Pardon My Take - Danny Ainge In Studio, Celtics In The Finals, Mavs Up 3-0, Remembering Bill Walton And 35 Minutes From Our 2017 Interview With Him

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

We remember the legend that is Bill Walton after his passing on Monday (00:00:00-00:11:51). The Celtics clinch the Eastern Conference and are headed to the Finals (00:11:51-00:19:46). The Mavs spent the weekend beating the Wolves and Luka/Kyrie are playing on another level (00:19:46-00:34:54). The Rangers go up 2-1 and Memes is in hell (00:34:54-00:50:07). Hot Seat/Cool Throne including Angel Hernandez retiring, Draymond Green crying poor, Nadal losing at the French Open and more (00:50:07-01:14:36). We welcome Danny Aigne in studio to talk about his career in basketball, being an incredible 3 sport athlete, the 86 Celtics and great Bill Walton stories, moving into an executive role, trading for KG and Ray Allen, rebuilding the Celtics and his role with the Jazz now (01:14:36-02:19:46). We finish with Pardon Your Take (02:19:46-02:30:36). Plus a very special re-release of 35 minutes of our 2017 interview with Bill Walton for all new listeners (check out the video version as well that hasnt been released until today) (02:30:36-03:04:56).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake

Hey, pardon my take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. On today's pardon my take, we are back from the long weekend. We got a lot of basketball to talk about and we have an awesome in-person interview with Danny Ainge. We also are going to talk about the passing of the legend Bill Walton. And we have some unreleased footage from our interview with him, which we never actually put out on video. So that'll be at the end of the episode. We have 35 minutes. Back in 2017 in Las Vegas before the Pac 12 championship, the conference of champions.

Yes. And it was a unforgettable experience. So we've condensed it down into about 30 minutes, but I think it was much longer than two and a half hours. Yeah, because there's a lot of people probably didn't hear it. I know there's a lot of people didn't see it because before we released every podcast on video. So that will be in video as well. At the end, we're going to talk half of the NBA finals is set. cocky Hank gets paid off. Also, the Mavs are up 3-0. Some hockey, some hot seat, cool throne.

And we're happy to be back. We're excited to be back. Extra long show because we're not going to have a show on Wednesday. Our next show will be Friday so we have an extra long show for the people. And we're brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. We're this close to crowning an NBA champ and with the action heating up on the court, it's even hotter at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. There's only so many games left and DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered with same game parlies, live betting odds

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See dkng.co slash bball for eligibility, wagering, and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. Okay, let's go. Now in the street there is violence And then there's lots of work to be done No place to hang out or wash in And then I can't game all on the sun Oh no We're gonna rock it down to Electric Avenue And then we'll take it higher Oh we're gonna rock it down to Electric Avenue It's Part of My Take presented by Marshall Sports. Welcome to Part of My Take presented by DraftKings. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app.

Now use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers. Get a no-sweat bet up to $1,500 if your first bet doesn't hit. Only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Tuesday, May 28th, and we have lost the legend. Bill Walton passed away on Monday. Kind of shocking. Yeah. I didn't know he was battling cancer, and it was also shocking in the fact that we don't... We'll talk talk about celebrity deaths I think this might be

the first one that's ever led the show and I think it's appropriate because this one I don't know about you PFT but like when I saw it hit the news hit I was really really like affected and bummed out because I loved Bill Walton and we I'm like so happy that we were actually able to interview him and he just was He was just walking joy. Yeah, it was like really sad to see that news Yeah, I don't really get emotional about celebrity deaths. I did cry when I found out about Bill because he was such a Positive person and when we had the opportunity to meet him we met him for one day in positive person and when we had the opportunity to meet him, we met him for one day in 2017. One day we spent about two hours with him. Just a blip on his

radar and I've missed Bill ever since then. Yeah. Like I've missed him. I actually miss hanging out with Bill Walton and he was so fun to be around and such a unique person and just larger than life in every single aspect. The joy that he brought countless people, the joy that he was able to exude. He was without a doubt a one of a kind human being. They've never made anybody like Bill Walton. They're never going to make anybody like Bill Walton again. And so for that reason, I'm sad that the world no longer has that unique person in it. But Bill Walton would probably get very mad at us if he heard us being sad about him.

Yeah. That's not his vibe. I am going to be sad because that's just how it makes me feel. But Bill Walton would probably get very mad at us if he heard us being sad about him. Yeah. That's not his vibe. I am going to be sad, because that's just how it makes me feel. The only good part of today was we got to hear hours and hours of Bill Walton's stories. Yes. Which was very nice to hear, because everyone that met Bill

is like, he changed their lives. He was authentically Bill. Like, he was the same person when we got, when we were lucky enough to interview him. He was just exactly what we expected. I said at the beginning of the show, if you skipped through it, we interviewed him in 2017. This was early, early days, first year of Pardon My Take. So it was just the three of us. I think that was right after the Evander Holyfield interview. Right after we got duped by Evander Holyfield, but it was just the three of us. So we didn't release the

podcast on video, so we're able to find the hard drive and we'll have the video of the 35 minutes we're gonna put at the end of this show. If you're a new AWL, listen to it. It was a joy. It also, I mean, I've told this story before, but the two things that were so great when we interviewed him, one, he asked me beforehand if it's okay if he brings his own chair. And then he said, it's the greatest chair ever. And if you watch the video, he's, I think for his back,

because he obviously had so many surgeries on his back, he's just towering over us. And the second was we interviewed him. We both were very, not anxious, but nervous going into this interview because we wanted to nail it. I wrote down all these questions. I think I might've asked two of them because Bill just talked and about two hours in he's like, how long does this go? And we're like, it's kind of up to you, Bill. We're having a great time. And so he just was the best.

I was just smiling the entire interview. And you're right, all these stories that have come out. I also, as great as he was as a broadcaster, I loved just his little corner of the world, where it's a late night game on the West Coast and Bill Walton's gonna get weird and he's just gonna be fun. It's crazy how good he was at basketball

and how injuries took away so much of it. People should watch, there's a four part documentary, Luckiest Man in the World, that came out a couple years ago. I actually think maybe, because I remember when it came out, it was like this kind of weird, it's how he might've been because he was battling cancer. But he

was one of the greatest college basketball players of all time. If he hadn't had to deal with injuries his entire career in the NBA, he very well could have been a top five, seven player of all time because of, like, won a title with with Portland who never wins anything won MVP then was part of the 86 Celtics. All the Portland fans at home right now are just catching the biggest ricochet. I mean it's true though but it was it is yeah and like he was that good of a basketball player and then his life touched everyone after being in broadcasting and all his Grateful Dead stories. It's just like he saw a thousand shows, all one song. It's all one song.

That's what I'll always remember. And it makes sense when he says it's all one song. Yeah. I tapped into his worldview. You can't stay there because it's only Bill's brain, and he only truly understands what he's saying. But when he's talking about it, yeah, it is all one song in a very spiritual sense. I know we're getting sappy, but like I am sad. No, I said I'm deeply sad about about Bill Walton and

It's not only did he he won. I think three Naismith player of the years. Yeah in college, which is crazy And then he won NBA MVP and he also won NBA six-man of the year Yeah for the Celtics. For the Celtics, which is probably, that's gotta be a very small list, I would imagine, of players that have done both. Yeah, and in a serendipitous moment,

there's a minor serendipitous moment, the fact that we interviewed Danny Ange in person two weeks ago and we had been holding it because we're like, oh, this is such a great interview, let's wait till we come back for Memorial Day. He has some great Bill Walton stories in there that obviously now they feel even more important. And then of course, the fact that Bill Walton passed away a day after the Pac-12 played their last

sporting event ever. I was legitimately like, what is going to... He loves that conference so much. What's going to happen? And now he's just, I don't believe in heaven, but I do with Bill Walton. He's probably hanging out with Jerry Garcia right now. And the PAC 12 is on 24 seven. Yeah. He's loving it. Yeah. It's like, yeah, the PAC 12 ends. Bill's like, well, my work here is done. Yeah. I'll share one last thing. The, so we tried to get him on a couple other times in the last few years and every time he would text back, he was so Bill Walton and so nice.

But the one time that I laugh about when we tried to get him back on a few years ago, and he just wrote back, thanks Big Cap for your kindness in my life. You guys are amazing and you have an incredible audience. I still get more positive and interesting comments slash feedback from your show than from almost anything, any other thing I've ever done in my life. Please. I'm sadly ricocheting through the universe on the business road through Memorial Day. Sorry. Hopefully next time you're back through the promised land. Shine on, dream on, build on, carry on, beat up. Love that. Bill with two L's. Yeah. Bill with two L's and he always spelled his wife's name

L-O-R-I Laurie. I'm the luckiest man in the world. He used to always say didn't he did he give us nicknames? I don't think so. I thought I thought he did something to remember our names by yeah, I don't I don't remember I also had but he just I also have to imagine that he texts everybody that way. Yeah, like he's yeah No, that's a little like's like very very positive to say to close out every conversation with everyone Yeah, and he just meant so much to us as sports fans That you mentioned all the stories. I did see one that I wanted to share that was very funny from Vince Mancini He said my favorite Bill Walton story was Luke Walton telling how for Christmas his dad would just wrap up some free swag He collected and one year Luke Walton stocking was just huge and overstuffed and he was all excited to open it And then when he did it was all power bars inside

That's awesome. This man seems very funny, too. I like that guy film drunk. Yeah, so Legend absolute legend. Like I said, it I said, we don't usually start the show or even talk about death, but Bill Walton felt like it was someone we had to. So tune in for Danny Ainge. Danny Ainge tells a great, great Bill Walton story that I had never heard about chess. Yeah, and just also bear in mind that during the interview

we did pre-tape it. So when he's talking about Bill, he had no idea that he passed away. And then at the end of the show, after lottery ball, we will have the 35 minutes of our interview with Bill Walton. So please listen to it if you never listened to it. If you have, listen to it again because it will make you happy and smile. And he was the best. Okay.

Hank? Yes? Congratulations on being in the NBA finalsals. Thank you. Some might say Eastern Conference Merchant, but that's fine. You play who you play. Cash the Under, remember when we said, I said the line would be four and a half? That was way too high. Way too high. They lost two games in their path to the Finals. Also, people are like, oh man, the Pacers, they were right there because game one they threw away. Game three, Rick Carlisle just was like, I have the youngest team and I'm not going to use a timeout. But guess what? I actually look at it the other way.

The Celtics are a seasoned team that knows how to make big plays. And that's what they did time and time again in this series. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was a lot of adversity for a sweep Okay, it was it was the hardest sweep ever no, but it was it was a well-earned hard-fought sweep the Pazers showed up They didn't give up but the Celtics like like big cat said Overcame and in the past when it feels like they turtle up in close games and kind of you know turn into more I so ball selfish stuff like they didn't do that at all They they found a way to win.

They made plays when they had to. And they won three games where they were down late in the fourth quarter in a sweep against a inferior team. That's all you can ask for. They stopped the Pacers didn't score for less three and a half minutes in this game tonight on Monday night. Jalen Brown Eastern Conference finals. You could tell when he got the trophy

like he wasn't expecting it. And like that meant a lot to him. I think he deserved it. Wait, Jason Tatum didn't win? No, I think Jalen Brown deserved this one big time. Jason Tatum had a great game three. So Jalen Brown, Jalen Brown had a great game too. He had the big shot in games. Jalen Brown is so good. You know who could have won it is Drew Holliday because he was his defense. That was, that's why you make that trade. And like that type of player who can make the big moment plays on defense. Like he was awesome. Was that the end of game three, the little poke away that he had there? The steal. Yeah.

Also, and the rebound tonight. Yep. Shout out to Rick Carlile, by the way, for that, that end of game play that he drew up in game three, he just basically turned into football coach and they almost had that one. That was like, you know, just inches away from going in. Four verts. Yeah, I love that play. So keep running that, Rick. But yeah, Hank, you guys were the much better team.

Cocky Hank deserves this. I'm ready. I mean, that's the Drew Holiday and Porzingis. Like, those are two huge, huge difference makers that we didn't have last time or in the finals. You know, Drew Holiday's won an NBA championship. Porzingis is amazing. I feel great feel great. I'm now we did would it affect you at all because Porzingis isn't back yet would it affect how ready you are if

Maybe hypothetically the Maverick sweep and then the timetable for the NBA finals gets moved up. You guys are playing later on this week That's not oh wait That's not how it works because the NBA is a bunch of fucking idiots and they're going to make us wait until June 6th to tip off. No matter what, no matter what. So what are we six? No matter what are we supposed to do with these two weeks? Yeah, it's crazy. I said on Sunday and I was like, I'm rooting for a double sweep just so we can make fun of the NBA scheduling. Yeah, it's someone pointed out

that fans have to book their hotels. They booked their hotels Yes, it is someone pointed out that fans have to book their hotels. They booked their hotels and tickets months ago It's like for all permutations, yeah Knowing that they would be but imagine if they did that last year Yeah, there's no way anyone any fan books their hotels and ticket plane tickets for the NBA finals months in advance Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. Now, if I know the NBA, I would expect the other series to go a little bit longer, burn up some of that time.

Irene, though, has never lost a closeout. Has never lost a closeout game. Never lost a closeout. So Hank, you feel confident. Very confident. And now you're obviously rooting for the Wolves. Yeah, I think it's going to be massive no matter what, so I don't really care. And they're going to have enough rest, I think it's going to be mad no matter what. So I don't, I don't really care. Uh, and you know, they're going to have enough rest even

if it goes seven. I mean, if it goes seven, that would maybe affect things, but it doesn't really matter. Yeah. I'm ready for the maps. So when lucky wants his revenge, how much they will be a talking point. It will be a storyline. If it is Mav Celtics, how much, how big of a factor is the stomping on Lucky in your head? It's a huge factor. I mean, we talk about it with Dainty Ange, but that was as disrespectful as it gets. Yeah. Also, revenge game for Chris Stops. Yeah.

Former Dallas Maverick. Yeah. Yeah. We got some messages from a friend of the program, Jerry O'Connell. He wanted to send you a few statements, Hank. Should we read them to him big guy? You can read them. Yeah, she really wants you to get to us. It's supposed to be Hank reading them in a Boston accent Oh, yeah, okay. Okay, would you like yeah tell Hank to read these to tip? But the maps are not the maps are not set yet. So we say we should save it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we'll save these

There's a lot of them. He kept adding throughout the day. I had an email out of nowhere everyone All the Swifties that came after me for the Travis Kelsey Taylor Swift video idea that I threw out there What they thought I was doing That is literally what Jerry O'Connell is doing with Hank and Tiffany Gomez. Yes, he wants that he does and he wants to He wants to see he wants to ride on a helicopter Hunting watch Hank shoot his nut out of the helicopter and take Tiffany with it Are you a little worried that you're gonna have to go against Tiff?

house divided I mean Celtics Celtics are more important split Jersey But congratulations Hank, thank you. No, don't apologize. I mean We'll see what happens in the finals, but the Celtics were just better than everyone in the East They you can't apologize for that. They just were the better team by far. They have been all year. This is exactly how you drew it up to. Yeah, two losses.

You know ball. That's it. Yeah, and now they're gonna go and hopefully we have a good NBA finals. Yeah, I'm fine with another Celtic sweep but. That would be crazy because then everyone would have to just switch if the Celtics swept the finals and be like, are they an all time great team? Yeah, we'd have to have the conversation. We'd have to just switch if the Celtics swept the finals and be like, are they an all-time great team?

Yeah. We'd have to have the conversation. We'd have to have the conversation. That's on the table for you. Especially if they beat maybe the best offensive backcourt of all time in the finals. Was that Kenny the Jet that first said that? One of the guys on TNT said that about the Mavericks, Kyrie and Luca, the best offensive backcourt of all time. People laughed

at him and then they played three games and they're like, maybe he's not that far off. Are we permission to glaze the Mavericks, Hank, without thinking that we're saying anything bad about the Celtics? Yeah, of course. I mean, the glazing was coming. That was never a question. Right, but can we separate, do you have any other thoughts on the Celtics? Before we move to the Mavs wolves because I don't want this to get I don't want I don't want you know things Thoughts to get twisted here. No, but like when we Commence when we complement the Mavs it's separate than

Celtics max are you shaking your head about I have hated everything that Hank has said in the past 10 minutes, but that's fine What would you have said if you were him? I mean he just talked about how it was a hard-fought battle against a great Pacers team without Mentioning that their best player didn't fucking play Well, so yes wait who smoked 15 cigs. I don't know I hadn't spoken a while. Oh, yeah, we should say that we did the John Daly challenge earlier today So I think me big cat and Hank are averaging somewhere between 13 and 15 cigarettes each. Yeah, I feel a little weird.

I feel great. Yeah, I feel a little weird. I have a headache. That video's coming out. Tweet it, Max. He'll get the video out as fast as possible. Next week. It's already edited.

He's just waiting for somebody to tell him to press the button. Yep. If no one says press the button, he will not put that out. But if you say it enough, say it a thousand times, it will happen. Max just interrupted the glazing. Yeah. All right. I'm ready for the Mavs glazing. Okay.

And I wanted to be personal towards Hank. Well, they call Hank Nikki Glazer. All right. So Max, if you want to take notes at the end and you can add a personal slant towards Hank, you're more than welcome to. the Maverick. So we obviously have been off since Friday. Uh, we saw Luca on Friday night, completely emasculate Rudy go bear hit the game winning shot in his face. Uh, with Rudy doing the, I thought the saddest part was Rudy like doing the double jump to try to get there and his body just couldn't get there Yeah And then Luca saying you can't fucking guard me

You can't guard me and then on Sunday night In a similar fashion Luca and Kyrie completely took over the game The Wolves look like the moment is too big for them. Anthony Edwards looks gassed. And weirdly, in the fourth quarters, has been kind of just, there was a couple possessions, especially Sunday night, where he just had no urgency and just passed the ball at the last second. Kyle Anderson made that crazy shot

that he crossed court, like, here, you take it. Carl Anthony Towns cannot possibly be playing worse. He was 0 for 8 from 3 He's 3 for 22 in this series. I love that he kept shooting though Yeah, he was just like next one's going in that's in some of them at some of it It's not like he was like, yeah, there's just kind of some bounces aren't going my way It's like no, dude. Some of them look really really bad. Very bad What do I look like he was throwing a medicine ball, but he's got so much confidence I I yearn to have confidence in anything the way that Carl Anthony Towns has confidence in his three-point shot

Yes, like watching him just next one's going in next one's going in and yet Anthony Edwards seemed like he was he was panicking A little bit in the fourth quarter. Yeah, you would get he I think he had like two or three turnovers in the last five minutes The game he would just throw the ball away Because he was trying to make an ill-advised pass at the last second because their offense looks completely disjointed and nothing like what we've seen from them. They don't know what to do offensively at the end of games. If you just take away those last five minutes of the game, they're playing really good against the Mavericks. So yeah, except for Carl Anthony Towns is shot making. Yeah. Carl Anthony Towns shot making and Rudy go bear also just, I, I don't think

I feel bad for Rudy go bear, but it's getting very close because every year he wins the defensive play of the year. And then every year he gets in the playoffs and he gets completely uh, like roasted, cooked. He had, I actually, so this is the craziest thing on Friday night, you had the one-on-one with Lucauka who hits the game-winning shot. Incredible play. Luka is so good he'll cook anyone. So like that one I'm like all right you know what like Luka is that good. That's not Rudy. Rudy Gobert in space against Luka Doncic is just a huge mismatch. That's not fully on Rudy. Like they have to figure out a way to not have that be a switch or at least double team get the ball out of his hands. I thought the worst thing for Rudy Gobert, I don't know if you guys noticed this, on

Sunday night, maybe two and a half minutes left in the third quarter, Jaden Hardy had the ball and tried to pass it back to Luca at the top of the key and Luca waved him off because Jaden Hardy had a one onon-one in space with Rudy and then got him on like a bad foul jumping up. But Luca was literally like, no, you take it. It's fine. Whatever's going to happen here is going to work because it's Rudy Gobert against a shiftier guy in space. And that was like, man, this sucks for him. I've noticed this though. A lot of players really like to go after Rudy Gobert. Being the defensive player of the year,

there's a line out the door of guys that are just like, I want to embarrass him. I want to take him. I want to emasculate Rudy Gobert on national television. Then I want to celebrate in his face. I can't name another defensive player of the year that's ever had that giant target. Normally, if it's a defensive player of the year,

you're like, well, let's try to figure out a way to avoid him, if at all possible. Well, he's so good at rim protecting, but when you get him away from the basket, and this has happened time and time again with him in the playoffs, getting him in pick and rolls and then just exposing him, and it just keeps happening, and here we are, and it's like the big three, shout out Kat, of the Timberwolves have completely let them down. Nasreed, if you could build the whole plane out of Nasri, the Wolves would be in the finals. Give me all, like every starting player should be your sixth man.

Yeah. And then yes, I agree. Nasri plays so fucking hard. I love watching him. It does feel like one of those stories where, hey, the Wolves, the moment was too big for them in this, like, they had a franchise altering win in game seven against the Nuggets, and that series, like, propels them to being a serious title contender going forward. But this series and Anthony Edwards and everything that's come along with these playoffs, it kind of got ahead of them. Ant and Kat, I don't think they can play worse.

And I think that with Lively out, he's probably going to be out, I would imagine. When he got hit, and they said that's a neck sprain, that's like some NFL math going on right there. And he's their best player plus minus in this series. Yeah. In the playoffs, I believe. Yeah, I'm going to do the announcement thing

where they say, we don't want to speculate on injuries, and then they go ahead and they speculate on injuries. Yeah. I don't think that was a neck spray. Yeah, I feel like he might be out for this next game. And if he is again, I don't think that Anthony Edwards and Carl Anthony towns can play worse. They can't shoot worse than they've been shooting. And this goes back. It was like game seven, I think, or game six against the Nuggets. Neither one of them have been like on their AA game for a while. But I feel like something's going to give and the Timberwolves have been leading I think in every fourth quarter of this game or of the series. I feel like it's not going to be a sweep. Okay, but here's the thing. It's been every game, it's been a close series, but the Mavericks have better players in Luca and Kyrie who are absolute killers. The Lucas staredown, that's when a series is over. He's done it. And whenever he wins these series, he just goes right up next to the guy and just kind of looks at them. He did that to Anthony Edwards on Sunday night. But here's, here are the stats. So Dallas is, the Mavs are plus 13 in the series. So they like that's to be up three Oh and

have the difference be 13 points is pretty crazy. That means it's tight in the fourth quarter semi consensus from Seth partner, semi contested shots, which means a defenders within four and six feet of space. The league average is 33% on those shots. Luca and Kyrie are seven for nine. The rest of all of Minnesota, six guys are three for 13. That's the difference. They have killers who in the fourth quarter, like the fourth quarter on Sunday night, the Mavs scored 29 points.

21 of them were Luca and Kyrie. Six of them were Luca and Kyrie assists. And then there was two points. I think it was a Daniel Gafford tip in. So like, that's it. The fourth quarter comes around and they just take over the game. And whether it's them shooting, they're going my turn, your turn, or them like that Luca lobbed to finish the game. It's just, they're so much better and they know what these big moments are and they are coming through. Whereas the Timberwolves are not.

And the pick and roll is a big problem for the T-wolves. So yeah, big, big problem. Yeah, they are not. I don't know what their switching scheme is, but it's not working. And I don't think that they've changed it. Yeah, they can't. They just can't. Lucas just out of this world.

He just he sees the game so well. If you if you double team him, he'll get the ball. He'll make the correct pass. If you, you know, try to show a fake double team, he'll make the right move. His footwork, everything. Sorry, Hank, this is glazing. You want, oh, he's shaking his head. Oh, he's making notes.

He's making notes. This tweet, are you making notes? No, I'm just listening. OK. This one comes from Andrew Bailey that was a crazy stat. Lucas played his 43rd career playoff game on Sunday. He has 1,336 points, 400 rebounds, and 355 assists in his first 43 career playoff games. No one else has those three totals in their first 43 playoff games. And if you took away 236 points, so made it 1,100 points, you take away 100

rebounds to make it 300 rebounds and 300 assists, the list is just Luca, LeBron, Oscar Robinson. So you have to basically take away 200 points, 100 rebounds and 50 assists, and then finally there are two other guys LeBron James ever heard of him and Oscar Robinson who joined his category of Their first 43 playoff games and how good he's been I feel like we also need to go back and watch some tape of Oscar Robertson because triple double He's mr. Triple double and he's in all these stats. Yeah, he's always the guy in these stats It's like okay

There's two guys from like one guy from the 90s two guys guys from the 2000s, two guys from the 2010s. And then there's Oscar. Yeah, I feel like we need to go watch some Oscar shit. Yeah, we should watch some Oscar. But it's crazy what Luca has done. And he's just ascending to be one of if not the best players in the NBA. Yeah. And when he screams at you, he really wants you to die. And he's annoying. I'll back anyone up who says that he's annoying with how much he complaints the refs. I will not disagree.

I just like watching him play basketball. Like that fadeaway he had, where his footwork was just so perfect, and even that Rudy Gobert, that step back, where it's like he knew he had him, and there was just nothing Rudy could do And he had the perfect like got him off balance and then that two-step back It's just it's fun to watch. Sorry Hank. No, it is

He's a great player tell you what Kevin love would have put the clamps on him Kevin Well, that was like pretty much the exact same scenario yet against Steph Curry Yeah, true Kevin love better defender than Rudy go bear write it down. So are you worried, Hank? No, I'm excited. He's good. I think the Celtics are a better team. Great defense. Just as much star power. Just as much? Wait, but we got Kyrie and we got Luca. Yeah, we have. Two stars. Jalen Brown, Jason Tate. You think they're equals? Yeah, I think, yeah. I think yeah. I think the supporting cast in Boston, you could talk me into saying that they have an advantage with the supporting cast, although Dallas is,

yeah, I know what you're about to say. I mean, they're- I know what you're about to say. I think- They don't have the experience. PJ Washington has hit 100 big shot corner threes in the fourth quarter in these playoffs. It's every single time, it's like, oh,

PJ Washington's there and he's gonna just fucking be so wet from the corner. You forget about KP though. Chris stops. I know. I, I, it's going to, I think it's going to be incredible finals. It's got everything you want. Star power, like storylines, the Kyrie verse Boston. It's going to be every, like whoever comes out of this Tatum or Immortality is on the line yeah immortality immortality immortality Hank never gonna die no you win a finals that banners Hank for no that is true yeah that's a fact that's a fact Max did you

think that what did you think that the glazing was a fair yeah I mean the Mavs have the best player on are you okay yeah I swear to God he smoked the six I smoked no six he's got like the Mavs have the best player on are you okay? Yeah, I swear to God he smoked the six I smoked no six He's got like the Mavs have the best player on the court They probably have the second best player on the court and you say that the Mavs don't have experience Well the Mavs have someone who have actually won a finals. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they've one players been in the finals Who's won the finals? Okay finals experience. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that that was stated stated noted also Didn't was Markieff Morris not on one of those Cleveland teams. No

Drew holiday may have won Definitely has true holiday definitely has a very big part of that. Yes, if you 100% Yeah, but Kyrie definitely has a very big part of that. Yes. 100% Yeah. But Kyrie Mark, if Morris was on the Lakers bubble team, which you guys have always said is a real title. No, no. Okay. So yeah, they, so yeah, true holiday definitely counts big time as a guy who's won something big. Good point though. Max Max, you were supposed to get in this and like give us something good and then you just owned yourself. But Kyrie's better. Okay. All right. That's fair. Yeah, he's better. Who's he better than? Then Tatum. Then Drew Holliday. Oh, then Drew Holliday. Yeah, because I don't think he's better than Tatum But they're gonna be out of this out of his mind their championship experience

Supercedes the Celtics because their championship guys better correct. Okay, got it. Correct. I want to make sure the numbers are right here So their number two guy on a championship team is better than the box number two guy Yes, yeah the box number three guy on that championship seems Chris Milton was pretty good. And Pat Conant in Pat Conant in Don't forget Pat Conant in Kevin Love. Delhi No Delhi was on the team. But Delhi would have been the number two. It's gonna be pretty awesome. Delhi not on that. I don't think he was on the box team. But he

was on the Cleveland game. Yeah, when a championship that was the night he was the number two on that team. He was number two on that team. He was the number two on that team. It was like two Batmans. You had Australian Batman and then kid from Cleveland Batman. Oh, all right. I'm excited.

So you think, you think the Wolves are going to win a game? I may put a little future on the Wolves to be the first team to come back. And well, Anthony Edwards did say, which I don't know if I agree with, I love his confidence. He is a breath of fresh air and confidence and very vocal about it. But him saying after the game, I still don't feel like they can beat us bro we haven't all been clicking at one time one game one game I mean the Mavs have proven they can beat them but I like the confidence though I still don't think they can beat us bro well it's just how many games in series big cat it is true he said well we're here now first of four what are

we gonna do all right timber wolves plus a thousand Carlenton e-towns probably just giggled He said, well, we're here now. First of four. What are we going to do? All right, Timberwolves plus 1,000. Carl Anthony Towns probably just giggled. They just can't be any worse. And the thing is, they're not playing that. Don't get me wrong. They're not playing good, but they're still building leads into the fourth quarter. I feel like with Lively out, that's a big factor. That is a big, big-

But he was out for the majority of that game. Yeah, they played, again, until the last, like, three minutes of the game, they played pretty good. But that's when you have Luca and Kyrie. That's when you have... So now... And you don't have Luca and Kyrie on the other team. Now you gotta build a little bit of a lead.

Yeah. And let Luca and Kyrie do their thing, and hopefully it won't affect... I'm gonna... I'm just gonna sprinkle it. Okay. All right, well, Hank, I'm excited. Was that an okay amount of glazing that was nothing to do with the Celtics? Jason Tatum's a very good player. Jalen Brown's a very good player.

Drew Holliday's a very good player. Derrick White, friend of the program. Amazing player. Amazing player. Clutch. Clutch. Yeah, that was fun. You okay? Yeah. So I don't want you to get your feelings hurt. No. Okay. I'm excited to see you in two weeks. Yeah, forever from now Should we talk a little hockey memes? You're in trouble the Rangers Rangers yeah, the Panthers blow to overtime wins in a row Team of Destiny yeah, the Rangers feel like they might be like the Rangers

New York should be showing the same enthusiasm to the Rangers that they were shown to the Knicks Mm-hmm like the Rangers are the real deal. And they got their overtime goal, nice dirty overtime goal to win game three. You got to be worried. Although the Stars look awesome. Well, the Rangers didn't even play that well. Yeah. When that game. Yeah. So the Stars do look awesome.

Yeah. Stars. I mean, the Stars were down two nothing in a blink of an eye tonight and it's like, nope, now it's three, two. And they did that in game two as well where they were down early and it doesn't matter. Yeah. McDavid's going to have some, some answering to do. Wow. We need Rangers Oilers though for the, for the vibes. Rangers are always be great. Also, are you a little worried that if the Mavs and the stars were in, that people would say Titletown? They'd have to win. I would love that.

I would actually love that. Well, you don't have to win to claim Titletown. Max taught us that. True. That's a good point. I would love it. I would love nothing more. My wet dream is if we get the Stars win the Stanley Cup and we have the Rangers as the

MLB champions and we have the Mavericks as the NBA champions and then the Cowboys go out there and they lose in the first round of the playoffs. Yeah. And it's all anyone cares about. I know that obviously Dallas fans, you do care, you're passionate about all your sports teams, but you'd give it all up for a Cowboys Super. Yeah. And for all those in America, besides Cowboys fans, we're going to come. Oh yeah. We're going to come if that happens. We're coming. We're coming when that happens. Big time.

Might go to the double, dual parade. Yeah. Yeah. That would be sick. We might, when that happens, we might have to raise banners of all the Dallas championships in here. Yeah. And then just have one empty spot.

Titletown minus the Cowboys. Yeah. Jerry Jones' worst nightmare. Well is that Arlington? They'll just disassociate from the Cowboys. They should be the Arlington Cowboys.boys do you think he's definitely rooting against them right i think in his heart of hearts he has like deep down he's got to be like this cannot happen i just said he has a heart that was a mistake in his soul no that's not good um

and in the back the brain stem that the part that makes you like mad or horny that's the part where jerry jones is like i hope they lose in the shoe with coming it and the shoe. Yes Yeah, oh, it's come shoe. I really really is a real cum shoe that Jerry Jones also the Dallas wings They went to the WNBA finals. Oh the Vegas Aces. So a lot of championship. Oh In terms of making runs. Oh WNBA is in trouble Are they in trouble? Why? Because I think that they're Kaylin Clark is Adding so many new fans and there's a lot of fans that are just taking the fun out of sports

Yes, everything that happens in WNBA now has to be a fucking bigger cultural talking point. That's like hey It's fucking sports shut the fuck up. That's what we're saying on on Friday Yeah, there's there's seven think pieces after every game She plays correct, and I actually feel bad for Caitlin Clark And it's going really do because what's happening is there's no way that she can tune out all this stuff all She's all that's being talked about in terms of the WNBA. She's probably uncomfortable with that because she's like I'm a rookie I haven't done anything in the NBA yet I want to have a yeah successful career in the WNBA and it's gonna be a big big distraction if every time I go out there And I lose a game then I've got seven people on slate.com

Yes writing about why Caitlin Clark is problematic for the league and how the league has a marketing problem I feel bad for her. I actually I miss the days when Greg Doyle was just being a sexual harassment creep on her. Those were the good old days. I wish we knew it was the good old days when it was the good old days. But it's spread to everywhere in the WNBA because it's a new... With new fans come new opinions and the new opinions are not about sports anymore because they came with Caitlin Clark. Did you see the Alyssa Thomas foul on Angel Reese? I don't know if it was a sky game. This person had 5,000 retweets. I was just like, what is going on? She said, unpopular opinion, Alyssa Thomas throwing

Angel Reese down on the court is exactly how older black women treat younger black women in many industries, both professional and personal. It's not tough love it's envy stay out of sports it was a hard foul you shouldn't watch relax please stop watching sports this is not fun anymore we love sports we know it's stupid as shit I saw it please don't ruin this for my brain just started to just be paralyzed rub my head and I don't get migraines when I got a migraine in that moment. Self-correction Dallas wings lost in the semis last year. Oh, I don't know if you could tell I didn't care. You could have told me they want it and I would have been like, okay. So, uh, so Angel Reese did have a tweet alluding to Caitlin Clark the other night.

Did you see this? Yes, of course I saw it. She said... She deleted it. Yeah, it was after they won. And that's on getting a win in a packed arena, not just because of one player on our charter flight. Yeah.

Kiss emoji, hashtag Skytown. Don't delete that. Why'd she delete it? It's just, it's just not becoming fun anymore. But if she leaves that up, then she's talking shit and she's like, yeah, I'm talking shit about Caitlin Clark Let's it's a good rivalry. It's a continuation of the rivalry they had in college. That's good for the league if you're gonna talk shit That's fine. You guys are gonna play each other again, and then you're gonna have you know, somebody else is gonna win They're gonna talk shit back to you. That's what sports should be about

But instead now she deleted it because she's afraid of like all the other like outrage going on around the correct narrative. Correct. Yeah. If I was killing Clark, I'd retire. Yeah. I'd be like, listen, this I go to the big three. I don't mind getting, you know, hard fouled. I don't mind getting hit in the face. I don't mind getting knocked down. I don't mind, you know, not making that much money to play in a professional sports league, but I'm just sick of all you losers writing columns about. Right. Right. Just let me play basketball. Yeah. She should, she should actually reverse it and be like, Hey, can you guys just shut up and let me dribble? Yeah. You know what she should, you

know what she should say? She'd say shut up and scribble. Yeah. The fucking, yeah. Those that are, that are taking all the fun out of it. A little scribble. Shut up and scribble. Yeah. To the fucking- Yeah. To those that are taking all the fun out of it. Little scribble. Shut up and scribble. Little scribble scrabble. Yeah. My daughter always like, hey, can I do some scribble scrabble? I'm like, sure, hand her a pen.

Literally, that's all it is. She just scribbles. Nothing. Just scribbling. Sounds like you're disappointed. For like a half hour. Well, yeah, it'd be nice if she could just like draw me or something.

Just scribble scrabble. She says like, I'm scribble scrabbling. Okay, that's what Greg Doyle is doing right now It's scribbling sitting by himself. I'm actually the table scrabble it takes that man is cooking up in his brain with all this time To just think yeah. Yeah, we're gonna say max So the Ranger the Rangers game It's all one song yeah, so the Rangers it's, the Rangers game, it's all one song. Yeah. So the Rangers, the Rangers are, they're a very good hockey team. It was quite a tangent memes. You are in hell. I thought you guys are going to blow right by it. Also memes. I memes is new thing is he, uh, he just does all caps. So he'll just tweet it and be all caps to be like look I'm excited for the Rangers but it's all caps in the most monotone like Rangers

win in overtime but it's all caps. Oh memes has been on that shit for a while. Oh yeah. But every postseason all caps is a new part that he's doing where he's like trying to get people off the scent like hey I'm not editorializing it. Yeah. But it's just, it's just the same nothing, but just all caps. So it's by far memes is least favorite part of his job. And that, that includes cleaning up turtle shit is having to post a case. He loves his little, he does love that, but he, he hates more than anything having to post Rangers highlights. Memes, speaking of which, how mad were you at me on Sunday when I tweeted you, hey, are we covering the Rangers game? When they went up, what'd they go up for to?

Yeah, I was pretty fired up about it. Yeah, and he hadn't tweeted anything. And I just tweeted him. I was like, hey, are we covering the Rangers game right now? I think when they went up to one you tweeted it. Yeah, you just you just weren't gonna cover him No, I was covering him. No, I only tweeted out Rangers goals. Oh, wow Reverse it on him. You're trying to jinx or something No, they they were playing really good. Their goal is really good. The Panthers just can't make a fucking shot

They had a hundred and 108 shots and they couldn't get five in. She's darken. That's pretty crazy. 108. To win the Stanley Cup. How many on goal? 43 to 48. One of those numbers.

If the Rangers win the Stanley Cup, not only should we send memes to the parade to cover it, we should also hang a banner just over his head in that last classroom. That'd be nice. We should also put Hank's banner in there right above Max if the Celtics win. Yeah that'd be a nice touch. Just yeah that will be our trophy case in there. The booth is yeah the Canyon of Heroes in the in the booth. I like that. Yeah you like that? You like that? Max by the way is out for blood in this same be a final Yeah, which I is honestly a good thing like yeah hop on board the Mavericks train

I just want to know how you're gonna hurt Luca in the second game What do you say that Max? Oh because that's how every series has gone for the Celtics That's why and Hank just doesn't talk about it. Yeah, you don't talk about that I mean I we have talked about every time you play who's on the floor in front of you. I mean, you were talking about how it was a hard fought game against the Pacers and how they're a really good team and that you didn't say that Tyra Saliburton didn't play the last two games. That's a good point. Big Cat, I have a question for you. Both of those things can be true. If you're a detective and a woman's been married five times and all four of her ex-husbands have been murdered mysteriously

Tiger King lady. Yeah, it's like Carol Bass. Okay. Yeah, so now we're looking at the Celtics and we've got Jimmy Butler We've got the entire New York Knicks. Excuse me. The Celtics not played him. I'm sorry This is a Donovan Mitchell about naked. I'm thinking about Donovan Donovan Mitchell Mm-hmm who got very hurt in Jared Allen Jared Allen got hurt and now I'm thinking about Donovan Mitchell who got very hurt. And Jared Allen. Jared Allen got hurt. And now I'm thinking of Terry Halberton on the Pacers. There's one common thread there. And Rick Carlisle's brain. Yeah, his brain. Brain was very hurt. Again, I hope, I don't want Luke to get hurt. I'm not rooting for injuries. I want to beat the Mavs. You tried to injure TJ McConnell tonight too. It is funny because we started this whole

playoffs when you were clearly rooting for the Nuggets to get hurt. I what? So it is full circle. I have never I've never once kind of said anything about rooting for injuries I I I'm gonna side with Hank that you can't apologize for other teams getting injured. Yeah, but it's fun to ask him Yeah, yeah, you can't apologize for that. No fuck no But if you were would you? No, if you could apologize, would you? Absolutely not. Well, Hank, you've said,

you said numerous times that Luca is a much better player than Kyrie Irving. Right? You have Luca ranked well ahead of him. Mm-hmm. Which player would you rather see get injured on the Maverick? Neither. Luca or Kyrie, because of the lucky factor. Neither. What if it was his lucky stomping foot that got you?

I want to beat them full strength. Okay. What if it was his lucky stomping foot? I want to beat them full strength Okay Do we have anything else before we get to hot sea cool thrown there's a lot of sports stuff Oh shout out the Indy 500 it happened. I Wouldn't it be crazy PFT if you were someone who let's say Quote-unquote has shit for brains watched say, quote unquote, has shit for brains, watched last year's Indy 500 for solid like 20 minutes, not realizing it was in

rain delay. Wouldn't that be crazy? We did that one time with the Royal Rumble. I fucking I watched it for 20 minutes kind of zoning out. And then I saw that like an hour and a half later, like the rain is cleared. We're about to start the race. Mm-hmm What the fuck? Yeah, I was rooting for it, too I bet it and I was like, oh man my guys in seventh. This is pretty good There's no way to know that's last year's race. It's the same cars going around the same circle

Oh, it's not even so really dumb on that indie fans will get mad at me for saying it's a circle going around the same track Only only 200 laps though Yeah It's a circle going around the same track only two only 200 laps. So Yeah, yeah asterix big-time asterix Okay, let's do hot sea cool trucks I think we have a lot of other sports topics to talk about and then we'll get to our great interview with Danny Ainge Hot sea cool drones brought to you by our friends at game time. Did you know they can get tickets to a baseball game? Let's say Cubs Cubs or Cubs are around this week. Let's see, can you pull up the Cubs tickets for me? Mm-hmm.

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End of an era the king of clay. Yeah, not anymore went down. Oh people are saying it's probably his last one First round right first round he got screwed up the draw That's loser's the loser talking. The first round. Yeah, it's very forcey. If Djokovic lost in the first round, you would have been like, kick him, kick him out of the country. He's not Vax. Well, that's what happened at the Aussie open. Yeah, I know. Point me. Joker was up 15 love right now. Jake, Joker was watching Rafa because he appreciates greatness. Did he is he playing in the French Open. Yes. So who cares. He fucking had a day off. 30 love me. What are you talking about. Everyone. When they when they play like tournament games

team goes and watches after the game or before the game they watch you they're playing. Depends. Yeah. Probably scouting. He's there. It would be cool if he flew in just to see it. No, he's just he was just hanging out. It's like I'll go watch Rafa. Oh, he was probably scouting us for us for the third. Yeah, of course he was. He's 30. Love me. Okay. Any any other brain? Any other shots you want me to hit back at you for him backhand once well I saw is this French open record. Okay, and what is he lately? Oh, what's his last one? Oh? 40 love me This tennis shit is easy. I do feel like if clay if he doesn't have clay anymore. Yeah, it's a can't be

No, that is that is a crazy record. What is it? 1-4? 1-12 and 4. That's nuts. That's insane. How can you be that good on that surface? Who did he lose to in...

So how many French Opens has he won? I think around a dozen. And who has he lost to in the finals before? Was it Joker? I don't know. No, I'm asking. No, I honestly don't know. I know this was a first round loss. 14 French Open.

And who did he lose to? Because like he obviously is the king of the clay. That's not up for discussion. But did he ever lose in the finals or was it always like upsets in the first round? Standby. Okay, you're okay. Joker 2015 finals Joker Joker Me that was easy game point in 2016. He had to withdraw before his third round match, okay

Joker Whoops and it's very of today. Mmm straight sets Jake There's there's no way that you did not know what big cat was said. No, I mean horse I knew game me you didn't even score a point you got loved. Okay, but you got loved up Oh, I love very small portion of the set. Oh you want to do a sack you want to do set? How much time we got do an entire podcast? Just be scoring points. No, it actually is insane one one twelve and four is crazy Is that all you had Hank just that he he lost? Yeah kind of a hater move

And of an error hot seat yet sure I am on the cool throne. Is he done for losing? No, it's not officially Okay. Yeah, but he's done if he loses in the first round of the French Open, but it bad draw Yeah, but he's done if you lose in the first round of the French Open. But bad draw. I would be the biggest loser. I would never lose in the first round. Never too much pride. My other hot seat is Max. He's performing this weekend with pop punk. He's nervous about it. He's been pacing around the office. Yeah Jerry on weed one of my favorite places in all of Chicago very excited about I'm excited for a home a home crowd concert Pop punk. Yes, there's a bunch people from bar still are going out there and it's gonna be a blast These are always like one of the most fun times that we have as a company and Max is singing a song I'm not gonna say what song you say. Yeah

I'm nervous. I'm nervous Memorize like memorize yourself. He's a he's got a good voice I don't want to be good publicity some people have said that Max looks like fat Dave girl some people have said that so what are we gonna do Dave roll Dave roll so what are we gonna do so he might be doing it Max would sing for the Food Fighters. The Food Fighters. Got it. Yeah. I'm very excited. It is, I mean, not to, not to glaze PFT. I'm gonna glaze him because I love him. He's really fucking good at guitar

and their band is really good. So it's like a very fun night out. So if you want live music and it's not that expensive It's not that expensive right by tickets on weed is awesome. Joe's and weeds a great place Rowan is an awesome front man Rome kicks ass at everything that he does He's a he's a very good front man for a band. We got Robbie on bass Frankie on drums He's also gonna be singing Frank. He's got he's got some pipes on he does He's a good singer and then we got Nick Hamilton on keyboards guitars and then Caroline's also singing love It's gonna be a good time.

Come out to Joe's own weed. Hell yes. Friday night. Good cool throne, Hank. Thank you. My, no that's my hot seat. Max. Oh, hot seat Max.

What song? My cool throne is- Spoiler. No, just people get excited about it. My cool throne is Mark Davis. Yes, good call. Yeah, Mark Davis. Yes, good call. Yeah, Mark Davis. A report came out that he got his 27 year old girlfriend pregnant. But then she came out on Instagram and said the reports of Mark

Davis being the father of my child are wildly untrue. So, oh, oh, how is this cool to Mark Davis? I don't think you want to be a new father at 70. No, I think that's exactly when you want to be a new dad. Don't think you want a woman being so repulsed that she has to issue a press release being like, I sat next to him at a concert or a football game once. He is not the father of my child. Is that all we had to go on? Was that, there was a screenshot?

Well, Dove, I mean, Dove's been getting into some weird, like, breaking news. I don't know if he actually broke it if someone else broke it and then he caught he probably yeah, that's probably exactly what I know. Yeah, but someone just saw she posted I'm pregnant announcement and then they're like, oh, she was at a Raiders game with Mark Davis two years ago must be Mark Davis. So anybody who's sitting next to him in a game in 2022 and have endured false rumors of romantic relationship since I was pictured sitting next to him in a game in 2022 and have endured false rumors of romantic relationships

since I was just a guest sitting in the owner's box with other friends. Yeah, so that's where I feel like it sucks to be Mark Davis that this woman's like, ew, no, everyone stop saying this. I just saw him once. Yeah, Mark Davis was- She's like basically,

she's basically publicly made an announcement of like friendzone He got a nice little boost. I think that just having people assume that he was the father right was good for him He's probably relishing in that right so I don't know I kind of feel bad for Mark Davis in this one Arcel Hossie yeah, cuz you don't I mean think about it that is To be like we're not dating I mean, think about it. That is to be like, Oh, we're not dating. Yeah. He's, he's a really nice guy. Right. Basically what you said. Like he would make a great father just not for me. Yeah. Not for my child. Make some woman very, very lucky one day. I would have rocked if he was a seven year

old dad, just cause he'd have a kid and come out right with a bowl cut. Yeah. Be cute little baby. P.F. Chang's wristband. It would have been heir apparent to the Raiders. The way I wish she should have done this would be if she said, that's not his baby, we just did it in the butt. Yeah. That's what she should have said. Only Mal's stuff.

What you know about that, Eric? Only Mal's stuff. That would have been nice for Mark Davis. Instead, it was just the ew, no way. I never, I never. It's sad. It's sad billionaires can't even get laid anymore. Seriously.

Well, you know what? Mark Davis, let us interview on Pardon My Taking. We'll go out on the town and we'll be your wingman. Yeah, we'll find you a nice girl. We'll fucking, we'll talk you up. We'll talk you on town. We'll be your wingman. Yeah, we'll find a nice girl. We'll fucking we'll talk you up We'll talk you up so crazy What's my boy my boy my boy Is literally Mark Davis my boy over there in a white suit. Yeah, actually

It's actually kind of a pretty popular haircut right now You know Mark Davis Jeff Nadu. It's it's kind of actually hot haircut right now. You know, Mark Davis, Jeff Nadu. It's kind of actually hot on the internet. They called that the Caesar. Yeah. Back in the day, because he's the most powerful person in the world. See my boy over there?

He owns the Raiders. Well, his mom does, but he kind of does. But his dad used to own the Raiders, and everyone, his dad was a hell of a guy. See my boy over there, he's so confident. He wears all white while eating buffalo wings. See my god, look how good he looks now that he's no longer wearing the propeller hat be. Oh man. Yeah. See my boy over there. He drives a conversion van bet you'd never guess that. No, actually I would. Oh yeah. All. See my boy over there? He drives a conversion van. Bet you'd never guess that. No, actually I would. All right. Yeah. All right. Mark Davis, we got you. My boy, my

boy over there, he can drink seven sweet teas at PF Chang's before the appetizers come out. Yeah. If you're asking a fact, if you're asking if the carpet max, max matches the drapes they do. You ever see got a bowl cut for his penis? You ever seen a dick with freckles on it before? Now you have. Oh yeah we got a boy. We got this. All right your hot seat cool throne. Uh my hot seat is complaining about umpires. Yeah. Because the MLB world lost a real one today. Angel Hernandez. Angel got his wings. I'm sad about this. He's not dead. He's retiring. Angel Hernandez, major league baseball umpire, much, much better human being. Yeah.

Even better of a human being than he is as an umpire. Way better. So he retired today. And probably not a great human being. Much, much better. Way better. He retired kind of abruptly. And he said, starting with my first major league game in 1991. That's a long-ass time

Yeah, that is his eyes can't be well. They're definitely not good anymore I have had the very good experience of living out my childhood dream of umpiring the major leagues I treasured the camaraderie of my colleagues and the friendships. I've made along the way I've decided that I want to spend more time with my family So it sounds like he it sounds like this is his decision that he's leaving to spend more time with his family all of a sudden in the middle of Major League Baseball season. That happens all the time.

Yeah. I'm gonna miss him. Of course. Of course you're gonna miss him. You can't have guys like this, like, we need, we need at least a couple Diva UMPs out there. We lost Joe West. Now we lose Angel Hernandez.

It was always good for just having a moment where we're like, can you believe Angel Hernandez did this? Yeah. It felt like Major League Baseball media really hated him, but outside the MLB tight-knit circle, it's like you can appreciate art. Yeah, right. How ridiculously bad he is. Angel Hernandez took bad umpiring to an art that we haven't seen before.

I don't know if we'll see it again, but yeah, it's always good. It's always good to have one guy like that. You can't have two or three guys like that in the game at the same time. It's like when Joey Crawford retired, next man up Scott Foster right right you guy so who's next up next umpire that we gotta find someone I think a lot of people don't like CB Buckner okay great yeah fuck Stevie Buckner you're on I hate him CB CB Oh CB yeah CB Buckner yeah that's a 10-4 yeah uh Angel Hernandez was so. But again if you're gonna be bad just be the worst Yeah, and he was the worst by far which is I I tip my hat if you're like

I'm you don't want to be bad in a mix of other bad guys You want everyone to be like Angel Hernandez that guy's the worst. Yep fact my cool throne is misogynistic NFL kickers. So former Jaguars kicker Brandon McManus got accused of groping two flight attendants on the team chartered flight from Jacksonville to England to go play their their London game last year. And apparently he was like throwing money at him making them dance like strippers on the team plane. This seems like it would have been an Urban Meyer culture type move maybe it just a little

bit left over from that I actually know urban would have missed a flight he would have stayed home and and found some strange on his own I got a yeah huh he's a former Jaguars former Jaguars who does he play for now former Jaguars kicker who's he played for now former Jaguars kicker he used to take who does he play for now when these actionsuars kicker. Jake, who does he play for now? When these actions occurred, he was a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars. But he got signed by a team after doing this? Well, no, the accusations just came to light right now.

So whatever team signed him is doing a full, thorough investigation into these allegations. And you can rest assured they'll leave no stone unturned, because whatever team that has him is the type of organization that does not tolerate that sort of thing. He is the kicker of the Washington command. Oh Former Jaguars kicker dang is how he's being labeled. I'm going to continue to refer to him as such We'll see what we'll see where the investigation takes us if it's true. You should be cut and I think he will be cut if it's true

He's got to be the only commander ever who's like man. I wish Dan Steyer was still the owner Yeah, that's the thing is like if he was like he just wrong, you know the whole like I was born in the wrong era Yeah, Brandon McMahon is signed with commanders in the wrong era by a year. He would have been kicker for life Team about to have an open position for your position. I retired from kicking Jake I read the dream opportunity if if they ask me to camp, I will attend. I also feel like that's not a dream opportunity, because what if you lost a game for them? I would actually much rather.

That would suck. I would rather be a kicker on the Cowboys than on the Panthers, because then I could just lose games. Right, like you'd have double whammy if you missed a kick. Like, oh, not only did I lose, but my team lost, and now I have to podcast about it. If they're looking for some camp fodder for you know Just some some live bodies to bring out during training camp out. I will I will kick but

You know, he was really happy about this probably Harrison buck actually, I bet you there's a lot of people saying Why don't you keep that same energy? No one's talking about Brandon Manus. Mm-hmm Everyone talked about Harrison Bucker. Let those people know on the record We were talking about Brandon McManus. Right. Although Harrison Bucker would probably be like, well, if they had just been home with the family. Yeah.

And not working as a flight attendant, this wouldn't have happened. Yeah. He shouldn't have been in a room with a woman. Yeah, correct. Yes. That isn't his wife. Yeah. Old Mike Pence.

Agreed. Okay. Good hot seat, cool throne. My hot seat is NBA players because Draymond Green says that the NBA does not set up NBA players to retire with wealth. Okay. Draymond Green made $177 million so far. Now he said it was because taxes, which everyone pays, but also the fine system is basically trying to keep NBA players poor.

Did Draymond Green, did he accrue a larger than usual amount of fines over the course of his career? He did. He did. He did. But he also quoted like, he's like, yeah, I got a technical $2,000 fine. Okay, $2,000. Not as, not a insignificant amount of money unless you've made $177 million. But yeah, I looked it up PFT just because I was curious and he has been fined over $2 million. But some of the fines, let's just throw them out there.

Condor detrimental to the team. That was when he knocked out Jordan Poole. That feels like that was on you, Draymond Green. You could have easily avoided that fine by not punching your teammate in the face. How about this one? Stepping on the chest of DeMontes Sabonis during the Warriors Kings game. Also very avoidable. For escalating on court altercation during Minnesota Golden State game, that was when he choked Rudy Gobert.

Kind of on you Draymond. And then the last one for striking Yousef Kirkic in the face during the Golden State Suns game where he just punched him in the face again on you. Yeah I mean there's a lot of stuff that Draymond's done that probably ended up being deserved of fines. Is this a case of being like it's the wrong messenger saying it? Does he have a point? I don't know. I don't know what the NBA does or does not do. I don't think that Draymond is probably the one to say hey you know with all these crazy fines that they're leveling out, it's really taken away from our ability to have a career post. Draymond doesn't need a career post. His career is he was in the NBA and

he could have a fuck he wants. Correct. But what about I know, like with NFL players, your window is so small and the last guy on the bench, they don't make that much money. Definitely not enough to set them up for life. And they get like two years at it sometimes. In the NBA, what does a 10th man make in the NBA? A lot of money. A lot of money. A lot of money. I mean, remember when Tony Snell signed like a $40 million contract? Yeah. Tony Snell. They make a lot of money. They make a ton of money. It's all guaranteed. I have a theory. I think Draymond Green knows it's over and he's going out really sad Just complaining like trying to you know He made it weirdly kind of personal with Rudy go bear on the inside the NBA and Carl Anthony Towns

I think Draymond Green has had insane amount of success He's an interesting guy. He's made a hundred and seventy seven million dollars minus fines. I Think there might be a small part of him when he goes to bed at night. He's an interesting guy. He's made $177 million minus fines. I think there might be a small part of him when he goes to bed at night. He's like, did I call Steph like a couple of rings? He might. You might think that way. A little bit. But he also had a- And it's over.

He had a great career though. Incredible career. He's an incredible player, incredible career, four rings, but I do think there's a little bit of it's over and he's grasping it whatever he can to try to keep it going. I see his point though. It's a little misleading to call punching Jordan Poole in the face and knocking him out detrimental to the team. That might have been, that should have been reversed. But like Clay did this last year, remember when when clay was like I don't want to come off the bench and then clay kind

Of realized like you know what? I've had a really good career. I'm just gonna I'm gonna just be around I'm not gonna yeah, I'm gonna rock the boat here. Yeah, I'm gonna rock the boat part Maybe maybe he hasn't been great with his money. Maybe that's why he's doing Tnt, I don't know. I don't know what his circumstances But yeah for him to say that like the fines are the big problem. Yeah. The NBA is just willy nilly signing fine.

You never know when you step on the court, it might be, you might get an envelope in your, in your locker after the game for no reason. Yeah. Quite something. And then my other hot seat was the Braves because Ronald Acuna tours ACL. That sucks a lot. Also he went, how do we judge this one? He went on Twitter and said, sorry.

You don't have to apologize. It's very Canadian of him. Yeah. Also kind of gives you like everyone saying, don't worry, you don't have to apologize. I think that for him... Maybe he just wanted to feel the support. For him, it might be like he also had a devastating injury the year they won the World Series. So he's probably bummed out that he's not going to get another crack at it again. But he shouldn't have to

feel like he has to apologize injuries happen. It sucks. Is it the same ACL as last time? I don't know. It sucks. So yeah, it does suck. Sucks. Okay, and then my cool thrown is Conor McGregor because you wouldn't tell that he's got a fight in six weeks with some of the clips that have come out from Memorial Day weekend. And I love this energy. I think he's probably gonna lose to Michael Chandler. But I like the clips that have come out from Memorial Day weekend. And I love this energy. I think he's probably going to lose to Michael Chandler. But I like the fact that Conor McGregor, just like us, is like

it's Memorial Day weekend. Like diet starts Tuesday. Yeah. Fight camp starts Tuesday. This is how this is how the Irish train for fights. Was that his wife? I think it was. I'm going to say yes. Yeah, I think it was. Yes, definitely. So good for them. They're very much in love. Yeah.

Very much. This is this is how the Irish do, man. They're very much in love. Mm-hmm. Yeah very much This is this is how the Irish do man. You got you party. You have a good time. Yeah, you just show up He's having a great time a great time. Okay, Jake. Oh my hot seats Barry Bonds Jose Ramirez He was pitched around with the bases loaded and someone after the game said you received the Barry Bonds treatment He said I'm better than Barry bonds. What's Interesting that's confidence. Well, that's embraced a baby. Ooh How many career home runs does he have?

not Even close to not not the most ever. Yeah. Okay. All right, then. No, he's not. Yeah I'll just settle that one real quick. No, he is not As good or better than Barry bonds. He has 231. All right, is that how much does Barry bonds have is it more? Seven something. Okay. Yeah, Barry bonds is better. I saw a stat that was like Fuck I'm gonna try to find it take away the seven MVP. Yes, seven. Yeah take away the seven MV It's 490 home run It was yeah, it was exactly that. It was like take away the

seven MVP seasons and he had a 440 home runs and 359 stolen bases. Yeah. Pretty, pretty insane. And Barry bond is seven best seasons and he still is like an incredible baseball player. And even before the steroids, he was probably a Hall of Famer at that point. It's nuts that he's not in the Hall of Fame. It's nuts. So in 2004, if Barry Bonds went up to the plate without a bat, if he didn't have a bat in his hand, he would have had an on base percentage of 60% without a bat. It's crazy.

It's crazy. And you know what? That would have been the best in baseball history. Yeah. Without a bat. It's crazy. It's crazy. And you know what? That would have been the best in baseball history. Yeah. Without a bat. He's so good. He should be in the whole thing. Okay, best player of all time.

My cool throne is college across. Notre Dame goes back to back, men's side, and BC wins on the women's side. So Notre Dame, men's lacrosse becoming a wagon. Yeah, the Cavanaugh brothers, right? Yeah. And then there's a guy who used to play quarterback at Alabama who transferred and is now.

Oh, yeah. He was not good. Buckner? Yeah, Buckner. Is that his name? Tyler Buckner, maybe. A lot of people having the conversation, could Notre Dame lacrosse beat the Whip Snakes? Yeah,

whips. It's game week, by the way. It is Tyler Bruckner. I nailed that opening week. Dogs. Yeah. Philly dogs. Uh yeah. I watched some of that game. Kinda wish they had scored more goals but that is what it is. Yeah. Sometimes it just doesn't happen. Uh they killed. Yeah, they killed Maryland. Mm hmm. Pretty damn good. Wake up the echoes. Okay We have a great interview with Danny Ainge in person been a long time coming shadow Hank for

Working on getting us this interview for like five years But yeah great interview great stories great Bill Walton stories and And before we do that, PFT, you had a couple ads. Yeah, before we get to Danny Ains, she's brought to you by Chevy. As everyone knows, this is a Chevy truck podcast. The greatest trucks ever built and our good friends at Chevrolet are a big part of the part of my take story. They've been a big part for a long time. The Silverado helped us dig the biggest hole ever dug in Ohio during grit week. The Silverado partners with us every season to give college fullbacks all the rightful recognition that they deserve with the Lowman Award. They also powered our nonstop cross-country trip to the Super Bowl in LA behind the wheel of

a Chevy Silverado. Silverado has been a part of it all. Say this about that drive going from Connecticut to LA. The Silverado was so comfortable. It was really comfortable. I drove a lot of the way and it felt spacious Felt like you could we had people taking naps in the front seat There were four of us in that truck and it was very very roomy the Chevy Silverado Long-time awesome partner of the show. It's a truck with commanding and unstoppable grit legendary capability and dependability too I Love Chevy. I drove a Chevy Silverado actually for an entire summer. It's a great truck.

Absolutely love it. Find out for yourself. I personally own a Chevy. You're going to love it. Like so many other AWLs go to chevy.com, check out all the Chevy truck grit, build your own Silverado for do it yourself, projects, road trips, off road adventures, tailgates, whatever your thing is, it all starts with a Chevy truck. And now here's Danny Ainge. Okay, we now welcome on an absolute legend, a very, very, very special guest. It is Danny Ainge.

He is what are you just the president of everything for the Jazz now? You've had a million titles. I'm CEO of the jazz was obviously long time with the Celtics played baseball was incredible football player, which I want to get into. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate to be here. Yeah. It's fun to break from the all the basketball. Yeah. I'm at the combine camp. Yeah. I actually, you want to start with football because I talked to your son earlier. Uh-oh.

He said that that was the one thing that no one ever asked. They're like, he was like, everyone talks about how Danny Angel was incredible, NBA champion, long time Celtic, played major league baseball. No one talks about the fact that he was actually an incredible high school football player that had a ton of offers to play football.

Yeah. I played football. That's so you're good at everything. Is there any sport that you weren't good at growing up? Um, I wasn't very good at tennis. Okay. That's fine. You could throw that one out. Yeah.

And as I tried playing tennis, my father played some tennis and I didn't know which hand to use because I was kind of ambidextrous and I don't know what hand left or right hand. I heard you too. Yeah, that you hit with both hands when you play tennis. Yeah. Which that means you're probably good at tennis even though you're not. No, I'm not very good. Yeah. But so when you were coming out of high school, was there ever a thought that you were going to maybe play football? And like, because that was obviously something you were really, really good at at or was it always just baseball, basketball? Yeah, when I was coming out of high school, I thought that I might try to play two sports in college. And so yeah, I went on some recruiting trips in football and took it very seriously. I mean, I loved loved high school

football. I was mostly receiver and a defensive court on a corner and safety. And then, and so it was interesting how different parts of the country would recruit me as a receiver and other conference teams would recruit me as a safety. And then I played my whole senior year as a quarterback just because our quarterback got hurt. And that was fun too. Yeah.

That was a blast. But I was mostly recruited as a receiver. Yeah. So when did you decide that football is not something I'm going to pursue anymore? I'm just going to focus on basketball. I think when basketball season started, after football was over, I went back on the basketball court and I just felt like basketball. Basketball was always going to be an equation. You know, football and baseball go the best together. But yeah,

I was never going to give up basketball. It was going to be basketball and baseball or football and basketball. Have you seen any of the discourse going on right now about, you know, how many NFL players could play in the NBA right now and vice versa? Because you might be the answer to all these questions. Like, oh, well, Danny Ainge could probably play in all the leagues at his prime. Yeah, I mean, I don't know about that.

I mean, I think it's disrespectful to the football to just say that basketball players could play in there. But I mean, I think that the great athletes, and I think there's a lot of great athletes in the NBA, of course, and have they chose a different path to play football. I don't think they go play football right now. I think it's, you gotta learn that craft. But I think the same play football. I think they go play football right now. I think it's a you got to learn that craft. But I think the same in football every now and

then you see good football players that play basketball in college but they're not as good. You guys are too old but I remember when the Cowboys back you know when I was a kid they drafted some basketball players to play on those cowboy teams. And when Tom Landry was coaching, and I know that's ancient times for you, but I, I do believe that, I mean, you take guys like I'm watching right here, Jalen Brown. I mean, it feels like he could be a football player if that's what he wanted to be. But, um, so I don't know what the argument is necessarily, but there's some great, there's some great athletes out

there that could, they could play different sports for sure. Had they started at a younger age. Yeah. I guess the discussion was like, are there players that could translate from either league directly right now to the other? Our point was, yeah, there's some great athletes in the NBA. If they love football, if they want to play football, they put their minds to it. If you're one of these big guys, like you can play, you can be a tight end with enough

practice if you have that of these, you know big guys like you can play it You can be a tight end with enough practice if you have that, you know competitive mentality to you But we also thought it'd be harder for a football player to become a professional basketball player because of the skill aspect Dribbling shooting things that don't necessarily translate to football But yeah It was one of those discussions that you talk about usually like the second week of July when there's nothing going on. Yeah Yeah, but for some reason just cropped up. Actually, you're a good person to ask this question to because you've seen so much basketball. Well, there's a player named Caleb Loner who played at Baylor basketball the last couple

years, played at BYU before, and he's headed to Utah to play tight end. That's a great school for him, I think, because Utah really uses their tight ends well. Yeah. And so, you know, we'll see firsthand, like he's a starting or he's a bench player for Baylor right now, but for your college player who's going to try college football. Yeah, yeah. It's going to be interesting to watch. So you've seen so much basketball, you've been in and around basketball for your entire

life. So let's just start with who's the best player that you've ever played against or watched play? Well, Michael Jordan. Yeah. That's a good answer. Yeah, I would say that's fair. I heard that you might have something to do with his greatness, or at least with his, one of his all-time great performances. Yeah. You played golf against him and pissed him off. Yeah, that's true. Got him a little frustrated. He had 63 on us the next night. I had to guard him for a share of that. But my kids have abused me on that one. And we've gone back and watched the film.

I think I gave up 12 of the 63. Oh, so you're fine. I'm fine. But Walton fouled out, and he's never forgiven me, because I switched a lot. I'm guarding Michael on the screen like you got him Bill. Yeah, yeah. And Walton fell down and he was like guard your own man.

I watched a clip of MJ talking about you as a golfer and he said that you are his favorite person to golf with because you give him shit more than anyone else. You'll talk trash to him more than anyone else. Is that fair to say? You obviously from your basketball career, you'd fight anyone, you got dirty. But when you're on the golf course with Michael Jordan, are you, you're not intimidated whatsoever?

No, not at all. I mean, Michael is so fun to play with. He's a great competitor, as we all know. And him and I were golf junkies when we were playing in the NBA. And so we got together like we did in the, that was his second year in the league

When he had the 63 against us in the Boston Garden And that's when it started we had two media buddies that were that knew each other and they got us together and we played And and then we'd play every summer here and there I run into him in San Diego and in Chicago and Boston and It was fun. He's a great and he's a golf junkie like I am. Yeah. Wait, so how bad did you beat him in these 36 holes before he dropped? Oh, not bad. I mean, I think our matches are always pretty close. And that's why it's so fun and so competitive.

Yeah. So, all right. So your entry to the NBA, obviously you were playing college basketball and major league baseball at the same time Which I feel like if that story happened today People would be like what's going on? This is incredible Like I mean it was incredible then but now even more like people being able to play multiple sports doesn't happen as much But your entry to the NBA What was it like at coming from playing baseball and then you're walking on to a Celtics team that has Larry Bird, that has Kevin McHale, that's won a title?

Were you like, oh man, I can't hang with these guys? Or instantly like, no, I'm here. I'm where I belong. You know, when I played, I think playing in Yankee Stadium and in Fenway Park and against those great Yankee teams, Billy Martin managing, and that was pretty special. I mean, I was a kid and it was a lifetime, great memories of playing in those games, but it didn't feel like I was playing

under the same kind of pressure when I got to the NBA, even though I was playing for the Celtics. I came in mid-season because of my baseball contract and that was a very good team like you said and so I had to pay my dues. I sat and sat that that first year and was dying to play and then and then I started my second year but yeah I didn't feel that that pressure. I think that I got you know kind of that that youthful anxiety maybe out of the way when I was playing baseball in those big ballparks

in front of big crowds, that was fun. And yeah, I mean that actually makes sense because baseball is the ultimate solo sport and the fact that you're there, it's pitch reverse batter and you strike out and you fail whatever, three quarters of the time, and then you're on a team with the Celtics, and like, all right, well I'm- And maybe fail 75% of the time. 75, yeah. That's what you said, three quarters of the time and then you're on a team with the Celtics and like, all right, well.

And maybe fail 75% of the time. 75, yeah. That's what you said, three quarters. Or what was your batting average? We won't talk about that. Yes, I think I actually maybe gave you a couple points there. Okay. That might be true.

It's actually not a bad strategy. I was being nice. For player development, make them go play baseball for you. Yeah. There you go. Good idea. Go up there and fail all the time in there and fail. The hardest mental sport. Would you say baseball is the hardest mental sport?

I think hitting a baseball's tough, yeah. I mean, pitching is tough too, but I think hitting the pitchers, there's so many good pitchers, they're different. You know, pitchers are getting stronger and stronger all the time. I love watching baseball. I wish the game somehow could figure out a way

to have pitchers matchups last a little longer than they do. I know. I don't really like the three starter innings, but yeah, I love baseball. Yeah. So at what point when you got to the Celtics, did you feel like you were accepted by a Larry Bird and the rest of the team? Did it take that putting in your dues? did you have a moment where you're like,

okay, they can trust me and I can trust them? I think my second year. Yeah. Yeah, I think that it got through that first year, wasn't playing a lot, and I don't think that there was much I did to convince anybody that I deserved to play a lot more. In my own mind, I was deserving,

but you just gotta pay your dues, and I did, and I think my own mind, I was deserving, but you just got to pay your dues and I did and I think my second year I earned their respect. Yeah. What was it like forming that relationship with the city of Boston as a whole? Because it's a good sports town. We always talk about good sports towns, bad sports towns. Boston's a great sports town, but the fans can be hard on you, but you have to develop a relationship.

You watch that with players that come into the league, especially I'd say in Boston and Philly. You have to kind of like learn how to adapt to the city that you're in. So what was it like ingratiating yourself to the city of Boston? I loved Boston. I mean, it was it's a great sports town. I mean, you know, they're they're anti New York and anti Philly and they love cheering against those teams as much as they like cheering for their own teams. But I think just having the Bruins and the Patriots and the Red Sox, I mean, there's just a lot of competition. And I think it's healthy competition.

And knowing the athletes in the different sports was fun experience. And there's just, there's always sport all the time. Yeah, yeah. Was there, I would imagine knowing your game you were trash talker from time to time playing basketball when you saw Larry Bird you're like oh this is a different level of trash talking. Oh yeah Larry was funny. Larry wasn't like always a trash

talker I mean always talking trash. He was selective. He wasn't, we had guys like Cedric Maxwell and ML Carr. I mean they never stopped talking trash. Right. Always talking trash. And then Kevin McHale just being around them, he was always talking trash. And so Larry wasn't talking as often as them, but Larry said some funny stuff. That's gotta be like when like, you know, your dad gets like raises his voice, you're like, oh no, this is serious now. When Larry decides to start talking trash,

he's using it for a real reason. I think he's using it for his own motivation more than anything. I think some of Larry's trash talk just felt like he wanted to get motivated. I remember him telling Hubie Brown, is walking to the sidelines and he says, Hubie, are you serious?

This is the only guy that you got that can guard me? And the whole bench hears it. And I'm just sitting there smiling, laughing, but Larry's so confident in his game. And Hubie puts Johnny Newman in the game for me. Larry, are you serious? That's what you got. Trash talking coaches next level.

Yeah. Yeah. I remember one time we're playing in San Antonio and, uh, I don't remember the kid's name, but a young center coming off the bench, he runs in the game with all this excitement, enthusiasm, the crowds going crazy. And, and Larry says, who you garden? And the kid points to Chief. He goes, oh crap, Chief, you're bald now.

It's got to be even more intimidating if he's got that mustache too. You try to focus. It feel like it'd be hard to be intimidating with that mustache, but he was able to achieve that. He was able to achieve probably not with the mustache, but with his play, he was a lot more than the mustache. That was not very intimidating. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, no, but elevating your trash talk to a different level that makes the mustache go from like, that's a weird looking thing to I'm scared of that mustache. It's a pretty good accomplishment. So your teammates loved you in Boston. Who were you closest with there? I was closest with Kevin. He was my closest teammate. I mean, I still keep in touch with Larry and Kevin

Here and there and you know, Kevin's really into the NBA still I talked less to Larry But we stay in touch over the years. I was I was close with DJ for a while, but he passed away He was a great and fun teammate as well. Yeah, what about Bill Walton as a teammate? Because we've had the honor of being able to interview Bill Walton. We've told this story before, but we got, I think, about two and a half hours in, and Bill Walton said to us, he's like,

how long does this go? And we're like, as long as you want. So I don't think we wrote down all these questions. I think I maybe asked one of the questions that I wrote down, because just he can talk was he always Eccentric and out there like that, you know bill when we when we got bill I mean first of all, we lost Cedric Maxwell. So that was tough because I love Cedric I was a great teammate but Bill was

He was who like Larry and Kevin and I looked up to when we were younger in high school and college, and he was a legend in all of our minds. And so he's coming to the Celtics, even though he hasn't played a lot of basketball over the last few years, we were very excited to get him. But for me it was great because I was like Larry and Kevin's little brother. And so I got picked on a lot.

And when Walton showed up, all the attention went to him and they were picking on him and it was, it was fun. They were, but Bill was a great teammate. I mean, he was that one of the most unselfish players I've ever played with. Um, although we didn't really have any of the skills left at that time. So he had to, you know, he had to use his passing the most more than scoring, but he was a great shot blocker rebounder, but his, uh, he was all about winning. It's all he cared about. And I think that rubbed off on everybody. So I have a dumb question about that 86 Celtics team because they're

up there with some of the greatest teams of all time. The 96 bulls, the no, no, no, not up there. It's above. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you didn't play the Lakers in the finals. Well, I know because they didn't make the fight that I've heard. It wasn't going to happen to us. I've heard you talk about that and like it's, it's crazy to say, but I think that probably speaks to the confidence of the team. And I've heard, you know, I think Kevin McHale even said this as well, where it's like, you guys were mad that the Lakers lost, even though they were, they should have been the second best team. You were mad that you didn't get a chance to beat them most teams are like well we you know we'd like to win the championship no matter what but

you were upset that they lost the Rockets yeah I mean I think that because the Lakers beat us in 85 and you know we felt we were better yeah and in 84 maybe the Lakers were a little better at that moment in time but and we won that series but 86 we we've planned all year series, but 86, we, we've planned all year to play the Lakers. We just, we just assumed that's what was going to happen. So it was a little disappointing, but, um, you know, we weren't going to lose either way. Yeah. So, so the question is, it's a dumb question, but I, maybe you can describe it and make it a great answer. How fun was it to play on a team that was that good? Because

it does feel like there are certain points in NBA history that certain teams reach that almost higher level of basketball, where it's like everything comes together. And what they're doing is so good. And it's such a different level that they can't be stopped that you feel that day in and day out. I did feel that I felt that all year long in 86. And I think it, you know, was you know you know all the names on the team but it was you know the prime of my career it was the prime of Larry Bird's career he was you know MVP of the league with Magic and Kareem and Olajuwon and Jordan and all these guys in the league I mean Larry was the MVP and and it was the prime of Kevin McHale's career. And DJ wasn't past his prime yet.

Robert was the only one that was a little older, and Walton, and they were able to split that time at center and they were still great, great players. So we had a good bench. Jerry Seesting was a great shooter. Scott Wedman had been an All-Star and was the highest paid player, and not very many people know that story,

but he was the highest paid player in the league when the Celtics got him from Cleveland, and he was an All-Star in Kansas City, but he was Larry's backup, so he didn't get to play. Not very many people knew, but Larry reminded him and was very frustrated. I can't believe you make more money than me. That would piss me off.

Yeah, but you could feel it, like, just the level of basketball and Night in and night out being like what you guys what was your record at home? Did you lose one game at home or something? Yeah, we're 50 and one that's insane. You lose to we lost to Portland in December middle of December we happened there or what happened there? I'm No, Portland was they they just caught us on you know, we weren't our best but they were a good team That was the legendary story when we went back to Portland where Larry was gonna beat him with his left hand and And he had like 32 points with his left hand that night. So he said that before the game

He said that before the game just gonna shoot left. I'm saving my right hand for the Lakers tomorrow night And he actually did it. He did it. That's incredible. And while you're watching, you're like this, maybe mixing one right-handed shot? Like, no, just keep going. I mean, Larry was like me, and he was left-handed. Right. He did a lot of things left-handed,

but he played basketball right-handed, but that was still an amazing feat. Yeah, was there a respect between you and the Lakers, or did you just hate them? I didn't hate them. I mean, our fans hated them. But I mean, I grew up a Laker fan as a kid. And I ran into Magic Johnson,

who was the same age I was coming out of high school, and we played in an AAU tournament. And like I was in awe of Magic. It was unbelievable. Seeing him for the first time as an 18 year old was incredible. So I'd followed him. But no, I wasn't. I didn't hate him, but they were just, it's like playing against Michael. Like,

they're the best. Like, let's go. This is the ultimate challenge. But I know that there was hatred mostly felt by the fans and you know, we're playing for there's a lot of intensity and you couldn't ever be caught you know talking to him being friendly to him picking him up off the floor after mckale did the curt rambas throat shot it was a little bit more intense yeah and before that didn't larry call the whole team like a bunch of pussies or something? Before the Kurt Rambis throat shot. I don't know. He called us. Yeah. Maybe not.

I'm not sure he called the Lakers, but he called us. No, no. You guys. Yeah, yeah. He called out his own team. We're playing, yeah, like wimps right now. I was in 84, yeah. We came back and won that series, which was miraculous actually. Yeah. We're going to get back to Danny Ainge in a second. He's brought to you by BetterHelp. Part of my take is sponsored by BetterHelp. When life goes so fast, it's important to take a moment to celebrate your wins and make adjustments for the rest of the year. Therapy can help you take

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The interview with Danny Adenj is also brought to you by Proper 12. Proper 12, so smooth. Springtime is here. Summer's almost here. Proper 12 Irish Apple is here to welcome it. It's a delicious blend of Proper's award-winning Irish whiskey with crisp and fresh notes of Irish apple. It's perfect neat or with a little bit of ginger ale. There's no better springtime sip. Pour the Roar with Proper 12. Pick up a bottle, try it for yourself today. Original, rich and smooth, Proper 12 Irish whiskey, or try crisp, fresh Irish apple, smooth to the core. And now here's more Danny Ainge. So all right, so just fast forwarding, because we also want to talk about you as an executive.

I have a bunch of questions about that, but playing at the end of your career with Charles Barkley and the Sons, that's another like bigger than life kind of character. What was it like playing with Charles Barkley especially that was you know one of his MVP years was in there go to the finals. Was it as fun as we all see Charles on TV and we're like man we want to hang out with that guy? Yes Charles made me laugh every single day. Yeah. he didn't practice a lot you know my favorite Charles story was We're getting ready to play a game and and coach Westfall was great I loved him, but he knew he knew who was in charge of our team

he knew Charles was in charge most of the time and we look up or we're getting ready 35 minutes before tip-off and We're stretching and Westfall comes in sits on his stool and we go through our pregame. Well he's waiting and waiting and we all kind of look over and Charles's locker still has his uniform hanging up. He hasn't arrived yet. And so we wait and everyone knows exactly why we're waiting. No, nothing said finally coach Westfall with no, nothing about the pregame. He says, if he's not here by seven 10, he's not starting seven 10 was the tip off time.

And he walked out of the room. It was, it was classic. And I mean, but that was Paul. He was just like, he was loose. He kept us loose, but Charles, Charles made everybody laugh all the time. I mean, he was a lot He kept us loose, but Charles made everybody laugh all the time. I mean, he was a lot of fun to play with.

I had a great joy playing with him. He's a great player and also like a great glue guy. Great guy just in the locker room. Yeah, I mean, he was fun. He made it fun. Yeah, so he was also your co-star in Space Jam. Yeah, we were in Space Jam together. A lot of people don't talk about you being in Space Jam. Yeah. What was that like? I don't remember much about Space Jam. My

grandkids have told me about Space Jam more than I remember about Space Jam. But it was a scene where they stole all of Charles Barkley's talent. Yeah. All of his power away. Yeah. You were a great great cameo in that. Did you get in any of the scrimmages that MJ would run on the set of Space Jam? I know it was, when was it filmed? Was it right after you retired or? No, it was, it was during my career in Fuse. Yeah, we did play on some of the sets. That's, I mean, those, it feels like those are legendary, just any pickup game with MJ, just taking it way too

seriously at all times. Although in Bill Murray in the face. All right. So as an executive, when you decided to, well, you were a coach and then you actually were on TV for a year, you didn't like TV? Yeah, I was on TV for three years. Okay. One year before I coached and then I did three years after I coacheded. And you, what did you think about being on the media side?

Oh, I loved it. Really? I loved it. Yeah. Really? Yeah. I mean, it was hard for me to leave that life. Um, I mean, I was working one day a week.

Um, I didn't really have to do much preparation because I'd just been a player and then I coached and I mean, I knew all the players, all the teams, all the tendencies. I didn't really need to prepare for games and so I'd fly in the day of the game and fly out the next day. Yeah. Was it hard to criticize players that maybe you had played with or coached against? I guess you don't know me very well but it should have been harder but it wasn't so hard.

I mean criticizing versus kind of trash talking is probably different. I guess you don't know me very well, but it should have been harder, but it wasn't so hard. I mean, criticizing versus kind of trash talking is probably different. I mean, I respect all the players and all they do, but sometimes we do things that are as players that are funny and entertaining and probably picked on guys a little bit too much for that. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

So I have a bunch of questions about your long time as executive for the Celtics, but I wanted to start with the jazz right now. From your perspective, when Brian Winhorse did the jazz or up to something, were you, did you see that clip and you were like, God damn it. When horse just blew my cover. Do you remember that? I don't remember it. So it was when you traded the Royce O'Neal trade, and then he basically was like, look, when Danny Ainge made a trade right before getting Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen and all these things, he's like, the Jazz are up to something,

and I don't know what they're up to, and everyone's trying to figure it out, and Danny Ainge is up to something. I was hoping you saw it, and you're like, oh man, he blew my cover, because I'm clearly up to something. Yeah, no, that's really not how it is. When I went to the jazz, I wasn't really

going to Utah to work for the jazz. I mean, Ryan is a great friend and I've known him for years. And I told him on numerous occasions that, you got me or my advice anytime you want then call me we're friends you don't need to pay me to work I didn't really want to work back get back in the NBA but when that happened when when when the Jazz were making the changes or we were all making the changes it was I'm just helping the people that are there.

Dennis Lindsay had a great staff and great people working there. Justin Zanick is fantastic. And I just, and Ryan was wanting to know my opinion of what we should do. So I was just helping facilitate what they're doing. It wasn't like I came in with this plan, I'm gonna blow the team up and we're gonna start over.

That was many other people's ideas. But you do, you would say it's fair to say you like draft picks, you love draft picks. I like good players. Yeah, you like draft picks, you've gotten a lot of draft picks. Yeah, but- Made some really smart moves, have gotten you a lot of draft picks.

Right, but I would say that I like good players much more than draft picks. Yeah. You like draft picks that turn into good players Yeah, yeah, yeah, like that's a future good player Yeah, I mean some were some we did some good ones and some not so good ones like everybody but Yeah, I mean, I think I like draft picks because I think they're their currency And you need to take swings at the plate with some of these

New players. I. Every team has both. Every team has players they've drafted and turned out to be better than you thought. And also players that they've traded for or signed. Yeah, well, I would say that's one of the more interesting parts of your career is that you've done it both ways. With the Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett Celtics that win a title that trade the big three and then to rebuild it all kind of homegrown with Tatum and Brown and all the guys and Marcus Smart.

So how did you maneuver the first iteration of it with the big three with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett pulling that off and having you know basically a team have that success out of you know There were there were little the cells were a little lost for a while with Paul Pierce in the early 2000s Yeah, I mean I think that there was a lot of good fortune that went that way I mean obviously we would love to get KG a lot sooner Ray Allen, but those guys just were never available And then they came available, you know, KG, Paul and Ray were all teams playing for teams in the lottery. And all three of those teams were looking

to go a different direction. Seattle at the time where Ray was playing, they were looking to draft, you know, Kevin Durant and move on from their veteran guys or older guys. And we were the beneficiaries of that we got Had we gotten the second pick that year in the draft, you know, we probably wouldn't have done that I would have kept Kevin Durant But um as it turned out we we didn't we got the fifth pick in the draft and we moved that and got Ray Allen And then we eventually moved Al Jefferson and other players and we ended up with KG.

So, I mean that just turned everything. KG's presence just gave Paul Hope, Doc Hope, the city of Boston Hope. Ray was more excited than I'd ever seen him play and it was just, there was a lot of electricity in that whole time there. We only won one championship. We should have won a couple, but injuries and lose game seven in LA. But I think that era was a lot of fun. Yeah. We just talked to Perk the other day and he said if he didn't get hurt, you guys win another championship that year. He said no question about it.

Yeah, I think so. I think that's probably right. Yeah. So you guys get the big three together. And I feel like from that point forward in NBA history, we've always talked about getting a big three, getting a big three to win a championship. I don't know if that's necessarily the blueprint to do it, because we've seen time and time again, it's harder than you would think to put together a super team, in quotes, that would end up working out.

So you have Paul Pierce, who I think one person voted as the best basketball player of all time, right? Was that you? Somebody, it was like all the votes were either MJ or LeBron and then one person voted Paul Pierce. He's a great player. But so you have a bona fide superstar in Paul Pierce and then you get Kevin Garnett, also

superstar, Ray Allen superstar at the time. What was that like gelling those three guys together and having them try to commit to being a team and not just three great players? I just think they were together at the right time of their careers. I mean, I think that getting guys together, sometimes you get players that are too old, you know, managing older players. They're the last ones to see the decline in their games. Sometimes you get players when they're too young and they really wanna be all-stars and all-NBA

and get paid as much money as they possibly can, which is all understandable, but those guys were, they only cared about one thing, at that stage of their lives and careers, none of them had won a title and they were desperate for one. And they played that way, they practiced that way, and it was fun to watch. It's fun to watch that electricity and the way

that they played. I mean, it wasn't always rosy, but it was always about team. Yeah. You mentioned something there that I'm interested in. Would you say that's one of the hardest parts about being an executive is having to basically tell a guy who might be a little past their prime, like hey, we're moving on from you,

or this is not gonna work the same way that you think it works, because it is usually the guy himself is the last to know. Yeah, I think that I haven't had to do that. I mean, when I moved Paul and KG, they could have vetoed the trades. Yeah. We talked it through and they ended up being mutually beneficial for them.

And we were rebuilding and starting over and so they were willing to be traded to Brooklyn. And that was good for us. Yeah, very good. I didn't have to tell them that you guys are really old and we need to check the expiration date on the right I'm a few shoes, but You know, they were they were great and you know those guys their willingness to do that For the Boston Celtics at that time was is huge and it's you know paying dividends even to this day

Yeah so when you did make that trade and then you have Years where you're rebuilding and you do such a great job of it. Were there any moments in that rebuild where you're like, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be or were farther away than I thought we were going to be just because that is a very difficult thing to pull off in any professional league? It is. You know, again, we were very fortunate and you know, Brooklyn didn't turn out as good as I thought they were going to be.

I thought it was actually a really good trade for Brooklyn to get Paul and KG with a couple years left, veterans, good locker room guys, all about winning to go play with that core group up in Brooklyn. But you know, I just think that our team was, we got Jalen and Jason, and then we brought in Kyrie, and then we brought in Gordon Hayward, and we were good. And in training camp, I'm going, this team is powerful and explosive, and these young players are better than we think. Terry Roger was part of that group.

And then we lost Gordon on day one, game one. And that was devastating to us, but that meant Jason and Jaylen got much more opportunities and they, you know, but that team, and then Kyrie got hurt late in the year, wasn't able to play in the playoffs. And then, and Roger at 20, and Tatum and Brown at 20, 19 and 20, I think took us to the conference finals.

So, you know, when those other guys came back, I mean, they're realizing that these young guys are pretty special and pretty good. And I don't think that was easy. Yeah, so in terms of Tatum and Brown, we know now they're incredible basketball players, they're incredible NBA players, but when you drafted them,

there were people who were like, what is going on? Because I know Jalen Brown was, people thought that was a reach. His Cal year, like he had obviously all the tools, but it wasn't the smoothest year in his one year in college. And then Jason Tatum, not, I think very, like there's only been a couple times in NBA history where a team is traded out of the number one pick When you have those moments where you just like I know I feel it I know it this is who we like and Forget everyone else because it is funny to look back and be like at the moment at that time People were like Danny. He's kind of crazy yeah, I mean I feel like

You don't ever know but there are times that it's more fun. Like there's somebody that you just really like, and you just feel like it's a fit. I wish that were the case every year, but with Jalen, I watched him play a lot that year. I mean, I got to games at 4.30, seven o'clock tip off, and I'm watching him out shoot before the game, and watching his work ethic, and then I watched their team play, and he did not have a good finish

to that freshman year yeah and but you know we had had him as the number two or number three pick before the season started and and then I watched his team play so much I knew like they they had a point guard that wasn't a good shooter they had two seven footers that weren't good offensive players. And they just, they didn't have enough shooting, enough spacing for him. And I really thought, you know, like, man, you get him in an NBA court, in the open court. And so we brought him in for two workouts. And in those two workouts, he convinced all of us.

Yeah. Our whole organization that he was a guy that we wanted to go to bat with. Yeah, and then Jason is the other one where it's like people, you know, like you trade the number one pick. Everyone thought Markel Foltz was the guy. Philly fans have to look back at that constantly,

our producer Max as well. They probably hate you. They get to play the game of like magic. You don't hate me, do you, Max? He does. No, everything turned out fine. No, Max is saying everything turned out fine. We traded Markel Foltz for the pick that got Tyrese Max. Oh yeah. And everything was fine. Success. Yes, but no, Max was cussing you out before you got it. Incorrect, incorrect. Yeah, he hates you. But that pick, like you're out on an island

because everyone's like, this is crazy. Markel Foltz was the guy for, for a while there and you trade out of it, uh, and take Jason Tatum. But it was that a similar feeling where like, we know that this is, this guy is the best guy in this draft. I mean, I loved Markel. I watched Markel play a lot his senior year in college, and that was really a hard decision. I mean, um, but I felt, I felt Jason, um, was the guy for us. Markell, if you needed a franchise point guard, that might have been the guy, but I felt like Tatum was more important for us to get at that moment. It worked out great for us. Markell,

I think, had injuries, but he's shown to be an outstanding player. And I think he's still got a lot of basketball left in him. Yeah. When you're scouting, you can't scout high school players anymore in the NBA. Back when you could, were there any special tricks that you used to use when you'd go into a gym, watch a high school player play? Maybe somebody might get nervous if they're like Danny Ainge. Did someone give you that tip?

I ask the question to every guest that we have. I talked to Perkins about this. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're like, man, Danny Ainge is here. I might get nervous if they're like Danny Ains. Did someone give you that tip? No, I ask the question to every guest that we have. I've talked to Perkins about this. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're like, man, Danny Ains is here. I might get nervous. I hope I don't play bad. I can't give my secrets, but I've been to high school gyms, and I was grateful that my boys, I had four boys that played AAU basketball and was able to go into the gyms at all the

major tournaments for a lot of years. Yeah. So maybe- No disguise? The disguise that was worn, no glasses, fake nose, the groucho marks or whatever it was. Nothing? No. Oh my gosh, I'm going to kill crew because they're giving me that feedback.

To me that disguise makes you stick out even more. It's like who's this guy that's wearing a disguise? Yeah. It's a good disguise. You got to be good at your disguise. Yeah. You just have to believe it. Yeah. Would you that's wearing a disguise? Yeah, it's a good disguise. You got to be good at your disguise Yeah, you just have to believe it. Yeah, you ever throw on a way. Yeah. Yeah, I've done that before you done the way Great should um, are people afraid to take your calls? No, I would be if I was a GM. I would be afraid to take your calls

I'd be like he's he knows something that I don't know Well, you get on the phone with Danny age and then all of a sudden your picks for the next 10 years are gone. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, if I get a call, if you call me right now, I'd be like, we're sending Hank to the McAfee show? He did it to us right here where he's like, I don't love picks.

Yeah. Like, yeah, and then you're going to walk out of here and be like, wait, did we just give up three picks? What the hell just happened? No. I think that, like, I believe that the trades were fair and I really do. I mean some of them worked out for us in Boston, like Jason Tatum trade. I mean it was unfortunate, Markel got hurt, but I felt like that was a really fair deal.

And the same thing with KG and Paul. Like they had Darren Williams and Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson still in his prime. Like I think that that team I thought was going to be a very special team. I thought they were going to be in one of the top four or five teams in the league. So it just worked out different. I mean we just were fortunate that they gave us the number three picks for Jaylen and Jason. Like I don't, I never had, I had an idea that would happen. Yeah.

All right. Another story that I was told from inside sources, your wife, when you met her at BYU, the story goes that you might have met her and her boyfriend at the time at a party and then the boyfriend invited you to play on the flag football team and you went and played on the flag football team and you're Danny Ainge and you were the best player by far. And then your wife was like, Oh, I kind of like this guy more. Is that fair to say? That's close. That's close. What an idiot that guy was to invite you to his flag football team. Yeah, he played center. And yeah, that was that's what I claimed to my wife. That's when

she fell for me. But yeah, I wasn't supposed to be playing flag football It was you know, our basketball players were we're not allowed to and someone eventually tattled on me like right before the championship game No way. Oh, that was definitely someone an opponent. Yeah. Yeah, they were like we don't want to absolutely sick of watching Danny coach Yeah, coach got news that we're getting ready for the championship intramural game and yeah, I wasn't able to play in that game. Oh no way. That's hilarious. Might have been the starting center.

Yeah, it probably was. He's like, God damn it. I mean, that was a really poor choice by him to invite you. I mean, I guess you did get him to the championship game, but he lost his girlfriend. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, yeah, they were not dating for very long. I mean, yeah. You don't invite Danny Hange on your flag football team.

Did you play, I also heard that you, when you were playing quarterback, you would throw it lefty and righty. I threw it righty. Yeah, but you would, if you were rolling out. I could throw it a little bit left, yeah. Yeah. I mean, he was a legend. He's a legend.

Yeah. He's Patrick Mahomes before Patrick Mahomes. You taught Patrick Mahomes everything he knows. No, no, no, no. Is that something you look for? Yeah, he's Patrick Holmes before Patrick Holmes. You taught Patrick Holmes everything he knows. No, no, no, no, no. Is that something you look for? If there's a up and coming player and they've played lots of sports

at a high level growing up, is that something that you look at and you're like, I like that because they've developed all these other areas of athleticism that will help them be a better basketball player? I think so. I mean, it's not a make or break deal. I mean, there's not everybody that played other sports,

but yeah, I think that I get a kick out of guys that have played other sports and had success, especially at their young ages. But that's less and less. Yeah. There's just not as many. Yeah. Was there a certain age where you clicked and you were like, oh, I'm better than everyone? No.

I would say that the first, the most confident that I got was when I was playing in that Magic Johnson tournament. I made all tournament team there back in Boca Raton, Florida and some of the best, Albert King from New York and Gene Banks, were the high school players of the year. I held my own and played really well in that in that series Yeah, a you series and that's when I kind of believed like man. This is real Yeah, but when Walton was playing with the Blazers, I would go up and play with some of them too that same summer I would play pickup in their camps. How old are you?

I was 17 and you were playing with NBA players playing with NBA players Wow and I felt like I could hold my own I felt like I could play those guys and that's pretty badass and when Walton was talking to did it did ever seem like a Riddle that you had to Before you answer because I feel like if I'm 17 years old talking to Walton It's gonna take me about a minute to process what he said then if you think about it hard enough You're like, yeah, he's making a good point. Yeah You take a meandering road to get there sometimes.

Oh, I got a great Bill Walton story. Oh, let's go. So Bill, when he was first with us, he would take a chess set, like his own computer chess set with him, and he'd be sitting in his airplane seat and he would, and we're flying commercial in these days and he's sitting in the first class section and he's, but he's playing computer chess.

And you know, so we're, and then we're stretching in the mornings and he's like telling us about Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky and you know, Queen three to Jack seven. It was, you know, it was crazy stuff. We don't know what he's talking about but he's like talking about the brilliant moves that these players are making. So we thought he was like a chess genius and he's with that board all

the time so finally one day I challenged to play him and I beat him and then Jerry Seesting challenged to play him and he beat him and we said we you can't ever talk chess again like You are not good. Yeah, what was he doing with that board? I don't know. He was playing against a computer. Must have been at level one or something. Beginner mode? He's dominating and then he's thinking that he's on the same level as the Bobby Fischer.

The famous blunder. I think that was a famous tournament that he was in. So he reads a story about it. And just gets his ass kicked. We should let Hank ask a couple of questions. Hank is a diehard Celtics fan, born and raised. He loves you. Yeah, he does love you.

As much as Max hates you, he loves you. Is Hank the guy that made the bet, the big bet for dunking? Yeah. Oh, yeah. We'll actually, after this, we'll have him go show you his progress. But Hank, aren't you like, are you six feet? I'm six feet. Yeah. I've been training you like, are you six feet? I'm six feet.

Yeah. I've been training. How old are you, Hank? I'm 30. OK, just a pop. I got about eight months to get about seven inches. But have you ever dunked before? No.

No. Not even close. Hank. He deadpan asked Derek White, he's like, hey, Derek, when did you first dunk? I was like, Hank, are you asking Derek White when he first, I don't think you can compare the two. Well, Hank, HGH in the rules. Yeah, yeah.

He actually said September, October is when he's going to start mixing in the steroids if he doesn't make progress. Yeah, we're trying to, I mean, we're getting progress, but we're going to, you know, we're going to go through it the natural way. And then if it gets to like October, November, we might start going the alternate routes. Okay, well you can come out to Utah and do some altitude. Yeah, get the elevated thin air, jump in the thin air. Some trampolines.

All right, so yeah, Hank, what are your questions? Yeah, obviously, when you're in Boston, everyone called you Trader Danny. But one trade I didn't even know was possible until it happened was when you traded the coach. Was that like a different negotiation, you know, talking to teams versus, you know, when you're talking about players and like, Hey, do you want to coach? Well what happened there was, you know, Doc had been with us for nine years and he knew

we were and he had gone through a rebuild with us before we made the big trade and so he was just didn't not in the mood to do it again and I completely understood where he was and so the Clippers opportunity came to him and you know he's under contract I can't just let my coach go so you know I don't think Doc was happy at first but I think he understood where we stood and and we got a first round pick for our coach, but Doc got to go do what he wanted to do was go coach Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. And they obviously had a lot of promise there Clippers. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, this is a really a question either. And, and you know, he didn't pan out, but he was, he was a fan favorite. He was always one of my favorites. Uh, Gershon, yououssalaie I just love it Yaboussalaie, I just like saying the name. He didn't say it right. He's still playing really well overseas right now but he didn't you know what happened with Gershon is he had some tight Achilles tendon and so he got surgery on them and you know they messed up his whole rookie year.

And we knew that going in, you know, trying to be, you know, do what was best for him and his health. But it didn't really help. And he was not the same even in the second year. But watching him play now, you know, wish we had that Gershon the last few years he's been playing in Europe from that health standpoint. But by the time he really did get healthy, we just had a stacked team. But Gershon was a great, fun kid and had a lot of talent.

What's the number one trait you look for in prospects? Is it size? Is it explosiveness, shooting ability? I mean, there's not, I'm asked that question a lot. I don't think there's one. I mean, but talent overrides a lot. Yeah. You know, when guys are really talented,

you can look the other way on other things sometimes, but. I guess that would be a better question, is what's the one thing you can look the other way on being like, I, they can probably get better at this. I mean, if a guy is a great athlete, and a good player has a good brain, but can't shoot. I think that that's a good, that's a good bet. Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, like Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson, all those guys, they weren't great

shooters. Jason Kidd, one of my favorites that I ever coached was Jason Kidd or been around. But he was, you know, what a special player he was. Yeah. Those him, Gary Payton, Scottie Pippen, if they could never learn, if they never learned to shoot, which they all did learn to shoot, they still would have been great players. Yeah, yeah.

So what's the recipe for that? Is it a numbers game? Just get in the gym, work for, tip put up this amount of shots every day? Yeah, I mean, Kawhi Leonard was another guy that wasn't a great shooter in college and turned out to be one of the best. Yeah, yeah.

How many shots a day do I need to get good? You saw me shoot a little bit, I think I bricked a layup. I'm not sure that'll happen Yeah, what who's the one guy you Don't say missed on but you're like man I was I was thinking about drafting him and it just didn't work out and I Obviously turned out to be great I would say Jimmy Butler. So first

one that comes to mind, it was, uh, you know, he was late first round pick and he was seriously in our thoughts of drafting and we went another direction and Jimmy turned out to be a great player. Yeah. And, uh, that's probably the one I regret the most. What about, what about Yannis? Yannis was different. Like, um, it's not like it's hard to regret. Like, but I saw everyone missed on Yanis. Right. I mean, I saw Yanis play like three months before the draft, maybe four months before the draft. And I liked him. I loved his enthusiasm for the game.

And then I saw him in the summer league and it was like, he's three inches taller. Like he actually has muscles in his arm. Like it was incredible. Transformation over that time. But I mean, what a great story, Yanis is. But I went over to Greece to watch him play. And I mean, he was a joy to watch, but never in a million years could I imagine him being

an MVP, NBA champion that he's become. But it's fun to see. Yeah, so you've lived your whole life in basketball. Hey, can you note, can you notice like going overseas now just how much the game has grown and how much better the guys are just like on a baseline level? Yeah. I mean, I think it's been that way for the last 20 years. It's, it's big. I mean, people talk about, uh, Yokech and how he's the best player in the game today But I remember when uh, well drazen petrovic was a superstar over there years ago

I played with drazen for a year in portland, but uh, and then Sabonis sabonis before he had his his uh, achilles tendon injury when he was 20 21 years old. I mean, he was so special. He passed the ball like Jokic. He could shoot. He was 7'2". I mean, he was an amazing, amazing young player. I mean, it's been good over there for quite a while.

Different countries that have different strengths, like is one country known? Hey, they produce really great point guards. One country is like, you've got to get like a Serbian big man No, I don't think so. I think that there's I think they're they come from all the countries over there and I mean You got Don Chich and Yoke each from the same country, but they're completely different positions But you know, those guys are very special I mean, I don't know why they they grew those two players, but it's a big country and actually

a small country. But yeah, it actually is remarkable that both those guys. Yeah, I mean, they they had good basketball roots and you could just see how smart they were at a very young age. Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, this has been great. I have a couple last questions.

Row back question, rhoback.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Cues this, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, roeback.com. I don't know if you know this Danny, but we've been trying to get you on the show for a long time. So this is a thrill for us. Hank has been bothering your son for how many years, Hank? Four or five? Six?

Six years? That's so funny. And I hope you had a good time where it's like, Oh, we could have probably done this. No, it was good. It was good. It was way better than anything else. I'm doing in Chicago tonight. So I've been sitting watching basketball. So this is fun. Yeah. So, uh, last couple of questions, um, is there, so you, you got, you got some scraps in the NBA. I, you know, it is funny watching back some of these old videos where you were completely unafraid and doesn't matter who the guy was, you weren't going to take shit.

But you famously got bit in a fight by Tree Rollins. What was going through your head while you were getting bit? Were you like, what is he actually biting me right now? Is this actually happening? Yeah. I mean, so Tree was a physical player, it was a playoff game and, you know, like he set screens. I think that's part of their thing. They're going to hit us on screens. In those days, they didn't call him like they do today. I mean, they let guys really screen

and move and hit. And Tree had knocked out Quinn Buckner earlier in the game. And you know, just with an elbow and Quinn went down. And so I just gave him an elbow as he was running back down the court. He's running by me and I just like gave him an elbow because he's been doing that all night. But he turned and started coming at me. I mean, I basically had two options to run to the locker room or tackle Tree.

And so I went and tackled tree and we're in a dog pile that all the players on the floor and my finger is in his mouth. And I swear I thought he was going to bite it off. I thought it was gnawing at my finger to bite it off. Yeah, that's got to be terrifying. It was crazy, but I don't think that he could move. I think we were all kind of paralyzed with all the bodies around, and that was his way of getting at me, I guess, at that moment.

My hand must have been up close to his face, and he just chose to almost bite it off. But it was crazy. I looked down at my hand, and I could see it hadn't started bleeding. And so I could see my finger, it lift up, I could see all the way to the tendons. Oh my God.

Inside my hand. You still have a scar. Really, bitch? You have teeth marks on your finger still? I have a scar on the middle of my finger right here. That's a pretty cool scar. It is, yeah, a man bit me. Yeah, a man bit me in the NBA game.

I still say when I play golf, when I hit a tree, that tree Rollins blocked my shot. Yeah. So, and then in terms of all the fights or the scraps or the physical play, was there ever a time where Larry Bird got mad at you and was like, no, that's, we shouldn't fight today because Larry got in fights too. Yeah, Larry had had some fights, but no, a matter of fact, we kind of had a team rule that if you, if you go, if you go downswing and you

got, you know, take someone equal or better on the other team with you, that's good. If you're going to roll, but, um, but other than that, I think that it was, um, I mean, I could score 35 in a game and red would come in and pat me on the butt, say, nice job way to go. And, but if I got in a fight, like he wanted to celebrate, he would take me out to dinner and throw a party for me. Like it was unbelievable how excited red was when the fights happened. That's great. And he just, you know, he loved that. He loved that intensity. And, um, you know, I didn't, I mean,

I played 14 years in the NBA. And I mean, I think I had like six of them, but they were usually at times when they remember. I just Googled Danny Ainge fighting before, you know, earlier this morning. I was like, damn, he was, he would throw with anyone. Yeah. It didn't win very many. Yeah. The one where you got knocked out, but you actually got up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got up fast. That was credit to you. That was a big time, I'm not injured, I'm not injured, but you're clearly injured move.

Yeah, no, I wasn't injured. I was, I seriously was dizzy. Yeah. I was chasing him and I felt like my body was like tilting the whole time running after Sadal. And someone asked me, you know, like what the greatest shot you ever made in the NBA. And it was those two free throws.

I saw two baskets. Philly fans are going crazy. And I like, I made both the technical free throws, but like it was that, that was, yeah. He also those days you'd have been, you know, concussion protocol for two weeks. Yeah. He also escalated that very quickly. It was like a push and then he's like, you know what? I'm just gonna punch Danny into the face. Yeah, it was a sucker punch. Yeah, he got me good. Yeah, he did, but you got up. He landed the punch though.

He won the fight. Did Tree ever reach out and apologize? Was he like, hey, my bad for biting you. No, no, but I mean, everybody that I know that's played with Tree says he's a great guy I got a whole did he think against fighting and those things that happen in a battle What about as as a talent evaluator? Do you like a guy that fights under team? It's kind of a phase out of the game I mean, it's it's harder to fight now just because it's so penal but I think I like guys that fight

I mean not literal fight but guys that'll fight for what they can and take it as far as they can. You like guys with the... Do you actually... I like instigators. Yeah. Yeah. Can you tell if a guy has the dog in him? I don't know if you know that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think some of my favorite draft picks

were Avery Bradley, Tony Allen, Delante West. Like, they were big big time instigators. They got the dog. Do you have like an analytics department that has the like, you know, you pull up all the charts and you're like, all right, he's got 95% dog. Yeah, we could be that for you. Okay, we're going to do some dog evaluation. You just give us a guy, have him come by. I hear my scouts talk about it all the time, but like we need to like, is it 20%? Yeah, put a number on 75% know what kind of dog to yeah

I had a scout Leo appeal who I worked with in Boston and he used to always say he's the wrong kind of cat He's a house cat. Uh-huh. Is the ala cat or is he a house? Yeah, yeah cat outdoor cat Yeah, you want it rottweilers? Yeah bulls Yeah It was John Thompson that said like you can you can get one of those guys and win a championship if you have two of Them on the same team they can get you fired though. Yeah, be careful with two of them. Dogs fighting each other. Yeah, Hank you got one last question?

Yeah, the only thing I was I was gonna ask about is just I like hearing those stories about the the old garden versus The new garden like the home the home corner advantage the heat. I always wish I got to go there Yeah, I mean that Lakers game, you know, where it was a hundred and something degrees. Yeah, that was crazy. But the old garden was just more, it was just steeper. It felt like they were right on top of you. You know, we got the smoke going on in the arena.

You had all the dead spots all over the floor. Would you know, do you knew all the dead spots? No, no, like we didn't know the dead spots because we never practiced there, but we knew there were dead spots. And so I think that's an advantage. I mean, there was a guy, I remember Isaiah Thomas coming down one time and, you know, doing his dance

with the ball and he loses the ball. Like, we knew not to do that. Right. You know, like it's not a normal floor. So, but that might have been our only advantage, but we didn't know where the dead spots were. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good question. None of us were that good a ball handlers anyway.

Kyrie would have to know. Is Kyrie the most talented ball handler you've ever seen? He's up there for sure. I'm trying to think. There's a lot good ones But I mean Kyrie was he's a magician with the ball. He's really fun to watch and he has really strong hands So it like, you know in traffic he hardly ever loses the ball and yeah, he's he's a beautiful player Yeah Did you get his personally offended when he stomped on lucky as Hank did Hank was like you couldn't talk to him for a week Is that right? Yeah, he was so upset. What's your stat like after he stomped on lucky he hasn't won a game there? Not pretty sure. Yeah Good stats. I'm not I mean, I'm grateful. Okay, we gave us a chance and he

He was he was great for the first year and a half and like there's some things went wrong He talked with me about it and like I don't hold any grudges at all Okay, so hank will just hold the grudge for stomp. Yeah lucky hank will get over it. Yeah. No, he won't the luck definitely won't For devin, but he stepped on lucky That's the different stream players and executives and guys who are on that side versus fans fans will never get over it Yeah, I mean I I would get over it just because I know all the circumstance and I know Kyrie and you know what he did to help us and Yeah, I hold no grudges. Yeah, but stumping unlucky. Yeah

Right on that leprechaun's face. Lucky should have been standing there. Yeah, what did lucky lucky do to instigate that? That's what we need to assemble Yeah, I do have one last last question. often do you get unsolicited advice from fans on what to do with it? Oh wow, all the time. Yeah. Yeah, and I like it. I think it's fun.

Really? Yeah, there's some good ideas, there's some not so good ideas, but fans, they love that stuff. I mean, the fans care more in the world we live in today, more about the trades and the draft and the free agency and lottery than they do the games. It's incredible how much of a following there is in the NBA and in the NFL just with all

of that chatter. Yeah. And so I like it. I enjoy it. Has there been like a really good suggestion that somebody's given you? Yeah. I mean, I get them sometimes from kids at schools, going to watch games and college kids.

They come up with some very good ideas. Yeah. You should. Here's a suggestion. Let's bring back some paint play and maybe some mid range. Just zig while everyone's zags. No more threes. Well, there's, there's teams that are doing that.

I think it's getting, it's, it's teams that are doing that. I think it's getting it's it's coming that direction I think that it's not like exclusively threes, but I Think there was a three craze and I think the three is still a great thing if you got great three-point shooters Yeah, you have to have both. Yeah, I'd be able to score in lots of ways Yeah I just don't want to see basketball become like baseball where it's some teams and more like college teams are playing this way where it's like no shots that aren't threes or Layups, it's like I mean I there's got to be something more there has to be something more

Yeah, I mean I've always I've always fought the analytics on that you know, they the analytics will say that mid-range shot is a 40-something percent shot or around there and Like get better at it then. Yeah. Shoot 50%. Shoot 55%. You know, like there's a lot of...

Be Kevin Durant, Martin Rosen. Yeah. There's a lot of players that shoot a higher percentage than that that can be very efficient with your team at mid-range and especially at times of the game. There's times of the game where two points is crucial or one point. Like you got a seven or eight point lead and it's hard Like get the get the 55 shot instead of the 40 shot So, um, yeah, I think that it's coming in that direction. Yeah. All right. Well danny, thank you so much. This was

Honestly, we like I said, we've been trying to get you on for a while now and this didn't disappoint We appreciate it very much. Anytime you're in chicago. We'd love to have you back on. Okay. And let's, let's go get crew on. You get crew on and we also need to go let's go judge Hank's dunking ability. Oh yeah. Give us the scouts take on this. I got to see how far you are. It's going to be great. Bear in mind that PMTV. Bear in mind that what you're watching today is probably like five inches better than what it was three months ago. I worked out this morning too. Oh, you're giving an excuse to Danny Ainge who was basically the best at every single sport. Yeah, you worked out today.

Yeah, just go do it. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Danny. All right. Thank you. Pardon Your Take is brought to you by EA Sports College Football 25. I am so excited for this.

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You get all sorts of goodies when you order the MVP bundle. Pre-order the MVP bundle right now. You get college football 25 and Madden NFL 25. Get involved. Okay. Let's wrap it up with some pardon your take. Reminder, we're back on Friday and we also have 35 minutes of Bill Walton from our 2017 interview after numbers here coming up Hey big cat PFT and the boys. I have a college football fan base question for you host I'm a massive Colorado Buffalo fan. I have always been even before Dion showed up I've enjoyed seeing Colorado being brought out more in conversation, but now it's mainly people just hating on Colorado Would you rather be a fan of a team that no one talks about or be a fan

of the team that everyone hates? Um, that's a good question. I would rather be a fan of a team that everyone hates if the hate was because we were winning. This isn't this isn't that if the hate was because you talked a big game and you never did anything. You didn't win. That'd be tough, yeah. That'd be really tough. Right now, as a fan of many teams that nobody cares about, it's not that bad. Yeah, Colorado's so weird to me because Colorado, and this is maybe just the 90s kid in me,

I remember when Colorado was a big deal and Cordell Stewart and all those teams and Rashan Salam and- Westbrook Salam and Westbrook. Yeah, Westbrook. But it's crazy they're not good because Boulder is like the coolest place on earth and their colors are awesome and their stadium is awesome. I know that doesn't actually make a college football program. And in my dumb brain it does. It's like, do you have a cool stadium, cool colors,

and is it a cool place to go to school? Okay, you should be good at football. Well that's also what would make people hate it more if you were also good at football. Yeah. It's like you can't have everything. Yeah, I think that this type of hate is not the best hate. You wanna, like, people, if you're Alabama,

you probably love being hated. That's a fun hate to have. Because you can always- Georgia, fun hate. You can always just be like, well, we're gonna kick your ass. Yeah, Michigan this past year, that's a very fun hate.

Us against the world, and you're winning, but this one is not as fun of a hate. Yeah, yeah, for a while, for my teams, it's been us against the world, and we've just gotten our teeth kicked in by the world. The world keeps winning the world minus 2,000 yeah, I Know it's late But Max's Sixers ruined the NBA lottery the process has failed like everything in Philly lately and it pisses me off even more that

Because of those losers they changed the whole lottery system I've watched so much bad basketball losers, they changed the whole lottery system. I've watched so much bad basketball because I never got to see Blake dunk because he was hurt and Detroit isn't its longest championship drought as a city ever. I hope that Wembee could save us, but instead all I got was another kick to the dick. Fuck the NBA, fuck the lottery, fuck the Sixers and fuck you Max. Did Philly ruin the Detroit Pistons? That's a fair part in your take. Yes. Like, if you're a Pistons fan, you have a fair gripe to be like, hey, the way the lottery worked for all these years, we should have been in that lottery and we should have gotten Wemby.

How about you just be better? Well no, but you didn't do that. But the process, that's all the process was. You literally were worse to game the system. You ruined it for the rest of us. You pulled the ladder up on everyone else. That's not true. You climbed the ladder by getting number one picks

and pulled it up. You sucked so flagrantly that you ruined every other shitty team ever. You're the baby boomers of NBA franchise. Where is the only team that admitted it? But you understand this Pistons point. This is a fair part in your take. They have suffered and they just wanted a shot of a good shot at Wemby for being so

bad and all they keep getting is the fifth pick. Sorry. I don't care. I don't give a fuck about it. You don't sound Sorry. I don't give a fuck about it. Yeah, you don't sound sorry. I don't give a fuck about it. Also one correction on this guys, take the processes over yet, right? We're still processing? Yeah, yeah.

The process of the process is not concluded yet. Sorry, that was a cigarette Snickers burp. The process of the process worked. The results of the process jury's still out. Thank you. We still have not decided if the process worked. The results of the process, jury's still out. Thank you. We still have not decided if the process worked or not. Until Joel Embiid, until- How many more years?

It's unfortunately, PFT, I think it's in perpetuity because it's until Joel Embiid will play for the Sixers, then he'll demand to leave because the Sixers fans will be so mean to him, and then his trade assets will be part of the process. Got it. And then the next guy will be part of the process. Whoever you draft. So they're in a process for the Sixers fans, as long as some piece of the process is still alive and they win a title in 50 years, they can be like, the process worked.

Yeah. Precisely. Jesus. Precisely Jesus precisely. I do feel I do feel bad, but if it's any consolation to Detroit San Antonio was always gonna get wimpy. Yeah, that's just that's how it was gonna work And you Jared, you know what we need we need all the sick current sixers right now to just retire Then the process is over. Mm-hmm How would that not be they just disbandbanded no, I just don't want I

Disagree right, but if they did that then we would be done with the process sure But also if they disband or team and they all quit then you would never have another playoff or again And that would be a win Or the teachers just win the process is done. Yeah, we don't want that yeah, you do All right one with this one imagine if max won That was next he's gonna get the what I haven't won. I know I haven't watched she technically I have one on this show Yeah, come on a World Series. That's huge. Uh, but Hank Seltzer's have seen nothing but success. I've seen nothing but

Raise your hand if your teams won a championship on part of my take. Pug? What are you raising your hand for? Oh, the NIT? Yes, Pug! Yes, the NIT! NIT champs, you know. Pug. Memes? Georgia won back to back national championship. Oh yeah, Georgia fan. Yep, yep. Hell yes. Max, did you want to raise your hand? Next part in part in your take okay, and Jake's peas are still in it Yeah, it's still in it. I'm just one by being on this body. Yeah Are they still are they calling them the peas now? I think I've seen only Brooks kept good, but it started to spread a little bit I've seen like three or four other people call feels weird. Yeah, but I got it on here. Yeah I just like went with it. Yeah, but I've never heard that before that

Shane is gonna win because he's got Jim Harbaugh. Yep, so max. Yeah, have you ever gotten this in real life? No Close though. Would you rather last one a series NBA or NHL that ends in a sweep? But all four games were closely contested entertaining throughout Relatable or a series that goes seven games for the first six games were all blowouts. Cheers Tyler Is it which would you rather watch? Would you rather? seven Because he said seven seventh game could be great it just says the first six were all bloods. Yes, seven

Yeah, also in a seven game series, you get a lot of weird storylines that pop up and creep up and a lot of stuff to talk about and get excited about. These, a four game sweep where all games are closely contested and entertaining throughout is a great experience. I wonder why you're saying that. Yeah, I'm over that.

We call that the Lakers. How far away were the Lakers? Two years in a row. Back to back, almost best team in the NBA. They lost the team that lost to the team that lost to the team. If the Nuggets won it all, the Lakers could be like, we were so close. But they literally, if the Mavs lose to the Celtics, the Lakers lost to the maximum amount of teams. That's so small-minded of you, big cat.

The only reason that the Nuggets lost in seven games, by the way, is because they were exhausted from playing against the Lakers. But I just realized that it would be the maximum amount of teams they lost to. Every team they lost. Tough. Okay. Max, do I owe you a number? This is the last one? No. Every team after lost. Tough. Okay. Max, do I owe you a number?

This is the last one? No. That was last week. All right. I wanted 20 so bad to happen. Yeah, but it would have been great. All right. Let's do numbers.

32. 18. 56. Wow. Ben or 18, Jake? Six. Nice. I gave team, Jake. Six. Ooh, nice. I gave you a second.

Max, would you like to trade 20 for 56 right now, one for one? No. Three. Are you sure? Yes. Never give a man two numbers that you like. 99 put. What was your number, PFT?

21. I'm looking at 56. Three. I'm looking at 56 right now, though. I don't like that Max this lottery machine is so far in your head So far in the side You say Max We say I didn't say anything. What's your pick? Oh?

And I have 56 his other number. 35. Looked good for half a second. 35. Love you guys. I thought that said 56. Okay, we have our special re-release of our 2017 interview with Bill Walton. If you missed it when we did the interview, it's muscly and there's 35 minutes of it. Also like I said, we never released it on video, so go watch it where we have all the video. And it is brought to you by ourselves, Pardon My Cheese Steak. Go check out Pardon My Cheese Steak now. It's a pick up and delivery only restaurant bringing you craveable cheesesteaks, tenders, loaded fries and desserts for lunch, dinner and late night.

Choose from our expanded menu that has regular cheesesteaks, chipotle cheesesteaks and chipotle chicken, buffalo chicken or chicken bacon ranch cheesesteaks and the newly added buffalo tender sub which features crispy chicken tender tosses, tossed with buffalo sauce topped with ranch and pickles on a toasted hoagie roll. You can order the big cat combo and get your cheesesteak of choice fries and a drink. And don't forget the Max special two sodas with more than 1500 locations nationwide. Find a Pardon My Cheesesteak near you and order yours now at Pardon My Cheesesteak dot com or by using the QR code on the screen here.

Use code PMC20 for 20% off your order. And here he is from 2017, the legend Bill Walton. All right. Wow. I am the luckiest guy on earth. I'm at the MGM Grand. I've got a view of the Statue of Liberty outside my room. I'm fired up and I'm with a couple of guys named Dan. Dan, right? Yeah. Big Cat. Big Cat? Yeah. How many names you have? Two.

And PFT? You nailed it. Is that like a restaurant? Like PF Chang's or something? Yeah. You can think of it that way. You actually, you know my name better than our lawyer does. So thanks. So I'm sure everyone can tell. That's a good thing. Yes. I'm sure everyone can tell. That's a good thing. I'm sure everyone can tell.

The man on the mic. I'm Bill. That's Bill with two L's. From San Diego. From San Diego, Bill Walton. And I'm the luckiest guy on earth. NBA legend, college basketball legend. No, no, no, man.

I was lucky. You're lucky because I had fantastic parents. My first coach was the greatest coach I ever had. The message in my life was Chick Hearn, the most positive, optimistic, happy guy. A guy who had a lot of reason to be sad. Chick lost both his children when they were in their 30s and 40s. And then John Wooden. John Wooden was this remarkable person

that I had no idea what I had. Because I grew up thinking that everything was perfect. Did John Wooden's ears, were they always very large? I never looked at his ears. Did you notice at the end, the lobes got, I think that's something that's happening inside the old age. I never noticed that. I never noticed that.

I made a conscious decision in my life when I was 21 and I graduated. I was Coach Worden's easiest recruit. I became his worst nightmare and I drove the poor guy to an early grave at 99. But here was a guy who, when I was 21, when I graduated from UCLA, he had his pyramid of success, which we thought was crazy. He had his seven point creed, which we thought was, what's this? He had his two sets of threes that did make sense. Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, don't whine, don't complain, don't make excuses. He had his endless maxims. He had his tools to overcome the adversity and the tough times. He wrote everything down. He was an English teacher by profession who

happened to have young people under his athletic supervision in the afternoon But here was this guy who on the day I graduated He wrote a maxim for me to Bill Walton. It's the things you learn after you know it all that count John wouldn't and that still sits on my desk at home and although home these days is at the MGM Grand And right behind me, we have Red Rock Canyon State Park. You said that you actually said this. So when you came in, you sat down and you said, I don't want to look, I want my seat to have it. It's back to the window. Otherwise, I'm just

going to stare out there. Concentration, focus, discipline. That's what I really need work on. Okay. And then the clock. What about the clock really need work on. Okay, and then the clock. What about the clock? You have a clock. Oh, I always bring, I live by the clock. You sat down and you put a clock down there.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Okay. And you gotta know what the time is because you have to know, this was another thing I got from John Wooden because when we would go and play as children, and I played all the time. Basketball was my religion, the gym was my church. I

loved basketball. It was the easiest thing I've ever done besides academics in my life. Not to brag. My challenges have been orthopedic health. I've had 37 orthopedic surgeries. Both my ankles are fused. I've got a replaced knee as well now, and now I have it replaced and brand new, reconstructed, rebuilt spine. My other big challenge in life was my speech impediment. I'm a lifelong stutterer. I couldn't say a word.

I couldn't say hello. I couldn't say thank you until I was 28 years old. Then Marty Glickman, one of the greatest broadcasters, one of the greatest human beings ever. Please check out his book, Fastest Kid on the Block. Please check out his movie on HBO, Glickman. Marty's now passed. When Marty did pass, they came to Coach Wooden for a comment because Coach is so, he is so experienced, so worldly and so old that he knew everybody.

And so Marty, who completely changed the world of broadcasting and humanity and spirit and ethics and moral clarity, when he passed, they asked Coach Wooden about him and Coach was going on and telling a story about how great a person and humanitarian and philanthropist and broadcaster and really everything that Marty Glickman was.

But then he said, he turned it and he he said but I've got a problem with Marty's Because Marty he taught Bill Walton had to speak but now he's passed away and he didn't tell Bill Walton had a stop So Dan, yeah big cat PFT. Yes. How's the restaurant business? Good I love to eat That's going well. Good. I love to eat. I eat so much. I wish I didn't have to eat so much.

If I were to open a restaurant, it would just be nachos. Just nachos and buffalo wings. Really? You'd have a deep fry and that'd be it. You guys are so young. You're probably not into health food. You've got to get into health. You've got to get into sustainability.

What does that mean? I'm not into health food? Or you think that I'm fat? They call me fat. Is that what you're saying? No. Okay. That's okay.

I know that you're really into health food. Trust me. I'm fat. You're a bicyclist, right? You're an avid bicycl OK. I know that you're really you're really to health. We're right. You're you're right. You're an avid bicyclist. I love my so me and you, we actually have a little connection here. You lost your bike when you went to Hawaii. You remember that? Oh, one of the work. Yeah, not one of the worst customer experience ever. But I got it. We have Twitter.

Yeah, I saw you on Twitter and I called the resort. I called the resort for you. Thank you. And I was I was like That's why we have Twitter. I got it back. Yeah, I saw you on Twitter and I called the resort. I called the resort for you. Thank you. And I was like, my friend Bill lost his bike. You have to help him get it back. So I essentially found your bike for you. PFT, you're my man. Statue of Liberty shining the light.

There we go. Big open hand here. Have you guys seen that picture at the Bill Graham traveling exhibit? Bill Graham, the guy who created the concert world experience that we have today. I was at Desert Trip. How about you guys? It was over the top. You have become somewhat of a viral phenomenon with what is

I have. I'm a virus now. No, Viral. Yes. So I just had viral pneumonia. It was the worst. Let's put it this way. You are wholly unique in the way

you announce games and you do your color play with Dave Pash. Who are there moments where you would you who is the guy you mentioned your your your co-host? What's his name? This is not Dave Pash. I don't mess with you because he's met. He's he's he's he screwed up the name before oh no now we're gonna deflect it on no But that's why now I'm name conscious radio. So you're big cat So you know with two L's is a CFT you nailed it All right, you were fine and talent so you so when you go on when you go off in the middle of the broadcast

Do you ever get lost in your own mind and you like almost forget where you are? I get lost all the time and it's... It's unbelievable to listen to. People love to listen to it. It's late night on the East Coast. It's fun to get lost and it's important to get lost. But getting lost, that implies that I know where I am to begin with. And that's a giant leap of faith right there. But I love education, I love knowledge, I love science, I love facts, I love politics, I love music. I was just upstairs before I came down here and I woke up at the crack of dawn.

I was up late last night working and I woke up at the crack of dawn knowing that I had a chance to be on this special show. And so as I'm clearing my life and trying to wash away the sins, trying to cleanse the stains of my life and try to come down here and be able to shine that light. Because as that light comes in, you can't keep it. Your job, your duty is to reflect it. And so I put on my iTunes and I found John Fogerty and he was singing and he had guys singing with him and it was just over the top

and it took me back to a new place. Saw a sound bite the other, or heard a sound bite the other day of you saying that there's a lot of synchronicity between the NBA and your favorite band, The Grateful Dead. Yeah, it's not just the NBA, it's basketball. It's sport.

So I want to play a quick... Basketball more than any other sport.. So I want to play quick. Basketball more than any other sport. See the other sports, you're standing around. Cycling, I like speed. I'm a speed freak. I want to keep going. Drush.

Yeah, you're under the court. It's a jam band. It's a drudge. It makes you high. Cycling's rush. Progressive rock. Progressive rock. But it makes you so high.

Get faster and faster. When you're riding your bike, you see those mountains over there. When you're riding your bike straight up those mountains, that makes you so fast or fast when you're riding your bike. Yeah. You see those mountains over there? When you're riding your bike straight up those mountains, that makes you so high. When you're playing basketball and there's 20,000 people there yelling and screaming, even if there's no people there, it's the greatest thing in the world because you're moving and you're doing something and you can make a positive contribution on every single play. These other sports, they just stand around. They stop all them. I hate that. Yeah. I want to play a quick game with you in that vein

Who's the ref? I'm gonna name I'm gonna name four NBA teams and you tell me which Grateful Dead song matches up Okay with that soundtrack. Let me just say That I am not good at thinking on my feet. I would disagree I'll help I'm not good at thinking on my feet. And so the answers I'm gonna give now No wrong answer. What's your favorite Grateful Dead year, by the way, before we start this game? This year. Okay. The next one. Yeah.

It's like, first of all, it's all one song. I remember it. We were there. It was at Poly. It was at Poly Pavilion, right? Life is just one long song, right? Right. It's a different verse. So just wait a second. Let me tell this story real quick. We're at Poly Pavilion, right? And the Grateful Dead, every year we're at UCLA, the Grateful Dead would come and play at Pauley Pavilion.

I didn't know them at the time, I was too shy. I had opportunities to meet them. I became a fan, which was my first Dead show, and I was 15, 1967, summer of love. It was just incredibly great. And so, my life was never the same again. But then, over the years, there was always these opportunities to meet them, but I was just too shy and I couldn't talk.

I was very much of a loner as a person. On the stage, on the court, it was fantastic. The lights all shining on me. Otherwise, I'm heading back to my hotel room. I'm going to the library. I'm going to read a book. I'm going to go to the beach by myself. I'm going to the library, I'm going to read a book, I'm going to go to the beach by myself, I'm going to just be by myself.

That changed when I learned how to speak. Anyway, so Coach Wooden, when the Grave, they would come and play at Pauley Pavilion, they would use our locker rooms as their dressing room. Coach Wooden would come in the next day. And smell. And he'd say, what's that smell? He said, nothing, Coach, there's nothing to see here. And so, but we were out in the audience, we were out in the audience one of these shows

at Pauley Pavilion and they're grateful that we're just all over the place. Just one of those spectacular ricocheting journeys through the universe, right? Where you're bouncing off Pluto and Mars and going into other solar systems and it's just like, wow, let's go. And then they would come back and go out and come back and somebody in the crowd said, wow, hey, they already played that song. And somebody else said, hey man, it's all one song.

That would blow my mind right there. That's an all time moment. That's the kind of stuff that happens in my life every day. That would blow my mind right there. Love it. That's an all time moment. That's the kind of stuff that happens in my life every day. That sounds amazing. Every day. We're gonna play a quick game. I'm gonna name an NBA team and you're gonna tell me which Grateful Dead song it is. Okay, I'll try but bear in mind that for the people listening at home and the people keeping score at home, if you write these answers

down, tomorrow there might be different answers Yeah, tap into your right at this very moment. Okay, that's one of the problems. That's one of the problems in my life is that test is always changing. Right. The test, the answers change, the questions change. And I love that. Yeah. Okay. So first one, we'll go we'll make an easy one. San Antonio Spurs. I'm gonna play this game with you. Yeah, okay. San Antonio Spurs. Okay. Touch of Gray. No, I love Greg Popovich. That guy is awesome. And I don't know if you

know Peter Holt's story, the owner of the team. That guy. Do we have time to tell this? Yeah, of course. We have as much time as you want. We have nowhere to go. Okay, so Peter, you talk about the song. You talk about the sustainability and the dream and something special. I mean, this franchise was just floundering. They were going to fold. They had nothing going on. Peter Holt, he is an heir to the Caterpillar Tractor family.

He is at heir to the Caterpillar tractor family. He is at the top. So Peter somehow, someway, he ends up in Vietnam. In the fight. Don't ever let anybody tell you that Vietnam was fun or that Vietnam was good. It was the epitome of evil and selfishness and greed and crony capitalism and war profiteering. Just all the worst of the worst, that was Vietnam. And so Peter, fortunately for him, he survives. But he comes back and ends up in San Francisco, as so many people did, and

California, meet me on the burning shore the promised land just not knocking on heaven's door I mean Peter goes there and his life is never the same again and so but he loses a lot if not everything including his family connections because the family basically just cut him out and he was just out on his own. So Peter, like Marty Glickman, when he had his challenges and his problems, like so many of us try to do, Peter was able to get back up. And he got back up and started over again and he took... And this is the ultimate challenge in life. And this is what I've tried to do many times.

By taking the worst things that ever happened to you, and make them into the best things that ever happened to you. When my spine failed, February 24th, 2008, and I went from the top, even though I had been slowly debilitating physically and I was getting worse and worse and worse but it was on February 24th 2008 that I got off the plane and could no longer move and I spent the next four and a half years trying to get back up and trying to go and I tried everything and I did

not understand the concept of everything until my spine fell. I thought I knew a lot of stuff but when your spine fails and you're lying on that ground and you would just rather be dead, that was me. If I had a gun I would have used it. There was no reason for me to ever think that I was going to get better and I had a chance but I am all better now. And so during that time, I got fired from my job, lost my health insurance, lost everything, my dignity, stuff like that, I had lost everything.

And just lying on the ground, nothing I could do about it. And, but now here I am, that's nine years ago. And so I have been able to learn this time and take it back to the other times when my ankle fusions, knee replacements, all that kind of stuff and personal failures, financial failures, but to learn to take those failures and turn it around to where it becomes the best thing in your life. And that's what Peter Holt did. And he climbed back up, he got back in, and he bought the San Antonio Spurs.

And he has created this culture. This culture of excellence, a culture of success, a culture of genius. And that's what I want to be a part of in my life. I don't want to be a part my life. I don't want to be a part of negativity. I don't want to be a part of intimidation. I don't want to be a part of anger. I want to be a part of joy, of happiness. And so as we think of the song, you said touch of gray.

I mean, I don't know. I can't think quickly enough to think. I'm going to go with trucking. Trucking? That's because of the owner and also the spurs. Every year they're there. They're all good. They just keep on going. They're all good. Yeahing? Because of the owner and also the spurs. Every year they're there. They're all good.

They just keep on going. They're all good. Okay. What was your question, PFT? Lakers. Now we'll do the Lakers. They're a little close to home for you. Do you think magic was the right hire?

Absolutely. We love magic. Everything magic does is fit. He's one of those rare beacons of hope. I mean, come on. They told magic he was going to die and now look at him. Magic is, he's one of those rare beacons of hope. I mean, come on, they told Magic he was gonna die and now look at him. He's just like, Magic is perfect.

And you talk to David Stern. And David Stern, all the things he's done in his life, he said the best thing he ever did was with Magic Johnson. When Magic Johnson went and played in that 1992 All-Star Game, Dick Enberg, our college broadcaster, one of my best friends, Dick Enberg called that then there's the Don Nelson coach that came and magic went out there it just was fantastic and what he's done and

Okay, so I love magic Johnson, but the Lakers and a great for the see you guys are I'm not sure you guys are deadheads I I am I don't yeah PFT is not. Well, no, she appreciates them. I would say like being a deadhead is a personal choice. Right. And you know, I, when I first went, I, you know, I, I had listened, I had heard them on the radio and the DJ, the DJ, he was the one that prompted me to go. Uh, it was Gabriel wisdom. It was 1967. And he said, Hey man, there's a new band. They're going to have a concert. Let's let's go! Everybody got in free and it was fantastic and I got to the front of the stage and just happiness and joy and love and peace and you know, singing Uncle John's band. The first days are the hardest days, don't you worry about it, no. When life looks like easy street, there's danger at

your door. What I want to know is, are you kind and will you come with me? Come here, Uncle John's band. There we go. I love it. As the Lakers. So for me, my love for the Grateful Dead has always been like, I'll float around and listen to other music and like other music, but whenever I turn on, whenever I put in, you know, a Grateful Dead concert or Dick's Picks when it was back, when it was CDs, there's just something different. You know what I mean? It just feels different than all other music that you're listening to.

There's nothing like a Grateful Dead concert. Bill Graham said it best. The Grateful Dead, they're not the best at what they do. They're the only ones that do what they do. And you talked about Dick's pick. So you know Dick Lafala. Yeah. Okay. No, let me tell you how this works. Cause you know, I'm not sure. How old are you? I'm 32. No way.

Yeah. See the gray hairs. By the way, do you hate, do you hate Donna? Who? Donna Gotcha. I love Donna. Come on. Be honest. I love Donna. Please. Okay. No time to hate. Okay. All right. All right. Okay. I'm not a Donna fan if you couldn't tell. He'll listen to you wine one time, big cat. I thought she... I'm not a Donna fan.

Donna is an intro of mercy. Brett Midland was my favorite. Brett Midland is fantastic. I wish they would play his songs again. They don't play them anymore. And I'm just sad because I love those songs. But let me tell you the story of Dick Lottfell and this is sort of how this whole life works. That was actually, by the way, the first time he didn't smile in the entire interview was when I bashed Donna. No, I'm standing up for Donna. Yeah, I know. I appreciate that. I love that. That's a ride or die guy. And as soon as they turn this camera off, I'm going to punch you in the face. So we're on tour with the dead and we're up in Red Rocks. And I think it was in the eighties. I'm not sure. Somebody will know.

Red Rocks, fantastic. Three days, three nights in a row and everybody's there. Camping, parties, hotels, let's go. Just having the time of our lives. Show starts first night. Bam! The heavens explode. Thunder, lightning, just torrential, historic, epic, monumental rain, right? Just pounding all night long. And the fans, they all just stayed. Not a one left. And it was the Grateful Dead. And it was just better than perfect. And what we live for, it was our team, it was our guys, it was our leaders,

it was our beacons and let's go to the promised land and let's celebrate. And so, but just rained all just floods, water, rivers coming right down through the Red Rocks, Amphitheater Bowl there, this phenomenal place. And so everybody lead the concerts over and everybody goes back and they're looking at the weather report and talking to the guys and the police and everything. And they just said, look, this rain is going to keep going for the next three days. And so at two or three o'clock in the morning, the band makes the decision, look, let's cancel Red Rocks and move the whole show downtown to McNichols Arena, which was the NBA arena at the time.

And so everybody in the middle of the night gets up, drives back out to Red Rocks, works all night through the dawn on tearing everything. Grateful that that's a big production, that's a big show. And tons of equipment, tons of lighting, everything. Work all day, tear it down, drive it down into town, set it up at McNichols, and at the announced starting time, they were ready.

And they come out on the, and it just, but everybody's beat, everybody's dead tired, and all the deadheads were all still wet from the night before. But the music starts up, and the joy, and the happiness, but the music starts up and the joy and the happiness and the rainbows and the people and the smiles and the love and the spinners and just everything is just fantastic, right?

So I'm just cruising through the whole arena, just listening to the music play and riding the wave and just having the time of my life as you're just going through, again, ricocheting off the comets and the stars and the planets and the universe, whichever one we're in that night. And I come around this corner and there's this guy, looks a lot like you, big cat, and he's walking right toward me.

He's got these dazed, glazed eyes and he's just fierce and he's intense. And I can just feel it. I can see it. A sweaty man. A sweaty and strong. I could see it. Masculine man. Sweaty. And I look at him, powerful, handsome. I look at him and he has got this shirt on. And I stop, we come face to face and we stop and I look at him and I said,

that is the coolest shirt I've ever seen in my life. This was like an airbrushed history of the world through the prism of the Grateful Dead. Pyramids and exploding bus stops, rainbows, serpents coming out and it was just as wild a shirt as you could possibly imagine. I said that's the coolest shirt I've ever seen. I had no idea who he was. He just looks at me, doesn't say a word, and rips off his shirt and gives it to me. Wow. And then he just goes on his way, riding another way.

Was he also seven feet tall? Did he just fit? No, no, he was like a little short guy, like Big Cat here. And so the night goes on and I put the shirt on, right? And I'm wearing the shirt. And so, and it was a fantastic shirt. People was talking all night long about my shirt. And the show's over. And so now we're all leaving. We're down the stage, out the back door, through the gauntlet,

all the fans reaching and grabbing and trying to get all the autographs and take the pictures. And the vans are waiting right there. We're getting in the vans. And I look over and there's that guy who gave me the shirt. And he's standing on the front of the rail reaching in, looking, still with no shirt on. Yes. And I look at him and I said, you're coming with us. And so I picked him up by the back of the neck

and lifted him up over the barrier, threw him in the van, and says, let's go. We got back to the hotel. I introduced him to everybody all around. I looked at my shirt and said, oh my God, that's the coolest shirt ever, Bill. And they hired him on the spot. That was Dick Latvila. And he went on to become the curator of the vault.

Wow. That's amazing. Wow. You never know. So people who don't know Dick, he basically was the librarian for all of Grateful Dead's music. His job was to sit in the vault all day long and listen to all the old concerts and decide which ones were good enough to put out as we release. Right. Sometimes the universe just

kind of works together like that. That's the way all of our universe works. We just have to keep our eyes open and we just have to keep our eyes open and we just have to keep our shoulders back and our heads up. That's also the most Grateful Dead story ever because they basically pick like the highest guy in the world to listen to all their music. No no no no no that's the way it always works Grateful Dead. I promise. Pain is no good and don't ever discount pain because the challenge in life is to get out of pain.

Gotcha. No. We're busy in here. Please. I'm with PFT and Big Cat. The housekeeping is trying to get in. Yeah. They're breaking into our room here.

Okay. The forces of evil. Let's do another team. Oh yeah. I forgot about that. This is great because I mean it's like team. We'll jump back. When we get a story, which is exactly what we wanted this interview to be. No thank yeah. I mean, it's like team jump back when we get a story, which

is exactly what we wanted this interview to be. No, thank you. No, thank you. We're busy force of evil. Oh, I'm gift. All right. Well, let's see what the gift is. Hank is going to go check it out. By the way, please have the security forces check this. Please. These forces of evil, they get at you in lots of different ways. What do we got? Oh, it's a can of beer nuts. Let's open it up. Do you and Dave Pash ever have a talk about the fact that he doesn't believe in evolution? Thank you. I had to wait till a gift came in to ask you the hard. Oh, my gosh. Do you have that bottle of champagne just came in? I love discourse. OK. I love I love. Oh, I'm an intercourse.

But yeah, I love I love that. I love my wife. My wife is fantastic. Can you imagine being married to me? What they bring you guys? I'm the tequila, some chocolates and stuff. Oh, my gosh. If you can't do it for breakfast, you can't do it all day long, don't do it at all, guys.

That's right. So do you talk to him at all about the fact that he doesn't believe in evolution? No, no, no, man. I'm kidding. No, no. Please, I'm trying to cut this. You've been to the Galapagos, right? Oh, one of the great trips ever.

Oh my God. You need to take him there. I didn't know him then. No, he's young. But you need to take him there and let's get chocolates. He's very young. He's very young. Yeah. You take him there. I didn't know him then. No, he's young. He's very young. He's very young. Yeah. Look, you know, don't look, we're, we're trying to bring people along. We're trying to get my job in life is to be a human forklift and a human solar panel. So I'm a road grader. So so like,

well, I'm more one of those traffic cones. It's kind of like dirt on it. And he's ever like, that's the saddest traffic. But think of the think of the forklift, a forklift picks things and people up and puts them in a better place. Think of it as a solar solar energy is the biggest no brainer in the history of the world. Are you kidding? in the history of the world. Are you kidding? That's a power plant up there in the sky.

It's so sunny out there. Right. More solar energy hits the earth every day. But now, let me stop you here. Every day. Don't whine. Don't complain. You could do the sun or we could just go and start another war in the Middle East. Right. I'm choosing the sun.

Okay. I'm choosing solar power. Tomato tomato here. Or we could start a new ice age, kill all the humans. And then dinosaurs come back. Then they die. Then millions of years after that, we've got more oil. Yeah. What can I do? Maybe Dave Pash will believe it. What kind of trip are you guys?

We sound like Dave. You guys love coal. I actually I actually read a story yesterday, The New York Times. About what? I think that you would enjoy it. It's it's about the Galapagos, which is one of my favorite places on earth. You've been there. Yeah, I've been there. Had just the best. Were the Angermeyers still alive when you were there? The Angermeyers.

So the Angermeyers are five brothers. I didn't meet. I didn't. My brother. OK. The Angermeyers, five brothers in the in the early 1930s in Germany. And this was this was when Hitler was just coming up. And if you haven't read Eric Larsen's In the Garden of Beasts please make that. We've talked about a number of books here but that book right now today is critical

but all the books I've mentioned today are critical and anyway their parents the Engelmeier's parents, saw what was happening. They were Jewish and they saw, so they put their children on a boat, knowing that they would never see their children again. And the boys, they ended up in the Galapagos. And in the thirties. What island were they on? I forget the name.

It's the main island, Porta Ayorda. Is that the name of the town? There's St. Cristobal. What's the name of the town? Porta Ayorda, right? Where the harbor is and the town. Anyway, this was a phenomenal trip. Oh my gosh. It was one of the, I could easily make the argument that certain days on that trip, I could easily make the argument that certain days on that trip were

the greatest, was the greatest single day of my life. I could make the argument that that trip was the greatest single moment of my life. But then there's all these other things that have happened too. They just keep coming. And so what I've learned over the course of these now 64 years, never rank, rate, or compare. That's what I tell my girlfriends all the time. Championships, concerts, children, coaches, or congratulations. Just enjoy them all.

What about teams? Like could, um, UConn women's basketball beat the seven stitches? I love what they're doing. No, no they can't. Well you're not supposed to compare. So you're not supposed to compare things. You never answered what your,

you're the best team you ever played on was. Any team that won the championship. That's what I played for. But you can't tell us. Bill Russell was my hero. I played to win. I didn't play for personal glory. I didn't play Was the most fun team here?

It's all when you win the championship. It's right. That's right. It's interesting because you when you lose it's like yeah, that's the worst Well, you taught us a lesson today. That's Well, I told you what not to do. No, no, no, no. This is an important lesson because the way we do this show, you know, we'll game plan our guests and we'll try to steer them different ways. And I think today's interview taught us that you got to let the guest talk about what they want to talk about because this was one of the most interesting interviews we've done and we didn't steer. Well, I didn't even look at my pad once.

Coach Wooden, that's the antithesis of what Coach Wooden was like. Because Coach Wooden, he never started practice with these words, never. What do you guys wanna do today? Right, right, right. Well, in basketball, you need a coach, and the coach can't-

Structure, organization, discipline, focus, platform. And that's where the sacrifice comes in, in the discipline. Because to be a part of a group, you've got to realize, OK, now what's the goal here? Hopefully, we achieve something here today. Yeah, absolutely. I had a great time. Thank you for stopping by.

PFT, big cat. Here we go. I'm Bill, 2Ls from Sandy. I'll have to tell you Thank you for stopping by. PFT, big cat. Here we go. I'm Bill, two L's from Sandy. I'll have to tell you about the Galapagos story in the New York Times some other time, but I think you'll really enjoy it. I saw you talking about the Banff Buffaloes, right? The bison.

Oh, yeah, I love buffaloes. I can't believe. I'm reading this book right now, Peter Cosen's The Earth is Weeping. Oh my God. It's the story of the Indian Wars in the latter half of the 19th century. Oh, it is just the most tragic story. We're right back there again and they're still making these pipelines. Come on, solar energy, the biggest no-brainer in the history of the

world. Don't think about the past. Learn from the past. Learn from our mistakes in the past. Quit burning coal. Let's move forward. Solar energy, wind power, hydroelectricity. Let's go. Geothermal. One last question. I did write this down earlier. I just remembered it. Have you ever found Bobby Jackson? Bobby Jackson. I know a bunch of Bobby Jacksons. During that King series, where is Bobby Jackson? Where is Bobby Jackson? Oh, that Bobby Jackson. Yeah During that King series, where is Bobby Jackson? That's, yeah. Where is Bobby Jackson? Whenever someone disappears.

Oh, that Bobby Jackson. Yeah, sixth man of the year. I do love when you do that, when someone disappears on the court and you just start saying, where is this person? When they stop playing well? So you're familiar with the pyramid of success? Yes. Yeah.

Okay. So there's 15 human values. Do they store grain in that pyramid too. No, they store love. They store happiness. They store knowledge, which is power and ephemeral being of stuff. You just call us chicks. No, ephemeral. No. It's a joke. I told you, I'm not good at thinking on my feet here. You guys are.

You are. You guys are scramming. You don't give yourself enough credit. You guys are scramming in my brain. You don't give yourself enough credit. You guys are trying to join in with those forces of evil. So anyway, The Pyramid of Success, 15 words. Human values and personal attributes and characteristics of your soul, of your being.

And they are industriousness, enthusiasm, friendship, loyalty, cooperation, intentness, initiative, alertness, self-control, physical fitness, skill development, commitment to the team, poise, confidence, and the very top block. Competitive greatness. Be at your best when your best is needed. Where is Body Checks? There we go. That's a perfect ending. I don't know what to say, I'll say it anyway Today is a mighty day to finally shine away I'll become your great lover, great lover, great Take on me, take me on, I'll watched it in, but I've seen some little way.

So then, life is okay, it's a up to me. It's for better to be safe inside. Take me on Take me on Take me on I'll be gone After all this We go, we're after all, too Lady, don't want me Take on me

Lady, we are Take on me I'm a We go, we're after all, too Are we gone? We're in turn to you So So So So Thank you.