. Dial that shit back a little bit, buddy.
Okay, last thing before we do our Mount Rushmore. Is LeBron ever going to decide? This is so annoying.
No, no, he's not.
And now we got clues being dropped. Did you guys see there was a— there was an ESPN— I think it was PTI's podcast that had nothing to do with LeBron that was titled How Steph is Behind LeBron's Big Decision. And then there was a video of Steve Kerr, uh, someone yelling at him when he was driving saying we need to get LeBron. He said, oh, we got him.
I saw that.
Yeah, so what— what's going on? I'm— I'm now at the point where I'm annoyed.
Well, we've already reported LeBron to the Cavs.
We have, but I'm annoyed.
Has there been a material change?
I think we could go material change and say we don't know and we don't care.
There might be a material change. We talked about a little bit with Windhorst, the idea that, that another team could, could scoop up Bronny, almost like hold him hostage. I was thinking more about this this morning. If a team like paid way above market value in a trade with the Lakers to get Bronny, if they're one of the 3 teams that LeBron said, hey, I'm down to the last 3 here. You get Bronny on your team and then you say, if you don't, if you don't sign with us, we're shipping Bronny's ass to the G League for the rest of his career.
I like that.
And he's going to rot in the G League.
I like that.
And if you don't, if you don't believe me, try me because we'd love to.
I like that a lot.
I will ruin your son's life if you don't.
Write a movie about it.
If you don't join the team. I think it's probably the best. They don't have any, any real leverage with LeBron. That's the only way you can get leverage.
Yeah.
If you ever want to see your son again.
Is Max, are you even focused on LeBron?
Yeah. I mean, I just want to— I know it's not going to be in Philly. I know he's not going to Philly, but there's a chance. And like, there's a back of my head. I'm not—
you said, you know, he's not going to come to Philly, but there's—
but until he decides somewhere, there's a chance.
That was the fastest chance, the fastest reversal on—
I know, I know, I know in my heart of hearts, but he might.
Yeah.
I feel like I need— I just need it to happen. I need him to say that he's not coming to Philly so I can stop worrying about it. I'm sick of it.
What are the odds right now?
It's changing like so. It'll be different by the time this podcast comes out.
Hmm.
Let's see where we're at here.
And we need a better LeBron reporter.
Yeah, we do.
Our LeBron—
oh yeah. Your assistant's the worst guy.
He's Every single day he comes up to me, he's like, today's the day.
Yeah, it's been, it's been a different day and a different team every day this week. Yeah, it was Monday. Today's the day signing with Miami. Today's the day signing with the Warriors. Today's the day signing with the— it's every day. It's something different.
Okay, so what, what is he waiting for? I was thinking about it today. I'm starting to think maybe the Warriors, the Steve Kerr video. And then also, I, I get the feeling like they might be putting together a trade package.
What?
To get AD. Oh, I think you're right.
I also think he wants the Cavs to trade for someone too.
Like, I saw a couple Kyrie reports, so I think he's just waiting for one of his guys to get traded to one of these teams.
Or Tyrese Maxey, one of his guys already there.
What do you mean? Oh, it's— he's already got his guy.
He's already got his guy.
But I mean, he's, he's said that he would love to play with Tyrese Maxey, with Maxey and AD. And I feel like now is when the Warriors are putting together— they're trying to make that happen. The fact that I still go back to the Draymond Green—
you could get a fleecing off of this PFT.
I could get a fleecing.
It's true.
Get a big time fleecing.
Yeah, because they're desperate to get LeBron, that they do a fleecing to get AD to get LeBron.
Yeah, it's true.
You're good. You're in a good spot.
You get Bronny.
The Whistler.
I might, I might still want Bronny. Yeah, yeah, just for kicks. I saw he also wants Kevin Love. Really? Kevin Love is just in Utah. So D-Wade's just going to play last year.
He was up and down, I think. I can't remember. I get my years mixed up. I believe last year might have been the year his father passed away. So I think he was out for a while. No, and he was healthy again because remember that clip of when the, the Jazz were tanking? So they, they basically were like, Kevin Love, we don't want you to play. I think Kevin Love could still be, could still be a good player for 20 minutes a game. I believe in Kevin Love.
Yeah, you can still throw that out there fast.
I'll never stop believing in Kevin Love.
We have another NBA news story here. I don't know if this came across your desk, Big Cat, but Stephen Che, friend of the pod, brought this to my attention online. Did you see Jason Tatum?
Yes.
Last night?
Yes.
At the, was that the ESPY Awards?
Yeah.
That he was at?
He asked me if I cared that he was in an undershirt and I said no.
So here's Che's tweet. Thanks for wearing your nicest undershirt to this black-tie event, Jayson Tatum. What a douche.
It's the ESPYs.
It's the ESPYs. It's literally the ESPYs. It's the black-tie event in question is a made-up award show that nobody watches.
Does it?
Yeah, because I was going to say, maybe this is just me getting older. I don't know. And we've also, like, the last few years we've, we've done the Home Run Derby during this. I feel like I don't give a fuck. I feel like, like, like 15 years ago, the ESPYs kind of had a little pop. They don't have anything.
No pop. Zero pop.
Zero pop. Nothing. Don't care at all.
This black tie event. What a douche.
What a douche. Well, I think it's also— it's hard because you, you have a— like, it's hard to give awards for something they already gave the awards for.
Right.
Like, the Knicks already won the NBA title.
It'll be like—
they don't need an award for winning the NBA title. They won the NBA title.
Yeah.
It'll be like whoever won the MVP won the MVP.
Yeah. Best, best basketball team of the year.
Yeah.
It should just be going to the Knicks.
They should actually do a reverse ESPYs. That would actually get me interested. Just worst team of the year. Yeah, that would be an interesting award show.
It would be.
By the way, we have the Takeys coming next Friday. Just a reminder, everyone get ready. Takeys.
And then I also had one more thing. Yeah, I think Ward Emanuel is about to get fired.
Oh, why? What happened?
The AD at Michigan.
I know, I know.
Yeah, he's They've leaked a few things to the media regarding the investigation. And in the things that they've leaked, they've squarely pointed their finger at Ward Manuel and been like, Ward knew the entire time.
He knew everything. Everyone knows everything when it comes to these colleges.
Yeah, these leaks don't happen unless they're, they're, they're setting the narrative for why they're about to fire him.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's hard for any big-time school to be like, we didn't know. Yeah, it just— that's just not how it works. Zach, you still thinking about Messi and Ronaldo?
I'm excited for the game. I'm looking forward to it.
Can you repeat that? It's over, dude. It's over. Like, put your sword down.
There's no weapons on me right now. My thought process was— this is a, this is a small piece of my thought process. I'm not saying it's the final thought process. Neymar does have a lot of life left. If Messi does it again, just legacy-wise for the sport, it would be— it would be something.
Okay.
That's just part of your thought process.
And I'll leave it there.
Yeah, sure would.
That was well said. That wasn't your full thought process yet.
No, no. I'm undecided. But like, at a certain point, you can't deny greatness.
Yeah. I mean, really, the only move that the real Messi haters have left is you have to just pretend that you were never a Ronaldo fan. You've always been Pelé. And then you can—
or if Jamal wins, be like, Jamal's actually—
yeah, next up.
But there's always Jamal.
Yeah, you can pull the move of pointing at Pelé and then talking about how many World Cups he has.
3.
But that would just be incredibly disingenuous. You have to live with that. You have to live with yourself in that, you know?
Like, has your brother— has your brother been giving you any—
oh, I mean, yeah, every time we're on FaceTime, I'm just trying to see how his day's going. Hey, how was work? How's your day? And he's just like, Ronaldo's a bum. You see, you see the game? Yeah, Messi did it again. Yeah, extra time. You see this? You'll never see Ronaldo make a cross like that.
I'm like, all right, Nick. No, that's actually True.
I don't— listen, I'm not saying he doesn't bring up good points. It's just the first thing that comes up on like, hey, what's up, dude? Love you, miss you. He's like, you got to see this shit. Messi's the GOAT. Yeah, he reminds me of— I get a lot of gifts, you know. I get a lot of like, hey, don't forget. And my dad does a family group chat.
So, oh, so you're getting it from every side. I guess you come sitting here and we're just giving it to you.
Yeah, you guys, maybe everybody's right.
I don't know.
Yeah, I mean, I appreciate you sticking with the take.
Because he is so good.
We're all so good.
But I can't—
but here's the thing is I can tell, I can tell in this World Cup that like, you know, and you're having fun. You're actually— I think, I think he might be winning you over.
Yeah.
You just don't want to turn your back on—
his— I Show Speed said anything?
Yeah, that's what it is.
Uh, I'm not sure because that's talking about a bum. I think he said there's other— there's probably nothing wrong. I think it's probably the same sentiment. Yeah, it's undeniable. Some stuff is just undeniable. No matter what side of the fence you stand on, which way you're looking at, it's like, all right, well, you always got to give credit where credit's due.
Mm-hmm.
OK, let's, let's do Mount Rushmore. Let's kick it to ourselves. Mount Rushmore of birds. And then we have Charles Barkley and Austin Reeves. OK, it's time for Mount Rushmore. It is brought to you by our friends at Reese's. There's something for everyone when it comes to Reese's. It is the greatest candy ever created. And I'm talking everything Reese's does. You got The Run the Football Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. That's just the old classic one, one pick on any Mount Rushmore of candy. But then you also got Reese's Sticks. You've got the Animal Cracker with the Reese's on it. That's unbelievable. They have everything. We have the Reese's Lounge here. It is the number one candy. If we did it, we could do a Mount Rushmore of just Reese's products. It would be the greatest Mount Rushmore of all time. The Reese's, by the way, the Reese's Cups with Oreo. Zach, you know what I'm talking about.
It's fantastic.
Incredible. Reese's is the number one candy. It is the greatest candy ever. It is like Argentina right now. It's messy. It's the Messi of candies. That's what I would say.
Except you know what? If you get mad, you can lick your fingers.
That's true. That's true.
It is.
It is like the Carolina Hurricanes. It's like the New York Knicks. The greatest right now. It is Reese's. So Reese's. Yeah, we just—
I was just going to say, write your name on the cup. Yeah, Reese's.
Write your name on the cup. Reese's, the official candy partner of Barstool Sports. Go to— go get Reese's wherever you shop. Reese's, the greatest candy of all time. All right, Mount Rushmore time. Henry is out, so Zach is solo. And right now, the scores sit myself, Max, and Memes are at 23. PFT 18, Hank and Zach 13. Nice run of second places for you, Zach. How are you feeling?
Feeling okay. I think we continue to string those together, we could be okay.
Okay.
All right. Good, good.
You string those together, you could be okay. Also, memes. How do you feel about leaving, being left out by the PGA Superstore? That was very mean.
Not great.
That was, that was what one of my suggestions that I brought up during when we were talking about it. Yeah. So last, yeah, yeah. PGA Superstore tagged Max and I in a tweet saying, hey, we got a place for you as a PGA Superstore next to a Bass Pro Shop. Did not tag memes.
Would you say that this is a good morale thing for your team for you to bring this up right now?
I think it doesn't matter.
Okay.
All right.
If I'm being totally honest, I would say maybe not the best for morale. Well, it's not. We didn't do anything.
I didn't—
PJ Superstore.
I liked it.
Yeah. There you go.
Yeah. There you go. Thanks, memes.
Okay.
Still came in last.
We're doing the Mount Rushmore of birds and we did no Google.
No Google.
So free balling.
It's going to be Zach already told me that he struggled to get 12 birds.
Big Cat, should you go solo on this again since, since we've already set that precedent?
Well, we already, we already kind of game plan together. We talked about it.
Yeah, that's true.
I didn't give him any suggestions last time.
Yeah. So yeah, last time he went— we should have thought of that when we were— before we started.
Yeah, I was just looking at the room right now. I was like, it would make sense to just stay in the room.
But yeah, yeah, you, you go.
Yeah, you just go solo.
We get solo trips. Yeah.
All right, fine. I'll go solo.
I'll, I'll let you know my two cents, but you should go solo.
Okay, I'll go solo. You guys chime in when you think that I should pick something.
Okay. What is it?
That's fair.
That's fair.
Order first. We're up first.
Okay.
No, I'm up first.
Big hats.
You guys aren't doing this one. You're just going to tell me which number I should pick.
That's 1-1. And then is Zach 2 or am I 2?
You pick 3 when we pick 1.
So you're picking 3.
Okay.
Okay. Should I go 1-1?
Clear 1-1. It's good. So good. Good solo pick. But yeah.
All right. Mount Rushmore of birds. I'm going to start with the bald eagle.
Good pick.
It's great.
It's a very, very easy— just, just— I mean, it's America.
Majestic.
And it's also like one of those birds that, you know, do you guys— whenever I see a bald eagle, I am a little wowed.
I'm like, oh, you see one in the wild?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Don't think I have.
Yeah.
No, I mean, look at that.
It's a special moment when you see a bald eagle. You're like, oh, fuck, there's a bald eagle. There's not many birds that can showstop you like that.
I grew up thinking that we were out of bald eagles. And then at some point we got too many bald eagles. Like they're overpopulating in some places.
Yeah, they were endangered.
And then they—
then they fucked that time. Yeah, a lot of fucking.
Yeah.
So shout out whoever got the bald eagles to hook up like that. OK. All right.
So I would like to take—
no, it's you. It's Solos.
Oh, I would like to take for our team. Pterodactyl.
Okay.
This is where the no Google hurts us because I have no idea if that's a bird or dinosaur. I believe that is a dinosaur.
I think so.
Okay, so the wings and the— okay. I don't know.
Flying reptile is what Google—
okay, so not a bird.
No worries now.
Okay.
I did think it was. I wasn't trying to—
I mean, it's a great pick. I just don't— I honestly, I didn't know.
And I also couldn't look it up.
We— if we could be honest for a second, The, the archaeologists don't know if they had feathers or not.
Correct.
I agree.
They just found some.
No, pterodactyls are not birds.
Okay. So we'll pivot from that and we'll go with—
pick though.
Yeah, we should have been— would have been an awesome— we should do dinosaurs first.
Dinosaurs.
Yeah, that would be fun.
That'd be a very fun one. I smelled the T-Rex's breath, Sue, at the Field Museum. Real nasty. Real nasty.
All right.
We're going to go with an owl.
What are you looking at me like that for?
What does that mean?
There's a—
there's an exhibit at Sue is the T-Rex at the Field Museum in Chicago. And there's a little portion where you can go up and you can smell what Sue's breath would have smelled like. It's foul.
How would they have known?
I don't know.
But they're just— they're just—
I went with their— yes, I went with guessing. They're just like, how can we make these little kids smell this?
Yes. And my— my two sons smelled it and they're like, Daddy, you got to smell it. I was like, I don't want to. Like, you have to. And then I did, and I was like, oh, like, I'll do it again. I smelled like 7 times. Sucked. Great museum, though.
That's a great pick, though.
That owl. Owl. Yep.
Very good pick.
Snow owl, barn owl, just owls.
I really take owls.
Yeah.
OK, I'll give you just owls.
Yeah, we just take owls. The fact that they can rotate their neck is pretty fucking cool.
Yeah.
Like, that's just— that's a cool thing that owls do.
Incredibly nocturnal and great at, like, hunting prey.
Mm-hmm.
Who?
Hunting Prey. Who?
Who?
There you go, Max. I always love watching Max get it like 5 seconds.
Watching Max get it.
I wish my brain was just a little bit quicker.
So good.
It's just, it's just a little bit delayed of everything.
That wasn't exactly like the head scratchingest joke.
That was a 4-year-old joke.
Yeah. That was a— John Gruden does that joke.
I thought what— I thought Hunting Prey was a person that I didn't know about.
Ah, okay.
Because Zach kept saying Hunting Prey and I was like, is that a famous— is that like a celebrity?
I don't know.
So I'm sorry. I apologize to all the listeners. All right.
I'm going to go with one, one, Larry Bird.
Okay.
Larry Bird. I think that's a pretty solid third pick. And then my second pick, I'm going to come back. I'm going to go Eagles and golf. Eagles parentheses.
Okay.
Golf.
Okay.
We're going to take Parrot.
Oh, okay.
They can talk.
They can.
Mm-hmm.
Communication skills from a bird.
You can fly and speak English.
Yeah.
Or Spanish.
I'm going solo here, but I think, I think I go 3 and then the other, the person that Memes threw out there, the first person Memes threw out there.
I think 3 would be strong. Don't think you need to put, put.
Okay. The qualifier.
Okay.
And then do you like the first name? Person that, uh, memes throughout there.
11? No, wait, what number?
Well, again, I'm going solo. Uh, it'd be 10, but it'd be the person.
Oh yeah, yeah, I like that. Yeah.
All right, so we're gonna go, uh, falcon.
Good pick.
The— I, I, I— we're gonna take all falcons, but the Peregrine Falcon, that's just something that everyone knows because they're the fastest animal on Earth. So that's just like a fact that, that Everyone knows, and I'm guaranteeing because we didn't use Google that I spelled it wrong. But either way, Peregrine Falcon. But we're taking Falcon and then we're taking Tony Hawk.
Good pick.
It's a good pick. Yeah. Great.
Tony Hawk.
We would like to take Flamingo.
Great pick.
Great pick. Classic.
That is a classic.
It's a classic bird.
I mean, Zach's just running the football. Yeah. Good job, Zach. I like your— I like your draft.
Yeah. Yep.
I respect you guys.
It would be a real shame if Zach came in. Would this be your guys' first, first place?
Yeah, we're still— we're still chasing the first. We'll get there.
This would be— this would be a real shame.
Okay.
It'd be a real—
the thing is, though, it wouldn't bother Hank at all. He doesn't— I think we said this, but Hank— Hank is fully like— it took whatever, 9 years for him to just finally admit that he sucks at Mount Rushmore. And he does. He said it in like a moment of like true honesty. Because in the— in years past, he is— he has tried to find any which way to tell us how it's rigged, how it's not fair, blah, blah, blah.
Do you remember the year that him and I were partners and then he went on vacation for a week and yeah, I was in first in that week? Yeah. And then I went on vacation for a week and then we came in last, right?
So he—
I think he finally, though, it took 9 years, but he finally is like, hey, I might just suck at this. Yeah, credit to him. Okay, PFC, you get your last 2.
We go Big Bird.
Okay, it's good pick.
Taking Big Bird.
And then on our list.
And then last pick. He's solo.
I'm solo.
I got one last pick, huh?
Yep.
I'm going to go Nick Foles.
Okay, so you pick zero birds.
Big Bird. Big Bird is a bird. Big Bird's a bird. Well, you guys, I had bald eagle. I had falcon. The draft didn't shake out the way that I wanted. I also had hawk, but then you just took Tony Hawk, and I can't— you can't put Hawk next to Tony. No, no, that's going to be a bad look on the thing. Can I change my last pick?
Nope.
All right.
What was it? Nick Foles.
Nick Foles.
Nick Foles is a great pick.
Go Birds.
Excellent pick. Go Birds.
I remember him as a Jaguar.
I remember him.
I remember him as a Bear. Yeah, yeah.
Or Colt.
Chief.
Chief.
Can't say I even remember those last two.
Legend.
He was a Colt, right?
Spiritually, I think so. No, Carson Wentz was a Colt. Was Nick—
no, wait, you look at the picture, you Google Nick Foles first. That's how we remember him. Nick Foles is a Colt.
That's how Google remembers him.
Did we miss a team that he played for?
The Rams. But—
oh yeah, the Rams. That's right. So he played.
Yeah.
So Eagles, Rams, Chiefs, Eagles, Jaguars, Bears, Colts. Yeah, he was a perfect Colt. Yeah, we're just like, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna keep just trying to find old quarterbacks that were at one point good.
It was right in the thick of that.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right, Zach.
Oh, Ryan. Remember Matt Ryan on the Colts? That was something.
Yeah, I'm special. Our 4th pick, we would like to take— we're gonna take Ostrich for our 4th pick.
Okay, that's a good pick. Okay.
Good pick.
All right. Our fourth pick, I think it's a bird. We might have to Google it, but we will take Penguin.
Yeah.
Is that a bird?
Yeah, it's a bird.
I don't— I don't know.
Bird.
You could tell me a bird. A penguin is something totally different.
I guess I didn't have Penguin.
Yeah, they're birds.
I was in the process of writing Penguin for honorable mention right now and you took it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Penguin's pretty sick. I think I got confused. I got confused because we— I think at one point we were going to try to take penguins for aquatic animals, which I think—
which also could have played.
Yeah, yeah, the dual. Okay, what did we miss? A lot.
Uh, pelican.
Pelican. I think there's a classic 3 that we had on our list that I don't know if they're Mount Rushmore, but they are in the category of I will stop and be like, oh, that's cool. Cardinal, Oriole, Blue Jay. All 3, all 3 of those. If you see one in your backyard, you're like, oh, That's awesome.
Yeah. Orioles are absolutely beautiful birds. Yeah.
I think hummingbirds play in that category.
Oh, hummingbirds. Great fucking pick.
Comes to the feeder and they just kind of—
damn it.
What are the—
what are the ones that— is that a pecking parrot? Woodpecker.
Woodpecker.
That's a good pick, too.
We missed so many good birds.
I was just—
my list is— I don't want— I don't want to influence the vote, but if I was voting, I would not vote for my own.
You don't— you don't feel confident in your list?
I mean, I— Listen, here's, here's some birds that were still on the board that I didn't even write down.
Yep.
Woodpecker. Didn't write it down. Hummingbird. The Danny Woodhead of birds. Did not write that down. Penguin. Did not write that down. Ostrich. Didn't have that down.
Raven.
What am I doing?
I have Raven. Your birds can fly.
Vulture.
Vultures are badass, dude.
They're—
I mean, the bird of death.
Yeah.
You know, they are badass.
Very ugly birds.
Vultures get graphic on the road.
We're not doing prettiest birds.
No. Albatross.
Albatross.
Yeah, they can fly for like hundreds of miles over the ocean.
The only one that I was—
an eagle too.
The only one that I was proud of that I was able to come up with without—
of course.
Oh, albatross.
Yeah.
The only one I was proud of to come up with on my own was the magpie. Those birds. Do you know the birds in Australia? They like attack bicyclists.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was the only one where I was like, oh, I I know my birds. This isn't just your generic Oriole, Cardinal, Blue Jay. But that was where it stopped. I had nothing after magpie.
What about the finches?
Not too familiar with the finches.
Yeah. Boobies.
Yeah.
Boobies.
Boobies. Oh, boobies. I wrote that.
You did write boobies. I just didn't think it was a real bird.
Oh, it's a— yeah.
Oh, boobies would look— that honestly could have gotten vetoed on a graph. That's just— that's just a fake. Graphic. You're just playing with the graphic.
Yeah.
You know how boobies, when they try to fuck, when they're horny, they see each other and they start doing a little dance. They like move their feet and they do like, like the Chorus Line leg kicks. And then the other boobie looks at it like, that's a good looking boobie.
Yeah.
Oh, they have to court each other. Yeah, that's pretty impressive.
Oh, the blue, the bluefoot boobies. Yeah, those are cool.
And a redfoot boobie.
We missed doves, swans. Swans are good. Swans are good.
Swans are dickheads.
Canadian geese would be the Mount Rushmore of birds.
Canada geese.
Yeah, those guys suck.
Don't like— I would put grackles on that list for the Mount Rushmore birds.
I don't know what a grackle is.
If you've lived in Texas and you've gone to a grocery store, the parking lot is just covered with grackles and they're assholes. Yeah. Yeah.
I think turkey or chicken. Tasty pics. Yeah.
Birds.
Those are birds.
I got them.
What about—
I'd like to— I think I'd like to forfeit out of principle. I was so bad today.
You just went—
you just—
you just—
you just went off course.
I did. I got off course. I didn't get back on.
The— happens.
What is the— oh, Pigeons.
Pigeons.
Listen, I get it.
No.
Well, listen, we're doing honorable mentions. So let me make my case for Pigeons. Pigeons are kind of like the rough and tough, like, like neighborhood guys. You know what I mean? They're like the Italians of birds. They're all come over and, you know, they're just eating out of the trash and they're kind of talking all weird and they're, they're, they're, they're men of the street.
They're men of the people.
Yeah, they're Johnny Gabagool.
Pigeons are also not the smartest. They, they just get in the way.
Some would say that's a surveillance state.
Let me make— oh yeah, that's true. Let me make my case for pigeons actually being the smartest. They've, they've essentially just over the years been like, hey, you know where we should live? Right where the people leave their trash. We don't have to hunt for anything. We don't have to go fucking diving for worms and fish and all that shit.
That's smart.
Some guy's going to eat a calzone and not finish it, and we're going to— we're going to finish it. So pigeons might be the smartest bird.
There is one group of pigeons that I did have on the list. There was a World War II corps of pigeons that we used over in Europe. And instead of like, doing like radio transmissions. Yeah, they would, they would send pigeons flying back and forth with notes that would fly for like 100 miles.
That's pretty cool.
Drop something off.
Those smart—
those pigeons like are Medal of Honor winners.
Yeah.
Harry Potter.
Yeah.
Respect.
Racing pigeons are pretty fun too.
Racing pigeons. Yeah. Much out of my comfort zone.
Yeah.
What about toucans?
Toucans, great cereal.
Yeah. Parakeets.
Yeah. Not a, not a huge fan of parakeets.
All right.
I'm not familiar much with parakeets and what they do. They're the ones that are the ones that like pets.
They're kind of like bright small birds.
What are the ones that copy you?
That's parrots.
Cockatoos. Parrots. Parrots.
Parrots.
And yeah, the African gray parrot.
What do we think about the smart one? What do we think about seagulls?
Fuck seagulls.
Yeah, I'm kind of off.
Oh, yeah.
Seagulls suck.
Seagulls suck fucking ass. If you're on a beach and you're trying to do anything, they're so fucking annoying. Fuck seagulls. That's number one of Mount Flush.
When I lived at the Jersey Shore, I put a— that's why I'm saying I put a $500 bounty on catching a seagull with your bare hands. I'm not talking I'm talking just, just chasing a seagull, grabbing it with your bare hands. If you can do it, $500.
All you have to do is just start eating some French fries and they'll just come into your fucking hands. They're the worst. Seagulls are the worst.
We looked up a story on The Yak a few months ago of a guy who got arrested because a seagull went and took his, like, 5-year-old daughter's French fries and he just snapped its neck.
That, that seems like self-defense.
I think he had some other shit going on.
So it was got a little sideways. I'm not, I'm not getting into the story. Well, I'm not. That's—
let me just say this. If you— if a seagull takes a French fry and then your first action is to snap its neck, you might have some rage issues.
Or maybe, maybe you're just—
that's a fair assumption.
You might just be trying to protect the rest of the beach.
Yeah.
What about the seagull though that grabbed the hot dog at Wrigley? That, that guy was cool. The perfect shot that you met. Do you remember that photo that someone took in like April? Yeah, it was just a seagull flying in the outfield with a hot dog in its mouth, like a perfectly untouched hot dog. That seagull's cool.
Yeah, but he probably stole that, that hot dog from—
oh, but it's with bun.
Yeah, it's with bun. It's a full untouched hot dog. That seagull, I can, I can fuck with that seagull.
No, because that seagull stole that hot dog from someone.
But he earned it.
He has to pay for it, Max.
Yeah, don't—
he can eat the scraps after the game's over.
Max, respectfully, if you're dumb enough to get your hot dog stolen by a bird, you deserve to not What if also it was just someone dropped the—
I bet you someone dropped it.
Now, okay, that would be fair.
And he came in and he swooped it up. And it's also just the coolest photo. So it is a cool photo.
The, the Auburn War Eagle that flies around the stadium. That's a pretty cool bird.
That's a cool bird. That's a really cool bird.
The Phoenix.
Mm-hmm. Hot, hot, hot British ladies.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I said, I said D for Moi, Sonny.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Bird.
She's a bird. Sue Bird.
Sue Bird.
Oh, Brian Cardinal. Throwback. Mm-hmm. I'm trying to think of what other birds in sports.
Lane Johnson also had him on the list.
AJ Hawk.
AJ Hawk would be a good one.
Mm-hmm.
AJ Brown.
Yep.
No longer.
Yeah, but he said he was the greatest Eagle of all time.
That's true.
The Positivity Bunny.
Well, that'd be a bunny, but it was a bird.
Max, I bid on something that I don't think I'm going to get, but I really was thinking about you.
Don't tell me why.
In case I get it?
Yeah.
I don't think I'm going to get it.
All right.
It was a signed placard from AJ Brown's locker room after a game. It was the Donington Bones game.
Oh, wow.
I hope I— we haven't gotten any response.
So how do you know what game it is?
Like authenticated? It says Eagles Broncos.
They change those after every game?
I guess so.
That's where they must change everything.
Yeah.
Maybe he requested a move.
Maybe.
Yeah, probably because Darrington Bones—
Darrington Bones—
he didn't want to sit next to Jalen anymore.
Yeah.
You guys win or lose that game? I actually don't remember. That was a game you and Hank got physical.
I think they lost that game. And then I think Denver looked like the very worst team in the league like the next week, right?
Or no, did Denver go— yeah, because they went over to Europe.
Yeah, somewhere over there.
Yeah, Broncos-Eagles. How many years ago was that? Yeah, you did lose that game. It was last year, 21-17. Dunnington Bones.
That's a tough game.
Oh, still a tough game. I can't wait for football. Football's so close. Boys getting physical.
I was just running through the depth chart yesterday. It's football. So back.
It's so back.
So back. The 15 Eagle.
100. That's good.
Bird. 104-0 lifetime record.
Oh, recently.
What about Birdman?
Birdman, the rapper or Chris Anderson?
Both.
Yeah. Both Birdman.
Mm-hmm.
Good pick.
Well, it wasn't a pick.
As soon as I said I—
Yeah. Yeah.
It would have been a good pick.
Would have been a good pick.
But a good pick. It was not.
We're thinking of so so many things after the fact.
Yeah, I'm just— I, I'm just disgusted with myself.
Duck a bird?
Fuck yeah. Yes, duck's a bird.
Oh man, why did we pick ducks?
I didn't know if it was a bird though.
My favorite food in the world.
What else would it be?
They're also cute.
I don't know, I thought it was—
I thought duck was an pterodactyl walking across the street.
Baby duck. By the way, I'll shout out the, uh, the documentary. It's on YouTube, Lister's. It's these two dudes, uh, who— there's like an entire birder community that all they do is just try to go find as many birds as they can in a given year. Like, there's a competition every year. And these two guys, I think they're from St. Louis, kind of like regular, just two brothers in their 20s, are like, hey, we're just going to become list— we're going to become birders for an entire year. And they, they went on the hunt for— to, to see as many birds as they possibly could.
So how many did they get?
I think they got like 150 or something. There's so many.
There's too many birds.
There's so many fucking birds. It's insane.
I had a couple other birds. What were they?
I'm just going to do a quick Google. Coolest birds.
Let's see.
Dodo. How do we feel about the dodo? Idiot.
Yeah, idiot. All right.
Top 20 coolest birds.
Emu.
The Gurney's pitta. I don't even know. See, this is where it gets a little It's like there's too many birds. Blue Jay made the top 20 here. Kakapo. Yeah, I'm out on birds now. There's just too many.
What about the macaw? That's what— when you think of a parrot, I think you would think of the macaw.
I'm not familiar.
It's like the Jimmy Buffett parrot. That's the macaw.
Okay. Yeah, I like that bird.
Yeah. All right.
Good Mount Rushmore. Hank will be back on Monday.
Yeah, full teams assembled Monday.
Yeah. You did— you like doing it? You said you prefer to do it on your own.
No, I like— I like the unity of teamwork.
You also said that you think Hank is bringing you down.
I didn't—
you guys are— these are all false accusations. I think I can get Hank back in the spirits of Mount Rushmore.
Okay.
Oh, so you agree that he's not in the spirits of Mount Rushmore?
Yep. That's what I heard.
You— well, you guys spoke a little bit earlier in the show about historically he said he is not all the way in sometimes, or maybe he's not.
So you're finding that?
I think he is all the way in.
You're agreeing? Well, I'm trying to get him back.
Yeah.
Trying to get him back in because that's going double. He's in right now.
It's like double stuff. It's like he's back.
He's double in. No, you can't. You can't be back if you weren't ever out. Like when Ronaldo scored 2 goals against Uzbekistan and he was like, I'm back, I'm back.
Iconic moment.
Double back.
Yeah, he was back from what? From not being very good.
Yeah, just on the world stage playing good footy.
Mm-hmm.
Against Uzbekistan.
Entire— an entire country. Sounds like a big deal to me.
There's good at it.
There's one other bird, the shoebill.
Do you guys—
are you familiar familiar with the shoebill?
Nope.
That's the one that looks like a dinosaur. It's the one that's like 5 feet tall. Bring up a video of the shoebill, Max.
That's what you should have taken.
Shoebills. I mean, I just shat the bed entirely. I mean, this is a bird brain draft.
Oh, that's cool bird.
Yeah, there's a dino.
Yeah, these things are fucking crazy.
Yeah, but it's cool. You don't see that very often.
This is a cool picture.
This picture is cool as fuck. Play a video of it. You can find it.
It's a badass bird. It's a really badass bird. Shoebills. Mm-hmm. They're just—
what are they? Where do they live?
Hell. Okay.
Yeah.
If I see one of these things, I'm running.
I could fuck that thing up so easily.
What are you—
what are you looking at me like that for, Zach?
I just think that would be a challenge for anybody.
I'd kick that thing so hard. Look at that beak, dude.
I think that's a weapon.
If you want to fuck this thing up, just slide tackle.
Look at him go for the legs.
Yeah, yeah, just snap, cut him out at the legs. Yeah, end his career.
Yeah.
Okay, uh, good Mount Rushmore, boys. Let's get to our interviews. We got Charles Barkley. Before we do that, TickPick, brought to you by TickPick, the no-nonsense ticket app. You know the runaround with the big ticket sites, fees layered into the final cost, and you're left wondering whether you're overpaid. By the way, uh, on Monday, I mentioned it, I'm going to be hosting the 50/50 raffle at the Cubs game. Go buy some tickets to TickPick. Get in on the $51.49 raffle. Never been done. TickPick will get you into Wrigley on Monday night, and your tickets are backed by their buyer trust guarantee. 100% authentic and on time every order. Don't take my word for it. Fans genuinely love this app. Read the reviews and see for yourself. The Cubs are doing the $51.49 raffle, like I said, for one day only on July 20th. That's Monday, July 20th. So make sure to get your tickets for the game on TickPick. And for new TickPick customers, take $20 off your first order with promo code PMT20 in the TickPick app. Terms apply. That's PMT20 at checkout for $20 off your first order. TickPick doesn't play all the games that everyone else does.
There's no nonsense, no service fees ever, which means the exact same seat costs less on TickPick. And like I said, they're backed by the buyer trust guarantee, 100% authentic and on time every order.. So go right now. New TickPick customers take $20 off your first order with promo code PMT20 in the TickPick app. Terms apply. That's PMT20 at checkout for $20 off your first order. We're also brought to you by our friends at Lucy. Lucy's the obvious choice for the true nicotine pouch connoisseurs. That's why they're the official nicotine pouch partner of Barstool Sports. Every other pouch is the same. Lucy Breakers are the only ones doing it differently to give you the longest lasting flavor in pouches. Lucy pouches go up to 12mg strength and have a unique shape that feels great. Lucy's in stores nationwide now, or get Lucy delivered to you ASAP on apps like DoorDash and GoPuff. Lucy's the only pouch that delivers long-lasting on-demand flavor. Find a store near you at lucy.co/stores, or get it shipped with 20% off your first order at lucy.co/pmt using code PMT. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age, and every customer's age verified.
Warning: this product contains nicotine. And nicotine is an addictive chemical. Go right now, Lucy Products, uh, lucy.co/pmt using code PMT. Okay, here he is, Charles Barkley. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest, recurring guest.
Who's here?
That's Charles Barkley. You're— I mean, listen, you're a very, very special guest.
I appreciate it, brothers. Appreciate it. Look, looking forward to it. Had a good time last year. Glad to be back.
We had a blast last year, so we're back at the American Century Championship.
Yep.
Um, let's start with that. How's the golf game feeling? I feel like you, you went from— there was that stretch where it was like, hey, if you want to go viral on the internet, you just post Charles Barkley's, uh, yeah, tee box swing. And now you're just— you're good.
Well, I wouldn't say good. I'm playing well. Shout out to my coach Stan Utley, who changed the whole dynamics of my golf game, man. I love to play. You know, you can't stay in the house, especially during the summer. I love just walking, being out there. It's one of the few places you can go and get peace and quiet. Now you meet a lot of crazy people who say stupid stuff to you, like, why are you at the dry cleaner? Uh, because I got clothes that need to be dry cleaned. They're like, why are you at the supermarket? Because I need food to eat. They always ask you stupid stuff. I always laugh, like, why are you at the supermarket? Because they got food and stuff here. But golf, you got— you get to go out here, there's no fans around. You just go out there with 3 of your friends and just talk trash, smoke some stogies, and That man's the best.
Gamble on some golf.
Yes.
Yeah.
Are you up or down this, this year gambling on golf?
Oh, I'm probably down because I, I bet like I'm, I'm a, I'm a, I think I'm a better— I bet like I'm a better player than I think I really am. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's a problem.
Yeah.
You know, that's the thing about golf though, listen, you have to play to your handicap. Yep. And so I've got to do a better job of scoring. That's my problem, scoring. Uh, not getting up and down, making double bogeys instead of bogey, which is— that's golf. But I gotta do a better job of scoring.
It's that one shot, you know, like on a par 5 where you're like, oh shit, if I hadn't hit my— you know, if I hadn't chipped and didn't get on— like, I didn't get on the green, I chipped it 10 feet.
Like, yeah, well, and I think the main thing is when you're stupid like myself, you hit it in the trees and you'll try a damn trick shot to get out of there.
Oh yeah, like I've never seen a tree.
I saw a guy try this on TV. He cut it out of the woods. Let me try it. Instead of chipping it back in the fairway like a, like a smart man.
Yeah.
Hey, I saw this guy cut this shot out of the trees.
Whenever you say I've got a window, you never have a window. That should be a trigger, actually. If you hear yourself say I think there's a window, no, absolutely not.
You know, so there's probably nobody in the world watch more golf than me. And you hear some of the guys say, oh, he's got a window. I'm like, what window? And then when I get into trees, I'm like, I see that window they was talking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But last year, so we sat down and we talked last year and then you went out there and you played. I think— I don't know if that was the best round of your life, but you had an eagle on the front nine.
Yeah.
And you had— you put up a good score on the first day of the tournament last year.
I played— that was— I think it was my best round ever. Better, uh, the first round. But then the drinking and the gambling caught up with me because I'm gonna drink and I'm gonna gamble. So my scores— I gotta figure out how to play better as I get drunker and gamble more the last couple days. Yeah, because the first day I'm good, right? And then the late night gambling and drinking catches up with you.
Yeah, I'm actually putting together— I'm trying to do a study study at Barstool Sports, and I've got, I've got 10 people signed up for it. I'm trying to do actual science because we got a, we have an indoor golf simulator at our place, and I'm trying to study the exact perfect right amount of drunk that you should be to play golf at your best. Because no, it is like, I think it's like 3 drinks.
It ain't about being drunk because you, you don't normally play. I don't normally drink when I play golf, but there's a great line in the School of Rock When Jack Black is talking to the students, he says, I got a hangover. And one of the kids says, you're drunk. He said, no, I was drunk yesterday.
Yeah, yeah.
So I'm not drunk when I'm playing, but because I was drinking the night before and up all night gambling, you, you got— you're getting mentally and physically fatigued. Now there's no way in the hell I'm gonna go to bed and get a good night's sleep if I'm in Lake Tahoe. So I just got to find a way to manage it better.
Yeah, the casino's right there. Yeah, they put it right there for you.
100%.
Yeah.
Yes.
How'd you do last night?
I broke even.
Uh, I was—
to win.
Oh yeah, that's a win. They were kicking me pretty good. I got on a roll, got back to even, and then like, you know, let me go get some rest. So, uh, I'm, I'm, I'm even. So that's a win.
Yeah. You mentioned, uh, people just like, you know, seeing you in public and talking trash. How'd it go when you had to go down to San Antonio?
They were great.
Really? So was there any— because I, I saw you, you know, there was a lot of people people are very friendly. I think most people understand that what you're doing at the end of the day is you're having fun, making sports fun.
Yeah.
Not being mean-spirited. But were there any rogue, like, hey, what the hell? Because there was some weird shit that happened between San Antonio and New York.
Yeah. Well, the people of San Antonio, they can take a joke. You know, I think people don't understand we're on television from 7:00 to 2:00 in the morning. Nobody want to talk about basketball, even me, from 7:00 to 2:00 in the morning. My job, our job is to entertain the fans. I think we do a good job at that. But you know, that stuff I said, it made people laugh, hopefully. But it's so funny now, man. Everybody's offended by everything now.
Oh yeah.
You know, there's a great line, um, in Ted Lasso. The, the, the, the hot blonde chick says it, uh, I think her name is Hannah Waddington. She says Oh, I know it. She was talking to Roy, I think, one time. And this is the way a lot of people are. They don't know it. Like, oh, I know you. You're the guy who, if we gave you a shit sandwich, you would want more shit sandwich. Some people just assholes, and you have to let them— like, okay, I get it. And some people just like— they always want to be offended about something instead of saying, hey man, don't take yourself that serious. But I thought that was a great line. Some people just like shit. Yeah. And I was like, no, no, no, I'm not gonna let y'all get on my If you can't take a joke, just shut the hell up and don't watch the show.
Yeah. And then I, I was watching that first game in San Antonio when they said, and now we're going to bring on, uh, the mayor of San Antonio.
Yeah.
And I was like, uh-oh. But then she was cool with it too. I feel like, I feel like she was in the room.
And when people make fun of me, I can take a joke.
Yeah, right.
Like, I don't even know what we got as a society where people can't joke anymore. I'm like, nah, I, I never want to be part of a world where people can't joke and have fun. I I mean, we're actually talking about sports. Sports are great, but they're not really important. We're not like teachers or firemen or policemen or somebody like that, or nurses, or like— those are like real important jobs. Yeah. But if you can't take a joke watching sports, you shouldn't be watching sports.
Yeah, I agree with that. There's actually some just came out right now, uh, from the, uh, from the NBA. So kind of curious to hear your reaction on that. It says the, uh, the Clippers-Raptors trade that's centered on Kawhi Leonard will not be complete wait until the NBA investigation into the Clippers is over. So they— the, the trade might not happen now depending on what, what they, uh, well, they find out.
Well, the Clippers got busted.
It looks like it.
Yeah, it was got busted. I'm not sure why they're dragging their feet. What's interesting is what is the proper penalty, right? Because you can't fine the Clippers a million dollars or five $5 million because the guy's worth $20 billion. Uh, so it seems to me like they're probably gonna suspend Kawhi Leonard.
I think he per— I think Ballmer personally has to plant like 2,000 trees. That would be perfect, right?
Shovel.
Like, here you go.
Hey, I'm a big Ballmer. I like him a lot, but they just got busted. And, uh, and all— and listen, a lot of teams do it. A lot of teams do stuff under the table. Yeah, um, when I played for the Rockets, uh, they asked me to take no money for a year so we could sign Scottie Pippen, uh, and we did. Now, two things happened. Number one, Scottie Pippen didn't bring Michael Jordan with him. That was a bad thing. And secondly, the Rockets didn't pay me what they were supposed to pay me, so they screwed me out of money. But teams do that crap all the time.
Yeah.
So they just got busted. Listen, Kawhi doesn't want to be there. Let him go to the club. Let him go to the Raptors where he won a championship and just keep him with us. But that's interesting that you said that because. Yeah, because they just got busted cheating, plain and simple.
Yeah, I think that like they're— it was pretty clear what was going on.
100%.
And they just weren't careful about it.
Yeah.
And you just better hope that if you're another another NBA team. Like, if Pablo Torre calls you, do not answer the phone. Just don't talk to that guy.
Yeah, be careful.
I'm never gonna— I'm done talking to Pablo Torre because I'm scared of what he'll do to me.
Yeah.
Um, so you, you mentioned before we started taping, you're in Philly for the summer.
Yes.
Playing a lot of golf. Um, how many courses have given LeBron James a membership in hopes that he plays for the 76ers? Which I, I don't think— no, personally, any of that's going to happen. I don't think it's true.
The right thing for LeBron to do is to back to Cleveland.
That's what he's going to do.
You know, I tell people, I said, if he— the one big criticism of LeBron James has been he's stacked his teams to win championships. If he goes to the Warriors or the Sixers, it'd be— to me, he'd be like trying to stack his team again. He has no affiliation with any of those teams. The only team he has an affiliation with where he's a legend is the Cleveland Cavaliers. That would be the right way to finish his career. That's just my opinion. Him chasing rings, trying to chase the ghost of Michael Jordan going to the Warriors or going to the Sixers would be a bad look. He should go to Cleveland to finish his career. That would be a great finishing story. Yeah.
Were you, were you shocked by the Jaylen Brown trade? Because I feel like it still is. Like, how, how is this what ended up happening with a guy who's a top 15 guy in the league?
Well, I think two things. I wasn't surprised he got traded, right? Because he was clearly going to get traded. Yeah. I was surprised he got traded to Philly. Because number one, you're in the same division, you're going to be in the same playoff structure. So you got to see that man a lot. But, um, and then it saved— it saves the Sixers franchise because they were dead in the water because Paul George is aging, Joel has not been able to stay healthy, and they got both of those guys for another few years. Now the happiest guy in the world should be Maxie because his career was going to be in the toilet for the next few years because he's a hell of a player but the Sixers were irrelevant and only going to get worse. But now they, you know, I have zero idea who's going to win the East right now. I'll tell you this, I think if LeBron go to Cleveland, I think they'll probably be favored in the East. But the Knicks have got— the Knicks are regressing because they losing some players. The Celtics obviously regress. The Sixers are going to be better with Jalen.
The Raptors, if they get that gun, they're going to be better. But But man, I got zero idea who the best team in the East is right now.
Yeah.
Do you think that— do you think the parity in the NBA is good for the NBA? That we've had, what, 8 different champions in the last 8 years?
I think it's great for the NBA. I thought this was great for the NBA, that the Knicks won. I ain't gonna lie, man. It was— that atmosphere in New York was one of the most incredible. Games 3 and 4 and Game 5 in San Antonio, like, had to have 7,000 Knick fans. That was crazy nuts. So it was one of the most incredible of those things I've seen, those two games in New York. And, uh, I thought it was great for the NBA that the Knicks won.
Yeah, I mean, we said when the, when the Thunder won last year, like, they might win 3 out of the next 4. We kind of already anointed them.
Listen, you, you, they— if, if Jalen had been healthy and AJ, that other kid AJ, they probably would have won the championship this year. You know, they lost to a good Spurs team in 7 without their second-best player who's an All-Star And then other kid AJ got hurt. So the Thunder are going to be the team to beat for the next probably 5 to 7 years.
Yeah.
You're not saying that the Spurs are inevitable at this point because they did so much stupid stuff in the finals. Like, they're a great team, I think. And obviously they were—
they did not play well and they're going to be right there. Listen, you're going to have to beat OKC or the Spurs the next 5 to 7 years if you're going to win the championship. Championship, right? Yeah. Yeah.
How was, uh, how's the switch to ESPN been? Because last year, last year we obviously were in the great unknown.
Yeah.
You didn't know what was going to happen. I feel like the start might have been a little rocky, but it felt like the show kind of got back to where it was towards the end.
You know what, they were awesome. Uh, they didn't bother us all year. They were fun to work with. And the really cool thing about it, to be honest with you, and Ernie talked about and I talked about it, it was really fun. And like, we got a perfect storm between New York in San Antonio. It was really cool to work the finals for the first time. And we got a great finals. And like I say, in New York and in San Antonio, two great fan bases. But it was really pretty cool working the finals for the first time. I mean, Ernie talked about that. It was pretty cool.
What about the budget for like the food spread when you guys have those long nights and you're working, you know?
Oh, we just— we just—
Same?
No, our spread's always different. We all, we all order from a different restaurant.
Okay, but they didn't like, they didn't cheap out on the, on like what you guys are able to expense, right?
Well, we don't, they don't work like that. Like we got about 50 restaurants and we order, Shaq orders something, I order something, and I'm all over the place. Some nights I get Mexican, sometimes I get Italian, uh, sometimes I, I'll get a steak or Chinese, but But we don't normally have a spread at work, to be honest with you. We just order from a restaurant.
Who's paying for that?
TNT. Okay, all right, okay, all right.
So that's, that's staying the same.
So you guys— but do you— so you usually don't order from the same place?
No, we don't. We got all different, and we, uh, and because we all eat at different times. I, I like to eat later, like I like to eat at probably 8, 8:30, because I don't want to eat again at midnight or 1 or 2 in the morning. Yeah, me and Shaq, probably the two latest eaters. Ernie goes in like 3 o'clock in the afternoon or earlier, so he likes to eat around 6. And we don't show up to 6:30. Me, Shaq, and Kenny.
Yeah.
So, and I like to do the show the hour pregame before I order. Like I say, I don't want to eat at midnight, right?
Yeah. I had a question about the show with Draymond.
Yeah.
So that clip that went viral this year, I actually said right after when we did our show, I was like, this is actually awesome for Charles because you played it so perfectly where you just sat there. He was kind of talking out of his ass. We like Draymond. We had him on a few months ago. He's kind of talking out of his ass. And then the reaction online is people don't remember how good Charles Barkley was. And it was like almost like everyone's like, hey, this guy was way better than anyone. It's like he's done a bad job of helping his own legacy by being so funny. And, you know, you make fun of yourself, but he was fucking awesome.
What was interesting about it, I didn't even pay it that much of attention.
Yeah, you should have because they were blazing.
So, no, so, so we go to the little dive bar after work all the time called the Pub. Stays open about 3, 4 in the morning because we, we're a little jacked when you get off television. So we always go to the pub, and Dre went with me that night.. And then I always catch like a 7 o'clock flight back to Phoenix. And so I'm not even paying attention to it because I don't do the internet, I don't do any of that shit. So I fly and I land and I got 100 messages. I'm like, what? Somebody got traded or something? And then it was about the Draymond stuff. And I was like, I never even gave that a second thought. But I was really surprised how many people went after Draymond and defended me.
Mm-hmm.
Listen, man, I'm not sensitive at all because I say stuff about players. I hope they're not sensitive because if I say it, I believe it. That don't mean I'm always right. So that didn't even faze me whatsoever. I mean, I can take— I can take it as much as I can dish it out.
Yeah.
So, yeah. So you went— you went out to drinks with Draymond after that?
Yeah. It didn't— didn't— didn't—
he probably knew, though, because he is online. He's like looking at—
well, we were too busy drinking tequila to worry about online.
I think that's good. That's good. Sometimes I think that Draymond does shit so he can talk about it on his podcast.
Probably.
He sets himself up.
It gives him like a little ratings boost because people are like, I want to hear what Draymond said about getting kicked out of that game.
Yeah, I don't— but I can say, man, I don't— I'm never going to be sensitive. Yeah. Yeah.
You should— you should have gone online that day though, because it was crazy. The highlights that, you know, people had highlight packages. Numbers, everything.
Draymond is a good player. I was a great player. I don't go back and forth trying to defend. I'm like, he's a very— he's a very good player. Yeah, but we're not on the same level, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's like the whole bus driver thing that you guys talk about. It's driving the bus.
It would have been— if you had seen what people were saying, it would have been a little bit like attending your own funeral because that's how nice people were saying.
It was awesome.
I know you don't go to funerals. I heard you say that.
Weddings or funerals.
So, but no funerals ever? Like, like you have to go to some funerals.
If somebody is really special, I'll make an exception, but I'm just not gonna go to somebody who's a casual friend of mine's funeral. They don't know I'm there. They're dead.
Yeah, that's a fact. So all your friends know this, like, hey, there's a good chance I'm not going to your funeral, and they won't know it though. Yeah, but yeah, what if they try to trick you though? Where the hell's Chuck?
No, that's just not my thing, man. I don't want to see— if, like, if somebody's special to me, I will go, but I don't really want to go and see somebody who I liked the last time I saw him was dead. Yeah, period. Yeah. What about—
so you, you were probably one of the only people in the country who got invited to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding and decided not to go.
I don't go to weddings. I love Travis. Him and Jason are great friends of mine. I got a lot of love and respect for him. I've only met Taylor one time. She's an awesome person that's from a distance, and I'm happy for them. But like, nah, I didn't want to. I didn't like— no, I'm gonna politely decline. Yeah, because I love both of those guys, Jason and Travis, uh, a lot. I like got a lot of love and respect for them, but like, nah, I'm not going to the zoo.
So you just don't go to weddings?
I do not.
What—
is there a reason for that? Because that's the opposite of a funeral.
That's the bride's special day. Let her, let her enjoy herself.
That's actually huge of you.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's your special day.
What if the bride's only wish is to have Charles Barkley at her wedding?
She needs to get some— a life. She needs to get a life.
Is it about—
I didn't know, by the way, I love this. I, I think I'm gonna adopt it. I didn't know you could do that. I didn't know you could just be like, yeah, I don't go to funerals. Yeah, I'm gonna start doing that.
She's like, I don't go to them, especially my age. I'm going— a lot of my friends are dropping dead, so I'll be busy all the time.
Yeah, with the funerals are more about like you, you don't want travel for it? Because I understand that.
No, not traveling. No, I just like— I don't want to see somebody I really, really like dead last time.
No, before a wedding.
For a wedding, I just like— that's the bride's special day. I want her to have all the shine.
I've always wondered this, uh, Charles, because you are— you've been so big in the media for so long that there's— everyone thinks that they've got a Charles Barkley impression, and most of them suck. Most of them are really bad. Do you— do you pay attention to any of the Charles Barkley impressions?
Yeah, people send to me all the time. The only problem I have with Uh, not impression is every short, bald, fat Black guy walks up to me all the time talking about how they look like me, right? It drives me nuts. Yeah, first of all, they're all those short fuckers, and other than being bald and light-skinned, you look nothing like me. But every now and then I meet somebody who look like me.
Yeah.
Oh, I'll tell you a funny story. About the impression thing. My agent called me, it's probably 40 years ago now. No, I'm around the 30s, 30-somewhere. He says, hey, John Madden is looking for you. I said, oh my God. He's, can I give me a number? I said, of course you can give John Madden my number, because, you know, he says, you don't let anybody give anybody your number. I said, yeah, losers, but he's John Madden. So John Madden says, Mr. Barkley, I said, hey, it's such an honor, and thank you for leading an example of the media and blah, blah, blah. He says, all right, thank you, thank you. He says, hey, you know this guy Frank Caliendo? I said, yes sir, he lives— I said, one of my neighbors. What an asshole. I want to put a stop to him doing impersonations of me, and I'm trying to get some of your other celebrities he do to like tell him to stop. And I'm like, what? He says, We need to stop. I says, first of all, I think Frank is great. And he's— and I said, first of all, I think it's an honor for somebody to do that.
And I says, Mr. Madden, I understand where you're coming from. You might not like it, but I think it's— I think he does a great job on me and you and all the other people. All right, sorry I wasted your time. I'm like, I think I just pissed off John Madden. But Frank does a fabulous job with his impersonations, and I, I always consider it flattering.
Yeah, I thought you were going to say that it was Frank Caliendo calling you up doing an impression of—
might have been.
No, no, no, but I was laughing. I was like, man, somebody do an impression of you, you should take it like as an honor.
Yeah, that means you have an iconic voice, like, or, you know, affect, whatever you do.
100%.
Yeah. Um, where are you at with MJ? You guys going to reconcile?
Yeah, we are.
Oh, okay, nice, cuz I actually was because our mutual friend, uh, Waddle and Sylvia, go on their show every week, and they actually asked me this last week randomly, and I was like, I don't know.
Yeah, so, uh, one of my friends who's here, uh, he— I was sitting at the house a couple months ago and his name popped up, and, uh, I said, what's up, motherfucker? That's where we talk to each other. He said, no, motherfucker, it's MJ. And they were playing golf together, and we said, oh man, how you doing? I hope you're doing great, blah blah blah blah. And we're like, yo man, let's let bullshit go. We were, we were great friends, brothers for a long time, and both of us being selfish and, uh, stupid. And I said, yeah, we are. We're both selfish and stupid and stubborn more than anything. He says, hey man, as soon as basketball is over, come down to my golf course and let's play. And I said, man, I'd be honored to. You know, I miss your friendship. And he said, I miss your friendship. So we like, as soon as— he's out of the country right now, but as soon as we get a chance, we're gonna get together. I'm gonna go down this golf course and play with him for a couple days.
That's awesome.
I mean, it feels like too, especially you guys both both love golf so much.
Like, those— there's years and years of history between the two of you, and that's a friendship. I would imagine there's not a lot of people who can give MJ shit like you could probably give him shit. 100%, you know what I mean? Like, he doesn't have a lot of people who are going to probably give it to him the way that he gives it to other people.
You could do that, and I'm definitely going to do that.
Yeah, so he needs you in his life.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I'm— it isn't— I miss his friendship too. I'm looking, looking forward to, to reconnecting. What if he—
who, who usually wins when you guys play golf?
Well, he wouldn't— he quit playing with me when I had the yips, uh, so we haven't played together. He's a better golfer than me, but I'm really looking forward to putting my game up against him.
Uh, wait, he stopped playing with you when you had the yips?
Yeah, he's like, I'm done playing with you, this is not fun for me to watch. Uh, but he did, he said, I'm not playing with you anymore, you got to play with the group behind me. And, uh, but, but now I don't have the yips anymore, I'm looking forward to playing with him because I think I can compete.
Yeah, so what's your handicap at 10.
That's pretty good.
Real good. And what's he at?
I don't know, we haven't played together. We didn't, we didn't speak for like 12 years, so I don't know what he had. But he, you know, he got to be a good player. If you're going to build your own golf course, you should be a good player.
Yeah, that's true. You don't really have an excuse.
Yeah, you have your own golf course to match your own. You shouldn't be a shit chef if you got your own restaurant.
Yeah, it's true. Maybe I just, maybe I'm forgetting it, but what was the start of that, the whole rift? Because it sounds like it's something that you guys are looking at with the right perspective right now.
Where it's like, okay, well, I said that he was never going to be good at his job running a team because he didn't— he had a bunch of kiss-asses around him.
And how do you think that turned out?
Well, after he cursed me out, we didn't talk for 12 years.
Yeah, now we're back.
You might not have been wrong.
Now we're back. We don't want to—
listen, we've made some progress.
I'm not gonna try to go backwards.
I'm not gonna get invited to play.
Imagine if we're the clip that makes it so you guys don't play golf.
Yeah, it's great though. I'm glad that you guys are smoothing things out. Yeah, I hope that you— I hope you go out and play really well this year. I want to see you. I want to see Charles in contention, man.
Listen, man, I'm gonna play well. I'm gonna have fun. You know what's crazy about this tournament? This is the only place in the country that's not hot as hell. Like, yeah, it's like— it's something. I started looking at the weather last week. It was like 115 in Phoenix and like 100 and some in Philly, and I was like, damn, what time was like 10 days away? And I pulled up the weather report and like, yo man, how in the hell is it hot every single place in the country except Lake Tahoe every year?
It's incredible.
It's incredible.
This place is like, it's heaven.
It is.
Wake up, it's 60 degrees, you put a sweatshirt on, then by like 9 o'clock you can be short.
If I wasn't a gambling degenerate, I literally wouldn't move here.
Yeah, I think we get— guys like us can't be living that close.
I can't live this close. No, you cannot. But if I— listen, I really, I love— I like for that, because you get tired, man. It's so hot everywhere. If I wasn't a gambler degenerate, I really would actually buy a place here.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it is because I get out— I live in Philly all summer because it's too hot to be in Arizona. But literally, I tell people, if I was not a gambler, I would literally buy me a place here.
Yeah, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. Um, all right, I know you got to get— you got to get going. Uh, we got one last question, rollback question. RHO roback.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com, promo code TAKE. Chuck, thank you always for doing this. We love having you on. It's honestly a thrill. Uh, all right, Zach. This is Zach.
How are we doing today, sir? Uh, quick question for you. I know in, uh, '96 when, when everybody was filming Space Jam, they built like a bubble facility, almost a practice facility, uh, for maybe some guys to get some runs in. I was just curious if you took part in those runs. Runs while they were recording the movie.
Yeah, you know, that's when MJ was at the peak of his superpowers, and he had— we were really close back then. He was like, and nobody works out harder than Michael. And this is when he ran the world. He was like the most popular player, and I mean, it was amazing. And he would not go without working out. He said, "I'm not gonna shoot the movie 'cause I can't take those days to work out." And they built him a gym. It was one of the most incredible things. They built him a gym, a full-length basketball court, a stands. We had probably 3,000 people packed a night. Well, he could work out in the morning, film, then we would scrimmage at night. But he was so popular. They built him a full-length basketball court gym with stands. And there's so many players— like Reggie Miller was still in college, I think, at the time he came out, and there's probably another 20 NBA players. But he would work out in the morning, film all day, then we would scrimmage, and it'd be like 3,000 people. Like, it was one of the most incredible things I've seen.
Uh, so yes, That was amazing. Yeah, remember, because we had also— because you had Patrick Ewing and Shawn Bradley and Muggsy Bogues and Larry, I think, all— we were all in the movie. But then all these college kids and NBA players came. It was incredible. So yes, nice.
That's a good question.
You gotta follow up real quick.
Uh, follow-up, uh, we have had some like blockbuster trades here recently, and Leo Giannis going down to the Heat. We got, uh, Jalen going to the Sixers. Uh, New York Knicks, they did win the cup and the chip. Could we get like an extremely early NBA champion prediction from you today? Wow.
Well, if you look at the West, it's going to be Spurs or Oklahoma City. Uh, they, they're going to be battling for the next 10 years. The East, with Brown going to Philly, Kawhi maybe going to Raptors, the Knicks already lost Mitchell, Robinson, and probably going to lose another couple players.
Wizards got better.
Oh, the Wizards. We don't know if Anthony Davis and Trae Young and the bombster— like, I got zero idea who gonna win the East. Like, because like I say, I don't know how healthy Joel Embiid is going to be. Like, if, if Embiid is healthy, which he's never been, you take Maxi, Edgecomb, Jalen Brown. If Embiid can play at a, an elite or an All-Star level, the Sixers might be the team to beat in the East. So it's too early because I got to wait and see. I love Kawhi Leonard and, and, um, Scottie Barnes. I've been saying for the last 3 or 4 years, Scottie Barnes is the most underrated player in the NBA. He's great. We just don't ever show the Raptors. But man, the East is going to be interesting.
Let's not forget about the Pacers either. They were just in the—
Yo, I forgot, you're right. Uh, they got that big boy from LA, uh, who come, uh, uh, it was Ivan Buzubac. Yeah. And you got, uh, they're gonna get Halliburton back, you know, everybody, uh, uh, that kid from Canada, forget his name, the small forward, Siakam. Man, the East gonna— I think honestly you could say the East is probably better than the West right now.
Deeper.
Deeper.
Yes.
Yeah. So I wish I could give you, but I'm saying everything going through San Antonio and Oklahoma City the next few years. But man, the East, I got to see what happens before I can even make an educated guess who's going to win the East.
All right. Yes, sir. Thank you for your time.
Good job, Zach.
All right, Chuck, you're the best. Good luck this week.
Thanks, brother.
Thank you.
Charles Barkley was brought to you by our great friends over at Fruit of the Loom. Fruit of the Loom is the best underwear in the world. We recently got a bunch of Fruit of the Loom. I switched out the underwear drawer. It's super comfortable. I wear it every day. Great underwear. I look forward to putting on my underwear because it's Fruit of the Loom and it's comfortable. Some guys hold on to their underwear way too long. Why? Nobody knows. But when you get a fresh, comfortable, well-designed pair of Fruit of the Loom and it costs less than your morning coffee, there's no excuse. Refresh your underwear drawer today. Get well-made, well-priced Fruit of the Loom. It's been a household name for generations. It's trusted for comfort, durability, and consistency because it's got high-quality essentials that are made affordable. The iconic fruit people bring charm. They make us stand out in a crowd. Making trusted basics since 1851. That's a long time. Nearly 175 years of delivering comfort comfort. Premium feel without the premium price. Thoughtfully designed essentials with designer-level quality but a fraction of the cost. Fruit of the Loom gives you legendary comfort, iconic style that you can trust, 175 years of expertise, great design, unbeatable value, everyday reliability.
That's Fruit of the Loom. It's time to refresh that underwear drawer with well-made, well-priced Fruit of the Loom. And before we get to our good friend Austin Reeves He's brought to you by Body Armor. I'm drinking some Body Armor water right now. We've been slamming Body Armors all year long here at Barstool Sports. This episode is brought to you by their Body Armor Flash IV. The Flash IV is packed with electrolytes, delivers fast, long-lasting hydration without any artificial dyes, flavors, or sweeteners. If you're training, if you're traveling, if you're just feeling the heat, if you've been burning the candle at both ends gets you a Body Armor Flash IV. Body Armor Flash IV, I've got a bunch in my cabinet at home. I drink them all the time. Work hard, hydrate hard with Body Armor Flash IV. Grab it at 7-Eleven. And now here's Austin Reeves.
Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is Austin Reeves from the Los Angeles Lakers. Oh, I should say one-time NBA Cup champion Austin Reeves from the Los Angeles Lakers. We're here at the American Century Championship, Austin. I think you know what the first question is going to be because, uh, we're, I think, a week out from you signing your new deal, $185 million. We saw the picture, you're on the golf course. My question is, how did the rest of the round go? Because I feel like when you find out that you signed for $185 million, you probably can't think about much else, especially golf. Yeah, when you're out there.
So the good thing was, is I had played 18 earlier that morning. I went ate dinner with my mom and then— or, uh, lunch with my mom and then went back and I was playing. Me and my dad were just messing around playing from the reds and we were on 9, but we started on the back, so we were on 18. So I didn't have to, uh, you know, play thinking about it. Uh, and that picture was actually a little bit before I decided, uh, that I was resigning. It was when I got the offer from the Lakers. Um, and it was just obviously a, a breath of fresh air.
Yeah. So, so how did the process work? Because I know the, the Pistons were involved too. So was it like, were you just deciding between where you wanted to go? You, you kind of knew that it was going to be a lot of money no matter what?
Yeah. I mean, I always knew I wanted to go back to LA. Um, that was the main thing from, you know, day one was, uh, being back in LA. It's basically my home away from home. Uh, I enjoy the good weather, year-round golf. Uh, so getting back there was the most important thing. And, uh, you know, people say that there was other moves to be made out there. I don't know about any of that. So So, you know, L.A. is where I wanted to be the whole time.
Would you have resigned with the Lakers if you had known that they were going to only sign white guys? Because you kind of aren't— you're not special anymore. You are. You're like, you are.
It's actually crazy. We were joking about it last year that my first couple of years I was the only white guy on the team. And now I think we have like 6 or 7.
So I think it might be more.
It might be. But no, it's crazy. But I mean, at the end of the day, it's all about— it's all about who can hoop. And, you know, I feel like we've got, you know, some guys that can really play.
Yeah. Sorry, that was a massively loud alarm that just went off.
That's Zach.
Zach, why is your alarm going off at 1:02 PM?
Talking to Mike.
Talking to Mike. Talking to Mike.
That's the loudest alarm ever.
What happened there?
Everything's off. We're good to go. I apologize for any kind of interruption right there.
Yeah, yeah. We're just curious why was it off.
I just run through the page at nighttime. I may have ran a little bit too late. It will never happen again.
I'm about to go set an alarm after this. I didn't sleep much last night.
That was a good alarm.
So has the money hit your account?
No, I actually, I technically haven't even signed yet because of, honestly, I couldn't even tell you what all the, like, it's like a cap hold and all this stuff that, you know.
So you're still listening to offers is what I'm hearing.
Yeah.
Well, Well, it gives the Lakers more cap space to make moves. So I'll be— I'll technically be the last person to sign when everybody else signs. So, no, the money hasn't hit and it probably won't hit until August or something. But, you know, we've done pretty well the last couple of years.
So that is very cool. Congratulations. That's awesome. Like, I know that you bet on yourself and, you know, you took some chances. There were some parts of your career along the way. Might not ever think that you'd get here, or maybe you did. I don't know. You— did you have doubts that maybe you won't ever reach this level?
Uh, when it comes to basketball, no, but I just didn't think that I was going to get the opportunity. Uh, you know, I was at Oklahoma, um, you know, my junior and senior year, and I was, uh, I think honorable mention, uh, All-Big 12 team, uh, my first year, and then first, um, first team All-Big 12 my second year. And it was still like, you know, I was on, you know, draft boards, but late 40s, 50s. But I just knew at the end of the day all I needed was an opportunity. And, you know, because I've been playing basketball forever and, you know, the confidence in basketball will always be there.
Yeah, it's very cool.
Congrats.
I think you're the— that's the biggest contract ever for an undrafted guy.
Yeah, that's crazy.
Which is pretty cool. So I appreciate it. And now I don't know, how do you see this dynamic working? It's going to be like, what, 3/5 of the lineup is going to be different this year? Yeah.
Yeah. So I just seen something the other day that said that games 1 through 4 in the Rockets series, our whole starting lineup is gone.
Yeah.
You know, Marcus left, Bron's leaving. You know where he's going is to be determined. And then everybody else left as well. So it's different. It's definitely a different dynamic. But I'm very excited for what we are building.
Yeah, very cool.
Can I, can I ask a question to 12-year-old Austin Reeves about all this?
For sure.
Okay. So to 12-year-old Austin Reeves, You hate LeBron. We hate LeBron. What's the thing you hate the most about LeBron?
I just honestly was a Kobe guy.
So the meme was funny. So for people who don't know, he had the—
the— what was it?
It was, I'm putting my phone on LeBron mode.
Yeah, when I need some sleep, I put my phone on LeBron mode, no rings. And it was a picture of Kobe like this. But no, I mean, I, I was, I was a diehard Kobe guy. So, you know, by default, I didn't— I I didn't like Bron.
Yeah.
And it's funny, when that had came out, uh, we were in New Orleans, and after the game, I— we get in the locker room, coach comes in, talks, whatever. And then I, uh, I pull my phone up and it's just like text after text every time. I pull up my Instagram and the first thing I see is ESPN, uh, posted it, like, tweet of mine from when I was 12. And I was like, shit, what do I do? Uh, so I just went over to him. It was like, yo, I ain't gonna lie to you, I, I used to I used to be a hater. I was like, and I turned my phone around. He just started laughing.
I mean, it's actually like a compliment to LeBron that he's played so long in the NBA that he has guys who are 12 years old who hated him and trolling him online are now his teammate.
It's crazy. That's definitely crazy. Yeah. No, I mean, it's— I mean, and then the crazy thing was, is everything that, you know, I think the outside world thinks of him as a person, you can't really think he's a bad player. It's impossible. He's so good. I was completely wrong on— he'd been fucking phenomenal from day one. Never. I mean, I was on a two-way and he treated me the same as he does today.
Yeah.
Was there a moment where you, you realized that you had his respect or at least like his attention? Yeah.
I mean, I think it grew over time, but so I was on a two-way and I went to his minicamp that we have— we had usually before training camp. It was usually the weekend before, and we went down there and we were playing like 3-on-3, and, uh, I was playing really well, and I made a move and went by Rondo. So I got a rebound— rewind a little bit— I got a rebound, and it's just me on a 2A, like nobody really knows who I am. So I get a rebound, and Bron was on my left and Russell Westbrook was on my right, and AD was guarding Bron, Carmelo was guarding Russ, and Rondo was guarding AD, and in my head I'm like, I should just fucking pass the ball, like I shouldn't have the ball. So, um, but I dribbled up and I went by Rondo and I went to shoot a layup and I seen AD coming out of the corner of my eye. So I like threw a behind-the-back pass to Bron, he dunked it, gym went crazy. And then I think that's where it kind of started, and that's, you know, kind of the, the first step of me getting a real contract.
Yeah.
And now how, how is his golf game? I assume that you're much better than him at golf.
Bron?
Yeah, yeah, we You could say much better.
Yeah.
What's your handicap?
I'm a +1.7 right now.
Oh, so yeah, you're really, really good.
Uh, yeah, I mean, I play a lot, so you're way better than LeBron.
Yeah, just say that.
I mean, I mean, we don't have to put any—
I think you're, you're, you're closer to being as good at— as LeBron James at basketball than he is being as good at you at golf.
Yeah, I mean, that's a crazy way to think of it.
Yeah, but it's true. It's also a very true way to think about it also. So I'm guessing you played with him.
Yeah, we've, we've got out a couple of times, which is crazy because I had been begging him to come play for 5 years because, I mean, I've played ever since I got in the league and every time he's like, no, golf's stupid, golf's stupid. I'm like, yeah, well, just try it one time. And he called me a couple of years or a couple of summers ago and he was like, I went out. I was like, went out where? And he was like, to golf. And I was like, oh, shit. And he goes, yeah, I'm addicted. So I've gotten basically half of our roster. Luka's into it now. JJ's played for a while, but, um, yeah, we have— our team has an addiction to golf.
Yeah.
Yeah. I'm sure, you know, he's still kind of a beginner, but once he retires and just dedicates himself full-time to playing golf, he's going to be really good.
Yeah. No, he can get there. He just needs— I mean, obviously fix a couple of things in his swing. But one thing he does, he puts the ball really well, which is crazy because, I mean, that's one thing I struggle with is putting. But we were in Orlando earlier this year, we played on like a Thursday night and we were leaving Friday like midday. So we had got a big scramble together. It was me, Braun, Luca, Bronnie, and Luke, uh, Kennard against our coaching staff like JJ and a bunch of them. And I think Braun, we, we, I think we shot like 13 or 14 under and Braun had made like 9 or 10 of the birdie putts.
Mm-hmm. Damn. That's pretty good.
Do you know, do you know, here's another crazy stat about this upcoming season. Season with the Lakers. Do you know that right now you're the oldest guy?
I did see that.
That's insane.
It's insane.
Are you like, what are you—
are you gonna—
you're gonna have to be the old head. You're gonna have to do the LeBron stuff.
Uh, I guess, but I mean, in my brain I'm still 15 years old just running around. Yeah, I mean, we— yeah, I still do that to this day.
Would you have been a LeFraud guy in the replies?
What's that mean?
The, the whatever, like there's a LeBron like reached a milestone there'll just be a ton of like replies being like, le fraud, and be like, you know, in this championship because the Thunder were too young. And then the Spurs, the Heat, you know, the Ray Allen shot. They basically just try to make every championship look like it doesn't count.
Draymond suspended. Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know if I ever did that online. I'm sure I've had some lunch table arguments about something, but yeah, I mean, it's all fun.
Yeah.
You've always been a Laker guy, right? Like even growing up. You mentioned Kobe. I don't know if you saw this stat, but if you look at— this is kind of crazy— the first 5 years of your career compared to the first 5 years of Kobe Bryant's career, your points per game almost identical as you track it along. So first season you were 7.3, Kobe was 7.6. Second season, 13, he was 15.4. Third season, 15.9, he was 19. Next, 20.2, you were— he was 22.5. And then this most recent season, I believe it was like 25 for you, 28 for him. But it tracked along like very close to being like kind of— not saying you're the same player, but it's, it's cool that you got to play for a team that you grew up rooting for and kind of like following in those footsteps. So when, when did you become a Laker fan?
Uh, young. My, my grandma was actually a Kobe fan, so we would sit sat and watched the games together. And, you know, really just from a young age admired his mentality and the way he approached the game. It was kill or be killed to him. You know, he didn't have friends in the league. And I think that that's a missing part of, you know, sports today. Everybody's buddy-buddy, which is cool, I guess. But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, we're on the court to win. And that's the main thing. And I feel like that's what he did at the highest level. Level.
Yeah, I like that. I like the hate. Bring the hate back.
Yeah, I agree.
That's what we like.
I don't— I—
people think I talk a lot of shit, which I don't. Uh, I was more of a, I'll talk if someone talks to me, but nobody talks in the NBA anymore.
All right, so let's do a role play so we can like test if you'll talk shit. PFT and I are the Oklahoma City Thunder. You suck, dude.
I mean, I can't say— y'all are champions. Okay, well, not anymore, actually. I mean, they got one.
I don't have any.
Yeah.
Okay, so that was bad. That was bad shit talking by you.
We're the Spurs.
We're Wembenyama.
Les Incompatibles.
Yeah. I don't know what the fuck you—
Too short.
You're too short.
I mean, fuck, he's 5'7"5". What am I supposed to say to him?
All right, we got to work on the shit talk.
No, no, I mean, I haven't talked shit in a long time. It was back in high school when I used to. And then, like I said, I mean, I mean, people kind of stop.
I got a question about that. So you're from a town of what, like 1,200 people in Arkansas?
Yeah.
What—
at what point in your high school career were you like, this is just so easy for me? And did you have a game where you're like, what are we even doing here? Because I love— like, people don't— I think most people realize, but some people still don't get it. Like, guys who are in the NBA, guys who are in major league sports, like, they have been just so dominant at every step of the way. Like, especially in high school where I'm sure you played multiple sports, could have done multiple sports. But was there a game where you're like, what is— why are they even trying?
Uh, they're probably— I mean, there was a couple my like junior and senior year, but, uh, how many points? I scored 73.
Okay. Yeah. So that was, that was one.
Can I be that guy? It was triple overtime.
It was.
Yeah.
No, I was saying I shot, I think I shot 37 free throws. Oh shit.
Oh, little SGA free, free, free throw.
Hand press the whole time and just ran and jumped. So shot a lot of free throws. Uh, but honestly, like, my, my— I played senior high my 9th and obviously 10th grade year, but I moved up my 9th grade year. And, uh, my brother's 2 years older than me, and he was our best player by far. So I didn't really— I didn't start, like, dominating games until after he left. So my junior and senior year, uh, but more so my senior year, like, I would, I would go into games and like obviously winning is the most important thing, but we'd never really, you know, there was only a handful of games throughout the year that we didn't think that we could win.
Right.
We knew it was going to be close. So some of those games I would either, you know, go in trying to get 50 or get a triple-double.
Yeah.
Wait, so I read a story that your, your older brother, you never won anything when you were growing up.
Nope.
So the important question is, did he stop playing you when he realized that you could beat him? Because that's bullshit if he did that.
It's—
no, no, no. It's actually crazy because we were— I mean, we could go play one-on-one right now and he would give me more problems than half of our team. And he plays in the top league in Germany. But I think it's just one of those things mentally.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's like, I mean, we for a long time, we played a lot of tennis together and for a long time I couldn't beat him. I finally got over the hump not too long ago and so I beat him. Beat him 3 or 4 times since, but, uh, he gives me more problems still to this day than, than a lot of people.
So if you're a Western Conference team, you— they should sign your brother?
No, before the playoffs, just be like—
and just like godfather, just have him sit on the bench being like, what are you gonna do now, the Austin stopper?
Nah, he's, he's good where he's at.
So I, I also read that your mom was a pretty good basketball player. She played in college. How, how old were you when you first beat her?
Uh, she never would play me in one-on-one. All she would do is play me in horse or pig, and she would go from left elbow to right elbow shooting bank shots, and I couldn't beat her.
Yeah, and that's such a— it's such a parent move to just keep like fundamentals in place.
Well, I don't know.
I, I genuinely, I don't know if I've ever beat her in horse or pig, which is crazy. Yeah, well, she, she beat me really bad one day, and she, and she was in her house shoes, and she was, she was talking it, and she beat me and walked in the house and was like, I'm never playing you again. Yeah, she was basically like, you're not good enough.
I love that. But I used to— when I used to play my dad in horse, I would just try to chuck threes.
Yeah.
And then he would just go like 5 feet away, one hand, and I would miss it because I would just be like shooting from, you know, 40 feet away. Yeah.
Yeah. I also read— I read a profile of you. I think it was done by maybe the LA Times, but they went to your, your farm, your family farm in Arkansas. Saw with you. And, uh, one part jumped out to me because we actually have a guy, Hank, over here. Hank, uh, does a really good cow noise. He does a great cow impression. He does breaking moos for us.
Oh, here we go.
So there's a cow noise. And in the article it said that you do a cow impression too.
So I wanted—
I wanted—
yeah, I think he—
I think he might have lied in that article.
Okay.
Yeah, it said that you can— the guy said you can make a cow noise, but just maybe judge Hank's.
That's actually fucking—
yeah, that's really good.
Yeah, good work.
You can come work on the farm.
Do you have—
do you have one?
I don't know if I've made cow noises.
I don't—
I think you might have made that.
Do you have any other noises you make?
No, I just—
okay, I don't know if we just had noises.
No.
Yeah, dog. Can you do a dog noise?
No, I don't do anything.
Cat?
Cat?
Nah, I'm not a cat guy.
What was it like, like growing up on a farm? Were you working like the farm when you were a kid?
No. So my mom gave me basically, she was like, get in the gym and get your school paid for, go get a job. So I picked the go to the gym basically everyday route instead of actually having a job.
Yeah, that's— I was smart.
But my grandpa was— I mean, he was the one that took care of everything. And, you know, days I would go out with him and just hang out and have a good time.
What kind of farm? Like, what would you have?
Cattle.
All cattle?
All cattle.
I love that.
Did you— were you surprised that you didn't get more offers coming out of high school?
Surprised? Yeah. I mean, I just feel like, you know, the main thing that everybody was saying was, is I was too skinny. And but it's like, you know, they make a weight room for a reason. Like, obviously, I think the majority of people could see that the skill was there. So it's like, like, you know, you look at the NBA draft, for example, anybody past, you know, 15, 20, they all go off potential. And so I didn't understand why people didn't, you know, see the potential and the skill that I had. Because, you know, skill is going to, you know, outweigh, you know, almost everything at the end of the day. But, you know, it is what it is.
Yeah. I don't know if you saw this the other day. Crazy highlight that I saw from, I think it was Summer League. They're testing out the new foul shot system.
Is it, is it one, one?
Yeah. So like, I think the last 2 minutes you shoot normal foul shots, but before that, if you get fouled shooting a 3, you take one shot and it's worth 3 points. What do you think about that?
I think it's stupid.
Yeah, I agree. It's very stupid.
I mean, they actually change— they, they do that in the G League games. Uh, yeah, they do, they do. Uh, which I mean, I think is— I don't know what are they saying, it speeds up the game.
Yeah, like a couple minutes, but it's stupid.
It's not—
you got to make it free. Like, that's so— that's the fun of it. Like, high-pressure moments, free throws.
Yes. I don't like that.
How many is the most free throws you ever made in a row?
I don't have an exact number. I would say probably 60 or 70.
Damn, that's pretty good. We once made 41 in a row with 2 Mulligans and also a ringer shooter that we invited. No big deal.
Yeah.
How many threes have you made in a row?
I was shooting on, you know, what they call the gun, the thing that, you know, throws the ball back to— I think I made 52 in a row from the top of the key.
That's pretty good.
I made 9 once.
That's safe.
It's not bad.
Not bad.
It's pretty sick.
Yeah, I don't shoot.
There's a lot of people in this world that wouldn't make 9.
I just stood right at the top of the key. Yeah, made 9.
Do you like any of your nicknames?
I don't really care.
Hillbilly Kobe.
It's cool.
Okay.
All right. All right. So we're okay with it.
All right.
I know.
I know. You're like lukewarm on it when it first came out, but I think it's cool.
I think it was, you know, timing and, you know, kind of the things that, you know, happened, you know, with Kobe a couple of years before.
Right.
You know, I was never trying to call myself Kobe. I mean, I didn't even make it up. I think if you make up your own nickname, that's kind of corny. But no, one of my, one of my GA's at Oklahoma. I think it was in my first or second year there. He came up to me and was like, I got a nickname. And I was like, what? And he said Hillbilly Kobe. And then, well, someone heard it on the team and they kind of ran with it. And then obviously going to the Lakers, you know, someone else picked up on it and it kind of went from there.
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a cool nickname, for what it's worth. I think most people like it. I say it with respect.
Yeah.
Yeah. Speaking of names, did, did Bronny ever fuck up and call LeBron dad?
I don't think I ever heard it. No.
Oh, man.
Well, did LeBron ever call him son? Oh, I guess that would be—
that would be—
yeah, I'm fine. I'm sure he did at some point.
But calling him Bronny, calling LeBron dad would be kind of embarrassing.
Oh, I think it would just be like— I mean, it's a crazy, you know, duo if you really think about it, because I mean, you see, I've been sitting in practice, you know, they're in the middle of practice and I would see, you know, Bron obviously analyzes everything.. And, you know, he was on one team and Bronny was on another. And, I mean, he, he does it to everybody. It doesn't matter if he's on your team or not. But Bronny did something, made a mistake or something, and he went over and talked to him. And I was like, this is fucking crazy. He's talking to his son right now. It's nuts.
Yeah. Was there ever a moment? Because it does feel like all the stories of LeBron is like the way he thinks the game is just at such an elite level. No one's really thinking the game like him. Was there ever a moment where he gave you a tip or was like, hey, this guy's going to do this and it just worked perfectly?
Yeah, I mean, I think that happens, you know, basically every game. I remember we were playing one, for example, we were playing, I think maybe Atlanta at home or something, and we had went to an empty corner pick and roll with me and AD, and I think we got a bucket or something and there was a timeout and he came, he came over to me in the timeout and was like, he was like, next time we go to the empty corner pick and roll, he was like, reject it, go baseline.
Line.
He was like, my guy will drop as the X-man, the galop man will rotate. And he was like, I'll, you know, cut from, you know, the hash. And he was like, just throw it up. And I was like, I won't be able to see you. And he was like, I don't care, just throw it up. And I threw a shitty pass and he caught it and dunked it. That's awesome.
Yeah.
So I mean, there's, there's little things. I mean, in the OKC series, um, we were running basically, you know, a cross screen to get him the ball in the post, and they kept, uh, releasing off his body early and going high beating him to the spot. So we were both sitting on the bench and I was like, yo, like, if, if they keep doing that, like, he was like, yeah, throw it up. And so we were already on the same page. So there's a clip of me. I had the ball on the left wing and we were running the action and I just threw the ball and everybody's like, where the fuck is this going? He caught it and dunked it. So it's just little things like that that he picks up, you know, during the flow of the game that makes it easy.
Yeah.
Does he gain weight during games?
Gain weight.
There was that rumor when he was in Miami that he actually gained weight.
I mean, Miami Bron was different, I think.
Yeah, you hated him.
Yeah, I wanted, I wanted the Spurs to win, I gotta say. Uh, but yeah, no, I think, I mean, he played at like 270 almost in Miami, but I don't know if he's gaining weight during the game. It's pretty hard, it's pretty hard to do.
Yeah, yeah, there's the chocolate chip cookies that Pat Riley took away.
Yeah, that's kind of fucked up.
Yeah, did you ever see LeBron eat the chocolate chip cookies?
I've seen him eat one or two chocolate chips. Okay.
Yeah, it's good that, it's good that they haven't taken it away yet.
No, they haven't. I mean, but sadly he won't be there next year, so hopefully we still get chocolate chip cookies.
Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true. What's, uh, what's, what's your relationship with Luka like? Because it feels like this is a transition year for the Lakers where it is his franchise now. I, I heard the story that he's very, very competitive in everything, that he invited you over his house one night and you thought you were just gonna go chill and it was just just like a bracket-style bowling, uh, competition. But that just hit you out of nowhere?
It was— I don't know if it was necessarily a bracket-style, but there he does have a bowling alley in his basement. And I think it was New Year's Eve, I went and ate with my people, and then going home he called me and he had some friends over, uh, you know, for New Year's or whatever. And I went over there and I think we ended up bowling until like 5:30 in the morning. He can't beat me.
Um, that's pathetic. He has a bowling alley.
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I tell him that too. I'm like, yo, you can't even beat me in your own house.
You should never lose if you have a bowling alley, for sure.
I mean, we've played, we've played a lot of ping pong. I don't think he's beat me in ping pong. Uh, we briefly played darts, but I won that. I played shuffleboard, I beat him in that. I mean, the one thing he probably beat me at, that's what I probably need to, you know, care about more, is basketball. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty good player.
You got him in everything else.
Yeah, I mean I guess that goes for something. Yeah.
How did you find out about the trade?
Uh, so we were in New York and we just beat the shit out of— I mean, I say beat the shit, we, we beat the Knicks by, you know, 15 or so, but we basically controlled the whole game. And AD was hurt at the time, so, but everything had felt like, you know, things were falling into place. Like everybody was kind of understanding their role. Like Max Christie was playing at a high level. Um, so we go in there and win., and I'm sitting by Bron in the locker room right after media, and we was just talking about random shit, and we both looked at each other and we were like, we're going to be, we're going to be all right when we get AD back. Like, obviously he's a staple for what we're doing. But once we get him back, like, everything's kind of falling in order. And so I talked to my people that were there and then get on the bus and go home. And that's when— so our group message started going off. And I hardly ever look at our group message. I'm not active in the group message. So, but I seen AD had texted and he said they traded me and I just put my phone down.
I was like, yeah, whatever. Like, you ain't getting traded. So pulled up Instagram, Shams had, you know, posted it. And so I called my agent and everybody's like, this can't be real. And I was like, it can't be. Like, so I was like, if you hear anything, let me know. So one of the assistant coaches, Bo, that I'm close with calls me, and I was like, what the fuck is this? And he was like— and he went to say something, and I was like, there's no way it's real. And he was like, uh, he was like, I'm sitting by Max Christie, it's real. And I was like, holy shit. So it was crazy. It was— I mean, I was really close with both of them, actually, but me and AD, you know, had built a really, really good relationship, uh, you know, after games, like we would face— I mean, we'd be on FaceTime with this kid. So it was, you know, that part always sucks. But then again, you know, you flip the page and Lucas, one of my best friends in the world.
Yeah. How long after did he— did you get the notification like Anthony Davis has left the chat?
Oh, I think it was later that night. He had FaceTimed me. We were in New York, so it was probably 2 or 3 in the morning there. But he was back in L.A. rehabbing and he FaceTimed me. And I was like, oh, what the fuck happened? He was like, he traded me. So I think he left it on, you know, all the group messages that night.
And then after Luka, right, was there any like— I don't want to say animosity towards him, probably no animosity, but like, you're not my friend, AD. Like, was there like a feeling out period right there?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think that there was a, there was a period where he needed to, you know, kind of be comfortable with, you know, what happened. You know, you look at a guy like that and you don't think think that he's ever— I mean, nobody thought he was going to get traded. So, uh, I think, you know, we kind of stayed distant from each other at first just because, you know, I didn't want— I don't want to be a, um, you know, I don't want to force a friendship or a relationship. Like, I want that to grow naturally. So, uh, he was kind of standoffish, and I kind of just let him do his thing. And, um, it was definitely a weird period of time because, you know, you have somebody that you've been with or, you know, 3, 4 years that leave, and then a new guy. And, uh, you know, obviously we all knew what he could do basketball-wise, but as a person, nobody knew him. So, um, but, you know, the summer come around and we all got back together, and then we, you know, he started fucking talking shit.
And, you know, he likes to, you know, bet on, you know, shots and stuff. So, uh, we do a lot of that. And I was like, okay, I think me and you, we're gonna get along pretty well.
Yeah.
So you start kicking his ass in every game that he Yeah, well, he—
I mean, the thing about it is, is if he hears this and sees this, he's going to deny it 100%. I mean, I already expect it.
Yeah. So, so Luka is one of your best friends on the team. Friends horse around. Have you ever, like, picked Luka up? Could you pick Luka up? Like, physically?
Yeah.
Like, or maybe you couldn't, but now you can.
That's a strange question, but like, yeah, just like, you know, buddies sometimes.
Yeah.
Like, no, I don't think I've ever tried to pick him up. He couldn't pick me up.
Yeah, in a couple months I will be able to, you know what I mean?
So you're getting in shape?
Yeah, well, yeah, right. Like, was it like when Luka got traded, were you like, oh man, I can't pick that guy up? But then he goes off for a summer, he comes back, you're like, oh, now I could pick him up?
I don't think that that ever went through my brain, though.
I'm making a weight joke about Luka. I know he does look like he's in really good shape.
He's in a good spot now. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I think I do think that the— there was a big mental aspect of, you know, the trade and stuff that got to him. And, you know, it's good to see him. He's happy now and he looks good.
Did you ever ask him what happened with that beer that I think it was Michael Finley took?
I've seen the video. Yeah, I've never asked him.
You should ask him.
I should.
You should just be like, hey, was, was that it? Was that, was that the end?
It might have been. Who knows? Yeah.
Like, if another man takes a beer out of my hand, it's probably—
it's probably—
it's probably I know that the relationship's not good.
Yeah. Yeah.
What's it like playing for JJ?
He's—
so he's been on the show a couple of times. He's a good friend of ours. Is it like you're— I mean, he's a young head coach. Is he—
when you—
when he took the job, it's a tough job to take with LeBron there. What's it— what's it been like playing for him?
How well do you all know JJ?
Pretty well.
Yeah.
I actually used to be neighbors with him.
He's a fucking psychopath.
Yeah, he's nuts.
He's awesome. I mean, I've loved every minute of it. You know, he looked at me be, you know, his first year in the summer. And he was like, look, like, you know, we're not always going to agree on everything. He was like, but you know, the main thing to all of this is communication. He was like, if you ever think that, you know, if you ever want to, he said, you could say anything to me. He was like, you know, as far as like, you know, if I'm fucking up coaching or what it is, personality, whatever it is, he was like, we can always have a real conversation. So there's been, there's been instances in games where he's chewing my ass about something and I don't think I'm wrong. So I'm going back at him and, uh, it's healthy though, because I mean, I think that that's how you build something special. So, um, I think that he's done everything that anybody could ask him to do and even more. I think that, you know, his confidence in himself and his staff, I mean, I feel like he genuinely feels like he's the best coach in the NBA.
Yeah.
And you want that, like you want guys that that feel like they're, they're at the top and they can, uh, outcoach anybody, outplay anybody. So our relationship's been, you know, um, it's really grown throughout the years. And, you know, we, like I said, we've played a lot of golf together, so we've, uh, we've spent a lot of time together.
If you ever want to get in his head on the golf course, just be like, do you think people still hate you as much as they used to?
Oh, we talk about it all the time.
What does he say? Because people hated it.
They all—
they hated him. And And he was like, I don't even— he told me he didn't know why people hated him.
Oh, that's bullshit.
He played for Duke.
Yeah, he was good.
And I was like, he was actually good. So, um, no, there's, there's actually— he is, uh, there's a better way to get in his head on the golf course if you ever get out there with him. He's terrified of his shadow. So if he has a shadow that's like— if the sun's back here and like he's aiming this way and the shadow's like over the ball or right behind him, mention it and he, like, his brain will start spinning.
What is he, a groundhog?
I don't know.
Terrified of his shadow.
I don't know. I don't know. He's going to hate me for saying this too. But yeah, no, he, he come to me one day last season, um, and he was like, I, I've overcome it. And I was like, what are you talking? He was like, my shadow problem. And so we were, we went and played at, uh, Bel Air the next week and there was a shadow in his way and he actually hit a good shot. And I was like, maybe he did. And then he came back the next day And he was like, no, it's still—
that's so funny.
Your own shadow in your head is terrible. It's always going to be there.
I guess it's something about, you know, seeing himself when he swings.
Yeah.
Seeing the movement and stuff. I guess he just overthinks it.
That's so funny. I mean, I do think he's a really, really good coach and he is a psycho and that is like a great quality to have if you're going to be a head coach.
Have you seen the— is it the SportsCenter commercial? Which one of him when they walk into the room and he's the analytic guy.
No, I don't think I saw that.
Look it up. And that's exactly how— Yeah, because I mean, they basically walk in and he's got all this, you know, he's got a marker and he's writing on the board and he's like screaming and he's drank like 6 cups of coffee. Yeah, that's exactly how he goes.
That's the guy you want to go to war with for sure.
Yeah. Do you ever get brought into those conversations about numbers? Do they, do they go through analytics with you guys or do they try to distill it down as much as possible?
I think that they do it as a staff half and then bring it, because I don't think a lot of, I don't think a lot of players, I think players respect the analytics, but I don't think that a lot of players think that it tells the full story. I think that there's like a feel aspect of, you know, flow of game, all these things. So I think that they do a good job of getting the analytics and getting the numbers that they think, you know, that show work the best, and then basically instill it and kind of how we want to do things.
Yeah.
Are you, are you still close with AD?
We talk every now and then. Yeah.
How, how excited should I be as a Wizards fan?
I like what they got going on over there. Yeah.
Are you Wiz-curious?
I guess I never thought of that either, but yeah, I guess I am.
It's spreading.
Yeah.
I mean, they hit you with some good stuff. Y'all are.
I mean, I think that AJ is going to be really good. You know, obviously Trey's showing that, you know, he's an all-star contender. Take a team, you know, deep in the playoffs. And then, if AD can stay healthy, he's one of the best players in the NBA.
And then, and then we got Ayton.
Yeah.
If he can find that spark again and he can stay healthy.
No, I mean, watch out. No, for sure. I think that's one thing a lot— I mean, a lot of people talk, you know, shit about, DA and kind of how he goes about the game. But, you know, when he was, when he was in a good headspace for us last year, he was, he was top 10 big in the league. It was just, you know, trying to manage the ups and downs, you know, kind of was hard. But at the end of the day, he was a good dude. Good and good to be around.
Yeah.
What, so you've been in the league for, uh, what, this is your 6th year?
This is going 6.
He's going to 6. Was there a moment in the first 5 years where people stopped talking shit because they're like, oh shit, he is, he can hoop? Because I'd imagine when you were like early on, Lakers always have a target.
Yeah.
Maybe talk shit, be like, this guy sucks.
Yeah, I think it was more so teams would talk shit more to our team because our first year and maybe a year and a half, we weren't very good. Uh, I remember that Memphis team that was really good. They were, you know, top 2, 3 in the West a couple years in a row. They, they've got— they would come into LA and beat us pretty bad and talk shit the whole time. Uh, but we, we finally got our getback on them and in the playoffs, uh, my second year. So that was nice. Um, but it's— I mean, never— people really don't like single people out and just go at them.
What are your thoughts on, uh, Memphis, uh, as a city and maybe the hotels?
I actually— I grew up close to Memphis, so there you go.
Maybe you got a Laker who likes Memphis.
I don't know if I'd say I like it.
It's—
I don't—
I mean, I think it, it is what you make it. Yeah, obviously. I think that, you know, the hotels could be better.
The Bass Pro Shop Pyramid's got a hotel at the top.
Interesting.
It's really nice.
Is it?
I stayed there. It is beautiful.
Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, I mean, I've been to Memphis a lot. We used to go and watch— what was it, Redbirds games, uh, the AAA team, uh, when I was younger. So I've spent a lot of time in Memphis. I don't, I don't hate it.
Do you ever go to Oakland in Arkansas? Hot Springs? For the—
I have not.
I have not. I know some, I know some friends just went up there and it's awesome. Went out there.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's where, uh, I think Al Capone tried to cure his syphilis.
Interesting.
With the hot springs. Yeah, he's like, I'll just take a jacuzzi and I'll be fine.
It didn't work.
Did not work, clearly.
Yeah. Uh, do we want Yeah, yeah, let's do it.
So, all right, we got a Roback question. rhoback.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com, promo code TAKE. I'm wearing Roback right now. Great golf stuff. Zach, you saw him earlier for the alarm.
How you doing today, sir? I did have a quick question. As someone who's made it to, like, you know, the, the biggest stage in basketball, have you ever had the urge to maybe, like, go undercover, say, LA Fitness or a YMCA and just absolutely run up the score?
Have I ever had the urge?
Yes.
Have you done it? No, but maybe, maybe in the future. I mean, because I, I can get away with being a normal looking human. I just got— would have to change a couple things up, and I think we could get away with it.
Yeah, maybe just go wig, make Shiesty Mask mustache, could play.
I feel like that would work.
Definitely.
Maybe. I mean, yeah, you should— that would be fun.
You should do it, but just like, don't even tape it. Just do it for your own Just like, I want to kick somebody's ass right now.
Yeah, that's actually a great idea. I've thought, I've thought about doing that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, good question. You got a follow-up?
Uh, yeah, I can go follow-up. A quick follow-up question. Uh, if through all the eras of basketball, if you need to assemble a starting five but you got to be on the team, who are the four guys you want to run with?
All-time?
Yes, sir.
Uh, all the older people, don't be mad at me because I'm talking personally from what I've seen and watched.
If you leave George Mikan off this list.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Steph at the 1. God, I've got to put myself in there. Yeah, I can't coach.
No, you got to be on the court.
Steph at the 1, me at the 2.
I'm going Oh, this is tough.
Yeah, it's so much easier if I don't have to put myself in there because I'd put Kobe at the 2. Um, we're gonna go Kobe at the 3, Bron at the 4, and Shaq at the 5.
So no Luka and no Bronny as of now?
No.
Wow. So then Bron would actually no longer— he would leave?
Yeah.
No, he just lost Bron.
You just lost.
No, he fucks with me.
Okay, yeah, that will piss people off. We're gonna make it into a graphic.
Yeah, I mean, shit, I gotta, I gotta see it for—
All right, so what if, what if you're off the team?
Kobe? Yeah, I would probably go Steph, Kobe. People are gonna kill me for leaving MJ.
Um, you could put him on right now.
Nah, Steph, Kobe, Bron. Maybe like Tim Duncan, Shaq, or—
or that's pretty good.
Or no magic.
Or KD and Shaq.
Yeah, Magic Johnson.
I just could— I know I didn't watch it, so I don't really— I couldn't—
no Kareem, no James Worthy.
Didn't watch it.
Yeah. Okay. I mean, it's pretty important part of history.
Yeah, yeah.
No, for sure.
Yeah.
I mean, I've seen clips, but I like watching real basketball games.
I'll put Kurt Rambis out there, and I just—
Kurt Rambis is my guy. I fuck with Kurt.
Is he, is he as intense as, you know, all the, all the clips that we've seen, the stories that we've heard?
I think basketball-wise, obviously the clips do that justice. I think off the court and like just talking to him around the practice facility and stuff, he's very mellow guy, just kind of moseys on around about his day, works out and, you know, he's, he's a basketball head at the end of the day. So he loves, you know, talking hoops with anybody.
Yeah.
Um, all right, so this tournament, uh, we might run this after the tournament, so tell us where you finished. And are you like, when you play in this, are you like, I got to try to beat all the other basketball players? Because I think Kyle Lowry, Ray Allen, Steph, Seth Curry, Dell Curry.
Yeah, no, I mean, I'm Caruso. I'm, I'm playing to win it.
Yeah, uh, Caruso might have you.
No, I mean, actually, I don't know. Actually, yeah, I've never seen him play golf. But yeah, I feel like I got an opportunity to win if I, if I putt it well. That's kind of been my Achilles heel out here the last couple of years. I think I've hit it decent, but, um, I don't really— I'm not sitting there looking at, you know, Steph or Seth or Caruso and be like, oh, I got to finish ahead of them. Okay, just go out and play as good as I can, and wherever that lands, it lands.
There's got to be one guy that you're like, I got to beat him. Mm.
Uh, Charles Barkley.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's correct.
If I don't beat him, uh, will you quit golf? Would I quit golf?
Yeah.
No, because I love it so much.
But, uh, would you quit golf for a week?
I actually hadn't played for like a week coming here.
2 weeks then.
That's just a road trip, so yeah.
Okay, fine. Yeah, so there it is. If you lose Charles Barkley, you have to quit golf for 2 weeks, and we're gonna track it. You're gonna let us know when you quit. It, and then you let us know when you're back.
And Hank's gonna have to quit golf too.
Yeah, for 2 weeks.
For 2 weeks.
For 2 full weeks.
That's not happening.
No, Hank agrees.
Hank says a long time.
Yeah.
Oh, let's bookend it. Are you gonna— what's, what's the first purchase you're gonna make when, when the new money comes in? Do you have anything in mind? Oh, splurge on something.
No, I mean, I'm gonna buy a house. That's really—
I don't—
that's a pretty good purchase.
I don't really— I'm not as— I don't spend money, to be honest with you. I do— I don't enjoy play, you know, basketball, golf, you know. I'd rather buy stuff for, you know, my friends and family. I don't really care to spend stuff on myself. So I actually had a talk with my advisor the other day, and he told me to spend more money.
So I'm working—
talk—
working on it at the moment.
But I guess shopping at Erewhon, maybe get the strawberries.
I don't know. I mean, I could let my girlfriend go shop or something, but yeah, I hate shopping.
Wait, oh, last, last question. Can you, can you get on any course being an NBA player?
Uh, for the most part, yeah.
Do you—
how does that work? Do you have to like— do you say like, hey, Austin Reeves, you might have heard?
Honestly, I don't ever use my name for anything. I have my best friend lives with me and works for me, and, you know, he'll reach out to the course.
Got it.
So he'll be like, hey, he'll be like, you know, Austin Reeves, we're in the— we're in the area, do you care if we come out? And, you know, some courses say yes, some courses say no.
That's awesome.
I would say the majority say yeah though. Yeah, yeah, it's fun. I mean, the only one I haven't— I mean, the one that I really want to go to that I haven't been is Augusta. So that's fair. Um, yeah, we're gonna make it out there at some point.
It was funny when like, like LeBron got a membership in, uh, outside of Cleveland. Everyone's like freaking out. It's like, I'm pretty sure LeBron can get a membership anywhere. You just call them up and they'll give him a locker.
You know what's crazy is, is LACC, they don't let— they don't let like anybody into like the entertainment business, like as far as like athletes.
That is kind of—
they don't let any like, huh, only person I think I know that's in there is Balmer.
And he's got a lot of money. He's got a lot of money.
But for the most part, they keep it strictly like tech people, I think so.
Yeah.
But it's a beautiful place out there.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, Austin, thank you so much, man. We really appreciate it. And congrats again, man.
Appreciate you, man.
Austin Reeves is brought to you by Morgan and Morgan. And this Fyre Fest is also presented by Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. You want to hire the right person to do the job. Let's say hypothetically, you take a catastrophic spill down the stairs at a local pizza restaurant, thereby disabling you and preventing you from working for probably the next 8 to 9 months. You're in a tough spot. Call Morgan Morgan. They're going to help you out. Don't hire the wrong people. Hire Morgan Morgan. It's America's largest injury law firm. And they're the largest for a reason, because they've been helping people with their own fire fest for over 35 years. They have over 100 offices nationwide, more than 1,000 lawyers, over $30 billion recovered for over 500,000 clients. Morgan Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation. If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan Morgan. The fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to forthepeople.com/pmt or dial #529 from your phone. That's forthepeople.com/pmt. Or dial #Law, #529. This is paid advertisement.
All right, boys, Fire Fest of the week. Zach, you want to start first? Because usually Hank's sitting in that seat and he starts first. Memes and Max, maybe if you have one, we'll go to you as well. But go ahead, Zach.
My favorite this week, we spoke, I think it's about a week ago, about that green robot everyone saw online. Didn't look very impressive. Did laundry, folded clothes, correct?
Mm-hmm.
I think we're very with this new company X1 that just dropped a robot arm this week. I think we're dangerously close, like robot soldiers, and the whole robots taking over the world thing isn't as far away as we thought it was gonna be. And I've been like up late at night thinking about it.
Really?
Like, if you see this, if you see this robotic hand from X1, like they say it can— it so can plug in USB charger, it can pick up single coins, it can like— the way it moves is like a human, is for real. Look, it looks like a human hand. And I just think that we're like in a really bad spot. And I didn't think it would come in our lifetimes, but it might be over.
What do you think the first use cases for a completely synthetic but realistic feeling hand would be?
I think a lot of like household tasks are good. I'm more so worried about when they build the full body quickly from the hand. And also like, of course, guys are probably going to end up jerking off with it.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Probably that's going to be the first thing most people do, I think.
Do you think that that's where the robots will then turn on us being like, hey, we were made to be able to solve any problem or do any task and all we're doing is jerking guys off and they, and then they believe like create a militia. Yeah, they're like, we're, we're tired of giving handjobs. We're over it.
That's the two things I've seen is the handjob robot. And then there's the toilet robot that runs into your room when you have to take a shit. So yeah, they're not going to like us very much.
I think it's coming like in the next 10 years.
We're going to wear out our welcome real fast with robots.
This is keeping you up at night?
I was just like thinking about it last night after I saw this hand, because like if the rest of the body works like the video of this hand, we're actually done for.
You got to get the blue blocker glasses that Chef Donnie recommended to me. I put them on at night and I'm out in like 5 minutes. It's insane.
Legit work.
Yes, they legitimately work. I get instantly tired.
But you wear them while you sleep?
No, I take them off. Oh, I put them on and then you get tired. I scroll my phone.
Got it.
Play a little euchre and then I'm just like, 5 minutes, just like, holy shit, I'm tired.
I'm telling you, get, get the blindfold that's got the Bluetooth speakers in it.
I do that. That's awesome.
It's the best way to fall asleep. Also, I was thinking about Bluetooth today. We haven't really updated Bluetooth technology in a long time.
What do you mean?
Like, it's still the— it's still the same process of like going into your phone, hitting the button to connect, hitting the button on the thing, then you connect to it. Would you like it to be— it needs to be easier.
I feel like it's pretty easy.
I feel like we don't want it to be too easy. Imagine if your phone just connected to a Bluetooth speaker as you were walking by it. That could be a dangerous situation.
That is a dangerous game that you could be playing. Yeah, but I'll give you that.
I want to be able to opt in.
But it is crazy that the underlying technology behind— I feel like it has not been changed in 30 years, 25 years.
Do you guys have like a million Bluetooth?
Yeah, a million.
It sucks because I don't want to get rid of one. Yeah, because I don't know which ones are, are the good ones. It also like they never— the Bluetooth, like half the time it doesn't actually give you what you're singing to. It's some random word.
Yeah.
Or name. And it's like, dude, I just wanted to say like, this is this speaker.
You know why I never delete any of that stuff? It's kind of like nostalgic for me. It's like a time capsule.
So you're like, oh, look at this. It reminds me of like this Enterprise rental car I had like, yeah, 5 years ago.
Nice. Like, remember when I got that truck?
Yeah.
You remember when I rented that shitty beach house?
Yeah.
Yeah. It's like it takes you back. It's kind of nice.
It is never just like television. It's always like Samsung 20130X-B. It's like, well, this could be anything. This could be my neighbor's.
Yeah. I want to clean it up. I want to clean up my phone so bad. I just haven't been able to pull the trigger.
Trigger.
Like, all the apps that I just never ever use, just delete them. But you guys know, like, how it goes with the phone is that if you delete a bunch of apps, then the apps that you do use are not in the place they usually are, and those are all memory of, like, I know exactly where to press for this.
Yep.
So I'm fucked.
Then you're— yeah, then you're screwed, and you're just— everything needs an app now. Too many apps.
Too many apps.
Okay, good.
Firefox. Yeah, you guys, I think you guys should watch out. We're in a bad spot.
I think we're Fine. I agree.
I agree, Zach.
Do you guys see the hand?
I actually have not seen the hand yet.
No. Well, I'll show you guys the hand later. It's terrifying.
Send me the hand on Twitter.
X1. Yep.
If they really want to make some money from the freaks, they would go just the foot.
Can I, can I say something real quick, Zach? I think I've, I've just resigned myself to being the guy that is just not going to concern himself with any future problems.. And then when the future problem arrives, I will be first in line being like, why didn't anyone warn us of this? So like AI, robots, climate change, all this shit. I don't think about it. I don't worry about it. But when the day comes that it actually is a big problem, I'll be the first to complain and be like, why didn't anyone tell us?
Even though people have been telling us all along, ignorance is bliss until you find yourself bunkerless, right?
Like, so I'm fully aware that I should be paying more attention to it, but I've opted out.
Out.
And then the next time I opt in will be purely to complain and blame everyone else around me for not alerting me, even though they did.
I kind of like— you should probably stay opted out because opting in has just been nothing full of paranoia and anxiety.
Yeah, dude.
Yeah.
What?
You're a paranoia and anxiety guy.
That's true.
Yeah, we're talking about everything is paranoia.
We're talking about robot armies though, Max.
If that's not something that we talked about, so many things right now, it's robot armies though.
And those are terrifying.
Yeah.
That's fair. That's fair.
Zach sent me news from 2 years ago.
Okay.
I had a little stomachache on Monday.
That's true.
And he sent me a video that said you could get listeria from queso. So I thought I had listeria for 5 minutes, but it was from 2024.
So wait, you can't get listeria from queso?
I think there was a listeria outbreak in queso in 2024, and Meme's stomach was hurting from eating too much queso Sunday night.
I was just trying to find queso relative illnesses. I was like, well, it could be this. But then it was 2 years ago. But I mean, queso does have dairy, so you could always get it from queso.
Well, I should just do my Fyre Fest right now because that was my Fyre Fest was that on Sunday night, Memes ordered— so every Sunday we order food, we order dinner together, and Memes is in charge of it.
Yeah.
And let me just first say thank you, Memes. You do a great job. And it's not an easy job because you get people like Shane who just never reply, that, that, that's hard. But you ordered Mexican food. We all got Mexican food. And I just assumed chips and salsa was just guaranteed.
More than that, chips and queso.
I didn't—
I just got— they've got the best queso in the city.
Yeah. And but I didn't have to— I didn't think I had to say something about that. Apparently I do, because we didn't get chips and salsa or chips and queso. And then Memes ordered it later. And it's like, dude, the moment's past.
You can't have to know that.
So then I got sick from it.
Yeah.
But what do you— can we just establish that, like, that's when you get— when we get Mexican, it is always chips and salsa goes with it or chips and queso. I agree. I was also leaving my apartment and was waiting for everybody to text. I already blame Shane. So we need to establish that once, once we write orders, You have a 5-10 minute window. I like that.
To send it in.
I like that.
Got to be at least 10.
But that also has nothing to do with you forgetting the chips. I was just waiting for Shane. I also—
you were thinking about the chips. I like when in doubt, and then you waited too long for Shane and it flew out and I had to go.
Yeah.
Submit order.
All right.
I think it should— going forward, it should be 10-minute clock. And then you just order because we do order from pretty much the same place every time. It's just it goes back to your last order. You just order it, you know what I mean? Or he doesn't reply. He gets what he ordered last time.
You just do a double of the person that sits closest to that person.
Mm-hmm.
I like that.
And then you got to eat what your neighbor's eating. Yeah.
Oh, that was also when Hank just said 2 bowls and he thought that— that pissed me off. Well, we were all putting in our orders and then everyone— one person said bowl, one person said burrito, one person said tacos, and Hank just goes, two bowls. And I was like, wow, all right, Hank, we in bulking, we in bulking season for the summer right now. And he was like, no, I just wanted it to add on to the other person's bowl and make it look like two total bowls.
Yeah, that was confusing.
I got to clean it up. We got to clean it up, boys.
As a team, I think we got to do better. And that's—
this isn't all on me.
Memes, because again, Memes has a tough job. But I think we all need to take personal accountability when it comes to ordering and how we go back and forth.
We can't— to my credit, you guys suck at ordering. I think maybe you should just—
maybe you should just surprise us every Sunday now, because sometimes, like, I'm down for that. That sounds fun.
Yeah. Surprise us, because it is— it is a long, drawn-out process of like no one wants to make a decision.
Although then you turn into Jack McCarthy. Yeah, it gets absolutely crushed when—
yeah, or something bad.
Yeah, well, you have to guess.
Like, Zach was like, I'll take it as Taco Bowl, and then you click on that Taco Bowl, and then there's like chicken, steak, shrimp.
Like, you got—
you guys just gotta be specific.
I always send you screenshots. I, I go into the app and I send a screenshot of exactly what I want.
All right, good. Also, we did a home run derby on Wednesday and I have no power left in my body.
Yeah, I don't feel— I don't feel great today.
We're finally getting to the point of where age is really like, I just don't— I, I can still swing. I still make contact, but I just don't feel any power.
Not me.
You don't feel good about anything.
Yeah.
When it— even when I make contact and it goes a long way, it's like, that was it worth it?
Maybe not. Yeah, I won.
You did. You beat a bunch of—
I was rooting for you. Well, I mean, we beat Jason Kipnis and All-American, a guy that's gonna be drafted next year.
Jason Kipnis hadn't swung a bat in 5 years.
Max beat a 17-year-old in sports yesterday. Yeah, and a guy hadn't swung a bat in 5 years, Jason Kipnis, 10-time MLB player.
Okay, just shout out Jason.
Shout out, he's the man, he's the man, great dude.
Also, Tate can really scout 17-year-olds. That's what he's going to do. I didn't know that.
That's one thing that we learned.
That's not something I— that you know about your boy also, and he just shows up with the strongest 17-year-old in the world.
The levels to it, because I was wondering, because Kipnis, I hit him up and I was like, hey, can you come do this? He's like, yeah, man, I just, you know, I haven't swung a bat in 5 years. So when he came, his first like 10 swings weren't great, and then he found it. The 2 moments where it was like, oh shit, here are the levels to it. One was when we did opposite field and he was just like, all of us were kind of struggling to like like, you know, figure out, like, aim it. He just got up there and just was hitting nukes oppo. And then the bunt, he just deaded every single bunt. It's like, oh yeah, this guy's done everything on a baseball field.
Yeah.
Uh, all right, PFT, uh, my first firefest of the week is I tried to be a mechanic and everything went really, really wrong. Yeah, I'm not talking about my El Camino. Uh, so I, I got a golf cart. I love my golf cart. It's fun to drive around and it's a 6-seater, so it's like a stretch one. It's a big boy. Problem with it, when you start going up hills, you lose some of that miles per hour. You, you crawl down to like 8, 9 miles an hour. So you feel like if there's enough people in the cart, you feel like you're never going to get over the hill. So I thought, you know what, maybe I'll trade in the golf cart and get some, a little more horses, get some with some more speed. And then my buddy Pat the Beeve, he hit me up and he was like, hey, do you want to soup that thing up? I was like, when a guy asks you, do you want to soup up your golf cart? You say, yeah, you're goddamn right I want to soup up the golf cart. So I didn't know what it was going to entail, but he goes online, he ordered a giant lithium battery, and then he ordered something called a solenoid and a heavy-duty motor controller.
Then we proceed to take my golf cart apart on Saturday. He gets there at about like 3:30 PM. We get all the tools out. We start ripping the seat off. We take all the paneling off to get to the wires. We start soldering wires together.
I know.
I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.
Soldering is a— that's when you've gone too far.
He's got a soldering gun or soldering, whatever you call it. We're ripping wires out. We're screwing shit in. I'm afraid I'm going to get electrocuted every single step of the way. And then about 12 hours later, we're like, we're not really any, any closer than we were when we started. So we go to—
when you brought out the solder gun, did you think it was actually going to work?
No.
At some point along this process, you should have been like, we need to cut our losses. There's no way that the outcome of this is going to be good.
So this is like, it's, it's a hobby for him. He likes, he likes tinkering with stuff. And I'm trying to learn—
soldering is a hobby.
Soldering is a bridge too far where I'm actually like melting wires together and then wrapping them up and then tying them together.
As soon as I pulled that thing out, I would be like, I got to call somebody. Yeah, this is way above my pay grade.
But we're having a good time.
We're in the garage. We got—
yeah, it's just guys in the garage, Max. You won't understand.
I know. Yeah, you're right.
So you fix your golf cart.
So we spend about— spend about 12 hours on Saturday and we've got the World Cup games on in there. We've got the UFC fight going and it's about, I don't know, 2 o'clock in the morning and we're like, we should probably go to bed. And then we wake up in the morning, go back to it, spend another like 5 hours on Sunday morning working on this thing. Finally get to a place where we've got everything connected. And then the moment of truth, you put the key in and you turn it. Absolutely zero power. Absolutely out. Nothing, nothing is happening with this thing. Thing. And at that point, I was just like, I don't even know where to start. Like, I don't know what went wrong. I don't know how to diagnose what went wrong. But I just spent probably a good, I don't know, 17 hours. I started with a perfectly fine golf cart. I want to be clear about that. On Saturday morning, I had— slow, just a little slow on the uphills. Yeah, unlike steep uphills, but I had a perfectly fine golf cart that was running. I I could have used that golf cart for the rest of my life and probably been pretty happy.
Yep.
And then by the end of it, now I have like the Flintstones car with no seats because I ripped the seats out, the dashboard and the steering panels off. The battery has been removed and I basically tore out all the electric guts of the car and they're sitting on the chair. And then I had to call an adult and I had to call a golf cart repair company to come to my house and pick up my golf cart.
Cart.
And I had to— I had to ask the guy, I was like, hey, we thought we could do this on our own.
We couldn't.
And then I got big time judged. Then I called the golf cart place today to check in on my baby. I'm juggling a lot of things, by the way. I'm about to pick up the El Camino. Yeah, I've got the golf cart now. The golf— the fucking golf cart's the new El Camino. So that's in the repair shop. So I called up the repair shop today and I was like, hey, just checking in, seeing if you need like any more info for me about about the work that we did because we put a lot of work into it. Not sure if you guys are familiar with the tools we were using. Yeah. And they're like, yeah, you know, we're probably not going to get around to that till next week. So it's been sitting there for the last 4 days. I have no golf cart now. I'm golf cartless. And I guess I, I guess I learned a lesson, kind of.
I don't know.
It was fun.
What was their reaction when they saw the state of the current golf cart? And you told them what you did all weekend?
The guy goes, oh wow.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He gave me an oh wow. And I was like, no, it's not that bad because like I— everything that I took off, I put in this plastic bin right there. And then I— all the panels and stuff from the side, those are right here. The seats are over here. The 6 batteries that I pulled out, those are over there.
So—
and we did like 95% of the work. He just has to probably like—
he's just going to— you loosened it.
Yeah.
He has to change one wire. Yeah. Yeah, like, but I'm telling you, once— probably just has to plug it in once it's in. Yeah, once it gets back, it's going to be going like upwards of 30 miles an hour.
So they are going to put the upgrades into it?
Yes.
Okay. I wasn't sure if they were just trying to get it working again.
No, they got to put the upgrades in it. I was very, very clear with that. So yeah, I basically spent like $3,000 and about 17 to 18 hours of my life. Knife to destroy my own golf cart.
Damn.
And then, then I found out that Pat the Beev didn't tell Kate where he was going the entire weekend.
Yeah.
And so he could— he showed up at my house. I was like, are you gonna stay over here tonight? He was like, you're goddamn right I'm gonna stay over. We're gonna work on this fucking thing. And then I found out that, that she didn't know where he was. And the kids were like, where's Daddy? And she's like, I don't know. He took his car on a golf cart to go work on a golf cart somewhere.
It's real man shit.
Real man shit. But I do feel like I learned something this weekend, which was call an adult to make repairs or just buy a new golf cart. Yeah, buy, buy a better golf cart. Really? I started to think after about hour 12, I was just— I started to look up golf carts online because right now I might, I might just buy a new golf cart and not even trade in. Just be like, keep the old one.
Yeah, because they make sick ones.
I got to, I got to write this off. Let's just call it a wash. I fucked up.
Yeah.
Okay, anything in the booth? You guys good?
Yeah, I got my identity stolen.
I still don't believe it. I think you just bought 4 phones randomly one day 2 years ago.
Stop saying that. Because there's a little part in the back of my head that still believes that that is true.
Wait, Max, were you— you needed some recommendations to host a podcast on Google and Amazon?
What?
Is that what it was? And you clicked that link?
No, he actually got—
he— no, I actually got my—
someone bought 4 phones and then closed the account 4 years ago.
So I am in the beginning process of looking to buy a home here in Chicago, and I met with a lender and he was like, your credit's like not very good, like what's going on here? And then I did a deep dive into my credit And someone opened up a— somebody opened up a phone line under my identity, like not, not my name, just, I think, just my identity.
That would be your name.
But no, because when I asked them, they're like, you don't have any accounts under this name.
Okay.
But then when they did it like a credit, credit check, they were like, oh yeah, there was an account that was open for 30 days. They opened it, got 4 phones, closed it right away, and you've owed $5,000 every month for the past 2 years. So it has absolutely tanked my credit. So I spent the entire day yesterday filing claims, filing a police report, this, this, and that. And my credit still fucking sucks right now. And I still don't have an answer. And all of their replies are like, yeah, we'll get back to you when we get back. Back to you.
But what—
couldn't you find the answer by just looking it up on one of your 4 phones?
I don't have the— I didn't— I didn't get those phones. I don't know how it happened. There must have been some like deal with Verizon in 2024 where it was like, sign up now, no, like don't have to put your card down at sign— at signing. And then the guy did that, got a bunch of phones, and then canceled it before you do actually have to put your phone down.
And he walked in there, he said, my name is Max Delinte.
I don't know why, I don't know how it happened, but he walked in, didn't say his name, he said, "This is my Social Security number," and it was Max's.
I was calling these people from Verizon yesterday and they were like, "Oh yeah, so we'll just take this payment now," and I'm like, "I haven't been a Verizon customer at like ever, like I, this isn't me, I didn't buy these phones," and they were like, "Oh, okay, I have to send you to a different department now," and that department was like, "Okay, so we'll just take the $5,000," and I'm like, I was like, no, I need to file a claim. This isn't me. This is identity theft. And it sucked.
I need to find the surveillance footage of the guy that walked in and got these phones. If it's probably deleted, but I would, I would love to see the fake Max DeLenta.
Yeah, I don't know.
Or the real one. Yeah.
Memes just keeps telling me that, that I, that I'm a guy.
You just bought Max. This is how long ago?
2024.
Would you say that you, you drank a lot of beers in 2024?
No, I went back and looked at my calendar on the day that it happened. It was a Monday. Big Cat and I did a meet and greet.
Oh yeah, which he needed to take pictures.
Yeah.
Are you sure that it wasn't? Because I've been around you when you lost your phone before.
I know. Meme said the same.
You got a history of losing your phone.
But 4 phones.
Yeah.
Meme said the same.
2 sodas, 4 phones. Yeah.
If it's got all your information but not your name, maybe like the phone salesman just fat fingered some other guy's social.
Yeah.
And he got 4 phones.
I got to say, whoever the thief was, whoever is the fraudster, he picked the absolute best.
He did.
And he really did.
4 years or 2 years.
2 years.
He got away with it for 2 years. 4 phones.
4 phones. 2 years.
Let's talk about scot-free. That guy. That guy made bank off you, Max.
It's a full family plan.
Yeah, that's good.
Wrong.
If anybody out there is looking to fraud someone, if you're—
come on, we don't—
you got any—
this is, this is just not something that we need to be saying on these airwaves.
Max is the easiest mark in North America, is what I'm saying.
And, and we'll add in the bonus of Memes and I will try to gaslight into him thinking that he actually did it.
He's— no, I had a serious talk with Zach. I was like, there's no way I actually did this.
I think you did.
There was a second where Max was doing the police report and he had to pull out his driver's license. He was like, wait, am I—
could I get in trouble if I bought these phones?
He is such— he's such a good target that Not only will he get away with it for 2 years, but then after those 2 years are up, he'll raise his hand, take responsibility for what you've done. He's the best.
Oh, I just hope my credit gets fixed.
Uh, all right, numbers.
Good show, boys.
78, 7, 1, 18.
65. Anyone?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Anyone? All right, one more, one more, one more, one more, one more, one more.
Zach, 18.
Good number, Zach.
Have you gotten this?
Have you gotten a big hat?
I have, multiple times.
Oh cool.
Yeah, you got your identity stolen, man?
Yep. Well, yeah, you say I have.
I don't know.
43.
43.
Anyway, 43.
43.
So Terrence Krolls.
Yep.
Happy birthday to Connor Bedard. Happy birthday to OG Anunoby. Happy birthday, Bam Adebayo. Happy birthday to the Boozer twins. Happy birthday, Hunter S. Thompson.
It's also Leonard Weaver.
Anybody else?
Uh, happy birthday to the Island Boys.
Remember when they sucked each other off?
Did they suck each other off? Yeah, I think they did.
They suck each other off.
I think they did. More like the Byland Boys. Love you guys.
Messi is the GOAT as Argentina comes back in dramatic fashion and England loses another heartbreaker. We talk World Cup and LeBron may never pick a new team (00:00:00-00:30:55). Mt Rushmore of birds (00:30:55-00:57:11). Charles Barkley joins the show to talk golf, NBA, this past season and more (00:57:11-01:27:55). Austin Reaves joins the show to talk about his new deal with the Lakers, golfing with JJ Redick, growing up in small town Arkansas, being a LeBron hater and Kobe Stan and more (01:27:55-02:13:01). We finish with Fyre fest of the weekYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Netflix. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/pardon-my-take