Pardon My Take - NBA Finals With CJ McCollum, Oilers Get To The SCF Vs The Panthers, Who's Back Of The Week And The WNBA Has People Angry

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

The Oilers have made it back to the Cup Final and we get to see if Connor McDavid can win the big one behind the strength of that one Oilers fan (you know which one) (00:00:00-00:07:12). Rangers get knocked out of the playoffs and Memes is happy as could be (00:07:12-00:11:43). The WNBA continues to be exhausting in terms of Discourse after Caitlin Clark gets cheap shotted (00:11:43-00:33:22). Who's back of the week including the stand in Caddy and Tommy Pham being a badass (00:33:22-00:51:20). CJ McCollum joins the show to talk NBA Finals, what moves he's going to work on this summer, living in New Orleans and tons more (00:51:20-01:40:49). We finish with numbers (01:40:49-01:45:19).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 have a longtime friend back on the show, CJ McCollum. Great interview with him for longtime AWLs. Know that he was one of our favorite interviews back in the day and we should have had him on earlier, but he's back now. Talk about the NBA finals. Talk about playing in the NBA. Great interview with him. We're going to talk about the Stanley Cup final. We finally have it.

It is the Edmonton Oilers versus the Florida Panthers. We've got some other sports to talk about. We have Hots, or sorry, Who's Back of the Week. Great Monday Show to kick you off while we wait for the NBA Finals, which should have been Game 1 tonight. I think we can all agree. It feels like Game 1 would have been perfect tonight. But we got some other things to get through and we're brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. We're this close to crowning an NBA champion with the action heating up on

the court. It's even hotter at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner at the NBA. There's only so many games left and DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered with same game parlays, live betting odds, odds boosts, and so much more. Don't miss out. You have to wait until next NBA season to place your bets. It's super easy for first timers to get started. Try betting on something simple like picking a team to win. Go to the DraftKings Sports Fork app, select your squad, place your first bet. It's that simple. The NBA Finals start on Thursday night. Hank, what are your Celtics' six point favorites? Six and a half right now.

Six and a half point favorite. On the Moneyline, you can bet them if you think they're just going to win outright. So if you're new to DraftKings, listen up. New customers can get a no-swept bet up to $1,500. Just deposit at least five bucks and you'll get a bonus bet back equal to your first bet if it doesn't hit. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Now use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to get a no-sweat bet up to $1,500 if your first

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21 and over, age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario, one no sweat bet per new customer, Okay, let's go. resources. 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 to get a no sweat bet up to $1,500. If your first bet doesn't hit, only on DraftKings. Today is Monday, June 3rd and the Edmonton Oilers are set to go to the Stanley Cup final where they will face the Florida Panthers and Connor McDavid can he win the big one? He's now in the big one. This is big for Canada. This is huge for Canada. Think about that an entire nation. When was the last time was it? 1993 that they won. 95 that they won that they won a Stanley Cup. It's been a

long time. It's been a long time for our friendly friends up north and god damn it this is gonna be good. I'm excited about this. And the Connor McDavid goal to start the scoring tonight against the Stars was absolutely unreal. I mean that was that was the goal where you're just like not that he needs it. Again he still hasn't won the big one, so we're going to wait on that. But that goal was so silly and it was ridiculous and it looked like a goal that you would see come across your timeline in the middle of December being like, oh, he's just trying some new shit out against the Coyotes. No, that was game six of a Western Conference final to clinch going to the cup.

He is so goddamn good, and the Oilers are so hot, and they have a celebrity fan now ready to take them to the cup against Brooks Koepka. Yeah, if you need a reason to root for the Edmonton Oilers, I will give you two reasons to root for the Edmonton Oilers. This fan. Oh, I thought you were going to say Dreisaitl and... No, no, no, this fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just this fan the two best reasons

Yeah, what fan? Oh is the fan that flashed her titties, and they were really nice You saw her you you'll probably date her It's a great video. She's passionate. She's Love the passion. He's very passionate. Yeah her we need to introduce her to Our boy Kodak yeah down in Florida get the Pete get a little peas reunion going down there Isn't it so funny that like this Edmonton Oilers fan that was just flashing her whole section Her upper section like the internet is a crazy place. We you know, we've made some crazy Technological advancements and

you can find a poor nudity, whatever you want at any time. But if you get a pair in the wild, it gets the boys going unlike anything else. It is, it is different. It's, it's a, it's all the talk. I think I've seen that video a thousand times, just put on my timeline and it will probably be a thousand more by the time we Drop the puck on Saturday night and I'll watch it every time. Yeah, and it's not like I'm getting horny when I'm watching I'm just like that's awesome. Yeah, and maybe a little bit horny boobs rock What do you think those are a cups spelled EH? Mm-hmm. Yeah, there you go But yeah, we have the we're gonna have Whitney on I think Thursday for the Stanley Cup final preview But we had the Oilers.

I'm happy for Edmonton Oilers. I'm happy for the fan base. Conor McDavid could be the next up in terms of best player. He's gotta win the big one. I did- Right now he still sucks. I did play myself a little when I said we need to figure out who the next one is that we can say can't win the big one in case McDavid

wins it. And then everyone was just like Badaard. So I was like, fuck. Badaard's got a couple. He's only been in the league for one year. He's got a couple seasons before that. He has to get to the playoffs. Correct. Then he has to lose a playoff series. Then the narrative. Correct. Correct. But yeah, the, there's other friends of ours that you could put in that group too, which that also would play ourselves. Not going to do that though. Yeah, right. So we're just, we'll just say that we hope Connor McDavid wins it and we can be like, he won the big one. Uh huh. And if he doesn't, then he can't win. He can't win the big one in a way.

I'm kind of hoping that he loses so we can really focus this take on him. Like losing in the Stanley cup finals would be the ultimate point on that crown of cannot win the big next step to not winning the big. Yeah. Yeah But I am I think I'm rooting for Canada. Sorry Jake. Sorry about your peas. Yeah I am as well. Yeah, I just Canada you're just so much care so deeply also so far up there You ever seen a map? Edmonton's all the way up there and the ice is the ice is different in Canada too yeah it's shinier real shiny ice fast ice good ice the crowd going nuts tonight was awesome how many shots on

goal did Edmonton have tonight I had nine nine they had nine shots all they needed was McDavid's insane shot and he had a great assist to Hyman yeah he was that that was that was awesome the other memes. You have to be so happy. I went immediately to memes, just getting, first of all, memes tweeted. Did you treat from the part of my take account? Just a rangers Jersey that said ass. Yeah. Yeah. Um, people were upset about that, but I love it because this is what memes does. Uh, memes, congratulations. You've won your Stanley Cup as someone who also hates a lot in sports. I'm happy for you in this moment.

Yeah, I'm super pumped. I took a couple victory laps last night. Yeah, I'm just very excited summer could officially start. Yeah, you do like watching the Rangers lose more than you like watching the Islanders win. Yeah, probably at this point. Yeah. The, Frankie did his tweet that he does every single year for the 83rd time in 84 seasons the New York Rangers have been eliminated from the playoffs.

And that got people very upset. It is crazy that a franchise has been around that long and gets talked about like that and has only won one. Yeah, yeah. There was just that one season during the OJ year. And besides that all those come from like World War Two. Yeah. Do you think they could ever win it? This year was probably their best year. Oh man. There's also the stat from Josh Dubow. With the Rangers eliminated there have now been 100 combined seasons. Yeah, the Rangers Islanders, Knicks, Nets, Yankees, Mets, Jets, Giants without a championship. That's wild. So what's the last one? It's the Giants He's a no no no Yeah, Giants that's crazy 100 combined bad sports town man. They do have Aaron judge who can't stop hitting home runs and one soda

Yeah, who's just absolutely ridiculous? Yeah. Well, it's more Juan Zoto and Aaron Judge combined. And Cole, hopefully, for the second half. Oh, once a Yankee, always a Yankee. Yup. Yeah. The, uh, yeah, New York sports down bad. 100 combined? That's a lot of seasons in a row, isn't it, Hank?

Cause they have a lot of teams. Twice as many teams. Holy shit. I don't think Hank's ever gone that that long as in a live person without a team winning a J not even close yeah I've been close to cause this is probably the longest stretch yeah you're in you're in the midst of though your worst stretch and you won a Super Bowl what like six years ago yeah and the Red Sox won it oh You're such a piece of shit I'm excited though the speaking of it Hank the

The I know we talked about last week, but the NBA schedule like that. My body was ready for the NBA finals to start tonight It's brutal. I mean I just I'm just walking around the house being like what what do I do? Yeah start to start the game Just start it. I just can't keep thinking about it, just start. And you still have three more days. I know. Three more full days to get through. Yeah, are you weaponizing time? No, I'm not great with time management.

I'm just waiting. I'm just sitting and waiting. Yeah, you're getting hungry though. I'm so ready, my body is so ready. As hungry as you've ever been. Longest route of your life. I'm sticking with my Celtics in seven, I do I did find some stats I told you I was gonna search and they're not they make me think that I'm just nervous for

you it's it's it's gonna be tight I mean that's not it's not gonna be an easy easy series the Mavericks with these starting five guys that they've had are honest would be a 67 win team, which is, I know that they weren't a 67 win team, but they've been playing like a 67 win team. They're a good team. Yeah, okay. Did you guys see the stat?

I still am taking Celtics in seven. I think, yeah, I feel strong about Celtics in seven. Did you guys see the stat over the weekend that going back to 2017, every NBA champion has had a former wizard on the team? All the role players, they're all wizards. So it's JaVale McGee, Sean Livingston, Jody Meeks, JaVale McGee again, Dwight Howard, Marquif Morris, Bobby Portis, Gary Payton, Otto Porter, Chris Chiozza, KCP, Jeff Green,

Ish Smith, Thomas Bryant. That's just the list of former wizards since 2017. So that means- Like everyone's a former wizard though. We're gonna go to the Wizards for one. Yes, correct, correct, correct But you're don't downplay the stat Hank. It's a true stat This year pours. I didn't know any of those guys were on the Wizards or Zingas or Zingas Hank Also Gaffer on the Mavericks. So the stats gonna continue for at least one more season. Yeah, I guess important though It's very important. Yeah. Those are the important stats.

Yep. Okay, we had, we could talk some soccer. I'm waiting just to, you know what? Fuck it, let's just do it. The WNBA, I said this last week, the discourse fucking sucks. What happened this time? It got worse.

It got way worse. It's so much worse than it was last week. Kaelyn Clark got got assaulted she almost died Yeah, and we all have to sit here and debate it and talk about the things that are not basketball Yeah, so Caitlin Clark. It was a good game. Yeah, watch the game between the sky and the fever on Saturday These two teams don't like each other very much little Raven Steelers They're gonna be the Raven Steelers of the next 10 years in the WNBA the fever little Raven Steelers. That's going to be the Raven Steelers of the next 10 years in the WNBA. The Fever beat Chicago on Saturday by one point. No one's talking about the miss free throughout

the end. Costar teamed the game. It was a good game, but there was a lot of horseplay. A lot of antics. A lot of antics. A lot of extracurriculars on the court involving hip checking, Kate Lund Clark, Angel Reese celebrating her teammates celebrating, and then none of them wanted to talk about it after the game. Yes. They that part I actually think is a lame move. Yes. They hate Caitlin Clark. That could be good for the WNBA. That's been my point. But you have to acknowledge it. You have to not give a fuck. You're like, yeah, we don't like her. Correct. And you have to,

you have to say with your chest, the lady from Edmonton would do that and the discourse has now become it's so bizarre to me because one so It was a cheap shot. It's not like that wasn't like a regular foul It also wasn't in like terms of cheap shots a very dangerous one. It was just like a side check and What you would think is that Caitlin Clark was maimed, assaulted, like beaten close to death by this one play. That wasn't the case. It also, it's so bizarre that every time one of these things happens, it just becomes something so much bigger than just talking about the basketball game. And yes, I do think there are women in the WNBA that are very jealous of Caitlin Clark. That is lame. But what I would say to that is the people who are jealous of Caitlin Clark and when they take cheap shots

at her, like Caitlin Clark, if she keeps being really, really good at basketball and if she has a career that she's expected to have, all those people will be a footnote to Caitlin Clark. It won't matter. She'll get the last laugh. And like they'll just be the jealous haters that are rookie year tried to toughen her, you know, try to try to be tough to her. Yeah, it just doesn't matter. But, but it becomes this thing where it's like, we have to protect Caitlin Clark. I also don't understand PFD for the life of me. I get it. Like Caitlin Clark is going to add viewership, but like asking all the women to basically be like, we have to bow down to her also makes no sense. Yeah, they shouldn't. They should. And honestly, if this was the NBA, and you see this happen in other sports leagues, somebody

comes to the league as a rookie with all these expectations. If they're the main storyline that year, the players in that league are going to be pissed off about that. And they're going to take it out. And they'll, they'll say it though. They'll be like, yeah, we're sick of people talking about her. We've been playing basketball too here. And so we want to show her on the court, like, yeah, we're sick of people talking about her. We've been playing basketball, too, here. And so we want to show her on the court like, yeah, we're going to beat you up a little bit. Can you find the clip? If we could play this clip. I remember it so well when LeBron got was going to Cleveland and they interviewed it was like Boozer, Smush Parker, like complete.

Like Boozer obviously had a good career with Smush Parker. No name. I think Darius Miles. They basically were like, yeah, maybe he'll be able to like help us a little bit and, and, and shitting on their teammate. Also Caitlin Clark's teammates, someone, someone step up. Yeah. I got stop. It's not, it's not the internet's job to defend killing Clark. It's your teammates job. That's who you should be mad at. It should be like, Hey, where are the teammates? Yeah. Have they gotten any quotes from her teammates being like, do you like Caitlin Clark? Cause it seems like they don't, they don't like her either. Either way. It's just, it becomes this, this enormous like culture war that it's like, dude, I just wanted to watch some basketball.

And I, and if you think that I'm, I'm being very consistent because I said this last week when Angel Reese got clothes lined, which was probably a more dangerous foul and people were making it bigger than basketball. I was like, this is going to ruin this. Like WNBA, the amount of people who have started watching WNBA who are not actual sports fans are going to ruin the WNBA. Yeah. Because guess what?

Like cheap shots happen. Hard fouls happen. Like rival shots happen. The hard files happen. Like rivalries happen. That helps the sport. Bad blood helps sports. I would like Angel Reese to just stand on it and say, yeah, fuck her. I don't like her. And, and what she said publicly this whole time has been, I have no problem with her. I like, I like Caitlin Clark and every single action that she's had since, since they had that, uh, that championship game two years ago has been like, I hate her. Remember every single action that she's had since they had that championship game two years ago has been like, I hate her. Remember the little crown that she left?

Yes. Or like she does not like her and just say that you don't like her. And then guess what's going to happen after that? People are going to be like, yes, I love Angel Reese. I don't like Caitlin Clark. Other people are going to be like, yes, that's awesome. I love Caitlin Clark. I don't like Angel Reese.

And then when they play each other, it becomes a big fucking moment and everybody does. Right. And it's a good point because I, for the people who are freaking out, like we must protect Caitlin Clark. She can't be like, this is the worst foul ever. They're lame. The people on the other side who are saying essentially there's no jealousy and there's nothing involved. Like this is just, no, there's jealousy. They're jealous of Caitlin Clark. They 100% are it's okay to admit it They're going again. They're going to be footnotes in Caitlin Clark's his career When it's all said and done, they're gonna be the Lance Stevenson blowing in LeBron's ear Mm-hmm

You know what I mean? Like that's what that's what happens when you're when you can't beat them straight up You end up looking petty and probably stupid and if Caitlin Clark Goes on has an incredible career, she should invite, what's her name? Chaya, what's her name? Channity. Channity. Yeah. Channity to her hall of fame induction and single her out.

Like, Hey, thanks for, thanks for fucking being like mean to me. You made me work harder. That's how sports work. And there was another shot that was called a cheap shot that it did look like Caitlin Clark might have flopped a little bit on one of them to try to sell it So she flops and that's gonna make people hate her more But again, this is all I would already be saying this is good for the sport. It might already be good for the sport I think it is I just get exhausted seeing people with with like you said the culture war takes online

right like go all in on one side of it without taking the time to acknowledge that this could be good and feeling this way about sports can lead to some awesome stuff. And sports are tough and physical and these things happen in sports and we can't just be like, you cannot touch Caitlin Clark because she is good for the game. She's great for the game. She's going to get face guarded. She's going to probably obviously if there's cheap shots like at the knees and stuff, but in terms of again, cheap shots, like a side check is nothing.

Yeah. I also think that for a long time, women's sports has been talked about like in the sense of at least by the major media places like rooting for everyone right like let's celebrate everyone right and the way that we talk about men's sport is much different than that where it's like fuck this guy I hate this guy right I want it like memes hatred towards the range right right like having hatred towards a different city when your teams are playing sports against each other that's that's how we feel about sports usually and now the WNBA is coming to this place where it's more of a reckoning of not always talking

about every team like, oh, she's a star. Oh, she's so good. And rooting for every single player at the same time, but actually forming an identity around your team and around players that you care about love. Yes. Even casuals forming that same love hatred about players that they don't normally get or teams that they don't normally care about. Yes. But they're now they're finding themselves invested into it.

Having this type of hatred and love, I think is ultimately gonna be very, very good for the WNBA. Let sports be sports. Let them be fun too. Let just sports happen. It all evens out because at the end of the day, the best part about sports is if you're better

than the other team or the other player who is doing this kind of shit, you will end up winning out. Caitlin Clark will end up having a long career that makes millions of dollars because she's better than line name. Cheney. Cheney. Okay. So Cheney will look like a fool at the end. And that's what that's the beauty of sports. We don't need to protect Caitlin Clark by making this some big, you know, discourse about society and everything. Just let it fucking play out when Caitlin Clark wins. It's gonna be awesome for her. Yeah. So it's it's kind of like Larry Bird to me, where are some players in the WNBA resentful of Caitlin Clark because she's getting a lot of

attention as a white woman. Whereas the WNBA is predominantly black and there have been a lot of great black players over the years that haven't gotten the same attention that Caitlin's gotten. Yes, they probably find some resentment in that and they're upset about that just like a lot of NBA players were upset at the media attention around Larry Bird. Isaiah Thomas said it before NBA finals and Larry Bird won the NBA finals. Yes. Won three MVP and everyone can, no one can say shit about him. And what Caitlin's done up to this point has been,

it's not because she's white that she's getting that. She's really fucking good. Yeah. She's at the all time record for points scoring college. She's pretty good on her own, regardless of her race. But once she gets the WNBA, she gets her legs under and she becomes the star that people think that she's going to become.

Guess what? A lot of that hatred is going to fade away from being like, oh I'm mad that this white woman is taking attention from the predominantly black WNBA. It's going to be just competition against each other and I don't like her because we're competing against each other, but god damn it do I respect her because she wins. Anyone who's jealous like this, it's almost a compliment because you're basically like, you're essentially saying, I know that she's a problem. I know that she's going to be really, really good.

It's like when we, when in the final four, when the Yukon, all Yukon broadcasts and like Diana Taurasi and all of them were like, oh, she's going to find out when they get to the WNBA, they're threatened because she's young and better. And so it's like this is how sports work. And then when she beats them, she's going to get the last lap. All right, play this clip. But I mean, you want to talk about a can't win the big one conversation. Katelyn Clark, Katelyn Clark cannot win the big one. All right. This is from LeBron's rookie year. This is Carlos Boozer and his other teammates. We have better players than him in this position already on our team, bro. And he will come in and make an immediate impact like a Karam Butler.

I don't think you can really just bring a high school player in and really just think your team gonna really turn around like that. If he come, you know what I'm saying, he can just hop on our bandwagon. Yeah. This is like, I mean, this is what happens when someone gets hyped and they show up. There's going to be resentment because she's better than them. He was, LeBron was better than them. Also, if you're playing in the NBA, you probably, you're used to playing against grown men every single night. You probably would look down on a high schooler too and be like, this league is very, very tough. I don't know that a high schooler can come in and do it.

Yes, you're going to hate on youngsters. Guess what? That's what old people do. And if you're a youngster out there listening to this, one day you're going to become old and you're going to hate on youngsters too. You're going to say right now, no, I'm never going to be a hater. Guess what? Time makes haters of us all.

All of us. All of us. I just want sports to be a hater. Guess what? Time makes haters of us all. Oh, all of us. All of us. I'm just, I just want sports to be sports. I'm just sick of, of when Caitlin Clark has a game, we just have to have everyone argue about culture. Yeah. There's, there's- You're going to ruin the game. You're going to ruin the sport. We got three more think pieces coming today on Slate about Caitlin Clark and what she means. We must protect her. The problem with Caitlin Clark.

It is very funny when people are like, well, she she got him that plane. Why would they not like her? It's like because she's fucking better than them and they're competing. Yeah. Why would they? It's a nice plane.

Yeah. They're competing against each other. But guess what? Caitlin Clark gets the league. Now the rest of WNBA doesn't get to use their frequent flyer miles anymore and collect those sweet benefits on the back end So fuck Caitlin Clark. Yeah, it's uh, it's quite something. All right, what else we got the

We did have the Champions League Real Madrid talking soccer. You want to talk soccer real quick? Sure 15th Champions League. Yep, and Barcelona was the first to congratulate them. Really? You don't have to do that If you're if you're a touch move if you're an official account of a team on Twitter, you don't have to congratulate your rival on winning a champion No, that's total cuck. It is they just did for the impressions. Oh, that's lame Why would they do that? I don't know but that was talking soccer. So is Real Madrid the goat Real Madrid They're the best franchise man United would always just say that they were. 15 is a lot. Feels like a lot. Is that the most? I don't know. Okay, let me look it up. I'm a Super League guy myself. Champions League. Never forget those two weeks that we had a couple summers ago. Yeah.

Most titles in Champions League history. Here we go. I got it. All right. We've got Real Madrid with 15 Milan in second place with seven. I'm going to say Real Madrid the best ever. Yes. They're still, that's not even close. Still the best ever. Barcelona has five Liverpool has six. Byron has six. Come on. Is it, are they bad for soccer? Yeah, for sure. They're for sure bad for sure bad for soccer. Yeah. Yeah, I missed the first half of this game And then I saw the second half thrilling. I saw the end. I saw the celebrations Yeah, as someone who missed the first half I was able to bet over one and a half goals in the second half That was fun. Did cash? Yeah. Oh nice. Good work That was like I said some for anyone out there who might have forgotten that this game kicked off again soccer

Should just make goals worth three points. Yeah, and then everybody would be way happier. They'd be like wow what a high-scoring game Did you guys see probably the biggest story of the Champions League is Joel Embiid was there? Yeah got free time Yeah, that was cool, and he's tall who is he rooting for? Real Madrid okay. I'm a dread fan. He is? Did you see the, there's a clip of him. Wow, Max, what happened? I was singing on Friday. You sang one song? But I was, it was one song loudly. Yeah, it was very loud. It was loud. He did crush it. Max got on stage and there was a guy that was waiting for Max in the front row and he had two sodas in his hands ready to go and Max saw him and just scowled at him and then paced around the stage

like a tiger circling his prey for a second was like, Fuck it, I'm gonna chug those sodas and then just rip the sodas right off the bat. You looked like Jason Kelsey. I know, that was the greatest compliment that's ever been given. Yeah. Hank got booed. Oh. Did I?

You got booed. Well, it was a clap, it was a round of applause and then you did like a little jump to show your vert, and then people booed your vert. Oh no. I thought there, I just remember the cheers. Okay, you remember the cheers. Were you going to say, Max, about Joel Embiid being at the Champions League because he's got time? What? No, I didn't say that.

I just said that he was tall. There was a clip of like two of the pregame guys on each other's shoulders to see if they were taller than Embiid. When do you think he he bought those tickets? He probably didn't pay pay for the tickets probably what about his air flight like he's there his air ferry Probably bought his flight a couple months ago. He's a rich man Probably a couple months ago. He's a rich man The rich man. Yeah, but he definitely had it planned. Yeah, they probably like hey, dude like before the season started

They're like, hey, can you come do the desk the Champions League? He's like when mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, no problem Do you early June? I won't even we could make it you you want to move it up a week We do late May I I think I'm going I'm gonna be in Paris when US play us plays and it's gonna be be in Bede vs Joker, the one day that I'm there that US plays. What? Yeah.

Are you going to... Wait, I forgot that Bede plays for us. Yes. That's kind of weird. He plays for us. I love it. I'll be fighting that fight from the front lines in France. You'll be the big USA guy for us.

But not really because you think there there's gonna be a lot of They could be better if it was us verse France It's what it'd be better if it was USA verse France But you I said but it's a bead verse Joker. You're just okay, so and be probably won't be playing no Wait is the game in is a game in altitude no zero altitude. I don't know the game in altitude? No. Zero altitude. I don't know the altitude. It's in Paris, France? Let's see, it can't be zero altitude.

Is it in Paris? Let's see Paris altitude. No, I don't think it's actually in, I think it's... Oh, you better hope it's not in the altitude. 115 feet above sea level, buddy. Where is the game? Are you gonna go to the game? Yes.

Oh, okay. If I can get tickets, I gotta figure out how to get tickets. Game time. Game time. Shout out game time, Matt. If I can get take I gotta figure out how to get tickets game time game time shout out game time time Where is the game max? Because if it's more than 300 400 feet altitude there's no chance and bead shows up if that games in burgundy you're fucked Okay, he's getting it he's getting this guy forgot we had this summer That's gonna rock The schedule might not be out yet. Oh, no, cuz they got to do like pool

No, it is it is cuz I looked at it Remember we learned about the Olympics cuz they did the sex bed thing the no sex. Yes, that's exactly how we found out about it You're right June 28 Fuck why am I an Arizona basketball? Fuck, why am I in Arizona basketball? Alright, so, wait Max, is this pool play that we're talking about here? This is gonna be, this should just be a segment of Max tries to google. Is this pool play? It's a pool game? This is bad, this is bad. It's a pool game of USA versus Slovenia or whatever?

Serbia. Serbia? If it's pool, I hope that the US has already won and locked up our spot in the pool and that- Lily. I found it. I found it. I just said it! Lillay. Lillay. Lily.

Lily? You better figure that out. L-I-L-L-E. That's maybe the worst city for a Philadelphian to try to pronounce. Lily. Lily. Lily. Lily.

It is 82 to 147 meters that's pretty pretty big okay, so 100 that's like 300 feet Yeah, that's almost Almost a tenth of a mile high almost so he'll probably not play yeah That would be funny if he just if he was if he was like I'm load management for the Olympics. Yeah Especially if you got tickets to it. All right, do we have anything else before we do? Who's back of the week? Hank, any thoughts on WNBA?

No, I thought the cheering for the hit was the craziest part of the whole thing. Agreed, they're jealous. They're very jealous. Anyone who pretends they're not jealous is crazy, but that's part of sports is being jealousy. I'm more likely to watch the next time they play. Correct. And I do think that they should. I absolutely believe they should have to answer to it and be like, hey, we're jealous.

Yeah, they should say all the reasons are pissed off. They should be real about it. But acting like Caitlin Clark got like maimed, it's pretty insane to me. Yeah it was a hip check, not super super hard. They retroactively upped it to a flagrant one after the fact. And then I think they fined Angel Reese a thousand bucks. Just a lot of money. Not talking to the media. Yeah, that's a lot of money. All right, let's do who's back of the week.

Who's back of the week is brought to you by our friends at BetterHelp. Pardon my take, it's 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 stock of your progress and set achievable goals for the next six months. It's always smart to make sure that you're keeping track

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Better help.com slash PMT. We're also brought to you by our friends at Coors Light. The Coors Light is the drink of the summer. Shout out to the people who are ride or die fans, despite multiple losses or bad draft picks. Choosing a chill mindset makes the day to day better. Life's too short to get worked up over small stuff. Choose chill and then reach for a Coors Light instead.

When you embrace a chill mindset, it's a good time to choose chill and crack open a Coors Light. Hank do it crack it open crack it open right next to you there's not one right next oh it's opened crack open a Coors Light is there one right there? Crack it open into the just so we can hear it. Coors Light is Mountain Cold Refreshing Crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Ready? Oh yeah. Yes. That was great. When you chill out, life gets better. Choose chill and then reach for Coors Light. Get Coors Light delivered straight to your door with Instacart by going to coreslight.com slash take. Send us those Coors Light

mountains, the Blue Mountains on the cans and bottles. I've been retweeting them. There's nothing better on a Friday seeing those. It's summertime. It's time for Coors Light. Go check it out. CoorsLight.com slash take or order it online with Instacart. Hank. My Who's Back of the Week is Common Men. Oh, good. In the golf tournament this weekend, Fluff, the legendary caddy Fluff, he got injured on the third hole I think he fell down and the author ct pan just grabbed a random guy from the crowd and I carry the bag for the rest Yeah, just a just a legendary common man move. Just like yeah, I'll take the bag Why don't we have emergency caddies like we do with the ebug in in hockey. Because they never, this never happens. Yeah but, well it just happens. It's not about it never happening. It's like every

round they should they should pick out the spectators before the game happens and just assign however many like 70 different spectators like if this guy goes down you're stepping in so that person has to just be at the tournament all day thinking I might get in. Well, this guy, he was perfect. He was perfect. You could just see that guy, like he could, he could carry a bag. No problem. Haas. But I'm saying like before a tournament starts, let's just put, let's just put like three dudes with cankles into like a horse barn and just have them standing there with their polo on ready to go. Like this guy was just central casting. He is built like a man who can carry a golf bag around

for a long time. But yeah, put them in a horse barn, do a live shot to him every now and then the these caddies are ready to go. So you're trying to give him reads. Do you think they asked him like, have you played this before? I love the hands. Do we know how it happened like how he picked this guy out? I think he's not fit. He's trying to get it to fit. It would just grab the guy from the crowd Yeah, they said you sir. You look like you can carry a bag and they did they picked a perfect guy Yeah, if I were him I keep my mouth shut on like the first two holes and then if you got a couple birdies I would start tossing remember Jerry did this on the corn fairy tour with Quade Covey.

Paul Emerson is the guy's name. He hails from Ontario was traversing the par four third hole at Hamilton Golf and Country Club when he realized that C.T. Pans caddie Mike Fluff Cowan had been injured was unable to continue caddying pans playing partner Shane Lowry was carrying his own bag and Lowry's caddy Darren Reynolds was carrying Pan's bag. Wow, that's a good move by Lowry. Wow. Awesome move. As Pan was walking, cowing over to a medic on the side of the fairway, Emerson asked Pan if he could lend a hand. Oh, so he just asked. He just picked him out. He identified him. He said, I helped Fluff get the bib off, threw it on and started walking up the hole. Pan was grateful for for the sport Emerson took the bag

He looped through the fifth ferry before a member of the caddy services team Michael Campbell stepped in Campbell was replaced by Al Riddle What the fucks he had four caddies? So it was it was like the head caddy that took over for this guy Yeah, he's like I'll get another guy in your bag soon. That's awesome How hard is it to be a replacement caddy? I feel like a replacement caddy is the easiest job in sports We saw Scottie Scheffler's best friend do it on the Saturday of the PGA championship But he shot his well, that's because he got arrested the day before

He shot a 66 with his caddy on Friday after he got arrested. Yeah, but he said it was a lot of adrenaline There's no way that having his best friend, caddy didn't fuck him up on that. Definitely did a little bit. I think, no, but I do think that on Saturday you wake up, you realize what happened. You probably didn't sleep that well that night. But I shot like 66 every round except the one that he didn't have his caddy. I think I would almost take just a no name, just a random guy like this guy. I would take this guy over a friend because a friend you're probably chopping it up You tell him inside jokes. There's too much history there

You need a guy that's just gonna do the job and this guy this man right here. Yeah, that's a man that can do the job Yeah, but no, he definitely wasn't giving him reads. He wasn't no chance. I would I would have just tossed one out there. Yeah Okay, PFT. All right good. Who's back Hank. Thanks. Great who's back. Appreciate it. This is also in golf news. Kevin James is back. Because he's playing John Daly in a miniseries about John Daly. Oh, hell yes. I think Kevin James is just like, just living out the dream.

Just like, I just want to do sports movies, and I want to play guys that I like to watch on TV. Yeah. So he did Sean Payton, now he's doing John Daly. I actually think that playing John Daly in a movie is more physically draining than being John Daly in real life. Yeah. Like trying to get in that lifestyle. We tapped into that lifestyle for a little bit. Wasn't last was a

nice last week. That video is coming out Thursday. Right, Max. You already have it ready to go. Right. You just have to press the button. What the John Daly challenge. Yeah. Yeah, we're we're working on it Yeah, but that's I wasn't an answer To me, that's a cursed role playing John Daly. It doesn't not every actor can do that Yeah, I don't care if they're prop cigarettes. I don't care if they're prop ice cold beers. Yeah, you're gonna put your body through a little bit Hell it's like yeah, it's like Jared Leto I would like to see Jared Leto play John Daly and go full method on it.

Is Jared Leto the person you use for method acting? Well yeah, because he's the real psycho that everybody hates on scene. So he's been replaced by Daniel Day-Lewis? Because Daniel Day-Lewis was the guy. He's the guy, but Jared Leto is like a real weirdo. He's the new guy? He's a weirdo when he does it. And then the guy before that was... Tom Hagen.

What was his name? Burt Reynolds. No, no. What was the actress name? Tom Hanks? No. Tom Hagan. Robert Robert Duvall. I'm pretty sure Robert Duvall. His method. I think he was method because he was he the was he the coach in the program? I think so. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he was. There's a, yeah, Daniel Day-Lewis, big method guy. Jared Leto. He's just like an asshole method guy. Uh, and then the guy that plays Kindle Roy. Robert Duvall is not a method actor. Okay, no, it's the other guy, Sonny. Give me Sonny. No, no. Wait, what was your last thing you said there? Jeremy Strong, the guy from, uh, from session.

He's a psycho method actor. But I think that if either one of those two guys tried to go method on, on the John Daly, yeah, try to get in character as him. I think they died before filming. Yes. James Khan, James Khan, I believe. Can you look up if he was method acting? Because he was, he was the coach in the program.

He's also the dad and elf. Yeah, that was method acting. As far as I can tell. Con sign up for class. Learn the method. We learned the method and stayed for five years. I don't know if that means it. I don't think he's a med. The new the new Google searches are terrible. Yeah. Oh, the AI they're so bad, dude. They're really bad. Do you see that one where someone was like, can cockroaches live inside your penis? And it's like, yes,

it's very healthy to have a couple cockroaches living in your penis. We won't eat the bugs That's bullshit. Well if it's inside your penis, hey, they're trying to get us to eat the Hank would be into that Yeah, that's true method acting in the Godfather Marlon, Bruna. Yeah, see James Khan That was a stupid tangent, uh, so it's just, oh did you see the picture of Tiger? I did not see the picture. He's looking old. Tiger is old.

Yeah. But it's like one of those pictures that I think he probably will see and be like, fuck, I gotta do something about this hair. So yeah, you gotta- He was playing poker with Phil Ivey. You gotta cut it. Tiger's been past that stage for a long time now. I know.

Long time. Phil looks diesel. Are we win the trust tree here. Yeah, we won't even clue this in the pod It might be time for me to come home. Why what shave your head or yeah? You're so far away from shaving your head. I don't know man. I saw a bad angle the other day of the back I saw a bad angle the other day. Yeah, you wear a hat all the time Maybe you should just get a hat with the... The funny hair in it. Yeah. The spiky hair. Yeah, maybe I'll have to go see Brian Urlacher.

Yeah. We'll see. Something has to change. Something's changing before football season. Just keep the hat on. Yeah, but then it's bad. Then it's worse when you take the hat off. I think that's a lot.

So I was in an airport a couple weeks ago and there was a guy that was in front of me. He was about my height. He had about my length hair. He was maybe five years older than me okay real bald with long hair and I was standing behind him the entire time just thinking to myself I'm I'm never gonna but he looks sweet maybe to himself okay but I don't think I think everybody else was like that guy needs to do something about that I'm not gonna get oh yeah Oh yeah, Tiger does... Yeah.

I mean, he looks jacked up though. He looks super strong. I have a question. And this is not... I want it on the record. We love Charlie Woods. Tiger, if you ever want to come on the podcast, we'd love to have you on the podcast. Did Tiger ever do two steroids?

Uh, you think? Why doesn't it get talked about though? Everybody was like, man, this guy is just built like an NFL team. No one says it. He definitely- Is this just out of respect for him? Is it deference? He definitely used it to come back from stuff.

For sure. Yeah, I know. Oh, there you go. You did, you had a, I mean, he definitely did it and also his whole body type chain. Yeah, I know. Oh, there you go. You did see you had a I mean he oh, yeah I definitely did it and also his whole body type chain. Yeah, we took I forgot we did like an entire Yeah, macro dosing on that. Yep. Yep. It has been talked about. Okay. All right. There you go. He's definitely he's Maybe you steroid. Hey, I think he without a doubt a hundred percent used HGH to come back from injuries. I like this. Maybe this is the summer of getting all of our goats, you know, secretariat Tiger Woods. Yeah. They all use steroids. That's fine because did they even have testing? Tiger Woods. People told us to shut up about a steroid

use XPGA star claims. Oh, well that sounds like it's very reputable. Yeah. Not even Tiger Woods, his people. I mean you've never seen a golfer as strong as Tiger before. No. Bryson. And his body just complete, his body completely changed and then his body completely betrayed him. Yeah.

And I know the whole Navy SEALs thing. I know that whole story. But yeah. Do you think Bryson used gear? Yeah, like Tiger is just as crazy of a like before after as Barry Bonds. Yeah. Pirates, Barry Bonds and 49ers, Barry Bonds. Okay. You have any other who's backs? No, that's my who's back of the week. Okay. Why would yeah, there's no way they test for. Yeah. I feel like they might've recently brought

it in when it became an Olympic sport. I feel like that always happens, which is the dumbest thing ever if I was the PGA I would never test for any drug no Why although it'd be so funny if a golfer got suspended for smoking weed you remember they used to do that at the Olympics Yeah, there's a snowboarder a snowboarder that got his silver medal taken away because he Tested positive for weed and they asked him about it the smart smart move on this guy's part would've just been like, yeah dude, I'm a fucking snowboarder. I smoke weed. But he was like, no, I was at a party two months ago,

and I think I got some secondhand inhalation, and I apologize, I would never smoke weed. Yeah dude, you board on snow, you're high all the time. That's okay, you're still really good. Yeah, that's the one sport you can do that. All right, my Who's Back of the're still really good. Yeah. That's the one sport you can do that. All right. My who's back in the week is Tommy Fam. Tommy Fam got into it with the Brewers and then did a post game press conference where

he said that he trains for this and he will go after anyone who wants to go after him. Do you want to, do you want to pull it up Max? I have it right here. I could play it. Tommy Fam is about that shit he don't want to fuck with him Tommy Finn was one who who slapped slap the fantasy football slap all right listen to this this Tommy fam after the game one run ballgame close play at the plate

and I actually wasn't even fucking close there's a shallow flat ball to left field you you would expect the left fielder to throw the base runner out on that play. But the situation of the game, third base coach sends you, you gotta go. I'm nailed out at home by a mile. I'm going to the dugout and I hear the tough guy with all the who-raw shit You know so I'll never start anything, but I'll be prepared to finish it There's a reason why you know I do all kinds of fighting in the offseason because I'm prepared to fuck somebody up

Yeah, just get on escalator you're like oh, is routine. Like I'm prepared to fuck somebody up. Dude, I want to know what kind of who rocks that this guy was on. We also had a in this game. So I would understand that most of our listeners, not national audience would, would know who I'm about to talk about, but it's been a big story in Chicago. Uh, John Schrifrin, the announcer for the White Sox might be the worst announcer ever. And he took over for Benetti, right? Who went to the Tigers. Yeah, he went to the Tigers. Did John Triffin go to Syracuse? No.

Okay. This guy, like he's trying really hard, but it's just everything is awkward. So this clip is just so awkward if you can play it max of him Screaming about Tommy fam and he's had moments where he like said something like suck on that losers Even though the White Sox are one of the worst teams so no one's paying attention to him But it keeps popping up every now and then so this is it But it keeps popping up every now and then. So this is it. And Contreras is barking at him. Tommy Pham is barking back. He's not backing down.

He doesn't like that. And now home plate umpire Edwin Jimenez has to hold back Pham. Now we ain't taking that. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. I don't care how many L's we got this year. We ain't taking that. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers.

We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers.

We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. We ain't taking that from the Brewers. I don't care how many L's we got this year. We ain't taking that. That's it. No, we ain't taking that.

I love that. That's like, he needs to drop as God as my witness. He's broken them in half. We ain't taking that. We ain't taking that. He and the Oakland A's woman, they are one too for the worst announcers in major league base. Jake, what are your thoughts on the white socks announcer? Uh, what was that face? Max,

the JMU baseball game. Oh, that was so bad. That was horrible. That was very bad as well. What happened there? The green. He likes greens. There's in the tree. It was bad. It was bad. Ready for this. Oh man. In the one.

It's hit in the air to left field and that ball is gone. Mike Mancini's favorite color is green. It landed on the green grass to home. How about that? For James Madison. How about that? That's wild. Put that on the wild. Jake is uncomfortable right now. Where the direction of this, of this podcast in this moment. It's very much talking broadcast. Yeah. Yeah.

He ain't taking that. He ain't taking that. I like it. Also the Brewers are like way better than the boys. Yeah. I like how he just threw in there. I don't care how many L's we got this year. Yeah.

No, cause he knows. Yeah. He knows that they're, they're very, very bad. Also, how about Tommy Pham just completely throwing his third base coach under the bus? Oh, big time. Entirely. But then he kind of, you forget about it by the end when he's just like I'll fuck him up I'll fuck somebody out. Fuck somebody. Yeah, my third base coach tells me some I'll fuck him up, too All right, Jake My who's back is Joey chestnut. Yeah, obviously the main event is the 4th of July

And we always see the press from the hot dog eating contest but we had Joey Chestnut taking down some pints of ice cream at a minor league baseball game we don't really see him do other competitions so this wasn't even a competition I don't think I think it was just him doing it for fun yeah he was just pounding four in a minute pints of ice cream you could tell too it kind of was giving him some brain freeze yeah I mean you have to get brain freeze from that much ice cream for sure. I think he was also eating fried fish too.

Oh. The classic fried fish ice cream combo. Oh. Is that real? Yeah. That was the combo? Yeah. He was eating, I think it was fried walleye.

Oh man. So this is like the pre-season for him I guess. Yeah he's got to warm up. Alright so what happened was he ate four pints of ice cream in 60 seconds and then he ate 36 nuggets of fried walleye in 60 seconds. Oh! That's not good on the stomach. I hope he was diked up. I feel like that's just going to cut right through you. He is... that's insane. Say it again. He ate 36 fried walleye nuggets in one minute. And that's, I believe, right after he ate the four pints of ice cream.

Oh man, yeah, you'd want to do it reverse, I think. Yeah, you eat the fried first. Yeah, get the ice cream to cool you down. Exactly. Try to trick your body a little bit. Yeah. Also, did you guys see the story about this D3 school? Yeah.

The baseball team? Yeah, we talked about it on Friday But they they made it to the college world. Yeah, three and they lost. Oh, they did lose They won on a walk-off the other night. Yeah to stay alive. Yeah, they weren't really a school, right? They had no longer been a school. Yeah, yeah a few days ago. Yeah, but they saw the baseball season Yeah, I don't understand how they couldn't have just added whoever they wanted Yeah, really? You're not a school anymore, right. Like Barry Bond should have been home or at the bat. Yeah, absolutely. Recruit anybody that you can. Anyone that got kicked off the team. Yeah.

That would kind of rock to be just like we are the school now. Yeah. Like this is our school. Did you guys also see this is a random story? But I saw someone noted that Jim McElwain which you know we know Jim McElwain Central Michigan not a shark fucker mm-hmm apparently he's got a lifetime sponsorship with Coors Light lifetime yeah we need it on that pretty she's pretty sick they provide him with a Coors Light vending machine inside his house that's all month monthly that's awesome that's great we should get on that what a badass lifetime sponsorship yeah we need that vending machine. Let's do it. Yes Okay, let's get to our interview with CJ McCollum and then we will do lottery ball and some wrap-up after that

We're gonna get to CJ McCollum in a second before we do it's brought to you by game time Did you know that you can get tickets to white socks at Cubs at Wrigley Field? We got a subway series an L a L series. Red line. Red line series. Is that what they call it? Red line. Yep. It's the Red line series. 41 bucks to get in Wrigley Field. The friendly confines, best troughs in the urinal game at Wrigley Field. Get in in the forties for all the games this week. Okay. I think I'm going to go on Wednesday night. Good price. I, you know what I was, I just talking to Mark Titus about this the other day. At some point I don't care who's playing.

I just want to go to an afternoon Friday game. Yeah. Wrigley Field. Stolen time. At some point I'm going to do it. I'm going to use game time to get in with game time. They are the official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. You shouldn't have to worry when you buy tickets to your next big event.

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game time. Download the game time app. Create an account, use promo code PMT, get 20 bucks off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download the game time app, create an account and use code PMT. Boom, you get 20 bucks off your first purchase. Download the game time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. And now here's CJ McCollum. guaranteed. And now here's CJ McCollum. Okay. We now welcome on a very special guest, recurring guest, a guest who we should have had on a lot sooner, uh, since the last time we had him on,

because I think it was like a highly acclaimed, this guy rocks interview that we did. It is CJ McCollum from the CJ McCollum show from the NBA. He plays for the Pelicans now. Last time we had him on, he was on the Blazers, but CJ, I want to start by apologizing, um, bad job by us because the first time you were on, everyone's like, we love CJ McCollum. I get, I still get the Hezzy Hay tweets. So this was a bad job, but I'm happy that you're back on. We could talk about the finals and talk about some ball. No, I'm happy to be back on. And that was a good time. That was a really good time in my life too. We were in the city. I was young. I was on the Blazers. And now it's a good

time in my life. I'm a little older in New Orleans. And I get stopped in the street when I'm in the city. People are Eurostaffing me hitting with heads. You got to go back on. You got to go back on the pod. I'm like, eventually I'm going to get back on the, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. The, the step back to freedom. That was another one.

That was a good one. Yeah. The people love CJ McCall and you're a wine mogul too. Yeah. I try it, man. I try my best. You see me sipping some Chardonnay right now for those that don't know. This is free promo, baby.

There we go. Come to C321.com and sip some Chardonnay right now. We got Rose Chardonnay, Pinot Blonde Blonde. Maybe you can educate me because I'm not much of a Chardonnay guy. I'm more of like a Mad Dog 2020 guy myself, but I'll drink any kind of wine, but I always say don't give me the Chardonnay because it's, I don't like the the oakiness to it. What's a good like Fisher Price, my first Chardonnay. I can just send you one to keep it a book with you. But I think the cool thing about Chardonnay is it's an acquired taste. And I didn't like Chardonnay for a long time. And we were in the bubble and Mellow had some white burgundy and Mellow was like, yo, you

got to try this white burgundy. I'm like, Mel, I like pinot. I like cabs. I like bubbles. I like Rose, but I'm not messing with Chardonnay. He's like, you got to try this white burgundy. I tried the white burgundy and it was so fire. I was like, I got to continue to figure out ways to try Chardonnays that are similar to this. And then I ended up making a Chardonnay and partnership with Adelsheim that is more reminiscent of white burgundy. So not as oaky, it's smooth.

Living in New Orleans is mad hot. So figuring out the balance between when to drink Pinot and when to drink like more refreshing drinks like Shar and Rose, but it's not for everybody. But if you drink the right Shar, it'll change your life. All right. I might have to try. Yeah. All right. So that's awesome that I, you're, you're a father now too. So congrats on that. Yeah. A lot of, a lot has changed. Um, and a wine mogul. Uh, we wanted to have you on talk changed. Um, and a wine mogul, uh, we wanted to have you on talk a little ball, talk a little finals. Let's start with your,

do you have an official prediction and then we can kind of unpack from there and figure out how you got there and, and how both these teams got there? Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was talking to a good friend of mine, coach white who coached me at Lehigh yesterday while I was pushing a stroller. Crazy, I got two kids and I'm married and life is good. And I thought to myself, this is gonna be a great finals. I gotta get to a game. I gotta get to a game in Boston.

I gotta try to get to a game in Dallas. I think it's Boston's series to lose. I think it's their series to lose. Kristaps should be back. They've had the best record all year. They got the Jays, right? Jason and Jalen, they got great role players. You know, they got great supporting cast. They got a coach who's fiery. I love Peyton Pritchard. I think it's their series to lose. And I will

say this though, I think Boston wins in six, but if it's a one possession game, give me Dallas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When by two, three possessions, they got to have a lead, you know, late in that fourth quarter. They got to have a comfortable lead by comfortable. I mean, multiple possessions or they're in trouble because Luca and Kyrie are not to be played with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what is it about Luca? We actually, I think everyone in this room has, I think I have

Boston in seven, PFT has five, Hank has six. But what is it about Luca that makes him so impossible to guard, because you've obviously played against him, like what specifically does he do that is so elite compared to anyone else on the court? I think it's a combination of things, man. Like, he's heavy, right? You know, with respect to the heavy people out there, he's got good sides. That's a the heavy people out there, he's, he's got good side.

That's a nice way of saying fat. He's heavy. But respect all. We do have heavy listeners, you know, heavy heavies, like drew holidays, a great defender drew holiday. Cannot, I don't think in guard Luca for the entire series. Cause he's Lucas heavy. Lucas Luca is heavy, man. And he's a good, healthy heavy, like strong, sturdy, he's still quick. He has a great change of speed, great balance, great patience, amazing step back. And he's not afraid of the moment. I think what a lot of people don't realize is

Luca turned pro at like 13. Luca's been playing pro since he was, you know, a middle schooler, basically. He skipped a lot of steps compared to what we do in the States, and he began hitting big shots at 14, 15, 16 years old, led his team to a Euroleague championship as a youngster, right? Like he's not afraid of the moment. He's not afraid of the bright lights. He loves it. They play better on the road because I think he likes tormenting the crowd. And I just think from a

versatility standpoint, he's like 6'8". I don't know his weight. I mean, he's gotta be at least 2'45", maybe heavier. Healthy body, fat, and he's in great shape. I think that's the thing that a lot of people didn't realize is Luca is heavy, hard to guard. He can lean on you, he can post you up. He can get you on his back and make different types of moves around the pain area. He loves to step back.

He's gonna hunt matchups, but he's in great shape. He's hitting big shots down the stretch of fourth quarters, high usage. First quarters are basically his Kai takes over second and third, and then it's take turns into four. But I mean, he's just he's a wizard with the ball. He's going to have high volume. And there's a reason why he averaged 35 points a game. Nine rebounds, nine assists, basically 35, 10 and nine. He can control the entire game for four quarters. Yeah, yeah. He's also very good at drawing fouls too. He draws contact in a very, very smart way that I don't think I don't think a lot of players are on his same level in

terms of knowing when he's about to get fouled, getting them off balance and then using that will still like maintaining his own shot form as best as he can to try to get a three point play out of it. Like he's not sometimes you see guys that like set up the foul But he sets it up in a way where he makes sure that he has a good look at the basket After he gets fouled too. Is that something that that you know going into it like he's gonna try to get you off balance Yeah, it's like it's like a running joke with him and be a lot of those guys They start the game with eight to ten points, right? You know, they're gonna have eight to ten free throws They basically establish rhythm early. You can't touch them.

They manipulate the defense, the entire game. They can get you on their hip. They got pump fakes, they got pivots, they got pump fakes, they got pivots over and over again, as the game progresses. And then it's about game plan discipline when you're going against those types of guys and you can get frustrated on tough makes, you know, it's a make or miss league and there's going to be a lot of tough mates throughout the game. There's going to be a lot of questionable situations in which he's, you know, maybe foul baiting or whatever they like to call it, quote unquote, but he's a smart player.

He knows how to, he knows how to get what he wants out there. And once he gets you off balance, it's all she wrote. Yeah. And obviously they've got two great players. The two guards are going gonna be impossible to stop both You just can't do you like you said you have to build a lead Not let them get to a late-game situation where they can they can put the the ball in one or two guys hands and win It but in terms of the role players on Dallas, who do you think is the most important?

outside of Kyrie and Luca I Mean, I like Derek Leipman. I mean obviously they got other guys, you know TJ Washington has been great Gaffney Derek Lively. I mean, obviously they got other guys, you know, TJ Washington has been great. Gaffney has been great. I think this may be a Tim Hardaway junior series. But if you really look at the last series in terms of what changed the game,

is their ability to defend, you know, basically switching one through four, sometimes one through five, Kyrie was great defensively, but Lively really was amazing. I think he didn't miss a shot in the conference finals. He altered tons of shots. He continues to put rim pressure on the defense by his ability to roll and get behind the

defense and pick and rolls. When Luca and Kai come off, he always finds himself behind the defense. If they switch, he makes them play with lobs and offensive rebounds. I think he's a huge, huge piece because not only is he great at finishing around the basket, but he makes great decisions in the pick and roll. When they hit him in the pocket, he's one of the best on their team at figuring out when they drive, when to go weak side and kind of connect. And he made a killing throughout this playoffs on just playing smart basketball and being athletic. Yeah. All right. So, and then the Celtics, it does feel like they're the favorite, but

they've, it's kind of twisted into like, they can say they're the underdog just because people are like, Hey, look, they had no one to play in the East. They ran through it. They haven't been tested, so to speak. I still think they're the better team, but is there anything to say for the fact that they haven't had like that tough playoff series where they've been pushed to make some changes and counteract and like, all right, you threw this at us, now we got to throw this at you. Is there any, is there any reality to that or is that just completely overstated and it doesn't matter?

They they've handled their business. I think it's completely overstated for them mainly because of the fact that they've all been there before Guys in rotation this team has been to the conference finals five out of the last seven years they were in the finals two years ago, they had a lead on the champion warriors and Their experience like they know what it takes to win a series. They know it takes to lose the series It's not like shell-shocked like oh my goodness. we're in the finals, like, oh, I've never seen this before.

They've been here before. And the second time around is when you really earn your stripes, right? Like the first time around, it's all new, it's fresh. You're trying to figure out the balance between tickets for family, like going through all of that stuff. Not that I played in it, but I've been to the finals

and I see how much media is credentialed. I see how many interviews they gotta do. It's open practices. It's It's it's like the Super Bowl It's a big show up into the game and I think if you're not used to it It can be mentally and physically draining I think they've all trained for it. They all have a better understanding of how they had to kind of prepare for this They got a champion on their team in drew holiday

Derek white played for the Spurs he's been He's been across the league. He's mature. The Jays obviously. Christos Porzingis has played all across Europe. He's been in the NBA. He hasn't played in a real big playoff moment like this, but I think playing with all those guys, it's helpful and I really don't think it matters. If anything, they're just going to be more fresh, more ready to go, home court advantage. The Jitters will be gone by the first time out. Like Draymond said. Yeah. Yeah. Is there any sort of advantage that they're going to get because Chris Stapps hasn't played in a long time. So Dallas doesn't have any like fresh tape on them. Is that going to make any difference whatsoever? Like they haven't seen that look in the last couple

of weeks. That's a good, I mean, that's a good point. I think, I think it's, I think it's a coin flip, right? Like because, Ballsson has played well without guys all year. They've been without Brazingas, they've been without Drew Holliday at times. They figured out a way to kind of just keep moving. Al Horford is a vet, he's a pro. He's going to figure it out. He's going to hit big shots. He's going to defend. I'm really just worried about Chris Stapps because he hasn't played in so long, like he's just jumping into the finals. Like if you really think about that, that's the, the part that's going to be

interesting and I don't want to talk about offensively, I'm talking about defensively conditioning wise, having the guard Kyrie and Luca in switches constantly, you know, everybody talks about Kyrie's return to Boston, which is great and it's going to be fun to see like the response that he gets and how he kind of plays through that. But Luca and Brazingas played together, and it didn't go well. Yeah. I think if you know anything about Luca,

he takes things very personally. And this is a chance for him to really beat a guy he played with and wasn't able to necessarily get over the hump with. So all right, so the injury thing is an interesting one because we're sitting on our couch, we're idiots. I'm always like, oh, why do they need, you know, like they've been practicing all, Chris has been practicing for the last two weeks. He should be fine. But what is the difference in between if you're coming back from injury, practicing and then

getting into actual game minutes and like how quickly you get tired when you make that transition. Yeah, it's tough and I've been fortunate or not so fortunate to have some injuries but been able to come back from them and transition into return to play and it's difficult for everybody. And it's one thing to return to play in a regular season game. It's another thing to return to play in the playoffs and it's a whole nother level thing to return to play in a regular season game. It's another thing to return to play in the playoffs, and it's a whole nother level up to return to play in the finals where no matter what type of conditioning

you're getting, no matter what type of live contact you're getting, those stakes aren't the same, right? Like you can't simulate a switch with Luca going against the backups in Boston or going against the coaching staff or the player development staff in a in a conditioning league game where it's basically a lot of guys that are in the rotation. And then you're going mixing in some coaches, you're getting switched on to Kyrie on the main stage for all the marbles for the 18th banner in Boston. Like this is completely like there's no there's no comparison. I think he'll be fine because he's a pro and he's had a lot of time to kind of adjust and the way he plays he shoots jumpers he posts up a little bit he dunks they got a lot of help it's not like they're just going to say Chris Staps go win us the game like he's going to be playing on a good team and kind

of playing a role so that'll make things easier but it's just difficult to translate and I think it's going to take some time from a rhythm standpoint, but also for Boston's rotation, they just went through two series or three series without them. Right. The rotation was set, you know, guys are playing heavy minutes, starters are playing basically 40. Al Horford was great. He hit seven threes in one of those games. Like they're going to have to change the rotation. And I'm just curious to see how the players respond to that from a rhythm standpoint, as they were used to something and now there's going to be a little change. Yeah. So if you're, if you're coming back from injury and your conditioning isn't to the point where

it should be, if you had played like an entire season without this time off, what does that look like in a game? And I'm not talking about like putting your hand up being like coach, take me out for a little bit. I'm tired. Cause I assume that guys, if they're in the NBA finals, a lot of times I want to stay in the game no matter what. But what does that look like for a player when they're getting tired?

Like, what's the first thing thing that goes like for me? If I'm playing pickup, I just kind of stop guarding. I just kind of stop playing defense entirely. And I hope that my guy doesn't run around too much or I'll like be like, hey, I got to tie my shoe. That sort of thing. But like how does what does that look like in a game? It's actually Larry's installing. I think it's I mean similar in the NBA, right? Like you just more turnovers, bad passes, bad misses.

Instead of like a close miss, they're just bad air balls, wide left, wide right, super long, longer timeouts, dumb fouls, like you'll just start to see like, oh, like that was a stupid play. Like, oh, he must be tired. Like the fatigue is kind of kicking in. But I think historically, especially when you get to this stage and coming off the injury, you're either on a minute's restriction or they change the substitution pattern. Where when I came back from injury, I had a collapsed lung. I've had broken foot, broken back, torn popliteus.

You usually know know like all right I got a four minute street stretch right here where they're gonna play me for minutes and then I'm coming out I'm first coming I'm coming out first foul first time out whatever I'm coming out We come back from the injury you have to govern yourself the way you look at I mean like couple times This year I came back against the Sixers and I was on the minute restriction I was like, I'm good like let me go and it was like no, it's 26 minutes and I'm like, nah I'm good and I played like a six and a half or seven minute stretch and it was supposed to be five. And at the six minute mark, I was

like, Oh, yeah, yeah. Or I was like, yo, bow. Right. I think bow. We need a, I need to come out of this game before I mess this up for everybody. Yeah. My move is I just yell, someone stop ball, and then I pick up whoever switches and I just hold their shirt. I'm just like, let's just hang out and not walk all the way back. It's like, don't be a hero, man. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, let's just hang out here for a second and then we'll get back when we get back. We're going to get back to CJ McCollum in a second. Before we do, he's being 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 have been a big part of my take story. From the Silverado that helped us dig the biggest hole ever dug in Ohio during Grit Week to the Silverado partnering with us to give college fullbacks all the rightful recognition

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I would say Steph's got really good conditioning. He just always running around chewing his mouthpiece. How annoying is that when you just won't stop running? Chewing his mouthpiece, laughing, dancing, shimmying, and it's really frustrating, but you can just tell he prides himself on conditioning, hard work, reps. I'd say the most, JJ Redd JJ ready when JJ played like the first quarter was insane just plays for him illegal screens from Deandre, illegal screens from Blake,

keeping him but just give him the ball for like five straight minutes then he would touch the ball for three quarters. The one that like was super impressive Russell Westbrook. So Prime, that's like was super impressive. Russell Westbrook, you know, prime. That's like prime Russ when he played like 37 to 42 minutes a game. And, you know, when he was in triple double mo, he played so

hard for so long, it was impressive because he's just rebound, pushing, yelling, screaming. And people don't understand why it takes energy to yell and scream. Like a couple of times I over celebrated. Damn, I'm tired. I shouldn't have did that yeah yeah takes away your energy but like this

guy his motor is unbelievable for 82 games like playing in the middle of nowhere he could be playing pickup game in the backyard like his energy is is always at a level that's super impressive yeah I feel like Luca gets stronger the angrier he gets. He's expending energy, right? He's using calories to yell at people, but he feeds off that. It amps him up. Yeah, he feeds off of that hooka-luka. I think if you really look at how his career has kind of progressed, he came in like baby

face, you know, a little thin, they start eating good in the neighborhood and American food start treating them well. And then he came back a couple years where you see him training running stairs overseas in Slovenia, running the stairs and you see his game kind of go to another level in terms of the range on his jumper, the stepbacks, even in that last series against the Timberwolves, he started the game hitting like 30 footers. He was sent the message like I really been working on my craft, like I'm really about to just take over this league.

And this is an impressive run and people don't remember Jay Kidd said he was already better than Dirk. You know, he's 25 years old and Dirk has the logo. They got a picture of Dirk shooting a fade away. Right. And they're already talking about he's better than dirt. He ain't want to dirt dirt beat the King. Yeah. Yeah. He could, it hours. Like, so this is, this is telling you how special this kid is. Like this, this man is a real problem and he's, he really in his prime. He only 25. Yeah, that is true. He's crazy. He's only 25. I mean, Jason Tatum also what 26 or 25 as well.

Do you think Jason Tatum is disrespected or is it that he's right where he kind of needs to be? And if he can, cause this could be the summer of Tatum. If he wins this championship and then he's going to go play in the Olympics. And then I think he's up for the super max right after like this could be a hell of a four month stretch for Jason Tatum. This is huge for him and his legacy. And I think he's either Hall of Fame or whatever. You know, you can more 50 point games and Larry Bird, more career playoff points than Larry Bird, five straight trips to the conference finals, two finals appearances. This is the one they probably win. I think he's where he needs to be right now because he doesn't have the ring yet and people kind of like really value the

ring. Those that are like real hoopers, notate him as good. I think the casual fan is anti-Boston. Like a lot of people just hate that he plays in Boston and that they have so much respect and everything that comes with that. But I think if you're like a normal fan, like who really understands the game or if you hoop against them, you know Tatum is cold blooded. You respect him. You respect Jalen Brown and you understand that they have a good team. And when you're on a good team, you're held to a higher standard. They expect you to, like he said before, like they expect you to basically win every game and it's almost as if he's supposed to win this championship as opposed to him. I'm taking it it's like he's supposed to win and if he doesn't he got beat by Luca and It's like the the narrative is gonna shift as opposed to saying like he had a great year. They won 64 games

Jalen Brown is the highest paid player in NBA history He's about to become the highest paid player in NBA history. He's about to become the highest paid player in NBA history. Then you're gonna have two of the highest paid players in NBA history on the same team. Banner 18 in Boston. Two black guys. Like it's, I mean, if you think about it, like it's a really cool situation for the Celtics and their fan base to be able to say, like, we have a great young core who we weren't sure was gonna work. Now it's working and we're this close to winning a championship. And if the worst thing you can say about them is that, you know, Jason doesn't get enough love, but he just averaged 30 and he was first team all NBA. Right. Like

more do you think? What more do you want? Yeah. And I think, I mean, it is the dumbest thing we do as sports fans. I am definitely guilty of it. I think we all are where if like you play on a better team, you then get taken something away from you where it's like, well, wouldn't you want, wouldn't you want your, the best players to be like play on the best teams? Like I'd rather see that than have like an incredible player struggle with just no one on their team. And you have to sit there and be like, well, I think they're really good but they just got bums around them. So it's a weird thing we do where it's like, oh, he has too much help. It's like, who cares? Yeah. I mean, I would, I would equate it to like football, like Deon, Deon Sanders, Mary

Sanders in Detroit. And then you look at the flip side, Christian McCaffrey, right? Like how he was viewed before he got to the Niners. It was like, oh, he's great, but they lose all the time. And it's like, well, yeah, his team's not very good. Yeah. Then look at the Niners and it's like, oh, it's not fair. He has all of these weapons. And I'm like, no, he's still a monster. He just in a better situation. It's not his fault that they got great Lyman, a great defense, great threats at the receiver spot. Like he's still a monster. It doesn't change that. Yeah. It's, it's actually the Barry Sanders versus Emmett Smith. It happened at the same time. Yeah. where it's like, you know, there were Emmett Smith people.

It's like, how could you be an Emmett Smith person if you have your eyes and a brain in your head? Like, yeah, he has the rings and he has the records, but like, Barry Sanders is incredible. That's what he does. Yeah. So you were talking earlier about some guys setting some pretty devastating illegal screens. From your perspective, because the NBA is all about responding to like switching on screens, picking

roles. That's to me like the teams that have the most success consistently. That's usually how they do it. Who is who's the best at setting illegal picks? Shout out to my boy, Nerk in Phoenix. Nerk is a legal dream on one of the best illegal screeners

of all time. Take it back a little bit. Omar, I see he was a good screen setter. What's the big fella's name in Minnesota who had a huge head? He played with Kevin Love. He was a great screen setter. Looking at like today, it's funny because there's not a lot of actual fives. Shout out to my guy, JV. JV is a great legal screen setter.

He's had some really, really good screens. There's not a lot of true fives. What about Bam? Bam gets real wide on his screens. Bam gets wide on his screens, but he likes to get out. He likes to slip out so he can get done. He will make contact when it's there. I'm trying to think. It's not a lot of like when Z-Bo play with Marcus saw play. Um, those were like, when I first got into the league, that's when you had real five, we had seven foot four, four men who posted up. I played with Robin Lopez, great screen setter.

Lamarcus was a really good screen setter, especially when he could roll to that mid-A and knock it down. Boogie was a good screen setter too. Boogie, Boogie was a good screen setter. Are there ever times when you're playing in a game that someone forgets to yell out a screen? Yeah, all the time. Really? All right. Yeah. Because I mean, I didn't know if like that was like, so you guys are obviously you're so fucking good, but like it will happen not to relate to pick up, but

it will happen and pick up. You'd be like, where the fuck? Why didn't you just say there's a screen? Just get absolutely crushed. So what happens when someone forgets to yell out that there's a screen coming? It depends on who didn't yell it out, right? Like if it's, if it was one of the OGs or if they're like somebody that you know, historically yells it out and you either didn't hear them or they forgot, then you kind of give them a pass. But it was like a, you know, depending on the type of player, you're going to be like, yo, like you can't, you can't be leaving me out here like that. Like that's right. Like you won't get me hurt or.

You know, something worse could happen, you know what I mean? Especially if you pick it up and you turn and turn it and they got that blind screen in the back court to try to knock you out. Like that's the type of screen back in it. Like somebody like Patrick Beverly, right? Patrick is picking up full court. You want to get a blind screen on him just to get him off the guard to kind of free you up.

And those are the times where. You know, if you've got the ball, you just trying to set them up and run them right into the screen. And if you're guarding the ball, you want somebody to yell out like, so you come and get back or something. But it's happened. I've been hit a few, like it's happened. And you just looking like who was closest like why, why you call it out? Yeah. When When you're on offense have you ever called out fake screens? Like throwing them off their game? Like pick right, pick right, switch, switch. See people put me on game to that.

He used to do that all the time or he would point like, say it right there, say it right there and then just take off. And I was like, like nobody is there. A few times and I played against guys where a lot of teams will say black or red. Like there's a call for switch and the other team will run up and be like, black. Yeah. You'll think your garden like you'll think that you're supposed to switch and this other team calling it.

I've seen that happen a lot of times, which is funny. And then you break down the coverage and you're like, yo, I heard the call, but it wasn't it wasn't your team and They call it was the other team. So stuff like that, just trying to manipulate the game and get an advantage is an important part of the game for sure. Yes. Speaking of that, uh, you play with Jose Alvarado. Does he do his grand theft Alvarado thing in practice? And how much does that piss everyone off? He does. He tries to do it in practice all the time. Good dude though works hard, man. Oh, it's awesome when he pulls it off, but I would

imagine if he doesn't practice, he would piss you off. Yeah. I mean, he's never gotten any with that in practice before, but he does. He does pick a fool in practice. He's talking trash. He's getting after it. He's gotten a couple of back tips, but the grand Theft Auto, I think my favorite one is the one he got on. He got Brian and Brown was pissed. Uh, I see that he was pissed, like looking around his teammates like yeah, you got it. Yeah, that's what you got to call it out. Someone's got to call it out, but they don't see it. What I, I, I can't remember if when you first came on, I asked you this question and maybe I did and it's just a repeat, but I don't care. When you were playing with Dame in all these big time moments, could you, did you know when it was Dame time?

Could you like, was there something that like flipped in his head or his eyes or like, would he say, Hey, CJ, just so you know, it's Dame time or like, look at your watch. Sometimes you can see the look in his eyes or just time and score, like filling the game out, feeling the momentum or Depending what play he calls sometimes like we'll be calling the game We'll be calling plays back and forth and then he called diagonal fits or he call a play which diagonal fits for us was basically a wing goes and sets a screen for the five man the five man runs up into a mid pick and roll and he kind of Gets down here or he shoots a three when he started calling all his own plays or his own

number or no play and he just pulls up from 40 I'm like yeah he he bought the turn up or if it was a momentum swinging play right like they hit a shot he gets a layup and one and he starts celebrating or he yells because he never really celebrates until the game's over if he yells or like he starts doing that I, oh yeah, he about to get in his bag. Like he about to really turn up. And then he might start tapping his wrist, you know, while he was serious. And there's nothing you can do at the same time. Nothing you can do at all. What's the farthest you ever saw him pull up from in practice? Half court. He shot the ball from half court in practice a lot of times. Or a step in front

of half court just coming off. Natural shot, not even throwing the ball. Impressive, man. He gets really good flexion on the wrist, good dip, strong ball just kind of flows off. It's an effortless shot. It's funny to watch. It's crazy to watch. I got some New Orleans questions for you first question How awesome is it to be the man in New Orleans? What does that mean just like you're the man like you are you were a star you're on the pelicans

You you live in New Orleans, which is probably the coolest city in the United States. Just how awesome is it? I live a good life, man. I'm thankful blessed to be in a position where I can play a sport I get to be in a place like New Orleans that's hungry for success, great culture, great community, great food, great drinks, depending on what you like, heavy on the French influence. And to be able to go from where we were at before I got here to two out of three years making the playoffs to really just kind of improve. I think we had the second most wins in franchise history. Obviously, this is like Saints country, right? But it's, it's a blessing to be able to play here. My family and I love it. And like you said before, man, I'm just trying to take advantage of the blessings, work hard, and

just trying to get us to in a position to go on a real run, man. We need, we need health, we need a lot of things to kind of go our way. But I think we're right there, man. We're close to making a real run eventually. Yeah. You said the food. If I lived in New Orleans and I was on your salary, I would be fat as shit. I would eat so much. Not fat, heavy. Not very sturdy. I would be a sturdy man. Yeah. Steady, heavy, heavy and strong, man. I think it's balanced, man. Like nothing is

perfect. You got to figure out. I always say 80-20 rule, man. Like 80% 20. I'm more like 90-10. I love French fries. I like gumbo. I eat out once or twice a week. But chef, chef joy be holding me down and just making sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. But it's easy to, it's easy to venture out and eat some things you're not supposed to eat, especially out here. Yeah. I read an article that you, after the season, you do 21 days, no basketball. Now does that, like if you were walking, like you were saying you were walking with the

stroller, if you're walking by a park in the 21 days and a kid's playing and they're like, CJ, take a shot, You won't do it. That's a tough dilemma. So like, I normally don't, I don't work out. So like shooting, I don't count shooting. So like if a kid was like, shoot the ball or whatever, I shoot it. Or like the old school commercials, I might try to go dunk it if the court was low or whatever. Yeah. Like two weeks into my break, I took my son to the gym and it was just way too hot outside and he was like too hot, too hot. Dad, dad. So I took him to the gym and he's like, boy, dad, that ball. So I started shooting. That was in my slides,

but like, I don't count that because I'm not actually working out. I'm just messing around, like just playing with my son, having fun. Yeah. I don't count it. Okay. That's, that's like the, that's the height of my workout. So that's good. You're like, I don't count shooting. It's like, if I shoot, we have our basketball court here, I shoot a hundred jumpers. I'm like, man, that was a hell of a workout. Yeah. That was my whole day. Got my cardio. I really did it. Yeah. That's it. I'll do, I'll do more. It just depends on the time I have. We get the, we get the, we get the, we get the, uh, the machine. So we w we'll fire it up. Yeah. What do you got a gun? Yeah, we

got the gun. Yeah, we got the gun. What do you consider a workout? How many shots? A hundred would not be a workout. Like, uh, um, I mean my warmup is like a hundred makes just to get loose. So how many do you make when you say 50 of them? That's pretty good. That's pretty good. I'd say like three, 300 plus depending on time. Like if I'm doing a, if I'm doing a 45 minute workout, unless, unless it's 10 or 15 minutes of bond, I'm getting 400 to 500 easy. Okay

Easy and that's like movement. That's off the bounce. That's catching shoot. I might finish with a hundred 150 makes This might be a dumb question, but have you ever have you ever gone shooting and just one day you suck at basketball It's just not good. Yeah days. We don't shoot the ball well like I had days it's funny because like the casual won't understand, like getting to gym with a pro and it's completely different. Like a bad shooting day for me, I'm probably making 65% of my shots. That's like a, it's like a bad, like I'm bricking.

Nobody in the gym. Empty gym, 65% of like it's a bad day. Like I'm hitting eight, nine out of 10. Like those are like normal days. If we go do, we do a hundred threes, a bad day I'm making 75 out of a hundred. That's like a terrible day. Like that was a bad, like my second workout,

I hit 75 out of a hundred, it was a terrible day. Yeah. And that was after like 21 days. Like if normal day, 80 plus out of a hundred, and I'm talking threes, when I'm shooting how I normally shoot, 90, 92, 93 out of a hundred. And I'm talking threes when I'm shooting how I normally shoot 90, 92, 93 out of a hundred. And the like a normal NBA player, empty gym jumper is wet. Like jumper is wet.

You put them in like fans, whatever. Like that's going to change the game a little bit. But even like guys that missed free throws down the stretch of games, like big men that can't make free throws, like historically pick a big man, put them in empty gym cash. Yeah. That's when we had the whole NBA NFL argument and it's a dumb argument that we should save for the middle of summer. But that was the one thing I kept going back to. I was like, if you've ever had the luck of watching an NBA player shooting an empty gym, they literally do not miss. It's not like, Oh, this is the way they will shoot and they'll take a hundred threes and they'll, they'll make 95 of them. No problem. Like that's the level that they're shoot.

That's the baseline of like their shooting ability. And that's like everyone on the entire team, even the last guy on the bench is still an incredible shooter. Right. Yeah, I think that's a tough argument because every NFL player can't hoop in the league and every Hooper can't play in the NFL. But there are some NFL guys that could come over and there are some NBA guys that can slide over to the NFL. It's not to say one sport is harder than the other or whatever the case may be. There's just some incredible athletes in this world. There's some DBs, there's some receivers that I haven't seen hoop, and I'm like,

oh, he got game, he's nice. And there's some guys that I've seen that are just freak athletes like Braun and some of those guys where you're like, are you telling me Zion can't go play football? I could go play football if he really wanted to. Braun could go play, Russ, there's some guys that could go play football like I could go play football if he really wanted to like Bron could go play Russ there's some guys that could go play football and there's some some NFL guys that could slide over and be a shooting guard or a smart forward I've seen some of those guys shoot the

ball I've seen some of those guys that are athletes the quarterback is a quarterback from Florida like I've seen some of those guys move and dunk and jump and they'll be all right. The hard part is, you know, the contact figuring out like for the, for the NBA guy that goes to the NFL, like which is he a DB? Is he a, is he a wide receiver? Cause everybody's trying to go across that middle. That is a different, different ballgame. So talk about the difference in shooting when there's a an arena filled with fans

there was a very funny video that went viral last week and it was like a Guy pretending to be an NBA player and he's like I don't shoot well on the road The fans are mean and they're they're saying I'm bad when I'm trying to shoot What is it about shooting in front of a hostile crowd that makes you worse at shooting like what it ultimately is it? Just not being comfortable with the gym or is it people you know saying you suck is it People booing you why are players worse on the road than they are at home. I think it's a combination of things. I think it's It's not familiar territory. I think your routine is different You're sleeping in a hotel pretty gay males different if you got a chef travel you on a bus

Everything is a little different And it's not a gym you shoot in every day. And then I think the factor of it's something psychologically when someone cheers for you versus when someone booze for you, especially when you shoot. But the funny part is most of our team this year in the rolling shot better on the road than they did at home. And we had the best road record in the NBA, I think we went 28 and 14 or something like that.

And my numbers side by side, I shot better from three, better from two on the road. So it's just a matter of like routine, what you do, how much time you have. I think at home for me personally, like I shoot more at home to try to get ready for home games than I do on the road. And I shoot better on the road. I get less reps, probably get more sleep. But I think I get less reps for sure on game days at home. I stay after I shoot, I go do like a shooting drill on the road. You got like 15 minutes on the clock before you can kick that at the gym because they got to set up for something else or the other teams. So I think it's a combination of things that factor in, but it's something about being booed. Like, as opposed to like, imagine when you shoot a three

and you're like, three, and then when you shoot three, you're like, you suck. You have the free throw line, they booing you, they talking about your mama, talking about your daddy, like whatever the case may be. And at the crib, they cheering for you until like something doesn't go right. And then they might flip the switch on you

depending on what market you're in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just gonna say in Philly, they start to boo you you but then they start to be nice to you to get you out of a slump. True. And then you turn into a really good player. Great. Good sports sound. Yeah. What's what's the status of your beef with KD that I think it's long since squash but we actually had a part in the original beef because you coming on our show started that a little bit. That is like, Katie, my guy, we in a group chat together.

And I actually need to check on him, see how you're doing. But text him right now and tell him you're doing PMT and said that we'd love to have him on. He'll probably leave the group chat. I'm going PMT. He's going to leave the group chat. He said they would love to have you on. Yes.

He watched the beef. He still watches my Instagram stories. I send him and he just, yeah, well, no, he'll just like, or like if I like do an Instagram story like playing pickup, he'll just respond and be like, get this trash off the court. And then I'll send him being like, Hey, you want to come on? And he'll just read it and not respond. Oh, that's him. Yeah, it hurts my feelings every time, but I also kind of laugh.

That's funny. I got to ask him. I seen this Tinder profile. I looked like it was his. Yeah, I saw that too. Oh, he might be out there. All right. I had one last question. Let us know if he responds real quick.

But I had one last question. This has been awesome, CJ. We definitely have to get you in person too in Chicago when you're here next. Row back question, rhoback.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com. They also have swimsuits summertime, rowback.com promo code take. All right, so what are we adding to our game this summer? That's one of my favorite things that every NBA player, it's kind of a cool flex being like my game is so good, I'm gonna add this little niche thing, this little one move that no one's expecting.

What's the one move that you're adding this year? I wouldn't necessarily say move. I'm working on, see if he respond, he didn't respond yet. What'd he say? I sent him to the group, I ain't sent him to him directly, he ain't respond yet. Okay.

It says six swings swing to the corner with the first comment. I'm working on paint finishing. That's like a real big point of emphasis for me. Obviously spacing and a lot of those things play a factor, but I gotta have better court awareness and understanding big point of emphasis for me. Obviously spacing and a lot of those things play a factor, but I got to have better court awareness and understanding of like just making sure people in the right spots keep my system turnover ratio right. But paint finishing is huge. I was only like 58.3% at the rim, so I got to get better. I got to get to at least league average, which is like 65,

somewhere around there. My paint shots, non-restricted area were like less than 50, like 47, so I got to get better there. And then just a lot more of what I've been doing, like shooting the ball really well, shooting threes at a high clip, being good in pick and rolls over one point per possession, and then defensively being better in pick and roll. And I'm never going to be like a lockdown defender, but I got to be average to above average statistically in terms of what the defense is like when I'm on the floor. So I think that's the thing that I'm working on really just paint finishing. That's going to be huge spacing wise, floaters, touch shots, being smart with the Nash dribbles

and then just trying to impact winning. Okay. And what's the move that you're, I mean, you gave us the Hezzy Hay, step back to freedom. Is there a move in the last few years that you've been doing that like, you're like, man, this is so much fun whenever I can pull this off. The Hezzy Hay is just like a classic to step back to freedom. I've been through a lot of transition trades lately. I just from a lingo standpoint, what can I leave you with on the transition? Transition take that. Probably shouldn't say take that now because of, uh, we're at society, but I

would say a lot of transition threes. Um, we can say transition. Take that. Yeah. Take that. Take that. Yeah. Take that.

Yeah. Transition. Take that. Yeah. I love the floater. Float me. Float me. What?

Uh, one of my homies, I have the apprentice. he used to say, you got to get up early in the morning for that. Like you got to get up early in the morning to get to that floater because it's just like above your head. Especially with Wimby now, like you got to shoot the floater. You got to have a floater. You got to shoot it high because guys is coming to get all of those. So I say the float me in the, in the, in the pull up tray is, is a game changer. It's a, it a shot. I love is a shot I've matched and I shoot a high percentage at it. So but that has he hey was was legendary Yes, it was golden. Yes, you like Kyrie does a lot of the float me too. He's a big flow guy

I refold is crazy. Yeah, it's close. The world has ever seen left hand right hand glass cash You got everything. How do you stop Kyrie? Is it possible? I think it's, you hope to contain him, man. He has every skill set in the book. Three level score, fast, quick, and great shape. I mean he was getting 40 during Ramadan.

He was fasting and scoring 40 on people, like hungry, no water, no food. Like that's a different, that's a different type of, that's a different type of killer, man. Yeah. Yeah. I try, you got to trap him. I think OKC did a good job of taking the ball out of his hands and just trapping him, showing him different looks, just making somebody else beat you because you show one body, even if you show too late,

like he's too good. Yeah, yeah, no, OKC did a better job than Minnesota, that's for sure. All right, well, CJ, we gotta, I promise you it will be sooner the next time you're on than this gap, and we do have to get you in person, but it's great to see you. Congrats on all the success to kids.

Wine mogul. Also, I just looked up since we last seen you, I think you've made like $150 million. That's pretty cool. That's good, yeah. That's nice. That's, do you ever just look at that? Do you ever look at it like, oh shit,

cause it- Is that what happened since we last seen each other? It's literally, I think you last were on in 2017, 18, you were around 60 million for your career and now you're around two 15. That's pretty nice. That's pretty nice. Praise the Lord, man. This is a great, great world we live in, man, where, you know, if you can master something and become really good at something, do things the right way, try to lead a good life, things can turn out well for you, man. So I'm just, I'm living a dream, man. I'm really thankful. I'm really happy and blessed. And I got two beautiful babies, married. I can't complain, man. I got a heavy, hey, I got to step back to freedom.

I got to float me. I got to take that. Iippin Chardonnay talking to you guys. What can I complain about? Yes, I'm to aspire. Yeah. Congrats, CJ. And also we left out the part that you're also the manager of our high stakes fancy football league that we're in. And Jerry O'Connell screwed up our lineup entirely last year. So that's all on him.

Is he is he paying the ass to manage? Does he like send you messages behind the scenes that we don't know about? No, no, no, he's been cool, man. No, no real issues. Um, this is the year where I really need to win this, man. I've, I've put too much money into this fantasy football league to just continue to lose like this. And this is taken away from money from my, my Brown sweet games. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Should have, you had to love that Joe Flacco run probably felt a little dirty, but still. It was legendary, man. And you know, it was,

it was a situation where I thought the season was over and then it just kept getting better. And then it was like a too good to be true. And then we ran into a young Ohio state killer and that was all she wrote, but it was, it was a hell of a run, man. And hopefully, you know, this year we can be good. I mean, we're gonna need Chubb. I don't know if Chubb will be ready, but Chubb was huge for us. And for him to be hurt and injured the way he did

was devastating. But you know, I love my brows. We opened up against the Dallas Cowboys. It'll be Tom Brady's first game on Fox September 8th. We rockin', baby. Yeah, that's big. I like that you got it circled. That's the sign of a true football fan when you start just ripping off your schedule sometime in

July or June. You're like, yeah, we open here. The next week's tough. It's perfect. All right. Well, CJ, thanks so much, man. We really appreciate it. Thank you guys, man. Y'all have a good one. When I get to the shot, I'll hit y'all for sure. CJ McCollum was brought to you by the NWSL. Things have escalated from last week's show. We told you Nike hooked us up with that NWSL gear and how we want to go to that Red Stars game next Saturday, June 8th at Wrigley field. Since then, that game is on track to potentially break the league's attendance record. So it's official. The Barstool Chicago crew is going. You all

need to show up. Soccer at Wrigley. Let's break that record. We're going to report back after the game. But if you don't live in Chicago, you got to get to a game. All we keep hearing so much fun. Get to an NWSL game this year. Check out the schedules, buy some tickets. It's going to be a blast. Get involved with the NWSL. Okay. That is our show. Unless we have anything else. Oh, did you guys see Lenny Kravitz said that he hasn't had sex in nine years? Yeah, hasn't fucked in nine years. That must be really difficult for Lenny Kravitz to do that. That's insane. I would actually believe it if he has not come in nine years, but he was fucking because he's so good at like holding

it. Lenny Kravitz is so hot that there's no one on earth that can make him come? Right, and he's just like, I can control it so well, like yeah I'll fuck you for an hour, but then I'm just gonna go home. Maybe he's just on anal. That could possibly be it. But Lenny Kravitz strictly butts stuff. He does. He...

There's just no way. I mean he has cooler sex than everyone else. He keeps the scarf on. Yeah. Look at him. He's doing, is that actually Lenny Kravitz? Is that just, Lenny Kravitz might lead the league in like lookalikes if he's just got some tattoos.

Yeah, it's either Lenny Kravitz or like an anemic Larry Fitzgerald. Oh yeah. Is he retired? No, he never actually retired. He just kind of stopped playing football. We gotta figure out something to talk about on Wednesday because we have no sports going on. Let's see, what do we got?

Let us know what you want us to talk about. You know we could make a list. It's not my Rushmore season yet, but we could make a list for everyone. We could do that headline thing. Oh yeah, we could do the headline thing. We could do NFL and NBA No No, I Like the idea of making a list. Yeah, let's make a list top two

We'll do it. Let us know what list you want us to make how about Hank's top ten Patriots of all time. Ooh No, let's get yeah tell tell us the AWL's let us know what list you want sports related and we'll come up with a list We're gonna rank something. We're going to rank something. Yeah, we'll rank something and get everyone upset about it. Mm-hmm. PMT makes a list and gets the internet mad at them. Yeah.

And Mount Rush for our season will start after the NBA finals, which actually the NH, are the Stanley Cup finals going to go later this year? No. I don't think so. Because they go every night. No, because there's less time. Yeah, they go every two nights because they're not pussies.

Yeah. That's a lot of travel for them. We deserve eight hour flight. Are there any there's not a dope nights where there's Both that was actually game seven of Stanley Cup will be Monday the 24th, which would be the day after game seven Oh, wow, they both go seven. Wow Damn Kind of tough by them Hank., you just gotta get game one here. You just gotta get game one here. I'm gonna get game one here. You gotta get game one.

It was actually two days off. To arrive. We had three of the games. I know. Like I'm saying you physically can't handle just this wait. You gotta get game one here. Is there any way to speed up time? Can you figure out a way to get game one here sleep golf?

No, you just golf every second between here and game one it will get here fast if you black out That's kind of like time challenge. I'll just did like a charity 110 holes in one day thing mm-hmm last week. I don't know if you guys saw that Hank could never Do charity he accidentally did that. Uh, get game one here. I'll see what I can do. Figure it out.

I will. Uh, okay, numbers. 20. 56. 18. You're so pressed, Max. So pressed. That was 17.

That was pressed. All right, I'm gonna do eight. Three. All right, I'm going to do 8. 3. 99. 21. Oh, damn. 59.

That make you a little nervous, Max? No, I knew it was 59. That make you a little nervous, Max? No, I knew it was 59. I knew it was 59. That make you a little nervous? I knew it was 59. Have you ever gotten this? Nope.

That make you a little nervous? Nope. Love you guys. I'm talking away. I don't know what. I'm just saying, say it anyway. Today's not the day to find you. Shying away.

I'll be coming for you. I'm talking away. I'm talking away. I'm talking away. I'm talking away. I'm talking away. I'm talking away. I Shying away, I'll be coming for your love okay Take on me, take me on I'll be gone in a day or two Needless to say, I'm all set in But I'm being stolen away

Slowly learning that life is okay Say up to me It's no better to be safe than sorry Take on me Take me on I'll be gone in a day or two I'll be gone in a day Thanks for watching guys!