New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce - Caitlin Clark on “Life Changing” Rookie Season, Chiefs Fandom, NBA Ratings Debate and more | Ep 117

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Happy New Year 92%ers, we’ve got an incredible episode to kick off 2025. Joining us today is WNBA Rookie of the Year, Caitlin Clark! Caitlin and the guys talk about everything from winning Time Magazine’s Athlete of the Year, why she isn’t a bandwagon Chiefs fan, what it was really like hanging with Travis at the Eras tour, and the biggest takeaways from her historic rookie season. We also find out just how close she came to playing for Notre Dame, who can name the most Iowa NFL players, pitch ideas to help the NBA ratings, her GOAT basketball shoe, and so much more. We will be back next week to break down the NFL Playoffs and maybe some other surprises! You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify....Download the full podcast here:Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMbApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynwFollow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshowSupport the Show:  AUDIBLE: Sign up for a free 30-day trial at https://audible.com/newheightsSEATGEEK: Use our code for 10% off your SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/NEWHEIGHTS $25 max discountFARMER’S DOG: Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at https://TheFarmersDog.com/newheights. Plus, you get FREE shipping!AG1: New Subscribers head to http://drinkag1.com/newheights for a a FREE $76 gift when you sign up. You’ll get a Welcome Kit with a bottle of Vitamin D3K2 AND five free AG travel packs in your first box. ALLSTATE: Checking first is smart. So, check https://Allstate.com first for a quote that could save you hundreds. ACCELERATOR: Use code 10BUCKSOFF to get $10 off a case of Accelerator through 1/8! Limit one per customer https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/FB06B38E-F0C2-479F-9DA5-FD4A1C852B07/?_encoding=UTF8&store_ref=See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You know the NCAA, like they don't have many rules on much anymore. Women's sports is blown up with the NIL stuff. It's been great for everybody, honestly. You're a little bit closer to the NIL world. Have you heard of anybody paying their taxes? I definitely wasn't fucking ready to pay taxes when I was in college. Like, I wasn't thinking about that shit. I know. That's what I always think about.

Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen. How's it going? A Wondry show produced by Wendell. wave sports and entertainment and big thanks to our presenting sponsor. Audible. Oh, start listening today when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash New Heights. I love some audible.

All right now. Audible getting in there sliding in there for a little sponsor. I got a shout out, Audible. We're your host. I'm Travis Cussey. My big brother, Jason Kelsey out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Cincinnati Barretted alum. Subscribe on YouTube, 100, or wherever you get your podcast and follow the show on all social media

at New Heights show with one. Jason, let the people know who we have coming up. I'm not going to beat around the bush, guys. This is a big one. It's the guests you guys have all been waiting for. We all have been waived for it. I mean, really been demanding. And we finally got her.

One of the, probably got one of the business schedules out there. Caitlin Clark is here. That's right. You heard it. That's right. You heard it. Right. She's in the building, folks.

And we're going to hear a nice conversation from her in just a few seconds. And we're not going to really do too much. much before that because we're going to get ready to this conversation because it was fantastic. But first, we are going to get to a little bit of that new news. New news. New news is brought to you by accelerator, the orange ice pop. There we go. Who loves an accelerator?

Do you like, do you, do you finally? I do. I'm a fan of the orange. I do it. So good. I still prefer the grenadine. I still prefer greenadine. Cherry ice pop.

But okay. I think it's good. I'm a fan. I'm always in on a little orange soda. They call it late night with Jason Kelsey. He premieres this Friday, January 3rd. Javis, Jason, Jason, can you give us a tease or an anecdote? A tease or an anecdote?

I don't know. I don't know what to say. I think we're going to have some awesome guests on hand. Really, the whole purpose of this show is to just celebrate and the sport of football. And, you know, obviously we got playoffs coming up. This is the last week of the regular season coming up. You know, it's just honestly an excuse to get together a bunch of guys. and bullshit about a sport that we all love,

do a bunch of fun, creative comedy bits with some incredible writers. Being creative is just a joy. And I think that we have between the band, between the audience, between the players and all the people that are going to be there, I think it's just going to be a lot of fun.

Incredibly intimidated by it, I'm terrified of how this is going to go. But at the same time, it makes you feel alive. There's something about being afraid that makes you excited, right? Every time, man. So, every time.

Yeah. Anyways, well, that's awesome. I'm happy as hell for you, brother. I can't wait. You said something about a band and now I'm, I got to ask, are you breaking out the sacks? Listen, I got, you know, what this is. No, not focusing. I'm still too far away to be able to read that.

Oh, you got some new. Got some reads. Got some reads. We'll see. It probably won't happen to show one. I don't know what the plane is. I didn't know, no pun intended. I didn't read that on the box.

I just thought in my head, what could this possibly have to do with a saxon? phone and yeah the reads i bought some reads um i still you know i don't know when we got some plans we'll see we'll see what happens i don't know if it's happened to show one we got some there's a whole litany of things that could happen in this episode so um anyways excited again that's friday january third ladies and gentlemen they call it late night with jason kelsey the man the myth of legend and uh we also will be back for our regularly scheduled episode starting next week football schedule in the holidays through

us off a little bit with me playing on Christmas and having all these short games or short weeks back to back to back. So it's making it a little tough to keep knocking these episodes out with you guys. But New Heights will be back talking all things, NFL playoffs and whatever else comes next week. Sounds good, Bubba. And that's it for new news brought to you by Accelerator. Upgrade your energy and get you some of this orange ice pop. Shit's fucking popping, son.

All righty, our guest today is a six-foot guard from the University of Iowa, the NCAA, all-time Division I scoring leader, the first pick of the WMBA draft, WMBA Assist Leader, All-Star, and 2024 WMBA rookie of the year. She's the most requested guest in the history of our show, and the Time magazine Athlete of the Year, Ms. Caitlin Clark, please welcome, everyone. I appreciate it.

I'm excited. I don't get excited about many things, but this is at the top of my list. We made it, Jason. We've made it. How many accolades did we leave off? How many accolades do you have right now at this point, Caitlin? I think you might have made some up. I don't know.

Yeah, well, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure on that. I feel like you're kind of like Wayne Gretzky for basketball right now. I mean, the amount. It's, if you go to the Wikipedia page and you look at like the list of like, like awards and achievements. It's like endless. So yeah, we could we had to limit it to this list just to get the show started. I appreciate it. Thank you. Is there any accomplishment, I guess, of all these accolades that has meant the most to you? Oh gosh. That's a good question. Well,

I'd give you the answer my mom would say is probably academic All-American. She was proud of me for being a good student in college. So that's that answer. Nobody's about that. I'm talking about. I did all right in school. So hung in there. But. But other than that, I mean, they're all cool, but you don't really care. It kind of just comes with that. It comes with having fun. And I think the time athlete of the year was cool, too, just because you see the list of, like, all the athletes that they've had prior to me.

And a lot of those people I idolized growing up, and LeBron's been the only other basketball player. So it's cool as a woman. Like, they haven't had many females on the cover, too. So for women's sports, it's kind of special. But, you know, just kind of comes with playing the game and having fun as you guys. now. That's awesome.

I love it. What did you study in college? What was he? I was in a business school. I got my degree in marketing. So you're a marketing major? I'm a marketing major. There we go.

You guys, you guys are great at marketing. We're all right. You got to figure out. You got to go on like dating shows to get my name out there. I actually have a funny, made the Dean's list like once in my life. Did you?

There we go. It was when I got kicked out of school and it was a part of the criteria that I had to get, that had to reach just to stay on the team. So you're capable of doing it. That's all that matters. Ed Kelsey always said I was capable. Just you just have to focus. You have to give it your all. No, my mom was actually the one paying for my tuition at that point.

So I had to make sure I did my mom right. I could just throw away the grades. No mom was paying for him. That's right. I share that with my mother. Let's talk about your biggest accomplishment. Being a part of Chief's Kingdom. How long have you been a part of the kingdom?

I'm sorry, Jason. You can apologize to me. I'm honorary member. I'm a Midwest kid, so there's this picture that's been circulating. A couple of years ago when I was on Peyton Eli's Monday night show, where I'm in a full Chiefs outfit. I had family in Kansas City, and I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, which is only three hours from Kansas City.

Oh, yeah. That's just the closest NFL team. So my dad was a big Chiefs fan growing up. So people think I'm like a bandwagon chiefs fan. I'm like, no, I was there before Patrick and Travis. Like we were. I love it. We were ride or dies.

So we've been big fans. And now obviously all the success you guys have had has made it a lot of fun for us. Who was your childhood like? My brother loved Tony Gonzalez. Like that was his guy. Yeah. What a guy. He was the chief.

We would go to like one game a year growing up with my cousins down in Kansas City. Oh, that's so fun. And we still try to go. We went to the Christmas Day game last year. I think the year before you might have played on Christmas Eve maybe. We went to that. We were sitting outside for that one. My toes were like about to fall off.

My fingers about to fall off. I don't get how you guys play in that type of weather. But it's fun. And like obviously. We got heaters on the sideline. Yeah. Arrowhead's not too bad. So good spot.

It's a blast. You already know. Have you ever messed with those heaters on the sideline? Have you ever seen those things? So we played a basketball game outside in college, like an exhibition game. Oh. And they had those on the sidelines. And I was like, I didn't really never know what they were, but they had them.

And they get so hot. It's too hot. It's too hot. I know. It's funny. You'll see some guys throw on those winter coats. Yeah. And if they get too close to the heaters, you just hear them pop.

They're just like, and you'll just see feathers start flying everywhere. Oh, my gosh. I had to tell them to like turn it off. I'm like, just let it be like a normal bench. Yeah, I'm not, I'm out on, I'm out on the heaters. It has to be like below 20 degrees for me even to think about sitting on the heaters. That's why I'm sitting on the water cooler's right now every, every time we're off the field.

I hate it. I can't feel too hot. For sure. If I feel too hot, I'm going to start to like, it's like a heated blanket or something. I'm going to start falling asleep. I think they like said like, yeah, there's an air, uh, fire marshal like over there, like watching, make sure they just like to catch on fire. Like, why don't we just do our own safety check here.

Just cut these things. Yeah. So you said your brother, your brother's favorite player was Tony Gonzalez. Who's your favorite player? Or is? Oh, is? I mean, obviously Travis is up there. I made it.

But I'm obviously a big Patrick fan too. How can you not be? Like the both of you, you're pretty great. I'm here. But it's been fun. And obviously, I've known Brett Beach for a while. It's actually kind of crazy. So when I was in college, we played the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis and it was at the time of the combine.

So Brett was staying in our hotel. And that's kind of how I first like got to know him, like my sophomore year of college. And then we kind of have just stayed in touch ever since. Yeah, Brett's the man. Yeah, he's obviously done really well. And he's fun. He's cool too. So the whole family is the Vech family is the best.

Yeah. I love seeing people. When I first got into the league, Vech was like Andy's assistant in Philadelphia. How crazy is that. C weighs that now and the success he's had, it's pretty awesome. Yeah. The Eagles had all this right there and there. Don't shut off.

Will you not talking about this right now? We're doing just fine. You guys are great right now. That's funny. All right, Travis, earmuffs. Put your earmuffs. Take your earmuffs off. They technically are on.

Okay, well, take your earmuffs off. All right. What do we think about 2024 chiefs, Caitlin? What do we think about where the team's at? I'm feeling good. You feeling good? I'm feeling good. I mean, we're what?

13 and 1 right now. Pretty good. It's not someone to say 13 and 1? That's not too bad. But also like you guys have made it interesting as a fan. Like you guys are just keeping everybody at the edge of their team. I know. And I think that's what I appreciate about you guys the most.

And like you and Patrick especially is like you guys just have that edge to you, like that clutch factor. And like a lot of people don't have that. So when you get the ball with a minute 30, he need to go 80 yards and score. Like I'm feeling pretty good. We like the ball in pat my home's hands for sure. We do. Our defense has been saving our ass a lot.

Let alone our like field goal block team and our like, yeah. So it's been a full team effort this year. Is it 10 games consecutive one for like single score games or something like that? Yeah. I don't know. There's like some crazy stats, like the first team ever to do that. Something like that. You killed it.

Great performance. So last time 19% saw you with Travis was the heiress tour. How was that? Oh, that was selfish fun. Electric. It was great. My mom was like begging me to take her. She's like, I got to go.

Like, everybody's talking about it. I'm like, okay, okay. Yeah, it was right there in Indianapolis. Yeah. I literally live right downtown too, like right next to Lucas Oil. So I'm like, the night I didn't go, I'm like on my balcony trying to listen. But no, obviously it's just a great show and a lot of fun and full Swifty. Turn my mom into a full Swifty now.

Nice. Nice. So good time. Good time. Was that, you mentioned that was like your second night going to it, right? Yeah, second night in a row. And that was my third show. I went early on when Taylor first went on tour in Minnesota, U.S. Bank,

one of her early concerts. And that was a lot of fun. Went with some of my college friends. And we had a good time together. It's hard. It's hard to not have a good time. I don't know how you couldn't have a good time, something like that. This is so fun, man.

Well, we mentioned earlier that a few weeks ago you were named the Time Magazine Athlete of the Year. Time asked you to define your year in one word, and you said historic. We can do better. We can give you two words to define your year. What would they be if you could do that? Two words? Two words. That is hard.

Yeah. One word is easier. And I can't use historic? I mean, I guess you can. It's your definition. It's your words. Majorly historic? I would say like, I don't know, life changing maybe.

That's a great one. And like all in a good way. Like, I mean, things just change really fast. Like, as you guys know, like, that's just how the world works. And especially with social media, people see a lot of your life. But that's what makes it fun and why I've had so many cool opportunities too. So it's crazy like looking back at a year ago today or around this time, like I was just beginning my senior year of college. And obviously, you know, people knew.

who we were and people attended our games, but it's obviously not on the magnitude that it is now. Yeah. So, like, life just changes fast, but that's what makes it fun and cool. And, you know, quickly started a new chapter of my life, too, like moving here to Indianapolis and feel lucky I'm still in the Midwest. I know you guys like the Midwest. I've been in the Midwest my entire life. Jason's officially an East Coaster now.

Yeah, but Philly of all the East Coast cities kind of has like some Midwest feel to it. It's the most west of the East. wants to hear that. They'll probably hate that I said that, but whatever. Yeah. They're not going to like that comment. They want to be far from the Midwest. No doubt. Exactly. I mean, it was just a crazy year because you go all the way up to the national championship game and then you're playing right away. Yeah. You know, one of my coaches early on in my career said, you know, your rookie year is always so hard because you're in a new city, you're in a new place, you're with a new team, new coaches. There's so much that's not part of the routine that

you're so used to. And you had that as like magnified. I mean, are you looking forward this year to like kind of having some like, I don't know, more of a routine? Familiarity. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Familiarity. Yeah. I mean, it's just so unlike any other professional sport, really, from the standpoint of, so I played in the national championship. And I basically went to the draft right after it got picked. And then you basically packed up and move. Like, you're moving in April. You don't even finish senior year of college. And I guess for you guys, like, well, was it you go to the combine how long do you have to prepare for the combine few months and then yeah yep you get drafted and you got still got a little time to get acclimated to the new city

for sure you have camp whatever like it's not like that like camp for us is like a week and a half right and then you're off let's go play yeah but i think it was good a little bit too like you don't have time to overthink things like it's just like boom boom boom boom like you're just on to the next but at the same time like you don't like i feel like i never really ended the chapter college. Like, it was just like, you've been left. But maybe that's good. You don't have a lot of time to think about it.

So I think that's definitely the weirdest part of, you know, women's professional basketball and obviously college basketball, too, is just that change. But that's kind of how it has to be too. So it's just different. But I think I feel lucky, too, because we had the Olympic break. So I got a month off in the middle of the season because we had to pause the WMBA season because, you know, the 12 girls go go and play in the Olympics and everybody else. You're not doing much.

So got to like a month off. which I really needed, obviously, because I'd been playing basketball for just a year straight, but obviously so much different from the NFL or the NBA or whatever it is. I remember coming into the NFL, one of the biggest challenges for me was kind of like finding my like professionalism in a sense. I was such a leader on my team at Cincinnati, at least I felt like I was like the main one of the voice of the team. And when I got to Kansas City, there was guys that had just been pretty.

pro bowlers and guys that had already had that culture set. And then on top of that, Coach Reed, and I struggled trying to find my lane and, like, really, like, feeling like I could give a piece to the team or, like, find a role on the team. Was there anything like that that happened to you early on, knowing that it all happened so fast? For sure. And, like, you come in as a rookie.

And, like, you said, like, you're trying to figure out a new environment, new teammates. Like, you don't want to say too much. You don't want to say too little. And it's just so hard. But like in my scenario and obviously you guys too, like you're already highly thought of. Like people are turning to you to like be something or be someone. So it's hard. Like you're trying to find your get your feet wet, but also not do too much.

And I think that's kind of what I struggled in early on is like, I don't know what to say. I don't know how to say it. I don't know how they're going to react. For not knowing you nailed it. Yeah. But also like I had a lot of really good vets around me too. So I feel very grateful for that. And we had a fairly young team too.

so like people had been through it fairly recently so they knew how I felt. But like I feel like that definitely is a huge challenge. And that goes for whatever professional sport. Like you're trying to learn, but also people are looking at you like, you got to perform and like be what they drafted you to be. And that can be tough. Yeah. I remember Jason, you got tossed into the into the fire early your rookie year. And especially because you guys didn't even have off-season workouts.

Yeah. So we missed the whole off-season workout. and if you weren't a first or second day pick, you didn't get the playbook. So I got the playbook like two days before training camp. So we just started right from there. But that was one thing. You mentioned the vets.

And I think, you know, there's, for me at least, there was a lot. Some vets were incredible. Some of the vets, obviously, you're competing for jobs. So there's a little bit there. But you lean so much as a young player on your vets. And you lean so much from like, even just like in Philly, there's so many great players that played for the Eagles. that like Harold Carmichael, who was a legendary Philadelphia Eagle, was like always around

and willing to lend advice or anything. Did you have many former players or current players, like reach out to you that really helped you in transitioning into the WMBA? Yeah. There was, you know, quite a few. Somebody that comes to the top of my head is Tamika Ketchins, who was an MVP in the WMBA. Yep.

Yeah. She won their championship here. I think I want to say 2012 when the fever won their championships. She was like what made the Indiana fever really good. Like that was our prime. That was when we were really good. And then after Tamika retired, the fever kind of went down a little bit as every team does once your,

you know, franchise player retires and moves away from basketball. And she's still really big here in the Indianapolis community. And she was one of the first people to text me after I got picked and still checks in on me. So it's cool. That's like somebody that's not in your building every single day. But it means so much to your community and to the organization. And to have that, like she's like a.

legend her her numbers up in the rafters like that's somebody i idolized and looked up to and for her to just take you know two seconds to check in on me and see how i'm doing and um that's obviously really special so i would certainly say her um and we still have that relationship and it's still growing and she still comes around now and then and her championship trophy that she won like sits in our locker room it's like right next to my locker i'm like great the coach is probably placed a little motivation yeah yeah yeah So I have to look at it every day. These are the shoes.

It's got like its own, like, glass case. I'm like, great. Oh, yeah, better. Hell, yeah, better. Just a little motivation. This is what we're working for. Absolutely. So, but yeah.

We were not drafted in the first round. What was it like being a first round pick? Oh, well, I felt like, so it's crazy. Yeah. Because of COVID, I could have actually gone back to school for a fifth year. Were you considering that? Well, early on, yes. It looks like you're having a.

good old time over there. Yeah. I'm not going to lie. It looked like you were having to. I mean, it's college. Like, you're there with your friends and like the game's just easier. Like, it's just how it is. And you don't want that chapter of your life to end.

Like, it's fun. Like, you do fun things. You guys know how it is. And it's easy going and whatever. When I imagine, I imagine that decisions probably made made even harder now that there is on an NIL. Like, when Travis was on I play, like, there was no ability to make any money. It was like way different.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. capitalize on this check. But yeah, so I was like kind of considering that. But then I got to the point where I was like, yeah, I'm totally leaving. Like, I know this is going to be the end for me. Just like I felt very content in that.

And then obviously, like, I had a very good feel that I was probably going to be the first pick. But, like, you're still sitting there and like you, everybody gets nervous and jittery, no matter where you're projected or what you're going to be. Like, this is a moment you've always dreamed of as a kid. Oh, Jason was a train wreck. Are you kidding me? He was the guy was pacing back and forth in the room.

Yeah, like, how did you guys feel going into it, going into the, The draft. We, I knew, yeah, I guess, Travis, do you want to, I guess I'll go first. We'll go chronological. I'll go first and you go. All right. So, first day, I wasn't doing anything because I knew I wasn't going to get drafted in the first round.

I was just like, man, this is cool watching the draft. Yeah. Second day for, for, I think the later on guys, you have, your agent is like taking any inkling of like positivity he can. So he's like, there's a chance you'll go in the third round, even though there's no chance to make you go to the third round. So I'm like watching that. I'm like, all right.

But the third day, me, Trev, mom and dad, Uncle Don, we all went bowling because I didn't want to sit there and watch it go by and watch a bunch of people get picked that like, it's like, just piss me off even more. So it's like, all right, just go bowling, ignore it. And somebody will call me at some point. We finished bowling and I still hadn't got a call. So it was super awkward. It was like, all right, let's just go back to the house.

We paid for the two hours. Yeah. But we did the two hours. we keep fucking rolling these things. The third day was still going. Yeah. So it was like the sixth round. We went back to my house and then, you know, finally got a call from a 610 number, I believe it was.

Or was a 216, 2.15. I think it was, yeah, it might have been 215. Either way, Philadelphia area code popped up. And so it all kind of went down there. Dad came rushing and crying. Oh. There's nothing better than. And then you can hear when it finally, because I was in a separate room and they were all in the living room.

kind of watching on TV. And I was still on the phone. And then I knew when they all knew because they all started cheering in the living room. So that was exciting. But it was nerve-wracking until the moment you get picked. And then it's like, forget about all the other crap. You're just like, yeah. I'm in the NFL now.

Yeah. My situation was a little different because I did have the year that I missed playing. But that ended up being the year that I switched into the tight end room. So it was a perfect match for me. that's when I really thought that oh wow I actually love this game like before I was just back there playing the old backyard sport now I like have like I don't know I felt like I could give more to the game give more to the team I was in Pittsburgh because that's where my agent was had all the friends and family out I knew first round wasn't there but I always thought in the back

of my mind I could like all the tight ends that were that were going to get drafted I could play with those guys you know I might not have shown on film that I'm better than them but I know that I've shown that I could play in the NFL just as much as they can. Yeah, it ended up just getting kind of like Jason said, getting told that maybe second round here, if this guy doesn't get picked, they're thinking about you. And finally got a call from a Missouri number thinking I was going to St. Louis because I had no idea that Kansas City was even in Missouri.

And from there, it was Coach Reid on the phone telling me, you better not mess this up. You didn't? No, I didn't. I almost did a few times. How many rounds are there in the NFL draft? What? Like, there's seven now.

Seven. Yeah. It's been seven for a long time. There used to be like something crazy. Yeah. It's like the MLB where they had like a thousand rounds. Exactly. Yeah.

Insane. Now it's seven and then undrafted. And really, once it gets to like this later round, sometimes it's better to even be undrafted. Yeah. So you can just try to pick a good situation to go to. Exactly. Yeah. You get autonomy in that.

But right. Yeah. What was harder? High school, college. we're going from college to the pros. Oh, that's a good question. Yeah. Well, my high school to college transition was so weird because I was COVID.

So, like, I didn't even know when I was going to go to college. It's like, I didn't like technically graduate high school. Like, I did obviously, but like I didn't ever walk really. We had like an outdoor thing. But other than that, like it was so weird. And then like two weeks before they're like, we're in the summer. And Iowa was like, yeah, like we want you to come to campus. And literally the only people there were like,

in the football team in men's basketball. Wow. It was so weird. Like in the dorms, it was literally just athletes in the dorms, no RAs. It was like a huge, like, mansion with just college kids running wild. I'm not your line. That sounds so much fun. Sign me up.

It was a bit concerning, but it was also, it was a lot of fun. I don't know if they knew that. I still don't think they know that that was the situation. At least that was the situation where on a few floors that I was near, but it was a good time, honestly. And it was just so weird. Like I didn't have that normal college experience. Like I think my first semester, like I was taking everything online, just trying not to get COVID because we're testing every day and just trying to play.

Gosh, thank God we're out of that. I know. So just kind of crazy. But and then obviously going from college to the pros, I think it's just like the time span. That's just what's so weird about it. It's just so short and condensed. Like you don't have much time. But at that point, it is what it is.

Everybody has to deal with the same thing. So that's what I told myself. is like there's no point in complain. Everybody's dealing with it. It's not any different. It's a good mindset to have. Yeah. What's your welcome to the WMBA moment if you can have one?

Welcome to the W. I tell people this. It was early on. I want to say it was like our 10th game of the year. We're playing in New York for a celebrity who ended up winning the championship this year. Yep. Yep. And somebody set a screen on me and like I hit my ear like just perfect on the girl where like my

eardrum popped and like ruptured. And I knew it. I knew it right away because I've done it before and I was just like, it hurts so bad. I don't know if you guys have ever done that. I've done it. How did you do it before? Can I guess? Can I guess?

I was too. Oh, yeah, I guess. It was very Midwestern. You did it in water. You did it in water. Something with water. I got launched off a two. Why did you just get so excited? What are you?

Because that's how I did mine. I went off the dive before. I tried to do as many flips as I could and smack my side of my head in the Heights High School swimming pool. Yeah. Jason was a male swim cadet, so he had to do this wasn't during swim cadet. Don't put me on blast like that, Jayes. That's funny. But yeah, I got launched off a tube in the middle of the lake.

I was like underwater. I'm like, am I okay? That's some Midwest stuff right there. But yeah, so that was my welcome to the W moment. Wait, so when you pop your drum, what happens to that? There's like not really much you can do. It takes like months to heal. So like after the season, the doctor had to like go back in and look and see if it

close and if it doesn't close you have to have like a minor procedure but look you know if it closed so it's fine but oh thank gosh yeah you have to like be careful about like getting water in there you can't go in lakes and pools like it's it's it's weird sometimes it'll bleed when it pops but mine didn't thankfully so yeah it's just really annoying like your hearing is like really off and jason you're probably noticed like your hearing's just kind of off for like a few few weeks yeah it's like muffled and just like feels weird yeah what um because you brought this up because you're from the Midwest I love the fact that you hurt your ear tubing. What is, are you a lakes or are you an ocean?

We're big, we're pro-get outside. Because Kylie's big time ocean and I'm, I love both. It's hard because like my family would always vacation down to Florida. Like that's for spring break. Like that's what we would do. I'd go with my cousin.

So like we love the beach. My parents are beach people. But like you just grow up around lakes in the Midwest. Like you just, that's what you do. What beach down there in Florida? St. Pete's. St. Pete. Nice.

We were Marco Island. Okay. Yeah. So that was our spot, but I love lakes. And they're just easier. And I'm not as scared going in the water. Like, I'm not going too of it in the ocean. For sure.

I don't know what's down there. I'm not messing with that salt water. Exactly. And a lake, you feel a little more confident. But, yeah. There's a snake going to get me? How about you guys? Doubt it.

I'm the lake guy for sure. Yeah. I mean, like you said, I like both. We actually, we have a shore town. In Jersey, they call it the shore. Jersey Shore Not the North Jersey Shore The show

We're South Jersey We're civilized down there in South Jersey All the shores over there in Jersey are the same Every last one of them He's trying to hype one up over the other But yeah I do love the shore I love the ocean

And we grew up going to Florida But there's just something about lakes And in particular I like four season lakes I like when the lake freezes over We played hockey growing up I like going on snowmobiles. I like the summers. I like hiking.

Like, I think there's so much big hiker. All right. I have been hiking and I enjoy it. That's his new hobby. He picked it, how to pick it up. I didn't know you were a hike. Well, you did. You've hiked Mount Kilimanjarl.

That's right. I'm lighter now. He's a retired athlete. He just picks up hobbies. All right. We don't need to put me on blasts. All right, here we go. You guys played hockey?

I didn't even know that. Yeah. Jason played a little longer than I did. Once I got to high school, I switched over to basketball because it was the same season. Trav hurt the entire Cleveland Heights hockey community because he was the best hockey player ever in Cleveland Heights youth hockey. He was very dominant. And then when he chose basketball, it just really deflated. You had to be a pretty solid basketball player.

I just couldn't dribble. We were known for basketball and all the basketball games were absolutely rocked. And really sold out. Yeah. And I had a hoop dreams. So I chose basketball. But yeah, I definitely, I definitely loved playing hockey the most. Hockey was so much fun.

It was probably because of the guys that I played it with more so than actually getting out there. But yeah. Yeah. That's half of the youth teams I was on anyways. Yeah, I just like, I like to put a helmet on. You get on the ice and play a little or what? Were you always a hooper or whatever sports did you play?

I played soccer growing up. It was soccer and basketball. Honestly, like, hockey isn't really that big in Iowa. Like, it wasn't really a big thing, which is kind of weird. Like, you think it would be. But it was more of, nobody really did it. I feel like wrestling is, wrestling is so big in Iowa. Wrestling is huge.

Wrestling is huge. Like, all the Iowa football players, like, usually are really good high school. Tristan Wirfs. Yeah. Freaking Tyler Lindembaum. Yeah. Jason was a wrestler. Athletic, but big and athletic.

Yeah. Great wrestlers. State champion wrestlers. But that would be, like, freak O. linemen or like good tight ends or whatever it was. I love watching me two big old muscle bound men, wrestle it out. There's nothing better. I want to see the heavy weights.

That's funny. How did you end up at Iowa? You almost ended up in Notre Dame. I did. Yeah. What led to the decision to go to Iowa? So I was, I basically narrowed it down pretty early on and I was going through my college recruitment that I wanted to be like in the Midwest, just kind of a home body,

family person, just wanted to stay fairly close to home. So that narrowed a lot of stuff down. And I visited like Oregon and Texas and a few other places. And I liked them, but it was just like I knew it was too far. And then visited Notre Dame a bunch of times. And I was like, I love Notre Dame. And I like, as a kid, like you want to go to Notre Dame. Like it's the same with Notre Dame football. It's like, it's like the coolest thing in the world. It's Notre Dame. It has that tradition. They've had so many great players go through there in every single sport. But like I just knew like something. thing. Like you could just like, I could feel it in my gut. Like I was like, I'm not supposed to go there. Yeah. So I picked Iowa and we were, I was really good at women's basketball before I went there

too, like made a few sweet 16s, made the lead eight. Our coach had been there for quite a while. But they hadn't been to the final four since like 1992. So I wanted to go somewhere that was good, but like maybe had it been like a blue blood for say in like quite a few years and kind of help them get back to that. And then it was obviously my home state too and two hours from where I grew up. So perfect distance where like your parents can't show up, but also like you could go home if you wanted to. No doubt. Yeah. It's important.

It just kind of all worked out perfect. And obviously I made an okay decision and it worked out pretty well. Worked out real well. Yeah, did. Did you take visits to Notre Dame and Iowa? Yeah. I took quite a few to both. Yeah.

Okay. What was your guys' dream schools growing up? Or did you even have one? I wouldn't even say Notre Dame was like my dream school. It was more so like I just thought it was super cool. Like, No, for sure. I would say dad,

dad was a big Notre Dame fan. He grew up Catholic and he went to Catholic school growing up. I think that like anybody who's like Irish Catholic, like, that's like the like, especially in the football world. And then Ohio State was really good. Yeah. Ohio State was probably the one school that I was like, as a kid, I was like, that's the school. No, you like Michigan.

You just stop. I like Michigan. You were always a Michigan fan. You can't like Michigan and Ohio. Exactly. Exactly. The thing is, I can, I can, and I did. I mean, you can, but like, Michigan and Ohio State fans are not going to be happy about that.

Exactly. I didn't go to either one of them, so it's all good. I will say, this was when he was younger. This was when he was younger. By the time he was high school, he was on the Ohio State. Like, it was just like, anyways. Ohio State Stadium is legit. When we would go to play Ohio State, I would be like, we would drive past.

And I'm like, it would make Iowa Stadium look so small. And it still seats 70,000. but, like, that place is just gigantic. Yeah. I do love Iowa Stadium, though. There's something, like, very awesome there. Obviously, the thing they do with the Children's Hospital is awesome. The wave is really cool.

I'm trying to remember the name of it. I watched the game. I took a visit to Iowa. Kinnick, yeah. Kinnick, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Great atmosphere.

It's great. And the wave is pretty awesome because the Children's Hospital looks right over on the stadium. So it's cool. It's always been a thing. but the wave has really become a thing probably in the last eight years, I want to say, because we have a kid captain for every game because the hospital is such a big deal. And it's usually a kid battling some sort of disease or has beaten some sort of disease. Not always cancer, but whatever it is.

And that's always fun. They get to pick a song that plays after the first quarter. And I get the chills every time. It's sick. It's probably one of the best traditions in all of sports, if not the best, honestly. Wait, so what's this thing about the wave? The wave just started? Yeah.

Yeah, so after the first quarter, everybody turns because the children's hospital, like, looks on top of the football stadium. And so. I remember seeing a wave. Yeah. The patients can go about. I thought you were talking about the wave. I thought they were talking about the wave. I mean, you, maybe we can get that started too.

Maybe you're on to something, Jason. Iowa fans are going to be fired up now. They're going to be doing it at the same time. Exactly. So stupid. But no, it's pretty cool. We heard you got your first. recruiting letter in seventh grade?

Yeah. Is this true? Yeah. So at the time, like, that's insane. That's insane. Were you playing with high schoolers at this point? Yeah,

it's honestly sad. Like, we're in college, like recruitment has kind of gone. It's just insane. But also I got you. I feel very fortunate. Like,

my parents were just like, they told my older brother, like, go get the mail. Like, we don't want your sister to see that. They, like, wanted me to be in seventh grade and,

like, enjoy middle school and like, hang out with your friends. Like, you shouldn't be worrying. about where you're going to college. I love that so much. Yeah. So I didn't really take any visits until like after my freshman year of college and then I didn't

decide until my senior year. So I was never in a rush and my parents did a really good job of like make sure, you know, I have a good circle around me. Like it wasn't always about college recruitment. I wasn't like posting my offers. Like also that wasn't really a thing when I was growing up. But it is now. I mean, it was, it had to be close to when you were growing up.

I mean. Yeah, it was close. Like people were starting to do it like post like, oh, I got an offer from here. got an offer from here. And especially in basketball. Now it's all you see on social media. It's like only people talk about. It's crazy.

But obviously times have changed too. Oh, times have changed. Yeah, seventh grade was wild. And I was playing up like two years. So I was playing with high schoolers. But yeah, I didn't really like think anything of it. Like I was just going out there and hooping and having fun. And it's kind of just what came with it.

How much basketball did you play? Because nowadays, like these kids play, it's like nonstop. I know. I know. It's crazy. It is crazy. And I, so I played AAU and then I played for my high school team. But my eight, my mom would be like, she is not playing more than like three games or two games in one day. Like that's crazy because sometimes they would want me to play like for the seventh grade team and the eighth grade team.

So my parents were like really good about that. Like they didn't want me to lose the love of it. Like you don't want to get burned out. Like you still want to be having fun when you're doing it as a pro if you're lucky enough. And maybe as a kid, I was like, mom, no, like I can keep going. I can be playing, but looking back, like, I'm very fortunate for that because I haven't lost that fun of it and that passion for it and always wanting to get better. And sometimes that's why people get burned out is because they did it too much as a kid and their parents forced it on them or whoever forced it on them too much. And that was never something I really had to deal with.

So I feel very fortunate. Got to have that balance. That's awesome that your parents, you know, made sure of that or at least we're cautious of it. Yeah, absolutely. I think the only recruitment letter Travis got in seventh grade was. to St. Eanesha. St. E.Nation was just trying to get him over to the high school. To play hockey.

Was that what it was for? Yeah. That's the only sport anybody wanted me in seventh grade, seventh, eighth grade. That in lacrosse. We need the hockey highlight tape. We're going to get back out there. We got to get out there with the Watts.

That's the goal. We got to get out there with TJ and JJ and all those dudes. All right. Let me ask you this. We're going to try the segment. We've never done it. It's probably going to be very short-lived. It's called name a person.

I'm going to go around the horn and each name an athlete from Iowa until we can't anymore. Oh, gosh. I feel like you're probably not going to struggle. Can you name current players? No, no, they just have to be an athlete. Has to be former players? Can they be current? No, they can be former.

They have to be former. They have to be former. You know current? No, they can be current. I'm going to try to do like NFL current players, see if I can do. Okay. You might beat us in that too. Travis says like the, actually we both really have the positions.

So let's see how it happens. All right. Who's starting? I'll start. George Kittle. I knew that was going to be the first person he was going to say. I'm going to say Sam Leporta just to take Travis's answers away from him before. I'm going to go Tyler Linderbaum on the raid. Oh, nice. Nice. I'm going to go Claire Kittle. Tristan Worf's. That's right. Solid answer. That's true.

The Eagles actually rookie Cooper DeGine for my own. Oh, nice. Nejee, what about a little T.J. son. Ah, that's right. I always worried about him. He's on the Vikings, right? Yes, yes. He's finally back healthy doing his thing.

That's awesome. I'm going to get a throwback here. I'm going to get a throwback. I'm going to get a throwback. Robert Gallery. His wife actually played basketball at Iowa, too. What? There we go.

Look at that. Yeah, they actually came to quite a few of our games last couple of years. Great people. Cool people. Nice. Oh, gosh. Okay. Let's see.

Hmm. Hmm. This is tough. We stumped her. We stumped her. I'm about NFL players. She's still thinking of NFL.

She's going to go, Gino Stone. I think he, I think he's on the Bengals now. I'm pretty sure he had to pick six this past week. Oh, all right. All right.

I'll take you word for it. I'll take, all right. We respect, Gino. What you got, I'm going to go a little chiefs, uh,

tight end when I first got to Kansas City, Tony Moiyaki. Oh, my down, my Shatown brother. Shout on to Timo, man. I'm going to go, um,

another former teammate, Julian Vandervild. E Julian Vandervility Did anybody say Dallas Clark? No, the legend I was holding on to that one. No gloves.

I'll stay in the tight end world over there. Noah Fan. That's right. Seahawks, I think. Yes. Yeah. 8-7 over there in Seattle. All right.

I'm going, I'm going to go Marshall Yanda. This dude is falling out. I'm pulling up the band. I'm pulling up the old schools. I'm going to go Riley Moss on the Broncos. I'm going with the younger players. He's going to school with me.

Well, I'll show my age and Jason's as well because he was the same recruiting class. He was also a Kansas City chief when I got to Kansas City. Ricky Stanzy quarterback Iowa. Oh, man. This might be right. This is where it ends. This might be. That was pretty good.

I'm pretty sure Matt Tobin. I'm pretty sure Matt Tobin played for high love. Pretty sure. I'm next to pie. Then you lost. If you're pretty sure, you lost. All right, we'll end it there. I think we all did very respect.

We did great. I'm impressed. That was fun. That was fun. I was who were caught? Toes with the Iowa. I knew it. I was a fun one.

All right. That was a fun one. All right. What was your, what was one of your most favorite memories from playing at Iowa, though? Ooh. That's tough.

There's a lot. Yeah. Maybe one that everyone doesn't know about. So every four years in college basketball, you get to take a foreign trip, and you like go and play some teams overseas, like in the summer before your season. What? Oh, this sounds like a last.

That's great. So we went to Italy and Croatia, like two great spots. Would you like more? Which one? Which one do you like more? Honestly, Croatia. I've heard that. I've heard Croatia is awesome.

It's great. I went to split and do Rubnik. It's awesome. I tell people, I'm like, if you're going to go one place, like, overseas, like, that has to be the spot. It's clean. The water's beautiful. Things to do. Oh, that's cool.

So food's great. Nice. The basketball, like, wasn't that serious. We'd meet everybody, but, like, 80. But it was just, like, so much fun. Like, we had so many fun nights together. You guys were, like, the dream team over there. Yeah.

Like, people don't get to hear about, like, those type of memories with your friends, like your college friends. And we can only imagine going overseas with Croatians. We found out, we just recently found out we were Croatian. We didn't even know. That's why I got so excited when you said Croatia. Yeah. He's proud.

I got some blood. That's me. That's funny. We talked about NIL earlier. How much did that change when that became a thing your senior year? Because you were unique where when you first got to college, it wasn't a thing. And all of a sudden it became a thing. It became a thing after my freshman year.

And it was kind of weird because everybody was like, okay, so like what is it? And like... Trying to maneuver. You know the NCAA? Like, they don't have many rules on much anymore. So like... Right. There weren't many rules.

And it was more so like, okay, like, what can we do? What can we don't? can we not do? And like, we're also the first. So, like, you're trying to figure it out as you go. My family helped me a lot. But as you get going, you know, you just figure things out. And it's fun.

And, like, it obviously has been, should have been a thing for a really long time. Like, the NIL part of it, like, the true, like, endorsements. Like, you're doing a commercial for, you know, the local coffee shop or, like, whatever it is. Like, it's something so easy and so simple. And I think, you know, like, a normal student can do that. But, like, why couldn't an athlete? Like, it's just, like, such a simple thing that should have.

have been a thing for a long time. But also, it was like challenging to navigate and it still is, like seeing these college students that they don't have the right resources around them. Right. It's tough. It stinks. Like, it's hard. And I think that's kind of like something that needs to kind of become, I don't know, more prevalent. And I know universities are trying to start like having in-house, like NIL people or whatever it is or in-house lawyers or whatever it is to kind of try to manage that. So they're doing the best they can too. But obviously there's not many guys. lines are rules, so it makes it hard as well. But it obviously changed a lot and it's made it fun.

And I think it's also helped women's sports grow too. I think you've seen. Yeah, it's a great point. Women's sports has blown up with the NIL stuff. That's such a good. Everyone's becoming more familiar. Yeah. Absolutely.

So it's been, it's been great for everybody, honestly. Nice. Have you ever heard of anybody? You're a little, you're a little bit closer to the NIL world. Have you heard of anybody paying their taxes? because that's what in my mind i'm like i definitely wasn't fucking ready to pay taxes when i was in college like i wasn't thinking about that shit i know that's what i always think about and lucky enough i had like obviously great parents and people that help me with that but like these people are

like getting this money and like little do they know like you're not you're going to see like maybe half of that especially yeah and so i don't know like they're spending and like you just worry but If you guys got to pick any NIL deal in college, what are you going with? Adriatico's pizza. I just sell that shit in a heartbeat. I used to go there every fucking day. If you ever around University of Cincinnati gone up there to Clifton and have some Adriatico's pizza, get you a bear cat pizza.

It's one of the best. All right. I'm going to do it. I like it. If I'm going for business-wise, you want to get in the P&G family. Procter and Gamble. That's a marketing major right there. The correct answer is go to the biggest brand in the city.

The biggest, like, oversight of all these brands. You need something like a little more. I'll say this. I would go, like, selfishly, the one that I would do would be skyline. Because it's just like, it's such a representation for Cincinnati. Very unique to the area. Well, do yourself a favor. Don't go.

You absolutely hate it. Don't do it. It's very acquired. You have to be, you have to drink it at least three or four times. You're drunk. It's really true. Appreciate it. Before you actually enjoy it.

I've actually, I've seen Jason eat more Penn Station at the University of Cincinnati than I did Skyline. We have Penn Station here. Penn Station is good. Penn Station is good. One of the best cheese steaks in the land. Great cheese steak. What do you think about that, Jason, as a Philly guy? You're going to put me on blast because I love Penn Station cheese steaks.

And this is a heated debate between Kylie and I, you're about the divided family, Caitlin. Kylie, I took her to Penn Station to have a cheesecake. I'm like, you're going to love this cheese steak. It is so good. And she was like, this is a cheese and steak sandwich. This is not a cheesecake. I'm like, what the hell? You can't do it.

It's the same ingredients. Yeah. She could not stand it. It was like flabbergasted that this thing would even be called a cheese steak. So I do love Penn Station cheese sticks. But I'm Philadelphia. Kai likes the nacho cheese on the cheese steak, though. So that's a little.

See, I don't like the not cheese. She does American stop. I'm not going to let you do this to Kylie. The one thing that I think everybody's a little bit with is, the transfer portal, right? Like, there's a kid, Penn State, like, more recently, what is it, the starting quarterback, just announced he's transferring right before the playoffs. Yeah, I saw that.

Those things are backup, but like. Oh, was it? Okay. Sorry. But he played in a few games, even, like, quite a few games because I think Drew Aller or whatever his name has got heard or something. That's what it was. But yeah, the transfer portal was crazy, especially in football.

Like, I think that's where it's gotten the craziest because that's obviously world money. He's just everybody's a free agent every year. Every year, it's like twice a year, right? Adam Schaefter's like reporting like, yes, they've negotiated a new deal for him to stay at the university. I'm like, yeah, like where else is he going to go? It's like crazy and it's kind of sad. Like it just, you lost that little bit of like, I don't know, amateurism of college sports and I don't know, that's why it's fun. But also like it's the world we're living.

Like the level right below being a profession like that like that, I don't know, get you ready for the. It's like a minor league football basically now. Yeah. that's exactly what it is. I don't know. What do you guys think about the transfer portal? Do you think there should be like different rules? I'm too old school.

I didn't get the opportunity to transfer. I think that I don't think that people should be leaving before the playoffs. I think that they should figure that out. Yeah. I kind of think that there should be a commitment level from the player to the university that there isn't right now. And I don't know if that means signing like term contracts. Like maybe it's like a two, three year contract that you're like agreeing to stick with a team or a university as long as there's not like a coaching change.

Yeah, that's what I thought it was. I thought it was the original reason why they came up with the transfer portal was, one, because of COVID, but two, because coaches just were up and leaving and players were being forced to just be there with whoever came in, knowing that the new coaching staff wasn't the ones that really wanted them or recruited them. So they were kind of put on the back burner. I think if a coach leaves, then a player or whoever on the team gets to be able to enter the transfer portal.

but it's for sure it should it should go back to the old rules if you ask a old timer like me to where if you transfer you have to sit out a year i know i agree i don't know or i think like you get one every situation is different but for sure or you get a free pass if your coach leaves or whatever that makes that makes a ton of sense having one free yeah but now we got people on like their fourth school and their seventh year it's just getting it's getting egregious insane i was uh I was being a kid, and when I CAA football, the video game came out. I was like, I just have to. I have to buy it.

I have to play this. I have to act like I went to every university. And then I was like, oh, I don't have to just go and create a new, like, player. I can just transfer her. So I played at four different schools, one in the Heisman at each school. And I'm just like, man, could you imagine a player doing this? Because NIL, if he wins the Heisman, like, early on enough, like, he's going to get, or they're going to get enough money to stay to stay at their like college yeah to stay in college

for as long as they want or as long as their eligibility to let them and what do you have to say in college for three years in college football what do you guys think about that you think that's that's remain remain yeah yeah i'm kind of in favor of that yeah i don't know i don't like restricting kids like if they're good enough go but there's like a physicality that i feel like it's still like very different yeah but it'll get to the point where it's not even the physicality. It'll just be guys will leave knowing that they have the potential to become that.

You know what I mean? So guys will just like get drafted based off a potential even more. Right. All right now. We end all of our conversations with a segment we call. We gotta ask, but you don't have to answer, Caitlin. So it's as simple as that. All righty, Caitlin.

You're up and you don't have to answer these. You can tell us to just fuck off. Did you see the new NBA All-Star format? I did. And how do you feel about this? See, that's tough. Four teams of eight with one team being the rising stars. So I saw Kevin Durant's said this today or maybe yesterday or whenever it was.

But they should go back to the East versus West. And that's when I loved it. I think it should be East versus West. Like that's true all stars. Like East versus West, battle it out. That's what it was about. Yeah. So I think that's what it should be, but obviously not the commissioner.

I'm on board for East versus West All-Stars. I think that's the whole point of it. That's why you're an All-Star. It's the best from the East versus the best in the West, play each other. See which side's better. I'm not going to lie. I'm not a fan of any of these in-season tournaments that the NBA is doing. Yeah.

I was actually talking about this today. How are you? What is there to not be a fan of? All the funky floors and then there's tournaments and they don't mean, crap. Can we just play basketball? Can we just play basketball? I'm getting like a migraine looking at the neon green.

Yeah. But no. I feel like it was a hit the first year, the NBA Cup, or whatever it was. And it kind of like toned down a little bit this year. But it's interesting. They're trying to spice it up a little bit. I don't know what team is what team. The jerseys aren't the same.

The colors aren't the same. Jason is such a. He's such an old stubborn dude. This is hilarious. All righty. That's funny. Obviously, Caitlin, you don't need to help with the ratings. But it's been in the news a lot recently that the NBA ratings are down.

Should we brainstorm a few ideas besides changing the NBA courts to bring back ratings into the NBA? What do you think? That's a great question. You're the marketing major. Come on. I've been asking a lot of people about this and why they think they're down. But also, like, it's interesting because I'm pretty sure opening day was the NBA's best opening day in a while.

So it's interesting. And obviously, I think... Because the calves are back, baby. The calves are fucking rolling right now, you know what I'm saying? It just makes the league better when Cleveland's thriving. They're really, really good. Fucking pulled that out of my ass. They are fun to watch right now.

So, well, let's ask this. What are your suspicions potentially as to why the NBA ratings would be down? Honestly, like, I feel like the average, just like basketball fan doesn't understand how good NBA players are. and they think it looks like they're not trying. I promise you they're trying. They're just like so good. Like that's why it looks like they're not trying. And obviously,

the physicality of the league has changed a lot. And I wasn't around when it was like much more physical. And maybe people want more like beef and physicality. And people think it's gotten soft. But I think that's also because the skill has just changed. And like, that's what's great about basketball. Like it's always evolving.

Like it's going to be different than when MJ played. It's going to be different in 10 years than it is now. So it's hard for me to like put my finger. on like why it has gone down. And also it's competing against a lot of football right now. You have to take that into consideration. Like football is just, you know, that's America's favorite thing. I think people should like, I mean, I love three-point shooting. I love seeing guys just like launch threes, but not everybody loves that. So I don't know. What do you think about a four-point line? I love that. Let's do it. That's a great idea.

That is genius. That is genius. Four-point line. How does the criminal justice major come up with the best marketing plan right here? Sometimes you just got to open your eyes, Jason, look at the sheet of paper and front of you. Or we can get like just two spots. Yeah. I, uh, what about, what about, you're saying that everybody's questioning how physical the, the game is, what do you think a hockey style fight won once a game? Just everybody picks a fighter. Who doesn't like a boxing gloves? Two minutes, penalty boxing. You can come back in. You don't get ejected. That's what I'm saying. All right. He's got some reason to bring that physicality back.

That's a hockey guy wants that. What, yeah, what about like an NBA jam rule where like if you want, if you start making like a third bucket. It's worth more. It's like heating up. Like you're on fire. If you're on fire, it's worth more. So like,

I don't know. That would be cool. That would be cool. Just made me want to play NBA Jam. Have you ever played NBA Jam? Yeah. I used to have this like, it was like the whole arcade,

like the arcade. That's so sick. Oh, I'm jealous. Yeah. I didn't play it in a while, but yeah. Is it potentially because they're playing too many games?

I think that's for sure probably something. like 82 games on like somebody's body. Like so many. It's insane. Like they're not practicing a lot. Like it's just hard. If it's to the point that guys are that your star players are having to take time off, why don't we just play less games?

I know. So the star players don't have to take time off because I don't know. I just, I feel like the NBA and Major League Baseball grew up in times where ticket sales were what, like was your main source of revenue. And now it's all driven by ad dollars from TV contracts. Yeah. So to increase TV revenue, it's like just play less games in more impactful times.

I don't know. Yeah, there's definitely ways to solve that. I mean, like 82 games and we don't even, we play half of that. And that's going to go up as we add more teams to our league. Yeah. But like, I can't imagine. Heard Kansas City is shopping around for a team. Pat are trying to bring one.

I know. And they got a good basketball arena there. What is it, the Sprint Center? Oh, yeah, Sprint Center. Oh, yeah. We hold the, you're right. God, Lee, you just took me back. He used to be sprint.

Sprint sold to T-Mobile, so now it's the T-Mobile Center. I knew it was one of them. Big 12 tourneys there every year. Yeah, it's a great spot. And then Power and Light District down there, like it's, it would be a great.

For great, for great, but great women's basketball could be great there. For sure. So I'd support it, but yeah, I don't know.

I think 82 games is a lot on somebody's body and, like, mentally, like, that's hard. And what is it for football? I mean, you're playing, what, 15 or?

You're playing 17, regular season? 17 and they're trying to add an 18. I think. I think the NFL should be playing less regular season games, but I'm losing that bad. And what are you playing, Travis? You're playing like three in the next, three in like 11 days or something like that. Yeah.

So it already started. I'm going to be playing two in the next, what is it, eight days? Yeah. Like, how do you even prepare for that? Like, that's crazy. You just put your shoes and pads on just like the other team. We're in this together. And you put your face in the fan.

You just know what's coming. We're all in this shit now. To be honest, we're ending that skit on, or like the three games in 11 days. We're ending it on Christmas. And it's like, who can't get excited to play on fucking Christmas? That's true. We didn't last year, and you saw that firsthand. But this year, I think we're ready.

We're going to rebound on Christmas. We learned. We learned from last year. Yeah, exactly. You recently played in a pro-am with Anika Sorenstam. I did. You hit a person on a T-Bex. I don't know how you do that.

Okay. I would hit a person on a show. A two box. Yeah. We, I know I can relate. Jason, I don't know if you've played in enough pro ams yet to hit anybody, but The video that was going viral where I like completely topped it. So it's crazy.

Like we're playing like these long par threes that are like 200 yards. I'm like I'm not good enough to hit a par three like 200 yards. Like so I whip out my hybrid. I'm like teen up my hybrid club. Just top it like straight out of fans of the left. Been there. But I think they dodged it down the third baseline. But I nailed somebody on a different par three like some woman like.

right in the shoulder. Like, shoulder. And I saw, I saw a TikTok like the next day, just like black welt on her arm. Well, that's just, I don't get her good if you just got a black well. Are you more competitive in golf or basketball? That's hard. I think like golf makes me more mad because I'm not as good at it. Like, I'm just like the average hack and like you want to be good.

Like you're competitive, just like basketball or football. Like, it's like, why am I not good at this? So, and it's like, it's like it's an individual sport and we're used to team sports. So I think that's what pisses me off too. It's like it's all on me and I know it's all my fault. I share your pain. Are you more nervous on the free throw line or at the first tea? First tea, not even close.

I like shaking. I like can't put my ball on the tea. You're like, can't get at the same on the tea. You're shaking so bad trying to put the tea in the ground. I mean like you're average at golf. At least you're confident in the actual sport you play, you know? Tush. According to your teammates,

You are quite the karaoke person. What is your karaoke song of choice or what your go-to? That's tough. It switches up. Yeah. Depends on what mood you're in. Dice. You know what's good?

Where is the love by the Black Eyed piece? That's a good. It's a good karaoke song. She gets it. Yep. Honestly, it changes up. I like a little duet action. So you could go up there with your friends.

Okay. Nice. I haven't done karaoke in a while. What's your guys' go-to song if you had a pick? I have one song and I go to it routinely. That is total eclipse of the heart by the Dan band. I will sing that at any time. I'm anything 80s rock and roll.

70s, 80s, rock and roll. Throw it on. Springsteen, you name it, any of it. I'm like ACDC. I can only do one, though. If I'm going to do ACDC, I can only do one. Yeah. That takes a lot out of you.

Because I can only stay, I can only stay like that. But so long. And then my voice is gone. I will go, Col 45 Afro-Man, if I'm feeling like the crowd is the right. Goat 45. What's the goat basketball shoe? So I play in only Kobe's.

I like Kobe's are my. I'm a great Kobe fan. What numbers? The five and the six. I like the six probably better, but five and six. They're low tops. Yeah. That's where I was like, I can do the ones.

That's about it. But they look cool. In terms of hooping. Yeah. Yeah. They look cool. And trust me, I've sprayed my ankles a thousand, thousand times. There's no stopping it anymore.

I forget which number it is, but he came out with the ones. I think after he popped his Achilles with the, the actually like went up like halfway up to calf. Yep. And they're making those again. Yeah. Are they really? Yeah.

I got a pair in like white and maybe red. So that should be that that could be the shoe you hoopin. There it is. It goes all the way up his leg. Make sure he doesn't. I'm not rolling my fucking angle of me as I know that for sure. Just wearing a winner boot. Yeah, literally.

If you weren't playing basketball, what would Caitlin Clark be doing? You said you're a marketing major. Would you have gone more into that world or you think you would have jumped into something else? Oh, man, that's tough. I think if my basketball career would have ended, I still would have loved sports just because it was like such a huge part of my childhood and like what I did. Yeah. So I don't know.

Maybe like try to work in like a front office. of a sports organization or something like that. I think that would be cool. Not like the coaching side of it, but like the operation side and getting to do like free agency stuff. And I think that would be really cool. Apparently you have talked about opening a rib restaurant. Is this true?

Yeah. Are you reading with the ribs? I, and this was like such a random thing when I was growing up. I like told my mom like, yeah, there was like this plot of land like by where we would like where we lived. And yeah. I like had this weird obsession with like ribs.

It was like what I asked my mom to bake me for my mom. Ain't nothing weird about it. Let me tell you, nothing weird about that. So I was like, yeah, I'm going to open the rib crib, like have this barbecue joint. Like, I don't know. We'll see. I've kind of phased out of, like, I love ribs still, but I don't, I've never made ribs for myself.

But I'll just hire a chef. Maybe he can run the restaurant. You can just be the face behind. What's, there you baby back, your baby back or spare ribs? Uh, baby back. Baby back. All right. All right.

You're giving me my baby, baby, baby. Are you Kansas City-style barbecue sauce or you're going on Kansas City, yeah. Yeah, all right. That makes sense. That heads up. What about what sides are we having? What sides are we having? This dude did they talk about it.

He's all in. I haven't had offensive linemen at heart. Have you ate today, Jason? Hold a dishwasher. I haven't had dinner yet. And now I'm on off of salivating. I got to go like some mac and cheese. Okay.

What else we're going with? Cornbread? Some cheesy corn. Corn. It has to have corn bread. Yeah. Maybe some like. green beans with bacon or like

I don't even know bake beans baked beans. Big beans. Big beans are great. Jason's just answering his own questions. Berenes. Bains are great. I love baked beans. I haven't had barbecue in forever. You're going to make me crave it. My mouth is legitimately watering. Come on down to Arrowhead. We'll get you some barbecue.

Can I get the banana pudding for dessert? All right. Piece of advice for the next Caitlin Clark watching. That's tough. I think just like enjoy every single moment because it goes so fast and like life changes so fast. and you know, you only get to do a lot of things once. So have fun, enjoy it.

Remember why you do it because, like, you love it. You're passionate about it. You know, don't take it too serious. So I would say that. That's how I've tried to live. And obviously, some moments are better than others. As you guys know, you get competitive and caught up. But, you know, just enjoy it.

Have fun. And, you know, keep loving it. I think that is a very wise answer. Yes. Especially for someone going into their second year. I took so much shit serious when I first got in the league. I was just like, I have to do this. I have to.

And this and this. And now I'm just like telling everyone, like, you know it's not that serious. Yeah. That's funny. Before we wrap, do you have any questions for us? You got any? Feel free to ask none. I don't have any.

It was fun. You guys were great. So thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Caitlin, Chloe. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Kelsey Bros.

You guys were awesome. You're absolutely amazing. Can't wait to see you and the fever go at it again next season. When are you guys starting up for a training camp? April. April? Oh, nice. You got some time.

I got some time. So hopefully I can make it to a Chiefs game here soon. Maybe a playoff game or something. I'll tell you what. We punched our ticket. So we're definitely, we're going to at least have. I would assume we at least got one at Arrowhead. But, you know, you're invited to them all.

All right. Appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming on, Caitlin. All right. And that wraps up another episode of New Heights. Thank you so much to our guest, Caitlin Clark. We will be back next week for a brand new episode.

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