The Breakfast Club - Bomani Jones Talks Tom Brady, Kyrie Irving Trade, Lebron's GOAT Status, Game Theory + More

Episode Date: February 9, 2023

Bomani Jones Talks Tom Brady, Kyrie Irving Trade, Lebron's GOAT Status, Game Theory + MoreSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own? I planted the flag. This is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God.

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Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Charlemagne the guy. We are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed. Bomani Jones. Welcome back. While you get that seat and I got to sit over here in this joint. You know, y'all are thrown out. Y'all are really minimizing your guests with this whole strategy. No, we got another one coming.

I'm just saying. But how does that work when we have multiple guests? So who gets to throw them? Well, it sounds like y'all just need a whole bunch of thrones. Like, I've seen this. Like, Colin Coward already said that set up. His desk was up here and his guests would be sitting down there. LeBron always sitting in the high chair on the shop. Everybody else sitting on the ground.

You can't fool me. I see what this is. Well, Charlamagne bought the thrones. He bought the thrones. I thought because he was short he wanted to be a little higher. That's the reason I thought. But you just never know. I just like the setup. I like how it looks on camera. That's all. Well, welcome, brother.

Appreciate it, man. Season two of Game Theory, man. Yeah, man. How you feeling? Hey, man. We're out here on the stroll selling these wares for everybody. Anybody that want me to walk the stroll to look pretty, that's the trickiest part of it.

But doing the show itself, man, it's been great. I mean, this is the thing that I always wanted to do. And now we get to do it. And we get to keep doing to do it and we get to keep doing it at least we get to keep doing it through this season i don't get to make decisions past that but we got a lot to talk about today so let's jump right in super bowl this weekend who you got and why all right i'm going with the chiefs and i don't know if the chiefs are the better team but i just can't pick against my homes man how's his leg though how's his foot i mean he got two of them you know what i'm saying like one of them might not be as good as the other one was,

but he got two. And I made this mistake the last time they had the Super Bowl. Like, I'm not picking them because they have Mahomes because that got me in trouble when they lost to the Bucs. But I can't pick against him. Well, in that Super Bowl, you probably could have because of who they were playing. Well, Tom Brady.

It wasn't about Tom Brady. It's when I turned the TV on and saw they had all them back up offensive linemen, and immediately I was like, I'm going to be wrong on television tomorrow. Sometimes you just look up the game, doesn't have to go. I just saw the dude at left tackle who got Cam Newton damn near killed in that Super Bowl. I was just like, sometimes you're wrong. Now you

did say Tom Brady. What are your thoughts on Brady finally retiring? Dude, he's 46 years old. I don't even understand what the dilemma is. He's still competing. He's still competing, but so are the dudes that are hitting him in the kidneys like this this is just me personally i would imagine at that age i am 42 and i know how much it can hurt just working out just waking up yeah yeah this dude's out here getting getting buy out by everybody and just like yeah you know i think i might want to do that no no no no so i am amazed that he pulled

it off for as long as he did i'm glad that he walked away before it got to be terribly embarrassing because he was going to be out here next year. It was going to be depressing for all of us. You think so? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. What if he went to San Francisco or something? He'd still be looking depressing, man. Everybody gets old.

Like, I know he got all this stretching and his strawberry ice cream and everything else, but in the end, well, you can't eat strawberries. That's his thing. He does not eat strawberries. Everybody gets old. And I think cats like him and LeBron have fooled us the end well you can't eat strawberries that's his thing he does not eat strawberries everybody gets old and i think cats like him and lebron have fooled us into thinking that you can live forever nope everybody that's thought they could go forever is gone one day too long and we just sit there and cry well we never saw we had we really never saw brady have a decline i just don't think he had the team around him this year

yeah and that's why it's good to get out ahead of that decline it's coming like no matter who you are it's coming now you mentioned lebron is lebron the goat now he's about to pass the record in the next couple of days the conversation's coming back no why no because there's a dude named jordan i agree that's i mean that's that's no insult to lebron but like i remember at one point it's like 15 years ago and i was doing radio and i would say lebron james is the best player i ever saw and i had this like whole clinical argument like he does this better than mike he does this better than mike he does this better than mike and i could go through all of that and then you go to youtube and you're like what the fuck was i talking about like none of

this matters there was that dude and then there's everybody else like the last dance which was so funny because it was so clear that mike looked around and was like these kids just think i'm about some shoes i need to show them who they are and then i watched it it was like, these kids just think I'm about some shoes. I need to show them who they are. And then I watched it and was like, yo, great idea, Mike, because I don't see how they could watch this and think anything other than there's never been anything like this before. No insult to LeBron. But I also think that part of the scoring record

of what's important to him is he's still making that case. Right. I have a case against Jordan. Assist and scoring and rebounds. I'm just here to tell you. I don't think you have a case, though. No, it's cool to be yourself, right? You just got to realize you're not going to convince us.

Like the people who you have not convinced, it's over. That decision has been made. The ones that know you, cool. They're going to ride with you, and they're going to decide this is your program. Everybody else, no, we made our call. I don't have brawn over Kobe, and I think it's wild. Oh, see, I think that's crazy. I'll tell you why. We always saybe's the closest thing to jordan right and people don't

want to give it to kobe i saw stephen a smith say i don't want to give it to kobe because all he did was mimic jordan you know how good you got to be to mimic my oh no no i give him credit but that's like saying that shine is better than somebody because he's the closest thing to biggie now great i never thought that great kobe's a lot better than Sean was as a rapper, but it's just like, he reminds me of isn't quite enough. LeBron got too many victories. Like, I know Kobe has the championships, but that run, basically, from 2010

to 2019, or 2018, when he's going to the finals every year, and the only thing that's constant is LeBron James. Y'all only do that with LeBron. When it comes to the Buffalo Bills, nobody say the Bills are one of the greatest football teams of all time because they went to the Super Bowl four times in a row. But they didn't go to the Super Bowl eight times, and they didn greatest football teams of all time because they went to the super bowl four times but they didn't go to super bowl eight times and they didn't win it was four right right but they didn't but if they had won a couple along the way we could talk about like i'm an atlanta braves fan right i don't say

they're the greatest baseball run ever just because they have 15 straight division championships or anything else but lebron being the constant between two franchises and a whole bunch of different ways to get this done. Nah, man, you can't. There's no shade that you can throw on what he put in there. I'm not throwing shade. I'm just saying he's the person that we, for whatever reason, we make a concession to when it comes to not winning.

Yeah, that's fair. And when Kobe was missing the playoffs and out here the last four years looking beat down and everything else, we let him slide. Stay past his prime. Stay past his prime. Stay past his prime. That's right. But you cut him slack for it. That's the thing about it.

We cut Kobe a lot of slack for a lot of things. I don't think so. He was hurt. I think the one thing that Braun doesn't have that Kobe has, that Jordan has, is the will to win. There was just something different about Jordan when he was on the court in those final minutes. You knew he wasn't going to lose this game. Same thing with kobe ron not so much see i disagree i think kobe had the will to

take shots every time like when we talk about the mama mentality stuff like it's been it's been long enough now that we can have an honest reassessment of kobe and so the thing for me about that is every time you hear about kobe and the drive and the passion and everything else it's all about one man kobe's thing is i am going to get myself all the way right. And if the rest of y'all do it, we're going to be cool, right? What made Bron different than Kobe was I can take Bron out here with four dudes that we get off of Fifth Avenue. And he'll be like the buddy from the sandlot. If you go stand over there and hold your glove up and just stand right there, the ball's going to come to you.

That's what LeBron's got. What Kobe's got is, man, if y'all would just give me the ball and just let me get these buckets, this will be our best chance. I don't see that as the will to win. I see that as the will to be the person who does the thing. Jordan wasn't like that? Jordan, I think part of that's the North Carolina thing where every now and then you had to get a ball to somebody else

and then go figure it out. But Jordan had a better understanding of the team dynamics. Like, look, man, I'm not an only child child but i grew up kind of as an only child playing basketball in a driveway that's kobe kobe got driveway game right he got all by himself moves all that stuff who you imagine you ain't got to think about nobody else you shoot them crazy fallaways and everything else because you playing in the driveway by yourself yeah and then he gets out with other people and that was the whole thing with kobe the whole way was like figuring out how to interact with other people it was a human thing but i also think it was a basketball thing and i go with lebron for that reason over that like when lebron had that squad no seven kobe can't get that team

to the finals in the east or either way because that's not how kobe gets down yeah lebron out here got jeff mckinnis out here looking like something that he never could be. Now Kyrie Irving. That was a joke? That was funny. That's what I do. No, he just got traded to the Mavericks. What's your thoughts on Kyrie? Does that make that team better, worse, or it doesn't matter?

I have no idea. And I don't think anybody has any idea. No, but he's another dude that's in a similar place where his individual game is just so incredible. Like, he's the best ball handler that I've ever seen. Not even close, right? But how many games he going to play? He got all kinds of reasons to not show up, not come to work.

Now he's dealing with a dude who's not accustomed to giving the ball to anybody else. Neither one of them plays especially well off the ball. I'm with you. But with the Nets, I don't feel like they got better either. Like, this is the rare time I look at a trade and be like, oh, everybody wanted to do worse, huh? Ain't that something?

Because I'd have told Kyrie, he was like, you know, the word was out that he might sit for the rest of the year if he doesn't get traded. Yeah, I bet. You want that max deal, you're going to get out here and play because that's all you can do to get this money. Is that the worst, I should say, the worst letdown in NBA history? Ever.

James Harden? Ever. Durant? Ever. Kyrie Irving? Ever. Ever. Doesn't make any sense.

First of all, they play like a game and a half together, like in sum total. But no, ever. I can't think of anything else. Remember how we thought about that year, the Lakers got Gary Payton and Karl Malone, and they were old. They were old.

And we thought it was a letdown when they went to the finals these dudes won a series one single solitary series and now i'm just waiting to figure out when they're going to trade kevin durant but what do you what do you do with kevin durant you're the brooklyn nets and if you are kevin durant where do you want to go? Well, I can't go where it's the best place for me to go. What's that, the Warriors? Should have never left. I don't blame him for leaving. Like, I didn't blame Kyrie for leaving Cleveland the same way I didn't blame Durant for leaving

Golden State. I didn't blame Kyrie for leaving Cleveland because he left Cleveland at the same time that I left Highly Questionable to go do High Noon. Highly Questionable is a very successful program. If I want to do that for the rest of my life, we'd have been down there making easy money, living in Miami. But I needed more, right? Like it wasn't – I had a very nice seat in somebody else's car. I wanted to drive a car.

So sometimes you got to go drive a car, right? That's where Kyrie was when he left Cleveland. What if you're not a driver though? Well, he thought he was a driver. I personally believe that I was a driver, but I have to say that car I drove on high dude didn't quite stay on the road, right? Luckily, I got another chance to drive a car, but he wanted to be a driver. You deserve a chance to see if you can do that, if somebody would give you that opportunity. With Durant, can you imagine being possibly the best player on planet earth and

they'll never love you as much as this other dude right here. And everybody loves Steph, right? So if it comes down to a battle of, like, whose side we got, you're never going to win over Steph. And in fairness to Steph, I always say this, we don't let that man be a person. And so we act like, oh, Steph will have no problem with Kevin Durant being there. You know it'll be easy. I assure you it was not, right? That man's got an ego just like everybody else has an ego.

So you on somebody else's team, you in somebody else's city you're the best player in the world and nobody cares because it's his and so he i felt like durant wanted something that was more his own except the problem was he brought his fuck up homeboy with him and it became his team because when you're the one that messes everything up it becomes your team because you're the one that we got to worry about all the time and kevin durant's that dude he's so cold that you never have to worry about him and that gets old my ass that's right that's right uh speaking of steph i i love talking sports you know we can talk about so many other stuff and i asked steven a the same question when you talk about generations right when you look at steph and braun over the last 10, 15 years, objectively, whose era really was it?

This is a spicy one that I've been dealing with and trying to figure out myself. Because the truth is, Steph Curry won four championships on LeBron's watch. That's right. And beat Braun twice. Beat him twice. Three times, actually. Yes. Three times. Three times.

And there's no way around that. He beat him on his watch while LeBron was still in his prime. That's right. Let's say the Warriors, and I don't think this is going to happen, but let's say the Warriors won a championship this year, and that would mean that Steph had five championships and LeBron has four. Okay.

I can say LeBron's a better player than Steph. How could I say that the era did not belong to Steph? And Steph changed the game. He revolutionized the game of basketball in ways LeBron didn't. Everybody plays like Steph. Yeah, it's tricky, though. LeBron couldn't revolutionize it because you look at LeBron and you're like, oh, I can't do that.

It's just not an option, right? There's no way that I could ever look in a mirror and be like, yeah, I got that. No, no, it's just not an option, right? Like, I can't, like, there's no way that I could ever look in a mirror and be like, yeah, I got that. No, no, it's not happening. You can feel like that about Steph shooting. Right, but that's the problem. People feel like that. They can't do that shit either.

Like, I can't imagine coaching a youth league basketball team right now. For years, I thought he was chucking. I was like, he has to be chucking. The way he was, them shots, it looked like he was chucking. Let me tell you, man, I was, that year that Steph killed the NCAA tournament, I covered – I was in the building for the first two rounds. And I even told him because it kind of like changed the trajectory of my life because I was there in between jobs and I was watching that.

And I was like, no, I got to be around this forever. Like it was that big a thing. But he was out there. He was like 145 pounds. The jersey was falling off of him. And, dog, he was just demolishing. They played Gonzaga in the first round they had a couple NBA players he's just doing it to him playing you know just

playing with regular old dudes who could get into Davidson right then they played Georgetown next round Georgetown was the number two seed Georgetown should have won that game but that's a whole another discussion and Steph's doing all that and you watch it and you're like well he can't do that in the NBA because he's just too small. That was all it is. And then you realize after they changed the rules in the NBA, actually he can do this in the NBA, right? So he's one of these dudes we question really just because of size. It was never a question of whether or not you had the talent or anything else.

But, man, if you put, like, a couple tattoos on that dude, we talk about him like he's Allen Iverson because he's got handles like that. He had all of it. And at every turn, he's like, I'm better than y'all think and we're like but steph we think you're the greatest shooter ever because you're really no no he was better every year i gotta wind up coming on a microphone being like guys i swear i was saying this stuff was really good but you were right i did not say he was as good i know the next time i see him he gonna have something to say to me because he finds out everything everybody says that is the little

bittiest slight. And he's going to say something too. He ran up on one of my homeboys who comes to the league because we had had a podcast discussion where I was trying to make the point, he's a system player, but also the system. But all that got heard was he's a system player. This is years later he walks up to my man, not bad for

a system player, huh? I don't think cats understand. I don't think people quite get what kind of dude he is. He just went to Christian schools. That's all it is. But otherwise, no, he like us. That statement makes all the sense in the world, though, because he is the system.

The system is built around him. What it is, and the point we were trying to make is, there's a lot of guys where you'd be like, yo, we need to win the game. Put four dudes at the bottom, you at the top. You go make it happen. He's not the first choice that I make to do that, which is different than guys that are typically that good. Ain't nobody try to hear nothing that came after that, though.

Oh, that's shade. That's shade. And then that boy went out there and won another championship. I'm not sleeping on him this year. Nah. I'm not. If they get in the playoffs, I'm not sleeping on Golden State. Never know.

That's the – Clay Thompson is not what Clay Thompson was, becomes the holdup. My thing with the Warriors is it's hard to play for now and play for later at the same time. Do you trade Clay if you have the opportunity? My thing is I trade them young dudes. Really? Wiseman, Moody, or Kaminga.

Really? If I could get Kevin Durant back, I'd trade them all. Yeah, I mean, young dudes. Really? Wiseman, Moody, or Kaminga. Really? If I could get Kevin Durant back, I'd trade them all. Yeah, I mean, of course. But I'd trade out one or two. It's hard to have a bunch of dudes in their 30s and a bunch of dudes that's like 21 and make your team happen at the same time. That's just me. I would get the young

dudes out of there to try to win while I got Steph. And if I'm Steph, I go in there kicking and screaming about it. Is the NBA getting too violent now? It seems like people are fighting more. Too violent? I've always said it's not violent. No, it's getting back to it. It's getting back to the Detroit-New York Knicks days. Yes, and I love it.

You know why? Because good basketball doesn't make people watch. Passion makes people watch. Correct. Like, you think about that terrible basketball of the 90s or the late 2000s where you got finals games where a team is scoring in the 50s, but we view that more nostalgically than the game we watch now.

We like watching dudes elbow each other. We like watching dudes put each other around. I said something on Game Theory. It was the first words of Season 1 where I was like, you realize there's a whole generation of NBA fans that have never seen their favorite players in a fight. We have seen every single one of our favorite players fight somebody. Michael Jordan, Mary Bird, bird magic johnson all of them top to bottom

did we ever we had never seen any of these cats fight so like that level i'm down to see some pushing around like one of my favorite altercations jo Joel Embiid and Carl Anthony Towns had one. Cause Carl Anthony Towns was like, look, I know the rest of y'all think I'm a sucker, but I'm not taking that from you. And finally decided he was going to fight him. Now where I get worried, y'all see the story about John Morant and the laser beam.

Yeah. I was going to get to that. Yep. Son, this is my only thing about that. Okay. Now you from not too far away. South Carolina is where he's from something yeah i don't know what part of south carolina that is right like in terms of

like country what it's like on the ground but like country country people don't understand that country got real also right i don't know how he rolls how he gets down but i know a lot about memphis and you can play this game with that laser dot on the team bus with the Pacers if you want to, and if you want to play these games with your NBA friends, go ahead. Watch your step in that city that you live in. And that's my thought about that. Like if you're riding around with your partners and as they get down and you still got these dudes around you, which makes me wonder, what you and your daddy be talking about?

He had every single game and you're still riding around with dudes that's laser beam and strength. Like people, like what exactly are you talking about? But I hope he's careful. I really hope. There was the other story. I don't know if you saw it. Somebody sued him. Basketball.

Playing basketball at the house. Yeah, I didn't know you were wrong. No, I haven't. I was team Ja. Basically, some young man that he's known forever was playing ball at his house. And they had some heated altercation. And the young man says he accidentally threw a ball that whizzed past jai's head and jai looked around allegedly and said should i do it to him and they said yes

and they gave that boy the beats um but he was like 17 oh wow now that comes down to a philosophical question as to like how old how old is old enough to get your ass kicked for acting like how big was that 17 year old somebody 17 year old is pretty big now i think 17 was enough for me like at 17 i recognized a grown man might whoop my ass but didn't they say the nba did an investigation and found out they couldn't uh confirm the laser story yeah they they couldn't confirm it but uh here's what i here's what it's not like they couldn't confirm they couldn't confirm that the laser was tied to a gun that's right which is fair and i think it's in all likelihood them boys are just playing around in the car with a laser.

Ray J had one this morning. Yeah, Ray J had one. Yeah, we don't play like that. I think we all, maybe I'm just from Texas. We don't play like that. Shannon Sharp, what's your thoughts? I love Shannon. Arguing with a couple people on the court. Because at one time, if you argue with somebody on the court like that, you're getting thrown out.

Not Shannon Sharp. I love Shannon, though. Shannon is one of my favorite people. I love him, too. I love both, too. And you're not getting kicked out of the Staples Center, whatever they call it now, when you're the number one LeBron James fan. Right? Let's go there.

My favorite thing about that, though, Dylan Brooks, he was ready for that. Dylan Brooks didn't want that. I think it was Desmond Bain was the other dude that came over there. Desmond Bain didn't really want that either. Steven Adams. Oh, suddenly we have a fair fight. That's a good one. That's a good one.

That's a good one. Steven Adams feels no pain. He's impervious to pain. Like he had to reach on Shannon, them other dudes. Woo, woo, woo. Shannon Sharp would have beat the dog shit out of him. That's a good one. Listen, you know, before you go on.

Oh, man. I was talking about game theory. You do game theory by yourself. Talking about Shannon. When you see these heated altercations that Shannon and Skip Bayless get into, or you even saw Stephen A and Jay get into yesterday, Jay Williams, is that just something that comes with the territory? It kind of depends on the dynamic that you have with your co-hosts.

But, yeah, I mean, you think about it, man. Them dudes is up there hollering at each other for two and a half hours a day. Right? Like y'all ain't even kicking it. Right? Like the nature of your show is not antagonistic. Right? Y'all, they go at it and with the ego that Skip has, and I know Skip, I know, like I

don't know them like real close but i know them well enough to talk about in this context and what happened was like i saw in that one with uh shannon and skip and i may be out of turn because i don't work at that network but shannon didn't have to say you could have took down the tweet no no no just let that go just let that go and skip didn't have to be like i'm not going to take it down and let me explain why and then whatever they old fight was happened right in front of each other. And what I've said and I hope for them is this TV thing, that back and forth, only works if the people think you like each other. Like if they know you don't like each other or feel like you don't like each other, it doesn't go.

Court Hines and Will Bond scream at each other. They be heated at each other sometimes, but always at the end as a reminder that they like each other maybe heated at each other sometimes but always at the end as a reminder that they like each other steven a and jay got a little bit of a different dynamic because it ain't their show it's his show and the last thing i saw on there and i haven't talked to either one of them about this but jay did something that would have got me right there with steven a with steven a is like yo you always tell me what you find interesting why don't you just say what you mean like no no no we're not doing passive. Aggressive about this.

Like. Stephen A. Smith is not a person. That's here for your tiptoe. He's right here. Say what it is. That you think. But.

On this issue. They've gotten into these arguments. I was trying to YouTube. The full segment. And I found. Another one. Of them hollering at each other. About Kyrie Irving.

Right. Like. It's. That one. Is particular. And in ways ways seems personal to both of them for different ways. Stephen A., he got contacts with those people over there and talking to them, and every now and then he'll be like, yo, I don't care about you or your daddy.

So, like, it's clear they got their thing. Jay Williams went to Duke. Jay Williams is from the New Jersey private school basketball world. So they both bringing whatever their things are into this but they got shows where people just like argue with each other none of the shows i've been on dan ain't built for that me and him couldn't holler at each other like that oh god if i hollered at pablo like that on television they send me to jail like it's just you know like it's not or at least i get detention the dynamic did not allow they would say they Asian hate all kinds of stuff but our dynamic and our interaction

didn't work that way Skip and Shannon when they're on good terms they can do it but no that's the thing when you got that we highlight each other television show and sometime it ain't gonna be games so how do you navigate that hosting your own show how do you navigate that hosting

your own show oh I ain't gotta argue with nobody no more'm rolling. How do you navigate that hosting your own show? Oh, I ain't got to argue with nobody no more. Yeah, but I'm talking about, you know, we know people like to see some type of conflict. Yeah. Do you feel the need

to like stir something up? No, because I can't. The kind of conflict that we talking about here, like, I feel honest saying this and I don't think anybody's going to look at me for being a jerk for it, right?

Would you want to argue with me on television? No. Would you? No, but like it right would you want to argue with me on television no would you no but like i wouldn't want to argue with me i can have a conversation yeah we have a conversation but like yo i'm gonna bring it to you right now most people aren't like that's not a winning proposition for most people so you can't approach somebody like bomani emotionally you're gonna lose every time but then i can't approach them emotionally because then i just look like a bully right i don't look like – it works better. You saw the thing I had with Jake Paul the other day with that back and forth. I knew going in, if Jake Paul tried me, I'm going to just let him do it.

Let's keep going. Okay. Okay. I'm a video game boss when it comes to arguing stuff. I don't have to prove anything to those people, so I can just lay back and go with it. What I find works better for me, like with my podcast, people like to hear me talk to my friends like they don't want to hear me in conflict they want to hear me chilling because that to them is like the refreshing part of it it's like oh right but mine is actually just like one of our friends we can just hang out and talk about this stuff but other people i get why

they feel like they gotta and i'm not saying that the people we talked about a manufacturing conflict but i know why a lot of people feel like they have to manufacture conflict, but I can just make people mad getting out of bed. Like I ain't really got to try hard to get them to that place. Gotcha. Well, we appreciate you for stopping through, brother. Oh, man. Season two game theory.

What's today's again? Is it still Sunday? Oh, no, we're on Friday now. Friday's 11 Eastern on HBO and HBO Max. We're on right after real time with Bill Maher. Oh, good meeting. And this week, I believe our in-studio guest is Gilbert Arenas.

Yes, this should be interesting. This is the rare time where I'm like, what in the world am I going to do with this interview? This could go any direction. So we got that. Getting ready for the Super Bowl. Gilbert, good conversation. You know, one other thing I want to ask you. People look at you and they see you on HBO

and they think, man, some people might think bomani came out of nowhere but they don't realize you've had a long broadcast career that's the debate i was just having in here earlier because i'm like you know there's no point of entry to to podcast or i have no idea how you do it anymore like i was so i was talking to jamel about this yesterday where she was like if somebody young came to ask you how you get in the game, what would you tell them? And I would tell them, I don't know. Yeah, turn your computer on. Because I feel like you haven't skipped any steps.

Being that you haven't skipped any steps, you have the skill set to sustain where you are. I feel like with these new people, they just turn on their microphones, start their podcast, and they haven't acquired any skills because they're skipping steps. And I don't know where you get them, right? Like I don't know if there's podcast school,? Like, I don't know if there's podcast school, right? Like, I don't know if, you know,

if the colleges or whatever are, like, teaching people how to get in and do this. But, like, I remember when I first got in the game, I got in writing, and I did skip steps, but I was working with editors and people who were making me better, and then gradually, like, there were things we figured out, and we got to the place where it was like, oh, okay, cool. This is where I am. But now with the podcast game when i talk to people and they ask me like what can they do to get on they never asking me how to make they work better

that's right they're like hey so what can i do with my twitter or my tiktok that's right you know to get people to see it and i'm like look what network can i sign to yeah i'm like exposure get you exposed like if your work is not ready to be seen that's right you don't want this is what we're just talking about coming in here just a little bit earlier like hey man people gonna give you one shot like what you got ain't there you don't want to put that before the world so you need to do whatever it takes to make your work better and then hope that the people who listen to you will share like chuck d says something this is like 10 years ago online, I'll never forget. And his point was,

if you have a band or a rap group, whatever it is, and you got a Facebook fan page and that Facebook fan page has 10 fans, your fan page needs to serve those 10 fans. They're all like corporate thinking is I'm gonna serve all these people who ain't there. Serve those 10 people

and then those 10 people will tell somebody else about it, and now your 10 might turn to 12, and then your 12 might turn to 14 or whatever it is. But what they could do is get you your own little audience and serve it and get better and get better, and then from there, somebody might notice you. But even like it was 10, 12 years ago, like I got on TV via Twitter, right? I got the attention of people who made decisions sending tweets twitter so overcrowded and nobody does anything productive there i don't even know if you can impress anybody on twitter anymore

to get on so like if you want to do this you better love it because since everybody else is doing it it ain't gonna be no money out there for you very long either exactly no this is a tough game right now that's right you'll get you exposed that's right that's right watch these are two a game theory man just friday right after bill ma that's right it's the breakfast club good morning oh man the throne got live Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own? I planted the flag. This is mine.

I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets.

Listen to Escape from Zakistan. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys,

and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best,

and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, my undeadly darlings. It's Teresa, your resident ghost host. And do I have a treat for you. Haunting is crawling out from the shadows, and it's going to be devilishly good.

We've got chills, thrills, and stories that'll make you wish the lights stayed on. So join me, won't you? Let's dive into the eerie unknown together. Sleep tight, if you can. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jenny Garth, Jana Kramer, Amy Robach, and TJ Holmes bring you I Do Part 2, a one-of-a-kind experiment in podcasting to help you find love again. Hey, I'm Jana Kramer.

I'm Jenny Garth. Hi, everyone. I'm Amy Robach. And I'm TJ Holmes. And we are, well, not necessarily relationship experts. If you're ready to dive back into the dating pool and find lasting love, we want to help. Listen to I Do Part 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.