Pardon My Take - NBA With Kirk Goldsberry, The Knicks Stun The Celtics With Special Guest Jerry O'Connell, Pacers With Another Thrilling Comeback, Hockey Playoffs And Listener Submitted FAQ's

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Tyrese Big Balls Haliburton and the Pacers do it again, stunning the Cavs in Game 2 with another late comeback(00:00:00-00:13:27). The Warriors without Steph take Game 1 and every series is on crack(00:13:27-00:18:44). We talk some hockey after the Caps lose game 1 and Islanders lottery luck(00:18:44-00:29:37). Back in studio we recap a wild Monday night including Knicks/Celtics with Jerry O'Connell and Nuggets insane comeback in OKC(00:29:37-01:16:38). Hot Seat/Cool Throne including Justin Tucker getting cut and Big Cat passed his kidney stone after the Bet Gala(01:16:38-01:40:14). Kirk Goldsberry joins the show to talk hoops, Jokic's greatness, working for Pop, who he thinks will win the NBA Title and more(01:40:14-02:20:45). We finish with listener submitted FAQ's(02:20:45-02:36:26)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/pardon-my-take

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 part of my take, we have our good friend Kirk Goldsberry on to talk NBA. Incredible, incredible last two game days of NBA action in the playoffs. We're going to talk some playoff hockey. We also have a very special guest, Jerry O'Connell, who surprises Hank during the Celtics Knicks talk. And we recap Bet Gawa and the day with Jerry O'Connell. We're going to do hot seat, cool throne. We're going to do FAQs. Also bonus talking soccer. Great show. We're going to start via Zoom, but then we're back in studio for Nick Celtics and Thunder Nuggets and the rest of the show. And it's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. The NBA 82 game grind is done. And now the real fun begins. The NBA playoffs are here and it's time for all the high stakes drama clutch moments and jaw dropping plays. If you're looking to make the playoffs even more exciting DraftKings SportsFork has you covered as an official sports fitting partner of the NBA from the playing game all the way through to the finals. Now's the

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Okay, let's go. I love guys who like football. And guys who like football, they like me back. And I like them back. And even guys who don't like football, they try to avoid me because I'm always trying to get them to like football. Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. Make it a playoff run to remember with DraftKings. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code take. That's code take for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, May 7th and Tyrese big balls Halliburton. What a fucking comeback by the Indiana Pacers. They're up 2 Oh on the calves. PFT the last two days of it's may madness. I'm so I feel bad for John rosting because he's been sleeping this entire month. It's been insane and we thought we couldn't top it from Monday night, which

we're going to get to when we're back in studio. And then tonight happens where the Pacers are down 20, you know, six minutes into the third quarter, they're down seven under a minute. That's the second time in three games. They've come back down seven and under a minute to win a game. Insane. And not only that, but it's the second time that Halliburton's done it in the, in the final two seconds of a postseason game. So that means I was reading about this earlier. It said that LeBron James is the only other player since 1997, 98. That's when they started keeping track of play by play.

That is multiple go ahead fuel goals in the final two seconds in a single postseason. Pretty insane. Absolutely nuts ending in terms of boxing out on free throws. I feel like that's one thing that the Cavs need to work on a little bit. One of them, I'll give you one of them with a D Smith when he came in with that dunk. Awesome. He was an awesome dunk. He was definitely like inside the three point arc, but who cares? That happens on every shot. You gotta learn how to box out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, a Tony brothers ref game. You can't expect anything to make sense whatsoever. I know people were anything to make sense whatsoever.

I know people were complaining about that. Cavs fans. Listen, the Cavs should have won that game and the Pacers prove again that they you have to beat them for all 48 minutes. I honestly think with the way they play pace wise with the way Rick Carlisle basically plays every single guy on their team. He'll just be like Ben Shepard to your time. You get, you get a few minutes here. Like he, that doesn't happen in the playoffs. You don't play. I, I, let me look up how many guys played for the Pacers tonight. You don't play the amount of guys that he plays. He played 11 guys tonight. That's pretty crazy for an NBA playoff game. And so the Pacers

with the pace they play, the conditioning they have, I really think that it's like, like they are built for this type of situation where it's like the you've seen it two times in the last three games where they're just going to keep going at you and they're not going to give up. And Kenny Atkinson even admitted it. He was like we ran out of gas which I don't understand that either because the Cavs didn't have a guy over 40 minutes but it's all credits to the Pacers. I know that the Cavs fans can can you know say oh we missed this call this call that call the Pacers are just they they have alligator blood they do not die and they have a belief in Tyrese Halberton even said

after he's like there's no way I was passing that up. He's step back three to win the game. Silence the crowd. What a stud and you poke the bear to start the game. That was the dumbest move that the Cavs fans could have done as a chant overrated at Halliburton before it got started. Why would you do that? Why would you do that?

He already knows that his fellow players talk about him being overrated. You don't have to like remind him of it. That's going to piss him off a little bit. So dumb move by, by cash fans. But when you say that they ran out of gas, I think they're just talking about Donovan Mitchell. I think, I think the whole team had cast. Yeah. Donovan Mitchell was the whole team. He scored 48 points. And then at the end, it was like every time he got, he got banged around a little bit, he would take an extra 30 seconds on the ground because yeah, he's, he's fucking tired, man. He scored 48 points. Yeah, he, he was great. Uh,

and we should mention, obviously the Cavs were very banged up. Evan Mobley didn't play Deandre Hunter, Hunter didn't play Darius Garland. Didn't play. Those are three significant pieces to the Cavs and they needed Donovan Mitchell to just be, uh, you know, 48, 49 and 48 points was a 48 points. Did he finish with 48? Yeah. I mean, they needed every single bit of that and more. Um, but again, I think it's more about the Pacers, just like, they just never quit. And Rick Carlisle was a very underrated coach and this Pacers team is fun. And I don't know what, like if the calves don't get healthy, they're in serious trouble. And again, it's similar

to Monday night where it's like, I thought the calves would win this game because you have the pressure of going down potentially Oh two is a home team as a one seed. And for, I don't know the first 30 minutes of this game, it looked like that was going to be the case where it's like the Pacers are happy to have their one win on the road. They're down 20 and then just shit started happening. Cavs couldn't get the ball in bounds. Couldn't like the Pacers pressing them, just flustered them so much and Tyrese Halbert big balls. I love the big balls dances back. That was awesome. The big balls, the major league. It's awesome. It's really good. I'm glad that he did it. I hope

he, I hope he gets find and I hope he's like, that's fine. You know what? I'm going to keep doing it. I also like it. What players do that? The old John Moran. Yeah, it is. Well, yeah. What's more dangerous? Your balls or your guns? I mean, Terry's how burdens has the most dangerous balls in the game right now. Yeah. Don't point it. It's loaded. Don't point that thing at anybody. It was, yeah, it was a crazy eating. There's no such thing as a lead in the NBA. No, no, not in these playoffs. It's been insane to watch how crazy is. And we're going to talk more about this series and actually credit Kirk

Goldsbury when we talked to him because he had a good Terry's her Halberton take that looks even better. And we taped it in the afternoon. So it's always fun when that works out because you don't want to have like the knee jerk reaction of one game, change your take, which we do all the time. I like that though. May madness. I feel like that could catch on the in B may, you know, may madness is better, may madness. And again, we should call John Rossi and be like, dude, he's, I imagine he's just, he's like hibernating right now. And then anytime there's, uh, like, you know, if there's a war breaking out in Europe or the middle East, or if

there's celebrity death, celebrity death, he's going to be like two lane has a non-conference game against Chattanooga. Uh, mark your calendars, December 2nd. Uh, today he was all over the fact that St. John's in Kentucky is going to be the highest rated non-conference basketball of the entire season. Collin just shot right now. Whoa. Hank, do you take the Pacers for real? Pacers are good. That was a scrappy win. They were scrappy last year in the Eastern Conference Finals. You're so dismissive with scrappy.

But they're a year, like, it does feel... It's scrappy. Hank, admit it. It was a little patronizing. No! Scrappy. But they're a year, like, they does feel. Scrappy, that way. You know what, Hank? Admit it, it was a little patronizing. No! Scrappy. I'm giving them credit. Scrappy is a compliment.

Scrappy is a good quality to have. Here's the thing. They scrapped their way back. They went through the wars last year, and they got a little bit of scars. And now it does feel like they're a different team making these big time plays and never being out of it. And kind like, cause remember the, the, it was Easter conference finals, right? That you played them. They, they look like, like they, they looked like the team

in that Easter conference finals that what the Pacers are making everyone look like, you know, where they make mistakes down at the end of the game. The Pacers are forcing other teams to make mistakes. They're making these crazy errors games that they could win. They're there. The Pacers are stealing from them. So I feel like they're they're definitely a better version. And that knee Smith dunk that like took the soul of the calves. It was crazy. And then they just forgot how to play after that. The calves also are like not playing three of their most important players. Yeah. Ty Jerome should nice guy. He shouldn't be playing as many men. I mean, I think he went one for 15 and he was the one who

was guarding Tyrese Halliburton at the end of the game. Was it, let me look up. I don't want to slander. I think it was 14. Sorry. My apologies. He went one for 14. He's, it's a bad deal when you have tired Jerome taking 14 shots in a playoff game. Yeah. And just they forgot how to bring the ball up the court without committing offensive fouls. They forgot how to throw a normal inbounds pass without it getting picked off. It was, uh, it was just comedy of errors in the last minute. It was crazy, but I just love that feel of a team. Like the Pacers now have that feel where it's, it doesn't matter. These moments

are not too big for them where maybe last year they were and this year just it doesn't matter what the lead is. I mean two two game two out of the last three games in a playoff setting to come back down seven and under a minute is insane. That's an absolutely insane thing to be able to pull off and I think it starts with Tyrese Halbert and just being like, I'm that guy. He's got that irrational confidence going. I think it might be rational now though. Yeah, it could be rational. It's fully rational, but you kind of want it to be irrational. Yeah. I'd like him to get a little bit crazier, but I'm looking up the stats right now with teams that have a two lead. I believe this is teams with a two Oh lead as the, uh, as the away team, they win the series. I'm seeing 92.7% of the time. Are we

ready to call it? No, I want to see if the calves get healthy. Like if they get their guys back, I still think the calves are a good team. So I'm not going to fully call it. Uh, but I paces are, are fun. Watch. They're very fun. Watch. And they're scrappy as fuck. And Tyrese happened there. There you go, Hank. Scrappy as fuck. And Tyrese Halliburton is that guy. But the way you say it is way different from the way Hank said. Well, I was saying it's a mock Hank. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, scrappy, scrappy. They're scrappy.

You're like patting them on the head. Yeah. Like they're adorable. Yeah. They're scrappy. I have a little story. That was a scrappy win I was watching that game being like damn that I'm not like I'm there's no there's no I'm not dissing them at all Yeah, there's a good win. How do I get it? Sure. He's scrappy David Eckstein scrappy very scrappy So scrappy gritty. No, he's gritty. There's a big that's that's scrappy is scrappy is like the the There's a big that's that's Scrappy is Scrappy is like the the teenage Spencer on the teenage boy version of gritty gritty. You grow up to a man. You become great. A scrappy boy can become a gritty man, but it's not necessarily going to

happen. Yeah. Scrappy is like you do some small things. Okay. But there's a reason why you're not using a nicer word for it. Gritty is like you respect gritty. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Uh, yeah. Scrappy is a patronizing word. You're you're not using a nicer word for it. Gritty is like you respect gritty. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Uh, yeah. Scrappy is a patronizing word. You're, you're being a little scrappy. You're a little scrappy guy. Huh? You're a little scrappy. You're gonna do a little thing where you come back. Yeah, it's a cute, cute, cute little win. They did it twice. That's awesome. Good for you. It was. Yeah. Good for them. Scrappy is basically like a 20 pound dog at your heels. That's right. But you know, a championship team is, you know, a full grown 125

house championship team like like there's their fun little story like pacer pacer Dan. You got to get that gets the hyped up on them for a couple more games. I enjoy watching him play. I don't know what you want to say. I love ball. I love ball. All right. The other game, uh, speaking of bad takes, I, this would be funny if the Pacers one, cause we just, if they wanted all Hank, that would be an all time clip. But I had a clip which I cop to, uh, when we're back in studio talking about the nuggets thunder, I had the words of scheduled loss again. And guess what? The warriors did not lose and they had, they did lose Steph Curry. I'm a moron but the Warriors I don't know I don't know

what Steph Curry's injury status is going to be. I feel like he's going to be out for a game or two especially now that they stole this game. But I the Warriors did not look like the team that played a game seven two days ago. They looked like the rested team. They were running everywhere. So much more energy and God damn it. The Tim rolls could not hit a shot. That was atrocious to watch. It was a lot of that. It was partly buddy healed. Like he kicked in big time. Steph Curry didn't, they didn't even really miss him after he left. There was a small comeback in the fourth quarter that made it,

I think within nine at one point, But even without Steph Curry, they just kind of kept their foot on the gas and held them off. But yeah, tough break for the Timberwolves. I think Jim, what, no, Anthony Edwards didn't hit a jump shot until like three minutes left in the fourth quarter. Stan Van Gundy kept reminding America about that. He was 0 for 8 in the first half. They couldn't shoot a three pointer to save their life. It was crazy. Uh, they, they got a standing ovation when Nas read hit a three pointer in the third quarter, because thank God.

Okay. Is it, we're not going to go over for the entire game, but yeah, that it makes no sense to me whatsoever. The old team that's banged up the warriors, they somehow looked like they had more energy than the younger team, the Timberwolves, who had all the rest in the world. It was very, very strange and I didn't see it coming either. No, and the Steph Curry thing, I hope he's okay because I want to see him play in this series. What do you think? I think the first five games are every other day. So it does feel like they might sit him.

I feel like he's guaranteed to sit on Thursday. I say as a 40-year-old who's dealing with his own hamstring injury right now from softball, I'll just say I took a week off in between softball games. And I came back and instantly tweaked it again when I started to run. So be careful. I think Steph

shouldn't play softball for the next week. Yeah. Uh, or at least if he does just make sure someone else is running for you. Yeah. Pinch runner. Yeah. Pinch runner. Yeah. I hope he plays. I feel like they're going to sit him though. Probably game two and three and then be like, load up the clip for game four because that's crazy that they stole this game. Like that was imagine, imagine the mood for the warriors right now. If they lost this game and Steph was out, you'd feel like this series was completely over, but I don't know. Timberlake can't hit a shot. This is a couple of games in a row now. Like remember the closeout game against the Lakers. They were just as bad from three. They shot

17% from three tonight. There's absolutely nothing about this game that makes any sense at all. The Warriors, there's so much smaller than the timber wolves are. And it felt like the timber wolves could just big body him if they wanted to and they didn't. They kept trying to shoot from the outside. And I guess it's just, you know, live by the jump shot, die by the jump shot. They're probably not going to be as bad in game two as they are in game one. And so I have to imagine that Minnesota comes out game two and beats the Warriors by a good amount. Actually, I would think so. I would think so. But then you thought the Cavs are going to do the same. Nothing makes sense right now. I did think that. I misspoke. They shot significantly better from three tonight than they did against the Lakers in the closeout game. They shot 17% tonight in the Lakers closeout game. They shot 14%. So that's a problem. Got to answer maker. Miss league PFT. That's true. People forget that. And I think that if you just take the three quarters of this game, I want to say that was more like 10% from three until the very,

very end of the game. Yeah, it was. It was ugly. Very ugly, very ugly. And I man if the Warriors, I don't even want to like what if Steph, if Steph comes back to the Warriors win another title is where well, that's what I'm saying. Like that was when we did the list of guys and the narrative

guys. I think that Steph would definitely be in the conversation for top three of all time, especially if he was like incredible in the finals. We're getting ahead of ourselves, but that's what we like to do. We watch ball, then we come on zoom, then we get ahead of ourselves. Then we do a zoom two days later and we say, hey, remember that thing. I said that was stupid. If Steph Curry wins NBA finals and MVP,

by the way, with a torn hamstring, he has a hamstring. I think you got a broken thumb. You got to put him ahead of LeBron. I'd agree. I'm still number. Do you think MJ is watching this series in the crowd? Like Donna Kelsey with a split Jersey for, for Butler and Anthony Edwards? Yeah, he's gotta be. Yeah, it's gotta be Jimmy. But that was when you knew there was the Warriors night when the wolves were making a little run and then Jimmy Butler did the foul bait three where he just threw it up and it went off the back board. Yeah. Okay. This is not this. The Warriors are winning this game no matter what. Yeah.

Just felt like that. Um, all right, let's talk some hockey and we're, we're going to talk more basketball with Kirk Goldsbury. And we obviously have, uh, the recap of the Beck Allen, Nick Celtics and Thunder, uh, nuggets PFT. Mm. Not the best experience I would assume tonight. Bad game, bad game. We had no juice. I don't know if you watched any of the game. We were juiced. No, we out there. Uh, there was, there was some issues from the backend. We just didn't, we couldn you watched the game. We were just no, yeah, there, uh, there was, there was some issues from the backend. We just didn't, we couldn't possess the puck. We just, every time, here's the thing about the, uh, the hurricanes is they take a

million shots. That's kind of their mo they will, they will shoot as many times as they can, which isn't the worst strategy in playoff hockey. But the downside to that is sometimes if you take a lot of low percentage shots, then you let a goalie get hot and then it becomes one of these things where you just can't win because the goalie is so confident and he's seeing everything. And that to a certain extent happened tonight. Logan Thompson had a great game for the Caps, but every miss that they'd have, we would get the puck and then we would turn it over to the neutral zone. We wouldn't be able to get it into their third and Yeah, if you look at the stats in terms of like where the puck was for most of the game I think it was in the Hurricanes attacking end something like 20 minutes of the game

I think the capitals it was only down there like eight minutes of the game. Yeah, there was no energy. No juice Tom Wilson had the lone highlight of the game. Actually, I'd say the caps had two highlights today. One, Ovi hit a one timer and Wilson was standing directly in front of the goal and it hit him right in his stick and just broke his stick in two. That was cool. That was fun to look at. The other highlight was Tom Wilson took another man's mouthpiece out of his mouth. I love that. And then gave it back to him and said, here you go. But it's so different when Tom Wilson does it versus some like, you know,

when it's like a pest doing it, you can't. What are you supposed to say to Tom Wilson? Just kick your ass. You just look down. It's like when I take a toy out of Blake's mouth because I'm the owner and he's the dog, he just kind of looks down at the ground. He's like, oh, he got me again. And then I give it back to him because I'm a good guy. But yeah, there was, there was nothing, nothing redeemable about this game outside of Logan Thompson. All time sports sound is the road playoff hockey overtime winner where it's not like a clean goal. Where it's like, you know, there's a, there's kind of like, there's a bunch of people in front of the

net. I think, I don't think it got tipped, but still it was one of those goals where you kind of see, you kind of see it, but you don't really see it. And then all of a sudden the hurricanes are just celebrating and the air coming out of a building on one of those moments because the finality of it is just like, wait, wait, what the fuck just happened? Turn it back on. Yeah. You keep waiting for a replay. You're like, maybe you hit the goalie. Maybe it's a, maybe it's interference. And then you see the guys on the bench always know. So Ovi was like the first guy out there. He's like, that's game

over. I can get in the tunnel and start having my vodka and chicken parm now. And, uh, it was, it was bad. I, I don't want to call out the DC crowd, but I feel like I got to say something. There was no juice in the ground, No juice in the crowd. Where's all the juice in DC right now? I have no idea. Game two must win or can't lose. I said tonight was a must win. Oh no. But I'm doing must win again, back to back, never been done. Have you thought about switching it up to a can't lose? No, it's a must win. This one's a must win for sure. But it was the only person in the crowd that did have juice tonight was Stanford Steve Yeah, I got a credit. I'm chugging that yeah

Yeah, they put Stanford Steve and SVP on the on the jumbotron and then of course SVP You know, he's class act classy guy a very demure. He just sat there and he like looked at Steve He's like, okay. Here you go, Steve. Yeah, you're my you're my resident. You're my designated beard chugger Good job by Stanford Steve. We needed like seven more beer chugs from Steve to get any juice tonight. Oh, and he could do it. Listen. Yeah. I've, I've been out with Steve a bunch. You have two PFD. You have to Hank I've seen just in the most casual. I remember I went to a Cubs game with him like eight years ago and we were sitting at a bar. He asked what, how early we could get to a bar.

Yeah, I was like, yeah, yeah. And my buddy was like, yeah, we can open a little earlier. We'll get in there. And then he's like, can I bring my bags? Like, yeah, no problem. I'll get them. I know the owner. He'll put him behind. Steve had like four beers before I finished my first. And it wasn't like he was chugging. He was just drinking regularly.

He just has a hollow leg. So that's a man. It's like that. He's not script. Would you ever call Steve scrappy? Hank? No, no, fuck. Exactly. So there you go. Yeah. It was like that scene in the wire where the bar and they're just cracking eggs into their beer and chugging it. That's what that's what Steve. In fact, I don't even think Steve knew he was on the jumbotron. You know, it was just, I think it was just slamming a beer. He just caught him in the, yeah. Every, if you just have a camera on them every 10 minutes, you'll get that. I'm starting to think it might be the Leafs year.

It might be Canada's year because you also had the Oilers when, uh, tonight game one against the Knights and we have, so the Oilers are up one out, the Leafs are up one Oh, and the jets are still there. Uh, it might be Canada's year. I know I'm getting ahead of myself but that Leafs game was was electric and I I thought going into the game I was like man the Panthers are going to be way better than Leafs like we've seen this before Leafs fans getting really cocky. It's obviously only one game but winning game one is massive. So there's some bad

blood too some very bad blood in the Panthers Leaf series already. Paul Maurice was saying that it was an intentional filthy dirty kick to the back of the leg. He could have ended the man's career. He was talking about Matthew Kachuk. So they're pissed off. I don't think that there's going to be any sussies though. I think the law and Marshawn in the least like the least least fans fucking hate him. Yeah, I like the bad blood.

I feel like the I feel like the Panthers just bring bad blood everywhere. They go, which is fun. That's Florida a lot of hepatitis. So very fun. Yeah, the Oilers. I mean, that was a great game by the Oilers. They scored three goals in the third to beat the night soundly. Maybe could be the year for we should we should we should talk about this plan

real quick. If the Oilers did win, we just can't have Whitney on again. Hmm. Well, it depends. Now you would have to win MVP. He'd have to win MVP. Otherwise we'd have a we would just debate him to death on who who's the best player it would be Jason Tatum all over again yeah well I mean we we got a lot of rounds so I'm actually rooting for the Wailers I do love watching Connor McDavid I hope no one tells Whitney this but like we have fun with him but he's so much fun to watch he is really. The one thing that we can't have is an all Canada Stanley Cup.

Can't have. Oh, why? Yeah. I like that. Okay. Let me to me too. I want that. Would they play both national anthems before the game?

I don't think so. Or just so Canada. It's just okay. We can't have that. We got to you know what? I don't even count that as Canada winning a Stanley Cup. If it's two Canadian teams playing against each other. I would actually be the man. You got to beat the man, right? I would prefer to Canadian teams in one Canadian team because it's like,

if it's been so long since they've gotten a cop and to have one of the, like the stakes for both Canadian teams, be like, can we be the first team and the other teams and be just forgotten in history? Oh man man, would that be awesome. Need it. See, I think if it's Leafs-Eulers, which actually would be great just to watch Whit and Biz go at each other, that would be fun. It would be incredible.

We could also call it Mickey Mouse, no matter who won. It's like, well, you just beat another Canadian team. And they haven't won in 40 years. Easy mode. Easy mode. Also, memes, congratulations. The Islanders won the lottery. another Canadian team and they have a 40-year-old easy mode easy mode also memes congratulations you the Islanders won the lottery still don't understand how the lottery worked it felt like they made that way more complicated than it had to be I still don't know how it works either I didn't even know it was

happening this I just looked at Twitter I saw a chief's tweet that just said what is going on followed by an Islanders tweet of the eyeball emoji. And then all of a sudden I just saw Islanders got the first pick and I was like, this is the greatest thing to ever happen. Because you guys had the 10th best odds to get it. 10th best odds, 3% chance of getting it. Wow.

That's crazy. Now we have people just arguing over who we're gonna pick where it just like, it doesn't matter. You're gonna get somebody good. Damn. That's sick and you. We have people just arguing over who we're gonna pick where it just like it doesn't matter You're gonna get somebody good. Yeah And you're gonna get someone good who then will probably end up going to the Leafs and free agency So a lot of people were saying just check check check the kids Instagram. There's also a Long Island kid Yeah, make sure he doesn't have any yeah Yeah, at least you know betting that he was in when he was seven years old

You got to make sure you got to make sure that doesn't happen. Yes scour the internet There's also a hot pot kid who is a Long Island fan an Islanders fan that that could be the the simple island from Long Island Islander fan Higgins he plays for Boston College Center. Is he worthy of the number one pick a Lot of people saying it's a reach but you could trade down get more picks College Center. And is he worthy of the number one pick? A lot of people saying it's a reach, but you could trade down, get more picks. But he's top five. He's top five. You're like, yeah, but this is from the neighborhood. So it's pretty much as yeah, just draft them till he'll never leave. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That lottery made no sense. I watched it back. And I was just like, what? It was like two numbers and then just fucking tell us, just reveal it. Who's saying that there's a there's like three guys that are standing out at the top of this draft. So and I think the Blackhawks pick third. Yeah. Did we fall the fourth? I think we could have fallen to fourth. I think we're third. Utah also jumped up there for yeah, we're we're three because I know the Blackhawks had the second best chance to get the number one pick. So they got kind of screwed there, but whatever three Blackhawks are going to be good

and like another couple years. I think so. So me. So I mean, I don't know how to auto. years. I think so. So I mean, I don't know how to auto. I don't know how to get. I don't know how to get off of auto renew on my season tickets. So those are generational. Yeah, kids are going to have them. Their kids are going to have them. That's something I got. It's out of my hands. I like the season. We get

to like late March and I just get an email that says thank you for your first installment for your Blackhawks tickets renewal. You think that's bad. My grandkids are going to have Indianapolis cold season tickets because I can't figure out how to unsubscribe from that. So this is gonna be three seasons in a row. Yeah, I made the smart choice with those doing the game by game.

Yep. When we did it because I knew I was going to get stuck in an auto renew again and that's where I'm at. But I get a nice gift from Mr. Osei once a year. So that's cool. Yep. When we did it because I knew I was going to get stuck in an auto renew again. And that's where I'm at. But I get a nice gift from Mr. Osei once a year. So that's cool. Yeah. All right. Do we have anything else before we kick it to ourselves and we have a special guest, Jerry O'Connell and then Kirk Goldsberry. Let's let's hop back in the studio. Okay. Before we get to Monday night's action in the NBA, which was incredible. You can see it in front of us. The new Mountain Dew cans are out.

PFT. It is summertime. It is, what's your favorite part about summer? Mine, baseball, outside. Mine's probably drinking Mountain Dew with the boys. I love that. Golf season, Hank? Yep, beach.

Getting it ready in golf season, maybe going to the beach. Boating. or a lake Yeah, my favorite personally is vacation vacation Well, guess what nothing goes better with baseball boating golf? Beach and hanging with your friends than the refreshing citrusy kick of Mountain Dew and look at these new cans They went old-school, baby. They went throwbacks. They are awesome. This is like nostalgia in a can.

It's a nice little vintage logo here. I like it. I even like the Diet Mountain Dew logo. Yeah. It's pretty sweet. Yeah, thanks for wanting to go outside. They knocked it out of the park with the new Mountain Dew,

old Mountain Dew, but new Mountain Dew cans. We love Mountain Dew. There's nothing like the citrusy kick of Mountain Dew in the summertime when the sun's shining down. Ice cold Mountain Dew with the new can. Again, nostalgia in a can. Go check these out. Just the can alone. I don't even want to crack mine because then the can... Actually, you know what? I'm going to save the can. You saved it. I'm going to make a graveyard of cans.

Get it grated. Yes, I will get it graded. So grab a dew in the new packaging and enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. Thank you to Mountain Dew, our wonderful sponsor. Okay, Monday night was an incredible night of basketball. I think it might have been the best night of basketball in the last couple of years. It was insane. We had two road teams, big underdogs come back in very dramatic fashion and we'll start Hank with your Celtics. 45 missed

threes. Jalen Brunson was insane down the stretch. There was a stretch there where it was 75 55 the cells were up by 20 with 534 left in the third quarter and they were on cruise control I think you thought the same thing I know the same thing watch the game I was like I said was over at halftime this is it this is gonna be a four game series the Celtics are just so much better than the next and then in the next whatever it is I think it's I can't do my math real quick. It's like 14 minutes a game. So it's 534 in the third to 328 in the fourth. The Knicks went on a 42 to 16 run, 14 minutes of game play, and Jalen Brunson outscored the Celtics 18 to six. OGN and Nobi

was unbelievable as well. This was a game I just, I was shocked. I was I was like this is the Celtics are going to win this game so easily and then it just all flipped and Jalen Brunson I know there'll be next fans being like did you trash him. I don't like the Jalen Brunson foul baiter. I did say in that statement when we talked about it two weeks ago that I think he's a phenomenal player and very fun to watch when he's not foul baiting and this was phenomenal Jalen Brunson. I have a stat for you. P F D. You ready for this? Sure. The NBA put this out. Uh, there's only been three players to

score 75 plus fourth quarter points through their first seven games of a postseason run in the play by play era. Can anyone name the other two? The first, how many games? First seven games of a playoff of a postseason run. There's only three players to score 75 plus fourth quarter points. Kauai. And nope. I'm gonna go with Allen Iverson. Nope, it is Jalen Brunson.

Steph Curry, ever heard of him in 2023. Kobe Bryant, ever heard of him. Oh, first seven games. First seven games of the postseason. He's scored 75 plus plus he's in caught He's in the sentence with Steph Curry and Kobe Bryant. It's insane now Hank You had to watch this game with Jerry O'Connor. Yep I think you said afterwards that it was the worst experience of your life. Oh, that's what it is what?

I've been complaining we Recording this in the morning, and I've been complaining about how I can't hear out of my left ear my ear hasn't popped It was Jerry Jerry was screaming. I don't know if no Yeah, no he was cuz I was I saw a couple of them like hey I can't fucking hear to my left ear. I had to start covering up my ear. Did Jerry he was what did it sound? My dreaming what was he saying? Let's go Knicks. Let's go Knicks Jalen Brunson, but like Not you know Jalen Brunson one time Jalen Brunson two times he when he would do a Jalen Brunson

He did it for 30 straight times in a row. Yeah, but I also saw He would just sing Jalen Brunson until in a row. Yeah, but I also saw a lot of scoring. He would just sing Jalen Brunson until the commercial break. I was saw a lot of Jerry whispering in your ear. Yeah. I saw him whispering ping pong, ping pong, ping pong. So it's not like you gotta, you gotta make up your mind. You know, that's what it is. I actually think I have ear damage. I'm actually now Jerry did, did your damage to you? Jerry's in your head. He's, he's firmly in your head. Yeah. And when, and what would? Cause I was sitting, I was all over the place. I live streamed you for the, for the overtime, but I wasn't

sitting with you guys for the majority of the second half. He was just screaming bing bong over and over. There was a little bit of that. Not even bing bong. It was the defense and then just whatever, whatever player was a passionate fan. Yeah. He Jerry had an all time. He was throwing his leg over my leg the leg placement was crazy He at one point Jerry was giving Hank a lap dance and whispering bing bong into his ears I I gained a newfound respect for memes last night and and sometimes for him. I ears fucked I actually I want to know I want to record that shit and watch the game at the same time That's that's very hard to do credit to memes

I want to know what exact because I want to know like exactly what it sounded like when he was just screaming in your ear I mean you can see the clips. I had to like it was you know all fun and games We knew that that's what we were there for but he was yelling so loud. I had to start like putting my my Finger in my ear to block it because like my ear hurt. And then I woke up this morning and was like damn my ear hasn't popped my left ear. I don't think that's the problem. So you woke up with Jerry O'Connell in your ear? Yeah. Permanent damage. He's in your head rent free. How does that work? What do you mean? What's going

to happen? I don't know. Am I just deaf? Maybe you know what, I can't live like this. It might be one of those things where like you you hear a song it gets stuck in your head you need to hear it again to get it out of your head Yes, the problem doesn't stop he won't stop like just not going to stop like one or two or three times. Yeah. So Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, yeah. Tell us, tell us from your perspective how the night was because you, you haven't changed. I don't know if you slept for people who aren't watching the YouTube tune into YouTube because he's, he's back in his mesh green tank top in front of his car. His aunt car. Yeah. Got the hat on. Yeah. He's got the hat on. Yeah. Thank you for this.

Yep. Josh. This is our this is our brokeback mountain hat. Hey Yeah First of all my clothes I do want to say a lot of people are like saying like what is he wearing? Why is he wearing that it was the bet Gala? I was making a joke about the fashion at the Met Gala and I wore this and I thought it was like all fun and everything Until I had to meet Larry Fitzgerald and Stephen Nash like all fun and everything until I had to meet Larry Fitzgerald and Stephen Nash at the party. It was so much fun there at the DraftKings Sportsbook in Scottsdale. Larry Fitzgerald was like, what the fuck are you wearing, man? Like, what is it? Satire. And I was like, I was like, oh, Larry, it's a joke. It's like the Beck Gala, the

Met Gala. Then I had to meet Stephen Nash and like someone was like, Oh Larry, it's, it's a joke. It's like the Beck Gala, the Met Gala. Then I had to meet Steven Nash and like someone was like, Oh Jerry, this is Steven Nash. And Steven Nash was like, what the are you like a dancer here? And it was like, no, no, no, I'm an actor, kangaroo Jack. And I'm wearing this for the Beck Gala. It's, it's a joke. So that was a little embarrassing. I was embarrassing wearing it, but man getting, I totally forgot about the gate. I like in the third quarter, I stopped watching the game. I was sitting at chicken fries table. I was sitting with the chicks in the office. Casey, everybody looked pretty. It was fun. I was like, I'm giving up on this game. And then it happened. And I gotta tell you, I'm a little older than you guys. Very reminiscent of the 86 Mets. Ooh. And how they and how they beat the Boston Red Sox. It really is reminiscent

of that. A New York team just rising from the ashes like a Phoenix to destroy Boston sports. It is it was so much fun. Game six, game one. I never screamed directly in your ear. I never screamed directly here. That's from the on tape. It's on tape. Dude, hold your nose.

Hold your nose. I've been trying to do that. That's the problem. Yeah, you damaged him. This is not Hank is is blaming you for something that is that is not your fault. Jerry Hank goes to enough concerts. He's had enough speakers in his ears. I don't think I don't think it's you damage. Oh, yeah, this is not Hank is blaming you for something that is that is not your fault Jerry Hank goes to Enough concerts. He's had enough speakers in his ears. I don't think I don't think it's hearing damage and also For a lot of it. I was just going you blew it. Hey, it's so fun. It was, but I gotta tell you, you almost strangled Dave Jerry. That was fucked up. Yeah. You almost struggled Dave. You were very central with

Hank. I thought you guys were going to fuck the way you were inside of his ear. I gotta tell you Jersey. Jerry pulled me aside. It was so fun to be with all the bar stool people. It really was. Shout out to Blutman as well. I've got to give Blutman Blutman's dad a shout out also. I keep forgetting to do this. What man's father obviously bar stool celebrity is the one who said you should April Fool's Day max and call his big dom. So that was all that was all a Blutman's dad. Um, okay. Um, I gotta tell you, so I'm there and I'm, I'm like watching the game with Hank. There was some inappropriate touching. I'm sorry about that. I mean, should I talk to like Barstool HR or something? You also had, you just, you also just had a raging boner at one point when you, uh, you, you also had you just you also just had a raging boner at one point when you You got a nice car. Well

It was just the game was happening. I swear it wasn't Hank. Anyway, Jersey Jerry comes up to me and he's like Jersey Jerry who I love was like hey man, can I uh, Can I talk to you a second? This is it like a timeout and I was like, oh, yeah. Yeah, and he's cool He's got his new haircut. He a time out. And I was like, oh yeah, yeah. And he's cool. He's got his new haircut. He's he was fun. And he was like, hey, dude, what's your what's your deal, man? What's your deal?

And I was like, what do you mean? What's the mix? And he was like, no, no. And he was like pointing at this outfit. He was like, what's your deal? You married? Like, what's your story? And I was like, yeah, I'm married. And he was like, well, why? Why are you doing all this? What is what's your story? I was like, yeah, I'm married.

And he was like, well, why? Why are you doing all this? What is what is all that? Like, what's your story? I see you climbing all over Hank. Like, what is this? Who who are you? You have something you want to tell me.

You have something like get it off your chest, bro. Get like be free, free yourself. And I was like, Terry, I'm going to go back and watch what's the next. It was so exciting. But the piece the resistance was your boss stool a president a Dave Portnoy immediately the Celtics lose. He goes into his phone and I was like I got to go bing bong this guy. I got to go bing bong him. Good instinct went right over to him gave him a hug. Thank them for all he does. Yeah. He does a great job and just being bombed him right there. It felt so good. You know what? I wouldn't have been

a real Knicks fan if I hadn't been bonged the fuck out of Dave Portnoy. It felt so good. Yeah. It got written up in the New York Post You got you get the New York Post had a story about Jerry O'Connell bing-bonging Dave Portnoy Just being bombed him right there did thank him for all he does. Thank you for all your suit Thank you for all you do. All right, hey I have another first of all you you you ruptured my eardrum and then We got to the airport last night and PFT gave me what I thought was your whole outfit Suit and jacket and I originally I was gonna throw it away And I was like you know what when the Celtics come back and win the series in five

I'll wear the jacket and have my sweet revenge, and then I was like damn this this jackets wet You just gave him the pants and they were like you gave me sweaty Disgusting ass pants and the second I realized it was just the pants, I threw them away. But that was fucked up too. Like those pants were disgusting. It was that sweat. And by the way, watch the video.

It wasn't wearing no underwear. Oh, so that's why the bulge was popping on that one clip where you were orgasm in front of everyone We're leaving in jerry comes. Oh, you know, he's like he's like bring these pants to hank and then I touch them He was like, oh, yeah, you might want to be careful. That's all my ass And they were they were saying that pft didn't say to that to me. He's like here honestly guys Full disclosure. I gotta say loved the the the DraftKings sports book. Those Mountain Dew cans look really cool. Great ad libbing there.

You really stretch that out. But I got to say, I got to say I did did pop a couple of rocks on before the game just to like get the blood flowing. Just to like to like be like Oh, Nick, let's go,, let's go Nick, let's go Nick. Oh man, it was, what a dream, what a dream, what a dream, what a day, what a day. I got a question for you because you hit some big bets

last night and I know that you're only allowed to bet a certain amount because of your wife, who we love, who's always welcome on the show. We love. And I know that you hit a couple bets bet a certain amount because of your wife who we love who's always welcome on the show Oh And I know they hit a couple bets have you told her about those bets and if so Do you do you get to hang on to that money or do you have to give that back to her? No already gave the money back. Um, it's already it's already gone. Um It's my wife's walking around money she got it. Um

It was a little awkward. Like I didn't want to do this at home. Obviously, I'm in the park that I always scream to you guys from. Just because I'm like, I didn't want to put this on and like front of my whole family and everything. But what a night. What a night. You know, I'll tell you, first of all, everyone should bet responsibly. A lot of people I saw you posted how much I bet and everything. Everyone

should bet responsibly, but it's so funny. I had such better as remorse because I chickened out at the last second and I was like, all right, I'll take the Knicks with the points. You should always just bet money line bets, especially if it's with your heart. Just bet money line bets. What a bummer. What a bummer. What a chicken shit I was, you know? Yeah, that's okay though. Jerry, I got a question for you. So you spent the whole day with us. It was great. We played golf. We hung out in the suite. We went to the Beck Gala. Uh, was it every like our operation?

It was just fun having you around. I, it was such a joy having you, you around all day. It was cool. Um, you know, uh, when we were playing golf, I have a little bit of a slice, a touch, but I am not a terrible golfer. Hank, I want you to say it. You're not a terrible golfer. Okay. That was nice. Thank you. Um, don't drive the ball very far, but they have a little trouble with distance. I do, especially off the tee. They have a little trouble with distance. It's my thing. And man, big cat, just you in my ear, just going, just saying like, wow, you have a little trouble with distance. You say the one thing that really fucking threw me off my game. It just, it was so emasculating. You really are quite

effective, especially when you were on the other team, but I'm literally going to the range and I'm going to my pro and I'm saying I need another 50 yards right now. This guy just was in my year. Yeah. You know, so it was really fun hanging out with you. Big Cat. If I may, I mean, is this a am I allowed to be honest here with everyone? Yeah. Wonderful night that did anyone try the steak at that Draft King Sportsbook? Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful night that did anyone try the steak at that draft King Sportsbook? Yeah. Yeah. Had it all. Oh, it was delicious. Just melted in, in your mouth. But, um, going to

a sports book with big cat is an interesting experience because you walk in, you're with friends, you're excited, you're, you're going to watch a game and big cat just starts at some point, just like pacing back and forth. And you're like, Hey, big cat just starts at some point just like pacing back and forth and you're like hey big cat What's going on and big cat just goes? I've cast a bet Yes, but have more effect. I'm gonna bet on that. I'm gonna bet haven't cast a bet And it's like oh, yeah, well, we're just we're having fun. We're here for the back gala It's kind of fun and big cat just like looks off in the distance. He's like having cash to bet

You know fucking trees can't have fucking threes this fucking hockey game. It's not going to hit six. It's not going to hit six goals. You've got to be fucking kidding me. Five and a half goals. I haven't cashed a bet. So if I may suggest like maybe that have fun, you know, don't like make it because a lot of times boiler alert, you're not going to win bet. You know, that's true. That's true. And Jerry, that's, that's true. That's true. And Jerry, that's very fair criticism. I personally thought I took the bet gala as a personal challenge where I was like, I'm going to bet everything in a lot of it because I was like, what else are you supposed to

do at the bet gala? So yeah, I had a lot of balls in the air at the beginning. Like that, whatever it was, I think it was like four o'clock to five o'clock Pacific time had a lot of balls in the air and none of them were going through the net. So it wasn't going well, but then it turned around. Yeah. Didn't you hit your over goals? Yeah. Maple Leafs game. Yeah. It was tough when you start and you like, I was owing for within like the first 15 minutes of the bet Gala and that's when it gets a little you know the stress starts to rise. I'm careful.

I'm a cast back. I'm a character fucking back. That's every Sunday in the gambling cave. It's not about winning bats. The bet Gala was about just looking hot with your friends and possibly giving them hearing damage. Yeah. So I'd say you say it was really fun. Those. Yeah.

Sorry, why? No, you did a great job. Jerry. We love having you there. You brought a ton of energy. We appreciate it. I love the fact that you're up one not have you thought about the rest of the series? Because Dave told you, gentlemen, sweet. I mean, yeah, just enjoy the one win. All honesty. I gotta tell you, the Celtics look incredible, Hank. They're really, they're a frightening team in the East. So that was really fun taking it one game at a time. Each game is a challenge.

I mean, but the Knicks do have that special 86 Mets magic that just somehow finds a way like Harry Potter to beat Austin. They just figure it out. It's magic. It's magic. Hank knows what I'm talking about. Can you hear me? Yeah, no, it's game one. I hear you. I hear what you're saying. Hey, how old were you in that in 1986? I was negative seven. OK. Negative seven. Yeah. All right. Well, Jerry, I do have one more question for you, because we just talked about this on Sunday and we mentioned it briefly when we were playing golf. But you worked with Jerry Bruckheimer.

Yeah. And Kangaroo Jack. Yeah. What was that experience like? He tried to add any explosions. How bad ass is he? He's an incredible producer. He really is. I don't even have a bit here. I'm not even doing a joke here. His attention to detail is everything. He looks at everything and everything goes through him. And he really knows how to make people have an enjoyable experience in a theater. Best producer I've ever worked with such an

honor and I'm lucky to call him a friend. Love that. Love that. Well, Jerry, let's hope this series goes six or seven because we have plans to maybe fly you back for, we'll just, you know what? You'll just do Hanks right here. You'll even them out. Hank, I hope you don't have hearing damage. I wasn't screaming in your ear. I was not. I agree. How can you say that? There's no evidence.

Yeah, like how can you how can you say that? That's psychotic stuff. I think you have like a cold. I think you have like a cold, like maybe a little cold or something You know, this is Jerry Hanks LeBron. He's like, oh no, I got I lost the game. So I'm all banged up now Yeah, if game two was tonight Hank could listen to it Hank is like on the couch. The Knicks just beat the Celtics and he's like, oh my ear my ear. Oh Yeah, though that is I woke up Yeah, no, that is I woke up. I see you. My ear, my ear.

I'm injured. I'm injured. Are they looking? Is the stream on me? Yeah, I see you. My personal favorite was when I was whispering, not shouting. I mean, infinity time. Someone read how many times did you say Bing Bong on, on X, the everything up. And somebody wrote infinity times when I was

just in commercial breaks, just going, Bing Bong, Bing Bong, Bing Bong, Bing Bong, Bing Bong, Bing Bong, Bing Bong, Bing Bong. It worked though, man. One thing I did respect Jerry was that Jerry kept saying like, you can say whatever you want to me, which I think was just his invitation to just go crazy. I kept saying that I was like all right. Yeah. And we love you Jerry. What are we going to say to you. Well it's so funny. I mean it's like a relationship that Hank and I have. I was like touching him. I was engaging with him and he didn't like he was like every time I touched him he was like don't touch me you know and I was like you could touch me this is a two-way street you know I mean like I give a little you give a little and we have like a

relationship you know he wants you to do whatever you want to him Hank yeah I was never really a chance yeah well. Well Jerry, great job. I was very happy. Can you leave my still? I know what a, what a, what a night. What a night I'm taking that win and we'll worry about Wednesday night when it happened. We'll worry about tonight when it happens. Yeah, man. Good work there. Good work. Good catch there. All right, Jerry, you're the best. Uh, we can't wait to see you hopefully game six or seven. Bing bong and Hanks ear. And yeah, it was, it was, it was sensual. It was, it was special stuff. It was special, special stuff seeing you and Hank just having those moments. I think the one lasting image

is Hank being like when, when my kids, when we're walking on the street and a fire truck goes by and they put their fingers in their ear That was just Hank for the entire fourth quarter Yeah, and it's still I'm still fucked still fucking still fucked All right, Jerry tough up Hank. Come on people play few injuries tough up. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Jerry Okay, Hank. We had to get us right. We had to get, special guest, because he was with us all day. He is so... It was... It was just like a shot of energy all day.

Like all day, being with him is so much fun. I didn't feel the best during the back gala because I was also battling kidney stones and thought I was going to like shit myself and piss myself, but he is... He just brings the energy up. Yeah, no, it was a great time and it was like super casual We were having fun because the game seemed like it was over right and then all of a sudden it turned very quickly But before that like we were we were having a blast. He's a fun fun guy to be at a party with Yeah, yeah early in the day

We were in the golf cart together and Jerry asked me if we were being recorded if anything was on and I told him No, and then he started to tell me a story and then halfway through the story I realized that yes, in fact there was a GoPro in the golf cart. I was like, hey Jerry, my bad, it's right here. He just stared at me like, what have you done to me? What have you done to my career? So then every five minutes for the rest of the day,

Jerry would ask, is there a camera on us right now? Are we being recorded right now? And it was everywhere. It was in the hotel, it was at the Beckel, in the car, it was everywhere. But I don't think it changed what he was going to say next. No, not at all. He would have said it, if we said yes you were being recorded, he still would say the

same things. He just, he's so fucking funny. He's so funny. We were leaving the golf course, because I don't think I told you this, but we're about to leave the golf course. I go into pee right after Jerry goes into pee. He walks out and then I'm still in the bathroom. There are two other guys that are in the bathroom that just saw Jerry walks out and then I'm still in the bathroom. There are two other guys are in the

bathroom that just saw Jerry walk out and they start talking to each other and they go, you know, the barstool guys are here. The other ones like, yeah, I know that was just big cat in here. Somebody thought that Jerry was was big cat. I mean, I liked that's pretty good. Yeah, Jerry's a good looking guy up front. Up close. He's a good fucking looking guy. Back to the game though, Hank, we like Joe Mazzullo. Big fans of his. Love. Great guy, great coach. Best friend.

Do you have any, I don't wanna even use the C word, criticism. Do you have any notes for him on the game? He's not shooting the ball. That's true, but is there any backup, it wouldn't even be, cause it feels like the Celtics strategy is shoot threes. Yes. Backup strategy is also to shoot three. Missoula ball. I think their emergency

strategies to shoot more threes. Is there like a fourth option that's not threes? No, I mean I think this goes back to even before the Missoula days, especially like the 2022 run where when things get tight, sometimes the Celtics fall back too much into isolation mode one on one step back threes. Yeah. And it happens. It's happened in the past. I think obviously, you know, last year they figured it out. I think that was a good wake up call game of like, if we're not making our shots, we got to try and, you know, have run a better offense and just drive the ball. Yeah. Yeah. You, but also if we, you know, we missed 45 threes, if we missed 43 threes, we win the game easily. So it was a historically bad shooting night. We still

lost in overtime. I'm not worried about this series at all. I'm not worried about the strategy or the team or anything. Like there's only so much you can do when you miss. South is in five, soics in five. So Hank. Jalen Brunson has to scare you a little. He's he's. I don't I just don't think it's like if we if we hit a couple more shots that game was won easily.

We like we should have won that game easily. That was a that was an anomaly. I'm looking at your shot chart from the third quarter. How many how many non three pointers did you take during the third quarter? Four? You were to guess. No you took one. One. One.

That's really bad. Yeah. One shot. And I think it was a dunk or a layup. But everything else was outside the three-point arc. And then if you look at the shot chart from before, I think this is from Chris Forsberg, up to 6'19 left in the third versus the rest of the game,

you guys just went cold. So I think there is some truth to it that if you have to make said good looks to it wasn't some of your three Yeah, you're gonna make threes. Are you willing to do game of the year Wednesday night? Yeah, I don't know what what's the spread whose line is it anyway trafficking? Seven and a half was this big enough nine and a half was game one. I would guess seven and a half might be I think it would be I think it would be lower. I think ten and a half. Yeah, I think it's higher You got to go desperation. It does feel like game of the year. Yeah, I'm gonna game of the year personally if Barcelona wins on Tuesday so Barcelona has won today. It's game of the year game of the year. Okay

Also, shout out Mikhail Bridges because I know his stat line isn't like super sexy he played 51 minutes Yeah, and he also had the big three and was he the one who stole the ball at the end on Jalen Brown I pretty I'm pretty sure yes, so yeah Just ripped it away from but like having a guy who played 51 minutes is insane. Do you say after the game? I'm a football guy. Yeah, I didn't hear that. I love that. Yeah memes your next fan. How you feeling? Oh that game was unbelievable Yeah, we had the best player on the floor last night Okay

Got him. I think that's a boy. I got you. No, that's a good point. It's not a gotcha I think he was expecting like oh He was expecting like a rap battle like you can add that in and post psych. Yeah, do the do the guy's number You said and go oh my god. It's over No, I well I think we did yeah, no you did McAlvare You did clutch player of the year he proved it oh g and ob went off We they play good even though cat had one of the worst third quarters of all time Well, it's clear They're gonna just go after cat to try to follow him out because he does when he's off the floor the spacing for the Knicks is a lot

Different so yeah, then they just go to hack a Mitch which is just bright watch yeah That is brutal watch Josh Hart is a dog too. Yeah. Yeah, he played like 46 47 I mean they're these guys are their dogs So are you do you think you can win this series? I I have more belief now. Okay. You just gotta take it game by game. Possession by possession. Yup.

Uh, I was scared at when they were down 20. I thought, I thought we were gonna get swept, smoked. But they have a lot of fight. There's no quit. Yeah, that's true. I think it's very unlikely that the Celtics have a three point shooting performance in game two like they did. I'd agree with that.

I think just based on everything that you've seen seen from the team in the last like two years, honestly, and they're going to drive more. They're going to get more even more open looks like I noticed this one thing about Tibbs last playoffs and I think I've been confirmed about it as being correct. I think he might be going bald. Ah, you think I think I think you might be losing his hair. Yeah, just a little just a little at some Tim should make the like not a lot like it's not like crazy. It's just like a tiny little patch He's got some good coverage for now, but I'm just saying something to keep your eye on because it's gonna start showing up He wouldn't even have to do that much surgery and as a guy that has lost some hair

I feel like maybe I'm the first one to notice it Yeah Cuz like I recognize the patterns I saw myself because it's not's not like you, the normal person would not notice the Tibbs is going bald. But uh, you, it's, it's kind of like you're almost trained as a hair doctor now where you know, like, Hey, you're not bald yet, but like give it 10 years. You might be bald. I think the average person might start picking up on it in a couple of years. Uh, so just something for Tibbs. I don't know. I'm just looking out for him because I don't know if, you know, it's a hard conversation to have for some guys. I agree. I agree. Yeah. All right. The other game also insane nuggets

thunder hand up. I'm a moron. I think I had the exact quote of like, this is a scheduled loss for the nuggets. Uh, there, you know, to go two days or, uh, yeah, two days rest into Oklahoma city, one seed waiting for you. It's basically a game that they might just punt on and try to win on, on Wednesday night. Couldn't have been more wrong. The, the nuggets kept on fighting and like pushing the ball, pushing the rock up the hill and it was crazy because it felt like the Thunder had won this game so many times. They're up 10. It was just varying degrees of 10 where

it was like oh yeah then the Nuggets make a little run then they're back up to 10. The Nuggets are up or sorry the Thunder up 13 with 639 left the Thunder upward 9 with 302 left but Nicole Jokic is the best player in the world. He is the best player playing basketball right now in the world. He had 42-22-6. It was an MVP off with him in SGA who also was very good with 33-10-8. But the Nuggets, Aaron Gordon's shot. I mean, I don't know your takeaway, PFT, but mine is just the Thunder.

The Nuggets are a really good team. They've been there. They've been through the wars. The Thunder are young on the younger side choked and should have won this game. And the mismanagement and miss free throws at the end of the game were just egregious. I think that Jokic was the best coach in this game. Yeah. He was actually coaching the guys on the sidelines during timeouts. He was, when he was off the court right before the Thunder felled up three, he was like running the show. He was coaching for this. He's on like in the technical box. He was walking back and forth calling people out. But that that moment was the dumbest moment I've ever seen in these playoffs in the fact that I do not

understand for the life of me. The wave of follow-up three has taken over basketball. I get the analytics of it. In no way are you supposed to follow-up three without letting any time go off the clock and 75 feet from the basket. And, like, if you're the Thunder, how do you fuck this up so bad where there's 11 seconds left, you are up three. Yoke is on the bench. The, the nuggets do not have a timeout play fucking defense. You're the best defense in the league. Yeah. The worst that can happen is you go to overtime and there's 11 seconds left and the best player in the world's on the bench. Instead they filed in us like 0.1 seconds. Let him come back in. It was insane. Baffling, baffling. And they found a guy who I think Aaron Gordon's

like an 80% free throw shooter and they found him so far away from the basket, got Jokic back in the game. I understand the foul up three thing. I personally fucking hate fouling up. Oh yeah. No, I hate it. Like don't get me wrong. It is, it's the right decision. I think most of the time with if it's like eight seconds to two seconds left, it's probably the right thing to do. If you fell under two seconds, there's a chance that they're in the act of shooting anyways. So they might be able to get a cheap three foul shots out of that. But I think from what all the math nerds say, it's like eight seconds and under, it could be the right choice.

But again, I don't think you can even say right or wrong all the time because it's all based on how good are your foul shooters. So there's a lot of variables that go into it. And you just don't, you never ever do it it without letting you have to let them a little time come off the clock. Yeah, I just I don't like it. You can't really you can't really ban it. But it seems like the coolest part of basketball is like a buzzer beater or a game coming down to the wire and fouling up three. It just it takes that away from somebody that's watching it. I know if you're like a fan of either team, you've got something different invested in it,

but if you're just watching the game, it just steals the possibility of having a great ending for you. Yeah. So again, if you're a coach, I get why you would do it in some circumstances. I just hate it. There's probably no way to get rid of it

unless you also get rid of fouling when you're down to extend the game. Yep. So I understand that, but yeah. Jokic just, did you see him on the in-bounds play when they, they inbounded to chat before check got fouled at the end? Well, a couple of things. So one right after Aaron Gordon made his foul shots, you know what happened right before?

I think that there might've been a timeout called there was a brief break in the action. Chet went up to the line, got the ball and simulated taking a foul shot. Yeah. Like he knew he was about to get foul on the next possession. He was thinking about it that entire time. Then he gets in, Yoko turns his back to the ball and starts doing the electric slide on defense, just like jumping all over the place, getting into passing lanes. They fell chat and then

chat he just looked like he was going to shit himself at the line. Yeah. He did not look confident and that's probably like the nuggets won't find themselves in a pressure situation like that because they've been there. They've been in big games before. Right. This is all kind of new for the thunder. And then check gets up there and he holds the ball forever when he shoots a foul shot. Yep. There's like this big pause that you can just tell he's thinking like, don't fuck this up. Don't fuck this up. Don't fuck this up. And then he fucked it up. And I I'm very happy for Aaron Gordon too. Yeah. He's had a great couple of weeks. Oh yeah. Big time. And yeah, you are right. There was the thunder user last time out before Chet Holmgren's free throws, another coaching malpractice

move because what happens at the end of the game, Aaron Gordon hits a three with two seconds left. You need to have a timeout in your back pocket so that you can advance the ball. Yeah. You have to that. That's crazy. So this was just this was just a masterclass of a young team not being through it and not knowing how to close out these games and the nuggets being the opposite in a team that's been through the wars and Yokoch being the best player in the world. I do have a couple and also by the way Russell Westbrook we almost had a Russell Westbrook moment where he hit three. He almost hit that three. He was wide open to go ahead before the Chet free throws. But then credit to Russell Westbrook. He's having a very good playoffs. Well, his drive to set

up Aaron Gordon, if you watch it, like you know, in Russell Westbrook's head, he's like, I'm going to go be the hero. Yeah. Instead he dry. He takes like a step or two into the pass, the three point line. Chet has to sag off. Then he hits Aaron Gordon. Perfect pass, perfect shot. Like that was Russell Westbrook. I don't want to say growing up, but like, cause he's very old, but look at this. Like he gets Chet to kind of commit a little bit with a false step and Russell Westbrook needs a lot of credit cause we make a lot of jokes. He's been very good. These players, they don't win these games without rest versus Russ and Russ Russ won and they were down one when Russ was taking the ball court there. Yeah. And so he could have tried to go nuclear and do the thing. Get right. Correct. He could

have been like, I'm Ross drives to the hole and then just like spikes it off the backboard and the rebound lands at mid court. But he didn't. He made the right pass. I kind of like what Aaron Gordon, it makes no sense to shoot a three there, but it's like the different levels of, uh, of, of brain activity. Normal good brain activity is taking a two down three late. Yeah. Uh, inspired brain activity is taking a three when you're down two, right? To get a one point win. And then genius level is taking a three when you're down one. Well, it was a perfect, like he Like he stepped right into it. It was perfectly He was wide open

Incredible game by the Nuggets the Nuggets are just fun. What like yoga? She's so much fun to watch I just fucking I love watching him play basketball I do have a few things that I'm concerned about for the Thunder in this series now. I think it's gonna be a long series We've talked about the youth the the the other things that I have that I'm concerned about the Thunder. One, this was the bugaboo all year was like they're not very big down low and they can get bullied a little bit because Chet Homigrin is not exactly stout. I think Jokic could eat Chet. Yeah.

I think like maybe a week. Yeah. Give him a week, he'll consume him. Especially when he just played a full series against Zubok. Yeah, I'm awake. He'll consume. So we just played a full series against Zubak Yeah, right. So then he goes to it's basically he played a full series with like six batting donuts on and now he's now He's swinging a wiffle ball bat So the Nuggets out rebounded the Thunder 63 43 including 21 offensive rebounds that feels like a problem That feels like something that might they might have to figure out. Hey, we're going to have to put more people on the glass. Uh, I don't know what, what that's going to

end up being, but that's, that's a problem. I also think the problem with the thunder is who's going to be their second guy. Cause they wasted a Caruso game. So was awesome. This game, Jalen green is like, was not the second that you need a second guy who can step up and they had a bunch of guys who scored, you know, 10 between 10. The Thunder have so many guys big cat, right? You don't have the second guy. PFT. You got to step in. What about guys? Yeah, they have guys for days. I forgot your guys guy off. Who's their second guy to score? Probably their Jalen Williams. Sorry. I said Jalen Green, Jalen Williams. Their

second guy to score. Jalen Williams is 5 for 20. Jalen Williams should be their second guy, but I don't trust him as their second guy. They've got a lot of second guys. A lot of different guys. If you have, if you have five second guys, do you really have one? This is a problem. I think you just retroactively like got demolished in the guy-off Oh, no I didn't because the point of the guy-off was that there was at least one player one guy on the Thunder that was better than one guy on the Celtics That was the guy-off Got it

Just it was just a statement was SGA is better than Tatum. No, that was not I don't think that was the statement SGA do you like watching SGA? He's in the camp of the Brunson Harden, where it's like, to be fair, a lot of times he will foul bait. I do like watching him, but when he gets into that mode where it's just living on the free throw line, it's not as fun.

Yeah. That's just, it's, again, when he's not saying he's not an incredible player, cause he is, it's just when it becomes all foul shots, that's not fun's again when he's not saying he's not an incredible player because he is it's just when it becomes all foul shots that's not fun basketball to watch. I do like the thing that he does where he just takes the longest possible route ever to get to the basket. Yeah. He just zigzags back and forth like six times. His knees kind of bend out and he just looks like he's Gumby like he's elastic. Yeah I like that. But then when he when he does the thing where he hits the brakes or jumps sideways into a right

Right, it's fair. It's the fairness. It's the same thing as Brunson where it's like I think both of them are so awesome But when they do get into that mode, it's not fun to watch. I just don't know Cruiser at 20 points and like they you just need they're gonna need someone to step up and it might just be that they They're a year away from from one of those guys being the step-up guy and then the last thing that Concerns me about the Thunder is our boy didn't put on the shirt again, and he not only didn't do that But he mocked it he mocked the shirt PFT you were correct in saying that those black shirts do not play Yeah, the thing is with Oklahoma City. You're a great maybe the best t-shirt city in America when it comes to sports

Yeah, right we can all agree on that. Oh, absolutely almost everybody wears the shirt with Oklahoma city, you're a great, maybe the best t-shirt city in America when it comes to sports. Yeah. Right. We can all agree on that. Oh, absolutely. Almost everybody wears the shirt there's 99.98% of the fans wear the shirt. You're taking away your t shirt advantage when you wear a dark muted color. Like it was a Navy blue. Or was it was it black? It was a very dark color. And it didn't pop usually get either the white or the blue and the light blue in the stands. And you know that it's a t-shirt game.

I didn't even know it was a t-shirt game at first. Yeah. It just looked like there were empty seats out there. Yeah, and so our guy Juan Guerra, there was rumors going around the internet. Actually, you said to me in person, Piafdi, you're like, I think the guy put the shirt on tonight. And that's because he basically is mocking

everyone who puts on the shirt. He had a poll out being being like who thinks that I'll Wear a black shirt tonight because that was the shirt of choice for everyone and it was no minus 1000 yes plus 600 and Then he's like for everyone who said that I was Not gonna wear a black shirt. You're wrong. He was wearing a black shirt He was just wearing an orange Oklahoma City Thunder Jersey over it, making sure that he stuck out more than everyone. I don't like it at all. He's just, he's mocking the T-shirt culture now. Like it's one thing

to be scoby yourself, you know, be an asshole, say you're not going to wear the shirt. Fine. Make it all by yourself. That's fine. Do it. But now you're mocking those that do come on man. So I think if the Thunder lose game to this guy Someone's got a someone's gonna like hold them down and put the t-shirt on you know what they have to do They have to trap this guy what what the Thunder need to do is next home game They need to not give out t-shirts at all and then see what color t-shirt this guy's wearing Mm-hmm. Let's say he wears a blue t-shirt and then you have the t-shirts ready to go You send out like a like a Delta Force of market people into the crowds

Passing out all the t-shirts to match that guy's shirt. He would be so mad. It would be so great Yeah, that's all he wants to do is just stick out and he always will quote what you got breaking news My ear popped oh There we go. Hey you have an apology for Jerry Yeah, I'm sorry Jerry you I got worried. I got worried. I got worried you you accused him of assault We got a call your hankie small. I had a call real quick. Oh, well. Yeah, you guys saw it happen in real time When I realized like oh shit This might be a problem, but it's not so you just blamed you blamed an innocent man. I didn't blame

I said this could have been the reason once you did yell in my one single time. It's Jussie Lockwood That's crazy What you should feel bad? I don't feel bad. I'm happy I can hear But you should feel bad for blaming an innocent man. My career was on the line. You can't podcast. Jerry's career was on the line. You said that his voice was so damaging that it caused your eardrum to rupture. That's his livelihood. All right. Well, he'll listen to this and he'll hear you officially apologizing. I don't really know what I did. I said that might have been the reason.

No, you blamed him. You pointed a finger at him. You sat up and said. Oh, I remember why He yelling in my ear. He was I don't think he was he said that he was not yeah You're what you're trying to listen. This is very unbecoming of you Hank. You need to learn how to lose. Yeah Yeah, I apologize for nothing What do you guys think things gonna happen in the rest of the okay? See series I mean it's the Thunder Thunder stack like they're the best team in the league. There's no way they lose a series. That's good. It's it's not even the Western Conference Finals.

I'm not gonna overreact to one game. I don't think there are issues with them rebounding. I think it might be it might be time for a game of the year game two for the Thunder. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think both the home teams will even the series. I love how much Hank respects the Thunder That's how can I not how can you not they've they've proven so much. I Mean they want to shitload of games this year. Yeah, no regular season wins means everything. Yeah I think Chet will be better. I think but again like seeing How's yokich it does know it's like old man strength. Yeah, it's man verse boy, and he knows it everyone knows it Yeah, when you're watching okay sure you'll get all shit has is his size, but you'll get doesn't care about that

No, I'll eat you he just big-body boys. Yeah Constantly there was one possession where it was just he was big body boying him like to the point where you're just like all Right now throw it off the rim, and it will hit like it you know 95% of the rim rolling around and then go in there has been a lot of this Actual nuggets a lot like when they were I think was even after they won game seven They were by far the last I think the Warriors had better odds to win the NBA championship than the Nuggets did I mean that would wait you You're saying that before the Warriors game seven. No, I'm saying like, no, I'm saying like in the West.

Yeah. I mean, that's not the thunder or the one seed. I don't think that's disrespect. No, but even though they had already advanced and I don't think that the Warriors had advanced yet. Got it. The Warriors still had better odds in the championship. But it is disrespectful. And I checked the odds again today better odds in the championship. That is disrespectful. And I checked the odds again today this morning. Not, not a lot of movement. It feels like they're, they can actually play the disrespect card right now, which is crazy considering how good they've been. Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right. Should we do a hot seat, cool throne,

uh, incredible night of basketball. That was just the best. I mean that's Gonna be tough for for the hockey guys to hear it, but that was That was two insane insane game ones And if these series the series can like match the game ones were in for a very fun time All right, so hot see cool drone. Okay before we get to hot see cool drone It's brought to you by our friends at game time NBA playoffs are here and the only place to buy hard to get playoff tickets is Game Time, the official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. With killer last minute deals all in prices, views from your seat and their lowest price guarantee, Game Time takes the guesswork out of buying NBA playoff tickets. Prices on the app actually go down. The closer it gets to tip off and

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Get your body armor today at Walmart or local grocery store near you. Body armor. Choose better. Hank, hot seat, cool to row. My hot seat is James Harden. Why? Obviously it was, it was talked a little bit about, but I feel like it was kind of a weekend. So it got a little bit kind of passed over how bad he was in that game seven. I think we called him the biggest chump. No, I know, but I'm just saying, in the general public, it was like that. It was that one day, but it's kind of like, people kind of, there was games Monday,

and then people have moved on. It was a Saturday game, then there was a Sunday game seven. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, but it's happened so frequently that it's hard to muster up that same energy every single time he does. It's like being like, oh, can you believe Harrison Ford

got into another plane crash? Yeah, by the way, I totally thought that was him the golf course me, too I was my first thought to be hot Harrison. That's the H man. Yeah, I agree and I'm a James Harden fan I'm also a lefty so I've always are like I've always I've never rooted against him except for those those fill years but it's like as a lefty I've always enjoyed watching him play and I kind of like his attitude of just like Not giving a fuck and clubbing and flying to Vegas on off days He kind of you kind of are the James Harden of this show, but then they big moment they put up. It's not there That's not true, but uh are you just like you you have a soft spot for any left-handed guy. Yeah You know who else was left-handed who hitler the other H man what uh?

Wait Hank What other lefties because I I do find myself my my oldest is a lefty and so I point out like we go to The Cubs game. I'm like hey Kyle Tucker's really good. He's a lefty like are there lefties that I should get him on to in the NBA. I Mean Luke Cornett was always a classic. Yeah, Luke Kennard. I mean Luke and hard campaign campaign campaign call James Harden, it's more I feel like it's more Bailey Shireman. Yeah, I mean, there's no the quarterbacks to Yeah, there's not a lot. Oh, mm-hmm tough. Yo, Han Santana. You're also a fake lefty

I'm a no lefty lefty baseball, lefty basketball. Righty golf. One of those lefties where you never really know what Hank's going to do with his left hand and what he's going to do with this. Right. Right. You ambidextrous. You could be righty, but I'm lefty. I'm ambidextrous. You swing golf. I mean you swing golf and that's the most important thing in your life and you play that right-handed right so golf Right. I'm not I look at right-handed golfers But again, that's I think it's natural that you you know enjoyed people that do things in the same way you do regardless not when golfing

No, like I like right-handed golfers like I James Harden when he gets on a golf course you're out on them if he's a lefty. Yeah. Yeah Anyway, they put up a stat during the broadcast that again, it's like kind of everyone kind of knew how bad it was. But this stat really emphasized how truly horrible he is. Career Playoff Games under four field goals made. And it was Kevin Durant. He's got to Steph Curry. He has three. LeBron has five, James Harden has 35. Holy shit. Career playoff games with under four field goals made. That's insane. His career's on, he's getting older. That's bad.

That's his legacy. I respect it though. I do. Everyone's got to have a thing and I respect the fact that James Harden, he just doesn't feel like working. Yeah Yeah, that's bad. That was that was eye-opening Lee bad Tough tough for the Harden stands. Yeah. Yeah to do the stat of like how many games with under 20 points He has in the playoffs. No, I think we talked about this on on Monday

But yeah, LeBron James has zero and I think Harden has like 12 I'll say this for James Harden at least obviously obviously this year aside, because it was first round. A lot of his, oh, Barcelona just scored. Fuck yes. Barca. Fuck. Wow. At least a lot of his playoff chokes have happened in the second or third round.

That's true. So he's won a series. Yeah. Wow. This Barca team is different. This game has been incredible. Well, that's talking soccer. Yeah, this was talking so all time big time. A lot of stuff. One of the best soccer games I've ever watched. Barca. See Barker Barca. I think you say Barker. But if you say Bartholomew, then it sounds like you're a man of culture. I can't wait.

I bookmarked this one idiot because I said, what's the play in this game? And everyone picked Barcelona, Bartholoma. And they went down 2-0. And I was like, why is Bartholoma so bad? Everyone told me they win. And someone's like, your followers aren't smart enough about soccer to give you a winner. So I'm going to quote tweet that fucker small victories yeah it's good so got some game left yeah you're right they got this they got this bar is bar so rafinha oh that's one

of the guys I picked the score oh let's go and then yeah you my cool thing you like this one big cat Caleb Williams oh yeah, yeah So Jane Daniels, I mean Drake Mays married Jane Daniels. No girls. No girls allowed like no girls Not even allowed in the same. He's like if a girl. Yeah, he's like a Six year olds clubhouse. We're after one year olds tree house. We're after one ring only baby. That's Super Bowl ranked This is a video of Jaden with his mom in the car No, so he was out and he like in there she was driving He was getting out of the car There was a girl that was talking to Jaden on the sidewalk and his mom was in the car as mom just kept saying

Excuse me. Excuse me. I love her. She's the best It's a little creepy. She's the best. Uh, okay Meanwhile Caleb Williams was in Miami and he got out of a car at a restaurant with three different like supermodels hell Yeah, that's that's cute. That's a QB one you want. Yeah, that's QB one aura is it yeah, yeah Not a helicopter 24 year old no girls. That's pretty damn cool to get out of a car with three chicks like not I Never in my life that would be the most like not, never in my life. That would be the most stressful evening ever.

Imagine going on a date with three women at once. That would be tough. Be sick. Yeah, but that just means he's got something. Hey, they're good looking too. All due respect. Yeah. Okay.

So yeah, cool throwing K. Williams. Good job, Hank. Great job, Hank. Nice job, Hank. Great job, Hank. Thank you, thank you. My hot seat is horse racing. Horse racing's on the hot seat because Sovereignty just announced that he was not going to be

competing in the Preakness. So we're one and done. Sucks. We're still going to have Randy Moss on because we love talking to Randy Moss, but this sucks. I guess Sovereignty might race in the Belmont. They haven't made an announcement about that yet, I don't think, but I don't know why you would because it just seems like- Well, it's money.

Yeah, money, but also you already won the Kentucky Derby. That horse is going to be set for life. Yeah, it sucks. That horse is going to retire tomorrow. I mean, there's thoughts that he might have an injury. Obviously, a quick turnaround, but that's the whole point of this. Winning the Triple Crown is not easy. What do I say?

We received a call today from trainer Bill Mott that sovereignty will not be competing in the pre-kness. Bill informed us they would point towards the Belmont stakes. We extend our... So he didn't even cite an injury. It sucks. This is, I think, the third time it's happened in the last 13 years, so it's obviously a trend. Yeah, this is... Horse racing has a lot of issues right now and this is definitely one of them that these, we talked about it, remember a couple years ago, Flightline, one of the best horses I've ever seen

in my life, and he raced, I think five races, and then was studded, like I wanted to see him race more, so it sucks. Yeah, eventually the horses aren't even gonna ever race. They're just gonna get a radar gun out, and they'll be like a two-year-old horse, and they're like, this is the fastest two-year-old we've ever seen.

He's never actually going to compete, but you can buy his offspring. Yeah, that does suck. Yeah, so it's tough. We will still get Randy Moss on, though. It's like Shador skipping the East West Shrine Bowl. We want to see more of these horses. So you're saying sovereignty, you are now a Cleveland Brown. I'm saying I'm going to prank call sovereignty.

Got it. Somebody out there, get me sovereignty's number. We should harass this horse. I'm down. Because this horse, frankly. Do we still got it? Frankly. Can we still get this horse off of Twitter? This is what's problem with this generation of horses. The the generation, what generation are we in now? Generation Alpha. I think it's Beta. Beta. This is a beta horse. This is what happens. It's a horse that's been coddled its entire life. Told that it's special. This is what happens. It's a horse that's been coddled his entire life,

told that it's special. It accomplishes one thing, which in the grand scheme of thing, guess what? It's beta. A horse wins the Kentucky Derby every year. Not special, man. Sorry. He was born as an alpha. Beta started in 2025. My kids just missed it. They're all alphas. He's late alpha. This horse is a late alpha. He's one of the latest alphas. And I think that it's disgusting what this generation is doing.

There's no accountability. There's no thirst for greatness. There's no dedication to your craft. There's no hard work. These horses are just taking the easy way out. And I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. So fuck this horse, sovereignty.

You're on my list. Yeah. I didn't even know I had a list until right now, but sovereignty is the first name on my list. Yeah, I didn't even know I had a list until right now But sovereignty is the first name on my list agreed Bitch and then my coolest fat too. Yeah, I heard that looking like Luke. He's eating too much Hey, I heard he's on that Nyquist shit that he's he's put on a couple pounds sovereignty is a pussy Let's just not let's stop beating around at this horse is a fucking pussy. Yeah And if it's not sovereignty making the decision, if it's like a helicopter trainer that's,

that's binding everything for him, like let, let your children make their own mistakes. Oh my God. Oh my God. Inter just scored. And then all the shirts are coming off. Oh no. This game is nuts. Talking soccer.

This game is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Can we get some more or something this feels like it's a pope thing like this is for my god yeah if it's a trainer thing shoot the trainer like a horse yeah not actually or at least just like put a tarp up and then have him disappear and then we can all think that he's dead but I think that this is it's it's bullshit yeah what are we teaching I'm I'm worried about the youngsters out there that are watching this horse that have like

my- All aspiring horses out there? My four-year-old son Chris came in the other day. He's like, Dad, I want to be like sovereignty when I grow up. And I told him, well, if you work hard and you eat your vegetables and you stay in school, get good grades, maybe one day you can. And then now his idol is going to teach him that you accomplish one thing and then you never do anything again for the rest of your life

Because my four-year-old daughter came and said I want to be sovereign when I grew up and I said hey idiot You're all over. Yeah. So that's it's also holdin the cover T Chris is stupid Yeah, all right your cool throne. My cool throne is accountability Accountability is also on the cool throne because the Ravens have moved on from Justin Tucker. Was this because of the thing? The draft? Yeah. Oh, because the draft. Was this a football decision? This was a pure football decision. The Ravens announced yesterday that they were moving on from Justin. Who is, I think still the best. Is he the best kicker of all time? I remember he was like going back and forth. He was switching back and forth.

That's not a joke about Justin Tucker and massage, but you could make that joke. Uh, he, I'll find it. You, you keep going. I'll find it. Yeah. So this is what general manager Eric DeCosta had to say. Sometimes football decisions are incredibly difficult. This is one of those instances.

Considering our current roster, we have made the tough decision to release Justin Tucker. Justin created many significant and unforgettable memories in Raven's history. His reliability, focus, drive, resilience, and extraordinary talent made him one of the league's best kickers for over a decade. We're grateful for Justin's many contributions while playing for the Ravens. We sincerely wish him and his family the very best in the next chapter of their lives. So yes, this was a football decision. Yeah. He is technically a was a football decision. Yeah. This he is, he is

technically field goal percentage. He is. Uh, yeah. Why, why are the Ravens pretending? I mean, I guess you can just do this. They can do whatever they want. Yeah. But it's also very weird because it's not a football decision. It's also interesting that for maybe the first time ever somebody is forcing a release on Justin Tucker. And we don't know what, we still don't know what happened, right? Like we don't have, uh, has he been charged? Has anything happened? I think they've investigated it and there's a bunch of accusers. We should say that they're all accusations. Yeah. So we don't, we don't really know, but there's certainly a lot of them. Do you think there's, I would imagine, uh, there is a like magic eight ball at every NFL headquarters

and they, they hit it, they, you know, they shake it up and they say, Oh my God. Oh, all right. We got to stop watching this game. I was talking tennis real quick. That was some groans. They shake it up and then it just gives you an answer of like, how should we release Justin Tucker? He's been accused many times of sexual misconduct and it just floats up and says football decision.

Yeah, it was a football decision made for on the field reasons. It's the same thing as with Deshaun. It's like either he's a victim of one of the most coordinated vicious smear jobs of all time or he's a world class scumbag and there's really no in between. And it feels unlikely that this would be a coordinated hit job from so many people. Yeah. Uh, all right. My hot seats, uh, I have two. Uh, the first is Nebraska, Nebraska football because Michigan, uh, has put a self-imposed two game penalty on their head coach, Sharon Moore. It is the scandal that keeps on getting guys fired or suspended or self-imposed suspensions. And usually you'd say, oh yeah, okay, that makes sense.

Sharon Moore out for the first two games. No, he's not. So they play Oklahoma week two. Yeah, so you can't do that. Michigan has suspended Sharon Moore for week three and four, Central Michigan and Nebraska. That's such a slap in their face. Yeah, because you can't jump it.

Who do they play week one? I don't know. My guess is probably Cupcake. Yeah, probably. So yeah, you can't split them up. It can't be like Grover Cleveland or Trump presidencies where you just go back and forth. Yeah, New Mexico. Yeah, New Mexico. So you can't go in New Mexico. Then he gets

to coach Oklahoma and then he's out for central Michigan and Gavin back to back. So Nebraska, I mean, I would like to see an argument from Nebraska about this. If you have to choose either Oklahoma or Nebraska, you're choosing, you're choosing Nebraska. Yeah, it's tough. It's very tough. I'm sure Amor did go to Oklahoma, so they were like, oh, well, he wants to play his, I think it's more that they're doing Central Michigan and Nebraska, because they, yeah, it's a pairing. Yeah.

Oklahoma and New Mexico, or Central Michigan and Nebraska? They're literally saying Nebraska is not as good as Oklahoma. Which I think is probably fair. Yeah. Did you see that Michigan's president is leaving for Florida? Yeah, all this is just weird coincidence. Which I think is probably fair. Did you see that Michigan's president is leaving for Florida? Yeah, all this is just weird coincidence.

Is that for two weeks as well or is that like a full-time? No, I think that's full-time. Okay, so full-time president. Everyone is scrambled, but they did nothing wrong. So do you think that there's any chance that maybe the president of Michigan is leaving because some shit's about to hit the fan? Maybe. Maybe. Or he just couldn't stomach missing the Nebraska game.

That's true, yeah. He is so vehemently against this decision that he had to resign. Yeah. My other hot seat is Grand Theft Auto, because they released another preview. I didn't realize that it's 2026 now. I also, this is my hand up. I'm not in gaming shape. I don't, I don't

really game anymore. I miss it. I had no idea they didn't release a new main title Grand Theft Auto since 2013. I had no idea. I didn't know that. That's correct. I thought it was every couple of years there's a new Grand Theft Auto. What the fuck are they doing? Figure it out. They're creating the greatest game of all time but you can't have a gap of 13 years between the game I mean people are excited but I'm more so I'm not saying that this game won't rock because it probably will and I'm excited They finally are doing it. Although they did push it from this summer to next summer I'm saying how the hell did we have 13 years in between? Yes disgusting

I mean we had a long time between GTA 1 and GTA 2. You remember that? Memes. GTA 1 was a completely different game. That's the meme, though. It's like, we got this before GTA 6. GTA 6 is also becoming Embiid now. Yeah, it's GTA 6 and Embiid.

Everything's Embiid. And everything's a meme. Yeah. So, memes, what's... Are you excited? How old were you when the first one when the last one came out? 2013 I was a senior in high school. Okay, so you remember that one Yeah, I mean I still play it. I feel like PFT. We didn't have a big gap. It went 97 99 0 1 0 2 0 4 0 8 you're 13

26 you know what it was it was GT the the difference between GTA 2 and GTA 3 was just Night and day yeah crazy You were so hard. That's when it became GTA was yeah three yeah That's where it really wanted to like advice city was couldn't get out of the you couldn't get away from the cops Yeah, yeah, they should do one where it's just University of Georgia Grand Theft Auto. This is crazy that it took this long I'm a people still play GTA. That that it took this long. I'm upset. But people still play GTA, that's the thing. Yeah, but I'm upset.

I might have to play this new game. I'm definitely gonna play. Sick. It's interesting, how do you keep updating a game where you can literally do whatever you want? Well, I believe I'm not super locked into the GTA, maybe memes can fill in, but I believe GTA V has a way

where you can build your own world and create your own servers where- It's like a Minecraft shit? Yeah, it can kind of be way where you can build your own world and create your own servers. It's like a Minecraft shit? Yeah, it can kind of be like a, you can build your own world within GTA, which is why it's still active. And I'm pretty sure you could gamble on it too. Yeah. You go to the online casino.

You go to the casino in the game and you're gambling in real life with your money. Catch me at the casino. That sounds safe. I'll be there. And then my cool throne is I piss out one of the two kidney stones, so I'm feeling better. Let's go. Yeah, so we talked to Jerry O'Connell about the betgallon. I was in a bad mood because I didn't have any winners early on, but I also was in torture

at the betgallon because my stomach felt like it was going to explode and being in a social setting with kidney stones is not exactly fun. So you did not save this one, correct? So we got back at two in, correct? I didn't. So I got, we got back at two in the morning. I took a piss. I knew it was coming. I was, I had the split piss.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, also shout out Shefty for announcing good job. That's why you are an insider. Uh, I had the split piss on the plane and I was like, it's coming. Got home two in the morning after a long ass day, pissed, incredible pain, see it floating around. And then I had this moment of, should I fish this out of a toilet with piss in it, or should I just go to sleep after a 20 hour day? And I chose

sleep after a 20 hour day. I think that's fair. You guys tell me if what I did was wrong in any way, shape, or form, because I've had some bad pushback on this. When I pissed mine out, I was like, I got to get it out. I got to save it, and then I got to take it to the urologist who can tell me what's wrong with it. I did that for my last one, yeah. So I didn't have the strainer.

I went into my toilet with a slotted spoon. Yeah. And I fished it out. And then I washed the spoon and put it back in the spoon drawer. No. Hot water, soap, washed it very good. Some people told me that that was disgusting. No.

They're like, I'm going to be serving guests over at my house with my piss spoon. If that's disgusting, well, then tell me, put these two together. You can't use a piss spoon, but you can piss in the sink where the spoon ends up. Yeah, good point. Hypocrites must- Doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, you should, pee is sterile. Yeah. You're fine. So I'm glad that you pissed it out. Yeah, it felt good. Like I just, my stomach hurts so bad all day. I pushed it too hard. I shouldn't have played golf,

but I did have fun with the boys. But we're both on the clock now again. Yeah, no, you are. I have another one, but that might've been the big one I don't know. Yeah, that's what they told like I've got multiple so it's like any given moment Yeah, but I do feel better. So that's good. And what are you looking at us like that memes? You got there's more. Oh, yeah, just kind of I had a two millimeter in a or no three millimeter and a four millimeter

I think that was I hope that was the four bill. My body's like a quarry. I'm just, I'm just pissing out stones. I got, I got a whole stash inside me right now. I like to think my body is more like a really nice, uh, like English countryside, one of those big driveways going up to the mansion and it's lined with pebbles. Yeah, cobblestone. Yeah, not cobblestone. I'm saying like the actual pebbles. Okay, gotcha. You know what I mean? Yeah. You see those at like super, super rich, like Hampton's houses have them, the driveway is pebbles. That's my kidney.

You think one day if we just kept them inside our bodies, it would turn into diamonds? We should try. I think it might. We should try. Okay. Good hot seat, cool throne, everyone. Yeah. Barcelona and Inter are in extra time.

Is this sudden death? Nope. This is not. Do you mean the game? Like if someone scores? No, it's not Golden Goal. Okay. No, no.

So we'll just keep updating when we do FAQs. And that was Talking Soccer Again. Alright, before we get to our interview with Kirk Goldsberry, you see it right in front of us. We've got the new Mountain Dew cans and guess what? Bottles as well. And guess what? It is summertime. I love summer. I love the heat. I love golf. I love barbecue. I love baseball. I love just being in the backyard. I got my, I got a new grill set up, PFT. I love that. I'm going to grill set up, PFT. I love that.

I'm gonna grill tonight. You know what I'm gonna do with? A Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew, nothing goes better. Yeah. I might, I got a pizza oven. I'm gonna try to figure out how to work outside. I feel like pizza and dew is a winning combination too.

I love that. So nothing goes better with pizza oven outside, grilling outside, and hanging with your friends in the refreshing citrusy kick of Mountain Dew. We love Mountain Dew. We love these new cans. It's nostalgia in a can. They brought back the old logo. So go check it out right now. Grab a Dew in the new packaging and enjoy the refresh, refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. Already had one today. Going to have another one because I love Mountain Dew

and it tastes delicious. So thank you to Mountain Dew. And again, go grab a Dew in the new packaging and enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. Okay, here he is, Kirk Goldsberry. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest, our good friend. He has changed jobs though since we last had him

on. He is now with the Ringer, NBA analyst at the Ringer. He's also a New York Times bestselling author. He also has some new cool stuff at his store, which we'll talk about later. It is Kirk Goldsberry, here to talk playoffs. Kirk, always great having you on. I have a first question and I don't know if I just want to hear from your brain because you're a lot smarter about basketball than us. Nicole Yocuch is the best basketball player in the world. We've run out of things to like explain it. Can you explain it in your smart guy language of how and why he is the best basketball player in the world and no disrespect to SGA who will win the MVP this year most

likely Nicole Yocuch is the best basketball player in the world and no disrespect to SGA who will win the MVP this year most likely. Nicole Jokic is the best basketball player in the world. He's the most skilled player in the world. He does everything at a very high level except one thing which we'll get to later, which is why Michael Malone got mad at me. PFT, you know the story. But one thing that I came across this year doing a best shooters of the year column at the ringer was that Nikola Jokic was the most efficient jump shooter in the league, big cat. And that's not even his calling card. This dude is one of the best rebounders, one of the best passers, one of the best close range scorers, has the best floater in the league, but he's also an incredible jump shooter. And that's not even a strength. So long story short, he's just the most skilled big man we've ever seen.

His stats are insane across the board. And if you look at the box score from the game one victory against OKC, it looks like a Wilt Chamberlain 48 and 22. What are we doing? This is insane. Yeah, it is. It really is. And it does feel there's every now and then, uh, you know, Steph was probably, you could put them in this category, even LeBron, where it's like you see, you feel like you're watching something that you haven't seen before in basketball. And I feel like there have been big men who have been skilled in certain ways.

They're obviously, you know, the dominance of Shaq or Kareem, but like the total package of Yoke-ish does feel like something we have never seen before. Yeah. At least our age. And there's some old heads who saw Wilt score like 60 or average 50 and 50 or whatever. But we're not those dudes. Like I was thinking about Shaq this morning

because he's the most dominant center of my life, right? Like this dude single-handedly won the 2001 NBA playoffs. Like he just destroyed everybody in his path. Yoke is just putting up way better stats than that guy. Again, with one exception, which is interior defense. And the way to beat the Nuggets is to attack him in the paint, something the Thunder haven't been able to do yet.

But they're the worst paint protection team left in the playoffs. I wrote an article about it a few years ago, and former Nuggets coach Michael Malone took exception with my analysis. But that's exactly the one weakness this guy has. It's his Achilles heel, if you will. The dude can't protect the basket like some of the other great centers of all time.

It was a great story because you wrote that article and then I think that was right when the nuggets caught on fire and won the championship, right? Like you, you deserve some credit for, for spurring on that team. So about the nuggets, they moved on from Malone and I feel like Jokic is also part coaching the team too. So he might not play great interior defense, but he's a great offensive player and he's also what seems to be a very good head coach too at the same time. What's different about the Nuggets now as opposed to when Michael Malone, we call it

the post Malone phase. Post Malone, shout out Posty. The face tattoos, I would say, but no, I think the biggest thing PFT is the leadership of Jokic in those huddles. We've seen him being very animated, like you're saying, almost drawing up plays, but the players seem to be getting along. The morale seems really good. There's just a cohesiveness.

It simply wasn't there. One of the reasons they moved on from Michael Malone and Calvin Booth is the vibes were toxic in that organization near the end. We don't have enough numbers to really say, oh, they're doing this, that, or something else different at this point. It's been such a short amount of time and the playoffs started. But dude, they're just getting along well.

I think that image I have of Yokech at the sideline, like yelling at his teammates, like a, like a fiery Greg Popovich moment, um, as a coach, that's new. That's what I've noticed that's different. Yeah. And, and so we, so obviously don't want to react to one game. Uh, but it was a shocking game. The nuggets thunder. It was an incredible game incredible game. I know that the foul up three, we discussed it. I think you probably agree. Foul up three is fine. You don't foul up three 75 feet from the basket with the best player off the court.

Like that just felt like the Thunder completely screwed that up. But I had, I listed three things that I'd be concerned about for the Thunder. And I want you to maybe tell me if I'm way off or if you maybe have a fix the Thunder could go with. The first was rebounding. They have, there's been their problem all year. They're not super big down low, especially with Chet, cause he's a little, you know,

a stretch five. Uh, the second is I don't know who their second score is going to be and you kind of need that second score to, to step up in big moments. And the third is the fan who sits courtside has got to put the fucking t-shirt on. I love that. Uh, dude, their second score is a great point. Big cat. It can't be Alex Caruso like it was in game one. Right. They need either chat or j-dub to show up. And again, attack the teeth of this nuggets defense, make them protect the rim. They don't want to do it. They're not good at it. Uh, so I thinkgets defense, make them protect the rim. They don't want to do it. They're not good at it.

So I think that's the key I'm watching for. They should be worried. I mean, this is a team that swept a weakened first round opponent last year in New Orleans and then played Dallas in the second round as the number one seed. Dallas was, I think, the five seed and they lost four to two. It's a really similar trajectory here with another sort of Balkan dude, like leading the opponent and showing them how to win games late like Luca did last year. They need and I think it starts with SGA. The other thing I'd

say, which is sort of a first take take is like SGA is got to start playing like the MVP right now. Because right now, Yoko has run one round one of the head to head MVP battle, which is also great. Like no shade it takes about superstars. That was awesome. But SGA has to win a couple of these head to head battles. Yeah.

Yeah. So what about with the T Wolves? Anthony Edwards, it seems like he's improved every single year. He's gotten better at passing too, which is good to see. I think he probably has some room to improve there still. But with the Timberwolves, has Rudy Gobert been unlocked offensively? Yes, I think so. Thanks in part to the Los Angeles Lakers bold strategy of not employing a center in the NBA. It was worth a shot not having a center on your basketball team, but

Rudy Gobert really exposed the weakness of that. And what's interesting to me is if there's one other team that's really small left in this playoffs, it's the Golden State Warriors who start a very small front court, obviously. And Rudy, I don't know if you guys know this, Rudy has a little bit of a history with Raymond Green. And so I'm very much looking forward to these toils in the front court in this series, but size matters, guys. You know this better than anybody, size matters. And I really think that's what this series is going to come down to, not only in the front court where the Timberwolves have Rudy Gobert, but also, dude, all the looks they can throw at Stefan

Curry with Ant and Jade McDanielsdaniels and alexander walker They're just bigger and longer and more athletic So I think they have a good shot of advancing in the series all right But but question about that because the Rockets beat the fuck out of Steph Curry like I think that was one of the hardest series He had to play in terms of the physicality and I'm and Thompson was you know obviously gets hurt at the end of game seven which clearly bothered him and the closeouts weren't the same. I feel like this is similar to uh Jokic going from the Clippers to the Thunder where it's like now

he can do whatever he wants down low. Zubac isn't there. I feel like Steph Curry will have a little bit easier time than he did against the Rockets because they did a very good job of making sure that Steph didn't beat them every single night. I agree with that. Houston is an insane defense, just built for war. And Emea Adoka is the toughest coach, most defensive minded coach in the NBA right now. Uh, that said, dude, Anthony Edwards isn't afraid of, he's a great defender. He's more athletic and youth is a big thing in this, at this stage of the season. And Steph is beat up. Like, look at the shape of it. The best shooting hand we've ever seen is deformed right now. These guys are beat up and that's such an underrated part of this. We're asking this older team to go in and play this younger team after that war in Houston. And I just

see a real opportunity for Minnesota to keep that momentum going using a similar formula of just pounding them inside, getting rebounds, whether it's go bear or Nasri, Jade McDaniels. These guys are big and I think they can give the worst problems. And the other thing I'd say big cat lastly, Houston couldn't score. This Minnesota, this minute, Miss our team is, is going to, it's going to score on that end of the court too. That's a good point. Yeah. Houston was a tough watch there. They're, they're building something, but it was, it was a tough watch sometimes watching them play off. Yeah they need one more guy but they they

have a great season and I think like Golden State also deserves credit guys that's a very good defense when they've been at their best in the postseason for 10 years now. Dreymond has been the middle linebacker one of the best defenses in the postseason and they deserve credit for making Houston look bad a lot of the time too. I want to flash back real quick. Uh, we got to do just a brief Luca and the Lakers post Mortem. So, um, and your statistical opinion, your math expert is Luca too fat. Dude, he, he is honestly like the truth. He's gotten bigger. He's not like fat by our standards, but in terms of NBA basketball, he is too fat. And I heard you guys calling out my good

friend Zach Lowe also at the ringer the other day, cause he had like a really great observation. Big cat, I think it was you. He said he's laboring all the time. He's constantly laboring. He looks like he's played one too many games of pickup on a Sunday afternoon and he's still out there trying to make it work. And it's just, he's slow on defense. He's slow to the basketball. And then yeah, he looks like he's overweight. I'm sorry.

It's not, it's not a nice thing to say about another person. But when you look at some of the other superstars in this league and how they take care of their bodies and how, how they work out and how they present themselves physically. Like, Luca sticks out. And it took Yoke, you make fun of that Yoke's piece. Yoke, it's really had a body transformation itself that get him over the top. So I think Luca needs to do that. I think he will do that. But when you asked me the question, he got torched on defense, dude. Jade McDaniels, Anthony Edwards were just driving on him like he was the slow guy at the pickup game. And they just torched him.

You know what's funny is like I was thinking about it because, you know, Luca gets killed for his defense and his body. And there's other superstars that maybe aren't the best defensively. And you could put Jokic and Steph in that category where they both try very hard, but they're not elite defenders. Jokic and Steph, if you look at their bodies, they transformed their bodies. And I know people who like Jokic still looks, he's totally different than he was five years ago. Steph, remember how much like Steph has put on so much muscle and, and, and just gotten so much stronger through the course of his career. Luca has to do that. Steph is arguably the most conditioned player in the league, period. If you

watch him at the fourth quarter, one of the reasons he was so great in the Olympics or he's so great in the playoffs is he at age 37 is still like the guy with the most juice at the end of the fourth quarter. That childhood picture of Nikola Jokic is legendary for a reason. I know you guys love that. But yeah, like it's a battle for a lot of us. Like everybody has to deal with this in some facet of their life. And I think a lot of players have had a really good nutritional awakening in the middle of their twenties. And Luka Doncic has an opportunity to do just that. And like I said, I think he will, but I do also think it's fair to say it's limiting him particularly on the defensive end of the court and at the end of games. Yeah. Yeah. And he's in the place to do it. You're in

LA. You got juice shops everywhere. Like it's, you're in the mecca of health food. You can, you can shed a few pounds. You gotta have your shirt off a lot. And then if JJ keeps playing, like, you know, the, the same guys for the second halves of every game, he's going to eventually get into shape, right? Like he's, Lugo was probably like, this is, this is not the five guys rotation I thought I was signing up for. Oh yeah, that was not the right kind of five guys. Lucas when JJ said they were going five guys, he got confused and he got excited. So is he, is he like, is he worse on defense than he was last year?

Because the Mavericks, I mean, nobody forgets that the Mavericks made to the finals, but it's, you know, we talk about L Luke in a much different way now than we did last year. Well, the other thing, and when Nico Harrison was still alive, he had assembled like this great defense last season with PJ Washington, with Daniel Gafford. Like they were really good. And there was some deodorant on the floor with Luca defensively. And the Lakers had Austin Reeves and aging LeBron, Rui Hachimora.

They just, they didn't have guys to clean up the mess behind Luca when somebody would beat them on a drive. Dallas did a great job of building around a slower, weaker defender. And to be fair to the Lakers, PFT, they haven't had time to do that organizationally. I've had a few people say, hey, that Mark Williams trade that they canceled at the deadline, they probably should have forced that through so they could have had that bigger guy. Regardless, they have to build a different team now with this, this Luca Donchit situation. Yeah. All right. Well, that's enough piling on Luca, but I think we get the point. Better than Luca piling on us. That is true. He's suffocating us.

Dang, that would hurt. Yeah. So looking to the east, Hank is not in the room right now, but I'll ask like he was, how panicked should the Celtics be? Dude, I wish I was at the bed gala last night. What a moment that must have been for you guys. We didn't release the movie, but it was a movie. I mean, they should be panicked if they just can't hit any more three point shots, but

I don't think that that's going to carry over. But maybe you tell me, is there something that happened with the Knicks that like, this is something that we could see the Knicks pushing back a little bit on, making a series. I mean, yeah, they had more fight and then the thing that drove me crazy. So the Celtics, the stat from that game, PFT is what? The Celtics broke the record for most missed threes in a playoff game. They missed 45 threes in a game. That's almost one a minute.

That's ridiculous. At some point, let's say when you missed 34 threes and it's the middle of the third or the end of the third quarter, you're like, maybe we should do something else. Well, they didn't do anything else. One of the things that Jalen Brunson has done a lot this year is when in that Detroit series, they needed points to stop her Detroit run. He would flop. He would go into the teeth of the defense and make a play, draw a whistle. The Celtics didn't do anything like that during that Knicks run. They seemed really content to sit behind the three-point line.

I think the last play of overtime when Mikhail Bridges ripped the ball away from Jalen Brown was like a poetic ending to that game. They refused to attack the basketball hoop. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown are too good to be that passive when the threes aren't going in. I don't expect that to continue. But when the Celtics team isn't making their threes, they do have a tendency to sort of just say, oh, that's all we have. Now, the other thing is poor Zingas wasn't out there. He's a big weapon. They could have posted up. They didn't have that. So I don't expect this to continue, but the Knicks are not going to go away. And if you give them a The other thing is Porzingis wasn't out there. He's a big weapon. They could have posted up. They didn't have that.

So I don't expect this to continue, but the Knicks are not going to go away. And if you give them a chance and let them stay in the game, they're also a much better clutch team than the Celtics, in my opinion right now. Yeah. Do you blame yourself a little bit for that Celtics loss? It's like they were playing Goldsbury ball. Yeah. I mean, I've played both sides of that line.

I think Joe Mazzullo loves math. I know he loves the town. I know he loves part of my take I wish he loved two points scoring a little bit more when they have a nice Slump going like 15 of 60. That's that's your game. You're not gonna win if you miss 45 threes Quick break from Kirk Goldsberry to talk to you about look at these the new Mountain Dew cans PFT it's vintage I like the sun design on here this would be a sick tattoo I see this I see this logo and I just feel refreshed I see this logo I get thirsty Hank what's your favorite thing to do in the summer favorite thing to do in the summer is go to the beach. No. And golf. And golf.

And do Mountain Dew. Nothing goes better with golfing with your boys and hanging with your friends in the refreshing citrusy kick of Mountain Dew. We love Mountain Dew. We love one of our favorite sponsors when they came on we're like, yes, we love Mountain Dew. And then they threw back throwbacks to the nostalgia of our youth with these cans. They're so awesome.

You know what? This would hit real good driving around the El Camino and this whole time. Mountain Dew. With those down, Dew in hand. Yeah, they really did crush it. Like with the, when you walk down a grocery store aisle, it's like, that's what I want.

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Thank you to Mountain Dew. We appreciate you, Mountain Dew. All right, back to Kirk Goldsberry. Yeah, you also you also mentioned pop and Pops been in the news. He's taking a front office role. El Jefe is what he's calling himself. I'll have I like that name It's a great name and he had I like the press conference to we just turn our eyes rock in the shirt This is El Jefe and man who's all excited to be the the special assistant to El Jefe So you worked with pop for a while?

I don't know what your guys relationship was, but we talked a little bit about Pop on Monday's part of my take. You got any good Pop stories? Yeah, I got two. I'll do a basketball one first that involves James Harden. The 2017 playoffs, we were playing the second round against the Rockets. They were incredible, like peaked Antony Rockets with Harden. And one thing I had really sort of done in the scouting report was dive into their three-point shooting fouls. And I told Pop in this memo is like, they've drawn 108 three-point shooting fouls this season, Harden and

Lou Williams at the time or something. And I said, you know, they're scoring 11 points a game in the first round against the Thunder on these three-point shooting fouls. You know, you get the guy in the air, you jump into they're scoring 11 points a game in the first round against the Thunder on these three point shooting fouls. You know, you get the guy in the air, you jump into them or you do the rip through. And I was like, we can't give them those. That was my one analytics. Like, let's not let that happen. And right before game one of that series, he pulls me over and he had like a glint in

his eye and he's like, Kyrka, that's way too many. That's way too many three-point shooting fouls. And he kind of winked at me and it's like, okay. And I had no idea what the game plan was. And then we come out and that's when we were playing pick and roll defense. Our guys had our hands in the air. Do you remember this?

We were playing defense with our hands up because Pop had said, hey, we're not going to get caught in that whole series. Early in game one, Patty Mills got caught with a three-point shooting foul that he shouldn't have been called for. And that was the only three-point shooting foul the Rockets got that whole season or that whole series. We won in six games. That's the game six where Harden famously didn't show up in Houston. We didn't have Kawhi. But that was a really great moment of watching how pop looked at a stat and then devised the defense that nobody had really seen before or since like watching guys like play defense like this. It was a remarkable thing. And I love that. I loved seeing how he was able

to implement that and win a series with that. Yeah. And that's also like a credit to him. I would assume that working with him how he was able to implement that and win a series with that. Yeah. And that's also like a credit to him. I would assume that working with him, he was open, like the best coaches are open to ideas and they're open to, you know, someone on the staff being like, Hey, just look at this. And they don't say, Oh, well, I know basketball better than anyone here because he could do that. He could say he knows basketball better than anyone, but instead being like, oh yeah, actually, this is something that we have to game plan for

and be smart about. Yeah, I've had another quick one. So, Pop is also more than basketball, and in one of our New York road trips, he took us, he came into the team bus, he was like, who wants to go to a play tomorrow? And nobody raised their hand, and I raised my hand, I was like, I'll go to a play.

And so we go to this play, just me and him, and it's Kate Blanchett and PFT will know this, it's Anton Chekhov's The Present, Chekhov, the Russian playwright. And in the first act, like I don't know anything about Chekhov, right? Except for one thing. And the play is called The Present. In the middle of the first act, the Cate Blanchett character opens a present that's a pistol. And I'm like, wait a second, I've listened to enough prestige TV podcasts to know. And I was like, Pop, we had intermission. I was like, dude, I think this is Chekhov's gun. I think this is where this came from. I think we're going to, I don't want to spoil anything for you, Pop, but I think we're going to see this gun again in the third act.

And sure enough, it happened. He had never heard a Chekhov's gun. So I remember, but that's a great example. Pop loved Russian. He loves plays. He's just a culture guy and he always wants people in basketball, which is very rare in the NBA. Very few NBA teams do stuff like that.

And he was always really intentional about taking us out to museums or having great speakers come in or having, taking us to theater or having musicians come through. And, and that was just a really cool thing for him to do. He didn't have to do any of that. Yeah, that's very cool. I, my, my NBA equivalent of Chekhov's gun is when Draymond hits two consecutive threes to start a game when he's feeling himself. Yeah. Or Russ, even Russ. Yeah. With, with Dray, it's more like if he hits two threes to start a game. When he's feeling himself. Yeah, or Russ. Even Russ, yeah.

With Dre, it's more like if he hits two threes right off the start, he's gonna get a tack at some point in that game. Because he's feeling himself. Wes, Wesbrook's gone. Yeah, Wesbrook hits two and you're gonna see six more. Yeah, yeah. Also, we were just saying it,

Russell Wesbrook has been awesome for the Nuggets this postseason. Like, they don't, some of of these games they do not win without him And I know that we joke about him because he is funny to watch and he does have moments where he just becomes Like hey, I got this Yeah, but he's been playing great team basketball and even we were breaking down that that passed Aaron Gordon like There's a world where Russell Westbrook says we're down one. It's two on I'm one on two. I'm going to go to the rack and be Russell Westbrook. And he made the

smart basketball decision. Dude, I don't know. It means if memes had, have you guys seen the, um, the clip of the, the studio crew from Denver watching that last play as it happened live? Oh, you got to clip this and show this, you know, Christian Brown gets that rebound. He's racing up the right side and he makes the right play. He finds Westbrook right at the mid-court line, right? And the Denver answer, or these guys watching that from the desk in the studio show are like, no, no, no, no. It's the ball and they're watching it in real time. And then to your point, Big Cat, Westbrook doesn't do what we've seen him do a hundred times.

He makes the beautiful pass. And this guy is one of the great passers of this generation, finds Aaron Gordon on the exact opposite side of the court. The defense has turned around, gives Aaron enough time to knock down one of the biggest shots of the Nuggets' postseason, maybe not even the biggest one. But just a remarkable play, but I thought it captured that exact transformation of Westbrook when he plays within the guardrails, guys. He is a phenomenal bench player.

But there is a roller coaster you sign up for when you have him on your team. Yeah, it's very fun to watch him from afar. We should do a Mount Rushmore, by the way, this summer of the Mount Rushmore of guys that you love to watch but hate having on your team. Yes. It's very fun to watch them from afar. We should do a Mount Rushmore, by the way, this summer of the Mount Rushmore of guys that you love to watch but hate having on your team. Yeah. Or just the no, no, no, yes guys. Yeah. Or just whenever something happens, you're just like, no, no, no, no.

Oh yes. That's awesome. One thing that we're really good at Kirk is after the first game of a series, we just say that what happened to that first game is going to keep happening. So like, you know, we've been talking about how great the nuggets are They do deserve a lot of credit for fighting back. But can we just pretend? Let's just pretend that Aaron Gordon's three didn't go in and the thunder won in that or if they just played defense and in foul Yeah

So regardless of how they ended up winning by like, let's say two points What would we be saying about the Thunder and And would we be saying like the Nuggets are gonna have to make some adjustments if they wanna stop them? You know, I would still been a red flag with that game. The rebounding differential, Detroit coming in on fumes after a seven game series, still coming in there, these young team just waiting around.

The fact that in your hypothetical PFT, they've still been a very close game, I think I would have been surprised by that. They wouldn't have covered the spread. They had a shot to win. So I think it would have still looked bad. And again, they did not take it to the paint. Shea needs to attack more. This dude was put on earth to drive the basketball and not settle for pull-ups. And I think he needs to be more basketball and not settle for pull ups. Uh, and, and I think he needs to be more aggressive and really attack the weakness of this Denver team. So I'm, I'm with you. It's a make or miss league. That shot could have gone either way and narratives would

have changed, but Denver played pretty well last night, especially when you consider they were playing less than 48 hours before in a game seven in a different state. Yeah. Um, I state. Yeah. I had as a scheduled loss for the nuggets and I was way wrong because I was just, I mean they, and that also is like the thunder as a young team. I was, I was actually weirdly more shocked by the Celtics not being able to put away the Knicks because like a young team, this will happen where it's like, Hey, you're up 10 all game. Like the kill shot has to come because you just can't let teams hang around, especially like the nuggets. And when the kill shot doesn't come, you, that's, this is what you roll the dice of

like, we could have a couple of things go wrong in the last minute and it's here we are down to a one. Yeah. And these are champions, the Denver nuggets are champions and like playing that foul and up three game. And I know you guys already talked about it, but one thing I haven't heard is like, you got to make your free throws. You got to trust your young guys in these big moments. If you're going to play that game, Chet Hongren, you better, you better have a lot of faith in Chet Hongren to make those two, at least one of two.

And he missed both of them. So, you know, I think the coach, I keep zeroing in on the coach. He doesn't have enough playoff experience. Dagnall. I think he has some regrets about how he played out the end of that chess game last night. And they need to be better up and down the roster, but also on that coaching staff. All right. Other series we've got to talk about. I know we're, so we're taping this Tuesday afternoon around three o'clock. So we don't know what happens game two. Cavs Pacers though, I've been a big fan of the Pacers these playoffs because I just think they're very fun to watch. They have five guys. They've, I mean, they have more than five guys, but they have everyone's scores. They,

I feel like they get open shots. Hal Burton drives creates so many, so much space for everyone. Is there a chance the Pacers can win this series against Cavs and what is the fix that the Cavs have to do? Cause it felt like the Pacers sped them up even more in game one and that made the Cavs pretty uncomfortable. Yeah. I thought when people thought this was going to be an easy series for the Cavs, they were out of their mind. Indiana made the semi-finals last year, you know, conference finals and they're better this year. And Tyrese Halliburton is better. And I think Big Cat Cleveland is the team that is banged up right

now. Darius Garland is hurt. Evan Mobley is hurt. DeAndre Hunter dislocated his thumb. This is not a good time. And I have a nominee for the 2025 take ease, if you guys will accept external nomination. The three days after the playoffs started, the athletic released their annual player poll. And in this player poll, 90 anonymous NBA players were asked, who is the most overrated player in the NBA right now? And they said Tyrese Halliburton. And that take is aging very poorly, very poorly. They are five and one in the playoffs. He isolated Yannis onto Tecumpo multiple times in the deciding moments of that series and

took him to the rack. He leads the playoffs and assists at 12, just two turnovers. His passes when they find shooters, suddenly everybody turns into Klay Thompson because he's creating incredible looks for guys like Andrew Nemhard, Neesmith, Siakam, Miles Turner. He is just the best. He's like a Steve Nash level orchestrator right now. Uh, and like Steve Nash, the defense isn't great hand up, but this dude isn't the most overrated player in the NBA. That is a terrible take. And in fact, that might go so far as to say he might be the most underrated player in these NBA playoffs. I think he's just, I think he's a little goofy and that's what, and like people, uh, it's, it's's a weird thing but like guys that smile too much guys that maybe talk a little shit

But in a goofy way people just don't like that and you know his his shooting numbers aren't like like out of this world But he what he does passing the basketball is insane and it's just he's fun to watch Hey, he can go by I feel like can go by anyone He's 25 and he's three wins away from bringing his team is clearly the best player on the team to conference finals two years in a row. Yeah, that's that's not normal. Like when Jason Tatum was doing that, we're like, oh my god, this guy's incredible and he is he was But if they win this series and like I said, I think it's about a coin toss right now in part because of the injuries in Cleveland in part because of the injuries in Cleveland, in part because of those injuries. And if they win this, look, Tyrese Halliburton deserves some flowers.

He deserves some of those media cycles where we're like each 20, like the Luka Doncic stuff. Like when Luka was like, oh, Tyrese is having this offense play very well. And I think Cleveland should be a little bit worried. If any of the teams that lost game one should be pretty worried, I think it's Cleveland. And if they win this series, they should let his dad back. Banning him for the entire postseason, that's too much. Like a two game ban, I get it.

Maybe all the home games this round, I get that. But are you telling me if you get to the NBA finals, you're not going to let his dad back in the arena? Could they put him in a straight jacket or something? Like tie him to a chair? Yeah. And then also the one knock I'll have against Tyrese Halliburton is that he didn't have his dad's backing off. I know that you had to say like, yeah, okay, dad, you shouldn't do that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I would have liked to see the guy stand up for his dad a

little bit. My pops was wrong. He said that. Yeah. You know, and also there's things I think he handled that about as well as possible. That's a pretty awkward situation. Um, very awkward. Yeah. Like also his dad was wildly inappropriate. Your son just won. It reminded me when Angel Reese did this and I don't want to get political PFT when Angel Reese won the national title in her first instinct to talk trash to Caleb. Like go hug your teammates, dude.. Right you're making the story about something else like your dad just stole the story of the first round uh their win by by going on the court and being crazy. I agree entirely I think it was like way way out of line it would just have been

cool to see Tyrese be like yeah that's my dad though you know I can't say anything bad about my dad. Yeah yeah I see that you're a real patriarchy guy I see that. You're a real patriarchy guy. I see that. I am. George Bush invaded Iraq because of his dad. That's true. He loved Halliburton. That's fat. That's it. Look, look it up. That's all fat. So next step on pardon my Freud. I think you're, I think you're what you have a perfect record in terms of picking NBA champions on this show, right? Yeah. I don't like to do victory laps like, um, Schreger, you know, I think he's, he's done this, but, uh, yeah, I picked the NBA finals correctly for as long as I could remember PFT on your show.

Okay. So who do you have right now? I'm sticking with the Boston Celtics, uh, Bing Bong, Hanke. Uh, I still support the Celtics and. You know, I'm sticking with the Boston Celtics, Bing Bong, Hanky. I still support the Celtics and I'm sticking with the Thunder and I'm a little bit nervous today. It was a safe pick all year. And you know what? I'm happy to be nervous.

PFT, I'm happy to be nervous because it was like, I didn't want both of these teams to just plow through the bracket and end up there. And now there's some adversity for both of these teams for game two, but dude, these teams both deserve credit. Boston is just the most dominant team when they're healthy. Uh, and they're all healthy right now. Drew's back and then okay. See, I mean, they won 68 games. What can you say? Like it's a juggernaut best defense. We've seen in a while.

All right. So love the hat by the way, Kirk looks, looks great. Hank just chimed in. He said he loves that. All right. So off of that, I got, I got one last question. The row back question. Actually, we got to talk about your, at your, uh, Atlas balls too. Uh, row back question, r h o B a c k.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. You should go right now and buy perfect for Father's Day or Mother's Day. TheGoldenHexagon.com, you made an Atlas basketball, which is pretty damn sick.

So what is on this? It's a spherical map of the world. And this is the first edition. I sent one to PFT for his birthday. Oh, thanks for sending a picture of mine too. Well, our birthdays are pretty far apart. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Yeah. But this is the first edition and the breaking news that I'm happy to announce. This is the Atlas ball. The Kyrie ball is coming now. So I have made one as a tribute to Kyrie Irving at Globe Basketball for sort of a get well soon sentiment to one of the great point guards. But you know, Kyrie is a big fan of spherical geography and so am I. And what better way to celebrate that as a basketball lover than a decoration for your

office big cat that is actually a basketball and a Globe at the same time. You can have the whole wide world in your hands. I love it. It is really cool. I've got it in my office at home. It's also a good Father's Day present. If you're looking to get something for Dad, I feel like that's a good. Or a birthday present.

Yeah, or a birthday present. If you were looking to get it for someone's birthday. Or a Mother's Day present. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. You brought up Wilt earlier today. Do you think that Wilt actually scored 100 points in a game?

Wait, 10,000 or 100? Which record is most untouchable? The 100. I'd say the hundred. Yeah. Yeah, I do I do I think there would have been a lot of truthers come out of the woodwork If he hadn't guys who were playing in the game For instance his opponents like I was talking to Chris Bosh and Matt Bonner a few weeks ago about when Kobe scored 81 that's like a great story for them to tell because they were on the Raptors and you know it's kind of a cool story to me at the time but i think those guys would have been like you this was all this wasn't true i don't think there was a bunch of fake news on that one yeah i feel like that's one of the stories that it's fun to pretend that it's not true but but it's probably like very true. Yeah. Yeah. I'd agree. Yeah. Um, yeah. It's did Kobe score 81 though. PFT. What do you think about that? I don't know. It was in, it was in standard definition. Yeah. So it could have been, it could have

been the clone. I think somebody else was it? What year was that? I was in 11, 12. My TV was standard. Uh, all right. So my last question. So Celtics Thunder is your finals. Tell me what would have to happen for all the other teams. Like you could just be one line. Could be as easy as like, hey, Jokic is just Jokic. But what would have to happen if we're sitting here two months from now and we've just crowned one of the other six teams that are not the Thunder

or Celtics as champions? Yeah, I think that it would have to start in the West with what you brought up earlier, somebody not stepping up for the Thunder, like J Dub or Chet. And Chet looked like he shrank in the moment. I'm not going to hold against one game, but that did not look good with those free throws in that moment. So if they continue to get sort of big misses from their supporting cast, like I could totally see the West, which is so brutal and so unforgiving. You can't have a lot of flaws on your roster and win the Western Conference in this league. So I think, you know, OKC supporting cast needs to fail them. And I'll leave that on the table.

I don't think that will happen. But then in the East, we saw it a little bit there too. Like the Celtics need to break down with the three point shot. They need to not have the diversity in offense and find solutions. Ultimately, I think Boston has a much easier path to the finals than OKC. If I had to pick one of these teams to not get there, it would be OKC at this point. Who would you who would be next up in the West if it wasn't okay. See it's him roles are I don't know. All of those teams look good. Yeah. I think Denver and Minnesota who

have history, um, are both looking good. And obviously golden state is one of the Western conference. I think six of the last 10 times, like there's some big, big players on that side of the bracket, but I just for the sake of the take, I'm going to take Jokic. I mean, dude, he had one of the best seasons we've ever seen. He was incredible down the stretch last night in a game that will always be remembered for Aaron Gordon's incredible shot. Jokic scored 18 points in the fourth quarter and was the best player on both ends of the court getting every rebound.

And if he keeps that up, dude, you could see that. This league has seen big men run through the playoffs for decades. So I could see a path where he sort of throws back to the future and it's just a dominant big man dragging his team through the playoffs. Would love that. Yeah, that would be very fun.

Who do you think? A big cat, I know you're a big hoops guy. You haven't had any ear takes. Where's your bet at right now? I do agree that the Celtics are going to be in the finals from the East because I just think they're better. Listen, I've been talking up the Pacers. They're dangerous, but yeah, I think the Celtics will be there. And then, oh man, I keep going back to... All right, tell me this. Is it crazy? It feels like, I really like the Timberwolves

is my short answer. My concern is it does feel like whenever the Warriors and Rudy Gobert go up against each other, Steph Curry's found a way to play him off the court in a way where it's like you get a lot of switches and you can't guard Steph in space. Is that a real concern for the Timberwolves? Like what, or is it because the Warriors don't have as many guys now, it's not

as much of a concern that the Timberwolves can counteract that a little bit? Yeah, I think that's a great, great question. I think Chris Finch has found ways to keep Rudy in games and get away with drop coverage in places that some of the other teams haven't that Rudy's been on. But yeah, I think it's also fair to say, like you said, this is not the 2022 Warriors or the 2017 Warriors. This is not Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Steph Curry in their primes. Like, Pajemski, Buddy Heald, Gary Payton, this is not exactly the 27 Yankees of jump shooting, Gary Payton, this is not exactly the 27 Yankees of jump shooting like we saw from this other previous Warriors era. So I have the Timberwolves winning this series simply because the offensive depth isn't good

enough to outscore the Timberwolves, but I also don't think they'll be able to play go bear off the court like that. Yeah. Okay. All right. So yeah, I guess my pick would then be the Timberwolves. Yeah. And it would be really cool. Like we, last time I was on here, we were talking about how, uh, American superstars are washed and we needed to put tariffs on international basketball players. Uh, and I think Anthony Edwards could make America great again as a, as a basketball player. Yes, he absolutely

could. Um, all right, Kirk, you're the best man. We appreciate you as always. And, uh, everyone go buy a father's day gift or mother's day gift, uh, at the golden hexagon podcasters gift. Yeah. It is, it is a very cool globe. Hank Barcelona. It still says Gulf of Mexico. So the updated version will, we'll have to change that. Uh, But I appreciate you guys. Thanks for having me on. Kirk Goldsberry is brought to you by McDonald's, our delicious, great friends at McDonald's. McDonald's and their all new McCrispy strips. McCrispy strips are here. It's the chicken that's made for dipping tender,

juicy white meat chicken with a golden brown peppery breading. It's chicken's so good. It deserves its own sauce. That's the creamy chili McRisbee. It is an elite sauce and these are great strips. We brought them in for an ad the other day. Had to take a bite of it. Took my bite, finished the ad. Then Memes was like, hey, I can go ahead

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Yeah, Hank's ear popped. You're kidding me. So it wasn't your yelling. What a, you know, I gotta tell you, I felt such, I felt bad actually. Yeah. Yeah, Hank was playing the victim. I hung up the phone and I'm sorry to use rude words, but I was like, what a fucking pussy.

Like I never screamed in his ear. And then I was like, oh God, maybe I did like hurt his ear. Maybe he's got delicate ears. It fucking popped. I knew it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's sitting right here. I'm sorry, Hank. Like for you to blame me because you don't use the fucking ear code or put a Q-tip in there. Facts facts. All right. That was it. Jerry. Just want to let you know you're off the hook.

Jerry, I had a question for you. I know that Max wouldn't apologize to you for, for flipping out about the white house thing. Do you think that Hank owes you an apology? Does Hank owe you apology? Now nobody owes me an apology. I love how Max from Hawaii is trying to jump in on this thing and it's like, dude, no, stop. Yeah. Yeah. Get out of, get out of get out of our business. Yeah, exactly Yeah, all right cherry thanks for all you do Um, one more thing. Um, little scary, fucking hitting send on those tweets to, uh, the old boss. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But hey, you hit it, you hit it with the, thanks y'all. Oh, for all that you do, uh, really, really kind of, you can't get mad about that. Uh, a little scary. Yeah. Really? I don't know. Let's Mr. Bing Bong bring something

out. I don't even know. I just. Bing bong bring something out me Yeah, yeah, I love it all right great all right Jerry we'll talk to you later Thanks you did yell my ear, but that's all right. All right. All right. See you Jerry. All right All right. All right. See you Jerry. All right. All right. FAQs. Do you want to apologize? No. You know what? He admitted he yelled in my ear. I would consider it. But if he's going to lie, I'm not. Look, look, he kind of credit to Hank for, for admitting that his hearings back and that it was, it was just the plane that set it up because Hank probably, oh my God, they scored or just scored. Now they're going to park the bus. But yeah, credit to Hank because he could have, he could have just played this along and said, yeah,

my hearing is still gone. And then that way he doesn't have to listen to anything that we tell him. But instead he raises his hand and said, Hey, you know what? I'm okay now. So thank you for that. Hank. Hank is in a bad spot right now How do you know when this game when you're up when did it win an inner score their last goal? Two minutes left. Oh overtime or whatever the fuck extra time added time All right, you just fucking live and die with the team all year for them to do this soft, sorry tortured fan base. Barcelona. Prayers up. Hey Big Cat, Patrick, Max, Memes and the guy reading this.

Hank, can you start over with a little bit more zest? No. A lot of athletes have pre-game routines or meals before performing on the big stage. With you guys running the best national sports podcast, I was wondering if there are any pre-podcast routines or snacks you have before airing the podcast today is the day memes that lottery ball is yours memes did with the lottery ball kind of what I mean the islanders he didn't do it the islanders did the team you roots for did did they use balls for that uh yeah what was the question in to your

game routine routines or snacks? Yeah, I mean, on Sundays I would say we probably do. Yeah, food, Memes sends the food question mark text around five o'clock. That's kind of like the, it's like the old, like it's the bell for everyone to go to the town square. All right, get to the office. Memes sent the food question mark All right, get to the office.

Memes sent the food, question mark, text. The podcast is nigh. Yeah, we're on the precipice of podcasting. I like that Big Cat slapped my face, like John Henderson, in the locker room before a game. Yeah. Really get the blood going. Usually we just kind of figure out what kind of mood

Hank's in before, so we can. I mean, the real answer is me and Big Cat like to pick somebody to gang up on. Yeah. It's usually Hank because he's sitting right here. Yeah. Just get riffing on somebody. Just really lay into him. Just cut... It's almost like we're doing the tennis, you know, volleying back and forth, warming up. We're just doing that on someone's face. Yeah. Right on his face. Mm-hmm.

Sorry, Hank. I know this is a big bet. Are there, it's more just, you know. Barcelona. Barcelona. How could you, Barcelona? Are there any questions you really want to ask a certain guest that you haven't gotten the chance to ask it? Ooh.

That's a good question. Now they're just flopping. Like any recurring guest that we've had on that we didn't ask the big question to? Hmm What memes you got one? No, you guys have to have some regret. No, I know I'm just trying to think it on the fly Like a specific guest that we've had That we've really been like, oh fuck we blew it by not asking this person. Probably should have asked Karl Malone

what happened with all that stuff. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. That one probably. That was a basketball decision. I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think though, is there one where I've walked away been like, damn, I wish I'd asked that.

Like, damn, we fucking missed that question. I don't know, man. Can you guys think of one Hank? Memes? Memes probably would be able to think of one before us because he's probably like man they fucking blew it. Dance around almost there. I mean there's obviously someone has something that you know like a crime they committed when they were a kid or something like we're not going to bring it up and embarrass them you know what I mean? Like there's not shit like that. Oh yeah like if like there was a

Some kid that was outside and they got into a fight with them and then there's a whole hate crime section of the Wikipedia Yeah, yeah. Yeah, somebody like that Wait, who is that again? It's not you. Oh wait. Oh, it's not you Not you it's not you it's not you Yeah, okay, so there's some hey listen. I'll, I'll be the first to admit, uh, there are definitely times we've done interviews where people are like, how did you not ask that? How did you not ask that? They were trying to, we're trying to fucking just have a good time. Sorry. If you want journalism, go listen to the daily hand up. We didn't ask Fauci about the Wuhan lab.

Yeah, we should have. We should have snuffed that one out. Yep, that's on us. Bad instincts. Big mistake, big mistake. All right. Hank, it's dead. They're gonna park the bus.

It means they're gonna put every player in front of the goal and there's no chance they're gonna score. Why didn't we do that? Well, because we weren't winning. We were winning. Yeah, good point. Yeah, we't winning. We were winning. Yeah, good point Yeah, we're winning Last one

Can we find out a little more about how max me and Shane and pug got involved with the podcast and how big cat and PFT First interactions with them were hmm. Hmm. Okay, so with max Max came on after bubba. Mm-hmm post bu Bubba. He worked in the office for what a year or two? Yeah, years. I mean I was technically his boss. He worked on stool streams and other stuff with me. I did know that Max was the two things I knew about Max before he, because I don't think we really interacted much, was that Philly and he had a rivalry with Hank like yeah where to God I knew that Hank and him like didn't they had a playful thing with each other I like I was technically his boss

But obviously this was I think it was like even the confetti when the Sixers confetti thing happened and like I would go up To his desk and basically do we do on the show and he would still after you know some prodding would just Eventually stand up start screaming at me and like yeah Yeah, yeah. I would do a show once a week with him with the hard factor guys. And the only thing I really picked up about Max was he really likes to touch his testicles a lot

when he's nervous. And I was like, what's up with this? Why is he always grabbing at his balls? Cause it was like every week. And I'm glad to see that he hasn't stopped with that. I also love the fact that he's not here to defend himself. But he would probably admit to that. Yeah, he absolutely admits to that. Memes tweeted us so many times that we had to hire him because we were like, this guy might kill us.

No, the PMT memes account was great. I just remember DMing him, asking where he lived and then just praying. I think, I don't even know if it's legal to ask, but I was like, how old are you? Yeah, I was like, if he's old. Oh, wow. If he's old, then it's a problem. That is a weird DM. Yeah, no. If he's older than me, it's a problem. Yeah, no, memes. Is that what you lead with? No, I was like, where do you live? He's like, Long Island.

And then I was like, how old are you, I think? Do you want an internship? Yeah, memes is a good test case of like, a lot of people obviously would love to work at Barstool and be involved in this and will be like, oh, I wanna work here. Like, here's my resume. Or, oh, I wanna work here.

Watch me tweet like a few things like every couple of weeks. And we'll be like oh, I want to work here like here's my resume or oh, I want to work here watch me Tweet like a few things like every couple weeks memes was just committed to the game you could see his work ethic from day one Shane and pug I think a stork dropped him off. I don't I don't fucking remember the change AI changes changes was here one day Love them You see see my Pope Bob I hope I'll see my Pope Bob head shake. It's fucking sick Wait, oh It's a great bobble. It's great. Bob. Yeah, I don't I I don't remember like they're just like traditional

Yeah, they were traditional hires. So it's just like one day. They were here. It's like, oh cool nice and that was that was it Do you remember your first interaction with everybody mmm with Shane I think I know I think I heard a rumor that he had never had McDonald's before and so I asked him about that I was like what was it like having your first McDonald's must have blown your mind like your first tomato I think you're just sitting in the studio and I introduced myself to you yeah I don't remember I do it to you. Yeah, I don't remember do you remember I do it was um you got you guys recording the Thanksgiving Episode of advisors I think ah and Hank brought me in just like show me around and I introduced myself. Okay. Yeah, what about you pug? Yeah, I was just like normal hire, and I was I think I walked in the studio

Nervous as fuck introduce myself, and that was that was it. Yeah, now we're cool. Yeah. And then Jack, I'm still waiting to meet Jack. Cause he's like, he's like over a thousand on introductions to me. So we're just, we're waiting for our first formal introduction. You're still waiting to meet me?

Yeah. You, I mean, you just whiffed every time. So we're going to try, try to do that. Yeah. We can plan for it in the future Jack wiper wipe it was just that one time when Jack said what did you say to me? It was it was uncomfortable. Just like how's your morning going at like 11 a.m. I think it was at like 930 No, it's a little later than that. It also was weird to be like just how's your morning going? I was like, what did you just do dude? It was very like corporate America

Nice guy. Yeah, nice guy. Nice guy. What Jack real quick? Sean Moore self-imposed two-game penalty Suspension and then also your president left. Is this is this weird to you? It's a little weird. Okay, do you have a president right now? No, we don't we We might have an interim, but okay. Yeah. It seems like everyone's kind of running away. Jesus. Would that be fair to say? Yeah. What are they running away from? Beats me. Okay. You didn't see anything. Yeah, exactly. anything yeah exactly all right that's that's our Michigan man Jack all right good show boys no max isn't back till till Monday Sunday what he's been doing

in Hawaii tweeting at us he misses us so he does he feels like he's he's got big-time FOMO big-time big-time Okay numbers three That was a long pause name. I didn't even go for it there 13. What was the last number you guessed memes? 44 44 13 is what the islanders got so open we go to for okay 99 book What's wrong 58 Barca Bartha We had it we did

Bartha 13 13 21 Jack did you say something you see your number? 58 Hank are you gonna say a number or you? I said five. He said five. Oh man, he's so down. Hank, come on man. It'll be okay.

13. 13. Now I'm on 13. Seven. Love you guys. One day. I'm gonna be a good boy So So So So Thanks for watching!