SCF With Ryan Whitney, Paul Rabil In Studio, Nuggets Take G1, BloodSport Movie Review and Fyre Fest

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music on today's Pardon My Take. We have a twofer for the people. We have Ryan Whitney previewing the Stanley Cup final, talking a little hockey, and then we have our good friend Paul Rabel in studio.

Bad news for the heat, so it's interesting you brought up the altitude, Big cat, because the heat stunk. At shooting tonight, they had a bad performance. Max Strews 0 for 9..

0 for 10.

Went deep, I went knuckles deep in some research studies, uh, Billy football style, I dug deep into some actual journalistic papers. Here. Okay, there's a report or a study that was done by Harvard University.

Bring up free throws because the heat actually were a hundred percent from the free throw line. Two for two. yeah, two for two, the lowest amount of free throws attempted in an N.B.A. finals game. It was just bad news for the heat.

With anybody except for Yoka, everybody would talk about him being the final MVP because he's awesome. What do you have? He had six rebounds, I know he had 10 assists, that was bad.

Yeah, the four out of five starters in double digits. It's like, this is what the Nuggets have been all playoffs, especially at home, yet to lose a game at home in the playoffs. And it's not just Yoka, everyone else is chipping in.

Fucks me up every year. I was preparing for hot seat, cool thrown today. Yeah, it's just like.

It happens and I just, I don't know what day, it is for the entire week, yeah, one, three day.

Weekend screws us up. That's why Hank is always gone from the show, always yawning, Yeah, Oh wait, Hank, what do you think about that?

The crazy thing about the nuggets is like, yoga has always been this good, or at least for the last four or five years. It's the fact that everyone around him has been either injured or not. Great, and now everyone around him is healthy and great. And so yoga is still doing the same thing. Like, he's been this dominant and this great, uh, for an extended period of time.

A big man that can pass like Jokic is maybe my favorite thing in all sports to watch. Yeah, I'm, I'm thinking through every single league. A quarterback with just a cannon arm that's fun to watch, a running, uh, a great kick returner like Dante Hall, Devin Hester, those guys.

We might have to do a maybe put this on the Mount Rushmore list. I mean, a lefty.

A lefty home run, lefty home run is good, home run is sweet. You like, Uh, yeah, like, move on.

SCHWARBER I mean, just run, runs, you're sort of the best, yeah, but I mean, a big, a big chunky.

Dude that has sick no look passes, that's gotta be number one. Yeah, no, it's. It's very high up.

There. So we were watching the game. And a guy outfielder with a cannon for an arm, yeah, that's like a guy who could throw from right field to third with no bounce. That's pretty fucking sick.

Vladimir Guerrero For a couple of years. I'll just watch those and just be like, Holy fuck, those are fun to watch. We were talking to, Uh, to Ibo works here at Barstool, and he was telling me that Jokic was an awesome water polo player. Believe it.

Player and a basketball, and the best basketball player in the world. It does feel. And again, this is obviously just after game one, so we will overreact a little bit. But it feels like this is the crowning of Jokic as the best player in the entire world. Yeah, universe, universe, he's the.

Universally the best basketball player, he's the universal MVP. Yeah, not just limited to the.

I did have a question for Hank, Um, I'll field it for him? Well, No, we, we have, we have Celtics fan Hank sitting right there. Um, he did have a tweet that said that, uh. He was depressed about how the series against Heat ended and that he was convinced that the Celtics would have beaten the.

Nuggets in five. Yeah, I mean, it is all about matchups in the N.BA. Um, the Celtics are probably the best team in the N.B.A. if you really look at it. Position, but by position, player by player, you know. We ran into a heat team that was getting frisky at the right time, but we're still a better team.

Everyone, if that was a nine game series, you guys won that. Hell yeah, go on paper, you're.

The Champs, you went in an eight, that's, I mean, that's what spot the lie factor fiction.

Factor fiction Better team than everyone, Denver's, Denver's just straight up bigger.

They're just bigger. I mean, Aaron Gordon, like his defense. And and what he adds to that team is is crazy. Because they do have in Michael Porter Jr's tall, like they have just big guys, yeah.

It's it's funny watching the heat try to match up against the big guys because they don't, they have, they have. Bam, who's a big guy Asterix? he's big guy Jason.

That he'd have in this series and like, who knows, maybe they'll start. Heat culture will rise back up. I do think that tonight, like there was very little chance he could pull off a win tonight. Sunday night will be very like they'll. They'll throw as much as they have at the Nuggets. Some adjustments, but the heat zone defense, which was great against Celtics. Yogurt was built in a lab to beat his own. Like you, you have a big man who can stand at the foul line and can pass everywhere, and can also shoot and drip.

Nuggets Yeah, five feels right. five, I think that they'll get one.

Go off for like, 45 50, game three, yeah, it's when game four, then they close out in game.

Then they close it out at home. Yeah, this won't age poorly. He cultures dead, we can say he.

Cultures officially dead? Yeah, this will, this will be replayed. I hope we make the Miami Heat uh, hype tape. Now. When they win, when they win this series in six, we're also going to have a.

Completely opposite take on failure when the heat lose the finals. This is a great season for all.

This, they won the championship. Well, I said it during the stream, but there is a small part of me. You know, if you're a sports fan and you have to, you're always having to, like, slip and slide through different arguments and try to figure out what your angles are. I wouldn't hate it, like, ripped off like five or six titles in the next 10 years. Because I absolutely would say that he's the greatest N.B.A. coach of all time.

He had Michael Jordan. Okay, anybody can win a title of Michael Jordan, all, all who did.

All Spode needs to do is win. Like, what? Like eight more? What would it fill end up with?

Do you end up with, Uh, 11?

More respect on Phil Jackson's name. He's doing nine more. If he can win nine more titles, then we could just say he's the greatest. And that's why LeBron won. No, but you could also.

Play this game with Spowe, where, if, if the heat, keep getting to the finals with undrafted guys and even if they don't win, you can just be like. This is a bigger accomplishment this far through the Eastern Conference playoffs that it was winning six titles with Michael.

JoRDan Scotty Pippen on your team? Yeah, true, yeah. I mean, this is, the, let's just say it right now, the best coaching job we've ever seen of all time.

Of all N.B.A. finals, that's insane, that's not, that's insane. I also I love the shot. Whenever they show him in the crowd, it's him with Alonzo morning. And they're just sitting there, looking like gangsters, ready to take some people out on the court.

Is he he called? It is dude? So not 19 N.B.A. finals for him, three is a player, 10 is a coach.

To heat and and made that culture. Yeah, they're going to get one, at least, I'm still confident.

No, no, oh, they're talking about supposed to get 10 more, 10 more titles, 10 more titles. Yeah, greatest coach of all time. Not even close.

This comes purely out of defending Michael Jordan. I mean, exactly, and and and LeBron James.

He'd be like, I barely knew how to play basketball before I met SPo. That's I think we can all agree.

What do you want in college? Think about this way? Michael Jordan in college got shut down by Dan Dockage. Yes, then in the N.B.A. rattles off six.

That, yeah, yeah, um, all right. One other thing before we get to our interviews, uh, Adam Silver just teasing us all with John Moran, Wild, wild, uh, tease, where he said, He, uh, they. They released a statement saying We've uncovered a fair amount of additional information.

A fair amount of information, how many? More? More handguns, there's more Instagram stories.

And guns, yes, he's got, he's. I would actually imagine that he probably, like, got put on to, just like a hype tape of John Moran with guns. So would it be worse if it was multiple guns?

I think it'd be way worse if it was small. If he just had one gun that he really loved, that he couldn't give up. It's like his bank. Yeah, you get that.

We don't want to take away from the NBA finals, but we're going to announce that something severe is going to happen after the NBA finals. So please just don't talk about it during the N.B.A. finals. Even though it's very vague right now and leaves it open to interpretation, where everyone can talk.

About it for the next two weeks. I know what this is, this is, this is the N.BA. Promoting Oppenheimer. John Moran is going to be an Oppenheimer building an atomic bomb he's in.

The movie, Yeah, that'd be great if John Grant was in the background with his gun.

Yeah, no, no with the bomb, yeah, he's on the plane.

And he wasn't actually cast in the movie, he just happened to be where they were filming. Yeah, he's like, I brought my bomb, yeah.

Uh, let me let me go to my car real quick. I do think the N.B.A. finals is very similar to Oppenheimer. We both know how it's going to end. Yes, the history has already been written.

That was scary, that my life flashed before my eyes. I will, I will retire. How quick do you think Billy would be like, Oh, actually, I can move to Chicago. He's already got this clip.

No matter what you guys say, but I will. I will give up all my integrity, I will relinquish, that's fair, my integrity as a. As a sports journalist, that's fair as a dean of the Medill School of Journalism. I will give that all up. And you won't know ball, yeah.

Accountability. Oh, I will, anytime you say anything, I'm just like, but you don't know.

I'll get a ball removed. Oh, okay, I'll get a ball removed cosmetically, yeah.

If you're not going to testicle removed, yep, okay, that's a that's a really dumb bet.

It's not a bet, it's just a fact with yourself. I shouldn't have said that. No, definitely not. You get carried away sometimes on this show.

Say something dumber. Yeah, yeah. It makes the tattoo bet kind of pale in comparison now.

That tattoo, maybe I'll get a tattoo of just one ball, no, you know what you should do, all right?

Let's clean this up. You're not going to get a testicle removed. If the Heat do win this series, you have to get a tattoo of a basketball and then get it removed. Okay, yeah.

Tattoo for like one week and then immediately getting it removed. I got to let it set in for a while, I got to show it off. Yeah, yeah.

And puck on our like somewhere on our body, and then when you fuck up with a take.

There's so many balls out there you could get, yeah, rugby ball, billiards. ooh, you'd have to.

Get all of them, yeah, we'd have to, you'd have to collect all the balls, all the billiards, ball, bocce.

Tattooed to look like a basketball, that'd be cool. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Get the lines.

Yeah, okay, let's get to our interviews. We've got two great ones, we've got Ryan Whitney and Paul Rabel.

Going on two or three years ago, I mean, I don't know, that's not. That doesn't sound very analytics to me. It sounds like you're just guessing, but I'll take it, I think you're.

Number one I you might be ever since Titus came on the show and said all those nasty things and.

We just stopped inviting him on, you, just gave him his own show. Yeah, we gave him his own show, so.

We didn't have to have him on anymore. Um, all right, so it is Ryan Whitney, our number one recurring guest. We wanted to have him on. Because we have been talking a lot of basketball, a lot of basketball talk on PMT.

Those people are probably, uh, too dumb to get to get through to at this point. Like, if, if, based on whoever the teams are, you're not even going to watch. I mean, it's kind of hard to get those people's attention and and and have them give it a legit chance. But for any hockey fan that's enjoying watching the highest level, playing for the best trophy, that's the hardest to win in sports. You know that these two teams should produce pretty entertaining games, and they're both very similar.

It's like you said, it's the best trophy in sports for those of us who've been lucky enough to hoist the Stanley Cup. It's a time that you won't forget and something that your entire town won't forget. And if you look at the Panthers, I didn't realize this. But at the end of the season, they almost didn't even get into the playoffs. They had to have the Pittsburgh Penguins lose on the last day of the regular season for them to sneak in, which is a crazy run.

No load management. It's the game has changed, the men above, the men in the suits have changed the game. There's, there's. There's just a less physical factor, a smaller physical factor to hockey now, which is also a good thing. I mean, you're seeing, like, under, like smaller players, become superstars.

The league anymore, the physical ones. I listen, I, I will watch every second of the Stanley Cup final, cause how can you not? It's the best.

Playoffs, no doubt, and and unfortunately, I mean, people always say, and I agree, that the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs are like the best post season around. And the first round. Like now is. The past few years, especially, more than ever, have become must watch TV, must watch games.

Rod Brendamore did say it was not a sweep. It shows time, it wasn't a sweep. Loser talk, but yeah, it w it was. It was. They weren't the most competitive, uh, conference finals.

But I I think that the cup will be awesome. I think the Cup, uh, like a lot of Vegas, is the favorite, and I kind of understand why. But if Bobrovsky's playing like this, like Sergei Bobrovsky, who I think Charles Barkley called him, Sergei Bobov, Bob Bob, something hilarious on TNT. He's a big hockey guy, though, but if he continues to play like this, I don't know if they can be beat. I don't think they can be beat.

We're going to get back to Ryan Whitney in a second before we do.

I mean, like, am I supposed to go after this and just get, like, run over by a car? To, like, this is just you're, you're, you're killing me here? But it's, it's. It's very, very emotional. I just remember in the room like, everyone's just kind of breaking down at different moments and you're just so close to your dream. We lost at home too. We wanted triple overtime, maybe double overtime.

And ready to win another one? And you had a foot injury too, so like, right after the season's over, you were like, Hey, uh it, maybe it's time for some time off, just so you guys know I had a foot.

Injury that whole time? Yeah, yeah, I just I just want to be like an MBA or come out and just let you guys know what I've been struggling with this entire time. Getting, yeah.

Now wait, so what is it like, though, like, six days off when you're on a run like that?

And um, I'm sure it's changed. But Biz always talks about the guys on L.A. He knows when they won their cups, they were finishing out series early, too. And we were through the East, as I mentioned, and we were ripping it up. Like, well, you know, we're having bangers, just unreal nights at the bar, everyone's getting after it. Because you knew, you know, and then you get back in the rink the next day, maybe it's skate the next day.

We got rolled too much rest. Yeah, we talked about about the the playoff speed last time you were on the show, about the difference. Is there a difference even between playoff speed?

And Stanley Cup final speed? Yeah, I think so, or maybe it was the fact that Detroit was that good.

What's so what's your official pick? We're a Golden Nights podcast, by the way.

Just so I pick, I picked Florida, um, which is great for Vegas, cause I haven't picked Florida one series, I picked every. I picked Boston, I picked Toronto, I picked Carolina. But now I'm at the point of, like, all right, something special is going on here and the goaltending and like, what could Chuck's doing?

Okay, that, all right. Um, so other things we've got to clean up from the playoffs. Connor McDavid's a bum wrong. Did he win?

Is he on the night? He ran it to a great Vegas Golden Knights team. He was very adamant that next season. Stanley Copper It's a complete failure. Again, I'm going to keep back in the best player I've ever seen.

World And he's got zero, zero rings, zero Stanley Cup finals. Who's the best player in the NBA?

NIcola JoKIC Yeah, he's about to get it. Why he didn't want? I thought he didn't win MVP, did he?

Only because he won so many that they got tired of giving it to him. Yeah, he won two of the last.

Three years, all right? So if he wins it, then then you can take, you can give him the best athlete in the world. But you guys just troll my McDavid comments and you're always coming after him. And he's breaking records, and he's doing things that haven't been done in about 40 years. In the NHL. He's joining the list that Gretzky Lemieux every season, he's hopping on these lists with them.

You know, what list he should hop on is the one where they engrave it on that big Cup.

Hey, if his career ends and he doesn't win a Stanley Cup, I will bow down to you guys as being incorrect in terms of Connor McDavid's greatness. But I'm not jumping off the fence before. The guy's 28 years old or whatever, he is right, he's 27. Well, I bet on him, I told you, I bet on them.

I'm going to bet on him again next. I'm very much looking forward to Whitney actually bowing down to us. That's going to be 26, 26..

Okay, so he's getting a little old. Yeah, yeah. When do you hit your prime as a hockey player?

I would say, I would say it's 25 to 29 those four years, so he's one year in.

He's got to do it quick, because then if he's in his thirties, we'll just say, well, it was.

Maybe then he'll get a real team around him as he's a little older, takes a little less money.

And then he wins about four. We'll see I, I I did, uh, I'll admit that we are trolling, uh. Watching him play hockey is incredible. I mean, can you not at least say, yeah? But he still hasn't won anything.

I was, Yeah, that's my point. It's nuts. And yes, you're right, you got to win a title to be considered the best of all time or one of them. But watching him like, night in and night out, he's just. It looks like a different league, it looks like an alien on the ice.

Going up all right, so yeah, so throwing us in, that will help it. Um, oh, I need one of those.

Yeah, the nines, they're powerful. The market over here, it's like people probably jones it for.

Nines or twelves if you? If you take one of those, you just start instantly sweating. I got.

The great experience I get, the hiccups when I throw two of those, you ever get one. A package that's like, must've been like, mismanaged at the lab, and it just cripples you. I'm like, what the?

Hell is that, you know what I like to do with it? I like to play zen roulette, where I take one of the nines and then I mix it in with a bunch of threes. And then I never know when I'm going to.

We're trying to make it up to him and I have ripped on him. Cause he did score that goal against the Black Hawks in 2014, the game seven overtime goal. But now that I know that he's a listener, we are a Golden Knights podcast, we're that easy.

In Vegas, he's actually, I think the smallest one. And they're all, like, you know, Petrangelo, six, three, we got McNabb's about six, six, Theodore six, four. He's sick. I think he's six, one, like two, 10 still. And I I believe he. I think he's the all-time record holder of block shots in the NHL.

That's true. Wait, memes just said. Fact-checked it. Yes, correct. oh, nice, okay.

Right, but it just that's kind of what they. They're blocking shots, they're hard to play against. So that's the big D I'm talking about, not where your mind's headed to the gutter.

What about the big peas? The Brooks Koepke is beloved peas, yeah.

I'm sorry for your loss, I know how much that pains you, that a Brooks is the best.

I shouldn't say it pains me like, I'm. I'm amazed at how nasty he is at golf. I just I feel like you're the you're the guys. That he's like, Oh, I'll be cool to them. And then he treats people that he doesn't know, they just don't know.

Nice things about him, So there he blows you. No, yeah, I blow him, idiot.

You were so mad, I didn't even know. I didn't know you had bet him. Great bet I.

Watch him in the in the PGA Championship. He was walking extra slow so that no one ahead of him.

Could hold him up, cause he was bitching. After the masters were all slow, guys were playing, yeah.

And the way he plays, he plays so fast, where he just gets up to the ball and hits it. So he was walking up the fairway in the PGA Championship, super deliberate and super slow, so that every.

That was what he didn't want to share with the other reporters.

Yeah, he didn't even share with us, I just figured it out, cause, like, we know him so.

Well, we're like, Yeah, you guys are so tight. I do yeah, as a cause of golf, not, it's. It's insane.

Jake released a shirt that is a very political. It just says, G o p s, Uh, so the Gops, uh, it's I think Jake's on the Zoom, maybe one of the worst shirts we've ever released.

Go peas.

He was drunk. I call him the peas. Now. No, it was during a PGA press conference, yeah, he said.

I'm going to go watch the pig at his mind, right? he said. I'm going to go home and watch the peas, he said it before.

Two, I'm calling him the Peas. That's the trick to winning the PGA. Be an ice cold, just get.

Buckled Yeah, I mean, he came on our show drinking out of the water maker on the show. It was awesome. But yeah, the peas. no one says the peas.

Rat tradition, though, where they throw the rats onto the ice. I looked it up. Ariana Grande getting hit by a puck tradition. Yeah, I liked that as another story of how the rats began.

If you looked it up, I, I, I think I have it right. But in 96, when they ended up going to their first Stanley Cup final, they got swept by the ads. But I think that year there was rats like in their old building or wherever they were. And one of the guys on the team actually killed one with a stick. And, like, the story grew so all of a sudden, on this playoff run, every goal, they're chucking rats on the ice.

Yeah, no, it's great. So yeah, that's pretty much the story. It was Scott Mellon B, So it was, it was in the locker room, and Mellon B grabbed a stick and hit it with a slap shot against the wall. And then later on that night, he scored two goals.

Best Um, all right, I have one last question for you. With rowback question promo code Take R H O B A C K.Com promo code TAke Q-ZIPS. Joggers, polos, hoodies, shorts, shorts are back.

I, I, I don't think. I don't think he can be going to say it. Well, that's what if he wins a cup. I mean, I could throw names of guys who've won a car, won a cop like that doesn't necessarily mean you're a better player, but we're a ring podcast, okay?

Then McDavid should have to change his first name if he's, if you think so.

There's maybe one of them drops an n and just has one n in Conor.

Yeah, wait, you have to acknowledge that. Saying that it's not possible to be better than Conor McDavid is a that's wishful thinking on your part? Yeah, it is possible.

When Benyama is going to be the best player of all time?

Uh, yeah, I just think for for what was discussed. In terms of McDavid, I mean, they've both been talked about since they were like, 13 years old. In terms of like, future upcoming UM prodigies in the game, but I just think McDavid is is that good? I think this kid could be incredible, like, maybe right beneath them. I'm just sorry, boys.

You, what do you want me to say? I'll take right beneath them? That's fine, you are saying that.

It's impossible to be better at hockey than Conor McDavid. No, I'm not saying it's impossible.

You asked me if he would be better, and I said, I don't think so. Okay, I'm not saying someday there won't be somebody better than him, but I don't think it'll be Conor Bedard, I mean.

If Chuck wins a ring, or if Alec Martinez wins another ring, he's better than Conor McDavid.

Yeah, Zach Whitecloud, if the Vegas Golden Knights win it, that he's better than McDavid I'm with.

You, I have one last, last question for you guys. I don't know your schedule for chicklets. Are you guys going back and forth from Miami to Vegas? So Biz is at every game.

Because TNT has the broadcast for the first time, they got the finals, which will be great. They're the, you know, their crew does an unreal job. So he'll be back and forth to every game. I think we'll be at Game four in Florida and game game three and four in Florida.

If it's you biz. And already for my liver going going back and forth between Vegas and Miami.

Ironman Triathlon for you guys, yeah, that I mean if we see RA after that one.

It's a miracle who gets eliminated first the Panthers, the Golden Knights, or R.A.

That's the question, all right.

Wait, you are the best. Thank you so much for fitting us in, and, uh, we'll talk again soon.

All right, appreciate it. Great coming on, reoccurring guests.

Ryan Whitney is brought to you by Coors Light, that's right, the best beer to drink in the summertime. The mountains are so blue, I've got a cooler that's filled with Coors light.

Here's Paul Rabel. And now for something completely different.

Five Hey Paul, can you remind me real quick? Cause I got a bad memory? Who won the last championship, right? That's where you want to start.

The last I talked to you, you were like, Hey, what are your ring sizes, right? so 50, oh.

No, it looks like we don't have rings yet. well, we were debating this because the rings are made.

But it doesn't sound like they're here. These are my favorite gifts. We have all the players.

Given to the owners before the players is, it would have caused a little bit of disruption.

Do you watch sports? Because usually usually what happens is they present the trophy to the owner.

Right after the Super Bowl, we needed to get players in here. Also get you guys to. I think week three in Fairfield, or where we're giving the rings out, okay, we're also unprecedented.

Owners because, and the team is unprecedented, it's the worst team of all time to win a.

Championship. I have a I have a photo of the rings early photo. Okay, let me see.

Is there a dog on it? Yeah, of course, Max won't want that one. All right, there you go.

Those are icy, I like them, I like them, they got shades of purple, that's nice.

Yeah, I think, I think I told big cat, just a normal. yeah, I was like, regular hands, no.

I think I just, I said, I think the text I sent you, I was like, Uh, give me a 13 and Pft at 12, right? So hopefully they fit, if they don't, there'll be necklaces. We ordered three in different sizes.

Hank should get one. Yeah, I need to double check on that. Yeah, he should get one.

Now I don't want my right. If we're just handing them out to everyone, well, yeah, well, that's.

The thing it's, it's, it's your guys. Checkbook. Yeah, that's true, that's true, all right.

PLL season five, We're very excited. Uh, you've been very busy, though. I feel like you. So you bought MLL? We bought MLL a couple of seasons ago. Explain but, but explain not like, what's with PLL?

Yeah, because we we were walking back here and this is our fifth season and ahead of our first season. Is when I first came on the show and we were talking about the history of professional lacrosse, so there was a league that I played in major league lacrosse. We ended up buying them in 2020 end of 2020 after the pandemic, and, uh, and then integrated one of their teams to the cannons.

Some are saying, not me, but some are saying, you bought that just so that they could play Paul.

Rabel highlights that that's what some are saying, some are saying that because that just.

Triggered in my brain, it's like, Oh, weird. Highlights. We have 25 years of history of when I was the best lacrosse player in the world. Interesting, yeah.

Runs on air and I'm being booked for halftime segment. Listen, I would do the same thing if you so smart box. I don't have a podcast, or I didn't even be on halftime on ABC. Top 10 goals.

And in lacrosse history, oh, wow, number seven. Oh, that's five, I'm pretty sure I actually did.

This this past weekend, during the college final four. I was like, you know, in 2007 when we played Duke, we were up six to one and we ended up winning that game. So that this game reminds.

Me of that one.

Not in the works. We went to a third and we lost. Oh, wait, was that the last one? Yeah, it was.

Last one, Yeah, do you think about that one more than you do? The winds? I I well, when I was.

Playing, I would say, I do, that's very, that's very athlete rhetoric for you to bring up. Think about the losses more than I do. But it's also true. Yeah, is it?

When someone loses, you're like, Mother, fuck yeah. Hank, Hank's probably best to answer that one because he's had two games, seven losses against eight seeds at any point in your career.

Have you lost in the semifinals?

All right, when you, after you lost, did you think a did you have any interest in the game afterwards, like, did you care about watching the game afterwards? And two, did you just think you would have beat the team that you would have been playing?

State lost in the semis to Duke. And the NCAA doesn't have replay on any coach's challenge or end of or end of game. And so the Duke players foot was all over the crease. And so the the goal should have been disallowed, but because they don't replay, they moved on. It was like the World Cup in 2010, when France played Ireland and got through and Ireland was out. And so if you're Penn State, I mean, you're living the rest of your life, especially those seniors, basically.

Answering that question is, we got hosed? What, what? Now it's going along the same hypothetical he's lost by 20 at home. Would you go out and then be like, Oh, we definitely would have won.

The title, right, right? Yeah, we match up better against that team than this team, right?

Yeah, it's fun to do. I mean, Hank, Hank tweeted that. You know, the Celtics would have beat the Nuggets in five. I agree if the if the Bulls had beaten the heat, they would have won the title.

No, straight up, I think Hank's right. Like the Celtics would have dominated the Nuggets, I would.

Have changed my bet on the Celtics. If the Wizard had won 55 games this year, they would have won.

Possible. These are all right. You just never know, you never know what you get. So so, semifinals.

They would have been favored, I don't, I don't know what you want me to say. They would not have been favored. They would have been favored. No, it would not.

Would not have been, what do you guys think? cause they could have been playing the heat. What do you think about Darrell Murray's hypothetical when he's like, you know, there's basically eight players in the N.B.A. And you have to make a move at one of them. And your chances to win a final is greater than 50. It's probably true, but the eight players?

They do change, there's addition, subtraction, so that eight player list every single year. So it's either that if you want to win now, or you just basically have to get lightning in a bottle.

In the draft, yeah, well, that's why. This is why I love basketball. Is that the best players? The ball's in their hand the whole game, they're on the floor.

I think the the last time a team won a title where they didn't have a top 10 guy was probably.

Beat the Lakers at the end of the week. Billups, who was the guy who had a mid range rip Hamilton?

SEAN PRINCE But that's kind of, that's kind of it. Like every other title team that you look at, like they had one of those guys that was the best player or the top 10 player.

That Pistons team probably had players number like 11 through 16 as a team, yeah, but they didn't have anybody to top 10, right, right?

The city model that you're now introducing. So I just assume the water dogs are going to be.

Chicago That's part two of progress, so we've gone from six to eight teams, we've gone from NBC to ESPN. We have new sponsors on board.

With a home market, it's, yeah, and you were smart the way you did it, because I think you can't build. We've seen it with some of the spring football leagues, like it's hard to just day one be like, Oh, this is your team.

Wrong, then you're moving people around. Monopoly Board. So what are the cities do you do? We know the cities, we, we, we know some, okay?

No, it's not really a one, it's more like a demand. Well as owners, we can also just.

Move the team to Chicago? Well, technically not. We have a bidding process that we've yet to disclose to ownership groups. So that's coming from me to you, okay?

Money can we pay you? Do you know how Chicago politics work? Essentially, we can rig the bidding.

Process I'll get Lori on the line. Yeah, okay, she's got some time.

So a stadium is important. Done, done, great, done.

Stands I love indoors could be like a like the maybe shrink the field a little bit to like a.

Into, we would also have a full fledged media apparatus built in right next to the field.

Yeah, oh my gosh, we should just do this. This is new. PMT Studios doubles as water dogs home.

Field advantage. Yeah, when you come play the water dogs, it's actually a three on three game.

Do you will you guys have a pool? Uh, no, well, you guys have a shower. Yeah, well, they asked for a. they asked for candy.

Guys that don't demand shit, I have a sauna. Do they want a sauna? They'd love a sauna? okay?

Yeah, that's actually, that's actually on the list. Um, they want unconditional love, Nope.

Absolutely not, that's a deal. Can there be one condition? What's the condition if they win?

Yeah, they get unconditional love. Yes, if they're winners, they win all their games back to back, any loss, you lose the unconditional off the table.

Still can't guarantee, don't you have, like a one weekend that's like opening week of the NFL?

I might miss that one. Well, no, we'll do owners representative this weekend. Yeah, owners. Oh, we'll have an owner on ABC.

Owner Uh, weight room, sure. Yep, okay.

Grass field instead of turf? How about Hardwood? Yeah, Hardwood is going to be probably clear. That might be on a basketball court.

Going to play? No, we're keep, yeah, so there's home games. We're keeping the touring model because we're still building overall attendance and viewership and such. So, uh, basically, what it looks like is you will host a home game in your market, and then each team gets to do that over the.

Home markets of the teams that are winning, okay, so are the teams that are like in the home market. Let's say hypothetically, just toss this out there, maybe the water dogs are in Chicago, right? They're going to live in Chicago.

The players to get to their home markets. There's going to be probably a transitional phase that we're going to figure out with our players. Because they don't know as much as we do where they're going to end up. We're still figuring out that we announced it early, so engage with our audience, uh, learn more date from more data that's coming in from ESPN to take a master live Nation. Talk to a bunch of people, uh, including our players around, okay?

Be an intern at Barstool Sports, get our coffee, that kind of thing.

That that kind of thing could be, could be a full team of interns, that kind of thing.

So there we go, we're. This is two birds with one stone right here. Yeah, so any of them want a nanny? My kids boom like we could get all the problems solved. Designated drivers on the weekend.

Could be a water to work. Yeah, so okay, so my my side. So we really that, you know, that's criteria. We want our gate, our owners engaged.

We're never going to go to St. Louis, Mount, Rushmore cities, we'll never go to Washington.

Yeah, Washington, D.C. would love it. Yeah, absolutely, you guys support the dogs in D.C.

Yeah, I'll also throw out another one that, uh, if if not Chicago, we would move to Oakland and be the Kings of Oakland. Cause they've lost every team in the last, like five years. We wouldn't actually do anything, but we would just say that we brought it. What about California?

It California, we can move up and down the state, oh, the California water dogs, we would.

We could, like, buy a one bed California water, so we have California, Washington, D.C. Chicago.

Yeah, San Diego gets all their teams taken from them, too. What about Honolulu? Honolulu would be?

Awesome, I I'm going to throw one out there as well and this, like, I think we can we. We haven't discussed it, but we would definitely be down with a Youngstown, Ohio, capital of grit, okay?

No, Alaska. Oh yeah, okay, that too. Play their games at like 3 a.m.

Yeah, I mean, our mascot is kind of like a a a husky anyways, isn't it?

The American water dogs, all of the countries ours, the American water dogs. Yep, that's a.

Catch-all Who's our big rival?

So we're probably a good guess for a lacrosse fan. Someone who watched MLL would say, The Canons are going to be in Boston, and then what else have you ever watched the Boston Canons?

Should do, and this is just like, I'm being serious here you. If you're doing the city model, it would actually be advantageous to do something like they used to do in. Like the N.B.A. way back in the day, where it's regional draft. So like, if Chicago got the water dogs, they get at least one Notre Dame player every year. You know what I mean?

What do you guys think about drafts in general? I like them when they're rigged. Yep, yeah, yeah.

It's not as like, it's not 31 teams, you have to go 31 up, 31 down, eight is eight is reasonable.

Also, it is reasonable and eight and eight allows us to grow the awareness and the and the, uh, the wage profile of our players. The more the more we add teams, the more everyone sort of deludes.

Have you thought about a draft order? Uh, maybe 50 bucks? Frank the Tank Cameo. He decides the draft order every year. That would be interesting. That's a good idea. He just randomly decides the draft order, more money than 50 bucks.

Just rattle it off for you late August. That feels like a good idea, though. To honestly crowd fund for against the fans of each team for the number one pick. And all that money goes to us.

The owners, Yeah, I mean, you could do. It's interesting, cause I've I've thought about getting rid of the draft, what that would look like in football and in basketball. It's kind of weird that you take kids coming out of college and then you tell them, Okay, you're going to move to the city. This is where you're going to work.

Right, they don't have to sign, like Lino Messi and his family didn't have to sign with Barcelona.

Football club No. Hey, let's talk about it real quick. Because, like, if you're, if you go to college for any other, uh, any other vocation, right? You have a choice of where you're going to go.

What about West Point? And then they can put you on loan as well.

No one's coming out of college making millions of dollars, except for professional athletes.

No, but some some people. You make hundreds of thousands of dollars and you get to choose.

Where you work, but if you got, if they, if you got, offered to get millions of dollars but told where to work, they're taking. Yes, I'm not crying for for professional athletes.

Not being able to do this, I'm saying it's completely different from every other thing.

About American business, I love it, and it turns it into a more of a business. Because now you're, you're scouting and you're acquiring talent. When they're young, you're helping them develop, yeah.

Them out to other teams if you want. I would like, though, for the water dogs to be in a position where we can do the process and actually see it all the way through. Tank for multiple years in a row. To just try to get as many assets and then get like a really tall guy who runs out of gas.

Every single playoffs, I mean, look, I've gotten owners from different leagues that are asking if they can sit down and meet with you guys. How you were able to turn that team around so quickly? Yeah, it was, uh, we'll never give up our secret sauce expansion.

Key is to be as hands-off as possible, where you don't even watch the games, right?

We put our lacrosse guys in a position to make lacrosse decisions.

Right, we hired good people. Andy Copeland, who I might've put on the hot seat two years ago. Well, he, he felt that he, well, he W. We weren't playing D, I told. I said, we, we said on this show, we got to take away the D from his name.

On the slate regularly, I'm pushing for him. Okay, yeah, he loves doing it and he no one works harder.

Hear, But when he's about to call a cross game for you guys, we say on this show like, if you don't tune in, we hope you die. So, like, it's a pretty good incentive, it's a good push, yeah.

Highest viewed games are when Jake Marsh is on the call. There's a lot of people don't want to.

Die. Yeah, did you know that he doesn't wear pants when he's on the call? Yeah, I haven't.

Seen that? But it doesn't surprise me. Just nude from the waist down, no underwear, well.

It depends on where he's at. Some states have different laws. But he, yeah, typically just no belt, no pants, just whatever God gave him because he's getting hot. Well, no, he, says he.

Needs it for his voice? Yeah, he really finds his voice from his balls or vocal cords come.

From our testicles. Yeah, exactly, they really do. I have a question for you, kind of a serious question. as a commissioner, how would you rank the other commissioners?

Goodell Bettman and the other ones, Rob Manfred and David Stern. So I love Adam Silver.