Transcript of NBA Free Agency With Brian Windhorst, World Cup, Balogun's Red Card Suspended And People Are Big Mad At The US, Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce Wedding + Mt Rushmore Of Weapons

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We're headed to Tahoe for chill week tomorrow morning, but we're here in studio right now. We're going to talk a lot of World Cup. We got the world angry, pissed off. We're also going to talk about some incredible games. We had, uh, England versus Mexico. We had Cape Verde versus Argentina. Just an incredible, incredible tournament. We got who's back of the week. We have the Mount Rushmore of weapons, and we did it old school style, no Googling, just pen and paper. And we went mano a mano, Zach versus me versus PFT. It's a great show, and it's all brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. Twisted Tea summer is here, and so is the Twisted Tea Summer Party Pack. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. They also have a new summer party pack. It has a brand new Twisted Lemonade. It's a refreshing hard lemonade made with real lemons, only available in their new party pack. So grab it while you can. Whether you're hanging out at the bar, hitting the lake or beach for a weekend, or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time.

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Yeah, part of my take. Yeah, part of my take.

Yeah, part of my take. Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, July 6th, and PFT, what a soccer tournament we've got going on.

It's pretty incredible. And, and let me just start by saying, I know a lot of people probably want to hear our reaction to the FIFA news, the, uh, the appeal of the suspensions that it was actually a suspension of a suspension. It was a true where were you moment.

Yeah.

When I found out I was getting a colonoscopy and I woke up and I thought that I died and that I was in heaven.

Yeah.

And for a while I was just kind of floating around. I don't know if it was like, you know, the butt drugs they gave me or whatever it was. But man, what, what, what a great piece of breaking news.

You had a man inside your asshole when you found out.

Yeah, I did. I did.

Fully inside your asshole.

Yeah, with a camera. We can maybe try to stream it next time.

It was, uh, listen, so for anyone who missed it, uh, Balogun, who is our, uh, striker, got a red card in the previous match.

It's a bullshit red card.

Bullshit red card, which, uh, let's start with that. So the red card, the, the, the people are very upset right now because the red card, uh, was bullshit. It was Yes, he did cleat someone in the back of the leg, but it was also— he had nowhere— it wasn't intentional. And the refs used VAR slow-mo, which they shouldn't have been using, to give him the red card. So he's suspended for our, our match today against Belgium until Sunday morning-ish when news came. Actually, credit to Davey Pitch, uh, our boss Dave Portnoy, who said, uh, he's, he's sensing that a certain red card is going to get rescinded. Or overturned?

No, no, no, not overturned. So the red card stands.

Oh yeah, that's right.

But the suspension, the one game— and we talked about this a little bit on Friday— the red card, the punishment is you're out for the rest of the game, plus there's a one, a one-game suspension afterwards. I've always thought that's bullshit. Like, your team has to play down a man for 35 minutes. Yeah. And then, then they tack on in the World Cup that you get a one-game suspension after that. So they suspended the suspension pending his good behavior. I think it's like a 1-year thing where if he fucks up at all, then we'll go back in time and we'll suspend you against Belgium.

Yeah. So he was suspended for our big knockout game on Monday against Belgium today until Sunday morning when it was suspended. The suspension was suspended. And it seems like all roads are pointing to our President Donald Trump, who maybe got involved did a little strong-arming, and the normally, you know, unassailable FIFA, who would never, ever— yeah, let anyone strong-arm them. They did just play an entire tournament in the middle of the desert built by a bunch of slave labor. And it was also in the middle of December when the World Cup is never played. Neither here nor there. Balogun is now back and we have our full squad and the tears are incredible. The European tiers. Belgium is lawyering up, which is pathetic by them.

You think you're going to beat our lawyers? Not only that, that's kind of what we do.

Play us on the— play us on the fucking pitch, dude. Play us on the pitch. 11 on 11. We're not doing any backroom deals or any strong arms.

Enough of this courtroom football. In America, we don't deal with judges and injunctions and lawyers when it comes to our football. No, we do. We go out on the pitch. We just let the grass talk. Let me be— let's just be real crystal clear what we're talking about when we're talking about corruption, because in this case, it was a blatantly incorrect call that was called incorrectly that has not been overturned but suspended. And it's the smallest piece of justice that the United States could ever get from FIFA going back over the years, the travesties The game against— the handball on the line against Germany in 2002, the mystery foul against Slovenia in 2010, Ghana in 2000. Listen, the United States has never benefited from FIFA's corruption before, and it feels like we've been left out of that party. If this is our taste of the corruption, and all the corruption is, is just overturning a suspension that should never have been given in the first place— who, by the way, one footnote in this, this is kind of crazy The VAR official's name is Juan Soto. Oh, the guy that buzzed down to the referee is literally Juan Soto.

Interesting.

And so he got on the horn with a Brazilian ref who's been under investigation in his own league in Brazil over the years. Bad guy, just known as being a bad ref. So, okay, if it's corrupt that we have our striker back for a foul that, yes, probably a yellow card, doesn't matter if it was intentional or not, but it was not reckless. It was not. He did not go in recklessly. It should never have been a red card to begin with. If that's what—

absolutely. If that's not— use reckless.

If that is corruption, then I guess I'm glad to be getting my first taste of corruption from FIFA because it seems like everybody else in the world has benefited from FIFA at some point except for me.

So people will argue against some of the points you said that the mistakes that were made on the field were made on the field. This was all off the field afterwards, which I agree, like the red card, it shouldn't have been a red card to begin with. And they illegally use VAR. VAR, by the way, it just—

you—

I thought that the one year that we did pass interference instant replay was bad. The VAR is just— it just slows everything down. It's just fucking crazy. So I— yeah, I apologize to absolutely nobody. I don't give a fuck. This is awesome. Did corruption potentially benefit us? Yes. Is that sick when that happens to your sports teams? Also, yes.

That's what I'm saying.

I kind of want to apologize to any Texas Tech fan that was getting grief. This is because, listen, this rules.

Or like, yeah, the Alabama judge that, that let an NBA player come back to school for a little bit. It is, it is good when it benefits. It feels good. That's what I'm saying is like, I felt this go against me before so many times in FIFA. It's good to feel just, it's nice to win.

This must be what it feels like to be a Chiefs fan.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it feels, it feels awesome. So the timing on the suspension being suspended is even wilder because they probably could have done all this last week. Instead, Belgium just practiced for a week like they were going to go up against the United States with probably Pulisic playing a false 9 or maybe Gio, but like a completely different formation altogether. And then now we get our true striker back. And so now the formation that they just practiced against, probably not going to be what they're going to be facing on Monday.

It is a little funny though that— and I'm so happy that Balogun's back and he's a very important part of the US Men's National Team— they are treating him like Messi. Like, Belgium is, is so scared to play him. It's like, dude, don't be such cowards, fucking play him.

It is.

Yeah, he—

Balogun's got the— probably got the best ego boost ever right now. The fact that the entire continent of Europe is now banding together because they're scared of this one guy whose, whose mom was, was too pregnant to fly.

Right. So I think if we're doing like who gets the credit for this being overturned, I would say 50% goes to FIFA for doing the right thing. 25% probably goes to Donald Trump for picking up the phone to try to impress his son and be like, Barron, I got your favorite player back. And then 25% goes to everyone on social media that retweeted the side-by-side graphic of Balogun with Messi stepping on the back of that guy's leg and being like, this was a red card. This was absolutely nothing. I think FIFA— I do think that FIFA saw the memes. I think this might be the first meme overturned red card suspension in the history of professional or of the World Cup.

And we've got memes. We— I've been following along all these people like being very upset about it. I actually have a few that I wanted to read. Also a little credit to, to Davey Pitch for being the first to have the breaking news.

He did report it.

He did get the, the ball rolling, uh, down, down the pitch. Uh, the—

there—

what happened with— did Ronaldo have a couple red cards going into this tournament?

Uh, yeah, so we got a— he, he did have a suspension going into the first game of this. He might have even been suspended for the first two games. Yeah, because we've got the World Cup, but then those were that suspension was suspended.

Yeah, we've got, we've got the memes like the meme warriors. Thank you for your service, meme warriors. Every single one of these tweets of people crying, I've just seen the what about these? And it's just all of the suspended suspensions.

Now, it doesn't happen for a red card that you got in the World Cup that you— that's never been like overturned for the suspension to be suspended for a red card that was earned during an actual FIFA World Cup game. It's just like qualifying games or the international friendlies that the fair play rules have kicked in for. So when you see those lists, yeah, Ronaldo was suspended for the first 3 games or 2 games of this World Cup under the, under the old rule. But under the new rule where it's good to have your superstars playing in the World Cup so that more people watch it on TV, FIFA stepped in. They said, hey, we got to get rid of this.

Yeah. All right. So I just realized I got blocked by— oh, this is sad. It's a British fan who lives in Chicago, Cub Rachel. British baseball fan. She called us bollocks. Yeah, very mean. The US have utterly fucked it there. Any respect they could have gained from performing well at this World Cup ruined by the corruption of this balagan nonsense. Proper corrupt bollocks. I'll say this right now. I still respect our team and our country.

I respect a good use of proper corrupt bollocks.

Piers Morgan said, imagine if another government and world leader did this to disadvantage the US. My response to him was simple. We would literally just sit in our air-conditioned room, houses and apartments, and probably play College Football 27.

I actually think that Piers Morgan— it takes a lot of nerves for Piers to say that. Yeah. Like the US has been proper bollocks at these World Cups time and time again. And we— I think we said on this show, Mims and I were trying to find the conversation that we had.

We—

anyone that understands how FIFA operates, correct, and how our government operates, knew that this was primed to be the match made in heaven, the most controversial, like underground cloak-and-dagger World Cup built off weird negotiations and tit-for-tat bribery. It was like it was, it was always going to be like that. Now, that's not saying— again, I would just want to go back to say that even that, even though that it was a controversy that we had the suspension suspended, he should never have been suspended in the first place. And he's a good guy and a good player who, for all intents and purposes, is just like a, you know, exemplary dude on the pitch. So it's not like he's out there injuring people intentionally. All we're getting is just our best players to be able to play in a game. That's it. We're not— we're not asking for the world here.

Yeah. Our government and FIFA caught eyes at the bar and they're like, it was always going to be like, from this is hot, from the—

from the group stage drawing. Yeah. This. Yeah.

This is from Max Scott. Any U.S. fans bragging about this are complicit in U.S. state interference in the beautiful game. A disgraceful, dark day for football. I'm going to brag. Listen, I'm going to brag about this. This was awesome. This is awesome. We did it. It's awesome. It's tournaments. It has not been the best World Cup ever. Yeah, that's the America effect. We did that.

We made this in Mexico and Canada.

Yeah, a little bit. America, Canada's having— yeah, I mean, Canada. Well, I mean, we're the last ones. Remaining of the CONCACAF.

Yeah.

No, CUM, Canada, United States of America, Mexico.

Yeah, it's true.

All gotten to the knockout stage.

So I do want to give some, some time to say what Belgium's head coach, Rudi Garcia, said.

Okay.

I think we have to hear both sides. He said, I didn't know that at the World Cup, the 5th of July is actually the 1st of April. Huh? It's April Fools. That's a pretty sick burn.

That is.

You have to admit, like, okay.

All right.

Trump might have met his match on this one.

Mm-hmm.

What else do you say?

We're not defending the national team or federation. We are defending football and integrity. Yeah.

Okay. Dude, dude, it's pretty good. So it's so good being in the— being on this side of it for once and just getting to laugh about it all. Zach, it feels great.

It just doesn't make much sense how everyone who's also been in it benefited in the past from similar— if we're going to use the corruption word, they just forget all of it ever happened. And they're like, how dare you disrespect this graceful, untainted game? It's like, well, that's just not the case.

We had thousands of people that died as slaves building stadiums in 125-degree weather in the middle of a desert that's never going to be used in the rest of the history of the world.

And again, they moved the entire tournament to a time that it's never played. Yeah, just for, just for the money.

And before that, it was Putin's World Cup.

Yeah.

And then not next time, but the time after that, it's going to be Saudi Arabia's World Cup.

Correct.

The— here's another one. This one made me laugh. Alfie, shout out Alfie, said this makes a mockery of the whole tournament. If the U.S. men's national team win, Belgium will have every right to feel cheated. Meanwhile, the USA's victory by their best ever generation of players will forever be tainted by accusations of favoritism and corruption. It's bad for everyone.

Wrong.

I'm not, I'm not going to put— I refuse to put an asterisk on this. Also, what, what, what world are we like? Why is Belgium feeling cheated? He's not— again, he is, he's a good player. He's an important player. He's not like— he's not the best player in the tournament. If you are Belgium, if— listen, listen to me, Belgium, real quick. If you're, if you're a man You want to be— you want to play the best. If you want to beat the best, you got to play the best. You want to be the best, you got to beat the best. What is this crying about? Oh, it's not fair. You guys were going to get the favoritism and the corruption going your way. Now you're upset that it's going the other way. Like, what the fuck? They used VAR illegally.

It was not a red card.

And it wasn't a red card.

It was a terrible call at the time. It was a terrible call afterwards.

Okay, now, PFT, we have to win this game. Now we got to win it because we have the entire world preying on our downfall. And yeah, I will have a tweet ready that shows that I'm hacked, maybe by like an Indian money crypto guy. But still, we got to win this game. They want us to lose so, so badly. We have to win this game. And preferably win this game with Balogun scoring 5 goals.

I need 2 braces out of him, a double brace.

5 goals would be sick.

Yeah, I think that, um, well, first of all, we need Portugal to win. We need Portugal to beat Spain.

Okay.

And then shout out, I can't go for Ronaldo. He's my GOAT now.

I just said that we, for one day, if we want to be the best, we got to beat the The best.

He's one day. He's not the best. Oh, Ronaldo's a goat. So we have— I want the opportunity to take out the best Ronaldo.

You mean Penaldo? Yeah, that's cool.

You got the best—

have to first knockout goal ever.

I don't want to hear like Spain. Give me Spain's not a good soccer team. They don't know how to play soccer in Spain. Portugal, they are the true kings of the Iberian Peninsula. I need Portugal to win.

I'm not even worried about that game.

And then, then we have to take care of business against Belgium.

You got to just play the— you got to play the team in front of you and then Listen, if we beat Belgium, let's say Spain wins, we'll just get Spain's best player suspended.

I'm okay with that.

We'll just keep doing this. I don't care.

Set the trend.

Someone put it perfectly. Some Michigan fan was like, I brag about Michigan's national championship every day of my life. There's no asterisk. And this is also like, if we— we're getting way ahead of ourselves. Just win Monday. There will be no asterisks in my mind.

No, absolutely none.

It will be full brags.

And if we had lost without Balogun— oh, asterisk city.

Oh, the most.

Yeah, Belgium.

It's very funny that like, I don't— I don't think the— like, soccer Twitter and soccer online culture is very funny and they have incredible memes and it's been very funny to watch. But in terms of the journalists that I've been reading, I don't think they're fully ready for like how we can twist the rules and not care. No, they don't. They're not ready for that.

Not at all.

And they're not ready for us. Like, we can be in meme wars.

I was— I got— I got deep into the ugly underbelly of the sensor chips that they're putting inside the soccer balls after those games on Friday. I think that was the— that was Croatia, Portugal, right? Where they had the little graph that showed up for the first time. I'd never seen that during a soccer game before, but they've got the chip in the ball now and the sensor tells you it's supposed to be like whenever even like a piece of hair touches the ball, you get like a little reading on it. So they use that to call a guy on, on Croatia offsides, took away a goal.

That sucked.

Portugal, Portugal ended up winning that game. And I am convinced that they just stole this goal from Portugal. I've become convinced now that the bump that they have on it right there is actually the header that takes place right after, and that the sensor wasn't synced up correctly with all the cameras.

Right.

And I read like all these scientific papers. I have no idea what I'm seeing, but I did hear that the guy in Croatia said it might have hit my hair. And then in the FIFA rulebook, there's a part that says hair is not considered for an offside call in this circumstance. This exact circumstance.

All I took from what you just said is for the rest of the world, be, be ready. Okay. Because what PFT just proved, there's nothing more dangerous than when we start to read. When we are like, hey, we're going to read some shit, we're going to read up on these things. You got problems because we don't read as a country. But when we do, oh boy, watch out.

We don't read books, but I will read dozens of posts.

Oh, All platforms, except when it says show more. I usually don't read it, but I still read the post. Yeah, I'll read the start of it.

I read the post and then I'll click. If it's like really long and there's a bunch of different paragraphs, I'll just skip to the replies and then I'll hope that somebody in the replies has distilled what was said in the original post into like a picture.

You know what I'll do is I'll bookmark it and I'll come back to it at like midnight when I'm trying to fall asleep and I'll read half of it and fall asleep to it. That's how much I'll read.

But I'm so deep into this chip in the ball thing, I, I've become convinced that, uh, it's all bullshit. Like, the sensors, yes, they're there, and yes, they pick up on stuff, but there's no chance that it is perfectly aligned with the 50 cameras that are running concurrently in the stadium on live TV at any given time.

That also is— so let's talk about some of the other games. The Croatia-Portugal game was incredible. Like, some— a lot of these games have just been so much fun to watch because you get a team down and the, the pressure they're putting on it. And Croatia was like just kept on knocking at the door. That was bullshit just by the fact that the— it hitting his head, maybe even his— the hair of his head. Like, I know it's the letter of the law, but like, how can we not say, hey, look, he's not— like, it didn't actually change his trajectory of the ball at all. And like, okay, the guy's out. Like, that didn't—

that's what I'm saying.

That, that should just be like, hey, that was a sick goal to end the game and it wasn't truly offsides. Let's fucking count it and go to extra time.

So that's what I'm saying is by the letter of the law, if it hits your hair, that doesn't count. Yeah, you're right. It does. Like, that should— that should have been an allowed goal. There's a, like, a specific rule that says that in the rulebook, that if it hits the hair, that does not count towards offside. So it should count. I actually— you know what, I want to see what Hank says about the Balogun suspension. Do you think he's happy?

Oh, definitely.

Where's Hank Memes?

Where is Hank Means? I don't know. I've been out. I've been asking that all day.

Yeah.

Where's Hank?

Where's Hank?

Well, you think he's happy?

He's probably happy.

I think he might be upset.

He's got to be.

No, I mean, well, he doesn't like the US.

The other great game was Cape Verde versus Argentina, which was that— there's some games in the World Cup where it's like, hey, this team is going to park the bus. Cape Verde was just going for it. Yeah, it was like to a detriment of themselves where They're like, fuck it, we're just going to keep trying. That was an incredible game. The Mexico-England game was insane. I feel like there was 100 moments in that game that were just awesome. You know what, Brazil lost.

Have you ever seen how they used to do penalties? Like in the MLS? Oh yeah, that's come out. They had a good— when they ran, they had a completely different penalty shot where they give you the ball at midfield.

It was XFL shit.

Yeah. And they'd say, OK, it's one on one, you and the goalie, just go for it. And then they changed it, I think, after like one season.

Yeah, these guys would get just like smashed too.

Yeah, I actually like— they should not do this for a shootout, but for a penalty, it's awesome. Yeah, this is a great penalty shot.

Where are you going to call Hank?

Yeah, I'll give him a call.

Give Hank a call. Let's see what he says. But yeah, these games have been insane. What's been your favorite game?

Today, my favorite game is watching Holland play.

Hello. Hey, Hank.

Hey, Hank.

What's up?

It's PFT Commentator from Part of My Take Sports Podcast. You're live to tape on Part of My Take. We wanted to get your reaction to Balogun's, uh, suspension being suspended.

Uh, it's great. It's great for the country, great for the team. I'm excited to see him play. I'm excited, uh, I'm excited he's back. Balogun on yellow once again. You don't see— you say you're excited, but your voice doesn't sound excited. Are you okay? Yeah, no, I'm good. I'm, uh, I'm trying to figure out how I'm—

if I'm gonna get to Tahoe.

Oh, oh, I didn't know that.

You stuck in New York?

No, I've been texting you guys like the whole night.

You've been responding. You didn't know that for sure?

Oh shit, I did know that.

I forgot.

I did know that. This stuff kind of piles up on me.

Do you think Max was a little bit of a bridezilla? No, what do you mean? Nothing, we're just joking.

Well, good luck, Hank. Hank, we did the Mount Rushmore of weapons for today's show.

Wait, but don't say anything because it's coming up.

It's coming up.

Yeah.

What would your honorary pick be?

I don't know.

I have to think. Okay. Uzi.

Okay. Nice, nice, nice.

All right.

Hank, Hank, Hank, you—

are you going to—

you said you're going to maybe not get tired. Are you going to miss the game tomorrow? I'll be in— probably in the air.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

But you'll probably be able to watch it on the plane, huh?

You'll definitely watch on the plane. I don't have a plane booked right now, so we'll see. But you're not going to sleep on the plane, right? You're going to watch the game.

Uh, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't really have no answers for you guys.

I wish I had any type of answer.

Do you know where— could you point out Belgium on a map?

Probably not near Germany.

Okay.

Yeah, actually, yes, that checks out.

That—

you nailed that.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you. Thanks, Hank.

All right. See you.

Bye. Yeah.

No, he crushed that.

Yeah, right near Germany.

Right there.

Right.

It's in that neighborhood.

Maginot Line.

He's on. He's on. He's on the block. Yeah, he's got it, man. The Belgians are so mad. They're so mad. We got them fucking mad, dude.

Yeah. Listen, Belgium, just play us. That's all we're asking. We're not asking for any special favors. Just play us head to head in soccer.

Right. And stop, stop bitching and moaning. Like getting lawyers. Disgusting. This is what happened to the game we love.

Just put our best 11, your best 11.

Yeah.

And we'll see what happens.

So the other games. Holland is incredible. That was an incredible performance, beating Brazil. Norway on to the next round. Brazil just— they stink now.

Yeah.

I mean, they have not— they've not been good for the last several World Cups. Neymar, I didn't realize, had never played in a game past the quarterfinals.

Yeah.

Now, one year was because he did break his back during the World Cup, but I was shocked to hear that. I just assumed that like every other Brazilian player, they'd played in the semifinals before. Brazil just looks sad. They were like Norway was the better team.

Yeah. And how well Brazil, Brazil had some— Brazil blew it. They had probably 3 to 4 chances that were like, how do you— they missed the penalty. Then they missed that like basically wide open goal. Brazil should have actually won. They just let them hang around long enough that they didn't like— they had some incredible chances that they fucked up bad.

I guess I just judge Brazil on a different scale because it— because Holland and Norway overall looked like they were the more cohesive team. Brazil, they play like a very sad form of soccer now, but they had— which I don't like.

If you watch Brazil, chances—

you got to watch Brazil doing the samba soccer shit, the hogo bonito. And they're not— they don't hogo bonito anymore.

Brazil might not be Brazil anymore. They're not.

They had some chances.

Yeah.

No. So the last 5 World Cups, They've lost to France, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium— oh, sorry, 6— Croatia and Norway. Yikes. And this also made me laugh from No Escalators, great Twitter account. He said, so you're telling me that Brazil won 5 titles many long ago, last made the title game in 2002, and since has largely starred in cartoonish losses? Is Brazil Indiana basketball? They might be. Yeah, they might be. Yeah. Brazil out. What other— what other big— I mean, congrats to Ronaldo. You, you had a, you had a moment where you thought that Messi was going to lose to Cape Verde. And I— we didn't text during that game. I knew what you were thinking while you were watching it.

I think a large part of the world thought there was a moment where Messi was going to lose to Cape Verde.

You were so excited.

Not excited.

I texted you right after. I was like, not today, Zach.

In a vacuum, all bias aside, the underdog story there— they win that game, man, is unbelievable. And it was— is painstaking because you show right after the last goal, he runs up, meets with the family, it's all smiles. I love you, this is for country. I don't think they should have panned back to the same section after the loss. I don't like when they do that.

Yeah, yeah, it was— it was a tough way to go out.

They were—

when it went to, to extra time, it was like and they got scored against, everyone was like, okay, this game's over. Argentina might score 2 more in extra time. And then they come back down the field and just fire that fucking laser beam into the far post. That was— it was such a cool moment. I'm bummed for Cape Verde because they were right there through the end and they did it by not playing scared like they were. They were on the front foot for most of that game. So that— I mean, that's— these games are so awesome. That's why this is the best tournament in sports. Like, The World Cup is— when it's in your time zone and you can watch it at the time that, that God meant you to watch sports, there's no better tournament in the world than this.

Yeah, it's, it's been so, so much fun. So much fun. I, like I said, I was— I, I know the, the, the way I judge it is that, uh, what was it, Saturday or— no, it was today. On Sunday, the first game Brazil I think they kicked off at 3:00 Central Time around noon. I was like, where's my World Cup game? Yeah, I was kind of— I was like, what do you mean there's no World Cup game right now? I need my World Cup game. I need my fix. So I'm fully addicted. And yeah, it's going to be— I think, I think Wednesday is the first day we don't have any games.

That's going to be tough.

And it's going to be a real— let me double-check that because that's going to really suck if that's the case.

That's a harsh reality right there.

Wednesday. Oh no. Wednesday. Oh yes. Oh shit.

Nothing Wednesday.

Nothing Wednesday.

And then we're on to like one game a day.

When's the All-Star break for baseball?

A couple of weeks.

OK, next week, actually.

Next week.

All right. So we will have baseball on Wednesday.

Yes, we will have baseball on Wednesday. Speaking of— all right, let me do DraftKings and we'll talk some other sports and do who's back. DraftKings, we're talking about the Cup and win or go home.

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One non-withdrawable reward redeemable. Predictions offer void in New York. Ends July 19th. Terms at dkng.co/audio. Uh, do we have any— so the All-Star Games have been announced. Memes and Shane. Shane's in the booth. Shane, were there any big snubs for the All-Star Games that you were upset about? No, I didn't even see the rosters yet. Oh, okay, great. Soto, starter. Starter. Yeah, that was, that was crazy. I know, PCA, not a starter, which I know he had a bad month, but he also had the best month like ever. Um, but listen, you can't get— I don't know, the All-Star Game, like, do you really get that upset?

You shouldn't.

No, I was like, I think Max, Max was upset last year, and I think I was like mildly upset about Seiya, but I don't think It's tough to— it's tough to, to, to be like really upset. Do they say half the guys leave halfway through the year?

What the percentage of the fan vote is?

I don't know. I'm just hoping that we get the home run. We get the Home Run Derby again. You know, the shootout and Schwarber does it in front of his home crowd, which would be sick.

That would rock if they did the swing-off. Yeah. Yeah.

The guy's built for swing-off was incredible.

And then the Home Run Derby is also going to be better, right?

Yeah.

Not perfectly fixed, but better. Better because they're going back to the outs, right?

It's gonna be better.

Or is it just swings?

I think it's, uh, I think it's— I can't remember. Shane's gonna look it up.

Yeah, Shane, what are we looking up here?

We're on this. We're so sorry. I was, I was looking at how Aaron Judge is on the roster. Yeah, that one's weird. Well, what am I looking up? I'm sorry. That one makes sense.

What is the format officially of the Home Run Derby this year? Is it swings I think it's back to out. No, I think it swings.

Look it up.

Good managing memes. I think it's— what do you say if it's just outs? That's a good way to do it.

Zach's ready to say something.

Oh, no. Also, the fan vote is 50%.

It was saying, wow, that's a lot of fan vote.

Yeah, quite a bit of fans.

You're actually like, we— the fans should not have that much power.

That's a lot of power for the seats.

Mm-hmm.

No disrespect to the fans.

Do you remember old school when you had to fill out the punch-out card? That was cool.

Yep. That was awesome.

That was awesome.

You mailing those in?

I think they actually might still have those. I actually don't know.

Do you mind? At grocery store.

Did you find it? Yeah. Shane?

Yes.

It says instead of trying to hit as many homers as you can during time, as participants will start each round with— oh, me, I'm just shaking my head.

Memes.

Save them. No, I just don't like these. I don't like the rules.

I say it again, swings.

So each round you get a certain number of swings. I like when you get 20, round 2 you get 15. And 15 again in the final round. Why don't you like that, Meeps? More home runs. I feel like this— I get it, but remember when it became the last few years, it became that you didn't even get to see the home runs because the ball wouldn't even land before they were hit the next one, right?

That's why it's, it's good, but it's not everything it should be. It's better, but we can do even better. Yeah, Major League Baseball, they get like tired. Yeah, yeah.

I like—

I don't like putting caps on home runs. That's why I like the outs. So you can just keep hitting dingers until, until you're exhausted. So in this one, it's like no matter what, okay, you get 20 swings in the first round. And so if your last 5 swings are home runs, you're still done. So stop you. I don't like that.

We're going to talk a lot with Windy about NBA free agency, but LeBron's decision is looming.

Mm-hmm.

I think it's going to be Cleveland. Do you guys agree?

I think you're probably right.

Can you play winter golf outside in Cleveland? Or is the weather too— I don't know, man.

Well, Rich Paul said it's all year round outside golf, right? Or indoor golf.

Indoor.

He said indoor as well.

Fair.

Yeah.

I don't know.

You think— where is he going?

I just think he goes somewhere where it's nice out year round. Maybe Miami.

You think he's going back to Miami?

About 9 months ago, LeBron wore the LeBron 9. Elite South Beaches for the first time in like maybe 6 years. Miami colorway. Ever since then, I was like, oh, he's going to connect the dots. He's going to finish out Miami.

Damn.

Just something to think about.

I'm thinking about it right now.

No validity, but just something.

I'm thinking about it hard.

I hate it, though.

I mean, Miami wouldn't be the worst. The Warriors would be the worst.

We don't— we don't want him to go back to Miami.

No, I don't want him to. I mean, I think he's got to go to Cleveland. I think that makes the most sense.

Is he the happiest in Cleveland?

Yeah.

Yeah, it's home.

Sure. You're right. And look, they're traveling a lot. Like, how much golf is he going to do during the— I feel like LeBron's not good enough to be golfing every day during the season.

Well, it doesn't matter if you're good enough. He's just got the bug.

He's got it.

He's got the bug. And you— I was saying that there's probably a 50% chance he saw Mad Dog get hit in the vagina with a golf ball.

Mm-hmm.

He'd probably watch it. He'd probably just chuckle, bookmark that.

You think so?

I mean, I think it's in his algorithm. I think he's just got everywhere. He's got the all golf out.

Oh, algorithm. All right. Anything else? National Sports Podcast. We're due. Who's back? Reminder, we're going to Tahoe this week. We will be in Tahoe. Max and Hank will be back there. They're in transit. It sounds like Hank's got some travel issues we didn't know about. Yeah, it's kind of a shock, but sucks for him.

At least he's going to watch in the air.

I miss our boys. It's going to be fun.

Show week's going to be awesome.

We've got some great interviews. Lined up. We got some great content lined up, so it's gonna be— it's gonna be awesome. Uh, all right, let's do Who's Back of the Week, and then we'll get to our Mount Rushmore of weapons, and then Windy. Who's Back of the Week? I mentioned it earlier, Twisted Tea Summer's Here. Twisted Tea Summer Party Pack. The Twisted Lemonade is so, so good. I had one over the weekend. I also can't tell you, the Half and Half is my absolute favorite. It's so good. And the original— the original Twisted Tea is incredible as well. So it's summer, get yourself a Twisted Tea wherever you are— pool, lake, beach, uh, backyard grilling, ball game, golf. All the summer activities are better with Twisted Tea. Keep the good times going all day and all summer long. Keep it twisted. Get that summer party pack, grab it, get it. You show up to the party, everyone's gonna be like, damn, is that guy got that new Twisted Lemonade? Yeah, it does. Okay, let's have some. So grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today and let's have a summer. All right, PFT, you're who's back the week.

Oh, that's right. Hank doesn't go first. Yeah, because he's not here because he's dealing with travel issues.

Memes. You want to ask the question? Oh, where's Hank? Yeah.

Where is Hank?

Did you listen to the show on Friday and you were like, why did he keep saying that? He was looking for anyone. No. Yeah, he was just trying to deflect the entire time. Yeah.

Well, My Who's Back of the Week is Mitchell Robinson because he signed with the Celtics. So Memes, what are, what are your comments about Mitchell Robinson being on the Celtics?

I don't want to pull a LeBron, but I kind of figured he was going to go to the Celtics just because he does fit perfectly with how they play, which is what? Live by the 3, die by the 3.

And if you die by the 3, Mitchell Robinson gives you the opportunity to get second and third chances just nonstop. So he's just going to get it and pass back out.

Hmm.

Also, turns out he punched his truck.

He punched his truck as he was—

he—

a family member had gotten into an accident. He was upset, hit his truck.

You should see the truck.

Yeah, it actually rocks. The truck is awesome.

They're all so good.

I know how much he loves his truck. He would have to be very upset to ever hit his truck. Yeah.

He— do you think he apologized to the truck after?

Yeah. Mutual combat. It's all good.

Do you have another one?

Yeah. True Love.

Yeah.

True Love is who's back because we had, we had Travis and Taylor getting married at, at MSG.

And Max.

And Max also got married for the third time. And it seemed everybody got invited to the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding. Dean Blandino was on the guest list.

1,000 people.

It made me laugh so hard. Like Dean just showing up.

I can't. Well, let me first say, You got to in this line of business, put your hand up when you're wrong. I'm going to say I was wrong. I do think they actually are dating now. Don't need the PNB. They got married. So I'm going to count it.

I'm going to put on the board. R on F. Yep.

I'm going to see it.

Ring on finger.

Yep. That's crazy. They actually did the whole wedding at MSG.

It's also crazy to invite 1,000 people to.

Yeah.

Like a 1,000-person guest list. There's so many people that you must not actually know that get invited to your wedding. And that's kind of weird.

There's no way to know 500 people. There's no way in hell, you know, 1,000 people.

How, how mad are you if, if you played even a snap in the NFL and you didn't get invited? You got to be like, what the fuck happened to me?

My chopped liver?

Yeah.

I don't know if you asked me to like name 1,000 people that I've met. I don't think I could sit down and do that list.

Wait, zoom in. Let's see this. Okay, so this is the update.

Some of these—

some of the attendees.

Adam Sandler was the officiant. Would that—

that is awesome.

Awesome. Good job, Travis.

Very cool.

I'm assuming that was Travis's choice.

That's very cool. Okay, let's all pick someone out of here. Oh, the Dixie Chicks were there.

Aren't they just the chicks?

Juju Smith was there.

Jules.

Yeah. Brad Paisley.

Brad Paisley was there.

Kyle Juszczyk.

Yeah.

Fullback.

That's huge.

George Kittle.

I mean, yeah, the, the TEU. I think Greg Olsen was there as well. The Chainsmokers were big Chainsmokers guys.

Oh, yeah.

Wayne Gretzky, the great one.

Yeah.

There's no—

John Lovitz. I just made that one up. Oh, no, it's just Bette Midler.

We should just— Seth Meyers. Okay, good for all these people. Kind of tacky, a Friday wedding.

Friday weddings are okay now.

You can get to—

listen, if you do— if you are looking at a big-ticket venue like MSG, probably save you like $250 grand going Friday as opposed to Saturday.

Can I, can I say something without getting in trouble with the Swifties?

Absolutely not.

It's, it's something that I saw. I did not, I did not come up with this. I saw it. I saw someone make this point, and I want them to be married for a very long time. I hope that it's forever and forever. Some— and, and I actually think this is a fair game because part of the allure of Taylor Swift is she does the numerology and the secret codes everywhere and all this stuff, and it's like People love doing this, finding, finding what everything means. Someone did point out that she might have had her wedding on July 3rd so that if they ever do get divorced, she'll just release an album and call it Independence Day.

That would go hard.

Yeah. I did not come up with that. I did not come up with that. It crossed my eyes.

Yeah.

I think they're going to make it. I think they're going to be married for a very long time.

I think it was a magical wedding.

I think they're married forever. They're going to be married forever.

They turned into a castle, the inside of MSG.

Is that true?

I think so. I think they built it out into something crazy.

Oh, that is cool.

And then there were people that were freaking out just waiting outside. And then the cops brought them like donuts, which was kind of ironic, but they hand them these donuts. I think they said that they're like from inside. And the people that were just waiting freaked the fuck out because they were like, it's kind of like we got invited to their wedding because they're They're throwing food at us.

Yeah.

And those are just regular, probably regular, completely like street donuts.

Yeah.

They did also donate $26 million to local charities, which is very cool. We should mention that.

That is good. Say, Zach, that is good.

That's a ton of money. That's a beautiful thing. If there's 1,000 people at a wedding, you got one shot at an hors d'oeuvre tray, right? Oh, it comes around once. You got to just like sweep it onto the plate or 1,000 people. You're getting what, one meatball?

But, but, okay, think about it. That's like glass half empty because I think all of us here— well, maybe, maybe I'm just speaking for myself— just kind of camp out right where the, the servers come out of. Imagine camping out outside of where the servers come out of for 1,000 people. The mass quantity of appetizers that you can get yourself into. Holy shit.

That might be traffic jam.

Situation would be incredible.

You think they went open bar or do you think they—

No, it's definitely like— it's probably like coupons for two.

Yeah. To drink tickets off pretzel. Probably have to wait in line at the, like, little kiosks that they have set up there. Do you think they had a beer guy?

Do you think they had a 50/50?

Maybe 50/50 would be sick.

Maybe then I'd be all in on this.

Maybe the beer guy and the hot dog guy that's walking up and down the aisle.

How out of place would we feel if we were at that wedding?

I mean, I felt really out of place at the dog show at MSG. So I imagine I would feel extremely unwelcome.

Well, it's funny because we saw— like, I saw all these people get invited that we knew. We know a bunch of them, but I feel like we know not them, that side of them.

You know what I mean?

When I see like Greg Olsen all, you know, suited up and looking nice and cool hat and Greg and George Kittle looking the same way and like, You know, Edelman always looks hot. It's like I know them when they're like fucking around with us. They don't— we're the friends they don't want to tell anyone else about.

It's like they're at work right now.

Yeah.

When they do this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But good for them. Congrats. Love is back.

Love is back. Paul McCartney saying, I want to hold your hand for the first time since like 1965.

That's pretty cool. That's kind of— that's a flex.

Yeah, it's a pretty big—

that's a fucking awesome flex.

Yeah.

OK, well, love is back.

All right.

My Who's Back of the Week is Dudes Rocking because, well, I got two of them. I got two dudes. One, our GOAT, Joey Chestnut, 18 out of 19, 66 hot dogs. It was super hot. It was like 92 degrees at Coney Island. He was just— he's just a man amongst boys.

Can't be stopped.

He's—

what was second place this year?

I think Bertoletti had 50, which I feel bad for him because he is really, really good.

Any other era? Yeah, people would be saying this is the greatest eater of all time.

It's brutal. Just Joey Chestnut comes, just kills everyone. And it still shocks me. I tweeted this during the competition, but because, you know, 10 years ago I was in it and I was around Joey Chestnut. We've met him a couple of times and hung out with him a couple of times. He does eat 66 hot dogs at Coney Island in 92-degree heat. He goes home, takes a nap, and then just goes and gets fucked up all night. Like drinks 20 drinks. Yeah, I don't know how he does it.

It's his one-man championship parade every year.

He's an absolute beast of a man. And then so dudes rock number one was Joey Chestnut. Dudes rock number two was the story about the missing England fan who was accidentally found in a bar in Spain. Yeah, 2 weeks later. So this is an unbelievable story. There's a guy, is England fan who left England, Michael Hewitt, 65.

It looks a little bit like an old Sean McVay.

Oh yeah. I'd have to see his shirt off to tell if it was actually Sean McVay.

Yeah, but just like, you know, over the hill Sean.

Yeah. So he left. He left England to go to the World Cup. He was going through Spain. He lost his passport and his phone at the airport in Spain. Just started going to the pub every day and getting fucked up. Meanwhile, his whole family was looking for him, thought he died because they thought he would— went to the US. Turns out he was never going to the US unless he had a ticket. So he was just sitting in a pub in, in, uh, in Spain looking at tickets, being like, maybe I'll go, maybe I won't, until an off-duty police officer saw him. He's a Leeds United fan. They did the Leeds salute, and then the off-duty police officer's like, hey, wait a second, I like your family's been looking for you for 2 weeks. He had no idea. He was just having the best time of his life.

Listen, Barcelona will do that to you. That would be a great place to just kind of lay low for a while. So he was posting pictures while he was getting fucked up in the pub.

Yeah, he had his— he did have his passport. Sorry, he lost his phone. He said Mick had lost his phone soon after arriving in the Spanish city and was blissfully unaware of the desperate appeals to find him. His brother Gary said he added, because he still had his wallet and passport, he saw no reason to go to the embassy or let us know.

Mm-hmm. So basically what happened was he was posting pictures from this bar. So it's not like he was—

no—

out of contact with everyone. He would— he just— he was in contact with the internet.

Yeah.

Not with his family. And this is honestly like— this is the European equivalent of getting a vasectomy at the start of March Madness. Yeah. Where it's like, I'm going to— I'm going to chill out for a while. And just watch basketball. This guy's like, I'm stuck in Barcelona. I'm just going to get fucked up and watch soccer every day.

It's crazy. He even— he's so obsessed with soccer in England. They— his brother called him, was like, hey, we booked you a flight to come home because we all thought you were dead. And he's like, I can't fly home on that day England plays. Like, what if I get— what if he doesn't want to be a Hank in the, in the air when his team's playing?

We should If this guy gets to the World Cup final, he should, he should come to America.

Yeah.

Yeah. What an awesome— he's just been hanging out, getting fucked up. All right, Zach.

My Who's Back of the Week this week is going to be Erling Haaland, because Erling Haaland showed all of us that when he's not preparing for the World Cup, he's just like the rest of us. He's a dude's dude. He let us know that his favorite thing to do outside of soccer is get together with the boys at home, throw a little LAN party. You guys see the LAN party?

No, I had not seen the LAN party.

LAN party. So you guys familiar with LAN parties?

I am. Yeah.

What's a LAN party?

LAN party is just when you guys come have a sleepover at my house and you both bring your own Xbox.

Oh, hell yes.

He's like, this is what me and my boys like to do. He's got the Xbox mini fridge there.

Wait, so this is just— they're playing Xbox next to you?

Yes. Everybody's got their own TV and their own game, and they just play in like however many guys.

So you're playing the same game, either co-op or against each other., but you're all in a closed system connected to each other.

It's masturbation, not sex.

It's a circle jerk.

It's a circle jerk.

Yeah. But for gaming.

Mm-hmm.

And then he said top 3 is Minecraft, GTA, and Call of Duty. So just when you feel like some of these guys on TV doing miraculous things aren't just like you and me, they remind you, hey, I'm just a regular dude.

That is about a game. That is awesome. Good for you.

I—

gamers up.

I read that he's a big raw milk guy. Yeah, it's raw milk. And his alarm, Zach, you know, his alarm is on his phone.

I'm not familiar.

It's the Champions League theme song. Wakes him up every morning.

The Champions.

You might maybe pivot.

Yeah.

You think you could wake up with that?

Or maybe Rambo.

Maybe a little too soft, but maybe I change some of the decibels. You never know.

Are you nervous about a flight tomorrow?

I think about any time we travel.

Yes, sir.

We're just—

if we're talking about it. Do you have another who's back?

Other who's back of the week to pivot off the hot dog contest a little bit was Badlands Chugs because he took down that guy, eliminated in 20 seconds.

Oh, that's crazy. We should get Deutscher in that. I bet you Deutscher could probably beat him.

I think it was like 22.1 maybe was the exact time, but it was Badlands Booker. Yeah, Badlands Booker. Yeah.

Yeah.

Beast.

Anything we missed from the booth? Jaden Daniels.

Oh yeah.

What about him?

He's beefing with his new receiver.

No, the Washington Commanders have released Brandon Aiyuk today from the contract that he didn't sign with us and was never going to sign. Yeah. Things got kind of weird over the weekend. So Aiyuk was saying, like, talking shit about Jayden's mom, I guess. And then they unfollowed each other. And then Jayden posted a picture of, like, Kevin Durant giving the birds. Yeah. So I think that should probably put an end to the Brandon Aiyuk to the Commanders rumors. But I was never really on board for— it's been weird for quite some time.

Yeah.

I hope he gets whatever help he needs. It doesn't seem like he's in a good space mentally, and it seems like even his best oldest friends have tried to help him and he just burns those bridges too. So. I hope, I hope he figures it out. And yeah, it's been really strange to watch.

Yeah. And then I have one other— Caleb's giving jerseys to Pope Leo, the Pope. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Yeah.

I had one other— Tobias Harris would be fourth all-time in NFL career earnings. So NBA contracts are back. Oh, he's made $330 million. And he's too shy of Tom Brady. Holy shit. Oh, that's awesome. Holy shit. That is nuts.

God bless America.

Holy crap. That's, that's insane. Good for him.

Yeah.

Good for—

what about Kirk Cousins? I feel like Kirk Cousins might be right in line with that.

What are the top 4? Top 4 are Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and then Kirk Cousins.

Kirk Cousins.

So he's just above Kirk Cousins.

Got it. But Kirk, you never know, might get another bite.

Kirk's got one more in him.

Don't count out Kirk contract.

No. Okay, let's do Mount Rushmore of weapons. And then we have Brian Windhorst talking NBA free agency. Okay, Mount Rushmore is presented by Twisted Tea. Summer's here and so is the Twisted Tea Summer Party Pack. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with a real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. They also have a new summer party pack, has a brand new Twisted Lemonade. It's a refreshing hard lemonade made with real lemons. It's only available in their new party pack, so grab it while you can. Whether you're hanging out at the bar, hitting the lake or the beach for a weekend, or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Keep the good times going all day And all summer long, keep it twisted. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. We are headed out to Lake Tahoe and we are excited because we are going to drink some Twisted Teas this week with the boys, be on the golf course. Nothing better. Maybe some grilling. Zach, I need to get my numbers up. So you may be grilling while I have some Twisted Teas and watch you grill.

Could be a big week for the burgers.

Yeah, big week. OK, Mount Rushmore time. So Max's 3-month wedding is finally kind of complete.

You ever seen the movie Deer Hunter? Yeah, it's been like that scene except just for an entire month. Yeah, just that's all that it's been. It's how his life has been. Half wedding.

He's been a bridezilla. Let's just all admit it. He's been a bridezilla for the last 3 months. But he is finally— I think the wedding is almost over in the fact that he's missing this show and so is Hank. So we were sitting and we were kind of game planning what we should do. And I made the offer to Zach. I was like, hey, you can pick the Mount Rushmore if you don't talk to Hank. And then I said, you know what? Memes, do you mind sitting out this one? Let's just go mano a mano. So Zach, me, PFT, all three of us. And then we're like, you know what, let's do a Mount Rushmore where none of us have any idea what we're talking about, and we will not use any Google or any help from anything. Not even a simple, hey, what, what it— what are some of these? And the Mount Rushmore is going to be the Mount Rushmore of weapons. Weapons. I would say we're not weapons guys. Is that fair to say? No, I call it duty. Zach might have—

yeah, not really weapon. I'm more of a weapons delivery system guy. Yeah, I know, I know planes, I know tank. Um, but outside of that, no, I'm not. I have used weapons.

Yeah, I've shot some guns, but it's not— it's, it's my list got, got really tough after about— we were all pen and paper. My list got tough after about 6. Yeah, and I had to start going outside the box thinking all over the place. So weapons, uh, who has first pick memes? That'd be PFT. Oh, okay, then who goes second?

That'd be you.

Okay, then Zach.

I love having first overall pick in this draft, I gotta be honest with you. Okay, uh, this is huge, this is huge. So ready to get started?

Yeah.

All right, let's get weapons. Let's add a bomb. Okay, nuclear bomb, nuclear. I want it to be nuclear bomb as my weapon of choice. I changed everything.

Okay, I got a question right off the bat. Is there a difference between a nuclear bomb and a hydrogen bomb? Because I have both on my list.

Hydrogen bomb is a type of nuclear bomb.

So I can't take hydrogen bomb.

Hydrogen bomb and atom bomb are slightly different.

What's the new age one that we have that's like so sick? That's like makes the— because you're talking about the one we dropped in Japan. I know what the one we got now.

I'm talking about nuclear weapons, which are that income. That's everything from Fat Man and Little Boy back in the day to the Tsar Bomba that Russia developed to whatever we got on the Trident missiles right now. So just nuclear bomb.

OK, so I can't do any hydrogen, no hydrogen, I see all nuclear weapons.

That's off the table. Nuclear bomb.

OK. All right. You know what?

I pick—

I think I might just go out of the outside the box for all my picks then, because I really had nuclear bomb was kind of the only one I felt really good about. Out. Everything else I was like, uh, maybe. And I did have nuclear bomb and hydrogen bomb, so that was my one-two. Were taken just like that.

That was my chemistry teacher in high school told me a joke when he was trying to get us to learn the periodic table. What do you do when your parents come home and interrupt your party?

What do you do?

Hydrogen.

Mm, nice.

Yeah.

Okay, so what does this mean? What are you pulling up? What the fuck does this mean?

It's just a lot of different—

this is just the most powerful nukes. Okay, got Got it. Tsar Bomba.

Yeah, big boy.

That was 1961. I feel like we've got to get better, right?

No, we kind of stopped going bigger because it reached the point where we're like, hey, we're probably just going to destroy the Earth if we make them any bigger than this.

So we dropped Tsar Bomba.

That was— so Russia did that.

Okay.

On a remote island that's like way up north in Russia.

And then now you can't go back to it ever again just to do it.

That's kind of selfish just to do it, just to drop one, just to be like, hey, look what we got. I think it was so heavy that they had to design like a brand new plane that could possibly carry it.

All right.

You know what?

I'm going to do a regular weapon for the first one. Not all outside the box. I feel like I got to— I got to hit something. And I do have one that I like. I'm going to go with the sniper rifle.

That's a good pick.

Sniper rifle is awesome weapon, especially if you're playing video games. You sit out. That's frowned upon, right?

That is a great pick. No, I guess different game modes. Are you taking— so all snipers off the board?

I think so. He got, he got everything. He got all the hydrogen and nuclear and shit.

That's fair. Yeah.

Why did you have a specific type of sniper?

I think the Barrett 50 cal is probably the one.

Yeah, that is. That would be the one.

One. I got it.

That's a great pick. Yeah. Great pick off the bat.

Okay.

What do you got?

I'm going to go with—

it gets really— it gets tough.

Is there a more fun to you— fun gun to use in video games than the sniper rifle?

No. When you headshot someone. Yeah.

Unreal feeling. Yeah, it really is. Nothing else like that in life. Well, in the game, though. In the game, though. In the game. Not IRL. Weaponless IRL.

Okay.

I'll take AK-47.

Okay.

All right. Kami, I didn't know.

Is that an— is it technically an assault rifle?

AK-47 is a Russian assault rifle.

Russian rifle. Very durable.

Throw it in the mud.

Throw it in the water. Get right back up. Works fantastic.

Okay.

So were you thinking about taking AR-15?

I was going to just take assault rifle.

AR-15, which stands for Assault Rifle 15, as Memes and I were discussing earlier.

I don't know.

Everyone knows that.

Yeah, I don't.

I—

my— all my— my entire list is just very generic terms.

Okay, fair.

So, so we'll just— like I said, between nuclear bomb and a form of an assault rifle, 75% of my list is gone.

So what, I just get guns? Is that how it would work?

The guns would have gone 1-1, I think. Yeah, that was the only—

okay, that's fair.

Yeah.

Okay.

And then one more pick. I'm going to go with the Force.

The Force?

Well, yeah, from Star Wars.

Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Good. Because I, like I said, I've run out of actual weapons here.

I have a couple of the Force, just magic.

I think it's up for interpretation.

Zach, do you know that this side of the room has never seen Star Wars?

Worth watching.

I saw the second half of—

definitely worth watching.

Um, was the last one Return of the Jedi?

I don't have the numerical orders like that, but I think that's one.

The third one, which was technically the sixth one that came out. I saw the second half of that, and then it turns out I did watch Phantom Menace. I just forgotten about it because it sucked, because they were just like debating taxes the entire movie.

Yeah, I've seen the original ones, but I haven't really seen like the Disney ones, the newer ones.

Mm-hmm. Okay. I'm going to go with what I think is maybe more powerful of a weapon than the nuclear bomb, hydrogen bomb. I'm going to go with big, perfect tits.

Okay.

It's good.

Brings any man to his knees.

Got some weapons.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, what are you going to do about that? Nothing. You just— you become a puddle.

Yeah.

Right.

The nips that lost— that launched 1,000 ships.

You could— you could. Yeah, right. Like, who started war?

Helen? Helen Detroit.

What did Joan of Arc do?

She was burned at the stake.

Okay, so that was close. What are you going to say, Shane? Shane's in the booth because Max is a bridezilla. Shane just Googled big perfect tits. Oh, now we're just looking at nudes. Shane, there are nudes in the room.

Yeah. Good job.

Although I don't—

some of those aren't perfect.

No, those actually come out all perfect, actually.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're all really good. Thank you.

They're really, really good. Keep scrolling.

That's a good job.

Okay.

All right, let's stop scrolling.

Max just got Wally Pippin.

Big time.

Yeah. Wait, did you have SafeSearch off?

It was on.

I turned it off.

Okay.

All right, good. Good. Max, what a fucking pussy.

You had SafeSearch on?

Okay. PFT. Okay.

Hmm. Got to cross out sniper rifle here. Okay.

That was the pie chart of our weapons knowledge. I think assault rifle, sniper rifle, and nuclear bomb. Had to be what? That's 90% of it.

It's a lot of it. All right. I'm going to go with a classic one. I mean, probably more people have died by this than just about anything else. Could also be used to confer knighthood onto people. The sword.

Okay.

The sword.

Yeah.

The mightiest medieval weapon of them all.

I had knife on there, so I like the knife.

A good pick, too. I feel like sword is just like—

that's a longer knife.

Long, way bigger knife. So sword in front of knife.

Yeah. Okay. You have 2 picks.

Oh yeah. Um, I'm gonna go with rocket launcher.

That's pretty good.

Rocket launchers are pretty awesome. Don't fire too close to a wall because then you'll hurt yourself. And also don't hit a barrel with it because that's just gonna blow everything up.

Okay, this one, I— you guys can tell me if this, this passes the snuff test. This is one I'm personally very scared of, uh, just in general. Like, is all I kind of hear about with China and all this shit. But can I, can I do cyber warfare?

Yeah, it's a good pick.

I mean, that's a great pick. Yeah, I don't understand it at all. I just feel like at some point they're gonna press a button and we're all gonna be fucked, and every cell phones are going to be jammed. All the stoplights are going to, you know, go green. Yeah. Everything's going to— like, all the hospitals are going to stop working. Cyber warfare scares the fuck out of me.

Do you ever think about just like, what if there was a button for all the, like, Waymo cars and somebody hit it and they all just started going like 100 miles an hour driving in circles everywhere?

Yeah.

Like, that would be pretty terrifying, right?

Like, like if you told me that we were going to get hit by cyber warfare or like a bomb, like a bomb, you die pretty quickly. Cyber warfare, it's like you're— it's probably going to just become the rules of the street. And I ain't going to survive that.

And you might not even know you're dead. Like, what if it just turns us all into a simulation?

My kids, by the way, pet— they stopped and pet one of those robots today. And I— that was the first time I was like, we might be gone too far. It's like the normalization. They're like, oh, look at the robot. They're like, what's its name? Selma. Fuck, name's a robot. It's Selma.

Take us over.

They had one of those robots that was pouring people coffee in the San Francisco airport. Just gave it double birds.

I will say that I saw there was a robot that does your laundry for you, and I kind of want to buy it just to— I don't want to buy it to do laundry for me. I want to buy it and put it in the office and fuck with it.

I don't think it can handle stairs because it was just like— I saw that same one. It seems like stairs might be a problem for it.

We should get a robot just for Mincy and just see how quickly, because that actually might be our last defense. That robot was Mincy's brain versus robots. Like, if you get a robot butler and you have Mincy be in charge of it, we might be able to disable all the robots.

Or yeah, the robot might just off itself.

Right, exactly.

Yeah, it'd just be like, Mincy, where's the nearest magnet?

Would it be like remote controlled? Like he's driving the robot?

Or no, I don't know. No, I think this robot just does your laundry for you. It's like $17,000. It also looks like it did it. No offense to the robot, but like the guy was moving slow as fuck.

I thought that we were way past that point in robot making too. When I saw it, I was like, I expected it to be walking like a human. Yeah, it was just kind of like gliding and clumsy. If Mincy— actually, Mincy only has like 3 shirts. Yeah, the robot would be like, probably kill itself out of boredom.

Yeah, true.

The folds are also like incredibly mid. Like, it wasn't a very good fold job at all.

I wasn't impressed. I wasn't impressed.

Not for $17.

No. Okay. You have 2 picks.

I will take—

wait, do you have 2 picks? Yeah. You have 2 picks.

I'm going to switch it up here. I'm going to take a Kimbo Uzi, and then I'm also going to take—

wait, I actually had Uzi on there, but I didn't know if Uzis were cool or not.

Does that mean like dual wield?

Yes.

Okay.

Is that— is that— can I take a Kimbo?

Yeah, you can take. Yeah.

Okay.

And then I'd also like to take—

I'm going to fuck up this draft.

I'd like to take C4 plastic explosive.

Okay.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. These are all weighted heavily towards Call of Duty.

It seems, I think, weighed heavily towards really fucking some shit up. Yeah. You know, I mean, akimbo, not a bad move.

Mm-hmm.

I might have fucked up.

But like, if you have two of them, you can't do anything else with your hands. Yeah.

Yeah. You can't really reload. But, you know, that's why they got the 30-round hunter round. That's what the Uzi's good at. That's one of the plus sides of the Uzi is small ammunition, but so many bullets.

All right, can I, uh, ask Memes a question? It's not about— he's not gonna be able to pick. He doesn't know my list at all. Memes, should I go regular weapon or stay off the book?

Stay off the book.

Okay. Uh, dual threat quarterback.

All right, yeah, it's good.

It's good. Again, I might have fucked this up. I was just thinking about weapon. Again, I don't know weapons at all, so I just started— my mind wandered. I have some more honorable mentions that I think, uh, are kind of in line with that.

I did have Denard Robinson.

Yeah.

Listen, he was listed— his position was listed as offensive weapon at Michigan.

Oh, really good dual threat quarterback is a problem.

I had women, but the tits was a better pick.

Yeah.

Tits are— yeah, a little more specific.

Yeah.

I got one more. Yeah.

Yeah. All right.

I might— you know me and you know how I do Mount Rushmore, and I feel like I'm fighting myself mentally to keep myself from fucking up my draft.

Yeah.

With a weird pick, but you already picked Sword. Sword's a good pick.

Yeah. In like 15, 20.

I mean, just for lifetime stats on the Sword.

Yeah, true.

Got to respect it as one of the GOATs.

OG Cannonball's still there.

Cannonball's still there. I am going to go with Musket. Fists.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Fists.

Nice beatdown.

Everyone's got them. Everyone. Has weapons that they're born with, they die with for the most part.

Mm-hmm. All right. Good draft.

Knuckle Sandwich. Not bad.

Yeah.

Knuckle Sandwich. Do we want to do honorable mentions? I had— I did have Steven Seagal. I had Rambo and I had Kimbo Slice.

R.I.P.

Yeah.

He was weapons.

I had flamethrower.

Ooh, flamethrowers. Good. I couldn't— you guys can maybe help with this. I'd drones, but I don't really understand drones, but I just see a bunch of Russian dudes laying down in the field pretending to be dead and then getting blown up.

It looks like hell.

Yeah, that does feel like the weapon of the future. And they do like the drones and birds now.

Yep. Terrifying.

That, that is a really terrifying weapon.

I think they like fly those drones around to like tethered to Ethernet cable so they don't lose connection. So all these fields just have like tons of like internet cables all across them from just guys just ripping drones all day.

Yeah. Right.

Which is a terrifying existence to live in.

And they have the like all of Ukraine looks like the, the first or third base foul line now with the nets.

They just have nets everywhere to try to catch them, to try to trap the drones.

All balls.

Yeah. But the thing is, the drones can go over them.

No, no. The thing about drones when they're coming down, like when they come down, that's on top of like the streets to catch the drones. That's crazy.

Yeah, that's crazy. I had landmines.

Oh, those are motherfucking missions. I had a— I don't know what the specific name is, but I just know that we did this with the R.A.N., the Bunker Buster. Yeah, that one seemed pretty fucking cool.

Bunker Buster is called the MOAB, the mother of all bombs. That's a big one. I had red turtle shells.

Yeah.

Mario Kart.

Good one. It's actually a great—

that's the one I thought about taking, but I was like, I better be safe and go fists.

Yeah.

Everybody's got them.

Lightning would have actually been the pick.

Lightning.

Yeah, lightning would have been the pick for sure.

Nunchucks.

Can you weaponize weather?

Yeah, you sure can.

Yeah.

Cloud seed. COVID.

Uzi I had.

Yeah.

Torpedoes. But those are only subs.

Yep.

Kind of a dark one, but really no defense against this weapon. Suicide bombers.

Hmm.

Tough one.

The best.

Tough one to stop.

Yeah.

A guy just walks in, boom. You're dead. Everyone's dead.

You're wearing a skinny, like, a sleek vest. Yeah. Are you a suicide bomber or do you work at, like, Ernst Young?

Mm-hmm.

I don't know.

Mm-hmm. For my other ones that were off the outside the box— blackmail, good weapon.

That's a good weapon.

Yeah. Nostalgia. Nostalgia is a hell of a weapon. People just— that's all people do now.

I think it's more of a drug than a weapon.

It might be more of a drug. But it is— people are just hitting you with nostalgia all the time, being like, did you guys see especially Fourth of July? Yeah, these just like made-up pictures. And like, this was, this was America in 1985.

It's just like a scene from The Sandlot. Yeah, well, actually, that's, that's a fucking hot movie.

But also, wasn't there, wasn't there like a friend of mine? Yeah.

Was there a lot of—

a lot of huge recession then? I don't know. Or maybe it was like 1975. Wasn't it? Or 1976, wasn't that like when they had to have a lottery to get gas?

Yeah, it was like the last couple of years.

Like, shit sucked then. Mm-hmm. There's any, any point in history shit has sucked.

Well, the trick is you just got to focus on the other stuff.

Yeah.

The best part of your history and like everyone's nostalgia, the best part, the sweetest spot that you can always hit is just when that person happened to be like 14 years old.

Yeah.

That's when the world was maybe not even for maybe like 10.

Yeah, 14 is like I have a raging boner and I have to jerk off every day.

Yeah. 10 to 14. Yeah, that's a, that's a sweet spot.

You know, that's like, it's like pain.

Yeah, we've all been there. It's uncomfortable.

Yeah.

You're just like, dude, I'm a man now. And I— what men do, they jerk off.

You try to walk in the grocery store. It's like, where do I put this thing?

Yeah, exactly.

With this.

Exactly.

I drive and I jack off. That's what I do. I'm 15. Belgian Malinois. Those dogs. Those dogs are absolute weapons.

Pit bulls.

They freak me out.

Yeah. Pit bulls for sure.

The silenced PP7.

It's a good pick.

That's a good pick.

The BFG 9000 picking Oddjob.

Yeah, that's fucked up.

Fucked up. You just—

you're a loser person. You're just a loser person. Zach doesn't understand our sick reference there.

No, I missed that one.

If you were really nasty at GoldenEye, then you would be like, hey, I'll be Jaws. Yeah, you can be Oddjob because Jaws was like 7 feet tall.

Oddjob was like 5 feet tall, so it was harder to hit him.

Okay, that's where I come from.

It was on 2V2 in real life.

Yeah.

So maybe you give the home that your friend with not as well accuracy, you give him a job. Yeah.

Maybe if they've got like the Mad Catz controller here, you can use this one.

The kid who didn't have an N64.

Yeah.

And it's like he's got no chance.

He only plays when he comes over to the house.

Yeah, I think.

All right.

I had the AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, heat seekers. Those are pretty cool. And the GAU cannon on the A-10 Warthog, the tank killer. That's the one that's got like the shark mouth at the the front of the plane.

Well, like Gatling gun, you know, the—

yeah, it's a gun that goes—

that's a good one.

Zach, pick. Uh, TNT, claymore.

Yeah.

RPG, spear gun, bow and arrow.

Spear gun's good.

Yeah. You don't like spear gun?

I mean, yeah, if you're like a fish, I guess it would be. I think even if you get hit out of water, I mean, yeah, I don't know. We got a spear gun. Remember how hard it was to shoot?

But if you got a guy who's like that with the spear gun.

Yeah, I guess we talked about it earlier, but like just a net, just a giant net in general is a great weapon.

Yeah.

Think about it.

A bulldog lawyer. Yeah, that's a, that's a tough weapon.

Yeah.

Like just a legal weapon. Unbelievable legal team just being like, I'm going to sue you for everything. That is a weapon. People use that all the time.

Flaherty and Balogun. Yeah. He should have been on there.

Yeah.

Laser beam.

Laser beam's a good one. Laser beam's a really good one. What else did you have?

Uh, MAC-10, Gen 5 Glock, uh, rocket launcher, UMP45, also a Kimbo. We did the women, uh, I'm not gonna— never mind. Uh, bow and arrow. Uh, no, Needler. Halo Needler. It's like a gun that shoots needles.

Yeah, yeah. What was the one that you weren't gonna do?

Oh, religion. I wasn't gonna say—

no, that's a good one. I, I was thinking about that too. It's a tough one to bring up, but it is a weapon.

Yeah, I could definitely weaponized.

Yeah.

And then a Semtex grenade, which is like a sticky grenade.

Yeah. So why did you go with C4 over Claymore?

Uh, because the plastic explosive, it's so malleable. Like, guys can just like— I like the COVID opness of the plastic explosive.

Okay.

Like, if you're on like a, like more of like a spy mission, you just pull it out You blow something up. Claymore. You have to— more of like a, you know, you're— they're coming with the claymores.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, because they're just out there.

Yeah. And you can see them. The plastic explosive seems a little more sneaky.

Oh, we missed Tommy gun. Tommy guns are good.

That's good.

Oh, brass knuckles.

Yeah. Brass knuckles.

Those always feel like they fuck people up. Also throwing stars. Yeah, those are cool.

Nunchucks, maybe.

Yeah. Yeah. Nunchucks.

Cool. Baseball bat.

Baseball bat's cool.

It's a good one.

Yeah. Baseball bat's really cool.

Spear.

Do we say grenade?

I think Zach said grenade earlier, but I don't think he said it before we started.

I don't think I took grenade.

Yeah, there's a miss. Grenade.

I mean, good pick.

Yeah. Grenade feels like—

close doesn't count, Zach.

Flashbang. Yep. A really loud siren.

Oh, like, like one of those crank ones.

Yeah, but like one that just never stops. That would drive you insane.

Yeah, that would be nuts. I don't know.

Mustard gas. Oh, yeah. Mustard gas.

Bad.

Like bioweapons. Yeah.

Bioweapons. Orange. Oh, fuck you up real bad.

What about just disease?

You said COVID, but disease. I mean, think about the— think about, you know, part of this country, you know, just handing out blankets, right? Full of the common cold. Boom. Shit changed.

What about Just words.

Yeah.

Oh, I was thinking the pen or the pen.

Yeah. The pen is mightier than the sword.

True.

Memes. We mean memes and Shane. Anything we missed? I think a lightsaber. Oh, lightsaber. Yeah. Lightsaber is better than the Force. That's not real. He picked the Force.

Yeah, but with the Force, can't— doesn't the Force delete somebody with a lightsaber?

It could.

You could just be like, hey, I'm going to move your lightsaber out of your hand.

Yeah, lightsaber.

So cool.

I had lightsaber as well, but it does feel like the Force could just like give me that and then take it away.

Right. You're like a knife. And I feel like a knife would have been a good pick, but like, that doesn't look great next to sword.

Yeah, I had knife on there. Jinx. Jinx is a powerful weapon. Yeah, just jinx someone. Gold Scar.

Great pick. Fortnite.

Oh, Scar.

Ballistic knife from Black Ops.

Also good pick.

LT inside 10 yards.

Love that.

And that was my—

if someone had taken a dual threat quarterback, I would have maybe gone, you know, a great catching running back.

It's a good one.

It's—

they are a weapon.

And then my personal favorite, favorite, the, uh, the trebuchet.

Oh, okay, okay. Laxatives and donuts.

Laxatives and donuts combination.

No, no, it's like shit yourself. Yeah, you shit yourself. Where's Ariana Rivera's, uh, cover? Yeah, you gotta talk in the mic. Do you get to talk in the mic?

Wait, Mariana Rivera's what?

Cutter.

Cutter.

Okay, cut fastball. Trying to think of other weapons. Steph Curry's range. The giant hand from Jackass. Yeah, you gotta see Jackass this week. Memes, did I fuck that up? Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

I don't trust memes. Memes doesn't know.

I think PFT won. I mean, nuclear bomb. It's like that was tough. It's tough to come up with. Half my picks. And he had rocket launcher. I had the nuclear bomb and hydrogen bomb.

Yeah, I did have a pretty good—

I just need the big, the big titty boys to come out. You know what?

I think I had the two strongest picks. I might have had two of the weaker.

Sword was not a great pick. You can get dominated now. You see a guy with a sword, you're like, that guy's got problems. Yeah, that guy's going to go, what, cut a watermelon?

No, it's just like, what's your Reddit account?

Yeah, right.

That's what you say.

You think more like mythological sword or like ninja sword?

Like samurai swords? He's thinking like mythological. They're not mythological, but like—

I was thinking like medieval. Yeah, back in the day. William Wallace's badass sword.

They're just fighting with swords, chainmail. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. Like knights. Yeah. Medieval times.

Listen, if there's just a shitload of people that love big tits and are afraid of cyber warfare with China, I could be in business.

Yeah, pretty much everyone.

Yeah.

If they're honest with themselves.

Yeah, I need the Star Wars guys. Come on heavy.

All right.

Good Mount Rushmore. We'll be back with the regular teams on Monday or sorry, Wednesday. But good Mount Rushmore. That felt good. Yeah. Not exactly our expertise, but I think we showed out analog too.

Didn't Google anything. Didn't look anything up.

Just weapons off the dome.

Sorry to all the military guys listening who are like, what the fuck are these guys talking about?

Yeah, but also thank you for your service.

Yes. Thank you for your service.

We did that just to make you feel smart. Before we get to Brian Windhorst, he's brought to you by our great friends over at Nutrafol. It is Tahoe week, it's chill week. We're going to embrace a nice summer reset. And if your hair isn't performing like it used to this summer, the move is not a hat, it's addressing the root cause. Nutrafol works from the inside out. It's backed by real credentials. It's a number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand used by over 1.5 million people Nutrafol has formulas built for men at different life stages. Nutrafol Men for guys 18 to 49, and they've got the all-new Nutrafol Men 50+, which is the first product of its kind specifically made for men over 50. Nutrafol for men, it addresses the key root causes of thinning wherever you are in life. It grows visibly thicker, fuller hair in 3 to 6 months. Nutrafol is even the official hair growth partner of Major League Baseball. These are guys that perform at the highest level and they trust Nutrafol to stay on top of their hair game. Start Nutrafol today and make the hat optional. Visit Nutrafol.com, enter promo code PMT, get $10 off your first month subscription and you get free shipping.

Find out why Nutrafol is the best-selling hair growth supplement brand at Nutrafol.com. N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com, promo code PMT. Nutrafol.com. Promo code PMT. And now here's our good friend Brian Windhorst.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. He is our good friend Brian Windhorst from ESPN, The Hoop Collective, everywhere. He was on TV for what felt like, uh, you know, 48 hours straight for the NBA free agency, uh, and the dust has settled a little bit, so we wanted to have Windy on to talk about it. Now, Windy, I have a question for you right off the top. Do you want to do the hard stuff first? Because PFT hates you right now. Do you want to just get that out of the way?

Yes.

All right, let's do it.

When you open like that, how can I say anything but yes?

I don't hate you. I want to be— I've said publicly, I do not hate you. I think that you had a momentary lapse in judgment when you were reacting to some news that just broke. And we say things in this business, and sometimes we look back on things we say and we think, you know what, that was really stupid.

So, okay, I'm going to write it down. You don't hate me.

Yeah, dude, I hate you.

So you got him very triggered one day. He was walking around being like, Wendy's— what the fuck is Wendy saying? What is Wendy saying? I like it, but what is he saying?

Well, yeah, I mean, listen, like I said, we say things in this business, and I'm willing to extend grace to you and say that maybe you'd like to walk it back and say, maybe, maybe that was the stupidest thing I've ever thought or said.

The greatest things you can do is extend someone grace. Yeah. So before we even start, I just want to say I appreciate the sentiment.

That's why I love you, Wendy.

Please double down.

The Trae Young contract.

Yeah.

I bet you didn't think you were going to have to answer for the Trae Young contract.

But your position is what?

My position is that it is not the worst contract in the NBA. As you said after the, the deal was done, you said you don't think that they could trade it unless you attach the number 1 overall pick to it. Um, with everything that we saw in the last week or so, I feel like it's safe to say that this is, uh, maybe not an accurate take that you had. You still might not like the, like the contract, but to say it is the worst contract in the NBA I think that's hyperbole, and I think that you deep down would understand that.

Um, and, and you're saying what— the circumstances have changed? Why?

Well, the, the circumstance— so if you saw like they were able to trade Paul George last week. Yeah, he got traded.

You know that Trey's contract is 2 years longer and like $100 million more, and Trey is also much younger and healthier than Paul George is.

True.

Yeah.

Okay, true.

He's also a lot shorter. I mean, how long— how far do you want to go down?

Are we going to go dollars per inch? We're going— um, I, I think that— I think Trae Young, you know, he has his issues for sure, and he has not, you know, lived up to some of the promise that he showed early on his career. But I think he's going to be a fine point guard. I don't think that he's, um, he's a, uh, albatross around the neck of the Washington Wizards. With that contract that he has. And you're right, we can't— you know what, what else are we going to spend that money on right now?

Um, that's absolutely an unacceptable reason to say that. I would just say this, like, um, in this current day and age in the NBA, um, and, and, and it's, it's those of us who are just immersed in it, like up to our eyeballs, it's the way we think every day. And so many of the fans, like, they're, they're their thought process hasn't changed yet. And by the way, we may be too far on the edge, but I say we as in like the media cover the league. But like right now, uh, you cannot afford to have a contract on your books that's a massive overpay. Um, and there was nobody bidding that for Trae Young. Nobody, nobody bidding that number of, uh, of dollars or years. They can say that there was, I just don't believe it. I reject the concept. And, um, I definitely upset the Wizards by saying that. They were very upset. And, um, even, uh, like, like the Trae group, which, you know, I mean, I gotta tell you, like, Trae Young, they were trying to trade him for like a year, you know. And it's not because he's a bad person, um, it's not because he's a bad player.

It's because— and this is the thing that where we're at in the NBA um, his contract number versus his production, the delta that existed there was difficult to live with in the current day and age. And that's the key part— in the current day and age. 6 years, 7 years ago, if you had a player that was making higher than his production, it just meant that your owner had to spend more. And if you got to different layers of the tax, you'd be like, boy, that was really penal, or whatever. But it didn't kneecap your ability to deal with your team. Like, now if you have a player whose production level versus his salary is out of whack, it like keeps your general manager up at night for like months on end, right? And so it took the Hawks like a year to get somebody to take that contract, and they finally, you know, they, they trade Trey to it because they just couldn't get anybody in the league who looked at Trae Young, again, not because of him as a person, not because him as a player, his production versus his contract. It took a year, and finally a team, you know, they got off of it, and, and the team that got him now had the problem, and he opted out of his contract, and they had the opportunity to, to re— redo that, and they had— they were in a good position.

They wanted Trae to be their franchise point guard. They were not going to draft a point guard. I mean, they'd already— when they did that contract, they'd already decided they were drafting Duboncet. Okay, so they were like, Trae Young is going to be our franchise point guard. Okay, and here's the thing though, they already promised him they were going to sign him when they traded for him. And the reason that they did that was because they needed him to not play.

Yeah.

Okay, because if he had played, we might have won a bunch more games and they might have not gotten the number 1 pick. And so if you're going to be a free agent, the last thing you're going to do is like basically admit that, you know, say that I'm injured for 6 months. So they told him like, Trey, we're going to take care of you, don't worry. So we're on the same page, we're invested in you, we're going to bench you. So they are— so Trey already knew he was going to get paid, and that's why he agreed to it. Now, now the Wizards can't say this publicly, but that's what happened. And so His agent did an amazing job because he got him traded to a team that was like, we want Trae Young and we're going to pay him, and like, he's going to be our point guard. We're not even going to look at Darren Peterson. We're going to— we're going to totally invest in you, Trae, because we think you can be great. And then they got him to pay him a max. Nobody in the league wanted to trade him on a max for a year.

There was nobody who wanted to give him a 4-year max. Now, I'm not saying an agent wouldn't come on here and say that that's a lie. And, and they could probably try to prove me wrong. I just don't believe it. So that's my thing. It's not having Trae Young as your point guard. It's not in saying even 6 months ago we want Trae Young as our point guard. It's saying it that I'm going to pay him $40 million a year for 4 years. And not only am I going to give them to him for 4 years, I'm going to give him a player option on year 4, which is just the whole player option phenomenon in the NBA. And it's probably a little bit too deep in the woods. When I was a kid, two different guys got player options: the superstars, you know, LeBron James class, and like the guys who were at the end of their careers who were playing for minimums. And you could put, you know, they were taking like a huge discount, and so you just give them a player option to protect them. Yeah, you didn't give player options to everybody who walked in the door.

Well, nowadays everybody gets a player option. Everybody. There's so many player options out there, it's maddening. That's a different topic. To give Trey that contract, it just, it kills you. Because even if you were in love with Trae Young as a player and said, I've got to have him away from the Wizards, I don't care what it costs, I don't care about the money that, um, that it's going to cost— when he has a player option, it puts the franchise in such a bad spot. Because in 2 years, you now got to deal with it. Because in 2 years, he'll be a year away from free agency, and he can hold you up. So I, I just, I, whatever the Wizards had to do to get the number 1 pick, I, in this particular draft, I'm going to excuse. So I'm not going to get on them about promising Trae Young when, when they ended up could have drafting Darren Peterson. Even if Peterson goes on and becomes like a superstar, I'm not even going to get on because they had to do what they had to do to get the number 1 pick. Giving him $212 million with a player option in this market I just, I thought it was, I thought it was a poor decision and I stand by that.

Okay, that's fair. A couple counterpoints. I would say that with, uh, the new, uh, draft lottery rules, having a guy like Trae Young at that contract would actually be maybe more valuable of a trade piece than in years past, where he, like you said, he would be good enough to make a bad team just good enough to not be in that bottom 3, bottom 4. So therefore they'd be like in the sweet spot of whatever the next new draft lottery would be.

So let me just real quick counterpoint that counterpoint. So you're You're saying that Trae Young is good enough no matter what to get you to make you a play-in team?

I think you said that earlier in so many, in so many words.

Yeah, right. And is that a max? That's, that's what you want a $200 million player to be?

Well, by himself, I mean, we, we do have other pieces around him that I think are much better than— it's not like a Trae Young team. That's what— so I think that's what I, what I like about is because he's surrounded by a lot, by and large a lot of younger players that are on affordable deals, at least for the next couple years. Then after those couple years passes and the backloaded contract that Trey has, at the very least we're going to be in a spot where that's going to be a different percentage, even if that were true, overall cap in the last year. And it's not as bad as the player options.

You would start his contract high, even if you wanted to give him a max in the first year, you'd start his contract high, then you would step it down so that as he aged and your other players got expensive, you could— I don't even agree with that, but even if you wanted to say you give Trey a max in the first year, then you'd step it down so that when your team goes up, then you would do that. I, I, there's no such thing as it's okay to pay him a lot now because we don't have that many good players. That I, I fundamentally reject that premise. I'm sorry.

Okay, I think— can you just say that it's not the worst contract in the NBA?

I mean, if you want to— and the worst contract is what?

I don't know, let's see, who would that be? I mean, Paul George, pretty bad. Embiid—

I mean, Paul George just got Jaylen Brown, so right, fundamentally that's not true.

Uh, Joel Embiid, not a great contract.

John Moran is a very tough contract. I just watched Joel Embiid win a Game 7 on the road with a 40-point game or whatever.

That's true.

Now you can say that it's, uh— and by the way, I think it's bad. And if you— if, if, if, if, if what you're getting, if where you're going is to get me to concede that I shouldn't have said it's the worst contract, if I, if I were to amend my statement to it's one of the worst contracts, if that's what you consider a victory, that's quite literally all I want, then I can't. I, I'm so sorry. As a Wizards fan, you've been so damaged, okay, that this is where you're, you're going, that you're going to say that's all I need, we only have one of the worst contracts. Yeah, but it's okay. But yeah, if that's what you want, I will, I'll, I'll concede that.

Okay.

That I should have said. Oh, wow.

Okay.

One of the worst contracts.

You kind of owned Windy.

Huge. Massive dub.

Good job.

Massive.

This is why you're a master. You're a master at this profession. Embrace it again.

Embrace the bandwagon. But I know what you're saying. I am a little bit defensive about the Wizards, but I also think that you can't necessarily fully judge how bad you think this contract is until we see Trae Young play with this Wizards young core. And then we can truly see how bad the contract is.

But even if he becomes a star, an all-star this year, you understand no one was offering him a 4-year max with a player option. That's like— it's not, it's not an evaluation as a player. It's an evaluation of the decision to give that contract.

We might be looking back on this in 4 years and be like, that's the best contract.

Hey, listen, man, if, if I, I'm not afraid to admit I'm wrong. And if I, you know, if I believe that that's the case, I'll do it.

Yeah. All right.

All right.

Hey, good talk, Wendy.

All right.

That was enough. Enough Wizards talk. Let's, let's talk some NBA free agency. So, yeah, I want to start with the dust has settled. Jaylen Brown trade. We were all shocked.

Yeah.

What have you picked up since then, since Thursday, of what the thought process is here? Because I feel like it was probably a toxic situation that Celtics had to get out of because they had already— Jaylen Brown had, you know, it just seemed like it was not sustainable. But still, how could they have not done better than that?

I did not have a feel for how low of a value that Jaylen Brown was in the NBA. I just didn't have a feel for it. And, you know, we have lots of conversations and we watch lots of basketball and we talk to lots of different people. I didn't understand it. You know, what I did notice was after the Giannis trade went down and went, you know, went to Miami's direction, I started hearing about what what Boston was, was asking for in trades, and they were all of a sudden asking for draft picks. And I was like, now that's interesting, because I thought Boston was like, you know, on the verge of still competing to win the Eastern Conference. Like, why would you, why would you be like asking for like multiple draft picks, you know? And I started, you know, I was thinking two things. I started asking questions. I was like, well, maybe they have another player that they can trade for. Maybe there's another player out there and the team wants draft picks for him. So it's part of a 3-team deal. And so first I'm saying, well, what is that player?

Who are they actually targeting? And, and who were they getting the draft picks? And as I kept having conversations, teams were rejecting, um, rejecting Jaylen Brown, uh, the offers even for the draft picks, like 3 and 4 picks. They were rejecting it. And, and, you know, notable players kept getting traded, right? Um, and none of it— and where Jaylen Brown, where the return could have been Jaylen Brown, and it wasn't Jaylen Brown. And I was like, man, like, some of these guys are getting traded, like, they could help Boston, right? And they're not. So I was sort of like, as I was having the conversations and watching things happen, I was sort of processing it, and I just didn't understand his value was where it was. And so I started having conversations with people, and like, I kept hearing the same thing from teams, um, where they were saying, you know, they were explaining about certain factors of the, of the, of his value. And again, this is where the nuances is tough in this day and age. And, and I agree, you know, we're— it's been such a sea change in the NBA that it's, it's not everybody is totally adapted, which is that it's not Jaylen Brown the player, it's Jaylen Brown the player for his salary.

Right?

And you have these teams that are afraid of having him for 3 more years at that salary with the, with the, with the, you know, the modifier that he was going to want a contract extension this summer. I talked to multiple teams who said we just didn't want to be— to get him in-house and then tell him we didn't want to extend him or offer him a pay cut, right? And I was like, what? Like, I was like— and but I talked to several people, and I wrote— even wrote a story about this that published on ESPN on Friday— who were like, we have lost the plot. This is, you know, I talked to one guy and he's like, how many times have we seen this? You know, high school kids, international players, 3-point shooting, rest. Like, we, we do this, you know, somebody finds a lane that's successful and then they go to saturation, and there's always this tipping point. The Darko Milicic moment where an incredible front office, the Detroit Pistons, convinced themselves that Darko Milicic was going to be better than Carmelo Anthony, right? Like, that was like, like, that was like part of why David Stern said no more 18-year-olds, right?

Because Carmelo Anthony is one of the best college players of the last 40 years, and somebody saw Darko and said, man, Joe Dumars, Joe Dumars, who had— who's on one of the hottest streaks as an executive when he built those Detroit teams. And, and, you know, the same thing, you get into a game like where you're Boston and you're shooting 65 three-pointers and you can't hold the lead or whatever, um, and it just goes to the saturation. And so like, I definitely have people saying to me, this Jaylen Brown thing is a tipping point. Like, he is going to go to Philadelphia and he's going to be great. I don't know if they'll win the title, but it'll look bad. And then I've got a bunch of other people saying You can't have a $60 million a year player who, when he plays on the court, the team gets outscored, right? And it's not because he gets on Twitch. It's not because he says, I want to be— I'm the best two-way player, or anything like that. I mean, I don't think those are— I don't think the idea of him getting on Twitch and saying that this was my favorite season was a plus reason.

That's not why they traded him, and that's not why teams weren't aggressive with them. They just saw a $60 million player who wanted $70 million, who probably would have wanted $70 million $1 billion a year. And I am totally trying to, to grapple with it myself because even as all I do all day long is talk to executives this time of year, and I just didn't understand how low the value was. And I'm still in some ways stunned by it.

Yeah.

What about the, uh, the reports of a little bit of friction between him and Tatum? Like the personalities just didn't mesh by the end. It was just a situation where, where one of them was going to have to go no matter what. Do you, do you put any stock into those reports?

I mean, based on my conversations with the parties involved, that was not a driving factor. The driving factor was Boston felt like it could spend the money more efficiently. Now, I don't know where Jason and Jaylen are, like, personally. I mean, I saw some reports that, like, they were both in Cannes last week and, like, they were both there and they, like, didn't even hook up even though this stuff was going on. I don't know. I'm not there. I don't know what was on their schedule. I don't know anything about that. But I do not think that was a driving force for this in the Celtics. I think that they looked at the numbers and said, we can spend our money more efficiently. And you may come back and say, well, well, Paul George makes the same salary, right? So, so how can you possibly say that Paul George at the same salary is better off than, uh, than Jaylen Brown? And I would say, listen, man, I agree, I don't see it either. I'm just telling you the way that I think the Celtics, you know, made this decision. And so tomorrow, Monday, um, I think Brad Stevens and their owner, um, uh, Bill Chisholm, are going to come out publicly and we'll see.

They've had days now to formulate a case and we will see what they say. And I assume they're going to take questions and have to defend it, so we'll see what they say.

Now you could tell me this is stupid, Windy, because I don't fully understand it, but it does feel like we're in a weird spot with the NBA and how the CBA is set up in the second apron and all this stuff where teams are basically like, they have to give these max contracts to these guys because Jaylen Brown is— wherever you think of him, he's, let's say, top 15. He's probably closer to 10 than 15, but let's say top 20 player. You're gonna have to pay a guy like that, right? But then the second apron is so punitive now, and teams are so scared of it that you just basically set up a, a league where I know that they want parity, but But I think the NBA has been the strongest when there has been dynasties and you have those storylines. But now it feels like a team cannot keep their stars because you have to pay them and then you got to ship them as soon as you get into that second apron and a guy doesn't— an owner doesn't want to pay it. So did they kind of screw themselves with this?

So it depends on what you mean by screw themselves because they have an 11— they're one year into an 11-year, $77 billion TV deal.

Okay.

So you would say, well, aren't they going to hurt themselves? By, you know, their popularity. Well, like, I guess, but, you know, maybe the ratings will go down 5 or 8% or whatever, 12%, but they're guaranteed $77 billion.

Check's gonna clear.

So like, on one hand, like, the owners, like, this is the perfect time to do this because they knew they were going to get paid. And like, just at the end of the day, the owners, you know, there's 30 of them, right? And there's more middle and small markets than there are big markets, right? So what's good for the overall health of the league is probably to have the Knicks play the Lakers in every Finals, right? But if you're Cleveland, Milwaukee, Indiana, uh, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, like, you've— it's one team, one vote. You've got more power to do that. And if you, if you're armed with knowing that you're, you're securing your earnings for 11 consecutive years, because that's going to drive the league revenues, then you can play hardball. And that's what they did. And so the average player salaries are exploding. Because of the, because of the influx of money. Like, you know, there are guys now signing for $70 million a year, and we are— $80 million is coming. Like, it's the money is guaranteed. Like, it will be— there will be players in the next couple of years where they will be years on their contract where it's $80 million.

Okay, so you can't say the players are suffering financially, but they are forcing player sharing, right? And really, the second apron is, is the way the teams are acting they're acting like it's a hard cap. Nobody has been in it 2 consecutive years. They act like they are afraid of it because of some of the stuff that they've put— they're into it. These teams are— their actions are telling that they're acting like a hard cap, and so they have to do player sharing. And here's the other thing, it's kind of like— it used to be that if you had a really good player, you just gave them the max. Nobody got 85% of the max. It was like, you know, hand grenades and horseshoes. If you were close to being a max player you just got the max. It wasn't like nobody was like haggling over, you know, that last 10%, right? Especially if you were a young guy, like, you know, 25 or younger. If you were anywhere close, like, like what you're seeing now, like with Jalen Duren, 3, 4 years ago, Jalen Duren signs his max extension on July 1st. It's done.

Because even though he had a bad playoffs, the, the Pistons were looking at him like, this guy is 22 years old, he's already an All-Star, absolutely we're giving him the max. Well, they're playing hardball. They're playing hardball now because they know they can't give a guy 25% of the cap if his value is 20% of the cap, because that 5% is ultimately going to screw you. That 5%— or even worse, let's say you pay him 20% and he ends up being like a player who's valued at about 18%. And now you may say this is trivial. Oh yeah, well, it's trivial until you gotta cut off, you know, fingers and hands to keep your team afloat. And so these, these— everybody's negotiating harder, which again is why The Wizards giving the Max what caught the league by surprise. PFT, sorry to bring it back to that. So now, now there's going to be negotiation on everything. And if, if, if Jalen— here's the thing, Jalen Brown is coming off finishing 6th in the MVP voting, 2nd Team All-NBA, definitely one of the most productive in terms of raw statistics seasons of his career. He absolutely elevated the Celtics without Tatum in there.

He was the lifeblood of their season. And if— and you've got teams out there who look at him and say, yeah, he's probably more of a $35 million player, not a $57 million player. And like, people are like slapping their heads like, what are you talking about? How could you possibly say that? But I'm telling you, this is the way these teams are operating right now. And I don't necessarily see it, but this is the way they're operating, right?

We'll get back to Wendy in a second. Chill Week is here. You know what that means. No schedules, no plans, just more of the good stuff. Chevy Silverado makes that possible. There's a reason Chevy is called the heartbeat of America, and the Silverado keeps that heartbeat strong. These trucks work hard so you can chill harder, whether that's getting out of town, heading to the lake, or just not turning around when you probably should. It's got the capability, the space, and the muscle— everything you need for a proper summer. Coolers, gear, whatever your version of chill looks like. Because at the end of the day, Silverado helps you tackle more of what you love. And let's be honest, you've earned this summer. Now it's time to go get it. So roll the windows down, turn the music up, and just listen. That is the heartbeat of America. That's today's Chevrolet. Go to Chevy.com to learn more. Now here's more Wendy. Wendy, I know that you saw a lot of whiteboard news over the weekend.

Mm-hmm.

Rich Paul's whiteboard.

I love the whiteboard.

You like the white— can we do Wendy's whiteboard?

I don't have one, but I will just say that I love whiteboard humor. Like, I love thinking about big decisions.

Yeah.

And thinking about like what was going on in the meeting.

Yeah.

Approaching the whiteboard.

Yeah.

I love that.

So the whiteboard—

wait, before we do the whiteboard, can I just ask— oh, you go ahead.

I'm just gonna reset what the whiteboard is. So yeah, so Rich Paul, he was on a podcast, I think with Max Kellerman.

Yeah.

And he had a whiteboard of, uh, it was like a mind map or a brainstorming sheet of where LeBron might play next year. And it just said LeBron in the middle and then it had lists of lineups, uh, I think like 7 or 8 different ones, the teams that he could realistically seeing him going to play for. The whiteboard is just— it's my favorite addition of the NBA offseason. I need to see more whiteboards.

How—

I love it.

How— Wendy, if let's say LeBron doesn't pick a team for another month, my question to you is going to be, how many times are you going to get asked day to day where LeBron is going to go play?

Oh my God. This weekend has been bliss, but it's about to be over. Yeah.

Um, do you get asked all the— like everywhere you go?

Yeah, of course, of course.

Yeah, that's my way of not asking, but where is he gonna play?

Um, you guys know as podcasters, especially you guys do it so many times, you know that feeling that's like a warm blanket when you go into a podcast and you have like a piece of gold content, like and you're like, man, we are going to— I mean, you guys are some of the best in the business of being creative. I'm not saying that, you know, this is, you know, sort of, you know, lowest common denominator. But when you're like, this topic is going to carry us through this podcast, it's going to be great.

Yeah.

And we're all going to get involved. And like, this is perfect. It's kind of like, you know, sports radio back in 1997 and the coach just got fired. You're like, oh my God, baby, I can't wait until 3 to 7 o'clock because boy, are those phone lines going to be lit up.

And where do you—

Mount Rushmore?

Much more season in the summertime. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, this is what Rich Paul was like going, you know, because the way the way— he's like, oh my God, this is gonna be great. He's like, I could go over 10 teams, I could go over— but by the way, the best podcast that Rich Paul could do, because he said that 27 teams called.

Mm-hmm.

Who were the 3 who didn't call?

I was gonna ask you.

I want Lakers, I've tried, I've tried to figure it out. I mean, I can speculate. I don't know.

Give us your speculation because our speculation is Lakers and then Spurs because they got Tobias Harris. So they don't need LeBron anymore.

No, I think the Spurs definitely would call.

Why would they? No, they signed Tobias Harris. He's basically LeBron.

Oh, really?

There was a tweet that we were referencing that was like, it was announcing that Tobias Harris It was like a Spurs account being like, the Spurs are officially out of the LeBron sweepstakes now that they've signed Tobias Harris.

Yeah, good to know.

All right, so what are the 3 teams? Lakers?

Well, I can't— by the way, I don't know. I wish I could tell you I knew. I, I would be— at this point, I would be surprised if Memphis called.

Yeah, that's a good one. That's fair.

I don't think— I, I mean, I just— I mean, I know LeBron has qualified it by saying he was talking about the hotel, not the city of Memphis, right? But I think— I don't know if Memphis is gonna call, but, but maybe they did. I don't know. Okay. Um, yeah, I like— I've— I actually was like laying awake last night saying, what were the 3 teams?

What were the other 2 that you thought of? I mean, are we counting the Lakers or no?

Well, of course. Yeah, yeah. I mean, although, I mean, it would be funny. Depends on who calls. Like, the Lakers technically did call, right?

True.

And want to schedule a meeting. So is Rich— is Rich counting that in the 27? Like, these are the— like, this is the podcast that I wanted.

Yeah.

Because Rich might count the Lakers. Yeah, you know, I don't know, like, um, like, do you think the Wizards called?

We got it, we got it, we got Trey, we're good.

I, I realize that.

Listen, I do, I think, I think you kick the tires.

Sure, if you're paying Trey Young and LeBron a combined $50 million, yeah, that's great, that's great management. So I will give you that. If they, if they want to average it down like that, that would be awesome. I just, I don't know, man. I don't know. Like, I, I, I can create all kinds of scenarios, but Rich walked into that and he's going, I can do 10 teams here. And there's no chance LeBron's considering 10 teams. He's probably considering 2 and a half. Um, but you know, Rich is like, we're gonna— Max, you know, Max Kellerman has hosted 10,000 hours of radio. You know, Max knows how to make it go. Like, let's go, baby.

Let's get it.

I think if it was up to Rich, he would do another podcast next week and he would cut the list to 5. Yeah, we're down to 5.

I like that.

Yeah, this would be, you know, amazing. So, um, yeah, I, I gotta— I don't think there's anywhere— like, I think, look, here's the thing, it's really a unique situation in NBA history, okay? Because you have a guy who is basically admitting, I will play for vastly below my value. And not like a $10 million player saying he's going to play on the minimum. Not like, you know, a guy who could be getting the mid-level somewhere. Who's like, I'm gonna go play with a team that could win. Like, literally an All-NBA level player, top, uh, still a top 15, 20 player in the NBA, who's like saying, I'll play for maybe the minimum. That's one thing that Rich, again, hasn't said. Like, he said he'll play for less, but does that mean $15 million full mid-level? Because if that's the case, you cross off a bunch of teams. Does that mean the $6 million mid-level that's just for the taxpaying teams? Because then that— because if they— because if he's willing to say yes to those two, that's the thing. Or is he literally willing to play for the minimum, $4 million? They haven't articulated that yet, but if he's willing to play for $4 million, it makes the scenarios crazy, right?

Why is he going to Cleveland? Can we just stop the charade? Come on, Windy.

That's what it looks like. Yeah, because he's, he's having this nostalgia time um, he's been in— he's been in Cleveland for like 10-plus days. Akron, I should say, not really Cleveland. Um, he does come to Akron every summer, and I saw that there's a lot of— you know, he— there was an event over the weekend, um, where he was like in a— like, it wasn't really a club, he was in like his, his place where he hosts families. It's this, um, this center in, in Akron where he— it's a lot— it's like basically like a family center that has a lot of family programs where they just basically turned it into a club for the night. He wasn't at a club like, you know, partying up. He was at this event for his foundation, and he has those— that event for his foundation every year, and he generally comes to Akron every year at this time. However, the fact that he is in Akron and doing all this stuff and hanging out with the Cavs from 10 years ago and hanging out— they had like a little reunion of his high school teammates over the weekend.

Like, honestly, I was not there.

I thought you played point guard for him.

Yes, and I did not make $41 million a year.

No, but so who is there?

I could have played point guard.

The assistant GM of the Cavs, correct?

Yes, who was his high school teammate.

That's interesting.

I mean, come on. And are they keeping a roster spot open for Bronny?

Well, I mean, like, they could get— I mean, I know I saw that report, like, it's, it's not like Mark Stein, he's like one of the best in the business, like, it's not wrong. Bronny makes $2 million. Any team in the league, if they like— it's not any team that acquired LeBron would be able to open a roster spot and bring Bronny in.

What about the other way around though? What if, what if one team wanted to like really overpay Bronny and just hold Bronny hostage and be like, if you want to play with your son, you have to sign with our team?

Now that's fascinating. So he would— they would, they would call the Lakers preemptively, acquire Bronny, and be like, if you ever want to see your son again the whole NBA season, you got to come play for the Blazers. Yeah, I mean, this is, this is something the Blazers might do.

Yeah, I could see Dunton do it.

Uh, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

I think because, yeah, I mean, obviously he would want to play with him. Now everyone's saying the Cavs, everyone's saying it's got to be the Cavs, got to be the Cavs. I was looking at the whiteboard. He had just Brad and Tatum listed for the Celtics. No Hugo on this list.

Complete insult. What did he have in there for the Wizards?

I don't see with the Wizards on there.

There's no way the Bulls were on there.

He didn't have Trey.

I think it just said chasing Jordan's legacy.

Okay. Trey has always been really good to me. I didn't mean to make it personal, but I just didn't think it was a good time.

You didn't make it personal. You made it about a contract. Yeah, she was the opposite of personal. It was strictly business.

I feel a little personal.

Wizards thought it was personal.

No, that's not personal.

Tell you what, Wendy, we'll make amends. I got season tickets. You'll come to a Wizards game, sit courtside with me at some point this year.

I love it. I mean, by the way, are you excited about the team?

Very excited. You should be, right? Extremely excited. Yeah. DeAndre Ayton. We got 3 first overall picks on the team. Yeah, I just keep telling everybody, hey, if, if AD stays healthy and DeAndre Ayton plays like he did in college, we could be a really good team.

Just plays like he did in the first part of that playoffs against, uh—

so let me ask you this, you know, so AD has 2 years left on his contract.

Yep.

Do you think it's a good idea to give him like 2 more years and $120 million?

Uh, this sounds like a, a trap. Sounds like a trap question, Wendy. Uh, no, no, I think with him it's probably fair to say Hey, we want you to go out there and see what you have, see what's left in the tank, see how healthy you are. If you play really healthy, you will guarantee yourself a massive payday either from us or from some, some other team that will gladly pay you a max contract.

That is a completely rational, well-thought-out, experienced answer.

Sounds like a guy who learned from the Trae Young contract and the mistakes that were made.

Yeah, it's okay. It's okay. Hey, that's the beautiful thing about sports, Wendy, is we can— We can disagree and we can have, we can have take battles and that's fine.

Yeah.

Yeah. By the way, I think it's amazing that we're having a back and forth about the Wizards. That means that the Wizards are entering the consciousness.

I think that's great.

We've talked a lot about the Wizards on this podcast. Give me the 3 LeBron spots. Is it Philly, Warriors, Cleveland?

So I'm not sure. I think Philly is there because they make this Jaylen Brown thing. Like, look, here's the thing about LeBron. He says it's about happiness. Well, that is so wonderfully amorphous and nebulous. Like, who's to say what makes another man happy? Who's to say, right? Like, like, you know, like LeBron could like decide, like, I want to play Marion. I played Marion. That's a— yeah, you know, I, I played the Philadelphia Cricket Club. And I think it's the course I want to play 70 times a year, and that makes me happy. Who's to say?

Yeah, he could be a masochist. He could be like, he— you know what really makes me happy is a bunch of Philly fans screaming at me and calling into radio shows and telling me I'm a bum, right?

Like, the happiness. Like, so if he picks the Warriors, um, uh, he can say, I want to play with Steph.

Who's gonna—

who's gonna say that that doesn't make somebody happy? That, like, of course it could make you happy. Um, so this is the thing, we've never seen a free agency like this ever, um, where like the money is kind of for the large part out the window and it's happiness. So you can whiteboard 35 teams, whiteboard, you know, the, the teams in the G League, like, you know, you can— if you want to create happiness. So I would say this, when Draymond opted out of his contract, I was like, well, Draymond knows LeBron's out of LA. He very clearly doesn't opt out of his contract unless he knows that there's a possibility. And the thing that I didn't know, I was like, would Draymond really opt out on spec? Like, just at the possibility of LeBron coming, would Draymond leave $28 million on the table and like say everything's gonna be cool? Because this happened once before in 2014 when LeBron left Miami. He really didn't articulate to Wade and Bosh what he was doing. He was just sort of on the fence. And so Wade and Bosh— like, LeBron opted out of his contract like right after the season, like 10 days before the deadline.

Wade and Bosh opted out too because they just— they didn't want to be locked in. LeBron decides to go back to Cleveland, gives Wade like a very minor heads up. Like, there's been different stories or whatever, but he didn't really let Dwyane know until very close to when he actually was going to do it. Houston offers Chris Bosh the max. And so Miami's hand is forced and they give Bosh the max, which ended up being huge for him because he had the blood clots. And to get his— to get the longer contract, it worked out and protected him and he didn't lose any money with that terrible health scare. But Wade had like had a really bad season with knee injuries. And when the Heat had to like move on, they were like, hey Dwyane, we got— we gotta give you a pay cut. It cost— it cost Wade about $10 million roughly opting out of that contract without certainty. So I've never believed that like a player on spec would opt out. I was like, well, he would maybe know. And so when Draymond opted out, I was like, well, he's got to be operating with some knowledge.

He's— it's what it seems like is that he was operating with the knowledge LeBron was not going back to the Lakers, not that LeBron was for sure going to the Warriors. And this is one of the things that has sort of emerged. People who are about— who've been around LeBron, and I haven't talked to anybody for a couple of days here, it's been the holidays, so I may be a little bit lagged in information But people who have been hanging out with LeBron recently, who I've talked to, they're like, yeah, he's not really saying what he's doing. And that jibes with previous times where he's done this, where he's not like sort of showing his hands to even people pretty close to him. So, um, I definitely think Draymond opts out because he thinks there's a reasonable chance he could go with the— he'd go with the Warriors. So I think they're absolutely on the, on the books. I'm not sure about Philly because I'm not sure how that fit is with those other guys. Obviously If he goes there, it's an abundance of talent, right? Um, and like, you're like, well, just figure it out.

And like, you know, when has LeBron not made a team that he's been around better? Like, you could see it. Um, I'm not sure— like, I know Rich said that Philly was there. I'm not sure that like it makes a ton of sense, but again, he could just say, I'm gonna be happy there, right? And so it does— like, I honestly— like, he doesn't fit tremendously with Harden and Donovan. Um, but you're like, it's LeBron James. He's this incredible player with this incredible talent. Like, he'll figure it out. So yeah, if he, if he picks Philly, I would be surprised. But you know, let's put it this way, Philly, as soon as they got the Jalen deal like done, they immediately reached out. Like, they're going for it. Like, they made their pitch, they reached out, they did it. I talked to people in Philly you know, I'm like, what do you think? And they're like, we're afraid it's Cleveland. Everybody, everybody I talked to was like, well, we're afraid it's Cleveland. Nobody seems like they have optimism.

My whiteboard for the Philly part of it is LeBron. I think in this, you, you obviously know, I've never met the guy, I don't know how he thinks, but LeBron watching the Knicks break their drought and everyone loving that that team so much. He— there's probably a small part of him is like, hey, there could be a sliding doors where I had gone to New York back in the day. Philly's the other— the next story. Philly's 43 years. Philly's crazy passionate. That might be the next story. He could be like, hey, I'm, I'm the champion of this city. Like, if he went to Philly and they won a title this year, he is a king in Philly forever.

Even if they just went to the Conference Finals, it would be a huge step forward for them. It would be like a smashing success season.

No, that's He did it for Cleveland, obviously. Yeah.

Yeah. I can't take that off the table.

Yeah.

What about Minnesota? Kind of the same thing.

Yeah.

Minnesota. Like you go to Minnesota, you win, you win a sports title. What was the last time? The Twins? Yeah. Is that the last one they had in '91? No.

Uh, the, the, um, Lynx.

The Lynx.

Yeah.

I forgot about them. Yep. Um, but yeah, I could see, I mean, that roster is, it feels like it would be a really, really strong one with LeBron.

I mean, I, I think LeBron with Ant Edwards would be amazing. I don't know how LeBron would do with LaMelo. Like, I think that— I think LaMelo hoisting up 35-footers, uh, in transition with 18 on the clock, he might look side-eye— a side-eye at that.

Maybe he likes a little bit of crazy though. He liked having J.R. Smith on the team for a while.

Trust me, he's definitely had some guys who were crazy on his teams over over the years. Uh, listen, again, if, if you look me straight in the eye and say, I want to play with Ant Edwards, that, that will be happiness, like, I ain't trying to talk you out of that. I think that— I mean, I think Ant Edwards is one of the most amazing players in the league. I've gotten to know him a little bit covering Team USA. LeBron was there with Team USA. Um, so many things were fascinating about the '24— I mean, Embiid was on that team too, as long as we're going to talk about that. But there were so many fascinating things about Team USA. One of the things about Team USA, we haven't even talked about Miami yet. Yeah, it's how LeBron and Erik Spoelstra— I don't want to use the word bonded because Spoelstra is like a robot, and I'm not sure, I'm not sure how, how emotions are with players. Um, you know, like, I've seen Spo with his kids and he's like a great father. I've seen Spo with, with players and he's like locked in like a robot.

I don't need— I don't know, right? Um, but like LeBron and Spo were like attached at the hip. And like pouring hours in working with each other on Team USA. Like, their, their relationship completely evolved in a new way, um, with Team USA. So like, that's the thing, like, you can create cases for all, all of these scenarios, um, and I can't rule them out. I do think Cleveland is where— there's definitely a feel in the, in the league like, oh, it's got to be Cleveland, it's got to be Cleveland. But I don't think people are talking with knowledge. I think people are talking about vibes.

Right. And that would be the, the best storybook ending for his career and just finishing it, especially now, you know, the documentary being filmed.

Like, let me say something about that. LeBron has had cameras around him consistently for at least a decade now. Is it possible that he would have an uptick in cameras for this last year? Yes. And is it possible that he would, you know get some permission from the league to have a little bit more than he was previously allowed? Yes. But the idea that LeBron having cameras around him was an indication of something, I, I'm sorry, that I just reject. I mean, he was on the Netflix show a couple of years ago, um, where he had heavy cameras around him a lot of times, and he is playing more and more years. So, um, he probably has 10,000 hours. I mean, I remember going to see Bronny play as a high school freshman, and there was a documentary crew following Bronny as a freshman. I remember going out to the, to the parking lot to leave the game, and there was a sound man and two cameras watching Bronny get into the car to go home for a nondescript non-league game on a Tuesday in December. So like, just having cameras around is not— like, that is not a change in the James—

when the James world Okay, so I'm gonna do a Windy Fingers for you. If LeBron always has cameras around, why hasn't he posted any, uh, footage of all these predictions he gets correct, right? We should probably have some footage of him saying, oh yeah, Kobe's about to score 81.

I can, um, vouch for times when I've seen and heard LeBron make some predictions But like, this is a problem. I was just talking about this the other day. Um, I am positing, and you guys can tell me you think I'm wrong, I believe that LeBron James has given more interviews and has been on the record for more hours than anyone in modern American history.

Okay, damn.

Because when you think about And I actually want to say American history, but like when you think about 20— because, because you're going back to high school, you think about 25 years of multiple hundreds of hours, multiple hundreds of interviews a year for 25 years, plus all of the podcasts, plus the television shows, um, plus the social media I don't think that there's more, uh, in the public sphere on the record comments by anyone in modern American history. And so therefore, if you searched it like en masse, you could find proof of just about any point, right?

President Trump will be my only one.

So you say that What was Trump doing? 300, 200 interviews a year from 2003 to 2026.

And he was doing The Apprentice.

Yeah, he was doing The Apprentice. He's 80, so he's obviously— he had like, what, a 40-year head start on LeBron? Are you saying just in the last 20 years?

Well, LeBron's life, you know.

Yeah, I would put it in the public sphere for like 25 years. The big two, uh, LeBron, Dave Portnoy.

Yeah, Dave, the two of them would be up there.

Yeah, listen, like, it's possible. It's possible.

Yeah, but like, it's a good point though. It's, it's a kind of a crazy thing to think about.

And when you consider all of the hours of gameplay, right, and all of the hours that he has generated in people talking about him or reviewing him like we're doing right now, yep, I would again make the case that he may be one of the largest content creators in the information age.

Yeah, I think that's probably fair. The amount of, the amount of like, uh, yeah, podcasts and, uh, discussion and just hours of us watching basketball.

Yeah, I mean, you're living proof. Not that, not that LeBron made your career, but you, you moved to Miami and they start— you guys started— what was it called?

The Heat Index.

The Heat Index, right?

How do you feel about that branding?

Yeah, that was good branding. But yeah, you guys like— and guess what? It was a smart move by ESPN because everyone wanted to hear about it.

Yeah.

Right, so I'm just saying, like, you could almost find evidence to prove any point. As, as the point where, like, LeBron claims to have made a lot of predictions, of course there are umpteen examples where it looks like he's stretching the truth. However, there are also examples where he was right. Yeah, about things is all— is what I'm saying.

Um, what about this, uh, rival league that LeBron and, uh, I think it was Maverick Carter, uh, that they're in cahoots on? It's called the B Project. And I know that for a long time they were saying it was going to be a men's basketball league and women's basketball. Then for a while it was just like a rival to the WNBA. But then I read a couple months ago that they're trying to get back in to become a rival league to the NBA as well, and possibly as a landing spot for older players to extend their career. Like, how is this going to factor in to the end of LeBron James' NBA career as he's thinking about maybe starting a league that will rival, you know, his old employer?

Very, very, very good question.

Good question. Very, very, very good question. He's trying to butter you up because he broke your heart.

Yeah. There's a Serbian agent, Miško, who's Jokic's agent. And a lot of what we know, because Maverick has not really, really talked on the record about it and the folks who were involved with it I tried, I, I tried to get on the record and really couldn't get them to reply to me. They were not interested in talking about it. So Misko went on a Serbian podcast and talked about it in Serbian. I had it translated and like verified the translation. And in that podcast, you know, he talked about meeting LeBron and Maverick on a yacht in the Mediterranean, and they discussed um, uh, basically creating a rival league to the NBA.

Yeah.

Um, and then two things have happened, and I can't for sure say that this is related, but two things happened because the under— the belief and understanding was that there was going to be some Saudi backing. LeBron has, uh, ties in Saudi Arabia He is— he has visited Saudi Arabia as a guest of the, of the royal family. And the Saudis, the PIF, the Public Fund of Saudi Arabia, they own a league where this— I believe it's electric boat racing. And LeBron owns, you know, owns a team in that league. He has business develop— developing business with the Saudis. This is public information. This is not like anything that's like, you know, it was all announced and stuff like that. He went— when he— it was in newspapers in Saudi. He was on social media with members of the royal family when he visited Saudi Arabia. None of this is, is new information, but he was, he was slowly but surely like developing his relationship with the Saudis. And then there was like the possibility of this league forming And nobody for sure knew that it might be Saudi money, but in the wake of LIV, people speculated that the Saudis could be backing LeBron with this league.

And, you know, the idea was that you wouldn't have to— kind of like LIV Golf, you would play a, a world tour where you wouldn't have to play as much and you could potentially make more money. And then a couple of things happened. One, NBA Europe started, and the Saudis, I think, were at least in some level interested in investing in NBA Europe. And so— and by the way, again, Miško, the agent, is on the record in this podcast saying this is what they did. This is, again, I'm quoting him. I'm not— I don't have hard reporting. I could only know what he said on a public podcast in Serbian. Um, the NBA Europe, uh, began, um, the, uh, Saudi— so LIV Golf basically failed, um, and Saudi Arabia entered a war, and, um, where they're now focused on buying drones, and the PIF is cutting back funding, other funding of sports, uh, sort of across the board. So when the women's league started, there— it didn't start with the men's league, and it's— there, there's a Saudi company like operating it or helping it with events, but it doesn't— it's not 100% clear that there's actually Saudi money in it.

So for a time it looked like it may be something that was, you know, could blossom into a LIV, but it hasn't. Some of the players who were thought to be, uh, guys who might be plucked off— like some people speculated that that would be Luka would maybe go, or Jokic would maybe go. Well, Luka signed a contract extension, and now LeBron looks like he's gonna— has announced he's playing another year into age 42. So it was sort of hazy what was going to happen there, um, but there's been no indication— and I'm— and I wish I had more— but there's been no indication that that is going forward. Not that it couldn't at some point.

Okay, that's interesting stuff though, like the fact that he, as, as a player in the NBA at one time was plotting to start a rival league to the NBA.

Well, so said that agent.

Yeah.

Um, you know, LeBron never said that, just to be clear. Right.

Uh, all right, Wendy, uh, last couple questions. Uh, what team should we be looking out for? I know, you know, free agency already started, we've got a lot of moves already happened. Is there one team that you're like, hey, what's going on there?

Good question. I mean, um, Uh, so I would just say, like, the Utah Jazz, um, they were like way better than what their record was. Like, they were doing all kinds of maneuvers to lose, and like, I think their team might actually kind of be good. Um, and, uh, Darren Peterson got off— he, you know, you know, overreact to Summer League, but he hadn't— he looked like a nice start to Summer League. And, and they let Walker Kessler go. And so now they have like all this ammunition to make trades. And I really think that they kind of won, like, win immediately. So like, they're gonna have Lowry Markkanen and, and Jaren Jackson and, and Darren Peterson and Ace Bailey and Keonte George and like a ton of cap space and trade assets and, um, trade exceptions. Like, the Utah Jazz are— and like, you know, they're just sort of existing. Like, no one's paid attention to them in years. Like, I think they are— like, they potentially were like, uh, I don't know how many wins they had this year, like 25 wins or 28 wins or something like that. But I think really they were like probably like a 38-win team.

And like, I think they're going to maybe get like way better, way fast. And so Utah is a team that I am going to be watching this season.

Okay.

All right.

Um, whatever that's worth to you.

I like that. All right. And then last question, Rohback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com promo code.

Love their stuff. Just ordered.

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Like they have these hoodies. I love to fly in them.

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And they're very lightweight. Weight because, you know, airplanes are cold, big cat. And so you want to have something that's lightweight but has a hoodie on it.

I love this.

I just got some, paid for with my own money, did not receive anything free. I'm telling you, I wear them to fly. I don't know what it's called. It's called Tech something or other. Yeah, lightweight hoodie, um, like hoodie for summer.

Next time put in promo code TAKE, 20% off first purchase. Yeah, they had great polos, great, great hoodies, great shorts, everything. I love, Windy, that you have the sweatshirts. And speaking of Roback, pumped to see our guy Jameis Winston invested in Roback along with 200+ other athletes. We love Roback. We love Jameis. Congrats, guys. Zach, you got us a question. And Wendy, thank you as always. You're always so gracious with your time. Thanks for having me. I texted Wendy on, I think, Fourth of July. I was like, hey, can you come on Sunday night, talk free agency? He's like, yeah, absolutely.

He's the best.

The absolute best.

I asked about the donuts.

That is true.

That was my response.

Yes, yes, yes. And I just got gotten back from taking my kids to get them. Zach, go ahead.

How you doing today, sir? I did have a quick question regarding the trade deadline. Do you think Nikola gets—

Oh, okay.

Sorry. Oh, my bad.

Oh, the trade.

Okay. My bad. My bad. Never mind. I'm going to—

No, no, no, no.

Go for it. All right. Another question. No, no, no.

Are you talking about the trade deadline?

No, I was just—

The one in February?

No, I was just kind of curious if we think Jokic is going to get traded at all.

Okay. That was my fault. That was a good question.

And if so, kind of what your pulse is.

He calls me sir, like respects my opinion.

Yeah, I just see that.

Yeah, that's my expertise.

I asked a question.

And when it's because I respect your expertise so much that I expected better from you.

Yeah, ask the question again. That's my fault, Zach. I shouldn't have— I, I thought you got free agency and trade deadline.

No, that's completely understandable. I was just kind of curious, do you think he's going to get traded? And if so, what the pulse is on that, if you have any kind of like what you're thinking.

Well, naturally I've asked this question, um, because, you know, Jokic could have extended last year and it was like, no, no, he doesn't. It does— there's no stress, nothing to worry about. Um, he'll get— he'll extend next year. And so it's now next year. Now, like, nobody has really extended. Like, you know, none of like the young guys have extended. You know, Wembenyama hasn't extended, right? Like, so, um I'm not like getting, you know, I'm not getting all interested in that on July 5th. Um, I will say that like if, if Jokic does not extend, he can be a free agent next year. And if he reaches a point where he says I'm not extending, there is not a reasonable reason not to extend. The financial— I guess in theory he could get an extra year. I mean, in theory, you could wait to extend until you're 38 and extend for 5 years and just say, well, I got an extra year. But, um, he is now going into the last guaranteed year of his contract. He has a player option or whatever. So if Jokic— now, now, the Nuggets are like, he's, you know, he is on the record as saying, I'm a Nugget for life.

Um, the Nuggets are not stressed about it. Like, they're operating in their business. Like they're not doing anything. But if Jokic enters the season having not extended, that will become a significant storyline. Will it become like LeBron 2010? I don't think so, because again, he has said on the record, I'm a Nugget for life. But it is absolutely something that is on the board to keep an eye on if he does not extend his contract, because the Nuggets are a team that's bumping up against the second apron and are losing players, um, and are in danger of losing more players, and had obviously a disappointing end to this last season. Arguably you could say disappointing into 3 straight seasons because, you know, if you look at that run where they had 2 Game 7 losses, one to Minnesota, one to Oklahoma City, and they won the title, you could argue that in that 3-year span that they had one championship out of 3 years was the worst possible outcome. Like, as good as they were and as powerful as they were, that they probably should have at least gotten back to another Finals and maybe won a second one.

And so now their performance is going downhill and their spending is going downhill— or not spending, but they're, but they're losing players because all their players have gotten more expensive. So yeah, they are definitely on the watch list, and that's one of the reasons why they would be an amazing team for LeBron, because they're big. I think the Nuggets would be in some ways the most interesting team. Of course I am from Cleveland, and, you know, my family are waiting, you know, with bated breath for LeBron's decision. And like, you know, LeBron going back to Cleveland is, is extremely enriching for many people that I know, and I have such a history there or whatever. But from a straight, you know, focused on like, you know, in a vacuum 2026-27 season, I If LeBron went to Denver and brought that level of talent to a team that is wheezing under the weight of its salaries and brought that influx, it would be incredible. And seeing LeBron and Jokic play together would be potentially like once-in-a-generation type. By the way, Curry and LeBron would be the same. Like, it's not just Jokic, but, um, short of the— sort of the Nuggets pulling the sword from the stone in that type of, in that type of, uh, transaction.

I don't know if they're gonna be able to bring the same team back. Yeah, so I don't know if they're gonna be better. So yes, absolutely, Zach, uh, we are watching it, but like the Nuggets are not, you know, according to them, are not stressing about it.

Good question, Zach.

Instead of, instead of asking you where LeBron's gonna go, do you have any idea on the time frame?

It sounds like they were not doing it this weekend. I know there was like this big internet room. Obviously the weekend's over over. But there was like this big internet rumor he was announcing it today or whatever, um, and, uh, I never believed that. So I've, I've asked the question obviously, and I've gotten like a series of different days, um, like, oh, it could be midweek, it could be the week later. So I don't have a good answer. Trust me, I've asked. Uh, I just knew it was not going to be this weekend.

All right, all right. Well, Wendy, thank you. Wendy, you are the best. Thank you so much.

Starter of the country clubs in Akron.

Yes.

Find out what day he does not have a tee time in the next week, and that would be like— if I was really intrepid, that's what I like.

That's a good move.

We'll get on that.

That's a good move. And I'll see you, I'll see you courtside, feet on the wood, at a Whiz game.

It's gonna be great. And by the way, I— it's— the league is better when the Wizards are good. My—

I've always said that.

Yeah, 2005 to 2008, 3 straight years, Cavs-Wizards every year in April in the playoffs. Cherry blossoms are out. Fun Street. Remember they would close off the arena?

Yep.

They closed off the street next to the arena, 8th, 8th, I think it was 8th, and they would call it Fun Street and they would have everybody out there.

The Go-Go bands. Yeah.

Um, you know, uh, what was Soulja Boy sitting courtside?

Yep.

Gilbert Arenas hitting 30-footers. Like, these are core memories for me.

DeShawn Stevenson.

DeShawn Stevenson with Abraham Lincoln on his throat. Like, these— I— it would be awesome to see the Wizards be relevant again. I am not— I am pro-Wizard.

Okay.

All right, we'll see you there.

Yeah. All right, thank you, Windy. You're the best.

Take care, guys. Have a great week.

Okay, boys, off to Tahoe. Chill week. Next you see us, we'll have Lake Tahoe, uh, behind us.

Maximum chill.

Maximum chill. Doing some awesome interviews.

Chill Week is usually sneaky one of the most busy weeks that we do. It's like pump fake chill, pump fake chill. Some great interviews coming out, great guests, and should be nice out there.

Good weather. The mountains are unbelievable.

Watch out for the bears out there, Zach.

Looking forward to the onions.

Lots of bears.

He's not talking about Urlacher, but Urlacher might fuck you up too.

But no, I want no smoke with Urlacher.

There's a lot of bears out there. Like physical bears.

We got to get weapons. You—

hey, you got to— I got to get my cheeseburgers. I got to get going.

What's your preferred cook? No pink? A little pink?

Medium.

So Big Cat came over to my place for Fourth of July. Yeah, I was grilling out and I made some burgers and I was walking through the house checking on people. I passed by Big Cat. I go, hey, Big Cat, did you get any burgers to eat? And he goes, yeah, I had 3. And I was like, oh, that's And then I stopped. I was like, wait, what? You had 3?

I was a little ashamed of it because it was, it was a fun party. There was kids, there was people. And I ate all— I ate my 3 burgers, each one in a different location because I was like, I didn't want to— like, there's, there's probably like 15 people from that party like, oh, I sat with him for a burger because I just like kept— like, I ate one with the kids, I ate one one with just more— some adults. Then I went to the table because I was like, I can't sit and just have 3 cheeseburgers in front of people. And then I ate some steak too.

Yep. But every room you're going through, it's like different group of people saying, oh, that must be his first.

Yeah, right. I was just trying to hide. I was a little ashamed of it, which I shouldn't be.

Um, all right, I'm gonna go with 50.

Uh, let's go third.

30.

786. 99. 31. PFT. Yeah, shit, he didn't get it.

You want to do one more?

His birthday.

Let's do one more.

That's why I picked 30. Let's do one more.

I'll go 50 again.

Zero. The rare zero.

Happy birthday to George W. Bush. Happy birthday to Dolly the Sheep. You got cloned, your ass got cloned. Maybe not even a birthday. Happy Clone Day to Dolly the Sheep. Uh, happy birthday to Zion Williamson. Maybe ease up on the cake. And happy birthday to the GOAT, Nancy Reagan. She would have dominated the Nathan's Hot Dog Contest. RIP to a real one.

Love you guys.