Pardon My Take - Remembering Kobe, plus George Kittle Live From Miami

Episode Date: January 27, 2020

 We remember Kobe Bryant from a fan's perspective after Sunday's tragic news. How he was bigger than life, his competitive drive and the time Hank and Big Cat went to interview him at his office in LA (2:20 - 23:05). Who's back of the week (23:05 - 35:21). San Francisco 49ers Tight End George Kittle joins the show to talk about the upcoming Super Bowl, his dad's pregame letters, blocking, and the guys prep him for Media Day (35:21 - 56:03).We finish the show with some clips from Big Cats interview with Kobe Bryant from 2018 as we remember one of the greatest basketball players of all time (56:03 - 79:31)You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake

Hey, pardon my take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen, ad-free, on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take, we're going to do things a little differently, weird, tough day, crazy day in sports with the passing of Kobe Bryant. We're going to remember Kobe. We have some clips from my interview on the Corp with Kobe. We also have our good friend, George Kittle, live in person from Miami before the Superbowl.

Talk to him, get him prepped for media day night. Before we do that, pardon my take, is brought to you by the Cash App. Not only is it the easiest place to send money to your friends, but it's also the place where you can buy fractional shares of stock with as little as one dollar. P.F. Do you invest? I'm investing heavily this year, big guy. Okay.

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Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by the Cash App. Go download it right now, use code barstool. It's also Bad Beats Monday. Use hashtag Bad Beats Monday. Tweet it at Part of My Take, tweet it at Cash App, and they will hook up some AWLs who had Bad Beats. Today is Monday, January 27th, and it's some horrific, tragic news and a little bit of a different show because I think I speak for all of us.

The sports world was stunned with the passing of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, and I think how many other people were in there? There were three other people on the helicopter. I think there was a nine total. Another basketball coach and his daughter was on there as well. It was just a tragic, tragic day and it was one of those news stories that had broken. Everyone's reaction was pretty much identical. When we saw it coming across Twitter, everyone was just saying, like, this has got to be

a fake report. There's no way that this is true. Because Kobe seemed like one of those guys because of how big his personality was because of how relevant he'd been in sports over the last 25 years, really. He's always been around. He's always been the toughest guy in every single room, the most mentally tough person. Just really a legend in every sense of the word. Thinking that he just all of a sudden is no longer with us was very, very tough to even

believe. Yeah. It was truly shocking. It's hard with how weird the world's gotten, how weird the internet's gotten, and the news that you get every day. It's hard to be shocked, and this one jolted everyone. I tweeted right away, it really does. Kobe Bryant was the type of guy who you just expected in 50 years you'd see him sitting

courtside trash talking like a 21-year-old and still being able to beat him in horse. Yeah, and still being that guy, that presence, that guy who was so bigger than life, bigger than his sport, who was the guy who took the baton from Michael Jordan and passed it to LeBron James, who was basically the guy in the NBA for a decade plus and 41 years old. The fact that he's with his daughter, if you ever saw clips of them together and he had four daughters and how much he enjoyed coaching them, the whole thing is just so horribly, horribly tragic. It took the wind out of you.

It was one of those rare moments that really took the wind out of you, and yeah, it's hard to make jokes and do our regular show after news like that. Right, there's not anything funny to talk about with it, it's just like it's horrific regardless, and Kobe had his detractors out there, but I think even people that didn't like Kobe Bryant did the gravity of the situation, he's with his daughter, nobody can think about this news and feel anything but just like, you know, feel grief and feel like, you know, utter pain for his wife and his remaining daughters. It's just, it's an awful story that I can't, I can't think of another case where an athlete

of like this stature has passed away suddenly, like maybe the closest thing I can even think of is Dale Earnhardt. People are saying Thurman Monson, the crazy thing about Kobe is more than any other athlete, Kobe made people like feel, and that's people who hated him, people who loved him, he was a lightning rod, and he loved, like, what I loved about Kobe is he loved being that guy, he loved being that guy who would go and rip some teams' heart out on the road, he loved being the guy who you might not like him, you might not root for him, but you respect his determination, his will to win, that like ultra competitive streak that you don't see

in every athlete, you see it in very rare cases, and there's only a handful of guys who have that like win at all costs kind of mentality, and Kobe had it, and even if you weren't a Laker fan, you're like, hey, I don't, I'm not gonna root for him, but at the end of the day, you respected what he did, and, you know, Coley, who's one of our colleagues who has a great basketball podcast with Tyler Mixtape, wrote it perfectly when he was like, when he said he wasn't Michael Jordan, but he was Michael Jordan to a generation of fans, because he was that guy after MJ. I think you can also see the way that Michael Jordan reacted to it, Kobe was the guy that

reminded Michael Jordan the most of himself. Correct. The highlight tapes would show basically it was like a mirror image of the two of them. Michael Jordan doesn't respect anyone that he competes against while he's competing, but he respected Kobe, because he was like, I get the sense that this kid also doesn't like me when he's competing against me. And whenever, you know, people, even Charles Barkley said, I think it was like three days ago said that, you know, this NBA is too soft and guys are too friendly with each other,

Kobe was the exact opposite. He was not friends with anyone because if you if you're friends with someone, you're not getting better and you're not mentally getting something over someone when you're in the biggest moments and you're fighting for a championship. Right. It's like us with Bracilla when he comes on the show. We pretend to be friends with them in reality. We're just negging the whole time so we get a mental advantage.

Okay. So real quick, I want to I want to touch on something because there are people that are experiencing obviously like emotional reactions to Kobe's death and they've, you know, a lot of people haven't met Kobe. They don't have a personal story with him, but they're still experiencing like a very real sense of loss. And that's it's such an unusual phenomenon to explain, but we all go through it. Like I remember when Sean Taylor passed away, I'd never met the guy.

I'd just seen him play football and there was something about, you know, watching him on the court, the way that are on the field, the way they played that like seriously affected me because I admired somebody's ability to be that like a hundred percent passionate about something and it made me feel different about myself when I was watching him. I got to imagine that's like how people feel about Kobe. It's like you watch a guy like that, you feel like you know him who has the singular determination and you respect his ability to focus so completely on one thing and excel at one thing that he actually made like his fans feel better about themselves and probably gave more drive

and willpower to people that were just obsessed with watching him on TV, watching play basketball. He probably improved people's lives who would watch him and gave them like something to look up to and kind of a role model in terms of what their mentality could be and whatever their chosen field is. And it's crazy that we'll never meet some of these people, but their passing still has a significant emotional effect on you. So I did meet Kobe. I was lucky enough to meet Kobe.

Hank was with me. And so we interviewed him with Alex Rodriguez for the corp. We'll put some of the highlights of that at the end of this episode because it was a great interview. But Hank, you can back me up. I've never been more nervous for an interview. And being in the presence of Kobe Bryant was being in the presence of greatness. You could feel it.

Like we walked into his office. First of all, he was getting a haircut in his office, which was the ultimate power move. Well, so you weren't even, I showed up like three hours early because the interview was like 10 a.m. And I showed up with the camera crew at like 7 a.m. Like we'll open the office for you guys. You guys can get in.

And so we're setting up the office. I thought no one else was in there. And I asked like the assistant or whatever. I was like, where's the bathroom? And she pointed me to the bathroom and I'm like walking. I looked to my right and Kobe was just in his office at like 7.15. Yeah. There.

This guy's retired, has more money than you could ever finish. I just, I was like. And he's in his office at 7. And no, there was no one else. No one else in the entire office. It was just like a studio. That's pretty early for you, Hank. Did you hear you?

It was extremely early. And this was West Coast time. So it wasn't as bad. So he was, we showed up to his office. You could feel it. Like when you're around someone like that who, who just commands respect and like kind of this whole little orbit goes around him, it's something to behold. And we get there and we do the interview and the interview like Kobe was nice, but he had

that Kobe intensity that never lets you get comfortable. And it's like, this is the guy. This is why he is who he is. He will be nice to you, but like you got to remember you're on Kobe's turf and you're on Kobe's time. And the thing that struck me most about the interview, and I again, we'll put some at the end. Like this is a guy who won five championships is one of the best NBA players of all time,

accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish, made millions upon millions of dollars. And like Hank said, he's at his office at 7am and he's somehow, somehow, some way even more excited for the next chapter of his life and winning at whatever project he's about to do than he was for the, the two decades plus that he played in the NBA. And you're like, how is this possible? How can a guy who like forever, for anyone who had what Kobe had, that's the peak of their existence. Every single day is the next like challenge and the next thing he's about to tackle.

And it was incredible to watch because you're like, if I, I mean, if you or I were, if we were sitting here and we're like, Hey, we won five championships, we have $500 million. I wouldn't be waking up at seven in the morning. I wouldn't be tacking the day. I wouldn't be like, I'm hungry for more. I'd be like, I'm going to sit in the jacuzzi and chill out for the rest of my life. Yeah. Some people, some people don't have the off switch because to them hitting that off switch

is like losing. Right. And, and that's not what someone who's wired like that ever wants to go, go through. Like if Kobe Bryant words have just sat down and been just stayed in bed all day and relaxed, he would have probably felt more un-relaxed because he was laying. He would be anxious. That sort of thing. He was like one of the most driven people, obviously in the history of sports.

When the news broke, it was, it's always weird reading serious breaking news stories like this on TMZ, like you go to their website and it's in the same font where it's like, China Black has major shade to throw at Chris Jenner. Watch the video for more. You know, that's, that's what I associate that font with. And what is it? Black China? I screwed that one up.

Sorry, Hank. But like you, you, you read the font and you just assume it's like some trashy inconsequential headline, right? And then when it says something of the magnitude of like, like Prince died or, or Kobe Bryant just passed away in a helicopter accident, it's like, there's, there's no way that this organization got this right. So you spend the next five minutes just hoping it's not hoping that they screwed it all up. And then there are a couple hoping they got hacked.

Yeah. You're like, Hey, maybe TMZ got hacked and this is a story they wanted to run. And then Bear's Twitter account got hacked and pretended they were good for a second with that. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, maybe there's hacking. Very clearly not the bears.

Yeah. And then you, you had the second wave of news coming out, which was like just bad reporting about whether or not his kids were on board, just like contradictory reports all it was like a roller coaster of emotions trying to figure out what the hell was going on. And after you're done going through that as, as someone who's reading the news, then you get the third wave, which is news reporters telling, uh, professional athletes live on the air, what happened and seeing their reaction. It's like, I can deal without all that stuff.

I don't need to see like, I, this wasn't intentional, but, uh, Cassius Winston at Michigan State Tom Izzo told him about, uh, Coby's crash, like live on TV and you saw his reaction and watching other people go through it, it's, it's just as bad as when you just went through it. It brings up so many emotions. Like, I don't want to see any of that stuff, but that's, you know, like those clips. I actually, I don't enjoy seeing them because it's a tragedy, but it makes you realize how important he was to so many people and the fact that he is a guy who's been retired for

however many years, three or four years, and he still means something to college players. And like you see even, uh, you know, like the rivals of his rival teams, rival franchises all being affected by it. Like that's what Coby Bryant was the, the point I made earlier that like, even if you were his rival, you respected him and to see all these people be affected by it, you realize, holy shit, this guy means so much to so many people and it was just a crazy, I mean, it's just crazy, crazy sad and it's really like there's nothing really you can say other than it's tragic and it's sad and, uh, I, yeah, I think it's a gut punch.

The NBA, I think should have canceled the game today because of what he meant to everybody in the league. It seemed like Coby had some sort of influence on every single team. Like all these, all, all these kids obviously growing up who are in the NBA now watch them growing up. But it was beyond that. I'm not talking about just like them watching him play throughout the years. I'm saying like he had so many friends and so many people that he was, uh, you know, actively

engaged in the day to day life on every single team in this league that it seemed like it was, uh, I don't know if they panicked and didn't know how it'd be possible to, to, you know, call everything off logistically, but it felt like one of those things where the, the whole league was like sleepwalking, just trying to get through the end of the day because they were rightfully, you know, like you said, hitting the gut by this. Yeah. Um, so I don't know. I mean, it's a very weird way to start Super Bowl week.

We're here in Miami. Uh, we had like the news broke while we were in the, on the plane in the middle of the air and it was like, what the fuck? So yeah, I mean, it's going to be weird for a couple of days, I'd say. I don't really know. All the, all the fans out there that are tweeting like as a Celtics fan, let me say, or like as a six, even though I'm a Sixers fan, I still feel bad for his family. You can just, you can get this one out.

You can sit down. I mean, I had, I had some pretty bad timing. I, I, uh, debuted a new character that's not going to ever come back. Lake or Dan on Saturday night when LeBron, which is crazy LeBron past Kobe all time points last night. Um, and I was having fun with Kobe fans and now everyone's like, oh, that, that age poorly. Like I knew that this was going to happen. Like what the fuck?

This is a tragedy that's like so incredibly sad and then you're upset about a joke I made on Saturday night. Well, you have to find somebody in a senseless tragedy. You have to find somebody to be mad at and I'm glad that you were able to provide that outlet for so many people gone forever and he was going to come back every now and then he's gone forever. So rest assured that's, that is officially retired. I'll say this about it was, it was one and done.

The one thing that you can definitely say about Kobe Bryant is he was so, so polarized. He made people feel so strongly one way or the other about him that he inspired total strangers to try to drive an hour each to fight each other on Christmas day. Just based off one person saying that he wasn't good. Dude, I jokingly, again, this name another athlete that could inspire that, that like sort of man to man combat again, it was Saturday night. So this was well before and I jokingly said LeBron James was the number one Laker of all time, which if you can't tell that's a fucking joke, whatever.

I had multiple people threaten my life and I was like, you know what, respect because you're just standing up for your man. I love that. Like that's what you do. You stand up for your man. All right. Let's, let's try to move on. We have, we are in Miami.

We are in Miami. Let me do a quick ad read and then we'll, we'll try to move on again. We're going to put in some of the Kobe interview clips from the Corp interview, which was fantastic. You should go listen to it. The most intense person I've ever interviewed and it was so intimidating, but so awesome at the same time because he is one of those, you know, he was one of those like larger than life people. Um, all right.

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Quick. I mean, we got a whole week planned. Yeah. We're back. We're actually in the Ghost Hotel right now. We're in the Ghost Hotel. We're in the famous Joe Buck Ghost Hotel. I'm assuming we're going to see Marlon's Man at some point this week, right?

I'm sure we will. And it wasn't just the Joe Buck Ghost Hotel. It was also the Carl Ravich Ghost Hotel. Yes. When we had bases falling over, we had... He magically got hair. Yeah. He grew hair.

Carl Ravich, a.k.a. what's Jeremy Fowler, a.k.a. Chris Fowler. Chris Fowler. Chris Fowler. Yeah. A.k.a. Jeremy Schapp. Yes.

Who else? He's the brown hair guy on ESPN. We're ghosts in the machines. You know what I've noticed about Miami is there's the Miami beat everywhere you go. Like if you eat outside, if you're at a restaurant, the soundtrack that's playing always has the exact same beat no matter what song it is. Yeah. And it's only in Miami.

It's a doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom. That one, it'll be everywhere. It's going to drive you crazy by the end of the week. You're also, when you're in Miami, you're never more than like 25 feet away from a turquoise or a cocaine turquoise or pink t-shirt. That's true. You can buy one at any point. Like if you just stumble out of bed and walk 25 feet in any direction, you will be able

to buy a pink electric Miami shirt. Or white pants. Yeah. I'm going to get some white pants this week. It's going to be the best city for the Super Bowl, though. Oh, I would say so. It's nice. Yeah.

This or New Orleans? Las Vegas. No, that's going to be nice. When Las Vegas happens. We were talking shit about the NFL logo redesigns for the Super Bowls last week because they lost all creativity about what, 10 years ago, 12 years ago. There has been some fire NFL League Super Bowl merchandise that I've seen already with the Miami colors and stuff on it.

I'm going to probably purchase like six different Super Bowl shirts. You're going to come back looking like the ultimate tourist. Oh, oh, hey, ask me if I went to the Super Bowl in Miami. Yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to wear the shirts and I'm going to continue to wear them for years and years and years. That's the saddest thing is seeing somebody wearing just like a standard Super Bowl 44 t-shirt.

Just out in the wild somewhere. Yeah. It's like it's laundry day. I get it. Yeah. It's like, did you go to that game? Oh, yeah. Okay.

Cool. And it's not even the teams. No, it's just the league. Yeah. It's just the league. It's like, hey, we printed this shirt well before we knew that there were two teams playing in this game. Yeah.

We just knew the Super Bowl was going to be here and it's bigger than the sport. All right. Let's do who's back. We're just going to brush past the big news of the day. The Pro Bowl. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The Pro Bowl happened.

Yes. AFC one. Wow. Overhit. 38-33. I knew the overhit. And I had the AFC. And that was talking Pro Bowl.

And no one got hurt. And Kurt Cousins threw an interception on the very first on sides fourth and 15. Oh, nice. So they tried out the Mike, is that a Mike Florio rule? It is a Mike Florio rule. They tried out the Mike Florio rule. Perfect. You get one passing down where it's fourth and 15 and you try to make it first down

on instead of an onside kick. And Kurt Cousins threw that interception. It's a great rule, by the way. They should absolutely implement that. And they should have Kurt Cousins play quarterback for whatever team changes. Fly him everywhere. Actually, just have him in New York and just run it against like a scout team. They'll still throw an interception.

Yeah. Run it against the tackling dummies from Princeton that just glide around the field. Go to Kurt Cousins. All right. Let's do who's back. Then we're going to get, we have George Kittle, Greg Kittle on the show. And then we'll finish with some highlights of Kobe Bryant. Hank, who's back?

My who's back of the week is just unverified bad boy Twitter accounts. You mentioned earlier. With the bears? No. I mean, you are verified. I am. The unverified bad boys. That's true.

But you mentioned that the bears Twitter account got hacked, which, and it reminded me because we got an email last week being like, oh, you know, if you want to be verified, like let us know. And I was like, absolutely not. But if you're going to get hacked and you're going to be verified, like there's no point and just feels, it just, it just feels good to be unverified. When that email comes around, I sometimes want to email and be like, hey, can you unverify me because I feel slightly like less of a man when I'm around you to unverified bad

assets? But I gave my check away. I told Twitter, shove it up your ass. You'll never get a check. Jack. Were you ever going to check? I had a check. No, I know.

And I got rid of it. I actually get a check though, like willingly. Maybe. You want one. Maybe. What? We'll see. Unverified bad ass PFT?

Now that I'm a professional athlete, I feel like you have to have that check. No. If you do that, that will be your sell out moment. No, no. Because if you become like a minor league pitcher drafted in the 70th round, for some reason, they still give you a blue check mark on Twitter. I feel like. You're part of the big cat brigade.

If you get, if you get, I have to get it, I have to have a check mark to help people with airlines. PFT, if you get a blue check mark, that will be your official sell out moment. Listen, if they give it to me, that's just, that's on them. I already gave it back. Give it back. Yeah. All right.

So if you, they give it to you, you're going to give it back again? I might not. I don't know. Well, I'm going to try this one on. See how it fits for a while. What do you mean? Are you getting one? No, I'm saying if I get one.

Sound like you asked for one. No. I'm saying if I get one, I'm going to try it on. Do they just randomly give them out anymore? I have no idea. I think everyone gets a blue check mark now. At one point in the email, we were like, all you have to do is reply to this email, yes, and we'll give you a blue check mark.

And I was like, fuck no. Yes. And then they saw that as a reply because they actually was just saying if you reply to this email, we'll give you one. All right. Well, I'm just saying the day that you get a blue check mark will be the saddest day I'm not going to let you bully me preemptively into giving away my blue check mark because I know that's what's going on right now.

I just don't. I hope that if you get a blue check mark, it was given to you randomly, not that you asked the XFL probably if you asked for one, that will be the saddest. Yeah. If the XFL reached out and said, hey, we're giving them to all our players and I got it, then I got to be it for me to say no. Okay. All right.

Well, then that's fair. If you randomly get one, that's different. But if you asked for one, I'm going to be very sad. You're who's back also jumping off that XFL thing. I don't think we discussed this on Thursday. You can watch the video of my trial and everything that's online right now. I did not make that team, obviously, but the practice squad offer is apparently legit. Like I'm going to get a contract if I if I want to go down that road.

Fuck them. In which case, I'm only going down that road if they give me an opportunity to work my way onto a team. I'm not just going to be on a practice squad all year, but that the dream's not done. They're fucking with you. The dream. I see what you're doing, Vince. Man, I don't like.

No, the dream's not done. You're holding my boy in limbo. I'm not going to stand for it. Worst case scenario, your boy just gets in really good shape because he's training. No, worst case scenario is they hold my boy in limbo and then we are silenced by the XFL because you're technically on a practice fast forward eight weeks from now. I'm in the best shape of my life. I've got a six pack and a blue check mark.

This is going to be a mighty different show. Yeah, that's true. It's going to be the biggest sell out. That sucks. My real who's back of the week is Bryson D. Shem slow Bryson to jam to jam below slowly slow Bryson got in trouble. He got put on the clock this weekend by the PGA tour. They actually had to warn him.

They said, Bryson, you're playing too slow. This is golf. And I think it was just last week that Blasham below said that he welcomes that rules of fast play. Yeah. Well, good thing you welcome it because they had a guy stand behind you with a stopwatch in his hand your entire round of golf this weekend. He got super upset that everyone made fun of him after Brooks dunked on him, which is

sorry. Yeah. Don't get dunked on. Yeah. Don't get dunked on. Don't. Hey, how about don't go at Brooks because Brooks will dunk on you. Right.

Go pick the ball up out of the ocean. Yeah. In the words of the U.S. women's team. He does like the compass and he does like all the math behind his shots. Just go out and shoot the ball, dude. Maybe if you stopped thinking about it, you'd be like Brooks and wins shit. He's the mad scientist. Right.

That. Yeah. You worry too much about angles, buddy. That's why he's mad at Brooks because Brooks doesn't. Brooks turns his brain off. He literally blacks out when he wins championships and you can't. You do all your math and your, your algebra and your, what's the other thing? Physics.

Cybermetrics. Calculus. Calculus. Is what I was looking for. We're math guys. Yeah. Listen, there's a reason Einstein never won a green jacket. Right.

What's that class that none of us took? Calculus. A lot of them. Trigonometry. I think I did trigonometry. I think trigonometry was you had to do trigonometry. Right. I definitely did not do trigonometry.

I did one day of calculus in college and I literally walked out. I was like, never go. I will never. I will never. I will never go in that classroom again. Because I don't want to. You call a psych on psych 101. Well, psych 101, they, they were like, we're grading this all on a curve, on a steep curve

where only like 10% of you get an A and I was like, peace. Not going to be me. Yeah. I'm out. Did I ever tell you about the only math class I ever took in college? No. So I'm so bad at math. I took a class called environmental mathematics.

The class was, it was one problem. Fires. Like if you have 200 penguins on this one iceberg and every year 5% of them die due to old age. The doctor was the mother. Well warming. But they, but they reproduce at a rate of 7% per year. How many penguins will you have in four years?

So there was that question and then once we'd solve it next week's lesson would be the exact same question except it would be like there are 1700 caribou in British Columbia and they die at a percent. And they just kept changing the species that we had to solve. That sucks. It was honestly the easiest math class I've ever taken. I can't figure out that first question. 14.

Yeah. Actually, that's correct. 14 the first year. It's a trick question because global warming, they're all dead. They're all just drinking out of their Coke cans and sitting on their lonely icebergs. Floating the middle of the ocean. Other polar bears are up north. It's pretty, it's shockingly.

We never talked about that in this show. Yeah. You want to talk about it real quick? Let's talk about it. All right. Let me set the scene. The LSU was perfect because my who's back is Cocho. He got his big contract.

So he's going to be in LSU for a very long time. Well done, Cocho. You deserve it. But speaking of LSU, before the national championship, there was a tweet that said, rooting for LSU here from Antarctica. Antarctica. Just at Antarctica. And they were wearing maybe one guy was in a jacket that was completely unzippered.

And the other lady was in like a light long sleeve shirt. Yeah. Yeah. In Antarctica, the tweet. And all I did, I quote, tweeted it in support of LSU and I was like, in support of LSU. Seems a little light, like light winter gear for Antarctica. And I've never probably in my life got ratio so hard by people being like, you fucking idiot.

Like it's the summer in Antarctica. And in my head, I was like, I was always taught that Antarctica was just always freezing. No one lives there. No one lives on and that no one lives on because it's all ice. So yes, scientists. I assumed that it was always cold. Like people didn't ever go there. There's no houses there.

People don't go vacationing there. So when there are people who are like, whoa, duh, it's summer in Antarctica. Like were those people just summering in Antarctica? Yeah. Hank, that's where the predators all live too. Didn't you ever see that movie? You guys. It was like an underground colony of them.

But yeah, in the summertime, it's they're like December, January. That's their summer. And so it's just like it tilts closer towards the sun. By the way, does that make sense, Hank? You got some ricochet shots on on when I said Eli should just fade into Bolivian and people a lot of people were like, I'd expect out of the Hank, but not you big cat. Yeah. Because you listening are the idiots.

Yeah. No, I didn't say that. Yeah. I will not. I will never say that about our audience. They were idiots. I love you guys. Learn it.

But yeah, Antarctica is always cold. It's summer down there. But it should. But it's summer. Yeah, it's colder than here. They should teach that in school. Their summers are colder than here. Which I guess some people said they did.

Yeah, they did. That's exactly when they teach it. Yeah. If you go minus 40 to zero degrees, it's warm. But you're not wearing a light long sleeve shirt and it's like a Lambeau field. You wear a short sleeve shirt. Yeah. It's it's like the first day of, you know, like that one day in February when it's 40

degrees and everyone's like, oh, it's so warm. All I know is this podcast being like, damn, I didn't know it was warm in Antarctica either. And so you're welcome for not having you sound like dumb in the future. You would never like chirp DK Metcalf if he's warming up for a football game in Lambeau field, not wearing any top at all. No, but if they tweeted out just two Seahawks fans being like supporting the Seahawks from and it was the winter in Seattle wearing their wearing T-shirts, seems a little cold. I recall Hank seeming to love it when Mike Vrabel was warming up in shorts in Kansas

City when it was 10 degrees outside. You weren't saying like, hey, dressing a little light. They weren't in our in our in Antarctica. Yeah. All right. Let's do we have George Kittle, Greg Kittle on the show. And then we will finish with some Kobe Bryant highlights from the interview on the court. Yeah.

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It is San Francisco 49er tight end and Super Bowl 54 participant. I don't want to jinx anything. That's good. It is Greg Kittle. Yes. Appreciate him joining us. Do you, are people now confusing Greg and George like, have we muddied the waters enough? The water is much muddier than it was last year.

Yeah, they don't. It's, it's tough. Anything that gets sent out is that there's about 50 comments aren't any that are correct in it. It's Greg. Greg, have you ever called yourself Greg by accident? No, I think my mom called me Greg once. So, so you got, if you got my mom, cause she reads a lot of social media stuff.

Okay. Do you agree with our assessment that George, like when you actually just say George, that's such a weird name to say for like a stud tight end who's running up and down the field who's taking five guys on his back in the, in the Superdome, like George, really? I've, it's, it's an odd name, but I know, I think I'm doing my best with it. It's a strong name though. It's one of those things. Just when we take it out of context and it's like, Hey, this is my friend, George, like

what? That guy? Okay. Fine. Just two words. Is Greg more powerful? Yeah, Greg is definitely more powerful. Okay.

Greg has sweeter hair than George too. I feel like George always has like kind of a messy, like curly, small fro. Greg has the skull. Do you have the skull right now? Yeah, show it to us. Let's see. That skull is so sweet. That's kind of a skull.

It's the whole thing. You get pumped with it. I want to set the stage real quick. So if you're not watching on Barstool Gold, first of all, you should get Barstool Gold and watch it. Barstool Gold. But in this room, we've got Greg, we've got Hank, and then we have your entourage, your posse.

You've got about a dozen people that came here. You were escorted. You had a police escort. A walking motorcade. Just basically to keep you out of bars, just to be like, you're not getting any trouble this week. Is that the general consensus of why you're being assigned like seven cops? You're not a hundred percent wrong.

Yeah. And you're not all the way wrong, but you're not all the way right either. You walked out of your hotel, and I'm sure there were people who were standing there trying to hand you beers to have you stone cold them. And then your security guard was like, absolutely not, Greg. My head security guy actually did it for me. Yes. You should actually walk around with a guy who just does the stone cold all week for

you. Yeah. We'll do that. Hank? Yeah. Hank will do that. What's your rate? Whatever you need.

Whatever you need. How much do I have to pay you? Oh, nothing. That would be a good role for Grant to do. Yeah. After the game. After the game. After the game to party.

All right. So Super Bowl 54 on its way, my biggest question to you is who is under more pressure? You or your dad? Because your dad sends you a letter before every game, kind of a try hard move. This is the most important letter of his life. Like, how do you send a Super Bowl letter? What do you write in a Super Bowl letter? That's his Super Bowl.

Yeah. It is. Has he already started it? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. What are you expecting in this letter? All right. So put in perspective, like a normal game day letter is that's like three to five pages. Right?

That's so long. That's so long. With pictures? Double font? No. It's a big font. He throws a lot of pictures in there. It's pop-up.

It's pop-up. Yeah. You fold the open pops. Okay. Okay. NFC Championship game was 10 pages. My God. It was like a full 10.

It's like dickens. So now it's the Super Bowl I'm expecting like 15 pages minimum. And what time is it going to give it to you? I get it the night before the game. All right. Because I was going to say, I would definitely fall asleep halfway through. I don't, I don't read it until I get to the stadium, though. Oh, yeah.

So are you prepping that? Are you telling everyone like, hey, coach, I'm going to need a little extra prep time because dad's going to give me like Moby Dick before this game. I might get on the early, early bus. Yeah. I might. Yeah. I got to give myself an extra 30 minutes.

It would almost make it would be more powerful if he just wrote you like one line for this game. Don't screw this up. Yeah. You're always. Throw him out the club. No, like it. You're always a champion in my eyes.

Yeah. If you lose, you're out of the family. Oh, I don't know if you do all that route. I like the other one you said, though. Just don't screw this up. Yeah. No, I have to throw him out of the club. Yeah, throw him out of the club.

I got that one. So what are you expecting in this? Like, is he going to make you cry? Yeah. Is that his goal? Like what? I would assume that it wouldn't be good for you to cry before the Super Bowl. It's like one of those checklists I have before I go on in the field.

I do this. It's part of my routine. And the letters just, they consist of whether it's family memories or movies that we used to watch as a kid when I was growing up. Oh, he's going to make you cry. Oh, he's going to kill me. He's going to make you cry. He pulled a quote from Haldaga, which is, you know, do you remember the Viggo Mortensen

movie with the horse racing? Yeah. He pulled a quote from that. I was like, dude, come on, man. Like that. I watched that one. I was like, 10, really. You're going to make me cry.

So what else is on a checklist before a game? You read the letter from your dad. Yeah. What do you do to mentally and physically? Anything else weird that you do? If you honestly want to know, so as soon as we come back in from warmups, I go puke. Really? 100%.

Before every game? Every game. That probably makes you feel a little bit better. It does make you better. Yeah. I always think I'm like, all right, I'm going to step faster now. That's my positive mindset. And then as soon as we're walking out, I put my helmet on and I head about a wall as almost

as hard as I can. It's good. You have that in the right order. We'll put the helmet on first. Yeah. But so I learned that the first hit is always like hurts the most. So get it out of the way. And then there's no first hit.

Yeah. I always felt that way. It's smart. Playing any sort of contact sport, all the fear and apprehension you have kind of goes out the window the first time you get hit because your mind doesn't have time to worry about other stuff. Yeah. You just get out of the way.

Exactly. Well, just a heads up, you've never played in a Super Bowl, neither have we, but we've watched all of them. It goes really fast. Does it? People say the speed is crazy in the Super Bowl, so be ready for the speed. Have you played in the Super Bowl in Madden? Oh, dear.

Not just probably like 2008. Maybe that's what you do. Maybe you get like a PlayStation in your hotel room and simulate, like sit down and play a few games just to get used to that game speed. Mm hmm. The game speed and like the fans and all that. Yeah. And this is the stadium.

Yeah. It's going to be different. I'm sure it. I just heard you say you just dropped an oh dear and you kind of slipped into the Todd and Gordo. I know you're a big fan. You think that you're Canadian sometimes. We've heard that from some of your teammates, I think there was an article in the ringer

that said like sometimes he actually does believe that he's Canadian. Yes. Yeah. So as Todd and Gordo in your presence, I'd like to maybe like trade trade off our services. We have an idea of maybe something we could do to help you. And then I don't think I want to explain that then I have a request from you. Yeah, we're going to. So much like your dad writes you an entire book before every single game, you as a fan

of Todd and Gordo, we haven't done Todd and Gordo like two and a half years. Yeah, I've been pretty disappointed. It's not going to work. And I told you this probably three weeks ago. I was like, if you get to the Super Bowl, we will make a Todd and Gordo hype video. Why do you think I was playing so hard? Yeah. So wait, so should we not release it till after the Super Bowl?

No, no, no, no, no, release the second one. OK, all right. I'll cut after the Super Bowl hype video before the Super Bowl. We're going to make a special edition Todd and Gordo like one minute Instagram hype video that you're going to release on your Instagram on like Friday or Saturday. I'm in. And it's going to get everyone pumped up. It's easy.

So as our payment for that, what's your bonus if you win the Super Bowl? I don't have there's no chance. I don't like actually even you do. You probably don't even have access to your own bank account. Well, well, well, partial. Yeah, no, I do that. So I was going to say, like, we either get 50 percent. No big deal.

Just like maybe 50 to 60 percent of your Super Bowl bonus. OK. Or if you win Super Bowl MVP, you get a Todd and Gordo tattoo. Oh, oh, if we inspire you to OK. Yeah, so there's no problem. No, no, no, I like the tattoo. Can we just do both? Yes. Yeah, sure. Perfect. You have a hard bargain.

Yeah, you really are a negotiator. Wait. Do you negotiate your contracts like Richard Sherman? No, no, no, no, no, no. I'll pay someone to do that. That's probably for the best. What about the reset button that you have on your arm? Is that the Joker? Yeah. No, no, isn't the what was the article said that in that same article,

you have a reset button that you hit. And oh, it is the Joker. Yeah, I used to have a wrist tape on and I'd put a big red button on it in college. So I'd slap it big. I got it. I've been visualized. Yeah, yeah. So you don't do that anymore. You don't have the you just do the Joker. Joker reset yourself.

It's crazy. What's up? What's up with the gray sleeve? Are you wearing it right now? Oh, this thing. Yeah, you always wear that. I dislocated my shoulder last year and my labrum is completely torn, so I don't get surgery on it. And so it's just a basically health speed so it doesn't hurt all the time. OK, are you going to get surgery this officer? No chance.

No chance. No. Can't miss those workout days, man. That's true. Can't miss an arm for a football guy. Do you like blocking or catching more? I like blocking a lot. Like my favorite thing. Yeah, I mean, it was funny in the NFC championship game

when everyone's like, where's Greg Kittles? Like, dude, are you watching? He's just beasting people down the field left and right. It was a fun one. Yeah. So you win when it's play call is like, all right, you're just going to go just throw some people out of the club. You're like, fuck, yes, let's go. Yeah, because that's the only mindset you can possibly have to

is I'm going to throw someone out of the damn club. Do you think it's unfair that your coach cheats for you? And tells the rest beforehand when there should be a flag? I call it creative coaching. That was an unbelievable clip. It was a narc move. Incredible. Yeah, yeah, he's narking the other guy out. He's like, watch, I told Greg to get held on.

He probably put stick him on your shirt. It was like, hey, go run into his arm, make him hold him. He actually didn't like my route. He said I should have pushed inside a little bit farther before I broke out afterwards. I mean, Kyle Shanahan, we sat with him when we were out in 49ers camp two years ago. I was there as a fan.

Yeah, as a fan. I was waving at you guys. Knows so much football. Yeah, you did acknowledge me. So we do feel a little bad about that. I was waving. We interviewed Joe Staley and Michael Glinchie. And afterwards they're like, hey, there's this tight end on the team that like loves you guys.

And we're like, who? They're like, George Kittle. Like, all right, fine, we'll take a picture. We'll fucking pat him on the head. And then you became a superstar. And that's what I got. And we feel kind of bad about that. Got a nice hat though.

Yeah, we gave you a hat. We're like, hey, go along, kid. Did you happen to notice the chiefs on the plane ride over here today? They all dressed up in like the Andy Reed Hawaiian shirts. They dressed up after their coach, showed them a lot of support. I was wondering if you guys were going to do something like that with Kyle,

like dressed up like the guys from Nitro Circus or Metal Militia, like Rob Pistron. Yeah, that's a sick power move, though. Yeah. I like the Hawaiian shirts. Have you noticed though that Kyle's logo is getting smaller on his hat? It's insane.

How much smaller is it going to get? The Super Bowl one is going to be great. It's going to be like this big. It's a dot. It's going to be a dot on there. Oh, it says SF, I swear. If you do win the Super Bowl, does that count as a Big 10 bowl win for Iowa?

Two. Two? Two. For who? The one for Iowa and then an extra one for the Big 10. OK, nice. That's good. So you're going up against a couple of your old teammates?

I am. And one of them used to kick your ass? Big time. So what me? Have you talked to them at all before this game? Oh, a little bit. Not this week. We keep in touch a little bit during the season,

but we've got to play each other last year too, which is pretty fun. OK, so did you get the best one? It's Anthony Hitchens on the Chiefs. So did you get the best one then? I think I only went up against once or twice. It was a good battle. OK.

It's a good battle. Yeah, so the story goes that Anthony was a senior when you were a walk-on. This is Richard Fresher. Richard Fresher near, and he kicked the shit out of you. What my ass? And now you guys are in a Super Bowl together. Yeah.

And you have a reset button, and he doesn't. Oh. Whoa. So you have the, yeah. Checkmate. You're the alpha on him right now. Checkmate. That's.

Checkmate. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So he was a lot bigger and stronger than you now. Are you stronger than I'm now? I don't know. I should ask him how many times he could bench to 25.

What do you bench right now? Right now? Yeah. Yeah, later. Like 225? Like how many times? Yeah. Oh, dear.

I think I get 17 to 20 somewhere in there. Do I get any pre-workout? Or is that right now? Yeah, Jack, original formula. 25. Yeah. It just went up. It just went up.

We did about the same when we had Lorenzo and Mike All-Star. Combined? Well, it would have been 135 on the bar. But it was the same amount of reps. And that's what we're really counting here. Combined, right, between you both. No. I got 19.

Big Keck got 20. Yeah, we pushed that weight around 20. Yeah. Yeah. Don't laugh. I got 20. 19 was good. I got two 20.

That was a mean laugh. I think you said you had dad power, you know, dad strength? No, I don't. OK. I was going to say it wasn't when I was a father, but it was when I was a father. Controversy. So you always post your basketball shoes and your stats.

You didn't post your stats last time. You just said, would you say hustle? I hustled. I hustled. OK, so can I get your stats? Yeah, this was on this was yesterday. I tweaked my back during the third game. OK.

I also was not. I had a couple great pick and rolls where I fucked up the layup. OK, that's fine. So I hustled. Yeah. I hit one big shot, but then for the rest of the time, it was just hustle. So when I I didn't play well, I hustled.

Wait, so now my question is, so since you play multiple games, do you tweet out the stats of all the games combined? It's usually it's usually an average. Oh. But actually, you know, sometimes when I'll be like, I played five games and I went like one for four. That is truly one for four over five games. Well, I like that.

And like that's a good start games. I probably shot three times in the other four games I shot once combined. Do you have a big shooter? You're on the same team every time or is it? No, it's you know, it's a pickup game. Oh, that's sick. I play lockdown defense, rebound the ball.

OK. And try to not shoot ever unless there's usually I'll get the Zion treatment like once or twice a Saturday morning and everyone will stand off and be like, oh, I'd shoot that. And I'll be like, fuck it. I'll miss it. And I'll be like, fuck you guys.

I know what you're doing. I thought you were going to say your shoe exploded because you're too fat. Yeah, I'm too. No, no, too powerful. Yeah, yeah, strength. Yeah. So yeah, it's you know, I'm out there to run around,

have some fun. Yeah. Be with the guys. I like that kind of stuff. You and I need to settle our hash real quick because one last year, I think it was in like April. I went overseas. Yeah, I could have died.

I could have died. I was going out of the country. Who knows if I was going to come back or there are protests overseas. There was an outbreak of coronavirus over there. I didn't know if I was going to make it back. You stepped in and immediately auditioned for my job without even asking me about it.

Invited me. You just stepped. But still, you were there. You were there for another man's job. I knew it was Hank's idea. I could tell as a classic Lockwood thought. And you came in, you sat down. Did you go back and watch the tape?

Yeah, I did. How well do you think you did on a scale of one to PFT? Yeah. Oh, dear, oh, dear. Oh, dear. Well, honestly, I think I tried my best. But I mean, you you are pretty damn good at this. In your defense, your dad did not write you a letter before.

I wasn't all the way locked in. So you weren't all the way ready to go. I wasn't before the show. I didn't. So I wasn't very seriously. That's a problem. I throw up before every show. Do you?

Yeah, but just because I'm intoxicated. I pull the trigger for him. I put my finger down his throat. Yeah, hold his hair. So I don't even do that. I don't have to do that. Get you a friend that holds your hair back for you. You just puke?

I just puke. Jesus Christ. Your hair doesn't get in the way. It's really annoying. I have to hold it sometimes. You hold your. I usually go on there with a hat on backwards so I don't hold it back.

Joe Staley has to stand there and hold it for you. Him and Mike. Yeah, they both do. Have you ever? Yeah, I feel like juice would be a good guy. Like a full back would be able to hold somebody's hair back. He can do a lot of things. Do you think that this is well, actually, let me back it up.

Your block, where you pancake that dude in the end zone, you were laughing the entire way down, was snubbed for block of the year. I voted for you. That's Stephen Chay's boy award. Stephen Chay's boy award, the block of the year. I voted for you. He ended up awarding it to Quentin Nelson.

There were some discrepancies and irregularities with the voting process that have been noted. How disappointed were you that you did not win the boy award? Well, it does just give me something to strive for next year. True. We got another goal now. I mean, Stephen Chay kind of ruined it for you

because he put his fingers on the scale of justice by quote, tweeting and being like, hey, George Kill's really good at blocking. Check this out. So that was where the controversy came in. But it was a great block. It was a great block. Thank you.

All right, we're going to wrap this up with we got to go rapid fire and get you prepped for media day. OK, OK. You ready? Pretend that you're up there on the roof. You have like six bottles of Gatorade in front of you. There's loud music playing. They're a lot of sweaty, hungry looking journalists.

You're wearing a cool track suit that they're going to sell for $400 in the team store. Were you buying one? Yeah, for sure. First, Greg, talk about how excited you are for this game. I'm really excited. I think just with the team down here, I'm just proud of the work we put in all season.

And I really think that it's our goal to win this game. And I think we would definitely belong here. OK, Greg, quick question. You have your dad writing letters to you before every game. What does he say? Oh, you know, he just brings up childhood memories, you know, just always tells me that he's proud of me. And you know, that just gets me locked in.

Interesting. Thank you. Greg, Greg, Peter King here from NBC, have you ever noticed that in the showers when you check into the hotels, they don't unplug them? And you have to unplug them yourself? Hmm. Talk about the shower drains.

The drains. You know, our hotel has very nice shower drains. I just checked them out, actually. I'm really looking forward to it. OK, that's going in my column. Awesome. Greg, Greg, quick question for you. So the 49ers, you guys were the worst team last year.

Now you're one of the best teams. Yes. Talk about that. You know, I think our team just worked really hard this off season. And you know, Nick Bose is pretty good as well. Nice, nice. Greg, one other question here.

I noticed that you wore a shirt with Jimmy Garoppolo on it. Yes, good shirt. Talk about how attractive you find him. You know, Jimmy, I think, has one of the strongest shinlines in the NFL. And with that, you know, that shinline, it's going to, you know, definitely let us do a Super Bowl this year.

Greg, last question. That's a guarantee. Greg, kid will guarantee you do a Super Bowl game. That's what you just did. We got to teach you, man. You slipped up at the end. Don't do that, don't do that. All right, last question.

Greg, the C-Key question, promo code TAKE. You put it in promo code TAKE, you go to the Super Bowl for $10 less than what you would have. So $10 off. You're going to save $10 on a Super Bowl ticket? Super Bowl ticket. $9,590. Yeah, promo code TAKE with C-Key.

No, that's true. So Greg, how is this week different than all the other weeks that you're going to get asked that, dude? They're going to be like, what's your preparation like this week? Is it different than a regular week? We're going to tear like every other game week. There you go.

And we're just going to come in and work as hard as we can. We're just prepping you for these stupid questions. You're going to get so many. Do you have any more? I have one question that is a very generic question, but I was going to ask, but now I'll do it like as a joke. But I really want it answered. Yeah, yeah.

When you're when your game playing calls for something like it did last week, when you're just running the ball down the throats. And there was no way that they could stop it. It was like 11 yards a carry. You're blocking your ass off. You're having a good game. There's got to be a small part of you that's like,

just throw me the ball once. Can I just get like one catch on this drive? I think it was like halfway through the third quarter. I said, hey, Jimmy, can you just like throw me something so I can catch and run for a little bit? Just one of those. Just stretch it out a little. You want to be tackled.

You want somebody to hit you. I mean, if you don't embrace the physicality of football, you're playing the game wrong. I always say that as a kicker. I say that. You say that? Yeah, it's a big part of my game. I quit rugby as a professional kicker now.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that looked good. Well, I got cut, so. No. All right, well, good luck. Good luck in the Super Bowl. Good luck tomorrow night, media day. Do you guys get credentials?

No, we don't. We're not going to sit out. Can I ask for you to get credentials? Yeah, sure. We're going to sit out, though. We're going to probably. It's South Beach. First time we're at a Super Bowl city, it's nice.

Yeah, it's true. But just look, here's the one thing about media day, last thing. There will definitely be some like weird, like someone from Jimmy Kimmel will show up. Some guy will be in a weird clown suit, probably like a couple of people dressed as old people will show up, like be ready for the weird oddballs.

Like the guys that sneak in with the credentials? Right, be ready for the oddballs because they're always in trouble. We decided not to do it because I got arrested and interrogated by the FBI last year. He's on a no-fly list. I'm not trying to deal with that again this year. Oh, there's going to be a Spanish language reporter that asked you to marry her.

So I'll also be on the lookout for that. How do you say that? No, you just say no. No, I'm already married. No, I'll go. Tengo una esposa. Obedo gracias. There you go.

There's my wife. All right, George. Good luck. Greg. Greg, good luck. Canada boys, get ready for it. Oh, hey there. It's going to hype you up.

Oh, hey, Greg. You're going to be jittery or a moose that just got out of the dumpster at Tim Horton's eating all the leftover java. You want a little syrup in your hair before you get out there on the old field? Let's go. You're going to toss the cookies now before the game. Make sure you spit the biscuits in the loo.

All right, what a super bowl, will you? Thank you. Oh. OK, we're going to finish the show, like we said, with some clips from Kobe Bryant on the corp. We'll be back to a more regular show on Wednesday. We actually have a great interview coming up with a certain old French artist's name, Jay Cutler.

Jay Cutler. It was a fun interview. A very fun interview. We recorded it in New Orleans on the Sunday or the Monday of the championship game. Before we got too drunk. That's right. And snitched on all of LSU.

We had our first cocktail of the day with Jay in the hotel room. He was actually a very personable guy. Yes. You've known him for a long time. I've never met Jay. He was shockingly entertaining. Very, very funny guy. Always been a funny guy.

So he was in a great mood. But yeah, we're going to finish with some of these clips to just kind of give you a sense of the one time I was with Kobe Bryant and the type of guy he is and the legend that I'm sure will live on forever. Maybe if you admire somebody, now's a good day. Tell me you love him. Yes.

Tell me you love him. It's always a good day to do that, but especially today. Hug your kids. Love you guys. You're listening to The Corp, presented by Barstool Sports. OK, we now welcome on a very special guest. He doesn't need an introduction, but we'll introduce him anyway.

18-time All-Star, five-time NBA champion. It is Kobe Bryant. Have you noticed, do you attack business the same way as sports? And have you ever had a moment where you're like, I got to chill out because the business world's not like the sports world? Well, same, but also different. Same in the sense that the tension of detail is there,

just like it is in sport, the tension of detail. But it's different because of the intensity that you bring. It's not like a game. It's not like practice. You have to have patience. You have to challenge people. You have to hire well and find people

that have a certain level of that demand excellence from themselves and have that attention and detail about themselves. And then you want to build in a team of people that have that passion and commitment to excellence. So that's the difference, is that now I'm kind of more in a GM position as opposed to being a player that is on the ground floor, bringing out the intensity

in each guy every single play. It's a little different. Have you noticed a moment where you're like, I can't maybe, I can't be as intense as I was during sports. I can't demand people to be here till midnight or practice without a ball for three hours. Yeah, no, listen, my thing is really simple here is that I expect excellent work.

We all do. So I don't care if you're here in the office at 6 a.m. and you leave at midnight. If the work that you do is average, then this is not the home for you. Conversely, you cannot be in an office at all and have excellent work. This is the place for you.

So I don't really care if you're here. You know, there's a lot of guys that get in the gym and work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, but then they can't transition that to 7.30. Yeah, right. I can already tell that I wouldn't make it one day in this office. I'm really good at looking busy, but not doing anything.

So that would be a problem. You gotta get results. What is that, though? Is there just, can you see it in a person the minute you meet them like this guy or this woman? They just want it more than everyone else. I think so. I think you can sense it.

You know, when you're having a conversation with somebody, you can tell if they're truly passionate about what it is that they're doing. Yeah, I mean, listen, bro, you can't build what you've built and not be that, right? If you didn't have it, you wouldn't be sitting here without it anyway, because you don't put up with that shit either.

True, true. I kind of snake my way in, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, you can certainly recognize that and you feel a sense of familiarity with that person. You said, I read a quote that you said you love business as much as basketball. There's no way that's true.

It's 100% true. There's no way. I mean, basketball was your life, your passion, everything. You're telling me you love doing business as much. If you could, you know, basically snap a finger and be 25-year-old Kobe or the Kobe today, you wouldn't go back and keep playing basketball? No, because I've already done it.

See, here's the thing, when I was playing and teammates would say, oh, Kobe's not out on the road, what is he doing? You see me on the plane, he's reading, what is he reading? He's writing, what is he writing? I'm practicing. I'm writing, I'm practicing.

I'm understanding how to tell stories. I'm reading Joseph Campbell and how to create arcs, compelling arcs and plots. I'm reading that stuff. So this is going back 15 years, right? So I don't just retire, write dear basketball and luck in the winning an Oscar, you know what I'm saying? That stuff comes from hard work and from studying

for 15 years, how to write and how to organize structure, right? And you can't do that without having a serious love or commitment to the craft. Like I remember I said, I told somebody, I said, listen, if what I do in the next 20 years is not better than my last 20, then I failed. And I'm like, well, that's disrespectful

to what you've done the last 20 years. How could you say, my man, I wouldn't accomplish what I accomplished my last 20 years if I did not have this mentality to begin with. So that's interesting because I think there's a sports debate that's had a lot where a guy, it's more happens in the NFL where a quarterback comes out and people say, well, he was in the wrong system

and his offensive line stunk right away and it kind of ruined his career. Do you think with what you just said, it sounds like you think that if you're going to make it, you're going to make it no matter what. And if there's no like, oh, well, things didn't go your way the first year and it ruined the trajectory of your career,

it's either you have it or you don't. That sounds like excuses to me. I mean, you got to figure it out, right? If you really have an obsession to figure it out, you will figure it out, right? And every puzzle is constructed differently, right? AI situation when he came into the league was different than mine.

Mike's situation in Chicago was different than mine, right? Everybody has a different puzzle, man. You just got to figure out your own puzzle. So I wanted to touch on the evolution of you as a teammate. In 2000, I think, for Phil Jackson writes the book and is like, Kobe's uncoachable. I'm still waiting on my royalties. Yeah, he says, Kobe's uncoachable.

What was your reaction in that moment when you see that, you read that, a guy that you have a relationship that you had success with? I was frustrated by it, you know what I mean? Because it was always a type of relationship where it was like, you know, for me, it's just come at me direct. Oh, and I'm right here.

You don't have to be yes me. We can just hash this out, you and me. And he would rather not do that because that's uncomfortable, right? He'd rather go to the media and do it. So a lot of the stuff that I read in the book was the first time I've ever heard any of this stuff. And I'm like, dude, I'm literally right here, you know?

So when he came back, you know, that's one of the things that he said he apologized for. He was like, listen, I understand we should just have a direct relationship. And that's how we were able to kind of move forward. But it was really frustrating, man. His apology is good, but the royalty would be nice, too. Yeah, yeah, I told him, actually, this is like your third book

on me now. Right, just keep writing books. I'm going to write a book on this at like 45 minutes. Yeah, where's my royalty check? No, it's going to be great. Was there any truth to it, though? Do you think, was there a moment when you read that and you had to kind of take a look at yourself and be like,

maybe I am not the best teammate? Because there's always this really interesting line to me when you're watching athletes at their highest level. A guy who is a clear alpha leader, he runs the team. There's that line of, is he, from like his ego is out of control, to he just wants the most out of people. Like Michael Jordan punched Steve Kerr in the face. There's stories of you pushing your teammates

and maybe getting some of them kind of crumble in the moment. Did you see that and kind of reflect and say, hey, maybe I need to do this differently? Well, I think there's a couple of answers to that. So drive a hard bargain. The people that I've always had issues or problems with are the people that don't demand excellence for themselves. I won't tolerate that.

Because I think when the career is said and done, they're not going to be looking at you, that player in his team and saying, you didn't win a championship. No, they're going to be looking here. So it's my responsibility to make sure everybody's holding themselves accountable. I'm holding you accountable.

If we just play it a back to back and we have practice the next day, your ass better be there taped ready to go. Because I'm there and I'm ready. And I just got finished lifting weights for two hours. So I hold guys to a higher standard and I don't sugarcoat stuff, never have, never will. That tends to rub some people the wrong way.

Now, teams that we won championships on, me and all of those guys, still close to this day. Extremely close. Lamar and I still close. Shannon Brown, Dee Fish, all of my guys are all Shaq. Even Shaq, Powell. Did you win a championship with Smush Parker? No.

No, he and I don't talk, by the way. I was going to say, that answers that question. That's one of the people that would probably say I was a bad teammate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But most other guys, man, you know, you wind up having this bond. So, you know, you can't have those kind of relationships

with guys years after playing with them and be a bad teammate. Yeah, no, that's fair. That's fair. Your relationship with Shaq, I feel like, is one of the most intriguing relationships in all pro sports. Yeah.

Were you guys ever at a point where you just wouldn't even speak? No, because we were very, very direct. Like I said before, I'm very straightforward, right? I don't care if you're 7'2 or 6'2. If I got an issue with you, I'm going to let you know. So no, because we're always speaking. Just sometimes it's more volatile than others.

Right. But we're always speaking, always direct. Yeah. So when that all falls apart, I mean, what was your biggest, like, where would you say the biggest problem with your communication? Was it, you know, Shaq not coming to season in shape? Well, it's funny.

When we sat down, we did the interview together. He finally copped to the fact that after we won championships, he was like, OK, I can just relax in Coastal with a summer, because I know I got a teammate who's going to be training eight, 10 hours a day. And I was like, see, that's the BS. That's it. That would piss me off.

That's it. That's the issue. Right. That's the issue. But also, it became a, you know, it's not something that we couldn't have worked out either, because we've been doing it, right? But I got to a point in my career

where it was the rumblings, and some of it created by him, that, you know, Kobe can't win without me. And it was like, hold up. Hold up. No, it's not true. Right. It's not true. And I'm not going to retire and have people hold that

over my head. I said, no, let's find out. So it was just time to go separate ways. Do you think that you got criticized more than a guy like Kevin Durant or the guys who are playing now? No, at the moment, you know, it's all different according to the moment in time, right? It always seems like more when you're in that moment.

You know what I'm saying? I don't think it's no more, no less. I think now with social media, things tend to perpetuate much, much faster. But back then, conversely, the stories tend to sit a lot longer. Right. There's less fires coming.

Yeah. Well, here's a fun fact for you, Kobe. LeBron has as many losses in the finals as Michael Jordan has wins in the finals. I don't care. So I do want to talk about mentorship, Kobe, because I know that mentorship has been a big part of your life, both you as a mentor and as a mentee.

Take us behind the current with Michael. Was there ever a moment that you guys spoke that you felt like it energized you and you learned from him? Yeah, it was crazy, man, because my favorite player was Magic growing up. And then I quickly realized my father stole all my height, and I wasn't going to be a six-nine point guard. So look at this young guy coming up.

And the thing that I marveled at wasn't the fact that he was getting to the rim and doing these fancy stuff. It was like, how is he getting to the rim? How is he doing it? You look at the footwork, you look at the fundamentals, you look at the spacing, the pacing, and all those little things, the angles. And that's what becomes fascinating.

It's like, OK, how do I get there? So I started studying all those basics. And then when I came to the league, the first time I played against him, I won his respect, because it was like, this kid's not scared of me at all. And he saw Kenjik's spirit from that standpoint, and that started a relationship. It became something where it was like texting at any time,

hits me right back, questions hits me right back, and we're talking all the time. And in fact, we were just speaking the other day, in fact, because I was talking about he hit me up, say happy Thanksgiving and stuff, and how the family, how's the family doing, how the kid's doing. He knows my middle child is playing basketball and stuff, right?

So he's asking about it, how she's doing. I said, she's good, she's good. And I said, you know, at 12, I'm having a hard time remembering what I was doing at basketball at 12. And I'm like, kids nowadays try to do too much, you know? Like from a skill standpoint, they try to have them do all this fancy stuff versus like the basic stuff.

And so I teach my kids the most basic stuff, and we just do it over and over. But I asked Mike, I said, what were you doing at 12? You remember what you were doing at basketball at 12? And he goes, dude, I was playing baseball. Yeah. That's right. Let that sink in for a second.

That was his dad's favorite. For people out there who are like, over-training their kids at 12 and like doing all this fancy stuff, just let that sink in for a second. That's a good point. Yeah. It's crazy to think about that. But he's a great mentor from all aspects.

I love Mike. All aspects. I mean, I love him, too. But I don't know why I said Michael earlier, like I know him. I probably should put a little respect on it and just say, look, Michael, Michael, Michael got stands, too. Yeah, Michael got stands, too. I'll stand all the time.

I gave you that LeBron stat. You don't think that I've said that to like everyone I come across. Here's the thing, though, man, is that like things that MJ was doing, he learned from David Thompson and Jerry and those guys. Stuff that I've done, I've learned from MJ. Stuff that Brian does, learned from me

and playing on the Olympic team and work after all this stuff. It's a chain thing, man. I know people want to talk about who's this, who's that, because it fills up good conversation time or downtime, whatever the case may be. But for us as athletes, it's really a chain reaction. You can't have one without the other. It's just not possible.

That's a good point. That's a good point. Wouldn't you say Tony Allen was the toughest to guard you? Where does Reuben Patterson, the Kobe stopper, the original Kobe stopper? No, he's not on the list. I mean, look, Reuben. That was my favorite thing ever.

Listen, I love Reuben. So when Reuben and I played together, he was the one player that would compete against me hard every day. I mean, he would show up every day. He had that kind of Bob Huggins, Cincinnati, tough mindset type of thing, right? So I love that about him.

But then now he's a free agent and now he's like, oh, yeah, I'm the Kobe stopper. I used to lock him up in practice. So I called him up. I say, Reuben, dude, if you need help with the new deal, let me know. Like I will go to the media and be like, yo, nobody guarded me better than Reuben Patterson.

I see this guy every day in practice. I will help you with your new deal. But now you don't piss me off. Now you didn't let me know. Now you went out there and mouthed off. Now I got to kill you every time I play you. And it's not going to be a good situation for you. I love every now and then.

Like some will be like, I'm the new Kobe stopper. And it's like, what are you doing? You're just making it worse for yourself. Man, my favorite thing was seeing Sean Kemp before a playoff game. Reuben Patterson had his feet in the ice bucket. Yes, I remember that. The Kobe stopper.

The Kobe stopper. Come take this 45. I remember that video. You take this 45. Yeah, that was the NBA on NBC. The entry. The ice bucket. The Kobe stopper.

All right, you have to go in a second because you are a very busy man. I'm going to do rapid fire real quick. You just give me one word, one second answer. Matt Barnes incident. It went re-viral. Were you, was he actually throwing the ball, the pump thinking it right in your face?

Man, as far as I remember, yeah, all I can go by is what Matt said. I just saw him. I just worked out as kids out here like a week ago for their birthday. And he was just, you know, when he first came to the Lakers, he was like, man, I don't understand how the hell you did not flinch.

OK, so yeah, so he was doing it right in your face. Now, people were ruining a great memory. Mark Madsen dancing. A real life Elaine dance move from Seinfeld. That's a good one. Your 2000 rap album, were you just like, fuck it, I can do anything? Oh, that's poetic.

Yeah, that's poetic. It was poetic. No, it wasn't that bad. The album itself wasn't that bad. The album itself wasn't that bad. But it taught me how to write. OK. The Kobe twos, the worst shoe of all time.

Kobe twos, which ones? No, I'll show you the picture. You know. Like you once? No, no. The other company? Oh, that doesn't count. Yeah, those count.

That company doesn't count. What do you count? That company doesn't count. The worst shoes of all time. What about this? That's what taught me that I need to lead the design charge. That picture. What was your thought process?

That picture's awesome. This is like, this is like the A-Rod taking a, kissing himself in the mirror. They doctored the hell out there. Was there some, was there a photographer being like Kobe? First of all, first of all, listen, I'm an African American, but I am not that dark. Let's start there. And then the hat and the wardrobe and all that, like, you know, it's, you know, somebody took liberties.

Yes. That's when he took the picture of himself, A-Rod kissing himself in the mirror. He's like, yeah, a photographer's like, this is going to be awesome. Yeah. Then it comes out, he's like, whoops. Yeah. And what about the little Wayne song, Kobe Bryant, do you listen to it every day? Every day in the car.

I listen to it. It hypes me up. Yeah. Yo, he called me. Yeah, you do. Exactly. After the Denver series, he called me. He was like, man, that performance just motivated the hell out of me.

I think it was like game six. He's like, I'm going to do a song. I'm like, okay, can I do a song? I'm like, all right, cool. I thought he was just kind of BS or whatever. Before the Celtic series, he sends me the song and I was like, oh, you were serious. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. That's awesome. 2002 Western Conference finals. Was it rigged? Well, what's the official's name? Tim Donaghy. Well, he definitely had money on it. Yeah.

So that's a fact. Yes. Yes. So from that standpoint, yes. Yes. But from the Kings missing 20 something free throws in game seven. Good point. Good point.

Unless you don't check their bank accounts. Yeah. I don't know what else to tell you. People forget that. All right. Last one for me. You've never been a triple team. You didn't want to shoot a shot through.

Well, it depends who's on the team. If I got Smush Parker lagged behind me to shoot, you'd best believe I'm shooting that motherfucker. If I got deep fish back there, I'm kicking that shit back. I want to be the best. Simple as playing. That's why I play the game. It's to be the best.

You have to win. And that's what drives me. He's the best player in the game. It's just that simple. There's nothing that Kobe Bryant can't do. He will defend your best player. He will shoot from the perimeter. He will get all in your mark.

He will do whatever it takes. He is the most complete basketball player in the game today. Bar none. He has an assassin's mentality. I said this week. I said this when the trade went down and I'll repeat it again. Who's starving more for an NBA World Championship? More than Kobe Bryant.

There is no one. This guy is Holly Mobley. They separate Kobe from the pack. More than Kobe Bryant. There is no one. There is no one. There is no one. There is no one.

There is no one. There is no one. There is no one. There is no one. There is no one. There is no one. There is no one. There is no one.

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There is no one. There is no one. There is no one in the world, There is no one. There is no one in the world, There is no one. They are no. They are no ones.

They are no its own representatives They are no ones. They are no ones. These are not because they're seers. They are no ones. This is my community. They are no ones. They are not because they're seers.

They are no ones. People are like radies. Drops party on your double team Then I drop anyone on another team Yeah, you better guard me with caution Ain't watchin' workin' like an auction No such thing as exhaustion No time for rest

Cause I don't take the breaks I just break records And I prefer to ball with three seconds And I've been egoin' it all in three seconds Kiddie, that is a guarantee Apparently, and please tell your defense Don't ever mess a man with me Double team, triple team

You didn't just take on me, but I have a little get to me Literally, step back and give em a three Ain't no detainin' me One guy's certainly ugliest To the way Brian's played lately LeBron James I've been quoted saying that he's

Definitely the best player in our league To me, in my eyes, the best scorer in our league And it's, I mean, I don't know if it's not Another guy in his league that can Accomplish some of the things that he's doing right now Let me take a day off Catch you at the top of the key And get a J, y'all baseline FaceTime

Tongue out like two, three Even two, three, gotta love how I do me Practice why you sleep Practice in my sleep Straight out of the high school The breakers, they for me I will be jumping over you Like I got a mattress at my feet

In all field jacks and things You better be passing it to me I put the master in the piece Attacking like a beast And I am starving for victory And that means I'm a E And when they ask you who's the best Then they ask it should be me

Who's the best player in the NBA? Oh, you still call me Brian Really? Why? Because you never know what you're going to get Pull me, break them all Yeah, you better be without a lick of doubt Yeah, just give them the ball and they take it all Yeah, only properly ditching into this all

Yeah, I'll give it to these fish on the wing Yeah, I'll just let them hurries under his thing Yeah, it's found great and so is my team Yeah Doing for magic, it's showtime, baby I see nothing wrong with doing it full time, baby I'm the best, yes, and he the best, yeah Don't worry to Brian, get him next year

I was defense to an assassin Killer instinct, murder the basket They steal the ball back, hold it for ransom It's more than a game, this is a passion Been the all-star, been the champion Street throw line, you hear a champion MVP, MVP Kobe Bryant aka MVP

MVP, smash MVP Whoever he is, he can't guard me He can't guard me So, there you have it, the overwhelming answer was Kobe Bryant