The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA Day One Reactions, Plus Blake Griffin and Peter Berg (Two Interviews!)

Episode Date: October 21, 2026

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons discusses six NBA topics from Opening Night. Then, Blake Griffin joins Bill to talk about hosting an NBA show, his basketball career, and being a sports parent. Finally, filmmaker Peter Berg hops on to talk about his new film, ‘Mosquito Bowl,’ opening a boxing gym, and much more! (0:00) Intro (2:41) Six-pack of NBA topics from Opening Night (26:29) Blake Griffin on hosting an NBA show, and Jalen Brunson (39:23) Blake’s career and the Clippers (58:35) The Celtics and Tim Duncan (01:08:49) Blake's post-NBA career, the 76ers, and the new season (01:38:11) Sports parenting (01:48:27) ‘Friday Night Lights’ and ‘Hancock’ with Peter Berg (02:06:18) ’30 for 30’ Boxing Gym, and fighting Canelo (02:26:53) Moving to L.A. and growing up with Ari Emanuel (02:38:50) ‘Mosquito Bowl’ and war films (02:55:33) ‘Friday Night Lights’ stories Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Blake Griffin and Peter Berg Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo Now lime comes first. Flip the Sip. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unlock unlimited free grocery delivery with PC Express Pass. Shop online and get the same low No Frills prices delivered. Get your first year of PC Express Pass for just $2.50 a month. Learn more at no frills.ca. The Bill Simmons Podcasts brought to by the Ringer Podcast Network where I put up a new rewatchable on Monday night. We did It Follows, which I think is one of the best horror movies the last 15 years. That's our third horror movie of the month.

You know what that means? We're going to have to do a fourth one. next week, next Monday, and we're going to be doing it live on Netflix at 5 p.m. ET. I'll tell you the movie on Thursday, but we've done it follows. We've done Texas Chainsaw Masker, and we've done Friday the 13th. Three signature horror movies for my favorite month, October, because not only was it the month Michael Myers kept coming back again, and it's a horror movie month, and I love Halloween in general, but we also have football, we have the World Series, we have college football,

and we have the NBA coming back, which I'm going to be talking about at the very top of this podcast, three NBA games, and all them were interesting for different reasons. So I'm going to open a six pack of thoughts on that. And then I have two interviews. Yeah, usually some, it's a rarity for me to do to one interview, but there were two people that we got to do in person that I really like talking to. Blake Griffin, we talked about the NBA season that's coming up. We did that today. We talked about youth sports. We talked about his new Amazon show, all kinds of things. And then Peter Berg, my old buddy, who I think the first time he was on this podcast, I was, it might even been pre-Grantland at ESPN.

He's been on a few times. He has a new movie coming out called the Mosquito Bowl, which is excellent. And we talked about that. We talked about a variety of topics. So a double interview pod for you. We're going to take a break. We're going to come back right after Pearl Jam.

And I'm going to talk about basketball. This is the Bill Simmons podcast presented by Fandulul. Make every NFL week more rewarding with Fandululul rewards club. You heard me. Just bet like you normally would earn points. eligible, subtle bets, win or lose. Keep collecting points, level up, and unlock bigger rewards. So keep an eye on your rewards club progress and see what you can unlock.

This is your most rewarding season ever, and it's with Fandul. 21 plus select states are 18 plus D.C or Wyoming. Game problem, call 1-800-Gambor. Call 8887-7-77 or visit ccg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, recording this part of the podcast right after OkC, San Antonio. the third opening night game of a season that I think is the most anticipated one that we've had maybe since LeBron's first Miami season, 2010-11 that season, where a lot of young stars, a lot of subplots, just all kinds of things in motion.

I'm going to open a six-pack for all the basketball I watch today. It's brought to you by Michaela Ultra. It's a special part of today's episode. We're going to unpack six major things that I saw today. Brought to you by Michaelo Alto, the official beer sponsor. of the NBA and a personal favorite beer of mine. Okay, first thing in the six-pack. So I had OKC winning the title. I mentioned that last week or the week before. And I was debating about OKC versus Indiana or OKC versus New York in the finals. And I'm going to take OKC over Indiana is going to be my final

pick just because I like the 31 odds. And it'll be more fun to be like the rematch. I called it. Okay. Nothing that I saw tonight changed my mind about that finals pick. And if anything, I felt strengthened mentally. I feel good about my OKC pick because you could tell they didn't have a year from hell last year, but not everything went right. And they really just didn't get much of Jaylon Williams the way they thought they would get. And SGA had this weird thing with the spurs that came out of nowhere. Wemby felt pretty confident against them last year. They lose a game seven at home. him. And this was a team tonight that just seemed like they had this game circled and this matchup circled all summer. You could see SGA in his gym in the bowels of Canada, wherever the hell he was over the summer, just pretending he was going against Castle and all these guys. And Wembe, he probably had some guy holding a broomstick that he had to shoot over. But SGA was great tonight. I mean, that was about as well as he's played against San Antonio. And the big thing

was they lost the word, they lost Wiggins, they lost Isaiah Joe, which, you know, we're not major pieces of their 25 title run except for, for Dort, but you always want to know that you can replenish it. And none of they replenish it. Like just the barrier texted about, or tweeted about the OKC pipeline, what a triumph just watching this game was,

where you have McCain, who they trade for midseason last year, who now feels like he's more valuable to them than A.J. Mitchell, who was awesome last year. And then Mara was the big thing that he comes in. They draft on 12th. I had my doubts, but I thought it was the right range for him to go just because of his size. And that, you know, you'd want to take him eighth.

But 12th is right around like, you know, glorified role player, basically. And they'd take him because they need him for for this. And watching him go against one be, he only played 10 minutes, but it was 10 loud minutes. And it really felt like, you know, it felt important. It's weird. I try never to overreact during game one of an 82 game season. We're going to talk about some other stuff later. But this marathon felt important because it reminded me of in the 80s with Andre the Giant.

And the WW would try to bring these people that, you know, villains that could fight him, that would be realistic for, you know, that you would think Andre the Giant was in danger. And they were never the size of Andre the Giant, but they'd kill her Khan at one point. But then they brought in Big John Stud. And I remember when they brought him Big John Stud thinking, oh, man, this is actually like semi-realistic. He might be able to battle the Giant here. And Mara came in and, you know, he's not going to shut down Wembe. I'm sure Wemble will have great games against him at various points over the next five to 10 years.

Maybe Mara won't stay healthy. Who knows what's going to happen? But it was the first time you saw somebody in O KC who was able to go toe to toe, height to hate to hit with him, and make Wembe at least think about what he was doing. So he looked great in the preseason. He's clearly going to play. I thought the fact that he played in this game and played. and played meaningful minutes

was the second most meaningful thing about this game for OKC. The first thing was just Jaylon Williams, who they didn't really have last year being back to where he was. So I just think they have a better team than San Antonio, but I think it's like this much better.

And injuries could change it. Who knows how it's going to shake out with the minutes on OKC? Kason Wallace just signed. But everything I saw tonight reinforced what I thought going into the season, that OKC is the team to beat. And San Antonio caught them last year, and I don't think they're going to catch them again. So that's where I stand in mid-October,

game one. We have 70, 81 games to go plus 10 weeks of the playoffs. But right now, feel pretty good about OKC. The other thing, second part of the six-pack, no love lost. We don't get to say this that often with sports where it actually means something. And it means something that, I don't know if you saw, I think a thing of Spittle just flow out of my up. No love lost between these teams. This is not, these aren't teams that are going to be going to the movies during off days. These aren't teams that are going to be doing five-step handshakes with each other. I think there's genuine dislike on both sides. In general, I don't think Wembe really wants to be friends with anybody on the other team, but you could feel it. There was one

classic NBA non-altrication altercation in this game where somehow all three Williams in the game got technicals on OKC. But no love loss. And in general, I think that's going to be a theme for this season. I think there's, I think the days of everybody being too buddy buddy seem like they're done. It really feels like this year we're going to have some robberies. You can feel in the Detroit Boston game. You can feel with whoever the Knicks are playing. LeBron has a lot of people that, a lot of teams that are going to want to go against him for different reasons.

We covered that in a podcast earlier. Minnesota is going to be talking shit the whole season. Houston seems to annoy everybody. you go on and on, but I think this is going to be a theme of this season. I think it's going to be a testier season than usual. It won't be like the 1977 season when we had so many fights that everything crested when Kareem broke his hand and then Kermit Washington sadly through the most famous punch in NBA history. But it won't be like that.

We're not going to have, it's not going to be like hockey. By the way, what's happening with hockey this year? See, it feels like there's more fights and just people getting popped than I can remember. or maybe that's just my social media algorithm. The hockey fighting scares me. It's like they're too good at hockey fighting now. I don't know if you've watched this, but they're really like, they're beating it.

They kind of know how to have leverage and they're really like swinging haymakers and I miss the old days when they just fought like four-year-old kids. Anyway, OKC in San Antonio really dislike each other. And I had to mention that in the six-pack. Not quite worthy of the six-pack, but I did notice Billy Donovan on the San Antonio bench. you know, I can't say that was like the greatest Mitch Johnson game tonight. But I do wonder if they started out a little slower than usual.

I'm not sure I would have left Billy Donovan on my bench from Mitch Johnson. They're like, no, no, no, I'm good. I'm good with having a famous coach kind of lurking. If anything goes wrong here. Okay. Next thing for the six-pack, the 2006-27 Philadelphia 76ers who won tonight. They won in New York, which was a given considering they had a long ring ceremony. You're not going to be with this, but Ben Steller was filming stuff with his camera.

Yeah. You're not going to be with this, but Fat Joe and Tracy Morgan and Spike Lee were there. Yeah. You knew they were going to lose. I didn't bet it. I should have bet it. I kind of wanted to see what we're getting from the Sixers thing. But here's my big takeaway from this game.

I felt this way before the season. I went slightly under on the Sixers for their over under total because I didn't know how these guys were going to mesh. I had a lot of concerns. We have some health stuff. We got to see all of them play together tonight. Just a really fun team to watch.

I had a good time. There's a lot of subplots and plots and things happening during a Sixers game. Who's going to have the ball for specific stretches? Embed is just a roller coaster at this point.

He looks unstoppable one play. He looks like his career is about to be over. The next play. He's all over the place. I didn't think he was particularly good or impactful today. And yet he was impactful.

He made a couple of big defensive plays near the end. The Knicks are inexplicably trapping the maxi high screen. And they're turning into a four and three with them beat at the top of the key. And he's just killing them. He's either passing an edge comb or he could shoot. So that whole experience was all over the map, but kind of in a fun way. LeBron, just in a different uniform, trying to figure out where he fits in. And sometimes he'll put his head down and he'll get like the fast.

break layup or have a nice pass and he'll do LeBron stuff. Other times he was just standing in the corner. And I think he seemed okay with it because I think all he cares about is April, May and June at this point. You had the Jalen Brown piece where he's, you know, the guy on a 56 win team last year. And this year, in the first quarter, he's just in the corner a bunch. And it was like, oh, man. And then very smartly, they figured out how to let everybody kind of drive the golf cart,

right? this is like an 18 hole four hour match where they have a five sum and only two guys can drive the carts and everybody kind of takes turns who gets to drive for a hole and you really felt that with the way they ran their offense

it was like oh here's a four minute Jalen Brown stretch here oh here this is going to be the maxi stretch the big thing I liked about Philly which I think you could have predicted but it was interesting to watch where Embig came out and then they played this fast

lineup near the end of the second quarter with was LeBron and Brown and three guards basically. And they started really flying up and down the floor. And I think they're going to be able to do that with certain lineups. And I think LeBron at this point in his career actually really likes playing that way sometimes. Jalen has always been pretty good at it. And then Maxie is one of the best guys in the league at it. Edgecombe obviously wants to do that. Simons, who I really liked when he was on the Celtics last year and they, you know, they dumped them for tax reasons. I don't know where the other contenders were for him because I think he's a legitimate third guard, but I thought he was good too coming off the bench. And, you know, Maxie, one of the seven,

eight, nine, ten best players in the league at this point. So, you know, this was a good night for the six years. I think they're going to be fun. I think they're going to be really up and down. I think there's, it's going to be nights when you could feel it. There were some defensive lapses. I think Embedd on defense, sometimes just isn't going to move. I think they're going to get really hurt on rebounding, especially when they do those smaller lineups. And we'll see how often everyone is happy. Like LeBron at 13 points tonight. And if LeBron is, his stat line is going to be 13, 8, and 7 every game, it's probably

the best for them, but I don't know if he's going to want that. So there's some stuff to sort out. And this is why he can't get excited about game one. With that said, really fun team to watch. And I can't wait to watch them again and I had a good time. fourth one Nick's got the rings fourth one on the six pack

this was the number one hell has frozen over in sports moment that was available and now it is either the bills Vikings, Browns or Lions went in the Super Bowl I think those would be the four

which by the way Tampa versus Milwaukee is going to be our World Series neither of them have won the World Series so one drought has to end it also led to a joke my buddy Jacko and I

have been making forever whenever there's a bad world series name to promote it. One of us would call the other. Now we have text, but we used to actually just actually call each other and do the joke about what the Fox commercial would be for it. So he texted me today. Rays, Brewers, Camdenaro, Mizorowski, it's the World Series on Fox. I actually am excited for this World Series, but Tampa Bay, Milwaukee, good luck, Fox. Raise plus 148, FYI. I'm picking the race. Anyway, The Knicks got the rings.

We'll see. I went under on them for the season because after you climb the mountain like that, it's going to be up and down the next year. We'll see what the health is going to be. No Mitchell Robinson. Drummond came in and the first half looked terrible in the second half.

That's going to be the drummond experience. They're a little bit deeper. And I just think they have a big bullseye on their heads night after night. You saw it tonight with Philly. That was a huge game for Philly for a variety of reasons. but then the next time, the next play, it's going to be a huge game for the next team. And that's just how it's going to go.

I think that's, I still think they're going to be in the high 40s, and I don't think they're going to have home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs would be my pick. But they're fine. I actually thought they're going to win the game today. Brunson missed that little eight-footer with like three minutes left. I think it would have cut it to two.

And that was kind of the moment. We're like, ah, yeah, they're not going to win tonight. But they're fine. I'm not worried about them at all. Fifth thing on the six-pack. the 3 p.m. Eastern time, first game, Detroit First Boston. So I had Blake Griffin who's coming up next. And we were recording at 1.30 Pacific time, which I agreed to last week. It's like, sure. Yeah, it's before basketball. That'd be great. And I forgot that the Celtics were going to be playing. So I watched the first half of the Celtic game.

They looked magnificent. Paul George got to the point my dad is sending me, Paul George, I always liked them. Texas. Celtics look fantastic. And then Blake shows up. We do the podcast you're about to listen to after the break and watch, hopefully watch, maybe watch and listen to. Finish the podcast and my producer, Gara Howell says me the Celtics lost by eight. I can't say I was shocked, but I was definitely bummed

because it was one of those things where it just would have been the perfect way to start the season. They trade Jalen Brown. Paul George looked awesome. And Paul George is actually awesome the whole game. I mean, he had almost 30 points, you know, near the end of the third quarter. What did he finish with like 37, 40? I don't remember.

But Detroit came back. Duncan Robinson, Giovante Green, hit a bunch of threes in Detroit, who got nothing from John Collins, who was terrible in that game. It was one of their big moves. But some of the other guys stepped up. Cade and Duren look great together. And they really cracked down on defense. And it was kind of an alarming Jason Tatum game.

And this is why you can't overreact after. game one. But Jason Tatum was terrible. I actually liked a lot of the shots he took. They just weren't going in. And then I thought in the fourth quarter, he kind of panicked for him. They didn't panic, but you know what I mean? He started really pressing and did some weird stuff. He only went to the free throw line once. He was six for 23. He had 11 assists. But, you know, you trade Jaylon Brown, which I'm sure, I don't think he told the team to trade him, but I don't think he was shedding tears afterwards. And you can see from everybody's reaction since that trade, it seemed like it had kind of come to an end for him and him and Jalen. But this is different level

of pressure now for him because there's not a proven next guy in this team that you know can show up in a game in Detroit for 25 to 30 points. This was Jalen last year. Jalen loved playing in Detroit. Jalen was guarding Cade and was doing all these things and brought a physicality. And and a confidence, which when that's gone, now you're leaning on Paul George, who again, looked like 2019 Paul George said. I'm not sure how long it's going to last. And then guys that, you know, finger crossed guys.

I love Peyton Pritchard. Some Knightsy doesn't have it. I don't know what Knightsie's going to have it. Derek White, great player. Everybody would love to have him. I don't know if he's going to have a quarter to quarter. All the centers, the lob threats, the offensive rebounds, that stuff can come.

go the three-point shooting you never know and none of this works if tatum's going to play like he did today and i don't think he will he's not going to go six for 23 all season but you know i didn't need to go online after this game to know what the online discourse was like i could look at my texts all my friends who don't like the celtics who were who were teasing me after about tatum oh my god this is so sad you know like sarcastic text anthony i'm talking to you specifically I kept receipts, as I told you. But yeah, this is Jaylen is the security blanket that is now gone on the Jason Tatum superstar bed.

And he's going to have to figure out. He can't have nights like he did today. Needs to get to the line. They need to get in the paint in general. The one thing, again, game one, can't over yet. The one thing that is a little bit alarming, you watch teams like OKC and even San Antonio and they just have multiple guys crashing into the paint, slashing kick, creating shots.

And it was hard for the Celtics to get in the paint in that game. Now, they're playing Detroit, who has Thompson and Cade and Dern, like, a really smart defensive team. And Thompson's fantastic, and Thompson was going against Tatum a bunch of the times here. But, you know, they really, Pritchard is their only guy who can reliably kind of create shots, get in the paint other than Tatum.

So when he's not getting in the paint, now you're just shooting jumpers in three, which stopped going in the second half, and that's how you blow a 22-point lead. I'm not sure NBA leads even matter anymore until there's like three minutes left. This game was 72 to 50 with 20 minutes left. This game was 99-89-Seltics with eight minutes left.

They lost by eight. Detroit had a 23-0 run at some point. I just, it would seem like if you're live-b betting, you just live-bed anybody that goes down 15 or 20. But big picture Tatum, different kind of spotlight this year. He's never had this before. And I was a little concerned. I didn't feel like he was getting by people like he normally does.

And again, that might have been Detroit. So that's the one thing I'm watching. The other thing I didn't like was Missoula is just, I like Missoula. But he coached a game today like it was a hockey game. I think we had like 420 lineups in this game. And it was never, there was never a rhythm of a lineup that felt like it was out there for more than like four or five minutes. I don't know. I just don't know that you win four straight playoff rounds that way.

OKC is probably the closest to be able to get away from it. Like even today, McCain was the one that finished the Spurs game. But I still feel like you need to know who your five are. That's probably Philly's biggest advantage. Like whatever happens with the bench, injuries, who's playing or not playing over the course of six months. Ultimately, they know those five guys. are going to be together at the end of games, right? That was the biggest strength of the Knicks last year.

Whatever they got for their bench was a bonus, but they knew who their five was at the end of games. And I think the Celtics, A, they don't know who the five is. They started Jordan Walsh today, who I think played one of the least out of any swing. But they need to figure out it's probably Pritchard and White, and it's Tatum, and it's a center, and it's Paul George. But then maybe it's not a center.

And maybe it's Tatum. as a small ball center, and maybe Shireman needs to be out there. Maybe Pritchard doesn't need to be out there. These are decisions that you're just making game to game. And I think it's good for the regular season. And I still think this team will be in the mid-50s. That was, I think, my favorite bet, 50-plus bets for the wins for the Celtics.

When we get to the playoffs, they better figure out who the five is at the end of these games. My money would be on Shireman having a bigger impact as a season long. Hugo was terrible. today. Hugo had the unbelievable preseason. And I think he only played nine minutes today. It wasn't about the offense. Cade kind of abused him a couple times. Like he went in specifically to guard Cade and couldn't do it. So opening the floodgates for everybody going, oh, that's the guy you wouldn't give up in the honest trade. That's not the actual story of the honest trade. Just to remind

everybody one more time. They made one offer for Yannis. They did not make a second offer. And that's what happened. It was like, we're not putting in Hugo, but here's our other offer. they made one offer and I don't think they really wanted yannis. I hate to break it to you, but that's how it played out. And I think they really wanted Paul George and you saw today. Maybe they were right, but we'll see. Anyway, that's the six pack. I can't remember if that was six or five.

Can't wait to watch basketball the rest of the week. I think I'm most excited to watch the Pacers and to see Halber back with Zubots. They're playing in New Orleans. That's probably my favorite one. But the NBA is back. I'm pumped. The six pack was brought to by Mikhailobulcha. They're not just a superior later.

here, Mikkelow Vulture, also determined to bring fans closer the game this year with a chance to win because nothing beats standing alongside your favorite players as to celebrate the wins. Enter now at michelobulcher.com slash courtside. Mikhailovulture, courtside, 26 to 27. No purchase necessary opening U.S. Residence 21 plus begins on October 1st, 2026, ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods, see official rules at micklowbulture.com slash courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details.

We're going to take a break. talk a ton of basketball stuff with Blake Griffin, who was great. And then we're taking a break from Matt and Peter Berg. So Blake and Pete coming up next. The Bill Simmons podcast brought you by Fandul. It's going to be the most rewarding NBA season we've ever had. Thanks to Fandall. Thanks to the NBA, because we're headed for an awesome season. Do you like centers making 35 footers with zero seconds left in the shot clock? I do. You like half court shots for a half time? Sure. Let it fly, man. That's what we're doing. doing for this NBA season. Look out for Fandual Rewards Club, exclusive offers, surprises,

much more. The Wednesday night games, I like the Pacers in New Orleans. I like them to just lay the smack down, get it going. I like the Pacers in general. I actually, even them with OKC as a finals bet. I think it's like 30 to one. Probably my favorite long shot finals bet. Anyway, every week, check the Fandle out to see what's waiting for you. And it could be something like the Pacers. Make this the most rewarding season ever with Fandual. Download the app to get started. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC or Wyoming. Restrictions apply.

See terms at sportsbook.fando.com. 1-800-Gandboar call 888-7-7-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by 7-Up. All right. They've summoned conspiracy bill. He's here. Ever notice lemon is everywhere from lemon recipes to lemon sent in cleaning supplies? When it comes to lemon lime,

Why is lemon always first? There's a reason, a shadowy organization called the Aluminate. It's been patting the stats, keeping big lemon in the weed for decades. We should be doing a wait-a-second podcast about this. But the sip is about to be flipped. Seven up. It's fighting back. It's swapping lemon lime for their new lime lemon soda.

You heard me. Now a lime comes first. Seven up. Flip the sip. Blake Griffin is here, TV host, former NBA player. The first time we did something, Grantland, I'm going to say 2012, we did some stuff for... No, you came in L.A. And we filmed some videos, including I showed you my dunk video from when I was in high school and you roasted it.

I remember that. And that was it. I've known each other ever since. Might have been. I don't even remember. But we also did something all-star. I can't remember what it was. And we did something last year.

We did a failed attempt to, I torture you. Hollywood, baby. Yeah. What you'd tell? Well, we did. It was like a greatest game's idea. And it was me, you, and Zach. Who was the game great for?

Well, that's what I guess, I guess we still had to hash stuff out. So we showed you the Clippers game when you guys blew the big lead against Houston, when James Hardin got benched. And then somehow you lost the 20 plus point lead. Yeah. And you hadn't watched the game. since. And part of it was like we're into this game. Like a pseudo-documentary,

but also like your reactions as we're watching in real time. And you started out with your body language like now and by the end you were like this. It's like your girlfriend broke up with you in high school. It was tough. You were traumatized though. You had to watch that. You don't watch your own stuff. I'd watch film but never set and like

watch the complete like meltdown since the day after probably. Yeah. And then you see clips every now and then on social media that you just can't hell but see, but tough. Would you get those every once in a while? I always get those with the Boston teams. I'm like, ah, hell and catch, ah. If you're, my whole algorithm is just sports.

So it's like you're bound to see, you know, it's a, it's a nice reminder of your past failures. I want to talk quipper stuff. We have to mention the step back with Blake Griffin. Yes. Premiers today on Amazon. New episodes dropping weekly, YouTube and Prime Video? YouTube and Prime Video.

How many weekly is weekly? We're doing 14 weeks. God damn. That's like a real run. Yeah, it'll take us through like mid-January and then, you know, start working on season two. And then NBA and Prime tipping off second season Friday, 6.30 p.m. ET, Nick Celtics, Rocket Spurs. You start using your hands when you're on that?

Yeah, I'm a big, like... Do this? That's a great point, Steve. Thank you. The one hand, two hand. Yeah. And you had a pivot because I usually don't sit on the end, so I've learned to like, you know, make sure I include... Middle seat's tough. Eudonnasid's here.

When it's four of us, Udana sits here, me, Steve, Dirk, Taylor Rook's down there. So it's like a lot this way, and I have to always try to remember to include UD. It's things you don't think about. Well, it's like the dinner table where you're in the middle of like a 10-person table. Yeah. And you, it's like the curb episode. Yeah, the worst is when it's two conversations going this way and you're just kind of sitting there. You're like, just trying to find eye contact with somebody to carry a conversation.

I thought the show was good, though. And obviously, having done some of those shows, Taylor, was the key because she's an actual point card. She was setting everybody up. You guys were comfortable. She just wanted everybody else to win. Watching really good hosts, like herself work, she'd make it look really easy.

But then you also are watching, being on the desk and watching her get us in and out of stuff, read the prompter, come to us. Like you're like, oh, this is like a, this is a very particular talent. And they are so good at it. It's basically point card. It's like running in offense, trying to figure out. when you have to get a shot. That's what we refer to her as our point guard.

She gets us in and out of everything. Yeah, and the chemistry was good. But you also had Dirk and Nash have known each other forever. Yeah, yeah. They're just, there's hanging out. Do you ever feel like, because you did this on the stepback, I saw the episode I saw, which was excellent, was the sports journalism show. And you're talking about take culture.

But you're on these shows and you want to have takes, but you're also a player. And you have to, you're going to have, at some point you're going to have to be harsh a little bit on people. But then there's that line of how far. do I go. I mean, I had to do it. I did last year. We had a Friday night. We weren't even covering the game. But John Morant was in Memphis miserable. I remember that. And was kind of looked like he checked out. Yeah. The beginning when I was like, I don't know if I want to do this, like having to talk about guys, I realized there's a way to do it. Right. Like if a guy goes three for 17, I don't need to come on and be like, this guy's horror. Like, no one wanted to have a better

shooting day than that guy. Yeah. So it's not it's not about it's not about harping on somebody who played bad. It's about pointing out things that maybe he could do better. And and there's a, I think there's a way to do it. And we sort of found that a little bit last year. Yeah. But I'm not, that's not to say we're not, we're definitely not shying away from being critical. But when it calls for it. Yeah, because ESPN fell into the habit before they got inside the NBA, they would go to halftime. Yeah. And the guys would just pick which guy needed to step up. Like, Billy Griffin needs to step up. Two for eight.

What do you do, Blake Griffin? Come on. Come on. Catch and go. Steps up. Shoot it. That was like the entire show. Just don't be able to step up.

It seems like you had higher aspirations. Yeah, I did. I did. The bar was kind of low. Not for the TNT guys. Those guys, probably the greatest show in sports. Not only sports, but comedy too. Yeah.

But they're in a different stratosphere. But I think in terms of like sports analysis, live in-game, pre-game, half-time post. Bar was, I don't want to say it was low, but I think a lot of people have come up to us and been like, man, it's so great that you guys talk basketball. And it's like, that should be the most obvious thing that you talk about.

Like, why are you not breaking stuff down more? The pre-game's tough. I've done those shows. Pre-game's tough because it's like, I think so-and-so is going to have a good game, but you're talking out of your ass. You've no idea what's going to happen. Who's watching?

Like, most people aren't really watching. At this point, no. Yeah. I think in different decades, probably more. Yeah. I guess East Coast, too. It also being, shooting here in Los Angeles, starting pregame at 3.30 in the afternoon, it feels like who's watching.

But at least it's like 6.30 in the East Coast. The post game's better for you guys, though, because then you can play off what happened. Yeah. And it was always the PCSP and never understood like that. It's actually, that's going to be the best content because we just watch the game. Now we have opinions. Yeah. Now we can interpret what happened.

And halftime is goes by like that. Oh my God. It's like you, you know, you might have 30 seconds, maybe to get your point across. Well, you have five people too. So it's, yeah. The danger with those half times is it turns into you finish talking. Yeah. And now it's Eudanus and nobody's listening to anybody.

And there's just like, I'm waiting for Blake to finish because then I got to say my thing. Yeah. And that's just kind of the show. But I didn't feel like you guys were totally doing that. We try not to. I mean, it's also the show evolves. We were, I mean, Derek Steve and I had never done a studio thing before. Eudanus had done a little bit with ESPN.

Obviously, Taylor's Taylor. So we were literally figuring out how to make this show as we were making it. And it got so much, like, the very first show we ever did. You know, they're like, we're up there at the desk 30 minutes before. And they're like 30 minutes to air. And everybody's like, oh, like, writing stuff down. Like so not speaking to each other at all except for maybe little things. Then you cut to like the last show, you know, in the playoffs.

Me and UD are like taught. like five seconds. I'm like, hold on. Right. That's when you know you're in a good spot. Yeah, so much more relaxed. So this year I'm excited to like go in with that mindset of like, all right, we know kind of what we're doing now. You know what to expect. The over preparing is the big mistake people make. Yeah. When I was doing content, I would have like 24 points for 20 minutes show and I have like,

I'm going to say that. And then you realize halfway through you're like, I just have three points. Yeah. And just really sell those three points hard and wing the rest of it. If you know, like if you are prepared, you don't have to really have any points. And it's almost better because you just like, you can just free, free flow, like thought off of somebody. Yeah. But like pregame sometimes a little bit more structured, right? You got to like, you have to hit certain stuff. Yeah.

We're going to roll a video here. Can you talk about Assar Thompson for a second? Yeah. And you kind of have to have your space and all that, which I understand. But, man, the best conversations are, honestly, the best conversations are a green room. sitting there with Dirk, Steve, UD. Those are like legends who played for, had unbelievable careers.

I'm just sitting in there, you know, you're just like sitting in there listening to them talk. They're like, this is, this is, I mean, I talk a little bit too. We had the first year I did it was with magic. And magic in the green room was the greatest of all time. Was he sitting watching game, like locked in? He would watch everything. Wow.

And he was really, and we'd have the ATVs. What year was this? This was the 12, 13th season. this was the year after the lockout he was still doing it yeah wow i don't really remember that yeah so he would uh he was just awesome in the green room and then on tv he's magic so he had to be careful but it was like man so we were always talking about how do we get green room magic and we we got closer to green room magic as it went along but he would there was always lines who wasn't crossed how was his like analysis of the game that far removed like i know he's a brilliant basketball

mind, but was he, was, you know, because you can kind of tell talking to certain guys, like, they, their, their philosophy is a little bit more, excuse a little bit more old school. Was he, was he able to see, like, the pushing of the envelope the other way with, like, running gun. No, it was, it was interesting because the year we did that, that was when the league was really starting to shift. That was, like, Steph's first year. Yeah.

And the, the big thing was the Rudy Gay trade that year. They traded Rudy Gay for, like, Tachan Prince, who was pretty old. Yeah. You know, it was like one of those three-quarters first year. dollar trade, but Memphis got better. Yeah. And we were arguing about it. We had a great argument on the show about it. And

the Magic Wilbon side was like, Rudy Gay, that's who you go to the end of the games. You can't trade a guy like that. And I was on more of like, the analytics say they're better, they're better when it doesn't play. And it just felt like this moment where the analytics were coming, the three-point shooting was

coming, like a different style. Something was happening that was different than when Magic played. Do you think we've swung too far? I do. Yeah, I do. I agree. But I also am not like a get rid of analytic.

I think there is a perfect middle ground and some teams have found it. You don't have found it the Knicks who won the title. When they needed two-point shots, they got Jalen Brunson 10-footers. Okay, what was is Jalen Brunson an analytics like let's go get him? That's our guy? Is that an analytics move or is that somebody truly knowing basketball? Because he is, he is both. he did it in the playoffs though

when on Dallas so there was an actual track record of him at the highest level being able to get points. Like applying the analytics team. But anyone who thought 28 a game and being the finals MVP I mean I think he

Nobody nobody It's insane. If somebody says they saw this coming they're lying. I loved it when they got him Yeah but I also didn't think he could be the number one guy

on a title team. Yeah I didn't either. Because he did it. in the playoffs. I was like, well, we've seen it. It's not like they're crossing their fingers. What he does with his with his like his skill set and what he gets out of like his

not the, I mean shorter. That was the big thing. Like how can a shorter point guard do? What he gets out of his skill set and his ability is incredibly impressive. Well, one thing I was thinking with him and just with hoops in general is this

eight, nine months season. and how much harder basketball is to play now. And these kind of outlier guys, like Brunson just never got tired, right? Yeah. It's almost like when you watch Messi in soccer. Yeah. These guys that are lower the ground,

whereas, like, you played with Chris, I always felt like, by the time we got to like round three, both of you guys, you could feel the grind of the season as the playoffs one along. For some reason, I don't feel it with him in the same way.

And I don't know what it is. He's just the way he's built to the ground, how he's used to contact. He doesn't see. seem to get tired. I'll tell you what, rattling off however many straight helps. And also sweeping second round, sweeping third round. Right. They only played like 19 playoff games.

Yeah. And it's a testament to how good they were. But it's also, that also really helps, you know, when you're going into the finals. Well, when we did that game that when we did that pilot show. Yeah. And you were saying, you were noticing how tired you were by half time. And you were like, see, and you were like rewind that. Like that's, I'm just tired there.

Like I have no legs from this point on in the game. I know I don't. I can watch it. But for Brunson, it doesn't really... No. And he, I mean, he's a workhorse. I mean, he's got the ball on his hands so much, but he's great. Who was the hardest guy did you, when you played, this is such like a lame podcast question.

But who is, because I was feel like when people are trying to guard Brunson, they're so confounded by him. Yeah. And his herky jerky shit and it's big guys, small guys. Who is the guy in your era that was like that? Zach Randolph was so hard to go. Like, guys that I actually guarded. Zach Randolph was, you knew he was going left, but he was also so strong.

He also had the little rock and he had the little jumper, but then he'd just get left, and then you'd be with him. He wasn't blowing by you, really. And then he just, a little bump, you know, over the top. Lamarcus Alders was really, really hard to guard. Zach Randolph, you guys didn't like each other.

Yeah, we went at it. There was a lot of. We went at it. I mean, the Memphis Clippers teams were, that was the other thing, too. It felt like every single first year of the playoffs, we went seven rounds or seven games against Memphis, lost to San Antonio.

Second round or second year. And that was the lackout season. So you guys, that was, right. Yeah, that was like an insane amount of basketball. And then,

and then we went seven games with Golden State and then went to Oklahoma City, had that collapse. And then we went, seven games with San Antonio, played Houston. So it was like, but we were just, I mean, we would just...

Nothing was eating. Yeah. But that's the playoffs. What did you think the best team was? We talked about this the last time I saw it. That we had? The 14 team or the 15th team? That year we lost to...

That year we lost to Houston, I thought it was our best shot. Yeah. We, like, that was the... Remember, C.P. got hurt. Game 7 came back, hit the floater over Tim Duncan. Then we lost... And you almost died on the follow-up out. I went to that game.

You literally almost broke your neck on that. And I also wouldn't have. gotten the tip because there was no time left, but like, you know, I don't, I don't know where you were doing. You were five feet in the air. Well, so CP was, I was rolling. CP was going down. He shot that floater. So I was going for like, did somebody undercut you? It was, I think it was Danny Green. Not really undercutt. He just came to. Yeah. I think it was Danny Green. Yeah, because that would have been classic quippers. If Chris made the greatest shot of his career, but you like broke your collarbone on the same play. It's like,

here the quippers. Here we go. Yeah, I think that was our best. And then CP had to sit out two games. Yeah, with his hamstring or groin. And we went to Houston, stole first game, lost the second. CP came back and we were rolling. Well, we talked about the, it's just really one of the stupidest results of a game, the things that had to happen for you guys not to advance with Brewer. Josh Smith, Corey Brewer. You guys go ice, ice cold, all-time ice cold, and it's just happens sometimes.

And it wasn't even like we were just jacking threes when ice cold. It was like nothing was working. It was among the weirdest sporting events I've ever attended. Because the crowd felt like it was coming the entire fourth quarter because that's the fan base. Now that same fan base. Now they have no first round picks for the next five years. Basically five years starting in what 29 or 29-33. And they don't have their picks these next two.

But so you live here still watching from afar, what were you thinking? Watching the quippers just completely get decimated here. Um, like, you know, I've said this publicly a couple times now. Like, I feel very bad for the fans. Yeah. It's just like, it's really, it's hard to use the word not fair, but like, you know, something that's out of their control. I also feel bad for the guys who are just getting to that team.

You know, the guys who got traded for Kauai. You know, like a Brandon Ingram, I know he's banged up, but like, he's 29. Right. And like, you know, those, like, that's a very. pivotal time of like you're either on a team that can get to that next level or you're not and like year a year or two years wasted like can alter the course of your career so um you know you feel you feel bad for that i mean it's not like they're going to a team where like they have no post they can't play in the post season like they can still be good tyloo's a good great coach like those you think he's

going to be there i don't know i don't know i mean if i was i mean if you're him i guess you're him i you'd, you know, maybe I want to go do something else. It's tough because after, if you've won the title, you can't be like, I got to go chase the title because you haven't won the title. Right. But he has won the title.

And he's got a good setup and he gets to live in LA. And like, Balmer's like, I mean, you know, if you're, even if you're like a Clipper fan, like at least you have an owner who's really trying. Right. Like, doing too much, but trying. Did you make up with him or no? Excuse me.

I haven't spoke to him. I've spoken to them since I've been That was tough. For the people listening who don't remember or watching, I guess we're watching unless these days. But you signed a pretty giant extension and then they traded you six months later.

Yeah. But that's not the, getting traded is not the thing that like, I guess getting traded does kind of hurt if you expect to be there. But it's not, you understand that.

You, the thing that you hope is that there is like a mutual respect and how it's handled. Right. I think that's what. So even after their like new contract, huge commitment, you're a clipper, and then they trade six months later. I'm like, what the fuck?

We just, we're talking about this. We're just at lunch. Yeah. I mean, you know, if you decide to go in a different direction, like, I think the thing that I said, you know, to Lawrence Frank in his office, because I had heard like some rumblings, I was going in for a workout. I had heard some rumblings. So I go up and I try to try to have a conversation with him. and his assistant walks up, or I walk up in his assistant's there, and he looks up like he'd seen a ghost.

Oh, and that's when you knew. Yeah, and so, like, the writing was on the wall, and then I come in, you know, I was like, what's going on? You know, well, a player of your caliber, and I'm like, no, I don't, I don't, I don't, just, I just want to know. And it was like, yeah, you'll be the first to know. And then, you know, you see the Woj tweet. So, like, you're not the first to know.

Like, that was the thing that hurt. And Lawrence and I've talked since then. And, and. So when you hear rumblings, who are hearing rumblings from? Are you on your deep Reddit? One of my best friends, uh, is an agent and like, you know, people are talking. Whispers are happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But there was no like, there was no, um, internet or social media rumblings. I got to say I'm usually fairly wired in with stupid rumors like that. That one took me by surprise. Nobody knew. I mean, my agent didn't know. Yeah. You know. That really came.

It was like, what happened? Yeah. And also, I mean, the Quippers are such a weird franchise. They move to, they basically move to San Diego, 1978. I don't think they have a retired number yet. I don't. No, no, they don't. And so there was a, when you and Chris were playing together,

I would just say like 2014 range, whatever, like the third year where it felt like you had a chance. It just, I would have been like, I'll bet anything these two guys get retired. And that might have to be the kind of stuff they have to do. over the next five years. So, hey, it's play Griffin night. It's just like, wheeled out. Come on. New Williams Day.

Remember, remember Lobb City guys? Yeah, anybody. DeAndre Jordan, he's right here. They met up their entire like 12 of them. Have you ever seen that clip? I think maybe it was the last game in the old Boston Garden where all the legends are on the floor. I was there.

Yeah, they did the bounce passes. Yeah, yeah, I imagine that. But like, it's just me and CP and D'Andre. And it's like, I can't dunk anymore. It's guys from the 80s and 90s. who tore their ACLs with the Quippers. When you got...

Michael Oliva Candy. Right. When you got drafted, I wrote a piece about the curse of the Quippers. I remember. And I was like, don't take this lightly.

And then you got hurt like four months later and people were mad at me. They were like, why did you do that? Yeah. It's like, I'm pretty sure

I don't have the ability to hurt. I thought you were, this was going to be an apology for writing. Well, I did feel bad. I literally didn't feel bad. That wasn't it,

unfortunately. But that was laying out at that point, 33 years of Clippers history. Yeah. I remember you, it was like, like the idea was like, do pull a manning. Don't let them draft you.

Like, don't, don't let the clip you drive. Honestly, you could have potentially didn't. You okay, C would have been fun for you. You're from there. But I think it turned out more fun to probably for you to live in L.A. And have other opportunities and I don't even, I don't even like think about like those. Memphis was two. Yeah, Memphis was two.

The beat. Yeah. Hashim Thabit. That was a tough one. Yeah. Nice guy. And Curry was in that draft. Curry was...

And Minnesota passed on him twice. It's one of my favorite drafts. Minnesota passed on him twice for Johnny... Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio. And then the next thought... Jordan Hill was in that drive. Yeah, the next thought they might get Steph Curry and then the words like, no, no, we're actually going to take them.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we like this guy. Yeah. Yeah, one of the weirdest drafts. Yeah. I always think about, too, like, Steph's, like, remember his ankle issues early on? Yeah.

And him... I remember he signed his deal. and it wasn't like the max deal. He signed his deal. I remember we were playing that. It was like four for four. Yeah, it was something low. I remember we're playing him a preseason game.

And I like, I was like, hey, congrats, man. And I could tell he was kind of like, I don't think he was like super happy about not getting like, you know, what you probably should have. But like that then led to not saying that's the only reason, but like, then they're able to go out and sign. You know, they get, they get equal to, you know, they can go get these pieces. So it's funny how. It was like an NFL when they have the guy in the rookie quarterback contract. Yeah. And it allows them to do all these other things.

But the reason they did it was because of Steph's ankles. Which is why it's so tough to compare the different errors because, like, I've talked about this before. If Steph's playing in the 1960s, his career is probably five years because they never figure the ankle thing out. And in 2009 through 13, they could actually figure it out. But you got to do this. You got to stooping these muscles. Where are these sneakers? Where the giant plastic braces?

Seriously. Yeah. Like you had one injury back then your career was over. I think about that all the time, too. It drives me nuts to think that, like, guys back then couldn't play today or guys now would go dominate. It's like evolution. Yeah. Like, why is everything in the world, like, evolve, but not sports?

Like, if we played back then, we wouldn't have access to all the things that we have. Yeah. We wouldn't be playing the same style. We wouldn't be working on our game from a young age the same way. The game is different, so we would have been different. Those guys back then, they would have had all this stuff that we have now. I don't, it's just a, I mean, it's a fun argument. You've seen the sneakers, right?

Yeah, they're like the plane and Chuck Taylor's. My favorite are the sneakers, the riding on planes where they weren't even in first class. They're in like coach. I think about the treatment, like the trainers. They didn't have trainer. It was like Red Arbach was the Celtics trainer. He's like, tape it up. He's like smoking a cigar.

like, putting cigars all over there. This will help, kid. Yeah. But they had no assistant coaches. Now you watch these games and there's like 13 assistant coaches. It was when I did, I did my book and it came out of 2009. It was so hard to figure out how to compare the eras. But at least we didn't have the three point shooting thing.

And now I feel like from 2010 on, I just feel like it's a different sport at this point. Yeah. If you put like one of these teams back in 1965, people would be like, what's happening? Yeah. Yeah, this isn't the way the game was meant to be played. We don't do that here. They just get banned from the NBA. Well, and they didn't, get out of here.

This is witchcraft, and it needs to be gone. Some of the guys had, like, the one-handed shots. Even the set shots. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what's funny watching Russell where he comes in, it would be, like, putting you back in 1956, just blocking everything in sight.

Or, like, watching Will, like, the clips of Will. Oh, my God. So, Will's one of those that I actually think he might have been able to dominate every single decade. Just as he was. Yeah. Yeah. Like, don't get, don't even give him like the, like the new, you know, everything we know now.

Like, he really might have, he might have been like one of the four greatest athletes of all time when you actually watch the footage. You're like, holy shit. The stories of him, like, the high jump and like him like run, like sprint. Like, yeah. The thing that his, his athletic feats that's like him and Bo, it's like those type of stories like Bo Jackson where he just like, he did what? Right. And like, you don't know. I don't know. I mean, are they, I, I choose to believe they're true.

Some of the video seems realistic. For sure. First of all, he had like these long, long legs. And strong. And strong. He was strong as how he had these long arms and could do all this stuff with the, you know, he's amazing. Poor Russell was like six foot eight and a half trying to, trying to battle him. But he also.

But was also one of the great athletes. Who is the best athlete you've ever been on a court with? Man, like guys like Russ and D. Roe. were like in their primes man it was like having to like switch out on a pick yeah like not even switch like switch switch like contained switch yeah and how shifty they were um i'm probably i mean obviously lebron too just like his that was one guy though that like as good as he was and as talented he was like you were able to play physical with him yeah so i'm not saying i was gonna get the better of them, but at least you could, like, you could bump and hit and, like, try to

slow him down. He didn't get as many calls. But, like, the D-R-R- those guards, to me, that were so quick and so explosive, and you kind of couldn't touch them as much. Yeah. That was, like, a nightmare to guard. I remember when those guys really started taking off, which was probably, like, your first full season when you actually... D-Rose was like, he was like... D-Row... When he was ascending and... Russ was sending seeing those guys in person. Yeah.

And you'd actually like worry for them. Yeah. And I'd be like, oh my God, they're putting so much, so much torque on their lower legs. And they're going 170 miles an hour into traffic. D. Rose would like be going this way and stop and go this way with the ball in the blink of an eye. But also like if you saw like slow-mo clips, he's like, like, he's like this far off the ground. Like his shoulder seems like it's like scraping the ground. Didn't make sense watching it.

Yeah. Those guys, that was like a crazy class of athletes. I mean, think about that era of like basketball. You had, like, LeBron and his apex. This was like end of Cleveland. So Miami still had Kobe playing like extremely well. Like you had the old, you had the young. Duncan's still there.

Plus you have the KD. That generation's coming up. It's pretty great. James was like coming out of coming out like in Oklahoma City, you know, six man. Yeah. And then going to Houston like Steph and the Warriors were doing their thing. like a, that was a wild. The lockout really fucked stuff up too, I think. Yeah. I think the amount of game, if you go back and you look at the schedule, how they crammed all those games. 66 from like

December, or from Christmas to guys got hurt. And I think, I do think there was probably some collateral damage. I mean, yeah. When did you start having, you had the one knee injury or your rookie year, but when did you? I had the one knee injury my rookie year. And then I was, I played 82. Yeah. And then I think I put, I, oh, then I played 66. So all game, the, the, the lockout year. And then I still played a good amount. And then I had my first, like, real thing, I, my elbow, I had to get my elbow drain and got infected. Right.

And so that was like, that was a real bummer because, like, that wasn't an injury. Yeah. I had to have surgery on my elbow to clear out this infection. I missed six weeks. And then after that, I had a knee, you know, knee and then toe and, you know. Just kept going. Yeah. Never stopped.

I remember watching you when you were young. And it was so much fun in those early years because the clippers, I had those tickets forever and they were terrible, terrible, like one good year. And then you show up and the Lob City thing, it was like you couldn't go get food. Yeah. You just didn't ever. And you just wanted to dunk on everybody. Like you were going around.

Like you were like a fucking like who can I get? You know, that was the mindset. But I would watch you in the pregames and you would be like dunking in the pregames. And I remember thinking like, man, you only have so many jumps. Somebody needs to talk to Blake, be like, save some of these. Where was the article about that? I should have just walked out, be like, yo, Blake, you have 62,000 jumps. You wrote the article about not going to being, being aware of the Clippers.

Yeah. You should tell me not to jump so much. The other thing that was crazy was the draft diary I did of the 09 diary. They ran a fact for you when you got drafted, like that your dream was to, I think it was host Saturday Night Live. Oh, yeah. And I was like, I'll put the odds on that at 300. thousand to one. Now you have the late night show. Yeah. I mean, I underestimated you do. Yeah. Well, yeah. I think it was also like, you know, I think back then too is like a little bit harder for guys that show their

personality. You know what I mean? It was like you had to do like a ESPN feature. And even then when you're young, you're just like so I was just so like in a shell, you know, it's like guard. We didn't have social media yet. No. You're basically doing a sports illustrated feature. Yeah. A nine minute sports center segment. And you're also like always taught to like be like take the game seriously. It's not that you're taught not to show your personality, but you're just like, you're so focused on like trying to be great that you're not like, I don't know, I wasn't, I wasn't nearly as relaxed, you know. I felt like Kobe was the first guy who really started looking at how to shape things because it was like near the, after he won the last two titles,

that was when he started. That was one of the people when he started reaching out to different media people and trying to talk to people. And I just felt like he was aware of, oh, I can actually tilt perception. Then after he retired, he did the Kobe detail thing. Yeah, yeah. But something shipped in 2010s. Now I think we have too much access to all these guys. Yeah. I wish we had a guy who just wasn't on Instagram and just was mysterious. I guess Shay's probably the closest. Yeah. I don't have a feel for him at all. I mean, no, no, Wimby's the most mysterious. You think? Right? Because I don't, I mean, does he, he doesn't like. I think he's embraced being a villain now. He has. I mean, he's our, the anti-American villain we need it. He just wants.

destroy us in the Olympics. I mean, he will do, like, interviews and stuff, but like he, I don't know. Do you see him on social media? I mean, you see clips of him, but you don't see himself. So the stuff he does is like he plays chess in Central Park. Yeah, yeah, I guess that's like, you know, like, all right. There's definitely more here. You're right, though.

I don't know that much about Wendy. No. There's other guys I probably know too much of. Yeah. I mean, in Boston, you saw it with Deuce. Like, Deuce became a character in the team. It was just the son of a player. Dude, Duce was almost on the court more than me.

Seriously. I'm invested in Duce now. I want to see where his career goes. God, I'd kill for his playing time. Well, you were a beloved Celtic. I know it was the tail end, but I think they would have kept you for years and years and years if you wanted it. I thought about it.

I thought about going back, but I was like, it was time. What was your year? Was it the finals year? 22, 23. No. Oh,

after the finals of me. Miami loss. Jesus. I thought, I legitimately thought we were going to win that game. And when J.T. went down. There was still a two, three-minute period where Miami, I don't think they really realized how, how hurt he was.

Yeah. You know, he stayed in. And then, like, you saw it flip for them. They're like, oh, they're out. They're without, you know, one of their guys, like one of their. I went to that game, too. It was right in front of the Southwick bench. It was clearly bad.

Yeah. And you could see, I felt the same way. You could feel the Miami confidence building as the first quarter where I was like, oh, he's fucked up. Yeah. And that was it because the crowd was like ready to rip the roof off in that game. Yeah. And if J.T. hadn't have been like healthy going into that next, if we had won that game, going into the finals against Denver, that would have been, Denver was firing.

So I don't know how that would have fared either. Yeah, I don't know. I'm so scared of Joker. I mean, I don't know how that would have gone. I just feel like I never would expect to win a series against him. And he's always seemed really comfortable against the Celts. But it all worked out. They won the next year.

You could have been involved. Yeah, I know. Al Horford is just such a great defender for a guy. There's not a ton you can do to Yokish to make him uncomfortable, but in terms of like defenders, like if you're not talking like, just put crazy length on him. Yeah. Like Al Horford is probably one of the guys you'd be like,

that's who you'd want to like just bother him, try to slow him down, you know? I'm asking this not for a clip that would be aggregated, but because I'm genuinely curious. I felt the whole time through when they won the title that Tatum and Brown were really good together. Yeah, I'm sure you felt the same way playing with them. Yeah. When I got there, you know, you hear the whole like JT and JV. I got there and it's just like, oh, they're fine. They're just two different people.

Right. Which most people don't understand. You could be on a team with somebody that you're not going away with them after this season. There was never a thing in any moment of a game or locker room. practice traveling where I was like, oh, that's not good. You know, there's just like they are two, I don't want to say opposites, but they're two very different personalities. Yeah. You know. Do you think that stuff about sort of my conspiracy theory is the conference finals MVP and the

finals MVP, I still feel like if they split those, I think they're still on the same team. I swear to God, I really genuinely believe that. I think they're on the same team. But don't you think this. I think winning both of those, fuck the whole thing up. I mean, well. And then as you did on your show, like, once Tate culture gets a hold of stuff and it's constant, I think sometimes it becomes hard. Yeah, it becomes very hard.

Once the narrative gets, once it gets put out there, then that, like, narrative grows and grows. But I also think the thing that hurt last year, I mean, last year, I mean, J.B. having such a great year and them having, like, regular season success. you know, but I also like... And they won already. Yeah. And it's also... This is a second apron issue. True.

Like, it's not... I don't... I also think J.B. was probably tired of hearing his name and trade rumors every summer for the past. But also, that's not really... Sometimes it's out of people's control. But I don't know. I don't know if I'm on board with the... I see what you mean.

If those Eastern Conference Finals and Finals, MVP are split. I just think it's fine. But I think it added, it poured fuel on that fire for sure. They played together nine years, which is a long time. Yeah. I remember, I mean, I remember being on TV when you were playing with Chris talking about clipper stuff. I'm like, I don't know. I don't think that team gets along. And then all the quippers people be like, fuck you. Why are you saying that? Yeah. What's your, what's your evidence? I was like, I don't know. My evidence is I know people around the league and I go to the games and something feels a whiff off. And I think now that all the years have passed, that it gets safe to say.

Maybe it wasn't perfect. No, it wasn't, no, it wasn't perfect by any means. But I also think, I've said this a lot. Like, our Clippers teams were much closer than we got, we ever got credit for. I think year after year of, like, heartbreak and the first couple of years, we lost. We just lost, you know, we, the Memphis, Santone and stuff. But then, you know, the Oklahoma City collapsed. Then the Houston collapse.

Then the next year, I got. heard against Portland and we lost. And the next year, oh, sorry, me and CP both got hurt against Portland we lost. The next year I got hurt against Utah and we lost. You know, like, year after year after year, it like starts to like,

starts to wear on you as a group. Because we had kind of the same nucleus for the most part. You get baggage. You get teen baggage. And then it's hard to come back from it. Yeah, because the, I mean, I think the Spurs would have won in 2014. But I also thought you guys are really good.

that year and the Sterling stuff made that whole playoffs just weird. And I think you're just adding this crazy additional stress to a playoffs that are always stressful anyway, and I don't know. Is that the reason the OKC collapse happened? I don't know.

But I don't think it helped. That year was like, that year would have been, I mean, that we had to go through, so Warriors, then Oklahoma City, then we would have had to go through San Antonio. Then you would have seen Miami in the finals. Yeah.

Miami, I think, would have been okay because they were running on fumes at that point. Twain was like... Two straight championships. Yeah. But I think San Antonio would have been hard. That team was on a mission. That's why I also feel like that year was so good for us because going into that San Antonio series, I'll never forget. The last game of the season, we had, we weren't playing the final night and we had dinner all as a team together.

We're watching games. And San Antonio loses, I think, to like Memphis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they dropped from... We were the three seed. Yeah, they dropped to six. They dropped to six. Yeah.

And we're just like, what? You know, because that was, San Antonio is obviously still very, very good. This wasn't San Antonio on the way. And we're just like, oh my gosh. And that, that. So you just knew it's a heavy wave fight in round less. I mean, it's one of the best round ones ever. We were so locked in where like, you know, you'd have a turnover.

Something would happen and we were just like, boom, get back on D. You know what I mean? Like, they score. All right. We got to go back at them. Like, we were just so locked in because you, that the San Antonio Spurs brought that out of us, and it brought it out of teams.

Like, you know you have to play as perfect a basketball as you can, and the things that you can control. And that was like your reactions to things or like your resolve, your resiliency. Yeah. And that's why I felt like when we beat them, it was like, oh, like we locked in and we like, we found another year. And then it all went away.

It's the greatest win in probably Clippers history, just beating that team in a series. I think it's got to be number one. I also revered Duncan. I do, I do too. You went against him. You boast of your career who's just on one leg. And his one of his legs just stopped working in 2009.

It just didn't matter. Yeah. He just put the giant brace on. I was just like, I'll just keep. And he also, it's not like he was just out there. He was still playing defense at a high level. He made first two MBA one of those years. Yeah.

Yeah. He was, he was, I should have put him in. though really hard to go against. But I also didn't have to guard him a ton. But he was, and he was, like you said, he was on one leg and he was still really, really good. That's my biggest thing that triggers me with all-time discussions when he just gets discounted. He gets discounted now because- Not to me, but I agree.

You get it. Because people will go on his basketball reference, like, eh, he's 20 and 10 for the second half of his career. It's like, okay, cool. If he needed to score 30, he would have scored 30. he totally understood how to win games. Do you know that he never, I don't think he ever won less than like 54 games or something.

There was some crazy. Yeah, I remember seeing a stat. There was something like that. There's something like that. Yeah. And it's not like everyone's, we played with those Hall Famers. All right, in 2003, like Manu and Parker were puppies.

So 99, they won, 2003. 9191 with Robinson. Yeah. Yeah. 2003, 2005. O3 was insane. Yeah. He didn't really have another all-star on the team.

Yeah. Anyway, I'll defend him. He's the best power forward of all time. Basketball is back and thank God. This year you can play on Fandole everywhere. That's right, everywhere. This season Fando is rewarding you wherever you are based. So we're going to talk about a few hotspots and make some predictions.

Prediction number one, the team I am most excited to watch in the state of California is going to be. Wow. I hate that this is true, but it's the Los Angeles Lakers. So I'm excited to see what kind of Luca MVP chase season that they launched. And they're going to be a lot more fun to watch week to week, game to game, I think, than either the Clippers or the Kings or the Warriors or basically anyone in California. So by default, it's the Lakers.

Team I'm most interested in watching in Texas. It's got to be San Antonio, but I think Houston is going to be the one that I have my eye on to exceed everybody's expectations. And then which Florida team will have a better season? Orlando or Miami. This was really tough. They're over, Underwoods right around the same number.

I think I'm more interested to watch Orlando because I actually like the coach that they got this year and I like their players. So I think I would rather watch them than Miami. Also, who wants to watch the half-filled heat arena? No thanks. Anyway, we have an amazing season ahead. And if you are in one of California, Texas,

or Florida, make sure you check out Fandual, and you can get in the action. Unlock unlimited free grocery delivery with PC Express Pass. Shop online and get the same low No Frills prices delivered. Get your first year of PC Express Pass for just $2.50 a month. Learn more at nofrills.ca. This episode is brought to you by Welch's fruit snacks. Back to school season can be tough on parents, but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get.

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It's a pizza on PCH. down by like point doom man it's like closer to cross creek they used to have this picture of sterling the white party sterling and you were in the picture and I always thought it would be

I always thought about stealing it for you because I liked you just be like let me get this up the wall was on there for the 2010 people have taken pictures you're in a wetsuit and Sterling's there but yeah you've seen some weird stuff in L.A.

And you were you made friends with a bunch of different celebrities and comedians like I don't know you kind of bounced around different yeah different worlds yeah well LA was like such a like we it was also it's the clippers too so it was like you weren't getting like you weren't getting like the lakers celebrities right you know we had we had our clipper celebrities um you billy crystal yeah billy jim goldstein who's a celebrity for all themes jim man they guys so dedicated the creator will and grace he yeah wow okay Frankie Munez, but he lived in Phoenix,

or Scottsdale somewhere in Arizona. Was it, wasn't a teaming group. Yeah. It was cool. But yeah, then you got in the whole comedy scene. Yeah. And you got to know all those people. And at some point I was like,

he's something that's going to happen with him after his career. I just thought it would be a podcast. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, obviously, I like podcasts. I consume podcasts, but I also felt like there's like something, I don't know. I've always been a huge late night fan. Like I said, Saturday Night Live being like the thing, you know,

sketch, any, any comedy. But like that, there's something about that, that style that I just like always love. So when athletes would get asked to host, you would just get pissed? No, not. No, not as, I don't get pissed. I just, I just want him to do well. So it doesn't like become a thing. It's interesting because athletes are trained to not,

you have a natural ability to calm yourself down. No, you can calm down your nervous system. playing in front of 20,000. Then you go on that and you walk out and you have cue cards and you've got to deliver a monologue. Like I would imagine it's completely different pressure. The first time I did stand up, I remember people being like, well, you know,

even comedians were like, you play in front of 20,000 people. And I'm like, this is terrifying. First of all, you're out there. This is a sport you've done your whole life. You're out there with teammates. Other people are on the court. There's so much to look at.

You go up there, even in a, it was maybe a hundred 20-person theater the first time I ever did it. Terrified. I don't know how they do it. I've talked to a bunch of them about it. I just don't get it. It's like they need it. It's like a fuel for them.

They need the energy and then chaos of it. The adrenaline when you get off stage is there's nothing I've done that's been comparable to like hitting a game winner. Like going up and crushing on stage and then getting off, there's nothing. I've never been able to feel like that same like adrenaline rush that you get from like hitting a huge shot at the end of a big game. So your show that you decide to do,

you want to do topics. Right. Little modeled after the John Alover show, but each shows about something. You can tape them ahead of time. Yeah. I mean, eventually I'd love to get to like where it was, it's a little bit closer, like,

shoot-to-air dates. Or, like, if it was, like, more weekly, it would still be, like, the whole idea and why it's called the stepback is because it's like, it's not reactionary to, like, what, you know, what just happened last night and we're going to talk about it.

Yeah. There's so many shows that do that, so many podcasts that do that and do it really well. I wanted to, like, take some of these things that sometimes we don't think about as much that are affecting sports. And not even, not even like all sports. I think, like, we have an episode on subsidized stadiums. And like that, that's affecting taxpayers. Right. That is a situation that has never, not once, ever really worked out for taxpayers. Now, it works out like if you're a huge fan of the team and you get to see games more often.

but like as far as you know the cost of living and and and expenses for every like that's that's it's a real thing i did a thing about that when i had had my HBO show the promo and i did make billionaires pay for their own fucking stadiums and it got cut out and it was like what's going out here it's like i'm just trying to yeah just don't want billionaires to just trying to make a bunch of billionaires mad just trying to me come on yeah yeah i mean those topics having having done a show like where you have to come up with, all right, what's our big thing? It's funny how there's less topics than you think,

like those big picture ones that are really fun to dive into. Yeah, you know? Yeah. Like the way you did that sports journalism one, I thought it was really cool because it was way different if it's coming from me because I'm part of the whole world, right?

But for you, it's like you're an athlete, former athlete, but you're able to be, you just bring a different credibility. So when you're making fun of Stephen A, I thought it was way, I thought it was way more. If I'm doing it, now we're just having a rap beef

from going back and forth. But when you were imitating him and Tyrus Haber, I was fucking dying. You know he's going to come out, you now. Oh, yeah. I know. I can't wait. Blake Griffin. I can't. My brother.

You're going to be doing this. You didn't want to do this. I don't know what made you thinking. I have been around for a long, long time. And you're not getting rid of me. You're going to be gone. And I'm still going to be here. Yeah, he's definitely.

I know. The move for him, he should zag the other way and be like, that was really funny. I enjoyed what Blake's good. I know. If you did that, I'd be like, damn it. God damn it. Why did you have to do that? Shoot.

You would skip, but you were doing a whole thing about the embrace debate thing, which we've always, you know, from Grant Lynn and then the ringer, like, trying to figure out how to talk about all this stuff, how to come up with angles, but also try to be fair, I think is always the test. That's, okay, so that's the real thing. There's nothing wrong with, like, these. I watch them, like debate shows. It's great. The problem is when you just start saying things and one, they're not true or two, you're

just saying them. You don't even believe what you're saying. And, you know, it's like the thing. If it's like, sure, your producer could come in here and say, hey, we want you to talk about this. And me and you could figure out a side. Yeah. We could do it.

Like, it's not hard at all. And that's to me. But what if we're on the same side? Then it's like, well, you have to take the shit. Yeah, but that's the problem. Yeah. If we are on the same side, one of us will take the other side. That's how those shows work.

Yeah. You know, and to me, that's like, I don't want to say, I'm not trying to act like this is a massive problem and it needs to be corrected. It's fine. Those can still exist. But so we also need to keep a space for real sports journalism. Yeah. Because it is, it's important.

Nash is one of the most, I've known Nash for a long time. Nash is one of the most measured. he's definitely not a take guy. No, no, no, no. He is kind of calculating all the different pieces of a topic at the same time and is really smart with it. I think especially like some of those stuff he had to do with on those sons teams, which is when I got to know him.

You know, different personalities, different styles of play. Also coaching the Brooklyn Nets. Whoa, and then you have that. He's been really diplomatic about that since. Yeah, I mean, he's not the type to like, you know, go scorched earth and, like, throw people under the bus. Yeah, but he was scapegoated. Yeah.

I mean, for a weird personality situation. That is a, that was like, you go, that is a, such a hard team to coach. Think about that roster. Now, myself included, like, were you on, you were on the 22 Celtics or 22 nets? You were in the 22 nets. 21, 22, 23 cellos. So that was when the South swept, Tatum just took it to KD. Last year, yeah.

Yeah. That was, Tatum was like, that was his arrival series. Dude, watching that series was the first two games. He's guarding KD. Yeah. He's scoring, I don't know what he averaged, but he was high 20s. We're running our whole offense thrown. And guarding high level, like playing hard, playing every position, switching, taking it, you know, sitting down on, on Kyrie's dribble.

Like, he was doing, I was like, oh my gosh, he is unbelievable. Yeah, that's why I laugh on. him take shit for anything. It's like, as a two-way player, first of all, you make four straight first two-mile-ambes that means something,

but as a two-way player, I don't think people realize. Since he's coming in a league. Yeah. He's 10-plus rebounds a game. Has anybody been more scrutinized and also won a championship more scrutinized

since he's been in the league? Guys get, I mean, do you guys get a lot of scrutiny? Honestly, I don't think so. It's crazy. I mean, he's been so successful. And like, not just... Well, the Olympic thing didn't help.

Yeah. That was that that that's really the not one in the two awards and then the Olympic thing and that just put the spotlight. In the same summer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That, I don't know.

It's a weird one because it's it's hard to just say this, but I really do think like that game seven Miami. I was watching him the whole warm ups. My dad and I were there. We were like, my God, he's got like a look on his face. Yeah. I've never seen him like this. 100% And he came out and he was like guns,

and got hurt within a minute. But that game could have been like the game for him. He caught in the corner and ripped baseline, which was like the, sorry, he turned baseline. And it was like, it was like, yes, he's not settling. He is like, I saw the same thing that you saw. J.B. was the same way. Like after we rattled off three straight,

the D.R. I mean, sorry, the D. White tip in. Yeah. at game six in Miami it was like I wasn't like oh we are 1,000% winning this but I was very confident going into game seven

so just one of the weirdest series of all time just to have one team win three and then the other team in the next three is just so unusual for any of this stuff so what else do you want to do with the step back uh season like I said I want to get closer to like being able to

like have episodes going Are you going to do like interviews and stuff? Not real. I mean, what we might bring. If it works, if it adds to what we're doing, but it's not a, we're not, we're not basing episodes around, hey, we got to have a person come in this week and we have to have them talk. I love doing like the sketch at the end.

Yeah, but you could do this until the cows come home. Yeah. I just, I don't know. Like for right now. Yeah. What the show is right now. And we truly were making the, we were figuring out how to make this show. And there's our, just being, you know, an athlete, you are just taught to like self-evaluate

immediately. And like now seeing all the clips and like even after every day we'd film, like I was just like, okay, I can do this better. I got to do this. Like, and so I'm super excited for season two because I'm like, we can make this better. You're good at reading the teleprompter. Dude, that, well, that. Telepractor's intimidating.

I was on my iPad at home, like just loading random things into my iPad. I don't know. I put it like right there and just read. You're like take your time. I did. Yeah, I did. I started out really slow and then and my, the big thing too, I would speed up too much when we were, when we were tall. So you remember to pause. You got to remember to breathe. Like I would just like start going and just read all those words.

And then like we had to in editing, we had to like, we had to mute out some of my like, like, because I would like, I would get going and I would have to take a big, you know, a big breath. So yeah, I don't know. That show for me is like it was so much fun to do and like it will evolve. I like that you tried it. I don't feel like people have trashed enough. No. Just in general.

Yeah. I think to me honest, yeah, I think the easy, easier thing as far as like work, it's not easy doing a podcast, but as far as like, it was like wrote scripts and then we're editing and I'm doing teleprompter work. Like I feel like fulfilled from doing that, you know, like putting every. into this one thing. And if people like it, great. If not, I, it is one of those projects that I'm, like, super proud of. What's your hottest take for the 2006-27 NBA season? I don't want to step on your Friday Amazon Prime. But do you have, like, a team you like either way less or way more than everybody else or a player or a situation? Well, I don't know everybody's. I, I'm so interested to see so many teams and how they work out. The Indiana Pacers. That's my favorite team. Are like, really?

team. Dude, like, Zubotch and Tyrese coming back. Now, it does depend a lot on, like, how Tyrese feel, especially early on. But, man, like, Seacom, Nis, like, they still have, like, some really good players. And I think Rick Carlis. Their overrunner was 43 and a half. I couldn't, I didn't understand it. I thought, to me, they were, like, a possible one seed.

Yeah, but that, it also all depends. That 43 and a half really depends on how they get out of the gate. Right. Like, is Tyrese, like, is he back back? Is he going to take his back? Yeah, it does. But like also you... Like 17 months for him since the injury, 16 months?

Preseason can be like so... Like, it can really be fools gold sometimes. Not in terms of like he looks good. But like that... Going from like playing every other day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know their schedule. I haven't looked at their schedule.

But like the travel and this and that, he's going to be good. But like, is he going to be... Six months consistently good to be a 50 win team. You know what I mean? Because like he's... He's going to be what makes that team go. Do you see, are you on the I see problems with the Philly situation or I see upside?

Because I'm on more on the problem side. I think I see more upside, I think. I'm, I just, those other guys have to really figure out how to play with those guys. I don't think it's necessarily as much of this thing where it's like, well, J.B. he's one needs to ball in his hand. Tyrese. LeBron, they will hopefully figure that out.

And as long as they're like, hey, like whatever it takes to win a championship and the J.B. having won a championship, LeBron having several. And being, his career being what it is,

like, it does sort of point to like, all right, like, let's just, let's get it done. Now, you know,

knowing some of these players, you might, people might argue the opposite of that. But like, if Lebron's going there for the minimum, And it's like that truly is your best chance to win a championship out of the teams he was looking at. Like you'd think that like guys are going to want to try to lock in.

Now it's like. Or we had nowhere else to go. Yeah. Well, yeah. But like I mean, he might not have, you know, like the other options fell by the wayside. He's not going to go to like San Antonio, Oklahoma City. He's not going to go to the New York. Should have gone to San Antonio.

That was what I was advocated in this summer. And they signed Tobias Harris. And it's like, well, wanting to get LeBron James. That media circus. would be unbelievable. Well, that's probably why San Antonio you don't want to do it. It's like, well, we have the Wembe circus and now we have the LeBron circus. I said this already in my pod

two weeks ago. I really worry about situations, and I don't really care, I'm a Celtic fan. I'd be more excited if they didn't do that great. But when situations where people are at weird points of their career for the situation, you know, that's when I wonder, because, like, Vijay Edgecom's in his second year.

Yeah. And he's going to have to sacrifice on this team, right? And then you have Tyrese, who's like about to become maybe one of the seven to ten best players in the league. Now he has to pull back. And maybe you have Jalen on his own team. You have LeBron is LeBron. And you have Embed, who's this huge wildcard when he, I haven't seen him sacrifice anything.

When he plays, he's going to shoot. Yeah. So I just wonder how that all fits together. It's completely valid. And that's the reason people are questioning it. And I also, then to play like the other side of it, it's like, well, Embedd hasn't got to the conference finals. And it's like, at the end of the day, like, especially the older you get, like, you want

to get that monkey off your back. You don't want that to be the thing. And it's like, so why wouldn't he be willing to like, you know, it hasn't. Well, what else is in there from a, I guess that would be a bigger question of me is could he, like, he'd like reinvent his game, not shoot as much and be just to be like, oh, I'm going to defense, I'm going to be a defense rebounding guy. Like, I don't, we've never seen him do that. You wouldn't want him to be just a deal.

Right. He'd still want to be utilized. He's so skilled. He's unstoppable. He's huge. So, I don't know. Somebody's giving up shots. I'm just interested to see who it is.

I just like, I don't know. Maybe it's just like the optimistic part of me that like would, I'd prefer them to like, it'd be great to see them be good. I would rather they were entertaining to watch than one of those like what the Rams are like right now. You're like, oh man, this is depressing. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I don't like this. You don't want that.

Especially like, I mean, as LeBron's like, you know, figuring out what he's doing next, like you don't want like, you don't want the last year to be depressed. If it is, who knows, you might play five more years. I would say, I don't think this will be his last year. No. But like, you know, so if this goes bad, like, then what happens? Did you think about, oh, we have time? Did you think about like just hanging on for two, three more years being like the greatest

vet ever getting in there every once in a while? Are you just like, I know, I know I'm done? No, I gave, I gave like real thought to it. Because I know they wanted you to come back. Yeah, I had a chance to go back. And I just like, I don't know, man. I like, the one, for one, my kids being here, being, you know, being away from my kids. And like, they're just, we're getting to the ages of two of, like, those like missing.

Yeah, you start missing games. And like, you're like, it's tough no matter what age. But, and then on top of that, it's just like, man, dude, I had nine surgeries in my career. You know what I mean? Like it felt like I was, I would go, I would get to practice like two hours early and do all my stuff to be it to practice. And then I would go home and like eat, take a quick break. And then I would be doing stuff for, you know, to like get ready for the next day, the next game or whatever it was.

It was like truly like, it was a grind. And I loved it. I loved my time there. But it was just like I felt like it was, it was my time. Yeah, because sometimes I think about that watching and be like, like, watching you because I was lucky enough to go to a bunch of Quipper games. So I saw you when you could jump through the gym. I saw you when you could, your head could hit the gym.

You couldn't jump through the gym anymore. And then you started the mid-2000s. Your game started to change. You got the three-point shot. You still had the athleticism. Not the same, but you could summon it. You had spurts. And then you could kind of see your body was starting to break down.

Like when you watch, it was like, oh, he's starting to really try to. After that year in Detroit, man, I was just like. The first Detroit year was the last year where, you looked like mostly you. You were like 25 and 10 and 6. You did a great year. Yeah. But then it felt like, oh, there's a physical toll now from all this stuff.

Yeah. And I wonder, we're close to that embit point. And I don't know if it's going to be this year and next year, but I feel like we're really close to. Yeah. That's what I mean. He's just so big and he's so skilled that like if he's willing to, I mean, I think he can, he can.

I just wonder, is he going to have the spring anymore? Is he going to be grounded? if he's grounded because even the often. Does he need the like spring spring? Maybe he doesn't. He needs his body to feel. Yeah. And he needs it for the rebounding where the guys are jumping twice

and he's jumping once. Yeah. But I think again, man, I mean, it's certain bigs that he's playing against, yes, but he, dude, he is, he is massive. Like, seeing him in person for the first time, I was like, oh, oh, he's huge. Because at Kansas, it didn't look quite the same. And then he didn't play for his first two years.

Yeah. And then when he was like, his rookie year and then his second year you're like my God this dude is and he's so skilled his draft for ESPN he was clearly had to be the number one pick

and then he got hurt like a month before and it fucked it up but I even went to a workout I was like oh my god this guy's gonna I don't even know what this is but it just like he was snake bit from the get-go but we'll see how many

how much he has left through his body I mean like there's that's what I can't remember a year where it's like kind of this wide open but also like there's so many question marks about so many different teams we have 11 teams in the east I think they can make the playoffs like for real yeah and then you have the okay c versus san antonio thing where are you on charlotte i was in and i didn't like the injuries to start the year because it felt like although apparently con and Kobe white and those guys so i started practicing again but i feel like

somebody in the east is going to go two and nine to start the year like oh my god We're two and nine. And then you like almost can't climb out of it because you're going to need 46 wins. I'm hiring them the most though because the three-point shooting. Are you high on them or no? I am. I just like everything they kind of have gone. Like they've really like made it clear that they're getting a certain type of guy.

Yes. And they are setting like a foundation. But it is just with the East being the way it is this year, you're just like, that's the thought. It's like, man, if they start out slow, like that's the different. in being... Could be Miami, too. Like, if Janus misses 16 games. Yeah.

And they go 2 and 14 and the 16, all of a sudden, you're looking up. I try to do this thing at the beginning of the season where it's like, okay, let's take health out of it, which, like, because we just don't know. And we know it's going to be there. Like, we know there's going to be health problems. But, like, let's take health out of it. Like, I like that Miami team. Like, a couple questions.

Well, Clay, so I went over on them and I thought they were a playoff team. Clay was bad in the preseason. And two teams have given up on him, and that made me nervous. Yeah, I also think a guy that's... Because they need him, because they need his shooting. Yeah. They don't really have a lot of shootings. So they actually kind of need him to be good.

And I don't know what he has left. Yeah, he's going to be put in a lot of actions defensively, too. And I think when you've gone through that many surgeries and injuries that he's had, like, I can't speak for him. Obviously, I haven't had... But from personal experience, it's so, like, up and down with how... how you feel. And it's not like, oh, I feel terrible. I can't play. Just wait to hit your 50s, just in general. Just getting out of bed. I don't think I can play today.

I can't, I can't record this episode today. How? That's where it's like for, you know, and he's an unbelievable shooter, but like, you know, when you, when you don't, when you can still play, but you just don't feel great. Yeah. Like that's when, like, I think that's like the volatility of like, you know, shooting percentage. Yeah, if I had one do-over, I was under on Detroit, and I had Miami higher than them. And I think I would flip that two weeks later because the big thing, and we're ironically recording during a Celtics distance game right now.

Can we, can we, can we get a update there? Actually, I'm going to look at my phone. What? They lost. Celtics lost? Lost by eight. No. Yeah.

They were up 14 when we walked in here? Yeah. Wow. What, okay, all right, I got to go, I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go back and watch on my drive home. No, I'm going to play. But yeah, I was, I, so it turns out my instincts were correct.

I have a quipper fan comes in. They're lost. I'll get to go home and watch that on demand. Are you hot, so you took the under on Detroit? I just thought, I thought just the rest of the conference was better. Yeah, the rest of the conference is better. conference where everybody was tanking. It was a mess.

Yeah. I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't necessarily have them going, number, or being the one seed. But I just think, I have, first, for Kate is unbelievable. And they're tough. They're good home team. Yeah. J.B. has been believing. I wonder, I wonder what the exit of, of Isaiah Stewart does to their mindset.

Because he just, he's like, yeah, he's like, he would, he was like the, not the mascot, But he was the guy that just got everybody going. So I just wonder if like that changes anything. Not that they're going to be like soft now. But like, I don't know. That's an identity guy. And he bought. They had numbers before for any sort of altercation.

Yeah. Yeah. There's just less people in the group now. Although the video that came out of him and Eubanks in the tunnel, it was kind of like, ooh, yeah, that was. Lost a little bit of the. lost a little bit of a war.

It's going to throw a harder punch to somebody else. I mean, first game, he's got to just go, just knock somebody out. He's got to get that back. 20 games suspension. Just eat it and just get your cred back. Let's go from there. Who'd you have OKC, San Antonio?

No, just for this year. Oh, this year. If you had to pick one. Oh, that's like. Because that's the toughest debate of all this stuff. I've been like saying. I'm on okay. this year. I've been saying Oklahoma City.

I want to... I wonder if we had the same reason. Was it was your reason? Well, first of all, I think if Jalen William, if J-Dub can just be healthy. They didn't have their second best guy last year. He was just in and out and in and out and just like inconsistent because of that, because of those injuries. If he was like half of what he was the year before, I think they beat Oklahoma City.

I mean, I'm sorry, I think they beat San Antonio. in the Western Congress finals. To me, San Antonio, Dylan Harper. If Dylan Harper goes to, like, that next level. But that goes into the situation discussion before. Which one? He's ready to play now. Yeah, yeah.

And is the team ready for what he's ready for? You know? Yeah. Like, I compared it to the Kobe in the late 90s. Not that he's going to be Kobe. Right, yeah. But Kobe had this moment in the Lakers where it was like, whoa, we really have something here. And then by the third year, they're like,

right, we have to trade Eddie Jones. This is, we got, this guy now has to, he's our second best guy. I mean, dude, if you're going, if this year and he's, he makes this jump and he's finishing every game, it's like, you, you got to give him the reins. As far as, like, ball handler, finisher or all that. I'm sure you've heard the same stuff I've heard about the Knicks were kind of relieved that he wasn't unleashed in the finals last year. Like, they were like, dodged the bullet.

Screaming that at the end of games. Give Dylan Harper the ball. Couldn't stay in front of him. Dude, and he also makes good plays. Yeah. You know what I mean? He's strong enough. He gets to the rim.

Like, he reminds, like, his, like, there's, like, there's, like, there's, like, there's, like, there's, just the strength as far as, like, with the basketball on him being able to move. But his shiftyness is, his, I mean, he shot the ball pretty well. He's got some 10 feet from the basket stuff for a guard that's really unusual. Yeah. Especially how he uses the baseline. He's just the way he sees the geometry of the court. He knows basketball really well. And he's also, he seems like very fearless.

That was like when, so I hadn't really watched Chris Paul that much when he got to the Clippers. I'd seen him on league past. They had the one good Pelican season. But then watching him in person and there was just stuff with him where things he saw. Yeah. And how he would always get to that one spot. Yeah.

And the other team knew it was like what you said about Zibo before. He's like, I'm just going to. Yeah. eventually I'm going to end up here and I'm going to get a 12-footer. And the other team knew it and you just get it. And you could, like, how the fuck is he? That's what Dylan Harper has some of that too.

It's like, how, how is he yo-yoing these guys like this? Yeah. And to be doing that in your first year is like, I don't know. It's impressive. I mean, his ceiling's high.

I mean, he played unbelievable. But like, that's the San Antonio. If San Antonio, if he's, if he's that next level. Yeah.

I like Houston this year, too. Houston and Denver were my other two. But a little less. bullish on Minnesota because I don't trust Lemellon. I just don't. I don't trust him to play 2400 minutes. I just don't think it's going to happen. If you just give him like hey, okay, this is your

playground. You play with inside this but inside this you get to do what you want to do then like I think that that I don't know. Finch has a better idea but like that is like kind of the way you have to let him play because you can't put him in this and I don't see them trying to do that to him

but like you can't put him in this. You can't make him something he's not. I think they're going the other way. They're going to be like, let's, you and aunt, just balls to the while, let's go, take some bad shots. Preseason was a good example. Back yourself out. All right, have fun. Let's do five minutes on sports parenting before we go. Oh, yeah. So how old are your kids? Son's 13, daughters, 10.

All right, so you've been in it for a couple years now. And what sports are they playing? Sun's playing football, tackle football. Nice. And he's playing basketball. And he's actually kind of like gotten into volleyball recently. He was doing some sand stuff this summer, and he's just a, he just picks stuff up really quickly. Multiple sports is good. Yeah.

Yeah. I am, I am not, I am so against early sports specialization. I think it's killing youth sports. I have a lot of regrets. With other things in youth sports. My daughter was basically soccer only from other than school stuff. And I would, but, but that's the sport she loved. I know, but I wish I had, I should, I wish I had made her play basketball.

played two. To me, I should have said this. If you are going to do one sport, then as a parent, I think you have to be very conscious of like, hey, we're taking time off. It's a good point. I'm sorry, you don't have to, you don't have to play multiple sports. I think it does help. But if you are going to play one, it's not going to be a year-round thing from the time

you're eight years old until, you know, however. That's what's happening with basketball. It's having with every sport. Basketball is, though, these tournaments, you're just playing for two straight days. Every sport. The thing that has gotten better in basketball, at least on the EYBL circuit, which was A-U,

you know, when I was playing. But, like, we would go to tournaments. I remember going, we'd fly to, like, Memphis for, like, a tournament,

and we would play, like, maybe two games Friday afternoon, Friday night. Yeah. And then you'd wake up and you'd play four games on Saturday. And if you kept advancing,

you'd maybe play four on Sunday. So you'd come home and you'd play 10 games. And now, with the EYBL set up, like, I think, like, the max is, like, four games per weekend.

Ten games. You know what I wonder why people were having knee and Achilles issues. Yeah, I wish I had known that. And it's just crazy. Plus, like, who's running this stuff? It's all, you know, that's the other issue. Yeah, exactly.

On the flip side of that, too, is like, now you feel like you have to play year-round. Maybe you're playing less games, but now you feel like you have to train more. You have to get with this trainer. You have to do this. Privates. I think it's killing. And we're also pricing kids out of sports. That's 100% happen in soccer.

Yeah. Basketball is a little easier because you just need a ball and you go to a park. Basketball is definitely easier. You need a field. You need equipment. I think baseball. Your sneakers are growing. Baseball hockey.

I mean, tennis and golf are already, they've been. Yeah. But like all these other sports, I mean, families are spending. I mean, I have an episode on this. So like. Not to step up. Yeah. But like families are spending $1,200 on their kids' primary sport.

Yeah. Like that's, especially today, like, that's not something that people can with, sustain multiple kids year and year over year over year unless you have the luxury of just being able to afford it. My daughter's team during COVID, we would drive to Arizona because we weren't allowed to play here. Really? Draft to Arizona. She's a senior in college now, so she was high school. Yeah. So we would stay in hotels. Yeah. Couldn't play here, but everybody was doing it. Yeah. This is even more insane than how insane everything else was. Now we're driving seven hours. Play games.

There's a whole thing around, it's called placations. So, like, because, you know, they're putting on these big tournaments where everybody travels to them and, like, the hotels are benefiting restaurants. You know, it's bringing a whole. And so the placation idea is, like, you know, you find these places that are willing to, you know, have a certain amount of hotels and have the venue and you pay for parking at the venue. And if you can't go, you can also stream your kids game, but you got to pay to stream your

kid's game. Yeah. And, like, there's just, now that we've figured out, you know, you can, make it for youth sports is a 40 billion dollar industry and climbing you know it's bad because the rich guys are coming in now and buying stakes and stuff and companies yeah whenever private equity gets involved it's not for the top of the heart private equity owns youth sports shit no it's like you'd see soccer tournaments here they you know one of the locations was ocean side or still is right legoland's right there too so now it's like all right now bring the whole family you go to legoland

you go to the game and you know it's pretty expensive weekend for people. Yeah. And she was doing club since how old? Eight. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm in the home stretch. Yeah. The volleyball things, that one we were talking about before we started. Like that one, you would think, oh, I'm a good athlete. I'll just hop on. But it's actually not like that at all. You really need to be doing it. Probably, I would say, by age 10. Yeah. I mean, my daughter's 10. She played last year was her first year of club volleyball. And it's, I mean, honestly, dude, it's amazing how good they are. She's, she's a good little player. But her teammates, too. She's up and her teammates, I mean, and you, so it's like a club. So where you see like the older

girls, like the maybe 13, 13 U team. Yeah. And you're like, oh my gosh. Like they are playing real volleyball. And they're, they're jumping like 200 times a day. Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah, that's, yeah, it's, yeah, it's a pretty sick shape. Yeah. And it's honestly, women's college volleyball is so much fun to watch on TV. I haven't been to, I haven't been a game since I was at Oklahoma, But like there's that's a that's a sport that translates really well to TV. The two sports that you have to pick up early or you're in trouble or soccer and hockey. Because soccer, there's a geometry with the field and how teams move and give and go stuff. There's some of that in basketball too.

But in soccer like you really need it's just you couldn't just waltz in as like a 16 year old and be like, all right, I'm playing soccer now. Yeah, yeah. And then the other one's hockey. If you're not skating by age four, you might as well. H4, age five. The soccer thing is really. interesting too because it's like i played when i was young but then having been away from it for so long and then i you know i'll watch the world cup but i don't watch a ton of soccer and it takes me a while

towards the end to the end of the world cup you're like now you're on you understand why guys are moving certain places but the beginning i'm like why is why does it why does it look like that like you know seeing the angles and stuff it's a good point i didn't really like think about it i didn't get into it till late 2000s and that was when i got to know national a little bit too and he's a huge soccer guy and would talk about how similar soccer and basketball was and tell me to look for different players and there was a guy that on the team that he liked luca madrich that actually it was like the nash of soccer and it was so funny that that was like nash's guy because it was very similar to you know but but the same thing like the spacing and after you watch enough of

it you kind of get it now i feel like i get it i don't get it like i get basketball but i get it you know but it takes you just really. Defensively in soccer is where I'm like, it's like the angles that guys play. It looks so off, but then they're there. Yeah. They like get to it.

And it's, but it just also I don't really watch in person too. Maybe that changes it. I don't know. Did you have hesitation with football? For your son? No, I wouldn't say real hesitation.

He, he, um, he started playing, this is his third season of tackle. And, And, you know, there's a lot of precautions now, especially, like, all of July, they're practicing just helmets.

Yeah. You know, they're working on, like, technique, tackling technique. And also, they're also not to the age yet where, like, their guys are like, there's kids that are super fast, but they're, and big. But, like, they're not, they're not, like, they haven't filled out where they're hitting really, really hard. Now, this year, actually, there have, there, there's been some, like, some bigger hits. And guys are, oh, now.

Yeah, not necessarily, like, it's more so, like, I would, I think, like, like, running backs more so receivers less. My son's a receiver. But there are some, there's some kids on my son's team this year that are massive and they move. What do you like during these games? I just, I sit pretty silently. I actually record a lot for like my parents and stuff. But and then I also sign up, my favorite thing is to sign up for chain gang because then I can just be away from everybody else. I can just be on the sideline. Oh, interesting. I have my hat on. It's just like, I sit. It's nice. So I prefer to be chain gang during the game. Volleyball is a really good spectator sport.

When I was like a high school newspaper reporter, it was my favorite sport to cover. So it was like it was just super understandable. Everything was fast. It was like quick attention. Were you watch, did you guys have men's and women's? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Men's like there was no men's volleyball in Oklahoma. Women's was obviously more fun for a variety of reasons. But basically the points were longer. Yeah. You know, and you could really, you know, all the kids look all different shapes and sizes, but it was good. It was fun to watch. Yeah. I've enjoyed my daughter's volleyball experience.

It's been fun. Except the tournaments are a little, you walk into these gyms, and it's like 24 courts, and it's just screaming and whistles going. There's a whistle that starts every play. Right. You're sharing whistles the whole time. It's chaos. I did a podcast about the best and worst sports for parents for youth sports, and the worst ones are, it's basically what you have for volleyball, but it's gymnastics or swimming.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Because those you don't know when your kid's going to go. You're there for eight hours. There's one meeting at seven, and there's another one at 3.30. Do you consider, like, dance being one of those? I don't, but I would accept the case. My daughter did, like, dance when she was, like, younger, and she hasn't. Thank God, but, like, I mean, if she wanted to do great, but, dude, you go to these,

and they don't just go, like, okay, the young girls go now, and then, like, you know, they exit, no, you go, they do one, and there's like a every other age group. Then the young girls go again, every other age group. So you can't come and leave. You have to stay for the whole thing. You're there for like three and a half hours, just like, oh my gosh. How about the fact that at least we have phones, though? Yeah. You think about like 2002. You're just sitting there. You're going to this year. Just nothing but your thoughts. You're like flatline writing stuff down at a notebook. Yeah, that's true. It's true. It's probably better. That's probably why we were more creative back then.

Yeah. All right, Blake Griffin, say how to all your Amazon dudes. Good luck with the step back. Thank you. Good luck with everything. Sorry, we didn't have you on the 24 Celtics. Yeah, it's all right. It would have been fun.

Those guys, sacrifice myself. You'll be fine. Good luck with everything. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. Unlock unlimited free grocery delivery with PC Express Pass. Shop online and get the same low, No Frills prices delivered. Get your first year of PC Express Pass for just $2.50 cents a month.

Learn more at nofrills. This episode is brought to you by Welch's fruit snacks. Back to school season can be tough on parents, but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stog up on Welch's fruit snacks, made with real whole fruit for a mouth-watering experience the whole family can enjoy. It's a snack kids already love and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's fruit snacks. My friend Pete Burgess here, it's been years since we've potted, because you haven't directed in six years. Well, I've directed some miniseries.

But not like a movie. This is my first film in a minute, did American Primeval and did something called Painkiller, which feel like movies because it's six hours of constant filming and it's a lot of work. But this is the first film I made in a bit. Do you like that, the six hour? Do you like the movie thing? I like both, but after American Prime Evil, you know, I was thinking about my son who's now starting to be a filmmaker and his friends who all want to be filmmakers. And I was kind of thinking about movies. And I really wanted to make a movie.

I wanted to put it in the theaters. And I think it's a good time for movies right now. There's a lot of really good stuff out. And I just was like, I've enjoyed this stuff. I enjoyed American Primeval. I'm really proud of it, but I was super proud to make mosquito bowl and get back into the movie business. So our history, we go way back to the 2000s.

You've been on this pod. At Grantland, we did pods. You did pods when I was at the old ringer office. Well, you kept Friday Night Lights on the air, I think. You always say that. I hope it's one percent true. You were certainly one of them. Friday Night Lights was challenged,

certainly challenged with ratings, or challenged to find an audience. and there were a couple of people I credit with just being in our corner, having our back. You were just like so open with your enthusiasm and support. I wrote a timely piece I remember for ESPN magazine, I think right as they were deciding. But you told me something interesting.

We've talked about this before, but you were talking about the people who are in decision-making powers. They don't really see that many people during the day. I always remember this. This is one of the best things I've ever anyone's ever sat on a pod with me, that they go from like they leave their place in New York City or wherever. Yes.

Maybe they run into the doorman. Yes. They run to the guy who drives them. Yes. Their assistant, somebody in the elevator. And if you do something that will be mentioned during one of those interactions, it really sticks with them for some reason. Yeah, we're talking about Zucker from NBC.

Right. And it was in his hands. And he was a big shot who worked at 30 Rock back at the time. And I know that what happened is he was in his fifth. Avenue apartment in the elevator. And the key to getting Friday night lights picked up was when he got out of the elevator, was he walked through the lobby before he got in his car. It's like two minutes. Yeah, you have two minutes and you need the doorman or someone that lives in the building to walk by him and say, I love that show Friday Night Lights. And those little moments I felt could make all the difference. And they're underreported.

Every time we've done a pod, we've talked about the legacy of Friday and I, it's been 20 years. The cast, it just continues to get crazier and crazier what's happened with some of the people that have been on there. MBJ just won an Oscar. Yeah. Yeah. I just said Jesse Plymouth.

Jesse Plemons is one of the most respected under 45 actors in the world right now. They're all doing well. And we just did. I don't know if you've seen a new NFL opening for the Netflix football games. But I did one with Kyle. and we brought explosions in the sky back. And I haven't, I've been kind of shy to be involved with anything that involves the phrase clear eyes, full hearts can't lose. Yeah.

But Gabe, who I like a lot at Netflix, kind of called me, is like, would you think about doing it? And I called Kyle and we did it. And the response was really great. So there's little Friday night lights coming before each Netflix football game. Well, you know what else happened, the binge era. these last day, COVID, and people like my daughter, who's 21 now, where they just, you start watching it and you're just plowing through it, which was the problem when it was on in 06, there was no binge.

Yeah, you couldn't. If you missed it, you couldn't jump back into it. Yeah. And I told you the story about I got the Japanese DVDs on eBay, and I watched season one with Japanese subtitles. Amazing. Because they did, there was no other way to watch it. I mean, I remember that one of the first moments that really indicated to me that Friday Night Lights was going to have some bizarre legs was when I went to Hong Kong.

This was 12 years ago. Yeah. I went to Hong Kong. I was doing some work in Hong Kong and checked into the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. It's one of those hotels where they, you don't check in there. They meet you and they bring you up to your room. It's a little fancy and they check you in in your room. They give you a little hot, hot little towel.

Hot towel, some weird juice, tea, like, very like royal treatment. And it was this young, 20-something girl, Chinese, and a young guy, similar age Chinese. And they brought me up to my room and walked in the room. And it was all done up with like balloon footballs and football cake and pictures of the cast from Friday Night Lights. I'm like, what's going on? And they said, we love Friday Night Lights. I said, you're in Hong Kong? And they said, yes.

I said, but you're Chinese. Yes, we are. And we love Friday Night Lights. And that kind of blew my mind. That's so weird when that happens. Right now in Italy, Beverly Hills, Naino 2 & O is one of the biggest shows. Really? They just run out of these shows 30 years old.

And people in Italy are like, this is amazing. It's a top-rated show. I mean, I just never know with the other countries. You never know how anything is going to be viewed and how it's going to last. And for Friday Night Lights to have stuck around as long as it has, for people asking us to bring it back, for new generations. I mean, honestly, it's a huge miss. It should be back.

I don't know what you're doing. You think it should come back? I do. Because I think you could do the modern version of it. I think you could reinvent it. There's all these different models in place now. I thought what Cobra Kai did was really interesting with the old Karate Kid movies, and they basically put everybody in now.

I don't know if you do that with Coach Taylor and his wife or you have like the kids or what, but it's such a good brand. I think it's grown. I think the brand's grown over the last 15 years. No, it has for sure. So we have a plan. And if we did do it, um, oh, this is good.

See, I'm, I'm nudging now. We have a plan. I mean, we're not, we're not stupid. We have a plan. I think if we did it, it would be a new cast. It would be a new story. It would be relevant to the day that, you know, it was 20 years ago.

And obviously, high school football has changed quite a bit. NIL has made things change. NIL makes it really interesting. Yeah. The Internet makes it sort of relevant in a different way. So. Yeah, but Friday Night Lights basically, I think that was the first TV episode that ever hit what was going on with the internet, the slam page episode

with Minka Kelly's character. Your memory is incredible. But I just, I remember that being like, thinking my daughter was like one years old or something when that happened. I remember seeing that being like, oh, man, is this where we're going? By the way, it's way worse than it ever could have been

even predicted in that episode. I think, you know, one of the things that some people don't know is that really the catalyst for me doing the TV series Friday Night Lights was an injury that I witnessed on a football field in Texas. This young football player from San Antonio Madison, David Edwards was paralyzed at a playoff game against Austin West-Sike High School.

And you were there. I was at that game. And it happened right in front of me. And I got to know David and his family and my family got to be friends with their family. And this injury brought together two very different cultures in San Antonio and Austin, and was this incredibly,

powerful experience and we all got to know David and he lived I think five years after the injury and he passed away but that experience which was what led to right into Jason street injury was was so fueling me when I wrote that pilot and that you know there would be no Friday Night Lights TV show if there if David Edwards hadn't you know come into my life well you also had the movie which we did on rewatchable as I think two years ago, which I think has really gained steam as one of the better 20... The last 25 years, I think,

one of the best sports movies. Appreciate that. And then you had your cousin wrote the book. So you were kind of destined to do all three versions. For sure to do the movie, but the TV show was like, there was just no way after I got to know David Edwards and saw that and went through that horror and that tragedy

and saw what that did to the community. There was no way. I just, that's what fueled me to write it. So I guess what I'm saying is if we do it again, obviously I don't want anyone to get hurt, and that would be horrific. But there has to be kind of for all of us involved, a real reason to do it.

And that kind of exists inside the soul. We did an episode. It's not out yet, but we did an episode of the rewatchables for the first weekend in November for all the right moves with Tom Cruise. which he felt he was in the zeitgeist because of digger. I've always loved this movie, but it's 91 minutes.

You just go into Pennsylvania and it's this whole world, which was the same kind of thing that worked for Friday Night Lights where it's like, I don't know anything about Texas. I don't know anything about high school football there. And you just brought us in there. And it's weird that it's been 20 years now and no other show has been able to pull it off. And it's weird that Tom Cruise,

who did, I believe, a pretty extraordinary dance scene. in a locker room. He did. Played the little cornerback. Is the man and has the career that he has today. I remember that I love the movie. Yeah. Loved how Tom Cruise committed. I said Digger last week and I loved it.

You loved it? Yeah, I don't understand why. There's a big turn with Digger coming. People are shitting on it so much. And yeah, he's going to get nominated for an Oscar, possibly win one. He's incredibly good in the film. And I thought the film was really good.

and I'm not quite clear on why people are, you know, not reacting to it. Sometimes it's like in football game when they call it the spot. Like when you like a team, it's like it's the spot. They got killed last week. Sometimes movies are the same way. Yeah. Right? Like Hancock, which I think Bain was just talking about in the office,

I think a movie that's gained steam over the last 20 years. But when it came out, it was considered disappointing. But now you look back and it's a really interesting movie. You know? I think it is. Yeah. And I think it was so far ahead of its time in terms of being like a subversive superhero. And Will Smith is this alcoholic mess of a man who just destroys the cities stopping a drunk driver.

And, yeah, I mean, the challenge with Hancock is that the first, I don't know, 90 minutes was this just raucous drunk superhero. And it was really fun. Yeah. And then there was a turn that tried to kind of hit a very tricky. emotional sweet spot. And I'm really proud of that film. We tried to hit it. You know.

Well, I think it's funny because the next year is Iron Man and Dark Night. And you do this at the tail end of this other era of superhero movies where it really wasn't going that well. Like we had more bust than pits. And it was like we didn't have the CGI right. We didn't have the right actors in these things. I always felt like Hancock was making fun of some of that stuff. Dude, Will Smith just sent me a.

script for a sequel to Hancock. Hancock too. Yeah, and I don't know whether it's ever going to happen or not, but it is so good and so funny and plays directly into who Will is and everything that's happened with Will and then, you know. Oh, like it's like meta? Well, a little bit. You know, it's about a guy who's beloved who's struggled and had a few rough moments and who is trying to move on with his life. But it's- Isn't that all of that? us? I guess not on the stage. Yes. Not quite as high profile. But yes, that's definitely all of us. But it's just, it's really funny and insane. So I did read it and I thought it would, it would be an amazing film.

Well, I remember you and I knew each other at that point. And you loved Will Smith. For sure. You were like, Will Smith's the fucking best. Don't, don't, don't let anyone tell you differently. This guy's the greatest. So when, when you're watching, you know, he has some bumps. and you're watching from afar. What are you thinking? I mean, that was a rough, rough, rough moment. I think Denzel Washington had a line that he said to well that night, which is when you're right at the edge of heaven,

that's when the devil comes calling as loud as possible. And I think, you know, it was a bad moment, and we should not be defined by our worst moments. I think he's an incredible talent. He's a funny guy. He's brought like a real life force to my world, to our business. And I'm rooting for him. Who is the biggest star you've worked with where you're just like,

God damn, that guy's a huge star. Will Smith. That's a huge star. It's Will Smith. Yeah. I remember back when we're doing Hancock, we were in New York. And Will couldn't walk out of the hotel to the car just across the sidewalk without a small mob being formed. And he had, you know, been that famous for a long time.

And those were in the days when, you know, fame hit differently. Guys like Cruz and Will were so wildly, globally famous. I mean, I was in China with him. I was in Korea with him. I was all over Europe and South America. And the power of that celebrity was, I mean, it exists today. and I'm sure that if Messi started walking around certain neighborhoods anywhere in the world, things would get rather hectic.

You know what's different about it, though? Social media, because I feel like social media, you have more of a constant connection to celebrities, whereas like even if you're going to when Hancock came out, it's 07. You don't really have a connection with Will Smith unless he's in an interview or he's in your city. Right, right, right. But now you feel like, oh, I can see him on Instagram. Well, then it was like the difference between a TV star and a film star. Because a TV star, you just turned on your TV in your living room.

He's with you. A film star, you had to go to the theater. You had to invest. You had to drive and park and pay all that money. And then you had to come to them. And back then, there were film stars, and there was no social media. So you didn't get to see them that much. So when people, you know, made direct eye contact with Will, they just passed out.

Right. You know, literally, I saw people pass out and like just completely lose their shit. And, um... Well, that's why I love... So he was the biggest. The YouTube clips from the 70s and 80s of like major concerts, wrestling, W-W events or boxing. And you see how crazy the crowds are.

And it was because it was like, oh, my God, the Doobie brothers are in Houston. I was just... This is unbelievable. I can't believe they're here. It's crazy. And I was at a Raiders game two weeks ago. in Vegas. And I was in a box,

and James Hepfield from Metallica was sitting in the box. And I was with two younger, 20-something young men. And I was just locked in on James. And Alice Cooper played at halftime. And James was like playing the guitar along with like schools out and like singing.

And I'm like, I'm like, you, you guys, they were not, and my son and his friend, they didn't care. I'm like, you don't understand. They're like, well, we don't. And I pulled up the Metallica Live in Moscow. Have you ever seen that footage? I don't think so.

Metallica Live in Moscow, one and a half million Russians showed up. Oh, my God. And you've got to see the footage. Whenever I need to be hyped, it's over a million people, the Army, the Russian military is trying to do security, but they're dancing. There's military helicopters flying all over, and James is just playing Sandman, like, full out. And I showed, you know, these kids the video, and they were just speechless to think, you know, Taylor Swift, full respect.

Those concerts are electrifying, but Metallica Live and I don't know, 80-something, in Moscow with over a million Russians and the military just going insane. and then to see him, you know, sitting there with his wife watching a football game. Having a hot dog. Having a hot dog, like air guitar into Alice Cooper. But yeah, those days, I mean, those were days. Well, you don't get credit. You were probably the key moment for 30 for 30, season one. You guys had me do the first one.

Once you agreed, it made it possible to go other directors because you became the person. It was like throwing a party. where he's like, well, who's coming? Who do I know? And it's like, well, Pete Berg's coming. They're like, Pete Berg's going to be in this? Did he came into my office and you're like, we want you to do a documentary on sports, okay?

Anything you want. Anything. I'm like, what? And you said, you know, I know you love hockey. I know you know Gretzky. What about the Gretzky trade? And you aimed me at that. I don't remember that.

I'll take credit for it. And who else was in the room? Was it? It was me and Connor. Connor. Yeah. And I think you gave me some ideas. is and that was one of them and then you know I went and did it we needed to get like four

directors to start yeah and we got you we got Barry Levinson and then we were once we had you too is then Mike Tong came in and it became easy I still get so many you know thank you for doing that and I remember I was filming Gretzky on the driving range at at Sherwood and we're just hitting balls and my plan was to take him on 18 holes and play 10 holes of golf with them and just talk about life and hockey and whatever. And we started talking on the driving range. And we started talking about the legacy of Edmonton and how good they were and who that, you know, how many, I think five cups at Edmonton and how good that team was with Teakin and Messia and Grant Fier and that team was so good. Gary Curry. And then

broken up and he gets traded and never wins another cup. And I asked him at the driving range. I'm like, well, how many do you think it would have won? He said 12. He said, if we had stayed together, we would have won 12 cups. And I said, how often do you think about that? I remember he was looking down and this big-ass tear drop just came out of his eye and hit the dirt on the driving range. And he looked up at me, so I think about it every day.

Wow. And that's something I just think people don't talk. about or think about enough, just how dominant that franchise would have been more than the Bulls, more than the Patriots. Yeah, they even won one after they traded them. They had so much talent. They won't anyway. But yeah, at least four or five more.

Yeah, so you signed on for that one. And it was a different era for documentaries, too. Like, I look back to those season one. I really, I love that those were an hour. It was like 50, 52 minutes max. What you created with 30 for 30 was, was, genius. It was evergreen. I wasn't fishing for compliments.

But it was. I'm just saying it was a different era. It was like you could tell a story in 52 minutes. Now I think if we did that, it would have been like, oh, the rise and fall, the Edmonton Oilers, it's six hours and we have two bidders and we have to get. And Gradsky is going to be a producer. And it's like back then, you'd just be like, hey, we're going to tell this story. Wains in. Let's go.

Yeah. I mean, it still was an extraordinary simple, but a brilliant idea. because, and I don't know that you guys even knew, you never know going into something, obviously what its legacy is going to be and how it's going to latch. You couldn't have known that. You had an idea.

It proved to be, for me, one of the great things about it was it gave people like me, Barry Levinson, oh, who did the you? I love that one. Bill, Corbyn. Yeah. People who just don't have a voice, filmmakers who, you know, Hollywood guys or whatever,

suddenly who love sports, who have these sort of obsessions, it was this incredible platform. And there was nothing like it. So people just rushed towards it. And you guys curated it well. It was good. HBO had this, recently this 40-minute documentary about when Dennis Miller was on Monday Night

Football for two years. I forgot about that. It's like a 45-minute documentary. They interviewed like seven people in it. It just has a beginning, middle, and end. And it really felt like a 30 for 30. And I was like, because I'm not doing sports documentaries anymore.

I think I've run my course with them. But I would be interested again if it was more in those kind of things where you're just telling you start to finish story versus like, it's got to be four hours. We have to have all these different people on it. I just, and the people who you're interviewing have to be EPEs. I just can't do it anymore.

I look back in the late 2000s and it's like, man, we really had it good back then. I'm watching the Elon doc right now. Oh, yeah? Like a four-hour doc. And it's not sports-related, but it's thinking about what you just said, like, that's a doc. I could see you doing or getting attached to it. It's not a sports doc, but it's just a long, really, really intense look at a complicated human being. What did you think of the Shanling doc that Judd did?

I loved it. I cried. I told him, I cried. I mean, for me, Shanling was just a dear friend. Yeah. And I knew him. Like your legitimate friend. Yeah, like a legitimate friend.

He and I started a boxing gym together, which blows people's minds. And Gary Shanling used to love, love, love boxing. And he would be in our gym talking to Russian fighters or Mexican fighters or Ukrainian fighters who had no idea who he was. And he would just be there talking and giving him these. fighters, his opinions on what was working with their boxing what wasn't talking about, and they just knew him as

G. They just called him G. Unlikely boxing body, head, everything. Not somebody you would imagine seeing in the ring. No, no. He's a horrible boxer, and I think we talked about the Alec Baldwin Gary Shandling interview series that he was doing. Did I tell you about this?

I don't, if you did, I forget it. So, Shandling one, Gary Shadling was such an out-of-the-box. thinker and he wanted to do a talk show but he wanted it to be different so i think he did um jerry Seinfeld where he just went and walked through central park and gary wouldn't talk he didn't talk he just allowed her to either be silence or force um Seinfeld to talk yeah and and it was so just literally just being comfortable with three minutes of this just just like intimidating people to say stuff like say something I'm not going to provoke you.

And so he did that, which wasn't not particularly good, by the way. Yeah, I would imagine. But it was just kind of weird. He did some other stuff at Tom Petty. And then he did one with Alec Baldwin, where he invited Alec Baldwin to fight him, and he was going to interview Alec Baldwin while they were fighting, well, they were boxing. So Alec Baldwin, and you can find this on YouTube, Alec Baldwin was not in great shape, gets into the ring.

I think thinking that they were just going to like, like, you know, like they were fake jabs. Yeah, fake punches and act. And Gary just started swinging at him and Alex started swinging back. And then I was there. Look for a minute like they were both having, not about to, but having heart attacks. They both looked like they were having heart attacks. And then Gary started the interview.

So it was, that was the most interesting, the idea of like let's fight and talk, either while we're fighting and bleeding or after we're done fighting and bleeding, let's talk about comedy or let's talk about sports, but let's fight while we're doing it. You don't still box, do you? A little bit. I still go in. I don't let anybody punch me in the face anymore.

Like a year ago, I was like light sparring with someone in our gym, and I got hit kind of in the back of the neck. And I just felt everything go numb. in like electrical current shooting through my body. I'm like, that's it. That's enough. So I'll spar with the pros because they're not really allowed to hit me back and I trust them. But like I wouldn't spar with you or like back in the day I sparred with Steve Nash with Cam Newton with Sequan Barkley.

And like I would play with those guys and like they would, I know. knew how to box well enough and I'd keep them calm. Yeah. So that like we were just playing. But then before I saw I got hit and saw white flashes, I was born with Cam Newton, who's six foot six. Yeah. Very large guy. And he'd never boxed. And I was trying to show him how to box. And I like lightly touched him like in the chin. At which point he just saw like white and started swinging and he caught me hard and kind of knocked me back and then he caught me again. And I knew it was serious because my son and all my friends were in there and they wanted me to see me sort of get like lit up. Yeah. By cam. But then I heard my son and his trainer Julian

scream, you got to stop. And he just went like, he did he just went like in no control. Yeah. He lost control and I could have like really died. And um, and uh, And he was apologetic. And he's like, I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened. Like, he got hit. It was like 20 years younger than you, too. Yes.

And much bigger. And so that was the beginning of the end. And then when I got caught a year ago at the gym and saw just like flashes of electrical current and white, I decided my fighting days for the most part are over. But I still love the workout. Who is the best boxer you've seen in the gym? just navigating the gym and hitting somebody on like a Tuesday afternoon. Canella?

I think Canelo, yes. But the most impressive to me was David Benavides. Oh, yeah. Who knocked Bivel down with a jab in our gym. They were sparring and Bivel got put down by Benavides. He's a badass. Oh, my God. Benevides.

He's a top five. You don't want to fight with this guy, guys. He's my favorite fighter. out there right now. And, I mean, it was just so cool to have the gym and C. Bivel and Benevides and Lomchenko and Tyson Fury and Canelo and Terrence Crawford and all these guys just like suddenly in our gym

working out or sparring or Crawford was there, coaching Connor Ben trying to help him get around Ryan Garcia, which obviously did not go well. Yeah, that could not go well. It was... Wait, tell the sewage story. You told this story, but I don't know if you said it on the pod. This is a great story.

So I had an idea like 16, 17 years ago. My directing crew was going well, but I kind of wanted a side hustle. And people were asking for going on a restaurant or a bar or something like that. And I'm like, well, yeah, I guess. But if I own a bar, like, what good is going to come out of that? Like, it'll probably go bankrupt and I'll just drink myself senseless until it does. I'm like, I don't really want to do that. I love boxing.

I talk to Gary Shandling. I'm like, what if we start a real boxing club, like a pro boxing club? Yeah. And he's like, okay, sure, why not? And we figured like it would be fun. It would be like probably lose money, but at least we'd like have to do something healthy. We'd exercise a lot. And we love boxing.

So we started the gym. And Gary was kind of not, was an inconsistent, a very loyal friend. but an inconsistent partner was sort of involved. So most of it went to me. And opening a box in gym is probably like, I would think maybe like next to opening a strip club is one of the stupidest things. I was trying to buy in a boat,

opening a gentleman's club. Because you've got to manage these complex people and you've got rough lawsuits every two seconds. So it's like a restaurant with violence. You're like a strip club with violence. Like think about that. Like that's kind of what it's. With more violence.

Yeah, with more violence. It's a threat of death. So it was a nonstop headache. And I was constantly dealing with, you know, we'd have Santa Monica cops in their training and the cops would come up to me and be like, those two guys got to get out of here now because we know who they are and there's going about to be an arrest. Like we had bomb threats. Sounds fun.

We had lots of spice. And it was starting to be a big headache. And I was starting to think about closing them. I didn't want to. but I was thinking about it. And I was in New Mexico, making lone survivor. And we're up on ski Santa Fe Mountain,

and Walberg was there, and Taylor Kitch and Ben Foster, and we're doing this big gunfight with bombs. And I was in it, right? Up on top of the mountain. And I got a call from my assistant in L.A. that all of our sewer pipes in the gym had exploded. And there was just raw sewage everywhere.

And she was having some, like, disassociative breakdown, screaming, I don't deserve this. I moved out to Los Angeles to be a star. I'm a princess. I'm a princess. Yeah. And she was losing her mind, literally cleaning up. It sounds disgusting.

It was horrible. And I was empathetic and I, like, we finished work. It was a Friday and I flew back to L.A. And she was there. God lover. Her name was Liz. And she was a great assistant. And she didn't deserve this.

and together we cleaned it up. And it took about a day and a half and it was like breaking bad stuff, right? Like, you know, full jumpsuits, face hazmat stuff. We cleaned it up. She left. I've got to leave to go back to New Mexico to keep making the film.

Yeah. The gym actually looks good. We've cleaned it up. Still smells a little funny, but not bad. And I'm sitting by myself in the gym and there's a big mirror in front of me and I'm looking around and I'm thinking we had a good run. And I see this like flash of red and reflected in the mirror and someone's in the gym.

And I turn and it's Canelo Alvarez. And he's just standing in my gym. And he's this was. He's like 20 or 21 at this point? Yeah. Just coming up. But like clearly like everyone said, this is the face of boxing. And I knew who it was.

He looked at me and he's like, I'm looking for Peter. And I'm like, I'm me. That's me. I'm Peter. He's like, Freddie Roach told me I could come train to my camp here. He was getting ready to fight Austin Trout. It's right around that time. And I'm like, you want to do your camp here? I'm like, and I love the smell of raw sewage. I don't know where. I love the odor in here. We're both kind of ignoring that. I'm just sort of, we're playing through, right? We're not acknowledging because the floors are clean. You clean them. But I'm not sure whether he's detecting the aroma. But I don't think he is. He's like,

Freddie wrote said I could train here. I'm looking for a place to do my camp. My name is Saul Alvarez. I said, I know you are. He said, Yeah, this is the future of boxing at this point. And I'm like buzzing, right? But I'm trying to be cool.

And he said, can I see the gym? And I said, well, this is pretty much the gym. Like there's a bathroom over there. But this is the gym. He's like, okay, I like it. So can I do my camp here? Like we're making a deal right on the spot. I said, yes, we shake hands.

He goes outside. there's three Suburbans full of his crew. So his Eddie Runeos and Chepo, his trainers, and all his sparring partners and his, you know, handlers are like 20

Mexicans come flying into the gym, turn on the music, the gym, I don't close it. The gym holds on, takes off, and that became, you know,

we've been going now for 16 years. I remember you told me, when you told me he was training there, I was like, Canello? He's training? Like, I couldn't believe it. I sparred one round with Canoa.

Oh, that was a mistake. So it was my birthday. I'd flown in from New York. Why'd you do that? I'd flown him from New York. I knew he was doing a camp. I'd had a few drinks on the plane. My birthday.

Come into the gym. Everyone's in the gym. He's sparring. I look at him. I say, I'm next. I'm not drunk, but I'm not sober. It's like one body punch. You're doubled over for a year.

But I'm like, I got it. to like at least say that I did it. That's what my distorted thought process. It's like that Ernest Hemingway in you. Yeah. Not like is a good idea. No.

Yeah. I'm going to do it. Like I've done plenty of stupid. I've done stupider things, right? I've done stupider things. I went to Iraq for a month and embedded with the seal platoon. Yeah. I've done stupid things.

So I go up, I get my stuff on. I come down and when's looking at me. He finishes his three rounds with whoever it is. These are world-class sparring guys. I'm somewhat drunk. And I'm like done a quick wrap job, and I'm not warmed up at all. I get on the ring. I go three minutes, two minutes and 48 seconds.

I haven't been able to hit him. He hasn't thrown a punch. Two minutes and 59 seconds of a three minute round, he throws one punch, a jab. And he hits me in a way that I've never been hit, but it kind of like up right above the nose, and it locks my head down and my whole neck cracks. like chiropractic adjustment crack. But it was one punch, probably thrown 40%, and he kind of smiled at me. And I'm like, you didn't knock me down, champ.

And I got out of the ring. But it was something I can say I did. It cracked your neck? It was the most incredible punch. It was literally like a chiropractic adjustment. And he was so perfectly thrown. Because you had probably been. been in a couple scraps in your day?

But not with anyone like Canelo. And I mean, he could have literally killed me. And it's, you know, what I think people understand when they go to UFC or they go to, you know, a boxing match. They instinctively understand that these are athletes on another level. And like to be able to get into a ring with Canello and just try and hit up. Yeah. And just see how incredibly gracefully is it, how much muscle matter.

memory there is, and to realize that, you know, these are extraordinary athletes. What Ryan Garcia did, he used to come into the gym when he was much younger, what he just did to counter Ben is, you know, for anyone that's following the athleticism of boxing, like, it goes without saying that these are extraordinary athletes. And I was like, you know, I'm joking about going around with Canelo. I didn't go around with Canelo. If he tried to, you know, it was just pure mercy on his part. But he knew that on my birthday, it would be fun for me to get in the ring with him. And you'd have a good story.

And have a good story. But I didn't anticipate the jab that, like, literally cracked my neck in a great way. Like, it felt great. It was like an incredible adjustment. And then he smiled. And I said, thank you. And he's been an incredible ambassador for the sport. which is still as fucked up a sport as you will find on the planet Earth.

Better shape lately. A little bit. But yes. We've had more good fights. It's sinking less quickly. And hopefully Dana can turn it around. And Eddie Hearn and Dana, because I do like Eddie Hearn. And we work with Dana at our gym at Zufa.

I'm hoping that these guys can, you know, I don't know if you're following all the shit they're talking. I'm following literally everything. You know, so it's... I watch Wardley this week. Yeah, I mean, it's great entertainment and having Oscar de La Hoya kind of, you know, clapbacking. Yeah. Which I think is like the greatest thing on social media.

Oscars clap back Thursday, but... He's a wild card. Oh, God, is you think? When did you move to L.A.? So I moved to L.A. in 80... Right during the Olympics in 84. Was that... Who was your crew?

I don't know if I've ever asked to this. So my original crew... Did you have like an actor crew? Because you were in the class like ahead of Damon Affleck and those guys. My original crew, the only one I knew out here was an Italian named Sam Galletti who lived in down, whose family ran the docks, the fishing docks in San Pedro. And they lived up in the hills in San Pedro. It's like Sabaka in the wire. I had met him when I was in college in Minnesota.

We went to the same entrepreneurial seminar that his family had sent him. And he was like Joe Pesci from Goodfellows. It's like short, thick, Italian, and they ran Terminal Island. So the first person, he invited me to stay with him in L.A. And I went down there and stayed with the Galetti's, worked down on the fishing docks, unloading rock cod fishing boats. And they would loan me one of the family Cadillacs. They had a fleet of Cadillacs. And I would drive up to Hollywood.

and interview, try and get PA jobs. Yeah. And that's how I got my first job. But it was Sam Galetti, was my first hang. And then my best friend, Ari Manuel, moved out. And Ari and I lived in a little apartment. You were best friends before he moved out? No, we were good.

I haven't read his book. We were, we went to college together and became very good friends in college. And he graduated a year ahead of me and he went to New York to work in an agency. I moved to L.A. and started working in production, trying to figure it out. He then moved to L.A. And we lived in a rough little apartment in Hollywood. Where was it? It was Fairfax, Fairfax area.

Near Melrose and Fairfax. Some Cantors. We used to go to Canters all the time when we could afford it. Yeah. And there was a pizza shop right across the street from Canters. It's out now. But we would go there. But I was working as a PA on films.

Ari was in the mailroom at CAA, he would steal the bagels from, you know, Mike Ovitz's, like, conferences and the salmon and the bagels. And I'd steal like M&Ms and candy and whatever I could get from the craft service tables. And that's how we lived for two years. And we just stole food. Yeah, that's probably your favorite two years. They were the best times. And we were like we didn't have, we would never get invited anywhere.

My break came from I had been playing in a softball game and I got hit in the mouth with the softball, knocked my tooth out and busted my lip like 80 stitches. So they sewed me up and I looked like the elephant man. I had this big fat swollen lip missing a tooth on pain killers. And Ari and I was a Saturday night we went to canners and I tried to get soup down and he just kept making fun of me. And it hurts so much to laugh. I had to hold my mouth shut. And after soup, we did what we used to always do, which was just drive.

We would just drive around because we were never invited anywhere. We had no money. So we'd drive around, listen to music and like, go home. We're driving around. We're going down Laurel. There's a huge party. All the cars, all the valets, we're like, let's try and crash the party. We crash the party, get in to party for the woman who produced, one flew over the cuckoo's nose.

I can't remember her name, but she won the Oscar. Her party, big Hollywood party, the security there. We somehow get in. There's a huge buffet. We get all this food and we split up because we don't have food. Like we haven't seen this much food. So I go his way. He goes his way.

I'm sitting trying to eat my food, but I can't get it in my mouth because I've got 80 stitches, but I'm so hungry. I'm trying to get the food in. And all of a sudden I sent someone standing over me and I hear, what are you doing? And I look up and there's this woman. And I'm like, I'm sorry, we'll leave. She's like, I know you don't have to leave. I ask, what are you? What is this all about?

I'm like, oh, my name's Pete. And I got 80 stitches and my tooth is out. And she said, well, my name is Lori, Lori Rodkin. And I'm a manager. I want you to come meet with me. Just because she was watching, you eat food? She just saw me and she had an eye. And Lori Rotkin really is responsible for breakfast.

Brad Pitt's career, Robert Daddy Jr.'s career, Virginia Madison's career. Remember Judd Nelson? Of course, you remember Judd Nelson. Jed Nelson's career, she was at the time, like, if she saw you and she put, like, she blessed you, you had a shot. She saw something. Something about me with my 80-plus stitches trying to get, like, stolen. I think it was a pig in a blanket. I was trying to get in there.

And without Lori, and Ari, and that was Ari and I crashed the party. And people like, well, how do you make it in a career? I'm like, well, I got all my teeth knocked out, 86 stitches, had no money. We crashed a party. And Lori Radkin saw me trying to like stick a pig in a blanket in my mouth. And that was my big break. But Ari and I came up. It's so crazy. That's like 80% of the stories for how something happened that was like life

authoring. It's always some stupid I ran into this person. What would yours be? I mean, honestly, the reason I'm in L.A. is because I wrote a column about the shack roast. And Jimmy was in it, Jimmy Kimmel. He was in the roast, and I was writing about how funny he was. And he contacted me, and I ended up moving out here to write for a show.

So if he doesn't read the piece, am I out here? I don't know. Probably. Maybe at some point, but I don't know. Yeah. But that is what it is. And it was like you put the effort in. And, you know, I still think like it's just, it's just about effort, you know.

It's, it's. Well, once the doors open, you got to plow through it. The thing that you and Ari is spending that much time together is pretty nuts. I mean, he's in the news now. He just wrote a book. He's obviously incredibly successful. I know him a little bit too. But the fact that you were going to a party to try to get food.

We had nothing. And people, you know, people have whatever opinions they might want to have about are because he's so, you know, he's risen so high. Yeah. Like truly no nothing given, no nepotism, no contacts, nobody rooting for you, you know. Right, even now. For either one of us, nobody rooted for us. Like, you know, my parents, my father with love advised me that if I pursued my dream and

tried to come to Hollywood, I would end up making gay porn. That was his final good luck, Pete, kind of. of, and he was, there was love in that comment. He was trying to scare me straight. Yeah. But it was like, thanks, thanks, Dad. Like, are the same way? You're going to be in pizza delivery boys five.

No. That's where it's going to end. Like, he went there. He went to the dark side. And it scared me, and it's still like a voice in my head. And like, I can be on the set like a mosquito ball thinking of my dad's voice in the back of my head saying, like, you better be careful. You better work hard.

And I think Ari has the same voice. But what I don't understand is you guys are both like legitimate alphas. I don't understand how you got, it's almost like when the, like, two dogs in the backyard who were just constantly fighting each other. We used to fight, we used to fight like physically all the time. But you'd actually get an altercation. We were on his birthday in Texas. We're getting ready to go play golf.

And we played golf and we're at the hotel getting dressed. There was like 10 guys. We're going to go have dinner. And we're in Dallas. I think it was Dallas. some course where every hole is a different famous hole recreated. It's like something from Turnberry, something from Spyglass, something from Augusta, and it was some gimmicky thing.

Ari wanted to go there for his birthday. So we played that course during the day. And then it was a night with some shitty hotel. And me and Ari were sharing a room. We were doubling up in rooms. And we're getting dressed and putting in, like, put our ties on. We're going to go out nice. And we're both sitting there and we're talking and we're

stop talking, we look at each other, and we just attack each other. We just attack, and we just start fighting. Ari was a high school wrestler. Yeah. And he's hard, he's hard, and he fights. And I was just like using like animal strength, and we destroy the room. And we finally stop. This is in his book?

Clos are ripped. We stopped fighting, and we're staring at each other. Like, what the fuck is wrong with us? And we're staring at each other, and we attack again. We attack again and just utterly destroy the room, rip each other or bleeding or snot, we're covered in sweat, and we just started laughing. But I mean, he did just write a whole book about how rage. Using rage to succeed.

But like, I mean, I think we both played like we were, you know, not in the home court, that we were not popular, that nobody wanted us to win. And that friendship has been forged, you know, 40 years now. And it's hard. And he's wrapped you the whole time? No, there were times like when he first started in WME, or not, it wasn't W.O's endeavor. He's like, listen, man, I don't know if this is going to work.

Stay here. I'll tell you if it's going to work. And I'm like, okay. And, you know, I was at a different point in my career. I wasn't going to be able to make or break that agency. But very quickly, he said, come, we're going to do it. So he's either reped me or advised me. And when I first moved to L.A., and I was living with those Italians,

I started writing little short stories about me living with the Italians. And I only sent them to Ari. and they had a housekeeper at the house who didn't like me because it was like added laundry that you had to do with the Galady Brothers. And so I wrote these like short stories about me and this cleaning lady just like having this like quiet war with each other.

And she hated me and hated that she had to like... It's like War of the Roses before the cleaning lady. Yeah, kind of. And Ari, I was like working in New York at a law firm and I would at an agency and I would send him these little scenes that I was writing and he's like, you've got it right. You've got it right.

So it's been in my corner forever. And that was it. And like ride or die is like an overuse phrase but like, there's ride or die. And I'm... I like them,

but I like all straight shooters. And he's the ultimate. He's just shooting this way the entire time. He will not bullshit. You know, he will give you his opinion, which I kind of respect.

Every movie, like, like when I do a film, Has he ever told you like that movie doesn't have it? It sucks. He's like, that sucks. That's awful. I'm not going to say the movie because I don't think any of the movie suck. I fall in love with all of them.

Yeah. Some a little more than others. But yeah, Arias told me that some of my work straight out sucks. But if he tells you it's good, then that means it's it carries a different way, right? He's been a big supporter of my last film. And I know, like, everyone else, like, maybe they're telling the truth. I know he is. Well, you told me something interesting

when we talk about Mosquito Bull. You thought it was the best movie you've ever done. I don't know if you feel that way after every movie. I felt deeply connected. When I say, like, I think it's the best film. What I really say, I'm saying is, like, I felt tremendous inspiration when I was writing that film. You know, I went to Okinawa and toward the,

the site of that battle, which is arguably the worst battle, certainly involving Americans in terms of loss of life and just the bloodshed that was the experience on that island. And I toured that island with current Marines. We have a huge Marine Corps presence in Okinawa now, which most people don't even know about. I mean, tens of thousands of Marines and aircraft carriers and subs, and there's a huge military presence there now because of China. But they toured me that island, and I just went inch for inch. saw where these Okinawans jumped off of cliffs with their babies, where Japanese soldiers

blew themselves up with hand grenades and caves, where the Americans died, where their graves were marked. And that was powerful for me. My dad was a Marine. My dad served in Korea. Buzz Bissinger wrote the book. His dad served in Okinawa. Like something was brewing.

And then I went to Parris Island. where we, in South Carolina, where the Marines are trained, where, you know, the drill instructors do their thing and scream. Yeah. Pat McAbee plays a drill instructor in the film, and he went, I took him down there also, and it's possible to not go down there and be incredibly inspired by these young men and women now who are, you know, entering this world. Yeah. And the drill instructors who train them in kind of the time I spent loading myself creatively with Okinawa and, these drill instructors. And, you know, thinking about the seals I know, thinking about what they go through when they're in, thinking about how hard it's been for them getting out. A good friend of

mine, a seal who got out, Andrew Honeyman killed himself several months ago. That, to me, was just representative of what we asked these young men and women to go through. And the quote in the beginning of the film is a quote quote by by uh hoover saying uh you know old men declare war but it is the youth who must fight and die and that was all kind of boiling inside of me when i made this film and so when i say i think it's my best i just i've never not since david edwards was paralyzed and i wrote friday night lights was i kind of so locked in wanting to write something and wanting to bring a certain level of experience into a film. Plus World War II.

You probably always want to do something with World War II. Well, people were, I was scared, you know, because we, there have been some really great World War II films, Saved and Private Ryan. It was a very good movie, and Spielberg did one hell of a job. Yeah. And, you know, we have combat sequences in our film. And you have a long-ass combat sequence that actually reminded me of saving Private Ryan or I was watching it.

Really? Well, it's long and it's intense. and like when it's over, you kind of want to go have a cigarette. It's one of those. I was, you know, people, people asked me, you know, why would you want to do another World War II film? Why would you want to do a beach invasion, right? When they've been done well and they clearly have.

And my response, it was the same response when I did American Premier, and I was like, well, why do you want to do another Western? Like, there's so many great Westerns. I'm like, there are, but I never did. did one. Right. And I want to try one, you know. And I think we found our own language with the combat in the film and just trying to capture the intensity of that visceral experience and what it must have been like. I mean, think about your 21-year-old All-American College football player, you're Tony Budkovich, maybe the best running back in the country.

You've been, you know, you want to go play for the Giants. But he was a first-round pick. First-round pick. He wanted to play for the Giants. The Browns ended up drafting them. But you've just, your living life, and all cylinders are firing. You're an elite football player. You've got the coolest girlfriend.

Young kids worship you. Your parents love you. And his Pearl Harbor pops off, and you're like, oh, I'm going to stop this. I'm going to join the Marine Corps. I'm just going to go take care of this war thing. It's like a game. I'm just going to go win this little game of war. And you get there and you're used to competing with certain rules of like etiquette,

like, you know, a referee, a whistle, a clock. I beat you at the end and we shake hands. And you're fighting these Japanese kids who were kids who were ordered by their emperor to never surrender. And so I've got a gun on you. And I'm like, Bill, give it up. I got you. you won't surrender. You'll charge me. You'll use your, if you're out of bullets, you'll try and bayonet me. If that doesn't work, you'll club me. If that doesn't work, you'll pick up a rock,

and you won't stop until you're killed. And if I can't kill you, you'll kill yourself. So these young kids, these college football players go over there and get introduced to this flavor of hell. I just felt like very, very fired up to tell that story. I watched it Friday night. My dad is in town who loves World War II, everything. But I didn't tell him what it was about. I just told him, man, my friend Pete made a movie. We had to watch it tonight.

And he had no idea what was happening. He followed the whole thing. He really liked it. Like, he was weird at the end. He was like, it's kind of a feel-good movie. And I was like, it was. And he was like, you know, he's seen so many of those. But he did feel, I don't know.

He wasn't like depressed afterwards. Well, the football game in the middle of it is kind of why Bissinger wrote the book. Right. The idea that there were, right before the Battle of Okinawa, there were 40,000 Marines on this island, Guadalcanal, getting ready to go invade Okinawa. And they knew that the death tolls were going to be very, very high, which they were. And the general realized that there were 50 elite college football players. And so these guys got to have this. moment, you know, of play.

And they got to play this football game. And that's why Bissinger wrote the book. Yeah, I don't want to spoil the movie, but it comes later than you think it does. And I'd kind of forgotten it was going to happen. I was just in the World War II part. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, we were doing, we were having a football game, but it was really cool. Well, I think that if your dad felt, I mean, maybe it's the explosions in the sky

music, you know, those are my guys. It's just really well done. I mean, it's obvious that you weren't zipping through the. this one. No, I felt it. Yeah. I felt it. So thank your dad for me. Also, there's not a lot of war movies. We've gone on stages with war movies, but one where you're in like an extended battle and you start putting yourself in the position as people like, oh my God. Like, I was complaining yesterday because the fucking coffee, the coffee filter wasn't working right. And then you just feel like an idiot. I can you imagine being in this? And the fact that people felt like they

would just drop everything to go defend our country because it was like, well, what else we're going to do? Of course we're going to do this. And I don't know. Brought in different feelings for me. Well, I'm glad to hear that. And I think, you know, that was, one of my goals was, especially with the combat, was to try and make it feel as immersive as possible. So that you, you, you stop feeling And like, I always feel like I do my best work when I feel like I've made something where the audience is not going to be a spectator. It's not a spectator sport. It's a participatory sport. And I don't want you anywhere near your phone.

I want to own you, right? I want to own your breathing when you're watching those sequences. Well, Friday nights the movie, it was like that too. Like there was a couple game scenes when you're just like. You lock in. Yeah. And that's, again, like when I say it's like, I think it's. one of my better films.

I do love all my films like I would love all my children. Some you might love a little bit more secretly. But this felt like we were hitting that immersive experiential vibe. And if it means you stop for a minute and think, wait a minute, I think my life sucks right now. Oh, I'm like having trouble with whatever. No, you're not on a beach at Tarawa watching your friends throw. get shot out as you catch on fire and you've got to go find a gun because you lost your gun in the water. Pulling the tags off your friends.

So you have something. So I don't think that's a bad takeaway. I think it's actually a really good takeaway. And you think about if one's so inclined, like what's going on right now in Ukraine right here right now? Yeah. You know, I've heard numbers up to 45,000 a month dying. If you rush in in Ukraine, it's trench warfare. It's young men being sent out to fight.

And it's happening. Like what you see in Mesquito Bowl is happening in this world right now. So that was all kind of lurking in my brain when I made the film. Probably a better movie theater movie than a home experience. I hope so. So Ted Serendos, it's funny because. you make it film at Netflix, and you never know, right? So I made a movie there and it just stays on the platform.

You know what is going to be working there the week your movie comes out? You don't know. No, you don't know who's going to be working there. Shout out to Bella, who I think we both admire very much and wish all the very best. Not that she needs it, she'll get it, but... She'll be fine, but she was awesome. Yeah. I thought she did a great job running everything for them.

She did. And this is the nature of Hollywood. It is. These jobs, you know, someone says they're rented. Like all of our jobs are rented. You know, I say like we are owed nothing and, you know, things happen. But definitely a bummer. And, you know, for us this week, as we're getting ready to come out, we come out in two weeks.

And there's been, you know, some shakeups at Netflix. But Ted did say when he saw the film, film should be seen in theaters. And he gave us a real meaningful release. He gave us a 30-plus-day release. He brokered a truce with AMC theaters because AMC and Netflix were like, fuck you, fuck you. We're not going to show your movies.

So we were able to broker a detente, I think, is the word. And we're going to get the good theaters. So we're not just like getting like, you know, BS that will run and some shitty theaters. and that nobody wants to go to. Yeah. And I appreciate Ted for doing that. I do think that movies are in like an awesome spot right now. I would say the best in like 12 years.

I would too. And like, please come. If you're going to see our film, see it in a movie theater. It's big and intense. And I think, I don't know, do you agree? It deserves to be seen in a theater. I, in much respect, I wish I had seen in theater, but we had the pod and I wanted to, I was glad I watched it with my dad. And I have a good TV setup.

So it was, it wasn't like lacking, but it would have been different. You could imagine, like big and loud. Yeah, yeah. You want like the seat shaking and stuff. And I think I want movies to live. I know you love movies. I mean, I watch tons of television shows, love it. Thankful for Netflix, all that.

But man, come on. like I want movies. I want movie theaters. Well, people are going again. Yeah. And by the way, if you're a creative person, like how many did the six-hour TV show? How much of your life was that?

Making it? Yeah, six-one-hour episodes. It's like a year, right? So American Prime Evil was like a 140-day shoot on the mountain. Like, making a six-foot, but I don't mind that. I don't mind the work. And it's really kind of cool.

to have six hours to go really deep in character. And Bella gave us everything we wanted for American Prime Evil, when I really started to respect her, was on Prime Evil and let me do what I wanted to do, and I was super proud of that. But people watch it at home, and they're on their phones, and they're distracted. That's a problem. And then they moved to the next thing, and they finished that.

Instantly, it's the half-watch era. I do it too. I'm as guilty as anyone. Same here. And I want... Right now I'm launching Crystal Lake on Peacock. And if you quiz me on it, I think I would get like a D-minus. But I've watched every minute of it.

But I'm also like reading football and making picks. But then like when something holds your attention, doesn't it, does it like, what's the last thing besides mosquito ball? Where you just like throw the iPad and the phones away? You're just like locked in and like I'm watching the Elon Musk dot now. Yeah. Locked in for whatever reason. You know, like you appreciate something that locks you in so much more now because it's so hard to lock in. It's much harder.

Football. You know? Well, football is definitely. Yeah. Like this season, it feels like, does it not feel like we're like in some weird, rarefied? It's because we don't have any good teams. We have a bunch of pretty good teams. And so every week, like the Rams are two and fours.

But they're not a bad team though, right? But everyone's kind of okay with flaws, which makes it a really fun football season because we have no actual favorites. Casey's 5 and I don't feel awesome about them. I heard you talking about my NFC East of my Giants and just how... Eight wins in six weeks. That stat, I heard that stat. Wasn't it like the worst, some like the lowest wins since the merger, did you say? No Division has gone winless two straight weeks in a row since 1970.

And what's blowing my mind a bit too is, like owning a boxing gym and seeing all these pro athletes when we have a lot. And I see what they're doing as far as like recovery and the stuff they're taken and the saunas and the ice baths and the hyperbaric chambers. Yeah. And supplements all legal, as far as I know, but that are, you know, meant to enhance and yoga and stretching techniques and all this stuff. And to see the injuries in football this year. Yeah. I mean, just...

Basketball, too, at another Achilles injury today's ago. What is happening? Like, I really don't think it's doing any good. I think it's all bullshit. I think 90% of this recovery work that everyone's obsessed with. The only guy I've seen

whose training really feels like it's on another level who worked with our actors on Mosquito Bow is Christian McCaffrey, who came down and trained a bunch of our actors, because some of them had no idea, they'd never played football, they were British. And so Christian... Is that true? No, two Brits in a suite.

I'm like... What was Tony Bukovic? He was British? Tony Bukovitch was Ray Nicholson. He played football. He was... Because I thought he was the... I mean, he was my favorite character.

I think he was supposed to be, though. Yeah, and he was the best athlete. But Christian came down, it was off-season, and he trained them. And what Christian does... That's your fault for hiring British actors. Well, jerk. I know, but they were the best actors. They were the best actors.

See, you're part of the problem. But I feel like if I was a GM, I would always just draft the best athlete, right? Like, just don't think about quarterback. Don't think about, you know, skill position. Go with the best athletes. I don't know whether that works or not, but I was. Who was the best athlete Friday in a way? It's MBJ?

Oh, the TV show or the movie? TV show. Because the movie, it was Lucas Black, was a really good football player. Let me think for a second. The TV show, probably Michael Jordan. Yeah. Yeah. Probably Michael Jordan, just very athletic.

When I auditioned him, the first time I auditioned him, he started improvving that he was a linebacker, and he just went off and he tackled me into a wall, broke a lamp. It just went off and didn't apologize. It was like, yeah, that just happened. He was just like, Blue 80, Blue 80. Dog, dog, red. And you just... He's an old-school Jersey athlete. Yeah, he's a good athlete.

And just had that, like... Convincing QB. I mean, the two stories of Friday Night Lights, like, Michael B, looking back on it, no shock, right? Like, from the moment he auditioned and tackled me through a wall, I knew this kid was going to go somewhere. Jesse Plemons, like, was basically an extra. Had, like, one line in the pilot.

was in nothing role. Came in, you know, when you're casting these shows, you spend so much time on the main roles, and it's kind of a, you know, very exhausting process, and you read so many actors, and you put them through all these auditions. Yeah. You spend so much of your bandwidth

that once you made those decisions, the smaller roles, it's like, hmm, let me see. Okay, you look good. Your nose is working. You got all your teeth. Okay, you're hired. Like, you just want to get it over with. Jesse was that. Like, I mean, he had all his teeth.

Complete fluke. He said, yes, sir, proud to be here. Great, you're hired. Totally forgot about him until the first day he was on set and he was doing the scene with, um, with, with, uh, Saracen, with Zach Guilford. And it was really Zach's scene. He was just the like nerdy little friend. And I remember he said something like, hello, Mrs. Saracen. And he, to match my, it was his line. and then she said hello and gave him a dirty look and he just sort of like snarled to himself. Like he didn't like the fact that the mother was being me to him. But I remember like, whoa, what was that? Yeah.

What was that? That little thing. You added it. He did it. Yeah. And but it completely took the fault. He just was like, hmm. Right.

Hmm. And the mother who was like dissing him. Like he was like tried to give it back to her, but he was scared to. He's respectful, but he was angry at this lady was disrespect to him. He made this sort of moment out of nothing. And I remember thinking, look a little closer at this guy.

And then every day. Every day. It's R.A. calling one ring. Every day. Why even called him back? Yeah. Every day we added a little bit more, a little bit more. And then like our super hot girl,

like our sex symbol, not garrity, but Adrian Policki was Tyra was like, you know, she was the hot girl in the school. And slowly, like, the writers start aiming Landry, Jesse Plemons at Tyra. And they'd become a couple. And, you know, there was some dumb stuff that didn't work like a murder, but we got off to that. Now it's funny. Now it's funny for the legacy of the show, the whole murder section. And like, but we did it.

I'm just like, let's just pretend it never happened. Well, that was the NBC wants us to get the ratings out. We need a murder. Yeah, do a murder. Do a murder. Do more sex, do a murder. Love Triangle, murder. That's right.

Just going down the list. And to their credit, they were like, just pretend like to murder. Because our strategy was, for those that don't know, the ratings were horrible and we're going to cancel it. We also do 22 episodes. Now you're doing that show, you're doing eight. Yeah. So maybe 10. 10?

10. But yeah, the murder, the murder was, that was not our finest hour. But the lesson that, like, Jesse Plymouth came out of nowhere, Michael B, you knew, like, yeah, like, this guy had, like, Denzel vibes. And it just incredible. We knew each other at that point. I remember you telling me about casting that second group. And we were talking about how the white shadow screwed this up. And there was a whole long combo about, like, this is how it goes wrong.

Yeah. And then you were like, this kid, Michael B. and he was from the wire. And he was like, oh, my God, that kid? Yeah. He died in season one. I know him. Wallace.

And so that was the biggest shock. Like, Jesse, for sure. Like, you knew Minka was going to have a good run. Yeah. You knew Kitch was going to have a good run. You knew Kyle and Connie were going to, you know, that would be. Well, you caught both of them where it was going to happen for them and you just, it happened for you. I didn't want Kyle Chandler.

You know that. Right. I'm afraid. I know this, though. Who did you want instead? I wanted Dwight Yolkham. Right. That's right. And I was like, Dwight Yonkham, he's the guy. And Dwight wanted to do it. And then his schedule, because he was touring, you know, as a musician, he needed all this time off. I'm like, let's just give it to him. We'll give him the time off. And they were like, we can't do that, Pete. I'm like, but we can. They're like, we can't. You can't be in the show unless she stops touring. She wasn't going to do. Make too much money from touring.

Yeah. And then someone was like, Kyle Chandler. I'm like, Kyle Chandler. And he was on that show early edition where he'd get the newspaper the day before. He was kind of the Brad Pitt class of, was how old is he now, like late 50s? Yeah, yeah. He was in Damon Affleck, kind of that vicinity and he never had the show.

No, I didn't see it. Like from watching his show, I'm like, no. I'm like, nice guy, good actor, no. We met. They're like, just taking a meeting with him. And he showed up and he'd just come back from a bachelor party and he looked like shit. He was hungover.

That was it. Beard, messy, bags under the eyes. and he was so not what I thought he was going to be. And I'm like, this, just do this. And we'll be good. All right. Well, the important things we leave with are see the movie in the theater if he can. But if you can't, it'll be great either way because it's a really good movie.

And then Friday and N.L.A.S. is coming back. Those are my two takeaways. If you say so. And don't get in a boxing ring again. Not with Kenel. Just don't get hit anymore. No. We're too old. Don't get hit. If you want to work out.

with me in the gym, we'll get a good workout in, but I won't punch you and you don't punch me. Who owns the, would that be NBC, Peacock owns it? Owns NBC? Fire to any lights. Yeah, the rights are kind of all over the place right now. So, yes. Well, fortunately for you, your cousin wrote the book that it's based on.

It would be NBC and that crew. What are we doing? Just do it. Can you put in a different city? You mean, but probably keep it in Texas, or you think we should move it to Florida or like Florida, now we're talking. But there's so many states like Pennsylvania. You could do Friday outlets in Pennsylvania. That's all the way moves.

You could do it in Atlanta. I mean, you could literally do it anyone. Florida has my attention. Kind of interesting, right? Yeah. Then you could bring some other stuff in there too. All right. You bring a lot of stuff.

Bring some things in there. Pete Berg, great to see you. Proud of you, buddy. Proud of you. Thank you. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Pete and Blake and Gahow and Eduardo and Chris and Jack from the Spotify side. Don't forget to have new rewatchables.

It follows, which went up, and we have a live rewatchables coming Monday, 5 o'clock ET. Fourth horror movie of the month. If you want more basketball content, check out. Zach Lowe's podcast, The Mismatched, Ringer MBA show, Ringer Wise Guys, Zach's substack that we just launched, all the great pieces on the ringer.com. and I'm going to be back with a big ass football podcast. I already got a couple great emails for House for Thursday, but I'll be back on Thursday with more stuff.

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