Transcript of Tracy McGrady, Knicks Go Up 2-0, James Harden Is Still James Harden, Boat Pictures And Fyre Fest 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 Stella Blue, fuel your day, and help save a pet's life. You can follow our progress in real time throughout the campaign by watching the adoption tracker on our site. Grab yours now at StellaBlueCoffee.com, Amazon, and select retailers nationwide. On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we've got Tracy McGrady on the show talking some ball. Great story about Scrooge McDucking into $500,000 cash. We're going to talk some ball. We've got some playoffs to get through. The Knicks are up 2-0. The Thunder look unstoppable.

We also have some more boat pictures, or boat pictures, period, not more. The story that will never die. We're going to talk some Fyre Fest. We have a little recap of the live show, which was awesome. And it's all brought to you by our friends at Planet Fitness. Everybody can get strong at Planet Fitness. High-value membership that supports any fitness journey, as low as $15 a month, over 2,800 club locations. Most clubs open 24 hours. We're all getting strong with Planet Fitness. We have the Planet Fitness corner in the Barstool HQ, Chicago HQ office. We have— I've been doing the free weights, the treadmill. I saw some guys on the treadmill today. That was great. And, uh, they have it all. So stair climber, Smith machine, everything at Planet Fitness. We're all strong on this planet. So go get Planet Fitness, get a membership today. Join today in club, online, or in the free PF app. Hours, amenities, and offers vary by club. Check out planetfitness.com or stop by your local club for more information. Must be 18 years old to enroll, or 13 to 17 with a parent/guardian. Okay, let's go.

Football guy, Patino, AWR.

Welcome to Part of My Take presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Friday, May 8th. And boys, I think the Lakers are in a lot of trouble. We just watched the end of this game. The Thunder are so goddamn good. Credit to the Lakers for being up at half, but that third quarter, they just— Shea didn't even play basically in the third quarter. He got that technical. They just ratcheted up the defense, and defense leading to offense. Jared McCain just whapping threes. Would never have traded that guy. I don't know, PFT, like that— we said this before, it's not shocking because it's like we knew the Thunder were that much better than the Lakers. But when we had a halftime where the Lakers were up 1, you're like, oh, maybe, I don't know. Nope, nope. 18-point win. The Thunder are so goddamn good. They can do it. They have guys after guys after guys. They just basically, when they need to get going, they'll throw the— throw the torture chamber at you. They'll throw Caruso at you. They'll get it going on the defensive end, then get it going on the offensive end, and there's nothing you can do about it.

They were cruising. Congratulations to the Lakers for, for winning a half though. I feel like that might be as good as it gets. It doesn't look like Luka's coming back. Uh, it was even when the Lakers were up momentarily, it felt like they were getting every single break. Everything was going their way. And then yeah, they're just too deep. The Thunder's way, way, way too deep. Chet had a monster night on defense. Caruso always just scrappy, playing great defense. And, uh, yeah, there's really nothing that they could do, right? The Lakers are done. The Lakers, they should be allowed to give up. I, I would not hold it against LeBron's legacy if he did the fake injury right now.

Yeah, I mean, it's like you just look at what the Thunder can do where they just have so many good players, and SGA has not had an SGA-type game yet where he's, you know, making everything in sight and scoring 35 points. But it doesn't matter because in walks Jared McCain and Kayson Wallace and they go— I think they went, uh, 5 or 6 for 8 from 3. Like, it's just, how do you stop that when you have that many guys on the bench that can give you good minutes? And, and their defense is always so connected and they play so well. And harass everyone and everything feels difficult. I just— yeah, it's— the Thunder are just that good. I, I am also, you know, this is the part of the playoffs where people start complaining about flopping and all that stuff. I'm not gonna— I'm just gonna respect the Thunder greatness because that's what I feel like when I'm watching this team. I get it, there's some things that you might not like. If you're watching this team play defense and then have, have guy after guy hit big shot you have to take a step back and be like, that— they're just a great, great basketball team.

And there's not a lot of answers for a team like the Lakers who are undermanned and injured, and they just don't have enough.

I mean, yeah, tonight they didn't need to flop. The flops weren't necessary. Um, it was, it was just good basketball. They just dominated with good basketball. Um, had a lot of guys off the bench scoring points. You mentioned Jared McCain. That guy's really good.

Really good.

That guy, that's a guy you don't let out the building if you get him inside your building.

Agreed.

Agreed.

Lock him down guy. And if you do get him out, you get a king's ransom for him, which I'm sure Philadelphia got a decent amount of picks for him.

Yeah. Jared McCain and Ayo. That's what you got to say about the trades that happened in this. Oh, you heard? You want me to say it again?

Ayo?

Yeah.

Well, you didn't say his name right, but fuck it.

You knew what I was saying.

Yeah, dude. The Bulls were trying to lose.

So you just trade young guys who can go for 43 in a playoff game?

Well, he was gonna— he was gonna be a free agent. I mean, the Bulls are— the Bulls are not— why are you making it about the Bulls? The Bulls are a non-competitive—

you're trying to dunk on me? You did the exact same thing.

No, the Bulls are a non-competitive franchise that is a joke of a franchise run by absolute morons and fools. The Sixers are trying to win a title and they have an MVP on the roster.

No one said—

I just thought that came back really good tonight, and he was a guy that, that should have been, uh, Rookie of the Year.

Just don't throw stones at glass houses.

I'm not. We also got 4 second-round picks for it, dummy.

We got 4 picks total.

What picks?

A first and 2 and 3 seconds.

I would rather have 4 seconds personally, because that way you can focus all your scouts on, on second-round talent as opposed to having Like, now you're spread all over the board. You have to have guys that are scouting top 10 picks too.

That's— this is a reach, Max. Look, I, I— yes, it is, because the, the situations are completely different in the fact that Jared McCain could help the Sixers right this second. I know they were trying to tank and trying to finally lose and try to clean house and everything. The— I, I'll defend you on that. You said it at the time, you're like, why, why did, why did the Sixers make this trade?

Because the Sixers needed to have this trade.

Yeah.

No Philly fans wanted to make this trade. Nick Nurse wouldn't play him in the first half of the year, and nobody knew why. He would get like 6 minutes a game for a team that had no bench. Like, I get there was a lot of guards that were like, there was a logjam at guards and it was tough to get throw minutes around. But if a guy is that good, like, if the Thunder can find minutes for him, the Philadelphia fucking 76ers can find minutes for him.

Agreed.

Right now we're going with a 7-man lineup at best, and we have no scoring off the bench. We have one guy who can score off the bench.

Yeah.

Quentin Grimes is the only guy who can score off the bench, and it's like once every 3 games he gives us something. Jared McCain's coming in here the past 2 games. He's been— it's frustrating. He has 8 points.

It's frustrating. Yeah. I think he's 4 for 5, 4 for 5. He's 8 for 10, and he's just a microwave.

And it's exactly what the Sixers could use. Like Tyrese Maxey wouldn't have— would have had to play 50 minutes yesterday if we had Jeremy McCain.

Yeah. And it's, it's, uh, yeah, I don't really know what else to say about this series. I mean, watch Jeremy McCain tonight. You are like, how, how, how is Sam Presti get— how did he get him? How is— how did the Thunder, who already had everything, just continue to add?

They'll probably get like another top 10 pick on Sunday when they do the lottery.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's crazy. They 100%.

You know, that's going to happen.

Reeves. Reeves was awesome tonight for the Lakers.

He was.

Give him a little bit of credit because he was explosive and he's a guy that like he was trying to do what LeBron used to do 10 years ago in games like these and series like these. It was basically Reeves against the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight. And that just wasn't enough.

Yeah. And it was a good bounce back game because game one, which we didn't recap, but we kind of nailed, or at least some of us like the Thunder were going to win easily. The— he was bad in Game 1. He was. And he, like, he needed a bounce-back game. But again, it doesn't matter. I don't even think if Luka was playing it would matter. I really don't.

I think it'd matter a little bit.

No, it would matter a little bit, but I'm saying it— Luka would— a healthy Luka, the Lakers still do not win this series.

Yeah, probably not. Yeah, I mean, he's not going to guard anybody.

Like, they might win a game or two, but like— and yeah, I mean, maybe Game 3, they're You get the bounce of like being at home and, you know, the Thunder have been beat before in the playoffs, but still, I just don't even think with Luka, this, this Lakers team, they're just, they're just completely outmanned by the Thunder because the Thunder are that good.

We should, we should nitpick the Thunder. I feel like we owe it to them. They've reached that level of dominance where we have to just try to find something wrong with them.

Lou Dort's got to shoot better.

Dort's got to shoot, but he doesn't. He won't, but he has to. But you'd like to see him try. Um, I don't like the t-shirts tonight. I didn't like the dark blue shirts. Where are the light-colored ones? They pop, they're more intimidating. The dark blue ones, you kind of— and then the colors that were on the court tonight, you kind of lose track of where the game is being played.

This is, this is an Adam Silver problem that we got to talk to him about next time he comes on, because I said the same thing. The, the— obviously the t-shirts were to match the jerseys in the court This is the one alternate game they have to do. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I love the blue that the Thunder usually have. And I just— yeah, it was— that was disgusting by the Thunder. There we go. We nitpicked them.

I did like the outline of the state of Oklahoma that was on the court, though. Yeah, that was a nice touch.

They're interviewing Jared McCain right now. Blake Griffin, our good friend Blake Griffin, is talking to Jared McCain in the Amazon Prime studio. They're probably saying like, dude, you're so good. Also, Jared McCann, if you Google him, because I was trying to figure out what the trade was, his, his like main image picture is just him shirtless, like looking real sassy.

That's sick. I would love it if that came up for me.

Yeah. All right. The other game, boys, I, I love James Harden.

Yeah.

It's just he's so You could just set your watch to it. It's just so funny that it's just as the playoffs go, we're going to get James Harden missing a ton of shots, falling all over himself, doing iso ball. And not only that, we're having this discussion before the show, PFT, Max and Zach, because you guys aren't here. Do we as a new— we newly realized that we are a strip club podcast. Primarily Zach and Memes. As a strip club podcast, is James Harden— he's kind of our GOAT, like we have to defend him, right?

No.

Well, I actually, I went through some stats tonight because I was talking to our good friend Ryan Rosillo the other night, who, by the way, still owes me a mashup highlight reel of James Harden Game 1. Yes. He's like, you won't believe all these plays. I'm making a highlight reel. I'm going to send it to you. He promised that to me. So if my analysis is lacking a little bit, I hate to throw Ryan under the bus. He did promise me a highlight reel that he would handcraft for me that has not made it to my desk yet. But based on what I saw tonight, I went online and I did some math. I think James Harden just does not give a fuck the playoffs because it's such a massive pay cut that he has to take every single postseason. So in the second round right now, each player is getting, according to last year's figures, the playoff pool might have changed a little bit this year. Each player is getting about $37,000 for this, the second round playoff series. That's regardless of if it's 4 games or if it's 7 games. So that would be a maximum of about 10 days' work for James, which would mean it would kind of extrapolate to $111,000 per month.

Okay.

Is what James Harden is making based on his play in this series. James Harden regularly, he makes 40— let's see, he makes $3.5 million a month, $42 million a year. He is making approximately 30 times less. Than he would normally make to play basketball based on what he's doing in this series. I think at this point he's like, it's not worth my time. I'm not getting paid enough. Fuck this shit. I'm going to go to the titty bar. Yeah, I think James Harden has been like this his whole career. Some guys really are wired because they really want to win badly and they want to have a championship. They care about legacy and all that shit. James Harden, he's like, no, it's my job. I'm awesome at my job. I love being awesome at my job.

You know why?

Because I get hella lap dances because I get paid so much money.

Yeah.

But not going to pay me a lot of money. I'm not really going to be that motivated in the playoffs. So I think that's the case for James.

Yeah, I agree. It's, it's a compelling case through 2 games. He's got 9 field goals made, 11 turnovers. This is the 4th, 4th, 4th game of these playoffs that he has more turnovers than field goals made. He had 0 points in the fourth quarter. He had that, that, that turnover at the, at the end that was very funny where he just kind of started falling. He like broke his own ankles. And I listen, I know there's going to be a lot of people being like, bum, like this, that, or the other, probably all true. Like in the playoffs we're talking about. I think I love him because you can just set your watch to it and it's, there's something about having a consistent like a guy who consistently shows up, uh, and says, hey, you know what, the, the lights are too bright. I just love it. You just know, you just know you, when you turn on the game in a playoff game in the second round, the lights will be too bright for James Harden.

I think we should embrace debate on this. We might disagree a little bit. Is James Harden a choker? I don't think he is.

No, no, I don't think, I don't think he's a choke artist.

I think to be a choke artist, the moment has to be too big for you. You have to care too much about it and get nervous. I think James Harden's just like, fuck it, I don't really care.

He— I would say he was maybe when he won an MVP, then you could be like, all right, choke artist. But like, at this, this point of James Harden's career, no, I do not think he's a choke artist because I just think we all know it's gonna happen. It's not it just doesn't feel like, oh man, he choked. It's like, no, dude, it's just James Harden. It's, it's, it's, it's mid-May. It's late May. Guy just doesn't want to be playing ball right now.

And I think that if you, if you asked him, like, if you have to really deeply care about something to choke at it. So he's like, I can't really disappoint myself or anybody else if I don't give my all.

Yeah.

Like, okay, maybe if I tried harder, I would have won. But guess what? I didn't care.

And they, they just— the Cavs as a team, like, Evan Mobley had 1 rebound. I saw there was like a moment where Donovan Mitchell just didn't even try to fight through a screen. And I can't remember, I think it was Dean Wade was just like, come on, man. And it just— they feel— feels bummer-ish for the Cavs because this is a team that has been, you know, been building, building, building. And the Pistons, all credit in the world to Tobias Harris, who had another 20-point game. Duncan Robinson, who just kept on hitting big 3 after big 3. Also Duncan Robinson, incredible playoff mustache. Like, he knows that that thing is not really working, but it is working because it's kind of so bad that it's good. And it's like, whoa, is this— he almost— his mustache is like the beginning of like a Netflix documentary where bad shit's about to happen. And it's like showing him, you know, smiling and stuff. You're like, ah, something off with this guy. That's the mustache where it's like he's not doing that mustache being like, look how full it is. He's like, hey, I might go crazy. I might fucking hit a bunch of threes in your face.

It reminds me of like, uh, early stages Sidney Crosby playoff beard. Yeah, like late 2000 Sidney Crosby playoff beard is what it's looking like.

And then, and then Kate Cunningham, who's like, you know, he— we were talking about the ascension of his superstardom, like in the fourth quarter. He's like, yeah, I gotta take this game over. And the Pistons, I mean, they, they struggled with the Magic for 5 out of the 7 games. I don't— maybe they, maybe they lose a couple in Cleveland, but they, they look like the better team. And Cade Cunningham is the best player on the court, and that usually can help you win a playoff series.

Yeah, he was great passing the ball tonight too. I think, uh, I, I think it's— I would say 6 games Pistons in 6 is what it feels like to me. I do think that the that they're going to win a couple of games at home. The Cavs will. But the Cavs did go from being like young and really, really fun to just kind of depressing and sad real quick. And I don't know what to put my finger on. It's easy to just say like James Harden because it's playoff Harden. But I don't know if there's anything else to it. So I don't know what you guys saw, but they do feel like they've just become a pretty big bummer after a couple of postseasons where it's like, Super exciting, super young. You don't know what you're going to get, but it's going to be a good time.

Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, good, good for the Pistons though. The Detroit basketball chant always goes in the playoffs.

I would like to see the Pistons put a little bit more color in the key. Okay, I'd like to see some, some blue and some red on the court. Um, like, the wood grain is kind of classic, but it's, it's looking too much like a 1970 YMCA gym.

I kind of like that classic look. Like, it feels classic to me where there's just not a lot of noise. Not a lot of noise.

I'd like to see the logo be smaller if you're not going to go with any of the paint on the inside, though. I think that would make it look even classiker.

Yeah, more classiker. I like that word. Classiker. Uh, any words on Tobias Harris, Max? Because he, he has been playing well. Don't care.

He's been fine.

Okay. Are you still fired up?

Uh, Flyers are dead. Okay, I, I watched, I watched that whole game and it was— their, their power play is atrocious. Their power play is atrocious. They also just had a 5-on-3 and they couldn't even get a shot on goal.

They also, like, the first period, they just couldn't get the, the puck in the net. I feel like they were so close, and that's credit to goaltending, but yeah, I don't know hockey.

I don't know hockey, but I feel like when you have a man advantage, you should at least get some shots on goal. That was my biggest takeaway of the game is they had so many power plays. I was like, all right, this is the time. This is the time. Now, now we go. Now we go. And then it was just like nothing. It was just a whole lot of nothing.

Yeah. From my experience playing against the Hurricanes in the playoffs, Max, you're going to want to score a goal in the first 10 minutes because if you, if you do the thing where you have a couple that go off the post, really good scoring opportunities, maybe you blow a power play and you're looking at a zero after that first 10 minutes, you know that game's over. You have to, you have to like not make any mistakes early in the game so you can get some confidence and play with the lead. Otherwise you're totally fucked. Yeah.

Yeah. Do we have anything else before we get back to the studio and ourselves altogether? No, Hank, this episode he's traveling. He's got a wedding. I, I will say that, Hank, we, we're gonna have to demand a tux pic from him. We need to see him in the tux. You gotta see him.

I'm also really upset he's not here to see my new mic.

Yeah, you—

I thought that—

I—

it doesn't sound good, Max.

I, I sound so good, Max.

The people, the people who are listening better appreciate this because Hank was adamant.

Say thank you, people.

Everyone say thank you, Hank.

Fucker. Hashtag Hank you.

I saw Big Cat.

So we did go home. Big Cat went back to the office because his basement's being refinished. But is Zach on the couch?

No, he's right next to you.

He's right there.

What's up, PFT? I'm at home.

I'm in the office right now. Bottom right corner.

Okay.

All good. I didn't know that you were there.

Yeah, I'm in the office hybrid right now.

And I just heard your voice a second ago and it sounded beautiful, and I assumed it was a studio microphone, but you got the Hank mic too.

Yeah, we got some decent mics. We got some mics flowing. All the boys sound good.

We had a little issue, PFT, before you joined. Zach got up to take a piss and we were just like, Zach, we got to get Zach a bigger apartment. We're looking at his entire apartment right now. We like, we got to find a bigger apartment for him. Uh, he deserves more. He can afford more. He deserves more. And then he came back and we realized that he, he, his headphones were on the entire time.

He just listened to us say all of that completely untethered, untethered on the headphones. Uh, I was worried you guys could hear me pee. I kind of freaked out in there, but then I remember the mic's in here, so I was good.

That kind of happened this morning. We were doing Wake Up Barstool. and we had Taylor McGregor on. She does the sidelines for the Cubs and some college football. So she was on.

Let's introduce her the correct way.

What's that?

She's friend of Mincy.

She is, I guess, a friend of Mincy's too. But so she was on the show. It's a commercial. We're about to come back. Titus gets up to go to the bathroom. They didn't cut his mic off. And so he goes in the bathroom and just takes a big piss. And Taylor had just popped onto the Zoom call. And all she hears is just Titus just pouring straight out.

And Titus is a hog.

He's got a hog. You could tell from the stream too, like, for sure, way down. Bang, dude.

He's— guy is fucking hung. But yeah, the Taylor McGregor is great. The Austin Reeves, I'm finding this. So I think Austin Reeves said, that's some bullshit for you to talk to me like that, pussy, to one of the refs. And then they had the meeting. I still don't really understand what the meeting— that was— I'm trying not to be too mean to the Lakers because the Thunder are just that much better. It's not— we all thought this, but to watch the Lakers have a meeting with the refs after losing by 18 and the Thunder just standing there laughing and giggling, that's a tough look. Like, that's a tough look. I don't know what was said. I don't know if there's real gripes. But it's just a bad look to have one team being like something's not fair and the other team just laughing and cackling and having a great time.

Yeah, it's like the trial's over, the judge banged the gavel, the prosecuting attorney is out on the steps of the courthouse doing a press conference, and then your attorney's going up to the judge being like, hey, can we just talk about one thing before we, before we call it a full day? Yeah, like it's not, it's not good.

By the way, shout out our guy Taylor Heinicke. Incredible career.

Yeah, big time. Sad to see him go. 33. I think he's only 33 right now. So I thought he would have a couple more years in him. Would have liked to see him play last year. But I did feel like when the Colts decided to go with Philip Rivers instead of Taylor Heinicke, that seemed like the writing was on the wall for him. Yeah.

Yeah.

But he was a great, great player. We'll always have that cover against Tom Brady in the playoffs.

Yep.

And that dive— he was— I think he's one of the best dive for the pylon guys that I've ever seen in my life. And I know that he is one of the best point downfield while he's running around scrambling. And then he does something really awesome or really stupid, but something really exciting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I also have those shoes from Taylor Heinecke, PFD.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah. I think about Taylor Heinecke every time I put those shoes on.

Really? Yeah, that's a lot of things about Taylor Heinicke.

I got them from PFT after the— after Taylor Heinicke beat the Eagles in a regular season game. That was, that was the greatest loss. That was the greatest loss of my time here at PMT. I got a great pair of sneakers out of it.

That's right, that was a loss that got Doug Pederson fired. That was a loss that got Ron Rivera into the playoffs at 7-9. What an incredible loss that was for for everybody, for everyone.

A hell of a football game.

I guess I can tell this Taylor Heinecke story now, now that he's announced his retirement. But when he was about to be a free agent, I told him, I was like straight up, man, like I hope that you just get a lot of money because you were a backup. You were living on your couch in 2020 or your sister's couch when Ron Rivera called you to see if you could step in in a playoff game. I want you to cash in. So whatever city, don't— I'm not going to be like mad at you for not taking a hometown discount, whatever. You do what you have to do. Go get paid. And he was like, yeah, I appreciate that, man. I was like, so are there any cities? We started taping a show called Spittin' It at the Super Bowl where we were just playing catch, throwing it back and forth, slinging it, slinging it, slinging it. Sorry, slinging it. And one of my questions to him was like, is there any place that you don't want to go? And he starts throwing the pass back and he goes, yeah, my agent's probably gonna kill me for saying any city, but yeah, I don't really want to go to Atlanta.

And I was like, oh, why is that? He's like, ah, you know, like got so much family there. Would like to kind of spread my wings, but yeah, I don't want to be a Falcon. I'm like, cool. All right, sweet. So we go back from the Super Bowl. We're about to put that episode out. Honestly, I think we're 2 hours away from putting it out. And it gets announced that Taylor Heinicke has signed with the Atlanta Falcons because they were offering the most money. So I text him, I'm like, hey, man. And he goes, hey, I was just about to text you. Can you cut that part out about me saying I don't want to play for the Falcons? I was like, yeah, I got you.

No worries. We should imagine if you'd put it out. Like, if you put it out like an hour before, that would have sucked.

It almost happened.

Yeah, um, but yeah, great career for him. Okay, let's get back in studio, all of us together. We've got more playoffs to talk about. We've got Charles Barkley versus Draymond, boat pictures, Tracy McGrady, Fyre Fest. We're back in studio.

Wait, wait, before we go back to studio, we should send the lottery one more time.

Why?

Lottery Sunday night. I want to do one more, one more sim.

Oh, I thought you meant lottery ball.

No, no NBA lottery. Yeah. I've got it pulled up right here. You want me to do it? I got it.

Simming it. Washington number 1. There you go.

Let's go. Let's go.

With those guys. Number 2. That's pretty good. I just, I simmed it 4 times. You, you were 1, 2, and then 5. And then back to—

would be kind of a, kind of a nightmare. You—

5? No, dude, there's so many good players. This draft is going to be awesome because there's— you can— you at least know all the names.

I got to get top 4. I have to get top 4. Okay.

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Restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire 7 days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Limited time offer. Boys, let's talk some Wednesday night action. The New York Knickerbockers are up 2-0 on the Philadelphia 76ers. That felt, PFT, like the perfect trap game for the Knicks, in that Embiid out with a right— what does he got, right?

Right body.

His right body. Yeah, probably something with the appendectomy.

His entire right side is just— yeah, broken down.

You get your appendix out ankle.

Although the appendix was like— that was a loser appendix. Yeah, I think getting the appendix out is what propelled him to be a winner.

Um, but yeah, and then Mitchell Robinson also out, illness. So it's like we go into this game like, okay, it's just gonna be shorter guys running around. And the Sixers looked good. They, they were tough.

Yeah, they're winning.

They ran out of gas.

They ran out of gas. You don't have enough guys.

Tyrese Maxey really, like, he had to do so much and he truly ran out of gas.

He played— he almost played 50 minutes.

Yeah, played his dick off. Big Cat, do you think that the Sixers are better without Joel Embiid?

For 3 quarters?

Yeah, I would say so.

For 3 quarters.

Yes. Honestly, like Joel Embiid, he was great in the last series. I feel like he just left it all out on the court. I hope he can come back. I hope that his right side recovers entirely by the time they get back to Philly. But this is going to be one of the games that the Sixers will look at and be like, we, we probably should have won that.

We could have stolen one.

We could have stolen that.

Could have won that. Could have is not the correct word.

Yeah, you know what, hand up, I think Max is right. I think it's a white— they could have won that one. That was one that if they look back on, it's like, if we had that one, which we could have, different series.

I do, I, I think they need— hot take— they need Joel Embiid if they want to be competitive in this series. Because listen, I'm a Drummond guy. There was that one moment where he got put on skates by Jalen Brunson and it looked like, it looked like one of us guarding. He, Jalen Brunson didn't even really do that many moves. He just kind of shifted.

Yeah.

And And Drummond was like, I'm fucked, because it was in space. And then Adam Bona is just addicted to fouling. He just loves to foul.

He—

see, here's the thing, like, we have, we have Adam Bona and Barlow who can— are good defensively in this series because they're athletic, like, a little bit undersized guys that can run with, with the Knicks. But they're both such a negative on offense that you're just playing 5 on 4. Yeah, like, Barlow had a couple good plays on offense. But then there were times in the fourth quarter where you were asking him to hold the ball for way too long. And it's like, this guy should not be put in this situation with the game on the line. And he threw it away in like a really crucial spot. He's just— he's just not a fourth quarter offensive player. And we were asking him to be that.

And you— and you— it was like set up perfectly because Jalen Brunson was not making every shot. He wasn't like the Jalen Brunson, oh shit, he's going to get the easiest 35 ever. And you had, you know, the first half, it was like they kind of punched the Knicks in the mouth like, hey, we're going to actually play here.

There was—

I think I saw the stat. There were 25 lead changes, which was the most in a playoff game since Game 7, the Spurs-Clippers first round in May of 2015. That's 11 years. It was a really competitive, awesome game. Ran out of gas. Just ran out of gas.

I mean, you talk about being a Drummond guy. Drummond guys had a tough night last night. Yeah, a tough night.

Listen, you got to take the highs and lows. If you're, if you're, if you're a— I'm probably going on like day 15 Drummond guy. If you're day 15 Drummond guy, which is being a day one Drummond guy.

Yeah, yeah, the exact same thing. Yeah.

Now, but I mean, I think there's just something about—

I need your comment. I need, I need your specific, explicit comment about one thing that Drummond did.

Okay. But before you say— ask me this question, I'm now realizing I might have some anti-Joel Embiid bias because I'm just doing the exact same thing I did with B-Ball Paul with Drummond, where it's like, not very good. Yeah, but other, other big guy, he's fucking good.

Yeah, the most popular guy in town is a backup, is a backup center for the—

I just get obsessed with the other big guy.

And now that, now that you mention it, um, I think I may have done the exact same thing with Gardner Minshew and Tanner McKee on the Eagles.

Yeah, it's just whatever to piss me off. Yeah, that is the bias.

And Joe Milton on the Cowboys. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's what we do.

We actually did have a moment on, on Saturday where I can't remember if it was, uh, your brother Dan or Nick, I said Drummond to him and he was like, stop. They listen and they're like, don't do this, Drummond. Like, do not do this.

Listen, I, I've been a Drummond supporter. You know me though. I am a, I'm a Joel Embiid guy. Yeah, I always have.

Day one.

This, this year I said at the start, like, this is Joel's year if he's going to get it done. A lot of pressure on the Celtics.

So legacy-defining year.

Legacy-defining year. I think that what we're looking at right now is the, the Sixers are dealing with a little bit of a Super Bowl hangover from beating the Celtics in round 1.

It's hard to, it's hard to come back and play a series after you change your legacy.

It really is. And so he's got to like establish a new one.

No, no, no, I said he was in the process of changing his legacy.

Trust the process. We ended up—

we had to trust the process.

What you're doing right now—

What you're doing right now, Big Cat, you're looking at the results of the legacy. I care about the process of the legacy.

Correct.

As a Joel and B.

So what was your question?

Big, big question for all the Drummond defenders out there. Me? Would you guys have like a fan group name?

I think we're— I think we're the Drum Circle.

Okay. The Drum Circle.

Do you have the only podcast that still talks about Andre Drummond?

Yeah, well, that's because we get deep into the stats sheet. And what I'm about to ask is actually very very important.

Listen, you— everyone thinks like, oh yeah, being the number one sports podcast, football, Cowboys, Lakers. No, no, you come to this show, you're gonna get a lot of live golf, you're gonna get a lot of Andre Drummond, and you're gonna maybe get a little bit of jizzing in the Grand Canyon.

That's just facts. A ton of it. Uh, okay, so with Drummond, yeah, last night—

should I stand?

I feel like I should say— yeah, yeah, please address the— address the bench. Last night, Drummond had a bad look. The ball got stuck on top of the basket. They handed him the mop. Yeah, he tried to poke it out about 6 times in a row. The crowd started booing him and he got nervous, couldn't handle it. KAT walks right over to him. KAT takes the mop out of his hands. I've seen people say that he got mogged. He did get mogged. And then KAT, the first boop from KAT sends the ball flying, extracts it nice and clean. It was a tough look for Drummond. Like, that's— you can't let your opponent mentally alpha you at that point. I don't think that there was any stopping KAT from what he was about to do to Drummond.

All right, I'm gonna sit back down. Um, okay, if you want to sit here and say that, uh, Karl-Anthony Towns has a softer touch with the mop and booping balls, I can't argue with you. I'm not gonna argue with you. What I would argue is The game was being played in New York, Madison Square Garden. That is not Drummond's job. Maybe get— let's get some fucking security. James Dolan, you have the CIA working for you. Let's get someone out there who can actually get this ball. Andre Drummond should not be asked to do that. If the game was being played in Philadelphia, I would totally understand it. So I think we should be celebrating Andre Drummond for trying to help in a situation where it was not his responsibility whatsoever, and If you notice, he definitely loosened that ball up. He definitely loosened up. It was like opening up a pickle jar. Someone loosens it up for you or you can't get it open and you're just like, well, I loosened it. That's what happened.

So you're saying that Carl Anthony Towns has a softer touch with the mop?

He does.

He has a better grip on the mop. He mopped him, but he had a better grip on the handle.

Yes.

As he was going after the two hands after the ball.

Correct.

With a separate— so wait. Couldn't you say, though, that Drummond should not have even stepped up to offer? Like, it's that type of guy, but he tried to big dick him and he was like, oh, he's like, give me the mop. I'll get— Daddy will get it down.

If you know, if you know Andre Drummond, you know that he will always help, you know, when the situation arises and we're in a crisis. Andre Drummond is— he's like Batman, actually. I think he actually might be Batman. OK. Uh, we've got about 10 minutes now. We haven't talked to either Knicks fans in the room.

Batman and Catwoman.

Yeah. Connor, Zach. Zach is in Hank's seat. I mean, that was a, that was a game that you got to feel good about because you shouldn't have won except for OG's injury. What's, what's the status with OG's injury? And then let's talk game.

There's no status update as of yet. It looked like a hamstring. Or a dead leg, hopefully a low-grade hamstring.

Okay, so that's—

those are two very different—

definitely, hopefully.

Yeah, yeah.

What are you talking about? Hamstring tear or charley horse?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're saying, would you rather have— would you rather have a bruised leg or would you rather have the muscle fall apart?

Would you— would you rather have your leg fall asleep because you've been sitting too long, or would you rather have a grade 3 tear on your hamstring?

Yeah, I fucked up. I'd rather, I'd rather a charley horse.

Okay, a leg stinger. Yeah.

He's just got a little leg stinger.

Now, how did it happen? Did he get hit on the muscle or did he extend?

There's a video out there. It looks like he just stepped.

Okay, that's not good.

So David Chow saying right hamstring strain. This is significant for the series because OG's been insanely good.

Third, all playoffs and sometimes second option.

But yeah, but a great third option and great defensively. Just, I mean, Paul George has been kind of in hell where it's just— this is what the Knicks— the Knicks do have this where they have the wing defense to go up against anyone. So what if OG's out, let's say for 2 games? How are we feeling?

Uh, they should be able to— I'm still feeling fine. Okay, the Sixers are just playing too many minutes. Okay, and the Knicks do have other guys, but OG, if, if it's a Grade 2, the playoffs are over.

Oh, it's a grade 2.

The playoffs are over.

Why, Zach, do you agree?

Uh, yeah, I mean, he stepped up in a big way. He's been playing really aggressive. So like, uh, a loss of OG would be big for, uh, would be big in the corner of people who don't want to see the Knicks succeed, right? But I mean, anti-Knicks people, anti-Knicks guys love to see this.

It would also open up an opportunity for somebody else.

Yes, but he, he, he's one of the best two-way players in the NBA, and he, he covers the best guy on every single team.

Hamstring.

So it's playoffs over essentially, but hopefully just Charlie Horace now.

So you're saying that if he can't play though, like, your playoffs over obviously, but like, do you also mean like the series over? Like the Sixers will beat the Knicks if OG can't play?

No, I think, I think they should be able to win 2 out of 5. Okay, but the last time, so 2 years ago against the Pacers, he tore his hamstring in game 2. They went up 2-0. And they ended up losing that series.

Yeah.

Okay. But this is different.

This is so much different. He, he couldn't even walk on that one.

Okay.

Fucking sucks. So now will it be a home game when you go to Philadelphia?

Yes.

Okay.

Friday, Sunday really fucked us too. Why? Because they don't have to work.

Hmm.

The Knicks fan. It's a lot easier to come. It's a lot easier to travel to Philly from New York on a Friday-Sunday than it is if you were playing Tuesday-Thursday.

Okay. Yeah. But that also means like people from Philadelphia would be also probably easier to go to work.

But it's a lot easier for them on Tuesday-Thursday to go to the—

so the calendar, the weekend fucked you.

The whole schedule, the whole— it was a scheduled loss.

Yeah.

Schedule loss series.

Everything. It was, it was, it was Nick's schedule.

The NBA fucked you guys by scheduling games in and around a weekend.

Correct.

And also scheduling you every other day.

Also correct. We could have used one— we could have used one 2-day break.

But you did get— I, I said to you after Game 1, I was like, I think you should just sit Embiid for Game 2.

I was completely fine with him, like, Embiid sitting that.

Get him some— get him some rest. Have him be a monster Game 3 and 4. Then you got a 3-game series and you gotta steal one.

Yeah, got— yeah, I mean, it's Can't, can't give up home court.

Are you—

were you upset when you found out that Embiid was out, or were you thinking to yourself, no, I said I would— oh, and two, let's just, let's think about Philly?

No, I was thinking, oh, and one, let's fight, let's see what can happen tonight, and then like try and get him as rested as he can. Because if he just kept playing every other game, every other day, every other day, he was going to be playing the whole series at 65%. If you give him a day off, maybe he can get himself up to 80% and then you got a chance.

What's the— so, Max, we're obviously on this show, we're big believers in like, like you celebrating on Saturday. I thought that was great. That's with your brothers. You have to— sports are too— it's too difficult to win a championship to not celebrate the ride and celebrate every little moment along the way. That's why we watch sports. You have to— you can't be like winning a big Game 7 and be like, well, we haven't won the championship, so we're not going to celebrate anything. So like, I'm in for all of that. What's the series score that you'd be like, fuck, that really— like, that really changed how I'm gonna look back?

I'm gonna put it this way, I'm gonna put it this way. How did it feel when you beat the Packers in round one?

That's what I'm saying. I agree with you.

Beating your rivals matters when you get smoked by a team time and time again.

Agreed.

And then you go down 3-1 to your rivals and it looks like They're gonna get us again. And then you come back, like, that matters. That matters to a fan base.

I agree. What I'm asking you though, like, if we go that exact same analogy, if the Bears had then gone out and gotten like 30-pieced by the Rams the next week, it would have— it wouldn't have taken away the feeling I had after the Bears beat the Packers, but it definitely would have made me look at the season a little bit differently, where it's like, ah, shit, like, that was— that really sucked how bad we, we went out.

Yeah, I mean, it, it was a massive series.

Like, 4-1, 4— you got to win a couple of games here.

I would like to. I mean, I want to win the series. I want to win. Like, then you're just— then you're just playing semantics. You either win the series or you don't win the series, right?

That's a good—

you know, I—

that's good.

In a perfect world, I would— I would like to win in 7 games.

No, why not?

Yes, in a perfect world. I would like to live in— win in 6 games.

Actually, no.

Yeah, perfect world.

I'd like to win. That'd be awesome to win in 7 games. What a game that would be.

But like, at least last night was a competitive game. I want it to be a competitive series.

Like, I think this series is not like— I don't— especially with the OG injury, I think this is going to be a competitive series.

Yeah, the line for, for Game 3 is 1.5.

Okay.

Yeah, Maxie's got to go out there. He's got to be Superman. But he can.

No, I think Embiid will be back and Maxi won't have to play 47 minutes like that. It was, it was so clear what— he just lost his legs. He lost his legs.

It was like he's—

he played the most minutes in the regular— he played the most minutes in the league in the regular season. And then we're coming— we came off Game 7 and then right back to a loss.

Yeah.

And that— no, but it's just, it was so obvious what happened to him. His burst looked less. He was, he was settling for shots that he wouldn't normally settle for, and he just wasn't making his jump shots because he was gassed.

And they scheduled you guys on, on a Wednesday when you couldn't make the trip up there.

Yeah, no, it would have been great if Philly people have to work. Yeah, Philly people. Yeah, Philly people have to work.

New York, they have to work.

New York people don't, right?

Yeah, I mean, the stock market closes at what, 2 PM?

Chalamet doesn't have shit going on. Chalamet works like one month out of the year. He's like, okay, I did my movie, now I can just watch sports full-time.

If Chalamet's sitting courtside, I'm going to be He is. He cannot be sitting courtside in Philly.

Did you see the PDA after the game? Charlamagne and was it Kylie? Kendall?

Kylie.

Kylie. Kylie. There's something about PDA where it really, you know, I think if you ask 100 people on the street, like, what are your thoughts on PDA? Everyone's like, ew. When attractive people do it, it's like, yeah, I mean, the cooler thing.

Yeah.

Like, it's when you think of bad PDA, it's just gross people at a bar. Like being fat and gross and like hot dog breath making out. When Kylie Jenner and, and Chalamet are, are sucking face, it's courtside. I'm cool with that.

I like all of it. Give me all the PDA.

You love all the people.

I just love, love. A guy like me. Yeah, look at that.

I wanted a little more.

He definitely would not have done that if they had lost either. That's, that's like, I'm so happy about a win, I'll— yeah, we're gonna start smooching.

Yeah, we'll do a little smoochies.

After game 1, he was just playing pickup.

I know.

Yeah, like, that's the thing. And he's wet.

Being so famous that you can just literally do whatever you want, like, at your— for your favorite. I can't imagine. That's got to be so—

so, Max, you went to the White House with the Eagles, just a reminder.

And you're getting a 99 Meatballs jersey from Big Dom.

The Meatball—

the Meatballs shirt, that is confirmed, gonna happen. Uh, okay, so memes, Zach, you guys feel good? Yeah, even with OG hurt?

Yeah, I feel good. I think we're gonna get another blowout coming up.

Oh, these games.

But the rest will be competitive. And then you just got to figure out a way to win one of those games the way you did today.

Yeah, you just got to steal one.

Yes. The Spurs, maybe people prematurely wrote off the Spurs. They fucking killed the Timberwolves. This was partially the Spurs are a really good team. And I expected this. I think we said it on Monday, Monday's show, like they're not— or Wednesday's show. They're not going to miss the shots that they missed. On game— in game 1 the way they missed. And partially it's just the NBA. Like, when you— when a road team goes out and wins game 1, you just kind of expect that the home team's going to be able to have that, you know, extra gear to kick their ass. And the Timberwolves— Timberwolves couldn't shoot last night, and you could just see it. The Spurs were ready to go. They're like, hey, we're not— we're not gonna lay down.

We're—

we're the favorites in this series for a reason. And we're going to win this game.

And they did.

It wasn't a— it wasn't a must-win for the Spurs. It was a can't lose. The very definition of a can't lose. Going down 0-1 at home that second game. That is— that is, if you looked it up in the dictionary, can't lose. It's game 2 at home.

And the Timberwolves had the very definition of a can lose.

They had the very definition of night off. Yeah.

Like, like, totally can lose this game.

No problem. We don't really care. Like, this is going to suck for a little bit, but like, nobody really tried too hard.

I am worried about Anthony Edwards because it does— you can just see that he just doesn't have the same It's just the same burst that he has because of the big—

the, the Raid spray that they had in the crowd. You see that? Somebody—

yes.

Instead of holding up like the offense sign, somebody had just a giant can of Raid. I like that to get rid of ants. I like that a lot for the Wolves. We also had the pups.

We had—

we had Pop came. The reports are that Pop helped with film review between Game 1 and 2, which is— that is a secret weapon that the Spurs have. That and Popovich being like, hey guys, here's what you got to do.

That, and also they invented a new kind of 3 last night. That, that might be the coolest play that I've seen all year.

Oh yeah, the no dip in the air.

In the air, you catch the ball, he had already started his jump.

It was Devin Vassell.

Yeah, Vassell. Yeah, when the ball got passed out to him, he was in midair, did not cock the shot, just let it rip from like his chin level. Um, I've never— I don't think I've ever seen that in a game in quite that fashion. It was even cooler that the shot clock was— it was dying, so I think there was like maybe a second left on, so he knew he had to get up in the air to shoot the 3, caught it, and now it was maybe the first 3-point alley-oop that I've ever seen.

It was so sick. I mean, a no-dip 3 is sick to begin with because like, how the fuck are you so good that— I mean, I know how they're so good, but it's still just a crazy thing to watch when a guy can catch the ball and just go straight up for a 3, but in the air too. Very cool. But yeah, total blowout. The Spurs are really, really good. I think this series is going to be competitive. I believe the Spurs, uh, have struggled in Minnesota recently, so that, that's something to watch where it's like, hey, they're going— yeah, uh, last 7, they haven't won in their last 7 games in Minnesota.

I think they're going to get one up in Minnie. Yeah, I think this series is gonna, gonna go 7. I got Spurs in 7. 7.

I think it's gonna go 6. I got Spurs and Sixers. Yeah, I mean, there's really nothing else to say is that like the quotes afterwards, Chris Finch said, I told him we got punched and then— or punked. And then Anthony Edwards said, we got, we got blew out. My mama used to tell me, hard head make a soft ass. Hard head make a soft ass.

That's true. That's what I've always said.

Yeah. Hard head make a soft ass.

I think they said that. I heard that first from Joey and Pat.

Hmm.

Yeah.

So our guys, uh, we'll stay woke. We'll stay woke. So I assume you guys saw the Draymond-Charles Barkley clip.

I did.

I— Draymond Green and Charles Barkley, those two guys are— they, they're always kind of toeing the line of professional wrestling, kind of whatever. You know, there's, there's some— they're smart. They're very smart guys. I feel like Draymond Green might have just set it up for everyone to remind, uh, the world how good Charles Barkley was, because that's the effect that it's had. It's had the exact effect of, hey, Draymond, Charles Barkley on the Houston Rockets was actually fucking good, and Charles Barkley won an MVP, and Charles Barkley scored 40 points against the, the Jordan Bulls in the playoff, like in the finals. Charles Barkley was a really good player, uh, so thanks for trying to make that point, but you're wrong. I think maybe Draymond did him a solid.

I think the—

that might be too much online.

I think the unintended outcome is that he did him an awesome solid.

Incredible.

It's like, yeah, Charles Barkley averaged, I think it was like 19 and 10 in the year that he was talking about on the Rockets. Like, Draymond would love to average that. Yeah, he would kill to average that.

And if you put— but if you put Charles Barkley on the Warriors, they would— they'd probably win by more. And that's not— no offense to Draymond. Draymond's a Hall of Fame defender, but Charles Barkley was an elite offensive player, an elite rebounder. Yeah, his defense wasn't Draymond's, but I don't know how you would guard if you just, if you just threw Charles into that team.

Okay, I have a theory about this because I, I like your stay woke on it. I don't think that that's why they had it planned.

Yeah, I think, I think Draymond is just, uh, doing like the, the, the plumbers and, uh, you know, like basically anyone in this NBA says that the NBA from 20 years ago sucked.

So my theory on what happened is that they brought Draymond out there. He had this whole thing lined up to say. He had his whole take ready to go. And then they're like, uh, Shaq, yeah, you're actually going to leave the set. And Draymond was like, fuck, I was going to use Shaq as my example. Like, because he was the big cactus.

Yeah.

The big Aristotle.

Yeah.

Uh, when he was a Cavalier, like, if he had made this exact same point, if Shaq was right next to him about Shaq, everybody'd be like, yeah, great point, Draymond, great point. Charles would have jumped in and made fun of Shaq for you know, the years that he had at the very, very end. But then Shaq stands up, he's like, I'm gonna go use the bathroom. And then Draymond's like, oh, fuck, that's my analogy. And he's like, I guess I got to go against Charles when he was on the Rockets. I think he had maybe did a last-minute switch. It was great. It ended up being great for Charles, but it also—

it—

the way that Charles reacted and the rest of the group up there, it made me think they don't really love Draymond that much.

Because, oh, you think?

Because nobody I think Draymond wanted people to get like riled up by it and argue with him. And nobody really said anything.

That was the weird part.

They just kind of moved on and that left it hanging. Like when you have a really, really bad take that just hangs out there that no one even addresses, that's, that's as bad as it gets.

I am happy that this happened though, because Charles Barkley and we love Charles Barkley, we, you know, having him on last year was one of my favorite interviews we've ever done. Hopefully we could do it again because he's that type of guy. He suffers from the fact that he does— he is such a funny guy, gregarious guy, that he's basically spent the last 20 years being the butt of everyone's joke of like never won a title. Yeah, that it erases in people's minds just how good of a basketball player he was. And so for Draymond to do this The whole world's like, hold on a second.

Yeah, wait a second.

This guy was really good at basketball. What the fuck are we talking about? And isn't it Charles Barkley's whole thing, like, there are bus drivers and there are passengers? And Draymond, again, we like Draymond too, Hall of Fame player, 4 rings. He's never been the bus driver. Charles Barkley was the bus driver, you know. He didn't win a title, but he drove the bus. So I, I don't know, I, I, it's It's funny because it was a very awkward moment, and Draymond's also beefing with Austin Rivers, who— Austin Rivers, I don't really know where this beef came from. Austin Rivers' video was— that was a weird one where he was like, hey Draymond, just so we can get this straight, I was way better than you in high school. I was way better than you in college. Yeah, you had a way better NBA career, but don't you forget. So I think I know where it came from because like, wait, hold on, the NBA part is the important one.

I think Draymond said that he was as good as Rivers in high school.

Okay.

I think he started it. And then Rivers, if I remember, he might have gone to the same school or the same district.

Rivers was like one of the— I think he was the, like, one of the best players in high school at the time.

Yeah. Yeah. So they played in the same area. Anyways, Rivers averaged 28 points a game in high school. Draymond averaged, I think, 20 in high school. So Rivers had to remind him about that because, like, it doesn't matter how big you get, you still think back to when you guys were like 17 years old.

Yeah.

It's like, I was— dude, I was way better than you when we were 17.

But just imagine like, like, you know, doing serious face video.

Yeah.

And saying, hey, just so we're clear, man, there was— before we both grew into our bodies, I was significantly better than you.

Oh, dude, in 8th grade, I was on the, like, the, the local, like, not— we didn't have AAU at the time, but like, I got like a full sweatsuit on the team I was on. I was cooking fools. And then everybody grew. And I literally did not grow an inch since 8th grade. But yeah, a guy like me, you remind me of 8th grade. I'll go back. I'll remind you of some facts. Yeah.

Now, actually, you know what? I'm going to say this right now. Austin Rivers, if you want to get in an argument here, I'll just throw this out there. I would have fucked you up in 1995. I would have.

How old was he?

He was 3.

I was 10.

I would have fucked you up, dude. I would have fucked you up one on one.

Come get some.

That's just a fact. That's a fact. If we want to go back all the way. 1995 problem for you.

I'll double down. I'll say when he was 10, I would have fucked him up.

I don't— I will not say that. Yeah, absolutely not. There's just no way. Nope, nope. A 17-year-old me versus a 10-year-old Austin Rivers. I'm pretty sure Austin Rivers.

Yeah.

No, I'd fuck him up. No, no, sorry. I would fuck like right now. I would beat the fuck out of a 10-year-old Austin Rivers.

17. Still not going to do that. Still not going to say that. You can barely walk right now.

I'm way stronger now than I was when I was— I would not.

I will not say that.

I can beat up any 10-year-old in the world.

You don't think he blows by you?

No, we're talking about basketball.

I'm talking about physical violence.

Oh, oh, oh, what about 10-year-old Draymond?

No, he cooked me. Yeah, yeah.

10-year-old Draymond would kick your ass.

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, definitely, definitely. But luckily we don't have to deal with that anymore. But in the— in that same segment, do you remember when I think it was Phil Simms? I always get it mixed up if it was Phil Simms or Boomer or Boomer, but I think it was Phil Simms on CBS when he was like, you know, the goal is not to be like Dan Marino and end your career with a Super Bowl. When they were talking about Peyton Manning.

Yeah.

Dan Marino was right next to him at the desk and was like, dude, what the hell?

Yeah.

Like, why are you saying that about me? The fact that no, that Charles didn't even have to react to it. I know when Draymond was like, the goal is to not become like Charles as a Rocket, it— because you know that that does impact Dan Marino. He thinks about it a lot.

But that was—

but Charles is like, I don't even think about this at all, so I'm not going to react.

And it was just the perfect way for Charles to play it because him not reacting brought everyone to his defense.

Yeah.

If he got in an argument with Draymond in that moment, it might have played out a little different where they're like— but that non-reaction. Yeah. I mean, Draymond's getting bodied now, which at the end of the day, Draymond probably loves because he loves anyone talking about him. But it also is very funny to, to have that entire conversation. Well, like, Draymond, you're on the set because your team lost. Your team didn't even make the playoffs.

Yeah.

Like, what are we doing right now? Like, let's talk about right this second. Aaron Rodgers, is he going to be a Steeler?

Yeah, I think he's in town visiting tonight. Yeah, he's visiting in town tonight. He's got a whole new respiratory infection to study and educate people about. So if you think that he was going to dip out of the public eye when we had something like this coming back, you thought very wrong.

Do we have to worry about this? Hantana?

What is it?

Hanta?

Hanta?

Hanta?

Yeah.

Hentai?

I read it.

That's something else.

Yeah.

The hentai virus.

Is it the hentai virus? Where all of our, all of our private parts get, get, uh, blurred out.

That would be, that'd be tough.

Yeah. Is that what hentai is?

What is hentai? What is hentai?

I think that's like when they go hentai porn, they pivot to like cartoons.

So it's— oh, what's the difference between hentai and manga?

Manga is just—

manga is like a comic book they read backwards.

I always forget that I have SafeSearch off on my computer. I just search hentai porn and then X'd out.

You type hentai porn? Oh, Pete's gonna love that.

Uh, Yeah. Do we have to? We— I read a thread today. I'm just going to go off this and I don't want to do the same thing that we did with COVID where we pooh-poohed it. It's too deadly.

Mm-hmm.

It's too deadly of a disease.

It'll burn itself out. That's what I read, too. Yeah, it's like it is.

It's literally true. Like the death rate for this disease is like 50%. And so if you can't— if you can't survive, you can't spread it.

The only problem Because I was saying the same thing, Big Cat. I've been spreading that information to as many people because I'm trying to spread positivity.

Yeah.

In this climate, because we see all over the place we're back to doing the fear porn. Yeah, we did in 2020 before this happened.

Did you guys see the one guy, the tweet from 3 years ago?

Yep, I did see that one sucked. I'm trying, I'm trying to spread positivity. So I'm educating people about that same thing. I did have people tell me that the incubation period can be like a month.

Month.

So you might not know that you have it for a month. OK. And then once you get sick, then you die.

Just stay away from rat poop and mice poop. Right.

That's just— yeah, that's good practice.

I know. So we're going to do—

and don't fly on an airplane with anybody that is really, really sick. If you're going like on a cross-country flight, I hope you don't have a seat that's directly next to a man that's sneezing on you and coughing on you for the entire flight to the point where you're trying to climb out of the airplane window.

That's also a really good—

you should not do that, Max.

I was reading. What did you say?

Don't do what you did.

You're good, Max. You're good.

Should I read?

Should I?

No reading.

Try reading. Yeah, try reading.

You go back to reading.

Yeah, you just do some reading. Hockey. I think we should have Biz on, on Sunday, but we have the Sabers. The Buffalo crowd is so electric. That series could be awesome. With those two fan bases.

And I saw somebody make a great point, though, that listen, Montreal, they, they can travel on the road to Buffalo to Max's whole like Knicks scheduling thing. Montreal fans can travel to Buffalo. A lot of Buffalo fans can't go to Canada because if you have a DUI, you can't cross the border. Yeah. So it's just something to think about keeping out the rowdiest of the rowdy.

Yeah. And the Ducks, the Ducks evened up the series against the Knights. I really wish the Ducks would go back to their old jerseys.

You don't like the traffic cones?

No, I hate them. I absolutely hate them.

What's the— is it because they're in Orange County? Is that why they wear orange?

I don't know.

It's just—

I don't like it.

I'm like, not— I'm not rooting for the Ducks. I don't have a team in this. But I, you know, obviously Joe Quenville, I think he's an incredible coach. So— and I am looking forward the deeper he gets to be like, yeah, he's going to just fuck some people up as series go deeper and deeper because he's that good of a coach. But yeah, I just— I wish they had the— I wish they had the Mighty Ducks uniforms.

I really do. I miss them too. And also rooting for the Knights because Biz told us to, or maybe it was Yan, so let's put a future on them.

What is the— let me look at right now because it feels like the Avalanche are going to win it all. They're up 2-0. That series has been insane with the goals. That, that game on Sunday night was nuts. What is it right now if we did— and I've done this before and it was stupid and it didn't work— if we did a, uh, yeah, no duh, the best teams win the titles parlay? Thunder— oh, it's only +309. Thunder and Avalanche. That is not enough.

That's not great.

That is not great. That's not great. Um, oh, I had a— before we get to our interview with Tracy McGrady, I had a couple other things I wanted to throw out there. One, Golden Temple not running the Preakness sucks. Yeah, that's where we're at.

It's load management. Yeah, we're doing load management for horses right now, and, uh, I understand it. There's really no financial incentive besides, like, obviously winning the race would be great, but right now Golden Temple's got it made for the rest of their life. That, that horse is gonna be fine. It's gonna make a lot of money, um, as Kentucky Derby winner. And there's really— there's limited upside to running in this race. Yeah, but I get it, I get it. And as a guy from the DC area, like, the Preakness is— it's a rite of passage for the spring. So like, like, people are still going to go have a great time at the race, but it's absolutely lost 100% of all national juice because this horse isn't racing.

It's oralis.

It is.

It's completely oralis now. And it fucking sucks because I don't know, it was— I love, I love the Triple Crown. I wanted to see, I want to see someone compete for the Triple Crown.

And maybe we're getting soft as a podcast, but back in 2016, we would have called this horse a fat bitch for not racing in the Preakness, for saying like, there's a lot of working-class horses that are going to be taking their families to watch you race.

Yep.

And you're just too big of a superstar now that you're abandoning them. But I guess that's a sad state of affairs in sports where now we're like, it's, it's the horse empowerment.

Yeah.

And so we have no choice but to support them.

Uh, and then so we're taping this portion of the show in the morning, but the Cubs are just the most exciting and best team in baseball. It's insane. They've, they walked off again. They had to play the Reds for the series finale. 3 straight walk-offs to the point where on Wednesday night We were up 4-2 in the 9th. We give up 4 runs. And I actually said, I know that people won't believe this. I said to myself, it's like, all right, whatever, we'll just walk it off again. And then Pete Crow-Armstrong hits a, hits a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 9th. Michael Bush walks, gets a walk to walk in the winning run. 3 straight walk-offs. They have not— they've lost, or they've won 14, I think 15 games in a row at Wrigley. It's crazy. They're just the hottest team in baseball. And While this is all happening, we just keep getting injuries to our pitching staff. Matthew Boyd got injured, his knee, playing with his kids.

He, yeah, he reached down to pick his kid up and he felt something and then he called the team and was like, hey, I think I'm fucked. It's torn meniscus.

I think it might be like at this point, maybe it's just every pitcher injury just fuels the Cubs to be that much better because it just keeps happening where it's like a guy gets injured and then the Cubs have another improbable win and they just keep staying hot and so much fun to watch and the whole lineup is just awesome. And it's just, yeah, it's been a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.

You think a, what's a better way to end a game, a walk-off walk or a walk-off hit-by-pitch?

Walk-off ABS walk.

Walk-off ABS because you get the double pop. So he calls strike 3 and everyone's like, no.

Yeah.

And then they're like, wait, he's touching his head.

Yep.

And then you see it on the screen.

Yep.

And the place goes fucking nuts.

Yep.

Yeah, I think you're right. For the crowd, walk-off ABS walk would be the pinnacle. I think for the batter, a walk-off hit-by-pitch where you make that split-second decision to wear one instead of getting out of the way, that's got to be an incredible moment. Yeah, like you should bat flip that.

So the, the, um, and this is a long season, so it's not like, you know, there's gonna be a lot of ups and downs. It's just right now the Cubs are playing so much, like the baseball is so much fun and they're so much fun to watch. And Mo Baller is a true stud. Remember, remember, I, I, you asked me when we went to the game 3 weeks ago, you're like, put me on to someone.

I was like, dude, Mo Baller might be the future. Great build.

Mo Baller's the guy. But, uh, they're 20— they had a 20-game stretch which I think goes— I think it was as of Tuesday, uh, where they had 17 wins. They went 17-3, 10 comeback wins, 9 wins after allowing the first run, 6 one-run wins, 4 walk-offs, 4 wins after trailing in the 8th or later, 3 extra inning wins. It's been awesome. What are you guys talking about in the booth there? Have you guys—

Max is reading.

He's reading. Phillies are bad.

Yeah. Firing your manager just fires up the club.

Yeah.

They've just— I think they've lost one game since they fired their manager.

We're like a 2 or 3 game swing from 3 teams at the bottom of the American League West to getting the asshat division.

Mm-hmm.

We've got the ass at the start of it. And then we just need the Astros to win like a couple more games. And then we need the Rangers, I think, to lose like 2 games.

Well, there's—

and then it's going to read, I've had—

yeah, I've—

they have the same records as the NL East.

I know what—

what is crazy, but they just say exactly what you're saying right now about—

no, it's not. Max, you've got to understand.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Got it.

Got the actual spelling. But it is crazy because the AL has 3 teams over.500 in the entire division or league, and the NL Central has every team over 500.

Yeah, it is. It is a crazy, crazy division. That's why, like, 3 games you guys won, 3 in a row against the Reds, right?

Yeah. And again, we're taping this before the finale of the series today, but still, like, 3 in a row against the Reds.

It is the difference between first and last in the division.

Yeah, it's been, it's been very fun to watch. It's— I do— Bregman is just the man. Just having him there is just Everything just— say his back and he's awesome. Fuck, so much fun. Oh, I had one last thing before we do Tracy McGrady, and this is gonna be— this is a hot take, so I want you guys to be prepared for this hot take. I'm starting to think that Mike Vrabel and Diana Rossini might have been having an affair. I'm, I'm not all the way there. I'm starting to think that might be happening.

Gossip and envy, that's the gold standard.

The story will never die.

I saw it, I was just like, oh dude, they have a— it's like there's a tweet for everything. There's a, there's a Mike Vrabel and Diana Rossini date for every, every moment in the last 6 years.

Yeah, I— there's— what sucks too is there's a lot of stuff that like anything now will be used as evidence. But like, the private boat, the pieces fall together. Yeah, the signatures are tough.

Like, it's— yeah, that was the moment. That was the moment where I was like, they might be fucking.

You never been on a boat with your boys?

You know, it's true.

It's a good point, Zach. It's a little boys trip on the boat.

Yeah, 1v1 boat trip.

Yeah, nothing wrong with that.

What do you call it? PvP?

PvP?

Yeah, it's a PvP boat trip.

No, no, that would be— that would be PvE co-op. Yeah, if you like fishing, uh, do a, uh, do his campaign.

Exactly.

Okay, do his campaign. Yeah, you're trying to catch— they might have been going fishing.

It's also about that. Very funny that it came 2 days after the gone fishing graphic with them at the front of the boat.

Yeah, that's, that's tough.

Yeah, I'm just— listen, we're gonna monitor the story because it's literally never gonna stop, but I'm starting to get the feeling that they might have been doing something more than just Trading football talk.

Maybe they did ask Drake May about it yesterday and he just said like, I love my coach. He's a good guy.

I mean, what else are you supposed to say?

Like if you ask Drake May that he has to say that, love my coach, great guy.

Yeah, man.

What do you think? What do you put percentages at of him being the coach of the Patriots?

I'd say close to 100.

I still think it's coming.

It's getting less and less. So I would say right now it's like 85.

I think it's definitely less than 100. I would, I would put, if you made me like put my life on the line, I'd say that he's going to coach the Patriots.

Yeah.

I think the next part of this story is whenever Diana decides to tell her side and how bad that's going to look for Vrabel, which I don't think Diana would do that to him. Like, I don't think she's going to go out there and try to like go scorched earth, but that that's where the story is eventually going. Like, we're not going to get a conclusion until she speaks and says, hey, this is what happened.

I think that whatever the explanation is, her, her being able to tell her story about it is going to provide context to a lot of other stuff. And who knows what the context is going to be? But it's going to— I think it's going to be better than everyone just making up what they think the worst parts of this story are without her filling in the actual facts behind it.

Would be funny if she just hit the girls trip button. Button over and over like she's sitting on Good Morning America. Uh, we have this boat trip of the two of you. Girls trip. What about you guys in this bar in New York kissing? Girls trip. It's just girls trip. You can call anything a girls trip.

It's fact.

I took a girls trip, uh, uh, earlier this morning. It was a messy one, right in the toilet. Just gonna flood his own culture. What's your, uh, what was your question?

Oh, my question was if it was like more of a fishing charter or strawberries and champagne boat. But I can— context clues leads me to fishing charter. Fishing charter.

Yeah. Yeah. I think they probably were. It was probably like Deadliest Catch. They were probably crab fishing. I see what that was.

Yeah.

I don't want to allege anything.

Crab fishing.

But that was just the first thing I thought of my head. The Deadliest Catch. Yeah, it was Deadliest Catch. So it was just overall full gear. Yeah, the yellow rain suits, slippery when wet signs. Yeah, they were just— they probably didn't even speak. Listen, all they had to be moving stuff around on the boat.

I saw like a documentary about Marty Smith going onto a boat with Nick Saban the other week on his lake. And we don't talk about that. It seems like a big double standard.

Rico Bosco going on Nate Oates's boat. Yeah, we don't talk about that. We actually do talk about that a lot. Way too much. OK, so I'm happy I got that off my chest. Story to monitor. They could be fucking—

how much longer until you think the next, the next Rossini variable thing drops? Friday. It's like once a week.

It's until, until people stop clicking on it.

The thing they click every time.

Well, and the problem that they're going to run into now is that TMZ got bodied by the New York Post, and now TMZ is trying to get their lick back. So TMZ's on the case, and they're like, let's find everything they've ever done. So that's a problem. But yeah, we'll see, we'll see how it goes. Okay, uh, before we get to Tracy McGrady, we are brought to you by our friends at Experian. It's never too late to improve your credit with Experian Boost. You can raise your credit scores instantly for free, get credit for the bills you're already paying, Add your positive rent, utility, and even streaming payments to instantly increase your credit scores. Boost your credit scores instantly. Experian Boost is completely free and is completely free and can instantly raise your credit scores. Get better credit scores, get credit for the bills you're already paying, and increase your credit scores instantly for free. Now paying rent could boost your credit scores instantly. So download the app, get started for free today. Results will vary. Not all payments are boost eligible or considered by lenders. See Experian.com for details and go check out Experian now.

We're also brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. It's Twisted Tea season, boys and girls. It's time. Sun's coming out. The weather's getting nice. Golf, backyard barbecue, pool, beach. It's all there for Twisted Tea. Twisted Tea is the perfect drink to keep the good times going all day and all season long. Whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar, or day drinking with the boys, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. We had a great time on Saturday drinking Twisted Teas with the boys watching Game 7, Sixers-Celtics. Twisted Tea. It is a truly delicious drink. It is so, so good. Uh, I love the half and half, just goes down so smooth. So go get a Twisted Tea today, grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. Let's get twisted. Okay, here he is, Tracy McGrady. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very, very, very special guest. It is Tracy McGrady, one of I think everyone's favorite basketball players of all time.

7-time, uh, All-Star, 2-time All-NBA, First Team All-NBA. How many times?

7 times All-NBA.

Oh, 7 times All-NBA, First Team.

All-NBA over All-Star any day. Yes, I like both.

Yeah, 2-time All-NBA First Team, 3-time Second Team, 2-time Third Team. That's It's pretty damn good.

Fair to say walking bucket.

Yeah.

Yeah, you can call me that.

Two-time NBA scoring champ.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The list goes on and on. And he has a new one-on-one league called One's Basketball League, the premier one-on-one basketball league in the world. Let's start with that. So you were one of the best one-on-one players ever. and just, you know, a walking bucket. What, what's this league gonna, gonna be and what made you decide like, hey, we gotta do this?

Yeah, so I'm highlighting and giving guys a platform that loves this space of one-on-one basketball. Obviously I grew up playing one-on-one basketball and if you have siblings or you had your friends when you were growing up, you played one-on-one at something cuz you couldn't find 9 other guys to go and play a full court pickup game. So you had to play 21. Right? In my day, it was 21, every man for themselves. But when you talk about building, creating a platform, for me, I look back to how I got exposed, and that was on the ABCD platform. Uh, when I was coming out of high school, Sonny Vaccaro had the best high school camp for All-Americans in high school. I was fortunate enough to, to be entering, enter into that space which I was the last player to, to be selected to this camp. Out of all the players that was there, I was the last one selected because no one knew who I was. So this platform gave me an opportunity to showcase my skills, ultimately leading me to be the number 1 player in the country and then getting drafted 9th overall in the '97 draft.

So it was a platform. So for guys out here, I understand, I grew up with these type of dudes that can play basketball at the highest level, has a high— have a high level of skills, but just didn't get the opportunity to play professional basketball like myself. I mean, that's very challenging and hard thing to do. And then a lot of these guys have skills and they go overseas. But I created this for them guys, right?

Yeah.

Guys that something along their journey happened where someone probably in their family passed away. You had to step up and be the man of the house or you know, you just didn't make the right decisions along the way. It's for these guys. And I just— I— this space is growing rapidly. Uh, if you see it on social media, I mean, everybody is talking about it. You see the Michael Beazleys, the Lance Stephenson, those guys going at it. So for me, it's just providing the opportunity for my guys. But one last thing on this, the element that I love most about this is I created ownership for guys that look like myself. When you look around sports, It's not a lot of guys that look like me have ownership in sports. I'm one of the blessed guys to have, you know, some ownership in the Buffalo Bills. So with this property, I wanted to create that ownership in creating the battles of the cities and teams. What we have starting out with 8 teams, and in those respective cities, I grab guys like New York, you talk about Jadakiss, Chicago, one of my brothers, my big little brother, I call him, and Laurence Tate, the great actor.

John Wall, you know, the great NBA player, had a phenomenal career, is the owner of, of Raleigh-Durham. So for me, that's the biggest component that I'm most proud of, of creating those opportunities for those guys.

Yeah, that's very cool.

That, that's awesome. And I, I wanted to talk about that, that camp because it is a, a great story. So you're— so you went to Sonny Vaccaro's camp, what was it, after your junior year?

After my junior year. Yes, sir.

So you're— so you're basically— no one knows who you are. I I mean, obviously you're really good at high school basketball in a small town in Florida. You go to this camp, you get number 175, the actual last person at the camp, like on your jersey. And then what, 12 months, 18 months later, Adidas signs you for $12 million and you're drafted number 9 overall in the NBA draft. Like, how— that's such an incredible story. When you're getting to the camp, are— do you realize, like, when you're walking in, what's at stake and like what you could do? Or was it kind of like, hey, I'm gonna go play ball and see where this goes, and then it went to an insane place?

It was a young kid from Florida that was, you know, fresh out of, um, the, the conditions that I was living in. I didn't have anything to lose. I had everything to gain, and I realized that. And when I first got there, I just kept hearing about Lamar Odom. 6'10" point guard. I'm like, what? That like, that threw me for a loop. Like, what the hell? 6'10" point guard? Where I'm from, if you the tallest guy on the team, they made you the center at that time. But hear that, I was like, oh, I got to see this guy. And sure enough, it was every bit of what everyone was saying because he was the first player that I faced. I was like, oh, this is a different level of competition that I haven't seen. But being me, being confident, I knew what was at stake. And the opportunity that was there. I went for it, and, uh, I came out of that camp highly respected, um, highly known. And, you know, a few weeks go by in my senior year of high school, I'm the number one player in the country. Like, that's how fast that happened.

Over just a few months, my life changed.

Yeah. Was there one moment in that camp that you thought to yourself, I got it, like, mission accomplished, that's why I'm here?

Well, the cherry on top for me when I solidified, like, oh yeah, okay, this did it. It was the All-Star Game, um, and I got a break coming down on the left side. Now in my mind, I'm like, I'm gonna do a windmill because I'm— I want to show out, I want to be a showman, because you got all the college coaches, you got NBA scouts in there, you got guys that I actually were watching at the collegiate level that I respected and admired their games sitting, watching me. You got Jay-Z sitting course, like, you have these dudes in the gym. So for me, it's put on a show, man. And I got an opportunity to, you know, put on, uh, display a windmill. But in the middle of my windmill, I have somebody jump up with me in my chest while I'm going into my windmill. And I windmilled on the guy, and it was one of the craziest things that happened that weekend. Everybody ran on the court, the kids, the— some of the, the coach. It was like, shut the gym down. That was one of you know, probably the, the most iconic moment of ABCD camp at that, at that time.

He should have tried to stop the windmill. Like, don't— never try to stop the windmill. Don Quixote learned that. Yeah, yeah.

So, so this all happens to you, and like I said, you go, you go 18 months later, you're, you're a top 10 pick and you're making— Adidas comes for $12 million. What, what, like, you leave the camp, are you like, all right, this is, this is now— I mean, you're laughing right now, but it is crazy. It's an awesome story because because most guys, you know, either they were a top recruit for a really long time and everyone had talked about them for a really long time, or you'll see, you know, guys go to college and then come into their own. Not, hey, a guy goes to a camp in between his junior and senior year and now he's the number one kid in the country, which is bad scouting by everyone else. Like, where the fuck are the scouts in Florida? But you— so, so you, you then, you then go to high school your senior year in North Carolina. Was there a moment then in that year where you're like, okay, this is real? Like, this is actually— this is now happening. Everything is starting to get into place where I'm going to play in the NBA.

Yeah, short— shortly into my senior year, my coach was telling me all the scouts that were in the building. Yeah, there's this guy and this guy's with this team. Like, he was pointing them out and letting me know. So for me, it wasn't any pressure. I was excited about the opportunity and I like to show out, you know what I mean? So if I got some NBA scouts house in there and I get wind of that, I'm showing out that night.

Yeah, yeah. And I, I, I was doing research for, for you coming on and, um, I, I heard you say this and I want you to tell your, your thought process behind it because I, I love this story because we have, you know, different athletes on and different guys and we always ask like, hey, when you get that first contract, when you get that first big piece of money, like, is there something you buy? And a lot of people are, are very humble. They either say no or, you know, bought my mom a house or bought her a car. When you got your $12 million from Adidas, is it true that you took out $500,000 cash just to see what it looked like?

Absolutely.

I love that.

Where did you put it?

I love that.

Where'd you put it?

Well, I had it in the bags. I had it in the bags and then I put it on my bed and just was looking at it and I just jumped in it, bro. Just like Superfly Jimmy Snooker just jumped in it, just waddled in his money. Hey man, if you know where I come from, bro, humble, very humble beginnings. And for, for me to have to see that and have the, the ability to touch that, that was everything.

That's incredible. And by the way, you did buy your, your family, you know, stuff, so that, that also happened. But like, that is the most relatable thing where, where I think most people be like, yeah, if I had that money, but the first thing I'd do, I'd be Scrooge McDuck and just feel it out. Yeah, sure.

How nervous were you?

Like 18-year-old kid just signed a $12 million. Are you kidding me?

Yeah.

Were you nervous, like, leaving the bank with the cash in the bags?

Like, uh, I made sure I had security with me. I, I was, I was good on that. I wasn't that stupid.

Yeah, yeah. No, that's, that's got to be a great moment though. Just like, I would fall asleep in that, in that pile of money. Yeah, just for one night, a one-night stand with my cash. That's all. Um, it's cool that you're doing this thing with, with one-on-one though, because I feel like you are a guy that would get get brought up when you're talking about like the best one-on-one players of all time. Um, is there anybody that you played with in your era that you, that you would say, yeah, that guy was actually better than me one-on-one?

I wouldn't say nobody. You know how we work, you know how our brains work. No, but to say, um, there are some guys that I highly respect on that level, it's for sure, uh, Kobe, uh, Kevin Durant, James Harden. Like, these guys are one-on-one killers. It's— we have a lot of them in the league that are great one-on-one players because that's, to me, when you watch the game, that's what it is nowadays. It's pickup basketball. There's highly— there's not that many sets that these guys— it's not a highly sophisticated offense that they're running. It's give me the ball, create a matchup, let me go one-on-one and kill you.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like you would be like in the definitely top 3, maybe number 1. In your area? Oh, today's game for sure. Yeah, that actually brings up a good question. In one-on-one, what's the foul policy? Are we calling our own fouls or is there a referee?

No, there's referees.

Okay.

No, but, but, but what I do have, I have a challenge though. You're, you're, so your player captain and your GM, they have one challenge. If they see a foul that's not called they could call that challenge. And because we have 3 referees, 2 of the 3 have to side with you to get it through.

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh, last time we had you on, Trace McGrady, which was actually, uh, like a few years ago in our, our studio in New York, we talked about your pants, your pants game. Um, because you—

yeah, I know you see me on NBC now.

I know. Credit to you, credit to you, because I, I— we love the fact that, you know, Everyone talks about those draft picks, uh, the pictures from the draft in like the '90s, late '90s, early 2000s, and the pants and the suits, just absurd. And then you just decided, hey, I'm just gonna keep wearing it all the way up until, you know, a few years ago. It's like, hey, I'm just doing the big pants. Can we get— I think we need more big pants. I think we need to get them back in the mix.

Nah, no more big pants. Come on, we're Taylor, we own NBC.

But just throw us, throw us one big pants night. Like, imagine if it was Tracy McGrady's big pants night.

You know what, that's good promo.

Yes.

Yeah, maybe one night we might, I might have to do that.

Every, yeah, every— so maybe if it's like a doubleheader night and it's like you start the show with big pants, then halftime they're even bigger, and then by the end it's just like you can't even see you because the pants are so You're on to something, my guy.

I might have to credit you on this one.

Tracy McGrady Big Pants Night with Rob.

Just don't tell anybody before you do it because then everybody tunes in every night and they're like, I wonder if tonight's Big Pants Night, hoping they catch that glimpse, you know?

Yeah, I, I might have to look into that, my guy.

I, I, I actually love the look. I think it's a great—

yeah, why— I don't like that you're getting tailored. Was there a moment where you got— where you're like, hey, I'm done with this?

Um, no, I just wanted to tighten it up for, for NBC, you know.

Okay.

Now, like, it, it's, you know, it's, it's a different audience, right? I gotta come, come different, differently against, uh, with the NBC audience. So I, you know, I want to look presentable for them.

Yeah, yeah. When we're talking about, uh, you, you watching the modern day NBA and you're saying that, you know, it's a lot guys hunting matchups and going one-on-one, is Is there one guy or one team where you watch them play and you're like, that is very fun brand of basketball to watch? I love what they're doing.

Well, San Antonio plays a great brand of basketball. Can't never leave out the Golden State Warriors and how they play. Just fun, free, you know, getting up and down, a lot of movement. But I got to be in that role that Steph is in. I can't be the one that's you know, always setting the screen though. Yeah, I got to be the one shooting the ball. Yeah, shooting the ball. But, uh, no, it's, it's like San Antonio plays a beautiful brand of basketball. That's why they're in the position that they're in right now.

Yeah. What, uh, so we, we just did a live show in LA and we had, uh, our good friend Blake Griffin on, and we— I, I, I like— I want to discuss the NBA. The NBA playoffs have been great, but can you make a case for anyone else besides OKC? Is it just I don't want to say it's inevitable, but it feels a little bit like those Warriors teams where it's like, all right, well, I don't really know how they're going to lose this because they're just so good defensively, offensively. They have the MVP. So do you have a case for anyone else, or is it, hey, they are this good?

No, they are that good. But I do have a case for someone else. Just a case. I don't know if my case will help them pull through, but I think San Antonio has the personnel, they have the depth. To match up with, uh, OKC. It's just, can your guys sustain that level of greatness for the amount of minutes that they're in? Because when you watch OKC, there's really— when they're— when their bench comes in the game, there's really not a huge drop-off. And if anything, they elevate because these guys are so good at what they do, um, with their, their craft. San Antonio has that same type of personnel, but those guys are young. OKC just has the experience going through, you know, the rigors of the playoffs, won a championship. So they've gotten over that hump where San Antonio is working their way there. Um, that's my case. I just think, you know, having depth that can match up with OKC in terms of, uh, the skill set in which they bring— San Antonio has that. I just don't know if they can sustain that throughout a 7-game series.

Yeah, I mean, San Antonio Wemby is obviously just a total difference maker. My, my case against San Antonio, and it might be stupid meatball, I'm not a very smart guy, but I really do think the NBA is the one league where you have to go through the wars to get over to the top of the mountain. Like, you just— it just— there's— they're very rarely a case of a team that is— this is their first time going into the playoffs that they're able to win the whole thing. Like even OKC had to lose before they can win. And so that, it feels like as good as San Antonio has been this year and unleashing Wemby and playing him all these minutes now, you still got to go through it and you got to learn how to win these like really tight playoff series.

Unless you're like a team like the '07-'08 Boston Celtics where they made the trade with those guys and they just came in and just whooped everybody's ass.

But all those, all those guys separately had done it, you know what I mean, where they had been through wars.

Right, but they came together in one year and just, you know, put it together and just went crazy. I mean, they were so good defensively. Uh, but that— I think that's where it really lies. Like, defensively, these teams are elite. I, I can't say which one is, is better than the other. Um, it's just the offensive end of having to score late in games. Can you execute, uh, when it matters the most? And for me OKC has the proven one, right? And Shay, the most clutch guy in the, in the game today, whereas San Antonio is still searching, right? They, they're searching. And if they end up in a matchup in the Western Conference Finals against OKC, that's going to be their learning curve. And I'm sure OKC will probably pull that out, but they need to go through that to be able to get over, uh, OKC for the following year because they know what to expect.

Yeah. Let's just say Oklahoma City makes it to the finals and then you could take anybody from the East. I'm not saying like who you think will necessarily win the East, although it might be the same answer, but if you could take anybody from the East and say they probably have the best matchup against the Thunder in the finals, who would that be?

New York.

Okay. It's the Knicks.

And that's probably the team that you would think is going to actually make it to the finals too.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's the Knicks for me. Um, their toughness, you know, their grit. Um, and they have a guy that, you know, can match up with, uh, SGA in terms of being able to score, uh, being a finisher, being able to close the games. And Jalen Bronson, just, you know, magnificent skills. Um, defensively, you know, I'm sure there he will be a guy that they're target a lot, but I think in terms of their toughness, how they play, um, how they're built, the dogs they have over there, the skill set, I think they can match up with them. I'm not saying they could beat OKC, but I think it'll be a good— out of all the teams, I think that's a great matchup.

Do you think that SGA has a flopping problem?

I think SGA has manipulated the game The same way James Harden manipulated the game. That's just what it is. He's getting the calls, it's his turn. It's— it works for him. I hate it, but what are you gonna do? It works for him.

That's kind of where we've always landed, where it's like, do I like watching it?

No.

And but if you're able— that's a— that's an NBA problem, that's a refereeing problem. Like, fix that. It's not their fault that they have found a way to be more efficient than everyone else.

That's what I— that's why I say I don't like it. But if they're allowing it, he shouldn't— you keep doing it if they're allowing it.

Right.

Right.

And it works in your benefit.

Right.

Right. I feel about it.

Yeah. If somebody had told you while you were playing, hey, if you do this repeatedly, the refs will give you that call every single time, would you have done it?

If I'm getting calls, why not?

I feel like every player in the NBA, they're just like— like us sitting on our couch, we can be like, I would never do that if I was in the NBA. Yeah, you probably would. You probably would because you probably get league MVP. You probably make hundreds of millions of dollars.

If I can get, you know, 6 free throws out of manipulation, I'm doing that. Why not? That's easy points. I would do that. Yeah, I don't know how to flop. I don't know. I would be horrible at that because I don't know how to flop, but I will find other ways to get to the basket. And I was taught, look, we all find ways to manipulate the game. It's just the great players is one that gets called out. At the level that SGA is at. For me, when we're in penalty, I found a way to get to the free throw line. I'm gonna run through the lane hoping one of them big boys is sitting down there, and I'm gonna run into him because when I run into him, he's gonna give me a check. It's gonna be a foul. There's a lot of ways to manipulate the games, guys. Yeah, I did it.

We'll get back to T-Mac in a second. He's brought to you by our great friends over at at Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft 365 Copilot, it lets you get stuff done. It works with stuff you've already got on your computer. You can work without leaving your workflow at all. It's built right into Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook. Copilot works where you work, helping you do more in the apps that you already use. In Word, Copilot helps turn scattered notes into a first draft. In Excel, it generates insights from your In Outlook, it cuts through the noise. It gets you up to speed faster. The apps know you go further with Copilot. Learn more at m365copilot.com/work. That's m365copilot.com/work. Tracy McGrady is also brought to you by José Cuervo. When Cuervo enters, every moment just gets better. You find yourself in the center of the dance floor. You can't help but stand up and high-five those around you at the game. The room reacts like it just got the same text at the same time. And you stop checking the time because suddenly small talk escalates to laughing so hard that you can barely catch your breath.

That's the Cuervo effect. It's a signal that everybody understands. It's a moment that anyone can join. It's a good time that just grows. All you have to do is keep it Cuervo. And now here's more Tracy McGrady.

Uh, you are mentor to Jaylen Brown. Uh, you're friends with him, close friends with him. What's going on with him?

I haven't spoken to him.

Okay.

I, I don't know. I mean, he's just— he's doing what athletes nowadays do. They go to their, uh, their own platforms and they tell their side of the story. I, I don't have a problem with what he's doing. I mean, you know, it's, it's content, right? We love content.

Yeah, but do you Do you think that's a— like, because it was a little weird to go live 24 hours after losing Game 7 and say things like, you know, this is the best, this is the best year of my life, when he, when he won a title 2 years ago. Um, do you think that he's— it's sustainable for him in Boston, or you think there might be something down the road where it's like, hey, these guys are gonna— he wants to have his own team, Jason Tatum has proven that it's his team kind of situation, where it's gonna gonna end up being a split?

I, I don't know. I remember having a conversation with him, I think it was like 2019, when he came to the house, um, and it was just a level of frustration on his part and in terms of, you know, where he was at and what he was thinking. And I kind of, you know, had a, a really good conversation with him and ultimately leading him to him staying and winning the championship and winning Finals MVP. Um, I don't know what he's thinking. I honestly don't. I haven't spoken to JB. Um, I just know, you know, having, uh, did I say JB or JT?

All right, JB.

JB. I know just having JT back and the way they played this year, getting that second seed I listen, man, to me, Boston is still a great team, I think. And when I talk about his frustration or not his frustration, but him being, you know, having this year as his best year, I just, for me, I put it in my own context, right? It's we lose our best player. He's not going to be with us this year. Everybody wrote us off, right? This is a throwaway season for the Boston Celtics. No one is counting on this. Well, they end up having a phenomenal year. J— JB— all these JTs and JB— JB had a phenomenal year, MVP candidate, number 2 in the Eastern Conference, you know. And I just felt like for him personally, you gotta think, he's, he's been sacrificing all these years being with JT, rightfully so. Right? So now he's in a different role. He's in a role where he can show who he really is as a basketball player. He has, um, another level that he's taken it to. And his leadership— I thought his leadership with this year was put on display, and he showed great leadership.

The guys played extremely hard for, uh, Joe Mazzulla and JB being the leader. So So for me, I understand the context. If how I'm looking at it, they had a good year with everybody writing them off. Now it looks bad because JT did come back and play like 20 games. Y'all were up 3-1, and that's why it looks so bad. But I understand the context in which I'm putting in that you go back to the beginning, no one thought about us even making the playoffs, right? 'Now we get to the playoffs and it's a 3-1, you know, lead, and we lose that. Now it looks bad that I go on my podcast or whatever and say this is the best year that, you know, I had with the Boston Celtics.' But if people just put it in context and go back and all the sacrifices that he had to do to win a championship, now you're on a roll, you could be the man, right? Everyone wants opportunity to be the man at once, one, one time in their career. He got that opportunity this year.

Yeah, he did a great job this year. Uh, I, I was looking at a picture of you from a few months ago because I recently watched the movie Marty Supreme. I saw it on the plane last week. I didn't realize that you were in Marty Supreme, that you were a Harlem Globetrotter. And I saw a picture of you with Chalamet where you're wearing your Globetrotters warm-ups. It looks like he's wearing pink silk pajamas. I'm not, I'm not sure what he's wearing. But my question was, did you have a chance to hoop with Chalamet? Because I saw a clip yesterday and he looked pretty good.

No, I didn't get a chance, man. We were there, um, it was late, uh, we were in Long Island. It was a late shoot. I actually had to end up— I ended up leaving the shoot. It was a couple scenes that I didn't make because I had to get out of there. I couldn't stay till like 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. That's when they were shooting. I was like, hey, man, I got to go. I got some things I got to do. But it was good hanging out with him. You know, he was— he was so nice and, you know, kind enough. I told him my kids was a big fan of him and he was like, yo, call them right now. So I called my kids. They had no clue where I was at and who I was with. And to answer their FaceTime and see him on the phone, like they just went bananas and lost it. But it was pretty cool, man, to be a part of that project.

Yeah. I don't know if you saw the clip of him. It was after the Knicks game. Game the other day. They just let him play ball on the court at MSG, and he just cooked some guy.

He was— he got swag, bro. Yeah, he got some major swag.

He's getting a good shot too.

Yeah. Uh, during the first round of the playoffs, was there any conversation had between you and the Orlando Magic being like, hey, just bring me in because you guys cannot make a basket, and that's exactly what I can do? Because I, I know, look, it's been a long time since you've been in the league, but I actually think that you— like, the way that the Magic were shooting, especially in Game 6 and 7, just throw T-Mac out there. You can't— it can't be worse than what happened, man.

That, that broke my heart, bro, because it just brought back memories when I was up 3-1 against Detroit. Oh my gosh, man.

Yeah.

But I— listen, I, I lost the 3— I ain't gonna say I lost the 3-1 lead. I mean, I had a whole team. We lost the 3-1 lead, but we ain't losing like that. Like, yeah, 23 straight shots, that, that was crazy. That's— that ultimately lost them that series in, in Game 6. I, I just don't know how you do that. And I was here in Houston when they missed 24 consecutive shots. I was here, I watched that game. But it's just heartbreaking, man, because you had such a, you know, up and down season due to your injuries. You get into the play-in, you play your ass off, and then you match up with the number one seed. And for me, it's like it was the perfect freaking series for y'all because how Detroit plays and who their identity is, is a physical basketball team. Yeah, well, Orlando matches that because of their size and their physicality, and I just thought that was a great series for them, and they showed it, got up 3-1. And it's just that Game 6, missing— no, being up 23 or 24 and losing in the second half, only scoring 19 points, is heartbreaking.

And when they lost Game 6, I knew Game 7 they wasn't gonna win.

Yeah, so let's say that, uh, going into Game 6, they're like, T-Mac, we need 10 minutes from you. We'll play zone. We'll play— yeah, we'll play zone. We'll play zone when you're on defense. How many points are you gonna score?

I don't know how many I'm gonna score, but I'm gonna generate at least 10 to 15 points.

Okay, so they should have signed you.

Hey, uh, things don't work no more.

Um, the, uh, the 13 points you had in 35 seconds.

Yeah.

Has anybody ever been more in the zone Was that the human pinnacle of like how in the zone one man can be?

Um, I don't know to that many points. I mean, Reggie Miller had something similar. Um, actually somebody overseas just had a crazy game where they scored points like that. But in a zone to where you scoring 13 points in the amount of time that I did, no. But when you look back at some of the great scoring games. Yeah, some guys have really been in that zone.

How, uh, how magical did that feel? Like, did you want the game to end? It's like, I, I will never miss a shot again.

Yeah, I, I felt like in that moment, in that span, that, you know, what did it for me is when I hit the 4-point play on Tim Duncan. You got a 7-footer that I got off the— off his feet, and we had the 3-point line, and I had the muscle to get that shot up, bumping into him and getting that shot up for 3, going to the free throw line, making that. And once that episode happened, the basket just felt like it was, I was throwing it in the ocean. I hear that a lot of times. And I just felt like we was gonna win that game. That's why you see on that last play, I'm not going and trying to tie the game, I'm going to win the game. 'Cause I have like, something just came over me. Be, uh, at that moment.

Yeah, you were never gonna miss.

You mentioned Tim Duncan. I don't know if we talked about this when you came, came by, uh, a few years ago, but it really is one of the, the big what-ifs where it could have been you, Grant Hill, and Tim Duncan in Orlando. What, what, what was the reasoning for— was it, was it something about flights or something that Tim Duncan—

so Grant Hill told this story before. It, it had that Grant Hill— I guess they were at dinner and his significant other asked, can family or wives travel on the plane? And Doc Rivers' answer to that was no. And that was the deal breaker. And if that is true, I, I told you Grant Hill told this story, so I believe Grant Hill. If you Doc Rivers and you have an opportunity to sign Tim Duncan, who just won a championship, and you team him up with— forget me, because I'm the afterthought— but Grant Hill in Orlando in the Eastern Conference, and then what I later became to join that. Hey man, give him everything he wanted. Yeah, give him everything he wanted.

Let his wife fly the plane.

You could have bought him the whole freaking plane.

Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. It is such a fun what-if. Yeah, because that's, you know, when it's obviously, you know, after MJ and the Bulls and, and the East is kind of in a shifting spot and you have the West, you know, with the Lakers and, and what happens there, there, there was a spot there for a team, especially if it was you, Grant Hill, and Tim Duncan.

You would have been the original Big Three.

Yeah, you would have dominated the East.

What ifs, guys. Yeah, what ifs with me.

Big Four with Grant Hill's wife.

Yeah.

And yeah, I would have loved to have Tim Duncan, but what if Grant Hill was healthy? Like, yeah, forget about that and how great he was.

I was thinking about that. Do you think Grant Hill is, is the biggest, like, what if, if that guy stayed healthy in the history of the NBA? Because he was so good. He was what, 6'8"?

Yeah, it's a lot of— it's, it's a, it's a handful of guys like that though. I mean, you got D. Rose, you got Penny Hardaway. Like, Penny only had 4 good years, and that was my idol. Like, he only had 4 good years. Grant Hill, he only— he had what, 5 or 6 until his ankle injury. So, and D-Rose, man, oh my gosh.

Yeah, I feel like it's— yeah, it's like Grant Hill, D-Rose, maybe Bill Walton you throw in there. Guys who like, you know, were— yeah, yeah, their flash was so good, and then it just never was the same after, you know, a bunch of injuries.

We missed out on the longevity of their greatness. We seen it, but we missed out on the longevity of it.

Speaking of longevity of greatness, LeBron still obviously in the playoffs. Um, it is really insane. What does he have to do? I mean, he— I don't know what he can do in this series. Like, going into this series, I said, I was like, there's— I'm not gonna hold this against LeBron. The Thunder are just so much better than the Lakers.

Yeah, like, cold wet against LeBron. I'm just we should be happy that we still watching him play. Yeah, I don't, I don't care what happens to the Lakers. Like, they're not gonna win this series. Are you kidding me? Oh, some few guys have to get hurt for them to win this series. Yeah, they just, they're outmanned. They don't have enough to, to beat this team.

Yeah, even if, if Luka was playing, would you say like maybe 6 games?

Um, Um, yeah, yeah, I, I would say it'll be a little bit more competitive. And I would say this though, they— the, the Lakers, out of all the games that I've seen this year in the playoffs from Phoenix until Game 1, they actually had a great game plan. And I've never seen SGA play the way he played, right? So the attention to detail and game plan that they had for SGA worked. Again, they just didn't have enough to sustain, you know, that level of play. When they come in with the bench, it's a huge drop-off and they can't, you know, keep that up. But the game plan was amazing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The SGA did not go off. SGA had a, a bad game for his, you know, he's 18 points. That's not SGA. Like, the problem is The Thunder then have just so many guys. Oh, Jared McCain's gonna go 4 for 5 from 3, right? Okay, cool. What do you do for that?

Yeah, that's the problem, right? You got Isaiah Joe, you got Caruso, you got AJ Mitchell, you got Kayson Wallace, you got Check, who had a big day. So it's— it— they— it's too many bodies, it's too much greatness. And I, I felt like, you know, I wanted to see the greatness of LeBron and JJ, of their minds and how they was going to approach this game. And I must say, I was highly impressed because OKC looked like a different basketball team than what we've watched in the previous games, uh, series against Phoenix Suns.

Yeah. Is there a team out there that might not— maybe they haven't won in the playoffs yet, uh, but an up-and-coming one where you're keeping an eye on them for next year? Like, this is a team that's getting better and no one's talking about them?

I mean, I say watch out for the Portland Trail Blazers, man. I think they're putting something special together over there. They had a phenomenal season. Think about what they went through in the beginning of the season, losing their coach. Tiago Splitter had to, you know, sub in, did a fabulous job with them, you know, to get him, you know, in there. And those guys respond the way they responded. It just shows that the great leadership from Tiago, from Jeremy Grant, from Drew Holliday, Dame, and you get Dame back. Hopefully they keep Drew and add, you know, I don't know if they're going to add, but I like Portland next year to be a team that we'll be talking about. Not saying they're going to be on the OKC, San Antonio level, but they are a team that is is surging that we should keep an eye on.

Yeah, absolutely. Um, all right, so T-Mac, everyone, like I said, the— what's the first date of, uh, the, the Ones Basketball League?

So we're gonna be in Orlando, Florida, guys, May 15th at Oak Ridge High School. Get your tickets on online, oblhoops.com. Please, Orlando, come out. It's gonna be phenomenal. We're gonna have all the legends in the building. Jaylen Brown, because he's the owner of the Boston Boston— of the Atlanta team. All my owners, Jadakiss, Tim Hardaway Sr., Vince Carter, John Wall. I mean, the list goes on. Lorenz Tate, they all there. Um, it's, it's gonna be a phenomenal event. Hopefully you guys can make it, but we're also gonna be streaming on, uh, Fubo as well. So that's awesome. Yeah, yeah.

And then I, I had one last question. So, uh, the Rohback question, rhoback.com, promo code Tate. TAKE 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. rowback.com promo code TAKE. I actually— we have a, we have a Florida boy in here, uh, our guy Zach, who's a big basketball fan. Zach, do you have a last question for T-Mac, or a couple questions?

I do, uh, Tristan, where I do want to say I appreciate every time, and I also want to say appreciate the way the positive light you always paint Polk County in. I think that's awesome, man.

Yes sir, you already know, baby. Yeah, all day, every day.

I agree. Yes sir, from Lake of Florida, 863.

Love Hold on, you from Lakeland?

Oh yes sir.

Oh man, hey, hey my guy, you know how Polk County is, baby.

From the heart, man, of course, definitely. Yeah, I was curious, uh, what was it like when you got that phone call that you made the COVID of NBA Live back in the day?

Oh man, as a, as a kid, it was just like, you know, really seeing someone— what you're seeing someone, you know, for the first time with my signature shoes on. I just I went crazy, like, damn, I made it. Yeah, but not to get that call that I was going to be on the COVID after, you know, being a fan of the game. It was just one of those moments, man, that, you know, all the joy just jumps on you and, you know, you're forever grateful for that. I get people to this day talking about that cover and just talking about that game.

Unreal feeling. Absolutely love that for you, man.

Yes, sir.

You got another question, Zach? So wait, how far away are you guys from— like, where is Lakeland?

I could throw a rock from Auburndale to Lakeland.

Oh, hell yes.

Yeah, it's like, it's like, uh, 10-15 minutes.

Love it.

Uh, he put a restaurant, uh, like 5 minutes from my house a couple years ago.

Yeah, you go?

Uh, it was a short stint, but yeah, we visited one time.

Nice. Hell yeah.

What'd you think?

Yeah, it was during the pandemic. I should have waited. People didn't want to work, so I had to shut it down. But, um, yeah, man, Polk County is one of those, those counties where it's just all the neighboring towns are just connected. So, and we got a lot of talent that came out of there, even like Chris Sales. Chris Sales, the pitcher, he's from, he's from where he's from, Lakeland.

Yeah, yeah, a lot of guys.

I think from Lakeland, you're right, Lewis as well.

Yeah, another one, Kathleen High School. A couple guys I think got a bad shake, you know, uh Uh, Corey Sanders, Dwayne Bacon, a lot of talent come out of Lakeland.

Yes sir, yes sir. Bouncy Twins.

Bouncy Twins is a big one.

There we go. Yeah.

All right, what else you got, Zach?

Uh, I was just curious, are we gonna see any of those 1v1, uh, championships in Polk County?

Absolutely. Awesome. Sure, you know I got to bring it to the high school in Arvindale for sure.

Oh, you can bring it to the gym?

Yeah.

Oh, that's all— that's all time. Thank you for your time, man.

I love that, Zach.

Thank you, Zach.

Is there a favorite, uh, place that maybe you guys can bond over, that you would— restaurant or anything like that?

In, in Polk County?

Yeah.

Uh, I'll let him pick that.

You go with that.

That's all— that's balls in your court there, Trace. You might have it.

Hey, we might have to go to Orlando or Tampa, my guy.

Yeah, completely understandable.

Okay, okay, okay. Maybe I was thinking more of a gas station because Zach, you love gas stations.

Boiled.

We got a lot of them.

Yeah, it was the best place to go grab something to eat early or late night, right?

What high school did you go to, Zach?

I went to George Jenkins High School.

Oh, I murdered them. I used to, I used to give it to them. Zach dropped a 50 They were a new high school when I was, when I was coming up in high school. They were a brand new high school, so you know the talent is out. I used to, ah, give them crazy hell over there. That's where all the money at though.

No, but everybody's— but the thing is, like, they say you're supposed to have the zoning, but the zoning didn't matter because everybody was just changing addresses, going to play Lakeland, going to play Kathleen. Nobody was trying to— is terrible.

Y'all had all the money over there at George Jenkins, man. Man, Lakeland and, and Kathleen, a little bit different, you know.

That's where the comp's at though.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. All right, well, T-Mac, thank you as always, man. We love having you on. We appreciate it. And, uh, good luck with the, uh, with, with the one-on-one tournament on May 15th. And, uh, we look forward to watching, man.

Y'all know what it is with me. I appreciate y'all all the time, anytime, man. Love.

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Okay, boys, Fire Fest of the week. You're in Hank's chair, Zach. By the way, the glasses.

Yeah, I had to go with the alternate pair. This is the backup pair.

They're hot. Respectfully, they're hot.

I appreciate you saying that, big cat.

I think they draw more attention to your eyes.

Yeah, I am adjusting to the bezel. I haven't had the— it's almost like blinders, like a horse, because the bezel's colored now. So I'm picking that up in my peripherals. I do appreciate the kind words there, gentlemen. They mean more than you know. Hopefully get back to regularly scheduled Eyeglass programming here soon. My favorite verse of the week is just that, uh, I thought that I left my apartment in a better state yesterday. We finally got home, you know, been on the road for quite a while. There couldn't be more, more things I need to do to get my life back together in that apartment than there is.

Like what?

I mean, the laundry is just like, it's embarrassing.

The lingerie, there's too much of it just laying around?

There's never been, unfortunately, there's never been any lace in that apartment.

Apartment.

Uh, yes, the laundry's bad. Left a couple lights on. The PC was left on the entire time with my windows open. I'm a little bit worried about sun damage. That's a whole nother thing. I won't bore you guys with that. But yeah, my Fire Fest this week, it just said like, uh, it's gonna take maybe 2 to 3 weeks to get my life back together.

Wait, so you, you walked out of your apartment, just left everything on?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, like, but I didn't plug the alarm clock and I took a picture of it to make sure.

Wait, wait, take a picture of you locking your door?

Well, this morning I did a video.

Yeah, but yeah, but did you do it on Friday?

Yeah, that's just, that's a business decision. You gotta make sure your compound's squared away.

Every day when you leave, do you also, you unplug the alarm clock and picture that too?

Now I don't usually photo the alarm clock. I did when we left just because we were going to be like AFK all the way away from keyboard. Oh yes. Yeah, I didn't mean, I should say, okay, away from keyboard.

Okay.

All right.

Memes is telling me that Zach has another Fyre Fest that he has Oh, so this is in terms of leaving a room too early.

This is what we're talking about with Zach the other day. He says that the booth will not keep a secret, but this is the booth doing their job.

Yeah.

Like you share stuff with the booth and you got it. You have to share with the class.

Zach, you are a star. The pop you got on Tuesday night was insane.

The live show is so much fun.

It was.

You guys, what you guys have built is a beautiful thing. And to see from virtual eyes into IRL eyes. It was awesome to see.

By the way, thank you for everyone who came out to that live show. It was awesome. And thank you to Jerry and Rebecca and Blake Griffin and Ryan Rosillo. It was— I think we all going into it because, you know, Netflix is a Joke is a big comedy festival and there's a shitload of shows. So going into it, we're like, are we going to be able to sell enough tickets? And we like— it was I think I got the final numbers, 90% full. And it was awesome crowd.

It's great.

Like, great pop.

Cool.

YouTube Theater was awesome. We're on the Wall of Fame now.

The Wall of Icons. Wall of Icons next to Metallica.

Yeah, it was a really cool experience. And we appreciate everyone who came out and celebrated with us. And I don't know what the future for live shows is, but I will say if we ever do end up trying to do live shows, we will obviously spread it out to a bunch of cities. This was a specific one where it's like, hey, We're going to Vegas for Matt's bachelor party. We got this live show. Like, I get it. Some people are like, why don't you come to this city? Why don't you come to that? Live shows, we've been asked to do them a bunch, and it's just we never want to do a live show where we don't make it something special. And then traveling and trying to make an extra show, it's— it would probably hurt our regular show.

Yeah, I think that it was really cool to do one time, and we probably will do some more in the future. But in terms of, you know what, the this experience taught me actually is I do not want to do a tour. Yeah, like a tour of live shows, like doing the prep for it, getting one in, having a great time at it. I think it would really, really affect the rest of the pod. Yes. If we did multiple back to back to back, even if we did like 2 or 3 a week, I don't think that— I, I like, you know, being snipers, sniper post, not, not the, uh, shotgun approach.

Yeah, Tuesday felt weird because we recorded the entire podcast, then we went and did a live podcast. Yeah, like, this is weird.

I would not want to do that.

No.

All right.

So now you're real Firefest. So shout out everyone who came. We really, really appreciate everyone's support. It was a special night. And it was great meeting Rebecca Romaine.

It was.

Jerry has told her nothing about us. That's what we really learned. She was completely in the dark about his entire world. He's living two separate worlds.

She is also way taller in person.

Yeah, way taller and way— she mogged Jerry.

Oh, big time.

Yeah, big time.

She also kissed me on my cheek. Did she kiss you on your cheek?

She did kiss me on my cheek.

To piggyback off—

that's all I'm gonna say. She just kissed me on my cheek. I also have— I don't know if you guys have this, but actually I'll use it for my Fire Fest. But go ahead.

Uh, to piggyback off the live show, I did step away to take a nervous pee in the worst time possible when Memes had to defend the Knicks. And that's on me, Memes, and I owe you an apology.

What was this?

I should have had your back.

It was okay. During the press-off with Blake Griffin?

Oh yeah.

I should have been there to have his back and I stepped away nervous pee. That's on me. And I'm sorry for that, Memes. And I appreciate you accepting my apology.

So that was, that was your other Fyre Fest. You had a nervous pee during the live show.

Why not?

That's not what Memes was saying back here.

Oh, okay.

So it sounds like we got a third Fyre Fest. Who? Wait, first, first of all, he's just there. He's like, oh no.

Who won the press?

I think it was— well, the Knicks are up 2-0.

It was Icy Vert.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. I see. Lib, what's your actual Fyre Fest? Now that we've gotten that out of the system, you've done a couple of practice reps for Fyre Fest. Now we're ready for our Fyre Fest.

I thought that was all the fire.

Zach was saying he left half his shit in Vegas.

Well, that—

yeah.

So I guess to piggyback off the alarm wake up, I had limited time to pack and then most of my things are just in the hotel room in Vegas.

Not anymore.

Yeah, they're gone now. Like, what do we mean? Mean like most things?

Like bathing suit gone. Two pairs of my favorite shorts, some of the socks I just purchased, and like several pairs of underwear. Like, just the essential stuff you would pack.

What about shoes?

Toothbrush charger, which is kind of a bummer. You just listed everything. The toothbrush charger is really the— I didn't notice that when talking about how much I packed.

What did you pack?

Yeah, I got, I got both my— both shoes made it. A pair of jeans made it. Other half of the boxers made it. Some of the black t-shirts made it.

What did all your shoes make it?

Double pairs made it.

Yeah, the black t-shirts could have stayed. You got, you got plenty of backups there.

I know, I just— what was in the— it was pretty much what's— what was in the bag got closed in. What was piled separate side— no, I just closed and zipped.

I was gonna say, like, everyone has left something in a hotel room before. But it's always, you know, you leave one thing, you leave a hat, you leave a charger, you leave a shirt, not half of your bag. So you didn't pack?

I didn't repack. It was a quick zip and we're gone.

Yeah.

I think Zach is in a point right now that he is worried that every time he sleeps he's late for something because we had— we had no plans on what— we left what, Monday?

Monday?

There was no plans. There was no late for anything. And he's still worried. He was like, I slept through that alarm. I'm late. Was I, was I late? I was like, no, dude, you didn't miss anything. We didn't have anything to go to.

Max, that was an in-transit convo.

I'm saying this to help, to help.

You're right.

To help ease your nerves. Yeah. I was so upset. Not everything is late.

There's no way to know.

No, you're trying to on top of it.

You had time to pack, but I know in your brain you're like, holy shit, I'm sleeping past my alarm.

Right.

I'm late. I'm late.

I'm late.

The funniest— It doesn't matter.

We got to go.

The funniest part about Zach waking up in the morning when we finally got him to rise up, he like popped out of bed, like sat straight up, and then he went to do the glasses thing with both of his hands, but he didn't have glasses, so there was nothing on there. And then he just goes, first words, I'm dialed. I'm so dialed. Let's go.

Like the second that he opened his eyes, I heard PFT's voice and I was like, I'm probably late for something.

Were you?

So we got— maybe it's partially us too. We got it. Like yesterday I texted you that Did that freak you out when you woke up?

I was going to ask you about that a little bit later, but we're good.

Yeah, we're definitely good. Like 12:30 when I was on the yak, we had a Cincinnati Red come by who actually was like, I used to live in the town that Zach sold used cars. So he's like, I want to meet Zach.

Small town.

He wanted, he wanted some ice cream. So I texted Zach at like 12:30 and I was like, hey, are you here today? And Zach texted me back at 6:30 PM. He's like, hey, I'm awake, what do you need? But that was okay because that was a travel day. Like, that was not— we were on the road for 5 days. I didn't expect you to be in. I was more just saying, hey, if you're here, come over. But I'm sorry, that probably freaked you out when you woke up.

No, I think accountability is important.

Did you sleep?

You have a good sleep?

Yeah, I feel— I slept from like 11 to text, like 3 minutes before text.

Yeah. What time you waking up tomorrow? I got my alarm set for text. Whenever I get a text, I'll wake up.

Oh man, Zach, I don't want you to be stressed like this.

No, no stress involved.

I'm just—

you got— you got to get better, you know what I mean? 1% better every day.

When you say no stress at all, do you mean no stress at all, or do you mean like, oh, I'm a little bit—

so much—

well, everybody's got a little stress.

You're so stressed right now. Yeah, you can't sit still. You're good. You're good.

You're good. You're a star.

I just love being part of this team. What a blessing.

We love having you here. PFT.

I mean, besides like hanging out with Max all weekend after he was hanging out with the guy that had the hantavirus on the plane. Besides that, what?

That was going to be mine.

Yeah.

Yeah. Besides that, I had a pretty good week. I'd say that I'm a— I'm a big Bryce DeChambeau fan. Oh, and I'm a little bit worried about whether or not he's going to be able to assimilate back to the PGA Tour, given some of the recent comments that he's had.

Yeah.

Have you read what he say?

Yeah.

Have you read— there's an interview that came out. I don't know what planet Bryson DeChambeau lives on. I think he might not actually live here anymore. He's— I think he's just trying— he thinks that he's MrBeast right now. And so they asked him about going back to the PGA Tour and he's like, like, you know, I could very easily just triple my audience. And they're like, what do you mean? He's like, well, I could, I could redub them in different languages and then I would triple my YouTube growth.

Okay.

Doing that. So he's like trying to figure out the leverage that he has against the PGA Tour. Right. And to be fair, the PGA Tour with the LIV guys potentially coming back, they're spiking the football a little bit. Yeah, they're big-dicking them.

I would do the same.

They're like, yeah, you guys left, you tried to sue us, so you basically have to like like, you have to kiss our feet before you come back. We want you to humiliate— play boar on the floor before you get back on the PGA Tour, Bryson. And, and Bryson is trying to drum up whatever leverage he possibly can to kick back against that. So maybe the funniest part of this interview, um, was when he says, uh, the egos need to get dropped. Everyone needs to come in with a level-headed playing field. And then, uh, right after that he basically said, like, I could do so much for the PGA Tour. Yeah, you need to make it work for me. Um, it— he goes, I think it requires a little bit of everyone lowering their guards. The egos need to get dropped. And then he's like, also, at the same time, I want you to respect what I can bring to this, or to this arrangement, right? And, um, I want you to guess this, Big Cat, because he's trying to say the other different options that he has. He referred to, uh, the team equity that he has and the— that the other LIV players have in the teams that they built with LIV.

How much, how much do you think Bryson thinks those teams are worth?

200 million.

Exactly, 200 million. Really? He said the teams are worth 200 million. Um, Good for Bryce. It sounds like Bryson read The Art of the Deal. Or maybe Bryson, like, did a Wikipedia on how to negotiate.

Yep.

So he's trying to, like, fill in all the things in his life to the, like, ready-made blueprint for how to negotiate against somebody. And then at the end, he was just— they asked the CEO of the Live Tour about Bryson, and he pretty much said, like, yeah, Bryson. He's an interesting guy. He's, you know, he's one of a kind, like pretty much saying Bryson's insane to be demanding all these things from the PGA Tour. And meanwhile, Brooks has it made. Brooks is just— Brooks is just hanging out on Thursdays at golf tournaments and being like, hey, wake me up if I'm allowed to play. Yeah, if not, I'll just— I'll just take a nap. I'll be here if you need me.

He's won it.

So he's won that. Yeah. And then also other FireFest, Danny Wood had almost made the US Open or almost made the next round of qualification.

The longest day in golf.

Which Shane Bacon did qualify for. So congrats to Shane Bacon. Danny Woodhead was— I think he birdied 18 to put himself in an alternate position. So if one guy drops out, then Danny Woodhead gets to enter that last round of qualification.

Yeah.

So Danny, you just tell me what guy we have to Tonya Harding and, and we'll make the rest happen so you can get in.

All right. My fire fest is quick. I just— after every bachelor party, I think the most relatable thing every guy goes through is just like, I'm I miss the boys. Like, I, I, I go through Jerry O'Connell withdrawal. I really do. When we get to spend a couple days with them and then we— and then he's taken away from us, I'm just like, man, I miss this guy. Dante, same way. I saw Dante this morning. I went up to say hi to him. He was doing the Dozen, so we couldn't talk. And I was just like, man, fucking love this guy. So it just sucks. It always sucks leaving a bachelor party and just being like, man, that was— that was Maybe we should just live in a penthouse in Vegas with all of our best friends doing a shitload of stuff.

The problem is the problem with that stuff.

I said stuff that could be water slides, that could be— it'd be water slides, barbecues, golf.

I don't think I'm ever going to be able to do Vegas as good as I did Vegas last weekend.

Well, we might have to just do it every year.

It was the perfect setup. It was like there's— it cannot— Max, Vegas will never get better than that.

Do you remember the— remember the conversation we had? Had when we were planning this. Max, you remember the conversation?

Uh, yeah, no, it was, it was very fun.

You said— Max said to me, and I understood, he was like, I'm not a big Vegas guy. And I was like, Max, listen, I understand it because when I was in my 20s I wasn't the big Vegas guy either. But when you have the, the funds to be able to do Vegas right, Vegas is the fucking best. It really was. Did it all maybe once, once a year. We just We just do a little, little thing, Zach. We don't do a live show after. We just go home.

Zach, we need you to get engaged this year. Bachelor party in Vegas.

Got to find a wife.

Yeah.

Yeah. So you know how all of us, we have to bring a— we have to bring a friend to that podcast.

Yeah.

I would like it if you brought a future fiancée. Yep.

Okay. I can bring in a potential life partner.

Yeah.

And then we can enter the dystopian future of Vegas again.

Yeah.

Together.

Yeah.

We can get your glasses back.

All right, Max, you're sick.

I'm going to get those.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Whatever.

OK, Max, are you actually sick? Max, are you actually sick?

Yeah, I think so.

56.

Oh no.

It's exactly— I feel exactly— I'm doing exactly what the guy next to me on the plane was doing.

Yeah, he was. I was sitting behind Max and he was— the guy sneezed 75 times, did not cover his mouth one single time. Like, actually should be in jail.

You're in the haunted house.

7.

Uh, 15.

26.

My Fire Fest, I miss my Colombian queens from the strip club.

Didn't speak a lick of English.

69, 20, 22, 32, 32.

Just one today, just one today.

Uh, happy birthday to Trey Lance. Tony Gwynn, RIP. Billy Joel. Happy birthday, Billy Joel. Happy birthday, Shaboozie.

Happy birthday to all the mothers out there on Sunday. Oh, happy Mother's Day.

And shout out to the dads out there working hard behind the scenes.

Yeah, Sunday's our day.

Yeah. You working hard behind the scenes trying to make Mother's Day a special day for mom. No one's saying thank you, but I will. Thanks, dads.

02:19:53

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