Transcript of Spurs Win Game 7, Knicks and Finals With Mike Breen, SCF With Keith Yandle Plus Who’s Back Of The Week New

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Stella Blue Coffee is more than just great coffee, it's coffee with a purpose. Introducing We Brew to Rescue, a nationwide campaign using proceeds from our new ready-to-drink cans to help fund 1,000 pet adoptions this year. Every can you crack open helps a real pet find a real home. Simple as that. Made with 100% Colombian coffee, each 11-ounce can delivers smooth, drinkable energy with a boost of protein. Available in Espresso Cafe Mocha and Espresso Sweet Cream. Built for mornings, long days, and everything in between. Drink Cell Blue, fuel your day, and help save a pet's life. You can follow our progress in real time throughout the campaign by watching the adoption tracker on our site. Grab yours now at stellabluecoffee.com, Amazon, and select retailers nationwide. On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we've got a twofer for the people. We're getting ready for the finals in both hockey and basketball. We have Mike Breen, voice of the NBA Finals, voice of the Knicks, for our current guest. Great interview with him talking about the Knicks' incredible run, what he's looking forward to most this NBA Finals.

A plea by us for— or, or an idea by us for him to stay, uh, impartial. And then we also have our good friend Keith Yandle on the show. Yand talks about the Vegas Knights versus the Carolina Hurricanes starting on Tuesday night. We're gonna talk Game 7 We got Who's Back of the Week, a great Monday show for you, and it's all brought to you by our friends at Mountain Dew. Summer's coming and I can't wait to get in the backyard, do some grilling with some Mountain Dew, because nothing goes better with some hamburgers, some hot dogs, sausages, everything on the grill and hanging with your friends and the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew was proudly born in the foothills of Tennessee and enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew and American Original, so much so I'm holding the new can right now. American Dew. It is such an awesome can. I'm going to crack it open. Oh, look at this.

It's going to taste so good. So good at Camp Barstool this year.

American Dew. That is delicious.

After day playing kickball out in the sun, maybe doing that volleyball or like jumping off that float.

You remember?

You remember that giant float that they had?

You just say kickball. We'd not play kickball. We did not play kickball. And I never want to play kickball.

I'll play some kickball. Yeah, what's wrong with— nothing's wrong with kickball.

Kick— softball better than kickball.

Agreed.

But do it all with Mountain Dew. American Dew. Grab a Dew. Tasting great since '48 with Mountain Dew. OK, let's go. Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, June 1st, and the San Antonio Spurs have arrived. They won Game 7 on Saturday night, and we have an Adam Silver wet dream of an NBA Finals with the New York Knicks going up against Wemby and the future face of this league. It's going to be incredible.

Wemby is the future.

He is the future.

I think the current, maybe even current face of this league. Everything. I feel like this is viral marketing for the Age of Disclosure movie that's coming out, having Wemby in the finals in New York. I was again, I love watching the Spurs play. That was a fun Game 7.

It was.

I wanted that series to keep going on because I love the bad blood. I love the back-and-forth fighting. I love how it seemed to be personal for both teams and both fan bases. That's what you like to see. But now we get to see like the Spurs kind of— they break convention. They're so young. They haven't lost in the playoffs really before. They— a team—

they haven't been in the playoffs. They won't be—

they won't be able to build teams like the Spurs in the same way anymore because the rules have changed in terms of like getting top picks in the NBA draft. So it's kind of crazy that they, they are so young. To like buck all the convention and get it done against a battle-tested team, returning champion like the Thunder in Game 7. Like nobody expects that. And they just, they just impose their will.

No, they— it was, it was incredible to watch. It does not happen. This team, you're supposed to lose before you win in the NBA. And I going into Game 7, I thought Thunder would win. You thought the Thunder were going to win by a lot. Yeah. And what happened was The Spurs just didn't blink. They were unafraid. The shot— the shots they hit in that fourth quarter, I think they had all starters in, in double, uh, 10 points or more. Uh, they, they just like every time they needed a big shot, they got it. The Luke Kornet block— you can't tell the story of the 2025-2026 NBA season without Luke Kornet because he had two of the biggest blocks of the year. One when he blocked all of the young kids being able to see strippers in Atlanta for Magic City Night, and two, when he blocked Isaiah Hartenstein, which was like— I obviously, it doesn't come down to one play, but it kind of came down to one play because it was, I think, the difference between a 4-point game and then it went up to 8, and it was incredible.

It was a 4-point swing. So he blocks it, then looks down court. I think he found Castle for an easy shot. Yeah, or the ball made its way to Castle for an easy shot. What a block that was though. That was I think Wimby called it a winning play at the end of it.

I think it's safe to say that kids from now until the end of time, when they're doing blocked, it'll be like blocked by Cornett.

I think I'd say like that is— that is—

or when there's like one loser in the group, that is the block call. Hey, no, we shouldn't go to the strip club tonight. That people block by Cornett.

Yeah, I think it's like when you're talking about chase down blocks in the playoffs, it's Luke Cornett, then it's everybody else.

I got to take—

he just saw that basketball like a giant titty and he was like, no, no, no, no, no. What's in front of the kids?

That's a fucking foul. Oh, there we go.

On the body.

Yeah.

Talking.

Hit him.

I love it. Look at his—

look at his—

his midsection goes right into his dick.

Max, that's— that's maybe— maybe technically accurate, but also like, that's a foul on the body. No, that's a cop take.

You sound like a cop. I think it's a foul.

Max, you want me to save your— your— your bad take with the worst take that I was thinking about during the game? Yeah, this is— I don't actually think this, but it popped in my head and I have to share it. There was a moment during the game when they were talking about Wemby's, uh, wingspan and standing reach that I had the dumbest take ever, uh, that I now will say out loud. I'm not that impressed by Wemby because he's the one guy in the NBA who, if I— if Wemby had my athleticism, he could still dunk.

Yeah, no, I'm not that impressed. I think that we're all better at playing Nerf basketball maybe than Wimby is at playing real basketball.

It's like I was just thinking about it, like my exact athleticism in Wimby's body. Yeah, no problem.

Can I tell you guys something?

I looked it up. It's like 4 inches. You got to jump 4 inches.

Can I confess something?

No problem.

It's kind of a sad confession. Yeah. I lowered my basketball hoop down to 7 feet a couple of days ago. Just to feel like— just to feel like Wimby.

That's a very normal—

I think you left it down there because I was like, next time I come out and play, I just want to— I want to go back onto my Wimby simulator.

Wouldn't you have to lower it a little lower than that to feel like one?

I feel like it's the right height. Okay. Because I can— if I get on my tiptoes, I can like graze the— I can touch the bottom of the rim.

Mm-hmm.

He's— I feel like that's Wimby.

His—

yeah. I have to do some measurements.

Yeah. I thought it felt like it was the Wimby simulator. And let me tell you what, basketball is really fucking easy. When you can just stand up and touch the rim.

When you shoot down, yeah, yeah, it's, it's really easy. Yeah, no, it was, it was an incredible game. Yeah, the Spurs are so much fun. They're, they are. I, I have them, I have a, I have two man crushes in the NBA Finals. One is a pre-existing man crush on KAT just because of his zestiness, and I just love the fact that he can just, he can go nuclear from 3 at any point, and then he can also just score 0 points. And I just, I kind of like a guy like that where it's like He's— you just don't know what you're gonna get out of him. Uh, and then Stefon Castle is— he's just Danny Hurley in basketball-like player form right now. He— I've never seen anyone who just— he— his face never changes from 'I'm ready to fight,' like fist fight, at all times. And I know that there was moments where Caruso was like either fouling him or like he hit the ball out of his hands after a timeout. Uh, he just wants to fight all the time. Yeah, Dylan Harper made an incredible play to basically bear hug him after Caruso took him down.

Yeah. To be like, please don't get in a fight. But you need one of those guys. And he plays like that. He like— he— his defense, his defensive intensity, just the way he holds himself and his demeanor. I just love it. He's just so much fun to watch. And he's just permanently, permanently angry.

He's a dog.

Yeah. He permanently has everyone on the team being like, please don't fight.

Please don't fight. And credit to Dylan Harper on that play. When I watch that, I thought because Castle like shoved Caruso's foot off him and was ready to chase him down and start something. Dylan Harper assumes bobsled technique with him and just gets behind him, wraps his arms like a back hug. It's like, you're not getting up. And at first I was like, he— a man should be able to fight his way out of getting bobsledded by another man. But then I thought more about it and the center of gravity that Harper's got. That's actually the perfect defense against somebody. Yeah, they should teach that in jiu-jitsu class. Dropped his hips, just bobsled somebody and there's nothing they can do because you're like just a little kid in their lap.

Yep. Um, all right, should we talk about the Thunder? Can it— so there's one big thing I want to talk about before we do that. Am I allowed to say without being called a Thunder glazer that SGA was the best player in Game 7? The Spurs were the best team. SGA tried, he was phenomenal, he did everything he could possibly do.

I think he's usually the best player.

Yeah, well, not this— I mean, Wemby was better than him in Game 1 by far, and I think Game 4, I think, too. Like, he, he didn't have the best series, but he was— he, he elevated his game in a Game 7 and did everything he could possibly do. His— they just didn't have enough guys around him because when you lose your second and third best scoring option, it's going to be hard. And then it leads me— so that, that I just want to say that. And I also think that SGA, like, if you saw his quotes afterwards, both after the game And today, uh, no excuses, just was like, yeah, we didn't meet our goal. Didn't throw anyone under the bus, was like, I gotta play better, I didn't play my best, uh, throughout the whole series. I like that. Chet Holmgren, he looked like he didn't know how to play basketball. It was— there was a moment where I actually felt bad for him because it was like multiple possessions where they would pass it to him, he would barely catch the ball he would do like one fake move to show that he's trying something and then immediately kick it out.

I've never seen anyone get more like emasculated and scared of the moment than Chet Holmgren in this series, and specifically in Game 7. I— what do you guys think he says after the game in the locker room? Do you think he's like— like, does he try to crack a joke being like, man, he really is 7'5"?

Like, that one's on me. Yeah, I do.

I do. That guy Wemby is tall. You guys are right, he is tall.

I do sometimes think about what it would be like to be Chet Holmgren, because you're 7 feet tall and your entire life you've been by far the biggest kid. Like, it's never really been close. Even when you were in probably 8th grade, you were taller than most high school seniors. You go to college, you're like the tallest kid in, uh, in NCAA basketball. You go to the NBA, you're a 7-footer. The game seems pretty easy. You get a massive contract. And then there's a guy that's 4 or 5 inches taller than you. Mm-hmm. That's also more athletic from halfway around the world that shows up. That's kind of been buzzing around you your entire career. Now he's in your backyard, and now you have to go through him every single year. That's got to kind of suck mentally. But also, like, he looked like he turtled away from the moment in Game 7.

Not just buzzing around him— Wemby hates Chet's guts. Yeah, like truly, truly hates him. I think if Chet could go back in time, he would give back that, uh, Under-17 World Cup gold medal because that was the start of the Wembley being like, I am going to destroy Chet Holmgren's life. And it's just not reciprocated by Chet whatsoever. Like, that's the biggest thing he's going to have to figure out. Like, hey, that guy across from you despises you and wants to end your career. You have to feel the same way. And I never for one second felt that Chet felt that way. And it was just that like you needed Given the, the, the injuries the Thunder were dealing with, you needed Chet Holmgren to be like— there's no excuses because Chet Holmgren gets paid a lot of money. He's supposed to be a centerpiece there. He's supposed to be part of their big three. He needed to step up to the moment and he was nowhere to be found. I also regret to inform everyone, because he is my guy, Lou Dort was brutal. He was brutal.

Really tough.

I actually think that the Thunder might have won this game if they didn't play Lou Dort. Because he— the Spurs could essentially just not play defense on him. And, and like every Lou Dort shot, even if it was wide open, they're like, we'll take that. And they could do whatever they would— that like SGA was getting doubled constantly. And it's because you had non-shooters on the court like Lou Dort.

Yeah, you had all the, all the worst parts of Lou Dort's game and none of the good parts.

Oh, it's brutal. And he basically got benched. So did Chet. Chet basically got benched at the end of the game.

How much of this do you think Thunder fans can look at and be like, we were injured this postseason? A lot. Are they allowed to say that? Hank says, oh, a lot.

Injuries happen. No, no, injuries happen. But I, I, when I say a lot, I mean anyone who's like, you gotta—

they didn't lose this game because of injuries. They lost this game because of Chet Holmgren.

Well, they lost the series because of Game 1. They blew Game 1. That, that's a game they should have won, and they, they let Wemby, you know, like, that, that was a game they basically had. Uh, yes, they Chet Holmgren. But if they had their full roster, I think the Spurs probably would have been a year away. But it doesn't matter because that's part of winning the NBA title is that you have to deal with injuries. Like, every team has to deal with this shit. And you, like, there's— it's shitty to say, but luck comes into play when it— when you're trying to win a title. And a lot of times it's like, hey, we had our guys, they were 100%, they didn't. So I'm more saying for the future of the Thunder, like, blow it up. I, I don't think you can't. You, you just, you just won the title, then you went to Game 7 against, uh, the Spurs. You're right there. You got to figure out how to stop Wemby. But I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be like freaking out if I was a Thunder fan being like, this team can never beat the Spurs.

No, it was game— it was 7 games.

Yeah, you do have to be a little concerned that this was probably the worst the Spurs will ever be.

And that's what we said last year about the Thunder. Are we gonna get like an even taller guy?

Well, here's the thing. And I don't know when we're going to have our guy Caruso back on, but with the way he played— Game 7 wasn't his best game, but he played great in the series. I think, I think taking the Spurs and Wemby, maybe the future GOAT, to 7, I might give Caruso half a ring for that. So he's now up to 2 full rings.

So like the more, the more championships that Wemby ends up winning, the more impressive going to 7 games in this postseason becomes like. This could actually be more impressive than beating— it was the Pacers. Yeah, they beat the Pacers in the NBA Finals last year.

Tyrese Haliburton, that's luck. That goes the other way. You can't— if you're a Thunder fan, you can't be like, oh, it's bullshit that we're injured. Tyrese Haliburton gets injured to start Game 7. Like, that's just what happens in sports.

So this is actually circling back on our old take. We were right when we said that that was the— this Thunder team better than last year's team. 100%. And losing to the Spurs in 7 is way more impressive than beating the Pacers. And 7 in the NBA Finals.

I would be a little— yeah, I— if I were a Thunder fan sitting here today, I'd be like, the one thing that's got to make you a little nervous is that is the young— like, the Spurs, again, what we said at the beginning, no team should be doing— like, teams don't do this on their first crack at it. So you just, you just lost to the first crack. The Spurs are going to get better, savvier, more like, you know, ready for the big moments, even though they were so ready for Game 7.

I love how much Wimby cares too. I love how much this means to him that he was crying after the game, that he was so emotional. Like some people would say, hey, Wimby, you got an entire another series that you have to compete in. I love it. We want our athletes to care this much about it. And for somebody that's given all the physical tools that, that Wimby has been blessed with since birth, for him to then go on and care that much about becoming great at basketball is awesome. That's everything that we should want from a superstar. And it's fun to watch his intensity. He's still like figuring it out a little bit. Like he'll make some missteps. We didn't talk to the media the other night. We clowned him for that.

But overall, like, he's—

this is how we want a guy to be. Yeah, he's a little— this is what we want our guys to be. What's up, Hank?

Texas Tech just hit a home run. That's— oh, Mia Williams. Shout out, Jason.

Unreal. Another dinger.

So good. I love it. So good. No, I completely agree. I— that— that moment where Wemby is, is, you know, teary and his entire team gives him a big hug and the emotion, the outpouring of emotion. Love every second of it. And I know that we live in a cynical world where people are like, oh, it's lame. They haven't won the title. I don't care. That was cool. I want my— I want yours. You want your athletes to be authentic and show that to everyone they care. He clearly cares. He said, I want to win so bad, it's like my life depends on it. And you can feel that from it.

And he did say, like, I might be addicted now to going to the finals. Chris Paul, he kind of stole that from him.

Careful.

Yeah. But he's like, maybe I'll have to be careful. But I actually believe it when he says it. Yeah, because he does seem like he's a psychopath. Yeah.

He said he was addicted to the feeling, the adrenaline rush when the final buzzer, you know, sounded.

Also kind of a cool little side tangent. Mitch Johnson, the coach of the Spurs, his dad was Seattle Sonic.

Yeah.

NBA champion Seattle Sonic. He's from Seattle. I saw a picture of him rocking a— it was like a t-shirt with Jimi Hendrix wearing a Sonics jersey on it. So like, this guy could not be any more Seattle than he is. And then to beat the Thunder, to then go to the finals, awesome. That's kind of cool on behalf of the city of Seattle.

Also on the Spurs coaching staff, I think he's their shooting coach. Do you know who it is, Hank? Jimmy Barron.

Brother of Billy Baron.

Wow. Circle of trust. Wow. Yeah. Jimmy Baron. You want some crazy stats? Yeah. Okay. 23-year-old Tim Duncan, second playoff run, beat the Blazers, beat the T-Wolves, vanquished the biggest big man rival, Shaq, won a championship over New York. 22-year-old Victor Wembenyama's first playoff run, beat the Blazers, beat the T-Wolves, vanquishes biggest big man rival Chet, now plays the Knicks. That's a pretty wild one. Here's another one. This one's real— whoa. Harrison Barnes, who he— Harrison Barnes, consummate, like, you know, the— if you look at the Spurs season, Mitch Johnson making the move to put Champagny into the starting lineup, who he was incredible, uh, in this series and in Game 7. Uh, where did he come— he came from where?

Uh, Philly.

Oh.

Yeah. So when they brought Mack McClung up, because remember Mack McClung, he had to be on the field on the 76ers roster. We've told this story 10 times.

Dude, there's some people who are listening to the first ever episode of Pardon My French.

So this is for them. And we're also an educational program. So we want to make sure that they learned their history.

Well, you— we can't—

called setting the narrative.

We can't confirm that you remember things that are said on past shows.

That's true. He might have a little bit of dementia.

So I'm running it back so that I can prove that I still got it.

I'm just making sure.

This is actually him doing— making sure. He actually—

it's my exercises. Yeah, we've started a new program for him.

He's got to repeat something so you can remember it.

It's called CTE commentary. Okay, so in this case, uh, Mac McClung, he got brought up to the 76ers because he was going to compete in the dunk contest. He's a really good dunker. And to make room for him, they had to send Champagny— they had to release him.

Yeah.

And so then the Spurs get him. And he also, I, I believe, identical twin to a guy on, on the Wizards named Champagny as well.

And he went 6 for 10 from 3. Yeah, in Game 7 was awesome. Every big moment. But I brought up Harrison Barnes because here's, here's your wow stat of the day. Harrison Barnes, May 30th is his birthday. May 30th, 2016, Harrison Barnes, uh, beats the Thunder by 8 in Game 7 of the Western Conference Final when he was on the Warriors. May 30th, 2026, Harrison Barnes beats the Thunder by 8 in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals 10 years ago.

That's wild.

8, literally the same as Harrison Barnes on different teams, beats the Thunder by 8 in both of them.

That's magic.

That's wild. Yeah, that's wild. Wild stuff. Fucking wild. Great stats. Also, the Spurs, I did like that they threw in that last dunk.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's true. Bad blood. I want them to play every year. They really did.

There was also a good dunk.

Yeah. The best thing that happened in this series outside of all the discourse and all the bullshit, is that we basically put two teams in a microwave of hate and they feel like they have played each other for a million years, which is something that usually takes years and years to naturally get to. They did it in 7 games.

You get all the side narratives that go along with it, all the mini rivalries that go along with the rivalry. I do— I enjoy this matchup. I hope that Chet, like, if you're Chet in this offseason, what do you do to try to step— I feel like maybe just try to put on weight.

Isn't there the, the, the, the surgery you can get where you can make yourself taller?

Break your legs? I looked into that. The recovery time is probably too long for that.

Yeah, I don't know. I again, I wonder what he said in the locker room.

I would, I would work out if I were him. Czech, come back 30 pounds heavier, maybe even 40.

Get fat. Good season, guys.

Is there like an alternative monk thing?

Oh, like, what is it? What would the rival to a monk be like? Become a samurai. I don't know, because that's what he's got to look into. Maybe go on an ayahuasca journey, like the South American version of it.

He needs to do something because I've never seen someone so scared. It was, it was shocking to watch that he just, he did not want any piece of that game whatsoever.

No. Uh, Memes, how do you feel about the Spurs facing off against the Knicks? I know that you said that you got the, you've got the, um, the Wimby stopper in Mitch Robinson, and he's going to be okay with his finger.

And he hurt his finger how? We don't know.

Uh, but I did see— I saw an interesting stat. I did not fact-check it, but Memes, maybe you can tell me this sounds true. This is from Caitlin Cooper. Since Wimby was drafted, there are 20 players who have defended him for at least 100 half-court matchups. The player who he has tallied the fewest points per 100 matchups against as his primary assignment is OG Anunoby. So historically, I don't know how many minutes they've played, I don't know how many times they've, they've, uh, battled in a half-court matchup, but according to this tweet that I saw, uh, OG Anunoby is the most effective defender against him. Have you seen that, Memes?

I did see that this morning.

Okay, do we think that's true?

I do think it's true.

I think that OG—

yeah, defender in the league.

Okay, yeah, I think that's gonna be what you're gonna see a lot of. You're gonna see OG maybe funneling into Mitch when he's on there on the court.

Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of OG on him. Josh Hart's gonna be on him. They're just gonna, they're just gonna cycle through.

How are you guys feeling overall? It's, it's actually, I'll say this, I, I'm getting more and more confident the Knicks are gonna win this series. I don't know if that's crazy, but I was thinking about it. What, what, you guys, you guys are talking, right?

Max is saying the unanimous.

I mean, he's just, we just let him say that OG is the best defender in the league when he, when Wemby is also on this That's—

yeah, that's— we just got to say that.

Yeah.

Wemby is— he is. Yeah. But Wemby doesn't have to—

Wemby doesn't have to guard Wemby.

Correct.

But if we were all that size, we'd be the best.

Right, right. So OG does.

Yeah.

When you're saying like pound for pound, OG is the best.

Yeah, that's fair. If Wemby had to guard Wemby, we don't know what would happen.

Or maybe like arm for arm.

Yeah. So over 7 feet excluded.

Yeah. Okay.

They should— you know what? We might want to think about banning huge people from playing basketball.

Limit his minutes.

It's not really fair.

They did during the regular season. Yeah.

Like, you know how they banned Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from dunking in college? We got to— we got to take a look at what the hell is going on in San Antonio because 7-5 and playing like that is— it's kind of ridiculous.

I did see this. This doesn't— for the Knicks, the Knicks in their history, they had to play. So in the finals, they've played Wemby, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Hakeem, Wilt, Wilt, Wilt, George Mikan, George Mikan. Mm-hmm. It's literally the biggest big guys of all time. They're just like, yeah, that's it. It's the Mikan drill. They named a drill after him. But I— so I'm— I think the Knicks are going to win this series. I really do. I, I was thinking about it last night, like the Thunder. The Knicks are maybe like— they haven't done it like the Thunder have. SGA MVP, back-to-back MVP. But the Thunder at the end of the— that game and in Game 7, in most of the series, they just didn't have a ton of scoring options, you know what I mean? It was, it was a limited— whereas the Knicks are completely different in the fact that it feels like everyone can score with the Knicks right now as they're going. They can put out a lineup where everyone can shoot to some extent. There's no Lou Dort. Josh Hart has, has I mean, you're feeling good about Josh Hart.

Like, everyone could shoot. So I think the Knicks caused some problems for the Spurs in that respect. Like, you can't just say, hey, we're going to ignore this one guy and let Wemby play free safety unless Mitch Robinson is in the game.

Yeah, I'm way too fired up about this because every single thing in the playoffs has broken the Knicks way, and this also broke the Knicks way.

You wanted to play the Spurs?

Yes.

Okay. If you just— after watching last night I kept coming back to like, who do I want to play? And SGA is just so good right now that— and the foul baiting stuff, like Cat, Cat's the most important player in the finals.

He could beat them.

He would have fouled out every single game. Yeah, it would be so annoying to watch. Now, now it just feels like we just have two really good teams and the best team, and we'll see who the best team will win.

I think it's a coin flip. Wow.

I really—

well said.

Yeah, I just did. That wasn't even—

you didn't really— you were doing well. You were doing great. And then you just— we have two really good teams and the best team will win. Sick, dude. Unless it's the Cavs, because the Cavs did say they were better than the Knicks.

Yeah, every, every team says that loses to the Knicks.

Yeah.

Are you worried about—

say that— are you worried about coming out flat in game one? You've had a lot of time to rest.

Slightly, but I They'll be fine.

Have you allowed yourself to think like, what if New York sports never loses?

What about that?

Just don't—

have you looked at the Mets season so far?

What if, what if the Mets come back? I did bet on the Mets memes. You reminded me to do that.

The Yankees did score 13 runs in an inning today.

The Mets play really good when the Knicks close out a series.

What if the Jets just keep winning, start winning and then keep winning? That would be so sick.

You'd like that if the Jets kept winning, or if the Jets won in general?

How many Super Bowls would you trade?

I know you'd like that.

How, how many NBA championships for the Knicks would you trade for one Jets Super Bowl? What's the conversion rate?

Oh, I don't have either, so we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there.

Okay.

I, I don't know. I just want to win one.

Yeah.

Max, you want a stat that you like? Sure. He's worried about that.

Yeah.

Big East.

That. Yeah. Half the starters in the NBA Finals played in the Big East. Great stat. Pretty good stat.

Very good.

And not even counting Tyler Colic. You never know where he— true. He might, might—

here.

Means love Tyler Colic.

Yeah.

Always talk.

He balled out in the NBA Cup Championship.

Big Cat, you want to hear a wild stat?

You like this one?

Yeah. Did you know that since 2009, that's 18 years, every single NBA Finals has featured at least one former member of the Washington Wizards?

Whoa. How wild is that?

I feel like you didn't say that in the correct voice.

How crazy is that?

Yeah, you didn't. You got to do the— Hey, what's up, Wizards? Since 2009 is 18 years. Am I just bad at adding years?

I guess I think if you include 2009 and 2026.

Got it.

Yeah.

I'm so bad. I think that's whenever someone says that shit, I'm like, I don't know if that was 9 years, 10 years, 11 years ago.

I think that stat was a lot cooler maybe until last year because you could say it was like 10 or 12 years that a team that, that won the NBA Finals had a former member of the Wizards. Now it's just like, okay, yeah, a lot of teams have a lot of players from a lot of teams.

Yeah.

I'm so excited for these. I'm— this might be the most excited I've been for a Finals home, probably since like maybe Cavs-Warriors.

It's really good. Like this 2016, it is really good.

Didn't go well, but it's so— I mean, Wemby's the best. The Knicks are a fun team. You get rid of like the, the SGA, like they would have been just exhausting the 2 weeks of it, and we just get to watch some ball. Wemby is the best. Did you guys also see that SGA said that, uh, there's no place in the country he'd rather be than with the Thunder. That's cool, huh? Hmm. Hmm.

Hmm. What do you mean?

What do you mean by that? He said there's no place in the country he'd rather be. Hmm.

He's—

he's— go outside the country.

He's from Canada. Oh, huh. So he'd write he'd like to be traded to the Raptors.

Hmm.

Huh. He could easily have said world. He said country. That's interesting. Only one team outside the country in the NBA.

Well, maybe in LeBron's new basketball league, they start up.

Hmm. Just interesting. Just thought that was— that was a little interesting. Could easily say world, right? Yeah. Oh, man. It's going to be fun. This is going to be fun. This is going to be fun. I hope it goes. I hope it goes 7. We need 7. I need to really just milk every last second out of this. Yeah. Zach, you don't want 7. I understand why you wouldn't want 7. You're scared of 7.

I mean, why do 7 if you don't have to do 7?

Zach, what are you thinking about? Like, where's your head at with this matchup?

My confidence sliders are uncomfortably slid in the direction of confident.

Okay. That's what I was asking. Yeah, that's a totally normal way to answer that question.

They're kind of maxed out right now, which isn't good, which is never good.

All right.

Because I'm not entirely a high confidence guy. But I feel good about it. I like us going up against the Spurs now that it's over. I can— I will say that I was terrified of SGA just because, like, it feels like he played— he plays uncontested basketball even when he's the most contested. Doesn't really make much sense.

Yeah, he had, like, guys just all over him. He was still making shots.

It's unbelievable.

But that one shot that he jumped into was— that was a little much even for him.

I don't have— like, that's been happening forever. Yeah, guys get— if you get— if you pump fake a guy in the air. Yeah. Like, Dwyane Wade made a living, like a career off it. Like there's—

I just—

him more— that doesn't bother me as much. The flopping I get when he jumps sideways on a 3-point shot. I just feel like this one that happens in every— every NBA player does that. I know that the— I'm not talking about the flopping, but like the— when you get a guy in the air and you, you basically like, I'm going to go to the free throw line, it feels like that's just what guys do.

Well, yeah, it's a smart play.

I just didn't— when I see that, I'm not like, goddamn it, I can't fucking believe this guy.

But this where he jumps to the side, I know that a lot of players do it. He does it more than most, but a lot of players do it. And he's very—

he's out of the playoffs. We don't even need to talk about it anymore.

I just didn't like it.

Noted.

I didn't like it. And the beautiful thing about this country and the First Amendment, as a member of the press, I get to say that's bullshit. Maybe not in Canada, SGA, but in the United States of America. We don't play soccer, all right, buddy? We play basketball.

Mm-hmm. Did you have anything to say about Wemby's flops? He did learn in this series. In the course of this series, it was actually like an American was— it was almost like he got infected.

It's the most French thing that he does. I don't like it. You just can't make me think that a man Wemby's size is getting knocked off his feet.

What he had over the middle. Yeah, but that one again, I don't really— it's again, it all goes back to my take has been the same from the beginning. It's the ref's fault. The refs have to do better. The refs have to get it out of the league. Players are going to do it if they think they can get an advantage. The refs— Adam Silver, fix it. Refs, fix it. That's how we have to fix it.

We did ask— I think it was the first time Adam Silver came on PMT. I asked him, why don't you make it so that flops, you can review them between games and you can assess technicals and fines after a game's over? And he's like, well, it is reviewable during a game. And they just kind of moved on from it.

Just stop calling all the— like, don't call as many fouls and guys will stop flopping because it's a disadvantage when you fall on the ground. I don't know why we're doing this. This right now. We don't need to do this.

It's a conversation.

I— but it's been like— and not by us, I'm saying, but like by the entire NBA ecosystem has been just—

I was just trying to look. SGA had some sick plays in that game yesterday. You can't— you can't find a highlight of his on, on Twitter right now.

That's what I'm saying. That was just— that's my original point all the way back to a week and a half ago that got me pegged as a, uh, uh, Thunder Glazer. It was—

I was just scrolling for like 2 minutes. I was like, it's just all about him flopping.

It became like a bot farm thing where people were like, I, I'm gonna get my Twitter paycheck this week by just posting the SGA clips. He was awesome in the game, in Game 7. But yeah, you can't find— you just— it's just all that. You know who the winner of that is? Chet. Anytime we're not talking about Chet, what do you think he's—

what do you think he's doing right this Probably gaming.

You think so? Is he a gamer?

He's probably— he strikes me as a gamer.

I would agree with that.

He just got the gamer vibe to him.

Like, do you think he's sitting there like practicing a move in the mirror? Been like, I should hit him with this.

I looked it up. If he's going to train in the offseason to try to counteract Wimby, I looked up the biggest enemies of Tibetan monks. Okay. It's really all from within ignorance. Craving and hatred.

That's what I'm saying. He needs to—

he needs to become way more ignorant.

Yeah. There's that famous tweet that's like, fuck, what was it? It's something about like, screw, you know, vertical and shot making. I'm drafting a team with just all guys who aren't going to be bitches. And like, that was— that was said afterwards because he just— it was not— it was not good for him. At all. And yeah, he's got to— he's got to— he's got to hate Wemby as much as Wemby hates him right now. He's the dog at the dog park who's getting growled at and he's just not giving eye contact because he's so scared.

He's hiding under his owner's legs.

Yeah, yeah. You got— we got to get out there.

You're big. Chet doesn't know how big he is. That's his problem.

That's true. Like, you know what you need to do? We— Chet, like, hang out with me. No, go— or I was going to say, go to like a South American country. Yeah, like go to Peru, right? Is that— I feel like the higher you get up or the altitude.

Yeah. Well, that's the ayahuasca thing. You can, you can elect to become an ayahuasca savant.

And what's the shortest country in the world?

There's a lot of like— I think this is going to sound ignorant if I'm wrong. I feel like Honduras might have a lot of short people.

Yeah, yeah. So I'm saying, yeah, South America, maybe some parts of Asia. What's— Max, you find us the shortest country in the world? That's— you're right. You're exactly right. Chet needs to remind himself, you're not a fucking Chihuahua, dude. Yeah, you're a Great Dane, right? Go out there and be a Great Dane.

Leroy had this problem for a long time when he would get— he would get bullied by small dogs because he didn't know. And so every now and again, you got to gas your boy up and be like, dude, Chet, you're big, man. You're 7 feet.

So big. Like, oh, you know what?

I want to blindfold him and then walk him through a lot of doors and have him hit his head on stuff.

Maybe we need to just have a bunch of people like old grandmothers just being like, you're growing, boy. You keep saying that to him. He's like, you know what? I am growing. How is it this hard to find the shortest country?

It's Timor-Leste.

I got it.

Yeah, shit for us. Give us a real country. Laos, Guatemala.

You said that when I— this has been up for like 45 seconds.

Madagascar, Guatemala, Philippines, Nepal, Yemen.

We kind of nailed it. Bangladesh, South America, Little Asia.

Guatemala's 4. Yeah. Okay.

Madagascar, India, Vietnam.

I kind of want to go hang out in these places now.

Yeah, go chat.

Yeah, dude.

5'2", you'd be a fucking—

come back normal. You just go to— go to Madagascar and put all the rims at 7 feet.

I'm going to start the Madagascar in the NBA.

That would be so sick. Yeah. Okay, let's— what? What do you say? Never mind. What say you found East Timor?

No, I just want to go up to Chaps and ask him this question more so that he knows how it feels when he asks us these stupid geography questions that nobody knows.

You're getting— you're getting mad. You're getting mad because— because you got stumped before because you didn't know what Missouri looked like.

That's not it. No, he asked like—

there are tough ones.

There are tough ones.

It's like what it was like, which country grows the most corn in the world? And it's like, how am I supposed to know that?

Iowa.

He loves to hit—

actually, I think secondly, Nebraska.

Country?

Yeah, it's got to be the United States. We're my—

we're bigger than everyone.

I just made that. Yeah. I don't know why that was the first thing that came to my head.

We're fucking—

yeah, but like, what country has the most swimming pools per capita?

Also us.

Yeah.

Florida.

I think it was Iceland per capita.

Oh, because they got like no people.

That's where it gets the per capita at the end. All these questions where he just throws you for the biggest loop and it's like, yeah, You can't per capita every time.

Yeah. Wait, what was the— what was the corn one? Well, who has the most?

It was US. Oh, okay.

So there we go. We could still do something, right? All right. DraftKings. The final round of the basketball season is here. Two teams left, one trophy on the line, and only DraftKings has you covered every step of the way. The DraftKings Sportsbook app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets, bringing each game straight to your fingertips wherever you are. From New York to San Antonio to LA, you're in on the excitement at the speed of sports. Follow every possession, every fourth quarter swing, every clutch shot that decides the series. Sweat the whole run in real time with a seamless experience built for championship basketball. No matter where you're watching, you're always connected in the game with one app. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKE, spend $5 to get $200 in rewards within 21 days. That's code TAKE in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. Bet with DK Sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER, 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas, bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Void in Ontario. Event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss.

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Availability varies. Predictions offer void in New York. Ends June 28th. Terms at dkng.co/audio. Did you guys watch any of the Champions League?

I saw the shootout.

I watched it. I had no idea. And maybe an AWL can explain this to me. I had no idea how much everyone hates Arsenal. Yeah, like it is. Zach, you're a little bit of a soccer guy. Why does everyone— and also, is the Champions of Europe, you'll never sing that, is that only for Arsenal?

I don't have the backstory on why everyone hates them, but I'm happy to say fuck Arsenal.

Okay, but everyone hates them.

Yeah, yeah. Majority, majority hated.

Yeah. Like they had a guy on the broadcast who flew from Kenya to Budapest. He was a Chelsea fan. He was just coming to hate watch. He's like, I came just to watch Arsenal lose. The guy's a hero. So why, why does everyone hate Arsenal so much? Fuck them.

Okay, that's fine.

Okay. But is there any specific reason?

Do they win a lot?

I will know.

Not, not a lot.

No champions. They were all chanting that Champions of Europe. You'll never sing that. You'll never sing that. I think they never won it. Not of Europe.

Imagine having that be a chant that just everyone sings and knows they won the EPL. And then the last time they won it was what, like 25, 30 years ago? Yeah, something like that. So they don't win a lot. They're just— I think every year they'd have the perfect season. Every year they think that they're going to win the—

fuck, what was the name of them?

They're the Gooners.

No, no, no. There was a name for their perfect season. I can't remember it.

Oh, well, you know who's a gooner is Joel Embiid. Really? Big gooner.

Yeah. They— did you guys also see that? Oh, the Invincibles. It's a pretty cool name. 26 games, drew 12, won 26, drew 12. Because of the World Cup starting in like a week and a half or whatever it is, 2 weeks. And Champions League, the schedule and everything. Arsenal went to Budapest. They lost in the Champions League, the biggest trophy for any club in the world. And then they went back to England. Where's Arsenal?

Manchester? They're Birmingham.

Birmingham. They went back to Birmingham and they did a parade for their EPL victory. Right. 12 hours after losing the Champions League.

Yeah, it was tough.

That is as brutal as brutal.

I do like the EPL trophy. Yeah, EPL trophy is pretty cool. You can put like your own ribbons on it and shit and decorate it the way that you want it to. But yeah, then having to go out, play in what many would call a much more important tournament. Yeah, like a bigger tournament and then losing that and then having to go back home, be like, remember, we're still good though. Yeah. Remember how happy you guys were with us just 48 hours ago?

That was sick.

Yeah, please just remember that.

So Meme said that his buddy who watches a lot of soccer says they play terrorist ball. They did. It was brutal to watch because they scored too fast. They scored 6 minutes into the game and then they just played like absolute cowards.

The rest of the puck, the bus and the guy who missed the penalty kick is apparently the worst person. Oh, and everyone hates him.

Why? Dude, I would never miss like that.

I would have just shot on goal and he just hit a moonball into the corner.

What's the guy's name? You got to put that on frame.

Gabriel.

Gabriel.

Is that just his full name?

Yeah, it's like Oprah.

It's like a Brazilian.

Put it on frame.

Gabriel. Dude, they take— oh, man. But yeah, look at Max. You see that? They did a parade today. That's so brutal.

So PSG, Paris Saint-Germain, they won back to back. Back to back. First time it's been done. In a long time. I read it's a big thing. Big deal.

It's a whole deal. I, I, I can't definitively fact-check that.

I think that there's only like 2 other teams that have ever won back-to-back.

I think I'm gonna look it up.

Yeah, I want to say Real Madrid won back-to-back league champions.

You know who's not gonna be on the list?

Real Madrid's a 3-peat. '16, '17, and '18.

Who did?

Real Madrid is a 3-peat. So 2016, 2017, 2018.

Okay. Rumager.

Real Madrid.

Real Madrid.

My bad. Real Madrid. So somewhat— well, back to back for the first time in 5 or 6 years. It was PSG yesterday. So, hey, listen, just a little warm-up, a little warm-up for, for the World Cup.

Just seeing some grass.

Yeah, just seeing some grass, seeing a pitch. Mm-hmm. OK, what else we got? Do we got other sports stuff? We have Keith Yando coming up talking some Stanley Cup Final and Mike Breen. Hank, did you see— I don't want to take your who's back, but are you going to use AI in your golf?

Oh yeah, that's who's back. I was going to be my who's back.

I did this. What is this? I just saw Bryson being like, yeah, talk to AI.

I mean, it's like, it's, it's truly like if, you know, it's relatable in the fact that And it makes probably bad golfers feel better in the fact that Bryson said he wasn't feeling good about his swing. He was mad on the range. And then when he went back, he was just, you know, uploading his pictures and videos of his swing to AI to try and figure out the issues.

Mm-hmm. And did he?

Which is when, which is when, you know, well, he, he finished in third. Like he, he got hot Sunday. So AI Saturday night, swing tip.

Uh-huh.

Fixed on Sunday.

I think it's just about thinking anything different. Like, if you're— if your game feels broken, just watch any video. It doesn't have to be like an AI breakdown of your own swing. It could be any— any golf video that you see online and just think about what you saw in that one video and things will change.

Bryce is going to try to marry a computer, right? Yeah.

Oh, he's going to be—

he's going to be early, early, early chip inside of him.

No, whenever—

whenever they roll that out, whenever they roll that out in the next couple years, he will be maybe the first person.

Okay.

And then he's gonna be like, why am I not allowed to play in the Masters yet?

Yeah, my prediction is he's going to have Neuralink implanted into his brain somewhere. He'll be like in the first— he'll volunteer himself to be like a guinea pig for that. Or he might get like the contacts that when you— you can read a green and you can see like, yeah, where the downhills are.

He's going to get Neuralink and then he's going to play the Masters, the first ever Masters in your brain. Yeah, like he's not actually going to play in the Masters. He's just going to do a livestream of his brain playing the Masters.

His eyes are going to glaze over.

Yeah.

Like when that guy from Game of Thrones looked into the future. Mm-hmm. Bran. He's going to be Bryson the Broken. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Hey, do you pay for the full live pass?

Video pass? Don't.

Every shot.

Never did.

Every— no, I never did.

I see you're part of the problem. Damn. So you're just— you're pirating streams.

I found a guy who's—

watch on, watch on Fox, watch on YouTube.

I found a guy who's a bigger LIV fan than you, who's also a cuck for LIV because he— Pro Golf Critic said he got the message that LIV Golf was suspending the Any Shot Anytime group feed that people paid $27 for. And he said, dear LIV Golf, I appreciate the offer, but I don't want a refund. I believe in the product so much. Consider this my investment in the league. It's not much money and it's negligible to the bottom line, but symbolism matters. I call on all LIV Golf fans to do the same. That's respect. So are you—

I mean, I might, I might buy it now. Yeah, although I probably can't buy it now.

No, but you got to buy it. You should try to buy it right now.

I do have the LIV Golf app.

Try to buy it right now.

Considering I follow Pro Golf Critics lead, considering all the free entertainment that you've gotten from LIV, it's the least you could do would be to pay for a service that no longer exists. Yeah.

Shout out to the Range Goats, by the way. Sent me a great care package.

Symbolism matters, Hank.

Who's on the Range Goats?

You can no longer purchase this service on the Live Golf app.

Hank, donate $27 to Saudi Arabia right now. I love this guy, though, making like a bold proclamation. Hey, listen, I'm not going to ask for the refund.

Can you name the Range Goats?

Yes. Bubba Watson.

He's—

that's one.

He's looking it up right now. He's literally got it. He just pulled it off. That's why he—

Bubba Watson.

Yep.

And I mean, I'm a lefty guy, so he's the only lefty on the team. You know, you don't— you know how I operate.

I know at least one of the other guys on the team because he's a former Four Aces.

Is it?

There's actually no former Four Aces. It's once a Four Ace, always a Four Ace.

Like the Marines.

Yeah, the brotherhood.

Mm-hmm.

He's looking at Duke basketball.

I am looking it up.

It is Peter Uline.

Oh, it's right in front of your face.

It's also—

I pulled it up. Matthew Wolff, great swing. Ben Campbell, never heard of him.

Great guy. Okay, shout out to the GOATs. Great guy, never heard of him.

Great.

How many people do you think out there actually think that we get paid by LIV for the amount that we talk about it?

I mean, I don't think LIV's paying anybody now.

Yeah, they don't have— we talk about— oh no, they got $27 extra bucks. Sure, we'll take that for a golf critic. Thanks, bro. Yeah, they probably, they probably think that we're a national sports podcast, Max.

Shut up.

Yeah, shut up, Max.

We're talking about Ben Campbell.

You'll get married again, Max.

I'm going to. He's an, he's an, he's honestly, that's, he's an international sports guy. Who? Ben Campbell.

Oh yeah. Big time.

He won the Hong Kong Open, dude.

That's one of the biggest opens they've got. Got, I would assume.

Right.

Yeah.

And 2024, he won the International Series Morocco.

Wow. This guy is crazy.

Shut me up.

Yeah. All right, let's do Who's Back of the Week. OK, Who's Back of the Week is brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. Summer's right around the corner and Twisted Tea is coming in clutch to turn our day drinking up a notch. Their new summer party pack has a brand new Twisted Lemonade. And I want to go on the record saying this will be the drink of the summer. It's got a refreshing taste with a little kick and no carbonation. Grit Week is the official kickoff of preseason football that we've all been waiting for, and we know that Twisted Tea is a staple during football season. I'm excited about getting on the grill, maybe by a pool, maybe on a beach, maybe going on some ball games. It's summer, but I'm gonna be on that grill with a Twisted Tea in my hand, so I'm ready. And I'm gonna get that Twisted Lemonade. So grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. And get involved in the summer. Okay, Hank, your who's back of the week?

Who's back was AI. I guess it's also— I don't know if it's Mike Greenberg's dumb rules, Mike Greenberg's dumb— Mike Greenberg's dumb rearrangements. But this John Calipari, did you see this?

No.

No.

You hear about this one?

He wants to do the SEC basketball tournament to start the year.

Okay.

And then you don't— that way you don't have a serious tournament leading into the NCAA tournament.

Okay.

Which with—

we've talked about that the NCAA tournament, I mean, basically going to be ruined from here on out. 72 teams or whatever it is, and it's just going to keep getting more and more.

By the way, you can't say that the conference tournament—

why not?

What if it was played like overseas?

Why can't I say that?

Why can't I say that?

Because I feel like you're going to use that as an excuse, being like, this, this week doesn't matter. It's golf season already. They ruined the tournament.

You can't say no. It's usually the weather's not nice.

You can't say that. I could say you can't say that. I mean, it's true. I can speak the truth. Yes, but I know what you're going to end up doing. It's like, oh, it's ruined anyway. What do we care? No, I want it.

I would much rather it be 64 teams. Like, that's crazy. I'm not— I don't want it to be the way it is, but I'm not going to say that it's like— no, it is as good as it was.

It is.

So he wants this before the season.

It makes sense now where it's like there's going to be— everyone's basically going to get in. Why not have the tournament start the year? Could be fun.

I don't hate the idea.

So the, the winner would get an automatic bid and then for the rest of the season they'd know that like any team that didn't win that tournament, they have to prove themselves. See, I like it. I like the idea better with football where you have like Week 0 as the bowl games. That to me makes more sense.

They've kind of ruined everything now that I'm thinking about it.

About it. There was one coach that, that, um, I think it was New Heisel floated that out last year to, to start the season with some of these crazy like out-of-conference matchups.

But what if you win the bowl game?

You just— doesn't mean anything. It's just like it makes the bowl games mean a little bit, where now the bowl games don't mean anything unless—

how do you qualify for the bowl games?

I don't know, they, they do the invites. I'm not sure, I'm not sure how that part would, would work out, but, um, It's kind of like it's similar to what Calipari is promoting, except I just, I don't know, I don't like it because I feel like the teams, what you see at the end of the season, they're so much different than what they would be at the very start of the year.

Yeah, I can't wrap my head around this one. Part of me is like, that would be awesome, but now you need it at the end of the year.

It wouldn't feel the same at all.

No, no, definitely wouldn't feel the same. I'm just thinking about like the fact Hank I think Hank was right. Like, they have already ruined the tournament, so why not just—

let's ruin everything else.

Yeah, just throw, throw the, throw the beginning, the conference tournament at the beginning of the season. What do you say, Max?

Wouldn't it be weird if a team won it and won it and then you, and they're just already in it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it would— it— I'll say this, it would give teams an incentive to win. It would definitely flatten Like, it would give bad teams a better chance because there's no tape on you. And it's like, you know, the beginning of the year, we always have that where a team will just be hot in the beginning of the year in non-conference, then they'll get to conference play and they suck. It would be interesting.

Yeah, I don't like it.

I'm out on it. No, I don't like it. I'm just— I like that he's, uh, he's thinking. I think what Cal is doing here is, is, is saying— is basically shining a light on how they're ruining everything else by throwing out a crazy rule. Yeah, because it I think a lot of people probably are going to have the same reaction to me of like, that's stupid. And then they take a step back and say, well, they did kind of fuck up the tournament already, so why not fuck up everything? So good job, Cal. You got me. You got me thinking about it.

Yeah. It's like the worse the ideas get, then the less bad the other really bad ideas.

Correct. Correct.

Kind of a genius move, right?

We're all— we're just hanging out with all bad ideas.

Kind of the story. So part of my take.

So now they become good ideas. Yeah. Yeah.

Hmm. All right.

It's actually a perfect— I agree with what the Bears are doing right now, where they're just like, hey, here's a bad idea. We moved to Indiana or we moved to Arlington Heights out of the city. And everyone's like, no, that's crazy. Like, how about we move to Indiana? Like, no, that's a really bad idea. Hey, that Arlington Heights thing's a good idea.

That to me sounds like that's Chicago.

Yeah, that's awesome. I don't even want to fucking— I don't know where—

Indiana.

It's India.

There's just meetings going on with Paul. Anytime we have politicians, like when I find out the names of politicians, we've gone too far. Yeah, that's when, when I can start picking out people because they're walking out of meetings and talking to the press. You've ruined everything.

Let me tell you, when I saw the Bears contingent down at Lost Marsh— is that the name of the golf course?

Yeah.

When I saw them there, they were wearing really nice suits like they were trying to impress the Indiana people. And they looked like they meant business.

So Kevin Ward's such a Fucking. Oh my God. All right. Good.

Who's back?

Who's back?

Thanks. My Who's Back of the Week is the U.S. men's national soccer team. Nice. Because we beat the Africa Cup co-champions, kind of Senegal today in a friendly 3 to 2 based on my own personal expected goals percentage. We actually— it was more like 6.1 to 1.3. Nice. So like utter domination.

I mean, kind of.

What do you mean?

Do we win or not?

No, we did. We won 3-2. I was referring to Senegal as being kind of the co-champions of the Africa Cup.

They were.

There was a whole thing where they like pulled their players off the field and then they got into a fight with, I think, Morocco. So nobody really knows who—

where they rank up. Tell me what they're like.

I think they're ahead of us.

I think— Max, give us the ranking.

I want to say Senegal might be top 15 FIFA ranked in the world.

Was the field in good enough condition?

Not really. It was the Carolina Panthers field.

Is that a concern for—

No, because there are no games at that stadium.

But how many more friendlies do we have?

We're playing Germany in a friendly in Chicago.

It wasn't Portugal. I looked up Sen—

Oh, this only gives me the top 10.

No, load more.

You click more.

Show full standings. Senegal, 14th. All right. You're at 16. Who are we playing?

Sort of play Germany on, I believe, this upcoming Friday.

Our team's trying in Chicago.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's like experimenting with what your starting lineup is going to be. So in the first half, it was like 90% of our starting lineup. It's a tune-up and they look preseason, they look good. And Pulisic looked awesome in the first half. He scored a goal, had an assist. Our entire offense, like our strikers and attacking midfielders, looked really, really good. This, this, as bad as the headlines have been for the U.S. men's national team for the last, like, couple of months, this should make you at least a little bit optimistic about what the team could look like.

I'm very optimistic.

So, and then we'll find out more after this game against Germany, who's a much better team than Senegal. But yeah, we look, we look pretty good. I would give us a B+.

Why did you look up Neymar?

I just don't know any players anymore. I just want to know. Zach's telling me Neymar's old news.

And he's old. Yeah, he's very old.

In fact, I think he might have just like faked an injury because he got put on the Brazilian national team this year and he's so old that I think he was kind of like, I kind of shouldn't play. So, oh, I think my leg hurts. There is one new soccer player that you guys should all know, though. Have you heard about the guy from New Zealand? No. So a bunch of people, they like online, they got together and they tried to figure out who the like least well-known player in the World Cup was just to give this guy like his own fandom. And they found a guy in New Zealand and his name is Tim Payne. And I think he had like 3,000 followers online. And then if you look him up now, I want to say he's got like 8 million followers just because people decided that Tim Payne, he was going to be the guy for anyone that didn't have a favorite soccer player. Okay. So he's this dude from New Zealand. He plays for the Wellington Phoenix. And he's on the New Zealand national team right now. And I think he's about at 3 million followers where he was like at 3,000.

Hell yeah. 4 days ago. So shout out Tim Payne. Tim Payne is like the new— this could also go sideways real fast.

Oh yeah.

Like if Tim Payne is a jerk and you give him all this power now, like 3, 4— yeah, over again, like 4 million followers, he might actually just like destroy his team.

Yeah.

So we'll find out more about Tim Payne. But Tim Payne, seems to be the people's soccer player.

OK, my who's back the week is I'm going to go with PCA because now the Cubs are going to lose 2 out of 3 to the Cardinals. But that's irrelevant Saturday night. And if you guys saw the clip, but the Cardinals, which is— I'll give the Cardinals fans credit. It looks like a blast out there in right field. They have the tarps off section, which we had in college football as well. So the tarps off section, bunch of dudes, tarps off, going crazy. They were chanting overrated when PCA was up. PCA then hit a nuke into the tarps off section. And after that, a guy, a Cardinals fan, picked up the ball. Everyone told him to throw it back. I don't think that guy had ever thrown a baseball in his life. And that was a brutal look for him.

He's a reverse Rookie of the Year.

He couldn't get it out of the stands. He hit a Cubs fan in the front row.

I love that.

Yeah.

Instead of getting called up to the big leagues.

Yeah.

Rookie, he just gets fired from his normal job.

Just brutal. Brutal. Like, you can't— you got to hand that to a friend, cuz you know it deep down that you can't throw that. Yeah, like, he— his throwing motion, Max, judge his throwing motion. That guy's— he's— I think he's right-handed and he threw lefty.

Yeah, it's the only thing that makes sense, right?

So Hank, you're an expert, what do you think?

He's got— all right, he's got it. No, no, dude, he's never played baseball or—

I think he's left—

I think he's right-handed. No, because he just kind of has a natural— like, he's trying to throw. He's like flicking it. Yeah, he didn't go all the way back.

He also held it up with his left hand. Yeah, that— he's a lefty.

That's— yeah, you can't— you got to hand that to a friend, right? You can't. Yep, you can't do that. So this is the— yeah, look, the tarp's off right there.

It's the tarp's off session.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, looks like a good time. Um, I wish it comes at 1 on Sunday night, but yeah, you start Jordan Wicks, he's a tomato can. All right.

Zach, my who's back this week is going to be the Iceman, Caleb Williams, hometown favorite here because the— they leaked the Madden cover for this year, Madden 27. Caleb's on the COVID I guess. Could be depending on how you look at it. Some guys believe in the Madden curse, some don't. I was curious if you guys did.

I thought it was— I thought it was not a thing recently. Yeah, who broke— it was for a long time.

I know they had Saquon last year. He, he played okay.

No, year by year.

It happened at Gronk.

Let's see.

I don't believe it.

Did not almost retire.

Peyton Hillis.

Uh, the, the COVID if that's what it looks like, is sick.

Yeah, the COVID looks fantastic. I mean, the snow's coming out and everything. It's a sick cover.

It's awesome. Now, how much stock can we put in this being an actual leak?

Okay, let's see. Let's see. It looks pretty real.

All right.

So it's a— Josh Allen won the— did he win the MVP the year after he was on the COVID there? He won the MVP in '25, correct? Yep.

Yeah.

So that, that would say probably not. John Madden was on the COVID He died.

Well, that's about it. Was he on the COVID after he died?

Yeah. No, it was.

It's not a year after.

Yeah.

Uh, Mahomes. Mahomes on the COVID He won a couple Super Bowls. He's been on the COVID a couple times.

Yeah, Super Bowls and Brady both won right after.

Antonio Brown, but that would be it. That's a tough one. That feels like that didn't go well after that. Oh no, no, he won a Super Bowl. If he was on the COVID in '19, he won a Super Bowl with the Bucs, right? Did he? Yeah.

Didn't he? Is it when we'd be arguing the year of though, not the next year?

Antonio Brown won a Super Bowl with the Bucs. Am I, am I misremembering that? The year—

you're, you're getting the math wrong.

No, I understand that. I'm just saying he won, not the— yeah, yeah, he lived with the curse. It was a year that you are on the COVID Okay, so what is the— these years are the year— explain to me like I'm 2. Saquon, like, if Caleb Williams has a bad year this year, I'm just reading that Madden curse and it's a year ahead. I got it. I got it. It's a year ahead. Yeah.

No, it's the year.

So last year was Saquon, '26. Got it.

Right. That would be.

Yes. But that was the '25 season.

'25, '26. It ends in '26.

Yes. Right. He played. That's what I'm saying. It was '25 season.

Yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

That's why. See, I'm not that crazy.

Memes looking. Yes, memes.

That's correct.

Yes, that's correct.

It's like when you buy a car, it's like, I know, football seasons are confusing.

If you go shopping for a car in November, you buy like— last year you would have bought a 2027 model maybe, right? It's like, wait, but we're not even there yet.

Yeah, football seasons are, are bullshit like this. Okay, either way, I don't know, just ask.

Let's see, it's a good-looking cover.

Yeah, listen, I'm— am I a little nervous that all the hype and then the fact that we have like 8 standalone games? Yes, of course. But it's also pretty cool that a Bears quarterback is on the COVID of Madden.

Will this be the last year in Chicago, or is that even if it happens, what are you talking about?

Years to build the stadium.

Hey, do you think the stadium's ever fucking getting built?

I don't know.

They bought Arlington Heights like 5 years ago.

I thought that was real when I thought 9 was going to be on the COVID Yeah. All right.

Is Matt— probably should be.

He should every year.

All right. This says the Madden curse is still a thing. Fuck.

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

Fuck.

It's not great. Yeah, that's not great. Mahomes won a Super Bowl when he was on it.

Okay, here we go.

So therefore something good has happened at some point. You got any other who's backs?

Uh, I guess another one would be, uh, Arsenal did— to piggyback off Arsenal losing Champions League, uh, me and about 12 million other people online today on the Everything app were convinced that KSI left the Sidemen. Did you guys see that?

I did.

Sidemen, they put out a statement, they put out a statement, real official. It's got, it's got all the verbiage on there. They've been around for about 13 years, big part of a lot of guys' childhoods, a lot of guys' upbringings, a lot of guys' joy early on in life. And they're saying KSI left. It may be a punishment for Arsenal losing. So I'm holding out hope personally.

So me and Big Cat understood everything that you just said, but there might be listeners that don't get it. So do you want to like say it again, but in a way that if they didn't really—

it would be like today if the Part of My Take account posted a very official Notes app looking statement that said PFC Commenter and Part of My Take have left ways.

It's all love. Is that because everybody—

but we're going to continue to do everything. We're just not going to be together anymore.

Okay. No. And that was it.

But it's also fake. No.

If the— it'd be like the Paramount+ account posting it like, wait, but it's—

so this is real. This actually happened.

Like the fans, if you— the fans, you know, saw that and had— because it was from the official account and stuff, obviously were like, this is real. I thought it was real. I still—

Do I think not?

I think it could be running up.

I'm just kind of coping that it's not, and hopefully I'm just telling myself it could be an Arsenal punishment. But I think I thought it was real. A lot of people online thought it was real. They presented it as so, but it might not be real. Yeah, that's just— that's— I'm coping. Yeah, might not be real.

Got it. So this is you hoping that because they're such a big part of kids' childhoods, uh, yeah, a lot of guys who are—

I mean, adults now even. I watch every Sunday.

Yeah, you're not childhood anymore.

No, I'm a grown man. I was when I started watching them. Now I'm an adult still watching every Sunday. I mean, Sidemen Sunday, if you guys ever have like a Slow Sunday, definitely something to check out. I think you'd enjoy it.

What do they do?

Uh, also, you like variety videos, all sorts of stuff. They'll do it like— most recently they got in their bag of like, uh, $100 vacation versus $100,000 vacation. It's pretty fun.

Which one's better?

I think you should watch PMTV vlogs. We put out 4 in the past couple weeks, so you should probably go to that. Watch our stuff.

Yep, PMT Sundays.

Well, yes, of course.

Have you done a, uh, concrete pours? They must be back.

Oh, they did their big first pour of the year. Yeah, a truck driver drove on the form when they were trying to pour. They had a rookie driver, guys.

That was a bummer. Do we think that was fake?

No, it was super real. Ryan was pissed.

Okay, he was. Yeah, Ryan does get— he's a little hothead.

A little bit. But you, I mean, you got to run a business a certain kind of way, you know? You got to come with a little bit of energy.

No, I get it, I get it for sure. But like, why did this guy— like, that's rule number one I would have to think of concrete pours is like, don't drive on it.

Yeah, he hit the form. And also like, he— this guy was spinning his wheels on the mesh too, which is like, what are we doing? You're messing up the rebar. Not cool. But, uh, they'll move past it. Pour looked good. They got it all broomed and everything.

It was awesome.

I can't wait for the season. Season just got started, boys.

Have you ever done a pour, Zach?

Uh, we did a small pour with like some umbrellas in my backyard. Okay, that was cool.

I would like to see you do a pour.

Yeah, well, let's get you out. Sounds like these guys are in Wisconsin.

That would be a good video. Get you porn.

Yeah, I'll lay some foundation.

You're a big porn guy.

Yeah, big porn guy. Yeah, yeah. Yep, big porn guy.

You love porn.

Yeah.

Yep.

Always have. Are you a gooner?

Yeah.

Yeah. Just a gooner that loves porn.

Yep.

Gooner loves porn.

Yep.

Yep. Love that for you, Zach. All right, let's get to our interviews. We got Mike Breen and then Keith Yandle.

We'll get to Mike Breen in a second. He's brought to you by our great friends over at SimpliSafe. Traditional security locks you into long-term, multi-year contracts with huge cancelation fees. SimpliSafe changed the game. They've got 24/7 professional monitoring. It's affordable, no long-term contracts. It is the best bet in the security business. The setup's so easy, it's fully customizable, and it's backed by SimpliSafe's 24/7 professional monitoring agents who dispatch emergency help whenever you need it. Over 5 million people value and trust SimpliSafe for their home security every day. I don't put my name behind many brands. I do trust SimpliSafe. My listeners get 50% off a new system when you sign up for professional monitoring. The first month it's free by visiting simplisafe.com/PMT. That's half off at simplisafe.com/PMT. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. And Mike Breen is also brought to you by our great friends over at Jose Cuervo. Make every moment matter with Jose Cuervo. We all know the Cuervo moments. Everybody reacts like you just got the same text at the same time. You find yourself in the center of that dance floor and you can't help but stand up and high-five those around you.

You stop checking the time. Suddenly small talk escalates to laughing so hard that you can barely catch your breath. That is the Cuervo effect. It's a signal that everybody understands, a moment that anyone can join, and a good time that just grows. All you have to do is keep it Cuervo. And now here is Mike Green.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest. He's a recurring guest. He is the voice of the New York Knicks and the voice of the NBA. I'll just say in general, but you will hear him for the NBA Finals. It is the incomparable Mike Breen. And Mike, thank you for joining us. I actually wanted to start, how do you think I did with the incomparable? Cause I tried to be like, hey, I need a big word for Mike Breen. Did I do it? Did I pull it off?

That was great. But it was the recurring part bothered me because It's been a long time since I was on. I, I got the feeling maybe you didn't like the last appearance.

No, that's— no, listen, recurring, all you have to do is just one time and then you're recurring for life. And that means when we call you, you come on. But, um, I actually had a really dumb question to start. We're going to talk about the NBA Finals. We're so excited. My dumb question was, I was thinking about this because I was like, I'm gonna try to say incomparable to introduce Mike Breen. How, how many words do you think you know? I, that is a dumb question. Yeah, I know. Thank you. I agree.

I have no idea. It's less than most. I'll say it that way.

Okay, here's a better question off of that. How often do you add new words and what's like a recent new word that you've added that you're like, oh man, I'm crushing this?

You know, I actually, because I worked with Clyde Frazier on MSG Network broadcasts, and he's always coming up with new words. So I'm actually starting to use more words than I used to because of him. I got to try and keep up. Like, for example, and I'm going to use this during the finals as a tribute to Clyde, but he calls like a really aggressive, fearless rookie. He calls them a precocious neophyte.

Ooh, I like that. I like that.

I love that. So I'm going to use that for somebody in the finals this week.

Yeah.

Dylan Harper. Now, has there been a—

there you go.

Yeah. Has there been a word that you've tried that you've thought this is going to— it's going to knock people's socks off and then you try it, you're like, didn't really work, didn't jive with the flow. So we're going to take that one out multiple times.

What about when you have— you have you said a word that you were like, practice it? Because that would happen. That's what happens to me. I say a word, I practice it. And then when the lights turn on, they're too bright for me and I screw it up and I'll say it incorrectly and be like, fuck, I really fucked that up.

There are certain ones that you try and avoid and you know what's pivotal? I've stumbled over pivotal. Like I almost have to raise my— pivotal to say it correctly. Otherwise it comes— I said it wrong like 2 weeks ago and I'm like, I'm never gonna use it again. And then I used it again. Yeah.

Do you find yourself that you have to stop yourself from swearing in your day-to-day life if it's around an important broadcast, or do you— or do you have the ability to sit down at a desk and then just hit that button in your brain and you're like, okay, I'm in FCC mode right now?

And so, so you're insinuating that I swear?

I, I didn't know if you did or not, and it might be the case that you don't swear.

No, no, I, I, I, I, uh, I've never slipped up. Uh, I mispronounced my, my own name once. It came out Brun for some— I don't know why it came out Brun. Okay. But you guys know who PJ Carlosimo is, right?

Of course. Yeah. We actually listened to Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals in the car because we were on a big road trip and he was great.

Great coach, great broadcaster, great friend. One of my favorite people in the world. But he has achieved the greatest achievement in all of sportscasting in that he has never once dropped an F-bomb on the air because there's no human being who uses that word more than PJ. Yet he's never, ever mistakenly dropped one on the air. I think that's the greatest achievement in sports broadcast.

I'd agree. If you're someone who routinely uses it and then be able to turn it off, that's infinitely more impressive than everyone else who's, you know, maybe touch on it every now and then. But it's like, hey, I don't use it in my usual lexicon.

Yeah, right. You'd think once it would slip. I mean, he— Junior Soprano. Remember Junior Soprano? Yeah. Sopranos, how we would, like, combine all different curse words together to make— that's PJ.

Yeah.

And it's, and it's never slipped.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, we've got a morning show that we do here on FS1 and it starts at 7 a.m. And so sometimes we get new guys to join the show. We tell them right before they go on, hey, no cussing. And then every single time, usually within the first block, first block, they'll let one slip. So for PJ to last that long, it is very impressive. And for you, this is a, this is a huge finals for you. Huge. I read that article in The Athletic about you growing up a diehard Knicks fan. Your whole family, you know, it was, it was a big thing when you were a kid. You would watch all the games growing up and now you finally, you get to call them. You've never called them in the Finals before. How are you going to handle that responsibility? Are you going to try to sound neutral? Because we know that in the back of your head, like you, there's no chance that you can be neutral in these Finals.

Well, I'm not going to lie. Obviously, I'm a Knicks fan, so I always want them to do well. And in my lifetime, I would like to see them win a title. But I will be neutral in terms of how I call the game. I've done a lot of Knick games over the years. Back when I was at NBC, I did a bunch of them and then I've done it for ESPN. And you're not going to win. They're going to be fans who think that I'm not being neutral and I'm favoring the Knicks. But every single Finals I've ever done, and I mean every single one, it doesn't matter who played. If it's the Lakers and the Celtics, the Celtic fans think I hate them and I'm rooting for the Lakers. The Laker fans think I'm rooting for the Celtics. You can't win in those situations.

Can I give you a tip? And we're— we'll help you here, okay? So we're willing to, to, to carry a little water for you going into these finals because I, I think you're a consummate pro. I don't think it actually is like weighing on your—

there we go, that's a good word.

Yeah, yeah, I'm bringing it right now. The, uh, you, you are someone that everyone respects, and I don't— you know, of course people are always— Joe Buck always gets it, like everyone always gets it. It's just fans being fans, which I totally understand. But I would imagine there's— well, let me ask this way. Is it, is it weighing on you just a little bit where it's like, this is such a big moment? I've my whole life I wanted to see the Knicks, you know, in the Finals again. It's been 25 years. This team is playing incredible basketball. And now I have to be right down the middle. And I wish maybe I was sitting on my couch and having a beer and watching with my family.

No, it really isn't. And that I'm not just saying. I mean, we've done each game in each of the first 3 series. And, you know, obviously it's not a finals. It's not going to end in a championship. And I don't know how I'm going to feel if they win, but I know if the Spurs win and they're playing great, I'm going to be screaming my fool head off for, for the great plays that they do. Part of it, what makes it easy is my love of basketball. So if I see somebody do something exceptional and we know Wembenyama is going to do countless exceptional things, I'm going to go crazy for him. You know, you mentioned Dylan Harper before that. I am blown away by this kid and how he's biggest games of his career. And it's like he's been there over and over again. So I can't wait for a great— I just hope it's a great series, close games, and whatever happens, happens. I'll deal with the emotions then.

Okay. So here's my offer to you, because when it comes to how social media works, if you can put put some numbers behind something, uh, in a nice screenshot, it doesn't even have to be correct, people will just jump on it, you know what I mean? They'll be like, look at this, this is how many times this, you know, this was called, that was called. I think you got to go into this Finals with a concerted effort to— here we go, listen, the Spurs have to outbang the Knicks, and we will keep track. And when people are saying Mike Breen's rooting for the Knicks, we're gonna be like, no, no, no, no, The Spurs have had 15 bangs. The Knicks have only had 6. It's right here, black and white. And then you're free to say whatever you want. You could be rooting for the Knicks on the broadcast, but if you give the Spurs more bangs, people can't argue with that.

You know, it's, it's not a bad idea, but it's really out of my control. Although if, say, the Knicks start— if the Knicks start getting— if the Knicks start getting ahead I'll just start saying bang on Spurs free throws, right?

That's what I'm saying.

It's 100% in your control.

Just hit a bang on the first shot for the Spurs or the opening tip. I don't think Wimby's lost an opening tip.

Yeah, just, just, you just gotta lay a base level of bangs. Like, yeah, you could actually do all of these bangs in the first 5 minutes of game 1, so that way you stay ahead for the entire series. And we'll just keep tweeting out being like, anyone who says Mike Breen is being biased, he's clearly got more bangs You would do that for me? Absolutely. We will be the banger meter for the entire finals.

I'll take it under consideration.

Speaking of, how do we feel about the bang that almost left your throat and then you pulled it back in game 1? I love that moment because I do think that broadcasting, you know, you don't want a broadcaster to be perfect all the time. The human emotion should play into it. It makes the moments better. When there are a little like, oh, it almost went—

it—

the ball almost went down. It deserved that like sound.

All right, Sam Merrill shot, and when they did the close-up of it, half the ball was under the cylinder. Half of it. I, I still don't know how it came out. Now you clearly want to have a clean call, but I'm okay with that. It's not the first time. I think I've done that two other times too, where it looks in, you're excited, you want to make a big call, and oh no, didn't go. There was a, uh, There was a broadcaster, one I loved, I so admired, Jim Gordon, was a New York sportscaster. He did the Rangers, he did the Giants, he did some Knicks as well. And he did New York Giants football for years on the radio. And he would several times a game, he would call, you know, Phil Simms throwing downfield to McCarthy, he'd go, "Simms throws, complete. No, incomplete." He would do it several times. And I loved it because he thought it was complete. He was fired up that, they made a great pass play and then, oh no, it didn't happen.

So yeah, it happens.

And in that play, it did look— it added, I think, to the moment because we all felt that alongside you as you said it. Um, I'm curious to know, because you've seen so much Knicks basketball over the years, and we talked about this a little bit on, on this show, uh, last week, but if the Knicks do win a championship, where does that put Jalen Brunson in terms of all-time Knicks for you?

Um, he's in the conversation as one of the greats. Can I put him ahead of Clyde or Patrick Ewing? I think that might be early, even though he wins the title. But when you look at it, all right, 53 years, say they win it, 53 years, and he's the one that leads them to a title. Not only that, but when he arrived, they were on one of the darkest stretches that the franchise has ever been on. They were one of the worst teams in NBA. And he's the number one reason why he's changed the direction and perception of the franchise. So it's not just winning a title. It's where, where he started and where he brought them to. So he's absolutely in the conversation. He's, he's one of the most amazing players in 30-plus years of covering the NBA. When you look at his size, his athleticism, his— the fact that he's not tall, that he's not fast, yet he gets it. Pretty much anywhere he wants to go to get off a quality shot, and he does it with such humility, uh, not interested in the attention. He, he's an amazing special player.

Yeah.

How much credit can, uh, the University of Villanova take for this championship if the Knicks win?

Jay Wright— all three guys, Bridges, Hart, and, and Brunson— will all tell you that, um, the things that he installed in them both as players in terms of technical stuff both in terms of mental approach to the game, work ethic. They all credit him for so much of the success, and they constantly quote about different things that he did. So every Knicks fan, whether they win the championship or not, every Knicks fan, if they see Jay Wright, should go over, shake his hand and say thank you.

Yeah, I'd have to imagine walking around in New York City right now, it's like it's got quite a buzz because that is the— it is— New York is one of those cities that it's a basketball city. There's a lot of other teams and there's, you know, Giants and Jets and split Yankees and Mets. The Knicks are the team. Does it— can you just feel it in the air when you're, you know, going into MSG to call the Eastern Conference Final and day-to-day stuff like people just buzzing about it?

Yeah, I've never seen it like this. Now, part of it has to do with, you know, the last time they were in the finals, '99, there wasn't social media. Now you have social media and everybody is— you're seeing all the different celebrations and things. The way they're going about rooting for their team. So it's a little more pronounced in terms of being out in the public. But the electricity is phenomenal. The building during the playoffs, that, that Game 1 against the Cavs when they came back from 22 down with 7.5 to go, that's one of the loudest, maybe the loudest I've ever heard the building, that, that stretch run there. And it's because, again, what we said earlier, the fans never left. Even the dark years, they never left. They stayed with it. So now they're being rewarded. So this, this unfiltered joy is everywhere. And it's, it's, it's really cool to see. I mean, I've lived in New York my whole life, so to see the fans get rewarded with a team that gives them a shot at winning a title is pretty, pretty cool to watch.

Yeah. Was there a moment this season, you know, because you're, you're calling the Knicks all year, you're seeing them up and down. Was there a moment where you could be like, hey, I think this might be a team that could, could do this because the— I, I, I don't— I'm not saying that I watched every Knicks game and I don't— I'm not familiar with the team in the regular season, but what they've done in the playoffs, it's— they're playing perfect basketball ever since being down 2-1 to the Hawks.

Yeah, you know what the interesting thing, guys, is that during the regular season there it was really uneven. They had stretches where you thought they can beat anybody, and they also had a number of stretches to be like I don't know if this team is as good as last year. Again, the coaching change switched a lot of things. Mike Brown, who is— he's the most collaborative coach I've ever watched in covering the NBA. He's so open to suggestions and not just from assistant coaches, from the players. And not only is he open to suggestions, he's not afraid to install them and try them. And if he installs them and he tries them, all of a sudden he's not saying it's my idea. He's given credit to everybody else. But when things go wrong, he's the first one to say, you know what, I need to be better at this. So the changes with Mike Brown, there were a lot of growing pains during the course of the season and it took a while. So they had some stretches where, yep, they can beat anybody and they had some stretches where you were worried. So the regular season was a little funky that way.

Yeah.

Yeah. So going into these finals, you're obviously more familiar with the Knicks, but you've watched a lot of Spurs basketball over the years. And you've seen them kind of how they've developed as a team, especially in the last few years. Um, where, where do you see this matchup being a problem for the Knicks? I, I know that obviously Wemby is the unsolvable riddle, but the Knicks are going to try. Um, but outside of that specifically, where do you see the Knicks, uh, having to come up with something new that they haven't done to, to figure out how to defend the Spurs?

Well, the thing is, during the regular season, Wemby missed a bunch of games, and they went one stretch where they won 11 of 14 games without him. They're— as great as this player is, and he could be one of the greats of all time, they are so much more than just Victor Wembenyama. They've got a lot of terrific players, and especially defensive hawks. And that's going to be a problem the Knicks are going to have to deal with, because you have Castle and Harper, and those guys are so tenacious defensively. They put a lot of pressure on the opposing point guards, opposing shooting guards. So that's— the Knicks are going to have to deal with that because the first 3 teams they played, although they were all good teams, none of them play at this level defensively that the Spurs play. So that's going to be the biggest, biggest adjustment.

Yeah.

Have you, have you looked up new words to describe Wimby? Because I feel like that's a guy that you would run out of words for.

Yeah, it's— and this is his 3rd year. I remember doing like, how can you describe him? Right now I'm calling him a force of nature, but I'm sure everybody else has used that too. It's hard to do because he's one of those guys that he's so unique. We've never seen anybody like him that you have to try and focus on one thing at a time, like whether it's his ball handling. For a guy that's 7-foot-4 or 5, whatever he is now, to be able to handle a ball like that, to be able to shoot so effortlessly from 3— there's another word I shouldn't say on the air—

effortlessly from 3.

And then, um, but his whole thing is the way he impacts defense. That's his number one strength. He's the great discourager, for crying out loud. You guys drive in the paint, they want no business of putting up a shot. And there are very few players who have that impact.

That's great. The great discourager is a fantastic nickname. I was just looking up synonyms for him to see if I could toss you one. Uh, have you thought about preternatural?

Say it again.

Preternatural. It's like supernatural, but P-R-E. It kind of implies like maybe he's an alien because it sounds like supernatural, right? Just means like extraordinary. I feel like that might be a good one.

Yeah, that's not bad. Aliens, aliens have been used so much, um, and I don't particularly— I don't know if he likes it, um, but I, I've got a couple of days. I'll see what if I can come up. I'm gonna, I'm gonna try saying yours out loud so I get used to it. Yeah, so it comes out flow, it comes out in a flow.

Yeah. Um, Mike, I've seen you've done some different media because this is obviously a big moment in your career, big moment for the Knicks. And the thing you did with the New York Times is great. The Athletic. Has anyone though, like, we're a little different. Has anyone given you a prep about the possibility of the shot when Mitch Johnson is on the sidelines in San Antonio coming up?

All right. Where are you leading me on this one?

There have just been 2, 4 gigantic breasts behind him every single time. So I don't know if you want— I just want you to be prepared. I want you to be ready. I don't, I don't know, like maybe just don't even talk about it. I guess don't talk about it would probably be the way to do it. That's good advice. Yeah, that's my advice.

Great advice.

But now you know, so that when they show, when the camera in front of you shows, you're like, okay, I'm not going to talk about that.

I, I, I'm, I'm so touched by how you're looking out for me.

Yes.

Um, I, I came and I, I'm gonna get emotional.

Thank you.

That would be funny if just like a bang, you're just like, boobs!

All the time. Um, you know, when you do TV, you obviously have to constantly look at the monitor because you want to— you want to be looking at the same thing the viewers at home. And there's stuff that comes up every once in a while that you do say, all right, do I— do I— should I make mention of that or not?

Right, right.

Yeah, that's a tough job to do because everybody at home is seeing the same thing, right?

You see him and maybe you just say like And two teams on a quest to get to the top of that mountain. Yeah. And the NBA Finals, just like a little something for the, for the fans at home.

I'm hoping now when, when you, when you, when Game 1 starts and you see the monitor, you think of us, and that would be nice. It feels like we're at the NBA Finals too.

Don't slip up, and if like KAT's having a huge game, don't, don't say nipple double because that would be bad.

We will jump all over you for that one.

Well, maybe the Finals tickets are very expensive, so maybe they'll, they'll be different people.

I don't know, they were, they were there for every single game in the Western Conference Final. It was quite something. They were just— kept on showing up.

I think they put a lot of work into their body. I think they might have some money lying around.

Yeah, they're ready to go.

Yeah.

Um, all right, so, so the, the— let's talk about the other celebrity row in New York. Uh, is Chalamet like— he's 1-1 now, right? And I'm not saying 1-1 like Ben Stiller's been there forever. There's other guys who've been there forever. But in terms of aura, like, it feels like he has eclipsed everyone, where the camera always finds him and he's just kind of effortlessly cool, uh, in being a diehard Knicks fan.

Yeah, he, he's, uh, he gets great when they put him up on the big screen. It's just a roar. But I'll say this about him and Ben Stiller and a lot of the other ones: they're at games in February when the Knicks are playing the Wizards. They're not— they're real fans. They're not there to be on camera. And they're not cheering or going crazy because they want to be on camera. They really love the team. They care deeply about the team. And, and that's what I love about the celebrity Knick fans is most of them, they're going to games all season long regardless of the opponent, regardless of the night. And, and now they're being rewarded because, because they're seeing the big games.

It's great.

Is it going to be a rivalry to keep your eye on, though, by the way? Trae Young, they don't like Trae Young at Madison Square Garden. Now he's a Wizard. Like, That's— if I'm buying stock in rivalries, that's 1A for me.

With Trae Young? Yeah, yeah, he's taking over. Tyrese Halliburton, who by the way is just a great dude, a great dude, um, he— because of the, the, uh, the choke sign last year, he's up there in terms of public enemies and for Knick fans.

Yeah.

Is there a, uh, chance that Charles Oakley comes back?

I don't— that one I have no idea.

Could you imagine the pop though? It feels like this is the moment where you— I don't know if, if sides can be mended here, and you know, Oak is obviously a different cat in that if he feels disrespected he might not want to, and you don't know if James won't, but it would be an incredible moment if you can have him be part of that whole crew, uh, under the, under the, uh, hoop that is like the alumni of the, of the New York Knicks.

Well, forgiveness is a, is a powerful thing to have, so let's, let's hope for forgiveness.

So you're a Knicks fan, you're a Mets fan. Are you a Giants or Jets? Giants. Giants.

Okay.

And then Rangers?

Rangers.

Yeah. So in terms of those 4 teams, where would a Knicks championship rank and what would it mean to the city? Like, if you were to put it in order in those 4, those 4 teams?

Yeah, I think it would be number 1. I mean, you mean for the city? Yeah. Or for myself?

I guess you can, you can do both. But yeah, I think, I suspect that's probably the same answer.

For the city, you know, like you guys said, it's such a basketball town and there's, they really are so crazy Knicks. And to think that it's been 53 years since they won it all, that would just be over the top. And again, because of this particular team, the way they play, the way they carry themselves, you know, They feel like they're New Yorkers. Like a guy like Josh Hart, like, they feel like he's a New Yorker his whole life. And he's one of those guys that he could have played with the Ewing group back in the '90s. He could have played with the championship group. He's that type of guy that can do a little bit of everything, a great team player. So there's a special affinity for the particular players on this team. So I think it would be number 1.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, you, you have— so you have called the Knicks in the Finals, just not on TV, on radio.

Radio in '94.

I heard the story in '94, uh, you almost screwed up that call if John Starks had hit that shot. Can you explain that? Because it's, it's unbelievable to think about if that shot goes in and the Knicks win that title and you— you go ahead, yeah, because it's an incredible story.

It's a career— it could have been a career-ending call. So Back then, it's 21 years since they won a title and we're thinking, oh, that's a long time. And it's Game 6 and Starks, with the Knicks down 2, has a shot in the corner, a 3-pointer in the final seconds that if it goes in, if it's a 3-pointer, they win the championship. If it goes in and it's a 2-pointer, it's a tie game. We're going to go to overtime. My broadcast location is down the other side of the floor, right next to the Knicks bench. And they're shooting way down the other end, and I'm on the near side where Starks is on. So you can't— there's so many things in between them and Starks. I can't tell if his feet, when he gets set to shoot it, are behind the 3-point mark. Now, that happens sometimes because fans stand up. So normally now with TV, you look at the monitor and that tells you, but there's no monitor. We don't have a monitor. So then you look at the referees because the referee has the hand up to signal 3-point attempt. But all 3 referees at this particular time are blocked.

I can't see them. Now, this is all going on in seconds. So the shot is up that could potentially win the championship for the Knicks and the 21-year drought. And I have no idea if it's a 2 or 3-pointer.

So what was your plan?

My plan would have been I probably would have screamed, it's good, it's good, it's good as many times as I needed to, or bang as many times as I needed to. Until they put the score up on the scoreboard. That, that was the plan. But I mean, there was such potential to completely destroy what would have been one of the great moments in the history of New York sports.

Yeah, because it would have been such an incredible moment for a buzzer beater for their first title in 20 years.

Like, you just got to bang your way out of that situation. Just keep saying bang until, until you get a definitive answer. Meanwhile, everybody's at home listening to the radio like, what? What is it? What is it? Yeah, tell us. Stop saying bang, Mike. From like a broad— a broadcasting perspective, just like in terms of your prep for every game, how, how much sleep do you try to get before a big game?

Oh, the usual. I mean, at my age, if I get 7 hours, I'm thrilled. So I try and get as much as I can. And then you take that player afternoon nap is always important.

You take a little nap before. What about like a pregame meal? Like, do you eat the same thing on game days?

No, but I eat before. Like, when I get to the arena, I like to have a big meal then. I can't, I can't call a game on an empty stomach. I can't do it.

Are there certain foods that you have to stay away from? Like, I, I think I would probably stay away from anything spicy or, uh, anything that's going to give me like the acid reflux, right?

Like, you can't have a milkshake because that's, that's the worst thing.

You could. Why is the milkshake the worst? I feel like that—

not because it's all the dairy, it's just, it's not, it's not good for the throat.

Yeah.

So green tea, green tea is my key. I have, I have a, um, some green tea before every game.

And then what about during the game? What is just standard water?

Water, just water.

That's it. Yeah.

How much, uh, going into this NBA Finals do you take into account the NBA Cup Final? Because it is a rematch, first time ever.

I love the NBA Cup, but its impact on this series is nil.

Nothing.

Oh wow.

We have some Knicks fans that aren't gonna agree with that. We have one Knicks fan in this office specifically who's been talking about how the NBA Cup, the Knicks learned how to beat the Spurs in it.

Well, I mean, you could— I suppose individual players can gain confidence saying, okay, I figured out a way. Jaylen Brunson said, I figured out a way to get away from Castle. But both teams are so dramatically different. I mean, that's way— that's many months ago. The Knicks are so much better, but so are the Spurs so much better. And again, with the way the schedule works, there's so many other intangibles that go into it that Rarely has any regular season game, even an NBA Cup game, I thought had an impact on a potential playoff matchup.

Yeah, it's the one time that they played when they've tried to empty the tank and try to beat each other. I mean, I put a lot of stock into that.

A lot of, a lot of stock.

Because the courts are different. Knicks did play them well. The Knicks played them well. But how many times have we seen a team, they go 0-4 against a team in a regular season and then they get swept in the playoffs? It's just, there's no rhyme or reason to it. It's, there's, there's no carryover in my in my opinion.

Yeah, uh, we have two diehard Knicks fans in our booth, uh, Memes and Zach. Actually, let's go with Memes because Zach, I'll do the rowback question with you. Memes, do you have any questions for Mike Breen or questions about the Knicks? He's not ready. He's— he— Memes has been very excited. He's been talking about the Knicks nonstop. I actually had to last week, I had to say I'm not having conversations with him anymore because I would be like a simple thing like, what do you want to get for dinner? And you'd be like, how about the Knicks? I'm like, all right, I can't— we can't even converse right now. But you can't fall— how can you fall I don't, I don't fault him. I, I had to make that— I had to take that measure because I didn't want to get to a point where I got frustrated that he would only talk about the Knicks. So I was like, you know what, I won't come to you for anything in these next couple of weeks. This is Knicks time.

That's a good friend. Yeah, yeah, that's a good friend.

Memes, you have one? No, he doesn't. All right, Zach, let's go to you.

Oh, what's going on, Mike? How are you today, my man?

I'm good, Zach.

Oh, my man, my man. To a guy like Mike Breen, my guy.

If Mike— if that was overstepping in the beginning of this relationship, I'll step all the way back. I'll never say that again.

Don't even think twice about it, Zach.

That's awesome. You look great today, by the way, Mike.

Thank you, it's kind of you.

I was curious, this may be a little bit off topic, would you be willing to maybe hop in a time machine with me real quick?

Where are we going?

All right, we're gonna go to January 24th, 2014, a game I believe you were on the call for. Okay, keep going. So it's Knicks-Bobcats, and a former member of the Knicks, Carmelo Anthony, decides to put up 62 points that game. Yeah, single-player record, Garden record. Was there a moment in that where like the entire Garden knew that he was up to something special, or were more so you guys just all along for the ride?

Uh, how was that, those games? Because they now, they put the how many points each guy has up on the score throughout, so people were just waiting for him to get there. And so it was, it was, and if anybody on the team at that time was going to set the record, he was the guy, certainly. But it was one of those nights where where it was crazy. Um, not against a good team, but the building was— it was electric. That's the thing about Knick fans, Zach. Even like games like that in the middle of a season when they're not particularly one of the better teams, the place is still off the charts in terms of electricity on something like that, especially on something like that. But that was a special night.

Yeah. Zach has Carmelo Anthony ranked ahead of LeBron James all time.

Okay, I, uh, I respect the opinion.

I respect you as well.

You gotta follow up, Zach.

Quick follow-up question: is there a world where the Knicks never lose again?

Zach, are you reading off your phone or is this off the top of your head?

I, I read off the phone sometimes. Yes, I do, I do. Uh, you're a professional, I'm an amateur. I'm trying to get like you, but you've— I appreciate you. I did see something, uh, there was a world where like maybe you early on in your career you thought about like, hey, I don't know if I could do this, I don't know if the bills are getting paid, I might just go pipefitters union. And have you ever think back and look at like what life could have been like if you didn't stick with it and kind of just give it your all and maybe just go to the union?

Yeah, I have my dad to thank for that. Because when I first started going into the business, when I told him after I graduated college I wanted to go into it, he didn't think it was a good idea because it was so hard to get a job. So he had some of his friends in other businesses trying to set me up. Hey, I can help you here. I can get you a job here. 'Cause he was worried. He was worried I was gonna be unemployed. But then once I got going, he saw how much I liked it. And I had told him I was gonna give it 5 years. And 2.5 years in, I'm thinking, nah, this is going nowhere. I'm not making enough money to pay my rent. I had to borrow from my parents. And he's like, hey, didn't you tell me 5 years? I said, yeah. He goes, well, why don't you stick with it a little bit longer? So instead of giving me the steamfitters union, which he worked for, he was a steamfitter, I kept going. And fortunately, a couple of things started happening after that.

Yeah. Do you ever think like maybe you would have been the best steamfitter of all time though? Like maybe, maybe the world lost a great steamfitter.

I think I would have been an awful steamfitter. Awful. My father was great, but I would have been awful. It's funny, like everybody has stories. I'm sure you guys have them too. Like the job that you don't get, how that turns out. Like I was working at Sports Channel America, which was trying to compete with ESPN, and the New Jersey Nets, they were New Jersey Nets job. Their TV job came open and it was me and Spencer Ross that were the final two candidates. And I'm thinking, this is my ticket. I'm going to get to the NBA. And I thought for sure I was going to get it because the guy that was interviewing me gave me feelings that I was going to get it. And they decided to go with the veteran. Spencer Ross is a legendary New York sportscaster, and they gave it to Spencer Ross. And then a couple of years later, I got the Knicks job. So what happens if I get the New Jersey Nets job? I mean, my life goes in a different path. It's, it's crazy how stuff like that happens. And, you know, you just, you deal with it, you move on.

And it turned out to be good for me.

Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Memes, I'm going to give you one last shot. You now have a question. He's right. Mr. Mike Breen.

How you doing, Mr. Mike Breen? Memes. Have you thought about what the game-winning, the game, the series-clinching call would be? For the Knicks at all?

No, no, not yet. Once, once this Finals gets going, you— for both teams, um, you kind of set a plan for once you— what's going to happen if Team A wins or Team B wins in terms of what you want to say at the end. And I usually wait for a couple of games before I, I kind of hone in on it because you want to see, get a little feel for the, for the Finals first. But that's something you should like, some, some Um, play-by-play voices will tell you that they don't think about it. They want it to be completely spontaneous. Um, I don't believe that. I think you should have an idea. I don't think you should rehearse it and have it, you know, written out, uh, particularly what you want to say, but I think you should have an idea of how you frame, uh, what this means for this team or this particular player.

Yeah, I feel like you have to get a little bit of something in your head because otherwise, like, if You know, if I recall last night, I would have been like, well, that was fucking awesome by the Spurs.

Well, that was a possibility a couple of years ago when Boston was—

that was something I thought of.

Is there a name on either one of these teams that gives you fits that you get the yips for?

Ooh.

Well, it took actually the first season with Wembanyama was not easy because it just— it was. Antetokounmpo was like that. It took a couple of years before it just kind of rolled off the tongue. Uh, but no, everybody else is— this is pretty, pretty basic.

Yeah, yeah. Um, all right, Mike, we— this is so awesome that you were able to join us. We love having you on. Uh, I got one last question. Rowback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Rowback.com promo code TAKE. You are obviously— have seen a ton of, uh, basketball, been in the league, you love basketball. Is there part of you— have you, have you started to think about, uh, history and going into these Finals, the fact that we are year 2 of a phenom in San Antonio now going up against the New York Knicks, which is basically a replica of the 1999 Finals, even though this Knicks team is different? But it feels like, wow, we could be— if this goes the Spurs' way, we could be just walking into another set of years and years of domination by a Wemby-Tim Duncan kind of correlation.

No, that's exactly what you think going in, you know, when you want to kind of frame what it is. It's one team trying to end a 53-year championship drought against another team that might be on the verge of a dynasty. I mean, that's— it's like the perfect scenario. It's such a compelling storyline for these two teams in terms of where they are. And now you never know. I mean, we thought, remember in 2012, OKC, when they had Durant, Westbrook, and Harden, they went to the finals. I think I even said on the air, we'll probably see them in the finals a lot in the coming years. And it just didn't happen. So you don't know. But that potential for them to start this as the number one and what they did in this last series to win Game 7 on the road the way they did it, that's a possibility. And for the Knicks to end this unbelievable— it's over a half-century drought.

Out.

So to me, that's, that's the whole storyline to start, and then we'll see where it takes us.

It is pretty amazing knowing, like, we went through the, you know, the heat with LeBron, and then, and then the Warriors and Cavs playing each other every single year. And I think this is— I saw the stat, I think it's the 7th or 8th year where we have 2 new teams in the Finals, you know, consecutive years. It's crazy.

The parody—

it's the 8th year, uh, we'll have a new champion, but the last previous 4 Finals, it's 8 different teams, right? There has not been a single same team over the last 4 Finals. And that's crazy.

It really is. Yeah.

Yeah. With the Knicks, there was that the other time in these playoffs where they had a big period of rest before they started a new series. They came out flat the first 3 quarters against the Cavaliers. It looked like they were getting their teeth kicked in. Do you expect a similar thing to happen, or is this something that you think that the team's addressed going forward into the Finals?

I think they probably learned from that, but it is hard. You can't simulate the intensity of a playoff game. And again, what I said earlier, I think the biggest thing that they have to acclimate to is the tenacity on this team defensively. They haven't seen a team that's this good defensively since the regular season. Not that Cleveland, Philly, and Atlanta were bad defensively. Atlanta probably the best of the three of them, but they're not at San Antonio's level defensively. So that's something that they have to acclimate to pretty quickly.

Yeah.

All right, well, Mike, thank you so much. We really appreciate you, uh, joining us. And, uh, get, get ahead of— get ahead of those bangs. Get— just rip a few and then we'll got— we'll carry you the rest of the way.

You guys are the best. I always have fun.

Thank you. All right, thanks so much, Mike.

Mike Breen was brought to you by Microsoft 365 Copilot. Before we get back to more chaos, we got to tell you about something that helps people focus on what's most important, and that is Microsoft 365 Copilot. What if you can add an AI assistant to your work without leaving your workflow? Well, it's built right into Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook. Copilot works where you look—

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Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very, very Very, very, very, very, very, very— he's lost count. He can't count.

You're gonna have to take off big time.

You're gonna have to take off your shoes. Uh, it is Keith Yandle, a very special guest, talking Stanley Cup Final. Yans, we're here, we're ready. How are you feeling, 1 to 10? How do you feel about this matchup? Uh, because we didn't have the best Conference Finals. Well, let's just be honest, they weren't the best Conference Finals.

Not the best, right? We got a sweep and then we get a 5-game series. You want to see those go a little longer. I have been really down on Carolina, but they— I've totally switched my tune on them. The way that they play, you know, I once said I wouldn't watch them if they were playing in my backyard, but I'm kind of, I'm kind of in on them now. The way that they play, the way that they've galvanized each other, came together as a group. Their coach is unreal. Rod, Rod the Bod. Fun group to watch just because they all play the same way. They're like a true old-school hockey team that everyone You know the saying, everyone ropes, everybody rides, nobody rides for free. That's, that's them to a tee. They just go out there and play their game. They do it every single game. They got away from it one time in the, in the playoffs this year, and it was the first game against Montreal. And, you know, they lost that game. It's the only game they've lost. And then Vegas is one of those teams, man. Like, I think I heard you guys saying it when you were talking to Osh, like they wouldn't even have made the playoffs if they were in the East.

So it's, it's one of those things that you get in. They remind us a lot of the, the LA Kings in, I think it was '13, like kind of just barely get in and then roll their way to a Stanley Cup championship. So it's going to be a fun series. You got North Carolina, sleepy town, and then you got Vegas where, you know, you go to have fun. So it's kind of got a little bit of everything and I'm excited for it to start on Tuesday.

Yeah. Was there an instant where you saw Carolina and you were like, okay, I think I kind of like them now? Because I agreed with you for a very long time. And for me, it was probably more personal, just like watching them kick our teeth in in the playoffs. It's just like, I get this team out of my face. But from, from your standpoint, like, was there a moment where you watch them? You're like, this is actually like a different type of hockey than they play in the past.

Well, I think it was the first two series, like the Ottawa series. Looking back now, I'm putting it more on the other teams that they played. You know, Ottawa was brutal, like couldn't get anything going. And Carolina is one of those teams, if they don't have to do anything crazy, they don't. They just play their game. So it was, it was honestly, it was Game 1 and then bled into Game 2 in the Montreal series because Montreal played a different style, a little high tempo, off the rush, trying to, trying to, you know, score goals and stuff like that that way as opposed to the way Carolina plays. And then Carolina showed me a little bit that they can play high-flying. Their D are getting up in the play. I really like their D-core. Keandre Miller came over from New York. He's been awesome, just the guy up in the play. So I think it was Game 1 and Game 2 of the, the Montreal series that kind of, you know, flipped my switch with them. And I'm actually, I'm really excited to watch them, to watch them go to battle with Vegas.

What is it about Carolina that people don't genuinely like them because I— everything that is described to me, they just stay on your ass, which is kind of fun. Like, they're just got guys who just— they're gonna always forecheck, they're always gonna be in your zone, just pressure, pressure, pressure. It's almost like a, a basketball team going full court press. Those are fun teams to watch.

Yeah, but it's like you, you watch that for 2 weeks in, in March Madness and you're like, oh my God, that's too much, I can't handle that. But if a team's doing it for 82 games, you're like like, what are we doing here? Let's let the guys have a little fun. But the, the majority of why you ask most NHL players why they don't like Carolina, it's because shitty— actually, there's a good hotel there now, the Umstead's nice, that a lot of teams stay at. But it was a shitty hotel. The locker room was shit. The visitors room, um, it's the, it's the chain food capital of the world.

That's not bad. That's not bad.

Hey, listen, when you're in the NHL, you want a little farm wanted table or a nice sushi spot, you ain't getting it in Carolina. But guys love playing there. I know everyone that I know that has played there loves it. Great place to raise a family and all that. And yeah, it's, it's just one of those things where I don't think NHL guys like it. Like the wind tunnel. You hear a lot of the wind tunnel when you're walking out. The wind is coming as you're walking out onto the ice, which is a, you know, little nuanced things. But guys like to stand out there a little bit before a game, get ready, and then you can't get ready because you're getting cold standing in the wind tunnel. Little things like that. But I truly do like just how they're a team and they play as a team. And, you know, it really looks like they love each other too.

And the owner is also the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA. Dundon. So, yeah, Dundon. People don't like him in the NBA. They think he's cheap. I don't know if he's got that same reputation around hockey, but he didn't know, like, a lot of the rules for, like, flying certain guys out to a play-in game, things like that. So people in the NBA got very upset with him. But I didn't know what the reputation was around, around hockey.

I honestly, I haven't heard much about— I know maybe when he first started with Carolina, I know he, he was talking about getting rid of scouts, not paying for scouts to go and watch teams like younger, like college or junior games because he thought you could scout from watching on your computer or on TV. So he was trying to make cut, cut and cost that way. I had heard— I don't know if they ever did it, like not paying their cell phone bills, but But I think when it comes out in the media and you got, you know, jerks like you guys and us that make it a big deal, you probably have to switch your tune a little bit. And, you know, there's stuff in the CBA that doesn't allow things like that. So usually the players aren't getting it too bad. Maybe what was it in the NBA? He wasn't, he wasn't letting the media people get late checkouts.

Yeah. He also just like he went down a spreadsheet and fired half the, half the like team behind the scenes people. And it was like, oh, you make this, you're gone.

He fired some PR people, and the PR people are always the ones, you know, that have like the most connections in the media. So if you fire a good PR person, then you get everybody in the media to be like, oh, this guy sucks.

Also, those guys usually have a lot of dirt on the players. If the guy's ever getting into some shit or whatever, they're usually the ones who are sweeping things under the rug, um, you know. So you got to be careful firing those guys. You almost got to promote them, if anything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, we actually don't know. Explain how that works. What was the situation where something got swept under the rug, Yance?

Well, this one night we were at— no, I got nothing. I was a boring guy.

Um, you mentioned Keandre Miller. I saw a stat. It's pretty insane. This postseason, 5-on-5 with Keandre Miller on the ice, Carolina has 128 shots to 69. They have 133 scoring chances to 72 and they have 15 goals to 3. It's like, is that just— what is he doing? That's that. Those are— it basically just says every time he's on the ice full strength, the other team is, is doing like half the output or even less when it comes to actual goals.

Yeah. I mean, him, him and Jacob Slavin, they're human erasers. They erase everything on the defensive side. You know, you can't get in the zone on these guys. Big, they're long, their reaches are unreal. They're not like crazy overly physical, but you know, I don't think any of their D are really— maybe Chatfield a little bit, but they just get in the way and they piss— you know, if you're a skilled player playing against the guy who's just always in the way and, and breaking pucks up, and it makes it frustrating. You see, you see these high-end skill guys get frustrated. And then for him on the offensive side, he's an unbelievable skater. I believe he was a— he was a forward till he was probably like 16, 17 years old, and then or whatever he was in college. Yeah, 17, then made the switch to D. So you know he's got the offensive skill too. And I think you're seeing it a little more now in Carolina just because the way they play a man-on-man type of game where in the D zone, so it's basically whoever— if you get beat, then you know there's probably going to be an opportunity.

And, uh, you know, those guys don't get beat because they're so big and they can skate so well.

What question about that? How many guys— how often is it that a guy switches from offensive, defense. We know Biz did. Uh, were you always defense, like, even as at a young age?

I was actually a goalie. I was a goalie till I was 12. I used to do both, so I'd play the first half goalie and then go on the bench, and then, uh, they'd take my pads off, the coaches would take my pads off, and I'd put— I wore regular skates, uh, and then I'd go and play D for the rest.

But that's crazy.

Yeah, it was It's mostly forward switching or D switching to forward because not a lot of forwards can play D just because of the whole skating backwards and all that, because it's a lot tougher than skating forwards, obviously. So majority of the time it's, it's a D-man switching to forward. Like, you remember Bufflin used to do it a little bit in Chicago. There's been even a guy like Brent Burns who's still playing, like he, he played forward a little bit when he was in Minnesota. So to go from forward to D is a lot tougher, uh, just because the whole skating backwards. But he's an incredible skater, uh, and it hasn't hindered him at all.

Are dudes just like— are there dudes that just can't skate backwards?

Yeah, all the forwards. It drives me insane. Watch, watch, like, watch on a power play if a D is— if a forward has to cover for the D. Or a lot of teams, actually every team does, uh, 4 forwards and 1 D. So if if a forward's getting caught skating backwards, they usually get toasted. Like, I remember in Unreal, Jonathan Huberdeau, one of my all-time favorite players, he's— we're on the power play, it's a 2-on-2. So a guy coming on him and then a guy coming on me. So you're kind of just worried about the guys in front of you.

Yeah, we'll clip that.

And then I turn, I look at my guy, and then I look over at Hubie to make sure he's gapped up. All right. I look back, the guy's going into score. And Hubie, they don't know how to pivot as good. Like, they just— I don't know if it's they're not used to it. Their hips don't move the way that ours do, but it's really bad. But, you know, obviously Deacon skate forward just as well.

Yeah.

Why did you stop playing goalie?

Too expensive.

Just the pads?

Yeah, the equipment, the pads, all that stuff. So my older brother that played, my dad was like, yeah, you can just use his hand-me-down equipment and I'm not buying you any, any real stuff.

Were you— were you good? Because I've always heard that people that gravitate towards playing goalie are like crazy, that are insane. And I've never gotten like crazy vibes from you, but maybe I'm just way off.

Yeah, I was a little bit of a loose cannon when I was probably, you know, from 8 to 16, 17. Then I slowed down a little bit. So you're happy it's not the way it used to be? I used to be a skateboarder guy like you, wearing the JNCOs and all that.

Yeah, that's, that's kind of sick that you thought I was a skateboarder.

I appreciate that. So who's the best goalie in this series?

I think they're the only two that haven't been pulled. I think they've both played every minute of every game unless, unless I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm right on that. So I think it's Carter Hart. I mean, Freddie Andersen's been unbelievable. He's been just a rock solid. He's such a calm-tempered guy. Like, you look at him during the game and it doesn't even look like he's really trying because he's that back good. He's just, he's a big man, just gets in the way of pucks. He's really good at, at stopping pucks behind the net on rims. And Carolina does a really good job at the blue lines to make them have bad dumps. And when a goalie can come out and stop it, make a pass to the forwards, and you can get out of your own end, that's a huge advantage. It's just less time in your own end. I think Hartzee's probably the better goalie maybe overall. I think if you were starting a team, you might take Hartzee. But Freddie's been unreal, man. Like, the knock on him is he's had some injuries you know, the last few years in playoffs or during the regular season.

But he's been healthy. He's been kicking. He's an unbelievable guy too, you know, easy guy to root for. But if you had to pick a guy, you'd go with, you'd go with Hartsy.

Hey, can you explain? We talked about it a little bit on Friday, probably did a bad job, but everyone complaining about the Knights expansion draft and how they basically got rules that no one else got and that's why they're so good. But I, like I said at the time, everyone was like, this, the expansion draft, they suck. Like, everyone said they did a bad job in the expansion draft, then they ended up being really good. So it feels like revisionist history. But what is it that everyone's pissed about with, with the Golden Knights and how they've been able to— they've only missed the playoff one time, they've been to the Cup Final 3 times out of 9 years. It's nuts how good they are as an organization.

Yeah, I mean, there's that famous clip like Witt had this year against, you know, saying that Buffalo had 0.000% chance of getting in the playoffs. And I believe Witt said something about Vegas that they were going to be the doormat of the league or something like that. And I don't think even when it was happening, you weren't like, oh my God, these— this team's going to be absolutely stacked. Like, how many guys? I think Riley Smith might be— who's— or Theodore is still there. There's not many guys still from that original team. So it's not like, you know, they got handed all these superstars. They did a great job. Like, you had to— I can't remember exactly the rules. It was like you had you could protect 12 guys and then obviously guys on entry level, the younger guys couldn't, couldn't get picked up by Vegas. So they just took advantage of, of the rules. And I don't think they did anything shady. You know, I could be wrong. It is Vegas. They are very, very cutthroat and they've proven that. But listen, if you're a fan of that team, you get in the playoffs every year except for one.

You're in your third Stanley Cup in 9 years. What's not to be excited for? And if you want to listen to other people bitch and complain about it, you're just laughing watching games.

What do you mean by that? That they're cutthroat, that they're known as being a cutthroat organization?

Well, the whole like Marc-André Fleury, he was, you know, he was probably the biggest name, I think, to go there during the expansion.

Like they fired their coach 2 months ago.

They fired their coach with, yeah, I mean, 7 years left.

It's been there since like, I think it was like the end, the very end of March.

Yeah. Yeah. And we just had on their old coach Bruce Cassidy, who rightfully so wasn't very happy about it. Obviously would have liked to seen it out and be with his, the team that he started in the beginning of the year. But yeah, they're one of those teams like if you're not producing for it, they'll get rid of you. Like Jonathan Marcheseau won the Conn Smythe for them. I think he's their all-time leading goal scorer. And, you know, it's— if they don't think that you're going to produce for them, they let you go. And he's in Nashville now. You know, there's, there's been guys that have came in there and they'll get rid of you. And then if you're drafted by them, you might as well not even get the jersey because you're getting traded. Or, you know, they're trading all their draft picks because they want to win. They want to win now. And I don't see it stopping. I just see the way that they are able to reload every year. Like even going out and getting a guy like Carter Hart this year, like, you know, he had some issues off the ice, you know, obviously found not guilty.

But he's one of those guys a lot of teams didn't want to take the chance on. And I played with Hartsey. He's an unbelievable guy. You know, I'm rooting for him this, this, this series. But, you know, a lot of teams didn't want to take a chance on him. And then he, he came in and he's been unbelievable. And he's been Torts' guy. Torts has been riding him the entire playoffs. I just think that they're an organization that wants to win. And if you're a fan of that team, you know, you're not worried every summer like, oh, we're going to be all right. Like, they're going to be good every year.

What about, uh, what about Mitch Marner? What's the discourse around the NHL been about Mitch? Like, are people rooting for Mitch now?

I think everybody in hockey except for Toronto people are rooting for Mitch. I think it'll be outstanding. And like, the best part about it is he's if he wins the Cup, like he's from Toronto, you get your day with the Cup, it's going to be in Toronto. Like I literally might try everything in my power to get invited to that party just to see people because you know how like he was playing in his hometown team. He was making a lot of money. He was unbelievable. He had some struggles in playoffs, whatever it is their whole team did. He's been unbelievable. So I think with the abuse that he's taken in the media, I think he's a guy you want, you want to see him win that Cup just because of, you know, as a player, as a former player, like when you're getting it from the media and, you know, people are telling you how bad you are and all this shit, like it must have been a lot on him. And he just looks like he's playing with, he's playing free, he's playing with the house's money right now and he's just having fun and he's playing really well too.

So I, I really hope he gets it.

Um, you said Bruce Cassidy was on the show. What is— did he see this coming? Like, what did he have? Uh, it's like one of those tough situations because you can't— if you're Bruce Cassidy, you can't say that like, oh yeah, I would have been in the Stanley Cup Final. Clearly they needed some type of change, but he was like— what was his take on the whole thing? It's got to be so weird.

Yeah, it is, because I mean, they went on a good run with Tortz. They might have went like 7-2 with him there. Uh, you could double-check that. But he, uh, they had a, they had a great run. And if Bruce was still there, maybe they don't win those games, they don't get in the playoffs, they miss by a point or two. So it wasn't an automatic lock that they were in the playoffs. So I think for them, they, they had to make some sort of change. It was after the deadline, so you can't get rid of any players. Um, you know, maybe you could send some younger guys down, but like a big splash that could turn up your group. And bringing in a guy like Torts, who you know, he's had the reputation of being hard on his guys, you know, and, you know, his— maybe his message runs, you know, thin after a little while. But I think it's the perfect sample size for him being there. He's been there for 2 weeks before the playoffs start, and then you get right into it. And, you know, he's a guy that he demands a lot out of his players and blocking shots and finishing checks and playing the right way.

But I think guys realize now, like, if you want to win, you're going to have to play that way. And I'm sure they're excited to have him. And I also think too, like, Tortz went over to— with the Four Nations team, Team USA, and then at Olympics, and he was an assistant coach. So, you know, the assistant coaches have to be more buddy-buddy with the players. And I think he— it looks anyways, outside looking in, that he's got a little more of the assistant coach in him where he's patting guys on the back, he's smiling on the bench, where before you saw him in Columbus or Philly, he was you know, grumpy all the time, looked pissed off. But now he, he looks like, hey, listen, I'm coming in here. I got a handful of games to end the season and my team goes on a run. I win a Stanley Cup. Like, how good is that? And I mean, I mean, I don't know exactly how old he is, but like, how much longer does he even want to do that?

He was right.

He was good on ESPN. He did a great job. And then it's like, you know, if I come in there, win a Stanley Cup, he might not even come back. You might just be like, you know what, I'll go out on top.

Yeah, he was, uh, yeah, they were 7-0-1 down the stretch when Torts took over. And, and so yeah, they might not— I mean, they probably still would have made the playoffs, but it's for a team that wasn't lighting it up, right? It's clear the change, and now they've, they've just been dummying teams down the— in the playoffs. Like, they're just on a roll. What, uh, most important question— I, I don't know if you've broken down this entire matchup. Have you sided one way or the other on who's going to win the crank-off?

Oh, the— oh, I mean, with Liam Bluttman?

I'm just saying, these are the only two teams in the NHL that have the— that crank the siren. It's the first ever crank-off in the Stanley Cup Final.

See, I feel like Carolina's is too small. Like, why wouldn't you have it obnoxiously big?

I—

listen, the little crank— like, make it—

even if it But don't chicks say that? Like, it doesn't matter, the size doesn't matter.

I feel like Tom Dundon just cheaped out on the size of the crest.

Yeah, he got the Timu one. Yeah.

Uh, but yeah, chicks say all the time, they're like, oh no, that's fine.

Yeah, they are. I mean, that's what we tell ourselves. Um, yeah, I don't know. That's a great question.

And, uh, great question. Thank you. Thank you. The crank off, it's, I mean, people are gonna be talking about the crank off.

I think, I think obviously Vegas is gonna have more, uh, star power. With the cranking off, um, then, uh, you know, then Carolina. Like, who would be Carolina's famous person? Petey Pablo would be a nice point.

You just have to go with like best— the best Panthers.

Like, really, Smith, if you, if you look up the, the history of people from Raleigh, I believe Brandi Love is from North Carolina. She's got good experience cranking.

Who's that? You don't— you—

yeah, nice, nice, very classy move.

Is your wife on the other side of this computer?

That was, you know, Brandi Love.

Yeah, I don't, I don't, uh, you know, you know You know who I've seen it, uh, you know who I've seen do the crank off, and I actually was with him last night, is, uh, Ric Flair. I was at the Kid Rock concert last night and was hanging with Ric Flair. What an absolute gentleman, this guy. How, how is he still kicking?

I don't know, I, I'm shocked that like gentleman would not be the first, but yes, you're right, he is a, he's a classy gentleman.

You do, he was awesome. He was a great guy.

The, the, I, I just looked on like notable crankers for the Hurricanes. Luke Keekly, Kara Lawson, uh, Scott McCreary, Chancellor Howell— that's the NC State Chancellor. They're gonna have to dig deep for this.

Yeah, you know who they should do is that— who is the big fella on, uh, North Carolina basketball?

DJ Burns.

Yeah, DJ Burns. They should have him do it.

Yeah, that'd be good.

Get him involved maybe. Um, I mean, they should— you have to make Michael Jordan say no.

Absolutely. Right.

You have to make him say no.

Gotta make Brad Stevens say no.

Yep. Make everybody say no.

Why not?

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know who the hell they could get.

There's gotta be some like country dudes. Ric Flair's a good one though.

Yeah. Ric Flair's a good one.

Uh, also I believe that this is since Paul Bissonnette came on this show and, and referred to Colorado as being the South, I think that this will make for what, 7 Stanley Cup champions in a row that are located at least at Colorado latitude or below. So like Biz was just early. What is it about the South? Why is the South dominating hockey now?

Um, I think it's, it's got to the point where like guys don't want to be in these big-time markets where you're getting harassed. Like a Mitch Marner, for example, like he's in Toronto. Like the big thing in like when, when I was coming in the league, it's like, dude, if you play in Toronto, if you play in Montreal, you get all these these car deals, you get a free car, you get— you can make a ton of money off the ice. But nowadays with guys having, you know, their Instagrams or TikToks, like, you can make your money elsewhere if you need to, um, so from any city. So I, I think the draw of playing in those big cities has came down a little bit. And, you know, guys want to live in nice weather, you know, guys' wives want to live in nice weather, the kids want to live in nice weather. So So I think just having the nice weather, having less media attention, you know, you can go on a 5-game skid where you're not hearing about it. You know, if you're going to pick up a coffee at Starbucks and or get grabbing a Stella Blue, there we go, boys.

Nice. So yeah, so it's one of those things where I think guys enjoy just kind of not having to be on 24/7. You can kind of live your life and, you know, you can't do that in a place like Toronto Calgary, Edmonton. But if you're in Tampa or Fort Lauderdale or Vegas or even more south, Colorado, like those, those guys, they can, they can live their lives and also enjoy the fruits and labor of being in the NHL.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Jans, last question. Roback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com promo code TIGG. 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code TIGG. Week. I'm not gonna make you ask questions, Zach, unless you have one.

Uh, yeah, what's up, Yance?

How are we, Zach? Are you from— are you from Land O'Lakes?

Uh, I'm not from Land O'Lakes. That's about an hour and a half for me.

Place like the butter—

I was just there, and I, I was actually— that's where I just came from. Um, and I thought for when I saw the sign on the exit, I thought you were from there.

He's from Lakeland. Lakeland.

Oh, Lakeland.

Lakeland's a beautiful area.

Oh, well, is there just butter everywhere?

Not, not, not a little bit. Okay, some lake, some butter, so some dairy, some water.

Okay, and the next town over is like Zephyrhills, you know, that the worst water in America.

Oh well, see, Zephyrhills used to, used to be spring, but it's not. They— I think the spring has dried up and they're just still putting spring water on the bottle, so not cool. Wow, misinformation on the waterfront from Zephyrhills. I think I could be wrong, I would back that allegedly.

All right, do you have a question?

Yeah, it just has been a lot of fun talking finals. Uh, I was curious. Final.

Final. People get mad about that.

All right, so we'll pivot. We'll talk finals. Do you have an early prediction on the New York Knicks and the Spurs series?

You know what, even being a guy from Boston, um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna ride with the Knicks here mostly because I don't want memes to, uh, you know, fly down here and, and beat up my, my whole family. Uh, very, very scared of that, man. Fan, um, as you should be. But I'm, I'm rooting for the, the Knicks. My good buddy John in the neighborhood, he's a big, he's a big Knicks fan, so we'll watch some of the games. And, uh, yeah, I don't know, can they do it? Who is San Antonio? They can win.

Okay, how many nights a week is John over your house?

It's actually, it's been a little bit, man, because I've been having to dial in. I've been having to dial in on the, on the hockey. So, but now hopefully they won't play on the same nights and we can just do, uh, every other night.

Yeah.

Yeah, but, um, because I feel like it was you guys I heard, like, if Oklahoma City won, there was no chance the Knicks were winning.

No, no, I thought the Knicks could beat either of these teams. It's going to be an awesome Finals. Like, it's going to be— it's basically a dream for the NBA. You have the number one rising star, uh, future face of this league, and the Knicks. So it's gonna be sick. Um, all right, so what's your— what's your prediction for this—

for the Stanley Cup I'm going Vegas in 6. I hope it goes 7, um, but I'm going Vegas in 6. I, I think they, I think they got the mojo going right now, uh, and at the end of the day, man, can you, can you root against your guy Liam Bluttman?

Well, that's what I was gonna say. I was gonna ask a follow-up. If you take Liam Bluttman out of this series, pretend he just doesn't exist, is it still Vegas in 6?

Maybe Vegas in 7. Okay.

Okay. So he's, he's worth a game.

Oh, 100%.

I love it.

I'd be shocked if they don't bring him out there.

That's some good analytics.

At least, Keith, we also went through this last year with the NBA where they didn't put the, uh, the Larry O'Brien Trophy on the court for the NBA Finals. And then I saw that the NHL hasn't had the Stanley Cup logo on the ice since 2020. Is that something that we should be bullying Gary Bettman about? Adam Silver got bullied and this year he put it back. So we could do that for the NHL if you wanted us to.

What do you mean on the ice?

Like the image of where it says like Stanley Cup playoffs with the Stanley Cup trophy right below the blue line. They used to have that on the ice.

Yeah, well, now they don't do anything on the ice because it's all like AI or however they put it in, right?

Yep.

AI.

Because I used to, I used to hate the when the it was like the playoffs, they'd have like sign in, right? I hated it on there. There. So it's good, it's way better now when the ice is clean. There's no, there's no markings on the ice, obviously, except for at center ice with the team logo. But, um, I'm sure they would— they won't have anything. I don't know, I've never thought of— that's a crazy thing to even think about.

No, it is crazy. But this is the stuff that we think about watching sports on TV. And the fact that they don't have the trophy on the— I think it would look nice if the trophy was on the ice.

That's all I'm saying.

Put the trophy on the ice.

It's a sharp looking trophy too.

It's a really nice looking trophy.

How about how nice, and they don't— I feel had 4 of them, uh, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference trophy. I think it's the King Clancy and the, uh, um, what's the other one? Clearly I never won one. Um, but those are beautiful too, and they don't get enough love. Like, they'd be better than every other trophy in the, in the, in, you know, the major sports.

Yeah, hockey does trophies better than everyone.

That's a fact. The Prince of Wales trophy.

Prince of Wales.

That's right. And the Clarence Campbell Bowl for the Western. But yeah, people don't like them because you don't touch You're not allowed to touch 'em before. It's like bad luck.

You can touch 'em. You can touch 'em. But so you, some people don't. I think both teams didn't, didn't touch it this year, which I, I like it when one team does and one team doesn't. 'Cause I was very superstitious where I would be thinking about that if I was playing.

Yeah.

I'd be like, oh my God, we fucking touched it. They didn't. If they go up, well, God, we're done. But I like how they both didn't, or this year they, they both didn't touch it. So we'll see what happens. Yeah.

I'm looking at pictures right now. They both did not touch it. Shit.

Smart, smart. What's, what's Meatball Max doing?

Uh, Meatball Max is, uh, he's, he's just doing— he got married again this weekend.

I got married for the first time this weekend.

Congratulations, guys.

Yeah, twice.

I'm getting married twice. Every— we've had 2 bachelor parties, 3 weddings. No, same girl. Yeah, yeah.

I'm getting married over— I'm getting married outside of the country. Can't legally get married outside of the country, so I did.

Are you wearing a ring right now?

That's why.

Oh wow, look at that. I'm getting married outside the country.

Oh, so you're not even married. There you go. Yeah.

Where are you getting married? It's obviously Italy, but where?

No, it's not Italy. Honeymoon is Italy though. Honeymoon is Italy.

North Philly.

North Italy.

Italy.

Yeah, no, in, uh, the Caribbean.

Oh nice, where?

Saint Martin.

Oh nice, I got married in Saint John.

Hell yeah, look at us!

Look at you guys!

Yeah, that's outside the country.

No, oh, it's a U.S.— that's a U.S. U.S. territory.

Yeah, gotcha.

But I had to get on a plane.

That's outside the country.

That's actually really close to Epstein Island.

That's kind of great.

Yeah, that's Oh, that's a good thing.

Oh yeah, yeah. Is it?

Who's Brandy Love? Wow. What's Epstein Island?

Got it. Wow. Loud and clear. Oh man. All right, Jens, you're the best. We're gonna enjoy the hell out of this hockey. Uh, go, go Knights, I think. Yeah, I think it's got to be VGK.

It's definitely go Knights.

Yeah.

Who's everybody got?

I, I got VGK in 7.

I got Knights in 6.

Boys in the studio, I guess I'll take Hurricanes because everyone's taking the Knights.

Yeah, that would be—

Hurricanes, you're actually a piece of shit. It's Liam Bluntman, dude. Like, the guy bleeds red.

Wait, you guys know his name's Bluntman, right?

Biz does not. Okay, that's fine.

I don't want to change, so don't tell— don't tell Biz otherwise.

Biz definitely thinks that Bluntman smokes a shitload of weed. And like, Bluntman is his nickname. Yeah, yeah, yes.

Dude, I was FaceTiming with Liam the other night, and it was him and what's his brother's name?

Luke. Luke.

Yeah, it was him and Luke. Luke's laying on the ground, not even looking at the TV. They're in their living room, and I'm like, do you guys tell each other you love each other? And he's like, no, never said it once. Never said it once. I was like, what about to your parents? He was like, no, never said it once. Do you love them? Oh yeah, yeah, I love them. Just doesn't say it.

No, it's not about ball, so why would you— why would you be talking about that? All right, Booth, go real quick.

Memes.

I think the Hurricanes are gonna win, but I'm rooting for Bluntman.

Okay, so that was a non-answer.

Yeah, am I taking— am I taking back my Knicks thing?

You're right, go Knights.

Okay, okay, there we go. Me, Max.

Knights in 4.

Knights in Four. Nice, VGK.

I'll retweet Knights in Four.

Okay, nice. All right, so Hank, Hank's gonna end up winning, and then yeah, this is the death graphic because Hank got one.

What?

The death graphic is if it is— if everyone picks the same side.

Yeah, it's not death.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was actually big.

But he's gonna also be Soggy sorrows if you lose.

It's hurricanes.

I don't think so.

No. All right, Yance, you're the best. Thank you as always.

Get some burgers in you.

Love you, boy. All right. See you. OK, good show, boys. We got the finals starting Tuesday and Wednesday. Can't wait. Excited. And then we're, we're, we're 2 weeks away from Rushmore season, which we got to figure that out.

Damn. Best time of year, right?

We should do something.

What we should—

I don't know, we should do something fun.

I agree with you there. I'm saying we got to figure out— I agree. I don't think— I think we should make the punishment something fun that we can have fun with.

Frosted Tips was cool.

Frosted Tips was fun.

Maybe just go more orange next time.

I kind of want to get them again.

Yeah, we— but we have to figure out what the teams are, whatever, what the format.

What are we— yeah, we have the format. Yeah, we should. We should figure it out.

We should figure that out. I think we got to go solo again.

6 of us.

Hey, so, okay, so it was a lot.

So it was a lot. 6 would take hours to do. What are you gonna say, Hank? Nothing.

What? Yeah, we figured it out.

What's wrong?

We should figure it out.

What if we did like—

I haven't— something's wrong.

I have thoughts, but I don't want to say thoughts.

I don't say thoughts. I know.

That's why I'm laughing at you. What if we did 8 and then be like, we shouldn't talk about this?

I didn't start this conversation.

No, but you kind of did.

No, you did.

Like, that's a fucking lie. Big Cat said we got to figure this out.

Yeah, but then you started the conversation about it.

That's him starting the conversation. You guys don't fucking listen.

No, I don't think so, dude.

I think you might have started it. Yeah.

44.

What are you thinking, Max? What do you think?

I don't actually know who started, so I don't want to start it.

I continued.

I said Mount Rushmore season's coming up and we got to figure it out.

Yeah, that's you.

Then you started talking about figuring it out.

You started the conversation. I think, I think both you guys started the conversation. I— Max, you got to finish the conversation.

You know what?

Now I'm saying nothing about the conversation. I don't know why I got so angry.

And that's that. That's a good way to end the conversation.

That was an unnecessary— that was an unnecessary—

you know what though? First blowup as a married man. Feels good.

Yep. Still got it.

Still got it. You just tested out the ring.

I don't know why I yelled. I shouldn't have yelled.

It was great.

It was— that was crazy.

A lot of times your yells make sense because that made me recognize you. That was—

well, Hank does his stupid little fucking faces.

Yeah, it was. That's true.

No, Max, we did this. We did this already. You just did a PFT. You just did a PFT.

What?

We talked about the faces already. But did you We did that 2 weeks ago.

Yeah, we have all the shows. Talk about Hank Smith.

You guys do this all the time.

Do what?

Just try to get me fucking mad. No. Yeah, we did every episode.

I didn't really try.

I didn't really try.

This one was on me.

This one was on me.

This one was on me.

Hand up. There's zero.

Attempt at that.

15. Go 11.

26. Happy belated birthday to Mike Breen. 21.

Last week.

56.

17. Very belated.

Yeah. And he's on the show.

Happy birthday to Mincy. It's today. But, you know, by the time this episode comes out, won't be his birthday anymore. But figure that guy needs as much credit as he can get.

Yep. 72.

44.

75, 75. Anyone, anyone?

Same number.

Jacob, you think anyone else is gonna ever get this? Jacob, do you think anyone else is going to get this? I'm gonna say yes. He's a good guy.

38, 38, 38, nothing, nothing.

37, 36.

All right, happy birthday to Santana Moss, and happy birthday to Swaggy P, Nick Young. Happy birthday, Nate Robinson. And happy birthday on Wednesday. I know it's a show day and we can wait for Wednesdays. We'll wait for Wednesday. Happy birthday. Yeah. A barstool one on Wednesday. You know what? I'll say it so we can buy our presents. Happy birthday to Kate on Wednesday. Tuesday, happy birthday to Eddie Lacey. Go get some Chinese food, buddy.

Listen, that when, when, when the Packers had a running back that was a little too fat, that was That was a good, good problem.

Good problem to have.

Yeah.

Yep.

You—

boy, it really makes you miss those days.

Love you guys.