Club Shay Shay - Nightcap Hour 1: NEW NBA All-Star Format is a SUCCESS + Joe CALLS FOR Zion to do DUNK CONTEST + Adam Silver FOCUSED on ELIMINATING Tanking

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Shannon Sharpe, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson & Joe Johnson react to the NBA’s new All-Star Game format, Joe Johnson wants Zion in the Dunk Contest, Adam Silver wants to eliminate tanking and more! Subscribe to Nightcap presented by PrizePicks so you don’t miss out on any new drops! Download the PrizePicks app today and use code SHANNON to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/NI... 4:46 - New NBA All-Star Format Success24:35 - Zion Stop Ducking Dunk Contest37:00 - Adam Silver Wants To Eliminate Tanking (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #ClubSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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29 form your sale. This is a paid advertisement. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us for another episode of Nightcap. Y'all know who I am. I'm your favorite uncle. That is my partner and co-host, Liberty City's own. Bengals, Ring of Fame Honorary, a former Pro bowler and an all-pro. That is Chad Ochosinko Johnson.

And the third member joining us tonight at the All-Star Weekend. He's a University of Arkansas alum, Little Rock, Arkansas native, a seven-time NBA All-Star from the Atlanta Hawks, and recently nominated for the Basketball Hall of Fame. He's ISO Joe Johnson. Joe, what did you do? And what's happening? What's happening?

Yeah, we good over here, bro. Please make sure you hit that subscribe button. Please make sure you hit the like button and do us a favor. Go subscribe to the Nightcap podcast feed, wherever you get your podcast from. Again, thank you for your support and your continued support. Those looking to purchase a bottle of shaved by Laporteur, T.A. Head over to Laporteur,ta, cognac.com. If you cannot find an in a state or sitting near you.

It is the premium VSOP cognac, the best tasting premium VSOP cognac on the market. What's up, Fridge Fry? Try it, compare it against other conyx, and you'll see we have the best tasting smoothest cognac on the market. Please drink responsibly and stay safe. We got a very special guest joining us tonight, Kishad Johnson, who won the dunk contest. But first, the new round-robin format of the 2026 NBA All-Star game was an instant hit. The Team USA Stars featured MVP Anthony Air with Tyrone.

Reese Maxie. Cade Cunningham won beating the star USA stars, I'm excuse me, Stripes, 4721 and a rematch because the stripes beat them earlier in the championship games. But the three round robbing games showed the all start giving more effort than previous. Scotty Barnes and Deere and Fox hit game winners in the first two, while Kawhi scored 31 in the third game of the team's 47. And they, and the dagger three with three point five seconds left eliminated the world team led by Victor. with Minyama and Nicola Yokic.

Joe, the first three games, Adam Silver couldn't extrypted it any better. Man. The stripes, they ran out of gas in that last game. Because the three games back to back to back, with that kind of intensity, kind of caught up with him. But, Joe, did you like what you saw from the first three rounds and do you like this format?

Man, I loved it, okay, Ocho. I thought it was great. I thought it brought crazy excitement to the game, something that we all have been as fans. that we all been stressing about over the past few years. So those guys brought it. The main thing was they competed. Uncle Ocho, they came out.

They put it on the line. You could tell the old heads, they didn't want to lose to the World Team. The World Team. They didn't want, so they came out and played hard. But, Uncle, I think you're right. When you have to start their engine, then cut it off and then start it again,

try to get going, them young boys, hey, them young boys ran about the building. last game, but I thought it was fun, man. I thought the whole All-Star weekend was dope, Uncle Ocho. I'm talking about from the, I thought the celebrity game, you know, six, seven, whatever, but

I thought, I thought the Youngcast, the Rising Stars game was pretty good. A three-point shootout to Don Contest. I thought I thought it was a success, you know, for the NBA. It was a good look this whole weekend. Ocho? You muted.

I say, I like a new format. It was exciting. A lot of people have been complaining about the All-Star game, not being, not for the, not the players not playing to their full potential, you know, out there, lally gagging, playing around, trying not to get themselves hurt. But they competed. And that's the one thing. That's the one thing we asked for us for you guys to compete.

There's only, it's only one time out the year where you get all the stars on the court at the same time. And the format that they have right now, the formula they finally found. the answer on a way to get everybody to compete and I it was exciting for me and you know how I feel about basketball this is not something that I that I really enjoy watching but tonight I really did I really enjoyed it yeah I like this format also I thought Victor Wimmyiama set the stage and he made it known I'm competing right yeah I'm I'm competing he was blocking shots he was challenging he did not they were not selling what no whole lot of you know try to throw lobs and shooting from half court

Yeah, guys took some deep shots, but they were open. But I like this format. I think this is what we should see. Now, is it playoff basketball? No, but it's better than it's been the previous seven, eight years. I agree. There's no denying that. You might be like, well, let's get back to the eastern west.

And okay, fine, if you want to make it east and west. But if it's going to be this competitive, if this is the only way we can make the game competitive guys, I'll say stick to this format. Because I'm not so sure that when you get all the guys and you, you split it up east and west, you're still going to get this competitive nature. The world team wanted to win. Right.

Neither one of the USA teams wanted to lose to the world team. That's why you saw them compete the way they did. You saw files. It wasn't no ease and no, yeah, you got some breakaways. But when we got a punt of the basket and guys got a punt in the basket, they fired an issue out of them. Yeah. And that's the way it should be.

I ain't give you nothing cheap. Right, right. Go to the free throw line and make it. And then that third game, Kauai went crazy. Oh, I don't know. And I've been watching a lot of All-Star games. I've never seen a guy. When the level of competition is like this,

a guy getting this hot. He dropped 31 up there 47. Yeah. Yeah, he was unconscious in that third game. Okay, Ocho, you know what? You know what special about it is because it's in his house. Yes, in his arena, in his state, you know what I mean? So in his city.

So I feel like, I feel like Kauai. He really came out and gave us what we wanted to see because I think they needed that push from him. They needed him. Oh, if he don't play like that, They're losing. Yeah, yeah. Hey, you can see the guys just deferring to him, too. Obviously, it was his moment.

And that's what it's about, bro. When you get a guy like that going in an atmosphere like that, you want to continue to feed the high hand. And I thought he put on a terrific show at game three. He was unbelievable. He was unbelievable. And it wasn't a whole lot. Yeah, I think he got a layup and he stole the ball and got a dunk.

But other than that, it was threes and middies. And like I'm saying, I'm not saying other guys haven't been hot, But when we watched Steph put him at three-point clinic, guys, he was open. They weren't playing. They weren't competing. Right. This was competing.

Yeah. Yeah. In the AD got, when AD had 50, and I think he had like 17 dunks. Yeah. This was like NBA basketball. When you see guys, when you've seen Donovan Mitchell, you've seen Kobe,

you've seen Steph and Clay guys get hot for a quarter. Guys were competing. Wimby was hitting threes in guys' face. He was turning around making sure. KD was making shots. And they needed every last one of those points because if they don't get them, the world team was about to beat the strike.

Yeah. Yeah, they, they, they were. They were. I mean, he dropped 31 and then that three, it's like, you knew it was going in. Right. You knew it was going in. But unfortunately, they ran out of steam.

They played the Stars team again. Because remember, they had to lead on the Stars, the Stars come back, and Matt thought he had done it again, just like he did in the first game. Yeah. But guess what? They come back.

LeBron hit a cutting, a Donovan Mitchell, Mitch kicks at their defox in the corner. Wow. So that is basketball. That's what we want to see. They were competing today. Go ahead, Joe. Hey, Joe and Unk,

I think they figured it out with the format in this formula that they have and getting the players to actually play without having to incentivize them with the way they've done it. But I think there's still one thing missing. The dunk contest is supposed to be the one thing that everybody really wants to see. They need to get, find a way to get the dunk, the dunk contest being the one thing that everybody wants to tune in the seat.

I'm not sure what they need to do, Joe. No, you know what they need to do. What? The guy, you got to have a mega stars to play in it. You need the Zion, you need those dudes, bro. Yeah, yeah. The same thing they said about getting the star quarterbacks to go complete the Pro Bowl. How many times you see Tom Brady at the Pro Bowl?

You're right, right. Some guys ain't coming. The guys don't, they don't want. don't want to compete. So this notion where Jordan did it in that guy, this is a new era. Yeah. Guys are marching to their own drunk,

their own beat. They're doing things their way. They don't care that Kobe competed. They don't care that Jordan and Dr. Jay and some of the great dunkers who were the great players in years, man, have done it. They don't care about that. That doesn't move them.

Yeah. You know what? I think what I really think, Okojo is that, you know, in this era, everything is, it's magnified far greater than it was in the 90s because we didn't have, obviously, the social media. Social media. Correct. So, like, if you get embarrassed, they're going to continue to show it over and over.

Over and over. Can't continue to see it. I think that's one of the reasons why these dudes don't compete neither. You know, everybody has their own brand. They don't want to lose this, that, and third. So, you know, I kind of see why we don't never get the megastars to join in. The dudes with the, with the signature shoes, things of that sort. But that's what we want to see.

We want to see the megastars get out there and compete, bro. Yeah. And it used to be the great dunk. But here's the thing. What is transpired now is that the three-point shot has replaced the dunk as more exciting. Man. You see guys now coming down.

They're launching threes. They heat checking. Okay. Oh, he dunk. Okay, fine. Good. We've seen it. But now with the three-point shot,

the three-point shot now, Joe, is more exciting. That's because what do you see? you see guys run to the three point line and they look in the end the game. If you think about today, what are we talking about? Three point shot by Ant Man, three point shot by D Fox, three points shot by Kauai.

Ain't nobody mentioned nothing about no dunks. No. LeBron had a great putback. Yeah. Bruns and Mr. Ball and LeBron ducked it on the guy's head. Ain't nobody mentioned it until I just brought it up. We saw it. But the more,

the more interesting thing now is the three point shot. Steph has made that. not everybody want to shoot the ball and turn it. I already know that's going. Let me hit on McDonald's. I ain't going to hold you. Yeah, right. That's the thing now, Joe.

Right. So I don't know if the dunk contest will ever be what it once was because like you said, Joe, the stars used to compete. Guys that were in, Jordan was actually in the All-Star game. Dominique was in the All-Star game. Guys used to beat Clyde Drexler, Dr. J, Larry Nance, those guys that competed in the Cobe's, the Vince Carter, they were actually in the game. Yeah.

Now you got the bag bar and still, we had to get an eye that guy that's not in the league to come up. And I'm not so sure that if the dunks that he showed last night, say these were the dunks I was going to dunk. He'd have been a four-time champ, Joe. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

He'd have been a four-time champ, but I just don't know how, I don't know, Ocho, if we're ever going to get the best players Yeah. To compete in the dunk competition. Because a lot of the best players aren't how KD is not a high riser. Yokage is not a high riser. Yon is seven foot taller. Guy that's seven foot tall don't look good dunking.

All they got to do is tiptoe. Yeah, it's not even them though. Uncle Joe, it's about those that are dunkers that had the creativity to it. You know, obviously it's not the best players aren't the best dunkers. Right. The best dunkers don't have the most creativity. So it's about finding those. that excel in that specific area and that specific craft that's exciting zion is one that i can think of

job moron you know those that play above the rim and i'm not sure how you can do it they make so much money where even if you incentivize it it'd be hard to get them to compete in it especially at a time like that especially if you don't make the all-star game just to go down there just for a dunk contest yeah i mean the incinivation would have to be so large it'd have to be be worth it. Guys that's not going to compete, Joe. You know, they want that little time. They want that little three, four, day, that little mini break.

They get down to Jamaica or Mexico or somewhere, somewhere with the wife, the girlfriend, the family, whatever the case may be. They want that. They're not going. If, Joe, it's kind of like, who goes to the actual Super Bowl game if you're not playing in it? You might go down there because you have advertising sponsors. You've got to go to radio row.

But other than that, you're not going. Yeah. And your damn show, it wasn't nobody that didn't make the Pro Bowl coming to the Pro Bowl. Right, right. So these guys like, I ain't in it. So what hell I'm going? Why am I spending my money to go somewhere? No, I'm going to win the NFL.

I'm going to let the NBA spend their money and fly me there or get me there. Right. And then, you know, I'll participate. But I thought this was very interested. I love the competition. I love how guys ratchet it up. Guys made shots. And we know they can make shot.

You're in this league. You can make shots. but everybody was forced to make shots today. And I think everybody that watched, I think they were very excited. Look, we know the last game, 4721, it was a blowout. The stars were fresh. They had 20 minutes off and they could recover.

The last guys, what's up, bro? The last, the, the, the, the stripes, Joe, they needed that break. Right. But to play because they exerted a lot. You know, when you're trying to win, you exert a lot of energy. These guys exerted them a lot. Yeah. And they needed to.

Yeah. And when you look at it, the stripes brun them, they didn't really have no, they didn't really have no big. Oh, Joe, they just had shooters during those killing them. Yeah. So when you're playing against Duran and Wimby and Allem, you know what I mean? It's already a, dude, y'all. already at a disadvantage.

But for the most part, I thought they competed, except their last game. It was just too much. Them young boys ran them out to gym. But it was fun, man. It was exciting. I mean, they had me glued from start to finish. So, you know, from a fan standpoint,

I'm super, super appreciative of that. Yeah. Yeah. You got an overtime game in the first one. Oh, man. You get a game winning shot. You got a game. I mean, the stripes had to lead,

he had to lead for a long time. And then that man goes crazy. Yeah. And he hits what he thought was a game. game winner. And then D'ER, they swing it, swing it. And D'A. Fawkes right up in the corner as the buzzer, bam. And then you get, now you got the stripes against the world. Yeah. And you get Kauai going bonkers. He went crazy. He hit a couple of logos. KD. did what did what KD does. But it was Kauai. Kauai goes crazy. And before these injuries start to besiege him,

Kauai was a top five player. He was the best two-way player in basketball. And it wasn't close. Absolutely. When he was at his apex, those last two, well, before he got the injury, before Zazab a cheap shot slid his foot upon his ankle, and he twisted his ankle against Golda State. Yeah. Those two years after Timmy left,

he was the best two-way player, and it wasn't close. I agree, I agree. He wasn't close. The injuries have robbed him, but we see. When he's healthy? Yeah, he's, oh, he hell when he well, man. Oh, man, you put it. Hey, look, at the end of the day,

Orko, you put him out there with some great talent, some guys who really know how to play. Like I'm saying, I know he's still option one on a team, but Arcan Ocho, you put him on a team to where he'll have to work as hard and he can just kind of pick his spot without having to bring his spot and do his name. Man, he's still going to be crazy, effective, and he can still help a team win a title. Yes. Yeah. Hey, how tall is Kwai?

About six, seven. Six seven? Okay, okay, okay. he can't play defense like he once could. The knee injuries, the quad, all those stuff has robbed him of that ability, but he's still offensive. And plus,

he's got the taste of offense in his mouth now. Yeah. Because, you know, when it was Timmy, he deferred to Timmy. He was more of a defensive player. Yeah. But once Timmy left and Pop said, well, we need you to score more.

He's like, hold on. Man, I got 25 points. I'm a first team. Oh, damn to hell with that defense. Bad. Hey, people don't be talking about that defense. Hey, they talk about this offense. And he's sensation.

He got a mid-range game. He's taught himself how to shoot the three ball because he could not shoot the ball like this when he first got into the league. Now he gets to that midi. Yeah. He's just trying to get to a spot. Hey, you see him dancing?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And out. Hold on. Hey, walk, walk, walk, crossover. Hey, I got one for you, though. What's that? Joe, and on.

Who got a better mid-range game? Katie, Kowai, Hey. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See, I've been paying attention now.

Yeah. Yeah. If we just going, if we just go in pure mid-range, yeah. I would say it's probably between Kauai and KD. Over Shea? Yeah. Yeah.

I'm probably, I'm going to go. I'm going to go, I'm going to go Kauai, man. Hey. I'm going to say, he gets you that mid-range? It's automatic. Oh, Joe. Damn near. He's just trying to get to a spot, bro.

He's just trying to get to a spot and he's going to raise up. You know, obviously he can throw a few pump fakes in there, but I'm talking about a mid-range assassin. Obviously, they are mid-range assassins, but Kauai for some reason, bro. I don't know what it is. You know, he don't have a lot of arc on his shot, neither, Uncle Ocho. It's kind of like a straight line drive, but it's cash. Yeah. It's cash.

I think the thing is, like, because we, like, Katie had. But Kauai has turned himself into a great three-point shooter, a joke. Yeah, he has. We know KD has always had that. Now, for me, Shea is not the three-point shot maker that those guys are. Yeah. But, man, Kauai can hang. He can put the, hey, he's phenomenal.

And I hate that injuries have robbed him of some of his best years. Yeah. But when he's cooking, he's going, hey, look, but Uncle Ocho, he's been playing way. over the past few months in the NBA. What did he average? He probably averaging about... He averaged about 26. Probably over 26?

Yeah, I mean, he's just... 25, 26? You know, he's been playing a lot more lately. Yes. And he's out there. He's giving you at least 25 a night, man. You know, he... Remember the other night?

He was dropped 40-something other night? Yeah. Who they was playing against? It was a good game, too. That one-off. Yeah. But this was... I think Adam Silver,

probably got on the NBA plane and headed back to New York. It's like, yeah, I think we got something. You're excited. You're happy. Now he's probably asking, okay, guys, what can, how do we improve upon? Yes, it's great foundation. It's the first time this format. We see it.

How do we improve upon that? Now, Steph sent Shockways when he said, oh, I see y'all next year in the three-point competition. Hey, hey, hey, hold up, hold up, though. My boy, Dame Dollar, he got something to say about that. That's why he's coming back. He's coming back. Hey, hey, and kudos.

to the NBA for letting him play in it because he hadn't played all season due to the touring Achilles. And for him to come out and come out and put on a performance like that, Uncle Ocho. Hey, that was impressive, bro. Oh, for sure. That was impressive. So you can get Steph, you can get Dane, get Clay, get book, get Katie, get on. Bring Khan back.

Green Conn back. Come back. Absolutely. Yes, he's got to come back. Bring him back. Yeah. I like a nipple. Because now we got, you know, we got some three-point marks.

We got guys that's made a lot of threes, hit a lot of big-time threes and clutch situations. And I need the finals to be between Dame and Steph. Yeah, ooh. I need to say, look, I get it, Joe. It would be great that Steph is going to be in there. But I need the finals to be between Dame and Steph. Man, listen, but check this out, Archie.

If you're Devin Booker, boy, you got to be kicking yourself because he missed them last three-three. All he needed was one. Yeah, he had him. And all three, the last three went, hit the rim came out. Man, you had him. He had him. But it was, I ain't going to lie, that probably was the best event to me, honestly.

I mean, the all-sad game was great. But the three-point shootout, I like to see the shooters, bro. And it's been like that for some time because why? Because you have the best three-point shooters competing. Yeah. You're getting Steph Curry competing. You're getting Dame competing. You're getting the better three-point guy.

You're not getting. getting the best dunkers. Nah. And that's not a knock on these guys. We get some good ones. It's just the fact that it doesn't matter. Yeah. Go ahead.

What do you want to say, Jeff? I say, we're getting some decent ones and some good ones, but I want to see Zion, bro. I ain't going to lie. I want to see him in this format in the dunk contest. I'm going to tell him. I'm going to tell him, Joe. Because that's who I'm going to put my bread on.

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I'm Bowen-Yin. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead-up to the Milan Cortina 2020-2016 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Boen, hi Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt, hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway, and we are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to two guys, five rings on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the

26 IHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at a IHeart Podcast Awards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartpodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audio books,

podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. I'm gonna tell him. Hold on. Let me ask you a question. Is Matt McClung entered or is he not in her? Because if you don't

if you put your money on anybody other than him, you high. He had a good run, I'll get it. You see, if he come back and do those dunks that he showed, he went it again, Joe. I think Zion got. You see this man dumped, and the guy threw the ball between his legs, on Joe. And he called it.

I see it. He went backwards. He kicked it with both feet. He kicked him with both feet and dumped it backwards. Oh, he's nice now. What are we supposed to do that, Joe? And it looks good because why, Joe, he's six foot tall, six to six one. Yeah.

So you know the show. That's why. Come on, Joe. Look at this. No, that's nasty. I ain't all that's nasty. Oh. Hey.

Hey, boy, hey, once a point in time. And look at this one. You tell me, tell me, they got to give him a 75 on this one. Look at this, Joe. Come on. Just over. He do those three dogs right there. It's over, Joe.

Hey, look. Y'all heard it, man. Y'all heard him. man, y'all talk about the world and all this. We still the best. Don't get it twisted. If I, hey, if Zion going to make his mind up, man, I know he can top all that. Stop playing.

Yeah. I mean, Zion is creative with it too. He always going to come with something different. I mean, he did it in college. He doesn't do it much of the NBA. Every, every blue moon, he could catch a little fast break. He has switched it up. But if you give him time to think and be creative, knowing he got a dunk contest coming up,

man, ain't no telling what he might come up with. And the thing is with this kid, he's so, he's so creative. I mean, and that's what you gotta do you because it's hard. I mean, because we've seen Aaron Gordon and we've seen Zach Levine doing some dunk, you're like, well, damn, what are they gonna do now? Jump over the moon? Right, right. We don't see the man jump over a car.

We saw Blake Griffith jump over the hood of the car. Mike McClun drop over the body of the car reverses. Hey, remember when we got, we got to pull the moon in. Somebody jumped over the moon. Hey, didn't Blake Griffin compete in the dunk contest? Yeah, he jumped over the car. Over the, uh, Kea, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Hey, hey, hey. That was exciting in, boy. It was close. It was a close one. Hey, but listen. Yeah. Yeah, Matt McClung, he's creative because he does dunks that really, we ain't

never seen before. And that's what we want. We want that creativity. Yes. We want to see something that we ain't ever seen before. It's something that these guys can do. They've got to just be creative in the dunks. I think that's the biggest key.

Plus the difference is now, Joe, these guys, because like Jordan wasn't practicing no dung. George was working on his game. He's like, I was going to get here, and I figured out once I'm up in there, what I'm going to do. Matt McClung is actually practicing these dung. You know, Ms. Carter says, okay, the last day,

okay, a couple of nights before I put something together. Now when you talk about McClung, that he has this kind of time because he's not on an NBA, he's in the G league, he's probably taking a month or so, like, okay, let me see what I can come up with. Because I don't know why we haven't seen somebody think or thought of the dunk yet that he comes up and his home boy throws up between his legs. He catches it and dunks it backwards.

Right, right. Now, that was nice. You kick the ball with both. How do you not kick the ball like your damn hand? But he kicking with both feet and still dunk it, Joe. Hey, and six feet to be getting up like that, Uncle. Oh, yeah. It looks great.

It looks great. On camera, it looks great in person. So I can see how, you know, he's won a few of these dunk contests. He got style, bro. You can't get that away from. We got to give him a lot of credit. And it's just like with Spud well. We've never seen somebody that's going to jump that damn high.

Man. He couldn't palm the ball, so he had to slam everything off the court. Because he's going to go up and get it. Oh, yeah. But we had never seen anything like that. Yeah. He actually won. And Dominique was doing Dominique things,

but he couldn't rob with that because nobody had ever seen a guy jump that high. that size. Man. Yeah, they always got advantage. The smaller dunker who can get up, that's why Nate Robinson has one of us dunker. You know what I mean? Like them small guys who can leak,

they got a greater chance. It just looks different. Because I mean, a tall guy dunking, you're like, Yon is Duncan or Jackson, bro, you seven foot tall. Yeah, it's not insane. But a guy that's a foot shorter than you that's elevating like that and he got creativity. It's just hard.

for a guy that's seven six six 10 six you know George was another guy George was six six yeah yeah so he was a little bit he was creative with it yeah Kobe was creative with it with you get a guy that's creative like Joe said it got they got elevators yeah oh it's gonna look crazy and it and that's what and that's what those guys have but I was I was look I don't know if we'll ever I don't know if the dunk contest will ever get back to what it was because I'm not so sure the big the big guns are going to ever participate again, Joe. Because the best dunkers, the best dunkers don't make the All-Star game like they used to. Right.

Bitz Carter was one of the, was a top 15 player. Kobe, Jordan, Dominique, those Dr. Jay, those were top players. Right. Well, you only got to have, I mean, Zion didn't make, now, now you, hey, hey, just come. But I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure. Normally guys do that early in their career, Joe. If they ain't done it by the first five years of the league, they're not doing it.

Yeah. That's why I think if John Zion can get back to all-star caliber, you know, play and make the all-star game again, Uncle Ocho, I think they'll definitely think about it. But like y'all said, just to be flying down there for the dunk contest, nah, we ain't doing it. Because you only get four or five days of rest and they play heavy minutes. So them do those dudes not coming down there to do that, bro. Exactly. Now, if they have to already be there, obligation,

for the All-Star game, then maybe we'll get some of that, but just to be coming for the dunk contest? No. No. Or you get a guy like Jason Richardson. Jason Richardson, what was Rich? What was Rich? About six, four, Joe?

Yeah, he about six, four, six, five. He could jump, boy. That's my drag, clean. You see how he looks when he's dunking? Yeah, you know who else? Ben Carter, you see how he looks when he's dunk it? You know who else could jump out to gym? Who there?

That goddamn Shannon Brown, boy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's Craig Craig. He got some Pogo, boy. Yes, sir. Then there's some Pogo. Hey, but look, what y'all probably don't remember is that year Vince Carter won the dunk contest, bro. It was so many stars in the dunk contest that year from Tracea McGrady to Steve Francis to Jerry Stackhouse.

But Vince Carter was so, so great that night. Yeah. Nobody even remember them dudes even being in there, bro. They don't. Yeah. Hey, that's the one he ended in the rim, right? Was Jar Green in that contest? I don't remember Jar Green was the one that blew out the candle.

Yeah, I think he was in the one with, like, the white house. How I would have. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. But see, that's creativity. You know, you dunked the ball and you blow out the kettle in the process.

He's like, damn. Yeah, G. Green, hey, he was a hell of a dunker, too, Uncle Ojo. Oh, yes. Yes. And the guys that we're talking about, they, I mean, after Vince dunked on Frederick Weiss in the Olympics, people like, no, he got the ball. Let me go and move out the way. Talking about when he jumped over, dude. Yeah, yeah.

If he jump over seven two, dude, what chance you got? He got Zoh, he posterized Zoh. Yeah, see, he didn't got, he got all of them. If you're a shot blocker, Vincent, he got Zoh, and he got Zoh so good. And he'd be twisted with it, too. Because you think you got to come out in the baseline, he'd come to the front of the rim. Oh, whoa. Oh, hey, oh, Cho, that was one dude.

I swear, when I came into the NBA, because Vince Carter was Vince Carter in 2001. He was the real half man half man. Van Sanity. Yeah. Yeah, Vince Sadd. He was the one dude you could not game playing for. Like, because he shot so many unorthodox shots. You didn't even know if he were going left,

right, which way he loved it. Like, he was I thought he was next up, bro. Yeah. I thought he was next up. Yeah. Yeah. He could flat out do it, man. He was special. But this all-star game, I don't think anybody have anything to complain about.

No. And you know how people are. It's, as great as it was for those that wanted something different as opposed to how it looked the other years and them out there, lally gagging and bull driving,

shucking and jiving, somebody going to have something to complain about Uncle Joe. Always. Always. As great as great as all the events were, you know, somebody going to find something

to complain about. Yeah. I think it's hard letting go. Sometimes the hardest thing to do, guys is to let go to pass. And a lot of times the people don't want to let go to pass. Man, I remember

Ben, oh, Joe, man, you remember? Back of the day, we were the silver porch. We played checkers, talking it's. Man. Remember. It's hard, it's hard to let that go. So it's hard to let the Jordan and the Kobe era

go because a lot of times, that's when people, that's when the NBA was really start, you saw that the early 80s, with magic and bird, the competition would ratchet it up. David Stern, like, oh, and then they get this kid that can fly. No, literally he could fly. Jordan can literally fly.

Yeah. And so now he took it to a, he took it to a level that the NBA could have only like, Lord, have mercy. Yeah, we got bird and magic and their competition is the great. Lakers, Celtics, the most, rival in the most, stored rival in maybe at all of sports. But they what, they couldn't fly like this kid could. He was charismatic.

And guess what? Now he got a brand. He got a shoe. Mm-hmm. And the shoe didn't retire when he did. Still going. And he's probably more popular now than he was when he played. He set the standard.

Oh, man. Hey, look, that's why I'm glad the young guns won because, you know, you get to really see Anthony Edwards' personality and who he is, Uncle Ocho. And he'll tell you straight up, I'm always at these boys' neck. I'm always trying to beat these boys. And that's a competition. Yeah, that's the competition that we look forward to. Yeah, you can idolize those dudes, but once you get in between those lines, they can go with them boys next.

And that's what he do. Every time he play against the KDs, the bronze, the steps. So I can really appreciate that. I think, you know, kudos to end for winning MVP. I thought he was amazing the night. He came out. He set the tone like he said. When he seen Winby playing hard, he tapped in.

He tapped in, and that's what we wanted to see. But that's what it takes. Because when you see all the guys taking all, hey, if you see two or three guys taking half-court shots, Joe, you know when I get my hands on the ball, I got to get me one too now. I've just let you know. I'm just saying, oh, Joe, I'm just saying it.

Yeah. You see a guy try to catch the ball with one hand? Let me show. Well, he missed his. They missed theirs. I'm going to get mine. So I got to try it. It's a snowball effect.

Right. Everybody shooting logo threes. Everybody shooting half-court threes. Right. But this was very entertaining. Kudos to the Mish. Kudos for Wemby. Hey, striking up the band.

The party started. He got it started. Like, I'm going to make shots. I'm going to challenge everything. Don't you bring your ass up in here. I'm going to throw it out. Yeah. And that's crazy, bro.

7-5 moving like that. I'm talking about anchoring a whole defense by yourself. Like, he's going to be running the league, guys. And you got to worry about him, Joe. because you're like, oh, man, he can't, damn way he comes from. You're like, hey, Joe, hey, hey, win me out there, he guarded somebody with a three.

I get me a rebound. I'm getting ready to go back and he doesn't slap it to the board. And starting to break, hey, starting to break with that. Man, this was a very good game. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith. We're putting loneliness in the penalty box by talking to some of our favorite athletes about the importance of friendship.

This is bromance. Bromance is brought to you by Charm Diamond Centers, proudly Canadian-owned and operator. Charm has been part of your love stories and bromances for over 50 years. And you can find Bromance on the IHeart Radio Network or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Bowen-Yang. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the Two Guys Five Rings podcast, in the lead-up to the Milan Cortina-206 winner Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends.

Hi, Boen, hi, Matt. Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt, hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie. Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway, and we are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears. Listen to two guys, five rings on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 2026 IHard Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at IHart Podcasts.

Podcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Joe Varden, Adam Silver and his advisor would seriously consider abolishing the rookie draft and turning rookie into free agents if it's the only way to stop tanking. This set out social media with many criticizing Adam Silver.

How he's going to do that, though? Dan Walker said, I'll continue to say the NBA is thinking on tanking is completely wrong. As long as you allocate talent by the draft, you'll never stop tanking. The goal should be fewer teams to tank the shortest amount of time possible. The answer to that is obviously get rid of the lottery

and draft by reversed order. The worst teams get the best players improve and move out of the tank phase. He said, Joe, if you don't mind me asking, how does San Antonio get, Wimby? They got lucky. They tanked. Yeah, they were trained.

And they got stuff on Castle, they taint. Duh. The same way the Houston Rock has got Elijah on. Tank has been going on. So how do you eliminate it? If it's been going on this? Is it even possible? Let me ask you question.

How long do you eliminate sports betting? You can't. You can't. Thank you. Okay, there you go. Yeah. You can't eliminate the tanking phase because, I mean,

kind of similar to like I was saying about this draft. Right. You know, teams will play the players that they have. You know, that don't mean they're trying to win. You know what I mean, Uncle Ocho? Yes. Like, you know, they understand what's coming up, bro. They understand how deep this draft is.

And everything is magnified nowadays. Yeah, tank has been going on. But nowadays, in 2006, everybody got eyes on everything. So we know everything that's going on. We see. And the microscope is a little bigger. Look, they tried to do away with tanking. That's why they instituted the lottery.

Because the Houston Rockets tank so bad, they say, the hell with them, we ain't lying this no more. So they came up with the lottery in 85. And lo and behold, Patrick Ewing somehow ended up at the Knicks. Mm-hmm. Even with the lottery. Yeah. Schott goes to Orlando.

Brown go to Cleveland. Mm-hmm. Wow. Cooper flag go to Dallas. Yeah. up. Come on. Cooper flag after they made one of the hugest blunders. Now, Luca's gone. How did they get, how did they get another guy that has the same complication of Luca? They go right back to Dallas. It almost, it almost make you think. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it's funny how

everything aligns to work out in their favor. Yeah. I'm, I'm just saying. I could be wrong. But it's, look, and Dan Wogan also said, fans of bad teams don't mind tanking. They will support tanking. The issue of tanking without a payoff, thus multiplying the number of teams trying to tank. Adam Silver has created that problem and made it worse. They need to reverse the curse,

reverse course and stop coming up with stupid ideas to fix what they can't be fixed. You're right. It can't. They're not fixing it. I think, I think Adam Silver, he's, he's, uh, He's a little ticked off probably about the Washington, the Washington situation. Yeah.

With Trey Young and Anthony Davis over there, not playing no more this season. Obviously, Jan Jackson, they say he has surgery, so he's going to be out the rest of the season for the jazz. He probably had a toenail removed. Yeah, and what Memphis is doing with John? We ain't John coming back. Nobody knows, bro. But Joe, when I look at. When I look at these guys, and I'm not saying they're not going to be good,

but I don't look at franchise altering players coming out in the draft. In this draft coming out? Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about franchise altering. I think there's some really good players. Right. But do you see a LeBron?

Do you see a Wemby? You see a, I don't know, Joe. Yeah. Oh, Joe, I see some guys who can change the trajectory of the superstars and megastars in this league. That's just me personally. I think we got some guys who, you know, y'all got to understand, a lot of these dudes just freshmen, man.

They're just one year removed from high school. So they're still in this little boy body that they have. They ain't filled out like LeBron was when he came out. Them dudes, they ain't built. They're not built like that. They don't have that. You see an Ant Man in this draft? Ant Man was a guy that spent one year in college,

the University of Georgia and came in. Supreme Athleticism. Ant Man was a football player that decided to say, you know what, hey, I'm done with football. A lot of these guys just, I don't like guys that just concentrate on one thing, Joe. What you mean? Just play basketball, you're round.

Oh, you're talking about it. I like guys that play multitude because each sport helps a sport. Right, right. Track helps you, and football helps you with speed. Yes. It helps basketball with your hand-eye coordination. Football helps with physicality. So it's a mesh.

Yeah, I agree. And it used to be, Ocho, man, you couldn't, I've never seen a guy that just all he did was play like one sport. Yeah. Everybody played basketball. If you play basketball, you play football or you play baseball or you ran track. Those are the only options. Yeah.

At a small school, like what we had, we didn't have a wrestling team, a golf team or a soccer team. But you played baseball, football, basketball, and you played two or the four. Yeah. Most guys played three of the four. Yeah. Yeah. Most guys played multiple sports coming up. Mostly it was a lot of cats who I played with, they played, even though they played basketball, they grew up playing football.

That's just kind of what it was. Some ran track, some did all three. But yeah, I agree with you on. Because you kind of, you're more filled out. It seems like when you start, when you play football and you move over to basketball, like them guys play with like a little different edge. And that maybe has something to do with LeBron

because LeBron was a football player until his sophomore year. That boy had a nice party. He was an all-state wide receiver. Yeah. Ant Man was a football player. Go ahead, don't you? Yeah.

Young Bull. Well, Young Bull, I mean, obviously you all saw Cooper Flag play, right? Yes. So Young Bull, that's at BYU. You don't think he is a- Banzer. Yeah, DeVonza. AJ DeBanzah.

Is Cooper Flagg that much more polished than him? We don't think he can go to a team and do the same thing Cooper Flagg is doing? I do Ocho. I think he going to come into the league. Okay, Ocho, I think his first year, I got him averaging at least a dub. He's going to average a dub his first year. If he go to the right, meaning if they're going to feature him, right? Like, he's going to go to a team.

to where he can get featured to where they play through him, let him play through his mistakes, let him make mistakes, let him learn from his mistakes. You know what I mean? That's how, that's how like guys like the Bron, Mello, D-Wade and them came in. They was able to play through the mistakes. Right. You know, they was ahead of their time, but those guys learned at an early age. And I think the thing is, Joe, also is that you go back and look at the guy that you

mentioned, they had veteran players, except to D-Wade, because D-Wade, he ended up getting shot. Yeah. And then, you know, the rest of the shot, I think Shaq was there for like three years. But for the most part, you look at LeBron, they had a team and then all of a sudden they say, you know what, in order for this kid to be what we think it can be, we're going to have to remove some of these players. Right.

Because he's never going to be that because they still want to show that they're better than he. And so he's, and you hear guys, he's competing against guys on his own team because they didn't think he was that good. Right. Right. So they had to remove those guys and say, here, this is really the key. This is the key. Yeah.

This is the master key. Mm-hmm. And he took off from there. But you're asking, everybody, and everybody just doesn't have the maturity. LeBron James had grown man maturity at 18 years of age. I agree. And you don't have a whole lot of guys like that.

And he's followed, I don't know, you know, the man laying in his room at night. And to be great, let me tell you something about greatness, guys. Greatness is boring. Man. You know why greatness is boring? Because you do the same thing over and over. It's very mundane.

You wake up in the morning. if you're a basketball player and you get your $1,000,000 shots in. And you go through your drills and you do that over and over and over and over. Routine. Tom Brady did the same thing over and over and over again. For 23 years.

Peyton, greatness is boring. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, it's boring. It's monotonous. Everybody can't handle that. Ant-Man was talking about it today. He said, man, the one thing I learned about the U.S. team, He said they do the same thing. I watch Steph, I watch KD, and I watch LeBron.

Do the same thing over and over and over and over again. He said, that's the one thing that I took away from it. Get a routine and stick with it. Yep. Yep. He said it this summer too when he was training. He said, he goes to the gym every day and he go home. He says, it's boring.

But I come here. I come to the gym. I work every day. And you're right, oh, greatness is boring. That's why I try to. It's monotonous. I try to tell my son, Ocho. He's a freshman in college, bro.

I try to tell him, bro, you got to develop, you got to have a routine that you stick by. I'm talking about I don't care how you feel. I don't care about none of that. If you play good, if you play it, man, you got to have a routine and you got to stick by it. That's the only what, that's, that's what the great ones do. That's it.

I remember, and the thing was like, if it rained, now I couldn't go outside and run. I got me a woodray treadmill, go up to 20 miles an hour, incline the 25, 3rd, Guess what? I'm running. It rains so you can't stop me. Right.

You can't stop this. But it's very boring. But, man, you, I'm going to say. Man, oh, you boy, you do the same thing over and over. You're damn right I do. Right. And I'm great at what I do. Because I want the same level of success that I've been enjoying because this works.

Hello. So you go back and look. What does LeBron say? I get up, I work out. I come home, eat, I take a nap. Yeah. Routine. have to sacrifice.

You want to be successful. I want to do X, Y, and Z. Okay. Well, Q, U R-S-T is what you're going to be able to have to do to give up to get X, Y, and Z. It's really that simple. It's so funny. People think they can take shortcuts. They think they can cut corners to reach that in goal.

It's just, it's unbelievable. I don't think people understand the discipline it takes to be successful or anything. Not even basketball, just in general. uncle. Yeah. Joe. You know, you can't cut no corners and nothing happens overnight. Everybody's looking for instant success. It's there. Anything that you get overnight that's in success, it's going to be short lived. It's temporary. I guarantee you no matter what, no matter what it is. It's temporary. And so you just have to, you have to keep, you keep working at it. And so I'm saying great. Look, everybody doesn't want to be great. And that's okay.

I don't knock anybody. I want you to be as great as you want to be. You want to be. You or as sorry as you want to be. I wish you the best. No, they want to be great. If you want to be sorry, have at it. They want to be great, they just don't want to put their work in like the great ones do.

They want the finished product, but they don't see the stuff in between. They just want to see what's finished. That's why when you see these kids, they watch TV, and they emulate what they see on TV. They emulate the finished product. They don't see the thousand shots.

What he did to get to that point. Yeah, they don't see the thousand shots that dude putting up every day in practice. It's working, shoot a thousand free throws to keep his free throw percentage at 90%. Like, it's a lot that goes into it. Joe, everybody wants to go to heaven. Nobody wants to die. The Bible teaches that's the only way you can enter the kingdom.

Right. Everybody wants greatness, but nobody wants to put the work in or the sacrifice that it takes to get to that greatness. Man. Hey, what are you doing when nobody's watching? What are you doing when nobody's watching? What are you doing when nobody's watching? And not only that, are you working on the right things that make you special?

And the funny thing about it, when to come to sports, Unk, it's a lot of receivers, right? Joe, it's a lot of basketball players. There has to be something about you. If there's 32 teams and there's one number one on each team, what is it about the number one on each team that makes them special and different from everybody else? You need one niche. Uncle Joe, you need one niche that separates you from everybody else that makes you special. Got outwork them.

That's it. Got out of work one. One thing. Everybody can run. Everybody can catch. What is it about you that's going to separate you from everybody else? Absolutely. You need one thing that's special.

And what is it that you're doing when you're not on the field or on the court or at practice? The things that you do outside of that arena, outside of that gym, off that field, bro, is going to determine how successful you're going to be once you get on the field of the court. You know what I mean? That's got to be different, bro. I look at it like when I got to the league,

probably like my second year, probably about my third year, so 90, 91, 92. I made my first pro bowl in 92. I started thinking, oh, Joe and Joe, I said, you know what? man, there's some damn high school kid. Like he'll get my job. Damn, the guy that's in the league.

Now the high school kid won't this job. Yeah. Oh, bro, you can't get this. Yeah. I already know your mom and grandma ain't starving like mine. Yeah. Yeah. I know your mom and grandma ain't grow up like mine.

Right. I know you ain't grow up like me. Right. So I already know you ain't gonna put your body through what I'll put my body through to achieve to stay here. Right. I already know that. Yeah.

Different type of attachment. The easiest thing I've ever done in my life is play football. because God bless me with that ability. And that's what I wanted to do. Now imagine getting up for the next 20 years and doing something you don't want to do. Working in those fields, cropping tobacco, catching chickens, loading watermelons,

bailing hay, clipping onions. Now, and you're doing that for $250 a day. You're doing that for $15 a week, and you're working 12 hours, and you're in the hot-ass sun, and you don't get no health care. And if you don't work, you don't eat. Guess what?

If I get injured, they're still going to pay me my money during the year. Yeah. So football was the easiest thing Shanna Sharp has ever done because I wanted to do it and God bless me with that ability. I ain't want to catch no damn chickens. 16,000 chickens for $16. After I just worked 12 hours in the hot ass field, cropping tobacco.

Right. Oh, yeah, by the way, I made another $10 doing that. Mm-hmm. Different type of attachment. And then, and you know what I, oh, he sold his soul. So what sold? What the son in that hard ass field didn't take, the NFL did. Man.

I told Joe Ocho, everybody want to go to heaven. Don't nobody want to die. Everybody wants success. Nobody want to put it up there. But they want the shortcut. Man. Ain't no shortcut to success. The only place.

you'll find success before work is in the dictionary. Hello. Now, I don't know what you look. I don't know what's happening, you know, if you look at Webster, Merriam or Thorndike Barnardt, whatever one of those, whatever dictionary you choose to use,

but that's the only place you're going to find success before work. Oh, would you wish? Man, man, I can't do, man, I can't do that. Man, I don't know how you eat the same thing every day. Oh, shit.

For a plea. Yeah. I don't know if you ever have. had it gone on a day when you didn't have anything to eat. You'd be gladly to have the same thing that you had yesterday. You ever been so hungry, Ocho, you swallow and your stomach say thank you?

Ain't nothing went down. You didn't get hungry. God damn. You were starving like that? I ain't went through that with never, boy. People say you got lucky. You know what luck is when preparation meets opportunity? There you go.

Come on now. It seemed like the more I prepared, the lucky I got. Man. It's amazing. funny how they work, huh? You don't notice that old joke. It's funny how they at work. Yeah. The one thing I've

never been shy about, and my grommies to always tell my brother not there. She would always say take all this to make a man. She said, hard work won't break your son. But she knew helping her pick these peas,

doing all that, carrying a robe of tobacco by myself. I've been working in the field since I was five years old. I didn't know. My grand used to give me a dollar to stay out way. Well, I gave him that dollar back because I need to be out there with my cousin and then working. Didn't know that soon enough I was going to be in that damn field working wishing I could be home. But I had to gain that up, Joe, because they had to see, O'P, will work. I didn't know, oh, Joe, if that's like, you know what, if I did a poor job,

they might send me home. But my pride wouldn't let me. Right. And I couldn't let my cousins. I was the youngest by two years. I couldn't let them beat me. Right. I carried row by myself. That row 150 yards long. I'm carrying that row by myself. Man.

Sand lugging, first pick and second picking, always stripping the stalk. I can do it. I'm going to carry them big old feed sacks. I want to do whatever my brother and big cousins were doing. I wanted to do it. Mm. Man, I got to the NFL. Hot.

What? What? It felt like 70 degrees out there to be. Man. Hey. But I'm just, and I, I mean, me and my brother, we get together. He came out here for, and I told Joe, I don't know if you, I, uh, Ocho, no. He came out here, uh, for Christmas.

It was the first time that he and I had spent Christmas together in 38 years. Mm. 38, yeah, 1987 was the last time. because after that he goes to the league and you know I'm doing my thing I'm in Savannah State I'm at Denver I'm at Baltimore I'm working at NFL I'm in CBS

I'm working at a Fox and I'm doing my own thing now so he's like and we're just thinking and I'm showing him around the house he's like man he put his on my shoulder and he said bro he said bro I'm proud of you he said you ever think we'd be here I look at him day and his eye I say yep

I said because Barney Mayor Porter's made sure. If they didn't give us anything else, they gave us the ability to work hard and to be disciplined. Right. If you're willing to work hard and you're disciplined,

take you a long way. You want to go. Man. You can go wherever you want to go. Ooh. And that's what I try to tell my kids. That's what I want my kids. You know, look,

ain't nothing wrong with your kids struggling a little bit now. Man. We got the mindset. Sometimes we got to get out of the mindset, Ocho. Man, I don't want my kids. kid, so you don't want your kids to work hard, so you want to think they can swing their feet.

Shit. Hey, it got to be a healthy balance to it, Uncle. Yes. You got to be a healthy balance to it. Healthy balance to it. I'm not, listen, I'm going to lead you to the water. I'm going to do that part. I'm not going to help you drink.

Right. You're going to have to learn something because when I'm no longer here, ain't nobody going to give you nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing. Nathaniel and most of the time parents that continue to give their kids everything where they have no drive, where they have no inspiration where they have no motivation to do anything. You know, once that water's cut off, you got to be able to survive for yourself.

Yes. You got to be able to, you know, to fend for yourself. So, I mean, I do enough. If you're in dire need and it's an emergency, I got you. I understand that. I understand that situation. I'm last choice, not first option. Oh, come on.

There you go. Let me write that down. I'm last choice, not first option. Let me use that. My kids had it good. Because guess what? They got a free education. They got a car pay for.

They had no debt coming out. None. And I say, choose whatever you want to do. I'm going to support you $1,000. I don't want you to worry about. And I gave money monthly. Now, my oldest daughters, I don't know how. She would be overdrawn.

She gets the money at noon. right one o'clock she overdrawn 30 I don't know how but he was overdrawn but that day she's gotten a lot better now ooh but I was like hold on I'm like

because and this is what I told him I said look if something something happens to me and I pray I leave before you guys do ain't nobody going to give to you like your daddy does Man. Now, and what I leave you, if you're not careful,

you're spending it all in people looking at your damn food. Like your daddy left you all of that and what y'all got to show for it. I think that's the hard part right there too, Uncle Joe. Yeah. Yeah, I can't get my kids

to have my mindset. I can't get them to think the way I think when it comes to, you know, being financially savvy. They're not, hey, Uncle Joe. Because they didn't. Okay, Ocho, they didn't. They didn't grow up how you grew up.

Yeah. Yeah, they didn't go through the things that we had to endure, you know, as kids, things that we had to go through. We struggled, made it, and we created this environment for our kids. Yeah. So they didn't have to struggle. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. That's the hardest part. Like I was saying, man, that's the hardest part, bro, having a healthy balance and what to give them and what not to give them. Not to, yeah. I say, I say no plenty times. If I can just, if there's one thing I would love for my kids to understand, for my oldest, even to goddamn French fry.

Every time we go on the target, you ain't got to get a goddamn toy. Every time we pass a restaurant, we don't have to stop and get you something neat. Okay, yes, we do. But I'm just saying stuff like that, I wish my kids will understand the value of a dollar. Man. It don't, like my grandma used to tell me, money don't grow in trees. Hey, listen, it's coming in. It's coming in.

But every time something come in don't mean we got to. to be spinning it. Man, listen. Okay, Ocho, that first semester my son calling me during the every week asking for some money. I'm like, look, bro, you better go get you some bread, some sandwich meat, and you better try to learn to make you some sandwiches or something up in now, niggas. Yeah, hey, I mean, my bad, dude, you need to learn to make you some sandwiches up in there,

because let me tell you something, if you think you're going to be hitting me every time you get low, boy, you got good thing coming, man. Hey. Hey, when I was in college, I had this, I had some bread. some sandwich meat and I had that little grill you put on you smash it down and make you two sandwiches. Man, listen, you better go get you something and stop playing. Hey, this one here, Unk, this one here, my son, my son, freshman in high school, he go to Northern. He just came on camera real quick.

Birthday came up. You know, I say, I say, boy, what you want? What you want for your birthday? Man, I want a shopping spree. Boy, what the hell is a shopping spree? What? A shopping spree. So I call his mom.

I say, man, listen, save you say he wanted to go on a shopping spree. What do you think I should give him for his birthday? Well, you know what? I think you should give him $1,600. $600? That's it? Okay, well, bet.

I gave him $2,000. I gave him a little bit extra. Yeah. Boy, about a week went by. Burned through that, didn't he? Pops. Hey, you said you were going to give me an extra thousand, wasn't you?

I see, it's been six days with your money. Hey, go on. And you know how they're in high school fashion, got to be fly, you know, you got to be, you know. I'm like, come on, dog. You know what got me, guys? What's that?

Then I don't know if you guys experienced this. Because I sacrificed spending time when I was young, I was trying to buy back time. I was trying to buy back time. And so every time they, from life size Barbie to scooters, to dance and to that. Yeah. And then I think,

I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I can't buyback time. Yes, sir. I'm your dad. I ain't a bank. Let's work this thing out. Yes, sir. That's what I had to do, Ocho.

Because any time, their mom wouldn't give it to them, they called me. Right. They got it. Well, she's telling them to call you. Call you dad. Yes. I don't know how they go, man.

Stop playing. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Mm-mm. but like I said the thing I said look I work so you guys I say I've got everything I've wanted I've said God has been

God has been too great to me man I wanted a Ferrari I wanted Rolex I got all that man I say but I said but guys I say now come on now understand like I said I hope I go before they go but I say if whatever I leave you guys

if y'all not careful it's going to be gone because the thing is is that I make money I have money saved and I got money coming in. So I said, but the way y'all blow through money with none coming in to match this? Because I already know what y'all going to go get. What are they going to do? What are they going to do? Y'all don't go get some fast ass cars, multiple cars. I know what you're going to get. I already know. I know you. They're going to be in some trouble, boy. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I said, but y'all got to, hey, you got to be smart. I said, if you think

you can come into a large sum of money with the spending habits that you guys have and it's going to stay you sadly mistaken. No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. If you don't have financial discipline just for example, obviously I know we all have bills.

We all have overhead every month. But if you don't have the financial discipline with $100, you ain't going to have it with $1,000. If you ain't got it with $1,000, you ain't got it with $100,000. You ain't got it with $100,000. You ain't got it with a million. It doesn't it it always starts small it starts small and you work a way up and just and it it so many of us a very very large percent of us Burn through it so easily burn through it so easy and most of the people say oh don't worry about it spent anyway

We gonna get it back we gonna make it back every play every play onk ain't always hit nope every play or every move whatever you do have you getting it ain't always hit which is why it's so many people I can think of during my time that had money and it's going on that because you always thought it was going to always hit I mean at some point in time Ocho like I had I mean I had so many cars I got to drive I got to drive cars down the hill to be able to back the cars out of garage I'm like I'm learning my bed one night yeah and I'm thinking to myself I got to be the well first

started in I was at my grandmother's house. I'm staying with my grandmother. Yeah. I'm in the back room with my grandmother. Uh-huh. I got a Ferrari, 600 bins. Yeah. And parked in the driveway. And I'm sleeping in the room in my grandma's house. I ain't even got my own house.

Hold on. You did that too? Yeah. I stayed with grandma in the city in my first three years in the lead. And I'm thinking to myself, then I went to Freak Nick. You know, I went to Freak Nick a couple of time. Yeah.

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. I called me and my brother, we go out the freakneck. Okay. I call my agent. I say, hey, man, I'm moving to Atlanta. He said, I thought you're in the place of Savannah. I don't know more. I'm moving to Atlanta.

Find me somebody. Find me somebody that can sell me a house. But, and so now I'm in Atlanta. I got this house. Joe, I'm laying the bed. I got a Ferrari, a 5, 12, Tulster Roaster. I got a one or 10. A, uh, uh, uh, Bittles, Azur, mother.

Yeah. Top, drop top. Come on, man. I got 600 bins. Yeah. I got a range rover. I got a, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, I got a, uh, uh, uh, uh, I got a, a, uh, uh, uh, a, uh, got a, uh, yeah, I got a,

rose, yeah. I was like, you know, I'm like, you know what I'm saying, you know what I'm walking. I walk around. I walk, hey, I, I let the garage is up, guys and got my hand in my pocket. Shut up in the pockets. Why'd I need a million to have $2 million with the cost? A million of them. Get this.

Hey, you know, it's funny, we all have been there. We didn't all about Joe, I'm not sure if you've done it. During my younger days, too, those that I grew up with, I never forget the stories. I always wanted the Chevy growing up, Joe. I always wanted to don't. As we called it down here, Miami, I always wanted to don't. My grandma, but you know, she's the church lady.

She's not having that. Right. She's not having that. You ain't fin to be like them dudes out there running the street and driving them fast cars, making all that noise, coming down my goddamn block. Ain't happening. First time I got some money, Unk, first time I made it to the league.

Would you think I went and got me? I went and got me a don't. I never forget my home. Chevy, yeah. Yeah, don't Chevy. My homeboy down here in Miami, his name is Van Dyke. He sold me my first don't. Drop top.

After I got one, Uncle Joe, now. You get them getting five. So if I'm driving, I need my home boys to be able to have some to drive too. I had seven Chevys. As great as I am when it comes to being responsible with money, I have seven Chevy just when I move, I need everybody else to be able to move with me too. Ooh. Man, listen, man, I did it.

I did it. This is the thing I like about the people I surround the myself with growing up where I'm from is they understood when it was time to to to to pull the reins back. It wasn't no pushback right it wasn't no oh man he acting funny that everybody understood they understood you know okay he done enough he didn't showed enough love I didn't gave back to my area and those who I grew up with to make sure they could experience the pro bowls they can experience all the the events I used to have to go to the red carpets and all that so they understood when I got about year five in the league unk,

I pulled back the Marines and started doing all that cheap shit. And ever since then, from like 2005 on, I've been the same way the whole time. Yo, I go, hey, Ocho, I go home for a cookout. Yeah. I ship the Bentley. Oh, yeah. I put it on the back of a truck.

Hey, take the dime. I need people to see this. You for real? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get to the house one day. after I don't ship everything down

I'm walking in the house my sister's supposed to say Chateau they called me Chateau she called me Chateau and she called me Chateau that day she called me Chateau she's like Chateau winter's enough enough

and I'm looking at like what you're talking about she's like Shannon now she doesn't change so when she called me Shannon okay now I know she's free she like Shannon you really need all those cars

I said, I know, she's like, Sheldon. Everybody know you got it. Right. That's it. That's all she said. Because the one thing about my brother and sister, they're going to shoot me straight. Right. Like I said, and I look, I don't look at them like my sister, brother.

They look, my brother and sister's more like my mom and dad. Because they did everything for me. They taught me how to tie shoe. They taught me how to bathe myself, taught me how to tell time and things like that. So they're more like, and so I listen to them. I've never, you know, I don't raise my voice. I don't get mad and go back and forth with them. They say something I listen.

Even though I might get upset, I don't change words with them. I got rid of all that stuff. Now, I got a range rover. Ocho and Joe, I got a range rover. I got that range rover in 20, it's a 2013. I got an October 2012.

So what that is? About 14 years. Yeah. I got about 39,000 miles on it. I got a BMW and I got seven years. it just turned 10-5 on it. I don't go nowhere. I don't drive.

So why I need all these cars? Yeah. God doesn't gave me every car. I wanted a Ferrari. I wanted a Ferrari. I wanted the Rose Royce. And I wanted the Mercedes. Yeah.

He doesn't gave me that 10-fold. So now cars don't, as my grandkids just say, they don't rass my berry like they once these. Right. Right. So I'm cool. Hey, I want to,

hey, you know how it is, Joe, and Unk, you work that hard. And, you work that hard. And as a kid, He's the dream of having certain stuff. And you're reaching, you get it. And it feels real good for a little bit. But after a while, I had all them cars,

Unk, man. It just, like, it got to a point where I understood. I outgrew it in the sense, but I outgrew it so early. I wasn't even in my prime yet. Yeah. You're already in my prime yet. And that light bulb, it clicked. Well, why the hell I'm driving a Ferrari?

got a Lambo. Well, I got this big, remember that big ad diesel truck I bought, that big, that real big semi truck? Yeah. Joy had a big semi. I had one of them too, Ocho, like six doors on it.

Yeah, the international. Yeah. Yeah. I had one on. I'm like, what the hell am I doing? Because I had gotten myself to a point where my name was more valuable than anything I got purchased.

Whatever it is I was driving, I ain't really need it because whoever see me, they already knew who it was. I was the value. Right. So it got to a point where I understood, well, goddamn, I'm tripping because it's me. So I don't really need it no more.

And once that light bulb hit, man, it was perfect. It was perfect. And I'm like, why I'm trying to press these women and all they got to do, they can Google how much I'm making. So there ain't no need to really be driving, no Ferrari or no Lambo no more. Because bitch is Ocho. What's the point?

Yeah. You burn out after a while, guys. You know, we all probably come from a little of nothing. And then once you get... Little. Yeah. I had less than that. Hey.

Hey, once you get a chance to really splurge on yourself, man, listen, I had a time, bro. I ain't going to lie to you. I'm still in you all myself. Yeah. Ocho, when we first started, Joe, I told Ocho, my brother said, boy, good times, they're going to know you nothing.

They don't. Good time, they're going to know O'Shea. shot. Yeah. Y'all talking about he ain't done nothing. He ain't been nowhere. I've been every place I wanted to be. Yes, sir. I've done everything I've wanted to do. I promise you. Yeah. Yeah. Man, look here. I've been blessed beyond blessed. But, hey, but you have to go through that and, you know, and sometimes I'm like, yeah, you know, when is enough enough? Yeah. What's enough? Because when it came to success, it was never enough, Ocho. I'll go to the Super Bowl.

I'm a first team all pro. I make the Pro Bowl. That wasn't enough. Yeah. I got a thousand yards. A thousand yards. Let all tight in the catchy, yards, touchdown, first team all pro, pro bowl and Super Bowl. What's the other than I do?

I need something else. Yeah. Right. I mean, I'm being for real. Yeah. I'm trying, I'm everything else. I mean, I was, I was greedy. I was selfish about that.

Because and then I let you know I wanted my kids to see just how hard their daddy worked so they could appreciate it. You can say hey you know I wish my daddy and and they would be they would have all of them would have valid valid arguments but the one thing they will not be all my kids will tell you they still. Daddy you still discipline and you still just work just as hard is when you was in your 20s. Yes so. Yeah.

And I'm damn there. I'm headed, headed towards 60. Damn. Yeah, yeah. After you, after you get to a certain point, Ocho, you realize the only thing left to do is to get old. Mm. Don't let nobody tell you otherwise.

Yeah. After you reached a certain point of your life, you've gone everywhere you wanted to go. You've done everything you wanted to do, and you had some of the most gorgeous and beautiful women in the world. Now I'm time to just sit back and say, you know what? Okay, Lord.

I'll take every week. I'll take every month you give me. Yeah. And you got me thinking. I like how you say that way. What you got you thinking, Ocho? I mean, everything, the way he put it. I mean, we put everything in the perspective.

Now, we didn't, we didn't did it all. We'd have been all over the world. We didn't have some of the best. They say you only live once, Joe, Ocho. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. Praise God.

Do it right. And once is enough. I want to live this life again. I don't need to live like this? The way I live, Joe, don't you? Come on, nice. You think I want to live like this again? Take your time.

Oh, no. Take your time. What's it more? Is that enough? Yes, sir. But, hey, it's one thing y'all ain't done, no. What's that? What's that, Joe?

Y'all ain't jumped a broom. Oh, we're going to have a double wedding, Joe. It's coming, Joe. It's coming. Oh, shit. I'm going to get married. I'm going to get married, Joe. When?

Hey, coming, Joe. Yeah, I'm going to get married, Joe. I know my baby watching, too. Hey, Fluffy. Yeah. Joe, we're going to triple this thing up? I'm sure we get a good, hey, we get a good lodge. We can do a triple win.

We get a good deal. Good, a good deal. A three for one? What? Can you imagine that? That's a joke. That's never been done before. Three wins and one all in one.

Hey, Joe, we streamed that thing live. Oh. Hey, boy, hey. Hey, y'all show trying to make it sound real sweet. I'm telling you, I'm in charge, I'm in charge of the reception, the entertainment. Oh, Lord, have mercy. I'm in charge of entertainment. I already got it.

Y'all can take care of food in the guest list. Man, you don't care of the damn food. Huh? That's the thing that I care to list about. You don't care about the food? No. Well, you know, people are talking about you. you got the right kind of food at your reception.

First of all, I guarantee you, won't nobody be there for the Sharp party that's going to talk about sharing the sharp. I promise you that. Okay, okay. What about open bar? We're going to have open bar? Yeah, you have open bar?

Yeah, yeah. We're going to, hey, I can't wait to get some of that 1948, boy. Huh? You mean 1942? But close enough. You six years off. That one, that one right there. That one right there.

Hey, a little, a little desperado. No, hey, hey, no. Man, man, man. We're going to have Cater to win with that La Portier. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got to have a variety of things that everyone likes to enjoy. A little bit of Julio, a little bit of Julio Don. Yeah.

But desperado. Huh? Reposado. Not desperado. That's what I said. I said, I say it respizado. Yeah, okay. Close enough.

I'm Bowen. And I'm Matt Rogers. During this season of the two guys. Guys, Five Rings podcast. In the lead-up to the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, we've been joined by some of our friends. Hi, Bois, hi, Matt.

Hey, Elmo. Hey, Matt, hey, Bowen. Hi, Cookie. Hi. Now, the Winter Olympic Games are underway, and we are in Italy to give you experiences from our hearts to your ears.

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