Transcript of OKC Thunder’s Alex Caruso, Maxx Crosby Is A Raven, Jayson Tatum Is Back, CBB Regular Season Finale And LIV Golf Conspiracy

Hey, part of my take, listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take, presented by DraftKings, we have our good friend, one-and-a-half-time NBA champion, Alex Caruso in studio. Great time catching up with him, talking some ball as the season winds down, talk about winning one-and-a-half championships, being on the cover of our book. We're also going to Talk some NFL moves that have happened. Max Crosby, you are a raven. College basketball, March Madness, conference Championship last weekend of the regular season. Jason Tatum has returned. Who's back in the week? It's going to be a great Monday show, and it's all brought to you. This episode is brought to you by BodyArmor Flash IV, the official rapid rehydration drink of March Madness. 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, hydrate hard with BodyArmor Flash IV. Grab yours today at 7: 11. Look, this next week and the week after, it's going to be wall to wall, college basketball, action.

We're going to be in the gambling cave. We're going to be watching every game, and we need our Body Armor flash IV so that you can rebound correctly after hours and hours and hours of watching college basketball. So go get your Body Armor flash IV. Work hard, hydrate hard with Body Armor Flash IV. Grab yours today at 7: 11. Okay, let's go. Welcome to Part of My Take. Presented by DraftKings, The Crown is yours. Today is Monday, March ninth, and Max Crosby, you are a Baltimore Raven.

Congrats to the Ravens. Congrats to Jesse Minter. This is a great move. When this happened, the first thing I actually thought of, what is John Harbaugh doing right now? And how upset is he? He's like, I leave, and then they go out and they make a move with the first-round pick, and they get a stud. Obviously, Max Crosby, again, wanted to be a R... Max Crosby, I think, handled the trade request the best way possible for any superstar to ever do it.

Given how bad the Raiders are as well.

Given how bad the Raiders are, they had no choice. Max eventually reached the end of his road, and the end of his road was not letting him play for a shitty team. When they bench him, when they said, You're not allowed to play for a shitty Raiders team because we want to get a higher draft pick, he said, That is a bridge too far. Trade me out of town. I mean, if you're the Raiders, good for you. You got two first-round picks. Two first-round picks.

Good haul. Yeah. You're going to pick twice in the first-round this year, twice in the first-round next year. There's a lot of teams now have two first-round picks. It is interesting because the Ravens feel like the team for however long. I mean, pretty much their entire history, it's like what they do is they draft really well. They don't have to do these type of moves. Then they do this move after John Harbaugh is fired or whatever, the parting of ways. Jesse Minter there. It's interesting to see because it's like, Oh, yeah, maybe the Ravens haven't drafted as well recently. Now they do have to join everyone else and be these guys. Their defense is going to be scary. I love the transition from... Max Crosby was always meant to be playing in a badass uniform. So Riders to Ravens. It's like, okay, that's good. If he went to the Dolphins, I would have been upset.

It's going to look really, really weird. But it's going to look awesome. It's going to look so sick. The purple Ravens uniform with Max Crosby. Actually, it's going to be really weird for Pittsburgh fans to bullying a guy named Crosby.

Yeah, there's a lot of memes going around. Joe Burrow having to face Max Crosby, Miles Garrett, and T. J. Watt. He then went on an impossible date with Jessica Alba, so good job, Joe Burrow. I wanted to- Wait, he went on a possible It was a possible date. It was at a Blackjack table, so I don't know if it was... I don't know if they happened to be there at the same time. Okay. I would put that under a possible date.

Yeah. Was it late night?

I think it was late night. Yeah, I think it was late night. So possible date. Yeah, Joe Burrow and Galba playing late-night blackjack.

That's good. Down the road in Cleveland, there's a quarterback that always hits on 17.

I had to zoom in because I was like, Is that actually Joe Burrow? Joe Burrow can look different in every picture he has.

Well, the hair just always... He always has a different hairstyle, and it's always a great hairstyle. Yeah.

All right. So, Max Crosby. I wanted Max Crosby on the bears, and I think that we, as fans, do this thing where if you don't get the guy you want, you immediately say, Well, two first rounds. I'm so happy we didn't get Max Crosby. I think it's okay to say, Hey, you know what? I really wanted Max Crosby on the bears.

Yeah, I did. Of course, Max Crosby is... Every team should want Max Crosby.

Yeah, but you know how you immediately cope and you're like, Oh, well, I would never have traded two first rounders. No, Max Crosby is really fucking good. It would have been awesome to have Max Crosby playing on the bears. Now you got to do it the other way. You got to nail your draft picks. The Ravens now have to... The question I for you, BFD, is, are the Ravens basically saying, Lamar Jackson, he's 29. We got a three, four-year window where we're going to have to go all in here because it does. You're fork in the road. Are you trying to keep your draft capital to keep reloading around Lamar Jackson? Or are you like, Hey, let's go win this right now.

Yeah, I think that what they're doing is with a new head coach, they promise their new head coach, they're going to be aggressive. And now they're being aggressive for him. That's why I'm saying I thought of Harbaugh at first, because this is something that every coach in the United NFL should want. I think with Mentor, they're like... Because there are other teams that wanted him as their head coach. I think they said, Come to Baltimore. We've got Lamar Jackson, and he will be here for the foreseeable future. But also, if you come here, we promise that we're going to be aggressive. We're going to try to win ASAP. That's what they're doing. I think that, yes, the bears did want Crosby. A lot of teams wanted Crosby. But really, thoughts and prayers to the Dallas Cowboys who are now leading the NFL in number of guys that they're monitoring. Not only for trades, but for also free agency. They've been monitoring every situation. They were monitoring the Crosby situation extremely closely, and they're very disappointed that they did not get Max Crosby despite the fact that they're monitoring.

They offered a first and a second is what was said.

They said, Devastated. They're devastated. They didn't get them.

Which would have been actually an incredible move for the Cowboys to basically get Quinian Williams and Max Crosby, trade Micah Parsons, and still net out ahead. But yeah, then the price got too high because it was two first.

I have a question for you, Hank. Yeah. Yeah. Did you want Max Crosby? Of course. On the Patriots. Would it surprise you to know- Who says no to Max Crosby?

Agreed. Yeah. I wanted Max Crosby bad.

Would it surprise you to know that Tom braided did not want Max Crosby on the Patriots?

No.

It wouldn't surprise you.

It would not.

It wouldn't surprise you to know that he actively may have been the one that prevented him from going to the Patriots.

Per who?

This is per a source on espn. Com that talked to, I believe, Jeremy Fowler.

I saw Mike Florio was reporting.

He wrote an article about the article. That's what Mike does. So he's an aggregator. Sounds like a tall tale. A tall tale. Okay, here's the exact quote. One person involved in the Trade Made an interesting point about the Patriot's chances at Crosby. No way Tom was sending Max to Vrabel.

Why wouldn't that person name? Why wouldn't they reveal their source name?

Because if you're a journalist, you don't reveal your source name. It's a tall tale. Because then people won't talk to you.

There's probably a pretty high chance it was just Alex Guerrero. Yeah.

But I don't think Alex Guerrero would say that about Tom, would he?

No, he would... Alex Guerrero might just be the source on every week.

Every week? Okay.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. He's just talking to everyone.

No, I mean, the way the last year went was a little weird with how he talks about Drake May in the Patriots. That doesn't shock me. If it were true, I'm not confirmed. I don't believe that it is true.

If it's true, are you mad?

No.

Okay, so you don't think- If it's not true, are you mad?

Yes.

Oh, if it's not true, you're mad.

If it's not true, I'm mad that the media is once again trying to jump drama.

Hank is saying it's bullshit that they made this up, but even if they made it up, I don't care. Right. Got it.

That's what you just said.

If they made it up, I care. If it's true, I don't care. Right.

But that's what I said. No.

It feels like it should be made. If they made it up, I don't care, which is not true.

But if it were true, you don't care at all.

No. I mean, there's clearly something. There's a little bit of weird energy around braided, Kraft, Belichick, everything. But we're focused on Vrabel, May, and the team in front of us.

Do you think that it's because braided wanted to buy part of the New England Patriots? It could be. And Robert Kraft said, I would prefer not to sell you part of the team because That would be a lot of money, and you can't afford it.

Broke boy. He called him a broke boy.

Yeah. And then Mark Davis was like, I will give you a hometown discount.

Well, Mark Davis was like, As a broke boy, I'm happy for you to join the broke boy crew.

Or it's just We're assembling a team of lady killers out here in the desert. Hot boys only run.

We're going to sell the readers. Are the readers not getting sold soon?

Well, he's making so many savvy business moves, Hank, that he might be able to afford the inherited sacs. Yeah.

Mark Davis was just like, Hey, braided, We're going to be putting together a pussy patrol out here. You want in? He's like, Yeah. Yeah. So Mark Davis is walking around being like, Yeah, we're actually dating Alex Earle. Yeah, it's just a boy. He's counting that as a crew. It's a win. It's a win. I also think, Katie, he's a smart guy.

If the deal was just as good, if not better, he would have taken it. He might not have wanted to deal with the Patriots, but if it was a good deal, he would have done it.

Do you think Mark Davis, you remember Mike McDonald at the end of the year showed that he had a big spike and it was just all the helmets of the teams they built? I think Mark Davis has that with all the chicks he and Tom braided are slaying.

Yeah, probably.

He probably does in his office.

He's got an actual notch that he puts on his bed post whenever he bangs a check.

He's not doing any of the banging, but Brady's out there for him.

He hangs Brady's tie up on his office door. It's a great pickup. We got some last night.

Are the cameras okay? Cameras are wild and out right now. No, cameras are good. I've just been seeing them going in all different directions.

What was up with the one that was just staring straight down at Henry? We were just going for a new angle for Hank there. How does the angle look? It looks good. It looks artistic and nice. All right, watch the show.

Nice, Hank. Nice. Okay, so we also had Khalil Max signed back with the Chargers. Tyler Biotich signed with the Chargers as well. That's another center off.

He's a very good player.

The Bills resigned their center. So the center market actually feels like it's the hottest market out there. The packers signed their center who started seven games, signed them for 11 million a year.

Yeah, Lenderbaum might get every penny of what he's asking for. This might be the craziest center market ever. I saw one tweet. I forget who had it, but it made me laugh when the news about Dolman came out last week. That was like, first of all, I hope he's okay. Second of all, there has to be some recourse that we can have as fans when players do this.

Yes, we need to have something.

What is that guy talking about? Do you think prison? Do you think he's talking about sending a guy to jail?

I think he just wants all the money back and the feelings, too. Draft pics, compensation, reparations.

Whatever happened to take it out a full page in a newspaper. Yeah, we need reparations. Yeah, thanking all the fans. I agree with that guy.

Maybe he has to give away Like 100 footballs or something, signed footballs, something like that. But yeah, so Connor McGovern resigned with the bills. And yeah, the center market, like the Gareet Bradbury. I think the trade happened on Friday. Gareet Bradbury was trading from the Patriots to the Bears. And I was thinking the whole time like, this can't be the answer at center for the bears. But then you see the other moves, like the center market just might be the hottest market in the world. So it's a good move by polls.

Dudes don't play center anymore. It's crazy. I don't know who the... Besides Linderbaum, and there's going to be five teams that are going after Linderbaum, I don't know what the plan is for the commanders. It's weird that we moved on from Yadish because he was a really good player for us. He's just a great center. You saw a lot of teams were interested in him. You got 30 million. I don't know what the plan is. If it's because of what we're trying to do with David Blau's high octane offense. That's true. Maybe no center. Maybe no center, a positionless offensive line. I don't know. Anything could happen with David Blau. That's the one thing that's for certain.

What other big Was there any other big sign? Free Agency basically starts, as you're listening this today at noon, the non-tampering, which is going to be totally tampering. But was there any other big... Oh, yeah, Jordan Davis got resigned. Is Jalen Carter on the market? Max?

No, that's Florio.

Oh, you got Florio. Yeah. Okay.

What about this, Memes, is this memes? Is this a Florioing or is this a real take?

I don't want to...

Is Gino Smith returning to the Jets a possibility?

By the way, before you- I just donated I hate that one. Before you answer this, the fact that we went on Thursday, a hypothetical, what's Sator Tua or Derek Carr, and then immediately after, they're like, Actually, Carson Wentz and Gino Smith. I apologize. That got even worse. That got darker. Gino, maybe not, but Carson Wentz, that got dark.

Although Max likes to pretend that he still likes Carson Wentz. Wentz still got some gas in the tank. What about Gino? You're not opposed to Gino? Not opposed to I saw one stat that showed he did something good last year. It was like when the receiver was open, I'd have to find the exact thing.

He threw the ball?

When the receiver was open, he was good at hitting him. He was behind Josh Allen and Caleb Williams. Okay. When he had wide open receivers? Or no, when he wasn't rushed in the pocket. Okay. I got to find the stat. Yeah, you got to track that stat down.

Yeah, we got to get the stat.

He can throw wide open receiver. We got to get the stat. The stat is the Jets don't have IK, an Empire, whatever his last name is on the roster. That's a good thing.

Take it easy, Drew.

What?

No, that was the big controversy. He messed up Jackson Smith Najigba's last name at the NFL honors. Everyone's like, You stole this moment from him.

Oh, well, yeah. I'm not that serious. I mean, but the guy... It's either somebody mispronouncing his last name or the guy that broke Gino Smith's jaw, whichever way you want to go with that guy.

I just watched memes type in Gino Smith, Josh Allen, Caleb Williams. No, this is me.

I was trying to figure out a way that I could possibly search this.

Okay. So you're going to... What are you looking for?

Well, he said it was behind Josh Allen and Caleb Williams. So if the tweet said like- Got it.

We need to find this stat. Bad stat. So yes on Gino.

Yeah, why not? Redemption story. Start his career here.

I'm coming home video. I'm coming home. Yeah, that would rock.

Anything's better than Carson Wents. That is true. Yeah. Can I interest you in Andy Dalton? No. Actually, Andy Dalton, gun to your head. Andy Dalton and Carson Wents. Gun to my head, Carson Wentz. That's sad. That's also incorrect.

I'm going to give you actually the- He had his best year under Frank Wright. I'm going to give the Jets a big compliment here. This is just an incredible way for them to anchor negotiations where they can... Like, Carson Wents gets you as low as possible, then you're in for Geno Smith. It's like the bears stadium situation, which I've been saying all along. When they first said Arlington Heights, everyone I was like, You can't move the bears out of Chicago. Then they're like, What about Indiana? No, you can't move them out of state. Okay, what about Arlington Heights? Oh, that's sick. They're basically saying, Hey, Carson Wents. No, we can't have Carson Wents. Okay, what about Geno Smith? Oh, actually, that's pretty good compared to Carson Wents. Smart.

No, you're correct. I just don't think Aaron Glenn, who's probably going to get fired at the end of this year, is going to risk his career.

He's prefired?

I think so. I think he's Dead Man Walking.

Sleeping Man?

Yeah, Sleeping Man Walking. But if I had to guess, it would be Jacobi and Ty Simpson going into the season.

Ty Simpson is worth it, seeing what's up.

Kick the tires? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we'll see. But that's what I've been seeing on the old X app. The Raiders, they haven't released Gino yet, have they?

No, I don't think you can until the new league year starts.

Do you think there's any chance that Tom braided, pretty much the President of the Raiders, is going to be like, Gino Smith is so good, I'm going to trade him to the Jets It's just that he can beat the Patriots twice every year?

No.

Okay.

But maybe. The Shadow Commissioner? Yeah. Tom braided.

I'm going to look at every transaction that the Raiders make in the light of, will this hurt the Patriots or not? That's all he's thinking about? Yeah, that's all he does. He's not managing the Raiders as much as he is just anti-matter to the New England Patriots right now. Yeah.

I'm wondering, is there going to be anything that's truly shocking on when free agency starts? I think it feels like a lot of quarterbacks where you're going to have to sell yourself on trading places. Tyler Lindabam will be big.

I think where Kyler decides to go is going to be very interesting. Because no matter where he goes, I think we'll be able to say some very definitive statements about Kyler. That might be wrong, but we'll definitely say them. If it happens. If he goes to Minnesota, we'll be like, Oh, he's fixed. His career is awesome. Kyler is great.

He's going to walk off the airplane and be better.

If he goes to the Jets, it's like, Oh, Kyler wanted to take a paycheck. And he still doesn't care about football. Then we might be wrong, we might be right. But yeah, that's what I'm really interested to see. That's where he ends up.

Do you think Russ is just sitting and being free agency about to start? See how this goes. Going to get some calls. Yeah. Joe Flacko said he wants to compete to be a starter. I want him to compete to be a starter, too.

I want him to want that. I want to see For us, cold calling teams, sitting down in a boiler room. Yeah. Hey, can I interest you, sir? I'm calling about your extended warranty on your quarterback. Can I interest you in a young Super Bowl champion quarterback, young in terms of globally young?

Yes. I have noticed that your team is operating under a limited mindset. Could I interest you in someone who could be unlimited?

Yeah. I'm interested to see what the Cowboys do because, again, if you paid attention to what they keep saying, Jerry Jones is monitoring everything at all times. Can we talk real quick? He's got a situation room. With Dak?

Yeah, I was just saying, can we talk about the Cowboys' big story this weekend? I don't know how much this is true, but Dak and his fiancé have called it off a month before the wedding, and it happened during combo Bachelor and Bachelorette parties.

I didn't know it was a combo.

I think it was a combo? Joint, yeah.

Joint Bachelor.

Now, that right there is where you fuck. I can't stress this enough. If you do a joint Bachelor and Bachelor Art Party, you just That's precrime. That's the most insane thing possible.

I didn't realize it was joint. That's insane.

I don't think it's necessarily precrime, but it is certainly not QB1 behavior.

It's bad behavior. That means you just don't trust each other. Also, it's weird, and it's going to be a weird... The entire party is going to suck because you're going to be like, Oh, yeah, the boys are doing this today. The girls are doing that. Then we're going to meet for dinner. What? No, that's not how it works. That's crazy. Ban it. You shouldn't be allowed to get married.

Well, they're not getting married.

Well, yeah, I know. So maybe someone stepped in. They're like, Oh, you guys are doing this joint? So wait, Dak Prescott splits from fiancé just one month before their wedding after a blow-up argument on joint bachelor and bachelor rep party. No, duh. You can't do that. You can't do the joints.

That's crazy. So apparently, she invited a bunch of other wives and girlfriends from the Cowboys, like other players on the Cowboys. Yeah. Their significant others were hanging with them. It was like the Dallas Cowboys and then Dax Girlfriend's friends who are also Cowboys players' girlfriends.

I got to know what the argument was about.

It was about a prenup.

Oh, I thought it was about like, Hey, We're not going to the strip club tonight. Or no, we don't want to play beer pong anymore. Because that's what I would imagine is the starter of every joint bachelor or bachelor party fight, right?

It's either that or steakhouse or pasta. Yeah. Steakhouse or a Tally.

I truly believe you can get through anything in life as long as you have really great friends. I love these girls so much. She posted that two days ago with a picture of the bachelor party or not.

Was that post-breakup or during?

Post.

And they stayed up? I got to know also At what point in the weekend did they break up? Because then it just becomes an awesome weekend. If the breakup is official, then you go your separate ways and you have a great time. That might have been the move. Maybe Dak actually is a genius because he's like, Yeah, She dragged me to a... She insisted on a joint bachelor-bachelier party. This is going to suck. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to break up with her on Friday, have my bachelor party, and then we'll get back together on Tuesday. That's got to be what happened. As a guy who believes Dak is the 17th best quarterback in the NFL, I'm going to say that's probably what happened.

I defend Dak. I question his decision-making just from the start on this. Qb1, you do your own bachelor party. Or better yet, your bachelor party is just training. Just meet up with the boys out in Arizona and just practicing for a week. Yeah.

You play the best golf club.

He proposed she was a big golfer. Oh, really? He proposed with a ring in a fake golf ball.

I love that that story got on your radar.

I was reading it in the breakup post.

It was a ring inside of a fake golf. Oh, wow.

I hit the ring in a fake golf ball. I dropped it. She almost hit it. I'm just glad she said, Yeah, super blessed.

There's no way she almost hit it. Those fake golf balls all look so fake.

I don't understand the concept of the fake golf ball. He teed it up for her?

Yeah, or just dropped it on the... It looks like he dropped it on the green.

I found your ball, and she's like, Wait, you're already cheating?

Oh, wow. It's not a ball. It's an engagement ring. Got you. This was doomed. If they... Man, awkward for people who were planning to go to the wedding.

That's with kids.

Oh, okay. Okay, I didn't know that.

It's a little messier. Put that disclaimer at the start of this conversation.

Did not realize that.

That sucks. They'll probably be good athletes.

She is a certified wine and spirit specialist. That's a great job. She's got a career going.

Are you making a laugh there?

She's got a good career. Yeah, so why are we believing this nonsense about a prenup? It sounds like she's independently wealthy.

My hand up, I want to say part of the laugh was when you said wine and spirits, I forgot spirits or alcohol, but it would also be funny if it was wine and spiritual.

Wine and ghosts.

Yeah, she just faith-based wine sales.

Yeah, or just wine and crystals, like healing power.

Okay, so that's a big Dallas Cowboys movie. I do think they have to figure that out before they even dip their toe in free agency. Like, Dack, what's going on here? Talk us through this. Let's watch the tape. Maybe that's what they need to do is, Schontheimer has to sit in like it's a true Monday morning film session and be like, All right, here's a picture of you guys on the boat. Here's a picture of you guys at dinner. What was going through your head? What made you make this decision to do this joint bachelor party?

Listen, I'm going to wait for all the facts to come out. And by facts, I'm going to wait to see what Skip Baylor says about the situation because him and Ernestine broke down the Iran war. I saw that. It was compelling stuff. When I say Skip and Ernestine broke it down, Ernestine was like, Let's talk about the war in Iran, and then Skip talked for seven minutes. Yeah, I saw that. But whatever he said, he still got it.

They are, Skip and Ernestine are very like the 101 Dalmatians, the opening scene when every owner looks like their dog. They're starting to look a lot alike.

Yeah, their takes are almost too similar, too.

A lot alike. Okay, let's talk some other stuff. Draftkings. Basketball is a game of runs, and it moves fast. That's why DraftKings Sportsbook is built for live betting from tip off to final buzzer. Live betting lets you react. When momentum shifts, you can adjust in real-time, possession by possession, play by play with props sides and play markets as the action unfolds. Draftkings also has you covered with early exit protection. If you place a pre-game player prop and your player starts the game but gets injured in the first half and can't return, you'll get your original bet back in cash. No bonus bets, just real protection when the unexpected happens new to DraftKings. Bet just $5 and get 200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Use code take. That's code take to turn five bucks into 200 in bonus bets instantly. In partnership with DraftKings, the Crown is Gambling problem?

Call 1-800 Gambler or 1-800 My Reset. New York, call 877-8openY or text Hope and Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-77777 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. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. For additional terms or responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook. Draftkings. Com/promo. Limited time offer.

Okay, speaking of NBA and basketball, Hank, Jason Tatum returns.

Returned, no minute restriction.

Yeah, they were just not telling us the truth. He was fine. He's fine. He was a little...

I mean, he took him like a half to truly get warmed up. He did have a blow by dunk that he just got stuff by the rim, but that comes with time and minutes played. He looked good, though. He was facilitating well.

Is he there being honest on the injury report?

Yeah. Okay. Well, he's out. They said he was out.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

Okay. It's crazy that he's back this fast looked completely fine.

Yeah, he looked good. I love the fact that he was traveling. He spent the whole year traveling with the team, being around the boys. Were they calling him?

Traveling with the team.

No, traveling with the team.

I thought he came back.

He was just traveling. He's been establishing his pivot foot. Yeah.

Gather stuff.

It's just he looks so good. The Celtics look so good. They're so back.

Congratulations. He got a little shine on you.

If you're a guy that had a 15: 1 future, 14: 1, something like that, you're probably sitting pretty right now. It's all the way down to five and a half to one.

Yeah, it was Very sharp play. I cashed out because Hank immediately was like, I can't believe that he's doing this to me again. I didn't want to see my boy Hank go through. Listen, I beat up on Hank pretty good during the Super Bowl run. I broke him, and I didn't want to continue doing that. I like how Hank and I, our relationship has gotten better since the Super Bowl. I didn't want to go down that road. I wanted this to be a spring of friendship. So I cashed out of the... That is back on, but it's going to be back on. He calls you a It's going to be back on in much, much worse ways. I just want you to know that. It'll get worse.

It's going to get worse.

It's going to get worse. What's the worst ways? I'm not going to tell him. Okay. I just want you to agree to it getting worse.

I don't agree to anything. I didn't agree to you or disagree with you taking the future, but-You called you a coward. You cashed out.

That was a coward move. I cashed out the next day because you were crying about it. I was not crying about it. Was that true? Hank was crying. You cried about it?

I came to work and he was crying. I was not crying.

So you're thinking soupy?

Zack, he was crying, wasn't he? You saw him cry.

I didn't see... He might have cried. I don't know. But there's been false claims of crying before, so he could have not been crying.

Are you thinking Championship? You got it. The way he came back and looks... It's not that he's back... The fact that he's back is nuts. The fact that he's back and also looks like the same guy is mind boggling.

He looks the same, and they're obviously already second in the East. Missoula is such a good Coach. Like I said, I think the fact it's not like some players, they get injured, they have a big injury like that, they go away from the team. He's been around the team. He's been watching every game. He's been in the locker room, been in the film. He's been able to see how he can step in and still help the team get better, which is huge. I think he was facilitating well. He's going to be able to step up and have his moments, but he's also not forcing it and trying to take over because when your team's already second in the East, you don't need to come back and be a superstar. Jalen Brown's team. Come back and help facilitate.

Jalen Brown. Yeah, but actually, I think the funiest now would be if the Celtics win the NBA Championship and he gets finals MVP, then Jalen Brown is out. Jalen Brown is not going to handle that well.

Yeah.

Did you see Jalen Brown? I disagree. I love Jalen Brown talking about it. It's like they're in lockstep. They don't listen to the media at all. It's just great to see them talk about it because it's like he's just happy to see his friend back doing what he loves.

Did you see Jalen Brown's quote about how he thinks he's the best two-way player in the NBA? Yeah. It's so good. He said, When I say I'm the best two-way player in the league, it's not counting Wemby, he's not even human. I'm the best human player. It's a great quote.

Yeah.

He is. He's the best human player. Wemby is not a human.

He's a regular guy. Yeah.

Wemby, by the way, that was awesome on Friday night. Just talk about crying. Yeah, I liked it. Same. I thought it was cool. Wemby, they had back-to-back games. Wemby also had, earlier in the week, one of his best friends went missing I think it was maybe 12, 24 hours. He was actually in Chicago, got dropped off the airport, didn't board his flight. Kind of scary. Wemby was posting about it. His friend got found on Tuesday, played on Thursday, one, played on Friday. They were down 25, come back and win. And he was crying after it. It was like, This is awesome because he just seems like a guy who just loves basketball, and he's an alien.

He's an alien. Absolutely.

Absolutely alien.

Yeah. I was actually looking at the regular season MVP odds. There's a good chance that the top two guys or the top three guys aren't eligible. Yeah, they're eligible. We're on games missed watch. Oh, yeah. Big time. For What? Shay, Wimby, and Jokić, right?

Yeah. That's why Cade is, I think, pretty high up in the odds.

Do you guys trust the Pistons?

No.

I don't trust them. But here's my one big desire for the NBA postseason this year. I would love to see the Celtics and the Sixers go out of here. I think that'll be great.

I'm down.

Yeah, the whole team's hurt. Two to the head.

I would just love that. Two to the head. I love it.

Is there a world where that can happen? Yeah.

Yeah, the Sixers are eighth.

They make it.

Yeah, they may not make it.

Oh, play in.

Max, if the Sixers are on the play in, would you prefer that they just lose that? What's the implication for your draft pick? Because I know you and OKC have something going on.

Dude, the play in is fun. It's so The play in is not fun.

You complain about the play in every year. I would like to not be in the play in.

The play in is so fun, dude, because you get to play in and then get your ass kicked.

Yeah, the Sixers suck. Paul George, honestly, losing Paul George has ruined the season.

He'll be back. I guess. Yeah, he's suspended. He's not hurt.

They suck.

Jared McCain's balling.

He is balling. Good point.

I never wanted to get rid of Jared McCain. We're going to talk about it with Alex Caruso and whether he'll do a TikTok with him in our interview coming up. All right, should we talk some... Oh, wow. Iowa just hit a three to tie it against Nebraska. That's a good game. The college basketball, the bubble. The bubble is bursting. Everyone on the bubble on Saturday, final regular season weekend of the year, pretty much everyone who was on the bubble lost. Now it's becoming a slop fest to see who's going to get in the tournament. Auburn at 16: 15 is just basically the poster boy of, We don't need more of this, yet they keep somehow surviving all these teams losing and being somewhat still alive. On Saturday, it was Virginia Tech, Missouri, SMU, Cincinnati, Cal, New Mexico, Indiana, and Auburn, all lost, all firm bubble teams, both on the right and wrong side. And now we have a mess.

Indiana is on the right side, though, right? Wrong side. Indiana is on the wrong side?

Oh, yeah. They're in trouble.

They're in trouble. The monkey's paws is up in Bloomington. They're like, I hope that my team is good at football for once. And it's like, what's the cost going to be? Well, you're just not going to make the dance.

But we have some conference tournaments that are happening, which is awesome. We had the LIU fins up. They're officially in the dance because they get in on the stupidest technicality in all sports. They're playing in the Championship game against Mercyhurst, but Mercyhurst is a Division 1 team as of a year ago, so they can't be in. Fins Up. We had, I think it was Northern Iowa's back in the dance. I love school. This is what I love about March, too, is when you have a team that has done one big thing, at any point in their history, it just the nostalgia comes like washing back. If Valpo gets in, you're like, Oh, Valpo's in. Northern Iowa's in that category.

Uy-pooey, when they're in? Yeah.

It's just like this is fun because you just know there's memories to be had.

San Diego State. Yeah.

But San Diego State, final four. But yeah, Northern Iowa, and we're going to get to relive all that. They're in. A bunch of teams have gotten in, and now we have Conference Championship Week, which I'm very excited for.

What did you think about the clock operator in the BU game?

I thought it was more crazy that Navy just didn't play defense on the final possession. Now there's a lot of people complaining about the... This is something that I've noticed that has jumped up this year. I don't really take it too much credence into it, but people complaining about teams, one bid conferences, not sending their best team because their best team gets upset in the conference tournament and being like, We got to work this. Why? That's the best part. Yeah. Is that you can just win. Everyone's still eligible all throughout the season. You can still get in.

Chaos is what makes March, March. We're not going to be missing out on any of the teams that can win the Championship, but we might get some crazy ones in there that really have no business being in the tournament. But that's fun. That's what makes sports fun. That's what makes March fun. I like how upset Miami is making people, continues to make people.

First of all, that game Friday night was unbelievable. Miami, Ohio versus Ohio. Ohio, just everything you want in action. High scoring.

Middle fingers.

Big intensity. I don't know about the middle fingers if you're a guy who didn't play in the game. I guess too much.

Binch mob, whatever. It's the most aggressive bench mob in the country.

Rivalry game. Rivalry Every game. My Ohio is so simple to me in that they should 100% be in now that they've run the table and they're 31-0, and they won every conference game. It's also okay to say they've played absolutely no one, which is totally fine. Their non-conference schedule was dog shit, but it doesn't matter. To me, it doesn't matter. If you win every game in your conference and you're 31-0 on the last weekend of regular season, you should be in. No matter what happens in the conference, they're even favorites to win the Mac conference tournament. Aqron is.

They keep beating really bad teams by very small margins. They've won a lot of games against awful teams by small margins at home, even this year. How many teams in the top 200 have they played this year?

Let's see. I'll pull it up right now. I know their non-conference schedule was very bad. Their 90th on Ken Palm. In the top 200 or top 100? Top 200. Because they haven't played a team in the top 100. No, Akron is a top 100 team, so they did beat Akron top 100 team. Top 200. They, Wright State, one, two, three. Now we're doing the Francesa. Four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight teams in the top 200.

That's pretty hilarious.

Like I said, only one team in the top 100. Their non-conference schedule, they beat teams like Trinity, Christian, Indiana East, and Milligan.

Listen, one thing we're not going to do in part- But I don't care.

They should be in. I do not care.

One thing we're not going to do is insult a team for having beaten a bunch of terrible, terrible teams when it comes to playoff time. That's not in the DNA of the show.

But it's so funny because everyone's in fits where it's like you have to decide which side you are on here. And I feel like you don't. You could just say Miami, Ohio deserves to be in, 100% deserves to be in the tournament. I actually think it'd be really funny if they gave them a one seed being like, They're undefeated. But they deserve to be in. They also played a shady schedule, and a lot of it wasn't their fault. They tried to schedule a bunch of these teams, and they said no.

We could have Miami, Miami in the first round of the playoff, right? Yeah. Like the way that these two teams are shaking out the bracketology?

Yeah. I think, I don't know where... I think maybe in second round match.

Miami, Ohio is 11 right now, and Miami is eight. Oh, so no. Things would have to...

Well, if Miami, Ohio wins the MAAC, they might get up to a nine.

Yeah. That would be... I would like to see that.

Also, I hate people being like, Can't wait for them to get their asses kicked in the tournament. Why? They're a fun story. We've lost our love for March. I don't like it. I saw someone throughout a crazy take that was like, We should make the tournament 32 teams because the other 32 have no business being in it. The whole idea is to decide a champion, not Cindyrella.

No, no, that's not it. Absolutely not. That's not it. It is different from football. You can have a much worse team like any given game in the tournament, you catch fire. That's what we remember. That is literally why we love March.

Upsets early, good teams late. Give it to us. I am a little worried, though, because we are getting some Back to the conversation about the conference should be sending their best teams. It is like having these moments early on where you have some big-time upsets in the conference tournament. It does make it a little bit easier for the first four seeds in the first round because you just have... You got two teams. You get a 14 and 15 team as the 15 seed. They're not going to win a game.

Yeah. And is it the stat? I think I pulled it up here the other day. Yeah, I got it right here. If you're thinking When you're not like, second-round wins, you would much rather be a 10 or an 11 than you would be a nine seed or an eight seed.

I mean, that makes perfect sense. You don't have to play the number one seed. Yeah. I saw someone saying that it was novel and being like, Wow, I've just found this crazy thing. You don't want to be on the 8-9 line.

No, 8-9 line is terrible. But yeah, I pulled up the percentage.

There have been times when the one-seed loses in the second round.

Now, you do want to be an eight-seed.

That does happen.

If you're in the final four, Max, if you want to be- It does happen. Where was that?

I can't even see.

That was sandwiching between two national championships.

Wisconsin beat Villanova when they were one seed.

The year before they won a national championship.

No, I know. It was It's stupid of me to take a shot there.

But I think eight seeds have a great record in the final four once you get to the final four.

What do you mean?

Just because of Vilanova? Just because of weird luck over the years. Yeah, eight seeds, I think, have like a-Well, I think it's just because of Villanova in 1985, right? I think there have been a couple of other eight seeds, but I'm pretty sure UNC was an eight seed, right?

To win it all?

Butler 2011, Kentucky 2014, North Carolina, 2023.

But those teams didn't win it.

The only one to win is Villanova in '80.

To get to the final four.

No, to play once you're in the final four. Yeah. You're in the semifinal game.

Butler, Kentucky, North Carolina.

They all won as eight seeds in the final four. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So there you go. So you just got to get there.

You just got to survive. You got to get to the final four. And then you're guaranteed to win as an eight seat. Yeah.

Yeah. Sorry about Caleb Foster.

Are you?

Yeah, I'm talking to you. Do you accept my sorry?

I don't, but I guess I will because it's not true.

What do you mean it's not true? What's not true?

He's in a walking group right now. He's going to be out for- You're not sorry. I'm sorry about Caleb Foster.

He got hurt against UNC.

You can't even say it with a straight face.

What do you mean it's not true? What do you mean, dude? I want to turn... Noah Winter got hurt, and yet the Badgers did just go and win in Purdue, and that was cool. Without Noah Winter, hopefully, he gets better. But I want injuries off, dude.

All right, then I accept it. Okay, great. I don't believe it.

I want injuries off.

I think Shire said he's going to be out for the entire conference tournament. At least, right? Yeah. So what do you mean it's not true?

Big Cat.

No, he's saying, My sorry.

I am apologizing. I He said he was sorry. What are you, mind reader?

I'm a face reader, and he's a hater.

No. I mean, Duke is so good, it doesn't matter, but I'm sorry.

He got two guys in walking boots right now. Yeah. You want to put me on? I just found you to find that puncher. Oh, my God. I got a puncher. Put your foot. If you don't put your foot on me, my dad's a lawyer. I'll see you. Can you arrest a ghost? I apologize. Duke looked great yesterday, even without Foster for most of the second Yeah, they were fucking awesome.

The big story in terms of seeding is, Yukon has probably lost their chance at a one seed. Marquette. Marquette. Hank called it. He did. You did call it. What if they go on a run? Credit to you. I love when you do this. When it's like, Yeah, I'm going to watch. Any college, you just throw a take out there. I don't even know why you said Marquette.

Max was looking for value in it. They were a thousand.

Then boom, right away, Hank's right. They beat Yukon.

The I was laughed at. You guys laughed in my face.

Yeah, we did. I did bet Marquette yesterday, so I at least came around before tip off. I bet him against spread. I didn't have the balls to do money line. The Hurley double box, just both of them freaking out at the same time was great.

I love the angle that Dan Hurley took when he was getting in the ref's face. Fully leading over. I think he was putting 50% of his body weight via his forehead on the back of the ref's head. Then his explanation after the game was great. He was like, I was just screaming into the back of his head. I know that we weren't allowed to do that. I didn't see what the problem was there.

He should have gone in tech earlier. He got it with less than a second left.

It doesn't really help. He was doing the smooth criminal into the back of the ref's head. I love it. I love it when the Hurleys get this fired up.

Oh, man. So, yeah, that was the big shake-up, though, because now it feels like Yukon is going to go to the two-seed line, Florida is going to be a one-seed, and Conference Championship Week. Just so fucking excited. You guys also see the celebration that is probably going to be replicated many, many times, the three-pointer and then shotguning the three-pointer. That was by a Kansas bench guy, Wilder Evers, who's a perfect name for a Kansas bench. I think he's played in six games this year, but he shotgun his three-pointer. Is he from Kansas?

I don't know. It's a great Kansas name. Wilder Evers.

That one's going to go. That one's going to go New Jersey. Or Georgia.

That could be a good Georgia name, too. Let's see.

Wilder Evers. Let's see where he is from. Alabama. Birmingham, Alabama, Wilder Evers played six games this year. He's averaging 2. 8 minutes. I think that was his second bucket of the year. That's pretty cool. Dude, it's got to be so sick to be the 14th guy, the 15th guy on Kansas.

How awesome would that be? Especially this time of year.

Well, just think about it.

We got a guy here we could talk to about.

Yeah. You're going to get to just watch a shitload of college basketball games for free. Not only that, but you- Like really good games.

But if you go to a Kansas or Kentucky or Duke or UNC, as long as you're a decent hang, you're going to be best friends with an NBA superstar. You know what I mean? For the rest of your life, you could be like, Oh, yeah, I got his name.

I got his number. We were at the Final Four. I think that was in Arizona a few years ago, and I had taken a lot of mushrooms that night, and I was tripping pretty bad. We were at the bar, and then all of a sudden, Greg Oden just pulled up to hang out with Titus. Meeting Greg Oden for the first time when you're on mushrooms is not a great... It's not a wonderful experience to tell you that. No. It's very. He's a big, tall man. He's a big, tall man.

By the way, I think Nebraska is now doing Fins Up. You can't do Fins Up.

I I mean... They are. They're doing Fins Up. I know a couple of guys that went to Nebraska. I don't think it's beneath them to be copying. Yeah, that's true.

This is very... They're doing Fins Up for the free throws.

Will Compton just hit up the student section. Was like, Fellas, I got I got a great fucking idea. I just invented this thing.

It's called Fins Up. We should try it. It seems so sick.

I love Will.

What else we got for college basketball? Max, where are you at? You feel good about Vilanova going? I mean, they're fine. I want to bet. If anyone wants to bet with me. Make any noise. Vilanova will win the Big East tournament.

I'm done with troll bets because people cry. It'll make people cry.

So it was a troll bet.

Yeah, no shit. No fucking shit, Hank.

It was a great bet that you just I lost money on.

This is not a troll bet because Max and I talk ball a lot, and I was talking to him before and I said, I feel like they have a great draw and you can't take one of the favorites. I was like, yeah, it might sprinkle a little nova to win the big East. Yeah, I like it.

They can't beat St. John's. The only way they can win is if St. John's doesn't make... They can beat Yukon, they can't beat St. John's. They just match up so poorly.

What about if Rick Pitino doesn't do the white suit?

They killed us twice this year.

Yeah, it's a good counterpoint. It's a good counterpoint. I just wanted something to ride. I'm excited to see you back in the action, Max.

Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for real Villanova basketball. I'm excited for the tournament. Real Nova basketball.

I was saying earlier that I'm now at a place... Because Wisconsin winning on Saturday was awesome. I didn't really expect because No one winter is out and he's very important. But Wisconsin, you tell me they go to the final four because they just torched everyone from three or they lose in the first round because they went four for 40? I'm like, Yeah, I could believe either. But there's such a joy to watch. I don't care. Boyd is such an animal. He just took over the game late and Blackwell as well. It's fun.

It doesn't make sense that you've got Braden Smith and lawyer Fletcher still playing basketball. It doesn't make sense.

I love beating him on Senior Day.

That was pretty nice. This better be the last... We're not getting any more of them, right? I don't think so. They're not coming back next year. This was actually Senior Night.

And Kaufman-Rent, too. Pushing people into screens and then pretending he did nothing. It's fun. Although it did feel a little bit like Purdue has... I think they lost five home games this year. It really doesn't... You're like the last of the party. You're the last of the gang bang. We showed up. We're like team 125 to the Bonnie Blue gang bang with Purdue this year. Everyone had their fun with Purdue at home.

It doesn't matter, had sex. Yeah, did it.

Everyone Everyone had a good time in Mac.

Yeah, you can count. You check. That is a notch. That's Mark Davis' notch on your bed post. Yeah.

But I mean, listen, Wisconsin has three of the best wins of the year, probably. So play with anyone. That was also funny watching Stephen Pearl. He basically is 16 and 15 in Auburn. He's just like, We beat Florida.

Yeah, which is true. He did.

They beat Florida.

You just need to keep reminding people that you beat Florida. There was a time when you beat Florida. Honestly, That's a hell of a point that you can make.

You did beat Florida. Right before Florida got figured it all out, you beat the shit. Well, no, you won by two, but you beat Florida.

You beat Florida, and then Florida was like, Okay, fuck this shit.

No, they won by nine. I take that back. Yeah, Florida has just demolished everyone since that point.

In watching Florida, you're right, Big Cat, they are dominant. They've been just crushing people.

I love watching them play ball.

Do you think that their style is turny ready? Yeah.

You Yeah, 100 %.

They don't have the guys that hit from the outside like they did last year.

They've gotten significantly better as the months have gone along. They were hitting 27 % from three in November. They're now back up. They're up to 36 %. They had a transfer from the Ivy League, Xavian Lee, who looked like he was overwhelmed early in the year. Now he's come back around Boogie Flan. They have guys, all they have to do is hit. I know it's not all yet, but 35 % is not crazy. If they hit 35%, I think they will be in the final four. I really do. In every game, though. Because their front line is that good? Well, I mean, they probably don't have to do it in the first round. Maybe not even the second round because they're so overwhelming. Okay. Any other stories? Do you want to talk a little golf, the Arnie, get a burger. That was sad.

Sad? It happens.

It's golf. He led wire to wire and then lost?

He led wire to wire. Actually, he tied it up on 17 and then one in a playoff.

At the sixth Major?

I don't know if it's the sixth Major. Fifth Major coming up this week, players. Aksha, only 24. Scottie didn't get his first win until he was 25.

Okay.

So he's next up?

Yeah, he went pro right after high school, so he's been on tour for a while, but it's impressive.

I like this golf course.

Lefties on top.

I like the golf course. I like the umbrellas everywhere. I actually looked it up because I didn't understand, what did Arnold Palmer have to do with umbrellas? Why is that his logo? Do you know why?

I don't. I know why he bought it. Or he just played it in the '60s. I was like, I want to buy this.

Oh, you mean the piece of land? Yeah. Oh, it's a fucked up demented golf course that they just build holes around lakes. I know. I try to cut these corners. You can't. But I was interested to see why that's his brand logo, the umbrella. I looked it up, and he was having a meeting with some executives back in the '60s, and they were trying to establish Arnold Palmer enterprises. What are you going to do in terms of golf course development, your branding, et cetera, et cetera? They suggested two golf clubs that crossed, which I think is what Bryson ended up using way later. Then another one that was a forest, and he was like, I don't like these. They said, Okay, well, let's take a break, and when we come back, we'll do some more brainstorming. Arnold Palmer stood up, and then he looked outside. He saw a really hot chick getting out of the car, and she had an umbrella. He was like, Fellas, I've got it. Umbrella's. We got to do Umbrella's. He just got horny. He got horny for a chick he happened to see. He's like, We're doing Umbrella's. Put that and let's move on.

It's been a hell of a logo. It's a great logo. You recognize the logo.

So, Aksha, next up, Don't Feel Bad for Daniel Berger.

No. I mean, it's golf. You got to close it out.

Good guy. I love the Four Aces, them quizz Dustin Johnson.

Yeah, that's where my who's back. But yeah, I mean, Four Aces, they're all the way back.

We could save it.

Okay.

We could save it. By the way, I wanted to shout out one, maybe our next goalkeeper, depending on how they do from high point. You guys see this kid, Chase Johnson? He is shooting 48% from three this year. So he's 64 for 132 from three. He's 0 for four in two-point field goals. I love it. He's taking four shots inside the arc.

He's missed all of them. It doesn't feel right.

How awesome is that guy? It doesn't feel right. I need him to just go nuclear.

Yeah. His name translates to Bunny Blue. I'm curious of how many of those were like threes where his foot was on the line.

Yeah, I hope all of them. Or it would be even funnier if it was a wide open layup and he couldn't hit it. He just can't. His depth perception is off.

What's his free throw? Free throw percentage for this guy.

Let's see, free throw. This It's like our guy, Scott Morse from UNH, remember? Yeah. For the free throw contest when we looked up his stats and we're like, Oh, he sucked at free throw. He's like, Dude, they never let me go inside the arc. Yeah. His free throw percentage is 100% this Okay. I don't know how many on. Let me see how many he's taken. He has taken... It looks like he is four for four on free throws.

So he doesn't get to the line.

No, because he's always out there. That's awesome. He's taking four free throws all year. He plays like 10, 15 minutes a game, but still, that's so sick.

This guy's life is pretty sweet. Yeah. Just go to practice, stand in the corner, and just get wet, Yeah.

Okay, let's do our Who's Back of the Week, and then we will get to a great interview with Alex Caruso in studio before we do Who's Back of the Week. State Farm and Basketball, the great players don't just go it alone. They have teammates, coaches, and a solid support system behind them. It's like insurance because let's face it, a lot of us probably aren't great at doing that alone either, and that's where State Farm comes in. State Farm is a teammate always ready to assist, help you find the coverage you need, and help you recover from the unexpected from vendor benders to store them to damage, or even just a question about your policy. State Farm is there to help provide an assist when you need it through the State Farm mobile app, a network of 19,000 local agents and online at statefarm. Com. So don't just go to loan. When you need help protecting what matters most, State Farm is there. State Farm, with the assist, coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state. Who's Back of the Week is brought to you by Twisted Tea, our good friends at Twisted Tea.

Twisted Tea is refreshing. Hard Ice Tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. Actually had a couple of Twisted Tees on Friday night. Got my friends onto some Twisted Tees. They're like, Oh, this is absolutely delicious. Twisted Tea is the perfect drink to keep the good times going all day and all season long. Whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar, or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. Hank, who's back of the week?

Yeah, who's back of the week is the Four Aces.

I love that. Didn't see that one coming.

Live Hong Kong.

Who are the Four Aces?

I got all the Four Aces. He's got them all. They won the team tournament or the team event. John Rom won the individual event. First time winning on Liv. It's huge. Wow. Huge for him.

You can't overstate that.

That's a coincidence. Isn't it?

What?

He's been rumoring that he's unhappy.

He recommitted to Liv and then won.

And then leave and then all of a sudden, he's like, Oh, yeah, I would.

It's interesting. It's a coincidence.

It's not. No.

That's not a coincidence?

I don't understand.

He's the best player on the tour. But he hadn't won yet? No. Then he said he was upset and really didn't want to be here anymore. Then he was like, You know what? Beware. He did not say that. No. Well, no, we picked up on the body language.

No, he did not say that.

He chose to stay on leave. It was highly speculated that he'd be leaving. Yeah.

Then he's like, No, actually, I'm staying. Oh, weird.

I just wanted my first I don't understand where you're going with that. He's not in that.

You know exactly where I'm going.

But yeah, he won.

It sounds like they're keeping him happy.

You're saying all the other players in the event- The Saudi's did something.

Magnets in the balls?

Maybe. Who knows?

I think maybe they had some rings in them.

Yeah. Really sad the Fanatics flag football thing isn't happening in Saudi Arabia anymore.

That's tough. I don't know what happened. It's in LA now. A lot of things. A lot of stuff going on.

A lot of things have happened.

We can get into Damn. Some trouble in the skies over Kuwait. I can't tell you that much right now.

Friendly fire?

Perhaps. The 15 Eagles now, 104 and 3. That's tough. We're having a perfect season.

It's like Lenny Dijkstra's stockpicks.

We're having the perfect season, 104 and 0. Lifetime. All goes away in the blink of an eye.

All right, so Liv. Four aces. Not a coincidence, the John Rom one.

Definitely not a coincidence.

Now that we're talking about it, yeah.

Well, no, we're talking about the Four Aces.

Yeah, but if someone else wins on the...

Who won? We would not have talked.

Who won the couple of weeks ago? Anthony Kim. Oh, that's interesting, too.

Then let's see, who would the next interesting one be? Johnson.

Johnson's got to win.

Johnson might win.

Do you see Tiger's team get the hole in one at the TGL?

The best golfer of all time? Yeah. Our friend Max Home on that team? Yeah. You mean Max's team? Max's team?

Yeah. Jupiter.

Max is... He can get any team to the victory.

Jupiter or GC. That's who I represent.

Okay.

I'm going to say Jupiter. Never mind. I'm not going to say the name of the fan group that I was inventing.

What week do you think...

I decided not... The Big Red Spots. That's what we call her.

What week do you think President Trump is going to win a live golf event? It's got to be coming, right?

Well, I think I show speed would probably get more.

That's fucked up. You just hate... A guy comes back, one of the greatest come back stories of the year.

No, I don't hate I don't hate John Robin at all.

You guys are on this show, and with the Anthony Kim. You guys are like, Oh, great story.

This is awesome. I don't hate John Robin at all. I'm just saying the timing is a little bit interesting that Liv is struggling.

Who said he's struggling? Liv is buzzing.

Everything has never been better. The dust has settled.

Never been better.

Brooks comes back. Our guys come home. Then, oh, now it's just the most remarkable. Oh, John Rom, first ever win on Liv. Oh, Anthony Kim hasn't won in 50 years. He hasn't played.

I think there should be asterisks on all these because they're playing 72 holes now. That's not live golf. Live golf, when I used to enjoy the sport, it was 54 holes.

In shorts, yeah.

In shorts, yeah. Show me who's playing in live right now. I'll pick the next winner.

Who is the winner after 54 holes?

I'll pick the next winner.

We're here to talk about the 4-8.

Phil Mickelson is going to win one. No. He didn't even play this week. Yeah, I know. That's exactly. They're getting them ready to... Oh, Bryson. Yeah, Bryson has got to win one for sure. Phil's going to win. Phil's going to win one this year.

What about... What's his name? Kam Smith. Kam Smith will probably win one because he's in the John Rom situation. People thought he would leave. He's like, No, I'm going to say it.

If you just say you want to leave, they'll just give you a win. That's live golf, baby.

Crazy. He never said he wanted to leave.

You know what? I'm thinking about leaving Livgolf.

I've heard the same thing. I've heard the same report.

I'm thinking about taking my talents.

We're here to talk about the Four Aces and the fact they won a team Championship first time in a few years. They were getting interviewed after.

Oh, that's interesting. The Four Aces first time. The Four Aces had got talked about an insane amount on the number one sports podcast. They also won? Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. The scriptwriters are going crazy this year.

Who are the current Four Aces again?

It's Dustin Johnson, Anthony Kim, and the Twin Toms.

Okay. Wow.

Easy to remember.

Who are the Twin Toms?

Thomas Peters, Thomas Dietry. Okay.

Twin Toms. The Twin Toms.

But after the After the win, they're doing a celebratory press conference. I'm assuming it was the AWL reporter asked Dustin Johnson, First time he won since 2023. Can you name the four aces on that team? Interesting. Can Did he just play the clip? Dustin Johnson had no idea. He's like, Which was the most relatable. I woke up and saw that clip, and I've never related more to a golfer in my life than DJ. None of this is interesting to you. Being like, Patrick Reid. Shout out to him.

None of this is interesting to you.

No. I think you're giving yourself too much credit.

No, we're giving you too much credit. You, you're the guy.

You're the Four Aces guy.

You're the Four Aces guy. You're the live golf guy.

What percentage of Four Aces discussion do you think has been brought to the table by myself or Big Cat in the history of this show?

Most of it.

No. We just ask you who was on the Four Aces. Yeah. You bring up the live topic.

You bring up the Four Aces, and then we ask a very simple question, which is, who are the guys on this team? You're probably like, one for... Well, before the twin Tomer's era, I would say you were probably like one for 30.

Then knowing all that history, Livgolf and the John Rom history, Livgolf was like, Let's have John Rom win, and also the Four Aces, and then a question about who are the Four Aces that last won.

Then also, I think that Livgolf engineered two guys being named Tom, to be honest. Hank only had to remember three of us.

Whatever.

Four Eaces on top. Livgolf on top.

It was such a funny clip because it really was just our podcast. Can you play it? The audio? P.

Reid was one of them.

So DJ, you may not even remember who he won with in 2023.

It's changed so much.

Who was it?

Come on. In 2023, P. Reid was one of them. Sorry to see him go.

Yeah, I've no idea. Two more. Yes, so that's just, Hey, Kaven.

And a lefty golfer on PGA tours. Huge. Is that a coincidence, too?

No. Okay.

We don't talk about lefty golfers on the show.

Got it. We're talking about the lift.

There's a good video out, though, with lefty Lockwood. Yeah. Are people being nice in the comment section?

I think so. I think it's fair. Fair, half mean, half somewhat nice. It's like that. Left and right.

Okay.

It's my Who's Back.

Pft, your Who's back? My Who's Back of the Week is-Oh, yeah, that's nice.

People are being nice. The camera work is like the Blair Wish Project. Who did that? Oh, nice.

People are being mean to me.

Has Max ever operated a camera before?

No.

Is Max-Felt like he was livestreaming an earthquake.

Is Max also going left-handed for this video? I am left-handed. Kind of.

We got some interesting half lefties.

People are right. Hank Swing does look better lefty. He's not a better golfer yet left-handed, but he will be a better golfer one day. Yeah. Thanks. Preach. Then there's a lot of stuff because I am supporting my boy Hank Lockwood in his journey to being a left-handed golfer. There's a lot of really nice stuff that I want to say about Hank that I'm not allowed to say about Hank because he got very upset at me for saying nice things about him in this video. He had them edited out, and they were very nice things.

Is that true?

I was being nice.

There's a pretty fine line. We've done this show for 10 years where it's like, when we say things before we say them, Hey, this is off the record, not for content. That's a preface. Yeah.

And then PFT broke that.

I was going through the video. It was literally the start of the video.

But it was a very nice thing, right?

I would not have said, Hey, let's not say this on air. This is not for content. And Have you agree if I thought you were going to say it?

For the record, I said it because I knew you were going to see it, and then you were going to be like, I specifically told you not to say that. Okay. My Who's Back to the Week is Logan Paul backing out of stuff. He's backing out of this fight against Le'Vion Bell. Because he's saying that Wwe has a problem with him getting into celebrity boxing matches. I think this is still part of the big work that he's putting on, and Wwe is going to be like, Yes, you certainly can do this. Let's also get him involved in the wrestling storyline.

It did seem a little- Everything is work.

Everything in the news, if your last name is Paul, even the Tom braided stuff, like when Tom braided was talking a little bit to Paul, we're all being worked all the time. Anything that comes out from a Paul brother, if he's talking about baseball cards, he's talking about Pokémon.

He captured the internet for a few days and then weirdly got a call when he was live on air from Triple HP and like, he can't do it.

Yeah, we're all being worked all the time. So he's backing out of this, but then he's going to back out of backing out on this. And then the fight's going to happen. The fight's going to suck, and he's probably going to win the fight, and then he's going to be like, See, I beat a real boxer, and then rinse and repeat six months from now. Yep. That's exactly what's happening. We can just fast forward. The other who's back in the week is baseball.

Oh, yeah, that was mine. Well, baseball classic. Two years. Awesome.

Yeah.

Schwerber hitting a home run got me in my feels. This actually rocks. Then Dominican, I think it was Puerto Rico, too, the dances and just the fans going nuts, the crowds in Japan. Also, I don't I understand why Chinese Taipei just has the best- Taiwan? Oh, yeah. Sorry. Taiwan has the best Little League team every year, and then their pros just suck.

Yeah.

I don't get that.

It is interesting.

But yeah, this moment, there's just been... What was that? That was the Dominican and Nicaragua game. It's been awesome. They also did the schedule crack. I looked ahead. The semifinals and finals are on the Monday and Tuesday before before March Madness begins.

Yeah, which is perfect. Which is great. It's beautiful. You rarely see it in sports where they actually time it up well, that it goes Selection Sunday, semis, final March.

Because You need something those two days to get you to March Madness.

Perfect. It's great having that there. Would you like it better if the All-Star break was a little bit longer and this happened in the middle of the summertime? Yes. I think that would be a better schedule.

Just because guys would be better, too. Yeah, well, that's what they need to do for the Olympics. Is scuba coming back? I saw that. He went, he pitched his inning or two, and then he was like, I had feelings that I didn't know I had about the country. Yeah. He's now trying to talk Scott Boris and the tigers into letting him pitch more, which would be awesome.

We all love the World Base Classic until somebody gets hurt, and then people turn on it. Then it's like, Why are we doing this?

Scuba said, I didn't expect It's these type of emotions to run through my brain or my thoughts to differ. I was committed to making a start and getting back to camp. Things have changed. Obviously, I'm going to have some conversation to try to figure out a plan. Love that. Need him. I want to win this thing. I want to win this thing.

I would like to win it, but it's also good to have Aaron Judge as a scapegoat in case we lose. It's all his fault. And just prepare yourself. If we do win, don't let that deceive you into thinking that Aaron Judges... He has not earned his pinstripes from this. He's earned horizontal stripes, red and white stripes is he will earn, but not the pinstripes.

Yeah, the World Baseball Classic rocks. Big fan.

I mean, the walk-offs, it all comes down to the players caring about it. If the players care about it, then I care about it.

Yeah, absolutely. The guys who are not MLB players playing for their country care a lot. That's where it gets very exciting. Okay, Zack, you're who's back. By the way, Zack, how did it go? How did it go on the internet on Friday?

I signed off for a little bit. I signed back on, though, today.

And?

We're back online. People have different opinions on all sorts of stuff. We're talking Fame, infamy. It was a good weekend on the internet. A lot of guys had a lot of opinions, and I respect all those opinions.

That's what the internet's all about.

Were there some hurtful tweets Yeah, there's some words regularly used.

It felt like copy and pasted from... A lot of guys are saying the same thing. I'm not going to say what they were saying.

I retreated this one from Talia B, who's a sports reporter for Notre Dame. She said, Just listen to the most popular sports podcast in the US for the first time, and they spend a solid 20 minutes arguing about whether or not I show speed or Trump is more famous.

Definitely wasn't her first time.

Also not her first time. Second of all, We didn't argue. Zack tried to argue. We said what the facts are.

Yeah, we just established a baseline of what I think any independent journalist such as yourself would understand as being our responsibility as journalists to just counter his claims of the facts.

I think if Zack and her- Talia, get ready for Mount Rushmore season.

Had a face-to-face at dinner or something. He could convince her.

Oh, yeah. You should go on a date with her.

Sometimes you got to embrace debate.

Would you be open to a date with Talia? If Talia was open.

Let's start with a conversation. Conversation. Let's have a debate. Yeah, we're not calling it a date.

It sounded like she... I'm just picking up the vibe. It sounded like she wanted to continue the debate. She liked it so much.

I'm always on the embrace debate for sure.

I think she might be intimidated by how intelligent you are.

The integrity I have opposing viewpoints is always fun.

Yeah.

That's the other part about Zack is I think part of the reason why it went so long is because Zack is the nicest person in the world to debate with. Yeah. He doesn't... Nothing gets mean. He just keeps saying, We all have differing viewpoints.

But he's also tenacious is the thing.

Sometimes we're not going to be able to convince each other of the other side. It's worth learning each other out. You know what I mean?

Which is bullshit what he's doing because he's basically making us feel like he's gaslighting us to be like, Hey, it's an even It's not.

Yeah. Zack, let me ask you this. If I show-Globally, I don't know. If I show Speed had a sports roundtable where he tried to fix college sports, what names do you think he could get to show up for that?

Ronaldo.

Ronaldo.

Yeah. Messi. Yeah. So the biggest names in the world.

Kevin Durant.

Kevin Durant. Katie.

They spent a good amount of time together. That's a good interview as well if you guys want to check that out. Yeah, he'd have some guy. I don't know if the table would be round. Might be square. He's in a video with braided. Big three in Speed.

And Tom braided. Yeah. So it sounds like, yeah. I mean, Zack might be winning me over. Mm-hmm.

Suny Lee.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the executive order to Fix Sports is going to actually say. That's going to be a good one.

Yeah.

I feel it might be a lot of pages, though.

Might be a lot of pages.

Zack, you need that when it comes out?

Yeah, someone's going to have to put it in a tweet for us.

I can do spark notes, maybe. Okay.

Kind of like some heavy-hitting bullet points. When that comes out, I would like you to distill it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read any articles about it. I want you to tell us how college sports will be fixed. Yeah. Okay, I can do that for you. When it comes to. Sure. Thank you, sir.

Okay, what do you got for Who's Back?

My Who's Back of the Week is also a little bit World Base Classic adjacent, more so for the attendees because have you guys seen the Tokyo Dome sandwich? Oh, yes. The ice cream sandwich.

Yes.

How are they wrapping the cone around the ice cream 100%?

That's a question for you, pal. Is it injected, you think? No, that's a question that you're going to have to figure out because I want one and you got to get You see how the bite, too, you go all the way through.

So the middle is not the toughest ice cream.

Wait, can you describe this for the listeners and myself? Because I don't-Look at it, Hank.

It's an unrustable with a cone on the outside and ice cream on the inside.

It's almost like a Baclondike or swap the chocolate for a cone.

It's perfect. So get in the lab.

Yeah, we'll get in.

You can buy a Waffle iron, whatever you need.

Okay, we'll do. Yeah, we'll get. We'll get tasty.

Well, yeah. I mean, I assume you're going to have to have some type of-I think you need to put that in the oven? No, I think he's going to have to make- With melt, right? Yeah, that's melt. I think you're going to have to make custom sandwich like Waffle iron. That's the only way to do it, right?

I think we're going to have to build a mold, yeah. I'm not sure how to go about that, but we'll find out for you.

What are you looking at me at?

I can't.

He's going to have to build a mold.

It's not soft serve, though.

But how do you get the bread around the ice cream?

That's what we're trying to figure out.

It looks like it's two halves. But it doesn't- You can see them coming apart a little bit at the same. There's a seam.

Get to work.

That does seem to be a softer exterior, right?

I'm going to give you- Till the end of the World Baseball Classic. I was going to say next Monday. Yeah, okay. End of the World Baseball Classic. That's next Tuesday.

Yes, sir.

We can do that.

I want it. I want a prototype, but I don't want it to be the first. I want it like... I want a good one. I want it. Bad.

We'll get the best guys on the case.

That's you.

Jacob, Ola, and myself. Yeah. Three ice cream guys.

See, Talia, this is what you're signing up for. This guy, he's a problem solver.

That looks so good.

So good.

Oh, my God. It looks good.

Okay, let's get to our interview with Alex Caruso.

Before we get to Alex Caruso, he's brought to you by our great friends at McDonald's, the New Big Arch is here. I've got it right in front of me. It's beautiful. It's the most McDonald's McDonald's burger It's two quarter pound patties, three slices of cheese, tangy Big Arch sauce, lettuce, pickles, crispy, and slivered onions, and a poppy and Sesame Seed bun, the best bun. It's everything you love about McDonald's burgers between two guns. The new Big Arch sauce It's tangy, creamy. It's a perfect pair to the Big Arch burger. What's your favorite Big Arch ingredient? Mine is probably the pickles. I love the pickles. I also like the Big Arch sauce and also three slices of cheese. Running up the score with the cheese, but I don't hate it. How many bites do you think it would take to finish a Big Arch? I think seven bites. Nine. Seven to nine bites. The Big Arch burger is beefy, saucy, cheesy. And did we mention it's big? What are the new Big Arch? The most McDonald's McDonald's burger yet for a limited time. I participate in McDonald's for a limited time while supplies last. I'm going to take a bite right here, live for the first time.

It's out of It is?

Mm-hmm. It looks so good. I had a bite before because I couldn't say. We bought a bunch and I was like, I can't. I can't have the big arch around and not have some. You got to taste it. It was so good.

Carus is also brought to you by Slim Jim. We got some big news to report. Breaking Moos. Breaking Moos, Hank. Breaking Moos. Actually, can it be a breaking news chicken? That was really good. Big cat. That's a terrible chicken. No, that's terrible.

That sounds like a cow trying to be a chicken. Yeah.

That was great. That was much better. Thank you. But it's huge news from Slim Jim. They've got a brand new chicken stick. They're teamed up with Buffalo Wild Wings. Slim Jim has made something clutch, the brand new chicken stick. It's not your run of the bill meat stick. It's everything that you love about chicken wings, and it's packed into a convenient snack stick ready for you to take on the go. It's bold, it's tangy, mouthwatering chicken flavor anytime, anywhere, Each juicy, tender bite delivers a big win. New Buffalo Wild wings chicken sticks from Slim Jim. Available in two delicious flavors. You got Buffalo or Hot. It's different from regular Slim Jim. It's more juicy. It's tender. You're going to love it. Hank, give the people one more chicken. You know the rules. If the game's on, you got to be locked in with snacks on deck. So stock up for game day. A tear into new Buffalo Wild Wing chicken sticks from Slim Jim. And now, here's Alex Caruso.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest, recurring guest, one-and-a-half time NBA champion, Alex Caruso in studio. I got to ask, you've won one and a half NBA titles, but would you say that making the cover of, pardon my book, the 10-year anniversary of Pardon My Take that's coming out in August, is that a higher offer?

Is this the official announcement for that? No, you're on it.

You're on the back.

You're on the back cover. That's amazing. Wow. Oh, back cover. So I mean, front cover was- We'll put it second, second between the two championships.

I just double-checked and you're on it.

Zack, are you wearing it on your shirt right now?

He doesn't have the shirt on anymore. Don't have the shirt? But you are officially on the cover. I'll send you the pick. You are on the cover. I think it's you in Thunder gear. We would never put you in Lakers gear. But you're on the cover, so that's pretty cool. You're right next to Adam Morison.

Oh, yeah. That's like almost a Mount Rush for a white guy Well, I was going to say it actually was tough to make the cover because we got a lot of white guys, so we're like, Oh, shit, we got to make a cut somewhere.

But you're on there.

So congratulations. Yeah, thank you. That's probably the biggest announcement of 2026 for me so far.

Yeah, easily.

How has this year been? I feel like this has been a pretty good six months for you.

Yeah. I mean, honestly, we're winning basketball games. Winning games when you're a professional athlete makes life a lot easier. You to do that, it's like just stay healthy, get to also break, play some golf, and now it's time to try and ramp it up.

Are you guys bad for basketball?

Bad? Like the thunder?

Yeah.

Are you bad for basketball, for the sport?

Too good. No, no, no, no. We went We went to seven games twice last year. So it's not like we didn't... 2000, Lakers won in 17 games, the Warriors win in whatever. We're just the right amount of good for basketball.

Good for basketball. Yeah.

But that was the worst team that you're have in this dynasty.

You guys are only getting better. We had to talk about that last time, didn't we?

I have a statement I would like to make that I think is a compliment, but you can tell me if this is not a compliment. No, I think it is.

Okay.

I think you have entered into all-time role player level.

That's a good conversation to have.

Is that a good...

That's a compliment, right? It's a major compliment, yes.

I mean this in the fact that you can even see it in this year's Thunder team.

You mean just basketball or all Maybe everything.

You can make your case for everything. But for basketball, I think that you are in that level now where you're such a weapon and the way you're used to create energy, turnovers, chaos, hit threes. That Nuggets game a couple of nights ago, which I want to talk about the Jokuj fight, I know you would have fucked him up. You weren't on the court, right? No, I wasn't. Yeah, you would have fucked him up. We know that for a fact.

Save your money. Don't run on the court.

The way you're able to change a game, and tell me if this is wrong, but I think my theory is you've been used this year... I was looking at your minutes, and it was somewhere like 18, 19 minutes a game, and then if it's a big game, it's like 23, 24 minutes. You're the secret weapon for the thunder.

You're giving away the game plan now. Okay, well, I'm just saying. So we're going to calm down. So we talk about No, I mean, that's a great conversation to have. For basketball, for sure, I think I can sneak my way into Mount Rushmore now. A couple of championships and a couple of personal accolades, I think that gets you onto the onto the role player conversation. For all of sports, that's tough because there's a lot of sports. There's a lot of sports. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff.

I mean, you're trying to think just off the top of my head. We talk about the best role players in basketball history. I don't know if I would consider a guy like Dennis Rodman to be a role player because he's too good at what he does, really, at his one specialty. He's like a specialist.

I would say he is, but I think anybody who's not a 30 point a game scorer, the 20 to 30, takes most of the shots, is pretty much a role player.

I mean, Robert Horry would be the top of the list.

Robert Horry is the first one that came to mind just because of clutchness.

Steve Kerr.

Yeah.

With the Spurs and the Bulls.

Yeah, Steve Kerr is a good shout, too. You basically have to look at the teams that have won. Right. Derry Fisher might be over Steve Kerr for me.

The teams that have won and knowing that if you take that guy off the team, he's not the best player on the team, but if you take that guy off the team, it actually significantly hurts them. I think that's where you're at with the Thunder. The question, though, is, I have this thinking suspicion that you've been used as a secret weapon. Does Coach tell you before a game?

Ten years in, secret weapon.

Yeah, but does Coach tell you before a game, Hey, this is going to be a playoff atmosphere? Because there are certain games. The Nuggets game is a specific one where it's like Nuggets Thunder, Friday night, big game atmosphere. Tv game. And he whispers in your ear, he's like, Hey, this is a playoff game. And then a light bulb goes off and you're like, All right, I got it. Get ready. Yeah, I'm going to fuck this up.

No, I mean, you know certain matchups are going to be elevated just based off of competition and talent. Anytime you play somebody that's a top six team in the West, it's going to be a brawl, show up, be ready, and then TV game. But that one the other night had a special feeling around it. In the lead up to the game, it felt like a mini playoff game. And Kenrich Williams told me, We on the end of the bench before tip. To me, it hadn't really clicked. I was just going through my routine of what I do before the game, handshake, sit down. And he goes, It feels like a playoff game here. And I look around and I was like, You're right. And you don't recognize it until we played Dallas last night and not even half their team, 75% of their team isn't playing. And the atmosphere is completely different. You're like, Oh, yeah, that was... That makes it stand out even more. But yeah, Mark will tell me when I'm going to go in the game after we drop our first play, and I go to the scores table to do handshakes with everybody.

He'll look at me and tell me when I'm going to go in. And he's secret weapon. And depending on what time in the first quarter I'm going to go in, that's how I know, all right, tonight's going to be a couple more minutes versus the 18, 19.

And that game, specifically, SGA is on a minute's restriction, so then you have to close the game and finish the game.

I don't think we knew that. I I didn't know that. I missed a shot to win the game in regulation, and Chet gets it, misses it, and we go to the bench. And in my head, I'm just like, All right, we're going to go win the game, whatever. We're going to have a minute. We got Shay. It's going to be fine. And then Mark comes to the bench, and he's like, he said, he's done. He's like, You're in. He's like, J-Will, you're in. I think it was I, Joe came in for us, too. And We're just like, Oh, okay, cool. He's done. It was a weird feeling, though, because we've been playing without him for the last month and a half, however long it's been. We had this weird confidence. We're like, Oh, we're going to go win the game now. And then we scored your first seven points of overtime just running. It was like, That's exactly how this team has played.

Didn't cover the spread, but that's neither here nor there. The other question off of the game, how are you so good at forcing turnovers on transition? Because I think that's a superpower you have that I don't I don't think there's anyone who's doing it at your level, where if a team has a transition and they're making an extra pass or whatever it may be, you just always are in the right spot. I think it happened twice in that game, late, where you fucked them up and they looked like they were going to get an easy bucket, and then your hands are everywhere, and it's like, Oh, no, Caruso did it again.

Yeah, I don't know where... I don't know if that's... It's not a skill that you go in the summer and work on. Obviously, some of that is God-given talent, where I'm just to be able to process and anticipate stuff. Also just knowing personnel, knowing who guys are. One of them, Christian Brown, was going to go up for layup. I knew pretty much he was going to either try and use his right-hand or load up big to go for a dunk. So it was like, just time it and gamble and go for the steal chets there. If you miss it, he'll probably block it.

Is that film work?

Yes. I mean, some of that knowing tendencies and knowing who players are and what they like to do. The second one with Hardaway where jumped in the air. I was like, I'm just going to see if he'll go finish the layup and just go play the guy in the pass. And then I saw Christian Brown's face light up. I was like, Surely the ball is there. You just throw your hand up, and he threw it to my hand. Everyone's making this deal I made a great play. It's like, I put my hand up.

No, but that's interesting. It's almost like a defensive back in football, reading the other person's body language.

It is. It's like spatial awareness, anticipation of stuff. Some of it is I love soccer. I watch Premier League for 15 years now, and there's a lot of that element of matching up man-to-man versus ball movement and finding space and where's the danger going to be. So maybe some of that, playing a lot of FIFA. Who's the team? Man City. Okay, all right. I got a lot of heat for that, but I've been watching them since 2011.

Since they won five in a row?

Four. Are there other guys in the NBA that watch a lot of EPL?

Yeah, there are. I know Larry Nance and Tee Jay McDonald are both leads guys, but I think they have ownership in the team. Makes sense. That helps push them towards that. I know some guys are Most of the big teams. I don't know anybody that has a West Ham or Wolverhampton. It's all United, Chelsea, Arsenal.

Arsenal? Yeah. Have you seen the draw Arsenal got? Yeah, of course. It's a crazy draw. They're playing against some team in Norway that they were.

Well, the team in the last week. Beat City 2-1 on the road in one of the Champions League matchups. We did have a couple of guys because we were suspended. That was when all our centerbacks were hurt, too. But yeah, it's looking favorable. They say the last winner from the last 12 years from Champions League, I think, is on the left side.

Yeah. They just get a cakewalk. It's on the left side.

It's easy. It's like City and Madrid, like Real, they're going to play each other and the winner is going to play Bayern Munich.

Battle-tested, yeah. Do you guys have Do you guys have a Spurs problem? A Spurs problem? Yeah. Does Oklahoma City have a Spurs problem?

There aren't Spurs in Oklahoma City. It's like these little tumbleweed things.

I'm just saying, I'm looking at the NBA Cup.

Yeah, we probably should have won that game. I think we played better in the NBA Cup game. We can't win the Cup. I'm so annoyed because we go to Vegas two years in a row and I really want to, one, you get paid. That's cool. But two, it's like there's a trophy and there's some pride to it. And then there was that clip of me bitching in the hallway going back to the locker room, and then everybody started calling me a sore loser. Yeah, the NBA Cup. Nobody likes losing. I'm supposed to be happy that we just lost.

I like that, though, because it's the Cup. The Cup means... Did you notice that other teams play a little harder?

We talked about as a team, we want to win everything. That's the mindset. So if we're playing in the Cup games, we want to go and win the Cup, and we just For whatever reason, maybe the atmosphere in Vegas just throws it off because it's pretty neutral. They dim the lights like Staples Center. I think this is my hot take of the day. I think it would be much better if they just did it like playoff series where they just had whatever the tie breakers are and just have whatever team is ranked higher, host the game all the way, even through the Championship game.

Yeah, I like that.

Maybe the Championship, you do neutral site, like how theSuper Bowl? Yeah. Yeah, Super Bowl or the Premier League, the FA Cup and all that, they go to Wembley. Maybe the last game you do a neutral site. But leading up to it, the best games in the Cup are the games that lead up to Vegas. After a pool play, the first couple of bracket play games, those are the best ones.

Do the crazy courts ever fuck you up?

No, I like them. Okay. I haven't played on one that I think was terrible. I think probably the worst one was maybe the one here in Chicago the first year when it was just blood red. Yeah. But even then, it was like, cool.

Yeah, cool for a one-off. If you don't win an NBA Cup in your career, we will-I can't be on the role player. Yeah, no, we will ding you for that. Dude, could never get it done.

Rightfully so.

Could never get it done in mid-December.

Yeah. The big one.

Say what you want about Alex Caruso, but he choked away multiple NBA Cups. Do you know how much money you've made in the NBA? It's pretty awesome. Right Yeah, or for the rest of your career, if you play on your contract.

I know I made guaranteed money. I made five and a half, and then 39, so it just ran out to 40, and then 80, so like, 115.

Yeah, it would be 123.

Oh, nice. That's pretty sick. That's pretty sick, yeah. I mean, that and I got to win a couple of things. Now we're talking about role player Mount Rushmore. Yeah.

It's not even a question. It was just more like that was sick.

Yeah, no, I know that wasn't a question. We did that with Blake Bortles once, and he was just like, Oh, fuck. That's so sick. But he was much more nonchalant.

He had no idea. He was like, Oh, I made 50 mil? That's so awesome.

It's pretty cool. You ever just look at your bank again, you're like, Oh, fuck, yeah.

That's pretty cool. Honestly, no, because I have a guy for that that is much smarter than me. Just let him handle that.

Have you become a better basketball player since you got married?

Yeah. I think I've gotten better since August. Love that. Yeah. Shout out to Haley.

What have you gotten better at?

I'm a lot more patient on the court. A lot more understanding. More team-oriented. Yeah.

One of the lessons off the court that translate. You'll do the Dirty work.

Great at home lessons that I carry over.

Yeah, you take out the trash on the cord. It's like the dirty work. I'll do it.

I also do that. I was doing that before I got married anyway.

Yeah, role player. Every husband is a role player.

This is a dumb question, but we're getting up to March Madness. Does it suck not- It is March. Yeah, this is March. Does it suck not be able to watch all March Madness?

Yeah, honestly, those days... Because it's the first weekend, at least. First weekend is the big one. That's the one where 8 AM to-Yeah, and You have to work. Yeah, depending on the schedule, I haven't even looked.

This is why I would never be in the NBA. I would never give up watching March Madness. Wait, it's probably two weeks away.

Yes, two weeks away. I'll look, but I don't know what our schedule is. I think we might be on the road.

I'm going to tell you right now. I'm going to bum you out. No, Same with football, too. You can't watch football sometimes.

Yeah, Sundays are tough when you're traveling.

Dude, this is this NBA thing. That's not worth $123 million. It's really getting in the way, dude. Yeah, I don't know. No. I'm telling you, man.

You did watch baseball because I saw you tweet it out I remember it was like game seven. You tweeted out, Imagine not liking sports.

Yeah, dude, imagine.

Then LeBron, I think he replied. I think he was like, Yeah, that would suck, dude. You guys still keep in touch?

That was probably the last time before I saw him this year. That we talked.

He's like, I I love sports, too, man. I saw that he's getting really into YouTube golf recently.

Yeah, I do. Golf in general, but YouTube golf for sure.

Yeah, there was a very funny video of him before the game against the Warriors. He was on the course at Olympic. Have you seen that yet? No. Can we bring that video up of LeBron golfing before the game against the Warriors? By the way- Somebody snuck a phone onto the course and took a very mean long distance shot of him hitting like a three wood off the deck. Does it not go well? It's not a great look. Lebron has to realize this is the game that you get into with YouTube golf.

Yeah, for sure. It's everything. I mean, golf in general.

Yeah. People love to laugh at your misfortune.

By the way, you're good for the schedule. You have a game on Wednesday of opening round, and then you have a game, no game, Thursday, Friday, game, Saturday, no game, Sunday.

That's big time.

The game Saturday is the Wizards at four o'clock.

That's something. It doesn't really count.

4: 00, 5: 00.

You guys should do it with your eyes closed, probably.

I'm going to get the morning slate. Yeah. That's the best I've had. Yeah. That's the best three days. You're going to get to do it.

All right, maybe the 123 makes sense.

I'm not going anywhere in New York.

Here's LeBron. Let's get your feedback on LeBron's swing here.

You got to go out there with him. You got to fix him up.

I played a at Club last year. Caught that a little fat. Yeah, a little over the top.

Yeah, a little over the top, a little fat.

Didn't move the body very much. Classic mistakes.

What is...

Actually, he rotated pretty well.

For a big man, he does, yeah.

Given one of the best athletes to ever play sports that much credit. He should be doing that.

He's pretty good at sports overall.

What's your handicap right now?

Right now is probably not a true tell, but I got down to a two last summer. I played over all-star break, and I played better than I expected. We went to Scottsdale. I went to Scottsdale with my boys because we go play TPC because they have all the stuff. It's a week after the tournament. So they got all the stuff still up, and then we go out there and play. Grass clipping is actually this par-three course, the little night Par 3 course, that place is amazing. And then Silverleaf Club, try to get out there and play.

That's awesome. We always laugh at people that are seeing Cancun loser, like the fans that talk shit to players. They're like, Cancun, have fun, idiot. You lost.

Yeah, okay. Probably will.

I'm in the prime of my life. I have millions of dollars. I'm going to go to Cancun and have maybe the best week of my life. I'm going to very much enjoy it. You guys missed out on some of your summer. That's like an under The podcast thing in the NBA is the better you are as a team, the longer your season becomes, the less of an offseason you have.

You just got to make sure you win. When I saw you all out at Tahoe, right? Yeah. That's like two weeks after the Championship, two and a half weeks after we won. I think it was after the Wednesday or Thursday practice round that I played with some of the people who pay for whatever the scramble teams. My dad looks at me because there's so many people out there, right? There's so many fans, and they're like, Kyle, congrats. You won a championship. Great season. I was like, he said, Imagine if you had a loss and had to go there. Everybody would have just been like, Dude, tough one. Great season, but maybe you'll get them next year. So now I'm just reliving this. Two weeks, I probably would have started to slowly get over it. It's like that could have been a much, much worse two and a half, three months if we would have lost. Yeah.

What was crazy about that tournament was Charles Barkley got good at golf again.

Yeah. You remember that? Yeah. He hold out for-For Egl.

Something happened where he just got good.

The first day, he was like, I think he was top 25.

Really rude him, to be honest, to overshadow my first day, which was just phenomenal. What'd you shoot? I shot 74. It was like the best round I've ever shot in my life. Nobody talked about that. It was ball and hole, and they quickly breezed over it because-It was like Charles shot 85. The guy who didn't know how to play golf all of a sudden was, yeah, shot 85 and hauled out from the fairway.

We got to talk about it more.

Yeah, it was amazing.

People were still talking about that. Alex Cruz was 74.

It's hilarious about that, too, is I played so well the first day, and then the second day, I get out and I'm playing with Adam Theelen and Taylor Twelman, and they both played very well.

Yeah, Taylor was in it.

He's a really good player, apparently. They were striping all day. But I get up there on the first tee box after going tied, career best low round in tournament place. I count that as the best round of golf I've ever played. I just cold-top it on the first tee box in front of 400 people. Luckily, I did just... I shook it off, hit one, got on the green, made the bogey put, and got out of there with zero points. So it's a little bit of a confidence booster. But the topping it in front of a couple of hundred people after they do the whole intro thing.

I don't know how you guys do it.

Dude, it's tough out there. I'm not going to lie.

It's got to be more nerve-wracking than playing an NBA game.

A hundred %. Yeah. A hundred %. Up until I made my put, I made par on hole two every day. I made a three-footer on two. That was the put both days that calmed me down. But before that, the first six, seven shots that I took. It was like full arms not connected to the body. The boys did 6, 7 in the booth. Yeah, that's a tough look. Dude, it doesn't even compare to anything I've ever done, sports-wise.

Quick break from Alex Caruso to talk to you about Lucy. Lucy's the obvious choice for the true nicotine pouch connoisseurs. That's why they're the official nicotine pouch partner of Barstool Sports. Every other pouch is the same. Lucy Breaker is the only one doing it differently to give you the longest lasting flavor in pouches. Lucy pouches go up to 12 milligram strength and have a unique shape. It feels great. Lucy is in stores nationwide now. Go get Lucy delivered to you ASAP on apps like DoorDash and GoPuff. I got the Lucy winner They're great. Lucy's the only pouch that delivers long-lasting on-demand flavor. Find a store near you at luci. Co/stores or get a ship with 20% off your first order at luci. Co/pmt using code PMT. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age, and every customer's age verified, warning this product contains nicotine, and nicotine is an addictive chemical. Okay, back to Alex Gruso. Do you still get nervous before NBA games?

No, I don't get nervous. I I don't get too excited, too much adrenaline going through me. Before Game 7, Denver, Game 7, in the finals, obviously, those two games, I have a pretty strict standard routine that I do before all the games where I go home, nap, eat, whatever. I couldn't really nap. I took a 20-minute nap, and I was just like, I'm not going to be able to sleep. I'm just going to get up.

If you could go back, Game 7, NBA Finals, and you could make it so that Tyrese Halliburton doesn't get hurt, would you do that? Sure. Wow, you're an incredible guy. You're an incredible guy.

You want to beat the best.

That's beautiful. 2. 1, I think we would have won regardless. Yeah, but still- Two, he doesn't tear his Achilles. Yeah, I know.

You're an incredible guy. That's an incredible move.

You would want that because now the Pacers are going to get a great draft pick, and they're going to be the best team ever. Then they'll come and kick your ass later because he got hurt in game seven.

I was going to make a joke. I was going to be like, It's the best tanking strategy ever. That's pretty detrimental to your All it takes is For your best player to tears Achilles.

That part sucks. That's got to be the biggest mind fuck ever.

They're talking through that in the war room as a organization. I don't know. We could just not win games or we could have our best player be out for a whole year.

How What weird is it playing against tanking teams? Can you feel the vibe? It's just got to be... There's been a lot of discussion about the NBA, the fact that too many teams are tanking right now. Trying to fix that. But when you're actually playing a tanking team, I'd imagine it's a little harder to get up for a team that's actively not trying to win games.

Yeah. At that point, it just becomes like you got to find different things to play for.

Do you play for us?

I can.

Do Do that on the Wizards game.

Okay, I'll do that for the rest of you.

To play specifically for us.

I would like to see two bounce pass assists from you.

Okay. That's how you'll know.

That's how I know, yeah.

I'll point to the camera.

We actually will be watching March Madness, so we won't even know.

Yeah, sure. It would be nice to highlight it. It'll be great for us. We'll get the clip and I'll send it to you.

It's like a little Timmy in the hospital, Baybrooth hitting two home runs for him. It's like two fundamentally sound three quarters bounce passes.

Yeah, it's left foot forward.

Yeah, they interview you after. It's like you put in a solid 8, 4, and 4. You're like, Yeah, I did that for the PMT guys. I'll do that for sure.

That's easy.

That's the easy one. I mean, is there a way to prevent tanking? I don't think that there is. That's the thing. It's like, we can have this discussion and try to figure out how to have the most competitive games that we can get. But the reality is the way that the league set up, you have to tank if you want to get good.

Yeah, that's the big issue is it's proven to be successful. In some instances, some teams just can't get it right, and they're just forever We have to hit the picks.

So if you have first overall pick, you draft a guy that forgets how to shoot.

That's the big thing. That's where teams are still messing it up. They're not drafting well. And it's like, if you're going to... You just get stuck in the revolution. If you don't draft well, and then you try to lose again, then you don't draft That's part of it for us. We've had great picks. Some of our guys on our team, like AJ Mitchell, Jalen Williams, Aaron Wiggens. Obviously, we traded for Shay, me, Hart. There's just... There's Isaiah Joe. We We found different ways to build a team that's really good, and it hasn't just been lose a shit ton of games and then have a top three pick for five years in a row. I don't know how you fix it. Every one of these, you've seen a couple of different examples or options that people have brought up of what to do. It's like there's always a flaw in one.

Yeah, there's always a loophole that someone will-Yeah, there's always one that's like, it looks good on paper until you really think it through and talk about and put it into real-world perspective.

I don't know how you do that.

And you also don't want to have a situation where you make it so bad teams can just never get good again.

Yeah. Well, that's the fine line is making it competitive and even for You want small market teams to be able to have good players and keep good players, but you don't want to make it to where there's a competitive advantage too much one way for the draft. Like I said, it's a difficult It's the thing to do. Yeah.

I got a dumb question for you. Do they give you different thickness of headbands, or do you just have the extra thick ones?

No, it's just the same ones. The same ones? There's two different ones. There's a spandex, was it polyester? Yeah. And then there's the cotton, almost. It's elastic cotton. It's got some stretch to it. That's the one I have. People think that it's a fashion statement. I sweat a lot. The other night, Hart, after the Denver game, Hart Einstein took my headband off and put it on our team TV guy, nick Gallo. I'm looking at him, and as soon as he takes it off and goes towards him, I'm like, Dude, don't put that on him. You don't want to. I just played a whole second half in overtime with that. Played 28 minutes. I switched it halftime. I switched it halftime. Oh, you switched it halftime? It's so sweaty. It's so sweaty. I have to. He put it on him, and immediately when he took it off and gave it back to me to walk off and give it to a I like, Dude, that's disgusting. I like, squeeze a little and sweat comes out of it.

It's drenched. After a game, you'll give it to a kid. Do you feel bad about giving a sweaty headband to a kid?

No, the kids love it, but there are sometimes where you give a little like a toss where it's not a handoff, and the kid will have an outstriched hand to grab it, and the sweat will just fly off behind them in their face. I feel terrible, but the kids, apparently, they are just so excited to have a sweat man.

They don't even They don't care. They're like, I'm not ready for shit.

They don't process it. That's like sweat coming off of my head into the sweat man.

Do you sweat more with a bald head?

Yeah. Well, when I had hair, the hair caught everything.

Yeah.

Well, the kid didn't have A lot of hair.

But it is enough.

Would you go to Turkey? No.

Imagine I came out post-retirement.

That would be awesome. Actually, no, not post-retirement. Just in next year. Yeah. Like, opening night. Imagine.

I come out next year with just a fade. Yeah.

Imagine if you had done it right after you won and then banner night.

How long does it take to recover from that stuff?

A couple of months? I think it's a couple of weeks that you can't do stuff.

Like sweat or get wet. Yeah.

Then after that, I mean, most of the guys, in a few months, they looked normal.

Yeah.

We could have done it.

That would have been such a good look. You should do it. Banner night, you walk out there, Championship hair.

Did you see, by the way, Jalen- That would be so funny. Jalen Sugs stole your look.

Yeah, no, he I was going to say to you, he came back from officer break with the quality.

With this full shed. Yeah. All right, so there's motivation when you play the magic.

We got one more game to see. That trip before March Madness, we're playing.

Okay, so there's your motivation. Find that. They're not tanking, but still, you got to find it.

You just need to win. They're going to try and win the game. Yeah.

I mentioned the Jokić thing. You would have fucked him up, right?

Yeah, for sure. Him being a hundred something pounds and a foot taller, it wouldn't have mattered.

What was the conversation in the locker room after? I would imagine it was a lot If you get in a bar fight with your boys, you're like, Yeah, did you see the move I pulled?

It's all on tape. There's a lot of talk about what somebody would have done who wasn't out there. That's the running joke on our team is whoever's not in the game, if somebody doesn't handle it the right way, you just shit on them the whole time. It's like, Oh, dude, you're soft. You didn't even get in the mix, something like that.

Who didn't get in the mix enough?

Well, no, that was perfect. Well, Lou would have, but he thought he wasn't going to get objected, then he got objected, so he didn't get his money's worth. That's NBA rule number one. If you know you're going to get ejected or you know you're going to get a second tack, you just go all in.

Keep going.

You've seen the clips of the guys who go up to the refs individually when they've gotten a second tack, and they're just F-U, F-U, F-U. It's like, that's what you got to do.

Make it worth it. Yeah, absolutely.

Did you know that the Finals Game 7 averaged 2. 4 billion viewers?

I did not.

That's good. It's pretty crazy. That's good for us. On ABC. That's like a third of the world tuned into that game. I might have gotten settled when I saw that, and I was like, Yeah, it makes sense because Caruso is playing.

How many of those do we think are bot streams from India?

Probably a lot.

Probably like one.

But I do feel like the product, I don't want to speak for the league as a whole, but I enjoy watching Thunder Games. You guys play a very entertaining style of basketball. It's fun to watch as a viewer. Is it more fun to play this style as a player?

Yeah, I love the way we play. Obviously, a lot goes into that. You need to have good players to play well in NBA, pro sports in general. You got to have good players. You got to have talent to win. You should be a GM, dude.

Yeah, I mean, pretty good analysis.

Bring in good players, you're going to win. But no, I love it. I love... Like I said, there's a lot of stuff that goes into it, but the way we play is just fun. It's entertaining, and the guys are competitive, so that makes it fun. But to the point of the finals, I think that's... Even though it was Obviously, game seven is going to be game seven. People are going to tune in just because of the name, the label of a game seven. But the Pacers last year in the playoffs, they played how we played. They were random offensively, super aggressive, physical defensively. And I think that's why there was so much success with the finals and the playoffs last year in general. Because the basketball, say what you want during the regular season. Guys don't play. You can't play at playoff level for however many games, 82 games or however many games you play, 70 games. But once you get to the playoffs, the basketball is pure. If it's not, you lose. If you don't play good hoops, and what do you have to say, ethical hoops, if you're not taking care of fundamentals, playing hard as shit, competing at the highest level, you go home.

I think that's probably why people tune in so much to the playoffs in general for any sport is because they know it's going to be the highest level in purest form.

Well, and I also think The play-offs, I love the NBA play-offs because it is very... You have to go and take your lumps to then get over the mountain.

You can't luck into it. It's a series. You're going to win four games against somebody.

Even last year, you guys are the best team, and you go to seven games against the Nuggets and seven games against the Pacers. It felt like there were moments that you guys were learning how to win that championship along the way where it's like, yeah, it takes that. Do you feel like you guys are the hunted this year? Do you feel like you have a bullseye?

Yeah, for sure. But that's It's a good thing. It would be weird if you won the championship and everyone was like, No, we don't believe. We don't think they're actually that good. Like the fake bubble championship. Yeah, like that.

Where everyone was like, Did we even have a championship?

Yeah, they forgot it.

I actually would put the NBA Cup over the bubble championship.

Oh, easily.

Yeah.

Well, we said what was the... The book cover is two on that list. We go Thunder Championship, Book Cover, LA.

I have heard more and more- No, I think it goes Thunder Championship, Book Cover, NBA Cup, second place.

Second place.

Nba Cup, third place.

Oh, even the third? Bubble. Okay, that's fair.

First-team all defense.

Yeah, you have to start listening personal accolades.

The '74 it, head tall.

That one's up above the cup games.

People got to talk about it more.

I just watched this video of Hartenstein taking your headband. That's a gross headband. You can tell me. Your head is very, very sweaty.

It's sweating. That's 10 seconds after. I mean, yeah, that's a tough one.

You're like, Sorry, man. But you're a real pro. You continue doing the interview. He wants you to continue.

He does. And you all respect the nick. That's for him. I don't know. He's uncrackable. We've done so many different things to him. People put their chains on him. We've put 30 towels on him before. He's unwaverable. He's locked once he gets the mic in his hand.

So earlier you were saying that you know when you're going to play against the magic again. Do you have the rest of your schedule memorized?

No. I just know that because that's part of that long road trip. And you look at a long road trip in March and you're just like, Eew. It's just gross. Five-minute East Coast road trip. No, I usually go two or three games at a time, increments.

Do you ever wake up in a city and you're like, Wait, where am I again?

Yeah, occasionally. Once or twice. Once or twice a season. It's usually end of December, January.

Everything looks the same.

Yeah, where you forget your hotel room number. You go to the hotel room from the last road trip. If you're staying in 512, you go to like 10: 08, 10: 08, something like that. You're doing the key and you're like, Why is it not working? And then it hits you. You're like, I'm an idiot.

What about walking out of your hotel room in the morning and knowing which direction to go for the elevator?

Yeah, there are some that are... The hotel here, the elevator, it's not just elevator, two long hallways. It's elevator, two long hallways, but then there's an opening to go to a back hallway that's also connected. It's like, you wake up after you get in at 3: 00 AM and you got to go somewhere. You reorient. One eye is open. You're just hoping to make it.

We're making that $100 million. It's tough.

That's the only reason you could make it. This is it.

What's your guys' plane situation? We were having this debate the other day. Is it all first class?

Yeah.

So is it a plane just a first class?

Yeah. Delta is the sponsor for the team. They put in a rule a couple of years ago that they I hadn't fathered anybody in, but no personal team jets because they said it was unfair advantage to have special whatever that you can... Some owners are richer than others. You pay for it. But League Mandate is like Delta charters, and it's first class all the way through.

Okay.

What's your go-to card game on the plan? Boo-ray.

Are you good? Yeah. I know how to play. Who's the best? There's a lot of luck involved. I don't know if you could say who's the best.

Who's up the most this year?

Probably me or J-Will.

Oh, shit.

We sit next to each other on the table.

You got a target on your back.

Do you guys have communication? You don't need to talk nonverbal?

We know how to play the game, so we understand. You understand when to go for a tie and when you should try to boo somebody and go for the win.

Is there anybody on the team that's not good? It's like we're going to take his money. Chet.

Chet's down. This team doesn't play for high stakes. This is the most calm, at least monetary-wise, Blu-ray, but he's down.

He's down? What's it like being... I mean, you're officially the vet on the team, right?

Yeah.

Is it weird having guys that are all... There's some guys that are 10 years younger than you.

It feels normal until once a week where it's like they have a conversation about something in somebody, and I'm just like, I would never talk about that. It's like nothing that even crosses the scope of reality for me.

It's also probably you've played so many guys with or against so many guys. They're like, Oh, shit. That guy, I remember watching him.

Yeah, that's also the running joke is whenever they'll be... They'll see any old player, they could play from the '70s. Cacin does this a lot. Cacin Wallace. We'd be like, You play with him? We did our TikTok, our social media before we got on the plane. We traveled on my birthday, and they had a little bunt cake for me. Everybody else, I thought that was it. That was it. That I was the only one for the day. But they did birthday messages. And anybody that wish me a happy birthday with a number, it was 45 to 60. Somewhere between 45 and 60 was the number. Happy 48th birthday. It's bullshit. It's like, come on, dude.

Hank does that to us all the time. We're 41. He had us at 40 for the last eight years.

Yeah. Well, that's the other thing is people are younger. They just bump you up to the next.

I know. We're going to be 50 now in a minute.

Hank's probably already started saying. You're 41, you're 50. It It's pretty much the same thing.

Those are pretty much the same.

I just had an idea. We were talking about Bourre a second ago, doing it like a World Series of Poker, but an NBA Cup for Bourre between the teams. I feel like that would get a lot of views during All-Star.

Oh, that would do numbers.

Instead of Slam Dunk?

Yeah, instead of Slam Dunk, you have best two from each team.

So what's the buy-in for each player?

I don't know what do you think it would have to be to get people interested.

Well, I know that some people in the league... I've heard some astronomical numbers. People gamble way too much money for teammates. And they're not as nice. We do it for more of past the time camaraderie, just play cards on the flight talk. I know some people that they gamble, gamble. There's tens of thousands of dollars being exchanged.

If we get it during the All-Star Week.

Like a 20K buy-in.

I was going to say more like 100,000.

You can probably find 10 guys in a league that will do that.

That's what I'm saying. And then the trash talk at that table would be pretty intense. I feel like people compete harder at that than they would in the All-Star game.

Oh, yeah. You put that much money on it for sure. Because that's their money going to somebody else. That's like gambling in general, like the casino. I don't get how people go to the casino and play poker. It's crazy. If I lose the house, cool. Loss the house. You're supposed to lose the house. House is going to take some of your money. If I am playing poker at the table with you all and you take my money-Yeah.

I'd rather just do it at home with friends.

I get why those videos. You see the videos in the casino where guys will stand up and just like, somebody's getting knocked out? Yeah. I get it. Somebody probably said some sly shit, took two grand from this guy that is working paycheck to paycheck, and now they have real beef in real life. You're right.

Agreed. All right. I have one last question for you. This has been awesome. Great to have you back.

Miss you. We'll see you in Tahoe. Sun's out today in Chicago. What a tree.

Are you going to be in Tahoe this year? Yeah. That's not the last question. All right, so we'll see you in Tahoe. Two questions. Roback question, rhoback. Com, promo code, take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback. Com, promo code, take. Do you want to guarantee another title?

No, I don't. But I'm very confident.

You thought about it, though, for a second.

That was the quickest response.

No, I think there was a little bit of hesitation.

Because anyone can win one. That's a fluke.

Anybody can win one and a half.

No, one total.

Let me ask you a different way. Who on the team would you guys be most pissed about if they went on a podcast and guaranteed a title?

That's a great question. Thank Who's most likely or who would be the most pissed? You can do both. Honestly, I don't think anybody's likely to. They're young, but they're very well media-trained. I don't think anybody would slip up. Who would be most pissed about? It would have to be somebody that doesn't play. It'd have to be somebody that doesn't have an actual influence. We'd have to do one of the young guys on our team. Or Jared.

Jared McCain.

If they did it in a TikTok?

If Jared McCain did it in a TikTok, Jerry McCain.

Jerry McCain. He just showed up.

He's so new. Yeah, right. If he did a TikTok like, Why the Thunder going to win the title?

That almost people are.

Yeah, that would be the worst. That would probably be the one.

Will you do a TikTok with him if he asked?

Maybe.

Come on, you got to say yes.

No, I'm not a big TikTok guy in general.

You don't have to be on TikTok. He just records it.

But that's what I'm saying. It depends what it is. It's a dance. I'm not dancing. You have to dance. Come on, dude. That's not my genre of TikTok.

What if he came up to you and was like, Hey, if you don't do this TikTok with me dancing, I'm going to do a TikTok guaranteeing a title?

This whole new house.

I got you now.

You didn't think you were going to get this line of questioning. That's a tough one.

He's like, I'm ready to go. Locked and loaded.

No, I mean, at that point, I'd probably just do it with him because I'm a good teammate.

All right, so Jerram McCain, that's your way.

If it came to that, if he asked me that in reality, I'd be like, We got to talk about some stuff. I'm being held Austin. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. I'm being held off. Gunpoint it to do a TikTok or you're going to...

You'd have to do it.

You'd have to do it. It would be much easier than that. Hart and J Will did one the other day, but he did it, and they were just standing in the background. I was like, This isn't even-Yeah, you could do that.

You could just be a background dancer. Yeah.

They didn't even dance.

They were just standing. They were just standing there. They just do a standing TikTok. Yeah. All right. Well, Alex, thank you so much. We love having you on. We'll have you on after you win the title again this year.

Yeah, we'll do a double Championship, Tahoe and NBA.

So you guarantee that?

That, I'm much more comfortable saying I'll guarantee because I don't think it'll happen.

Okay. Winning the Tahoe Championship as well. That's '74.

Would you guarantee an NBA Cup for next year?

Oh.

I'm owing to.

But you've never guaranteed. I'm owing however many years. I don't think anybody's ever guaranteed an NBA Cup.

You think that's our issue? Yeah, do it. We need the more pressure.

Say, We're going to win the NBA Cup next I hope we're going to win the NBA Cup next year.

No, you have to.

You got to lock in. I really hope. You know what? That attitude, you'll never win the NBA Cup.

You have to feel like you're the hunted. You're not the hunted in the NBA Cup.

That's why we haven't made it to the finish line.

Alex Ruso, great player, could never do it for the NBA Cup.

Yeah, couldn't win. Can't get it done in December. Can't win the mid one.

When the lights get as bright as possible in the NBA Cup, he chokes.

You're choker. When the stage is at its middest, he cannot step up to the plate.

All right, man. Thanks so much.

Yeah, great time. Thanks.

Alex Caruso was brought to you by our great friends over at Nutraful. If your hair isn't playing like it did in your 20s, it might be time for a real comeback, not another workaround, because throwing on a hat is not a strategy. Nutraful supports healthier hair from within. It's physician formulated, clinically tested, and recommended by dermatologist, giving you a clear, legitimate plan. So you can stop covering up and start showing up with confidence. Nutraful now offers hair growth supplements tailored to men at every age because the root causes of hair thinning change over your routine should change too. Nutraful men for age 18 to 49 to help improve hair growth and achieve thicker, fuller hair in 3 to 6 months. And new Nutraful Men 50 plus, the first and only hair growth product, specifically formulated For men, 50 and over. Nutraful is the number one dermatologist-recommitted hair growth supplement brand, trusted by over one and a half million people. Start Nutraful today and make the hat optional. Visit neutraful. Com in a promo code PMT. Ten bucks off your first month's subscription. Get free shipping. Find out why Nutraful is the fastest and best-selling hair growth supplement brand at neutraful.

Com, spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L. Com. Promo code PMT. Nutraful. Com. Promo code PMT. Check it out today. Alex Cruz was also brought to you by Chevy. Football season might be over. You know how it goes, though. The minute the big game ends, we're already talking about what's next. Free agency, the draft, who's getting paid, who's grinding. Because for football guys, there's no offseason, and that's exactly why they roll with a Chevy Silverado. Silverado is the truck that shows up every time. Built to haul, to tow, to take a beating, but it's smart where it counts. You get modern truck tech that makes life easier. You got big screens, camera views that help with towing and parking, and a cabin that feels right, whether you're road tripping, heading to practice, or loading up for the weekend. During the season, it's the MVP of the tailgate, and after the season, it turns into your training camp truck hauling gear, tackling home projects, doing all the work that never stops. The grind doesn't take breaks, neither does your Silverado. Check out the current offers, build your own Chevy Silverado at chevy. Com.

Okay, let's wrap up the show. Good show, boys. Numbers. Can we get one this time? Can we just do it?

We'll go 50. We'll go 56.

Big week this week. Conference Championship Week. Get excited.

What was that noise? It sounds like there's a bird in here.

Can I also say, you guys see that some dude broke the record for the a half marathon today? Don't care.

They don't care about that at all.

Half marathon, it's got to be the lamest thing to break.

He ran a 422 miles for 13 miles.

It's a half marathon. But is it like the 10,000?

422 miles.

Yeah, no, I agree with Big Head. If this was called the length of the race, then the 13 points- His 200...

The speed he ran 200 meters is faster than you could run 200 meters right now for 13 miles straight.

Correct. Well, yeah, I'm slow.

Correct. But I don't like that. It's called a half marathon. But that's it.

You could sprint a 200.

Yeah, but dude, call it a 10,000. Wait, is it 10,000 meters?

You should be able to run 200 faster than a marathon runner running a 13-mile pace.

No, that's just not true. What are you talking about? Marathoners are so fast, dude.

You see the finish of the LA marathon?

You think you should be able to run faster than the fastest marathoner? For a 200?

No, they run sprinting.

Their pace is sprinting.

They just sprint for- They just look better doing sprints. What's the end of the Los Angeles marathon today? This is fucking insane.

This guy is talking running. Oh, he gets caught?

There's a guy that was like... He looked like he was about 50 yards ahead. Oh,oh, man. With about 100 yards left.

Did he catch him?

And he catches him.

Oh, that's incredible. Hank, I don't think you understand how fast these guys are going.

I would never let that happen to me.

You don't understand. You don't care.

You don't care about speed.

You did this shit with them. You guys didn't get You said it with Zack. You said it with the Olympic sprinters. You guys don't care.

You have no respect for speed. You're not understanding my argument. You have no respect for speed. Your dumb little brain can't understand my argument because we're not talking about golf right now. We're talking about racing. What'd you say?

You'd rather be a figure skater than a sprinter.

What?

Going back to the Olympic thing.

Speed skating.

Well, that one got a little confusing because then we also made it so you couldn't run anywhere but a track, but you could also figure skate everywhere.

The debate got very conspicuous.

Being fast is It's impressive.

Yes. Dude, they are really, really fast. You saying that, Oh, you should be able to run faster than a marathon or pace-wise for 200 meters. No, they're so fast. What they're doing is that's what our sprint is. It's faster than our sprint.

Wait, what is the actual pace on their- My point is, half marathon is bullshit.

Make it a full marathon or make it a 10K or whatever. Half marathon just sounds ridiculous. Does it not?

No. What's the difference in the track?

It's not a real race. I'm way more impressed if somebody says, I set the world record in the 800 meters than I am if somebody says, I set the world record in the half mile.

I have no idea how long 10,000 meters is, but if someone told me they set the record for it, I'd be like, Holy fuck, dude, that's insane. Half marathon is like a joke sport thing. People who can't commit to a full marathon run a half marathon.

I will say that the guy that sets the record should be the only person that's allowed to put the 13.

1 back in their But I didn't even know they ran competitive half marathons.

I didn't. Yeah, they're usually like, you throw a bunch of color dust on you.

You just stopped listening after we started making our point.

I respect speed.

So you did stop listening after we started making our point. I respect speed. So you did stop listening after we I'm sorry, make a point.

You said it's a half marathon. It should be a marathon or no marathon once you say it's a half marathon.

It's nothing to do with speed. I respect the fuck out of speed.

As a number one marathon and half marathon respecter, who's your favorite marathoner?

You didn't even tweet about So? I love when people get people on that, though. You even tweet about the fucking women's winning the gold medal.

I don't fucking know any... I'm not...

Oh, I do. I guess I respect speed more than you.

Hank, you're talking to a guy who...

No, you respect endurance.

Half of the time we have an athlete on, I say, How sick is it to be fast?

Oh, Craig Engels.

Let's do the numbers. Okay. What are we even talking about? I'm happy we brought this up. No, it's a good debate. But Hank, he It won't listen to what I'm saying. It has nothing to do with speed. It has to do with the fact that the half marathon in principle, is a joke. That's a joke of a race. It is.

That's your take.

I'll take 50. Is someone has the fastest Are you going to use turkey trot? Or are you going to be like, Wow, that's incredible?

If it's really fast, I'll respect it.

All right, 23.

I can do 48. 56. 13.

1.

Eighty-six.

Seventy-sevent.

I hope this is 13 Because then I'm not going to give it to you. This is the longest number session of all time.

It's got to be 25.

Seventy-five. Anyone got 75?

One once, go in place. One more? One more. One more.

Same numbers. I'm dying for it to be 13.

A lot of people said the last one was rigged.

What?

The machine. Remember Matt made that claim? Nobody's got no dead here.

That's Wait, '98. '98.

No, I'm going to be upset when a '99 comes out. '98. I am, too. Love you guys. Happy birthday, by the way, to Servasie Dennis and Najee Harris. Be careful with the celebrations, Najee.