Blank Check with Griffin & David - Space Jam with James Newman

Episode Date: September 30, 2018

This week, James Newman joins Blank Check for another family edition episode to discuss the 1996 Michael Jordan and Looney Tunes crossover, Space Jam. This episode is sponsored by [Talkspace](https://talkspace.com/check) (CODE: CHECK), [Hims](https://www.forhims.com/blank) and [Robin Hood](https://check.robinhood.com/).

Hey everybody get up, it's time to slam now We got the real jam going down Welcome to the Space Jam Here's your chance, do your dance at the Space Jam Alright Blackjack with Griffin and David Blackjack with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect

All you need to know is that the name of the show with Griffin and David. Don't know what to say or to expect. All you can say is that the name of the show is Hot Jack. Those little pipsqueaks just turned to supercasts. They're podsters

suffering fuckatash. They're podcasts. Oh my God. Wow. That was embarrassing. I said it was going to be embarrassing and I did it and I committed and that's all that matters to everybody. The mashup was good.

The mashup was great. That was great. That was professional. It was enjoyable. No, you did great. I'll tell you something right off the bat. Yeah. I found out recently

and this is going to weigh heavily on my performance for the entirety of this episode. Okay? Sure. I found out, I'm not going to name heavily on my performance for the entirety of this episode, okay? Sure. I found out, I'm not going to name names, a friend of mine went in for a big-time Hollywood general meeting at a big-time animation company. Okay. And they offhandedly referenced our podcast.

What? In the meeting. And she texted me and said, like, hey, it's getting around. And I was like, I'm furious. Why am I not being cast in all of those cartoon shows? So now you're putting your marker down. I'm saying if you're listening to this podcast and you're an animation world heavyweight,

storm into an office and say, I just heard a man do three different Looney Tunes characters perfectly. Well, those jobs though, that's like, you have to die to exit one of those gigs, like if you're daffy right david the context on this i'm gonna get into it so hard also i did a bad job but all those characters my name is griffin newman i'm david simms uh this is blank check with griffin david it is a podcast about filmography's directors who have massive success early on in their careers and and again, a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy impression project she wants.

Crazy impression project. And sometimes those checks clear, and sometimes they jam, baby. But this is what we do sometimes in between miniseries. We do a little palate cleanse. We offer up a little sherbet to the audience. And a thing we've been doing this, in the last year,

the Family Choice episodes you brought your brother joey sims in i brought my sister romley newman in then we had the the siblings unite true in a ratatouille episode that was rated uh one of indy wire's best podcasts of the year that's true and that is when my brother came to me irate and said, See, I'm out of brother. Right. Oh, everyone is out of siblings. Yes.

We're now done. This is the end of the road. Ben's an only child. Ben's an only child. Yeah. I'm going to get my dad on. Yeah. I swear, 2019, Robert's going to make an appearance.

Robert's choice. Well, now that we've gotten him in on the graphic design front, I think he's got some skin in the game. But our guest today comes to me and he goes, first of all, Romley cannot appear on the show a third time before I appear once. Yes. Secondly, if I get on the show, you're going to hit single digits on the IndieWire list. And that was the challenge thrown. Sure, right, right.

We're going to jump charts. He will out chart. Right. So today's guest is someone who's been talked about in this show from the very beginning. True. Because so much of this show is about the context of when we saw these movies too. And this is someone who I saw most movies with for the first 10 or 12 years of my life. Why are you mentioning this?

Why am I mentioning this? Is it because you guys are connoisseurs of context? Yes, we're connoisseurs of context. Sure, sure. And our guest today, long-time brother of mine, James Newman. Yeah. A.K.A. Jamesy. When I tell the stories, I often call you Jamesy because that was of the time period,

and you haven't gone by Jamesy in probably 15 years now. I don't think I ever went by Jamesy. You were called Jamesy a lot around the house. You called me Jamesy. I wasn't the one. I don't want to make it sound like I was the one leading that charge. What's the age difference between you two? Three years.

Okay, sure. I think our parents called you Jamesy a lot. I feel like when our mother filled out forms for you, it would always be James with an I at the end. She kind of... No E? I think she always... From my memory it was always James I. Which felt very... That was her kind of, I think... No E? I think she always... From my memory, it was always James I.

Which felt very... That was her kind of Euro touch, maybe. And then there was also the thing of changing your middle name. Yeah. James' middle name got changed when he was like five because my mom decided she liked another middle name better. You have like a couple middle names. I have like 27 middle names.

And James had one. Somewhere between two and 27. Right. James had one. And then five years later, she. James had one and then five years later she was like this was my backup name for James and then made it his new middle name and then used it as a nickname most of the time. Which is? Well my real middle name is Myron.

Okay. Named after a dead relative of ours. That sounds like an old Jew. Well I think that's the subtext there. I think my middle name got a little too Jewish. I think it's fine. Myron's a great name. And so it was changed to Milo, which is a little more.

Like Milo Minderbinder. Right. Milo from the Phantom Tollbooth. I think that was the thing. I was really into the Phantom Tollbooth, and when I was reading it, my mom was always like, you know, I almost named Jamesy that. And then suddenly it became James Milo Newman. And there was like this rewriting of history.

But you kept your initial. Right. It wasn't so drastic. Right. I think that's why she was able to do the sort of like Indiana Jones, you know, idol swap. Yeah. Well, I grew up thinking maybe that Milo was somehow short for Myron. Right. I didn't know. Milo is technically short for Michael

but like not really. Our mother likes rewriting history and pretending like that never happened. So that was one of her moves where I think she kept the story kind of vague so that you could think like oh maybe Milo

is just a new version of my middle name as opposed to a new name entirely. But when we were growing up our father worked a lot and so like

weekends were very much time with the boys. Right? I feel like the week oh you mean with your dad yes yeah sure right it was like okay busy in the weekday our perception was that he was working a lot i don't know if my memory is he would work all day he would come home and he'd be really stressed out he would take us to school we'd like get morning time with him and then when he came

home he'd be so stressed out and then he would like have a mug of wine with ice cubes in it and then very quickly retire to the couch to watch uh political tv interesting like the news yes right right um but the weekends were like that was the time where it's like you take them out right yeah we did a lot of we did a lot of stuff together the three of us did a lot right and i was the big movie kid and you were really into sports yeah our. Our dad worked in the entertainment industry and kind of resented it, and he loved sports, which was what he wanted to be working in.

So he had like a foot in each, and I feel like our weekends were always sort of this oscillation between like, okay, here's a sports thing that Griff's less into, here's a movie thing that James is less into.

You liked movies more than I like sports, but... A sample weekend might be we go to the All-Star Sports Cafe in Times Square, and then we go see a movie. Right. And we get a little, you know. Sure. And Griffin could eat the chicken fingers.

That's fine. And I could see the movie. That's fine. Usually trying to get a balance of things. We both played Little League and weekend stuff. You did soccer for a lot longer, but it was like, oh, if we're both playing Little League baseball, then maybe we get to go to the comic book store afterwards.

Yes. It felt like it was always sort of like a piece of cord that had to be weighed on the weekends to keep us balanced. But this movie became like a huge... I feel like this movie is a big formative thing in our relationship because this was one of the

first times I remember something feeling totally equal in and of itself that's the idea here? picking this, the film we're discussing well this was like your favorite movie for a number of years well just the whole thing the movie, the soundtrack

this is like the most effective piece of branding in the history of uh studio filmmaking and famously this movie made a billion dollars in merchandising that's crazy which is crazy for one film and not a franchise right but it was just like warner brothers was at this point but it's two franchises well that was the thing i was saying warner brothers was following the disney example and trying to like hyper monetize the looney tunes in the way that disney had with everything and this was like peak wb store which was a place we would also go a lot if we were trying to counter act the weekend right so that like the looney tunes this is when they start to be on like t-shirts and you have like

hip-hop bugs and all this shit that was big when i was a kid too right you get this sort of like long t-shirt i wanted the jackets the denim jackets I wanted a Marvin the Martian denim jacket so bad the coolest Marvin is Marvin the Martian we had the mug that was a big thing was like I would get like boring dad stuff for my dad

for his birthday with Looney Tunes on it so I'd be like here's a stapler and it's Sylvester or I think that was a letter opener. He had the Marvin mug. There were like all those kinds of things. Ben, I should mention, is wearing like a denim jacket that is only missing the Looney Tunes WB store

embroidery, but otherwise looks of the era. I haven't even seen him turn around, so I don't... No, it's out there. Granny isn't on the back. You could sew something on. Yeah, barnyard dog. You could go deep cut. Interesting. No, I'm purist.

Mugsy? I'm purist. Marvin, baby. Or Taz. I love Taz. Well, obviously. Taz is cool. Taz is my guy.

Taz was your favorite, too. Yeah. He's good for, I feel like kids love him. He makes a mess. You were also, he's aggressive, but not mean. I was going to say, you were somewhat Taz-like as a child. You were very, like, you had a lot of energy and you were very physical. True.

And you always were sort of like, the joke I make is that when you were like a child, if there was like something boring going on, you would start playing sports against an imaginary opponent. Like, you would like practice moves. Or some, or, you know, or a babysitter. Right. I mean, yes. No, if there was someone to play against you would play against and you had like a basketball

Did you have the game? Yes. Yeah, I did or any other I mean I played a lot of NBA Jam That's just one NBA Jam NBA live you definitely remember Michael Jordan was not in NBA live, too He's the out nor in NBA Jam, right? Yeah. No, he would not license it. Was he held out? Yes Well, he was in, we had the Space Jam computer game that was mostly like an NBA Jam clone, but then in the halftimes or in between quarters,

there were mini games where you played as Wayne Knight, and you would play that, and then I'd wait for the Wayne Knight, and I'd go, okay, hand me the keyboard, and then it would be like Wayne Knight trying to find Michael's secret stuff or whatever.

That's really cute. Yeah. This was available on DOS. Right. It was a DOS game and it was pretty much just a straight NBA Jam type thing. Well, that's a big part of the... Except with cartoon characters. Right. That's a big part of the merchandising, I think,

too, is Michael Jordan was so available. The most merchandised athlete of the 90s. Right. And the Looney Tunes were so merchandised that it was like, we're going to put them together and this is just money. This just paints money. It prints it. The surprise here, though, is probably the soundtrack. Right. Which is like the Garden State

of sports movies. This soundtrack, you know, I mean, we can look up the charts, but I would imagine... Can you pull up the numbers? I'm pulling it up. I feel like this is probably one of the 10 best-selling albums of the 90s. Absolutely. Truly, right? No, don't be crazy. I'm not being crazy.

It went six times platinum, which is pretty good. Yeah. Nowhere near. I mean, there are a lot of diamond albums. Go fuck yourself. It's a top ten. Space Jam was huge. Yes.

Huge. Album was huge. It was huge. But I feel like for you guys, it was like seismic. It was like the definitive. I understand. I get it. I get it.

Because we were talking last night, David, you and I, in preparation for this episode. We were seeing bad times at the El Royale. Which we both agree, pretty good time at the El Royale. Yeah, decent time. Like a decent fun time at the El Royale. A little long, but like an enjoyable enough time at the El Royale. And you were like, it's weird that James likes Space Jam that much because he must have hated Jordan. I asked if James, and I can ask James directly now, was a Knicks fan because I was talking about how much I hated Michael Jordan when I was a kid.

Because I was a diehard Knicks fan and he was the monster. I hated him. We would run into him every year in the playoffs and he would destroy us. He was like the bulldozer. He was the monster. I hated him. We would run into him every year in the playoffs and he would destroy us. He was like the bulldozer. He was the Nancy Myers of his time.

I was a Knicks fan. Sure. Still am. Sure. But I was four years old when this movie came out. I understand. And I think when you're that age

and you're a sports fan it's just you're not you're not hating it. No I totally understand. Right. I had had because I was 10

when this movie came out and I had had like I probably watched started watching the nicks in like the early 90s like three or four solid years of like jordan just annihilating like you know and i like i never i always had obviously like i knew he was good i wasn't out there saying like michael Michael Jordan is overrated. If you look at the numbers. Right. I just couldn't stand him. And so I would instead, what I was saying was when LeBron came around in the next decade, I was like, I'm not missing out on this guy. You want to enjoy it. Exactly.

I can't spend another, this is my, you know, the NBA is my sport. I can't spend another generation hating its best player. Yes. I mean, you were young at the time, and Jordan was like Superman, where it was just exciting to see a guy be that dominant. Jordan, to my mind, is only comparable to Ali in American sports. I agree with that.

I'm trying to think of anyone who could possibly— Because when people compare LeBron, my argument is I don't care about sports, and I cared about Michael Jordan at the time because it felt like a seismic cultural event when he was at the top of his game. And LeBron is like, everyone knows that guy's cool and he's good at basketball.

It's hard to compare to because to that point when I was four, I'm a big sports fan, but I wasn't looking like, oh, Jordan actually shooting the three, not that good. He was a superhero. Right. The perspective on LeBron is so much looking like, oh, well, Jordan actually shooting the three, not that good. He was a superhero. Right, right.

And so the perspective on LeBron is so much different. The air thing was one of the best pieces of branding of all time because it literally made him seem otherworldly. It was like this metahuman thing. And that's what this movie is playing off of. But the other thing is the fact that he was the first guy to license himself like crazy, be the spokesman for a thousand things. It was like even if you didn't watch sports or like me and you sat in the background and asked when the game was going to

be over, he was so omnipresent and there weren't other athletes doing that as much. There was no cynicism. Right. When I turn on TV now, I see a bunch of spokespeople who I don't know and someone in the room is like, oh, that guy's like the fifth most successful defensive player in the NBA. And I'm like,

I don't know who he is. Don't you know? Right, and he's like the spokesman for Coca-Cola. Oh, sure. Well, the endorsement thing, we're right. Well, the NBA is more important now as well. Like, Jordan helped bring that along, right, where it's now. He made it, right, kind of seismic.

But the other thing is you have traditionally always been, I don't want to say contrarian, but you never love the dominant player or the dominant team. The thing I say, like, define your personality when you were younger, is like, when you were in middle school, going to school in New York City, you were like a kid who'd wear Red Sox shirts

and hats all the time. I learned to hate the Yankees because everybody loved the Yankees. Right, exactly. I mean, if you consider yourself a real sports fan, like, it's easy at that age to be like,

oh, that thing that everyone thinks is good. Right. You know, I got news for you. But you always liked underdogs. You liked sort of

off the beaten path. Your favorite team in any franchise in the history of sports is the Tennessee Volunteers. Right. Right. Like,

you've never been the superstar guy, but Jordan, at this age, like, you used to stick your tongue out all the time because you wanted to be like

Michael Jordan. Still do. Right. It's like a learned habit. It's like Ryan Gosling's like Brooklyn accent. Yeah, it is. It's like a thing you try to affect

that now you can't drop. I can't. I was, you know, taking notes for this. When you concentrate, you stick your tongue out. Right. Yeah.

And that was like, it was that he was the guy, you know? He's the guy. And for me uh you know our mother was very protective in terms of what we could watch sure and she thought all current day cartoon shows in the early 90s were too violent and cynical i mean yeah so most of what she let me watch were looney tunes cartoons which are the most violent and cynical things ever made they are

they're also yeah they're they're like shooting someone in the face and going like he deserved that yeah um but i watched them all the time because that was all cartoon network had so like bugs bunny was kind of my michael jordan and i was like a weird kid who would mimic all of bugs bunny's behaviors like there's i might have told this story in an episode, but there. You sound so weird. Was he weird? Are you kidding me? Yeah, he was weird. One of the racist Bugs Bunny shorts that they don't show anymore.

Uh-huh. Where a bunch of really uncomfortable African tribesmen characters try to cook him alive. Sure. There's a bit where they lure him into the big. Cauldron. Because they're like, oh, it's a bath. Sure. And he does this whole routine of like was this your bath routine i would have to i would only get into the bath

replicating bugs i would have thrown you awful out the window been like look we got another kid like hopefully this one will work out better my point here is just even if that was more abnormal we were both replicating the behaviors of our idols who were Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. Right, except yours was you couldn't take a bath without being Bugs Bunny and a racist. Yes, correct. Mine was a successful African American male and yours was a racist. I've written some bad essays, okay? I speak to you from the present.

So this film came out in 96. Yes. You're saying you were four? I was, I mean, Griff, what month did this movie come out? Just November? This came out in November. Yeah, you were four. So I was, you know, I was getting close to five.

I was seven going on eight. Toy Story had come out a year before, and that had been my. That was your movie. You were like, I like the cinema now. Right. I mean, I was always a movie kid, but it was just like, oh, I own this now. And I feel like there was the run up to the movie. I remember we still shared a bedroom at this point in time, and you had the Space Jam poster on the wall months before the movie came out.

I knew. It was in like a Sports Illustrated for kids or whatever. And you put it up, and you just point to it and go like, that's going to be mine. Let's go. Right, right, right. We're ready. Space Jam. You were saying you didn't remember

seeing it in theaters, but we 100% did. Well, I think my memory is just watching the VHS, but I'm sure we did see it. Where did you see it? I want to say we saw it at the Lincoln Square maybe. I can't remember vividly. I think it was maybe the Lincoln Square.

But it was like a big, big deal. And then it was like a big, big deal. And then it was like a six-month frenzy of just buying anything Space Jam related. Wow. They had us. They had us on the hook. They really got their claws in you. And the action figures for this movie were...

Between basketball and racism. Right, right. I love racism. We were in. Because this is a movie about slavery. Let's admit, this is a movie about... I'm blinking. A battle against slavery.

Sure, right. right well indentured they literally say slaves well they can say whatever they want in this movie let me correct myself elmer fudd says slavery he does oh they're gonna sell us into slavery uh i guess so it's very we'll talk about the concept i was just gonna say the action figures of this film it was like you'd get a basketball player and a looney tune and film it was like you'd get a basketball player and a Looney Tune and so it was literally like we'd get the parents

to buy it for us and we'd like split the packaging you know there was like something of like this movie was like a breaking of the bread for two kids who usually like different things

yeah I saw this film at the Barbican Cinema which was a theater in London. Okay, so you were on holiday? No, you're not doing the bit again. I'm not doing the bit. You're correct. We're not doing the bit because we

have retired it. It's up in the rafters along with Jordan Strozzi, so I just want to say you were on holiday and I hope you agree with that. You're just doing the bit again. I'm not doing the bit. You are. The bit's retired. The bit was that you would say I was on vacation if I brought up England. That was a core part of the bit. You're just doing it again. Which is why I'm saying holiday the bit. You are. The bit's retired. The bit was that you would say I was on vacation if I brought up England. That was a core part of the bit.

You're just doing it again. Which is why I'm saying holiday. It's different. It's not part of the retired bit. Ben. All right, I'm going to have to give you a yellow card. To whom? To you.

Me? Yeah. It's enough. Enough already. I think we'll find a new angle on it, but yeah, holiday's not going to fly. Jesus Christ. Okay. David, you seem like something's troubling you.

Would you mind speaking on that? Oh, I've just been thinking about Talkspace. It's this online therapy company. It lets you message a licensed therapist from anywhere at any time. It's just really been weighing on me that how all you need is a computer with an internet connection or the Talkspace mobile app to improve your mental health, even if you've had trouble making time for it in the past. Interesting. Can you expand on that? Well, so if you can't imagine like fitting therapy into your life,

like, you know, obviously rather than having to go to an office to make appointments, yeah, cut out time in your schedule for it with Talkspace, you just have to send your therapist a message. You can get something off your chest whenever you need to. You can talk about everyday challenges at work, talk about life. There's no extra commutes, no leaving the offices, no judgments. And it's just about venting your innermost thoughts

or whatever you want to talk about. And what does Joanna think of this? Well, I mean, we've talked about it. Humblebred. She thinks there are practical everyday strategies for stress management and living happier life that like having a therapist can help you with and talk space just like connects you to someone to talk to right away rather than you know having to carve out a specific hour in the week to go and see them at an office and do you feel like when you're talking to Talkspace professionals, you wish that you

had a promo code? Well, the Talkspace platform has 2,000, more than 2,000 licensed therapists who are experienced in addressing life challenges that we all face. So to match with a perfect therapist for a fraction of the price of a traditional therapy, you just go to Talkspace.com slash check and you use the code check to get 45 off your first month and show your support for the show that's check promo code check talkspace.com slash check and do you think this has anything to do with a sense of sexual inadequacy oh certainly i mean that's topic number one. Cool. That's our time.

I saw it. The Barbican would do like children's screenings every Saturday and I would go every Saturday no matter what. Like sometimes they'd have a new movie. I guess if there was no new movie, they just show like the railway children. They show some classic movie and I saw this movie and I thought it was good and that was kind of that for me. Yeah. I probably didn't see it again for like 10 years.

I saw this movie on VHS for the first time on a porch. I thought he was about to say yesterday. On a porch. It was a porch so it wasn't really heated so I remember it being kind of a cool autumn afternoon. A cold

fall porch. Where was the TV? I was about to say like the porch. Where was the porch? You didn't like put the VHS in the porch, right? Was this a Videodrome house? There's a TV on the porch, too, of course. Of your home? No, this is at my friend Tim's house. Tim.

Tim's house is cool. Timmy. Oh, we got into some real trouble. Obviously. We had slingshots. I'm always like, you know, when I had a friend, we'd play Super Nintendo, and then Ben had a friend, they'd rob grocery

stores or whatever they did. We were the kind of kids, we'd put a stick into your spokes, so you flew off your bike. Timothy Vey, American Terrorist? Who are we talking about? No, I don't want to say his last name. We're not on good terms anymore. Interesting. Wow, what happened? When did you and Tim break apart? What age? We got into a big fight. Interesting. When did you and Tim break apart?

What age? We got into a big fight. Like last year or right after the porch? It was in high school. Were you like, dude, it's fucked up that you watch movies on a porch? It was about a girl. It was about a girl.

The Ben Hosley story. It was about Lola Bunny. Clearly the story you're setting is this happened right after watching the movie. You know Lola Bunny is a girl. There's some subtle references that you can sort of figure it out. I've seen the movie ten times now and I think I've finally figured it out. That she's a girl? There's so much to her character outside of her gender that sometimes you forget even.

You start not seeing gender. Is this the first gender-fluid cartoon character? This is the first gender-fluid cartoon character, yeah. How many female Looney Tunes are there? Very few. Of the classic Looney Tunes? Yeah, because Tweety is male. Everyone always thinks that Tweety's female.

Right, because Tweety has a high voice. He is not. In terms of prominent characters, I mean, this is why Lola was created. There's Granny, who owns Sylvester and Tweety's female. Right, because Tweety has a high voice. He is not. In terms of prominent characters, I mean, this is why Lola was created. There's like Granny, who owns Sylvester and Tweety. I know, and that's when Granny's in this, you're like,

did they literally just like, sort of think like, ah, we kind of need some more like women. There's Witch Hazel, who's a sometimes antagonist to Bugs Bunny. I mean, there are no core characters who are female. There were other like Petunia Pig

they would sometimes introduce as Porky's girlfriend, who was just mostly as a marketing thing, so they could have characters to put on female merchandise. Daffy had a female... You're thinking of Daisy Duck, I feel like, in the Disney world. Oh, damn.

Yeah. Because Disney would always have the Minnie Mouse Daisy Duck, right, like the sort of the female counterpart. Right, and Petunia was kind of the daisy of the world. But Lola was introduced to this because when you'd go to the Warner Brothers store, it'd be a lot of pink Tweety shit because they were like, that's the closest thing we have to a female. So Lola, they were like, we need a girl character.

I'm shaking my head. Here's the pitch. She's a girl. What's the rest of the pitch? Dads want to fuck her? Because she's the most sexualized. Her whole bit is that everyone like drops their jaw i know she's like jessica rabbit right but that movie like the joke is that

she's very sexy right and also that movie is a little more grown up than this yeah i mean no offense to space jam it's not the most grown-up movie in the world not the most no i'd say closer is probably the most closer my dinner with andre all right space jam so we all saw it yes in theaters except for ben who saw it on a porch on a porch with a man he would later porch jam falling out falling out with over a girl possibly load a bunny not. Unconfirmed. Yeah. So this movie starts with what was... I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, your favorite scene. I remember you rewinding the opening scene over and over and over again.

With his dad? It's an important scene. It is an important scene. Well, it is. His motto was be like Mike. And the film starts with basically the message, you know, if you go out back, take a couple shots, right? It was an early version of The Secret.

You know, if you call what you're going to do in the future and then you hit the – Yeah, tell your dad. Put up some shots. The dad played by Paul Walker's supervisor in the first two Fast and Furious movies. Tom Barry. He's like, what are you?

He's that guy. He's in like a zillion things. It was good to see him too. He's very young and fit in this movie. Yes. Yeah, he's interesting. Go on, go on, sorry. No, he's pretty virile.

He's got a great scene in like an early West Wing. He'll pop up in like a TV show and just kind of like kill a scene. I watch Too Fast recently and I was like, why isn't this guy in a TV show and just kind of kill a scene. I watch Too Fast recently and I was like, why isn't this guy in all the Fast and Furious movies? He's so good as the like, here's the mission. But this film, which

important context, this movie is trying to offer a narrative around the death of Michael Jordan's father, Michael Jordan's retirement from basketball into minor league baseball in his return to the nba like this movie is like we're gonna come up with a clear alibi that everyone can agree on right and this narrative it's a narrative print the legend is how i would describe this is what you'll tell your children uh michael

jordan who as we know is, he's from North Carolina. Wilmington. He went to school. He went to the University of North Carolina. The famous legend that he didn't make his high school basketball team. Born in Brooklyn. Right. Because in his Hall of Fame speech, he was like, fuck that guy.

He read a laundry list of everyone who ever wronged him. But isn't it just that he didn't make varsity as a freshman? Yes. I believe that's it. So, I mean, he was just forced to play with the other kids his age. He was too short as a sophomore. And then he became the star of the junior team. He was on a team.

But his narrative, I think, was like that rejection probably like fueled his mania. I mean, when we were kids, he was just seen as like he was the best. He was a killer. He was an assassin. This is the whole thing here, too, because part of that alibi they try to provide for Michael Jordan is not just that he, you know, was playing some baseball. It was basically he became suburban. Right.

Right. I mean, they're pulling the minivan up to this nice little colonial house. Yes. Right. And the kids are running out, and none of the kids even know who Michael Jordan is. Right. I mean, the kids are running out like, of the kids even know who Michael Jordan is, right? I mean, the kids are running out like, oh, it's like, you know,

it's Jeffrey's dad. It's that guy, right. Yeah, right. And the other element to that too is... He's got the slacks, the flat front slacks that are high on the waist.

Yeah, and the dog's running out. But it's a real statement of intent to open with the scene with the dad because it's like, A, you're sitting there and as children we weren't thinking this but if you watch this movie as an adult, it's like, hey, you're sitting there and as children we weren't thinking this, but if you watch

this movie as an adult, you're like, this is crazy that they're bringing his dad into this film. No, it's crazy because his dad had recently died. He was, I want to get James Jordan, he was killed in 1993. So a few years ago

he was shot to death by carjackers like I believe was the official diagnosis of what had happened. And then right after that, pretty much, Michael Jordan retires from basketball. Right. After winning three championships in a row. The circumstances of his death were always kind of weird. Sure. And what has come to light later is Michael Jordan had serious gambling problems

for a number of years. All right, and we're going to leave it right there. No, no, no, no. The other thing is that perhaps he was encouraged to step away from the NBA. There's this long-running NBA conspiracy theory that people like Bill Simmons will talk about, right? Yes.

David Stern, the commissioner, told him, like, all this gambling shit, it's going to come to light. Like, you are essentially banned from the NBA for a couple of years. you need to clean up so that it doesn't become a Pete Rose for us because we can't have our brightest star tarnish and so he goes off to play baseball but he's the owner of the Bulls never canceled his contract like he was oh he was still a bull sort of plays minor league so it's he's still kind of well he played minor league because he was bad. Right. Okay, but... Come on, let's talk about it.

No, but this is sort of... Because one thing that's immediately clear about the movie is they're going to shit on Michael Jordan's baseball. They are. They're right. Everyone is laughing. I mean, the catcher is telling him what pitches are coming. And Michael's like, ugh.

And he couldn't catch up to that one. One of the things you would die laughing at as a kid was the bit where he gets back into the dugout and all the guys are telling him how good his strikeout was. And you go like, when you fail, you make failing look good. I wish I could fail like you, Michael. And now ESPN produced a documentary about Michael Jordan playing baseball in which it is posited that Michael Jordan actually displayed a fair bit of promise as a baseball player.

I mean, he was, you're absolutely right. He played double-A baseball and like hit home runs and hit the ball. And had not played baseball in 15 years. It's not like he was horrible. I don't know. My impression is that he was not even some hot-shot baseball prospect out of high school.

No, I don't think so. The narrative was his dad had always wanted him to play baseball. A lot of athletes will get drafted to play baseball out of high school and go pro in another sport, and maybe they'll sort of flirt with baseball later in life or something like that. That was not the case here. I mean, he was basically saying, this extraordinary athleticism that I have in this drive,

could that translate to baseball? When did Bo Jackson, was he before or after this time? He was right around then. He was before. But he was old at the same time. Neon Dion? Yeah. Just before.

But I mean, you know, I mean, everyone's always said LeBron would have been a good running back or whatever. Like,

you know, he's probably got the body for football. For something. Running back is a little, you know. Maybe not running back. But,

it wasn't Jordan, wasn't the hit on him also that the strike zone was tough with him because he was so tall? Well, that's, that perspective is sort of crazy because he you know michael jordan on a basketball

court doesn't seem that no it's part of his appeal part of his appeal yeah he's a shooting guard right um but he you're right i don't want to shit on him too much i mean pull up the numbers he had 200 and double a he hadn't played baseball in 200 and double a with three homers and 51 rbi i'd like to see the splits too because the narrative is that he started hitting a lot better towards the end of his time. So yeah,

maybe he would have figured it out but he was also like 31, 32. He was 31. He didn't have a lot of time. This is what Tim Tebow is trying to do now. I know. Ben is laughing hysterically because I'm sitting here silently

fighting Mike's sports. Good luck, Griffin. He was like nodding. He's like, RBIs. I just think it's... I wonder... McFarl he's like, RBI. I just think it's, I wonder how that conversation went when they were developing this movie where they were like,

are we allowed to just kind of make fun of the baseball thing or not? And he obviously said, have at it. Can I offer my theory? Okay, so we all agree without drawing larger conclusions that he was at a time where his image was in danger, right?

No. Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm saying in terms of the stuff that didn't become public, that there was – Seeing as to his personal life that could have jeopardized. Okay, so in a sense, he could have – I'm saying in retrospect 20 years later. He could have ceased to become the exact Michael Jordan that we all all know but his career would have been fine i want to clarify away from in night no but in 1995 michael jordan releases the greatest press release in the history

of press releases two words i'm back and literally the whole world melts down with happiness all they wanted was for him to be back. When he came back, it was so huge. Everyone was still worshipping at the feet of Michael Jordan. Can you let me offer my hypothesis, which doesn't negate what you just said. Yes, go on. Gambling stuff, swirling around

him. Maybe step away for a little bit. So much of his image is based on him as a spokesperson that he can't totally disappear off the grid for a little bit. So much of his image is based in him as a spokesperson that he can't totally disappear off the grid for a little time. So it's like, let me move to a different sport. Let me stay in the news cycle. Be discussed in this

kind of way. Try to get my life back together a little more. Clean it up so I come back to basketball and when I come back to basketball, people are going to be twice as excited as when I was previously playing. It's possible that, you know. Also, I would like to just put, I'm not saying this is accurate, but to put out the narrative,

the most generous narrative possible to Michael Jordan. This is someone who, you know, did not have, I mean, was successful as a player, but did not have a lot of postseason success early on in his career. They could never beat the Pistons, right? The bad boy Pistons. He is, as we know, is a fanatic.

Yes, I know. He doesn't sleep. Who was on the Pistons at that. The bad boy Pistons. He is, as we know, is a fanatic. Yes, I know. He doesn't sleep. Who was on the Pistons at that time? Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah Thomas. RJ Mars. RJ Mars.

The bad boys. Rodman. Rodman. Rodman. Rodman was definitely on. Was Grant? Grant, yes. Grant, yes.

You mean Horace Grant? No, he was a bull. No, not Horace Grant. And no Grant Hill. That was, Grant Hill was on. Grant Hill was later. No, Ben, that was and no Grant Hill that was Grant Hill was he's later no Ben that was later

you're mistaken that was later yeah Ben shut the fuck up and he finally you're right in 91 he breaks through the pistons finally he gets to the mountaintop

he wins the title we all know this David why are you going three years in a row he wins the title and he's like I can just keep winning titles and then his dad dies

and it's just like you know what maybe he knows all this is just one possible explanation maybe he knows how long he's like Like, I can just keep winning titles, and then his dad dies. Right. Yeah. And it's just like, you know what? Maybe he knows all. This is just, you know, one possible explanation. Maybe he knows how long. He's like, if I keep going now, I'm not going to be able to hit my level. Because at that point, you're just competing with yourself. He did, at the time, say his dad's murder was a part of it.

And then later, I have a little bit of gambling info I can give you. But go on. You're competing with yourself, and you're competing with history. Yes. Yeah, he says,'ve got to be a 10 all the time. There's a canny bit of brand management here in terms of making sure he retains his value.

The only thing I would say to you is it maybe took Kobe Bryant about six months after he possibly raped a woman to be back in ads and be the top player. He was not Michael Jordan as much as he... Close enough. He emulated Michael Jordan and he was not Michael Jordan as much as he close enough he emulated Michael Jordan

he was not Michael Jordan that's why I'm saying I think the big thing was they didn't even want things getting out I think he I think he saved a haircut

no pun intended exactly I don't think he saved any sort of damage I don't think the whole castle could have crumbled I mean he was famous for there's so many stories

and there's about to be this ESPN sort of OJJ. Simpson, like in the style of the O.J. Simpson thing, like 10-hour documentary about Jordan. And I imagine it's going to, apparently has full access to him and we'll maybe delve a little more into this stuff. The Hitler mustache.

One hour is just on the Hitler mustache and the hands commercial. I have some questions. Yeah. But that like, you know, NBA players play cards all the time, especially on the planes. They like to play cards cards and if you play cards with him he would just be like

merciless like there was just no friendliness he just wanted to annihilate everyone for you know in the context of this film he's also famous for

having ruined Muggsy Bogues' jump shot by once calling him a midget as he was about to shoot and Muggsy didn't want to shoot anymore

that's like basketball that's literally the bidding he was not and Muggsy didn't want to shoot anymore. That's like basketball shooting. That's literally the bidding, baseball. He was not nice. Muggsy said, I'm done shooting. That scared me so much. I'm not even going to get in that position anymore. But that's why it was kind of amazing

that the time the reputation was like, oh, Michael Jordan, I'd buy underwear from him. What a sweetheart. This movie is part of that. He was really shiny. And there's an important point to be made. He's probably the last athlete where there would not be a simultaneous counter-narrative

about, oh, well, I heard from someone who, you know, that was not out. That's the only reason I offer my hypothesis, because I think there's no way he could have lost everything, but he was so at the top in terms of, as you said, competing with himself. If he steps away, he makes sure that the excitement only grows when he comes back, rather than just having a couple seasons where he is plateauing. Plateauing at the top. It worked for him. People liked him growing. And the other thing. It was so good for his, yes, to take that step

away and then come back. Everyone was just like, oh my god, he's back, thank god! He had started getting spotted at casinos, which is when they were like Well, he was famously spotted at a casino the night before an important game. not even i think it was like a playoff game and there are stories now that people tell where they're like i once

won a million and a half dollars for him from him on the golf course sure like he would like make bets per hole but he's he's very wealthy he's one of the wealthiest people alive he's quite wealthy um the other thing i was gonna say though is I think part of the pitch of this movie is okay, so now he's back. Michael's bigger than ever. We want to make a movie to explain that whole time period. Sell it as part of this family man. Why did he leave the NBA? Because he loved his

dad so much and he made a promise. And he wanted to buy a minivan. And he was back home and he was with the kids and all of that. It was all about the family, right? It was all about the family. But the other part is the first 30 minutes of this movie are really focused on the baseball and the family stuff. Yes, they're Jordan. It's all Jordan.

And I forgot how much it is just sort of like of the era studio sports comedy before the Looney Tunes come in where it's like, let's make Major League with him failing, but he's an underdog and it's kind of sweet and uplifting. Right. So that because he looked like a shitty baseball player because he was the most dominant NBA player of all time. When he showed up in baseball and he was pretty good, it looked disappointing.

He wasn't good. He was, we already discussed it. It was impressive. He wasn't good. He could play baseball. My point is though, if they make the movie part of this like, oh, it's like nice and sweet that he tried to play baseball and he tried really hard

it sells it as he never had a dip he was always the best even when he wasn't dominating the league he was the best guy and can I say something I think if you shut

this movie off 30 minutes in you say what movie is he going to make next I think he's really good in the first 30 minutes I think he's good

you're pointing at me like I don't agree with you I agree he is good I think he's good in this movie some people like when LeBron just announced that he's good. You're pointing at me like I don't agree with you. I agree. He is good. I think he's good in this movie. Some people, like when LeBron just announced that he's making Space Jam 2, I saw some snarky tweets along the lines of like, well, he's definitely a better actor than Michael Jordan.

Now, I think I agree with that because LeBron was very good in Trainwreck. He's legitimately a good actor. He's obviously got talent. But I do feel like Michael Jordan's reputation in this movie is that he is stiff or bad or whatever you know like he's kind of a I think it flips a bit when he's acting with people it's an impossible task

especially in 96 like what was it like you know we'll talk about it there were established actors who have belly flopped as hard doing these types of like movies like this like you watch the first Garfield movie, and no one knows how to touch Garfield. You know, like, shit like that,

and that's all professional actors. I think when he doesn't have anyone to play off of, but he had done so many commercials at this time, and Joe Pitka, who ostensibly directed this movie, was his main commercial guy. Yeah. Like, he's in a zone he understands, he knows his brand,

he's comfortable in front of the camera. And he was understated, too, in the first 30 minutes. He was funny, but understated. And he was understated, too, in the first 30 minutes. He was funny, but understated. And the other thing is, he looked amazing. He looks fucking handsome in this movie. He's so fucking handsome in this movie. He's a movie star. It is insane how good he looks in this film. He is beautiful. He's a good-looking guy.

Few people have ever photographed him better. He's like Marlena Dietrich. I'm telling you. He's a good-looking guy. He looks really good. He looks really good. And they play it up to you. That scene where he's eating fast food in the hotel with Wayne Knight he is shirtless

they know he is but I'll say this about Michael Jordan he's one of those people that is so famous that when you see him it's partly

you're like yeah this is a good looking guy he's in shape yada yada but you're also just kind of like wow that's Michael Jordan it feels like looking

at Bugs Bunny it's the same thing where it's like that's a stamp he had such a notorious profile, like literally. Well, it's almost like if you're in a relationship with someone for a long time and it's not the same as when you first

saw them. You're just like, oh no, that's Michael. Michael Jordan. I mean, one of the craziest aspects. I'm sure the first time I heard someone say Michael Jordan was handsome I was like, yeah, I guess so. He's a handsome athlete. That's one of the reasons he was so big, was he was just like a perfectly symmetrical man.

Would you say that Michael Jackson or Michael Jordan, who was the more famous person at this time? At this time, Jordan. Jordan, right? At his peak, Jackson. Yeah, I think at this time you would probably say Jordan, just because Jackson was kind of- On the downswing.

Yeah. But I'm just like, I guess, I'm trying to say like how big of a world superstar was he? He was such a world superstar. He was the way the NBA, you know, marketed itself around the world. And NBA famously was not popular in any other countries up until he

became a guy. Oh, okay. Pretty much. I was going to say, you were saying how famous he was and his profile was famous and all of that. Right. The craziest flex of like Jordan's power was the Michael Jordan cologne, which at the time everyone thought was a joke, sold so fucking well. And the logo for that bottle was his head from front on in silhouette and you recognized it. It was just a bald head with ears and a neck and you were like, that's Michael Jordan's head. It wasn't even in profile the bridge of his nose or anything like it was insane

how much the iconography of him as a person was ingrained into our culture and this is also this is not as big as the cologne

but also to Dave's earlier point for a guy who spent his entire career kicking the shit out of the Knicks to just open a steakhouse in New York

so he's like I want that guy's steaks flock to him in Grand Central in Grand Central yeah In Grand Central. Yeah. I mean, and he did kick the shit

out of the Knicks. He did. Whatever, man. We, you know, John Starks dunked on him and that's like one of the greatest moments of my entire life.

Of course, I know. And that's an important Michael Jordan retires, the Knicks go to the finals. The Knicks go to the finals but then we lose to fucking Rockets. And like,

that was like the most devastating moment of my young life. That's really tough for me. I had a tough week. How are the Knicks these days? I mean, they're horrible. Let's let Griffin take this.

No, I think we can say it in unison. Sure. They're very bad, but they are committing at least to being bad, rebuilding slowly, not trading draft picks. And they're going at a moderate pace. They've given me that line before, but at least it seems

like they're going to build up the franchise again. Supposedly. But we're still owned by the maniac. Allegedly. But, you know, a lunatic owns us.

The Knicks are hoping they can get enough good young players and they can keep their owner enough just sort of playing music at City Winery and not talking to them.

That they can attract an established star to come play with their young guys not talking to them. They can attract an established star to come play with their young guys. We need a star. We need an established star. Can I actually talk for a second? So I have this theory, James. So I think that everyone in the NBA

just does what LeBron does. Like LeBron just sets the pattern every single time. So when he builds his super team, people become into super teams, right? Everyone's into super teams. Love him, my favorite. And like he goes back to Cleveland and then there's that whole narrative

of like, oh, maybe should people go back to their hometowns? Is there the hometown narrative? I've always sung that narrative. And now that he's going to the Lakers, the new narrative, in my opinion, is like, you need to rebuild the solid gold franchises.

Can I turn this 30? That's why Durant and Irving are all being attached to the Knicks. Can I turn this 30 degrees? I agree. Yeah, let's flip that. But I would say it as, I think LeBron gives everyone else

permission to do what they already want to do so they don't follow him he does the things that people are like I'd love to do that

but am I going to get hammered for doing this and he does it and now everyone's like well yeah so I feel like if someone like Durant Irving

goes to the Knicks it would be implausible because the Knicks are bad and they're horribly run but he could give that argument of like look the Knicks it'd have to be Durant or Irving it would be it would be implausible because the Knicks are bad I could never see it happen and they're horribly run but he could give that argument of like look

the Knicks are so important to the NBA I want to I want to be the guy who makes them good again can I say this people will buy that people never used to buy that

emotionally I agree with you I actually don't think it's implausible I think we're so ashamed of ourselves I think it's plausible I think it's plausible I think we just feel

really bad about ourselves and we think oh well they're not actually going to come my ourselves. I think it's plausible. I think it's plausible. I think we just feel really bad about ourselves and we think, oh, well, they're not actually going to come. My thing is also like, it's like if, say, Kyrie came, he'll just like get injured and be in the hotel. That's how I feel about it. His limbs will be splattered. It's better than it was. That's how I feel about the Knicks right now.

It's definitely better than it was. It was so rock bottom. Like training for Bargnani, that was my rock bottom with the Knicks. I will just finish this. There is a dumb narrative, mostly forwarded by the local sports press in New York, that you can't rebuild in New York. Oh, the fans won't do it. They won't do it.

No, of course they'll do it. They're obsessive. And if you give them any sort of hope, they love it. It's great. People love it. It was sort of seen as a disappointment, the domestic box office. But when you look at the actual production cost, it's pretty good.

Pretty good profit maker. What are we talking about right now? Basketball. We're all talking basketball. The Knicks definitely make a profit. Yeah, no, definitely Uncle Drew. So, first 30 minutes, I think pretty good domestic sports comedy. You got Joe Pica, who was like the dominant commercial director

of his time. Right. Joe Pica, who like won the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award a year ago, never made another feature. Hated making this. He'd made one movie before this. Oh, really? What was it? Let me find the name of it.

Let It Ride. Lawrence of Arabia? Okay. Richard Dreyfuss. Terry Garr. When was that? 1989. Okay, so some time in between.

It's a light comedy about a guy, a gambler who experiences a day where he wins every bet he places. Oh. And then he met Michael Jordan and Michael Jordan was like, big fan of your movie. I like that movie. Yeah. It was a good movie. Teach me.

Alright, so Joe Pica, right. Directed all the Jordan commercials when other basketball players started going into sponsorship. In re-watching the movie for this podcast, I chose to watch it with commentary, which I had never done before. And the commentary for this movie is insane. Really? Is it by Pica? This is early days of DVD when I think they're still experimenting. Okay.

The commentary is Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. The commentary is Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, but also Billy West and D. Bradley Baker, who played the voices of Bunny and Duck in this movie. But also they're like, eh, sometimes this guy Joe Pitka's going to come in and say something. It's clear that they recorded a commentary track with Pitka, and he didn't have enough to say to fill up the entire movie which is only 71 minutes. It's not a long movie. So then they recorded West and Baker doing bits as the characters and that also didn't sustain itself. So they kind of just chopped it all together. So the voice actors

host it and every once in a while they literally do Hey it's Joe Pitka again and then he offers a fact and they act like he's walking in and out of the studio for the commentary to get into really dry technical talk

so you're telling me that you did the Foley work on this director's commentary it sounds like me doing a dumb fucking bit and he comes in and just talks about compositing ding dong

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So the commentary is insane. And Joe Pitka, when he occasionally walks in, will talk about how he's best friends with every basketball player

in the movie. Because he worked with all of them previously. And at the very beginning of the commentary, he goes,

people ask me, so you directed this movie? And I say, parts of it of it weird because he didn't direct the animation oh okay and also i think ivan reitman kind of took over this mode interesting um the first 30 minutes definitely feel like they're directed by a commercial director because it has that thing where like every single shot is the most dynamic shot imaginable like a lot of canted angles and like extreme wide lens close-ups okay like it looks like a commercial it's very like yeah yeah it's very colorful colorful and those scenes and like you're saying like returning to his home like in the dog and stuff that just feels like mtv video shit or like you're about to be sold a board game or

something and a lot of like snappy comedy like everyone he talks to is some day player who's like rearing to go the guy's in the dugout i mean wayne knight obviously is like a ringer and can we talk about that for a second yeah do you think wayne knight auditioned for this or is that an offer i think that's a straight offer because you have to think at this point wayne knight was running the table on the 90s. Yeah, because he's late in Seinfeld. Then he goes to Jurassic Park. Then he's on Seinfeld and Mad About, not Mad About You, Third Rock from the Sun.

He's on both of them at the same time. Well, Third Rock starts this year, 96. But yes. He's huge. I think they wrote, we want, think Wayne Knight. Because this is his, this is,

I mean, he is number two on the call sheet no doubt. No question. Right because he's third build in the movie behind Jordan and Bunny. But Bunny is first build.

In the opening credits. Yeah. In the poster it was swapped. No it wasn't. Bugs Bunny Michael Jordan. Bugs Bunny is top build which is in my opinion

weird. Yeah. Two reasons. One Michael Jordan very famous and a real person i think jordan's number one of the credits thing because i know he's not and and and number two uh jordan's in more of the movie like that that's the real beef i have with it like there's another argument for jordan being first build was is that he's an actual person no then i mentioned that yes very famous real person. I mentioned that. Yes. Very famous real person. Got those two things going for him. But also, Bugs doesn't come in for a while. And this is a short movie.

Yeah, this is a very short movie. It's not a long movie. Quite short. It's like a one reel. If it was a real sports movie, like if it was Hoosiers, they would play a lot of games. They would suck at first. Not only is this a short movie, but there is an hour of setup. So if you watch the first hour

you're like this might be like a two and a half hour movie right because they're going to have to play a season or something they're going to get in there they're going to practice

they're going to be like I want this I'm the one no I'm the one all that Hoosier shit I literally timed it from the moment when they finish

introducing the players at the big game to when it's halftime is five minutes five minutes elapsed in the first half of the game because honestly the the monsters are kind of dramatically inert because they're just like big monsters that crush you at basket like it's like they're not that interesting to watch if they're just beating you has any line summed up our podcast better than i mean let's be honest, the Monstars are dramatically inert.

Yeah, that's a great line by me. Yeah, no, they're just dominant. And so it's like the only, once they figure out how to beat them, the movie's over. So like the game is mostly a series of like blackout gags of them getting beaten. Well, I was going to say, isn't it interesting that they had to go steal NBA players' talent just so that they could beat the shit out of Looney Tunes? They do not play basketball. They do not play basketball at all. No.

They just crush people. They just hit them. Why couldn't they just go get the talent of, you know, some WWE wrestlers? Or why not just hire the other players? Much as Bugs hires Michael Jordan, basically. Right, but why not have them play basketball? I know, I know. I agree.

You don't know, and you don't know which... This movie is a failure as a basketball movie. I think so. There's not a lot of fundamentals on this play. Well, something else I noticed, too. Yeah. Michael Jordan playing basketball in this movie? Mediocre, so-so.

That looked like 60% at most. Yeah, well, you know. Because just the way he was cutting, the way he was dribbling, that was not an intense... And then you cut to the real footage of him at the end. And he's playing. And you're like, oh yeah, like Michael Jordan.

All right, Griffin, you got the credits. Yes, I'm pulling it up right now. The thing I want to say is that in this movie... Great opening credits, just a point of fact. Yes, this was filmed in a summer in between seasons. Yeah. Right? This was right after the season he had come back into late.

Yes. He comes back in 1995. Bugs Bunny is second building the opening credits. Go on, keep going. I'm going backwards. Michael Jordan. That's so weird.

Why did I think of it the other way then? Because the poster has it flipped. That's why. Well, that's how it should be. Uh-huh. Because Bugs Bunny doesn't get as much screen time

in this movie. Agreed. So that's good. Yes. So why is Bugs Bunny first bill on the poster then? I mean, look, he had a better track record

if the box office at that point in time. I guess so. And better agents. He had Mike Ovitz. There's the forgotten end of 95 season where Jordan comes back

and they lose to the magic. Like they don't even make the final. And they were hoping they could juice just at the end of 95 season where Jordan comes back and they lose to the Magic. Like, they don't even make the final. And they were hoping they could juice just at the end of the season to get to the championship, and they don't, right? So he apparently had a big complex where he was like, I need to really come back hard this season, prove people I haven't lost a step. So he agrees to do this movie, but on a very tight schedule, which is one of the reasons they wrote in the other basketball players who he stole the power from, so they had other live-action actors they could cut to once he's in Looney Tunes World. Right. He would

only shoot until lunch. They built the soundstage, which was just a green screen space. Right. They had actors who were not the voice actors, who sort of were improv actors, who would play the parts against him, and then they had really big stunt guys who played the Monstars. Sure.

But it wasn't real basketball, right? No, it's cartoons. It was like choreographed. Right, exactly. But they also— It's largely a cartoon. It wasn't real basketball, right? Right.

I just want to clear up with you guys. I'm obviously a basketball expert, I know, but— They actually just filmed a game. It was just a regular game. Right. They played the Monstars. Right. But the crazy thing is, part of Michael Jordan's negotiation was

they had to build a full proper regulation NBA court on the Warner Brothers backlog. Interesting. Because he needed to use any downtime he had. To practice. Right, to practice. And he would go to the gym at lunch. Is that the court we see?

No. Okay. No, the court you see in the movie is 100% CGI. Weird. Anytime he's on the court we see? No. Okay. No, the court you see in the movie is 100% CGI. Weird. Anytime he's on the court, it's him in a much smaller CGI space with actors. Right. They built a full court that was never utilized on camera that was his contractual demand so that he could play ball and be ready

for the season, not miss a step. So he would only work a couple hours a day. Good for him. But the other thing was, any other actors who were working on movies at the Warner Brothers lot at that summer were like, this is my chance to play basketball against Michael Jordan. Sure. So famously, George Clooney played against him when they were doing Batman and Robin. But he would just murder you. Yeah.

That's the thing. I think he wouldn't be like, oh, let me take it easy on you because you're George Clooney. No, he would block a kid. Right. He'd just be like, fuck you. Right. But that was like, the thing was like, oh my God, I get my chance to say that Jordan dunked on me.

You know? Well, and that's part of what is going on with, I assume, with the casting of this film too. I mean, Murray says, I want to be there. Murray's part was not written into the script. I should say my intel on all of this is, the film Draft Day, directed by Evan Reitman, produced by Joe Magic, his main partner.

This film was produced by Reitman. And Reitman was really kind of a key creative force behind this movie. Once they had the idea, because it was, there had been... He's got his fingerprints all over it. Yes. There had been a commercial with Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. That was a Super Bowl ad, I believe. Yeah. That did really well.

And then they were like, oh, fuck, let's just make a movie out of that. The 90s. Right. and then they were like, oh, fuck, let's just make a movie out of that. The 90s. Right.

And so, that, they were like, we should make it actually funny. Let's get Ivan Reitman. He's like the top comedy guy right now. And they were sort of instrumental in overseeing all of it. Right.

I, about a year before this, had started doing a routine where I would do an impression of the guy who pissed Space Jam. It's a good routine. Which got me into the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival in a very weird turn of events because I was not qualified to get in otherwise. I hadn't done that much work and I wasn't performing regularly at any theaters or any of that. But that routine ended up being kind of my entry

into the industry, which then led to nine months later, me getting cast in Draft Day, which I would say was a straight line in terms of me running off the momentum of having gotten into that festival. Right. I was doing standup routines while filming draft day because I wasn't working every day. You became a sports based entertainer for about two to three years. Right. But that was like my money bit. I would try to get up and do like unpaid featured spots at the comedy clubs in Cleveland while

we were filming draft day. featured spots at the comedy clubs in Cleveland while we were filming Draft Day. And one day, Joe Magic producer comes to set, leaves set early to come see me do my act, which at the end ended with Space Jam as a closer. And I was like, oh fuck, he's in

the audience. He's going to be insulted by this. Because the bit was, it's a dude on a week long cocaine bender who thinks he's about to be fired. Coming up with the stupidest idea in the world. On the verge of a mental breakdown. And he just starts screaming and ripping his clothes off uh and saying that he can get the movie produced by the next monday right um and it's just like stream of consciousness meltdown stuff and he came up to me afterwards and he went uh you know griffin i uh i produce space jam and i was like i know yeah. And he was like, I know the guy who pitched the movie.

And I was like, yeah. And he went, pretty accurate. And I went out to drinks with him for two and a half hours and just pumped him. Right, right. And one of the things

he told me was, Murray was not written to the script at all. Okay. They wanted the movie to be funnier. Sure. They had Wayne Knight,

which is the reason why the Wayne Knight character was created, which makes me think he's just falling over and stuff. Big comedic, you know, type of the time. Okay Wayne Knight character was created, which makes me think... Right, because he's just falling over and stuff. Written for him. Big comedic type of the time. Okay, we want a little more comedy in here.

Reitman, obviously very good friends with Bill Murray, freaking collaborator. He knows that Murray is obsessed with basketball. He loves the Bulls. Chicago guy. Hadn't met Jordan up until this point. And he says, look, Jordan likes golf. You love golf. We're going to do a golf scene. You come, you improvise, do whatever you want for a day. Just do some shit. Right. By the says, look, Jordan likes golf, you love golf, we're going to do a golf scene,

you come, you improvise, do whatever you want for a day. Just do some shit. Right. By the way, in addition to gambling, golf,

also a big part of a lot of the Jordan lore, like, 36 holes before a game, you know, 0 for 16 in the first half, his wrist is sore, comes out in the second half, figures it out,

wins, you know, that's, so they say, hey Murray, you can come, you can improvise for a day, do whatever the fuck you want. They end up getting

a lot of usable stuff, which is why the golf sequence is so long, because he has like four or five good bits. And also Larry Bird is there. Which is, he's friends with Jordan and Pitka had worked with him.

I mean, it was like this correlation of like all these things. How do we feel about Bird's performance? Unbelievable. I think it's good too. I do.

I think it's really good. He's sort of like, he's sort of playing into his image as well, which is sort of like the stiff, like the kind of like. Well,

and a little bit of I do not want to be here. Yeah. A bit of a like, sort of, you know. And Murray's great line in this movie,

which is like one of our big family jokes that we quote all the time. Murray keeps on pitching to everyone, you know, the NBA is going through a crisis.

Players are dropping left and right. You're going to need new talent from exciting and unexpected places. And everyone keeps on going, Bill, it's not going to happen. Right? He thinks he's going to get drafted. And Michael rejects him.

And he goes, is this because I'm white? And Jordan goes, no, no, Larry's white. And he goes, Michael, Larry's not white. Larry's clear. It's a good line. It's great. No scripted dialogue. No role for this film. Right's a good line. It's great. No scripted dialogue, no role for this film.

Right. They shot that. The end of the film, the way they were going to beat the Monstars was Roadrunner, which is why Roadrunner never takes the court the entire film. He's not in it, yeah.

They were like, they need some special thing to push them over the edge. Which in a lot of ways makes more sense than what happens because the Monstars amass a massive lead beating the shit out of the Toons and massive lead beating the shit out of the Toons and then stop beating

the shit out of the Toons. They kind of keep the score a little secret, I feel like, for this very reason. Right? Yeah, go on, go on. No, you cannot account

for the comeback. You cannot keep track of the game in this movie. They make a couple baskets and it's tied. We're down 60. But Roadrunner, at least,

like, all right, you're at halftime, you're on the whiteboard, you're saying, how do we match up with them? Let's get roadrunner, you know, too fast. One problem, though. What?

No hands. Does lack hands. Me, me. I guess he'd use his wings. Or his beak or whatever. All right. Yeah. Just could run to another spot on the court and then just sort of flip the ball to someone

else. Yeah, you can kind of bounce it in. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Monstars are big and oafish. That was like one advantage they would have if they had clear... And they didn't want to bring Speedy Gonzalez back because he was sensitive,

which is why I kicked him out of the studio immediately because I don't want that on my show. Yeah, sensitive is one word for it. Yes, sensitive subject. And at the last minute, they were like, oh, fuck, you know what we should do? We should just have Bill Murray come back, which is why Roadrunner has almost no presence in the movie

because he was designed to be saved for the end. They called him up they were like can you come tomorrow which is why Murray has that joke where they're like how did you get here and he's like producers are frowning called me up had a teamster come drop me off here um they like the story the craziest element of production this movie was trying to get him a jersey overnight because the only physical jerseys they had were the ones for Jordan. And he's Murray. I mean, I don't know his height. Right. Different. I would say a different height than Michael Jordan.

Probably. The joke is that he's number 22, right? That he's only one less. Right. You know what? He's 6'2". Bill Murray is 6'2"? This is weird. Chevy Chase 6'4". Dan Aykroyd, 6'1". Those SNL guys are tall.

So, fun fact. The difference in height between Bill Murray and Michael Jordan, so if they were matched up, is equal to the difference in height, basically, between you and Muggsy Bogues. And Muggsy Bogues played in the NBA. If you were guarding Muggsy Bogues, the line would be significant height advantage for Griffin.

Well, that was our mother liked Muggsy Bogues because he was the only basketball player her size. Why don't we talk for a second about the other guys? The other guys. Because, you know, in a way, I mean, Muggsy Bogues was not one of the best players in the NBA. But the thing that Pika said was in terms of designing the cartoon Monstars, they wanted the greatest diversity of physical types. So it was supposed to be, we'll have a couple big, famous guys, you know, a tall guy, stocky guy, this and that. But they knew they wanted a little guy and they wanted a big guy. So Muggsy was obvious because he was the most cartoonish.

They hired the shortest and tallest people in the league. No, you know who they hired? George Mirazan. Right. Who's the same height as Sean Brett? And what happened is, George Mirazan went on vacation. Okay. Classic Mirazan. He just Who's the same height as Sean Brett. And what happened is George Mirazan went on vacation. Okay. And they couldn't

Classic Mirazan behavior. He just like goes back to Romania or whatever. And Joe Picco was like I don't know I think he went back there was another war there or something.

Literally what he says in the commentary because that's insensitive I don't know who gives a shit. He literally says that in the commentary. I don't think there were any wars in Romania.

That was the joke he made. He is Romanian is that right? I believe so. I mean the way his name is spelled commentary i don't think there are any wars in romania that was the joke he made he is romanian is that right i believe so i can look at it i mean the way his name is spelled after yeah uh i can look him up but it was literally no one could get a hold of george mirzon and a week before filming they were like who else is tall and got sean bradley which is why sean bradley is innocuously in this movie yeah well so right So the team that they suck the talent from is Muggsy Bogues, Charles Barkley,

Larry Johnson, Patrick Ewing, Sean Bradley. So two centers, two power forwards, and a tiny point guard. Muggsy Bogues is lost. That's definitely something I picked up on. But they use this to turn into five giant monsters.

It's not like the monsters resemble the people at all. Not at all. Like, they're just five big monsters. Again, if their job is to beat the shit out of people, they picked Muggsy Bogues. Did you guys pick up on the fact that the Monstars, they start out

small. They're nerd looks at that point, to be fair. Right. They're very tiny and you're like, I'm not intimidated by them. But then they get the talent. They do. They just take their talent. They get big. And I have to say, I like that transformation. You're into the small and big.

Oh, you like them getting big. Yeah. Because when they're small, you almost turn off the movie and walk off the porch. Oh, honestly, I was like, I mean, I love Michael, but I don't want to watch the rest of this. But then he's like, hold on, hold on. We'll fight years later from now.

Can I try to as succinctly as possible state the logic of this movie? Go on. Looney Tunes exists in a real world that somehow is also televised to our world. It's in the middle of our planet. It's at the core of the earth and kids are watching Looney Tunes live apparently.

Whatever they're up to is actually what is happening at that time. The only michael jordan has retired from basketball is because he's a great man who loves his family right yeah and his dad always wanted him to be a baseball player i guess okay meanwhile out in space an alien denny devito who cannot stop smoking cigars right is seeing plummeting sales of his theme park mr swack hammer right he's like alien michael eisner who's like alien Michael Eisner, who's like, we're not hip, this theme park sucks. And I want to, you might know,

the aliens are morons? Because it's like Moron Mountain? I'm sorry. The planet's called Moron Mountain. The aliens are called nerdlucks because they're little nerds. Yeah, they are little nerds. But they're also dumb.

Right. But the alien race is not the morons. Okay. I don't know what race Swackhammer is. Right. It doesn't seem related to the nerdlucks. They're different. Right. But the alien race is not the morons. Okay. I don't know what race Swackhammer is. Right. It doesn't seem related to the nerd looks. They're different. Right.

It's weird how little we know about Swackhammer considering that he becomes one of the most beloved characters in the history of animation. Right. But Swackhammer sees this kid mocking the park, is like, fuck this. We need a new attraction. They accidentally sit on a remote control, show the Looney Tunes, and he's like, that's it. We're going to capture them from the center of the Earth to make them attractions here so that our tenants will go up.

Nerdlucks burrow into Earth. Everyone sees a spaceship fly overhead. Doesn't freak the fuck out. Burrows into the center with ray guns, and they're like, we're holding you hostage. You have to come with us. Looney Tunes make up a bullshit excuse that they can't be kidnapped unless they are beaten in a game right they choose basketball because the nerdlucks are short and have no arms right then the nerdlucks

steal ability right through a magic basketball and their new alex mac powers to turn into puddles right which sends the the NBA into chaos. Yeah. Because they don't know how to play anymore. Right. They're putting tarps over stadiums. Can I interject for one second? Yes.

Maybe this is a reach, but did you find it interesting that basically what looks like a virus invades five random NBA players and they immediately go to the forum in Los Angeles where the CDC has basically shut down He's like fumigating it. Like what? Five years after

Magic Johnson had HIV? Can I get? Not a single player is on the Lakers. Because it's a Nick Barkley was on the Suns at that point. A couple Hornets. Barkley was on the Suns, two Horn, right? A couple Hornets. Yeah, Barkley was on the Suns, two Hornets,

a Nick, and a Maverick, I believe. No, it does feel very STD-ish. I don't believe that they would. They're showing the Lakers to, you know, random Lakers teammates being like, I don't know, coach. Bradley was on the Nets. He goes to the Mavericks in 97. That was Vlade Divac, right?

Can I get one point for that poll vladi divac right yeah you see one point for that poll yeah good job thank you and he's good he's good in it he is good who else is in that scene where there's the guy i you know i know that other guy's face and i'm not sure who it is the guy with the earring but uh but i don't know that seemed a little weird to me it feels very weird right it's also weird that they really deal with the fallout of it as if there's a virus only affecting basketball i don't think anyone's watching this movie being... Right, it's weird that they go to the forum. I get what you're saying, right? That that's where they pick

to fumigate first. The one brilliant piece of plotting is because Michael Jordan has retired from basketball, they don't steal his talent. Ahmad Rashad, Del Harris, right, yeah. Yes, I know, it's weird. Part of the subpar is that he's retired. And people will, yes, I know, it's weird. That's the one part of the sub-part of the film

is that he's retired. And people will be like, he might not have talent anymore. And then he's like, you still got anything? They thought he was a baseball player. It's funny. Paul Westphal,

Danny Ainge, some of the basketball players that pop up. So the Looney Tunes have to steal Michael Jordan who agrees to abandon his family and his professional obligations for no reason,

having no skin in the game because his kids like the Looney Tunes? Sure. Kind of? Yeah, he essentially promises to take their place near the end of the movie. Why? Yeah, I know. He didn't really have to do that. They cut

to a cartoon nightmare sequence where Michael Jordan is literally in chains. And doing autographs until he dies. I have a fun correlation there. Please. This movie comes out in 96. I literally in chains. And doing autographs until he dies. I have a fun correlation there. Yeah, please. This movie comes out in 96. I believe in 01, Michael Jordan tentatively agrees to go to North Korea to see Kim Jong-un and backs out out of fear of being kidnapped and enslaved, essentially, by the Korean leader

who was obsessed with the bulls. Right. And that's when Rodman starts going over North Korea, right? If in a world where he kidnapped Michael Jordan, it was for... He would have taken that place. Yeah, that is fascinating.

In 2001. Do you think Kim Jong-un saw Space Jam and he was like, finally! A strategy. Kim Jong-il. But do you think he saw this movie and was like, well well there's a blueprint for how I get him here yeah right probably

yeah it's in line with a lot of smoke some cigars open a theme park Danny DeVito's character also gets a massage during the game

did you yes there's also that weird cut to Dan Castellaneta and Patricia Heaton what's that about weird scene especially weird

that she's not sitting in the middle now it's before it's pre-middle I know I thought she'd call her shot yeah but that's

like a you know that's like a weird scene they're freaked out by the nerd lucks in a trench coat which is played off like he's some sort

of weird masturbating flasher like right that is the joke this guy is doing weird things right in a trench coat

and their lumps moving around and all of that yeah so they steal all their it's funny when they lose their talent they also show how they can't like I just really like Patrick Ewing is really good at being bad

I have a question as a Knicks fan how did you feel about them questioning Patrick Ewing's virility which is by the way an adult it's a great scene it's an adult moment in a kid's movie. It is. And also, not only is just the question,

just the idea of a Freudian analyst is an adult moment. Even though I think when you're a kid, that is your image of a shrink, is like a sort of bearded guy with a German accent. In a red leather chair. Yeah, and there's a big... Charles Barkley jokes about dating Madonna. Yes.

Mugsy gets very defensive about his mother. So Barkley's very good in this Charles Barkley jokes about dating Madonna yes Mugsy gets very defensive about his mother so Barkley's very good in this he's a funny guy he's great he's so like

charismatic he's the only one of the NBA players to get single card billing and they give him more to do and he has his own scene I assume

they used him a little and were like okay this guy rules I find that scene actually emotionally affecting where he plays streetball

the kid is excellent in that scene who goes go on get out of here I like the logic I was such a big Barkley fan because he was in the west that Nixon didn't have to deal with him as much I just loved him he also benighted at that point

Sir Charles but just to answer your initial question I think they used Patrick for that scene because Patrick just has such a good reaction face yeah like he's like you know like he just is good at furrowing his brow he's got such a big forehead and like barkley ewing and jordan pitka had worked with so much that he knew how to get like funny out of those guys he knew how to make him comfortable but even when you're watching the montage on tv and sean br is doing that weird staccato walk where they've lost their rhythm. They don't even know how to drink anymore.

I would say in a movie that stretches basically three setups out real long. I would say this is one that could have been longer. I would have liked to have seen more. This is the most purely funny stuff in the movie is basketball players don't know how to play basketball anymore. It's always funny. Them missing the pass or whatever. This is the most purely funny stuff in the movie is basketball players don't know how to play basketball anymore. I know, it's always funny. Them missing the pass or whatever. And even that whole montage with them with the therapist,

them and the doctors. Like all that shit's good. Barclay and Church. Yeah, yeah. Promised I'd never date Madonna. Yeah. And then, I don't know what's happening with the Looney Tunes. Then it goes deep into the Looney Tunes thing. All right, so I don't like the Looney Tunes.

I don't hate them, but I would watch Looney Tunes when I i was a kid but i never was like an obsessive about them they're the greatest comedians of all time they're bad they're cool no i got no beef but it's just like so when they're doing looney tunes stuff in this i think even when i was a kid i was just like oh right now they do looney tunes stuff but according to you this is bad looney tunes stuff well it seems bad there are a couple weird factors i mean on one hand the people directing animation clearly were big fans and and all the background characters they put in are deep cuts. And there's certain visual gags

like when the scoreboard is like it's tough to watch, ain't it folks? Things like that feel very much out of the box. But the weird thing is, Warner Brothers had in-house people who usually did the voices for these things. And they weren't producing that many new cartoons, they weren't doing new features or any of that.

But they put them in commercials and shit, right? Mel Blanc famously used to do every single male Looney Tunes voice. Crazy. He was the greatest voiceover artist of all time. And he did all of them. Right. And when he died, which was late 80s, I want to say. I can look it up.

It was always scattered of like, this guy does two, this guy does three, this and that. 89 he does. Yes. Year I was born. Wow. scattered of like this guy does two this guy does three this and that he does yes um uh you're osborne um for this movie all the regular guys humblebrag all the regular guys assumed they were going to get the roles and because ivan reitman was coming in and they're thumbs uping each other on the humblebrag um reitman comes in and was like no we'll cast funny people okay so they suddenly threw out everyone who had done the voices normally and just auditioned, like, everyone. Okay.

And so it's like Billy West and Dee Bradley Baker and all these people who hadn't played the Looney Tunes before. But they're voice actors. Right. Yeah. And they do the voices well, but also they hadn't really lived in those characters. And they were like, just improvise a bunch of shit. The script doesn't matter. Just improvise a bunch of shit.

So there's a lot of the scripted jokes that the Looney Tunes have are improvised by very cynical voice actors, which are why there's so many meta jokes about the industry. There's that argument they have about them not getting a cut of the licensing. Right. There's the thing where Daffy kisses the Warner Brothers branding on his ass. They shit on Disney. Sure. There's like a lot of like inside baseball,

like Hollywood stuff that kind of fucking sucks. That was just like voice actors riffing. And in that commentary track, they're like, yeah, I'm surprised they kept all of this in. And also just putting them in like putting Elmer Fudd with like a headband and having him be like a cool baller feels like those dumb fucking sweatshirts where it's like here's Taz with crisscross backwards jeans yeah you know yeah but kids liked it I would argue though that Daffy his bits are really good Daffy kills it in this movie Daffy kills it

and they just understand the Daffy bottom of the totem pole thing right the bit when he comes out and the audience promptly stops cheering is great. That's good. Right. Like stuff like that is fun. But then you also just have like when he like dresses up like Rodman.

Like there's some of that shit is dumb. And Lola is the worst. Lola is like one of the grossest, crassest, like we don't understand women. This is targeted marketing

characters of all time. Her characterization is she comes in. Everyone acts like they want to fuck her, they give her a wooga eyes, right? Then they say doll. And then her only bit of characterization is doll makes her so angry she dunks.

Yeah. Well, they also make up, they seem very proud of the fact that after all that, like, they didn't think she could play, but she can. Right, they're like, there's a real meal out of that.

Look how progressive we are. The woman is good at basketball, and she's tough. And then I feel like she just doesn't come up again. I mean, she's there. There's the moment where Bugs almost dies, and she gets emotional because apparently they're in love. No, no, no. He saves her. Oh, right. He saves her.

Right. And then, right, almost gets crushed in the process. Does get crushed. Almost dies. That's when they play, for you, I will, the love theme from Space Jam. Yeah. By Monica, yes. Yes, it's a shitty, shitty character. Yeah, it's a shitty character. Anyway, after that, they play the Monstars.

Yeah, the game lasts. It's not like there's, like, anything else. No, the game lasts 10 minutes. There's no training montage. No. The closest they get is the scene where they have to clean up the court. Right. But, like, every sports. Oh, the spit shine. Yeah, it's kind of fun. That's no training montage. The closest they get is the scene where they have to clean up the court. Right. But like every sports.

Oh, the spit shine. Yeah. It's kind of funny. That's funny. Yeah. They spit a bunch, David. They're all like, oh, we are going to clean this up. And then Taz spins around.

It's like lemony fresh. Like all those jokes are very like, here's Billy West on a bunch of coke, like riffing shit. You know what sucked? The voice actor for Foghorn. Not very good. Not good. Not a good... I love Foghorn and there was not a lot of good stuff. One could say I did better

in this very episode. Jon Hamm does a better bad voice over. Bill Farmer. Oh, who's not a bad voice over in general. Who also does Sylvester. Yeah. And Yosemite Sam. But the first half of the game takes five minutes. It's literally just a series of blackout gags of them getting physically attacked. Yeah, somebody's Sam is weird.

Because he's a mustache, but then the hair goes all the way around his eyes. Well, it's tough when he has the hat off to render him. Right. Because the idea is that his face is mostly obscured in shadow under the hat. There's like hair. It just sort of keeps going. He's got big eyebrows. He's got eyebrows.

I know, but it links. Like one's eyebrows do not link. James is giving this a real furrow just sort of keeps going. He's got big eyebrows. He's got eyebrows. I know, but it links. Like one's eyebrows do not link. James is giving this a real furrowed sort of like. One could say he's almost linking his eyebrows in frustration looking at him. But you don't link your eyebrows to your damn mustache. No, he also looks kind of like Gossamer. Famous Looney Tunes monster Gossamer. Hair monster Gossamer.

Oh, sure. Right. Yes. Yes. Right. Okay. We don't know Gossamer oh sure right yes yes right okay no no Gossamer he's the big red thing

yeah great character I'm gonna look up Google Yosemite Sam without hat it looks bad you don't wanna see it

you won't like it I mean doesn't he take his hat off in this movie does he there's the weird Pulp Fiction reference where he and

Elmer Fudd suddenly become Vincent Jewels and shoot one of the monster's teeth out of his head. I guess he just has more hair. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Got it.

The Pulp fiction thing is weird, right? But that's like the hot movie that kids would remember, I guess. That's the stuff that sucks for me. Oh, no. It definitely sucks. Them referencing commercial campaigns and brand loyalty and all of that. But it was them trying to boost these characters. Also, why is

Marvin a referee? He's a Looney Tune. Yes. Seems biased. Well, now you're getting... You might be going too deep. Is this like... Careful what you say, someone might knock on your door, Dave. Well, I mean, there's a bit of a conflict of interest because he is a Looney Tune, but also they're playing against aliens. So you could see how they'd be like, you say, someone might knock on your door, Dave. Well, I mean, there's a bit of a conflict of interest because he is a Looney Tune, but also they're playing against aliens.

So you could see how they'd be like, you know, you don't want to fight against your own guys. He's unbiased. Right. Yeah. He's unbiased. Nerdlucks are his cousins. What's the, yeah, the first half they get crushed, the second half they beat him. He gives a big speech, they all fall asleep.

Then they find Michael's secret stuff, which Bugs has beat him. He gives a big speech, they all fall asleep. Then they find Michael's secret stuff, which Bugs has put a bunch of water into a bottle, taped it up, and then is able to suplex a bunch of muscles. Right. Right? Right. So then they all come back and they're good? Right.

But it's just water. He tells them that. He makes, you know, and I had remembered as a kid that speech being a lot more. But it's like a total throwaway. It's a total throwaway. It's a Jenna kind of making fun of the Hoosiers thing of, right, within you all along, but it's not really like that. And they make fun of it right away.

And Daffy's just like, yeah, but you got any more? That's like the joke. But it's a weird sports movie where you don't have any sort of training montage and the game is almost kind of irrelevant until the final quarter. The only crucial moment is that Murray has to take the place of fucking someone else everyone else Wayne Knight's

been crushed turned to a balloon right every other weird visually very creepy tweeties in an iron lung beaky buzzard is wrapped up head to toe sure we all know these characters but that's when they set up the idea.

How did you do that to Wayne Knight? It's cartoon land, baby. Anything can happen. Right. Which then becomes the deus ex machina. But none of this makes sense. So Jordan beats them. He does the cool thing with his arms.

That's cool. His arms. Yeah. Well, the other weird... Griffin describing it in more detail. No, no, no. What is James going to say? The other weird thing is Murray comes out out of nowhere. Sure. yeah well the other Griffin describing it in more detail no no no what is James gonna say more

Murray comes out out of nowhere sure you're expecting like wow he's gonna it'll turn out he's good he's gonna he's gonna do something

right right and he comes in he sits down and says let's just do a give and go gets the ball chest pass back to Jordan

done that's it he does have the great he's just a body there's no There's no, there's no, I thought maybe he'd have a, you know, some sort of complicated like.

It is great when he's running down his, his strategy that he doesn't know any of their names. And he goes, I give it to the duck. He gives it to the bunny. He gives it to the girl bunny. You take it to the hoop and you dominate. Yeah.

Why isn't there an announcer character? There is the two mice. Oh yeah. Well, they're not, they don't make any impact on me. I feel like a good sports movie, you want a nice announcer. It should have been Foghorn.

Foghorn could have made that thing sing. Yeah, Foghorn. I'll say we're tied. I mean, sure. It's pretty good. Whatever it is. Yeah, right. Yeah.

No, the mice, the bit is just that they have like, yeah, pipsqueak voices, and then they like clear their throats and sound like whoever. I'm sorry i don't mean to like stop the podcast but i've been watching you do all these voices and it's like amazing it's almost like if you were a big time animation studio executive right someone who produces i don't know prime time cartoon shows sure and you've told other people in meetings that you listen to this podcast, maybe you'd start to look through the fucking pitch packets. I mean, wow. Yeah, I'm sorry.

Well, no, I would say too that to what we were talking about at the beginning of the pod that this was sort of a compromise movie for us. I think I also spent a lot of time when I was young hoping that at some point the dam would break and Griffin would be like, you know what's kind of cool? Sports.

Oh, right. This would be the way to chisel away. Right. And I... This movie was the closest I ever got. Things like this would happen and I would get excited that I might have... Yes.

Something, you know, my brother might be like... But the problem is that we go see this. Uh-huh. And he's just looney tunes. And it's good. I mean, it's fun. I loved it.

I love seeing this with my brother, but right, exactly. It's never... There's too much looney Tunes for you to actually have to go deep on the sports. Right, but that was always the thing. I remember that excitement you would have and it would work when it was like

Shaq is in a movie. Because I like Shaq. You could never get to the thing of let's just watch a game. Right, because it was always like, hey Griff, have you seen Shaq's teammate too? What the fuck is this? He's never been a genie. He's never lived in a boombox. just watch a game. Right, because it was always like, hey Griff, have you seen Shaq's teammate too? Like, you know, have you seen, he's never been a genie. He's never lived in a boom box.

Right, and that was the problem. And this is the thing with me and my brother too because right, I could get my brother into like, maybe you'd collect cards,

like you know, all the periphery of sports, but right, if you were ever just like, let's just sit down and watch this game. Right. Yeah,

no, he didn't care. Because you were a big like baseball, basketball card guy and then I was big into collecting cards but I would collect cards that you couldn't trade with anyone

because no one cared about the cards you collected oh I got the full set of the small soldiers cards and it's like great now you just have them all you bought them there was no economy for small soldiers cards I collected baseball cards actually that was my thing I was a baseball card person basketball cards for some reason didn't hold as much interest. Baseball cards are the best.

And then that's the classic. And there's so many baseball players too so you could really just keep going. My dad had old baseball cards he used to let us unwrap. I think you used to even do that. I like the ritual of the unwrapping. I mean there was that one, remember that

baseball card store we would go to a lot that was on like McDougal yes that was it was like Pokemon 2 and some other stuff right but this was even before Pokemon

when literally they only sold sports cards it was like I'll get a pack cause then I'll like the rush of the trading it's fun opening it when I was in my really

deep shoplifting phase I would steal basketball cards all the time okay and me and my friend had this whole system where we would just get a whole box right, I would steal basketball cards all the time. Okay. And me and my friend had this whole system where we would just get a whole box. Right.

And I would distract the guy and then I'd put it in my pants and walk out. And then would you resell them? A whole box? Yeah. And he got a Paul Pierce rookie card one time. A whole box in your pants? Yeah.

All right. Yeah. I was a big kid. You're lucky, Ben, that you already had a reputation for having a famously square crotch the usual ben hosley bowl try to walk out and just be like i don't know and he would he never caught us god if i always owned a fucking sports card store any 10 year old 12 year old walks in i would just be like my eyes are on this kid until they leave the store like I would just assume they were all

human Bart Simpson especially fucking Edward Furlong over here yeah well I like I did like basketball cards but yeah I was a baseball card guy but NBA Jam that was you know I played that all the time yeah and we talked about this but that was

like the big sort of Berlin Wall coming down in our family was like we have separate bedrooms now and we finally won the video game system war and you got an N64 oh sure yeah

that was like a big turning point and that was a big thing with all the stuff with like our mom so the Super Nintendo wasn't as big a deal for you right no it was

we weren't allowed like the Genesis the SNES we'd go over to other people's houses and want to play that and that's a that's a problem as a parent when because what ends up happening weren't allowed. Like the Genesis, the SNES we'd go over to other people's houses and want to play them. That's a problem as a parent when what ends up happening is your kids wind up picking their friends based on who has what system.

Dodgy kids. That's not good at all. No, it's true because those are usually the kids with the parents that are just like, yeah, just play video games for 10 hours, I'll order you pizza. And then you just come out and you're like and you're just like drinking coke and eating pizza all day. My mom wouldn't let me come out and you're like and you're just like drinking coke and eating pizza all day my mom wouldn't let me go and you as well

into the video game section we didn't even have a system we couldn't look at the it was like no caffeine no video game like all these things were like just completely forbidden it was like sort of a years long I mean famously when our

parents announced that they were gonna to have a third child, we thought like, oh, family meeting. This is going to be the video game system talk. We very much were like, we got it. N64, it's new on the market. We're getting that out of the PlayStation. That's the only thing we have to know is which system are we buying? My parents had a love-hate relationship with video games

and they would take it away from me sometimes because I would smash the controllers. Oh, you were too aggro. I got aggro. Well, speaking of that, you know, again, we were very much parented together, and there would be, like, certainly peaks and valleys in that regard. And so, like, we were both—

Don't skip over it. No, no, no, we're going. We're going to Valley Town. Because Romley kind of had different parents. Yes. It's like 10 years later. It's like. But so for me and Griff, like, and, you know, being the younger sibling, you always want

some level of approval and also just let's do this together. Yeah. And so, like, we wanted the system. We both wanted the system. Right. Right. That was great. We got the system.

Yeah. But then you get the system. And of course, we don't want to play any of the same games. Did you want to play sports games? Yeah. I would play any game.

I would play those other games but for the most part, if I had the time to myself, I really want to play sports games. Let me finish. We had an incident where we were on a beanbag and I don't know if we were in the same we were on a beanbag in,

I don't know if we were in the same room then or if it was just my room. That would have been your room. If we had the system, it was your room. That's where the Nintendo was. It was on like a little cart. It was like a TV on a cart. Maybe, I don't know. Like an 8-inch screen?

Yeah, something like that. Yeah, of course. It was like half. It was like a quarter the size of us at the time. And Griff was playing on the beanbag. And I guess I think I had, my recollection is I had come in and said, can I play soon?

And he said something like, I'm very close to being this level of Blues Brothers 2000, the N64 game. A real pull. Oh, I remember that game. He says something like 20 minutes. Sure. 20 minutes.

So I go, you know, do whatever. Trying to get to a save point. He says something like, 20 minutes. Sure. 20 minutes. Yeah. So I go, you know, do whatever. Trying to get to a save point. Eat some French bread pizza or whatever we do. And then come back 20 minutes later, I'm like, it's time for me to, you know, use the game system alone. Let's get this going. Right.

And Griffin, I don't know what he said, but it was a little like, 20 more minutes. 20 in a disrespectful tone. 20 more minutes. Probably has a cool 20 in a disrespectful tone. And I punched him on the crown of his head as hard as I could. Oh, wow. I punched him on the top of his head. You'd had enough, right?

I'd had enough. I didn't know that was not where you're supposed to punch someone if you're trying to hurt them. You punched him like right here. Yeah, and I guess I just figured it was sort of like the epicenter of the brain in a human or something like that. And so I punch him and immediately I'm in tremendous pain. But I'm also in tremendous trouble because I just punched my brother in the head. But you were a big puncher. I mean, you almost became a professional boxer.

This was in the period before you had boxing as an outlet. We might disagree on this a little bit. My recollection of our fighting because our fighting was we didn't always get along and our fighting was Griff I would make fun of you and you would punch me you're stupid you're this you're that

and I would go after him I was only verbal and you were only physical my recollection of my fighting style would always be like a tackle and a pin yeah and then like getting ready

to punch and then just I remember one time I pinned Griffin down and I was ready to punch him. And I just ended up slapping him in the ear. So I could never go. That was a big one.

You kind of know. I kind of couldn't go all the way. But then this was a time. That was a time I went all the way. I'm watching Blues Brothers 2000 gameplay on my computer right now. Also a game that came out two years after the release of the movie. Famously bad game. But it will get you in the mood.

For punching. And I'm writhing in pain because I just punched him in the crown. You just essentially fractured your hand. And I'm in a lot of trouble and I'm going to my parents and I go, you don't know how much this hurts. James, James,

what you did to your brother was terrible. You cannot do that I think we were sleeping in the same room because what happened is I think I was sentenced out of the room parents room little like sleeping bag

right next to the bed in my parents room Griff had the room to himself I think we were separate rooms at that point I'm positive I slept on our parents' floor. I believe that. Okay. I was on a blanket on my parents' floor and I was just the whole night with a shattered growth plate in my hand.

Completely broken. He had a cast for months. Just begging my parents. Take me to the hospital. It's enough. You're in trouble. You are not getting out of this. Which the broken hand was blamed on me, not because I riled him up, but because my head was too hard.

That was James' company line at the time. If your head wasn't so hard, I wouldn't have broken my hand. We fundraised off that. I was hard-headed. Yeah. You can be hard-headed at times. I can be hard-headed.

Certainly in this instance. What a story. Right? You know what? What a story. Right? You know what? What a story, Mark. Yeah. Do we have anything else we got to say about the movie?

I'm trying to think. I mean, there's kind of the triumphant moment at the end. I think it's weird that they win the game and then only then are the monsters

like told like, you can just beat the shit out of Danny DeVito if you want. Swag camera sucks. You just get rid of it. Right. And they're like, oh yeah.

Well, I think that's another thing is like, this movie is not about anything. No. Right. It's about Brandon. It's about nothing. Yeah. Even that alone is the closest the movie comes

to sending any sort of message whatsoever. But it's barely a message. It's not, you know, it's just, it's about two things. It's weird, but it's... Let's make Looney Tunes cool for this generation, and let's make Michael Jordan as shiny as a person as possible. And I would say one of the interesting things...

The interesting experience I had re-watching this film after watching it probably 30 times from 4 to 9. The VHS that came with the coin. Do you remember the coin? Yes, I do. Was remembering the movie in a specific way. As you remember a lot of old movies you haven't seen in a while as a collection of moments. Right.

I remember this scene. I remember them doing this. I remember that. And you go back in a film like that and you just sort of assume that there's other stuff. There's connective tissue. There are B plots. And this one has no other stuff. I remembered every second of this film because it is just a collection of moments. There's other stuff. There's connective tissue. There are B plots. And this one has no other stuff.

I remembered every second of this film because it is just a collection of moments. It's a series of commercials. Yes. There's something about the thing where they're like, might makes right. Beat up Danny DeVito. And they do.

And then they're like, now it's time to give the talent back. And they're like, do we have to? And he's like, yeah. They could just beat the shit out of him. They're still monsters. So he has to flip the message on them pretty much right away. I'm not to harp on this, We have to. And he's like, yeah, they could just beat the shit out of him. They're still monsters. Yeah.

So he has to flip the message on them pretty much right away. I also want to harp on this, but the fact that Michael Jordan chooses to stake his life after he's already left his family without warning. I mean, there's the scene where Bugs and Daffy have to go back into the real world to retrieve his boxers. Yes. His North Carolina shorts. Yes.

That he wore under his shoes. Is that real or did they just make that up? I think they made that up. I feel like that was real. Can we say that that might be the only admission in the entire film of gambling addiction? He had to gamble his life

to get it up. That is big. They have to go get the shorts and then the kids have to reassure or Bugs andaffy have to reassure the kids that their dad is all right. And you're like, right, he just left his family. Are they not worried about them? Yeah, we don't see Teresa Randall. Well, that's another thing.

When the spaceship, also interesting that they used a cartoon spaceship in the minor league. Yes. Because I guess part of the reason that the film sort of makes sense is like when you go under then you're a looney tune

you can stretch but if you come back up you're back on the so they used a cartoon spaceship landed on the baseball field and the wife play I believe I can fly just starts clapping

standing up when he walks out of a spaceship oh cool he made it in time for the game right and they didn't even know he wasn't going to be at the game. Because you imagine the conversation

the next morning where the kids go, look, mom, we know you've been crying for four nights straight. We want you to know everything's fine. Bugs and Daffy came to us

at three o'clock in the morning and told us that dad's just helping them. Don't worry. He's risked his life betting himself into slavery. They don't mention that part. No, they don't.

They imply that the kids keep it from her. There's a moment where they go, mom, I don't, you know, like, I don't know. They also said the thing that the kid is bad at sports, which feels like it's going to pay off later in the movie where he gets off the minivan. But there's just not enough time in this extremely roomy movie for any payoff there. But the first, like, there's so many setups of all the different. Oh, the dog is scary, the kid is sad. Right. Well, it feels completely

like a movie that was made by, directed by two different people. Right. Three different people. I mean, I think Eric Goldberg did the animation, Joe Pick essentially did live action, Ivan Reitman was sort of overseeing everything, and the movie was pitched only as hey, this is a smart way to revive the Looney Tunes. This is a good brand exercise.

You'll get Michael Jordan to want to do this, and he's one of the most famous people alive. It did feel like it was going to lead to him doing other movies, and it just never did. Didn't give a shit. I don't think he can. I don't think he wants it. Can we talk about the possibility of them remaking this movie?

Well, so, I mean, there was the official announcement last week. Ryan Coogler is on board as a producer. Right. Terrence Nance, current showrunner of Random Acts of Flyness on HBO, is directing. And LeBron is doing it. That's one of the reasons he moved to L.A. Yes. Is to be able to film this in the off-season.

He announced it almost immediately after moving to L.A. They're going to film it next summer. Supposedly. Yeah, so I don't know what the fuck that movie is. And I've always said this where the weird thing about remaking space jam is then the only reason the looney tunes are in it is because they were in the original space jam right because kids today i don't think care about looney well there's another there's another point as someone who was so excited for space jam because

michael jordan was in it and a basketball person i remember being a kid and if there was a movie i mean if there was a movie where an athlete appeared in the movie for three seconds, I was going to see it. I mean, I watched The Sixth Man probably about 30 times.

A thousand times. Shaq being in Good Burger. You watch that scene over and over again. Blue Chips when I was old enough to watch it. Right.

And Blue Chips, which is like a dark movie about how the NCAA is bad. A drunk Nick Nolte. Right. And then kids are watching it because they're like, Shaq's in this movie, and he is in it.

I mean, it's not like a huge... No, but that provides a good amount of sports porn. Sure. This movie provides a great amount of sports porn. Right. And that's just not... When I was that age, I would do anything for that because I didn't have...

You didn't have a computer. You didn't have Uncle Drew. You didn't have YouTube. I could go watch as much footage of LeBron James on the computer now as I want. I could die watching footage of LeBron James. You've got 15 years to delve through. Now, that entire appeal is basically lost for a sequel. There were two basketball players and two athletes, period, who made movies in the 90s.

It was Shaqq who was an anomaly because of how big he was and also that he liked rapping and video games and all this other shit Michael Jordan who was the most famous athlete on the planet

but nowadays like I didn't know who Kyrie Irving was before Uncle Drew came out you didn't know about the commercial I was like

is this some comedian I don't know about I didn't know about the commercial I knew some of the older people because that was of the era

where I would have to be in the room when you were watching games. You might have heard of Reggie Miller or whatever. I even knew Lisa Leslie's in it. I knew those people. Did you see Uncle Drew James? I did not, no. Kyrie Irving, I'd never heard of.

It's crazy. It was such a novelty that it was an athlete starring in a movie, whereas LeBron's already done several different commercial campaigns, has been in Train wreck is in like funny or die videos is like a funny guy Space Jam Space Jam came out

in an era where you and I would go to a cafe with really shitty food just so I could sit next to a replica pair of Shaq's shoes of his size 22 shoes

I just want I want to eat these fingers looking at his shoes I mean that was just it was just a totally different experience being a sports fan back then. That's the weird thing

about making a Space Jam 2 is it's a movie that exists only for people who are nostalgic for the movie when they were children. No I got two takes against that.

One I think it's it is a movie for the WB to maybe finally make one last play to bring the tunes Looney Tunes back into the culture. Since Looney Tunes back in action they have had some sort of Looney Tunes back into the culture. Since Looney Tunes is back in action, they have had some sort of

Looney Tunes cartoon on the air, some series, and none of them have really worked. They keep on trying and none of them really work. Exactly. So maybe this is the Hail Mary, maybe this will do it. But two, to any NBA fan, there's so much invested in LeBron versus

Jordan now, that it's almost essential that he makes Space Jam too because everything he does is now in comparison to Jordan. So it's like, well, where's his Space Jam though? He never made a Space Jam. Yeah. So now we need to see how he does Space Jam so that we can stack it up to

Jordan's Space Jam. But that's the weird thing is that he literally has to do Space Jam rather than doing his version, his family comedy. Absolutely not. I mean, also, I like had like a call

with like a Warner Brothers executive a year ago where it was like, they want to make shorts. Like, even before this movie was officially greenlit but was in active development,

I think someone else was supposed to produce or direct it at the time. It's definitely Justin Lin was supposed to do it for a little while.

They were sending out the fucking beacon to comedy writers being like, we need to write Looney Tunes theatrical shorts that have LeBron in them. There was also some concept for a Tiger Woods starring Space Jam when Tiger Woods was at the height of his fame. So the legacy of this movie comes out, does well domestically, but makes a billion dollars in merchandising and the soundtrack is big and all of that.

They immediately go, what's the next one? And for years, they kept on going, is it Race Jam? They wrote a pitch that was him and Jeff Gordon. There was the Tiger Woods version. There was Spy Jam, which was Jackie Chan as a spy with the Looney Tunes. Sure. Like the premise just became take someone who's good at something else,

pair them up with the Looney Tunes live action. Weird that jam's the word though because jam refers to slam dunking. Yeah. But that was always their thing. Like Spy Jam got announced

at some point. Well, the Tiger Woods thing would have made a lot of sense. Yeah. He was similarly branded. Or after he crashed his car. Oh, sure. After sleeping with every Denny's waitress.

You could do a similar first act. Right, right. Looney Tunes Back in Action, a movie I love that we will hopefully cover someday on the show. We will. Which was their attempt to do like, okay, this is like a proper live action Looney Tunes movie. Has all the elements of the aborted versions in them. So like Brendan Fraser's father in the film is Timothy Dalton playing James Bond so they could use all the spy stuff they developed. Interesting.

So they're just right. They were just like pulling from this and that. Jeff Gordon races the Looney Tunes in it for no fucking reason. That sounds lame. Is this movie good? Like I was saying to Ben like half of it rules and half of it is like we spent money on this. We have to put it in there somehow. And then that movie bombs so hard that they're just like, fuck it,

let's try Looney Tunes babies. Let's try a show where they live in an apartment together. This has been the last 15 years of Looney Tunes. It's kind of the same problem the Mumpets have, right? Where they're like, well, we still got this brand. Surely there's a way to make it stick. And they're just kind of throwing shit out there. Well, in one sense it makes sense because you already have this

platform that people will be excited to see, Space Jam 2. People love Space Jam 1. They'll go see it. So if you sort of get them back into the Looney Tunes for that. The other thing is Space Jam 1 was a horrible platform for the Looney Tunes. Terrible. This is true. Yes. It didn't help them as characters.

It helped them as iconography for a couple years. Yeah, it helped them for merch. But I think it's the same thing with the muppets and the looney tunes that people don't realize how much it was about those creative teams that it wasn't just these characters and the designs of them but it was like chuck jones and michael maltese and it was jim henson and his writers you know like jerry joles and all these people yeah um and they've never re-established a creative sort of brain trust behind these properties. But now I think there's enough nostalgia.

I mean, LeBron James has always talked about how much he loves Space Jam. He's certainly obsessed with Michael Jordan. He wears number 23. But once again, his connection to the characters is... Do you think it's weird that he wears number 23? No, I mean, he is in a way obsessed with Michael Jordan. But I also think he's been very careful at times, which is a little bit why I'm surprised

he wants to do this so bad. He didn't broach the legacy stuff until recently. He's been very careful about when to start talking about it. And is also very clearly, as an athlete, very different from Michael Jordan. As a basketball player, totally different. But in terms of all-encompassing

talent. If I was fucking LeBron James' acting manager, I'd be like, let's get a pitch for a movie with you in SpongeBob. Like, I wouldn't be make Spice Jam 2. Spice Jam. Spice Jam. I'd be like, I'll say, I'll say, I'll say. I think Spice Jam could be good.

Spice Jam would be great. Yeah. Spice Grubb from Blue Spice. Oh, sure. Oh, yeah. Sure. It's a chef right right

Chef Casper Favreau could direct it yeah Favreau would come back for that he's not busy but like doesn't it make more sense if you go like oh the premise is it's LeBron with the

Transformers or the Ninja Turtles or someone who's still popular today I think there's just something about being in the same universe as Michael Jordan that gets everything a little more exciting

and look Coogler fucking rules Terrence Nance is really cool maybe they'll do something weirder in the same universe as Michael Jordan that gets everything a little more exciting. And look, Coogler fucking rules. Terrence Nance is really cool. Maybe they'll do something weirder with the sequel, but it's a bizarre thing. Well, yeah, the movie could be really good.

Right. You know, in part because it doesn't resemble at all Space Jam 1. And there's nothing to be beholden to. There's no integrity. No one's going to be like, you better have a scene where this happens because that's legendary. If Patrick Ewing fucks in this film, I'm not seeing it.

They changed the voice actors for the nerdlucks? Ewing is boning? He's taking women to bone town? No one will say the word nerdluck. God, I will protest. Yeah, you will protest. You'll be it. Well, now I guess we have to cover we all have to come back together

to cover Space Jam 2 if it happens. Yeah, we will. Assuming it does. We will. I think they've staked out a release date. They have, they have. Yeah, and they are planning to shoot it next summer. They know they have a limited window of his availability.

You got to do it in the summer. Coogler, I think, guarantees that the movie gets made now. He was sort of the missing element. I mean, and he's got a blank check, literally. And they've been paving the runway. As I said, this call about the fucking Looney Tunes shorts

was a year and a half, two years ago. Like, I don't know if they're still doing that, but their thing was like, we're going to start putting LeBron

with the Looney Tunes to get people used to the idea. And Kugler already did exactly what you would need to do to make this movie good, which is find the

emotional through line in the Rocky movies, but turn it into your own movie. Right. And hire like a really visually interesting director. Do you think Jordan's in it? I kind of think they got it.

It's a bit of a bummer to see Michael Jordan these days. Right? Do you agree? Well, that was bad enough. Well, part of that is also Michael Jordan, in addition to being one of the most beautiful men of all time, is one of the worst dressed men of all time. And he's only gotten worse.

He's not aged into fashion. But every time you see Michael Jordan, he looks like an alcoholic dad. And the other thing is like, his eyes are always bloodshot now, right? Like he always looks bleary eyed. He looks, yeah,

yeah. You know, he's just, he's a little fuller. He had a messy divorce. He's carrying some water weight on him. His, his basketball team is terrible.

He's a very bad owner. Horrible. And he's like the exact kind of owner you don't want where he's like, the team has staked out this, like, His basketball team is terrible. He's a very bad owner. Horrible. And he's like the exact kind of owner you don't want where he's like, the team has staked out this, like, we're going to draft this guy. We've done all our... And he like barges in and he's like, no, no, we're drafting this guy

because, you know, he'd back me down if we were playing. They're like... Well, he drafts a ton of North Carolina players. He drafts a lot of North Carolina players. He definitely drafts a lot of players who are in the NCAA tournament and go deep into the NCAA tournament, which lets you know two weeks before the end of the tournament. He's flipping around.

He's like, Kaminsky. He's flipping. Come on, he's flipping. The Celtics famously offered him four draft picks for the ninth pick. So famous. And he turns them down, which is insane. Crudel. To draft Frank Kaminsky who is

fine. Who is a nice guy. Who is the most that guy. He's a guy. I would say he's that guy if I had to say. And I like the Hornets because I like the colors. They're a bit of an underdog team. They were good when I was a kid. I've always liked the Hornets.

To steal a line from the movie, they are the least virile team. They're not the worst team in the NBA, but there's no sex appeal to that team whatsoever. Agreed. So merchandise spotlight. I got drunk and bought 27 Space Jam mugs off of eBay five years ago. Why?

Because we used to own so much Space Jam merchandise that I went on eBay and was trying to remember what we used to own when I was drunk after I had done this bit successfully for the first time. Right. And someone was selling a lot of 26 mugs

that were just a ceramic bust of Michael Jordan's head that didn't look like Michael Jordan at all. So they're identical. You would drink out of his skull. Sure. And I just thought the image was so funny of this eBay picture of a dude's garage where he had a perfect cube of just stacked mugs.

Why did he buy this many? Why has he been sitting on them for this long? of a dude's garage where he had a perfect cube of just stacked mugs. Right. Why did he buy this many? Why has he been sitting on them for this long? Maybe he stole it like Ben did. He put it in his pants. He had a cube crotch. I put in a lowball offer. Uh-huh.

Five comedy points. Thank you. Was your offer five comedy points? I'll give you five whole comedy points. At this point, I'm not making much money, right? I'm not successful in any way. Humble brag. Thank you.

And I think the guy was asking for like $200. Sure. And I was like, It's a lot of money. I'm going to lowball $100, which is not $100 I had. No. And he accepted it within one second.

He was like, what? Someone said yes to that? It's been sitting on these for 20 years. So then this very angry UPS guy shows up at my doorstep with the heaviest box of all time. It's 27 ceramic mugs. And he's like, this is something good, right? And you open it and it's 27 ceramic mugs. Yes.

That I didn't know what to do with. So for like two years, that was the only present I gave to people. And it was sort of like the people closest in my life, birthday, graduation, engagement. I think I got one. I never gave anyone more than one. The deal was everyone gets one. And I have one left.

And it's how I will propose to my wife. Great merchandise spotlight. When Sophie and Hawking got engaged, that was my gift to them at their wedding they were like we finally got them and they lived with me

when I had these things delivered like that was my big gift for a while Griffin is have I I don't think I've told this on my a monster

like a while ago I had a friend who was dating someone who was a mutual friend of Griffin's but I didn't know Griffin yet and one day I was like

do you want to hang out? And she's like, no, I have to go to like Applebee's in Harlem. Cause like my boyfriend's friend decided to like have his birthday there. And I was like, Oh, why?

And she was like, I don't know. I guess he likes Applebee's. He thinks it's funny. Or he just thinks it's funny. In February, by the way, it's freezing cold.

Right. I may have told this story in the podcast, but I didn't have the camera. And I was just like, Oh, okay, whatever. Let's hang out tomorrow. And so we hang out the next day. I was like, how was that Applebee's freezing cold. Right. I may have told this story in the podcast to the camera, and I was just like, oh, okay, whatever. Let's hang out tomorrow.

And so we hang out the next day. I was like, how is that Applebee's thing? She was like, it was horrible. We had to wait an hour for Applebee's. They wouldn't let you reserve tables, so we waited an hour and a half outdoors in the cold. It was literally snowing, and then I ordered a quesadilla burger, and I couldn't finish it.

It's a burger where the buns are quesadillas. And so before I knew Griffin, I knew this story. She never said his name. Yeah. Yeah. I knew this story. She never said his name. Yeah. I knew this story of like this idiot who did this. And the second you met me, you were like,

fuck, this is the guy. Is this you? This must be you. You did this? And you were like, yeah, I did that. Yeah, of course I did that. This was a really life bit heavy period of my life. Also when we were young,

in addition to maybe we see a movie after, like part of the deal of being able to go to like ESPN zone or all-Star Sports Cafe is basically Griffin being like, I'll go if the food is fucking terrible. Right, right, right. If they have the most frozen,

I love that. You know, chicken nugget. Right. Burger, you know, mozzarella stick. No effort. Right. My diet is based around the fact

that I didn't like food growing up. Right. So I only wanted to go to restaurants that had toys. Sure. And thus my food taste became based around what's that I didn't like food growing up. Right. So I only wanted to go to restaurants that had toys. Sure. And thus my food taste became based around what's the most chemically tasting

insane mutant food possible. Is this episode 17 hours long? No, no, no. We're doing fine. What's the run time? We're doing fine. We're about two hours, right? Yeah.

I've been recording for a while because there was that like long digression about your jean jacket. David. Yeah. If I know one thing about you, and say you're kind of sort of context.

If I know two things about you is you love money. I do love money. It sounds like a bit, but you talk about it a lot. I mean, yes. Money's on my mind. Right.

And we got a lot of sponsors on this show and they sell products and you're like, products are good, but they cost me money. I want to make money. Right. Right. This is,

you're talking about our friends Robinhood. Our good friends, maybe our best friends, Robinhood. That's an investing app. It lets you buy and sell stocks or cryptocurrencies, options, ETFs, all commission free. What they're striving to do is to make financial services work for everyone, not just the wealthy. It is actually, it's an app on your phone. It's so easy. You know, you set it up

and like, it's all very like clear and you can, you can buy and sell stocks and such. It's just, I mean, look,

it's, it's simple and intuitive. It's a non-intimidating way for stock market newcomers to invest for the first time with true confidence. Got little charts, you know,

for like a, a stock going up and down. I don't know if you know this, but the stocks, they go up and down. And look, I'm scared of money. I'm the opposite of you. It terrifies me.

Right. I treat money like a ghoul or a goblin. I run away shivering. Okay. Because I feel like I don't know it. I don't know how to deal with it. This is very easy to use. You learn by doing, kind of.

Yeah, I mean, and a lot of brokerages, they charge you like 10 bucks for every trade robin hood doesn't charge commission fees you trade stocks you keep all of your profits once again you're not really spend money you're trying to make money the the web platform and the app really easy to use the charts are simple you can place a trade with just like four taps on the phone you get notifications and you don't miss a good moment to invest they'll give you like a personalized news feed they've got custom notifications for stuff you might be interested in. Love notifications.

I've been using it. I'm having a little fun. But I'm also, you know, if you join, you can get a free stock like Apple, Ford, or Sprint to help build your portfolio. If you sign up at check.robinhood.com, that's check.robinhood.com. You check to make surecom they'll give listeners

a free stock. So essentially they're just giving you free money. This deal is a lot of times it's a deal where it's like hey here's 10% off of a thing. Robinhood's just going like here's a stock. Yeah. To get you started. Free money. So yeah Robinhood check.robinhood.com

and you can get trading right away. Yeah Yeah this episode is sponsored by money Okay let's play a box office game Yes This movie ends up at like 90 domestic 90 domestic exactly 230 worldwide Crazy for a movie about basketball

But at this point in the 90s Right like you know Basketball is becoming a little more of a global brand Michael Jordan big big name. Bugs Bunny. Big name. Big name. Love the title.

Number one. So this is November 15th, 1996. Okay. Number one of the box offices. Space Jam opens to 27. It's like a year to the date after Toy Story. Horrible multiplier. Yeah, right.

Huge opener. Especially for a children's movie. Huge opener. Number two. We've discussed it before. It's got a great score. Huge opener. Number two. We discussed it before. It's got a great score. It's a revenge thriller. Payback?

Nope. Close. Oh, Ransom? Right. The other Mel Gibson one-word revenge movie. I listened to Ransom's score and I want to feel like a hero. Have you seen Ransom, James? No.

I've never seen it either. I just love that trailer. Ron Howard. Pretty good. That's the main theme from Ransom. Number three. Mm-hmm. New This Week. New this

week. It's sort of a romantic dramedy. Romantic comedy, I guess. With a huge star who rarely makes movies. At that time?

And she directed it. Mirror has two faces. That's hard. How do you explain Mirror has... I was going to get it before you said she directed it Has Two Faces yeah it's hard how do you explain I was gonna get it before you said she directed it just that she rarely makes it Babs

that was like her last pretty much she directed right I think so and then she has The Guilt Trip and The Fockers

and those are the only other movies after that I guess so is there nothing I guess no I think it's The Guilt Trip

and The Two Fockers Babs number four a great movie oh my god I love this movie we were just talking about this director heist movie Guilt trip and the two Fockers. Babs. Number four. A great movie. Oh my God. I love this movie. We were just talking about this director.

Heist movie. It's a heist movie. Such a good movie. Director you love. No, don't love the director. Kind of mixed on the director, but we were just talking about him. But I love this movie. This is my favorite of his movies. Were we talking about it in relation to a six out of ten time at the El Royale?

No. Maybe it's seven out of ten. six to seven yeah no it's a heist sort of two good two really good sequences at the el royale that's what i would call that but like a pretty decent awesome set pieces of the el royale place and vibe throughout the entire runtime at the el royale right um a good actor showcase at the El Royale. Mostly, yeah. Cynthia Erivo's going to have a really good career at the El Royale.

I think so. Okay, so this is a heist movie. It's 1996. Really like it. What's the cast like? Big actor? It's an ensemble piece, like many a heist movie,

for ladies. Oh, it's Set It Off. Set It Off. Right, which you love. Great movie. Queen. Ladies. Oh, it's Set It Off. Set It Off. Right, which you love. Great movie. Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise. Great movie. Number five.

Oh, another great movie that I really want to do on this podcast. Oh, yeah. Can we do Two Monsters and a Leaf? No. No, you can go right to hell. Okay. The second film by this

very blank check director who's only made like five movies interesting saw this in theaters it was huge for me I've seen it so many times it's my favorite of his movies

wow it's a good weekend how do you describe this are they an actor as well it's an adaptation the director are they an actor as well no no it's an adaptation

huge star massive star but sort of at the beginning of his success like Are they an actor as well? It's an adaptation. The director, are they an actor as well? No. No, it's an adaptation. Huge star. Massive star. But sort of at the beginning of his success. Not Jim Carrey. No. 96, beginning of his success. He's got a real visual vibe to him.

Huh. Yeah, visuals really pop. Hyper visual movie. Director who's real blank check. He's only made about five films. Massive star but kind of at the beginning of their career. This is all good clues. Will Smith picture? Nope. Good guesses.

Right? Male star? Yeah. Female co-star who's not as big although at the time she was hot. She's still big. The time she was brand new like ingenue like well regarded teen star. A teen star? Yeah.

And how old is the lead actor? He's a teen. He's a teen. Probably, he's maybe 21 at this point. And then he goes on to have a really big, still big today? Yes. Still bankable? Yeah, very much so.

Very much so. Huh. One of the few movie stars. One of the few movie stars? Oh my God movies oh my god i like it i'm genuinely perplexed i know i love a stumper and had either of them come from tv before uh she did she's a tv star she was a tv uh he uh i guess he was in tv yeah but like i mean you know he gets famous in the movies i'll give you another clue he's already an oscar nominee oh so he had an early oscar what was it dicaprio leonardo dicaprio okay right so he was a regular on growing pains for a season yeah

yeah but i mean you know let i mean oh oh oh oh oh it's a william shakester's romeo and juliet good call good call yeah um yep with claire danes of my So-Called Life. Have you watched that movie not too long ago? I watch it all the time. It's aged so well. It's amazing. It's so good. It's kind of April Wave. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. 100%. That 90s Venice Beach sort of like, you know, Radiohead soundtrack. Like, yep. Yeah.

So good. What else you got in there? Sleepers. Sleepers. Weird movie. Yup. Epic about child molestation first wise club

played like a blockbuster seriously first wise club yeah Ghosts in the Darkness oh with Kilmer and Douglas Douglas

yeah okay Michael Collins Irish Independence yeah when Liam Neeson was boring Independence Day

still playing right okay yep crazy crazy crazy what a time what a time what a place we love it It was boring. Independence Day. Still playing. Right. Okay. Yep. Crazy, crazy, crazy. What a time. What a time. What a place.

We love it. The movies. We love them. Dumb movies. Dumb movies. That's a callback to something. Yeah, you'll like that eight weeks from now. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. I got to find that clip. So pump up the jams. Pump it up. Oh, oh we gotta give credit to while your feet are stomping our blankie who remakes the theme song for us

yeah their name is go on Masked Manta hey thank you so much for that that was really really cool

and we gotta record that well don't say that on mic I was gonna forget otherwise okay we'll beep it out then so it's a mystery and it sounds more exciting than it actually was. Fair enough.

Any final thoughts, James? Just pondering. Anything we didn't get to? This feels like the beginning of movies being designed as like, this can't not work, right? And just that idea of movies as intellectual property. As product, as brand revival, as sort of stuffing as much in as you can yeah yeah but also but again such a lack of like i feel like it's very hard to make a movie like this now without either the

director or the writer coming in saying like but let's throw a little list in there you know let's get this like so let's make this the message. This is a, just a, again, as you said, purely a commercial, it's a product,

it's a commercial, right? And then she's now they try and trick you by like hiring, you know, more legitimate artists, but there's also people leaning on the be like, don't forget to include all this stuff. But I wonder,

did we like this movie more when we were young for that exact reason? Like, it was just bite size, little like high energy cartoon. Watching this movie more when we were young for that exact reason? Just that it was just bite-sized little high-energy cartoon. Watching this movie now, again, my recollection being so much different, but my recollection was just loving this movie. Like, no boring parts of your sex. And forgetting parts

that didn't actually exist. When you watch this movie now, you're like, right, this is barely a movie. I mean, I remember walking out with our mom. We were both over the moon about it. We were like, what do you think? And she was like, it's just like a commercial. Right. That was her criticism as an adult. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a great Pixar movie or something like that, but do

too many directors want kids to be like adults in that they are sure, you know, that they that they're going to the movies and they want to. But on the other hand, this is a movie and I'm all for like movies that are just like Hoja Transylvania movies where it's just, like, this is just fun. This is just fun for kids, right?

Like, not trying to even begin to emulate the pathos of a Pixar or whatever. But this is a movie where no one involved had, like, genuine, like, sort of emotional creative aspirations. Right, right. You know? And, like, I feel like even other movies that are, like, like, you look look at like roger corman movies or whatever where he's like churn him out but the director is like copeland he's trying something right this movie is everyone just being like we know exactly what we're doing like sell the fucking hamburgers you know yeah sell sell the band-aid sell it all right um it's a weird film in that way and it kind of opens the door to i think studios

being like oh do we have we have to make any effort what if we just don't give a shit um what's like I'm trying to think of an analog though like there's nothing quite like Space Jam no no I mean the movie I weirdly think is closest to Space Jam is

uh from Justin to Kelly yeah right but no one even gives a shit about that one. Right, right. Yeah. The weird thing it has going for it is the mashup quality, which also was very unusual at the time.

Not the live action animation, but the idea of like brands were kept very pure at the time. Like they wouldn't even make Freddy versus Jason. And the fact that it's like two different things together felt insane.

Freddy versus Jason is like an alien versus predator. Right. Those things were always like they'll never make up. Where it was like people just demand together. Freddy vs. Jason is like an Alien vs. Predator. Right. Those things were always like, they'll never make them. People just demand a clash of brands. Right. And they do comic books or video games

and they'll never make a movie. That's too messy for a movie. Okay, what's your mashups? Oh, okay. Want to end with this? Our dream mashups? Oh, please. You go first.

Yeah. Okay. Because I have to think of something. Yeah. You know what I loved was X-Men versus Capcom, that brand of video games. They became Marvel versus Capcom. That was huge for me.

Sure. I mean, I think I pitched this before in the podcast, but Knights of Rodanthe, K-N-I-G-H-T of Rodanthe. Okay. It's a bunch of older men who have to team up to save Diane Lane. We got Hugh Grant, Dickie Gear, John Cusack,

all the men who have romanced Diane Lane post-40 are the Knights of Rodanthe. That's my mashup. I'm not going to top that. Dogs Hogs, which of course is the big mashing of the Walt Becker universe. Oh, that's not about House Hogs and David Dogs? Well, that's the sequel. Okay. So that's Dogs Hogs, House Dogs.

so that's dogs hogs but dogs hogs is of course the wild hogs boys end up pulling up into the driveway of the old dogs boys and boys will be boys and dogs will be dogs and you can't teach an old hog new tricks so that's dogs hogs yeah I don't know those are my mashups Ben you got any

yeah Beverly Hillbillies okay meets yeah beverly hillbillies okay um meets uh the jetsons it's weird that he started with beverly hillbillies i'm like oh he's got a joke coming and then he's just like uh okay i got one i got one right here ben i got one for you beverly hill cop billies family of eddie murphy's the clumps all get rich suddenly move to beverly hills and all become cops under the tutelage of axel foley they don't know how the fancy appliances work hotel for dogs but it's a cruise cruise for dogs cruise for dogs. Cruise for dogs. Hotel for dog talks. The wild hogs and the old dogs build a hotel for dogs. It's the 311 cruise.

Oh, oh no. Hotel for hos hogs. James. Hotel for David dogs. Just kill it. Let's talk about basketball. Don't dump the leash. Can we finish with basketball?

Yeah, let's talk some basketball. You're a Knicks fan still. Do you care? I thought the matchup thing went okay. I do care. I mean, I do find college to just be more fulfilling. I struggle with it. They're just going to do a stereo thing.

By all means, keep talking. Go on, go on. Well, what's... Okay, so what is your... I'm going to get a tattoo pretty soon. What is your favorite basketball-based movie you've ever seen? Please remember, rate, review, subscribe. Hoosiers.

Hoosiers? Yeah. Yeah, it? Hoosiers. Garbage Fire. It's Hoosiers. I'm trying to think. What else is there? Blue Chips. Lee Montgomery. I feel like there's an obvious one I'm missing. They're the kids where they're like Mike. There's that horrible Kevin Durant.

Thunderstruck? I've never seen that one. Go to Tee Public, I'm sure. Bald Hoss Hoss. This is the number one a talent swap film. Thunderstruck? I've never seen that one. Go to Tee Public, I'm sure. Bald Hoss Hogs. This is the number one. Mugs are available now. There's Mr. Right with Common. Oh, yeah. That one is fine.

I believe that film's called Just Right. Oh, White Man Can Jump. Just Right, yes. White Man Can Jump. That's up there. Go to Blanket. Blanket.red.com for some real nerdy shit. Fast Break is good.

Yeah. And as always, I cannot believe I allowed us to talk about a basketball movie. Love and Basketball is a great movie. Love and Basketball is very good. It's not like the best basketball movie, but it's a terrific movie. And I think it is about sports. Yes. How it's in the blood.

An episode about the new Bradley Cooper film, A Star is Born. We're starting and ending our Bradley Cooper miniseries. Right. Unless he decides to make another movie, of course. Then we resume. Well, yeah, but they'll be catching in later. Unless he decides to make another movie, of course. Then we resume. Well, yeah, but they'll be catching in later. But no, yeah, it's Hoosiers. And I got a text from Romley saying, how was James?

So clearly the competition rages on. Wow. You already did the as always. Yeah, you guys are in extra time now. Overtime. No, I knew what I was saying. It was a different reference that you didn't get if it is michael jordan your favorite basketball player no shack shack shack is the most like

merchandisable right he is the most living merch did you see that real sports segment about shack's merch empire uh yes yes i did i was just did you watch like the beef history recently about him versus um tim duncan no i mean sorry david robinson how long do you think they're gonna Yes, I did. I was just, did you watch the beef history recently about him versus Tim Duncan? No. I mean, sorry, David Robinson. How long do you think they're going to do that? Where he literally made something up in his autobiography. Literally ended the episode minutes ago. When he was like, when I was a kid, I asked him, because he grew up in San Antonio.

Right. And I asked him for an autograph and he blew me off. Right. And everyone was like, that doesn't sound like David Robinson. Maybe David is a 90s guy anymore. And then later he was like, yeah, I made that up. Shaq is excused for acting like a petulant child because he acts also like a really happy child right i mean it's sort of i don't know anyway it was so

certainly we can discuss the long-standing rumor that stern banned him because of gambling and all that stuff but like right you don't want to say like, the mafia killed Mr. Jordan. You don't want to just throw that out there. Alright. Are you guys feeling good? I'm trying to find this one. Are you ready to

come on and slam? Come on and slam. Jam! Jam! No one said anything about my jacket. Great jacket. come on in I am I want I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm

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I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm All right, good. It's a good jacket. Where'd you get it? I bought it upstate. It looks heavy. Not like in a pretty... I like the jacket. I actually don't know if I would go with such a bright red under that jacket.

I'll just say. I don't know if this is a bad way to start. Whoa. Why? You could just cut the tension in this room with a fucking knife. I don't know. I really like the jacket,

but it's sort of a nice duller color. The red sets off the blue, and it works with the black pants and the white shoes. Trust me. It's just a perspective. You can't do earth tones. I don't like purples. Purps. You know what, James?

I like a purp. Starring off on the wrong. I like a purple. Sorry, you guys are getting tense in here. Michael Jordan. The first billionaire tense in here. Michael Jordan. The first billionaire in NBA history. Player history. He's the third richest African-American alive.

Wow. It's Oprah. It's a VC guy whose name I didn't recognize. And then it's Michael Jordan. He owns the Charlotte Hornets. Yeah, there are now. You know what you should do? You should do the line where Daphne says,

a guy can't even get wet around here. Yeah, that one is fucked. Why? Robert Smith. That's the richest African-American. There we go. Yeah. No, but he and Oprah have been switching positions.

He's the philanthropist. He's got like a billion on Oprah now. Right now? Oh, yeah. Yeah, well, he owns an NBA team. No, no, I'm talking Robert Smith. Jordan's third. He does own an NBA team. But I actually, what do theymead. Jordan's third. He does own an NBA team.

But I actually, what do they say he's worth on that? 1.14 billion dollars. I think he's got to be worth more than that because he could sell the team alone for more than that. He might not own it outright. No, he doesn't. But also the brand and everything. I mean, that's just... The brand is I feel like that's a lot of it.

What team was the center on? Patrick Ewing? No, no. No, he was on the Mavericks. He was on the Mavericks. Oh, you mean Sean Bradley. It's so fucking offensive that he's in this movie. Yeah, he sucked.

I got context. I got context. It makes me so mad that Sean Bradley is in this movie. The context is really good and you guys are going to like it. We have four Hall of Famers and then Sean Bradley. I mean, I don't know if Muggsy is a Hall of Famer. I have thoughts on that. I'm going to do this and it's going to be really embarrassing.

But Muggsy Bogues is like a loony too. You could also make the argument that Muggsy Bogues is one of the greatest athletes. He's special. He's a very special person. If we're going to talk about basketball, let's at least do it on mic. All right, all right. We're going to talk about basketball. Believe me.

Okay, ready?