Spittin Chiclets - Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 444: Featuring Charles Barkley

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

On Episode 444 of Spittin’ Chiclets the guys are joined by Charles Barkley. Chuck joined (01:21:17) to discuss his love for hockey, the dream team, MJ vs LeBron and TONS more. But first, the guys open up the show recapping round 2 of the Playoffs. Is it time for the Oilers to change up the core? Should Toronto fire everybody? The guys also preview Carolina vs Florida, along with Dallas vs Vegas and give their series predictions for the Conference Finals. Edmonton Series: 00;11;56;23 Leafs Series: 00;47;32;22 Dallas Seattle: 03;12;45;09 Dallas Vegas Preview: 03;36;02;17 Carolina Florida Preview: 03;42;43;03You 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/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello everybody, welcome to episode 444 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. Folks, we are down to the conference finals after two wild rounds. The Sunbelt, very well represented in the final four, meanwhile Canada's Cup Trout celebrates its 30th anniversary right now. Also have an epic interview on tap for you guys today, but first, say hi to the fellas.

Mr. Merle over in Sweden, what's going on, our friend? Not much. Not only Sunbelt teams, but some of these tax-free teams that is like Sir are alive. Good point, good point. Should I put my tinfoil hat on already, Merle, or what? Yeah, I think so. Do you want me to wait? Can I wear my tinfoil hat on already, Merle? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to wait. Can I wear my big deal one for a few minutes here?

You've never taken it off. Never taken it off. Oh, yeah. Wait till we get going in this podcast. I'm going to have two of them on. You've worn a tinfoil hat more times than you've worn a dome in your career. So let's talk it out. Oh, man.

That's Paul Biznasty. Biznasty. Back of the homestead i see how we doing buddy oh buddy got to come home for a couple days got to see my dog it's been great couple hikes getting some sun in uh games have been great uh disappointed about my leafs but really happy to dive into this one there's a lot to dissect uh no canadian teams left as you just mentioned ra kind of sucks but uh hey new blood new blood. New blood in this NHL, and there's some fun teams that are still alive

and some unpredictable matchups. You are noticeably, like your glow, different being home. I can just tell. Just looking at you through the screen right now, I mean, living in a hotel for that long, working so late, and you ain't digging ditches buddy but it's a grind and just to see you at home i can tell you're just it must feel great to get back there you said it buddy it ain't digging ditches it was just more the

sleeping patterns you're going to bed it's hard to come down off of those shows like you know you you probably get home probably around 132 and by by the time you're sleeping, it's around 334. So, yeah, I was fucking with the mentos a little bit. You can only sauna and steam so much. But getting a couple of hikes in and seeing the dog, buddy, my love tank is filled up. Filled up. All right. Johnny says you only drink so much.

You can only screw so much. That was the voice of the wit dog. I wasn't doing any of that either. Ryan Whitney, what's going on, buddy? Not much. God, did I just want a game seven Edmonton-Vegas solely for the reason that we could bury Biz this whole podcast and his shitbag Leafs? But I got nothing to say.

I got one more game than him in the second round. Am I really going to be the guy that hangs on to one more game in the second round? Maybe, but I really can't. So we're both dead. It's both of our funerals. Our teams are crap.

Our teams are done. They had a chance to go on a run. All these teams were out and yet we're sitting here like a pack of losers once more. Hey, it was meant to be the last win for each team came on the exact same day. Exactly. That was it.

Exactly busy. Single tier. We're a bunch of losers and we're going to break down how we got in this situation, R.A. How did you feel about that hockey that went down? How shocked are you

with the Oilers being out? You know, I can't say I'm that shocked. Just Aiden Hill stepped up. He was unreal. I know we're going to get to a little later. And again, the Edmonton goaltending, I just, Connor McDavid deserves more than that.

It's just, it's frustrating. We want to see the best guy in the finals, and we can't get there yet. And we keep pointing to goaltending, and the defense was better this year with Ekholm, but frustrating from a hockey fan perspective. But like you said, there's new blood, and that's not a bad thing. New fan bases can experience this, which is always a good thing. So let's go to our producer

real quick. Say hi to Mikey Grinelli. Where is he? He's hiding. Where are you, G? Hello, gentlemen. What's going on, boys? I don't want to leave you hanging, buddy.

Don't want to leave you out. Who, G.I. Jane? I was hiding. I do. I do have Seattle tonight, so I didn't want to show my face in front of it. Wow.

You picked Seattle. Know Seattle. For people who don't know, I bet Seattle before the series, I bet them after they lost game one, I bet them after they lost game three, and I bet them after Dallas, and I bet them after they lost game six. And so I have my entire bankroll riding. I'm done gambling.

I literally am quitting gambling if Dallas loses tonight, and you picked Seattle? Witt, I didn't show my face once on game notes while you were on there I literally am quitting gambling if Dallas loses tonight and you pick Seattle. Wait, I didn't show my face once on game notes while you were on there for a reason. And that was because I was definitely afraid of saying that. Why don't you log off right now? I not only had Seattle. It's supposed to be everybody rides. It's supposed to be.

What a rat. I hope so. Oh, my God. You motherfucker. How much are we talking here, G? Like, are we talking a future? Are we talking just for the series? One one millionth of what I have on them.

One one millionth of what Witt has on it, I'd say. Which is even worse because like, at least if, I remember being with guys at the casino. If they're hammering, it's like, just root for, I'm rooting for them.

They got more money. Yeah, but, but, but, can you buy his hedge? But, but, but, why don't you sprinkle on the hedge? I completely forgot how big of a future you

had on because before the show and merles can merles can attest i was like dude i don't know what it is everything in me says dallas but i just got this weird inkling every about seattle every person i've talked to with like a strong hockey opinion has said leads towards dallas and merles i don't know if you guys talked about it on game notes. Isn't the bore six and Owen game sevens. Yeah, that's that little nugget we used and also Ottinger's 22 and four after a loss this year hockey opinions is not what I have

is so that makes sense. Why let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. My last slap in the face of Grinnelli because I'm so mad at him. They're on game notes. I came on 12 to 1230. Then I had to get in the car. I'm in the car. So I put, you know, the put the end of the show on. They're on game notes. I came on 12 to 1230. Then I had to get in the car. I'm in the car, so I put the end of the show on. They're like, we haven't had a game 7 OT this

year. Man, can't believe there's no game 7 OTs. Huh? What? You're freaking team lost in game 7 OT. Those fans aren't Bruins fans anymore. It's called erasing it from your memory, boys. I erased it from my memory.

Okay, no, no. Hey, we actually got to put Grinnell on pause and go back to R.A. R.A. went to the barbershop and ran in to Charlie McAvoy, and he had all of his decked out Florida Panthers gear on. The fact he's wearing Panthers gear everywhere, what is this show? Did he sucker you in the face?

You think I'm wearing Calgary Flames stuffs around? He did not give a fuck. Like, the fans care about it way more than the players like i i walked in the shop to see my buddy i wasn't even getting trimmed down to say hi to my boy pat the baba and i didn't even see charlie there and then he was getting in the chairs hey what's up and i my my friend pat points out that i had the panther shirt on charlie he didn't give a shit you know we've had a like a little dap up talk to him for a bit. It's a t-shirt. By the way, he was like the meme of the smile, but you see the real

face behind and the guy's like full of rage. Fuck this bald asshole. I think even with the gambler, they're like, players know the deal. They don't get fucking prissy about that shit. Fans get mad about it more than players. He's also not going to tell you to

fuck off in your face at the barbershop though, too. He's going to go to his burner account. I don't think Charlie would tell too many people to fuck off anyway because he's pretty much a gentleman, but having said that, I really don't. What if the Bruins took away your media pass because of this? I'd be shocked

because if they don't do it after he was yelling cocksucker at the arena during game seven they'll never do it all right we have our moments hey you in the in the laneway did we talk about this on the podcast oh no you did on game notes and RA was not there to defend himself yeah but then we brought it up on the next show I think oh did we okay no just how you were you were you were almost kicked out of game seven. Yeah. It's funny.

Like, you don't think I'm not going to go nuts. And then game seven OT, a couple of pops. You get a little fucking crazy once again. Do you think RA has the worst social conduct of any of us five right here? That's a tough one. We've all had our moments. Yeah. I'm good with swearing, though.

I wouldn't swear in public. Yeah, Merle's actually, Merle's has given it to me before. He's like, hey, hey, wait, wait, wait. My autopilot's pretty good with that kind of stuff. Honestly, Merle, same here. It was just, again,

Game 7 OT, the wires crossed a bit. I'm very strict about that. Not swearing in front of women or children. And it turns out the kid I was swearing next to the pilot didn't give a shit

either way. But yeah, whatever. It happens. We didn't give a shit either way but yeah whatever it happens we didn't mention we're filming right now prior to game seven or recording excuse me and we'll be back so Seattle Dallas discussion will be back after game seven later on

tonight to be able to finish that off my last thing going into the game is I am I am confident which scares the hell out of me because of the board, because of the Ottinger and the bounce backs that it's just that Seattle winning game seven on the road against the cup champs. Like they, they don't care.

They're on the road. That's the one thing that does scare me. Like, Oh, Dallas is at home. All right. Well, they just be Colorado in game seven in Colorado.

So it's not like, like they're looking at that as a total confidence builder in terms of, we already did it in their barn. We could do it here. So we'll see what happens. We'll talk about that series after the game. A couple more notes here before we do get to the game action. Game notes daily.

We'll be live on game days this week. Correct. Merles, you guys, you and I may crushing it. Absolutely crushing. It's great. Got to be giving out winners to everybody.

You don't want them going in blind to these games, so we got the winners for them. Give them a little Nuggets info that Biz loves too. I saw you guys had Zach Boychuk on, and he was telling Russian gas stories. Yeah, I made sure to get at least one Russian story for you. I know you like to hear those from the KHL. Yeah, we had him on.

We're going to have to get Eric Cole back on. He's been our Carolina Hurricanes expert as well. We got Migs in Vegas. He moves on, so we'll get more from him. And yeah, we've done well. I think you just mentioned it. Wednesday, we have a sandbagger once again versus Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards.

This is supposed to be an epic one. I haven't seen it yet. Wednesday, 6 o'clock on our YouTube channel. Can't wait to check it out. And I mentioned the interview in the intro. Charles Barkley is going to be coming to you a little bit later. We said it last week. It's unreal stuff.

And it is a bit of an evergreen interview. So like, you know, if you want to listen to the hockey, feel free to jump around. But it's outstanding. Do not miss it. It's like just under two hours. One of our best ever. So you know what I'm here to talk about. You know what I'm here to talk about.

New Amsterdam's own Pink Whitney. It's the drink of the summer. It's the drink of the summer. It's the drink of the season. It's the drink of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And just thinking now, we're going to the Eastern Conference site of the Stanley Cup final. It might be Raleigh.

It might be the tailgates. It might be the shots. It might be the golf courses. Or we're going down to Lauderdale. Lickerdale, as they call it, where Pink Whitney, mind you, North Carolina and Florida, two enormous selling Pink Whitney states. We'll be in one of them depending on who wins. We'll be drinking the Pink Whitney on the beach or we'll be drinking Pink Whitney at the legendary Hurricanes tailgates.

Where, Merles, you already got to pound some for the outdoor game. It was an amazing tailgate down there. There was Pink Whitney flowing everywhere, but it's going to be hot down there. So I'll be drinking my Pink Whitney with a ton of ice and then probably with a little soda water on the top just to make sure I don't get too buckled. But Pink Whitney, warm weather, there's nothing better. And you know what I'm going with?

I'm not going to give any free ads to anyone, but I'm going Pink Whitney on the rocks in the finals with an energy drink. I'm not going to say what energy drink, but talk about getting you up for a Stanley Cup final game. Some Pink Wit action. Throw a little energy drink on the top of that thing, and you'll be buzzing

around, winning bets, winning the golf matches, surfing, swimming, fishing. It doesn't matter. Pink Whitney's here, and it's here to stay. And thank you so much to you guys for buying it. Moving on to the games. Canada's last hope for its first Stanley Cup in 30 years was extinguished Sunday in Edmonton

after Vegas beat the Oilers 5-2 in Game 6 to move on to the Western Conference Finals for the fourth time in their six years of existence. The Golden Knights will play the winner of Seattle-Dallas, which we're going to get to later. Three of the original Vegas Golden Knights did all the scoring. Riley Smith, Jonathan Mosh, with the second period natural hat trick. William Collison, Aiden Hill, like I just mentioned.

He's been stellar for Vegas. They got him for, I think, a fourth round of last summer. He's been tremendous as a third-string goalie coming in. The Oilers went, I mean, they had 2-1 lead after an action pack first, and they just, I just felt they never got to that desperation level only because Vegas was just all fucking over them. So I think in the third, they did have that. The effort in the third was great.

I mean, how could it not be? You're down two. You have to get something going. Aiden Hill. I mean, the fact that they're on their fourth goalie, and Jonathan Marcheseau said it on the ESPN. Fuck ESPN, by the way. We'll get into that later.

On the ESPN. Fuck ESPN, by the way. We'll get into that later. On the ESPN broadcast interview after, and he said, yeah, somehow we're doing this with our fourth goalie. A lot of teams can't even find one guy. They're on four. And he came in and Biz had called it when he was traded. Biz has been saying it about him for

I think a year or two. 6'5", 6'6". They said on the broadcast he's 250 pounds. That guy came in and to give up goals on your first two shots against in Edmonton's arena and to bounce back and just make 39 straight saves. I mean, you got to just tip your cap. And I sent out a tweet right after the game. I tip my cap, no doubt, to Vegas.

That is a better hockey team. They are so built to win the Stanley Cup, dude. When you're that good down the middle, they're throwing out Eichel, they're throwing out Stevenson, they're throwing out Carlson, and then Bluger was the fourth line center. Then you got these defensemen. They're all big. They're all physical. They can all move the puck. And then you get this goaltending. It's like, it's going to be really hard. Whoever beats them to get it done because they play such a sound system. They play hard in their own zone, especially. They're good on the forecheck. They're great at getting out of their zone. They're getting goaltending and Edmonton just could not match them five on five.

Like the power play merchants of death. You can call them power play merchants with a power play that good. I you can call them power play merchants. With a power play that good, I mean, I don't really know what else you're supposed to do. You got to play better five on five, but they're that good on the PP. It is what it is. But you deal with a team that's that big and strong and they didn't have anything. Now, the issue for me is the big guns, a lot of the big guns, they didn't show up. And we'll go through the maple leaves later on and it's so similar in the sense that you have your top guys you have

190 point guys in the regular season that aren't doing anything in the second round you have no chance you have no chance doesn't matter how good mcdavid is and unfortunately leon while putting on maybe one of the biggest clinics i've ever seen throughout the first eight games of the playoffs, he kind of disappeared, fellas. Well, yeah, because he's gassed, man. I think he looked banged up. Witt, show me a team that's ever won the Stanley Cup where their two top forwards are playing 25 minutes a night.

Show me a team who's ever won the Stanley Cup with one guy making 10 million bucks. And I'm agreeing with you. I'm just saying. Right. But also in the same breath is like those guys never really learn how to play consistently like 12 minutes or 11 minutes on the fourth line where you see other teams that are having success right now.

It's teams that are four lines deep and where the ice time discrepancy isn't as great as it is in edmonton where it's like yeah you can keep leading with that ace all year but then all of a sudden when you get into the better teams and and your your top two guys have been playing 20 minutes 25 minutes all year and then especially in the first round having to even bring it up an extra notch to even get out of the first fucking round you just eventually hit a wall and that now that's probably been the case for what the last at least three years if not four where it's like they need to they need to try it different where i don't know what the relationship is between woodcroft and mcdavid and dry style but you have to imagine at some point if

a coach has championship pedigree and his coach teams who have won it would say yeah i know you want to play 25 minutes but we're not going to win a stanley cup if you do that all season in the playoffs because it's proven to not be the right formula like okay but but but the the minutes per game are a little fugazi in a sense that they play two minutes power play and i I don't think that we're like, I don't like getting the extra minute, every power play, right? A lot of teams you see minute on second unit comes on a minute, 15 second unit gets 45 seconds. They play the whole two minutes. I don't necessarily think so. So that, so say that brings them from 21 to 24 minutes.

That isn't exhausting. And I understand when you're that good. I actually agree. Play the whole two minutes. But I do think the main issue is with the lack of production from the other guys, they kept having to put them together on the same line. They have absolutely no chance when they're on the same line. They get out there. They control the pace of the play. They play in the other team's zone the entire time. A lot of times they draw penalties. But then the rest of the three lines, they have nothing. So the only way they were ever going to win is if they weren't playing together in my mind. And with the way Nugent Hopkins was going, but it's not even, it's not even just the forwards though. It's also their top four defense, like their number five and six defense didn't play nearly as much as the five and six for,

for, for Vegas. So the more time they're out there, they're making errors that are based on fatigue that other teams aren't necessarily making because they're just playing the right way and not just going off of a whim in a sense. Where it's like, do you not agree? Do you not agree? Like what Carlson did this year was amazing but I think that if anyone watched Eric Carlson play although he had 100 points you would see there's flaws to his game where plays are coming back the other way and they're being hung out to dry in certain areas but the the risk to reward I guess in that situation is worth it where it's just obviously not in in a case of where like Edmonton's trying to win a championship yeah Edmonton's team right now.

They're not built. They're not built to win at Stanley cup. Like there's one defenseman there's, or there's probably maybe two or three defensemen. I would be okay with playing 25 minutes a night, night that are still in playoffs. Hey, skin in probably mod tour.

And then I would argue maybe slaving and Burns like to get so it's just like Bouchard's playing 25 minutes like yeah he they were unreal on the power play and they were snapping around but I just don't I don't think that I don't think you're winning a Stanley Cup when Bouchard's playing 25 minutes a night you need like look at look at White Cloud and look at Hag compared to like uh like who is the... DeJarne and who's he playing with? And maybe they need a little bit more time to develop and be able to be responsible enough to be played that much.

Right? I don't know. But I think that the formula has to change of being so top heavy. Like I know that 25 minutes is nothing to those guys in the regular season. And even in some cases playoffs, but the problem is, is the rest of the team isn't understanding what the role is and can't get emotionally and invested enough because six, seven minutes is scraps. You're talking to a guy who played three and four, right? It's hard to to it's hard on everybody you want less of a less of a gap in my opinion i think that unless that changes edmonton's still going to be in trouble yeah they when you

get no shows from the other guys and leon included the last four games he was very hard on himself in the post game press conference like he's like i have to be better like yeah maybe he was worn out maybe he was battling injury he just looked completely different games three through six. And, but I go back, and we'll get to the goaltending, but I go back, like, Nugent Hopkins, Hyman, and Kane, I think in this series, they had two goals combined, right? And one of them was Hyman's. It was, what did you, it was off his thumb or something, wasn't it?

Yeah, off his thumb, right? Next to the post, yeah, on the blue paint. Nugent Hopkins had 100 points. Hyman had 90. It's like, like there's what are you gonna do and and i actually loved mcleod uh fogel and derrick ryan they were like a solid third line they played good but you're right not nothing from the fourth line where you look at vegas's fourth line with carrie right like i was so happy they put uh colasar in the lineup, even though that hit from behind was, I mean, 200 feet from your net didn't make any sense. 23 seconds left in the, in the period.

I said on the broadcast, I'm like, as a, as a fourth liner, if I'm out there in that situation, I'm not even worrying about finishing my hit. I'm worrying about skating back. Cause you never know if somebody blows a tire that you could cover in time where the hit at that point is is useless like who cares right it was it was a boat but as far as a fourth liner he always seems to like extend plays like gets he always gets the stick on it he's physical and for the most part at the right times uh he can you know he just that fourth line works and they contribute and they create scoring chances. They're not dull by any means.

Look at their third line on paper. It's Riley Smith, who really picked it up after a tough first round. Carlson, who's just a gamer, dude. That's a guy. He's your third line center. You kidding me? You're laughing?

And Nicholas Waugh is way more skilled than I thought. He's a big body, and he's physical. It's like, that is a better forward unit with them as their third line dude like and then forget the fourth line and and now here here's then you look at the goaltending can I just quickly say that uh as far as Vegas is concerned I'm so impressed with so many of their guys I don't think I really knew too much about their game like Barbashev's playing out of his mind too, but we go back to like Haig,

White Cloud, and these other fourth liners you're talking about. Like these, these fuck, these guys deserve a lot of respect. And Eichel, holy shit. I mean,

you can have all the Sabres fan you want dogging him and, and you're, you're seeing things went awry there. We've been over it a million times. I'm friends with Jack Eichel. I'm very happy for the guy because he's not only gotten into the playoffs finally. He's dominating. He looks so good out there.

And you know it means a lot to be the second pick in the McDavid draft and then take him out this year. Including him stripping McDavid of the puck, getting the empty netter in game one. He bitched him down at the end of the game at game six. He was a force. But the Edmonton goaltending situation is, that's kind of main reason number one, they lost. I mean, dude, they couldn't get a save. And I actually didn't hate starting Skinner because for some reason, it when Campbell starts he doesn't play as well he Skinner had grabbed the number one starter role a while back and they kept going to him now I think with the way game six had gone like if they had somehow pulled that game out they would have had

to start Campbell in game seven but when you can't get a save dude like you have no chance whatsoever there's no chance. And, and Skinner, it's like, I don't, I'm not sitting here blaming a rookie goalie, right? Like he was, he was open with himself. Like I didn't, I didn't get the job done. He's a rookie. I mean, he wasn't even supposed to be the starter. They signed Campbell $5 million and then he's not the starter. What did you think Merle's in terms of the starting goaltender game six, did you think they were going to go with Campbell? No no I think they had to go with Skinner even though he hasn't been doing good

with Campbell was just he was brutal he didn't do it for the Leafs last year he really hadn't shown me anything and it is tough being a rookie and being out there but that's what the Oilers have always had but like they don't play well enough D to support

a goalie like that where you see in Vegas their D are supporting a goalie that's not so um experienced I would say Vegas also push back on that as far as the Leafs thing I mean I thought he was pretty good last year in playoffs and then that game seven it was two to one final I thought that considering they'd signed him for that. And at that point, Skinner was, was leaking oil. And I, I think I sent the stats over our rate to like one of the worst goals against

averages to have overplayed a certain amount of games in like NHL playoff history, where at some point, like I think that Campbell deserved to get the start in game six, like 100%. I was okay though. In the group start in game six, like 100%. I was okay though. In the group chat, I said,

I go, I can't really blame him for trying to go back to Skinner. All right. Do you have it? I do. Yeah. Worst goals against by a goalie within team's first 12 games of a playoff,

a minute of nine games. And let's see, one, two, three, fourth, worst ever. Stewart's going to 3.68 goals against the average.

I know there's obviously a little bit more that goes into it but numbers are numbers numbers never lie it is what it is and yeah I thought it was a coin flip going into it as well I mean you you gave what Campbell at a five year five times five deal and it's a must win game and elimination game and he's not starting I don't know I think that's kind of an indictment of the front office that they're not starting this guy they paid all this money to be their number one for and I remember I think Gretzky either told you biz or he said it on one of the front office that they're not starting this guy. They paid all this money to be the number one for. And I remember, I think Gretzky either told you biz, or he said it on one of the broadcasts about grant Fuhrer.

It wasn't like he always saved everything, but he, he made those timely saves. Yeah. And I feel like Skinner didn't do that. Like if he could have made that save after the terrible at home penalty, if that just like, cause that was just a killer.

It just ruined all the whole game right there. If he couldn't make one make one big save right there. Montresor's third goal, right? Yeah. Bail him out and then get back to business. But he never made that save that Gretzky talked about. And if I look at Aiden Hill, I mean, this guy comes in.

The save he made on Ekholm in the third period was out of control. And then what was the other great he made? And then the Kane save. Kane's like mini break Ekholm in the third period was out of control. And then what was the other great he made? And then the Kane save. Kane's like mini breakaway earlier in the third. It was a clinic. And like you said, the defense is there the entire time around McDavid. It's like two guys going to him.

He's got no room. He's got no space. It was perfect clinical team defense holding on to a lead. And then back to the Oilers. I mean, Yamamoto came off 20 goals. He signed a two-year, three-million-a-year deal. I mean, he didn't do much in the regular season. Had a lot of effort, I feel like, in the second round,

but just not producing. Nugent Hopkins, I already said, like, you're like, oh, these guys are undersized, right? This is playoff hockey. Well, Marcia shows undersized. Look at how he played. So it's some sort of team defense mentality that Vegas has bought into and knows how to play

that Edmonton just doesn't have yet. And running into that team, it was like, that was not a great matchup for them. Not by any means. The opportunity was squandered when they couldn't win with Petra out of the lineup. Because you knew when he came back in, he was going to be playing with some jam. did you make of the back and forth and I want to say both

was it both McDavid and Dreisaitl like motion the baseball swing back at him did it oh Bukestad okay it was Bukestad and Dreisaitl and it looked like a pretty poopy pants uh handshake line too it was a quick one and it looked like uh Dreisaitl worded something back to him. Yeah, he kind of ripped his hand out of his hand real quick and said something to him. I understand the anger and frustration of what they're doing to Petrangelo, but at that point, once the game's going, the fake slash thing, do you think he cares? That's not doing anything. And of course, like you said you said Petro they had a chance

with him out and they weren't able to get it done and then he has that sick assist over to Martial show on the 4 on 4 goal the hat trick like that guy I mean he's their top paid what is he making 9, 9.5 so is Nurse I mean there you go

Darnell Nurse it's like he gets totally punished by fans in terms of his salary. He's a solid NHL defenseman. The problem is, if he was making $6 million, you'd love him. He's making $9.5 million. And then you look at, like, Bouchard needs a deal.

Luckily, he doesn't have arbitration rights. So hopefully they can, I mean, they have all the leverage. Hopefully they can kind of get him on a bridge deal where they're not going to, he's not going to break the bank, but it's really hard when you've got a guy right there, the nine and a half million dollar defenseman, who isn't a number one D man, maybe not even a number two. Petro's making 88 per year too. Oof, that's a bargoon. Oh, what the fuck was St. Louis doing?

That's a bar, I know. That was a bargoon. I know the save, I don't know if you would think of a McDavid save that Hill made with his left pad. I'm still waiting for a replay on ESPN, by the way. Yeah, they didn't show the replay on that.

Phenomenal fucking save. It was like Luongo-like. And yeah, never got a replay on that. Brutal. We'll get to ESPN later. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, no, it's just,

it was a tough ending. I mean, to go to the Western Conference Finals, even though they got their doors blown off, it's like you're losing in the second round the next year.

That's a step back. That's not good. I don't, I'm not even really ready to get into what they need to do. The goaltending situation, like maybe Skinner continues to improve and Campbell's not going anywhere with the contract.

So I don't, I don't know how that team. Are you okay with Woodcroft staying? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. So as far as changes, you're talking like a couple personnel changes, but for the most part, that core is going to be back. I don't think we talked much about Evander Kane.

I don't think he looked like himself these playoffs. He looked like way more of a beast last playoffs. Last playoffs, he had 13 goals in 15 games. This playoff, he had five points in whatever, 12. Now, you have to be honest in the assessment that he had two big injuries throughout the year. He might have never felt right, but he definitely wasn't the player

that they had last year. And so it's a team that, like, I mean, they're right. Looking at these next few years, like, they're all in, right? They have no other option. So I don't know what you're going to be able to do. They'll probably look

to trade Yamamoto. But I don't really understand. That's why I'll never be a GM. I'm so bad at stuff like this. I don't know what you can do, but there has to be adjustments and changes made to just making it

a better defensive team. Like you're just, you're unable to win in the playoffs the way they play. And Vegas proved it. Another stat I include with you boys. 49 playoff games since the 2016-17 season.

McDavid's got 75 points in those 49 games. Leone's got 77. Team goals per game for Edmonton, 3.43. But team goals against per game, 3.39. And that just doesn't cut in the playoffs. Team record, 22-27. So just kind of back to the goal back to the, the goal time. And I think that also ties in with team defense as well.

It's not always on the goalie when you give up that many goals, but they do need to make improvements as far as next year. Uh, Ryan, Yanmark, sure. Bukestad, all UFA, uh, Bouchard, Carsten, McLeod, RFA. Uh, other than that, they're bringing everybody back and Campbell's got four more years at five mil and Skinner's deal goes up to 2.6. He gets a raise next year. year so I don't know it's uh it's a lot of the same band coming back next year uh Biz well uh do you have any final thoughts on Edmonton here or like what do you what do you think do you think they know I was just curious to know as a fan what we wanted to do like with

with coaching and if there should be any like drastic changes like I much like the Skinner in net in game six like I think that Woodcroft deserves to be back too like he's only had a few years with these guys there's room for growth and I think we forget how young these guys are and it's it's a tough fucking league to win in like right now more than other other is that this term right now more than ever excuse me um the parody is just so strong so if you don't have that depth like it doesn't matter how good your top guys are, like it could end up costing you. And we're seeing it more than ever.

Quickly about the coaching. I know by the end in Boston, guys could not stand Bruce Cassidy, but I mean, you got to give credit where credit's due, right? This guy can coach. And whether his message goes stale, whether he's hard on guys and they get sick and tired of it, he gets somewhere early on and you see success. And he totally outcoached Woodcroft. Now, granted, his team overall is built, I think, for the playoff style hockey better,

but that guy can coach and you look at what they're doing. It's not really a surprise considering their roster and then what he's doing behind the bench. And then the other thing I wanted to say is like, if I'm coaching a defense, I swear to God, I'm working on the high flip with guys. You see these teams, Florida's doing it well. Florida does it. Look over there. Carolina does it well. And Vegas was unreal. When they don't have anything, these teams have mastered a high flip, not icing, but out into the neutral zone, possibly the defensive zone, if it's a perfect one, enough for a change. And you see, you see any time these teams are under pressure. I don't know if it's something they're working on. I don't know if it's something that

just comes natural to guys, but if you're under pressure and there's no one open and you don't want to ice it a high flip, whether it's off the glass or out, it is, it has been like the number one breakout by teams winning in the playoffs. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Panger pointed out Florida does it a ton, I think probably more so than any team remaining in playoffs. And I was actually interested to see how Carolina was going to adapt to that.

Same with the other way around is Carolina is very predictable at where they dump in the puck more than any team in the league. So you know it's going in. So how would you defend against that flip in the air? So it ended up burning the Leafs on what I want to say was the second goal where Verhage got his stick on it, and then it went to Declare in the middle where he kicked it back out. If anything, you've got to retreat,

and you've got to have back pressure from your forwards because you never know. Like it's like a bounce. You never you never know where it's going to go. Right. So if you don't have guys skating back, you're hosed. Yeah, that's what's so great about it. It's not just like a defensive system.

It's creating that 50 50 puck in the neutral zone, bouncing around and anybody can get it and go like a team like Edmonton should definitely do more of that with 97. Anytime he's out there, just flip it out there and let him go and and biz you remember being a defenseman when you were it's like it's kind of the hardest play to deal with so you have a high flip not not only do you have to figure out where the puck's bouncing you're looking up you got to figure out the bounce and then if it's a good enough high flip it gives the board enough time to put complete pressure on you like you mentioned with the Verhege one it's like it's the perfect play in the playoffs and I It's a good enough high flip. It gives the board enough time to put complete pressure on you. Like you mentioned with the Verhege one, it's like,

it's the perfect play in the playoffs. And I don't think it's like as easy as some of these guys are making it look because you have the ability to flip it out of the zone for a penalty. You have the ability to ice it, which is not the end of the world, especially if you're tired. But when you're able to do these perfect ones that are landing red line or some guys are so fucking good at it. They like get it up on their toe. And it's, it's you're able to do these perfect ones that are landing red line or some guys are so fucking

good at it they like get it up on their toe and it's it's you're looking at the jumbotron you're like where is that thing next thing you know you're fucking eating it but then sometimes these fans are probably wondering like why why'd that guy just throw that away in the middle of the ice like that some guys try it and then they whiff on it if you don't do it it looks ugly they end up as some of the worst pizzas that fans are probably like get this guy out of the city right i remember i tried one in montreal or toronto i know or ottawa it was one of those eastern canadian teams and i whiffed on it and then i got buried and they came flying in two on one i was like oh my god i'm not the high flip

guy so um i was actually i was mucking it up with talk as far as talking strategy about how like carolina for instance they dump it in all the time so teams like they like florida they should cheat back like that weak side defenseman needs to cheat back whether it's going to be a hard rim or near side rim where you know most of the time it's going there so the strong side defenseman just worries about trying to get that slight second delay of holdup, and then just either pounding it back up the strong side wall and or going weak side rim with it,

where you just tell your forwards, and then you push the fight as close to the blue line as possible, and you live to fight another day. That's it. That's where some teams, like Army's criticism of the leafs is like they refuse to just play the muck game whereas they're trying to make it maybe a little bit too clean every time where it's like sometimes just to back them off for a little bit you just got to push it

up the wall try to flush it out and live to fight another day am i am i crazy here merles no and what happens is if you if you do it enough, teams will start cheating on it, and that's when you get the time and space to make the pass. There you go. Then all of a sudden you'll get some clean break-ins. It's a great under, like, I don't know if undervalued is the right term, but it's just playoff hockey, the pressure, the forecheck, there's so little time and space.

Just get it out without an icing, and all of a sudden you're creating offense, and it just never looks pretty, but it works. Yeah. I remember biz where you're kind of talking about leaving a guy way back. I think Anaheim did it. And I want to say it was Sammy Paulson would do it on like the penalty kill. They would play like three on the blue line and he would stand all the way back at his own goal line, just waiting for the dump. And it would take the teams a few times. They wouldn't realize that they would go dumping in normal and he's already standing there and it was boom right out again i wonder if that was before they started doing the the first guy goes up and then he does the long drop drop back oh yeah this is old school like it's it's crazy

how the power play breakout and then how to defend it has has evolved eh like i feel like that's who could detroit start that i was gonna say it was probably detroit who started that long pass back and people are probably wondering like why teams do it because because you have to try to gap and match the speed of that first guy because i mean in some cases like some teams even cheat that now where that montour goal in the Boston series. I think it was in game seven where he just all of a sudden he was like, well, I'm not firing it back. I'm just going to go give and go with, I want to say it was either Luster, Luster Reynon or Lundell. And it was just a quick give and go.

And next thing you know, it was in the back of the net. So it's, it's wild how it's all evolving and how you have to constantly adapt to the systems and the styles that each team play with and how quickly you could do it. Come playoff time. Yeah, no con Conley claims to saber started that they used to fire it back to Finn again off. Remember how fast he was?

Oh yeah. They would fire it back to him. Like just go like you just, and he would, and that's how it really started. And then they, I don't know who came up with the two guys back. Connelly's taken credit for starting that. He's that team not him he's saying that sabers team remember how

good they were those two years after the lockout yeah he said those that sabers team was the one that first one with the drop back pass for the pp fennigan i've had some of the nicest gear where you ever seen in your life he looked like bure he was a mini bure out there he did he was a mini Bure. Yeah, he did. His gear wear was the same as his. Costco brand Bure. Biz, we're going to give your buddy Sean Burke some props, too. He's done great work as the goalie coach. We mentioned Aiden Hill already, but since Broussois got hurt in game three, Aiden Hill 3-1 with a 2-1-9 goals against 9-3-4 save percentage, which is tremendous in the playoffs.

And since Vegas has entered the league, they've won nine playoff series. Only Tampa has more playoff series wins than Vegas in that time with 13. They have four conference finals in six years in the league. Insane. I have something else to talk about later, depending on how Seattle does, but we can move on to our business favorite club.

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It can't beat that. And if you're in Boston or D.C., keep an eye out for a Mugsy store coming in June 2023. Go to Mugsy.com and use the code CHICKLETS for 10% off. Well, no, we're not quite done yet. We've got to get into the ESPN aspect. People are very pissed off at the 10 p.m. Eastern start time.

I reached out to someone. I'm not going to drop dimes here. He said, I was told there was no place to put the game. The NHL demanded ESPN, but Sunday Night Baseball is the deal that ESPN already has with the Major League Baseball. It's like, I don't know how the negotiations go, Biz, but that must have come up at some point.

Okay, well, if this game goes late, what do we do? But the fact that they started on a fucking split screen and instead of just moving the game, instead of moving the baseball to ESPN 2, which case ESPN's now going to piss off MLB, and if they did it with the NHL, they'd piss them off. They were kind of between a rock and a hard place. But how does this happen why wasn't this avoided I guess

not that it's your fault Biz but like what do you think happened here I was like you're the TV guy so I wanted oh yeah fuck like I know all that shit going on behind the scenes dude I'm just trying to fucking I'm just trying to keep it together so I don't get cancelled

on air here I'll take the canceling for this fucking thing go ahead all you okay yeah i just i don't know this is pathetic this is pathetic and and it's it's i think it's espn's fault say 80 percent maybe 70 nhl 30 all right so espn they have this enormous deal with MLB. They actually went to, and I talked to somebody that works there. He reached out to me. I can't say his name. So he sent me this tweet. This doesn't really have anything to do with tonight, but some semi-related sports media history. Major League Baseball and ESPN went to court in the 1990s because ESPN tried to bump Sunday night baseball to ESPN2 in favor of

the NFL. So Major League Baseball obviously has an enormous expensive deal with ESPN. And they're adamant about their Sunday night baseball, which the ratings probably smash NHL, even though it's ridiculous, but whatever, that's the world we live in. smash NHL, even though it's ridiculous. But whatever, that's the world we live in. So ESPN, and let's also get ahead of this. Had Toronto won, they would have been playing at seven o'clock and there would have been no issue because there was just two games. Once you get to one game, ESPN is like, nope, this is Sunday night baseball. The game's staying over there. My issue with the NHL is that why aren't the NHL willing to go to ESPN2? If ESPN said to them, we'll put you on ESPN2, the NHL at 8 o'clock, whatever, the NHL should say okay.

And all these people on the West Coast are all over me. It doesn't revolve around the East Coast. I'm not saying it does, but it's Sunday. It's not even during the week. It's Sunday. NBA just played a game seven at 3.30, okay? There is absolutely no reason to not have all these East Coast fans, forget Newfoundland, who's another hour, not have the chance to watch one of the greatest players

the league's ever seen in a must-win game. That is bullshit. And what it shows is that ESPN doesn't give a flying fuck about hockey. That's just a fact. They have baseball. They got the football stuff. They don't care. And the NHL decided to go in with ESPN thinking, oh, this is great. And Merle said it right from the start.

I remember saying, this will be great. All of a sudden, every office that has ESPN on, every bar that has ESPN on, this is awesome. Nope. They stick them on fucking streaming ESPN Plus all season. So that's one thing where it's like, I don't, I guess the money the NHL got from ESPN, is it worth it? I don't really understand.

Maybe it is, but they don't care, dude. They don't even, like, Look at TNT. And I love Bucci. I love Ryan Callahan. Kevin Weeks. They got great guys working there. It's not on them. It's on the business they're working for not giving a flying fuck about the NHL and their product. They look at it

as like the stepchild. They don't care. NBA, Major League Baseball. So all of a sudden, you have this game on a Sunday, dude, that's played at 10 o'clock. I fell asleep after being husband of the year all day. At 8 o'clock, I woke up on the couch at 8.30.

Like, there's 90 minutes till this game starts? It's a disgrace. And also, I think there was a talk about maybe TNT getting that game and just flip-flopping, and then they wouldn't do that. ESPN wouldn't agree to do that. Like, why not? And then you get one of the TNT games. It and just flip flop it. And then they wouldn't do that. ESPN wouldn't agree to do that.

Like why not? And then you get one of the TNT games. It's just, it's just such a bad look for the league. And there's a bunch of different blame to go around, but it, it, it makes hockey look like an absolute pigeon sport.

Very well said. Very well said. Non pigeon sports. For Ryan Whitney folks. That was, it's a joke. It's 10 o'clock on a Sunday. There Ryan Whitney, folks. It's a joke. 10 o'clock on a Sunday?

There's no other games. I thought 8 o'clock would have been a fair time, you know, help everybody out on the East Coast and West Coast. But yeah, 10 o'clock, best player in the world playing an elimination game. I don't think there's an excuse there. And that's a tough one to argue and defend. So you said it a lot more eloquently, though. What are the two biggest leagues in the world? Who's the best league?

Football and NBA. Football and the Premier League in England. When do they play? They play at 1 o'clock on Sundays. What would have been wrong with 1 o'clock on Sunday in Edmonton, 4 o'clock on the East Coast? Well, then you got the NBA game for a year. I would have said rest.

You don't get the 48-hour rest. You get the NBA game, game 7. But the thing, when game 7, Sixers-Selts ended, now granted, there's not an enormous crossover, I'm guessing, but still, boom, 7.38, everyone's finished that game, go right into McDavid, Leon, and no, let's wait till 10. Well, Toronto didn't have that problem because we lost in 5. Okay, there we go.

It's Newfoundland, too, Whit. You're going to get some bad tweets. What did I say? Newfoundland. Like they say, Newfoundland. Is that from Terry Ryan Sr.? That's everybody in Newfoundland when you mispronounce it. Before we go any further, here's a word from our friends

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the Leafs season came to an end. 1532 in the overtime of Game 5 when Florida's Nick Cousins beat Joseph Hall to give the Panthers a 3-2 win and punched their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 27 years where they'll beat the Carolina Hurricanes. This being the 2023 playoffs, it was not without controversy.

The winning goal, Radko Gudis. Hats off to Radko. What a fucking play he made. Oh my God, this guy. To push the puck up. Then he fucking chased the players. Oh, my God, this guy. To push the puck up. Then he fucking chased the player. I was like, holy shit, look at him fucking crashing the net. And he grabbed, what's his name?

I think it was Jan Kroc's stick for a half a second, just enough to throw him off. Cousins put it home, and boom, game over, donezo. Were you crying in your beer or what, Biz, after that? I wasn't even mad at the Gudis play because I just respected it, and I kind of had a good chuckle as to like, I'm just going so hard down the ice, like a fucking bowl in a China shop.

And then him setting the pick for cousins to do it. And then him screaming in wall's face. Like, did you see the image that ended up coming out? Classless. It was class. Yeah. Yeah. Texted him with a picture and goes,

what's wrong with you? And he wrote too much sugar. All that's just straight. And people did say classes. It kind of the image looks bad. But dude, that guy is a straight up barbarian. Fucking sports, man. Seriously.

I mean, they just won the Leafs fan. And that's a no doubt. That's a penalty. Like, for sure. Yeah, that's a penalty like a for sure 100% penalty but it's such a bang bang play dude like it's that's it was it was a it was a great smart penalty sad he didn't get called for I thought it was smart too that he didn't make eye contact with the ref in the corner although when getting away with something like that sometimes you look over to see if you've gotten away with it. His, his, uh,

you know, his, um, focus to not do that and just go right, right to the pile. I mean, I commend the guy, um, to the goal now, very frustrated with how some people online were basically calling me a fraud as to what I was arguing about this thing, crossing the line. Everybody thought that I was using the example of when he stood up Bobrovsky. Okay. First of all, did any of you actually see a feed where you heard a whistle go? No.

And when you guys, you guys released a five minute clip, but biz I'll, I'll get ahead of this. I think the ref got that call right personally, but I'll, but I'll say this. You guys released on TNT, a five minute explanation. And I, and I was like, personally, but I'll say this. You guys released on TNT a five-minute explanation,

and I was like, oh, I want to watch this. You don't hear a whistle. We didn't hear the whistle, okay? And that's what everyone's, that's what's claiming. The referee's box is saying there was a whistle that went, which would have signaled Bobrovsky to then get up, and then that's when the puck went in where I'm like, okay, I didn't hear a

whistle but let's say that the ref signaled hey it's dead now and then he got up and across the line that's not what i'm talking about in the play in which he's going to the net and that puck ends up getting lodged in his pad as he slides over there ends up being a view of it where you can see it. Everybody is now saying the parallax angle. Which is legit, man. It is. No, that's when the puck was in the air. That one Army sent that the puck was in the air. Yeah, that goal.

The Calgary one. That was in the air. That's why it looked like that. This puck was on the ice. This puck was on the ice, and you can clearly see that there's some white in between it. the ice and you can clearly see that there's some white in between it and and even if there it was a parallax angle the amount of why are you laughing am i saying it wrong no just that's so crazy people are talking about this they keep saying that to me so i said online i said shove the parallax angle up your fucking ass that pucks on the ice it's beneath his pad, which is completely lodged inside the net.

So I think it was a goal, but to back it all up, that's not my excuse as to why they lost. I love how they tied the game up and they didn't use that as an excuse. And we saw an unbelievable push by them. I thought it was a sick performance by Nylander. We got to go to overtime, and then it just sucks the way it ended on the fact that it probably should have been another penalty call. But guess what? Who gives a fuck? That's not why they lost the series. They have a lot of issues that they need to address as a team.

You go back to round one, I don't think that they were the better team against a tired Tampa team who lost Cernak, whose goalie didn't play well. And overall, I thought that we didn't play well and overall I thought that they just didn't we didn't see a big enough push from the overall core group and superstars um seven games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in which they only scored two goals each game which guys it's the driest spell that the team has gone on in the last 13 years 50 shots combined between uh taveras and matthews in the series and they weren't able to find the back of the net zero all right your head all right he's holding up the donut he's already got the stat lined up and to the point where

towards the end of the series especially in that um in five, you saw Matthews kind of teeing up one-timers from farther to the outside where maybe we'd normally see him where he's stepping into ones in the slot where he's flexing that stick and they're fucking zipping. One of the biggest problems I saw all series is they weren't able to get to areas with the puck where they were able to elevate it. But Broski was unbelievable and he was probably the star of the series for the Florida Panthers. But I don't feel that he was challenged with seeing pucks go by his ear or far enough or high enough up top where most of it was saved from the, from the, the middle of the net down where he's great.

And you saw Nylander's goal to tie it up was up top. Finally, finally, they, they got to a distance, whether it was tight enough where they could elevate at top cheese and or they just didn't have enough high danger scoring chances where they were getting clean looks. And I don't know, this time of year, it's harder to get to those areas. And who is everybody going to look to to score those goals guys who want to be paid

11 and a half million dollars I don't have an excuse for those guys do I think it's time to give up on them give up on those guys and implode the whole thing no you got I think you can't come back with those four guys

I would dude I would. You can't, dude. I would. Why? Why? I feel... Because you have no money to spend anywhere else, dude. By the way, look at their free agents. Look how many guys that need a deal.

Okay, so the same way the Oilers aren't built to win the Stanley Cup, like I got two guys you can't get rid of in Edmonton. You're telling me that that Toronto team, those four guys, you can't get rid of them? That that's it? That you're going to win with those four making that much money? No, I... So right now, you're probably...

I don't think you're getting rid of Tavares, right? So let's count that out of it. As far as Marner and Matthews, one guy is nominated for a Selkie and had 100 points. And then the other guy, Matthews maybe had the off year this year, but he was an MVP last year. He played banged up. And it's not like he's not also trying to add other things to his bag. He led all forwards in the NHL and blocked shots. Like, it's not for a lack of effort.

I think it's for a lack of experience and then also tightening up a little bit when that moment's coming. I don't think there's any denying that some of their star players, and I would lean towards maybe more so Marner and Matthews to tighten up a little bit more when the going gets tough. You got two years with them left. I don't understand. You got one with Matthews.

Marner's no trade clause kicks in on July 1st this year too. Matthews has one year left. Does Matthews have two years left? Can you look that up? Or I might be going crazy. And if it is one year, I agree with you. I thought it was one year left on his deal. I don't understand trying to run it back for its final year. Because, dude, what if he's not, with him not being re-signed? He has one year remaining on his deal, and he also has a no-move clause kicking in. Nylander has one year.

Matthews has one year. Nylander and Matthews have one year and Tavares and Marner have two. And you're right. You're not getting rid of Tavares. Nobody would take Tavares' contract. I actually said on Game Notes today, Biz, and dude, John Tavares is an unreal player. Everyone loves him. Amazing career.

He had, what do you have, 45 goals or something last year. This year, over 80 points. They kind of fucked up signing him if you look now Merle said it today like they didn't need him and and then 11 and a half million it's like that's what I look back to in terms of like that's kind of killing him now and everyone said when he signed it he was gonna get old quick which which makes it sound like he's not still a good player but he's not 11 and a half million dollar player no i would say that the three big components as to why certainly these fans would want dubas out of his seat is overpayment of marner and matthews uh getting rid of cadre

and getting the return in which they did and then the jt signing but you've also been a very good organization since doing all that and you've been you know what do they finish second in the east as far as points or third maybe behind Carolina I'm not sure exactly but I think it was third they finished third in the east to have the dominance in which they've had I just think that there's been other core groups where teams have not given up on them where I think that maybe I don't think get rid of Keith either because I would like to see him get one more and if it needs to take two more years to get Dubas and him to come back I guess okay sure I I wouldn't I wouldn't be like screaming from the mountaintops if they gave those guys two years Dubas said he ain't going anywhere other than Toronto.

Run it back for one more year. Give him a key. Dude, if they go back with this roster next year. Why not give him one more year? Who else would you give the keys over to that would do a better job than Dubas? Okay, you might be able to. No, that one I'm fine with.

Coach, I'm not. Okay, you might be able to- No, that one I'm fine with. Coach, I'm not. Okay, so, but in the same breath, it took Trotz four full years with Washington, and that was an older group, an older established group. So I'm also okay with allowing a coach to learn from his mistakes. If you're saying, no, he's inexperienced

and he's in over his head, I would say, i don't think and you might say well what's changed since that they would have got swept where you would have said off with their heads i would have said well no i'm just not going to defend them i would say okay if they want a full a full clean slate and they want to fucking blow it all up what who am i to defend they got outplayed by tampa and then they got swept by florida like right you wouldn't make some calls and start looking at packages you could get from Mitch Marner dude can you imagine what you could get back from Mitch Marner yeah yeah yeah I would probably I would probably I would probably listen I would definitely probably listen but you're also getting a fucking 100 point guy who who who is up a Selkie. Who's I would say the only issue that anybody has with Marner is he tightens

up come playoff time. And then the other counter argument with people saying, well, they allowed Washington to go so late. Well, they were fucking winning president's trophies. And also I don't feel like those guys were also choking up come playoffs. They were going to the brink with, with a Pittsburgh team who was also a fucking dynasty. So there's the counter argument where I would say I'm okay with

them running it back for one more year. If he's get fired, I would say, okay, well bringing in an older experienced coach. Now I understand it, but who's the coach you're bringing in. If they end up getting rid of everybody and they want to do, do it that way, I would say, okay. But if I were in control, I would say everybody take a one-year deal. Dubas might say, fuck you. I'm not taking a one-year deal though. I'd say, well then fuck you back. That's all you've earned, right? Cause he was in control of the ship and, and you have to, you have to hold them accountable to his moves, which I'd say the costly ones were bringing in Tavares, getting rid of Caudry,

because there's your cheap replacement as a second line center. That was a killer. Because there's your cheap replacement as a second line center. And then you saw what he did with Colorado. Ouchie. And I said on game notes, and it's a lot of bad luck, right? But they traded Dersey they they traded derzy and they traded grunstrom and they traded a first round pick to bring in um i'm drawing a blank

man who's hurt muslin muslin the d man and and and the the old like those four forwards yeah they're great the d stinks so what like you can. That's my point. You bring those guys back and you have Morgan Riley, but you need D, man. I'm glad you brought up this point. So I talk and shop with people. I agree. One of my biggest complaints about the playoffs was the disconnect between D and forwards

from an offensive perspective in which they played most of the year. And then one of the things that Dubas mentioned was his concerns were was changing up and adding six new pieces to the lineup that closely to playoff time when you've done it the way that you've done it. There was times when the Leafs D overall in playoffs where plays went in the offensive zone to die. There was never a Sandy.

I thought when Lilgren hopped in, there were certain times where I'm saying, that's why you need him in the lineup. Because he's in the offensive zone and it goes to him and then he makes another clean play to one of the other skilled guys and then the functioning machine just keeps going and they're able to sustain offensive zone pressure.

When Brody gets it and he's not moving his feet and all of a sudden now it's like the play is a 50-50 race to the corner to maintain possession it's like motherfucker that was part of the disconnect and then also when the Leafs would go on a rush in certain cases let's say it was a turnover there was no second wave by the time they got up ice there was such a disconnect where there was so much of a gap in ice where they would whether it was florida or tampa they would come back and then and then toronto would have no gap as far as their defenseman and they would give easy zone entry so i agree with you the the d just simply weren't good enough where i'm saying is if you're going to get it one day with the certain personnel you have up front, I think they probably should have maybe rolled the dice with Sandin and Lilgren

or at least kept Lilgren in the entire time. Okay. But you also need better guys, though. You need better people. The other thing about Keefe, and I want to go to Merle's on his Toronto takes. Elender was the best player, correct? I would say that in that Florida series, yes. Even when he was snakebitten early on. Why is he taking off the first power play then, dude?

What are you doing as a head coach? You have the most dynamic player in your lineup currently who's been on the first power play the entire regular season, and he's not on the first power play unit it's like those are the decisions that happen throughout this series it's like what is going on behind the bench Kyle Kyle Dubas actually said that the the adjustments that he thought that Keith made throughout playoffs he liked and maybe that's part of the press conference that I disagreed with the most as far as what I was seeing based on him defending his head coach. But, Meros, I'll throw it over to you because I know what you got.

What do you got with Toronto, Mer? You guys covered it all. The Nylander not going in back into the bumper at any point was amazing to me. I don't understand that at all. And that's the problem. They don't have good defense because those other guys all wanted to make 11 million dollars that's why you have no money that team over yeah just like imagine vegas's decor on toronto yeah then they could win a stanley cup with those forwards but those forwards take all the money they're selfish to take all the money and there's nothing left

over i read all their i watched all their press conferences today. They love playing there. They want to be there. Okay, prove it to me. I'll re-sign and I'll sign for $7 or $8 million. Don't try to sign for $15 million. So then you run into the same problem for the next 10 years. That's all.

And it was, sorry, it wasn't even UFA money besides Tavares. That's the biggest kick in the dick. And that's why I'm saying is I can't defend these guys from a lack of production and not getting it done standpoint because if you want to be paid to the regard of the McKinnons and

the McDavid's is you have to show up and play like them. Like we can all agree that McDavid is not the reason that Edmonton performance was not the reason that Edmonton lost playing too much. We ended up hurting them as far as them being able to compete with them, but not from a non-producing standpoint.

And the what's it called? Overdrive. Like McCullen, Hazy, and O-Dog talked about this. And the issue that they have with this team is the same monotone answers that all of them give them. It feels like the team has no soul. It's like they say all the right things, but there's not enough emotion associated to it. Where I couldn't agree more. Where it might be frustrating to hear the same robotic answers.

Where I don't know if they're being told to talk to a certain regard but most of the time like if you really do want to win and you appreciate and care about where you are you don't hold your team hostage to pay you 11 and a half million dollars when you're a restricted free agent and exactly and you want to win as a core group because they're all saying in these post-season press conference that they want to all stay together and they love each other. And that's what makes me want to keep the band together for at least one more year. I want to see what changes for one more year

after hearing all the right things. Or after next year, I could actually say, you know what, I actually think that you guys are full of shit. And you're just saying all the right things or after next year i could actually say you know what i actually think that you guys are full of shit and you're just saying all the right things and you don't actually fucking like maybe you're maybe you think that you want to stay together but you're not doing the things that represents that you want to win together they hate the media which it's hard to judge against like when you're dealing in that fishbowl and 40 reporters every day like i understand it

but they hate the media so all all their answers like marna we don't listen to you like they're just they're always so disgusted having to answer questions but their play is what's leading to these questions in the playoffs but you bring up the monotone and and i'm not saying like oh you want to copy a guy do you remember mckinnon when they lost to vegas the year before the cup remember what he said i'm sick and fucking tired of this shit. It's just kind of like, yeah, we love it here. I love these guys.

And Dubas, his deadline deals were awesome. He made this team better. I understand he's this golden child where he'd have a job in two seconds if he was fired. He had all the leverage when those guys were rfas that's that's my kid everything like he didn't have to give them those

deals i don't understand that i i would tell you right now is if i was a gm in the national hockey league and i don't care how good the kid was if it was excess money and you hadn't had like proven yourself come playoff i would say hey man're going to have to this certain date. They did it with Nylander. They did it with Nylander. Dallas did it with Robertson. He still got the $7 million, though. He still got what he wanted.

Who? They just made him wait. He wanted $7 million. He got $6.95. He ended up getting what he wanted. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, I guess overall is what I'm trying to say is I would say,

listen, if you don't want to sign by the deadline, you're going to be spending the entire season, not playing hockey. And I think that's going to be worse for you in the long run. Cause remember like they weren't at a time where they were going to win then either. Like they were still,

they still had some growing to do. So it's like, okay, take the year off. I can go to Belize for all I care. You don't hang out with fucking him and... R.A. What did he go do when he was naked the whole time?

Oh, hedonism. Oh, no, hedonism. Hedonism, too. Yeah. Last thing for me on the Leafs is Dubas coming back makes sense in a way that... Okay, so Matthews has one year left. You got to figure out like, is he re-signed? They can sign him July 1, right?

And I read he has a no-move clause that starts July 1. So you can't really go into the season without him re-signed, right? You can't. You put it this way. You cannot lose him for nothing. You can't. It would it this way. You cannot lose him for nothing. You can't, it would, it would, it would cripple, it would cripple the whole team. So if Dubas has the ability to get him to resign, like maybe that matters to him or who's there. And that's something where it's like, all right, get Dubas back here, get this guy resigned. Cause if you're going to keep any of

them, it's him in my mind. Um, so I, I, I, the, i the the question is what is matthews thinking and right now he's pretty much calling the shots you had the chance to call the shots of them earlier and you let him do it anyways well now he's officially calling the shots and that will change the entire landscape you just need an answer from him like what what do you want to do here so they're kind of held hostage gonna get jt'd imagine oh man when people by the way people are already sending me um people are already sending me uh videos of mcdavid holding up a leafsters he got for christmas when he was like 10 years old imagine that it kind of recalls with like gaudreau and kachuk you know gaudreau played his deal out kachuk said hey i'm definitely

not signing here it gave calgary an opportunity to do something with him. So, you know, they're kind of in the same boat right now with Matthews. I mean, is he going to give him a heads up if he doesn't want to be there? Is he going to play it out till the end? So remains to be seen. But Biz, I think we do have to commend Morgan Riley. He was one of the best in all playoffs. Four goals, eight assists.

I mean, he was a true leader. Both ends of the ice was stupendous. I just wanted to give him an extra shout out because I thought he was one of the best players. I couldn't agree more, buddy. It's crazy because they got the goaltending. I felt like between Samsonov and

Wall, I feel like they had good enough goaltending to win. By the way, Samsonov's a free agent with O'Reilly, with Shen, with Achari. So it's like you could talk about the core four. They have a million question marks. Forget those four. And, dude, imagine going in with Murray and Wall next year.

There is some interesting – this offseason is going to be nuts. Nuts. No doubt about it. I think we've spent enough time. But, hey, are we going to pump Florida's tires? So I wanted to get

the Leafs stuff out of the way, but we have to get into this team. This is a magical run. Magical run. All right, before we go any further,

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Started the planning for the Stanley Cup finals trip today. First thing I do, first thing I do is check game time for the prices. You know, they're going to have the lowest prices. We got to find a way to get in the door. We're not getting any media passes. So the first place, as always, is game time. The absolute best of the best. You know what?

Gee, I got a guy and you know, my guy says, go to game time, skip the hassle. Enjoy the moment. Download the game time app or go to the website. Enter your email and redeem code chicklets for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. Yeah, Biz, man, we definitely have to give our flowers to Florida. I mean, the Leafs did a great job of neutralizing Kachuk, too. Those last few games, he didn't

even get a point. I mean, I don't know if he's dinged up or whatnot, but they couldn't capitalize on that. But Murrells, what did you see with this Florida team that impressed you very much? Yeah, same as in Vegas. The defense are just outstanding. They keep everything on the outside. Goalie Bob was the difference maker. We give the Leafs a hard time, but Bob was great. One little story I like is

because he's a journeyman like myself is the Zach Dalpy. I think I hope I'm saying his name right. I'm awful at that. But he's basically been a career minor leaguer, called up for a couple games each year, but mostly down in the minors and then he's getting up there he's playing a good role he got a goal and uh you can see he's just kind of a team guy that the coach trusts and and those are the kind of guys you need around when you want to make a long run so i hope to keep him going and uh i love the minor league stories merles did he not win a calder cup with chicago wolves last year? Was he not the MVP of playoffs? I think he was the captain of the team, I believe.

I don't have all of his hockey DB. I can look that up, though, while you guys are covering him. Yeah, I think we got caught up in the Bob contract. Tomorrow's 10 million, 10 million. He played himself out of a job. Lyon took it. But then all of a sudden, Lyon stumbles a bit. And then, oh, shit, Bobrovsky, two-time Vesna winner.

He can steal a series. And he's playing the best, Bobrovsky, two-time Vezina winner. He can steal a series. And he's playing the best hockey probably since he's been in Florida, I'd say. Oh, definitely. Yeah, going from backup. Was he backup until game three or four of the Boston series? And now I would say that he's probably in conversation for Conn Smythe. I think he was their best player in that second round. And he definitely saved their bacon at the end of the first.

So to go from where he was come game four of the Boston series to now is just remarkable. I mean, we already talked about Gutis. You also need guys like that who are just creating so much fucking morale in that locker room. I feel like they have so many quirky guys. Like that Nick Cousins when he's doing the lineup reads, you could just see the way that the guys react to him, that he's a clown inside that locker room.

Like he, he was beloved in Arizona. And after his press conference, after scoring the winner, he was like shouting out bell Vegas, hometown of Belleville. So, you know,

he's just a dirt bag from Belleville, Ontario, loving life. So Delpe was named the MVP of the AHL last season with the Charlotte Checkers. Oh, Charlotte Checkers. Oh, God. Here we go. Grinelli made a good point about Florida. I think it was

on Game Notes. He said they remind him a lot of the 2019 St. Louis Blues. Ironically, Grinelli partied with them after they won the Stanley Cup against his favorite team. But it's a pretty good analogy. And it goes back to the end of the regular season. St.

Louis is in last place, January 4th. They go on this amazing run. Florida's out of the playoffs. They got to go on this wild run, including six, one on one on their last day, just to sneak in.

It has, they had great goaltending. Now granted, Binnington was a rookie, but Bobrovsky's completely stepped up. They're bullies, too. They bully everyone out there. They're bullies.

They're bullying every team they play against. It's going to be a lot harder, I think, to bully Carolina because they just stay away from all bullshit and they don't get involved. But they have done an amazing job. And the biggest thing is, talk about going through losing and figuring it out. They were the president's trophy losers, president's trophy winners.

They get bounced in the second round. They get swept. They lost the year before that. They had a great regular season in Tampa beat them in a member of the first round that year, how crazy that series was. So they've had the years of losing. They have this struggle throughout the regular season. They turn it on and it's amazing roster that's added Matthew Kachuk.

And people said, well, they lost Huberto and Uyghur. Well, look at Brandon Montour. They're best defensemen. Gutis is on the last pair with Mahura. He's a straight-up savage, a barbarian. Mark Stahl, I got the chance to play with him. I played golf with him at the All-Star break. He was laughing.

He's playing like a mean motherfucker right now. He's playing unbelievable. He said to me, I signed with them thinking i'd play like 10 to 12 minutes a game be in and out of the lineup he's playing an enormous role yeah shout out the three stall brothers playing against each other to go to the stanley cup what an amazing story and it's a team that it has this weird feeling team of destiny i i still don't know who I'm going to pick in that round, but they have just done such a great job

at believing in themselves while nobody's given them a chance. I mean, no one gave him a chance against Boston. And I'd say not that many people thought they'd beat Toronto either.

So they just keep humming. And the fact they were able to beat Toronto in five with Kachuk not really doing that much. Some nice assists, but he didn't score, right? No, not in the last. Toronto in five with Kachuk not really doing that much. Some nice assists, but he didn't score, right? No.

And he's going to get so they won Friday. They're not going to play till Thursday. So if he was banged up, which I think he was, that's a five-day rest. And it's just an amazing team to watch right now that everyone has underrated, including me

the most. Paul Maurice knows how to play to a crowd, too underrated, including me the most. Paul Maurice knows how to play to a crowd, too. He's great in the press conferences. These pressers, between him and Kachok, it's WWE shit at this point. He has tooled with Montgomery and Keefe the first two rounds. Tooled with them.

He's been doing it for quite a long time. I heard you can actually have gotten 40-1 on Florida's latest February 10th. Oh, yeah, yeah. You get a free T-shirt when you put the bed into. I heard your Florida underwear is proving that now he gets he gets Kachuk's bathwater as a as an upgrade gift. I'll put it next to his dad that I've had on the bandwagon. Oh, shit.

I got one more thing on Florida. We got a we got a we were hard on him. We, we, I think we even said we might take a dump on his car when he was going to scratch. Oh, the management and Zito. Billy Zito. We got to, we got to pump him up. He figured out they didn't have what it takes

to win in the playoffs. He made some switches and, and they're on an amazing run. And I've known him for a long time. He was a agent of Ray Drew and Hamilton, even the Migs for a couple of days. So I've known him a long time time he was a agent of ray drew and hamilton even the migs for a couple days so i've known him a long time so i'm happy to see he's doing well there um i think that uh i remember mentioning that i was going to take a sky dump on his car for what was going on with the yandel situation not for any other reason other than that so i will rescind the sky dump comment and yes yes, that brass box with

Luongo was pretty cool, that video Did you see Luongo's tweet? He tweeted out the picture of him just like he's jumping in somebody's arms and he just wrote, act like you've been there before What does FK mean that was on the end of it?

I thought it was short for fuck but maybe I don't speak millennial, so I'm not sure what I meant. But boys, any final notes or thoughts on this before we send it over to Mr. Charles Barkley? No, we're going to throw to Barkley. We'll be back after game seven tonight. We'll be able to go over Seattle-Dallas and we'll be able to preview the

conference finals. So I think because of the time Merles, it'll be 4.30 in the morning. We're going to have Army on for the end of the pod, which is great. Get the two game notes daily guys. And I'm looking forward to what should be a crazy game seven. I think all you guys are going to love Charles Barkley. Yeah. The first picks already in Carolina.

I didn't let, I didn't get to listen to, I wasn't in on the Barkley interview, but we can cut this if I'm sounding like a real idiot. But did you, did you ask him who was the leading scorer of the dream team was? No. It brings him a little nugget right there. He's the leading scorer of the Dream Team was? No. Was it him?

Little nugget right there. He's the leading scorer of that Dream Team team. Modest guy. He doesn't even mention it to us. But we did talk Dream Team. A lot of Dream Team talk. Good shit. It was awesome. It pretty much changed basketball. It changed basketball forever.

Incredible. One more thing. He's a hot candidate. He's in the Eastern Conference Final, as is his former grade school teammate, Jason Tatum, also in the Eastern Conference Final in basketball. So that's the perfect segue. Now enjoy Charles Barkley. Before we get to Charles Barkley,

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chevy.com to learn more about the Silverado EV right now. Chevy.com, learn about it, get involved. Man, when I found out we were interviewing our next guest, I was over the moon. In a stellar 16-year career, this forwards list of accomplishments is something else. All-rookie team, 11-time All-Star, 11-time All-NBA, All-Star Game MVP, League MVPth 75th anniversary team and of course the basketball hall of fame it's a huge pleasure and a great honor to welcome my dad's favorite

non-Celtic to the spit and chicklets podcast Charles Barkley how the hell are you brother man I'm doing good I'm really honored to to be on the podcast you know know, me and Biz have been together a long time and he's so much fun on our broadcast. And you know what's crazy about this whole thing? We bought hockey in the last year. I'm surprised

they could afford it with your contract now. No, no, no. My contract came later. My contract came later. So, no. My contract came later. My contract came later. So, no. Yeah. It was so funny.

When they called, they said, hey, we need a favor. I'm like, what you need? They're like, we need you to talk Wayne Gretzky into doing television. I'm like, does Wayne Gretzky want to do television? They're like, no, you got to talk him into it. We just spent like $500 million. I was like, okay. And I was like, wayne can i come over and talk to you yeah sure and obviously when you go to wayne house we're gonna do some drinking i was wayne you need to think what do you think about

television he's like i haven't thought about television i said well i need you to do me a favor go meet with tnt and and Toc calls me and he says, what about me? I says, okay. And then Biz comes in and man, it's been a lot of fun

watching these guys because I'm a big, I'm a watch anyway. And then I was so excited because actually what's really funny, I tried to get us

to buy hockey like probably 10 years ago and our boss like, nobody's watching hockey. I said, you don't understand. I tried to get us to buy hockey like probably 10 years ago. And our boss was like, nobody's watching hockey. I said, you don't understand. I said, they don't watch hockey during the regular season, but everybody watches Stanley Cup playoffs. And then they went to some shit network like the Outdoor Channel,

if I remember correctly. We were OLN at one point. Yes. I was like, yo, man, I'm rich and got cable and I can't find oln i was like who the hell what the hell is yeah and so i was so glad when you know you finally they start getting all these great televisions you can fucking just push a button and say hey oln i like so it was like bull hunting yes yes i'm trying to watch power play here i said but it was funny. So I'm actually really excited that we got hockey, man. It's been awesome.

That was one of my questions because, I mean, this year you even said coming back from halftime to your show, you said, this game's boring, I'm watching the hockey game. But when did you get into it? Was it when you got drafted by the 76ers and the Flyers? Like what was your beginning to hockey and enjoying it? It was crazy. It was the Flyers.

You know, when I went there with those guys, and I tell you one of the worst days of our lives when petty limberg got killed in that car accident and uh it was brutal but and i tell you my two favorite philadelphia athletes of all time i got on my wall ron hextall and brian dawkins i got signed jerseys by both of those guys. So the Hexstall years, that was it. You know, the Lindros years. And that's when I first met Rick Tockett. So I've been with Tockett since the 80s.

He had the flow going then though. But you know what's so funny? He's always been just a great dude. So you kind of lose contact when you get traded then next time i see him it's doing the stanley cup finals he's actually coaching in pittsburgh and uh and then next thing i know he's coaching in arizona and uh i'm glad of his success because he's a really good dude and then i i got to know wayne through the years and chelios

uh you know i know bre Hull a little bit, but Chelios and Wayne and Tog, man, I see and talk to those guys quite a bit. One common thing is a lot of Canadians in that mix, and you're a big fan of Canada. Yeah, I figure. Well, Toronto's my favorite city in the world. I like Vancouver.

You've been to Pearson? Yeah. You've been to Pearson Airport? It's the worst airport in the world, but go ahead. I apologize. What about the other stuff? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but go ahead. I apologize. What about the other stuff? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, there's plenty. I know. I look at the negative. He got stuck there for 48 hours, so

he's like, it's on his pain list. Well, there's nothing worse than getting stuck at the airport, especially if you're somebody. I'm nobody. No, because people actually think you're at the airport to fucking talk to them. I'm like, no, I'm here to catch a flight. But that's the only... There's nothing worse than a delayed flight when you're somebody.

Because, man, everybody thinks you're there to talk to them. And there's nowhere you can go. But Toronto is my favorite city in the world. And thanks, Wayne, for screwing up the golf tournament at Collingswood. Wayne used to have the best golf tournament other than Lake Tahoe. I've ever been to. He's have a tournament up in Collinswood and man, it was the best week, but all the celebrity,

it was a, a corn fairy tour. they combined them. Well, it was, it was, it was, it was a corn fairy tour and a celebrity tour.

And you play with a celebrity every day. And that little resort is right around the lake. It's right at the bottom of the ski resort. They got like five bars and restaurants right out the back door of the hotel. It was one of the most fun weeks of my life. And Wayne screwed it up. He quit having a time in our life after like five or six years. But it was like the best summer week ever in Canada.

But, you know, in Vancouver, we were really pissed when they moved that team out of Vancouver. Because it's fun to go to Vancouver, but Toronto is my favorite city. But to go back to your original question, I figured out that America's the only assholes in the world. Canadians are great.

Most of the people I've met in my life are just assholes who are assholes. They're just American. And the Canadian, they're just so fun to be around. There's no drama. They just want to drink samosas and Labatt's, which I love to drink. I do.

I love to drink. I love to drink and gamble. It's one of my favorite things in the world. And so the Canadian, they fit right in when it comes to the drinking part. Did you know anything about Toronto? Was it the first time you went when the Raptors got a team? Well, I would imagine they came in the league while you were already partway in it, right? Oh, yeah, for sure.

The only thing that was really interesting, the only thing I knew about Canada was Edmonton and Calgary. And it was awesome because I forget what year it was. I was still in college, and I played in the World University Games. We went to Edmonton to practice for like a week. Then the games were in Calgary. And I'm still mad to this day because they screwed us out of our gold medal. Jay Triano was a really terrific guard uh they screwed us they i'm still mad at jay all these years for stealing our gold medal they foul our whole starting unit out like the first quarter first half who we playing against canada

no shit yeah oh that's a home cooking right home cooked meal cooked meal. As a member of Auburn or was it like a special team? No, no, no. So guys who don't, the World University game is kind of an offshoot of the Olympics. So you represent your country. And we end up playing Canada in the semifinals. And man, you talk about, I think the referees were from Canada. I mean, we just got screwed and I every time I saw Jay Triano and some of those guys later in life I said how's my gold medal doing we're not winning the bronze so uh but it but man the Canadian people were so amazing

I remember telling my mom you know you're supposed to be in summer school are you doing anything as mom I'm going to the library every day I didn't tell the library was a bar I remember telling my mom, you know, you're supposed to be in summer school. Are you doing anything? I said, Mom, I'm going to the library every day. I didn't tell her the library was a bar. I did. I said, Mom, I'm going to the library every single day. I said, Mom, all the guys are going. And I didn't tell her until later on.

I'm like, you know, Mom, the library was a bar. But we had a great time. But I did all right, Mom. you know what was crazy about canada at the time and this was probably 80 uh 82 83 right in there and you know we're so stupid about how money works we're college kids like we go into a bar and we buy something we buy some alcohol then they give you more change than your original gave back. I'm like, this is the greatest place in the world. This is the greatest thing in the world. And that's what I learned about exchange rates.

And I was just like, yeah, man, we're paying for stuff, and they're giving us more money back than we actually paid. We should do something about this. This is a great little scam. Let's just go and start buying shit that we can. It was great. My buddy actually lives in Vancouverouver and he went to watch you when you were playing against the grizzlies and you guys used to dummy them all the time and he said you would just have so much fun on the court even to the point when you guys were blowing them out that

you would be taking free throws with your eyes closed well we were well you know the grizzlies you know when you're playing an expansion team you can do whatever the hell you want to i mean the expansion team ain't gonna to beat any of that. Not in the NHL. Yeah, the NHL is different now. Well, it's different now. Yeah. It's different now because they realize that it's really an unfair system.

And hockey, man, when you're successful in hockey, it's really important because, you know, you guys have a hard salary cap. Like everybody in the NBA is cheating and the NFL is cheating, but to be great in hockey, when you're like, you got exactly how much money you can spend and I'll send more. You have to be really

good and handle your business. Like I say, everybody in the NBA is over the good teams, they way over the salary cap. They pay the luxury cap just to win. And then in the NFL, you know, just keep moving money around. But hockey, man, when you have a hard salary cap, like it's hard to be successful for extended periods of time.

Yeah, and I think now it was more about these owners are paying. Well, Vegas was $500 million. Then I think Seattle was $650 million. So they're like, we're not going to be paying all this you're gonna have us have a shit team for this long and i understand that i actually i think it's great yeah uh because like because i you know my at the heart of my sports is competition and i think you have a one of the reasons i don't like the nba at times it's load management bullshit that's going on nowadays. I was like, yo, man, these people pay their hard-earned money.

You're making $20, $30, $40 million. You guys act like we're steel workers. You can go out there and play basketball for 30 minutes a night. It ain't like you're going to kill yourself. But we played yesterday. I'm like, yeah, that's 48 hours. Can you play basketball for like 35 minutes a day? And hockey, man, I admire the guys.

I said this on the show the other night. I said, man, these guys just want to get their name on the Stanley Cup. There's no bullshit. I saw a guy get 70 stitches and come back in the game the other night. I was like, yeah, man, if an NBA player got 75 stitches, he player got 75 said he retired he's like yeah i'm not doing this anymore i'm taking my max yeah yeah he's like i'm taking my max deal and go home then you know i've seen probably two guys got hit in the face with a puck one of them actually winning the goal and was like, man, if you don't admire that. That was Haskin in the other night for Dallas.

Hyman got it off the chin and it went in in the first round. Oh, yeah. And if you can't admire that and respect that, it's just something wrong with you. I think we were going to ask you about that. I mean, even we watched some of these guys walk in now and they got these silly outfits on. It's taken on a mind of its own, the NBA like how much how much different is it from when you stepped in

the league where i'm sure you guys had veterans and there was a pecking order where i feel like the like the the young guys just come in they kind of run the show right off the hop well i think the money has gotten so astronomical you know you know again example you know like i the best person ever had me in the nba was moses malone so when i got to the nba uh my first contract was four years two million dollars and that's total total and i like the way you said that total like damn uh i was like eight million that's my career yeah and you know i wasn't getting to play and i said moses i suppose can i come see you because moses lived in the penthouse in the condo building i lived in and i said moses why am i not getting to play and he says you're fat and you're lazy

i said what he says which part do you not understand? I says, well, what do you mean? He says, well, you weigh 300 pounds and you can't work hard enough. He said, you got away with that shit in college. Can't get away with that in the pros. And this guy, who's by far and away the most influential person in my life, basketball-wise, he says, Chuck, you can't lose weight being that big. He said, let's lose 10 pounds. He got me to 290. He said, let's keep going. 280, 270, 260, 250. And I didn't think I could lose 50 pounds, but I did. And the rest is

history. And to piggyback your question is I look at a young kid like Zion who probably making, I got in shape for $2 million. And a kid like Zion's probably making, I got in shape for $2 million. And a kid like Zion's probably making $50 to $100 million, and he won't get in shape. He's been in the NBA like almost five years and only played like really one season because he's just too big. So that goes back to your question. Like the young guys are making so much money they are running things

and is it a negative yes there's a negative because he seems like a nice kid but i wonder since he has so much money and so much power who he listened to since son you got to get in shape so you well you just brought up a good point too whereas you felt like you had that that veteran leader to talk some sense into you where i feel like the older guys tend to be weeded out quicker now because it's turning over to be such a young league in any sport where maybe they don't have that veteran influence there. Well, because, you know, you try to get, you know, you see in the NFL, they're like, let's get rid of the veteran quarterback

because he's making too much money. And it's the same way, let's get rid of the old guys because they're making so much money. Let's bring in young guys. And it's the same way, let's get rid of the old guys where they're making so much money. Let's bring in young guys. And it's happening in every sport. Because, you know, as a veteran, you have to make a certain amount. So now they, like, try to move on from the veterans as quickly as possible.

And I think it's hurt them. I think it's hurt the league, to be honest with you. I think we all need some older, at least one older guy on a team. You know, Dr. J talked me about saving my money. He said to me, son, how many cars you got? I said, I think I got like five or six. He says, well, how many of them can you drive at the same time? I said, what do you mean? He said, well, how many cars? I said, one. He said, well, let's take these other cars back. Something like that's smart. You know, he taught me how to dress. He said, son, you can't dress in warm-up suits. You got to wear a suit. This is professional football.

You can't be walking around in warm-ups. You were walking around in the free track suits that the team gave you? I did. Oh, I did. Because, you know, you don't have any suits, really. Because you're not wearing suits in college. And so you still, and he's like, no, no, no. I remember the first time they took me shopping.

It's a famous clothing store in Philadelphia called Boyd's. And we spent $30,000. And I guarantee you that's not a person in my family had ever made $30,000 in their entire life and they made me buy all these suits and jackets and sports coats and things and like I said when I got the bill it was like 30 31 something like that and I remember calling my agent he says hey I need you to pay this bill he says what did you spend $30,000 on I said they made me go shopping they said this is professional basketball you don't walk around in warm-ups because you know at that time we're flying commercial yeah and i remember calling my family telling like you spent

thirty thousand dollars and i think my mother and grandmother probably making about fifteen thousand because my mom was a was my mom wasn't making $15,000 because she was a maid. But I think my grandmother, she worked in a meat factory, and I think she was making around $17,000, $18,000 a year. And for me to spend $30,000 in one day, they thought I was crazy. But they understood, and I understood. So that goes back to my original point, like having an older guy who's seen all the BS that goes on.

I think every team should have a guy like that. Yeah, without maybe without Moses Malone, like who knows where your career ends up, right? Yeah, because, you know, I've seen 10 guys eat their way out of the NBA easily. It's good pregame meals for you guys. Hey, man, when you got all that money and you know and there's you know what's really crazy what what people don't understand like i try to they're like what's a day like i says oh days are pretty pretty easy you know football players are different they're like all day i have no idea what they're doing all day, I might add.

Like I said, what's a normal day like? I said, what a game day you go in for a shoot around about 30, 40 minutes in the morning and you're off all day and you play the game. I said, on an off day, you go in in the morning, some team practice at 10, some team

practice at 11. You're there probably an hour, maybe an hour and a half, because you can't practice too much during the season because you play so many games. But then you're off for the rest of the day. I'm like, what? I says, yeah, on an off day, you're there probably an hour, hour and a half.

You're ready, off. I said, man, you have so much free time. And if you have any bad habits, whether it's alcohol, drugs, eating, it's going to multiply with all that free time. Especially when you have the money to do all that stuff. So that's why I always tell people when I read all the time, I say, if you're a jock, you've got to have discipline to be successful. Because with all that free time and all that money,

man, if you've got any bad habits, you're screwed. When you joined that team, Charles, you got Dr. J, Moe's, you already said Moe Cheeks, another great player. How long did it take for the starstruck aspect to wear off when you just kind of became one of the boys? Well, I think, to be honest with you, it was crazy. Because I've told this story publicly before. I was so nervous like the night before

training camp and the only thing i was thinking about what do i say what do i call dr j and i was stressed out about it and i said do i call him dr j or do i call him a doc i call him mr irvin mr julius and i was sitting there just thinking like because i was nervous because it was my first camp also. But that was it. And I remember he walked up to, hey, I'm Doc. And he broke down. But those guys, man, they treated me great.

You know, they were all older. I think they all probably were in their mid-30s. They were all on the backside. But, man, I wouldn't have been the player I was. And we had a great coach, Billy Cunningham. Billy Cunningham, yeah. And who was crazy about it, Billy, who's a great coach, Billy Cunningham, and who was crazy about it, Billy, who's a great friend and mentor to this day. He's like,

you know, I'm not going to play you because you're not in shape and you don't work hard. And the owner's like, Billy, he's the number five pick in the draft. You got to play him. He's like, no, no, no. He's going to play very limited minutes because he's not in good enough shape. But then this funny thing happened.

The owner went behind his back and traded the player. His name was Mark Ivarone. And we were in Chicago, I'll never forget. The coach is late to the bus. Ivarone is late to the bus. And Billy was a stickler. He would leave anybody. He never was late.

He would leave anybody. I mean, he left Doc. He left Moses. If you one minute late, he gone gone. The one minute we're like probably about five minutes late. Billy comes out. He gets on the bus. And we look around.

Averone's down on the bus. And we get to the game, and Billy's like, Charles, can I talk to you for a second? I'm like, oh, couldn't have did anything wrong. He says, well, the owner traded Ivorone behind my back. I'm not fucking starting you till you get your ass in shape. I'm like, okay. Oh, that guy was playing

in front of you? Yes. Okay. And then he says, Sam, you're starting. A guy named Sam Williams. Sam hadn't played all year. And Sam's like, what?

He says, you're starting tonight. And it was hilarious because he said, he says, I'm not starting you. He traded a guy behind my back so you could start. You're not starting until you get your ass in shape. And it was really a blessing in disguise to have a coach who held me to a high standard. And to this day, we're still really good friends.

But that day I was pissed. I was going to punch him in the face, to be honest with you. He's yelling at me for no reason. Like I made the trade. How pissed was the owner after that uh he you know they had a a combative relationship at times but it probably ended up being a good thing for me in the long run because i wasn't physically because like i say i i i forget where i was on my weight loss journey be honest with you but i But I was really crazy about it. When I lost the first 10, I noticed a difference. Then I lost 20, I noticed a difference. Then I lost 30,

like I'm like, oh man, I can work really hard out here. And like at that time, I'm getting some playing time. And then right after that, I started starting. But if it wasn't for Moses and Billy holding me to a standard, man, my career could have turned out totally different. I saw the 60 Minutes piece that was recent where you went back to your hometown. It was awesome. And then I also was reading up that you were a late bloomer, right? You didn't make your high school varsity team?

I grew from 5'10 to 6'5 in one year. What's really crazy about that is, because everybody's like, why is this kid ranked number five in the state? There are four guys ranked ahead of me. And I never got any big time offers until my senior year, because that's when I grew. So everybody's like,

how can this kid be this good? And nobody ever heard of him. And he's like, well, he grew from 5'10 to 6'5 in one year. So he came out of nowhere. But what's really crazy about it, when I was trying to decide where to go to college, I was going to go to Alabama, Auburn, and UAB because they're all, I mean, I'm from a small town of a couple thousand people.

Birmingham is about 20 minutes away. That's where UAB is. Tuscaloosa is about an hour and 15 minutes away. And then Auburn is like two hours away. So when I was looking at schools, UAB was my first choice because I was really close to my mother and grandmother. I said, I think I need to stay close because they went to every game I played in high school. And then I said, well, Tuscaloosa is interesting. But what really happened, they both made it to the Sweet 16 and had everybody coming back. And then when I went

to go to Auburn, Auburn had lost like 12 games in a row. I said, oh shit, this is where I'm going to college. I'm going to play. I'm going to play. Because, you know, I talk to kids all the time. I said, yo man, the number one thing, I said, I don't want to hear the education aspect. If you want education, you're going to get it anywhere. I said, yo, man, the number one thing, I said, I don't want to hear the education aspect. If you want education, you're going to get it anywhere. I said, but the number one decision you need to make

when you're trying to decide to go to college is are you going to get playing time? Because it's going to be the first time when you're away from home, all the guys can play.

If you're sitting on the bench, it's going to be miserable. So when you're, you know, you see now this crazy shit in the transfer portal. Yeah, it's nuts. Wait a minute. Didn't you study who was ahead of you before you decided to go to college there?

Like, you got, no matter how confidence you got, much confidence you got in yourself, if you go to a school that's got two players that you're positioned better than you, you're not going to get to play. And now you're going to have to transfer, transfer, transfer. I says, Auburn turned into the best decision I ever made, but it was because they sucked at basketball. What was the recruitment like back then for college players?

Was that a big aspect at the time? Not really for me because, like I say, I was such a late bloomer, all the money was gone. You know, all the money was gone. All the money was gone. And it was really funny. I heard the stories about Bobby Lee Hurd and Ennis Wiley getting paid. And now in my last 40 years, I heard all the stories about guys getting paid. And now it's legal, which is crazy.

But because I was such a late bloomer and not highly recruited, I never got induced financially. Like I say, because I wasn't a high enough recruit, and it wasn't like it was a bidding war for me. I mean, like I said, because I grew so late,

they had already had the players they want. And like I say, it came down to and Alabama and UAB I think they had everybody coming back I think they wanted me but they didn't need me I think Auburn needed me um as far as Auburn's concerned like you ended up going fifth overall and you said you were a late bloomer like at what point were you like okay this is actually maybe I got a future in this and I could go to the NBA. Like what propelled you from being, I believe it took to your senior year of high school to make the varsity team. Is that true? Yes. But I knew after my freshman year in college, I didn't know

I was going to have success in the pros to be honest with you, but I knew I was going to go to the pros because what happened was I never averaged more than 12, 13 points in college. All the years? In my three years of college. But I was a rebounding machine. I led the conference in rebounding every year I was there, even as a freshman. So I knew at the end of my freshman year,

I remember a guy saying to me, one of my coaches, he says, it's easy for you to get 10 rebounds a night in it i says every man walking should get 10 rebounds a night i love the rebound he says why don't you pick up that newspaper over there and look at the stats and i said what do you mean he says look at the nba leaders he says how many guys are averaging 10 rebounds a game I'm like one two three four five six I said there's only 10 guys in the NBA averaging 10 rebounds a game he said I don't think you understand what you're doing how valuable that is yeah he says rebounding is so valuable he says son if you get 10 rebounds a night, you ain't going to never have to work

a day in your life. And I said, like I said, I didn't know I could score. It's easier to score in the NBA because in college, everybody's playing the zone. But he says, if you get 10 rebounds a night, you're going to be successful for life, making a shitload of money. And so that's my

thing. So like I said, all three years in college, I led the league in rebounding. When I got to the NBA, I said, I'm going to get you 10, 12 rebounds a night, and then the scoring came later, but like I say, I'm going to get you 12 rebounds a night, and the rest is history. Were you considered undersized for a strong forward at the time?

Yes, yes. So what was it about, what made you such a good rebounder, your anticipation as far as like where it was coming from and just the angles and no you just got to go get it that's it it just came down you gotta go get it because elbows and shit oh yeah yeah because so i'll tell you a funny story so i have 20 points 20 rebounds in high school and so when i went to college i wasn't getting in a rebound and the coach says to me he says son, I wasn't getting in a rebound. And the coach says to me, he says, son, why aren't you getting in a rebound? He says, I said, this dude over here on my ass screaming at me.

There's a head coach screaming at me. He's one of those fundamentally sound guys. And the guy recruited me. He says, they told, the coach says, they told me you could rebound. I said, I'm a great rebounder. He said, why don't you ever get in the rebounds? And the coach says, hey, man, fuck him. What did you do in high school?

I said, I went and got that bitch. He says, this dude is telling you to box out every time. Fuck him. This assistant coach, Roger Banks, he says, go get the fucking ball, man. He says, because he said, remember in high school, you just said, assistant coach Roger Banks he says go get the fucking ball man he says and cause he said he says remember in high school you just said I'm gonna go get every rebound he said them fools who

box out guys who box out only get the rebound if it bounce to them and he says man go get the ball that's what we wanted you to come here for he said if the coach yell at you I'll handle it I said Sonny turn thatny, turn that boy loose. Turn that boy loose.

And from that day on, I'm going to get it. He says, son, people who box out, unless the ball bounce to you, you never get a rebound.

He said, you got to go get the damn, that's one thing I admire about Dennis Rodman. There was a guy named Michael Cage

who was a great player, Xavier Mandano, guys that play, yo man, go get it. Don't worry about, if you box it out, admire about dennis rodman there was a guy named michael cage who was a great player xavier man daniel guys i'm like yo man go get it don't worry about if you box it out unless it bounced to you ain't never gonna get no rebound yeah and so from that day on i was like yo man go get the ball man and uh that's the way you have to rebound the scoring like i mean i guess larry bird the story is every summer every off season he got got better at something. So was that what it was for you in the summers? Like your offensive game was just getting better? Was it just hard work in terms of like, I'm going to become a 25 point per game guy also? really one-on-one basketball. So it's easier to score in the pros, especially – and for me it was easier because I'm playing against a guy

who's a lot taller than me. And you get those big guys in space, they don't want it. They want you down on the box just beating the hell out of each other. But I tell people, you take a big guy 12 to 15 feet away from the basket, he might as well be on Mars. He's lost. He's lost. They do not want to move.

They just want to beat you to death in the post. And that was the way the game was played as a power forward. Like, let's go in the box. We're going to beat the hell out of each other for 48 minutes a night. And then what happens happens. And I figured out, like, three guys, John Drew, Clark Kellogg, and Adrian Dantley, all three undersized power forwards. They were great rebounders, but what they did on offense,

they took their man away from the basket. Like I say, those big seven-footers, the guys 6'9", 6'10", which most power forwards are, they want to be in the paint. They just want to beat the hell out of you. But if you get them off that lane and make their move, that's their nightmare. It was easy for you once you got to play. It was easy once I got to work on my game.

But you have to work on your game because, like I say, in college, they're playing zone. So they can take a big guy out the game in a zone. But the NBA, when you're going one-on-one, they can't take you out the game. They can come double you and make you pass the ball. But if you go on one-on-one, if you're any type of player, you should be able to get a good shot every time.

And like legendary shit talker, right? Was that always part of like who you were as an athlete? Did that come as you became more dominant or were you always into that part of it? It came later, to be honest with you. Because I'm playing against Bird, who's a legendary shit talker. Gary Payton, Reggie Miller, Michael, they're legendary shit talkers. You kind of just get caught up in it.

Because I remember one time we were playing the Celtics, and I'm a full-blown star at this point, and I remember talking to Larry, who was amazing. That's you talking to? Yes. And so it's my team at this point because Doc and Moses are gone, and Larry says, Chuck, can I talk to you a second? I said, sure, what's up, LB?

He says, yo, man, y'all being disrespectful to me. I said, Larry, I would never let one of my players be disrespectful to you. You're Larry Bird. He's like, yeah, y'all being disrespectful. I said, what are we doing? He says, y'all got a white guy trying to guard me.

I'm like, what? I'm like, what? He's's like and there's only two guys said that to me him and michael yeah michael said to me one game he's yo man y'all i'm just offended out here what you offended by y'all got a white guy trying to guard me larry and michael the only two guys you and you gotta laugh yeah of course of course. I mean, you gotta laugh. It's the setup, too. What's happening out here? Hey, man. Don't put a white guy on me. That's just fucking disrespectful.

I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy. One white guy, I think you said he might have been the toughest to defend underneath Kevin McKeel. He was a bitch of a time for you. He's the best player I ever played against. No shit. Offensively and defensively, he was the best player I ever played against. No shit. Offensively and defensively, he was the best player I ever played against. He caused me problems because of his size and his arm length.

I mean, first of all, he had some of the best footwork you're ever going to see. His shots were pretty much unstoppable. But defensively, his size really bothered me. but defensively, his size really bothered me. But I tell people, and that's no disrespect to Carmelon, Larry, guys like that who are all great players. Those guys, you got a chance against.

But Kevin was so long, and his shots were so on guard, but his footwork was such impeccable. He was just a nightmare. You talk about the shit talking coming a little bit later were you always outspoken like with the interview stuff because i think that that's probably eventually how you you got your name and why they wanted you in television because you're just raw open and honest when you were first at auburn doing interviews or or even early time in the nba were you just letting it fly where people were like, what? No, it probably happened. I think I became a star my third year in the NBA because my first couple of years, I never got an interview.

Because you're on a team with Dr. J, Moses, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Tony, Bobby Jones, guys like that. You're never going to get like, wait, let's talk to Doc. Let's talk to Moses, Maurice, and Andrew. So I never even did an interview my first two years, basically. So then Maurice is gone. Andrew's gone. And Moses is there. And Doc, in my third year, I think, that was my first year, I think I made the all-star team and things started coming together.

Then they started interviewing me. And I talked to Doc because he was the best. And I says, Doc, I'm having a hard time with this media thing because I'm getting criticized at times. He says, well, son, you got to make a decision. You want to make everybody happy. You want to do shit your own way. I said, well, I want everybody to like me. He says, shit your own way. I said, well, I want everybody to like me. He says, well, that's a tough call right there. He said, because no matter what you say, half the people are going to like it, half the people are going to dislike it. That's the way he handled it. He says, I want to be politically correct all the time. I want to skirt my way through it,

make everybody happy. He said, but that's a negative at times because you can't say what you want to all the time. And I said, well, I want everybody to like me. He said, but that's a negative at times because you can't say what you want to all the time. And I said, well, I want everybody to like me. He says, well, you got to make that decision right now. You want everybody to like you, you just want to be honest and fair with yourself. And he says, now, it's going to be

great at times and it's going to get you in trouble at times. He said, well, I can live with that. He says, but just tell the truth. Say whatever the hell you want to say. And that's all you remember from his comments and there's jay's like what the fuck did i tell this guy and i said because if you try to answer questions politically correct it's still gonna be criticized because anybody who try to make everybody happy realize quickly oh shit there's not a lot you can do making everybody happy so about at this point i like i'm in full bloom like my fourth fifth year

i'm like hey man going forward guys i'm just gonna say my truth doesn't make me right or wrong but i'm gonna tell the truth in my eyes and And from that point on, I've been stuck there. And I'm happy to be there because, man, if you try to answer questions and make everybody happy, you're going to go fucking nuts. Because I remember saying something simple like, I just thank God we're so lucky, we're so blessed. It was something stupid too.

I just say, hey, I'm glad we won. God blessed us and blah, blah, blah. And then they're like, hey, we need you to quit talking about God. I'm like, what are you talking about? They're like, well, we're getting some complaints from people who don't believe in God. I'm like, wait, what? And I was like, that was like my first wake-up call, to be honest with you. They're like, hey, just don't talk about God. Just say we were fortunate to win. Phrase it a different way. And I was like, oh, okay. You know, you're trying to say the right thing. Like, nah, don't talk. They pulled me and said, hey, don't talk about God.

People are upset about that. And I was like, oh shit, this is crazy. And then from that point on, I'm like, hey man, I'm going to say what the fuck I want to say. Some people are going to like it. If they don't like it, fuck them. I know your last season of Philly, you would change your number from 34 to 32 after magic's diagnosis. Now I want to ask, should he be in the goat conversation?

Well, I know it's basically LeBron versus MJ, but if he got, you know, a couple more years, I think magic would be in that conversation. Do you agree? Well,

I think that not just saying is now I've said it publicly in many times, the two most important figures in NBA history are Magic and Bird. I think they saved the NBA. You know, the year I came in, David Stern's first year, the average NBA salary was about $250,000, the average. The league was too ghetto, too black, too thuggish. A lot of drugs down there. That was snorting coke a lot, weren't they?

I mean, I don't know. But that's what the perception was. The finals were on tape delay. It was crazy. And, you know, now the average salary is 15, right around, well, actually, no, the average salary is right at $8 million to $10 million. And it's crazy now, and bless these guys, but it all started with Magic and Bird. And, you know, obviously Michael took it to another level, but if it wasn't,

I always tell people, if it wasn't for Magic and Bird, I don't know where the NBA would be today. I mean, it was crazy what those two guys did. And I hope people always acknowledge that. Because like I say, where we are today, the world we started my first year is like night and day. And it's all because of Magic and Bird. But to answer your original question,

I think that whole conversation is stupid and lazy because I think guys who have no talent on TV and radio, because you know you're going to get debates either way. I think the best way to do it is generationally. You know, Kareem, most of the... How many guys talk about this

that actually saw Kareem play? How many guys... You know, Michael's probably been retired for 30 years. Anybody who's been around the last 10, 15 years old enough to understand basketball, they never seen Michael play. Same thing with Kobe. LeBron is great, great, great.

But I always say, hey, listen, he can't be better than Michael Jordan in my eyes because I played against Michael his entire career. And I never really played against LeBron. So can I imagine what it's like to play against Giannis right now? So I think that debate is when guys on radio and TV, they're like, come on, man, you just trying to get people to call in or get clickbait. Because like I say, I know a lot of old guys, these guys need to put Kareem in there, man.

Yeah, absolutely. And like I say, for what Bill Russell did as a man, as a player, he's got to be in the conversation also. I mean, the guy got 11 championship rings. If y'all want to talk about winning. I always tell guys, man, don't be lazy

and try to get people to call into your radio show and argue or try to get people to click onto an article. Listen, I love LeBron. Everything he's accomplished. I think he's a really nice person. But playing against Michael all those years and watching it firsthand, going back and looking at the last dance, you know, watching that, you forget how physically they beat the hell out of him, the pissing did early in his career. I think they beat him four years in a row before Michael finally broke through.

I mean, there's something about that struggle. And, you know, a lot of older guys like myself hold it against LeBron in his first couple championships when he joined Dwyane Wade down in Miami. So it's a layered argument, but I'd always want to give appreciation to Bird and Magic because if it weren't for those two guys,

I have a zero idea what the NBA would be today. The dream team, was it 92 in Barcelona? Yeah. Bird was on there? Yes. So you got to play

with all these legends. That must have been one of the coolest things about your entire career, right? I'll say this. It was the most intense thing that I've ever been through in my life. Just because of the amount of pressure to win? No, not the pressure to win. Just playing against these guys every single day in practice.

The egos, the fun egos. Because we got along great. But at that time, you me and carmel on with the two best power forwards we had to practice against each other every day you had michael and clive drexler who hated each other because they had just beaten them in the finals and clive thought he was as good as michael and michael hated him uh ashley and you had magic who had just gotten locked down by scott pippen in the finals. So he was pissed. And you had David Robinson and Patrick Younghold, the two best centers in the NBA,

and playing against the guy considered your rival every day. And people have said, many people have said, they've never seen anything as intense and fun and thrilling as watching the dream team actually practice it was crazy and exciting the crazy thing about it we all got along so well but when we went on the court man it's probably the most intense thing uh you know playing against a guy like carl like every day like like, okay, they said, most people think I'm the best power forward. And some people think you are.

Now we get to prove it on the court every day. And like I say, Scott against Magic, Clyde against Michael, and then David against Patrick. Did that spark it? Was it more of the Michael thing that sparked it and the whole group got invested in it? Or was it literally man to man where every guy was looking across the room like, I'm going to war with this guy. It was more man-to-man. And these were closed practices, right?

So it's just nobody – it's not video. It's just your pride. Any fistfights? No fistfights. No? The thing that was crazy, I couldn't believe how well we all got along. I mean, it was crazy how well we got along. I mean, you know they we made

a t-shirt collab bird and patrick ewan became harry and larry i mean we made a t-shirt and doing me magic michael and scotty we gambled every night from probably eight o'clock in the morning to four o'clock every single day blackjackjack? No, uh, Tunk. I don't even know what that is. It's, uh, white folks call it

gin and rum, gin. Okay. Yeah, yeah. But, man, and like I say,

man, it would be $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 changing hands every night. It was crazy.

It was crazy. And then we would finish up about four in the morning so we can go get like two hour nap. It was, I mean, it was so much fun fun how would you guys compete at such a high level but yet be such degenerates off the court like that's like that's not treating it very professionally like guys nowadays don't do that they don't even drink well you guys are boozing gambling all hours in

the night like how was your stress level going into practice the basketball was the fun part of it i mean because well because i'll tell you what was crazy there's this infamous practice and grant hill's full of shit and those guys so we played against a group the first day we played against a bunch of college all-stars and i think it's probably eight of those guys who went on to go to the Hall of Fame. But we're all, probably all 30, if I remember correctly then. We played this group of all-star. Bobby Hurley was there. And we could not guard as the last in the beginning. Magic wasn't a great defender.

You couldn't keep him in front of him. So we started scrimmaging. And before we know it, we're down like 20. Chuck calls a timeout. And we're just actually just screwing around. They're all like 17 years old, 18 years old, and we're just joking around, and they're playing like it's game seven. And before we know it, we're down like 20 points, and we're still screwing around.

And Chuck says, Chuck calls timeout and says, you guys know if y'all fucking lose this gold medal, it's going to be the biggest upset in sports history. Like what? You guys out here jacking around. These college kids kicking your ass. The other team, the foreign team is much better than these guys.

And you know, if you guys come in here jacking around, it's going to be hell to pay for representing your country. And we're like, okay, guys, let's turn it up a notch and kick these dudes. So we scored like 18 straight points to get it to, and Chuck calls and said, game

over. We're like, what? No, no, no, no. He's like, I said, game over. And his point was, guys, you don't understand. You're representing your country. You got the greatest team ever assembled. But if y'all fucking lose,

it's going to be an international deal. And from that point on, we started taking things really, really serious. So no drinking and gambling the rest of the trip? No, no, no. We go. God, no. Come on, man.

You crazy, bitch? Hey, you know, I was reading the other day that drinking is really, really bad for you. Yeah. So I quit. I quit reading. You're out of your mind. The guy told me a couple of good ones the other day. He said he was talking to his wife and he says baby I was looking in the mirror and

I got a gut I got wrinkles my titties are hanging down what do you think he says well your eyes work oh my god oh my god you know hanging with your crazy friends eyes work. Oh my God. Oh my God. Hanging with your crazy friends are the best thing about

playing sports. There's nothing like it. But once we said, okay, let's get this thing done. And it was so crazy because we didn't realize how big we were going to be. As far as the media? Well, not the fans.

So we started out at Torrey Pines. We went to Monte Carlo for a week to practice. I forget what other country we went to. But they just wanted to make it fun for us. So we get to Barcelona. And at our hotel, you couldn't get close to our hotel. The security was so tight. Man, it was 5 000 people out

there watching us get on and off the bus every day it was crazy like the beatles yes like they were probably 50 yards away and they could only see you for like five to ten seconds walking and every time obviously magic michael and Bird were the three biggest stars. But it was 3,000 to 5,000 people out there every single day just watching. We'd go to practice in the morning, or we'd go to the game. And then driving to the game, they had a police car in front. They had a police car in back. On the side of the bus, each they had a guy two guys on motorcycles

one guy driving a motorcycle one guy with a machine gun and they had a helicopter above the bus and then along the highway there were at least 500 couple hundred people, up to 500, every time we went to the game, because it was different going to practice. People just holding up signs, standing on the side of the highway. We're like, whoa, this is a big deal. Because like I say, you don't know what to expect going in, but then we're like, yo, man, there's 5,000 people waiting outside our hotel just to get a glimpse

of us. And we're like, holy. And then, like I say, just standing on the side of the highway holding up signs. And then, I remember after we said, like, God, this is a really big deal. And then the game started, and we're like,

even though we were winning games, like 50, 60, 70, game started and we're like, even though we were winning games like 50, 60, 70, 80 points, they're like, number one watched event in Olympic history. Like, people watching us and Chuck's like, guys,

look at these ratings. We're shouting everybody ever watched the Olympics record. And like I say, we're winning by 50, 60, 70 points some of these games. And people over here are still watching. And then we're like, guys, we need to start taking this thing really serious. And from that point on, we just like, we're just going to kill everybody.

Because like I said, we did not know going in that we were going to win every game by that many points, to be honest with you. We knew we were going to win more than likely. And I think the closest game we ever came was probably 45, 50 points. Yeah, and still that much interest. But, like, you talk about the salaries now, and part of it is just how big internationally the NBA is. Like, that was the beginning of it, right?

That was it. But David Stern, who was the best ever commissioner in sports. He admitted later that was really his game plan. He says, because through Nike, we had did a couple of things in foreign countries. I'd been to China, Japan, Germany, things like that. But that was just like me and a couple of Nike guys. But David Stern admitted later the reason he wanted to send pros to the Olympics was to make the game international.

And I've had so many young guys say, hey, my first recollection of basketball in my country was the Dream Team. That's awesome. Yeah. Just one last one, the Dream Team. Now, obviously, Leighton was on the team. Famously, Isaiah Thomas was. And was that strictly because MJ didn't want him there and that,

and that, but that was it. Cause I mean, it was Chuck Daly was his own coach with the Pistons and he still wasn't on the team. Yeah. You know, what's so crazy about that.

That's been a controversy for just 92. And I've said publicly, they never asked us about me personally about Isaiah. And then Michael, I guess it lied lied for 100 years, saying he had nothing to do with it. And then the tape came out. Well, they got Michael on tape saying he wouldn't play

if Isaiah was on the team. So I guess it's true. But I've always told Isaiahaiah this because i like isaiah uh they never asked and i i can't speak for other players to be honest with you i don't know who they asked they didn't ask me but uh it i guess michael didn't want him on the team plain and simple was there any poopy pants of guys because like obviously playing time so different were there any guys that like they're pissed they weren't playing enough or was it such a close-knit group? People were cool with not getting the minutes they usually get.

You know, that's a great question because I have two stories. Because I actually played on the first two Dream Teams. So on the first Dream Team, Chuck had two starting units. And he says, you guys going to play the first 10? You guys going to play the second 10? And we didn't care about Leightner, to be honest with you. Yeah, college doesn't count. Yeah, yeah.

He said, one of you guys ain't going to play a lot one game. And we're like, we're cool. We're cool. Four years later, I wasn't going to play again, to be honest with you. In Atlanta, right? In Atlanta, because it was such a great experience, I says, hey, man, because I tell people this.

Ain't nothing like the Olympics. If you like sports, everybody should go to the Olympics one time in their life. It's the coolest thing. Television does not do it justice. Everybody should go to the Olympics one time in their life as a fan. It's unbelievable. So I said, well, I'm not going to play because I want somebody's experience. And then Leonard Wilkins called me.

He says, no, we got a bunch of young guys. I don't know how they're going to be. I need to bring you in. I says, okay, you know what? I said, because number one, family and friends couldn't go to Barcelona. My hometown is an hour and a half from here. I'm like, okay, that'll be cool. My mom and everybody can come, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And it was a fucking nightmare it was a fucking nightmare you're cutting into your gambling no no no you beat your babysitter got like guys like i'm not getting to play why am i not starting we had a couple and i was like farm alone didn't start last time i was like wait a minute. I played with fucking the best players that have played this game. Nobody complained. And you guys are not even that fucking good. Y'all complain about starting. You complain about playing time. And so it really bothered me and pissed me off.

I says, guys, I played on the greatest team ever assembled. Nobody ever said a thing about starting nobody complained about playing time you represent your fucking country in your country yeah because 90 of the time 99 of the time when you go to olympics you're playing in another country and you can't have a bunch of family and friends there because they can't afford to go there they i say everybody can fly to Atlanta. You represent your country. You probably got all your family and friends here. This is going to be a great experience.

You're going to get to fucking get on that medal stand. And you guys are complaining about who's playing and who's not. You're not getting enough benefits, and you ain't starting. So that was a great question you asked, but 92 was not a lot of fun. Now, excuse me, 96 was not a lot of fun. 92 was amazing. You did mention the gambling thing about you guys would have some crazy hands. What was the craziest hand you ever saw live?

And when you talk about these amounts of money, are guys just carrying wads of cash on them? Yeah, we always carry cash. Up to what? There's always going to be a game. There's always going to be a game. So are you stacking? Would you have cash on hand right now ready to go any game you want to what? There's always going to be a game. There's always going to be a game. So are you stacking? Would you have cash on hand right now ready to go any game you want to play?

Oh, yeah. You always got a bunch of cash. Because you know, because like, I'll give you an example. Like, yo, man, we got a 12-hour flight to Monte Carlo. Better bring plenty of money. What's plenty of money? A couple hundred grand? No, probably a hundred grand.

And then you saw some pretty crazy ones go down. What was the biggest pot you ever saw? Oh, I don't even remember the biggest. It was so long ago. But it was like, like I said, you could lose $50,000 a night easily. Any blue light specials? We're like, just give me 30. Or no, you're collecting every penny.

Well, you got to pay your bill. There you go. We used to do it. No, no, I agree. But NHL, we were cheap. Like if I won $1,000 and the guy was a younger guy, I'd say, hey, give me $650. Lawrence Taylor can't play with us. All right.

Lawrence Taylor is an interesting guy. The football player? Oh, yeah. So, you know, every time we play golf, we gamble. And then we all pay up except Lawrence. And you know he's fucking nuts yeah yeah be careful and he'd be like we'll run it back tomorrow and everybody's like he is crazy we can't fucking challenge him like everybody else everybody else is handing out money

he's like hey we're running back tomorrow everybody's looking around like we don't even have a team time you beat no we like who's gonna challenge this crazy motherfucker you guys are playing rock paper scissors who's to ask if latner says that he just gets a bitch slap let's let it let's let it run back tomorrow because you're not gonna fuck with lt no yes well you mentioned um just quickly and you mentioned playing golf for money. I mean, a legendary golf figure, I'll say. Like, you lost the swing. You were a good player.

You lost the swing. Now I've seen videos. The swing looks great again. Has golf always been a big part of the offseason for you? Like, what happened when you lost your game? It's just kind of a crazy story, right? Yeah, you know, I was probably an eight handicap. This is the mid-80ss early 90s i was a

good player but then i got traded to phoenix got the bug no i had to bug i had to bug but i wanted to get better that's like because you play because you end up like you don't ever play golf during the winter in philly because it's cold as shit. And then you play all summer, but then you go back to Phoenix, you're like, man, it's 70 degrees right now. Let's go play golf. And then guys are just kicking your ass. And so I started taking lessons from every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the world. I started standing up with a ball. I had like eight guys like, I was standing over the ball. I had like eight guys like, what did he say? What did he say? What did he say? And my brain just locked up for probably 20 some years. And I was standing over the ball. And I really, I'm not even joking. Like I had like six, seven guys talking to me. Like when he said, take it like this, he said, swing like this and do this. And I lost it. I mean, I lost it for at least 20 years.

And then about four years ago, I was planning Tom Lehman's charity golf event. And one of the best teachers in the world, a guy named Stan Utley. He said, Chuck, why don't you let me work with you? I said, Stan, I don't work with everybody. I don't need an extra one. Yeah, I said, I work with Butch. Yeah. I work with Hank. I don't work with everybody. Nobody can fix this. Yeah, I said, I work with Butch. Yeah. I work with Hank. I don't work with Eric.

Like, another probably 10, 15 guys tried to fix me. I'm like, yo, man, I just play for charity now. It's no fun for me to play. I'm terrified over the fucking golf ball. He said, well, give me a chance, Chuck. And then I said, you know what? He was so persistent. He's such a good person.

I said, okay, Stan. So then he said, meet me here. And I met him and he says, well, tell me what happened. I said, I told you the same story. I said, Stan, I used to be a good player. I want to get better. I took lessons from everybody. And like, yo, I just lost it. I mean, and I'm terrified over the golf ball. And then he said, let's work. And we start hitting. He says, I need you to cut everybody off right now. Just listen to my voice. He says, don't think of it.

He says, just do what I'm telling you to do. I need you to really concentrate and just hear my voice. It's going to take some time and some effort. And like, I started just hitting some good shots. I wasn't doing it consistently. And he said, let's go to the golf course. I said, well, let's just hit some more balls. He says, are you scared to play golf? I says, what do you mean? He says, you practice how many hours a day? I said, I practice probably four or five hours a day. He said, you're scared to play golf. He said, you're never going to get better playing golf

unless you go to the actual fucking golf course. He said, you're scared to play golf. He said, you're never going to get better playing golf unless you go to the actual fucking golf course. He said, driving range too fucking wide. There's no targets and shit. So then we started gradually going to the golf course. He said, I need you to listen to my voice. Forget the other people. And then after about a month, I started

hitting some good shots. And now I'm back down to almost single digits. Unbelievable. Yeah. Thanks to Stan Utley, man. It's crazy. He said, hey, just think about my voice. Forget those in some good shots and now i'm back down to almost single digits unbelievable yeah thanks to stan utley man it's crazy he said hey just think about my voice forget those other voices but it really saved me because i quit i was i went from playing probably 150 times a year to 10 to 15 you didn't even want to be there no because it wasn't no fun. You know, because you can only drink and smoke so much. Because I like smoking cigars

on the golf course. And you know, you know, God got a really wicked sense of humor. I mean, there's a reason. There's no other sport that let a little cute girl

drive around and bring you alcohol. Because God's like, nobody can beat this fucking game. Yeah, exactly. They might as well have some fun while they're out there. alcohol because God's like, nobody can beat this fucking game. They might as well have some fun while they're out there. No girl ever pulls up in the first quarter of an NFL game and says,

hey, you guys want anything to drink? In the middle of the first quarter of an NBA game, no girl ever comes out and says, hey, you need a refresher or something? No, only golf because you cannot beat golf. I mean, that's like even when you're watching guys who do it for a living you're like they just lose it sometime yeah so especially it's just so much fun to be out there i like to walk i like just being out there because one of the few things where you go and get peace and quiet you know i, I like to golf. I like to fish. I like going to the movies.

I always go in the morning with all the old people because they don't bug you. Because once you get in the limelight, it's hard to have time where you're like, because people think you're out to fucking talk to them. You handle it pretty well, though. Well, you always got to be cordial, but it is annoying at times. Yeah, I mean, every time I've seen you,

you're so good with strangers. Oh, I learned that from Dr. G. Always be cordial. That don annoying at times yeah i mean every time i've seen you you're so good i'm always i learned that from dr g always be cordial that don't mean it's not fucking annoying when i when i'm is that why you got that special delta thing where they drive you on the tarmac up to the plane you get on then you get oh yes i like that that's unbelievable how do you get that you have to pay for it business like i'm out well fuck it maybe maybe maybe if you lower your salary a little bit they could afford to stay in there they spent all my money on hockey it's been all my making 40 if it wasn't for the nhl i'm glad we got a max deal hey that's right i can't wait to so i gotta figure out what city you know uh i'm gonna come come to for the Stanley Cup finals.

That's going to be awesome. You're going to come? Oh, hell yeah, I'm coming. You should join the broadcast. No, no, I'm coming as a fan. Oh, as a fan. I'm coming as a fan. Well, when you talk about, like, what you do now,

when did you know playing, like, or did you even know playing? Like, I'm going to do this after I'm done. After he did Space Jam. Well, after he was a monster you know it's so funny you mentioned that because uh dick ebersole who's my mentor nbc right yes who ran nbc because our games were on nbc back then he said uh carl's can i talk to you i said sure what's going on he says what do you think about doing television i said what do you mean he says well you're gonna retire in the next couple of years.

He says, I think you would be great on television. And to go back to our original thing we talked about with Dr. J earlier, he says, you're going to be great on TV. He said, you're always going to be in trouble, but you're going to be great on television. I said, what do you mean always in trouble? He says, Joss, people don't want to hear the truth. He says, fans want two things. Tell me my favorite

player is great. Tell me my team is going to be good. That's all fans want to hear. You tell them their favorite player is overrated or not that good. They hate you. And you tell people like, your team's not any good. They hate you. He says, so the way you have constructed your interviews, that's the reason you've been voted best interview for like the last 10 years people know you're gonna be honest and a straight shooter now that's gonna work on tv but you're always gonna be putting out fires like i say because people gonna come for you now for biz and i like we were pigeons right so it's hard at times you have to criticize players or you're not doing a good job. I've always thought it would be easier for a guy who's a Hall of Famer, right?

Like, you have the resume and the ability to say, like, this guy's playing like shit. Has it been hard, though, like, when you're like, I got to be honest. I got to call out Kevin Durant. I got to call out somebody else. Are you like, nope, this is my job. I don't really care how pissed off they get. Well, first of all, you have to. My favorite analyst, believe it or not, is Barry Melrose because he's just a straight shooter.

As long as you fare in your criticism, that's all you can do. Like, first of all, fans aren't stupid. Well, some of them are. I don't want to not neglect that. Some of them are. But they sit there and just watch the game. If you guys get on television or podcast and say, yeah, he didn't play that bad.

They're like, no, I just watched him. He played like shit. You're going to lose all your credibility. As long as you're fair and honest. Like, I get no joy saying, man, he was awful tonight. I get no joy out of that. These guys are really part of my family. Like, hockey players are part of your family.

But you're doing a disservice to the fans if you don't get on whatever you're speaking on and be honest. And as long as you said to yourself, hey, I was fair. I was honest. But you know what pissed me off the most about this bullshit we do? Motherfuckers have never called me and said, man, he said I was honest. But you know what pissed me off the most about this bullshit we do? Motherfuckers have never called me and said, man, he said I was great. I can say nine things about

a guy great. If I say one thing about a guy, I get a call from him of his agent. I say, yo, man, you never fucking called me when I said great things about you. Now, you played like shit and I had to call you out one time. The other nine things I said about you what now you played like shit i had to call you out one time the other nine things i said about you were positive and now you fucking pissed that's the only time i ever get

mad to be honest with you uh you said putting out the fires like how many times especially early on when you did start your tv career were you getting called into the principal's office oh no no no no not not from not from the principal from the player from the player of the agent so there was nothing that early days you might have said on television no i've never got called in by the by tnt like that the moment when i never asked you hey maybe tone it down no never not one time not one time but like i say my fires when i said i i've gotten a million calls now obviously i'm exaggerating from players and agents. I remember this one night Kobe Bryant texted me and called me,

motherfucker, you son of a bitch, like 100 times. So you remember the infamous game where he took one shot in the second half against the Phoenix Suns? He was trying to prove a point. He ended up shooting like one time in the second half. They lost to the suns in a in a seven game series where people call him selfish for shooting too much or something no no no he was like trying to say he played a great first half if i remember correctly but in the second half

the suns just beat him and he's like i got no help out here i'm not even gonna try and i called him out after the game, and he starts texting me about 2.15 in the morning, calling me, you motherfucker, you son of a bitch, you asshole, and go back and forth. And I said, Kobe, you know how much I love you and respect you. What you did tonight was bullshit, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he sends me some more, motherfucker, fuck you, blah, blah, blah. I said, Kobe, call me blah, blah, blah. And he sends me some more. Motherfucker, fuck you. Blah, blah, blah. I said, Kobe, call me. Fuck you, motherfucker.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And this goes on for like three hours. At this point, it's like five, six in the morning. You know, we don't get off until two. And we're texting back and forth. I'm like, yo, man, pick up the phone and call me. I'll explain why I said what I said. And I said, yo, man, 6 o'clock in the morning.

I'm going to bed. You should be in the bed, too. And then we saw each other about sometime later. He said, hey, man, I'm sorry. I apologize. You were right. I was wrong. And we buried.

I said, yo, man, we're good. You were mad in the moment. You know how much I love and respect you. But it was hilarious, though, man. That was one of my funniest stories like going yo man just pick up the phone let me talk to you but it's like arguing with your wife on text like what are we doing right now it's like but when you read motherfucker son of a bitch fuck you all in a row like on a text you just laugh i'm talking about phoenix a little

bit you actually originally traded to the Lakers and it was retracted. Is that, is that true? They can pull back a trade. Not the only drunk game I played. Oh no. It's only, no,

Hey, it's only drunk game I ever played. It's not the only hungover game I ever played. It's only a drunk game I played. So my agent calls me one morning. Cause I'd had enough of Philly. Cause I went two years. Well, Came out and played. So my agent calls me one morning. Because I'd had enough of Philly. Because I went two years where everybody was trying to trade for me.

And the Sixers wouldn't pull the trigger. And I had to read about it and talk about it every day. I said, yo, man, I just want this thing to be over. Blah, blah, blah. I was just tired mentally. Our team, we did it good. And then finally, my agent calls me and says, hey, the Sixers is going to do it.

I said, what are we doing? He said, you're going to the Lakers. I'll call you back when they finalize the deal. I said, thank God. I want this shit to be over. I've been dealing with it. My family had to deal with it. My friends had to deal with it every day for two years.

And I think it's right after lunchtime. And we got a game that night. He calls me back like two and a half hour later. So me and my friends go out and celebrate. He calls me back like two and a half hour later. He says,

Sixers reneged on a deal. It's not going to happen. I said, oh man, I'm drunk as shit right now. We got a game tonight. And I said, he says, what do you want to happen. I said, oh, man, I'm drunk as shit right now. We got a game tonight. And I said, he says, well, what do you want to do? I says, well, I'm going to play. I mean, I got to play.

I can't. I want to be professional. And I have zero idea how I played that night. I just was so pissed. What was the stat line? Do you remember? I don't remember. He doesn't remember who he played against.

I actually don't. But we had went out. I called a couple of my boys. We went out and celebrated. We went to Friday's. That was a great Friday's restaurant on City Line Avenue, about two blocks from my house. A.I. was there all the time, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He took over when I left. Yeah, he took over when I left town. But I was. Yeah, he took over when I left town. But I was like, yo, man, I'm drunk as hell right now. We out celebrating. He says, well, they changed their mind. I'm like, oh, shit. Going back to the TV stuff, I'm assuming you don't get nervous at all,

but you ended up hosting, I think, SNL when you were playing and after you retired as well. Now, that's nerve-wracking. I was going to say that you must have been fucking shitting bricks, man, going on. And then how many skits did you end up doing? Like, who were the people that made you feel the most comfortable? Like, how was that whole experience? It's a really intense thing.

I was talking to JJ Watt about it and Travis Kelsey. It's like the longest week of your life. Monday and Tuesday are pretty easy. So you go in on Monday, you go in a room with like 30 writers and they throw like three ideas each at you. Like, what do you think about this? I'm like, okay. Okay. I say okay to everything. So that's Monday. That takes about four to five hours. That's Monday. So by Tuesday, they have to have the script written. So you sit at a table with whoever they got in the skit with you, and y'all kind of read it.

That takes about six, seven hours. They're like, okay, that was good. That was not good. Let's don't do that. Blah, blah, blah. Then you have a dinner with the boss, Lauren, and a couple of people he invited. Then starting Wednesday, you rehearse like 12 hours a day. And then Saturday, you rehearse from like 9 o'clock to about 4 o'clock.

You get like a two-hour break to rest. Then you do an actual show in front of a live audience. Just a practice run. To see what they like. But you end up doing probably, this is longer than a regular show. Because you end up doing like three or four extra skits. And they figure out what people liked. And then you got about an hour and a half break.

So you all get together and they're like, they laughed at this. They didn't like this. They laughed at this. They didn't like this. They laughed at this. They didn't like this. Then they piece together the ones that people like. Like I say, they cut probably five skits out. You rehearse five extra skits because you don't know what people are going to like. And then you do the actual show.

What's really crazy is there are some times you walk behind this wall and these four ladies just snatch all your clothes off. You're standing there. This is like what? Yeah. You're standing there because you have like two minutes because all your outfits are Velcroed on. Sometimes you have like two minutes to get dressed before the next skit starts. So you walk behind this wall. They got four ladies there.

They snatched two arms, two legs. You're standing there butt ass naked or with some shorts on. I had to buy underwear because I burned all my underwear like 30 years ago. So that's the only time I buy underwear when I'm hosting Saturday Night Live. Chuck goes commando. Is that the first time you buy underwear when I'm hosting Saturday Night Live Chuck goes commando is that the first time you've ever said that on any show

or yeah oh yeah I burned all my I was a big fire too so you're standing there with just drawers on and they have Velcro

on your next outfit on the like and somebody's screaming at you two minutes 145 130 115 one and like you're halfway done and then they push you out there and you have to be ready to go but it is so none of the skits that they pre-did where the audience was loving it you guys like maybe nailed it they

wouldn't have like pre-recorded that and then maybe used that. Everything had to be live. Everything's live. Damn. That sucks if you executed one and you nailed it. But it's really nerve-wracking. The monologue is very nerve-wracking. That's the hardest part. That's the hardest part.

And that's how you start your night. So if you fuck that up off the hot, then you're just confident. It's much easier the second time, but it's still nerve-wracking because sometimes when they start laughing you have to fucking stop and let them stop laughing and clapping and then you have to fucking get back on the teleprompter that's fucking still moving and like you don't know how long they're gonna laugh or clap and you're like now you're trying to catch up

and you feel like you're doing Evelyn Wood speed reading and shit. I mean, but it's an honor and a privilege to do that. We've had a lot of discussion like on our show about like retirement and it's hard for guys. Like you mentioned, it's just the best being around the guys. It's what everyone misses the most, the locker room. And you had TV.

I don't know if you hopped into it right away, but was there ever times for you a couple of years, maybe where you missed it so much, where it was like hard mentally once you were retired and out of the game? When you retire, it's really hard mentally because you have nothing to do. It's hard for everybody. And I'm one of the lucky ones because there's not a lot you can do either because you're not going to go get a nine to five that's out the window yep you can go into television you can go into coaching and things like that but it's very difficult because number one you you don't really have a formal education uh it's uh and even if you do have a formal education what what job? It ain't like, what job are you going to go get?

You've been out of the, if you had a long career, you've still been out of the workforce. So what are you going to do? And so it's very difficult for every player when they retire, every player. You just hope that you played long enough that the team likes you or somebody in the business like you so they can give you a hand and, like, keep you in the sport. That's the perfect scenario.

But for most guys, you become an owl, as I call it. And you have money, which is, like, bad in a sense. Yeah, but they'll be like, when I call it an owl thing, it's like, Charles, who? Because, yeah, every player goes through that. They call you, they're like, who? Who are you? We call it the owl syndrome.

My friends call me sometimes like, yo, man, can you help me get some Nike shoes? I'm like, yo, man, you can't get no Nike shoes? They're like, dude, I'm in the owl category now. They're like, yo, man, can you help me get some Nike shoes? I say, yo, man, you can't get those Nike shoes? They're like, dude, I'm in the aisle category now. They're like, James, who? But we all become aisles, most of us. But if you're lucky, because I always tell people one thing about sports. If you're not an asshole and you're a good dude, you know what?

Let's help him get a job in the business. He's going to be great for the business. People are going to like being around him. But you also know guys on the other side of the spectrum like, yeah, yeah, man, the day you're not good at basketball, you're screwed. They don't want your ass around. They only kept you around because you were good at it. But you've been an asshole the whole time and you

gone the day your ass can't play you history we don't even want you coming around anymore so i've seen it work both ways yeah i just go back to the snl real quick the first time you hosted nirvana was the musical guest right no way did you party with those guys at all i tell you what's crazy about that i had no fucking idea who they were. First of all, they were really nice. They were really nice and awesome. But what's really funny, if you've ever been to SNL and still like this today, it's in a little dumpy building. The dressing rooms are about the space of me and Biz. So every time they open up their locker room, their dressing room

door, it was like one of those big, you ever seen one of those atomic bomb flumes? It was a flume of pot that rushed into my locker room. But I had friends coming by like at midweek says, yeah, we don't have to spend money on pot. We just have to wait for them to open

their door and get a contact high. I mean, they were so nice and i remember my friends young man they're like the most popular group in the world i'm like young man i i don't know them uh that's not my type of music what were you listening to uh you know i'm i'm back to uh luther van. I'm in that demographic back then, dude. But I don't, I'm not a grunge guy. But people are telling me, they're like, oh, dude, they're the shit right now. They're like the number one band in the country.

I'm like, well, they were very nice. I remember meeting Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love. But they were awesome. But, man, it was so funny. Every time they open up their door i was like a contact high perfect yeah yeah but they were awesome oh interesting who does that what whether snl or not the best impersonation of you and well the most terrible frank caliendo oh yeah he can do everyone right he can yeah I remember this phone call I got from my agent. He says, hey, John Madden want to talk to you.

I'm like, ooh, that's cool. I said, well, give him my number. He called me. He says, Mr. Barkley, Mr. Madden. I said, hey, you're the best. It's an honor and a privilege. He says, well, thank you, blah, blah, blah. He says, hey, I want to talk to you about a lawsuit I'm thinking about filing

because this asshole Frank Caliendo. I'm like, what? He says, this asshole, have you seen impersonation of him? I says, yes, I have. He's like, I hate it. And I'm thinking about filing a lawsuit. And I was like, Mr. Madden, I don't even know how to say this to you. Like, you don't consider that flattering?

He's like, no, I don't consider it. I'm like, and now I got like, I don't want to how to say this to you. You don't consider that flattering? He's like, no, I don't consider it. And now I got like, I don't want to insult John Madden. I'm like, well, I tell you what, let me talk to my agent and my representation, and I'll get back to you. And I never called him back. I'm not getting through to him. Because I actually can consider it flattering. And I know Frank a little bit because he lives in Arizona.

And I've seen it in person. I've seen it on television. I think he'd do a fantastic job. But John was not having it. Wow. He was not having it at all. Well, you mentioned some of these, like, current players, like, would text you or get mad at you. I mean, I think Kevin Durant fires back at you sometimes.

Were you that player when maybe you were getting criticized? Would you go after some of the media members or guys if they said something to you? No, because Dr. J says something. I remember the first time I actually went to him and said, Doc, this guy wrote this article about me, and I don't like it, and blah, blah, blah. He says, well, let me ask you a question. It's an article fair. I said, what do you mean? He said, before you automatically go at somebody, the first question you got to ask yourself, is it a fair criticism? I was like, wow, I never thought about it like that. I I said, okay. Okay, you know what?

I'm going to think about it differently. So I don't randomly, I very seldom have went out to report. I go out to Skip Bayless because I don't like him at all. And I just like fucking with him because he's so sensitive and shit. But I think as a player, the first thing you, and I don't mind a player coming at me, but the first thing, instead of just automatically assuming

the guy don't like you or he's wrong, the first thing I learned from Doc, he said, just ask yourself, is the criticism fair? And so I know you guys asked me a question earlier. I have never criticized a player personally. I stick strictly to his job. And when a guy plays bad, you look, first of all,

you look really bad if you get on TV or radio or podcast or whatever and you say a guy played awful and you get on it. And that's another thing I don't like about Skip Baylor. There's two things I don't like about him. Number one, he has a double standard for guys he likes and dislikes. If two guys do the same thing, you got to be fair, even if you like a guy. But also, he brags about it when he gets it right.

Like, he'll get two out of five, right? He brags about the two instead of saying the three he got wrong. And see, I hate guys like that. Like in our job, sometimes you get them right. That's not a person in the world pick the Panthers to beat the Bruins. That's not a single person. And let me tell you something. I'm pretty sure that's not a single person pick the Panthers to beat the Maple Leafs.

I sure didn't on either one of those fronts. And I'm just a fan who bet. But if you did get it right and you missed another six series, don't brag about the one. I'm the only person had the panthers beating the bruins i gotta stop doing that hey boys already the future on everyone so i have the worst predictions on the pod so that wouldn't be me all of our predictions are tough yeah yeah but but but see i never look at it like that there's a team that's supposed to win now if they play like shit we can't factor that in. Like, wait

a minute. Every single person in the world picked the Bruins to win that series. You don't have to feel bad. Yeah. And let me tell you something. As a fan, I thought Toronto was going to win the next series. First of all, what's crazy, Vegas did too.

Yeah. They showed the stats after the first round of the playoffs, the two favorites, the next two favorites, the Maple Leafs and the Oilers, after the first round of the playoffs. And now, clearly, the Oilers obviously still alive, but the Maple Leafs are dead. You don't think they're coming back? That's not a good chance when you're down 3-0.

There's four teams in the history of the NHL have done it. Toronto in the cup finals, they did it. That was in the 70s. No, no, that was in the 40s. The what now? The 40s. The 40s? When did the Islanders do it?

The Islanders did it in 75. The Bruins, the Flyers did it to the Bruins in 2010, and the Kings did it in 2014. The Kings went on to win. It was the first round, I think, against San Jose. Against San Jose. So, yeah, they're dead, like you said. I got a question.

Just because all the legendary things that have happened to you, the ad campaign, like, I'm not a role model. Yeah. Right? Whose idea was that? How did that come about? Was that for Converse? Nike. Okay, that was Nike.

Sorry. What was the idea behind that? I mean, it was pretty incredible to look back at it now. You know, it's so crazy about that. When I went to Nike, so, you know, you, you know, you do a lot of speaking at different schools and things like that. And I noticed that the young black kids all thought they could only be successful through sports.

And I was like, cause I was going to predominantly black schools and then going to white schools. In the white schools, I said, well, what do you want to do? They're like, I want to be a doctor. I want to be a lawyer. I want to be an engineer, a teacher, fireman, things like that. I was like, oh, cool.

And then when I would go to the predominantly black schools, I said, what do you want to do? Like 99% I'm like, I want to play sports. I want to play sports. I said, what about being a doctor, a lawyer, engineer, a teacher, fireman, police, and something like that. Then after a few years, I realized these kids think they can only be successful through athletics. So I went to Nike. I said, hey, I got this idea. I want to do this. They're like, are you fucking nuts? I says, I says, what do you mean? They're like, you're going to get crushed. I says, what I'm going to do is start a debate about what a role model is,

and it's going to work out in the long run. Nike says, this is a bad fucking idea. This is a bad fucking idea. I said, if you want to do it. I said, yo, man, I play in Philadelphia. I thought sometime my middle name was Charles Barkley, you motherfucker. Hey, a few more people cursing me out ain't going to be like,

hey, I have to be like, hello. And I made the commercial, and obviously it tore up the internet in the world. I don't even know if we had internet back then, in fairness, but I knew it took over every talk show in the country and blah, blah, blah. And I did what I wanted to do, start

a debate, because I wanted to get my point out about, I tell these young black kids, hey, man, you can be a doctor. First of all, you got a better chance of being a doctor than a lawyer and playing in the NBA or any pro sport. And they got my point across. And in fairness to Nike, they came back to me in a year and says, 95% of our letters we got were so positive about your commercial. No way.

Oh, yeah. They says, even though we thought you were crazy as fuck they said listen it's the most positive response we've ever gotten on any commercial we ever did like i said i was just trying to provoke a debate because i thought it was really i want young black kids like yo man first of all you ain't gonna play in the nba you ain't gonna play in all, you ain't going to play in the NBA. You ain't going to play in the NHL. You're not going to play in the NFL, NBA.

But you got to, you can be a doctor, a lawyer, engineer, and teacher, things like that. And I've still, even to this day,

I had people saying, thank you for making a role model commercial. Yeah. I wrote a college paper on it. It was like, 93, I think. No shit, all right.

Yeah. Yeah. And I agree with you. Basically, yeah, you shouldn't have your kids looking up to athletes. They should come from the community or whatever. Yeah, because, well, first of all, you're not going to be a pro athlete

more than likely. Right, right. It's like hitting a lottery. Or it's probably, I mean. More than that. More, yeah. It's probably worse. It's the worst.

But, like, no, man. Think about being something else important and significant you mentioned uh part of it like you said you uh played in philly and you would face a lot of criticism like people would yell stuff at you i want i want to say talk told me this story he was asking about this crazy and there's a funny quote at the end where like you were at a bar or something and like some fan like spit at you yeah and then you ended up pushing them out a window? Yeah. Can you tell the story and then make the famous quote? Well, so I'm at a bar one night, and the owner says, why don't you guys wait until we get rid of everybody?

I'm with like three teammates and a couple chicks. And we're sitting in the back of the bar, and the guy says, why don't you guys just stay here until everybody leaves i'm like yeah that's a good idea it's gonna be traffic outside and hectic so we're sitting there and i actually got my back to the situation and all of a sudden we get wet i'm like what the fuck just happened and clyde directly says to me that dude threw a drink on us. And I was like, what? And I turn around. This motherfucker starts running.

And I chase him through the bar. Thank God there was nobody in there. So I got that motherfucker pretty quick. We get to the front door. It's one of those bars that's got the big window. And I'm shaking this motherfucker. What the fuck did you throw a drink on me for? What the fuck did you throw a drink on me for?

And I said, I don't even give a fuck why you threw it and i just rammed his ass through the window so he didn't spit on you he threw a drink no yeah yes and i fucking then the cop says cause i saw that i got to arrest you and um i got arrested that night and my other funny story talk said you you guys went. Did it go to court? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The judge says, Mr.

Park, you have any regrets? I say, I regret we were on the first floor. Motherfucker. Motherfucker threw a drink on me. I wish we were on the fucking balcony. What city was this in? Philly? Orlando.

Oh, shit. It's Orlando. Yeah, I regret we weren't on the third floor. I regret we were on the first floor. Did he start snickering? Yeah, he did. So my other story, so we're playing Milwaukee. And two of my great friends are Larry Kristowiak and Frank Brikowski.

So we go to a place, I think it's called Rosie's. And we're having a great time. And we're still flying commercially. And so we got like a 6.30 flight in town, out of town. So we go there and we go to the bar. We got like two hours before we got to leave for the airport. Frank said, man, I live right up the street. Why don't you come over, have a couple more drinks.

If you're not going to bed, that's a good idea. You go to bed sometime, sleep for an hour. You're going to be be tired more tired so he said once you ride with my wife i said okay so we go outside there's a fucking blizzard it's cold as shit so we start walking and she said i parked like two blocks away i says okay no problem so we're walking and biz i could it's quiet it's just snowing like a mother but i could hear a noise i couldn't tell what it was but i could hear a noise so i said hey we need to speed up she's okay we see speed up and i could hear people running and i said this shit ain't good nobody should be running this time of night

before i know it these three weightlifters up on me. And I turn around and I says, excuse me? They're like, we're going to kick your ass. And I'm like, why? We don't fucking like you. And I says, I don't even know you motherfuckers. Why y'all going to fuck with me? And I said, we don't fucking like

you. So then I'm thinking like, oh shit, I'm going to get my ass whooped right now. So I I'm thinking like, oh shit, I'm going to get my ass whooped right now. So I'm saying to myself, shit, I don't even know what to do right now. And these dudes are right in my, one's right on my grill and one's right,

the other two stand right behind. And I said to myself, okay, I got to do something. I said, I got to make these motherfuckers think I'm crazy. So I started taking my clothes off so I take my shoes and socks off

take my jacket off I take my shirt off then I start doing Karate Kid shit wipe on wipe off wipe on so I do it the first time

nothing happened I do it the second time I'm fucking freezing too I do it two more times and Nothing happened. I do it the second time. I'm fucking freezing too. I do it two more times. And the two dudes back up. There's one motherfucker still in my grill. I says, well, Chuck, this is your moment right now.

You got to make your move. So I did the wipe off thing one time. And I read back, hit this motherfucker as hard as you can hit a person. This motherfucker went back. It's like, what the fuck? You just hit me. He's like, what the fuck? You just hit me. He's on the ground bleeding. And I said, yeah, motherfucker,

there's plenty more where this came from. And then the other dude's like, hey, man, this motherfucker's crazy. Let's leave him the fuck alone. And so I go back to the hotel. I say, hey, just drop me off at the hotel. I'm not in the mood to drink right now. And about 30 minutes later, this is my coach. He at the hotel. I'm not in the mood to drink right now. And about 30 minutes later, it's my coach. He said, Charles,

what the fuck did you do tonight? Come on. 30 minutes later? Oh, yeah. It's the cops. It's the coach. It's the coach with the cops. He says, cops say they're here to arrest you. I said, for what? They're like, his fans say you're in a bad mood because y'all lost and you punched him i

said that's not what happened so they take me to jail that night and then the thing is funny these three guys these fucking muscle heads they come into court nice and suits and shit lying i was just judah had been there and yeah, we just walked up to him asking for an autograph. No way. He was in a bad mood. They had lost a game the night before. And he just hauled off and slugged my friend. These dudes get up here.

So then the girl gets on stage. She says, that's not what happened. So she tells the story. And then we got lucky. There was a guy in the parking garage who saw it also. He says, yeah, I saw this black guy

get naked in the snow and he was doing some crazy karate stuff and the judge says, hey man, y'all just get out of my courtroom

and that was the end of it. But it was crazy, man. I was thinking like, I'm going to get my ass whooped. And that lets you know how long ago because I just happened to, I guess I had just watched the Karate Kid. I was doing, like, I'm going to get my ass whooped. And that lets you know how long ago, because I just happened to, I guess I had just watched The Karate Kid.

I was doing the wipe on, wipe off. Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi. Thank you, Ralph. Wasn't it Ralph Macchio? Yeah, Ralph Macchio. Thank you for that. Oh, my God.

He's a movie guy. I'm surprised you haven't brought up The Simpsons yet. Oh, yeah. Do you know what part he played in the Simpsons? Do you remember? Do you know? Oh, you were in the Simpsons pretty recently. Really?

Yeah. I did not know that. My buddy texted me to ask you about it, but I got my phone right here. I mean, I haven't watched the Simpsons. I haven't watched them much the last 20 years. Oh, yeah. I haven't either.

When that thing first started, I watched it. Oh, man. Those first eight, ten seasons. Oh, my God. It was crazy. It was just poking fun at society. Yes. Yeah needs to be oh very much so very much so but well you brought the movies up are you will you watch anything or do you have certain like categories of movies you watch oh no so so i i'm a big movie guy and i think it's like there's not

a lot you can do because i'm the one i get sick of. Like you got to get out. Like, I don't want to be one of those stars who like stayed at his house the whole time. And I figured out the reason I love golf, love fishing, like nobody fucking bothers you. But the one thing I figured out was,

and I always go in the morning, like old, old people are the best. They don't ever fucking bother you uh so i always go at like 11 o'clock uh before the riffraff and everybody gone but i but i love movies that that's that's like one of the most peaceful things in the world to me is movies yeah it's all it's gotten tough the last few years like you said the, the crowds. I just started going again. I just saw, I guess the first movie I saw in probably three years was Maverick.

Oh, that's so good. I just saw Air last week. How was Air? It was great. It was really weird because they talked about me in most of the movie. And we actually had Ben Affleck on the podcast. And he was saying, yeah, we put you a little nice surprise in the movie. And I know, and Ernest says, can I please tell him?

And Ben says, you don't want him to see the movie for himself? And Ernest said, nope. I just want to see the expression on his face. There's a line in the movie that says, nobody want to see Charles Barkley on television. And I just started laughing. I was laughing my ass off. And because, you know, in the movie, Sonny, he says, we got $250,000. I want to spend it on three guys.

He says, I can't get Jordan because he's going to Adidas. I like Barkley, Sam Perkins. And then one guy says, I like Melvin Turpin. And Sonny says, tell me one thing about Melvin Turpin. And the guy's like, he's a good guy. He said, you ever fucking met him? No. He says, well, tell me why you like Melvin.

I mean, like, I guess to be in that room, because I'm in it. That's my thing. Because me and Michael went to Nike together. But to see how everything really went down. And he says, I want to spend the whole $250,000 on Michael Jordan. He says, no. And Phil Knight, Ben, who plays Phil Knight, and I says, no.

I said I wanted three fucking guys. He says, well, I'll try to find two other guys. He said, well, you need to find three because we're not going to get Michael Jordan. He's going to Adidas, as they call it in the movie. But it's a really good movie. But it was really fun to see how it went behind the scenes is it accurate yes nice yes very accurate yeah i think it hits uh streaming next week if i'm not mistaken and it's what was really cool how smart michael and his

family were because michael wasn't he was he only took the meeting uh because of george Raveling and things like that. And then when he called Sonny and said, Michael's going to sign with Nike, but he'll take the 250, but he wants a percentage of each shoe sold. He says, no, we don't do it like that in this business. And he had this really back and forth. He says, we all need to change that. He said, well, and he's like, he's like, we've never done that and no company

is going to do that. And finally, he went to Phil Knight and he says, you really believe in this guy? I mean, obviously,

and it just, then they show the numbers. Michael makes $400 million a year from Nike. I mean, it's crazy. That's a, that's a pretty good deal.

I, I, we can't thank you enough for all this, but do oh go ahead i just wanted one last one i just yeah i wanted to ask about um you have a show starting pretty soon i think with with gail king yeah charles yeah king charles great name for a show and like you mentioned right you've always just been a part of basketball it's tough to find anything when you're done playing not involved with basketball and this is totally stepping out into i'm not gonna say politics but just what's going on in the world yeah well so i'm just doing a favor for the company okay i did not want to be on tv more and neither did gail because they said i said i don't want to be on tv or more i want to be on tv less and they're like would you do it with gail i says i love gail i would consider with gail and gail

i mean gail got together i said i don't want to be on fucking tv she said i don't want to be on tv either he says but i would consider doing it with you i said well i would consider doing it with you and i said one day a week at the most she's just perfect and uh because like we're in last place that's not good yeah so i'm just trying to do a favor for the company. One day a week, probably going to be 10 to 15 shows. Going to be on a Wednesday night in New York because Gail's got a real job.

She's best friend. Good friends with Oprah too. So they have a great background and just being able to get everything out of people. And like I say, I'm just trying to do our team a favor. I'm not even getting paid for it. I just hate that we're

in last place. But like I say, I want to be a team player. Listen, they've been fair to me. They've been great to me. TNT. This is my 23rd year. I'm going to stay

a couple more years. I just turned 60, which is fucking crazy. I can't believe that. Nuts. You don't look any different. You look the same. Well, I'm getting in shape now. I'm down 55 pounds.

Good for you. I gained 90. Well, I quit lying. I gained 100 pounds. I gained 100 pounds when I got my new hips. So now my doctor told me, hey, there ain't no fat old people, only fat young people. So I started doing a drug called Monjuro and working out. And I'm down 55 pounds.

Can't get to my planned weight, which is 250. So me and my doctor going to get to 270. That's the goal. Yes. I started this diet at 352. I was a fat old fuck and I just weighed in at 295. So I want to get to 270 and I'll feel really good and healthy at that point. Last thing I was just going to end with, well, at least for me, was just like you talk about being blessed. Like said 23 years with tnt getting to work with shack or ernie and those are not blessings working with no you know i would say it is just because no no no no not the not the show is the easiest part oh is it to be blessed enough to dribble a stupid basketball.

Everything in my life is because of basketball. That's the blessing and the lucky part. I mean, growing up in a small town of a couple thousand people, and because of this little orange ball, I've been around the world. The people I've met is crazy. I mean, sometimes you have to pinch yourself. Like Obama. Yes.

It's crazy. I got a great picture in my condo. When I went to the White House, they interviewed President Obama. And there's a picture of us standing in the Oval Office. And they didn't even tell me, because I guess the president has a camera person with him all the time, just taking pictures. You don't even know he's around.

He's so secretive. And there's a picture of me standing in the Oval Office. And I remember all my friends calling me like, yo, man, this is crazy. A friend of ours standing in the White House in the Oval Office with a president. And they're like, it's unbelievable the shit I've done in my life. And I've been to the Olympics twice, represent my country. It's amazing.

It's been a crazy, amazing journey. Now, the television is just icing on the cake. It just makes sure I go my whole life without working. But to play in the NBA for 16 years and that stuff is just so amazing and crazy. Crazy. I got one or two more here. Like you just mentioned, you turned 60. I was reading you were the first black baby born at this particular hospital at the time

during segregation. Yeah. The ascent of it. You know, nine months later, JFK gets assassinated. Then MLK, RFK kind of rolls into Watergate in Vietnam. How would you compare sort of that era to where we are in America right now? Do you think it's worse or was it worse back then? Well, clearly it was worse back then. Not that I know because I was too young.

But you think about like we couldn't if I I couldn't have been in this hotel. Like we couldn't if I I couldn't have been in this hotel. Back then, we would have had to go to separate restaurants. That's crazy and stupid to even think about. Right. Civil rights stuff is really important and significant to me for the number one, because it's important, but also where I grew up. You know, I grew up in Burma right outside of Birmingham. So you talk about the church bombing and the year I was born in 1963. You think about the Montgomery boycott. You think about the Selma massacre,

all those within a couple hours of my hometown. So all those things are really important and significant. But I would be doing a disservice if I didn't say things were, are they 100% better? No, but they are a lot better. But we always need to keep working to make things better for everybody. Because, you know, a lot of people like to talk about race. Racism exists, always has, and unfortunately always will. But the biggest problem we have in this country is economics. Being poor is you at a really huge disadvantage. If you're born poor

in this country, you're going to be in a shit neighborhood more than likely. You're going to be in a shit school more than likely. So I always use this analogy. If you got two strikes against you, yeah, every now and then you're going to get a hit. If you always step up to the plate and you got two strikes against you. But it's hard to get a hit if you step up there and you're 0 for 2. But that's the thing. We got to really do a better job of giving poor people economic opportunity. We can't put them in the ghetto or the hood and say, hey,

put you in an inferior school and say good luck. That's really unfair. I guess one last one, too. We've been hearing about Snoop's interest in buying the Sens. Do you think there are more black folks watching hockey now than, say, 30 years ago when you started watching back in Philly? Well, I think the biggest problem with hockey is it just really hasn't really – they've done a really poor job of putting it on television they never really

showed the nhl i think we're doing a better job i think espn needs to do a better job i mean they don't make a big deal out of it until the playoffs i mean you got basketball on. We're on Tuesday. They're on ESPN Wednesday. We're on Thursday. They're on ESPN on Friday. So they're on four days a week. I'm trying to think. Hockey's not on enough during the regular season. I mean, and think about it.

You look at hockey today. Let's take Edmonton. You got Dreisaitl and McDavid. You got Matthews up in Canada. This boy, Kachuk, down in Florida is rolling right now. The Devils, you got Hughes, who's a stud. You know, I even watched the lottery last night. He was going to get Bedard.

There we go. Love it. What did you think of that? A little shady? Were you pissed the Coyotes didn't get the first pick? They were not. Dude, we got a 3,500-seat arena. We wasn't going to get him.

Hey, we got 3,500. No, I think it was great for the NHL. Whether it was rigged or not, that's another debate. Because Chicago is a major, major city. I'm pretty sure they wanted him in a big city in the United States. Like Columbus? Columbus is not going to get it done. But, I mean, you got to understand this is a business.

To have him, no disrespect to Anaheim, Columbus, Arizona, it's probably not the best avenue for a guy who we think going to be the next

big thing. When the Blackhawks were in their heyday with Taze and Kane and those guys winning three Stanley Cups. That was a big deal. We need Chicago.

Like right now, the NBA is better when the Knicks are doing great. The NBA is better when the Celtics do great. Same thing with the Lakers. Whether fans want to admit it or not, sports are better when the big teams are doing better plain and simple well we can't we can't this is unbelievable this is we really appreciate no man listen uh i want to thank y'all for having me keep up the great work biz is my guy i appreciate you've been so good you've been so yeah you gotta yeah take me out

of your wing here because i i've been called into the principal's office a couple of times. So I got to keep on the straight and narrow, Chuck. Hey, brother. As long as they keep paying you, you can hide. Well, thank you so much. Of course, brother.

Thank you so much, Chuck. Thank you, Charles. Appreciate it, brother. It was an honor, pal. This interview is brought to you by Chevy. You know that we've been a big part of the Chevy EV family,

but we've got some big news. The first ever all-electric Silverado is officially Barstool's most valuable truck. The Silverado truck forever has just been a horse, a beast, and now you can get it in the EV mode. We got the chance to see this thing and experience it, and it's a complete game changer. I really want to get one. It's available 400-mile range, GM estimated on a full charge, over 10 feet of length in the bed with a multi-flex tailgate combined with a multi-flex mid-gate, a large 17-inch diagonal display screen, 17 inches, that's enormous. It's a monster screen.

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Biz, thanks a bunch for getting him on. It was spectacular. I might have to stalk him in Boston this week. He's going to be up here for the Eastern Conference Final. Oh, yeah, just what we need. He'll never come back on the podcast. I bet McHale was better than you. So anyways, we got to wrap up. Mikhail was better than you. So anyways,

we got to wrap up. I found that paper. I wrote, I found that. Get this fucking guy away from me. I do get it stashed somewhere. It's just not in this place. But anyways,

we're going to talk about Dallas, Seattle that just finished a couple of previews in our boy. We had Merle's earlier. Now we have the other half of game notes. Colby Armstrong, Ami, the arm dog. Thanks for joining us,

pal. Yeah. Awesome to be on with you guys. Yeah. Me and Merle's the old game notes, daily squad. We went halfsies, youi, the Armdog thanks for joining us pal yeah awesome to be on with you guys yeah me and Merle's the old game notes daily squad we went halfsies you know we went halfsies so there you go nice swap of the spit and a little dessert for it

a little dessert tasty little dessert we couldn't handle you guys together hey you know what's crazy though Ami is we were talking about it the old shit sandwich grenade all these flicks that these teams are putting in the neutral zone we could call it punting we're trying to think of a funny new name for it kind of like we call it the mixer but sure enough is that first goal by dallas

tonight was a flick in the neutral zone who ended up sending it out lindell just air mailed it was lindell i could see him doing it i mean and then alex Alexia, I just can't believe Alexia played it. That's what he looked like. He didn't want to play it all. And then he was like, oh shit, easy from the couch. That's like with,

with, especially if you see hints flying at you, he's like McDavid. That guy might be top five fastest in the league. And I think you just have to straight up whack it off like against the boards at the bench it goes in the bench sorry boys like i wasn't playing around with that one at center ice i don't think i think you got it in that situation because if you go back and watch it he started in his own end he wound it up in front of his bench and like he timed it perfectly to get

there it was like it's like in rugby or something you know when they kick one and i don't know it's just like the perfect timing he met it as he just started or something, you know, when they kick one. And I don't know, it's just like the perfect timing. He met it as he just started a bumble. You got to like commit like a, like a shortstop, like that has to get down in front of that bomb line drive and like, just block it down. You've got to like, you've got to eat it and you know, he's coming at you. You just got to go down in front of it and just make sure you smother the puck. You're going to get nailed like, like a guy catching a kickoff in the NFL that they don't allow anymore.

He's kicking the NFL style. Just kick the guy's face in. You got to take the face cave in. The XFL's back. They just had their championship the other day or something. I kind of missed the whole season, but, uh,

what are those called when you call for the, Oh, fair. Yeah. No fair catches allowed. The XFL. No fair catches. I'm pretty sure he tried to stick handle it, though.

Yeah, he double clutched it. He just got his pocket picked, I think. You know, like, it was a nice play by him. And then you see that speed coming out, and your arsehole puckers up about this tight, and the next thing you know, you blink, and he's gone. And just to get the listeners updated, we just finished Unreal Goalie Battle Game 7.

Ottinger grew by just a phenomenal battle. Went to the wire uh dallas had a two-goal lead all game seattle scores were like 19 seconds left then they caught the face off off in the offensive zone made it a real nail-biter but uh art and jill was slightly better so dallas marches on they're gonna meet vegas in the western conference finals and biz we were just talking a second ago uh pete the board now seven and oh in game sevens asals, and Biz, we were just talking a second ago, Pete DeBoer, now 7-0 in Game 7s as a coach. And interestingly, he's been the coach of five teams. Four of those teams he's taken to the Conference Finals. All four times he took them in their first season.

In San Jose, he actually did twice. His first year coaching them? Yeah, first year. The four teams he's taken to the Conference Finals, yeah. San Jose, New Jersey, obviously Dallas tonight. And who's the other one? Vegas. Escape me, Vegas, yeah. All four, his very first season.

Of course, he took San Jose back again. And now he's going to face the team that shit-canned him last year. So, Pete DeBoer, man, game seven genius, eh, Biz? Yeah, I would say they remained patient, yet they still, I felt that they generated a little bit more in the first two periods. I thought Grubauer was tremendous through two periods. Yeah, and then, I mean, it all came down to that flick play, and that's what got them ahead.

But I feel like that was the tale of the series. Although it went to seven, Seattle had a really hard time generating inside the house credit. Dallas, and they play their structure, how hard their D box out and they play in front of Ottinger along with his play and I think if you look throughout the course of the entire series as far as high danger scoring chances and the way that each team was able to generate I would say that Dallas was up two to one and on top of that you mix in the unbelievable

goaltending of Ottinger and they just couldn't generate enough offense and and credit to the better team overall i thought that dallas was the better team originally i thought after vegas had advanced i wanted to see the two expansion teams go head to head but after watching game seven i'm like no the right team won and i'm actually excited to see way more excited to see dallas go against vegas because i feel like they're both a little bit more physical a little bit more brutal and i have the feeling i could get even nastier than the the series against edmonton and i think that that's all that's what we all want we want some fucking smash mouth hockey some western conference hockey it's our first i believe uh all sunbelt

final four dallas vegas carolina and rale and then, you know, Florida and Sunrays. All like southern states, all sunny states, as you will. And just to piggyback on the DeBoer stuff, this Jay Fresh hockey we talk about. Pete DeBoer, hired by New Jersey in 2011, goes from missing playoffs to cup final. Hired by San Jose in 2015, goes from missing playoffs to cup final. Hired by Vegas in 2019, goes from first round game 7 OT exit to cup final. High by Vegas in 2019 goes from first round game 7 OT exit to conference final. High by Dallas in 2022 goes from first round game 7

OT exit to conference final once again. Unreal boost this guy gives, but let's see what the wit dog has on this game. I know you had a little action there. What's a little bit wit? Fuck you, Grinelli, you little weasel. You'd still

be working at espn radio the old show if i hadn't dragged you from new hampshire down and you're betting against me in a must-win game for my gambling career you're not even on the screen right now i'm just waiting for where your box usually but fuck you granelli you you you you just ate that one you pissed off witty i wrote the guys i wrote pavelski i actually sent in a a telegram like the 80 olympic team when they were playing russia i sent one in it was faxed over so i appreciate you um the glass banger the glass you hear the glass banger during that game well there's one that's famous are you talking about the one behind the net? Thank you, G. There are microphones above whatever. The net?

On top of the glass? Behind the net, right above the top of that glass, there's microphones. They pick up the fucks. And Dallas was shooting on twice. And I don't know if Sportsnet, Canada, they just do it better than ESPN. I don't know if Sportsnet is like,

maybe they can silence that mic when the game's going on. Well, ESPN can't. There know if Sportsnet is like, maybe they can silence that mic when the game's going on. Well, ESPN can't. There was a guy, the whole, it was like a woodpecker off my temple. I don't know if anyone else, if it drove anyone. I was losing my mind. I almost wanted Dallas to lose and me lose the money so that glass banger had to go home unhappy.

But Peter DeBoer is a wizard. And I don't know if it was Dallas playing that well or Seattle just looking. I mean, that was not the Seattle crack and we've seen all playoffs. They had, they had, they had nothing going. I mean, if it's not for Grubauer, that game six, nothing. The second period, I, what an absolute amazingly perfectly timed mush tweet. I wrote, this says, this has the makings of a Game 7 goalie just stealing a win and the other team.

It had the makings of Seattle scoring some crappy goal, some fluky goal, winning 1-0, and Grubauer, you couldn't beat him. But the high flick play and Hintz's speed and it all changed. And from there, we got to witness a kid who turned 20 years old. Was it today? Was Wyatt Johnson's birthday today? Yesterday. I think it was Sunday. He tucks in that goal to just wrap up that

game. Well, for the most part, it ended up being the game winner, but what a ridiculous... It looked like he didn't even have an angle to the net. He ends up just going backhand, like skates almost on the goal line, just shelving one. It was in and out too. what a goal by that young stud and Dallas is moving on and they deserve to move on I mean granted they they were down one nothing and two one in the series but they were able to kind of get home and I think put game six behind them and it was all Dallas from the opening puck drop

yeah it wasn't and could you feel that coming, though, boys? I mean, the game was pretty tense. Yeah, I would have felt horrible for you in your gambling career. But I really did think, I was like, I don't see them losing this game at home. I was messing with my mind, but I was confident. No, I was confident. I was on your side.

I had Rupe Hentz's first anytime goal scorer, which hit for us today on Game Notes Daily, which was awesome. I got Singzy Beauty from Game Notes Daily, too. Big New Jersey fan. He had Rupe Hintz first goal plus 1100. So he was all fired up about that message in me. I mean, amazing to get that at that time in the game, too. In a game seven, how tight it was.

Rupe Hintz came to play. That was his ninth playoff goal. He's been a beast for them and that's the difference of seattle comparatively to what uh i know robertson's been quiet but you could just feel their yes they were feeling each other out but then you could feel dallas start to push you know you could feel them start to get chances you could see guys start getting energy off of shifts and starting to you know line some stack some shifts up against each other against seattle they were just trying to a little bit survive so uh i think

they're the better team i think they're faster i think i picked seattle to win the series but there's no question that when dallas strings it together i think we saw what they what they can be even in tight games like this like they were the better team today there's no question so i think jason robertson he's got to be up there for most snakebitten player right now um for in tight games like this. Like they were the better team today. There's no question. So I think Jason Robertson, he's got to be up there from most snake bitten player right now. For them to get through that series without him doing anything

kind of shows like if that kid can become regular season, Jason Robertson, Vegas could be in trouble. I don't know. Army sent out the clip last night to the group chat. He was laboring. I don't know if he's injured.

The one clip you showed me, he could barely skate. And tonight, I did see some more jump in his step, and he had chances, but he just can't buy one. So they still win. That's their top player. They still win because of a guy like Hintz. I mean, you talk about guys and

how much money they make. I don't know Hintz's salary. I think he re-signed. He's got a nice deal. Eight times eight and a half. I want to say it's next year though. Right. Or is this the first year of it? No, next year,

I believe. All right. So whatever he's making this year, it's the guy's got nine goals. He's got one point less than Connor McDavid in the same amount of games. So one more game played. I mean, it's,

it's amazing to see him step up and that, that team, I think the Western conference final is going to be a war. I think they're both going to be just amazing, like teams that aren't really going to back down from one another and play similar styles in a way. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. But I could see both of them going seven. I just look at deadline deals, too, and how much impact they end up having. I know we talked about well, we talked about Martin Hook and the offense that he had outpouring in the second round.

That really helped Carolina push past New Jersey. I felt like Max Domi has been such a great add. I feel like he's also like he was a skilled guy in junior. And you know his old man. Everyone knows who Ty Domi is. I feel like his game is better when he has a little bit of nastiness to it. And I feel like that series it really stuck out he ended up getting in that nasty scuffle with uh vince dunn about mid-series and

then even tonight he was mixing up with alexiak like he's not backing down from the big guys so not only with the point production that he's put up in the first two rounds but just the overall game and he just also looks like he has a step too it's crazy like he just he he looks he looks even better than he was in chicago this year he's like a playmaker hey like you could see when he gets a puck like he's looking to distribute it yeah uh and and make plays and and he has like that skilled poise busy to your point but you're right i think when he's a prick he's just on another level a little more like's relied upon a little more like, almost like third line-ish guy kind of. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I know what you mean by that. But he can play that half well in the PP. We've seen him there when he's produced in this series and he's had a good playoffs. Like he's fit in really well with their style of game, I think just because of the tools that he has. So yeah, depth versus depth.

I think speed. I think ability to play defense. I think physicality through lineups. I think this Western Conference final is going to be awesome with these two teams. I believe he's also a UFA as well, so he's playing for a contract, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, he signed a one-year deal with Chicago to bet on himself.

And also, he has moved around a little bit, so he's used to doing it. And then last year, he did it at the deadline too, where he went to Carolina. Didn't he end up having two goals in game seven of the first round? Yeah. I think he stepped up big offensively there too. Do you think he goes back?

Do you think he goes back to Chicago with Bedard there? Do you think he's a guy that they would bring back in there? Because he played pretty well there. I know they were limited but uh he can kind of you know like he has that skill game but he's not afraid like he'll he'll be a guy that can kind of defend bedard a little bit and that's modern game and he has a little little chip to him i think he's a guy that i think i could see going back to chicago if they take him back hey how about uh how about we've talked about the drafting right? The first round where they got all three of the studs in Dallas.

Thomas Harley, he was a first rounder in 2019. He's looked great. He only played 12 minutes tonight. I just clicked on it, but he's got seven points at 13 playoff games. Another draft pick, another young guy on a cheap deal, making an impact. These are the cup winners. These are the Blackhawks when all those guys are on entry-level deals. This is what you see.

Either draft picks producing and actually making an impact while not making a ton of money yet. That'll change next year with hints and stuff. But Dallas is a bore. I guess he just has some way of showing up and getting guys to believe. And he has a system that he knows teams he's with can play. And Dallas looks awesome is that is that alluding to your pick wit are you gonna go with dallas over vegas oh here we go

he's gonna be getting into it right now i think we have to talk about seattle before we get into that yes oh okay sorry good call it yep just you know what a bounce back year i saw an interview with jordan eberly right after the game in the locker room. Emotional. He's not crying, but you could tell it means so much to him. He was talking about what it means to get to the second round. He says, I played seven years before I got in the playoffs. I realized

how hard it is to get to the playoffs to win a round. After the year we had last year, to come back and make the second round and get to game seven in the second round after upsetting the cup champs, this is so invaluable to these younger guys and you have to appreciate it right like you don't know when it's coming around again the game he said the games are so fun but i think a guy like that who took him a while to get in the islanders had some good runs and now he's back it's like you get older and you appreciate it. You think it's going to army.

Remember we got in the playoffs. You think it's going to be easy every year. And all of a sudden you go five years in Edmonton or where you were, Montreal, Toronto, you're not in and Atlanta, your career just goes by in a blink of an eye. So,

so cool for them that quickly to become that good, dangerous of a team to take Dallas to the brink there. Yeah. It's great to it. I mean, it's only the second year in the league. I mean, Yanni Gord, we knew this guy was a bulldog out there. Just incredible leader.

That first goal, I mean, the goal of the first game that he just turned, spun, shot it right over Ottinger's shoulder. From then on, he just played with some mad swag. Also, Matty Benares, great first playoffs. The kid's a rookie. Seven points in, I think, 12 or 13 games. And how about Ellie Tolvin? I mean, Nashville gave up in this guy.

Anybody could have grabbed him before Seattle. Nobody did. He comes in. He plays a pretty significant role for the team. It gets eight points. And I think he's going to play in the top six. So if you're a Seattle fan, man,

you got to feel great about this year. There's so many good things ahead. I know is in Bowie have a little thing going on, but it's, it's great. Fucking. I think it's so good when these new teams are good. I know people bitch about,

Oh, they only been a two years. It's like, who cares, man? It's like they changed the rules because these owners are paying 500 fucking million dollars. You don't want to handicap for five years having a shit team. So I don't know. It's great for the league. I feel like Francis had to earn this, too. And I think a lot of people like wrote him off after what they did in the first year.

Going back, I was trying to find the tweet, but it seems like a lot of their players will be back next year where there won't be a ton of turnover a few a few things in here or there but hopefully shane wright can make a big step yeah i mean there is an argument though ra not an argument but a discussion to be had that all these fan bases of all these teams, they see Vegas come in and they see what they've done. They see Seattle the first year struggle. This year, they see what they've done. It's almost easier with how good the expansion rules are for you to start new. You see these teams and there's an argument to be made that you're in a better spot if all of a sudden your team's created out of nowhere. Yes, you're paying 500 for Vegas, 650 for Seattle. I'm guessing the next one will be 900 million, if not a billion.

As crazy as it sounds, maybe 900, say 800. You're given, you're given, there's so many good players in the league. And you're all of a sudden now, like with new expansion rules you're starting off pretty hot like it is somewhat of of a help as opposed to just like you got to be awful you got to hope for a high draft pick and these teams are coming in they're getting people scraps all the most of them can play it just seems that they don't fit in other systems so you know what you know what though what what the difference was vegas got a mark andre flurry you know they got like this well vegas really fucking rigged the system by like yeah take it you know what i mean they were getting draft picks for for not oh yeah taking players and i know things change but still

like it's like when you go on a trip with and you go like to by the train station somewhere and they've got all these fake bags and they're like hey here's a gucci bag and you're like yeah okay you look at it you're unsure and you're like trying to work the guy for this sick gucci bag well next time you go traveling you know that guy's trying to fuck you so you're like hey yeah buddy i don't think so so seattle kind of yeah they're like a little it's actually a fuchi bag i mean that's what it's like it just shows though there's some great players out there man there's great players who don't who can't hack it on on some teams sometimes one or two teams and they get in a spot where they're more than anything they're believed in right like

they were picked for a reason they finally have somebody that is really in their corner. And you see guys taking off like Bjorkstrand. That guy's awesome. Although, did he sign with them, though? Yeah, I think it was a free agent signing. Okay, so him and Larson were the big free agent signings. That makes a difference. They got guys, though, that can fit in different spots that are actually given a chance.

Can you imagine if you're a third-line grinder that plays like 12 minutes and now you're playing 20 oh and you feel you're telling me pittsburgh's not kicking themselves in the ass letting go at tanev tanev and mccann oh right they gave up mccann to toronto to traded him then they then they put him on they got him from there and then they took tanev too so they got yeah so they gave Tanev that six-year deal for $18 million or whatever it was. How did they think that that was one of the guys you wanted to let go?

Looking at how Pittsburgh, if you could pick a player Pittsburgh needed, it's Brandon Tanev. I say that all the time when I'm doing games. I'm like, damn, they could really go for a guy like Tanev in the lineup. Bjorkstrand was acquired in a trade with Columbus for a third and fourth round

pick. Great deal. There's another Swedish sound name that they did sign. Wenberg? Might have been that, but back to, what's his name for a second? Tolvanen. Poyle actually said, we might regret this move by doing this. We still feel good about him, but whatever reason

they waived him, but he even acknowledged when they did it, we might, this might bite us in the ass. And you know, I'd say it has given the production. That could have been, I would just say that every time I put a guy on waivers, just to keep up my basis.

Yeah. That'd be a rest. No. And you're basically saying him saying that it's like, yeah, the coach doesn't like them. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Boyle saying like, I kind of like him like john heintz is like no you're not you're not fitting in here oh so the coach hates him at the press conference i didn't say that i didn't say that hugo no i didn't say that uh we just don't have room for him i i got these lines we got our team constructed we're gonna play a certain way and uh you know there's just not room for ellie at the time right now in our lineup uh good luck to ellie i know it's probably come back and bite us he's a pretty damn good player but uh

anyways he's off to a new beginning uh right back our team i like our team we got a pretty is that i don't like jack she almost like that's chat gpd of any any press conference with any gm who's putting a guy on waivers got it yeah that. I think that was more of one of those. They knew he wasn't going to probably get picked up. It was a paper move. But Biz, to go back to Seattle's cap situation, the only regulars who are UFA, Ryan Donato, Carson Soucy,

and Martin Jones. Otherwise, everyone is either back next door or in RFA. Either RFA or back. Yeah, absolutely. Bizzy, are you going to throw out a lifeline to buoy maybe like is is there any room in their defeat he's probably sad i would have maybe used them to get a box at at the climate pledge arena if they made it to the if they made it to the cup finals but no there's no need to no need to throw out a life raft yeah buoy's a disaster so no love

still for buoy you're just gonna let him hang on this and just let him like think about the loss, dwell in it. Think of all the shit he's tried to taunt you into. He did a lot of he did a lot of shit talk in the biz and you kind of gave it back. But no, no hand held out to Bowie to say, hey, great season, my friend. Fuck whatever that thing is. I paid you a jump, Bowie. Oh, shit. Alright. Okay, before we go any further,

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absolute go-to. Perfectly said, Mike. So download that app right now and get our free video chat. Let's slide over to this preview of this series. Vegas, Dallas, it should be an unreal matchup. The line is basically a pick-em. I think Vegas is like minus 116, Dallas minus 105. I mean, wait, that's a pick-em for all intents and purposes, right? During the regular season, Dallas went 3-0, Vegas went 0-1-2, but two of those losses were shootout losses, so they weren't real losses.

In those matchups, actually, they did not face Aiden Hill at all. Dallas didn't play him at all. They had the three other goalies this season, so they didn't really get a good look at him, but I don't know. Biz, go to you first on this. What's your outtake on this? Who do you think is going to take it and why?

I'm torn. I was changing my mind the entire ride over here. I think I'm going to go Vegas in seven. And I just, I think they have a little bit more offense from their D overall. I'm expecting Theodore to be a little bit better than he has come this playoff. I've already talked about Petro. I think that definitely advantage to Dallas and net, but as far as defense

and then all four lines, I just lean towards Vegas. And with the question mark of Robertson playing the way he is, I feel like Vegas is just too deep up front. They're too disciplined. Although that came back to bite me in the ass and five on front uh they're too disciplined although that came back to bite me in the ass and five on five they're just a force to be reckoned with right now and I think that they will prevail not saying I don't like the one thing that concerns me is goaltending and Aiden Hill and just the fact that Dallas is good at getting to the inside and they're good at these redirections Pavelski being the main reason for that. But I think with the lack of power plays and them getting back to discipline

hockey, I just, I really like Vegas and seven. I think it's going to be an awesome series. I just, that's it. Vegas. I'll take Vegas and six. I'll do Vegas and six. I think Vegas witty before I let you you go, is Seattle on steroids. Like, they're relentless.

They're deep. They're fast. They cycle. They eat up pucks. They get inside, which, you know, Seattle had a hard time getting inside on Dallas. I think they'll be a lot more to handle in getting into those areas to a man through their team. I think they're D or bigger. I think they can move better. I think they're D or bigger. I think they're like can move better. I think they're more physical as well.

Like, I think it's going to, I think they're a load to handle. Like, like Vegas is a load. And then you've got Jack Eichel playing the way he is. And Chandler Stevenson through the depths and stone is, you know,

it looks like busy skating, but he's still getting it done. Trusty. But like, they just have, they just have so much of their lineup. I'll take him in six. I got Dallas in seven.

Totally wouldn't be surprised at all if Vegas wins, but I guess I'm thinking Vegas would be maybe a little bit more fun than Dallas. So that means if I want to go to Vegas, Dallas will win. That's kind of my thinking. That's how even these teams are. I mean, I look at the center. We got Eichel, Stevenson,

Carlson, Bluger, Hintz, Domi, Wyatt, Johnson, Radek, Faska,

maybe overall give Vegas the, the, the, the upper hand at center. D overall, I like Vegas is D better, but they don't have a defenseman as good as Heskinen. I know we've talked about Petro and how good he is. Heskinen's at a completely different level,

30 minutes a game. And more than anything, it's just Ottinger for me. Granted, some of this round was a struggle, but this bounce-back factor this kid's got going, that's like... That means something. I mean, they go down 1-0. Alright, we got Ottinger. We have a team

that can do this. I think it's going to be a battle, but I think Dallas gets it done and we look back got Ottinger. We have a team that can do this. I think it's going to be a battle, but I think Dallas gets it done and we look back and Ottinger's the reason. This might be the toughest series to pick so far. They're so even. These two teams. So even. And, you know, I always defer to the goaltender. You know, Ottinger, as great as his

bounce backs are, it also means he had a shit game before that. We've seen a couple times. And Aiden Hill, I don't think he's had like a, I mean, he's only, he's only started the last three or four games. He hasn't had any really bad games at all. But I don't know. I keep going. Like you just said, I think Heiskanen is a huge... I think he's

the X-Factor. I mean, Petrangelo's good. I got Heiskanen above him. I'm going to go Dallas in seven. And to copy you, it wouldn't surprise me if it goes the other way. But I'm going Dallas in seven. What's our producer Mikey Grinelli, have for us? Do you have an X factor? Can I sway you with anything, G?

Can I sway you with anything? Sway me, baby. I'm very easily swayed. They just shut down Leon and Connor the last few games to minimally to nothing. Yes, they gave up and bled power play goals to the Edmonton Oilers, the two best players in the league that handily could dominate anybody and put them and put them to sleep so it's like you know they're not gonna

have to deal with the roadrunner ripping around the ice dangling through everybody and like big massive like yogger junior just posting up seeming passes everywhere like this is a different thing and then they they can handle that they They handled it. They got through them. They neutralize it a bit. They have a lot more coming with the other lines. Didn't even need to sway me, Army. Didn't even need to sway me. I got Vegas in seven.

Jack Eichel is on an absolute mission. I said it before the playoffs, and I'll say it again. Eichel is on a mission. He's on that consummate journey. I got Vegas in seven. And I also have a prerecorded pick from Merles. So I'll play that right now. I'm on Vegas.

Of course, I'm on Vegas. I want to go to Vegas to see the finals. I want to experience that crowd, their team, the Team D. If you have Carlson as your third line center, he was a first line center when they went to the finals. He's been unreal. Eichel has just raised his game. I love what he's doing.

I'm actually going to put a little sprinkle on Eichel to win the Conn Smythe plus 700. So I got them winning the series. I'm going to have Eichel on there. I'm taking Vegas in six. All right. The Murr on Vegas as well. So me and R.A. are the Dallas guys. But another thing that I don't know if this is good or bad for us, R.A., but I don't think

Robertson will stay snakebitten like this. I have to believe he's going to get going. You can't be that good in the regular season. And all of a sudden like this comes, unless he's injured and we don't know, I would like to think if he really gets it going. I just wrote down in my notes. I mean,

he, you know, he hasn't been bad. He's got 12 points. He had five points all assist that last series, but I just wrote new matchups. How many times do we see in the playoffs a guy just gets totally shut down, does nothing

in one series, and then he blows up the next series? I think we might see that with Robo next series. Obviously, we don't know who the boy's going to put on him, but I don't know. Even if he is dinged up, he's still producing out there. I think he's going to have a nice series because of the matchups,

it thinks it might open up for him a little bit. So yeah, new series, new matchups, more points for Robo. That's the thinking anyway. So, all right,

let's go over to the Eastern conference final, the preview there. Let's see. I have no clue. Uh, Carolina, a small favorite, my six,

seven, which is a minus one 40 or a hundred to make one 20, um, on Florida head to head during the minus 140 or 100 to make 120 on Florida. Head-to-head during the year, Carolina was 2-1, Florida was 1-2. Carolina seeking their first Stanley Cup final since 06. Florida seeking their first since 96. This will be the first playoff series to feature all three stalls. Of course, Eric is going against the team he won the Cup with 17 years ago.

And the coach of Carolina was his captain on that team as well. So a lot of, you know, like mingled storylines here. I'm Doug. Who do you like here and why? I don't know which way to go on this. I've been, I've honestly been, I don't want to say hypnotized. Maybe a little bit hypnotized, boys. Mushrooms are emailed down to me.

How are you? How are you? I love the way and I love the way Carolina plays. I do. And as good and as much as the story that, you know, the Panthers have been, I just think they're so good at counteracting any kind of team just because of the way they play. And they play so different.

The man-on-man stuff all over the ice. They smother you. They've got a few more extra days to get a little healthy here. On Game Notes Daily, Merle said he saw something. Ter Vinen was now in like a regular color practice. He's playing as well. So he's, he's going to be there, right? They're getting a few more days here. Excuse me.

So I, I just think, I think they're, I think they're a team that obviously won't go away, but they're a team that will make it really, really difficult and frustrating for Florida to play. And it's, it's not like it hasn't been. They haven't ground and fought their way anywhere in Florida. But I just think Carolina's made for that kind of game. And I think it's going to be one of the first times they're going to play a team in the playoffs. It's going to match them really good with that ground, grind, ground, pound kind of style of game.

And I mean, they pushed around new jersey they they physically put bullied them um and and they can play a physical game they got big d that can skate move pucks and pound pucks at the net i think it's going to be they're going to be a lot to handle with the way they can skate the way they work and the way they check how many games I will say I will take Carolina in seven. All right. So I really, I really back everything you said. My main reason I'm taking Carolina, I'm taking Carolina in seven as well.

I do. I really honestly think both these series go seven games. If I were to lean towards one being a little shorter, I think Carolina maybe. And my main reason is that as good as Florida's been, they played against Boston, who in the regular season didn't do it, but all they did was turn the puck over. That's all they did.

The Bruins nonstop were trying to make cute plays, turn it over. And then they played the kings of the turnovers, the Leafs. Carolina doesn't do that. Every single little thing that Florida was able to pounce on against the Bruins and the Maple Leafs, Carolina doesn't do that. Every single little thing that Florida was able to pounce on against the Bruins and the Maple Leafs, Carolina won't give you. They refuse to. It's part of their DNA as a team. It's part of how Rod Brindamore played. Everyone says this team just plays exactly how he played the game. It's chip it in. It's chase it. It's no high danger passes to the neutral zone. It's no high danger passes in your own end. It's make the

other team make mistakes and all Florida has done is feed off mistakes by Toronto and Boston. I think it's going to be an amazing series. Jordan Stahl will be playing against Kachuk's line, I'm guessing. You saw what he did against Jack Hughes when they had the matchups. Bobrovsky's

kind of a difference maker. He's like, why I took Dallas, that's kind of why I should take Florida in terms of the better goalie. But I think Carolina overall as a team and getting Terravine back, I think they take it in seven. Let's go. Busy boy.

What do you have for us? I was going to take Carolina in seven too. It's a coin toss for me. I think it's going to come down to defense and the production from the back end with the canes we didn't see it in the first round but then you saw it turn around in the round two and it's a lot to handle they they're all over you they smother you defensively and yet they join in as far as their top four for carolina uh maybe based on based on names, if you look down at paper,

one of the most impressive no-namer D-squads throughout the last 20 years of the NHL. Who's this Chatfield maniac out there? He's great. That guy's awesome. He's physical, mean. Between Pesci, Pesci has been incredible. So has Shea.

I mean, we know what Slavin could do defensively, but I think he's also underrated the way with the plays he makes inside the offensive zone and then Burns has a cannon they got to get the puck upstairs which Toronto had a hard time doing like top half of the net and one other thing where I think that it's just a constant forecheck from Carolina you know I compliment the hyenas constantly but but nobody for checks quite like Carolina as a five man unit. And I think that'll eventually give the backend for Florida, some problems.

And I haven't felt the pressure yet of, of, of like a nonstop for check. Yeah. And I, and I've been underestimating their D come playoff time and they've slapped me in the face with it every time. But I think that I agree with you guys. The only, the face with it every time but i think that i agree

with you guys the only the only concern being top end goal scoring and that and i think that that's where florida has it but i just think that carolina is such a well-oiled machine and i know we joke about statues all the time with and you say oh there should be 10 guys who have statues if carolina can somehow win the stanley cup with this lineup i feel like with brenda moore as a captain and doing it as a coach, I don't care if he gets inside the Hall of Fame. He should have a statue outside that arena.

That is just overachieving. He's just doing curls with his shirt off the statue. He's like a Mr. Olympia. I know I've been disrespecting Carolina all these years and is Ajo a superstar? I'm on your side finally. I don't think you probably like that because I'm the biggest mush going but Carolina in seven and I think it's going to be an awesome conference final I think they're like throat their throat

stepper honors you know like Carolina when they get on you like their throat stepper honors like they don't let you breathe and and I saw I saw that, right. We, we, besides a few games where it was like, okay, you know, we'll get them next time for the most part, like they're, they're so detailed to wit's point, so structured, so aggressive. They can all skate. Like they're just a lot to handle. And when they, when they start getting momentum on you, like they just start to like

apply the pressure and you know i give them a ton of crap i think that's all the way they play is really hard i would i couldn't last playing their style of hockey it's so hard like the way they skate and work but they're that's why they're so good that's why they're such a different animal and different beast and to biz's point they got you know their animal and different beast. And to Biz's point, they got, you know, their top four D or all six, five and can skate like. And, you know, R.A.'s picking Florida. And I guess the only thing that would be on his side, well, not the only thing, but maybe what you just said is something that's legit in terms of can they handle playing at this pace another round? Right. Like they do play so hard.

It takes so much energy. It's been the complaint as to why they haven't been able to go further in prior playoffs maybe that helps maybe that helps Florida's chances yeah we're definitely looking at another coin flip here and yeah wait of course I'm gonna stick with my future but I you know Freddie Anderson's been great his numbers are great but he's also got pulled from a game uh the New Jersey he got lit up that game he just looked tired a little a little out of it. But Brofsky hasn't been pulled in any games yet.

I don't think he's even been contemplated to get pulled at all. He's been just outstanding since they put him in after they pulled Lyon that game. I think Bob probably has an advantage. Just, you know, overall, maybe career-wise over Freddie. I'm a Freddie guy, but I think there's a slight nod there to Bob. And I don't know. Florida just reminds me of one of these teams that they just kind of, I've seen this movie before, they just kind of come in and just steamroll everybody.

Like we talked about the Kings a few years back, but after what they've done to Boston, what they've done to Toronto, I don't see them, not saying I'm not having a problem with Carolina, but I think they keep on rolling, man. I think Bobrovsky keeps it rolling. Kachuk, he got shut out the last few games in Toronto, but

I don't know. I think this team's a well-built machine. They're humming along and, yeah, man, I got to roof my fucking 40-1 shot. When L.A. did it in 2012, they beat the 1, 2, and 3 seed in the Western Conference.

That's what Florida would do here to get to the final. They'd be knocking off Boston, Carolina 2, and Toronto 3. Another wild one I meant to mention. 2006, Rod Brindamore scores after a delay of game penalty and the Canes eliminate the Lindy Hruff coach Sabres. 2023, the Rod Brindamore coached Canes score after delay of game penalty. We said that last week.

I'm sorry, but that was a little late. I think I might have said it on game notes. I think I might have said it on game notes. I think I might have told my mom that stat. I've been using it. You probably got it tattooed too, knowing you. Yeah. Oh, I dodged that bullet. I dodged that bullet this year.

I'll say this about Bobrovsky. He got the kitchen sink thrown at him in the last game there against the Leafs, 52 shots. They're going to get like these guys are going to be. He's going to be. But are you going to get 36 shots on you a game from everywhere on the ice, like in the mixer with guys getting off the yellow boards, like as a rim around, he's just whacking them off the yellow,

just right towards the net. Like, they're coming from everywhere. And so it's going to be a different beast that way for Bobrovsky as well. I like how both series had the exact same amount of rest I like how Carolina Carolina a lot of rest too a lot of rest from second round to third round uh Paul Maurice out coached Monty he out coached Sheldon Keefe but out coaching Rod the bod is no easy task so I got Carolina in seven and I believe Merle says Carolina too.

So let's send it over to him real quick. As you can see by my hat, I'm on Carolina. You know, I was down there for that tailgate. I was down there for that outdoor game. I love the fans. I love the city.

I got news from a little birdie in Finland that Tara Vinen is playing is back. He's going to be a hundred percent to play in the series. That's a huge addition. Florida has been great, but now they're going to match up% to play in the series. That's a huge addition. Florida's been great, but now they're going to match up with a team similar to them. But it's going to be a crazy series. I got them Canes and seven.

The home ice advantage will get them over the top. So I'm on Canes and seven. He's an alumni. So we knew he was taking the Canes. Alumni, yeah. He's got the alumni hat. Has he ever told the story when he got sent down after two games when he had a goal and an assist?

No shit. Had he really? Yeah, he did. Yeah, on the plane. He tells it every week, at least once a week on Game Notes Daily right now. Here's my prediction for the conference finals with Carolina. Rod Brindamore has one meltdown on the bench. On the refs or on the players?

Oh, yeah. No, no. Refs. He's good for not only an in-game snapshot, one meltdown on the bench. On the refs or on the players? Oh, yeah. No, no, refs. He's good for not only an in-game snapshot, but it will also translate to the table post-game presser. Guaranteed one wire crossing of the mind here. Guaranteed. Who are your X-Factors?

Especially with Bennett and Kachuk. Yeah, he's going to lose his mind. So my X-Factor for Vegas is going to be Petro I think that Petro is going to be more of a factor than Haskinen as far as defenders in that series uh just I feel the nastiness plays into Petro's hand and I feel like he's very very fired up uh after that incident in the last round and he got that extra couple days of rest, too, which is huge for a guy who plays the type of minutes he plays. Maybe not quite around Haskinen's minutes, but just as much of a difference, if not more. So he will be my one in that series.

And in the Carolina-Florida series, I would pick Ajo. I'll go back to Ajo. That's the one thing that Florida has on them is high-end goal scoring think of how they got Verhage I mean I know Barkov has maybe been quieter than we've we normally see him in regular season but they he's still how many points did he finish with he had to have been over 80 right am i crazier uh reinhardt's got to be a 30 goal score duclair was a 30 goal score last year 78 68 games how many how many how many 30 goal scores do they have currently in their lineup or let's even say 25 goal scores in florida active compared to carolinas and i would say they probably double them up this year florida had a guy chuck had 40

verhege had 42 reiner had 31 and then barkoff had 23 he was and i'll say this do you say do claire he had 31 last year obviously do claire had 31 last year and he had they gotta have a couple other guys who are who are in their 20s they had a lot in them no no actually they had no other 20 goal scorers. They had... Did Montour not get 20? They had tons in the teens, though. They had like a bunch, like... I mean, Bennett had 16.

I think Ekblad had 14. Montour had 16. Luster Reinen had 17. Forsling had 13. Yeah, I mean, Lundell had 12. Stahl had 14. So, yeah, they do have

probably more goal-scoring ability than Carolina. I agree with you. There's more star power up front for Florida. I just think Carolina's system just suffocates everything. Yeah, they are like a boa constrictor out there. I'll give you an X factor for that series, Biz. The Duke, Anthony Duclair, he hasn't been lighting it up, but like I was saying about matchups earlier,

if other guys are getting covered a little bit more, it could open the door for him. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a pretty big series. Ever since he came back from being a healthy scratch in the Boston series, he's been good. He's been noticeable. Yeah, and one other note, too, in the other series, Aiden Hill last faced Dallas on

October 19th, 2017 when he was a Coyote. So is that more advantageous to the goalie or the opposition? Because they don't really have much of a book on him having never played him. One thing I will say about Aiden Hill watching him in those few games

that he played with Vegas against the Oilers, he would be making saves and after saves, he'd be like joking around with the officials and stuff. You could see his body language where he didn't seem nervous at all like more like he was just enjoying the moment so that's one thing where

i'm like oh okay well he seems confident in net well he is because he's fucking just fucking around out there enjoying it like you don't see a lot of young goalies like joshing with officials after they make a save and kind of you know live in theita Loca. So that's a good little pick there, Ari. All right. Normally the arseholes are puckered up. Little Ricky Martin in there too, busy. Yeah. You guys, any final thoughts, predictions, X-Factors? You left out so far or what?

No, I picked one a series. I'm not going to overdo it and chew up all the clock this time. I'll say this. I will look back through the games too. Robertson, to a guy that you said a snake bit in that series. He didn't score during the regular season either against Vegas in any of those games. He scored in a shootout though.

So no shootouts in the playoffs. All right, gang. Well, listen, do not forget Wednesday, six o'clock on our YouTube, the next sandbag versus Dave Portnoy and Josh,

Josh Richards struggle with that. And also game notes daily is only on game day, so the boys are going to get a couple days off. And, you know, boys, we got no hockey the next couple nights. Quick recommendation. I know none of you guys have watched the air on Amazon Prime, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon. It's a story about making a sneaker.

It sounds boring, but between the script, the acting, the directing, it plays like a nail biter, almost highly recommended. Great flick. Give it a whirl. And we'll check back on that next week. Any final thoughts? I'm pissed that there's no hockey. I know this is weird.

I'm going on a date. My wife. What's the date? Oh, shit. I was like, there's no hockey tomorrow. I'm like, no, let's go out. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'll leave the house. Oh, my Lee. Yeah. Okay. hockey tomorrow right i'm like no let's go out i'm like oh yeah i'll leave the house oh my lee yeah okay i won't i i have this position on the couch it's just you get the pillow under the knees i'm laying back tv up to the right i haven't moved there for what feels

like a month you're gonna have to get on that world championship kick in the morning and then crank it over to like some ahl playoffs on uh on some kind of feed and just say hockey's still on. I'll be betting like Arabian shuffleboard by the end of the afternoon. Dickie Bones lighted it up over there. I actually bet on the Spelling Bee one. Disc golf? Hey, disc golf? Did you bet on disc golf?

You ever seen like what they shoot into? They're able to get a bunch of points. It's crazy. They have different ones. They have have like drivers they have putters like one of their discs is a putter i don't know they're like different weights and stuff it's crazy uh quickly off top before we end is there a dumber legit dumber human being in the world than john morant oh because he was back on camera with the gun, flashing the gun around? He was back on Instagram Live in front of 100 people waving his gun around.

Are you kidding me, buddy? You have the world. He has the world by the balls. He's got his own shoe on Nike. He's one of the most predominantly well-known players in the world in the NBA. He's got all the things in the world he could ever ask for. And he's

possibly throwing it all away because he wants to be holding a gun like a tough guy in an Instagram live video. Like, you can't teach stupid like that, fellas. That's fucking unbelievable. He gave a speech like, oh, two weeks ago.

After they lost, I to behave off the court. I got to watch what I'm doing. I'm a big part of this franchise, this team. And nope, a week later, he's waving a gun around. The funniest part of that video too is like, it's his friend's Instagram live and he's kind of videoing. And you can see Ja reach into his pants and pull it out and the second he pulls out

his gun, the camera just drops. Even his friends are like dude, what the fuck are you doing here? It's crazy. Well, that guy that was Instagram living, he was already, earlier this season, banned from all Memphis games because

he was one of the guys involved with like the point, the red laser at the red laser at the Pacers team bus. So it's like, it's like you are who you hang out with. You are who you hang out with. And this guy is just unbelievably stupid. I saw Stephen A. Smith talking about it on ESPN.

It was actually an unreal, like little rant he went on and he said, there's all these people going out like, well, he's not doing anything wrong. If you're legally allowed to have the gun, if he's got a gun license, he's like, the NBA is a private business. They fucking decide

what you can and cannot do. They don't want guys in their league waving around guns. I don't care how legal the weapon is in the state you're sitting around guns i don't care how legal the weapon is in the state you sit i don't care how good your crossover is yeah the first amendment too doesn't mean your fucking boss won't fight if you say some stupid shit you know just like guys oh use your brain i don't know this i don't even knew any i think he got suspended right it was a big deal i remember hearing about a while ago and then i saw the news today i didn't know about the late what's

this laser pointer on a guy? I don't know if it was the Pacers boss or something else. There was reports that like a red dot. Yeah, the red dot. Yeah, like a red dot. Like the Terminator. Like it's Mark Wahlberg and Shooter at the top of the mountain getting ready to blow you away.

Oh my god. Because you blocked a couple of his shots against the Pacers. Yeah, it was like some post-game argument i mean like like his like on a vehicle he was was driving by and a couple uh the guys on the other side noticed like that you know that red dot on him or whatever and i don't know if it was a fucking point or a laser tag i wish we got to ask chuck about that because he would have probably just had an amazing he couldn't handle it after the RA shooting incident to the three point shooting thing. He just walked.

No shooting zone. Hopefully everybody enjoyed Charles. Cause like, again, he was so fucking good and hopefully you all enjoyed him. And we'll go back to that one again and again, cause it was so good, but boys,

a great first couple of rounds. Great episode. I think that about wraps it up. So we'll see you next week and enjoy the week. Enjoy the playoffs. And I'll catch you later. Can't wait. You guys.

Great send off. All right. Catch you on the flip side, man. Toodaloo. Toodaloo, guys!