Brian Windhorst, LIV And PGA Merge, Dan Rapaport Breaks It Down For Us, Hot Seat/Cool Throne + Listener Submitted FAQ's
2023-06-07 02:28:50
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On today's part, in my take, we have a twofer for the people. We have. Brian Wynhorse on the show, talking NBA finals, talking N.BA Wembinyama Lebron, his tweet about him being strong. Great interview with Brian Wynhorse. And then we have our colleague Dan Rapport on the show to try to walk us through the entire live PGA.
Crazy news that happened. We're going to start the show talking about that as well. We have hot seat, cool throne, we talk a little. Stanley Cup final, Game 2. We also have FAQs, some great FAQs from the people.
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Okay, let's go.
Stoi.
Stoi.
Now in the streets, there is violence.
And there's lots of work to be done.
No place to hang out or wash in.
And I can't blame all on the sun.
Oh, no.
We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.
And then we'll take it higher.
Oh, we're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue and then we'll take it higher.
Welcome to pardon my take. Today is Wednesday, June 7th, at PFT. Stop me if you've heard this before. But cash rules everything around us.
There you go, a little wu-tang wu-tang clan.
Everything around me, but everything around us in terms of the live and PGA, the huge news, the huge merger, money talks, and the golf world was rocked.
Today we're gonna get into it more with Dan Rapport, maybe the details, but we're gonna do our takes right now. PFT Jay Moynihan. He doesn't even deserve to be called by his full real name.
Jay Moynihan The biggest scumbag in the world, The biggest scumbag in the world.
He is such a dickhead and everybody that's on the PGA Tour right now probably hates his guts. I don't know how he survives this. He definitely put in some sort of stipulation in the contract, I read the press release.
He's planning on sticking around as the head of the PGA Tour. They're debating what framework is gonna be put in place once the Live and the PGA eventually merge. But the bottom line is, Jay Moynihan kept players on the PGA Tour from taking money to go play on the live golf tour. By telling them that they would have 9-11 blood on their hands.
Invoke 9-11.
If they were to accept $100 million to go play golf on the live tour, so he said that to his players with a straight face. He brought in 9-11 families to act as a human shield for what he was doing behind the scenes. Which was negotiating with the live tour to try to make the PGA Tour more money in the long run, while again telling the golfers of the PGA Tour. Don't do business with these people, they are evil, you are bad if you do business with them.
So yes, he's the biggest piece of shit in the world. The live tour, by the way, they come out of this smelling like roses. They're the Michael Scott Paper Company. Comparably to the PGA Tour, they started their own tour.
Everybody laughed at them, their ratings were bad. But at some point along the way, the PGA Tour needed the Live Tour just as much as the live guys needed the PGA Tour. So they came to the table, brought them back in, and now everybody that ended up going over to play live golf. Looks like they made the right decision, financially, at least.
And so we start with Jay Monahan, because obviously I did a bad job starting there. If you are living under a rock, the Live and PGA Tour, they've called it a merger. From everything I've read and everything I understand, it's essentially the live. Just being the money. Guys. Now of the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour is keeping what the PGA Tour is, so it's not going to become. The PGA Tour is not going to now be 54 holes and everyone wearing shorts. The PGA Tour is still what we think it is. But the Live is now invested in it, and the Live now has power in it. To a point that we didn't think was going to be possible a few years ago.
And the live tour created this golf league as kind of a farce. It was never going to exist long-term. And they did it so that they would put the pressure on the PGA Tour. Who was going to run out of money? And they got them to the table. And Jay Monahan, who invoked 9-11, invoked 9-11 families, did an about-face with two other people. Sat in a boardroom for the last seven weeks and did a deal with the guys that he was saying were the baddest dudes on the block. And afterwards, after the dust settled today, he said,—this is his quote. I recognize everything I've said in the past is in my past positions.
I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite. Anytime I said anything, I said it with the information I had in the moment. So, essentially, either Jay Monahan's doing a material change, or he watched loose change and has decided that history is completely different. And that's why he's okay with everything he was not okay with two years ago. And I want to clarify, because PFD and I have been pretty clear that those guys who took the money take the money, take the money.
It's Jay Monahan who's the hypocrite here because he went out and basically was like, 9-11, bad things, bad guys. We have to protect the PGA, we're going to ban everyone. And not two years later has completely turned around and done a deal with them.
The information he had at the time, though, Big Cat, was different than the information he has now. Now. He believes that there was thermite that was planted in the towers. George W. Bush is no longer welcome on the PGA Tour. If he comes out tomorrow and says that, then I might give him like 10 credit for it.
I talked to Pete Carroll. We had a long talk with Pete Carroll and I've seen the light.
He is a real, real piece of shit, for sure, and there's really no excuse for it. And he did take money out of his own guy's pockets, who had the opportunity to go make hundreds of millions of dollars. And it's fucked up, it's absolutely fucked up. But there's something I think you said earlier that it's going to be the same PGA.
It's not going to be changed or whatever, we don't know that, because it is changing, it's changing. It's no longer going to be a non-profit entity, it's going to be a brand new for-profit league, though.
It's not going to be teams, it's not going to be this weird golf hybrid. Maybe I'll be way wrong, but I would be shocked if they do that.
There will be events that are teams, they're going to be in the middle, so it is definitely going to be a new league. It's going to be called the PGA Tour and they're still moving forward. But it's a brand new for-profit entity is what's being created, so yeah, there's definitely going to be changes.
I don't think it's going to be drastic, like they're all playing on teams now, that was my point. I think you're still going to watch the same tournaments that you've watched in the past, and the majors are going to stay the same. And yeah, there might be some additional events, but it's not like the LIV is just making the PGA just now play in shorts and play on teams.
No, it's not going to be the LIV Tour, but there's definitely going to be some elements of the LIV Tour that are brought into the fold. And we don't know what those are going to be yet. Also, Greg Norman comes out of this looking like a dude who's on the up-and-up compared to Jay Monahan.
Oh, totally disagree.
Why is that? Because he's completely out?
He took bullets for the last two years and got completely railroaded. Everyone hated him. He was the face of the LIV Tour, he's out, he wasn't in the press conferences.
He wasn't in any of the releases.
You don't think he had equity or anything like that.
He has no power anymore, so Kevin Van Valkenburgh, who covers golf, posted a snippet. Norman did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. But a source told Sports illustrated that his duties of late have been more as a figurehead and that he is not expected to be part of the venture going forward. Norman's name was not mentioned in the announcement. I would imagine he's probably a little pissed that he was used in the manner he was used and now doesn't get anything going forward.
Well, that was going to be. My other question is who had equity in it, so Norman might have had equity in LIV. To act as their figurehead for so long. Some of the players, the captains of the teams on the LIV tour, they had equity in their teams. I don't know how that is going to translate over to the merger.
Are the four aces going to exist, or are we going to get more aces? Are we going to have like six or seven aces?
Yeah, but I think Greg Norman's a loser just because he's. It seemed like the Saudis used him pretty effectively. And now they're like, Okay, buddy, we don't need you anymore. Thanks so much for your service. See ya.
Well, from a financial standpoint, I think he probably did okay, is what I'm saying.
But he wanted to be in it for more than that. I mean, he was that was, he was the head of Liv, he was the figurehead, he was walking around doing all the press conferences. I feel like Greg Norman probably wanted to be part of the future and is now out.
So the bottom line is, we don't know what the PGA Tour is going to look like, how much it's going to change. But it's a very, very weird day. I would imagine to be a PGA Tour golfer who found out this information on Twitter. That after being told for two years to just hate everybody that's going to live. Being threatened to have to not be admitted into major tournaments. If you go overseas or if you play for the Saudis. And then now it's like, okay, water under the bridge. Let's move forward now that me Jay Monahan has figured out a way forward through this.
Now, and I tried to make this point on Twitter, I probably did a terrible job. It's got to suck to be a PGA Tour player today. Because they were blindsided, they were told one thing, something completely different happened.
I would imagine Jay Monahan when he had his 4 p.
M meeting with all the players. He probably ate a lot of shit. I saw one report that it was 90-10 negative to positive, which makes sense. But he also was probably like, everyone's going to make more money now and again. It's not the same money that they could have made if they had gone. But in like 10 years, they'll probably look back and be like, Yeah, we did make a lot more money.
They already are making more money because of the PGA having to compete with Live, they're probably all going to make a shitload more money now. It still isn't good, it still probably doesn't sit well with them because they were lied to and basically told. It's a players league. And we know at the end of the day, the money rules and the rich guys talk, and that's how decisions get made. But, like, far in the future, they probably will make a lot of money from this day happening.
Yeah, that might be the case, but there's definitely a lot of guys that just want to kill Jay Monahan, for sure. Because they probably didn't go to play in live golf. Because they wanted to have some sort of a PGA Tour legacy. They wanted to play in all the events that they grew up watching.
They wanted to golf here in America, they liked the format. And they were probably told like, you don't go over there, because then we will excommunicate you from everything having to do with American golf. Don't take $50 million, $100 million. They probably took him at his word, and then a year later, they're like, Well, tell you what, I know, you missed out on that 100 mil. But good news is we're going to increase the prize pool by 30 next year, so you're going to make more money.
That probably doesn't sit well with most of the players on the tour.
See, when you say format, I still don't. I think the Live knew that team format doesn't work, team formats don't work. In golf, it just doesn't. And so this was also part of them being like, we're not a real golf league.
We never really will be. The way golf works is you have a bunch of guys competing against each other for the best. And so now the live tour gets the benefit of getting to put money into the PGA Tour and having a say in the PGA Tour. And also having it be a real golf league. And stop the charade of whatever it was they were trying to do.
But so the main thing that the Saudis want to do with the public Investment fund investment in the PGA Tour is creating a for-profit league. If the PGA Tour wasn't making enough money to begin with, then they're definitely going to change something, right?
I don't know, I actually don't know. I wouldn't be shocked like this is. At the end of the day. The Saudis wanted to have a seat at the table and now they have a seat at the table. I don't know if it goes further than that.
Like, they have power now, they have major investment in a major sport in America, like mission accomplished for them. I honestly don't know, I mean, I guess we'll find out. I just, I feel like the live was always like, Do you agree?
Team golf doesn't work.
So team golf could work if it was a limited thing. I don't think it can work as like a season-long thing. My son Chris will disagree with that, but I'm telling you, like, I think that in limited, like one or two events per year, yeah.
I think that it's the Ryder Cup, is that?
Right?
Exactly, but if you brought that same like team competitiveness to, like, one or two special events that are played during the regular calendar year, I don't know. Let's ask the youths, Billy and Jake, does team golf work?
I think team golf, like you were saying, is good in limited, like the Ryder Cup, outside of the majors, is probably the most circled event on the calendar.
Right, because it's unique.
Right, so I don't think year-long is more, year-long is more. The live on CW, like, barely got a rating, right, right, like no one cared.
Like we like the individual golfers, we love Brooks, but like we were not setting our schedules aside to watch him in the live tournaments.
Right, I'm just thinking that there might be, there might be a handful of new ones that are spring. Sure, I don't think it's going to. It's not going to be a complete format change, it's not going to be 50-hole golf or 54-hole golf.
They might do things with more events that don't have a cut, that might be part of the process.
Or paying players for appearance fees. Which was discussed when the PGA was, when this first happened, and the PGA was like, why aren't guys getting paid just to show up? If they're big draws? Which makes sense to me. And it like, does all come down to money? The PGA was running out of money. They had already kind of pushed themselves to the limit. Where I think, what was it last year, or maybe it was two years ago?
The memorial that was just played this past weekend was like a million and a half or a million point. Two. Jake, you can look it up. Prize for the top winner. And now, like last weekend, I think Hovland won like 3.6. So they were already making those adjustments. I feel like it's just going to be even more money.
And yeah, I would be shocked if the PGA, like, completely changes what they do. There could be additional things. But I think that the Saudis just did what they wanted to do and they now are there. They're a seat at the table, right?
Yeah, I agree. I do think that there's going to be small changes. I don't think it's going to be wholesale. You know, it's not going to be a different format for golf altogether.
No, I think, yeah, it's going to be money changes, a lot of money changes.
There will be money changes, whatever is making money, they'll end up doing that. If anyone's got the money to build an indoor golf cart, of course, it's Saudi Arabia. Like, you could probably just play a tournament out in the desert somewhere, but yeah, it's a very, very strange day for golf.
And the Saudis have been trying to get involved in American sports for a very long time. I know the NFL doesn't allow any sovereign investment fund to make a purchase in terms of like ownership in the team. So the NFL is trying to keep that type of money out. But who knows where we're going to be in like 25 years, so this is a weird thing.
As N.FL teams keep getting more and more expensive, like The Commanders, just sold for a record $6 billion. And their team has been running to the ground for the last 30 years. Imagine when a marquee franchise, one that already has the infrastructure in place to be worth a lot of money. If the Dallas Cowboys were to come for sale after Jerry Jones dies, God forbid, at that point, like, you're going to be talking above $10 billion. And as the teams get more and more expensive, there's fewer and fewer people who can afford to pay for these teams. Like, at some point, most billionaires in America that want a team will have had the opportunity to purchase that team.
At some point, the foreign investment funds are going to become part of the shrinking pool of available billions that can buy American sports teams. So we might be like, on that slide down there, we'll see where it goes in the next 15 years.
And we're going to talk more with Dan Rapport. But it does like, at the end of the day, fans which we are like we.
I'm a patron.
We benefit from getting to watch all the guys now again. And I don't know like. They said they might enforce fines for live players to come back to the PGA. It feels like to me that they would, and again, I have no expertise, no knowledge. But it feels like they also will probably have to pay some of the existing PGA Tour guys to make them happy for. Like the fact that they didn't take this, you know, money, and now they have all the money in the world.
They literally have more money than anyone.
And the shitty thing for players that are on the PGA Tour that didn't leave to go over and play golf is you're pissed off. Right now, you're very mad. And rightfully so, at your own league. They could give you some money to make you happy, but if they don't. Now, you really don't have an alternative like, what else are you going to do?
I guess the only thing that could happen is like if the top players tried to unionize and were like, we're not playing. Which seems like it would be hard to pull off, right like, it seems like it would be pretty hard to get a bunch of guys. Because whenever it comes to that type of situation, then you have guys who are in the middle class of golf who are like, Wait, we want to keep playing, we want to get paid money. Like, it's easier for a guy who's made, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars or $50 million in his career to be like, Hey, let's take a stand.
Versus a guy who's made, you know, $5 million or $10 million, like Will Zalatour has made $10 million. He's not going to be like, Oh, I don't want to play golf. I'm going to stand up for this and like those guys. It sucks for because Will Zalatour has offered a lot of money and he stayed on the PGA Tour.
Then he got injured. Like, so I wonder if maybe the PGA Tour has to do something to take care of those guys. Whether it be appearance fees, whether it be like guaranteed money, I have no idea.
But it feels like something like that, they're going to have to do a lot of smoothing over. And more than anything. JAY MONAhan Like, I don't. He's now the CEO, but I don't know how. Like, they must be so fucking pissed and probably want him out, which rightfully so, because at the end of the day, it will all get settled.
It will probably like, five years from now, it will be like, Oh yeah, look, now they're all making more money. But Jay Monahan still stands as the biggest hypocrite, who essentially told the players one thing and then, behind their back, did another. And yes, it is a just tough lesson to learn that the guess what, like, as much as player empowerment, has come a long way. Like, eventually, like, the big money always talks and is able to make the decisions. And players are kind of left standing there being like, Oh, Colin Morikawa finding out on Twitter this morning that the PGA Tour is merging with LIV.
He probably had an offer for like, $150, $200 million.
Yeah.
Maybe more to go join the LIV Tour, which it turned down. So there's one name out there that we haven't really heard from. In this situation, who could be the other alternative to the PGA Tour? That's Tiger. The Tiger Tour is something that had been talked about for years and years and years. Where he got so big, he was literally bigger than golf. So if he wanted to, he could just say, OK. I'm playing these 20 tournaments a year and then I'm going to be the CEO of my own tour, basically.
And because he was such a draw, it probably could have worked. At some point. Tiger Woods could come out and make a statement. I'm curious as to why he hasn't.
I if it's, oh man, that would be so much work. if you're Tiger Woods, you want to do all that work, you'd have to do so much work.
Yeah, like a lot of walking, a lot of driving.
You're the best golfer ever. You have, like, more money than you ever dreamed of. And it'd be like, Well, we've got to start from scratch, I've got to do just a shitload of work. He's human, too.
Or what Tiger should do is he should just start his own Michael Scott Paper Company. Start the tour, start the tour, play for, like, six rounds. Get a contract with, I don't know, TruTV to put your game, your matches on at 1 a...m.
And then hopefully you get a couple billion out of it.
If Tiger and Charlie just played like NBC would give them a contract, just watch the two of them play.
It should be Tiger, Charlie, and then somebody like Charles Barkley. He's like a really shitty golfer. Because I feel like sometimes people like watching bad people play golf more than they like watching good people play golf because it makes them feel better about their swing.
Yeah, I'm also so curious, and I feel like I haven't, because it's they don't have to disclose this stuff. How the payments all worked? It seems like it might be just like golfer to golfer was different for the live tour. Like if it was a contract, if it was lump sum, because then it obviously changes it. If, like, say, a Dustin Johnson, he didn't get $150 million.
He got $25 million and he's going to get $25 million next year and now it's all going to get reconfigured. Maybe that's part of like, appeasing the current PGA Tour guys, being like, Look, he didn't get this much, he got this much. And now we'll spread it around and make it so that, you know, everyone can kind of swallow this pill.
Yeah, and if you're Dustin Johnson and Mohammed bin Salman doesn't pay you that second lump sum of $25 million? What are you going to do about it, right? What are you going to sue him? What are you going to do? Are you going to go knock on his door and be like, Hey man, you kind of owe me $25 million?
Good luck.
That's the craziest part about this, because the Saudis have so much money and they can really, like, make the rules themselves. So they could be like, Oh yeah. We're not paying any more of the live contracts and we're going to give some money to the PGA guys. Everyone get in the boat, everyone make more money.
Let's fucking go.
Yeah, I'll tell you what. The emir of Qatar would never behave like this. He would have created a stand-up league, he should start his own league.
Yeah, he should. Other losers. I mean, Rory. Have we heard from Rory? I think he was. was he at the meeting? I believe so.
He was at the meeting. He claims that he had no beforehand knowledge of any of this situation. I don't think that Rory is involved, I just I don't get that vibe from him. He does seem like a guy that was just, you know, the most supportive of the PGA Tour because he cared about the corny stuff like legacy and all that.
He was their poster boy, their golden child. If he was involved in this, good luck to him. Because, step aside, Patrick Reed, Rory is going to be the most hated guy in golf.
Yeah, I mean, I probably I'll take his word for it. I just know that. He also had changed his tune the last couple of months about Liv, which seems a little bit like, Huh, that's weird, you know? Like he wasn't, he wasn't going at them. Maybe it was as simple as he was tired of talking about it, he wanted to focus on his golf.
That completely, that makes sense, too. So it's just the whole thing sucks for guys like that, good for golf fans. And yeah, I mean, well, we suspended Brooks for one day. It's funny how some people forget that it was one single day that we suspended him. For. Being like, Oh, now you've got to backtrack with Brooks, like, No, I think we're good with Brooks.
We suspended him for one day as a joke for Brooks of the Year or Blake of the year.
Yeah, and we're also on the record saying that if MBS wanted to pay us $100 million to do a podcast just for him in his living room, it'd be very hard to say no to that.
Well, and this is why the sports washing works, because now they're in the PGA. So the next one gets easier, like it all gets easier after you get the big one.
So yeah, I guess, offer us $100 million.
Or just one of us?
Or just one of us?
Just one of us.
Specifically, Billy.
Organically to integrate some great propaganda.
Yeah, Billy is very –.
How would you do that, Billy, if the Saudi government asked you to, like, organically, say nice things about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
I like to drive. Nuclear power is dangerous.
They also just hand Billy a computer that's just full of like, fake websites, and he can only go on those. And then he comes out in a week and he's like, I've been reading some really interesting stuff online. Guys, let me tell you some of these things.
Yeah, the line sounds like a glorious invention. Who could turn down? Living within five square miles of everything that you need for the rest of your life in a line in the middle of the desert?
Last thing we should talk about Phil real quick, I mean, Phil. The whole story of Phil Mickelson is like the most fascinating story ever. Basically, his gambling debts are so huge that he then has to start. Like it's the domino meme, like Phil Mickelson loses a five-game parlay, and then, like, hits the first domino, and golf changes forever at the end.
That's essentially what happened.
Yeah, it's pretty much going to be Phil Mickelson, or it's like the Jets lose week three of 2011.
Domino, domino, domino. And now MBS has a major part of a massive sports league in America.
Yeah, yeah.
Brett Favre sends dick pic.
Yeah, exactly.
There it is so crazy day. I was actually thinking not to brag. I was at the gym and I was like, what are we going to start the show with today?
And then this happened, and it was like, Holy fuck out of nowhere. It's rare in this day and age, too, that we have a story that, like blindsides everyone, all the reporters were blindsided.
Everyone, no one saw this coming.
So it is kind of a wake-up call, though, to any player in a league like the PGA Tour, any professional athlete. If somebody is offering you an insane amount of money to play a sport, you should probably take that money. Because, guess what, when it comes down to it, the league that you have any sort of loyalty to will not have any loyalty to you whatsoever. If they can make a tenth of a percent more in net profit ten years from now.
And it's, you know, we do it all the time with sports. We're like, Oh, this guy should take a hometown discount. It's like, Well, Jalen Brown. Right now the Celtics debating whether the Celtics should pay him the Supermax. I would imagine Jalen Brown is like, No, you need to pay me the Supermax.
Yeah, get your money.
Get your money. Here's a blanket statement that I've learned from this anytime somebody can pay you ten times your total income. To play a sport for fewer days a year, to work less, to not have to wear pants at your sport, absolutely a hundred percent take that money.
And so Jake just put in the chat. Cantlie in 2021 won the Memorial 1.
7 mil, Hovland this year 3.
6 mil. So you already had seen it, like you already seen it, it was doubling, they were doubling the purses.
That was probably why the PGA had to go to the table, too. Because they were pushing the money to such an extent that they probably couldn't afford it. And they're like, we're kind of fucked if Liv, who is never going to run out of money, just keeps doing whatever they're doing.
Yeah, the Muhammad Salman Paper Company, that's what it was.
It's fucking crazy. Okay, let's kick it back to ourselves. We have a great Winhorse interview, awesome time.
Fucking I love that guy so much. Dan Rapport, Talking more Liv, PGA, Hot Seat, Cool Throne. And we have FAQs, listener FAQs, which are great.
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Okay, hot seat, cool throne hank.
My hot seat is college baseball.
College Baseball World Series is going on. Obviously great, great time, but they had two things. An Indiana player, Tyler Cerny. They hit a home run and he just, I think he brought out like a chain or something that they put around players in the dugout and he got suspended.
A game for that, which is pretty crazy.
It was nuts if you watch the video, like, you could barely tell what. The suspension was technically bringing a prop onto the field. And it was one of those, like, Fuck the NCAA. Everyone agrees this is the dumbest rule ever.
Yeah, I don't know why that rule is in place at all. And he didn't even bring it out there. His teammates brought it out for him and put it around his neck as he was going down the third baseline right before he touched home plate. You should be allowed, there are some rules that should remain unwritten in baseball.
Like, if it's that big a deal, just let him wear one of the ribs the next time he gets up to the plate. Don't make him sit out an entire other game.
It's also if the majority of guys playing in a game are not going to be pros and get paid to play. They should get to have maximum amount of fun. That should just be the rule. Because, like, for a lot of those guys, that is the biggest moment that they will ever have as athletes, let them enjoy it.
Right, and to that point, in another game, it was Penn versus Southern Miss. it was 3-2 bases loaded, two outs. So, like the best, probably one of the funnest situations. Baseball crowd is going crazy. And the UMP called a clock violation and called him out.
That's fun.
Which is just like.
That's always, everyone always wants to see a game end that way.
That should be another unwritten rule. If that's the count, that's the situation. Like the clock does not matter, turn the clock off.
I agree with that, Hank. There should be unwritten rules for umpires, too.
You know what they should do?
That should just be a written rule.
It should be like the old teenage, mutant Ninja Turtles game. Like, you get more life if you like. The UMP just pulls out a slice of pizza. If you eat it, you get like another 20 seconds. That would be fun.
Mike Greenberg's dumb rules like something to gain more life. I don't know what you could do, but like, it would just be a fun wrinkle. Where it's like, you get to do it one or two times a game, where you just get more life on the at-bat. Maybe an extra strike if you eat a whole pizza.
This is Savannah banana stuff.
This is just a way to get players to get fatter. We want every baseball player to look like Vogelback by the end of the season.
Could you imagine, though, bases loaded two outs and you're like, it's the most intense moment. And first, you have to just scarf down a slice of pizza and then get back in the box.
Or if you smoke a heater at the plate, yeah, that would be sick. Like you should get four strikes if you're smoking a cigarette, if there's a cigarette in your mouth while you're batting.
A lit cigarette, yes, if it drops automatic out.
Yep.
And then Pitcher's trying to hit the cigarette out of the mouth.
Yeah, and you're blindfolded and the pitcher's got a gun, yeah.
These are great rules. Okay, your cool throne.
My cool throne is Bonkaholics, Bonkologists.
Yeah, thank you, Hank.
PFt, Yeah, you're welcome, I'm sure you're going to be there, covering the sport, maybe participating. But a Swedish strip club owner is trying to start a sex league.
Oh.
Okay.
It's a six-week sex championship. The guy's name, I mean, the owner's name. this is a classic guy that would start a sex championship. Dragan Brodick.
Wait, his last name is Broaddick.
Brodick.
Dragan Brodick.
Dragan Brodick.
Six different disciplines practiced body massages, foreplay, oral sex and endurance six hour sessions each day, each discipline lasting between 45 and 60 minutes. Okay, so it's a real marathon.
I think they're judging endurance the wrong way. It should be time for speed, yeah, like, who can nut the fastest?
Yeah, zero to 60.
Yeah, we don't do. Who can drive the longest in a race? You know what? I mean? You're not like, Oh yeah, who can drive slow for 24 hours?
Let's get moving.
Yeah, they need the Olympics, where you can do different track and field.
Yeah, a decathlon.
Yeah, Sting's got to be the number one pick, right?
Yeah, I don't know, I mean, I feel like....
Sting is like a well-known Kama sutra 24-hour sex haver.
Tantric guy.
Nations will compete. They're doing it, they are doing it that way.
I would go sting Lenny Kravitz. Lenny Kravitz feels like....
Yeah, that's who you want, representing America.
Yeah, Lenny.
The problem with Sting is that he's not actually all that he's cracked up to be. So he gave one interview where he was like, starting to get into tantric sex back in the 80s, I think. And then his wife, for the rest of their life, has to deal with everybody that meets them. Thinking that she just has sex for like five hours at a time, and apparently that's not true. I just found this out, like last week.
So sting might be overrated as far as sex havers go.
What about Michael Douglas? Tap him in for some oral.
Yeah, without a doubt.
Yeah, I mean, the guy literally risked his life for oral.
Yep, Nancy Reagan should be on the medal.
Yeah, the Nancy Reagan Dick Sucking Award, yeah.
Okay, I would go to cover this event, not because I'd be horny about it, but because I'm intrigued about the entire, all the fanfare around it, all that stuff. I'm sure it's going to be a once in a lifetime event because they probably won't do it a second time.
Oh, it's in two days, so I guess we'll find out.
Oh, where is it?
Sweden fuck.
It's in Chicago. Oh dang, you can go, really.
All right PFT, your hot seat, cool throne.
My hot seat is our brains big cat. Speaking of events that are taking place in Chicago. It's going to be me, you Dave's team and then Kirk Manahan's team in the finals of the dozen. Which is going to be broadcast live on Thursday evening. Live from Chicago. So Big cat and the Yak, that team is flying out to Chicago, Brandon and Fran are flying out here.
Eddie and Clem I guess Eddie's already here, Clem's flying out with Dave. And then whoever Kirk Manahan decides is good enough to be on his team tomorrow is going to fly out to Chicago.
Rico and Quakes Rico and Quakes, The Brotherhood.
The brotherhood never break them up. We're going to all be competing in live trivia tomorrow, so it's the annual crown. Last year, a lot of people said that me and Brandon and Fran choked. I don't know what tournament they were watching.
It was just me that choked last year, not Brandon and Fran. But we've got redemption on our minds, so it's going to be fun. And if you're in Chicago, I hope you come by and see us.
I'm very excited, the live crowd is always awesome.
It's live broadcast, too.
It's live broadcast. I do think it's the four best teams. I'll say that I think you could make the argument for Frank and Frankettes, but guess what, they're not going.
So it's going to be the dozen. Trivia has some very, very diehard fans and I know it's going to be packed and it's going to be a lot of fun.
I just want to say big cat, congratulations on winning the regular season President's Cup trophy of the dozen. That's very important. I know a lot of people are saying that's such a huge, huge, massive award, so congrats on being the regular season champion.
And congrats on your teammate Brandon Walker being the narcissist. He is spoiling the match that people watched on Tuesday night, so that he spoiled the match before his match. So no one has to watch our match, they can only watch his match.
Okay, I saw that and I realized that the spoiler people on Twitter, they're just as bad as the people that do the spoilers. Because what they'll do is they'll reply to like whatever tweet and be like, Thanks. Brandon. Already spoiling it, we already know that his team moves on and then they're spoiling it to everybody else.
Yeah, no. Jeff Delos said that he's like, they're just as worse because he closed his replies to tweets to limit that happening. But yeah, I guess the nature of spoilers, you get a hot tip and then you just want to tell everyone. So yeah, it did kind of whatever.
Just enjoy the match, enjoy the match and guess what, you can't spoil a live tournament, so on Thursday night you'll get to watch it live.
And whatever happens, there are no spoilers. There still will be, though people in the comment section be like, already know who won 13 to 6? Yeah, that always happens.
There are also people that zoom in real close to try to find cheating. And there was one guy, I'm pretty sure he was joking, though, who saw quigs and said that Quigs was tapping in morse code to give the answer to. Kirk Minahan. Respect to that guy, that's next level investigative skills, so yeah, you caught quigs.
Yes, all right, your cool throne.
My cool throne is aliens. Yeah, because there was a report that came out yesterday around midday. That aliens exist, that the Earth, that the U.S government has found and recovered partial alien crafts, and that they are not of human origin. And then immediately, nobody cared about it because Taylor Swift broke up with her boyfriend.
So Taylor Swift absolutely cucked the fuck out of aliens. Yesterday, in fact, I went up to our friend Kelly Quigs, who is maybe the biggest Taylor Swift fan in the entire world.
She's not part of the union.
Yeah, well, yeah, she's a scab.
Fan Union?
She's a scab. I went up to her yesterday. At the end of the day, I was like, So did you hear about the aliens? and she was like, What aliens? No.
So in every big horror movie and in every sci-fi movie. We've been told for years and years that when aliens do come to Earth. There's going to be riots. There's going to be people burning things in the street, they're going to try to overthrow the government, it'll be utter chaos, the markets will go to hell.
And then that all turned out not to be true, because Taylor Swift broke up with her boyfriend at the exact same time as the alien news announcement came.
The aliens got to, like, I think it's. People have just accepted the fact they've seen it all. The reports have come out, the former people that work in the government admitting it that they've known about it since the 70s. The aliens have to destroy something.
They got to show some muscle, yeah.
Like, yeah, like they got to take something out, or like, a massive, you know?
You're literally just saying, Aliens, come at us, bro.
No, I'm just saying like, it is crazy. The more the news comes out, it's like, damn like aliens exist, like it's just known now. Well, I also agree with PFT, where it's like.
Everyone thought that when it got known, aliens existed. People were going to freak out, but the reason it hasn't is because they haven't done shit.
I also just assume whoever talks about the aliens, like there's a former government guy. The government basically was like, this guy doesn't know everything, let him fucking talk, everyone will say he's crazy.
Like, I want to know the stuff that we still don't know, because that's the real shit.
The whistleblower also commented that not only did they have intact crafts, but also intact bodies of the pilots of those crafts.
Oh yeah.
I mean, like, the stuff that we didn't know is what this guy just told us yesterday.
But there's more.
He did know something we didn't know.
There's more because they would have killed him if he knew the real stuff.
Yeah, I think what Hank's saying is when we're on the road, then we'll take you seriously.
Yeah, then the series starts.
The series hasn't started yet with the Aliens. Also, another theory that I was thinking over earlier today is that this guy might just be making it all up and he's authorized by the government to make it up. Because that way, China and Russia are like, Wait, what the fuck, we don't have any alien craft.
They know all this technology in the United States that we don't know yet. And then their military starts to panic and they get scared of us because we think we got that alien shit.
That's what I'm saying, like, this guy talking so freely, I feel like they're like, let him talk freely, you know? And if they, the United States government has killed people, like, you know, opposing and leaking information for a lot less.
So I just feel like, maybe they let this guy run out there, being like, Oh yeah, he's crazy, he'll say some shit, everyone will think he's crazy. Taylor Swift will break up with her boyfriend and no one will remember.
Distract from other whistleblowers.
Yeah.
Taylor might be working for the United States government. And they just told her like, Hey, Taylor, please dump your boyfriend right now because we need to cover up the alien thing. Yeah, the other thing is with this guy going through the proper channels, so everyone's saying that. The reason why he was allowed to talk about this is because he followed mandatory whistleblower policies, which give me a break. I mean, if you really wanted to keep this guy quiet, you wouldn't have a sniper positioned outside this guy's house.
And then the guy in the van gives you a call, he's like, stand down, stand down. It turns out he actually filed the paperwork correctly, so we can't kill him.
Right?
Right, okay.
I just also don't think that, like, if there was alien spaceships, I could get from a different planet to Earth that we have. Like, why couldn't we just flip it and go back there?
We don't know the controls you ever try to drive a fucking manual car, hank.
We could figure it out, though we've had them for a long time.
Billy doesn't think they're from other planets, he thinks they're from, like Ohio. They're more likely from Earth, yeah.
Think about it.
Well, it's like balloon boy.
He thinks that they're from underneath the Antarctic shelf, Oh.
Okay, think about it.
We haven't explored that much of the ocean, we haven't explored that much of the center of the earth, just something to think about.
It's pretty hot, I think.
It's part of why we haven't gone down there.
Through the earth, into the sky.
I tried to dig to China when I was like seven.
You know, what's fucked up is that we haven't tried to dig to China recently. Yeah, you know, the deepest hole that's ever been dug is only like, I don't know what is it. A mile deep, a couple miles deep. And we haven't even tried since the 1960s to dig to the center of the earth.
We need to get back on that shit.
Yeah, we do. That guy who was digging the holes.
I think Billy just described the plot to Kong's Skull Island, yeah.
Oh, okay, so that's where he got from, all right, my hot seat is also U.S. PFT, but for a different reason. So we have a great Life Advice or Life episode coming with Priscilla and Titus.
On Monday we're going to talk about Game 3 or Game 4 of the NBA finals as well. But we have two hours that we taped with them, we talked everything. We also did a Mount rushmore of things that make us feel old. And after we finished taping that night, I watched the Blackberry movie.
And PFT. I feel like we are officially at the point where they're now making movies of things that we fully lived through and can completely remember. And that fucking sucks because there were parts of the movie where they were like, flashing to 2007. And I was just sitting there, like, Yeah, I remember when I got my first BlackBerry and I was so pumped. And now, like, kids are going to watch movies and be like, what was it like? Then? It's like, fuck.
I was fucking like 25.
Yeah, what the hell shit?
You know what else is crazy? Along those same lines? The Woodstock 99 movie.
Yeah.
Right now, people are looking back on Woodstock 99 basically the same way that we looked back on the original Woodstock. Yeah, when we were growing up, which that blew my mind, yeah.
So that sucked it. Also big miss by them to not throw in anything about brick breaker because that was the greatest game ever. I spent so much time in my office pretending to work, just trying to beat levels in brick breaker.
I've got a boomer take about the BlackBerry. I missed the keyboard. Yeah, there should be keyboards on iPhones. I like pressing the buttons and feeling the buttons get pressed down.
It's a good sensation.
The iPhone is a superior phone in its totality. But in terms of like business, the BlackBerry was king. that was business, you did business on your BlackBerry.
Closing deals? If you see a guy walk into an office with a BlackBerry and a Bluetooth piece in one ear, you know that guy's a billionaire.
Yeah, our boss Dave Portnoy invented the iBerry, where he just velcroed a BlackBerry on the back of an iPhone. He just flipped back and forth for business and pleasure. Got it, yeah.
All right, my cool throne is our Vegas Knights and awl Alec Martinez, who scored a goal. That was a shit pumping. They kicked the fuck out of the Panthers, Panthers still tried to, you know, rough them up.
You had the big hit from Kachuk on Eichel, but it looks like the Knights, I mean, you can't be more dominant than they have been through two games. I know that we're going back down to Florida and Jake and Brooks are going to be saying, Go peas. But the knights look good, the knights looked really fucking good.
Yeah, they were dominant. The Panthers did exactly what I would have done, too, if I were the Panthers at the end of that game. If you're just getting the shit kicked out of you in Game two, you want to make it as physical as you possibly can. You want to get into fights, you just want to let all your aggression out.
You want to get it out there on the ice in game two so that you can turn the page, go on to game three. Don't try to win that game. Once you fall down 5-2, 6-2, you just turn it into a shit kicking. You try to lay the dirtiest hits possible, you just try to get physical.
You try to get all that out of your system and then you regroup and you go back to Florida and you're like, Okay, maybe this can switch around. But that hit that Kachuk had on Eichel, that was awesome and it was a clean hit, right?
Yeah, Eichel just fell.
Eichel was going across the ice and he was leaning forward. He was off balance and he kind of leaned into the hit a little bit, which made it look. And it was a bad hit. It was like, very violent, but the most impressive part of that hit was. Kachuk was chewing on his mouthpiece, so his mouthpiece was sticking out of his mouth, and when he laid that hit on him, it knocked off Eichel's helmet.
But Kachuk kept his mouthpiece just dangling out of his mouth the entire time. It was awesome.
Yeah, I mean, it was my point that I made on Monday that the Panthers are going to try to rough up this series. The Knights are just like they're too disciplined, like they've been there, they've got fucking big dudes, like they're just not going to play that game.
Also, shout out Conor Bedard, future greatest player of all time for the Blackhawks. Saying when he went on the desk for TNT, he was like, It's great to be with a bunch of hockey legends and biz. So knows that he can throw a joke around, that's good personality.
He's seen the stats about how Henrikh Lundqvist has more career points than Biz Nasty does, which I looked it up. Turns out they were right about that.
So many people didn't realize we were joking in that like, No, you don't understand, you know? Lundqvist has assists. No, we do understand. We were just making a joke because Biz, like, we felt bad for Biz.
Couldn't be true. We were also making fun of Biz, We were making fun of him because we knew that it was true, but yeah, he also said. Bedard said that if he's lucky enough to be drafted by the Blackhawks, he's excited to play for them, so maybe there's a chance.
Blackhawks pass on him.
Trade to pick all right Billy.
My hot seat is eastern Canadian Forests. If you haven't noticed, lately, the air quality in the Upper Midwest and the northeast has been pretty shoddy. But we've had amazing sunsets and sunrises. That's because there's some wildfires in the eastern Canadian forests. Got it second hot seat everybody in Charlotte who loves lacrosse.
Duggs last weekend was at the Bardown Beer Lounge in Albany. This week I want to see if Charlotte can out-compete the Albany crowd and come to the Bardown Beer Lounge.
Are you going?
I'm going, I'm cleared for this week.
I like this, you're just going.
I'm cleared for this week and we got to get going.
Billy's just on the PLL tour now. I like this.
I mean, some people train to play lacrosse, I train for the beer guard. This is what's happening.
Not well because you got beat.
I beat Paul Rabel in a beer chug.
Paul Rabel's a Martini guy.
I know, I know, but it still counts. And my cool throne is you.
I like how Billy was like, I'm cleared to participate this weekend.
I was not cleared last week, he's reached all clearance.
I was not cleared last week, this week I am cleared.
Okay, who clears you?
The league.
The league clears you, the league cleared me. They're going to have to revoke that after this week.
No, no, no, I was cleared.
Okay, right? But they can revoke it for next week.
I wasn't cleared last weekend.
Right, why weren't you cleared last weekend?
I had a funeral and my cool throne is the matrix. So Apple is now getting into virtual reality, which means it's actually going to catch on, so that sucks. Goodbye reality.
Facebook tried it, it's true when other companies do it. When Facebook did, they were trying to make it more accessible, so they were lowering the price of it. To what was it? 400 bucks for the Meta thing, Facebook changed their entire company name to Meta to get behind this thing. Now Apple is going to come out.
They're going to make it, it's going to be like four grand, and everyone is just going to buy the Apple one.
Yeah, I just want it.
Because it's like, Oh, it's Apple, you know what? I think I'm going to get one, yeah.
Got to that price.
Try it out.
If it was 200 bucks, I'd be like, No thanks, I got to have it.
It's a good business lesson that sometimes you don't want to pay a lower price for something, yeah.
I'm going to get it and I'm never going to use it. I'm going to use it once and be like, all right. And then probably end up giving it to one of Brandon Walker's kids.
Or you could get one for the Oculus.
Yeah, yeah, I did that with the Oculus, I bought the Oculus, I never even opened the box, I just gave it away.
So yeah, I'm going to buy one, all right, Jake.
My hot seat are fans who are trying to get on camera. So there was a Miami local sports reporter named Samantha Rivera on site in Vegas after the game. And there was this fan trying to get on camera. And she just stiff arms the crap out of him.
Oh yeah, that was awesome.
And he had no shot of getting in the frame, so that was a great move, yeah.
And that happened. Also. There was another guy who had to do that with Knights fans as well. I think after game one, too rowdy. Yeah, don't get in the shot.
No, can't get in the shot.
You got a job to do.
My cool throne is our friend Charlie Woods.
Yeah.
Yeah, good job, future live golfer.
Charlie Woods just won a major over the weekend, the Major Championship at Village Golf Course. He beat the field by eight strokes at one under par. He just dominated.
He's Charlie. Yeah, yeah.
JaKe I'm concerned that you're surprised by this, yeah.
No, I'm not surprised.
I knew that this was going to happen, yeah.
Yeah. The top five was rounded out by Noah Manley, Luke Friend, Cameron Cantine and Logan Fox.
Don't care.
Logan Fox.
Crazy names there. Charlie Woods is all I care about.
Logan finished below par. JAKE Yeah, they're bums and losers, yeah.
Charlie Woods is one under and Noah Manley was seven over.
He should get second place, too, Charlie Woods should get all the fucking. There's no prize money, but if there were, he should get it all, yeah.
So he won the boys 14-15 division.
And he's what 12 years old.
14 or 15, probably.
Oh, okay.
I floated this out there to our good friend Max Homa, who's very excited about Hank. Almost had a hole in one today, which I can't believe. We haven't talked about, but.
That was from I saw you, that was from at least a month ago.
Yeah, that was a long time ago.
Oh, okay.
It was a sick shot, though.
It was a sick shot. Um, I would like to see Charlie Woods teamed up on Max Homa's team on the PGA. If they're going to do team format, let's get, let's get our squad together, yeah.
Um, okay, let's get to our interview with Brian Windhorse. And then we have our good friend Dan Rappaport on the other side, talking about live PGA and what happened today.
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Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. Been looking forward to this one? Three berries, three berries. That's the voice.
It is Brian Windhorse from ESPN, He is the best N.BA guy, I'm going to say it right now at ESPN.
The best?
He is a two-time New York Times bestseller, four books. And we have Wendy, Wendy. thank you for joining us. Where are you right now? You're in Miami, right?
I am in a green room that I stole from ABC in the Casaya Center, I don't know what Casaya is. We have our official ABC interview in progress that I put up so they cannot bother me. It's just an off day here, interviews went on.
I think the Nuggets are finishing practicing. This is like a dressing room that Jimmy Buffett's backup singer would have. This is not the main dressing room, this is just like a side dressing room that has a couch that has tears in it.
I love it, it's perfect.
Pitbull would have a bigger dressing room than this one.
We want to ask you a little bit about your career, but let's start with the N.B.A. finals. You saw the teams today. What is the vibe? Both with the nuggets and the heat? And I also want to just throw out there. Wendy was the only person I heard after Game 1 to be like, Hey, the heat were a little bit more alive in that game than people give them credit for. This is going to be a series.
So kudos to you for that.
Michael Malone, Nuggets coach He's not afraid to jump his team. He's been doing it for years, probably about three times a year. He rips the hell out of his team to the media, who knows how many times he does it to their face?
They hadn't lost in a month, they lost May 7th. Then they won the last two games of the Sun series and they swept the Lakers and they had 10 days off and they won Game 1. They hadn't experienced a loss in a long time, so when they lost in that game, even though I don't think that they're....
It wasn't like they were terrible, just Miami made a bunch of shots. I mean, they obviously could have been better. Malone jumped them, man, he ripped them in the locker room, then he came out and ripped them to the media.
They flew here to Miami on Monday, and then they went to Jeff Green's house for dinner. Jeff Green has played for like, 14 teams, but I don't think the heat are one of them. But yet he's got a house here.
I asked Jamal Murray where the house was, and he said it was in Narnia. It was so far out, I feel like he was going to Narnia. So my guess is it's somewhere in Broward County, but I don't know. I imagine the bus just pulled up because they're not taking Ubers. I'm sure the bus just pulled up to Jeff Green's house.
They had a bonding dinner on Monday night and then today Tuesday they had a film session.
Malone said he showed them 17 clips where they screwed up. That's a lot, by the way. Normally a film session with an N.B.A. team, you're not showing them 17. There's an attention span challenge there. They had this monstrous film session here in Miami today and they practiced.
So they're saying that they're going to do better. I have to figure, I don't know, because during the games I'm watching, I'm not in the gambling space. Is Vegas getting slaughtered on live lines in the fourth quarter? By the heat? They have to be getting slaughtered?
They've been underdogs in every game, pretty much I can't count the amount of times where they've been 8 or 9 point underdogs and won outright. It's a wild thing to have a team in the N.B.A. finals 1-1, and still everyone's like, Well, it's the heat and the nuggets are better.
Yeah, you know what's wild? I was talking with some people from the heat. When they were going into Game 2, they had lost 4 of their last 5 games.
Yeah.
Excuse me, how are you in the N.B.A. finals? You lost 4 out of 5, but I mean, this heat team is wild, I've got to imagine so.
They've only been favored in one game in the playoffs and they lost it. It was one of the Celtics games, I think it was Game 4. And I think they've won 9 games as an underdog. And some of these fourth quarters when they've been down double digits. I don't know, but I've got to believe the live numbers have been wild that they've come back from.
So the Nuggets are trying to convince themselves to wake up and treat them like a real opponent. I think that's kind of what's happened the last 48 hours.
Yeah, the heat are very, very tough to kill, so it sounds like what you're saying is. And I'm going to spin this into my own way because I am rooting for the Nuggets. It sounds like this was a good loss. It's a good thing that the Nuggets lost because it will come up. They needed something like this, like you mentioned, they hadn't lost in 27 days.
To kind of get their shit kicked in in the fourth quarter might have been a wake-up call for them.
That's exactly the way Michael Malone phrased it. You won't see it on television because it had to be bleeped. But that's, I don't know. How did you know? It's exactly what? He said? Ah, it's amazing.
Yeah, we share a similar mindset. So you're expecting the Nuggets to come out and have more. Was it a lack of effort that you think happened to them in Game 2, or was it just there were some issues on switching on screens that might be able to be explained away by a lack of effort?
But I feel like it was a lot of other things that went into it besides just not wanting it more.
Yeah, so there was a couple of times where they screwed up, like you said, there was a couple of times where Michael Porter, they would set a screen. I'm not an X and O guy because I'll look foolish pretty quick, but there was a couple of times where Michael Porter. There was a screen and Michael Porter was supposed to switch to the other guy and he just double teamed and so the other guy just went over and was wide open.
And, you know, Malone went ape over it. But the thing about it was in Game 1, the heat were 5 of 16 on the quote wide open threes, which is over 6 feet of space at the tracking software. And like, the 5 out of 16 was like, people were like, Wow, that's really bad, but I was like, man, 16's a lot like the Nuggets won the game by like 12 or something.
And they only had 8 wide open shots, 8 or 9.
And the heat had, like, almost double as bad of open shots and got beat. And so, like the Nuggets noticed this, the coaches were, like, not necessarily a good idea, and like, they tried to like, tell their players.
But like you said PFT, when you haven't lost in a month and you won Game 1 with, I mean, having a B game, C, B game. You know, it's sometimes hard to get going. And I think they got caught and by the way they lost by 3, right? And if Murray hits the last shot, like the heat made like almost everything.
And they lost by 3.
So I still think the nuggets, I mean, I huge respect the heat, but I still think the Nuggets are in pretty good position here. If they don't screw around, which they could, yeah.
Because they've not done this before.
So talking about the heat, we all talk about heat culture, you know it, because you've talked to SPOH many times, Pat Riley many times. What is it about their organization that has them in these spots? And always competitive with guys that you wouldn't be like? Oh, that team looks like one of the best teams in the N.BA.
They are super duper, crazy competitive with everything that they do. Like, they'll be like a one-on-one or a one-on-zero. Just a player doing a workout with a coach in August, and the coach will try to make the player like pass out.
The heat are relentless. They weigh their players every few days. I don't know what it is. don't quote me on this exactly, but they're obsessive about weighing their players.
Normally, teams will weigh them unless a player has a weight clause, they'll weigh them at the beginning of the season or the end of the season. The heat weigh their guys all the time and it gets to the point where the players just weigh themselves.
Yeah, because the heat are. So there was a player I lived here for a couple of years covering the heat, and there was a player that they were trying to get to lose weight.
He was a young guy, they were trying to get to lose weight.
And somebody saw the guy, there was a taco Bell, like, at least there used to be, like, maybe three blocks down the road, somebody saw the player. You remember at Taco Bell you used to have, like, the sign and it would say how much money it costs.
Like before they did that on the drive-thru, there was like that little thing that told you how much money your order was. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you lost.
So this is 10, 12 years ago. When I was here. Somebody saw this player in the drive-thru line, somebody who, like, worked for the heat, saw the player in the drive-thru line. They saw. The number was like $28, which in like 2010, like $28 at Taco Bell was enough to feed a wedding reception, you know?
Yeah.
And so, like, the heat found out about it and Riley, like, called the guy in and like, weighed him. He was like, Oh, coach, I was just buying for all my boys, you know, I was taking home a feast and like, that's how the heat roll.
And like Shane Battier once told me, he's like, if you have a big lunch, they know about it. And when LeBron was here, he used to weigh himself before and after every game, or at least a lot of games. And there was one game where LeBron claimed to have gained like eight pounds in the game. Yeah, which I found completely unbelievable.
There had to have been some sort of flaw there. But LeBron told the story I checked with the trainer, his trainer, and he goes, Yeah. It happened when Jimmy Butler came to Miami on his recruiting visit. Like, we want to sign you. They brought him into the locker room and, you know, had his locker all decked out and everything.
And Riley, Pat Riley stepped on the scale and he was like, I'm still at my exact weight when I was a laker. Let's see what you are, Jimmy, like. It was like a trick.
It was his recruiting visit. So look, those are just the heat weight tales. They just, they're just maniacal, but I don't say that in a bad way. They're maniacal about everything, they compete at everything.
So that summer league, they compete like the heat, do two summer leagues, they've been doing two summer leagues for, like, years. They like, they're just maniacal about competing, and that carries over to just whatever they do.
It sounds corny, but a, B C always be competing. That's like Riley's methodology. And so that's heat culture, yeah, and heat culture is also like, if you're not getting it done.
They'll slice your throat, yeah, get out of here, yeah.
You told the story. Mario Chalmers can't even go to Taco Bell.
It wasn't Mario Chalmers, No, it was a guy who never really made it. I was trying to get it out of you.
No, DeMarcus Beasley.
We'll just start naming players, but that's a great answer. I mean, that is, I know that like, it seems corny. But if it's a cultural thing. And everyone from the top down is doing that in your face all the time, everyone starts competing like that.
That's why Eric Spolstra says, We're not for everybody, right?
Yeah, I mean, I would not last in the Miami heat.
Oh, if I could win every day, you think I would last, you weigh people every day, you think I'm lasting. I don't think so.
You're telling me they're competing, I'm hearing that they're body shaming.
Yeah.
Well, I just feel like they have expectations of what you're going to be. Listen, it would take one big cat Saturday morning donut to eat.
Yes, I'm out.
It's not for everybody.
Not for me.
It is very Miami, though, I guess, to be doing this. So can we get your official prediction for Game 3??
I don't make predictions, but even if I did, I mean, man, I wish anybody luck. Who's going to predict what's going to happen with the Miami heat? Because this team is, I've been calling them the Bizarro team.
I shouldn't make Seinfeld references, probably to your audience, especially because they don't know what the hell I'm talking about. But like, they do things weird, they just do things backwards. So like, I'm telling you that, I'm looking at this. And I think the Nuggets didn't play that bad in Game 2 and could have won and are probably in pretty good shape. But right when you think you got it figured out, the heat will put you right on your backside, yeah.
So my guess is that we'll be 2-2 by the weekend, but that's just a guess. I don't have like a great feel for it, yeah.
So talking about your career, you've had a fascinating career because for the longest time, you were deemed the LeBron whisperer. You obviously are from Akron. You're also a kid from Akron, I think. Is the story right that your mom taught Lebron or was a teacher at Lebron's high school? So I'm curious, like your career obviously has evolved.
Was it annoying at some times to be like, I'm more than just LeBron guy? Like, I know that I cover him, I know I covered him in Cleveland, then Miami, then back to Cleveland. But like, I can talk about the whole league, I have more than just one player here.
I mean, obviously I made it a priority not to be that guy forever because I haven't covered him on a daily basis for a decade.
But I mean, he was absolutely, incredibly tremendous. Coming across him when he was 14 years old was the greatest break in my professional life. So, like, it was amazing to do that and I don't regret one second of it. And if I have to get made fun of for it, then so be it, you know?
I think the one thing I would say is like, when I came down here to Miami, when he came down here and I joined ESPN. I got kind of slaughtered for it. And like, the thing is like, if I was getting special access, then it's like, okay, you made a choice. You're like, you know, you decided you were going to go be on team LeBron. And you know, you've sold out. But at least you get the cream right, at least you get the interviews and everything.
Like, when I came down here to Miami. Like, he was furious at ESPN because of the way the decision played out. And he basically, I mean, he was totally a pro, but he basically didn't give ESPN anything for a year.
For some period of time, I don't want to say it was like the whole season. But for some period of time. He wouldn't even do walk-off interviews with ESPN, or maybe he did walk-off interviews, but he wouldn't do pregame sit-down interviews, whatever it was, he, like, restricted ESPN access. And, you know, we announced this big thing, the Heat Index, where we had multiple writers like covering him and like, he thought it was the worst idea ever.
And so, even though I knew him real well and had known him for many years at that point, like he had no interest. He was not interested in doing anything for me. So I was like, getting skewered for being this sellout. Meanwhile, I left a newspaper, I left the newspaper business, which, you know, I love the job that I had, which is the Cleveland Plain dealer.
But like, I had been trying to get out of newspapers for five years, you know, I mean, like, I was not in position to turn down a massive raise in getting out of newspapers. I mean, if I had turned it down, I would have needed, you know, medical attention, so I got this reputation.
By the way, after a year, everything was sort of fine, he sort of came back around. But then, like, I haven't been his guy. Like I've written and said many critical things, he's trust me, he's been pissed off at me many, many times.
And like, if, like, I didn't get the decision, or not the decision, I didn't get the return to Cleveland. Interview like Lee Jenkins, got it, like, good for Lee Jenkins. But like, if I had sold out and been like a sycophant, then at least I would have gotten that interview, you know?
So, you know, so, while that is annoying, I have no regrets and everything that, you know. LeBron helped magnify and uplift me. I mean, like the classic rising tide raises all ships. I mean, there's a whole bunch of people around LeBron who players, coaches, media, you know. Other people that he's worked with that have all benefited from him, and I am definitely in that tide.
But I've never been on his payroll and I've never been invited for Chris for Thanksgiving dinner, and I never will be. But, you know, always very, very, very blessed to have come into his life when I did.
If you were a LeBron sycophant, you definitely would not come on this show. That's true. That should put everything to bed right away.
There we go, thank goodness.
What was the moment that you realized, though? Because you're from the same area, you went to the same high school, right? you went to St. Vincent, St. Mary's?
Yeah.
When did you realize that LeBron James was going to be LeBron James?
Well, first off, let me be clear. I had no idea what the hell I was looking at because I was, you know, I'm seven years old, I think I'm seven years old.
Yeah, you're seven years old.
Six or seven years old.
We're the same age as LeBron, we were that close to going to the N.BA just like him.
I didn't know what I was doing either. I was like 21, I think when I first saw him, I was 21, he was 14, yeah.
So it's not like I was like, Well, I've seen a bunch of recruits in my day and this guy's the best one. I just, you know, thought like, this guy's really good.
And so when he was a rising junior, so he had just finished his sophomore year, he's going to go junior year. He goes to this camp in New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson University. Before they were the 16 seed champs, and, by the way, their gym was a 16-seated gym.
Like, it was only like half hardwood, and it was like half like sport court. And they used to have this huge camp there, the Adidas ABCD camp. And really, the camp is designed for rising seniors. Guys who are 18, you know, going to be seniors. So LeBron was kind of there a year early.
But that summer was the summer that Kwame Brown got drafted first. And like, if you remember, like, four of the top eight guys were high school guys Eddie Curry, Tyson Chandler, Kwame Brown, Sagana Jopp. And so it was like, Oh man, like, I guess the N.B.A. draft is just going to all be high school guys now. So I go to this camp.
My boss didn't want to pay for it. I was working at the Akron Beacon Journal, you know, medium-sized paper. We had a really good sports section, but my boss couldn't comprehend the need to cover an AAU event. It wasn't AAU. But, you know, a camp in New Jersey, you know, that required like a plane, flight and hotel.
He thought I was insane, so I paid for it in my own pocket because I knew that it was worthwhile being there. So I went and on one side of the gym were all the best college coaches in the country. It was like Krzyzewski, Boeheim, Calipari, Patino had just gotten hired at Louisville, like a couple of months prior.
And then on the other side, there was all these NBA scouts, because now the N.BA scouts all got to come watch the 17-year-olds. So it was like, you know Danny Ainge, you know Pat Riley? I don't know if Riley was there, but it was like, all those guys, okay?
And LeBron completely dominated the event from start to finish. It wasn't like, Oh no, I like that kid from Phoenix, or, you know, those two kids from L..A. are probably better. He dominated it from start to finish as a pimple-faced 16-year-old.
And people there, like, when I say people I'm talking about, like, the coaches weren't allowed to say his name, so they would talk in code. I remember Patino was like, there's a young man here who would be the number one pick in the draft if he was right. There were people who were like, there, all the basketball scouts in, like, you know, all the top basketball people in the country were there. And they were all like, Yeah. This 16-year-old kid would be the number one pick in the draft if the draft was today.
And so that's when I was like, Oh, he's not just going to be like a North Carolina recruit, he's actually like going to possibly be the number one pick in the draft. So that's when I kind of got it.
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