Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Stella Blue Coffee is more than just great coffee, it's coffee with a purpose. Introducing We Brew to Rescue, a nationwide campaign using proceeds from our new ready-to-drink cans to help fund 1,000 pet adoptions this year. Every can you crack open helps a real pet find a real home. Simple as that. Made with 100% Colombian coffee, each 11-ounce can delivers smooth, drinkable energy with a boost of protein. Available in Espresso Cafe Mocha and Espresso Sweet Cream. Built for mornings, long days, and everything in between. Drink Stella Blue, fuel your day, and help save a pet's life. You can follow our progress in real time throughout the campaign by watching the adoption tracker on our site. Grab yours now at stellabluecoffee.com, Amazon, and select retailers nationwide. On today's Pardon My Take presented by DraftKings, we've got a show. We've got Daniel Jeremiah getting us ready for the draft. We got NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, and then we got a lot of games to get to. And, uh, we're going to do some time traveling on the podcast today.
Because we recorded, uh, Monday night's games a little early. Now we have Tuesday night's games. So have fun time traveling with us. We're gonna do, uh, Hot Seat, Cool Throne, Guys on Chicks. It's a great show today, and it's brought to you by Chevy. Draft season is here, which means everyone suddenly thinks they're a GM, which is when you realize some picks just make sense, like having a Chevy Silverado. Silverado has the power to haul pretty much everything. Gear, grills, tailgate setups. So whether you're driving to a draft party, a road game, or towing a boat to the lake, you need a truck with strength, reliability, and the drive to go the distance. The same DNA you'll find in a Chevy Silverado. As capable, dependable as your top-tier draft pick, Silverado shows up and gets the job done. It won't flinch when the pressure's on. It doesn't take plays off. When it comes to trucks, make Chevy Silverado your number one overall pick. Check out the current offer and build your own Chevy Silverado at chevy.com. Okay, let's go. Hey, football guy. Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. Kings, the crown is yours.
Today is Wednesday, April 22nd, and the Philadelphia 76ers are back.
The Boston Celtics are dead. That's what Max told me.
The Philadelphia 76ers are back. By the way, just a disclaimer for everyone listening right now, we, uh, recorded the beginning of the show, or, or the—
on—
we recorded Monday night's games earlier in the day So we will get to Hawks-Nicks. There might be some things said in there where I think the exact quote was something like, this will be really funny if the Celtics lose tonight, I said. And then Hank and Max both said, nah, that's not gonna happen. But it did happen.
Yeah, so Max, here's the thing. You guys won. It was, it was the Maxi game.
We told you there was an edgecomb game.
That was, that was very edgecomb game, what you just said. Okay, all right, that was the edge.
Okay, you guys won and you, you were not excited about it whatsoever. I want you to, I, I want you to feel free to get excited for winning a fucking game.
You guys beat the Sixers.
I was ecstatic. I was ecstatic.
Okay, then show it.
I'm telling myself I am not going to be excited. They shot 50. The Sixers are a bad 3-point shooting team. They shot 50% from 3 in this game. I cannot expect the Sixers to shoot 50% from 3 every single game. They're still most likely going to lose this, this series, but I was ecstatic.
Okay, let's go. Okay, good.
So you've been bottling it all up. I want you to let it out.
I watched the last— I watched— I, I told myself that I wasn't going to come in because I thought the Sixers had a better chance of winning if I didn't come in. If you're in the back, then I thought that I was being a bag, a a bad employee by not coming in for the end of the game. So when it got down to like a 2-point game, I got my car, I got here for the end of it. But then you guys, you guys were doing something else.
So we were working on the book. Yeah, no big deal, right?
Book writing, brag.
So I just watched it with Memes and Zach. And they can tell you how, how fired up Memes, Zach, this game.
He's fired up. He's jumping.
Yeah. I mean, you were probably fired up too, Memes.
Memes, I think, was more fired up than me, but I was pretty fired up.
You guys got Andre Drummond. Yeah, you had no answer for Andre Drummond, Hank.
10 points, 8 rebounds. That's a Drummy.
You got drummed.
No, BJ, BJ. I walked by him, Max goes, stop fucking saying Andre Drummond.
No, I, I, I, I already said it. The Sixers are probably going to lose this series. They're almost definitely going to lose this series.
That's a different, that's a change. Probably is a change.
And I heard almost definitely.
Probably almost definitely gonna lose the series.
I'm not— I have— I'm not— I'm still not excited for the rest of this series, but I am excited for the future core of the Philadelphia 76ers after watching VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey in that game. VJ Edgecombe is insane. Youngest player in NBA history to go for 30 points and 10 rebounds in a game. He's a beast and he's 19 years old.
In a playoff game?
In a playoff game. I've said that stat twice and I forgot. The word playoff both times. Very important word. I'm excited for the future, for the future of the 76ers after watching that game. I'm still not excited for the rest of this series yet.
Okay.
But you can allow yourself to get a little excited, Max. Let me take you back to, to an important year in American history. It was 1776, the year that the 76ers would go on to be named after.
Yeah, well, no, I think that was the year the franchise started.
Yeah, the year the franchise started with Josh Harris. Owned the team and he set them up in Constitution Hall. And he had George Washington come in and crank that Liberty Bell so hard that it broke. Max, when we started that war, there were two battles, couple battles at the start. No one thought that we were going to win either one of them. We won one of those first two battles. Then what happened?
Taxes.
Yeah.
Then yeah, now, now, now you have to pay taxes unless you live in Florida or Tennessee.
What I'm saying, Max, is you can be excited, man. Be excited. I want you to believe just a little bit.
He said probably.
He—
you gotta buy in just a little bit, Max.
He said I gave you— I gave you what?
Yeah, I think probably was a very big buy-in.
The Sixers shot 50% from 3, and the Celtics shot like shit. Yeah, like that is not going to happen. I understand that that is not going to happen.
I mean, that's not necessarily true, but it just happened a couple times to the Celtics last year.
Yeah.
Hank, last few years, listen, the Celtics, that was a playoff game that we have seen before probably 3 or 4 times in the last 3 or 4 years. You live by the 3, die by the 3. If they miss 33s every game in the rest of the series, they're probably not going to win it. I don't think that's going to happen. And it's not like I'd rather lose that way than them play well and lose. That would have been worse, right?
Right.
That was just the Sixers' best beats your best. Would have been worse. Yes, the Sixers best beat your worst.
Yes, and they were in it in the fourth quarter. They still— BJ Edgcomb, impressive, impressive player.
The Celtics were barely— uh, Max, I wish you had been with us in the—
they cut it to 2 and then the Sixers immediately—
I was also like the— we were working on the book and the Bruins were on, so like I was barely even watching.
You're beat up. You're so beat up because that, that was the game you really cared about.
Yeah, Bruins.
Yeah, yeah, he's beat off.
It's a must-win.
Yeah, yeah, I was being off.
Although the Celtics are in a worse spot than the Bruins now.
Because they have to go to Philly.
Yeah, 1-1. Like, the Bruins stole a game on the road.
Yeah, they did.
Tilted the ice.
They did. But I have no worries about this series.
I do—
I did start to, which I just— I don't want to happen. Max doesn't want it to happen.
But if you start to think games—
God is an AWL. Game 7 will happen in Vegas.
Yeah.
And no one wants that. God, no one wants that.
If God— do you think God is an AWL?
I don't.
I do.
Yeah, I do too.
Reading, writing the book and going through all the dumb luck that we got along the way.
Yeah.
And how this, this, this collection of morons got to a place where the number one sports podcast I think the G-Man might have our back.
I also just think that he killed Harambe for us. Hey, God is listening to everything. Yeah, he's not— I'm interested.
Forget about Harambe. It's true.
Yeah, but God wouldn't take awards. He's like, he's like, Missoula.
I didn't say that. He would like— well, then I'm not putting him up for God. He's just a listener.
Imagine if the day you die, you go up, you go up to the pearly gates and God's like, hey, bing bong, good to meet you, 10-time AWL.
I hope it's not 10.
Bing bong, Hank.
I hope it's like 40.
Yeah, that's true. Good point.
Yeah, great point.
Good point.
He greets you at the pearly gates. How much money does Dave make? Hey, suck my dick.
Uh, all right, so are you— no panic button.
No panic button.
But this did hurt with the way you trolled memes, which we'll get to in a minute.
Like, I don't even remember. I think we're gonna cut most of that. I don't—
I don't know. We're cutting the show.
Yeah, let's just go on.
I thought the series was over.
Great interviews. Great interviews coming up. Love memes. Great coworker. Just, just love chopping it up with the boys.
I know that you're not panicked at all.
Numbers.
Have you allowed yourself to think about what it would be like if you lost this series?
No.
Mm.
Would you like to take the time right now?
No. Take a second and just think about it.
Like we're in Vegas. It's a Big Max party. Jerry's there.
No, no.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I actually. I might not go. Max, that would be such a bad weekend.
Oh, it'd be so fun.
But there's no way.
But I mean, Hank, as good as a lot, you've had a lot of really good weekends in the last couple years.
Yeah, for sure.
As a sports fan. If I were you, I would be thinking about the universe swinging back at some point and delivering the worst weekend of your life.
Mm-hmm.
That's loser mentality. You gotta stay foot on the gas 'cause you never know when it's gonna stop.
You never know. Max, you would've appreciated this. I wish you had come into the cave for a minute. But Hank did call game when it— when the Celtics hit a 3 to make it 91-87. I believe he called game.
It felt like game.
He said game because I kept on— listen, I kept on checking in on him. I was just like, are you nervous? Are you nervous? He's like, no, no, no. And then the 3 happened. He goes, oh, game.
I was thinking about the Embiid Sixers and I didn't realize that it's the Edgecomb Sixers now. It's a different team. They play more winning basketball, less flopping, and he played well.
Is Embiid coming back?
Hopefully.
Would you want him back? Okay.
What?
I mean, a Dem Bona is like barely an NBA basketball player playing 22 minutes a game for the Sixers right now, and you want Embiid back?
Sounds like he does.
He's not afraid to pop off.
He did say the team was better without Embiid.
I don't want a boner. I want him beat.
Yeah, he would love— he wants to get out of the Drummond torture chamber.
The Celtics are going to win this series in 5.
Thank you.
But I'm just— I was happy about— VJ Edgecomb is a dog. He's so fucking good. Yeah, he's so fucking good.
You guys have some good players.
And Tyrese Maxey got cold for a while there. Like, it was good to see that he went through a stretch of he wasn't playing well. And then when we needed him in the fourth quarter, he was fucking nails.
And Paul George was good. Paul George was efficient.
Paul George was very good.
Yeah.
Do we think Paul George is back on the junk?
Maybe.
No, yeah, Memes has a take that— what's your take?
They suspended him so he could take better steroids.
Oh, nice.
Okay.
Why would the NBA want him to take better steroids?
Playoff P, bro.
It is funny when guys who are just terrible gets suspended for taking PEDs. Yeah, like the world's worst.
Paul George isn't terrible, right?
Right. I'm not saying that he would be in that category, but if they— if Memes' theory is correct and they suspend him and they're like, hey, you're taking the wrong stuff, take some better juice, then he's like, I don't know, Memes, it's a ridiculous thought that that would happen. But Paul George does look better than he has in the years past. Yeah.
I also think once you hit a certain age, you should be able to take stuff on the banned list.
Agreed. Agreed.
Memes, can I interest you in the Grinch games?
Big time agree.
Peter Thiel's enhanced games this summer.
Yes, I mean, it's a protein you smoke out of a hookah. Ah, the other one, big story tonight is Wemby got concussed. Fucking sucks. I think we all were excited about these playoffs in large part because of Wemby and Wemby getting unleashed. The Blazers win, uh, in San Antonio, and that Listen, we, we wrote that series off because we thought Wemby wasn't gonna get concussed. He got concussed. That series is now— I— he's not gonna come back till what, Game 5?
Probably Game 5.
Game 5 is probably— and like, it might be longer than that depending on the— I mean, it was a bad— you saw his face just hit the floor.
Well, I mean, his face has a long way to go to the ground.
Yeah.
So yeah, anytime he hits it on the floor, it's gonna be—
it's gonna be bad. It's just a bummer. Wemby's so much fun to watch.
I know. To me, it looked like it was more his jaw. I know that he's in concussion protocol, probably has a concussion, but like he might have broken his jaw on that. We might be seeing like through-the-wire Wemby. Yeah. Playoffs.
Oh, I like that.
Which would be actually kind of— that'd be kind of tough.
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that's now a series. I don't know. I mean, if Wemby had just like— if he fouled out of this game and the Blazers had won or Wemby had gone out and it wasn't a concussion, he was going to be back game 3, I would say I'm not worried about this, but the fact that he might not get back till Game 5, it's got to give you a little bit of concern.
Yeah, it gives you some, some concern. The Blazers took advantage of it. Um, Clingan looks good.
Henderson was awesome. He had, I think he had like 30 points. He was, he was sick. Scoot Henderson game. So yeah, that's, it's, it's going to be interesting to see what happens in this series. We, we went from Sunday night talking about how like 5 of the 8 series were completely over to today We're— listen, we got some series.
Yeah, I mean, series, you can't— you can't account for Wimby falling on his face.
Still not going to watch any of the Thunder-Suns.
We didn't see that coming. There would have to be like 4 guys on the Thunder that would have to get concussed.
I actually don't— I actually think it might be more. Okay. All right. It might be more.
Okay. SGA.
Yeah.
Hartenstein.
Yeah.
Caruso?
No, you can't concuss him.
Okay, unconcussable.
Unconcussable.
Uh, Jalen Williams. Okay, if those— I think if those guys are out, it might be competitive.
No, if you have— you still go out with Chet.
Oh, but you still got Dort.
If you got Chet, Dort, and Caruso, give me those guys.
You're right, I think they have to get 6 guys concussed.
Yeah. Um, okay, anything else? Uh, where it's halftime of the, the Lakers-Rockets games, we want to predict I think the Rockets are going to win.
Same.
I think they're going to come back and win. They're down 3 at half. I think they're going to come back and win.
I think the Lakers are going to win.
Okay, so they're so 2-0 Lakers.
2-0 Lakers.
Wow. I think Lakers too.
Kevin Durant is back playing, has 20 points at half.
Smart, 17 points at half.
Oh, he's 4 for 6.
Canard, 12 points at half.
Celtics could use a guy that's shooting 66% from 3.
I'm just— I'm just a personal walking Luke Kennard, Andre Drummond podcast. Oh, any news you need of those two guys, I got you.
I'm a Bronny podcast.
There you go. But did Bronny get in in the first half? Yeah, he did. He got— oh yeah, yeah, 3 minutes.
They got one turnover. They got to unleash Bronny. I feel like his dad keeps him like too far. He's pretty much grounded when he's on the court. Yeah. His dad's like, don't you dare. I will turn this team around if you shoot the ball, Bronny.
Um, all right, and then we'll talk about— oh, the other thing, uh, that happened was, uh, John Blackwell to Duke. Congrats, Hank. Sloppy seconds. How does it feel?
Great.
Sloppy seconds.
Great. I like— just listen, I just know how much it hurt you.
No, it actually doesn't hurt me. Oh, good. I would have been way more hurt if it went— if he went to Illinois, if I'm being honest, just because having to play him in, in conference. I think Illinois is gonna be really good again. I am going to— so Duke, if they're making a tournament run Yeah, they're going to be annoyed if they lose in the tournament, which they most likely will after getting like an 18 or 19-point lead. I'm going to say, wow, you spent all that money on, on, on our sloppy seconds and you couldn't get the job done. That's sad. And if they win, I'm going to say you couldn't have won without a Badger. Pretty— I can get my way out of this one, right?
That's easy.
Yeah. Any other Duke news?
No, I thought you were talking about LIV.
Oh, no, that's other Duke news.
The opposite. Yeah.
You have any other Duke?
Yeah. Anything else?
No, I mean, it's the offseason. There's not much. Not much to report on.
All right. Okay.
But yeah, LIV Golf, they launched a new team, so they're thriving.
Oh, what's the new team?
This is— that you're joking, right?
Yeah, it's because Brooks left.
Oh, okay. No, I like— I was like, what's the team? Holy shit. This would be the funniest thing if it was like, actually, we're expanding.
This is Luke's version of like having a kid to save the marriage.
No, Brooks left and they gave him his own team, the Smash, and so they just rebranded it. Now it's Taylor Gooch's Oklahoma Golf Club.
Oh wait, that's not even close to all the other team names. No.
Yeah.
So give us a rundown of all the team names right now.
Uh, there's the Crushers GC. So a lot of GCs. Uh, there's Torquay.
Torque?
Fireballs? No, but on the broadcast they go, 'Torque.' Fireballs. Fireballs. That's Sergio. Four Aces, of course.
So these are just like made-up names, then they just threw out Oklahoma. All right, the Four Aces, the Crushers, the Cliques, the Fireballs, the High Flyers, the Majestics.
Ripper.
Ripper GC.
Wait, wait.
Ripper.
Ironheads. Niblicks.
Niblicks.
I know this is— wait a minute.
No, that's from the first.
This is the original.
Yeah, this is the—
yeah, there was the Niblicks. What happened to the Niblicks?
Where's the Cleeks?
That's like the Irish. Yeah, yeah.
What happened to the Niblicks?
I don't know if they ever even made it.
The Niblets?
The Niblicks.
Aces, Cleeks, Fireballs, High Flyers. Couldn't— can't forget the High Flyers. Bring back the Niblicks. There's just the Korean golf club. Oh, it's kind of like Oklahoma Legion 13 Majestics, Oklahoma Golf Club. So Korea and Oklahoma, well represented. The Range Goats.
Yeah, the two big markets.
Ripper GC, the Southern Guards.
What is—
okay. Oh, a Niblix is an iron golf club with a wide, deeply slanted face used for short shots, flopping.
Oh, nice.
Go watch the video.
Yeah, the flop.
Nifty Niblix.
Hey, what is the Oklahoma golf? Who is from Oklahoma?
Gooch.
Gooch.
So it's just him. He gets control.
It's his team.
Yeah.
It makes way more sense if Max was on.
It's all Brooks's team. Jason Cockrak, Graeme McDowell. Cockrak. Cockrak. Okay.
Jason Cockrak.
K-O-K-R-A-K.
Okay.
I hate that.
They should have been the Cockracks.
Yeah, the Cockracks. What are we doing?
That was a good joke by me.
What?
I hate cockrack. Titty fucking.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a good joke.
I didn't get it.
Yeah, that's a good joke. I can't believe I didn't think of that one first.
I thought I was going to— you were going to appreciate that one. I tried to beat you to it because I thought you were going to say it's good.
I was just— to be honest, I was hypnotized by the phrase cock rack.
Yeah, that's definitely not how you pronounce it. And Harold Varner III, former 4As.
And what's their logo?
It's a bison.
Oh, with a.46 on it.
So yeah, that's the news.
Yeah, they don't like you.
That's the news.
That's the news from, from LIV. Saudi Arabia doesn't like people that have Bisons.
And that was the news. Yeah, no, they do not. No. Okay, uh, now we're gonna time travel, do a quick ad, and then we're gonna talk some Knicks, Hawks, some hockey. By the way, congrats to the Bruins and also the Lightning for evening up the series. We're going to have— we're going to probably have one of our guys, Whit or Biz or Yans, on Sunday night to recap every hockey series and where we're going.
Have you heard the story about how the Tampa Bay Lightning was founded?
You—
wasn't the founder struck by lightning?
No, no.
We got to do it.
It's like we got to do easy money laundering.
Oh, allegedly. But allegedly, the first owner of the Lightning may not— may not have existed. And if he did exist, may have been in the Yakuza.
Oh, I like this.
And no one's ever seen the guy.
So we got to do a deep dive.
It's like that.
Remember that 30 for 30 they did about the Islanders guy? Yeah, that guy rocks.
That guy rocks. The guy that, like, he just scammed his way.
He was buying the Islanders. He just didn't have any money.
Yes. So the Lightning, where they just walked around being like, yeah, I got it.
And they like—
he went through the whole process.
Right.
And they were just like, all right, dude, do you got the money? He's just like, nah.
So the Lightning, when they were starting off, they were an expansion team. So the NHL was willing to pretty much look the other way on whatever money was coming into them. And they had a group together that was ready to buy the team, the expansion rights. Then their investment fell through. Their money guys fell through. They had to scramble and find a new guy and find more money. And then this Japanese guy came in to write the final check. Nobody's ever met him.
Whoa.
He never went to a game. No reporters have ever heard of the guy.
I love—
And then all of a sudden his face shows up. In the official team program, never goes to a game, never sets foot in the United States. And his investments overseas in Japan are tied to like some properties that are heavily involved with allegedly organized crime in Japan. But he might not have even existed. He might just be like a figurehead for the yakuza that happened to also buy, like, use some of his investment money on a team in the NHL in the United States. But he obviously doesn't own the team anymore. Yeah, they made him sell the team because no one knew who the fuck this guy was.
Pretty damn cool.
It is pretty awesome. And I'm honestly shocked that I hadn't heard that story.
Yeah. Just recently, by the way, did you guys see— speaking of hockey, do you see the Avs game where the fans were just banging on the glass behind the Kings bench and it just shattered?
Mm-hmm.
It's badass. Yeah, that's a whole— that's a home ice advantage.
Mm-hmm.
All right, so we got to do a deep dive. We got to find someone we can interview about this.
Who do we know?
Something in the summer we should do, but we should do that in the island.
Do we know anyone involved in pro sports in Tampa, Florida? Hmm. Any, anyone like that?
John Gruden will be on the show on Friday talking the draft.
Yeah.
Oh, are the Mets ever going to win again?
I don't think so.
Okay. 12 in a row.
Yeah, I think they're going to trade the entire team in April. Yeah, it's done.
Just pack it up. Soto's coming back.
Yeah, I don't think it matters.
Okay.
At this point, you're— it's gone so far that if you have a 12-game losing streak, you're like, just the whole season's done.
As soon as you win one, you're probably going to lose 12 more.
Yeah, that's one way to think of it.
Yeah. I mean, it's also the way that you guys are losing. Like, you're doing stupid stuff.
Frank was right.
Your management— I don't know, like, it's hard to throw everything on a manager in baseball because there's only so much effect they have on the outcome of the game. But it feels like you guys have pissed away a few wins.
More than a few. Every win.
Yeah.
They should have won all these games.
Yeah. Oh, this should have been a 12-game winning streak.
Yeah. All they had to do was score like 3 runs each game.
That's pretty bad. If you want to trade— if Soto wants to come home, Nats have— they've got the best offense in baseball.
So you don't need Soto.
Yeah, you're right. Good point. Don't need them.
Don't even need them. Okay, uh, let's get to some more playoff action, then we'll do Hot Seat, Cool Throne. We got two awesome interviews coming up. Okay, DraftKings, the NBA playoffs are in full swing and the intensity isn't letting up. Every night delivers high-stakes drama, clutch performances, and unforgettable moments you'll be talking about for years. And with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, your winnings get a boost every single day, all playoffs long. Playoffs, uh, playoff stars turn it up round by round, and DraftKings turns it up with them with a profit boost available every single game day from the first round all the way to the finals. Bet player props, bet live from the opening tip to the final possession. Every bucket, every dime, every clutch takeover matters, and only DraftKings Sportsbook keeps boosting you all the way through. All DraftKings customers can enjoy a profit boost every single day throughout Playoffs. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Use code TAKE to claim your profit boost. That's code TAKE to get a boost for every day of the NBA playoffs. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. All right, boys.
Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPEN-Y or text HOPEN-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. One profit boost per customer per day. NBA playoff Bets only. Bet restrictions apply and vary when offered. Max bet and boost vary. Boost only applies to winnings and expires at the end of the last NBA game each day. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos.
We need a pick to, uh, for the people. We're gonna do a parlay. Do you guys have— I have, I have my, I have my pick and it's, it's in line. I'm leaving the, the guaranteed pick for you, PFT. I'm not trying to take your guaranteed.
Please don't.
I will not. But it's in line with the guaranteed pick because in order for the guaranteed pick of the Pistons winning to happen, I think it's Tobias Harris.
That was actually going to be my pick. That was going to be— I was looking at Tobias Harris. I was looking at points, rebounds, assists.
I was just going to go 15 points.
I love it. I love it.
15 points, Tobias Harris.
Max, I will not be taking this pick.
Oh, come on.
Come on.
It's where the boys together.
Why are you not going to take the podcast pick?
Max, some things are bigger than the pod.
Oh, you hate Tobias Harris that much? Yeah, Toby and Bobby, you're a Boban guy. Definitely best friend.
Oh, we should—
ah, that was—
that's good.
We should have asked him about that.
Yeah, you should have. You should have. Bad, bad job by you.
Uh, Hank, I'll be fading, fading myself. The line doesn't make a lot of sense to me, therefore I'll be taking the Detroit Pistons -9.5.
Okay, so we just taken all of PFT's picks.
I'm going to take Duncan Robinson, 3-3s.
All right. So we've loaded up on the— peace up, peace up. Yeah, peace up. Okay, give these a chance. Let's, let's talk about— so, so we already talked about Tuesday night's games. Let's go back in time, talk Monday night's games. I think we should probably start with the series I think we all are very tuned in on is the Cavs-Raptors. Mm-hmm. Yeah, the Cavs-Raptors. I— this was one of my series that I already said was over. I think we can all agree it's over.
It's over.
It's over.
We don't need to do it.
We actually don't have a recap on a game that didn't happen.
Yeah, we don't. It's—
it is what it is.
I think I saw a stat that the Cavs have now beaten the Raptors 12 straight times, uh, in the playoffs.
12 straight games or 12 straight games?
12 straight games. Been 10 years since the Cavs lost to the Raptors in the postseason.
That's pretty impressive.
Yeah. So this is just— and the Raptors even admitted it. They were just like, I think I saw a quote RJ Barrett said, to be honest, talking about James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, he said, to be honest, they're a problem. They're a problem. We got to watch film and figure out how to fix that. Yeah, it's a problem.
We're having— we're having some problems stopping the Cavaliers. Well, it's very accurate analysis, actually. So Harden, the smart move for him would be to just make sure that it doesn't get to a Game 6 or a Game 7.
Yes.
And so are we saying that it's going to be a sweep?
Uh, I'm going to give the Raptors 1.
Okay.
Just, just, I just throw a nice 1 out there.
Yeah. The gentleman's sweep.
Yeah. That's just a, hey guys, here you go.
The Canadian blowout.
Have, have 1 and you can, you can enjoy it. I'm looking at that. I'm looking back right now. Let's see the, uh, Cavs, Raptors. Let me see Raptors. Oh wait, no, that's all right. So that's not true. The Raptors have beaten the Cavs in games. I don't know why I saw that stat. Maybe it's just home games. Cleveland. Maybe it's years. That they haven't won. They haven't beaten the— let me look at this stat again.
Let me try.
It's been 10 years since the Cavs lost to the Raptors. Oh yeah, it's just lost to the Raptors in the postseason. Okay, so, uh, yeah, it's a long time.
I think it's been longer than that for the Wizards. I don't know if the Wizards have ever lost to the Raptors in the postseason.
Oh, that's huge. Yeah, hold on, I'm looking, I'm looking this up again. Yeah, they beat it. They played in 27 17, 18, that was a 7-game series and they played. Yeah, they've played. They played some good series, but this one is not a good series.
It's not. But Scottie Barnes, future face of this league, might get a future face of this league game coming up.
Future face of this league. OK, let's let— that was a joke. We're not actually here to talk about the Cavs and Raptors. We're here to talk about the Hawks and the Knicks. And that series is also over, per part of my take. That was— it was— you're right, Hank. Yep, you're right. It was said to be over. Uh, is it over still?
Never said which way it was over.
Oh, true. Yes.
Okay, Connor, you're right there. You are.
What's— so before we talk about the game, let's, let's get to the bottom of this beef. I did see a tweet that, uh, uh, memes throughout there that said that Hank actually has tweeted more about the Cavs— or sorry, the Knicks and the Hawks series. 2 games so far.
Game 2, it was specifically Game 2.
Then he did all about his own team being in the Super Bowl. Is that true? It was wrong.
No, it's not.
Yeah, it was. Sorry, he had 4 tweets for the Super Bowl.
That—
what about the halftime show?
No, tweet about it after when we were recording the podcast.
Yeah, save it for the show.
Smart.
Hank's always thinking about the pod.
Always.
So, memes.
But yeah, that was just an incorrect statement.
You're wrong.
But the sentiment behind it was you're upset because Hank seems to be taking more joy in watching you lose than he is with his own teams.
Mm.
Correct. How many times did he tweet about the Celtics game 1? Just one clip of Jason Tatum.
Just one clip. And wait, how many was the total number for last night?
3.
What do you think? 3. What do you think that means?
I had twice during the game, I tweeted one clip this morning, which was just a video.
Rollover.
Dante screaming.
That's a rollover. Jumping, which made me laugh.
That's a roller.
So, so, Memes, what is your takeaway from, from Hank doing that? Why is this a problem?
Good question.
Well, he's just a fuckface.
Well, that, that's established. That's actually like all— that's in the part of my take constitution.
It's canon.
Hank, Hank is a fuckface. That's law. He is. Look at him right now. Are you guys okay between the two of you? I mean, Memes is the most sore loser we—
maybe in this whole company.
Really?
Yeah.
He just smiles.
He talks so much shit. He talks so much shit.
Hold on. That's Now, just, just so we are clear here, that's saying something because we are a company of sore losers, myself included. Like, no one here loses well. You think he is number one sorest loser?
He's top of the list.
Wow.
He told me, he told me, he kept telling me how he was coming. He's thinking about me in the shower, all this stuff.
Wait, what?
Yeah, that's what he's been like sexually assaulting me for weeks.
Well, that's crazy. Hank was saying the N-word back here.
I said Knicks.
You're always saying that.
That's insane. You're saying the K-word.
You're saying I was sexually assaulting you.
You did.
You—
fact or fiction? You said, I think about you in the shower.
I think about the Celtics and the Knicks in the shower. You're just putting yourself there and you won't be there.
But you're— you're— you're— you're— you are thinking about Hank, though, in that Celtics-Knicks shower thoughts.
No, I just thought about just being Celtics.
But that's that you could see in Hank's defense, like, that, that feels like a Hank wet dream.
Hank's kind of part of the team.
Joe Mazzulla has him as part of the roster.
I mean, fact or fiction, he was on the duck boats. He was in the celebration at the parade.
That's true.
I kind of, I kind of rule with Hank on that. You were thinking about Hank in the shower.
What makes, what makes Meebs such a sore loser? I don't know. I never thought he was sore loser.
He comes in and he just acts like he wants to fight. He starts throwing around crazy allegations and he just like—
what, the, the N-word that you said? N-word.
Yeah, the, the the Twitter receipts, which were wrong. But it's like, it's game 1. If you're going to talk shit, you got to be able to like take it when you lose.
Man, fact or fiction? We're obviously taping this in the— we're taping this in the morning and we haven't— we don't know what happens on Tuesday night as we're sitting here. Imagine if the Sixers win this.
Now Celtics won that game.
Okay. Okay. All right. So Memes, any, any response to this?
Well, they like— nobody says anything when you win. And they just want to see the Knicks lose, and then they just pile on. It's Game 2.
Can I, can I say something?
Welcome to America.
I do think— would you agree, Memes? And, uh, I think I've seen a little bit of this bubbling up. Knicks fans, like, doing the videos after losses is weird. Saying fuck Trae Young, who's not on the Hawks, is a little weird. It does— it feels like those post-game videos, which I think are so— were so awesome when the Knicks were underdogs. Now that they're favorites in this series and like should go to the conference finals, all this stuff, it feels like it's maybe the— I don't know, it's people just trying to go viral, not people who are like authentic.
Yeah, no, that's fair. Yeah, I don't think the people outside the game last night were Knicks fans.
Yeah, that was weird. It was just weird to be like yelling, doing a yelling video after a loss. It should— after a loss, everyone should just be depressed.
Yeah, no, I'm with you. I didn't really understand that video.
OK, my favorite narrative of this game is now the CJ McCollum villain arc. Yeah, that he's on. We've turned CJ McCollum into a villain. Such a, such a villain. When I think NBA villain, I think, I think nice guy CJ McCollum. I think he's out there breaking the hearts of the very, the easily, easily rootable for Knicks fans, James Dolan and the Palantir surveillance state at MSG. And CJ McCollum is going in there and breaking their sweet little innocent hearts.
Yeah.
And I think it's just he's a scary guy. Yeah. I'm terrified of CJ McCollum.
My biggest takeaway from this game is, and I know that there will— there are a lot of people who are very defensive, rightfully so, of Jalen Brunson, but this was a bad Jalen Brunson game. This was a— if you don't think a team with Jalen Brunson as the number one star can win a championship, that was like, this is why. The ball just stopped in his hand for what felt like forever in the last 8 minutes of the fourth, and he was getting torched on defense. He could not stay in front of CJ McCollum whatsoever.
So McCollum was 9 for 12 when he's got Jalen Brunson.
And that's the point. That's like, Jalen Brunson is a very, very good player. We were having this debate on Wake Up Barstool, like, how many times have you had a championship team where the player is somewhere in like the 8th to 12th best player in the NBA? Not a lot. Like, you need— I don't know, that would be my only concern. I do think the Knicks are going to win this series. But it was a— this is bad. This is, this is why you have to be a little nervous about Jalen Brunson when he can't— he was getting— it was, it looked like one of us trying to guard CJ McCollum at sometimes. Would you agree, Memes?
Yeah, no, that was tough.
The—
but I do think overall coaching lost the game.
Um, I would say it was more Jalen Brunson, but yeah, the, the coaching— why? Because of—
no, they just went— they would just go like 10 minutes without Jalen Brunson and Cat in the game.
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
What do you think about going two bigs? What do you think about going KAT and Mitchell?
I like that. But last year in the playoffs, Tibbs did do a good job. One of either Jalen Brunson or KAT always was in the game at all times and plus-minus was positive each time.
Yeah.
As soon as they go out, it's just negative plus-minus.
But you had a lead. You had an 18-point lead going into like the end of the third quarter and then Jalen Brunson was just It was just ball hogging and they were out.
And when they came back in, they were still up 9 or 8. Yeah, that's when the announcer said, this is Rucker, we're in Rucker Park right now. Yeah, that was my favorite part of the game. I laughed pretty hard when they're like, this sounds like Rucker Park.
Tough, tough night for the NBC crew with the timeout gate where they had a phantom timeout on the screen. I think Noah Eagle said they had a timeout left. Turns out they did not have a timeout left, which was though Mike Brown's fault. Because he didn't use his use it or lose it before the 3-minute mark and then called timeout at 2:43. That was bad.
Yeah, no, he just had his hands in his pocket for majority of the fourth.
I do think though people are preying on the Knicks downfall. It's one game. It's one game.
I think the Knicks are still going to win this one game. I do.
Why are we freaking out? It's one game. Jalen Brunson needs to not play iso ball.
And blowing a huge fourth quarter lead at home, not a cause of concern?
It's definitely a cause of concern.
Go Meebs, go!
Celtics have never done this twice last year? Are you fucking kidding me?
Yeah, it was a cause of concern. We lost a series. 100— like 100% if that happens, it's a cause of concern. I agree.
You blew two 20-point leads in the fourth.
And what happened in that series?
He's got you there. Maybe she walked into that.
Maybe she's kind of agreeing.
Kind of got you. He's—
by agreeing with you, he's actually—
he's like, yeah, when the Celtics blew those leads, it was a cause of concern.
These are just one lead.
It's just one lead. So, so it has to be another big lead.
Yeah.
For there to be a cause of concern.
Yes.
Okay. So right now, not concerned.
No. How—
on a scale of 1 to 10, how not concerned are you?
I'm at a 10.
Oh, so, so really not concerned?
No, really not concerned because last year they lost game 2 pretty handily to the Pistons at home.
Mm-hmm.
Went to Detroit, won 2, came back, lost, and then went back to Detroit and won.
Okay.
So we're just doing, we're just doing the same thing as last year.
Yeah.
So that's checkmate, Hank.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
Gotcha.
I do think it's funny though that the media is trying to turn CJ McCollum into a villain. The least villain player in the NFL or in the NBA. And after the game, he was like, I'm just, I'm just a nice guy with a wife and kids. I don't know what you— I think they want him to be Trae Young so bad. Like they want anybody that beats the Knicks to be Trae Young and CJ McCollum. Just like, I'm sorry, I'm not a villain. I just, I had Jalen Brunson trying to guard me one-on-one in the fourth quarter. I couldn't miss.
Yeah. By the way, I just, for the most No one gives a fuck, but I just want to update my update to my update. The Cavs have beaten the Raptors 12 straight games. I was reading the thing wrong.
See, they did.
They swept them in 2017, 2018. They swept them in 2016, 2017, and they beat them the last 2 games in the year before that. So it is, it is 12 straight.
I do mean, to your point, sorry about that for everyone.
I know no one cares.
I do think that Knicks have a coaching mismatch problem in the series. I don't think that's going to be an issue. I think they're still going to win. But I think Quinn Snyder is like by far a better coach.
Yeah, I agree with you. It was just deflating. Yeah, they should just won.
They should have won the game. So that feels like maybe a mini cause for concern.
Yeah, mini cause.
How, how much do you hate Henry Lockwood?
A lot.
Yeah. Like how much?
A lot.
Okay.
Why would you fight him if it was allowed? If we were— if we allowed— we said physical violence is allowed for the next hour, would you fight him? No. But I was like, hey, it's totally clear. Like whatever happens next hour, you can— it cannot be held against you. No laws. Just do whatever you want. Would you physically— would you put hands on him?
No.
What if he said the N-word again?
Then we might have to—
Memes, without using the word fuckface, can you just describe why you hate Hank so much right now?
Privilege.
That's good. Listen, Memes, I said before we got in here, I was like, I hate Hank too. So it's like, but you did get mousetrapped in the cause for concern debate there that he got you on because they did lose the series.
They did lose that series.
Right, and you had cause for concern.
Is it privilege or just winning?
Yeah, no, here's the thing, Mims. When you say that it's privilege, it sounds— I don't think you're being completely honest. I don't think you're telling the whole truth on why you hate Hank, because I think it goes deeper than just the fact that Hank wins.
Hank's only won one time since I've been on the show.
So what privilege are you talking about?
Uh, His team's good.
Seems good.
Yeah.
Right now they're playing, they're playing the 76ers without Embiid. The Patriots just had the easiest schedule of all time to a Super Bowl.
It sounds more personal than just privilege.
Yeah.
It sounds like there's something else there.
It's privilege.
One and away game, AFC Championship against Jared Stidham.
That's that. There you go, Beast. That helps you. Privilege.
Thank you. Yes.
All right.
I can't—
I mean, I hope Knicks-Celtics happens, but the Hawks, I mean, they're dangerous. CJ McCollum is a killer. He was— everyone could have had him on their team.
Yeah.
I have a question for Connor. You said this Knicks team was built to beat the Celtics. Are they built to beat the Hawks?
Oh, no, they're not built to beat the Hawks. They're not built to beat the Pacers. They were designed to beat the number 1 seed Celtics.
No, the Celtics, the number one seed.
No, last year.
Got it.
Okay, so you designed a team to beat a team from last year that you already beat.
Yeah, but they still have Tatum, Jaylen Brown. We have long wings designed to defend them like an albatross. Yeah, because all they do is shoot threes and they're one-dimensional.
What happened with Jaylen Brunson on the last possession? He just didn't want the ball. That was weird.
Off the rebound, Josh Hart. I just think—
I think he was just maybe looking that way. Mikael Bridges. I, I know that everyone's gonna blame Mikael Bridges. I mean, he— it wasn't a terrible shot, and I think a lot of people were mad in the moment because they thought they had a timeout they didn't use. If they, if they had a timeout they didn't use it, that would have been egregious.
I think you just got to go to the rack.
Yeah, probably.
Yeah, because if you get fouled, go on the line, make one or two. Yeah, make both.
So how many games, memes?
No, I think we're going 6 or 7.
Okay, 6 or— oh, so You said that it was not a cause of concern. You said that you were at a 10 on your not concerned meter. But if you go 7 games, that's— you're going to be concerned.
I think we're just doing the same thing as last year.
But you know what I'm saying? Like, if you predict 7 games, that means you're going to be very concerned.
That would be a very concerning game.
Yeah.
No, it's not that concerning.
Okay.
I think it's going to be— but you're going to blow them out in game 7.
No, it'd probably still be close.
Okay, but not—
never concerned.
Yeah, I had confidence with this team going into the series. Like, huh, I'll apologize for that, but no, you don't apologize. It just turns out it's one game. They're just probably the same team.
It's one game, memes. You just— if they lose game 3, then you can maybe start apologizing. It's one game.
I apologize for saying the series is over.
Okay, okay.
Well, yeah, I mean, it's— there's probably AWLs watching who didn't watch the game because of You did.
I apologize to those people.
Okay.
Okay. Who do you hate more in this group? Trae Young, Hank, or CJ McCollum?
It's a good question.
Good question.
Not CJ McCollum.
Okay.
I like CJ McCollum.
Yeah. Recurring guest.
I'll go with Hank.
Okay.
Okay.
Smart. Yeah.
Fair.
All right. The other, the other, the other. The series that we said make sure you keep watching, Timberwolves-Nuggets, is now 1-1. And it was the Gobert game, not from a points perspective, but the defense that the Wolves— sorry, T-Wolves— put on the Nuggets in the fourth quarter was insane. Jaden McDaniels and Gobert like had the pick and roll in fucking hell with Jamal Murray and Jokic. And now we're going back to Minnesota and that's it. Like they're The Timberwolves, when they ratchet up the defense, they're, they're scary. We've seen this story the last few years.
The Timberwolves. Yeah, it was a, uh, I think this is exactly what we said that they needed on Monday. We needed the Rudy Gobert where he doesn't score at all. He doesn't score at all. And if you look at his stats, even on defense, like, didn't really do much. Like, he had a decent game rebounding.
Um, well, there was a lot of rebounds that were stolen from—
like, he was there, but he mucked everything up. Yeah, he would just like run into Jokic, pissed him off early. That was That was the key. Like with Jokic, I feel like every game he's going to get better as the game goes on and everybody else gets tired. But if you can piss him off in the first quarter and in, in the first half and, and make sure that he doesn't fill up the stat sheet by halftime, then you've given yourself some room where maybe you can win.
There was also some moments where like Jokic was just not going to his floater, that is always like passing out of it and deciding not to take it. He was taking, you know, I, I think that The Timberwolves have said, hey, let's have Jokic just take threes. He was 1 for 7. He's taken 14 threes in the first 2 games, 3 for 14. That's a, a winning recipe in terms of like you want Jokic taking threes versus Jokic going to the, to the rim, passing out of it, or hitting that floater that feels automatic. And we also had Jamal Murray with— I don't even understand what he was doing in that last possession, taking a, uh, long 2 down 3 with 11 seconds left left, uh, in the game. No idea. Yeah, this dude, just take a step-back 3. I'd rather have that.
That's the— you don't need a 3 here-ification of the game.
Yeah, but they go to the rim. They go to the rim.
There could be— there could be like 2 seconds left in the game, you're down by 3, and I'll be like, don't need a 3 here. Yeah, it always sounds really smart when you say it. Uh, you're gonna hear this stat a whole lot because we've got a couple 1-1 games. Um, if you had— if you go up 2-0 in a series, that team wins 92.7 percent of the time. In the first round, it's 94% of the time. And now if the team goes up 2-1, now they move on 80% of the time. Everyone's going to be saying that with this game. Um, I still think the Nuggets win. I think the Nuggets win in 6, but they— the, the Timberwolves do have a formula for— they've done it before. Yeah, this is how you piss off the Nuggets enough and shake them out of their game for a little bit where you can take advantage if you have a good game from from your players.
The—
also, Max, you ready for this? You know, ready? You know, who's like most important player? Maybe not best player, most important player. Not— maybe not even most important player, best player. He's just a dog.
You're gonna say— this is gonna piss memes off what you're about to say.
It is.
But Dante Divacenko is so fucking good, dude. He was everywhere. He's exactly what you want out of that player. Like, Rebounding, assists. When he shoot, you know he's not going to take the most shots, that's going to go to Ant. When he shoots, he makes them. 6 for 9. Like, he was— made 4 threes, made huge play after huge play. Like, that guy is a winning player.
Memes was saying all year that he would rather have Dante than Giannis on the— at the trade.
I love Dante.
Dante's my favorite player ever.
Wait, so hold on, Mitchell Robinson best player in the NBA, Dante DiVincenzo better than Giannis?
Probably.
So you guys had the best team of all time?
No, he did.
Plus-minus in this game, 20, plus 20.
He was plus 20 and the next highest was plus 6.
Dude, he was so good every time he was on the court. And he just— again, it's, it's when you have a guy who's like, he's going to be the third or fourth highest volume shot taker, but when he takes them, he makes them. It's, it's invaluable. It's crazy. He was so good. He was everywhere too.
Who would you rather have, Big Cat? Would you rather have Dante or Karl-Anthony Towns?
Mm. I mean, I think Dante.
Yeah, I think Dante. I think Dante too. There's something about also breaking up a fast break like a 2-on-1. If you're that defender and you break up that 2-on-1, that feels like— it feels like you just had 3 fast breaks of your own. It's crazy. Such a momentum switch. Yeah. What's that, memes? He's—
now we're just talking Dante back here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just give us the Dante.
Dante's the best. I love Dante. Yeah. To be fair, Karl-Anthony Towns has been to the conference finals.
I love Dante. It's concerning that he passed out in a pool.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
But he— and he also, he, he lost his DJ computer, but then he found it.
That's good. Yeah, that's good. So massive dub. That's why he's the best.
He doesn't know that he's being filmed.
Yeah. Despite being filmed the whole time everywhere. Yeah.
That took me way too— I was like, there are a bunch of stories about him that I don't know.
Speaking of—
that's going to confuse so many people that are listening to this.
Yes, big time.
Speaking of guys that probably don't understand the impact of talking into cameras when they're around, Jaden McDaniels after the game really, really kind of turned it up a little bit.
What did he say?
If I was on the Minnesota Tim Dubs, I would be pretty upset with what Jaden McDaniels said.
What did he say?
After the game, he just talked about the Nuggets defense and he said, go after Jokic, Jamal, all the bad defenders. Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team, just go at him. And then they said, wait, they're all bad defenders? He said, yeah, they're all bad defenders. They don't got people that can defend the rim. We're still more athletic than them. We just got to be able to finish when we do.
I mean, he's not wrong.
He's— he might not be wrong, but you don't need Jaden McDaniels. Yeah, he's saying this.
I mean, he's a good defender, so he knows good defense.
He does. But like, you don't need to say it after game— it's a 1-1 series.
Well, we also had Anthony Edwards Very funny quote. Did you see he said, uh, when he was looking at his box score in the postgame, he said, shit's ass, I missed 15 shots. He's like, I'm ass.
Shit's ass.
Yeah, shit's ass. Shit's ass. Uh, okay, hockey. Flyers fired up. What do you think?
The Flyers are fun. The goalie's a beast. Biz is doing awesome videos in the Darth Vader mask. Porter Martone is a superstar.
By the way, can we just say real quick that Porter Martone getting to play in Philly and you guys all having to say Porter Martone is so awesome.
That was a great video.
Porter Martone. Yeah, it's great. It's a perfect name for Philadelphia.
It's great.
I love the Max's analysis. It's just going to be throughout the playoffs, like Porter Martone.
That's all I care.
That's—
there were—
yeah, there's a guy named Hathaway that scored last night. I was— made me think of Anne Hathaway.
Good analysis.
Yeah.
Uh, I fucking hate Anne Hathaway. I don't know why.
What?
We all— I—
it was a crazy thing.
I know, I know, it's crazy. We'll have people that just kind of love us the wrong way for whatever I've just never been in.
And she's a legend of the game. Yeah, this is crazy.
I think she's just kind of annoying. She's always been— I don't know, she's just been irritating to me.
You know, she's an actor.
I do know she's an actor.
That's not her.
An actress. You know what?
She's beautiful.
She's a huge— she's a— she's not gonna fuck. Not gonna fuck you, Max.
Great actor.
That's very funny.
Oh yeah.
How tall is she? Oh, let's find out. Yeah, you guys, I don't know.
She just— maybe it's the fact that she's a massive Danny Woodhead fan and that makes me jealous.
That should make you love her.
I know.
That's crazy.
Just never been a fan.
I love Anne Hathaway. She's— oh, she's 5'8".
Yeah.
So we get it.
We get the average.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Perfect average height.
Shit. I don't know.
We all have people like that that you just, for whatever reason, irritating.
Yeah, that's fair. I like how we got the— yeah, I was talking about Anne Hathaway.
Yeah, she's a fuck face.
We also— so, so you guys are dominating this series up to both road games, also dominating the fans. I don't know if you guys saw one of the weirdest NFL Twitter beefs, online Twitter beefs.
I didn't think that you were going to talk about that.
I didn't either, but it was so uncomfortable.
That was insane.
I guess I don't know the whole backstory, but there's a Twitter user named Pickensburg who has had beef with Icy Vert. Uh, from Snapback Sports, and Pitts— Pickensburg went up to Icy Vert and, and confronted him. I think the viewer just lost. Everyone—
Icy Vert has like— he should get a restraining order on that.
But I like— but then again, I have to give, I have to give credit because I love weird internet and I love crazy people. Pickensburg did a 7-hour Periscope after letting people just come on and being like, do you think I won or lost?
And I might be back in. I think I'm back in. I was— I watched that video, I was like, this was a bad look.
Yeah, for picking 7 hours. So be like, all right, you're on. Do you think I won or lost? And then people would be like, lost. And he'd be like, why?
I think I'm back in. I'm in.
I like the caption. He went up to him and he was like, and he folded.
Yeah, he absolutely—
and the guy was just like, this is weird, this is weird.
What are you doing? You need one of these. Like, it's just— it's, it's a true like, hey, just if you don't root for the Flyers or the Penguins just grab your popcorn and watch these two go at each other.
What was the start of this?
But it's not going at each other.
I gotta know what the origin story is. What happened between the two of them?
I think it was something about trans kids.
I don't understand.
It's—
he just keeps calling him icy lib, but I don't know why.
And then, dude, this shit cracks me up.
It cracks me up.
And the look on the— and the look on the icy vert kid's face was like, are serious.
Yeah, it was so funny. Oh my God, I, I, this is why Rough and Rowdy exists. No, but that was part— Pickensburg said, why wouldn't you fight me? And Icy Vert was like, because I have a broken back. Yeah, yeah, it's so funny. Yeah, yeah, shout out. He's like, I'm not good at fighting. Like, that's actually a totally fine thing to say when someone tries to step to you on the Twitter streets.
Where this goes next, I don't know, but I'm—
I will be tuned in. Yeah, if Pickensburg does another marathon Periscope, like him just addressing every single person. Respect on that side, because like, I also— it's just ridiculous. The whole thing's ridiculous.
Respect to Pickensburgh for keeping the Pickensburgh handle. Yeah, like long after Georgie's gone.
Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, it's quite something. I think he got— I think he got like, uh, halfway through the— I tuned in for like a little bit, and halfway through the Periscope he was like, they just figured out that he was lying about his height. And that was the whole thing.
Pickensburg was— yeah, he said 6 feet.
And then they all— a common— I'm in too deep. I apologize. A lot of people are like, what the fuck are you talking about? But I'll just finish with this. The common denominator was both of them took a picture with Amanda Vance, and then they were like, who's, who's taller compared to her? I was like, all right, I got to go.
I see the green light.
I got to go to sleep.
Who stood up straighter with her?
We had the Hurricane Centers, which, by the way, That was, that was crazy because people were blaming Carolina for being a bad hockey town, for being empty in overtime. But they had a goal that they didn't tell them they were going to review and people left.
Yeah, but you got to stick around.
You do.
A true hockey fan knows. Yeah. Did you know that the owner of the Hurricanes is the same guy that owns the Blazers?
Oh, Dundon.
Dundon.
Cheapo guy. Cheapo Dundon.
The subprime god. The guy that I think he's been investigated or his company has been investigated in like Infinity States for charging just predatory loans.
There were more— there are more stories about it. This one actually, like, pissed me off. There was a story that the day of the Blazers-Suns game, he— an eyewitness saw a bunch of the Blazers staff just sitting in the hotel lobby at like 1:00 because Dundon made them all check out early so they didn't have to pay for like a super late checkout. Because they were traveling after the game. Yeah. So you just basically made them all leave their hotel room. There's actually nothing worse than having to leave a hotel room and you have like that gap of 5 hours where you just have to walk around with your bags. That's the worst. Yeah.
Pretty bad. Do you think that he bought the Blazers because their logo is the most similar to the Hurricanes logo?
Maybe.
And he just didn't want to pay for like having different logos everywhere.
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe he's got like some, some kind of weird thing.
He's got a Spanish with the holes. Yeah.
He puts the logo.
He's like, all right, I don't have to change anything.
Great thing.
I think that had something to do with it.
Yeah, we also— the, the Oilers game was crazy. I mean, the Oilers played too late at night, but, uh, to win with like 2 minutes left— we're oiled up this year. Listen, wake me up, Dana White. We're oiled up.
Wake me up in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Yeah. Oh, we'll be there.
I watched some of the Wild-Stars game.
Yeah, and thoughts?
Uh, there was one sequence where the goalie had a really sick save and then The Stars also scored on the other side in like 15 seconds.
It was, it was, it was lit. Oh, hell yeah.
So that's, that's my analysis on that game.
Okay, that's good.
We'll have, uh, I could just, I might just become a hockey guy.
We'll have Bizzer Whip back on soon.
Nah, I got it.
Don't worry about it. Max, you got it.
Max, okay, so what's your final prediction for Flyers-Penguins?
Uh, Flyers in 6.
Okay, okay.
Uh, what about—
what's your prediction for Pickensburg, Icy Vert?
Uh, I don't know. It started off Icy Vert won, won the exchange, but hearing about the Periscope, I think Pickensburg may have went 1-1.
He did. He, he faced the music so much that he actually— too much.
Yeah, I think, I think it might be back to 1-1.
Uh, Boston Buffalo.
Oh, let's keep all— keep track of all these.
Sabers for sure.
Okay, Sabers for sure. In how many?
Sabs up. Yep.
How many games?
7. That one's going to go 7.
Okay. Go the distance. Tampa Bay, Montreal.
Montreal. Tampa's washed.
Okay. Yep.
Okay. The Mammoth and the Knights. By the way, I love the Mambo.
Oh dude, I want it.
The Mammoth Zamboni is the coolest thing that's ever existed.
Our guy Jordan Schmalz. I won a free ride on them on the on the Mambo.
What do you mean? Our guy, what did he give it? Was he giving away?
No, he— so Jordan Schmalz, who's doing the, the Yugg Off with Dana, he's got the Home by 3 podcast. Shout out those guys, Rob Gucci. His brother, older brother or younger brother, plays for the Mammoth. And we bet on— he went— Jordan went to play at North Dakota and we bet North Dakota, Wisconsin. And the, the— I got, I got a ride on the Mammoth so we can go on it.
The Mambo is—
we go.
It's the coolest piece of technology that's ever existed at a hockey game.
So we have a free ride if we want to go.
It is.
I get a plus one too, so I'll take you.
It is fucking awesome. I love that thing. Los Angeles, Colorado.
Colorado, McKinnon.
Are you kidding me? Yep. Yep.
You kidding me?
I'm not kidding me. How many games?
I'm not kidding, man.
You kidding me? Yeah, easy.
How many games?
5.
Okay.
All right. What am I leaving out?
Ducks, Oilers.
Ducks, Oilers.
Oh, McDavid.
Yeah.
Yeah.
4.
Okay. Easy.
Yeah.
McDavid.
Yes. 4. It's very possible.
And then did you already say Stars-Wild?
I like the Wild in 7.
Okay. Wow. Great series.
Yeah.
And Carolina—
Hurricanes 4. They play—
they play—
Hurricanes 4.
Hurricanes 4. They're the best team in hockey for sure. They play slow and boring, but they're just going to win. Memes told me that. That was exact words from Memes.
That's actually— that's very good analysis. They're so good.
So good.
And they're very, very boring to watch unless you're a Hurricanes fan. And if you are, it's probably the best. Yeah.
Okay. That was our hockey expert, Max Salente.
You're right. We don't need any of the Chiclets guys.
Max.
Yeah, we got Max. He's ready to go.
You mentioned naming your podcast after spitting a piece of candy out. Max would never do that.
No, never, never.
Candy in.
Candy in.
The Max Swallowing Chiclets.
Swallowing, swallowing candy. The Max DeLente Hockey Podcast.
Okay, before we get to our interviews, let's do hot seat, cool throne.
It is actually— Max, it should be swallowing gum. Yeah, you don't really enunciate the G. That's Hank.
People don't talk about it enough that Hank just has swallowed every piece of gum he's ever had in his life. We don't talk about that enough.
Hank swallows gum.
That should be something that's talked about.
It's good for you.
You just never spit out gum.
No, no.
If, if the gum's in your mouth, you're swallowing.
Yeah, I'm not a quitter.
No.
Crazy.
Okay, before we get to Hot Seat, Cool Throne, DraftKings, the NBA playoffs are in full swing and the intensity isn't letting up. Every night delivers high-stakes drama, clutch performances, and unforgettable moments you'll be talking about for years. And with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, your winnings get a boost every single day, all playoffs long. Bet player props, bet live from the opening tip to the final possession. Every bucket, every dime, every clutch, Takeover matters, and only DraftKings Sportsbook keeps boosting you all the way through. All DraftKings customers can enjoy a profit boost every single day throughout the playoffs. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Use code TAKE to claim your profit boost. That's code TAKE to get a boost every day of the NBA playoffs in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. We're also brought to you by Gambling Problem Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET.
New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Casino in Kansas. Wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. One profit boost per customer per day. NBA playoffs bets only. Bet restrictions apply and vary when offered. Max bet and boost vary. Boost only applies to winnings and expires at the end of the last NBA game each day. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos.
All right, Body Armor. This episode is brought to you by Body Armor Flash IV. Flash IV is packed with electrolytes, delivering faster, longer-lasting hydration without any artificial dyes, flavors, or sweeteners. Whether you're training, traveling, or just feeling the heat. Work hard and hydrate hard with BodyArmor Flash IV. Grab it at 7-Eleven today. We love BodyArmor. We drink the Flash IV. We're gonna need to take some Flash IV with us to Vegas, Max. BodyArmor Flash IV. Are you back, Max? Did you have some BodyArmor Flash IV?
I'm good, I'm good, I feel good.
Guess how many baths he's had since you last seen him?
4?
No, 3.
Okay. Work hard and hydrate hard with BodyArmor Flash IV. Grab it at 7-Eleven. How have you had 3 baths? Baths, uh, in 24 hours?
I took one when I got home from work yesterday.
Okay.
I took one before bed yesterday, and I took one when I woke up this morning.
You're just bathing your way out of it.
You were still pruney probably when you got in for the second bath.
That could have been.
Did you go bubbles in all three?
Oh yeah, every guy.
Candles? Bubbles? Candles?
Huh?
Candles?
Candles?
Maybe one kid.
You think our fans would buy Max Delonte bath bombs?
Yes, definitely.
The—
it smells like a fart.
Rubber duckies where I'm just sitting cross-legged.
Oh, Max, rubber duckies would be good. Okay, we can think about it. Uh, Hank, your hot seat. Cool.
Uh, my hot seat are people in the media who think, uh, Buffalo fans are fair-weather fans.
Oh, who's that?
Just a lot— I've seen a lot of media people say it. Yeah, last couple days, uh, this guy Francis Daniels put out a tweet with some stats that Buffalo has made the playoffs since 2001. They were the largest US market for 2026 Olympic gold medal game. In 2015, '16, '17, '18, '19, '21— or not '21, '22, '23, 2024— they were the largest local viewership from a neutral market. And they're projected as the largest US market for the 2026 regular season.
So, okay, so good hockey time.
Egg on those people's faces.
Yeah, idiots. They've been just thirsty for good hockey and they deserve it. Deserve it.
Yeah, I guess.
And like, are these people Boston fans?
Who?
The people who have egg on their face?
Just people in the media.
Yes.
I don't know what people, what teams, you know, media people are unbiased and they just look at things, you know.
If they were, if they were Boston sports fans, I would imagine that they, if they're going to say something like that about Buffalo, they're probably locked in all year long on the Bruins, right?
You would assume so, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so not fair weather fans would be the ones I would say these—
no, Bruins fans, they, they're, you're either watching every single game or you can't even call yourself a Bruins fan.
You're an '82er? Yeah. I'm a—
you really saved them, but I was going to say, like, and how many games are those?
200.
I'm a 246-perioder.
Oh, nice. You do that math in your head just now? Hank, that was—
was that right?
Do you not watch any overtimes? You nailed it.
Yeah, nailed it.
What the fuck, Hank?
What?
That was impressive.
Good Will Hunting over here.
How did you do that, dude?
Just added 8 times 3, 24. That's not 2 times 3, 6.
Hank was a janitor at MIT before he started.
I don't know if that made sense to— that made sense in my head what I just did.
I know you're right, Max.
Good job.
Thank you.
Damn, Hank.
And then we're just so blown away by simple math.
Hank, 73 times 3.
Blown away.
219.
Fuck it.
My boy's wicked smart.
All right, enough, boy. Let's stop.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
You're crazy right now.
My cool throne is Bryson.
Ah, okay, good. He's back.
Yeah, he's back. You know, we were talking about how he's become super hateable again, but then a New York Times article came out yesterday talking about how he met with people in the, you know, in the tour or whatever about negotiations and what he might do next. And he's still demanding $500 million to re-sign with LIV and actually did use YouTube. He said, I could just play YouTube golf and play the 4 majors.
That's what I was saying.
How is he cool thrown?
He's using it as leverage.
YouTube golf.
It's not really cool thrown, but it's more like cool thrown Bryson being like super hateable and delusional.
It's like, this is—
this is Bryson.
This is 100% Bryson.
Bryson DeChambeau, as we've come to know him and love him, is back.
But the thing about Bryson is he does have a very solid core young audience that will watch him on YouTube Golf, but they're also a little bit delusional about how successful Bryson's going to be if he only plays YouTube Golf. I also don't think— He needs to play other tournaments in order to feed people watching him on YouTube.
I also, as successful as YouTube is, and if, you know, YouTube Golf is a— you can make a lot of money. You can make way more money winning tournaments on tours.
Yes.
Whether it's LIV, whether it's PGA Tour, like, I don't know, you know, if you win— whoever— Matt Fitzpatrick won $4 million in one week.
Yeah.
Like, that's— you're gonna have to be pumping out YouTube videos to even come close.
By the way, I really—
you're not making $500 million from YouTube in a year.
I appreciated what, uh, what Matt Fitzpatrick said after he won on Sunday. That was actually very cool. Yeah. I don't know if you happen to respect the biz. Yeah, respected.
I watched the last 3 holes.
I don't know if you happen to see like the, the crowd that started to chant USA, USA, Fitzpatrick, as it went into a playoff hole.
I did.
But so this is what he said afterwards. I grew up watching football. I'm paid so much money to be out there in front of those crowds, having them chanting at you every week. It's a great feeling. However, there's no better feeling than coming out on top against that. It's kind of like winning away against your biggest rival. Nothing to do with Scottie. Is the fans that have sort of spurred me on there. It was nice to win, but it never crossed the line. So like, that's, that's what we need. Yeah, we need, we need athletes who can say that instead of getting their feelings hurt about it.
Absolutely.
Sports are— you're supposed to have somebody that you root for and root against.
It was, it was— I tuned in, I, I bet Scottie live +500. That was tough when he was, when he was 2 down with 3 to play. Almost had it.
Yeah, I took him and Siwu before the final game.
Almost had it.
Final game.
I have a final round. Is that—
is that all you have for hot seat, cool throne today, Hank?
Uh, yeah, my other cool throne is accountability.
Oh, okay, okay.
Why?
Why?
Mike Vrabel, uh, did a press conference.
And what'd he say?
He said—
why, we— we talk about football?
What?
Well, he did a press conference about what?
It's a week of the draft, so he's probably talking about who he's going to pick.
I mean, press conference, you just take questions from the media.
That's right. I know it was in a football press conference.
He's the football coach. Yeah, right.
So he's talking about accountability for what he said in order to be just—
he just, you know, offseason press conference.
It starts with him.
Every coach was taking accountability for Hank. Did something happen that I'm not aware of?
I think you're missing the point, but he's taking accountability for accountability.
He's just talking about what he's talking about, tough conversations he had with his team and about what lessons and values and what you got to get to the bottom of this.
Sounds very like something.
I mean, I'm not in the locker room. I don't know about you.
Did anything happen with Mike Vrabel in the last few weeks that you can note?
I mean, there was, there was a, there were some pictures that came out, which he categorically denies.
Spy pictures?
Yeah.
Denied the existence of the pictures?
No, he just said it's a misrepresentation of what happened.
And so what were the pictures? Describe them to me in detail. I must have missed this.
It was just him at a pool.
Okay. That's it. Yeah.
With friends.
The misrepresentation with the S. That according to them, yeah. Friends or friend?
From according to their statements.
Any other pictures?
Him on his balcony looking at the rocks.
What was he doing there?
Just looking at the rocks.
What did, what did he have to say at the press conference though?
He said in order to be successful on and off the field, you have to make good decisions.
Right, but accountability is like, you're not taking accountability right now. You're not telling me what happened.
I just told you everything you asked. I answered every question you asked.
Do you think Mike Vrabel was doing something he shouldn't have been doing?
I think you can infer. I'm not— I don't know whether or not he was. I think you can infer from his statements that he was alluding to the fact that he made a bad decision.
Okay. Do you think it was a bad decision?
Yeah, I don't know.
He said it was a misrepresentation. So based off his statements, no, we're not in the inferring business.
We're in the facts business.
We're in the facts business.
We're waiting for the takes business.
I can just go off what he says. And he said that it was a misrepresentation. And he said, in order to be, you got to make good decisions.
I agree with one thing I appreciate about it. He's monitoring the situation.
Yeah.
And as more facts come out, it's fluid. The story will develop.
Shit is fluid.
And now separately from all this, AJ Brown, Patriot.
That's what I was talking about.
Yeah.
Oh, I thought you were trying to get him on, on Vrabel.
No.
So is AJ Brown a Patriot?
Well, Schefter tweeted out that it's going to happen.
That it's going to happen.
It's impending.
And then it's going to be a first.
And it's—
whoa.
Yeah. Well, Ari Mirov said it's going to be a first.
But that's Schefter's like— yeah, that's his errand boy.
So do you— who, who apologizes to who?
Max apologizes to me.
What?
No, Max does owe us all an apology.
For what?
I think, you know, to the listener, you said you weren't—
he wasn't getting traded.
I didn't ever said that.
You never said that.
You've definitely said that.
I'm happy. First round pick. First round pick. That we, we traded AJ Brown for a first round pick 5 years ago, won a Super Bowl, then we're getting back a first round pick.
That's good. Next year's draft, uh, either—
that's what they— either 2027 or 2028, doesn't matter. First round pick.
You want it next year? A little pro tip. The draft's going to be incredible next year, Max.
We'll take a lot of quarterbacks next year.
We'll take a first-round pick as long as it's not this year, because who knows the next time Patriots are going to be this low in the first round.
What does that mean?
Or this high in the first?
No, low.
Yeah, they're picking second to last.
Correct.
Why do you say that? It sounds like they've got a coach that takes accountability.
It's a good point.
And it starts with him.
Mm-hmm. It's a good point.
Got to make good decisions on and off the field.
On and off the field.
Are you making good decisions, Max?
No.
He takes 3 baths a day.
That's a great decision.
If you didn't have any beers.
If you're a whale.
You had 0 beers last night.
Okay.
Good job, Hank.
Is that it?
That's it.
Okay.
PFT? My hot seat is smokers. I don't know if you guys saw this story.
Hookah proteins?
No, not the hookah protein, Hank, but just smokers in England in general. You know what they call cigarettes in England?
Memes.
Homophobic too.
Yeah, that's right. That's another—
that's what they call cigarettes in England.
That's a great point by Hank. He's racist and homophobic.
Well, I was just asking. Memes were the answer.
So yeah, in England, they're actually banning those things. For people that were born after, I think, 2008. So if you're born after 2008 in England, you will never be allowed to buy cigarettes for the rest of your life.
Whoa.
So you can be 50 years old and they will card you and they will say, no, I'm sorry, you were born—
damn—
after 2008, you can't buy cigarettes.
Damn.
So there will be 70-year-old people at some point in England asking like 80-year-old people if they can buy them cigarettes. That's like shoulder tapping them at the nursing home. They're trying to, they're trying to cut down on the most preventable cause of death. And yeah, lung cancer sucks and phizema sucks. I don't see, I don't see how it's going to work. And I also don't see America doing anything like that. But it's pretty crazy that they're just saying, yeah, no one, we're just going to get rid of smoking. That is not entirely in our country.
Yeah, that is nuts.
Wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I guess it could work because you— if you do it, you're stringent enough, eventually it will just be phased out of society.
Yeah, that's what— that's what they're going for. Yeah. But I mean, like, have they ever had a cigarette? Like, when they're drunk, they're taking away a very, very pleasurable experience.
Yeah. Yeah.
Have you ever had a cigarette? Like, you're drunk after you just got laid and you're drunk? It's pretty awesome.
After-laid thing, it seems that's just a movie.
Well, it's changed. It's changed now. Like, the new smoking a cigarette after you have sex is checking your phone. Mm-hmm.
Vaping.
Yeah, vaping. Well, I think they're going to try to get rid of vaping too over in England. Okay. But yeah, I don't know. I don't—
I—
if I were to guess, I would say it's probably going to get overturned because I can't see an entire country just being like, yeah, no more smoking. We're not smoking cigarettes. What are you going to do in England? What else is there to do? It's rainy. Your team just got relegated and you have like a $134 million payroll. Like, you have to let them smoke. Yeah, let them smoke.
Okay. You're cool.
My cool throne is Mike Tomlin.
Yeah.
Mike Tomlin's back. Mike Tomlin's going to be on NBC Sunday Night Football. They just hired him. They just made that announcement. And it just reminded me, who do you think is going to have a better career as a sports analyst at NBC? Mike Tomlin or Michael Jordan, who's been just fantastic this year. On the NBA on NBC?
Um, probably Mike Tomlin, but I, I feel like Mike Tomlin might, might surprise us with how boring he is.
I actually think that would not be a surprise.
Well, no, I'm just saying like everyone's, you know, he seems like a very personable guy, players love him. I think he's probably not going to be that great.
Yeah, I think Mike Tomlin is going to just like be— he's not going to want to insult any other coach, right? He's gonna not want to like take things— he's thinking about his next job too.
You need like all these, all these post-game shows and pre-game shows needs like a Twitter troll or like a drunk guy who just will let it fly because it's too nice. Yeah, you need Pickensburg.
You need— yeah, Charles Barkley is that way. Like, he doesn't— yeah, he's not lusting after any NBA job. He's not trying to be a general manager anywhere. Mike Tomlin is definitely going to try to get back into football.
Yeah.
And I feel like he is— he's— it's gonna be like him and, uh, and Jason Garrett just like being the 1% milk version of TV analysts.
Yeah.
But it did remind me that Michael Jordan technically is working for—
yeah, he did that one for NBC.
How much money do you think Michael Jordan got for a 30-minute interview, shitload, that they just kind of like sprinkled out throughout the season. So much good for him.
Yeah. Uh, okay, my hot seat is, uh, the Chicago Bulls because Billy Donovan has decided to leave. So now the Bulls have to do the thing where they have to find— it's actually a good thing for, for anyone rooting for the Chicago Bulls, myself included, that they are forced into finding a front office and new head coach at the same time, which is the correct thing to But it's hot seat Michael Reinsdorf because he wanted to keep Billy Donovan so bad that he basically was like, we'll build the whole team out of Billy Donovan. And then Billy Donovan looked around and said, this place is a fucking dumpster fire. I'm out of here. So Bulls have to hire multiple people now.
Where's he going to go?
Billy Donovan, maybe Florida. Todd Golden goes to the Warriors because Steve Kerr is going to retire.
OK, Golden to the Warriors.
What if you get Kerr back to Chicago?
I did. The, the Eddie one. Eddie's been talking about that.
Donovan to Florida.
Either way, this is a good thing because, uh, Michael Reiseroth did a press conference where like, we're gonna make sure that no matter who we hire, like, they know that Billy's the coach and Billy's the most important piece. Like, that's an insane thing to do when you're trying to find a new front office. So thank you, Billy Donovan, for stepping away. You saved yourself because it is a dumpster fire. And now The Bulls actually are forced into doing the correct thing, which they still won't nail it, but at least they have the process. They were forced into a correct process. It's nice. That part's nice.
If this happened 2 months ago, you think Billy Donovan's the coach at UNC?
Probably. That's that. Well, that was the story. The UNC wanted Billy Donovan. Billy Donovan said, I will not go. I will not make a decision until after the season. UNC freaked out because the portal was starting. It was like, we can't just just not have a coach, hired Michael Malone. Hmm. My cool throne is the Raiders because Clint Kubiak said that he is going to make the players earn their shield. So they're not going to have a shield decal on their helmets until they earn it.
I love that.
Isn't that awesome?
I do like it. I like it whenever a coach does some stupid shit like this.
Max, what's your face? What's your face? What was that face you had?
Is that allowed?
What do you mean? NFL? Well, I mean, it's OTAs. I'm sure they'll have shields for the actual games. But yeah, for the first practice, you got to earn your shield.
I thought it was like the Ohio State thing.
Yeah, it's going to be great. All right, Zach, finish us off.
My hot seat this week is going to be one of the Icemen. We're not talking Caleb Williams this week. We're talking Drake, the musical— musical artist. Yeah, because he decided to drop 10 tons of ice in downtown Toronto and it's kind of turned into a bit of a public safety risk.
Oh, there's really—
yeah, there's like guys attacking it with Fortnite pickaxes and starting fires. And so he's putting off—
he put his— the date of his next album frozen in the ice.
I believe that is correct. It's supposed to melt in like 4 to 6 days, but now the people are just taking to the streets thinking, oh, we can beat the sun, and using anything they can possibly think of to try to break it apart. And it's like a little bit hysteria going on, a lot of fires, some flamethrowers.
Yeah.
Couple dudes doing spin-off MrBeast videos, throwing car keys in there. It's absolute mayhem.
Has anybody tried to shoot it yet?
Haven't seen any guns.
That, that's got to be next, right?
I could see guns escalating from flamethrowers for sure.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I don't know caliber, but definitely some weapons.
Yeah.
And it just looks like— I, I don't know, I'm not even really sure where you get this much ice, but I would like to put him on the hot seat for ruining, uh, I mean, traffic's probably fucked up.
Infrastructure.
Yeah, infrastructure's not cool.
Not cool.
By the way, Zach, you— what?
What did you get? Got—
he got caught.
I could have got got to—
community notice said that this pickaxe and flamethrower video is AI.
Oh, there's a—
that one.
Yes, I did see some pickaxes, hammers, and flames on livestream feeds that are likely to be AI'd.
Okay, Zach, by the way, you, you are a Knicks fan.
What do you think about Fuckface saying All I got to say about the Knicks game last night is guys have off nights, teams lose games, but the Knicks are coming. Okay, Zach, Zach, so it's our one-dimensional team.
I came in today, please don't fall.
The way we play perimeter defense on a good night, it's like you guys really are in for it.
Yeah, I came in today and me and Zach had a nice chat. The balls were busted, he took it accordingly, and then Memes comes in, just scowls at me, doesn't say a word. That's so— it's like, it's not, it's not the— it's Zach and Zach.
Hello everyone, that was so cheery.
I I said hi.
Yeah, wait, did you say hi or did you say hello? Hello everyone.
Hello.
Is that how you typically— your customary greeting?
Yeah.
Hello.
Okay, Zach, your cool throw.
My cool throw this week is going to be, uh, Brandeis Promotions, because they may be giving us a chance to see Johnny Manziel compete again.
Oh yeah, I was gonna have this as well, but under fights that are never gonna happen.
What is it?
Oh no, you don't think it's Menary versus Manziel?
Oh, but Dana White's now trying to push They might have it at the Apex.
I don't think that's going to happen.
And who is it? It's Manziel.
I don't know who's a bigger flake out of those two.
I feel like both of them.
I'd like to opt out.
It might be—
I would watch the fuck out of that fight.
It might just be the fight is like who shows wins.
I don't know. Yeah, I don't know who I would take in that situation. Who's more— who needs the money more at that moment?
Yeah.
Dana White said he put $10K on Bob Manziel not showing up already.
Pretty. Yeah, I think Dana White—
Dana White just hates Menery and loves to like troll him.
Yeah, yeah, because he knows he's not going to show up just before the fight is even set.
What's wrong with just not showing up because you're not a fighter? Maybe his back's broken because—
yeah, they're probably talking about this fight, they're probably like, I want to fight, I want to fight, I want to fight, and then lo and behold they won't.
I hate to say it, I'll tune in so hard if they—
oh, I would love that.
I would, I would, I would. What does this go back to?
What's the origin story behind these guys hating each other?
I don't even know if they hate each other. I'm sure they were friends at one point. Everyone that— everyone that is like friends with Menary at some point, eventually they also are in a public dispute with him.
Yeah. And then he— and then they have like a podcast where they're like, hey, it's actually okay, and then they dispute again.
Cocaine is probably where, I guess.
Yeah, some—
somewhere in that there was not enough or too much at some point. Yeah, yeah, that's—
words were said.
Typically, yeah, things were said.
Oh, have we gotten to the bottom of what's going on with the Alexes? No, no, we don't have an Alex update.
Her husband, Alex Cooper's husband got a hit piece written about him.
Yeah, well, that you think that's connected?
I don't know.
It sounds like it might be.
Wow.
I believe Alex Cooper did drop a tiny video, fake airbrush and t-shirt. They span the t-shirt around, said Wednesday. So maybe we get some updates.
Oh, great.
This is good. I can't— I'm, I'm holding my breath. I can't wait.
I'm excited.
They should fight.
Excited. I'm just going to wait till I would like— my wife tells me what happened.
I would like to see that fight.
Bare-knuckle boxing.
Bare-knuckle.
Okay.
Pillows. Pillows.
Also decent avenue.
Yeah.
Not mad at that.
Okay. Let's get to our interviews. We've got Daniel Jeremiah talking NFL draft and Adam Silver, NBA commissioner.
Before we get to Daniel Jeremiah, he's brought to you by Reese's. Remember school lunches as a kid? Those times that you scored a Reese's, you were basically in kid heaven. Now you can go back to that same feeling because Reese's is dropping two limited edition cups: the return of the Reese's Strawberry PB&J and the all-new Reese's Marshmallow Cup. I had the Marshmallow Cup yesterday. It is delicious. I actually had one today as well. Back-to-back days smashing the Marshmallow Cup from Reese's. It's so good. Younger you would have done anything to get one of these. Luckily, adult you can, but only for a limited time. So grab one before they're gone. Get yours at Hersheyland.com/Reese's. And Daniel Jeremiah is also brought to you by our great friends over at Experian. It's never too late to improve your credit. With Experian Boost, you can raise your credit scores instantly for free. Get credit for the bills that you're already paying. Add your positive rent, utility, even streaming payments to instantly increase your credit scores. Boost those credit scores instantly. Experian Boost is completely free and it can raise your credit scores. Get better credit scores, get credit for the bills that you're already paying, and increase your credit score instantly for free.
Now paying rent can even boost your credit score. Download the app, get started for free today. Results will vary. Not all payments are Boost eligible or considered by lenders. See experian.com for details. And now here is NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah.
Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest. He's one of our favorite guests to have on for draft season. It is Daniel Jeremiah, Move the Sticks on, uh, Twitter, on social, Move the Sticks podcast. You can see him on NFL Network. He does, uh, podcasts for— he does Chargers Radio. He's the man. And he also has an incredible mock draft ready to go. We are in NFL Draft Week. Uh, I want to start actually, DJ, great to have you on, with with what does the Bengals-Giants trade— how does that change where you're seeing this draft going now that the Giants have two first-round picks in the— and two picks in the top 10?
It gives it— well, it gives the Giants a lot of flexibility, but the, uh, the other side of it is the Bengals part of it. You know, I got— I was literally— I tweeted this out, but I was on the phone, uh, with a GM who's done about as well as anybody's ever done in the draft, and we were kind kind of rolling through the top 10 and just like, okay, this is kind of where we're thinking, this is where this goes, this is where that goes. And we get to the Bengals, like, okay, what are they looking for? Well, defensive tackle, uh, corner. And then you've got a situation where Jermon McCoy's knee— you know, I know he ran at the pro day the other day, but there are some teams that have concern about the knee. We had Mansour Dallain off the board, and there's no defensive tackles. So we're like, the Bengals are kind of screwed here. So then literally like within an hour that trade gets announced. So it was kind of laughing about it like, okay, I 100% get it from the Bengals standpoint why they did what they did.
And then now you're the Giants and the names that I had heard coming down the stretch with them were, okay, if Jeremiah Love's there, they'll take him. If not, they really like Jordan Tyson. That was kind of their receiver, their top receiver in this draft. They wanted to come away with something to help the quarterback. Well, now you can do one of those picks can help the quarterback. Now you can, you know, if you want to take Downs or whoever else with the other pick, you can can figure that out. And they're in a situation where if the draft falls like we're thinking, you know, as we're recording this, there's a, there's a chance that Reese is there at the 5th pick, which is not a need for them. And now they're sitting on a lottery ticket with teams like the Saints and the Chiefs, uh, and maybe the Cowboys wanting to come up. I don't think they do that in the division, but yeah, um, all of a sudden the Giants are now like in a, in kind of a, an enviable position to be able to kind of move around a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
I was gonna say, right now you've got the 2 teams from, um, from New Jersey with 4 picks in the first round. Each team has two. Um, if I were to set over-under 3.5 picks taken by those two teams in the first round, would you take the over or would you say no, somebody's going to trade?
I, I think that those picks could move around within the first round, but I think the Giants and the Jets will both come away with two, two picks in the first round. Um, I think there's a chance that they could end up being kind of clustered together, you know, where I could see I could see the Giants, um, you know, trade back from 5. I could see the Jets come up from 16. Like, if they end up having a bunch of picks, obviously the, uh, you know, the Jets stick and pick at 2, but I think you could see those other 3 picks kind of, you know, come off within 5 or 6 picks of each other. That wouldn't surprise me.
Yeah, like philosophically, from, you know, you were in front offices, I always laugh when people like freak out about you trading the 10th overall pick for Dexter Lawrence. And I, I get it, like you can I think both, both sides can end up winning here, but in my mind it's always like, hey, Dexter Lawrence is an awesome football player. That, yes, he's a little bit older because he's played in the league for 7 years, but he's still got a lot of, a lot of good years left. He's an awesome football player. The 10th pick, while cheaper, you don't know if it's going to be an awesome football player. You don't know if you're going to get Dexter Lawrence.
Yeah. The other thing is like, correct me if I'm wrong, Calais Campbell played football last year.
Yeah.
Like 56 years old.
Yeah.
Um, you, you look at Ted Washington, I mean, played forever. And Dominick Nsue, I think, played 13 or 14 years. There's only so many guys that are that, like, big and physically gifted that are walking around, and they can play forever, right? You can't, you can't move them. Like, that's— they're always going to wake up and be just stronger than everybody that they're playing against, right? So I, I just— to me, I, I was like, he's 28 years old, and I'm like, am I taking crazy pills? Calais Campbell played last year, right? Like, like, that's crazy to me. Like, this guy can be a very, very good player for a good number of years here.
Yeah.
Are there any other players that you could see, uh, maybe have— maybe some teams having conversations about trading them? I don't want to say like there will be guys that will be traded that will have the same impact as him, but like, are there other impact players right now that are being shopped around?
Yeah, I mean, well, ironically, the one that I had heard before this went down was that, oh, keep an eye like Thibodeaux, like, you know, the Saints, which is kind of ironic of like there being a Thibodeaux, Louisiana, and like Thibodeaux going to the Saints, which is how I remembered it. It's like trying to study for a test when I'm in junior high. But that, that was one that you'd heard. But now I guess, you know, I saw a report, might have been Schefter or somebody said that's less likely to happen because, uh, of the Dexter Lawrence trade. But that one, that one had been floating around out there. The Grenard thing with the Eagles, you know, it's been hanging around for a long time. They just— sounds like they just haven't been able to, you know, get on the same page there. But I, I would think that still feels like a chance that could happen. Um, and then AJ Brown to this— to, uh, New England is just I mean, everybody in the league thought this is, you know, whether or not it's done or not, but the expectation from everybody that I talked to, and it's been that way for a while, is that he'll be a Patriot next year.
Yeah, yeah. Wait till June.
And with, uh, with Jeremiah Love, what's the absolute floor for Jeremiah Love? What's the latest he's going to be drafted?
I think if he, you know, everybody said 7 with Washington. I would say 7 would be the spot, but I'm not necessarily guaranteeing that it would be Washington. I think if he got to 7 7, either Washington could take him, or Washington doesn't have a second-round pick, they, they, somebody will come get him. And I just keep my— I do think, you know, based off everything we've heard over the last, you know, 24-48 hours, it does feel like the Cardinals are, are leaning that direction. But if somehow he were to get to, you know, even to like, like, yeah, 6 or 7, in the back of my mind I just keep thinking about, you know, Les Snead and how aggressive that they've been, you know, throughout their, their tenure there with him and McVay. And I know you know, with, with Kyren Williams, a really good player, Blake Corum's a really solid player. Like, this is not Jeremiah Love. Like, if you're the Rams and you're trying to just get one more of these things before Stafford retires and you're in position to be a little bit aggressive and go up and throw a— throw in Jeremiah Love, which kind of brings back the Todd Gurley years, you know, they had the two eras, they had the Gurley era and the Stafford era.
This would allow him to kind of combine the two and make a run for it.
Yep.
That's why I'm like, if he, if he starts to drift a little bit, man, my spidey senses would be going off on the Rams.
That would be a fascinating one because that's just— I mean, you know, McVay wants to run the football and like, wow, yeah, scary.
I mean, dude, the other thing is there's no running backs in this draft. Yeah, one of the teams I talked to, this is the worst running back draft in 10 years, and last year was just like a million of them. There's a million of them. But so if you're, if you're a team, whoever gets Jeremiah Love, um, if you have some, you know, have some other backs on your team, you're going to be able to get a pick for, for him, you know. Like if you want to trade one of your veterans, there's going to be a market for him because literally, like, I think the numbers— I pulled it up here— like, in the last, um, so in the last 5 years, on average, there have been 21 running backs get drafted. 21. And I, I asked like 3 or 4— I think it was 3 or 4 different teams— how many running backs are on your frontboard? Which, the frontboard is your draftable players. The highest number I got was 8. One of them was 6. So like, there's no backs. So if you've got one of these veterans and, you know, you're one of the teams that's lucky enough to get Jeremiah Love, not only are you getting Jeremiah Love, you're probably going be able to spin off a guy on your roster for a pick.
Wait, I got a question about the frontboard because that's fascinating. Is it— how many guys are on the frontboard? Is it obviously more than can be drafted?
No, it's less.
Oh, it's less?
It's less. So normally, in most teams, it's, it's 150 to 200 names. Okay, so your frontboard, you know, as you're in the draft room, you're looking at the frontboard, that's the guys that you would pick. The sideboard is the guys you have listed as— they're like free agents for you. Now, a lot of guys on the sideboard are going to get drafted because the, the math But most years, because everybody sees these players differently, you're going to get, you know, not every year, but most years all of your picks are going to come from your 150 players.
Okay.
Because you're going to value them differently than other teams around the league. You'll have a couple like you'll be in like the 7th round, be like, all right, we got wiped out. Our front board is empty. Let's look over that sideboard. Let's take 10 names over there and pump them over here. And then, and then see if we can get one of those guys.
And will you, will you stay on the front board no matter positional need and everything? Like if there's a, hey, we need a, we need, we need a cornerback and we had a cornerback on the sideboard, but the frontboard still has, you know, a bunch of guys at different positions. You stay on the frontboard usually.
Yeah. Unless you panic.
Yeah.
Unless what happens is I've been in there, you know, coaches have come in there freaked out. Like we can't line up and play if we don't get a player. And we're like, well, why are we just drafting somebody to cut them? Like these guys aren't any good. Like they don't, they don't fit us. So you want to take one to take one.
One.
How about I'll just, I'll, I'll, you know, take some of our undrafted free agent budget and you can go, we'll go get the top corner that's not drafted.
So, so like when you construct the boards, tell me about like what they're made out of. Do you, do you print out like laminated pieces of paper? Do you have, is it magnets? Is it all online now?
Digital spreadsheets?
Yeah, it's all digital now. So everybody has digital boards. So it's just like a projection. When I was in it, like, like the old person, you know, we were, it was magnets.
So So if I were the owner, I'd make it— I'd make it an edible board. So you finish the draft and then everyone gets together and they eat the board.
Like, no, no, when you pick somebody, then you take it off the wall and you have to eat that card. Yeah, yeah.
It's like, hey, we did a job well done, guys. Way to go, we finished the draft. Let's all sit down and eat.
Different position groups are made out of different types of food.
I was gonna say, I was gonna say, I think it's like jelly beans. I think you don't know what it is until you kind of get it done.
Yeah, yeah. Okay, just like add a little, a little bit of spice to I would imagine that there's, uh, you know, it's a, it's a high-stakes night. Nerves can run kind of high, but there's got to be some boring parts to draft night if you're working for a team. Like, sometimes you got like an hour and a half until you pick again.
Yeah, so there's like a lot of like cookie consumption, you know, like there's a lot of like, there's a little, the break room, and then you'll be in there trying to catch your breath and all of a sudden there'll be a scramble like, hey, we're trying to trade up, get it, get back in here. Yeah, so, but there's there's, yeah, there's a lot of those. There's a lot of like, I won't use the term bet, but there's a lot of, uh, yeah, like, like you're, you're testing each other's knowledge. Yeah. But it's also like, hey, who's the first person off the sideboard to get drafted?
Right.
So everybody kind of picks a horse type thing.
Yeah.
So you're doing a lot of that stuff to kind of like stay engaged. And then like a team will be on the clock, like, who do you think it is? Like kind of going around the room. It'd be just like if you're hanging out with your buddies.
How many, uh, you know, watching draft, how many mock drafts do you guys do to get ready? Like full-on simulations?
So when I— the teams that I worked for, and now I'm starting to date myself, but like, because it's been 14 years, like, we didn't do as much of our own internal mock drafts as much as it was, you know, okay, let's just kind of— we're picking 22, let's make sure we're honed in on who our top 22 players are. And then this is our, you know, this is the group of— we think our pick's going to come down to one of these 7, 8 guys. So then making sure everybody in the room has watched those 7 or 8 guys because some might have not done that. On them so that we can really hone in and discuss those guys. And then they would have like the, the leadership group would get together and have more of a strategy session of like, okay, these teams are on these positions based off of what we know from talking to people, based off of their, their top 30 visits, based off the pro days that they attended with their decision makers. So like an example in this draft would be, okay, you're picking in the 20s and you want to tap tackle, and you're going, okay, well, we're looking at some of these tackle teams.
Well, like Detroit has got an obvious bullseye on them because Detroit has done a ton of work on tackles. I've talked to the schools with those players and asked who's done the most extensive work. Detroit's name comes up over and over again. So the visits they've had, all signs point to them being a tackle team. So if you're picking in the 20s, it's like, okay, now let's do the exercise of if we wanted to get just in front of Detroit Great. Let's have those conversations with those teams and then let's get a gage of what that market would look like. So you don't— that's why you want to have like use free agency to kind of at least have fillers in there so you don't just have an obvious bullseye on your back for like, oh, this team's on this position.
Yeah.
Okay. I got a question about the quarterbacks this year because we obviously know Mendoza is going to go number 1. First question is, can you rank your top 5 quarterbacks how you see them? And this is your ranking. Not how, uh, you think it's gonna go necessarily.
Yeah, how I rank them, it's, uh, Mendoza 1, then there's a pretty good gap. I think, uh, I can tell you right now I have in front of me, I have, uh, Simpson is my 36th player. Okay, so Simpson at 36, I have Carson Beck next at 74, um, I have Aller at 94, and Nussmeyer at 101. 1. Okay, so there's a— I mean, I, I, I think there's a good chance we only see one in the first round. I think the Cardinals are in a fascinating position of chicken, of like, I feel like they're the Ty Simpson team. I don't think the Jets are doing it. I don't think the Steelers are doing it. Um, but the Rams are the intriguing one. They've been connected there. But, you know, if they don't take him at 13, they don't pick till much later in the second round. So yeah, if you're the Cardinals, you're like 90 maybe 8% sure you could get him at pick 34, but is the 2% chance enough to scare you into trading into the back of the first round to take him, right?
And then the, the follow-up question was, if you could— because I like to always contextualize it when it's— when we have a draft where it's maybe not the strongest draft with quarterbacks, how would you rank these guys? And maybe you just do the Mendoza and Ty Simpson. How would you rank them if we went 2 years back into the 2024 draft?
So Mendoza would be 4, um, Drake, Caleb, and Jayden. Yeah, I had it— I had Caleb, Drake, Jayden in that order. He'd be 4.
Okay.
Um, and then, um, Ty would be below— Ty would be— he would be below all those guys for me. So all those, all those, uh, I'm all the way through Pennix.
So, okay, what about 9?
Ty Simpson or JJ?
Um, I would have— I mean, just off of draft grade, I had a higher grade on JJ.
Okay. And then what about comparing him to like Cam Ward, Ty Simpson, uh, Ty and Mendoza?
Yeah, yeah, I had, I had a higher grade on Fernando than on Cam.
Okay.
So, all right, so that gives you kind of slides in context.
Yeah, yeah. But I love— I mean, I really like Mendoza. I think Mendoza is going to be a really good player, and I think the, the Raiders are— have done the smart thing with how they've they've, they've built it, you know.
They've—
bringing in Linderbaum is a good move. Obviously, they'll get Colton Miller back healthy. You have Cousins there to not only be able to play, but he's a good dude, and he'll be able to, you know, to take some something from him and watching him work and learning from him. So he doesn't have to get hit right away either. And I think you'll see him in this draft. They'll get a big receiver to add to the mix. I think they'll add a guard. Um, I, I think the Raiders are, are kind of approaching this the right way.
Yeah, yeah.
And they have Max Crosby, still.
That's true.
Somehow they woke up with Max Crosby still, still in the building.
Yeah.
Uh, with, uh, with Caleb Downs, you mentioned him a little bit earlier. I've heard a lot of stuff about his, uh, his medical report. Like maybe some teams are getting a little bit scared away. I don't know if that's true or not. It's smokescreen season, so there's, there's a bunch of people that are just out there lying, which is pretty cool. Um, but I've been, uh, I've been a fan of Caleb. I like watching him play. Yeah, you get into that conversation of whether or not you should draft a safety in the top 10, top 5. For, you know, how much value you get out of that position. But what have you heard about Downs? Because I do think that he's one of the best players if he's healthy.
Yeah, I have not had one team tell me they were worried about the medical. So I think he's good there. I don't think that's a problem at all. I think it comes down to, you know, the old cliché positional value. You know, we'll see how that shakes out. I always tell people, you know, look, I do the Charger games. I see— I watch Derwin James every game he's played in the NFL. NFL. And I still can't believe that guy was not a top 10 pick, who's, you know, 6'3.5", 220 pounds, and is a human missile.
Yeah.
Um, and then you watch Kyle Hamilton and what he does— not, not a top 10 pick. Eamon Worry went in the second round last year. So I think like some people get literally like so offended when you'd say that there's a chance Downs doesn't go in the top 10. And they're like, that's the— that's insane, that's crazy. And I'm like, well, we live in this world where all these other guys weren't top 10 picks. Um, I think it's, it's possible. It's entirely possible that you can be both a great player in the league somehow now, um, undervalues it. So, um, that— I'm curious to see where he ends up going. I feel like for him the, uh, the range is like— I could see 7, I think he makes a lot of sense there in Washington, and I would say all the way to 12. Like, I think those are the bumpers for him. I think he goes in that range.
Okay, and, uh, for the wide receivers, who are— what's your top 3 wide receivers?
Yeah, for me, um, I, I start right at the very top with Tate. I'm a big Tate guy. Like, His contested catch stuff is insane. Like, he's got unbelievable hands. Now, he's not as twitchy or as juicy as you'd maybe like for a guy you're going to take in the top 10, but it's a different— this is not one of those drafts. So to me, I'm just like, I know exactly what I'm getting with him. Someone who can get down the field and he just— in a contested catch situation, he's fantastic. So he's my top guy. Makai Lemon is second for me. I know grades are all over the map on him. Him, but I just love like the fearlessness with which he plays. He's got, again, great hands. He's got small hands, which is pretty wild that he, you know, he's so strong. But, um, he's good after the catch. He'll go in there and block if you need him to do that. Like, he's just real tough. He's instinctive. Like, he's going to be high volume. He'll catch a bazillion balls. Um, but the, the teams that are down on him, like, oh, he's an outlier in terms of the size, speed, you know, it might be a slot only.
So that's where the knocks come on him. But he's 2 for for me. Then 3 and 4, I have Omar Cooper Jr., uh, who I just love his feistiness and competitiveness. And then Tyson 4. But of that group, I think Tyson—
we—
I, I think Tyson's likely to be the first receiver to go, um, when we get to Thursday night. I think he'll be the first receiver to come off the board. He's super talented, um, real loose, real fluid, real smooth. Like, you know, his brother's in the NBA. You can kind of see that type of athleticism, uh, can really jump and, and make plays down the field. But he's not real physical getting off press coverage. He's not real consistent, you know, on those combat catches when he's getting hit. And then he's not great after the catch. So like, to me, Makai Lemon and Cooper, they're both awesome after the catch. And then that's kind of their calling card. And then with Tate, it's just his ability to go up, make plays down the field. I think he'll be a big-time red zone dude.
Have they fixed the 40-yard dash at Ohio State? Have they made it officially 40 yards? Have we done a laser distance count on that yet?
Well, Penn State was the one that everybody has always said for years that was running downhill. That was the one that was even more, more egregious there. So, yeah, I have not heard any updates on the Ohio State 40 situation.
I had heard about the downhill slope at Penn State. That might have even been one of those things that we made up on this podcast and just spoke into lore that at Ohio State, the 40 yards they choose is like 38 and a half. Yeah, 38 and a half yards. So everybody's like, a little bit quicker. They do have a lot of guys that are going to be at the top of this draft. So I mean, I feel like, where does this draft start for you? Does this— does the draft start at 2?
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I— the way it was kind of put to me is like, hey, I feel, you know, 90, 95% sure that it's Bailey. But I'm, you know, doing this long enough that I know that if it's not 100%, it's not 100%. So it feels like it's Bailey at 2. But when you're on the— when they're on the clock and we're on the set there, like, we don't— we're not going to know for sure if that's Baylor or not. So I think you could say it starts there. And then 3, just because, you know, earlier it was tackle, like maybe Maui Noah there, or trade out, you know, was part of the discussion there with the Cardinals. And then literally just late, it's just been like overwhelming. Everybody you talk to, ah, they're going to take Love, they're going to take Love, they're going to take Love. And, and pardon me, like, man, is this almost— they're almost— there's almost too much of this out there. Like, is it— are they trying to— are they trying to induce a trade? Are they trying to get somebody to come up for him?
Like, I don't know. It's a little peculiar that it just—
what—
they weren't really connected with Love through the whole process, and then all of a sudden it's just like overwhelmingly out there that they're a Love team.
It's got to be— it has to be some sort of trade bait. Yeah, because if you're the Cardinals— we talked about this with, uh, with Todd McShay— like, the Cardinals have a million things they need to do, and having like an elite running back is not exact. That's like me having a 1970 El Camino SS when I don't know how to work on cars. Like, it doesn't make any sense at all for them to get a great running back at this point when they have so many other needs.
It's Saquon on the Giants.
Yeah, yeah, it's a— yeah, I was going to use the other car analogy. It's like a— it's like reupholstering a car with no engine, right? So I mean, it's been my ride.
Yeah, it's like when Xzibit would put like a pool table in the back of somebody's hoopty and they're like, that's great, but I get carbon monoxide poisoning because there's an open engine gasket that runs directly into the AC.
Yeah, I know nothing about cars, but I'm just gonna nod my head and go along with that whole thing. But the other thing though is that— here's the— here's some of the logic, um, is that you're the Cardinals, Kyler Murray's gone, like your team's not going to be good next year no matter who you pick. Like the thought process with where they are and how good that division is, like how are you selling tickets to that team? Like who do you want to— what do you want to go— why would you want to go to a Cardinals game. So that's part of the thing is like, oh, this can— maybe this is ownership pressure. Maybe this is like, hey, like at least we can sell Love, you know. So that, that was— I think that was part of that calculus. It's Love and then it's Ty Simpson with your next pick. And it's like, okay, look, we've got some shiny new toys at the, at these, you know, marquee positions to go watch.
Yeah.
Where does the draft end?
Who's— nobody's ever asked that.
I know. I was thinking about that one. PFT asked, where does the draft start? I was I was like, why aren't we asking you where it ends?
Well, when we've had, uh, I think, uh, Mr. Irrelevant make over $50 million a year.
True.
Brock Purdy does kind of.
Yeah.
All right, so where's the cliff? Because I, I actually— that was a bad question, even though it's, uh, I think an interesting question. But you are doing draft coverage, so you shouldn't— yeah, uh, sit here and be like, I can't walk off. Yeah, actually it ends on like pick 15, so you don't have to watch after No, where are the cliffs? Give me the different cliffs that we can— because that is a fascinating part of the draft is when you know the cliff is coming and there's going to be a lot of teams that may be trying to trade into it.
Okay.
So I'll give you— to me, the biggest cliff in this draft is the tackle cliff. And I'll tell you where that ends. So I think this is going to go late first, potentially early second round. And I think you'll see some jostling. So if you look at it, I've got tackle-wise, Ayanachor from Arizona State is my 31st player. He's the 7th tackle.
Okay.
So you got 7 guys there and then there's a crunch of them. There's 20, 22, 24, 30, 31. So that's the, that's the whole clump of tackles. Then after that, the next one is Tiernan from Northwestern, who's the 59th player. After that, it's the 92nd player. So you want a tackle and you want somebody that can come in and play next year, there's 7 guys. So if you're, you know, you can keep an eye on this when you're watching it, like in the 20s, late 20s, and maybe there's a chance it bleeds into the top of the second round. If you go to, if we go to bed and 6 of those 7 guys are gone, then there'll be somebody's coming up to get the 7th guy. Like he's, he's going because if you don't get him, you miss the ride, you're off the cliff.
Right.
Do you think that the Bears could be a team that could play? I mean, they need tackles.
Tackle.
I've actually, you know, there's some people that, you know, talking around that have connected them to Tiernan. So what that would be, they would be willing to concede that they missed the first ride and they want to be, get the first ticket on the, on the next, on the second ride.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so there's their pick there. I'm looking at right now, they are picking 57. Yeah, so Tiernan's my 59th player, they're picking 57. That, that marries.
Yeah. What, um, and then is there another cliff that comes after that where there's like a moment where you think, hey, this is actually going be— this is a big spot where teams might be moving around.
Yeah, I mean, we talked about the running backs. I think there's two running backs in this draft. So, you know, if Love's gonna go top 10, he's gone. And then Jahdarian Price, you know, is— he's like a borderline for me. He's like my— well, I can tell you right now, he's like my 31st player, 32nd player. Uh, he is my 34th player. So, and then after that, the next running back for me is 79. 9, um, and then you don't have another one till 117. It's just not a good running back group. So if you want somebody that can come in and take significant, uh, carries next year, I think it's Price is the end of the line. So, um, if you're Seattle and they, they've let it be known they'd like to trade back, um, you know, you don't want to get too cute because I, you know, I do feel like that could be the— that could be their guy next year, especially with Charbonnet coming off the injury.
Yeah. Uh, where do you have Bain going in this draft and how much, how much stock are we putting in the arm measurements? Because I know, dude, he's got a good wingspan, right? He's got a wide chest, short arms, uh, but, but tiny, tiny little— like, the— he's in the 1% of, uh, of smallest arms for his position.
Yeah, I— dude, going through this exercise, and as we're recording this, I haven't done my final one. I got to turn it in tonight. Um, and God, that's when I'm having a hard time, like, figuring out where where do I put him? You know, is it, you know, Kansas City is an option there. Um, I'm like, is he— then he starts to go beyond that. Like, yeah, man, he's a, he's a tough one, man. Like, if, if I told you he went 14 to the Ravens, that, I don't know, that doesn't totally shock me. Like, if he were to, if he were to go down there, um, but you'd pair him up. He's kind of a nice complement to what they have in Hendrickson. Hendrickson's, you know, obviously a pass rusher but not the firmest, strongest guy in the run game. Now you get Bain, who's a warrior against the run. You kick Bain in next to him and let him rush. Matt Abike's, uh, you know, injury, so you're not getting the interior rush that you'd like there. Maybe we just solved it there. That was a good thought exercise. Maybe it's, maybe it's the Ravens, uh, where he ends up going.
Yeah, I mean, that feels like the— it feels like a Ravens move, right? To get a great player.
Yeah, he's a bully.
Like, they like those types of players.
Do you, um, do you put any stock in the fact that his arms are just freakishly small compared to everybody else that's played that position recently? Recently?
Yeah, I mean, it's not nothing. Um, I know the teams— there, I've talked to teams that aren't concerned about it, and I've talked to teams that are extremely concerned about it, that think it's like a major, major problem. And the reasoning was interesting because, um, it was like his ability— they think when he gets in the NFL, the guys are worried about it, are like, okay, you know, he's all power, power, power, but then once you're stuck, like, there's a lot of— there's a lot of wins that come in the pass game and the run game with your move. In other words, I hit you with my first move, it stopped. How do I— how would I pivot off of that and then either escape in the run game or get, you know, get navigate around you to get to the quarterback? And they're like, I don't think this guy— and once the pass— once the power is stopped because of his length, he's not going to be able to escape against bigger, you know, the better tackles, the bigger, stronger, better tackles in this league. He's just not going to be able to get off blocks.
And then other guys are like, no, no, no, he's, you know, he just plays with such leverage and he's just going to be able to throw guys back into the you know, and throw him into the ball carrier, throw him into the quarterback. Even if he doesn't free himself, he's going to be disruptive just because he's— his leverage and power. But it's— yeah, I don't— I, I definitely think it's something that's concerning to, uh, to any number of teams.
Yeah, it's always with these— maybe it's just the online discourse kind of falls, you know, goes crazy. But all these traits, physical traits— and you could tell me if I'm way off— but it feels like it's always used as kind of a tiebreaker situation where you're gonna still watch the tape. That's going to be what decides your decision. It's just that if you're deciding between two people and one guy has, you know, is shorter or has, you know, shorter arms or has a bad body or whatever it may be, you're— those are going to be the tiebreakers you use.
A thousand percent. And I think that's where the people get lost in that a little bit. It's like, it's not he's the best player in the draft or he's undrafted. Draftable, right? Just if I've got a clump of 3 or 4 players that are very similarly graded, you're trying to find tiebreakers anywhere you can find them. Sometimes it can just be like, look, this guy's just not coachable, you know, the other guys are just more coachable, they'll fit better in our group that we have even though they're all kind of similar type players. So whatever tiebreaker you can find, and the traits can end up, you know, being one of those when it's, when it's all said and done. So I, you know, I think it's, it's something that you look at, but it's not the be-all end-all. And the other thing I would say is like another example Cassius Howell from A&M, he's got really, really short arms as an edge rusher, but like when I'm watching him, I went back through my notes. I knew he wasn't gonna be long. I didn't know his arms gonna be that short. Like, they were really short.
And so then I just go back through my notes. I'm like, okay, where do I have examples of him just getting swallowed up, where he can't get off blocks, where he's not winning? Like, where did it show up? And I'm like, I've watched like these 4 games when I first did him, and I don't have anything in here where it was a concern to me. So I just I didn't give that as much credit because I'm like, he's got so much juice and speed that he's beating guys to spots and then his length really wasn't an issue. But if you're watching a guy and you're like, man, I've got some of this stuff littered in my notes and now that's confirmed that he's got abnormally short arms, like then I think you got to take it a little more seriously.
Yeah. So you kind of let the— you watch the tape first and then you see if the narrative lines up from what the tape says.
Yeah. It's the same thing with like— this one always— I've always struggled with. Go with this one is watching a guard, like watching an interior offensive lineman. And then I'll talk to— I've already watched him and I'll talk to scouts that have gone to the school and they're like, yeah, the coaches say he's like the dumbest kid we've ever coached. Like, he can't learn. He's going to be— it's going to be a major problem. And I'm like, I don't have anything. Like, I watched 4 games. Like, you would think like he'd be late to pass off and pick up a twist, or you'd see like these busts in protection, or you see him, you know, out not knowing what he's doing and question who he's supposed to block when he's going up. The second level. Like, doesn't that have to rear itself somewhere at some point in time? Like, if he's that dumb?
Yeah.
And then, you know, so that— then I kind of, you know, I'm a little cautionary on that.
I was wondering this, the like big picture team-by-team situation after the draft. I do like— whenever I do a fantasy draft, I'm immediately like, well, I fucking hate my team.
Like, I—
that got away from me. I don't know what the fuck happened, you know, rounds 6 through 9, but I just lost my mind. And all we hear whenever the draft is over is the teams love their draft picks, and they're— that's what they got to say publicly.
Is there any—
is there any draft rooms that, you know, after this weekend they're like, ah, fuck, we, we kind of fucked that up? Like, we let that get away from us a little bit?
Yeah, I would say the way it would be phrased is like, I've been in there at times, like some years everything just falls your way, and other years you're like, dude, we just got picked clean. Like, we just got wiped you know, where it's like we're picking— like, there's been years where you're picking 24 and you're like, dude, we just got our 8th player with the 24th pick. And then there's other years where you're like, we're picking 24, how the heck did we get our 23rd? We got our 23rd guy. Like, literally everybody that we liked in order is gone, right? We didn't get any of them. So like, there— and then there's also, there's times where you're trying to play the numbers. So if I'm picking picking, say I'm picking 32, you're Seattle, and you're like, okay, there's, we like 4 players. Like there's 4 players we have right in our range. We like all 4 of them, different positions, but like these are the 4 guys that the Seahawks love. Like, I mean, playing the odds here, like we just got a trade offer to go back 6 spots. Like one of these, one of these 4 guys is right there.
And then you trade back and it's just bam, bam, bam, bam. And you're like, oh frick, that was, we missed out. Miscalculated on that one.
Yeah. Okay. I would love, I wish we could have like truth serum for every draft. We'll be like, hey, how did it actually go? Yeah.
The other thing though is I'm telling you, dude, like, and this was before my time with the Ravens, but I know like some of their Hall of Fame players and hearing stories from the guys back in the day was like, it was almost like, oh man, this, the guy we want, it's gone. Like, all right, well, let's take this guy. And he ends up being a Hall of Famer.
Yeah.
Have you ever, have you ever gotten to the end of a draft and like looked at some other teams' drafts and been like, wow, actually that team really, really killed it. And then you call up their GM just to say, hey, good job. GGs. You really kicked our ass on that one.
You got us good. So along those lines, after that trade was made, I sent Duke Tobin with the Bengals like this long text. And as soon as I sent it, I was like, that's— he doesn't care what I think about this trade. Like, what am I doing? And then it was like several hours later, he hit me with the thumbs up and I was like, yeah, I was just a bad idea.
The thumbs up emoji. Yeah, you write them like a really, really nice letter.
What you think about that? You know, I'm glad you think this made a lot of sense for our roster, but wasn't really part of our calculus.
Yeah.
Uh, all right, uh, DJ, I got one last question for you. This, this is great. We love having you on every year. Uh, it's the Rohback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Rohback.com, promo code take. I think we ask this every year, and I always love like watching the draft later. So here's a good one for everyone to keep tuning in for the rest of the draft. Um, give us your sleeper on offense and defense that you know is going to be a late round pick, but you're like, I love this guy, I'd stand on the table for this guy if I were in a draft room. Not to pick him in the first round, but yeah, when you get to the third, fourth, fifth round, that's a guy that I know can be, uh, huge. Because I love seeing it, it's like the Leo meme when they see that guy get picked. I'm like, Oh, DJ told me that guy was going to be good. So it feels, feels like I know a little bit more about the draft.
Yeah, I think, did we do, I think I might have done the Notre Dame D tackle that went to Seattle last year.
I think so. He got a sack in the Super Bowl. Yeah.
Yeah. He got a sack in the Super Bowl. So I don't, I'm not, that's not going to happen ever again. The, uh, gosh.
All right.
I'll give you a couple. I'll give you a couple of guys who were non-combine. So they didn't get invited to the combine. So these guys, the chances are these guys are going to go really, really high. Late. But I thought— I put 3 of them in my top 150 that I thought were just good players. One is a Cincinnati receiver named Cyrus Allen, who's, you know, he's not the biggest, he's just under 6 foot, he's 183 pounds, but he's just a good slot receiver, like really, really productive, smart. He just got a good feel for it. Like, he's the type of guy I think he'll go later, he'll go on day 3, and then you'll look up in a Monday night game next year and this guy will be out there out there and he'll make some plays. So Cyrus Allen would be one, and then it's two defensive linemen. There's this kid, um, from Georgia Tech who, um, again, non-combine but real, real athletic, and, uh, someone I think probably goes in like the 5th round maybe. Um, but Jordan Vandenberg is his name. He worked out great. He ran like 4.94. Um, you can move him around along the interior.
He's got some— he just got some, some ability to penetrate and make some negative plays on the other side of the line of scrimmage. He's, he's a good player. And didn't get invited to the combine. So that's another one. And the last one is an edge rusher. I think I do this every year. It's like a running joke with me and one of my buddies in the league. It's like I just fall in love with some MAC defensive lineman every year because I'm like, one of them is going to end up being good. So just pick one out of a hat. So Michael Heldman from Central Michigan had 10.5 sacks, had a really good pro day. He's like just under 6'4", 268, vertical 40 inches. He had a sack in the east-west game. Like every, everything he— every opportunity he got, he made the most of, but again, no, no combine. And I'm thinking, you know, maybe the high, maybe the high end, he could go in the fourth round. But, you know, there's just certain— and it's harder now because of NIL. A lot of these guys get pulled up to the bigger schools.
But I just feel like there's always a good MAC defensive lineman every year. So I'm always trying to find them.
Yeah.
I mean, there usually are.
Yeah.
So something that's been in the news this week, the Georgia wide receiver Zachariah Branch.
Yeah.
So he went out over the weekend. Weekend, he got arrested, uh, for standing on a public sidewalk and not moving far enough when a police officer asked him to move. So, uh, the teams all have the police report now. Does this actually hurt his stock? I think personally, like, you could make the argument this guy probably shouldn't have been going out this close to the draft. If it were me, I would just be like, okay, nobody move, nobody do anything until draft night so that nothing bad can happen to me. Um, but it sounds like what was happening was not that bad. But I don't know, you've talked to the You've seen the police report. Is this going to be something that would affect him? And because he's, I think, projected to be a second or third round pick right now.
Yeah, I wasn't— I mean, this is not going to affect him. If you were a team that was high on him, you're not going to change your opinion on him. I was a little bit just lower on him as a player. So, you know, I think people— I don't know if my list has come out yet. I think it comes out today as we're recording, but he was Where is— I was going to pull him up on my list here. He is— where is he? Where did he go? Oh, Zach Branch. He was 91 for me. So I wasn't as high on him as everybody else, but it's not going to impact him. I will say I've been in those rooms where not something like really serious, but maybe something has happened late in the process. And I've been in there when they're like, oh, just to see this guy 'He, you know, we can't trust him. Like, you don't anything to do with this guy.' And other guys are in there like, 'Oh, this is great. This guy's gonna fall to us. This is perfect. Like, I'm glad this thing, uh, this got public.' So the other thing is, the other conversation that I've heard over the last couple days is, 'Have you guys enjoyed the hands conversation with receivers with drops, where it's, it's the debate of whether his hands are hard, he has concentration issues?' Yeah.
Um, there's just the different levels of it. I'm I'm like, but dude, you're just justifying your grade, whether it's good or bad. Like, it's, you know, if you got a good grade on a guy, it's like, I mean, look guys, it's just concentration. Like, he's gonna be fine. Like, we'll just, we'll work with that. Not an issue.
Yeah.
And then if you, if you don't have a good grade on me, like, this guy's got freaking feet for hands. Like, there's no, there's no way this guy's going to be able to catch. You can't touch this guy.
Yeah.
Is there a guy coming out that has had hard hands that he gets to the NFL and he actually gets— the hands get softer? Yeah.
No, well, there's guys that have had major drop issues that have, that have been able to overcome them. Um, so whether or not that's their hands have been, uh, softened up, moisturized, I don't know. But they, uh, there have been guys who've been able to improve in that area. I, you know, but it's just always a fascinating discussion to me because it always just is directly connected to what your grade is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, all right, DJ, you're the best. Appreciate everyone tuning in on NFL Network Draft Show. Uh, we, we, we can't thank you enough. And go enjoy some You're in Pittsburgh already. Good. Get some pierogies, maybe some sandwiches.
I have a dainty stomach. I have a dainty stomach.
Oh no, Pittsburgh's not the city for you then.
No, no. Hold on, let me see here. Let's go.
You need to— you need the draft in San Diego.
Yeah, in-room dining, uh, wedge salad, uh, let's go Caesar salad, buttermilk pancakes.
There you go. All day, some of those.
Yeah, served all day. I think you can't go wrong with that.
Hell yeah.
All right, thanks, man. Appreciate it so much.
Thanks, DJ. Daniel Jeremiah was brought to you by NASCAR. You can get ready for heart-pounding action at the Jack Links, where drivers battle it out at nearly 200 miles per hour. College tickets are just $30. You could get seats in the Gadsden grandstands, sections A through D, near turn 4, where you can watch the pack roar into the tri-oval. And free camping and tailgating in the North park where any type of vehicle or camping setup is allowed. Bring your own soft-sided cooler, get your favorite food, get your drinks in— just no glass. Access to the Saturday night concert featuring Kip Moore in the infield. Secure your tickets now. Experience the adrenaline, the energy, and unforgettable moments at Talladega Superspeedway. Visit talladegasuperspeedway.com today and check it out. Uh, next up we have NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, and he's brought to you by our great friends at José Cuervo. When Cuervo enters, every moment just gets better. You find yourself in the center of the dance floor. You can't help but stand up and high-five those around you at the game. The room reacts like it just got the same text at the same time. You stop checking the time.
Suddenly, small talk escalates to laughing so hard you can barely catch your breath. That's the Cuervo effect, a signal everybody understands, a moment that anyone can join, and a good time that just Pros. All you have to do is keep it Cuervo. Now here's Adam Silver.
Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest. It is NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, recurring guest. Great to see you again, Mr. Commissioner. We're excited. NBA playoffs are here. What— let's start with that. NBA playoffs, there's nothing better, uh, is there? Is this like when the NBA playoffs start, do you get a little extra pep in your step? You're like, all right, finally we're here. It's a long season. And now we get to play some really, like, truly meaningful basketball.
I do. As you said, I mean, I think for the players too, it just— they take it to another level. There's no question about it. I was— I began the playoffs in Cleveland on Saturday, and just the energy in the building, I think, you know, things change. The t-shirts come out, the fanfare, you know, different acts come out at halftime. I mean, it's just— It's a great experience. It's definitely a favorite part of my job is going to those games. New York, obviously, tough loss for the Knicks last night, but I live in the New York market. So even at a tough Knick game, I live in an apartment building and you can hear it from the other apartments. Everybody's watching it. You hear the roar, sort of the crowd. You hear the disappointment. People are out on the streets. So no, it's fantastic. The quality of the competition, you know, has been spectacular.
Yeah.
That, you know, you have some 1-8 matchups, whatever else. I mean, that, that, you know, where, you know, that when in terms of where teams are seated and so there's expectations, but you know, the guys are good to go and, and it's a long regular season. And I think that the anticipation leading up to the playoffs and then where, you know, it's the, every game is so meaningful and guys want to still be on the floor in June. It's, it's, It's, it's, it, it's fun to watch. And I think also we recognize from a fan standpoint that there are a group of casual fans who, you could see by the numbers and the ratings, don't pay as much attention to the regular season, at least don't watch as many live games, but then come to the set when the playoffs— so you just, you, you— there's just a lift all around the league.
Yeah, yeah. By the way, I think you confirmed this, uh, maybe at the start of the season, but I just want to double confirm right now, the NBA Finals, we will have the Larry O'Brien decal on the court?
No, no more decal. Well, we're painting it on.
Okay, all right, that's fine, that's fine.
The decals, we had the decals, the decals were slippery, the guys didn't like those. We then started putting them on virtually through all this technology, and then the people in the arena said, we, where's the branding? Where's the Finals fanfare? There. So now we're back to old school painting. Perfect. Those logos on the floor, they're safe, they're there.
Okay, that's—
yes, we're big believers in that. The NBA Finals should feel special. Yeah, because what we said on our show when it happened last year, we're like, when you watch back a clip of an NBA Finals game from the '90s or the early 2000s, you're like, oh, that's special because you can see it right there. And so not having it there. It just took a little out of it. So I think that's the right move, and we're excited to have it back.
Yeah, you know, I'll add, I even think we should be creating more fanfare around those games. I mean, for example, the NBA Cup games— I know you've commented on it— that the floors, the colored floors.
Yes.
You know, the idea there with those Cup games is that as you were flipping through the channels in the regular season, they would stand out because you'd see something visually was happening different differently. What I didn't anticipate is for the players, they say the same thing. It's like they come out, they're like, "All right, it's Cup night." It's a different sport. And I think, you know, maybe taking a page from— if you watch the Champions League, like, they have their own anthem. They have their own music, their own fanfare. I just think with— there's so much attention now, you know, focused on these big events. And obviously, the NFL does a spectacular job with the Super Bowl. Like, I think there's more we can do. And In fact, we'll have an announcement coming soon. We engaged a well-known composer, you know, to be thinking about tracks designed for the league. And so just in the same way I learned from the players, and the fans are the same way, that when they come out on a Cup game, it's a special floor. When you get into the, you know, Conference Finals and Finals, there should be special music that comes on.
You know, it— and I know that I, as a fan, So it's interesting, the players are like fans in certain ways. Like they respond to all, all the sort of the accouterments, the trappings of big events too.
Yeah.
I, I would like, I would love an opportunity if, if you're hiring people out to do music, maybe this podcast, just the opportunity to, to compose a theme song for the NBA Cup.
Let's go. And you know, you probably have listeners, by the way, I, I, I, I don't want to go jump over the fact that you've now advanced to Netflix since I was last on.
Yes.
Congratulations guys.
Yeah. You're a big streaming guy. You like the streaming service.
I figured now that you're on Netflix, you can't complain to me about our streaming packages now.
Not about Netflix.
Yeah, no.
Yeah, you've got us tied up on that one. But yeah, I mean, we will— listen, we wrote the theme song for Thursday Night Football back in 2016, the Color Rush Anthem. Yeah, they didn't—
we didn't use it. They didn't use it for the games. We wrote one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we used it.
But we'd be happy to do one. Going for the Cup.
Yeah, no, I'm serious. I mean, like, I, I feel like music has historically been such a big part of the NBA, right? You know, I think the whole hip-hop movement in a way was, you know, correlated directly to sort of the rise of the league. There's always been a musical side to it. I think more of an association in other sports where there's certain genres of music, you say that's the NBA, that's basketball. I think we haven't done enough with it. And I think there should be identifiers, sort of even, you know, on Netflix. I won't do the sound, I'll let you guys do it, but like when you, when you open the app, it's the sound, the Netflix sound. Yeah, doom, right? You know, there should be like a sound, like when an NBA highlight comes on, there should be a sound that signifies the beginning of a game because people like obviously respond well to those, those different sonic sort of, you know, markers, you know, that, that, that, that are indicative, you know, that, and, and I think they were bigger sort of in the past, like dun dun dun, like NBC always had.
And then we brought the John Tesh music back, you know, as we went back to NBC this year. So anyway, I, I think there's, there's more and also, you know, more in terms of uniforms too, like uniforms signify in the same way for the cup uniforms, you know, some of it like manufacturing lead times and all that. We gotta figure that out. But I just think I think that all those, you know, trappings of big events, there's, there's just more we can do around those things.
On that same line, can we, can we, uh, be a little bit regressive about some things and say let's not do the weird alternate jerseys during the playoffs?
Yeah.
All right, well, we'll look into it. I, I will say, you know, the fans love him. I mean, it's partly in response to the fans. Like, it used to be, you remember my early days in the league, You only wore white at home, right? And then you had these colorful uniforms that they wore on the road. And that was— I remember that was really important to David Stern. It was that identifier, you know? So you instantly knew who the home team, you know, where the game was taking place. He's like, all right, it's the Bulls. They're wearing their home uniform. But then people wanted to see those away uniforms at home. And so then sort of that tradition went by the wayside. And so—
Well, that's okay. I would be— like, speaking from the fan perspective, I think most people would be fine if you wore your road jerseys at home sometimes and you brought that color into your home arena. But when we do, like, the weird third colors that have nothing to do with, you know, the primary colors of your team, there's a time and a place for that. I just don't think that it's the playoffs.
A fair point. All right. We'll look into that.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right. So this year, how would you grade the job that you've done as commissioner? As commissioner?
Good question.
Like, if you were to say what your goals were going into this year and what you've hit, uh, and maybe what you've come short on, how would you grade yourself?
Uh, look, I, you know, I'm, I'm a tough grader on myself, on everyone. I mean, my view is no matter what had happened this season, I always feel we could do a better job. I could do a better job, and especially in hindsight. Obviously, you know, first and foremost, tanking. You know, this has completely gotten away from the league this year. I mean, it's interesting because the lottery has changed, I think, essentially 5 times now. So arguably there's less incentive under the current formation, you know, uh, and odds of the lottery. There should have been less incentive than any time in our prior history to tank. But yet because of modern analytics, whether, you know, interestingly enough, I always have to remind people, I mean, unfortunately tanking is a strategy not to lose, but to win. It's just to win over a longer period of time, obviously. But I think where we ended up this year, where, you know, make up, make the number, you know, 8 teams, 9 teams, 10 teams, whatever, which were essentially racing to the bottom, you know, again, in a desire to win, not to lose, was not acceptable. And, you know, what exactly we could have done about it in hindsight, you know, we're about to make significant changes and we have an already scheduled scheduled a board meeting of our owners for late May.
There's a few different proposals that are still floating around on exactly how to change it, but arguably we should have made the change a year ago or, or longer before we ended up in the position we are. So ultimately, that's my responsibility. So you know, that, that's, that's something we're focused on. There's other things, you know, this season. I mean, I think we can always do a better job marketing. You know, I, I'm a big believer in marketing. My prior job one of my jobs before I was Deputy Commissioner here was at NBA Entertainment. And I think is even just talking about things around music and uniforms and, you know, how to do a better job telling stories. We have new partners this year. I'm thrilled with them. You know, Disney, ABC, ESPN have been our partners for a long time. And I think they're really good at telling stories around the game. It's great to have added NBC and Peacock. You know, Amazon Prime is doing a wonderful job. I think it's more competitive than ever before. I mean, people, just like, honestly, the fact that you guys are now on Netflix, that podcasts have moved to video, we all have unlimited options now for our leisure time, for any discretionary time we have.
And I think as a result, the NBA and all entertainment forms have to step up their game. Just recognize that, you know, just going Netflix alone is seemingly unlimited options. But then there's so many other apps, and there's YouTube, and there's video games. And so, you know, particularly because we've talked about in the, in the regular season before, I mean, that's why we added the Cup tournaments, why we added the Play-In. You know, I, I, I, on the other hand, I mean, we're just coming off a season where we've had the highest viewership in 24 years. So while there's definitely issues for us to focus on, you know, people love NBA basketball, and they just, they not only They love the live games. They love the fact that there's shows like yours that are talking about the NBA. You know, they— podcasts, you know, social media. I mean, it's a huge global marketplace for people who want to follow the league. So I think for the league office, I recognize all those different points of view are going to be represented, but we also have to focus on storytelling, engagement, bringing fans in. Fans, you know, to the, to the set.
At the end of the day, like, all those things for me are in support of getting people to watch live games. That's really what our business is. And the arenas, interestingly enough, the last 3 years have been the 3 highest attended, um, 3 highest years in attendance in the history of the league. So people love being in the arenas. Our teams have really stepped it up, you know, in response to all the competition. The food's gotten better, You know, the entertainment's gotten better. You know, you know, the arenas themselves have been upgraded. So, so people like that experience of coming together, live entertainment, especially with all the people are talking about in terms of artificial intelligence, that you'll maybe have more leisure time. You know, more things are done virtually, people are isolated more, so they love coming together. And in the form of coming together is watching a show like yours. It connects people to, to the world. So I I just, like, for me, back to your question, like, as I grade myself, it's like, all right, things are moving so quickly. How do I both try to help lead the league but also take all these great resources we have, all these great owners in the league who are innovators in their own right, and bring this all to bear just to sort of— it's a rising tide and we just like keep elevating this league.
Are you ready for some tanking ideas?
We can help you with that.
Yeah. Yeah. Now before we do that though, can we just agree this is a safe space? There's a no, there's no bad ideas policy. Remember, we're the guys who brought you the every player gets to fight one fan a year, which you didn't totally turn down. You were kind of, you know, I think you saw, I think you might have brought it back to someone being like, hey, look into the analytics of this. But are you ready for it? You want, you want us to fix tanking?
Please.
Okay.
PFT, you have, you have one? Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I got one right here for you. So if you're more than 20 games below 500 at any time, the owner of that team has to give a press conference after every single game and has to face the media.
It's a lot of math.
Yeah. Oh, well, well, let me ask this. If you— if your record is, uh, 45-55, are you 10 games below.500? Are you 5?
You asking me?
Yeah.
Yeah, well, you're 45 and 55.
Yeah, he's 55 and 45.
Game season, so it's a true question. But, but I hear you.
I—
look, I think— keep going.
The owner has to face them.
Yeah, yeah, the owner's got to talk to the media if the team is bad.
All right, but you know, in fairness, I think the issue is that in a way now for our owners, many of them have engaged directly with the media, their fans, on tanking. And honestly, you could argue they're being rewarded for it, that this is now a strategy that they're being encouraged by their fans to undertake. And in fact, I've had conversations with other owners who are upset because they're out there trying to win every game, right? They don't have a top draft pick. They're sort of in the middle of the pack or just sort of just barely making the playoffs. And their fans are saying, what are you doing? You're in the worst possible place. You should either be really good or really bad. So, you know, believe me, I will say one of the things that's changed in this league— I mean, think about it, even from an economic standpoint, what these teams are sacrificing in order just to win longer term. I mean, that's what, like, tanking— again, it's a strategy to win, not to lose. And historically And really, a lot of teams weren't willing to put themselves through that. And for whatever reason, I think it's a broader societal issue with sort of this winner-take-all notion.
It's like you're only satisfied if you win. It's not the path to winning. It's just winning. And again, if you sit in my chair and you look out at the league, there's only going to be one champion every year. So, it's a horrible strategy league-wise.
Wide.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
By definition, in tanking, there's only one first pick, one second pick, and even if you have a deep draft, maybe there's 3 or 4 transformational players. But if a lot of teams are engaging in that strategy, there's also going to be a lot of disappointed teams and fans.
Yeah.
So, all right, so my idea is, is it's, it's probably a little more extreme than what PFT said, but it's a, it's along the same lines because I'm thinking about it in the way of this is that there's some owners that are willing to tank. There's also owners that are maybe, uh, don't want to invest in their team and they're happy to just collect paychecks and, and make money. I think you need to—
in our league, and I'm sorry, but I, I, I— it would be tough to name an owner right now in this league that's just satisfied to collect a check.
Okay, on the same line, this is not about tanking. Can you make the Blazers do t-shirts games 3 and 4? Because that's bullshit. They gotta have t-shirts.
Well, I only say like, I, some spokesperson, I just read it for the Blazers, said it's not t-shirts, but they have some other giveaway that they have.
It's not gonna be, it's not gonna be as good as a t-shirt, Adam. You know that.
I know where you're going with Tom Dundon. So like people are starting to say he's not really willing to spend the money. Remember, this is a guy who just won a bidding war called $4.5 billion to buy a team and they're calling him cheap. It just can't be. He, like, I think the Hurricanes are, you know, I'm not following the NHL every night, but are they—
they're up 2-0 in their series. Yeah, yeah.
So he knows what he's doing. And I think, like, his mindset— and I'm just getting to know him— but I don't think it has as much to do with the cost of the t-shirts or wherever he's saving money. It's a mindset on how to run a business. It's a scrappy approach to, like, I think, focusing on details, making people feel everything matters. Winners. So again, I like— it's the idea that this guy paid one of the highest prices for a professional sports team in history is being called cheap makes absolutely no sense to me. This guy's a winner. He's won in everything he's ever been involved in. So let's give him an opportunity.
Well, the t-shirts would help a lot, but all right, so back to tanking. Um, I do think though that if you're looking for another product to sell, to, to have people tuned in, to have people excited excited about the NBA. Are you familiar at all with, uh, MrBeast and the Beast Games?
Absolutely. Okay, he's done stuff with the NBA.
All right, perfect. So we're ready to go. Every, uh, team that is in the lottery, the owners of those teams have to then compete in the Beast Games for the number 1 pick.
Well, we'll have to talk to MrBeast about that. I, again, like, he will do it.
I'll do it.
It's a pretty good business, you know. A lot of it is based on, you social media, getting that kind of engagement.
Yeah, sure.
What the audience will be to see some of these owners compete.
I— the other idea was just that we do— I don't know if you've seen Dana White's Slap League, but have the owners do a slap league for the—
I saw that, I'm like, whoa.
Yeah, that'd be pretty cool though if the owners are just cracking each other in the face to get the number 1 pick.
When I saw the Slap League, I'm just glad that this is a non-violent sport.
Also, you could just have everyone Everyone, all the owners.
Yeah, it is.
It's—
no, it's, it's the most popular sport in America. Yeah, in terms of 5-second clips.
Yeah, you could have— you could also have every owner stand in the middle center court in the circle, and last one to leave gets the number 1 pick.
Yeah.
Or how about, how about this? Like, if we were to go back—
remember, no bad ideas, right?
No bad ideas. We're just spitballing. Along those same lines, uh, what if, like, if we're using last year's players as the For example, we put Cooper Flagg in the middle of an arena and then every owner can put their hand on Cooper Flagg and then the last guy that has his hand on Cooper Flagg gets to draft him.
It's a pretty good idea.
You know, you know, Big Cat, I know you're down on Duke, you know, but—
No, I'm not down on Duke. I hate them. I had a question about that, but it was—
you ruined it. All right.
Okay.
Cooper Flagg, you know, I'm a Duke guy. Like, I don't want to subject Cooper to any sort of nonsense.
Nonsense like that.
I know there's no bad ideas, but next.
Okay, I had a trick question that was coming up that was going to basically be like, is there any existential threat to the NBA that college kids are getting paid so much money? Like, Braylon Mullins was maybe a lottery pick, he decided to stay. And if you don't remember Braylon Mullins, he hit that shot against Duke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's not an existential threat at all. It's interesting what's happening in college sports. If anything, it's actually positive because because some of the players who were being lured out of college sports, who clearly weren't— or college basketball, who were not going to be top draft picks, were being otherwise convinced that they were. Then they weren't getting drafted, or they were getting drafted at the end of the second round. They weren't making rosters, and then they had lost their eligibility, and then they were going to Europe or wherever else to play. Like, it's much better for us that the guys who aren't ready to come into the NBA stay and compete at a high level in college. So, and what you're also seeing now with so-called NIL, you know, I'm not sure that money is all really name, image, likeness, but guys are being paid that— sure, you noticed in the NCAA tournament how many more international names there were.
For sure.
The whole thing. So you now have, you know, a group of players who otherwise would have stayed in Europe stayed in Europe, but can make more money, who stayed in Europe to play professionally, but can make more money in college. And they're in many cases getting better development and more eyes on them from NBA scouts and teams. So I use that as a ramp onto level of NBA competition right now. I mean, just look at these playoffs, look around the league. I mean, you have LeBron obviously still playing incredible level at 41. One, you know, you know, some of the all-time greats still out on the floor, but like this whole new generation of players coming into the league, many of them international. That's what's really fueling the league right now is this, this incredible talent that these young players have.
Yeah, it's true. I have another suggestion to fix tanking. Hypothetically, if you're going into like a draft lottery system like we have in place that in theory should reward the teams that finish with the worst records at the end of the year, you've You've got all the teams kind of vying, competing to make sure that they get the best odds that they can at the end of every year, which is by definition, that's tanking. And that's what the issue is. One way to dissuade teams from doing that would be if you were to rig the lottery and a team that only has a 1.8% chance of winning the lottery gets the number 1 overall pick.
Good idea.
Then every other team might be like, wow, maybe tanking actually isn't the right thing to do. Yeah. Have you given any thought to that?
That?
I have, and I don't want to go to jail.
Okay.
I don't want to commit a felony.
Okay.
So I would never rig the draft lottery, and my predecessor David Stern never rigged the draft lottery, although there were many, as you guys know, rumors, stories around the frozen envelope for years that it's— I commit it's entirely on the level. It's audited, you know, every year by by fancy accounting firms. Yeah, it's like, it's— and there's video of what happens in the room. So, uh, would— I would never engage in anything like that.
Okay, what about, what about if we just found a guy who could commit the felony for you? We could find you a guy in our office, no problem.
Um, you're from Chicago, it sounds like.
Yeah, we have, we have Zach, we have me.
Yeah, we got a lot of guys.
No, but listen, we actually, to, to your credit, like, we went yet last year and saw the whole setup, and it was incredible. Yeah, it was.
It's—
it would be impossible to rig it, I will say that. Like, we saw it with our own two eyes. For people who say it's rigged, we, we watched— we didn't watch the actual polling, but there's journalists in there. But we saw the whole system, and it's a—
it—
we didn't understand it. We— it made no sense because it was too many numbers. But it is, it is quite a system. So we have your back on that.
It is.
One thing about— like, let's round 1.8 to 2%, all right? Right? So the team with the best odds in our current system has a 14% chance, and Dallas had a 2% chance. So I get it, you know, 2% is 2%, 14% is 14%. But it's not like when people hear lottery, they make it seem like something that was one in like the Mega Million or whatever, 200 million. No, it was— it's 2%, and 2% things happen, you know, and 14% things happen. So I— but having said all that, this will be the last year of the draft lottery under this current system.
Okay, we're gonna do some tweaking this offseason. I, I like that a lot. The, the other, uh, right when the Bulls decide to actually tank.
Yeah, appreciate that so much, Adam.
There have been a— there's been a lot of talk also about, you know, the, the arbitrary benchmark that you put into place, or the league put into place— not putting this on you— but to, uh, to be eligible for— yeah, this is 65-game games to be able to win a postseason award or to be able to win an end-of-the-year award. Um, so an idea I had for that is what if you had, uh, every arena— instead of doing the 65-game, the point is you want players, the stars, to play. Every arena across the NBA has an updated leaderboard of perfect attendance players in the NBA, right? And so then if you make it to the end of the season and if you're on the perfect attendance London Sport, then you get to choose which pictures the NBA uses when they put you up on Instagram. You get to manicure that for yourself, control your brand, make sure that you're looking good in all of them.
All right, uh, interesting idea. I, I just— to defend the league for a second on the 65 games, it wasn't quite arbitrary. I mean, so that's 80% of games in the season, and that was collectively bargained with the Players Association. Again, it's, it's zero-sum. There's going to be same number of players who are All-NBA, there's going to be a Defensive Player of the Year, MVP, etc. And the feeling was, as we sat down with the players, that we needed our stars to be on the floor, and that that was a, you know, based on average number of games missed historically for injuries or whatever else, that that was a fair benchmark. And, you know, with this exceptional language, and so we made two exceptions this year of guys who, you know, two guys who missed it by a game. But I would just say what, what gets lost in that argument— I've heard people say they don't like that cutoff— is that any place you put the line, obviously somebody's going to fall on the other side of it. But before we put in this new 65-game rule, roughly one-third of all NBA players were not playing 65 games.
And so it's, it's working from that standpoint. I mean, are— could it be tweaked? I don't know. I'm just saying that that, you know, that we're also a business and we don't— we— there's an expectation from our fans that our stars are going to play in games. And this lastly, like, injuries are a huge problem in this league, but we put it— pretty much put load management in the rearview mirror. Like, you're not— people still throw around that term, but that's not really an issue in the league right now. The genuine issue is injuries and how in the world we're going to solve that. Maybe Maybe, you know, AI will help detect, you know, bad movements that lead to injuries and things like that. But that's the single biggest issue that I worry about because it's seemingly out of our control. I feel like tanking, we will fix it, you know, we will find a way to address it and we fix it, and we should be held responsible for that. Injuries are confounding.
Yeah. Uh, the— I had a question, a more serious question about, um, I'm sure you saw there was a lot of headlines, uh, LeBron's comments about Memphis and then talk about potentially moving a team to Nashville. Is that on the table at all, or is that just people just kind of running with something?
You know, well, first of all, players I talk to all the time like, like playing in Memphis. I've never heard that issue of players not wanting to be in Memphis. So number one. Number two, you know, the, the owner of Memphis Grizzlies, a guy named Robert Pera, has no interest in moving the team out of Memphis. He's made that clear. You know, I like, there's obviously Nashville as a city on the rise. There's incredible things happening there. You know, if it were up to me, I'd love for them to play a few games a year in Nashville and sort of be Tennessee's team to the extent they can. But, uh, you know, Memphis has been a great market historically for the NBA. There's, you know, amazing history in that city, amazing culture, you know, and it's a big country, you know. And so as I look at out, you know, our 30 teams. We want teams to be able to do well everywhere. We have a revenue sharing system, etc. But, uh, yeah, there's— from, from my standpoint, there's no reason why Memphis Grizzlies can't be successful.
Yeah.
And, uh, the, the other two markets that we hear about a lot are Las Vegas and Seattle. I personally would like to see Seattle get a team first. I feel like the Sonics, they were a great franchise. They got moved out of the city not because they had a disinterest interested population was more towards the side of, uh, I would say greed from ownership that took them out of that city. Um, but I feel like the, the people of Seattle have been waiting and they deserve a team. Like, it's a good market for basketball. Have you given any thought, like, if you had your preference, are we looking at doing two teams at once, two new teams, or is it going to be a rollout where we go one expansion team followed a couple years later by another?
So we announced, you know, just about a month ago that we were looking at expansion and in particular those two markets, Seattle and Las Vegas. We sort of left it open whether we would go, you know, for new teams in both markets or one market, or frankly, you know, no expansion at all. If that's not what made sense at the end of the analysis, I will say still early days, but enormous interest. Interest in both those markets. You know, as, as you said, I, we could have a longer discussion. I don't think we left because of greed of owners. I think there was an issue at the time. They needed a new arena. It didn't work out and the team ended up getting moved. I won't debate that, but I, you know, do think, you know, we should, you know, Seattle historically was a great market for many years. When I, early days I was in the league, we were in Seattle. Seattle, they, you know, the Seattle Storm, our WNBA team, does fantastically well there. You know, probably top 5 things people ask me about sort of in this job as I travel everywhere is, when are you going to bring the Sonics back to Seattle?
Like, you know, I think it's just part of the DNA of that market. So, you know, my hope is we get back there at some point, but we're going through the process now. And Las Vegas just seemingly has an insatiable appetite for entertainment and sports. You know, NHL is doing great there. NFL is. Baseball's announced they're going there. Again, we have a WNBA team in Las Vegas. Aces have done really fantastically well. So as I said, a lot of interest in that market. We're in process of looking at that too.
Yeah. Can I make one request? I know I saw that, uh, you said that you're looking into European leagues. That would be— now, would those be part of the NBA?
No, not, not initially. So what we're looking into is is a separate league in Europe. I mean, basketball is the number 2 sport in Europe after soccer, enormous interest. There are a lot of different pro leagues country by country, and then there's something called the— they have a broader European league that sort of covers top clubs from around Europe. It's what they call the EuroLeague. League. So what we're looking to do is see if there's an opportunity to create a new league, maybe comprised of some of those existing clubs and some new clubs. It would be separate from the NBA. I will just say, over time, you know, could some of those teams potentially compete like in a cup tournament that we have? You know, maybe years and years from now, you could imagine when, you know, the Supersonic Jets come back, you could see some of those teams may be competing in our playoffs or, you know, matchups between top US, you know, US teams and European teams or US and Canada. So all that's on the table, but I think right now we're seeing a lot of interest in that. People love basketball in Europe.
Like, as you know, we talked about earlier, some, you know, you know, Luka, you know, the Joker, Wemby, et cetera. Some of our very best players are European and I think it's a real opportunity, you know, for, you know, not for NBA right now, but maybe almost like a once and forever opportunity to think about you could own a Paris team, you know, that's NBA-style basketball, London, Madrid, et cetera. So that's something we're—
Okay, just don't make us watch sports at weird times. That's our only request.
By the way, that's what, you know, I'm so glad you said that because that's the issue for the Europeans right now. Because like, they're also sleep deprived, the NBA fans, because they got to set their alarm for 3, 4 o'clock in the morning to watch those games. So the whole idea here, you know, we can have weekend games, you know, that are on, you know, in the afternoon, prime time in Europe, but we also want to have prime time basketball. Yeah, you know, it's coming from, from the continent for European fans.
Yeah. Okay, well, uh, Mr. Commissioner, this has been awesome. I have one last question. We love having you on. Uh, Roback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K. Aroback.com, 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Aroback.com, promo code TAKE. Uh, my last question is— this is a weird one. Well, it's not weird, but whenever there's a burner situation on Twitter, do you— are you like, hey, someone else handle this, I'm not doing this, I'm not looking at this, I don't want to, I don't want to pay attention to this? I would hope that it's, it's below— like, you, you have some guy who's be like chief, like, burner on Twitter guy who can handle that stuff?
So, um, there's a guy named Mike Bass in the league office. He's head of communications, so he's, he's all over that. But, but in all seriousness, we look at stuff, what guys are posting, you know. In some cases, if it comes to our attention, it's a league person who's posting something under another name. We're looking at that as well. But there's this enormous enormous social media community around the NBA. I mean, some people, because we're a global sport, some people have estimated that there are 2 billion people on a planet of 8 billion who are engaged in the NBA or its players in some way through social media. So, you're going to see just about everything out there. You know, burner accounts, you know, all kinds of content, anything that's imaginable. As I said, it's just part of the community of being a fan these days. Ways. You know, it's not a substitute for going to an arena or watching a live game, but no different than, you know, being engaged with you guys. It's a way that people, you know, can, you know, manifest their fandom. So yeah, yeah, but I, I, I'm not like looking at every— I, I have to admit, I look at social media, but, um, I, I try not to get consumed by it.
Yeah. Do you have a technology guy where he can look it up in like 15 seconds, be like, yep, that belongs to KD.
Yeah, we have our ways.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you do. All right, well, Commissioner, thank you so much. We really appreciate it, and we're excited for the NBA playoffs. We're going to be tuning in every night and talking about it, and, uh, always appreciate you coming on.
Yeah, thank you both.
Guys on Chicks is brought to you by Whatnot, the number one live shopping app in the US. It's NFL Draft Week. In honor of it, we're chasing one of the most overlooked draft picks of all the GOAT, Tom Brady. Tom Brady's rookie card is one of the most iconic sports cards of all time. Is Brady the greatest draft pick of all time? Definitely.
Would you say, PFT, the best draft pick of all time?
Of all time?
No, I would say that the, the New England Patriots screwed up because if they knew how good he was, they would take him in the first.
They just know value when they see it.
That's true.
All right, so we have the 2000 Bowman Chrome NFL football cards. If you want to see us, we opened up the first 12 packs on social, and we're opening up, uh, 12 more right now looking for this Brady rookie card. Let's see, boys, what do we got?
Oh, Edgerin James!
Oh nice, I think I got a couple of those. Oh, I got a little Sean Alexander going on in here. Zach is gonna put these in there. Oh, Jim Miller!
Oh nice, I got my memes. What?
Wink Bet.
Sorry, I got my first jersey ever owned. I got my version of the Tom Brady.
Put Jim Miller's license right here.
Look at this, the A-Train All-Star.
Oh, that's a good one. Yeah.
Oh, Dante Hall rookie card.
You know what, Zach?
X-Factor.
That's a pretty good one, right?
Yeah, you're Mike All-Star fan. I want you to have this. I know you'll take care of it.
This one's sick.
Pass this to Zach, please.
Sean Alexander Scourge Choice.
Dante Culpepper.
I'm passing past this to Zach, please. Oh, Zach Thomas.
Okay, Marvin Harrison.
Bye.
So that's— oh, Sean Alexander, Marvin Harrison combo.
Combination, combination, combination. Marvin Harrison, Miss Disqualification.
All right, one more pack. I would love, I would love—
I'm at my last pack.
I'd love to get it.
Stephen Davis.
Oh, Cade McCown.
Oh, that's great.
Cade McNown, left Curtis Keeton rookie card.
All right, I can't open these.
I'm struggling.
You got it.
Dig deep. You got it.
Okay, I dug deep and I got it.
All right. Oh, Curtis Martin. What?
Mark Brunell.
Why'd you say it like that?
These are just all Jamaican.
Curtis Conway.
I got it.
What?
Vaughn Sanders rookie.
Gary Scott.
Dang.
Mikey Anderson, Mile High Salute.
Oh, Michael Westbrook. We should get this one and, uh, you said Stephen Davis. Get these together and have them fight.
Download Whatnot today and get free shipping on your first order and join in a Whatnot Card Show 8, the biggest card show on Earth, from April 30th to May 3rd. That's W-H-A-T-N-O-T. Download now.
Junior Seau, RIP. Uh, I got Mark Brunell. I got Curtis Conway. Gary Scott.
You actually get it?
Tom Brady rookie card.
No, no, no, this is crazy.
See it?
I get— get this, get— Zach, put this in the thing.
You actually got it? Yes, you actually got it. Is it actually the rookie?
Um, yeah, I know you're not supposed— like, you're supposed to be very careful with these, huh?
Easy.
So you got it.
I keep saying easy with the corners.
Zach, get over here.
Zach, get over here.
Quick, Zach!
I don't trust Hank's fingers.
Zach's shaking.
Hey, let's go! I was about to say they gave us another one, but we just pulled one.
Is that it, Zach?
I got a Mark Brunell, I got a Curtis Conway. Oh my God, what a pull, Hank!
That's huge, that's huge for the program. I'm about to put this up behind me.
Let's go!
Well, we gotta get it graded.
Yeah, okay, so download Whatnot today and get free shipping on your first order and join, uh, in on Whatnot Card Show 8, the biggest card show on Earth, from April 30th to May 3rd. That's W-H-A-T-N-O-T. Download now.
That's a great sign just for the rest of the week and just life in general.
There you go.
Things are looking up.
What a pull.
That was a tough— what a— like, hour that you had. I'm glad that you're back.
Crazy. Okay, great pull, Hank, incredible.
Great night.
Yeah.
Great, great night.
You just won everything tonight.
Yeah, we're back on top. This is why you don't give up, PFT.
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that, Hank.
Uh, my husband and I have been temporarily living with my parents while our new house is being built. Not to brag, my husband was folding laundry like a good boy and unknowingly put a pair of my mom's panties on his head in a joking way. I mean, he was rocking them like a fullback's helmet and salivating, ready to headhunt a linebacker. I can't look at him the same. How do I fix it?
Uh, it's funny. It's funny.
I don't know, dude. I don't play with girl underwear.
Get over it.
I don't play with that shit. You ever get— I get, uh, every now and then, like, I'll put on a pair of pants and then I'll be like, that felt weird. And there's just like rolled up girl underwear in there. No, what the fuck?
Because like, girls' pants?
No, the laundry.
Like, put on— if you're putting on like yoga pants and then they're stuck in—
it'll be stuck in like the— like the girl underwear just gets stuck everywhere.
In your pants? Yes. You got— you get girl underwear that gets stuck?
My wife's underwear is stuck inside my pants.
In your pants?
Yeah. Is she wearing your pants? Laundry, dude.
You just got like a thong on, you're like, what the—
no, it's in the leg, dude. I feel like this is a relatable— is there a picture of me that this happens?
Is there a picture that's about to come out of Big Cat wearing a thong and—
no, don't fuck with me.
You're setting this up.
You guys, you guys never had that where you're just like, what the fuck, why is there like—
I don't know, dick boxers.
It sticks to the laundry. Yeah, I've done it. Thank you, Max. Why did you speak up, dude? I'm getting roasted over here.
I'm still, I'm still shocked about that.
Fucking defend me, man. It happens all the time.
Yeah, yeah, it does. It happens all the time.
It just sticks to random shit. Sweatshirts too. Inside of sweatshirts, it'll be stuck.
I've gone like hours wearing pants that have a stray sock that are still in the legs that I didn't realize. And then I'll be walking around and it's falling out before that's happened to me. But no, I've never, never put on a pair of pants that has women's underwear in it.
Yeah, it's not in the pants. It's so small. Women's underwear is so fucking small.
It is small. It's weird.
Not all women. Sup, fellas?
That's a good point, Hank.
Yeah, good Good point.
Not a question, just a statement. Two sodas was never something to make fun of. Actually quite a normal thing, especially for a flight. Hashtag Justice for Max.
That's kind of— it's kind of why we leaned into it.
Yeah, exactly.
Being the craziest part was the two sodas.
Not one, but two.
Absolutely insane.
Two sodas and the EDM music when you're hungover.
That part is crazy.
The burrito farts.
Yeah. I don't know if that ever happened.
Yeah. I mean, now you gotta ask, right?
Yeah.
I just want to say though, in Max's defense, Max had the— probably the, the biggest cause to, to dance on graves, to high-step, to spike a football. And Max has been very restrained the last few weeks.
Max doesn't like—
he was just like drama. He was very uncomfortable with very uncomfortable drama. A lot of people out there were like, Max, this is your time to be like, yeah.
Yeah, I don't even like that we're doing this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I'm using to say like Max is a good guy.
Yeah, good guy.
Yeah.
Or a pussy who doesn't like drama.
Yeah, yeah. I would, I would say more of the latter.
Yeah.
Uh, breaking news, by the way, breaking news. The story that no one asked for that we discussed in length earlier: Pickensburg has stepped away from Twitter. He's taking a retirement from, from, from Twitter.
Wait, he's taking a retirement?
He said, I'll be stepping away from Twitter. Thank you, everyone. And then he also released a Notes app. After my actions last night in PPG Paints Arena, after my confrontation with Icy Vert, I do not regret anything in my pressing of him. I want to be clear. I'll be walking away from the beef to channel my energy into a different realm realm. This essentially was like, I am not owned, stop saying I'm owned. Well, I'm just walking away.
Wait, so he, he released a statement saying that he's not backing down from anything and he's not upset?
No, he's not. Update to the, to the retirement. Oh no, puts it a little bit— then he also— there was also a height measurement.
I saw that.
Yeah, another picture.
Again, not being owned. Sports, uh, yeah, Amanda Vance.
Amanda Vance. Gantz posted a video of his height where he is wearing shoes and a hat that says that he's over 6 feet tall.
Wait, the hat is not even firmly on his head.
The hat is honestly—
and you also can't see if his—
if those shoes are huge, you can see a lot of loose fabric at the top of the hat. Yeah, that hat is not snug to the skull.
That's at least 2 inches.
Now, all right, so he's taking a sabbatical.
Yeah, he's retiring Twitter.
This is, this is what happened at the end of season 2 of The Pit. It's the exact same thing in Pittsburgh. This guy's going to go off on a motorcycle and not wear a helmet. He probably actually will wear a helmet so he could be 6 feet tall.
Yeah.
Um, I have another update about that big cat.
Oh, okay.
Uh, this is something that maybe we can take a look at together. Somebody, uh, took the time to do a full transcript. Oh, of the confrontation.
Um, so do you want to be, uh, Pickensburg, or do you want to be Pickensburg?
Okay, I'll be, uh, Icy Vert. And do you want to do Do it as, uh, as Scarface or, uh, no, I'll just do it.
Okay.
He said, uh, Icy Lib, what's up, man?
You gotta leave the kids alone.
Okay.
Trans kids, bro. You can't tell kids to turn trans, bro.
Are you at a hockey game talking about politics?
Huh?
Are you at a hockey game talking about politics, bro?
You just can't talk about trans kids. You can't let kids turn straight.
You guys are losing 2-0. Get the fuck out of here.
Why did you avoid our boxing match? Serious. I'm serious.
Honest truth.
I'm not even trying to like press you. I'm just curious.
One, I can't box. Two, I have a broken spine, so I couldn't box if I wanted.
Broken spine? Yeah. It's like a birth defect?
No, it's scoliosis.
Ah, gotcha. I'm not even— I'm not even trying to be that guy or anything, but it's just It's like you have a big platform.
No, I know, I know. You're that guy that comes to a hockey game to talk about politics. It's kind of fucking weird.
I'm not even talking about politics. I'm not talking about red or blue.
No, but you did. You came in talking about it. All right.
I just needed to do this. I just needed to—
No. Yeah, you did a great job. Very proud of you. Very impressed. What a confrontation.
It is so funny. It's my favorite Twitter. I didn't do justice because, uh, I see— or Pickensburg also had to clarify afterwards that, uh, people owning me because I'm a little cold at a hockey game and my voice gets distorted because people were saying his voice cracked and he was— well, he was saying it was stuttered.
They were saying— they said he was stuttering.
Yeah, he said— he says cold in there.
Kyle Rittenhouse also got involved.
Yeah, that's good.
Perfect. What do you say?
I was hoping to hear from him.
Never okay to force trans on kids. Call these perverts out whenever. Shame them. Embarrass them. Okay, so he's, he's on Pickensburg's side.
Yeah, he takes Pickensburg's side. And then there was actually one line that got left out here at the end after Icy Vert or Icy Lib said, no, yeah, you did a great job. Very proud of you. Very impressed. Then Pickensburg said, nice to meet you, bro.
Oh, nice.
So like, who pressed who?
It's, it's crazy. Crazy. He also— then Pickensburg like went onto the streets of Pittsburgh just screaming that he like won the press off. It was— this is my favorite story.
What was the score of the hockey game when this happened?
2-0.
2-0. That's right. It says right in the transcript. This is the behavior of somebody who's losing a hockey game. This confrontation would never have happened if the Penguins were up 2-0.
It's just—
you got at some point if you're at a hockey game and your team's losing. You gotta figure out your own internal storyline to make this night not about losing the hockey game.
Yeah. And then also Pickensburg tweeted a picture from across the stadium, uh, from the arena being like, dude is, dude is like, is looking at Twitter. He's like, he's pressed. And everyone pointed out that like, hey, hey dude, you're, you're on your phone taking a picture of this dude.
And then you circle it.
You're not. Yeah. I see Lib not even watching the game now. Bro is distraught. You're also not watching the game.
This guy's taking pictures, circling, and then posting it online. How many cry— 5 crying emojis.
Best beef ever. I feel like this is actually like a way like we're getting back to, to the good old days. Like, this is the shit that you— this is why you, you, you go on this hell site. For a guy to depress, have his voice distorted because of the cold.
It was cold. In his defense, his voice gets fucked up when cold.
Yeah, okay, uh, last one.
What's up with that?
Okay, perfect. Good update for the—
the—
yeah, I got— I mean, I got one more.
Yeah, okay, one more.
My fiancé is having his bachelor party at a golf resort in an isolated location in the middle of Washington State, Gamel Sands near Brewster. I know how sometimes at bachelor parties that wild and vile things can happen with strippers and drugs. Do you think he would have the energy to partake in these activities 50s if he's playing 36 holes for 2 straight days plus another 18 prior to departure. What would Hank do if he was single and in this situation? No, the location—
he's gonna be tired.
It's the location, Washington State. Like, if he's in Scottsdale, yeah, that's one thing, but I think when you're that, you know, remote, unless there's a strip club within 10 minutes and— or like, no, or something.
Yeah, you don't have to worry about your boy.
He'll be chilling.
Yeah, he's chilling.
Yeah, yeah, he won't even drink.
Actually, you even have to check in.
When you play 36 holes of golf on a guys trip, it's like you, you just want to play good golf. You don't even drink.
Yeah, it's 36 holes and it's over the course of a couple days.
36 and then 18.
36 and 18. Yeah, I mean, he's probably not even going to look at another girl.
Yeah, you got this. Don't even—
what's the name of the town that the, the course is in?
Uh, Gamble Sands is the course.
Gamble Sands near Brewster. It looks like a great golf course.
Course. All right, boys, numbers time. Has anyone gotten this?
Uh, yeah, Memes did, right?
Nope. Yeah, I'm the only one who's gotten this.
Memes, when'd you get it?
Uh, I got it on the first day.
Nope.
You got it? You got the lottery?
Nope. You didn't?
I—
it came up.
Nope.
Why do you say it like that?
Because you know you didn't get it.
Oh, I got it.
You didn't. You didn't win it.
Yeah, you didn't win it.
I've—
I'm the only one who's won. I would love to welcome someone else to the crew, so please, boys, let's, let's pick some good numbers. Uh, 77, 50, 11, 5. What'd you say, Max?
I don't like that you took 77.
Why? You want 77? No. I'll switch with you right now.
Nope.
Okay, 38, 24.
We're gonna go, uh, 70. 50.
Memes, would you guess?
Uh, 11.
Oh, 66. Close to 77. You want to do one more or no?
We should do one more.
Also close to 56.
Yes, equidistance. Nope. No, it's late, it's late.
We'll just do one more, just do one more.
That took me way too long to count in my head. All right, same numbers. 62.
Anyone?
Anyone? No.
All right.
All right.
Happy birthday to, uh, well, first of all, on the 21st, happy birthday to, I don't know, Jim Tony Romo. And happy birthday as this show's coming out to Marshawn Lynch. Lynch and dear friend of the program, Duncan Robinson, recurring guest.
Nice.
Nice.
Also, happy birthday to Sam Altman. Just, just stop doing everything that you're doing. No one likes you. Love you guys. Anyone else? Memes?
No, you nailed it.
You nailed it.
The Celtics lose to the Sixers and we have ourselves a series. Wemby goes down with a concussion and we talk NBA/NHL Playoffs with the Knicks losing at home and the Timberwolves defense shutting down the Nuggets on Monday Night. Plus we get into the dumbest twitter sports beef going on right now (00:00:00-01:01:06). Hot Seat/Cool Throne including Billy Donovan stepping away, Bryson quitting golf and a ban on cigarettes in England (01:01:06-01:24:50). Daniel Jeremiah joins the show to talk NFL Draft, QB rankings, sleepers, what goes on in a draft room on draft night and more (01:24:50-02:04:17). Adam Silver joins the show to talk about the NBA Playoffs, listen to our ideas on how to fix tanking, how this season went, expansion and more (02:04:17-02:40:30). We finish with Guys on ChicksYou 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