The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Michael Rubin Talks Fanatics Fest NYC, White Party, Drake, Meek, Lil Baby, Black On Black Hate + More

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

The Breakfast Club sit down with Michael Rubin to discuss the exciting details of Fanatics Fest NYC, the epic White Party, and his experiences with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Drake, Meek Mill, and Lil Baby. Michael Rubin also opens up about the need to address Black-on-Black hate. Listen for more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. Jess Hilarious is on maternity leave. So we got Lauren LaRosa filling in and we got a special guest in the building. Our guy. The founder and CEO of Fanatics. And he is doing a Fanatic Fest this weekend at the Jacob Javits Center this weekend. Saturday and Sunday, your favorite athletes, artists, celebrities will be in the building. You can get things autographed.

They'll be selling merch. And it's perfect because I'm doing my car show this weekend. So there's a lot of things to do. They can go to my car show, your Fanatic Fest. But ladies and gentlemen, Michael Rubin. Welcome. Glad to be here. How are you feeling?

Always love being here. Feeling great. Why did your voice change? You did not sound like that before the mic came on. What is that? Your announcer voice? Glad to be here. I'm before the mic came on. What is that, your announcer voice? Glad to be here. I'm ready for my announcer voice.

Let's go, man. I'm trying to get an overnight job with you guys here. Maybe you guys can put me like two to four a.m. It's a fight, okay? Get a job here. You think I couldn't do two to four a.m.? We can't afford to pay Mike Rubin. What do you mean?

I'm like free labor. Let's go. Oh, now you're talking. Now you said I forgot something. What did I forget? It's actually Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Oh, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yeah, what are you?

Is the car show big on Friday? It's just Saturday. My car show's just Saturday. Okay, I thought you were trying to kill off competition on Friday. Oh, no, no, no, no. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. No, we're pumped for this weekend. This is really exciting.

You know, for me, New York's my favorite city in the world to kind of do something that's never been done. There's really not a sports festival anywhere in the world. Never, I've seen. And you have this, when we think about this, you have so many other festivals. You have Comic-Con,

which takes over New York City, gets a quarter of a million people. That's right. You've got Complex-Con, which I'm going to go to in November in Vegas. You've got all the music festivals. You've got South by Southwest. And I don't know why

no one's ever done this in sports. You've got the trading card shows, which they have a thousand of in the country. But I went to a trading card show. There's a big trading card show called The National, which gets 150,000 people. Is that the one in Atlantic City? It was in Atlantic City a couple of years ago.

It was in Cleveland a few weeks ago. So it changes cities each year. And you walk in there, you're like, this is nuts. There's 150,000 people. But it looks like when I went to high school. So it hasn't really changed since like the 90s. And so I basically went to Comic-Con in New York City and said, we gotta do the same thing for

sports. So this is gonna be our first time doing it. Javits this weekend. We're gonna have like 200 of the best athletes, celebrities, artists coming through. All the leagues are coming. I mean, you got Tom Brady is gonna be throwing footballs to kids for an hour on Friday.

KD and Ant with their Olympic medals coming in Saturday. They're going to be playing basketball with kids, football with kids. You've got, I actually last night said, this is nuts. I actually have a bunch of NBA players call me and say, hey, can I play basketball? Can I play football with kids? Like normally you're trying to get people to come do these things. And we've got the best streamers in the world coming. And we've got so many of the big streamers.

We've got Aiden Ross coming, Drewski coming, Sketch coming. We're going to announce a few really big additional streamers that are coming. So, like, to me, just to bring everyone together is awesome. What is Fanatics Fest exactly, though? Like, what is it? It's just a giant sports festival. Okay. Celebrating sports?

Yeah. It's just, for me, it's like, what would you want every sports fan to dream of doing if they could just not be at an actual sports event and come? So you've got like, NFL will be there, and you can see all the Super Bowl rings since they've had the Super Bowl, all the Lombardi trophies. I see Tom Brady, Eli, and Peyton. Is that true?

Yeah. Absolutely. How does that work? Because I've seen them sign an autograph. So you can buy an autograph, sign a jersey there, or they just win jerseys. So I think for Eli and Peyton, you can

sign up to either get your picture with them and you can pay to get your picture with them or an autograph. Tom's just coming in. Tom's going to be interviewed by Stephen A. Smith on the main stage. Then he's going to be doing football with kids. I think he actually wants to walk around and look at trading cards because he's really into trading cards.

So he'll be there all day Friday. I'm sure you guys know we're popping up to 4040. I expect to see you guys there this weekend. Jay's going to be hosting it all weekend, which is going to be nuts. And, you know, Jay called me and said, look, I love 4040. I want to do something special. You know, why don't we set this up for people that are important to him, people, you know, the athletes and celebrities that are coming through to support us, our most important gamblers. I think you guys know Jay and Des

own part of our gambling business. And so, you know, it's kind of, you think about having like Jay-Z hosting 4040, Travis Scott, Quavo, bunch of other artists that you guys, you know, all spend a lot of time with, but then having, you know, guys like Brady and Peyton and Eli

and lots of other football players, having KD and Ann and AI and Julius Irving. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, really? Yeah, he's coming. Mike Tyson? Yeah, and Jake Paul. They're doing their... I can't wait for that.

I was just with Jake at the Olympics. I could tell you, if he looked like he looked at the Olympics walking out of the bar we walked out of at 5 a.m. in the morning... Don't say it. You know, I don't know. I could be worried for him,

but I called to make fun of him yesterday. I said, yo, that did not look good for you oh I thought you were gonna say he got Mike Tyson no no no that's what I said don't say it no no no

he walked out there was very funny videos of him online stumbling out of oh he probably was faking yeah no no no he wasn't faking

he definitely wasn't faking he's a sloppy drunk got you oh he's gonna get knocked out then yeah no I don't think I just I, he's going to get knocked out then. Yeah. No, I don't think. I just think he's not drinking before his fight.

Yeah. Hulk Hogan's going to be there too? Hulk Hogan's going to be there. By the way, Cody Rhodes is going to be there. Rey Mysterio is going to be there. I've had a couple, you know, a couple, I think, you know, a couple of the artists are like, yo, Rey Mysterio. We love Rey Mysterio.

So, like, you know, we have 25 wrestlers coming. We've got the UFC champ coming. You know, Alex Pereira. There 25 wrestlers coming. We've got the UFC champ coming. Alex Pereira, there's Holly Holmes coming. In every sport, we've got great people coming, but then league activations are also amazing. NBA is set up there to have different skills competitions.

NFL's got skills competitions. Hockey, soccer. By the way, how hard can you punch the UFC bag? How hard can you slap? So it's going to be everything. Thank you to Fanatics, too. You know, I do my back-to-school drive in my hometown of Moncks Corner every weekend. I don't even know if you know this, but Fanatics donated a bunch of backpacks.

I didn't know that, but whatever you guys need, we're always there for you guys because you guys are great friends and family. And they did it specific to Carolina teams, so the Gamecocks and the Hornets. Oh, that's dope. That was fire. So thank you. I love that.

Absolutely. I love that. Yeah. I got to tell you who did it. I don't remember who did it. I'll tell you so you can get them a raise. They just know you guys need something more. Just so you can get them a raise.

That's right. Yeah, absolutely. Now, how does this differ from the white party, Michael Rubin? So look, the white party- This is way different. You're not invited. You're not invited to the white party, but you're invited to this. Rubin invites me to everything. Me party. This is way different. You're not invited. You can't go there. You're not invited to the white party, but you're invited to this.

Rubin invites me to everything. Me too. You guys are generally invited to everything. The one thing I'll say is like, look, I love bringing people together, and that comes from the way I learn. And the thing that people don't get about me, because everyone thinks I'm being self-deprecating,

but I'm actually being serious. Like when you got a 780 combined on your SATs, you barely made it out of high school. You went to college for part of a semester, and you haven't read a full book. I haven't read a book since ninth grade. That's nothing to brag about. Okay, but it's honest.

It's the truth. And 720 on SATs is pretty... 780 on SATs is pretty bad. 780 is pretty... Combined. It's out of 1600. You say you're not the best learner. And so the way I learn is from people around me.

So I'm much better to ask you questions, ask you questions, ask you questions. And so I love bringing people from different backgrounds together so we can all learn from each other. And that's the way I've always learned. I've always asked questions, not been afraid to ask whatever's on my mind.

And so I think when I started the White Party, it was really about how do I take this really diverse group of friends. I have friends, you could go from Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots, to Travis Scott, to Meek, to commissioner of a sport, to a CEO of Airbnb or the CEO of Uber. So it's like bringing all these people together

and I love doing that. The thing with Fanatics Fest, it's just how do you create this incredible sports gathering and you don't have that other than actual games. And I think there's so many things that you can do at a Super Bowl or a MLB All-Star game or an NBA All-Star game for each sport, but no one brings it all together. And then generally it's pretty hard to get the athletes, the artists, the players to come through and really support. So we try to do a bunch of special things like, you know, Travis Scott's launching Cactus Jack exclusive trading cards at Fanatics Fest on Saturday.

Those are going to be, and those cards, people are going crazy for those cards. I've never had more people hit me up and say, yo, how do I get those Cactus Jack, you know, MLB trading cards that you're launching at Fanatics Fest? So there's a lot of exclusive products as well. So it's really trying to just create lots of things

for everybody. My goal, the test of this, like if we succeed, okay, will be at the end of the show, do the tens of thousands of fans that came say, we love being there. Like, this was awesome. Do the talent that came through say,

hey, this actually wasn't something that like we felt like we were forced to do. We love doing it. And right now I'm feeling that because people keep hitting me up and saying, how can I get involved? How can I do more? And then do we take over social? I want the way the white party takes over social,

I want this to be Fanatics Fest needs to own the weekend. Thank God. Great Olympics outcome. That's finished now. Got a bunch of people from the Olympics coming. Just heard a lot of the women's soccer team is going to be showing up as well, which is great. A lot of gold medals.

They're definitely gonna dominate social. Absolutely. When you have all of these different groups of people from different industries, everybody's gonna be chatting about that. And we got crazy stuff. The thing I'm most excited about, last night I was up till 2 a.m. with my team,

going through each and every stunt. We got stunts every hour. One of the cool things, when I went to this, the show that used to be in Atlantic City, was in Atlantic City, it was in Atlantic City, that was in Cleveland a few weeks ago, I saw two guys in full Oakland A's uniforms. And I called my guys up and I'm like,

yo, everyone dresses for Comic-Con. How do we get everyone to dress for Fanatics Fest? And so literally I just went out and said, look, anyone who comes in a full team uniform or a super fan uniform, we're going to take the best dressed person each hour on the hour and bring them back to meet one of their truly- Oh, that's fine.

That's fine. Yeah. So someone comes in a Tom Brady outfit and they've got the helmet and the jersey and the pants and the- Painted face. Pants and everything. When they come in a crazy Patriots, we may bring them back to meet Tommy. Someone comes in a Peyton Manning outfit.

Or the cheese heads or something. Yeah. Yeah, that's all. What if 10 people do that? I pick the best dress each hour. Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. So we're going to do, it's basically 25, 30 people for the weekend and we got 200 athletes there.

So it can be easy for us to, and by the way, if we see crazy stuff, maybe we do more than one an hour. So it's just like creating those experiences. Think about if you're a, you know, you're a diehard Julie Servin fan and Julie Servin is the person you looked up to

and you come in a full Julie Servin outfit and we bring you back to meet Dr. J. how cool is that or alan iverson he's playing basketball with kids on on sunday so we want to make sure we just create incredible experiences that nobody else and i thought i said this is a sports combine yeah well i mean well because you've got each league is there so you've got the n, the NBA, NHL, MOS, WWE, UFC, MLB, all there with activation. So you really be like, like I know a lot of the streamers are coming through

and people are talking a lot of shit right now about who's going to beat who in different competitions. Right now I got money on Quavo. Not that he's a streamer. I got money. He's very athletic. He wins a lot of the athletic competitions. I got a lot of people saying things that's going to be fun.

I told Aiden Ross he's going to take a lot of abuse from a lot of people this weekend when he told me he was going to come and show up strong in sports. So it's going to be fun to see who shows strong and who has my athletic skills. So it's not a real combine like people – People are going to be doing – There's scouts there. No, but people are going to be doing the 40-yard dance. I mean, you have old old slow guys like me,

and then you're going to have super fast, you know, streamers that are tearing it up. So there's going to be a lot of competitions there. How long is the fest? Because I know the white party is 13 hours. So I specialize in long of it. First of all, the white party is a test of seeing what you're made of. And I'll tell you.

You drink the full 13? People drink the full 13 hours? Definitely. Wow. So the white party starts at 5 p.m. And it ended at 6 a.m. this year. And there were probably 300 people when it ended. And there was less than 400 people at the total party.

So that means most people can- Good retention. Good resilience, I'd say. Wow. You train for it. The funny thing is when Michael Parsons calls me, he's like, yo, man, I'm training for this. I'm getting into training.

People call me and say, I've got to build my endurance up for this. There's no reason to be at a party for 13 hours. You know what? 13 hours? People would say they have such a great time. There's so many great people to say. Remember, it's four different parties within the party.

So you start with cocktails, and there's really a lot of good, I think, business things that come from that. When you have CEOs of some of the best consumer companies together with best artists, best athletes, together with just iconic business people, a lot of things come from that. We've also made, created a lot of relationships out of there too.

A lot of marriages, relationships. I heard. For sure. Donovan Mitchell and Coco Jones. Well, I know, I know, I know Mo Bamba met his, I think now wife there. Yes. Yeah. And, and, you know, I, I keep reading, I read the rumors of what I see out there, people

who met at the right place. So I love that. But do you even more the business relationships that come out of there? And to me, there's so many great relationships that are started and created there. And that to me is like the test of are we doing well? Are we helping people get to know each other? Are great business outcomes coming for them? And I love doing that.

You see that. Look, you guys have all been to my Super Bowl party. You see that. There were a lot of great business opportunities come from that as well. Do you? Because the business relationships come out of it, it's good vibes, but like when you see stuff online, like Drake was there this year, and everybody was like, oh, they weren't allowed to play Not Like Us.

Like, does that stuff bother you? And was that even true? It was true. And look, for me, look, I'm always, you know, I just don't think, you know, Drake's my friend for a long time. I'm not going to invite him and then have, you know, look, he's obviously going through, he's going through a little bit of battle right now.

I'm not going to have him come there and be in battle mode. I just didn't think it was appropriate, so I just sent a note. I said, hey, let's not play, you know, anyone's music that's feuding with anyone that's there. I mean, look, you got to like-

But that was a you decision. It wasn't like Drake was like, don't play this. No, that was a me decision. I just thought it was the appropriate thing. I will tell you, the day before, we had a small barbecue for a few hours that was supposed to be 30 people. Turned

into 200 people and went for about 10 hours the night before. That was the pregame to the white party. And when they turned the music on, just like in my house, they put rap caviar, and Not Like Us came on. It was like in the middle

of Not Like Us. I'm like, get that off, get that off. Drake was there? He was pulling up soon. Oh. Yeah.

So you had it on your playlist. No, it wasn't on my playlist. It was Rap Caviar. Don't do that to me. I see you trying to throw me under the bus like that. Did you see the memes

of your pictures with Drake and you and Drake and everybody was like, Drake looks so sad. He had a, by the way, he had a great time. Look,

you got, if there's one thing someone just said something to me on social media you gotta be built for social media you gotta be tough you gotta take shit from people

I actually one of the things people don't understand about my personality I actually like the abuse I actually like it doesn't bother me at all you know

look Drake is an iconic artist that we all have tremendous respect for you know obviously you can't what I said to to Drake, and I really believe this, is this is a great test for him.

Like you can't get to where he's got to and not have people coming for you. I know, you know, I sleep with one eye open. I know right now, you know, we're in three businesses, people coming for me in every business every day. And that's part of, you know, with success comes, you know, more competition, more hatred, and, you know, the best people show why they're the best. And if you're not the best, you crack and you fall apart. So I think this is a great test for him. I think, you know, he's going to come out with, you know, lots of incredible music. And I think people, right. I think people are going to say, that's why Drake is Drake. So I like that test for him.

I think social media bothers you a little bit. because one thing I did notice from the white party, I didn't see any hugs. There was no hugs from the back. I didn't see no hugs, Mike. So no one was a bigger hugger than me. I will say I pay attention to everything and I decided people right or wrong. I think that was pathetic. I think it was a joke.

Or how they attack little baby. Yeah, by the way, you know what I hate? When watching a black person try to take a black person down that's fucked up okay let's keep it real okay Baby is one of the best

human beings in the planet there's not a person who will always do more for his community who's a great human being who works his ass off and here's what happened with Baby

Baby did great and then people came for him okay and you know what happened then he comes out with more great music and he shows why he's Baby and so for me it actually it was one of the few things in my life that ate at me People came for him. Okay. And you know what happened? Then he comes out with more great music and he shows why he's baby.

And so for me, it actually, it was one of the few things in my life that ate at me because I felt respond, even though like, look, the amount of people. You're just showing them love though. I mean, people were just making jokes. They knew what it was. But let's keep this real. The amount of people who I've in a 13 hour drunken party, okay. That I've jumped on their back and someone's caught a picture, it's like I've done that a thousand times.

Now, I will tell you that, like, in my head, you know, that ain't happening anymore. Just because I won't, like, if it was me, I would think it's funny, but it actually hurt him a little bit for a year, and that ate at me. That did eat at me. But you know what?

Again, the one thing I'd say, when you're doing great, people try to test you, and I think that's a great, you know, I think one thing I'd say when you're doing great people try to test you and I think that's a great you know I think that's a great character test and I think baby showed why he's him Drake's gonna show why why he's him and you know for me last year's probably the first time people ever came at me I've generally been you know I think people showed me a lot of love and support and you know last year I realized you know FNAF's got a little bigger I became a little more well-known and so hey it's know, it's easy to try to pick at me for things. So yes, I am a little more careful now.

Don't let nobody stop you from hugging people, Mike. Listen, I'm going to, I'm bringing a hug. I can hug as many people from the back as you want. I've never seen you hug Jay-Z from the back. You never grabbed Jay from the back. I've hugged every, first of all, I've hugged, if you get me really, I'm not a, Don't tell him you hug Jay-Z from the back.

Don't do it. I'm trying to protect you. I'm a hugger. Yes, I'm a hugger. Are you saying, Mike, you said if you get drunk, you'll hug any man from the back is Don't do it. I'm trying to protect you. You get me really drunk, I hug any man from the back. I'm a hugger. Yes, but don't let him bait you. You get drunk, you'll hug any man from the back

is what you're saying. Let me tell you something. Mike, look at me. Don't look at me right now. Do not. Don't engage with him right now. Listen, all I'm gonna say to you- We hug each other from the back,

so don't worry about it, Mike. I believe in hugging. You know what? I wanna spread love all the time. Do that. And you know, hugs are about love. And you know, I love baby, and I love my friends. You know, I'm lucky to have so many great friends around me. And I mean this. And you know, hugs are about love. And you know, I love baby and I love my friends.

You know, I'm lucky to have so many great friends around me. So yes, when I see you, you are getting a drunken hug one time. And you know, you're going to like it. And because we're friends. Okay. And you know, and that's, that's a bet. Remember that night we was out? Yeah, but hold on.

That's affection. That's just respect. Because I have so much respect and love for you. And you know, when someone starts trying to say, that's not love. That's fucking bullshit. Okay. You know what that is? That's just people want to hate on each other

and trying to take people down. And I don't actually accept that, okay? What I accept is love. We were at that restaurant after Jay-Z's museum thing last year, and you was drunk, and you came up to me, and I said, don't you even think about it. No, me too. But it was still fresh then.

Did I then hug you or not? You did hug me. Perfect, exactly. Sean may hug me from the back all the time, so it's nothing. Yeah, I've witnessed it. And by the way, the amount of incredible, iconic athletes

that have jumped on my back and given me hugs in moments, I mean, that was like, someone just caught a picture. And by the way, I told Kuz, I was with Kuz a couple nights ago, it was his blue hair. That was the thing that really screwed.

It was, you know, if you didn't have that blue hair, that was what killed the whole thing. It was the picture. It was me, baby, and Kuz. It was probably like 1 10th of one second that someone caught the picture and then it got out there.

And you know, but anyway, look, to me- Mike, we just joking. You hug whoever you want. No, but I'll cut it aside. I want to spread love all the time. And people should hug each other all the time. And people shouldn't say, oh, it's not cool if someone gave someone a drunken hug.

And what sucks is that it actually did hurt baby for a period of time. And That's the fucked up thing. That's the thing that I don't like. What do you mean by hurting? He was upset about it? I mean, the mean Baby used to that. Baby wasn't one bit upset about it because he's tough and he's built for it. Yeah, he goes viral all the time. It was just a way of saying,

oh, Baby ain't right. Oh, he's this. It's all bullshit. It's people that want to hate with success. And to me, I want everyone around me to do great. Nothing's going to make me happier than you guys doing great. You guys killing it in everything you do. That's how we all push each other up. And so that's how we all learn from each other and grow together.

And so I think you just got to push aside that negativity. They do the same thing with me when they keep bringing up the bunny hopping. They say, you made them do the bunny hopping. So by the way, let's talk about that. There's nobody who's been more tortured this year than Meek. Talk about the Diddy thing. Now, I know Meek really, really well. And I've never been to a Diddy party.

He's never been to one of my parties in my life. I'm having a spread love. He's never been to one of my parties. Not a Super Bowl. Not a Starlight. Not a White. That's so funny. You say that immediately.

But I want to get this out there, okay? Meek, I know that guy really, really well, okay? Everyone going around trying to say, and by the way, if he was gay, who cares? There's not a gay bone in his body. You guys know him. Like, I know him. I've been around him more than anybody, okay?

For people to just like, the internet, like a friend, one of my best friends said to me, I think Meek's gay now. I'm like, why? You say because i've read it 10 000 times there's not a gay bone in that guy's body so it's like why do people want to bring somebody down why do people want to hate on somebody why someone go lie on somebody and by talk about the bunny hops okay now you're talking about the most unathletic person in planet earth is michael rubin i pride myself on that and why do i the way, why do I put the funny videos out making fun of myself? Because I want people to know, you know what?

You could suck at sports and be the person who's picked last all the time. You can be the person that was terrible in school. Remember, I barely graduated high school, okay? And then you can work your ass off and be great in business. So I'm trying to show people, do what you're great at and excel in that, okay? But so now Meek says to me, we're in the Bahamas.

He's there with his family. I'm there with my family four or five years ago. Okay. And Meek's learning tennis and I'm pretty shitty at tennis. So we play a tennis game. Now this was one pathetic athletic event. Like if you want to see like two horrible tennis players going at it, somehow it was very close.

And so Meek says to me at the beginning of the game, he says, what do you want to bet? I'm like, what do you want to bet? Like, I'm not generally a, like I don't want to ever take money from my friends or like bet money, but if they want to, he's like, let's do pushups. I'm like, great, 50 pushups, great. He's actually, let's do bunny hops.

I said, what's a bunny hop? He said, how do you know what a bunny hop is? Meeks said, do this. A hundred percent. Because Meeks thought he was going to win. So Meeks, like you go like this, he's teaching me what a bunny hop is. I never saw it before.

Right. I don't know. I'm going to i'm going like that's one of those things you learned in person he's going to be like like no it's like he said we do it with joe all the time all the time right so i didn't even know i'd never heard of a bunny hop before okay so now um now we do it then when I put it out, like, of course, because I was making fun of him, because I had no idea what people would turn this into. I put it on my story, just making fun of him.

Like, yeah, I kicked your ass in tennis. Like, it's fun. I actually won something in sports. Like, almost a miracle. I should have had a celebration. Okay? No one says a thing then. Five years later, you know, people want to, now it's the turn.

You know what? Who are we going to hate on this month? So let's hate on Meek. Oh, Meek's gay because some guy made up a lie. Okay, so let's hate on him for that and just try to change the narrative. And oh, white billionaire telling black men to do bunny hops.

Actually, he told me to do bunny hops. It was his bet. And I'm sorry that he sucked in tennis that day. Okay, let's keep it real. So that stuff does- You should have played a black sport. He'd beat you. In everyone, by the way.

Yes. Probably any sport other than skiing, which is obviously a white sport. That's the only sport I could probably get him in. But you know, like, the thing I don't like about that is it doesn't bother me for me. It bothers me that it actually,

when I see the narrative of a really good friend of mine like Meek and people trying to, you know, again, if he was gay, which there's not one gay bone in his body, who cares, number meek and people trying to you know again if he was gay which there's not one gay bone in his body who cares number one let's say if people want to be gay it is 2024 who the fuck cares okay number two there's not a gay bone in his body so like why do people want to lie about that why do people want to change the narrative of a bet he made with me to try to hurt him like that is the one thing i've learned about you know look i'm

just being blunt because it's me so one thing i've learned about black culture that I don't like is that black hate on hate. Speak on that more. I heard you say that earlier and I wanted you to expound on that. You said you don't like to see black people tearing down other black people. Yeah, it's horrible. Like, it's horrible.

Like, I want to support every, look, you guys, two of you guys know me pretty well. Anything I can ever help with, I'm always there. I always want to be helpful. I feel lucky and fortunate to do what I do every day. To be as, you know, whatever success I've had, I feel blessed to do that. And I want to give back in every way I can, you know, in business and in charitable things, I'm always trying to be helpful. Like, why does someone want to bring somebody else down? Let's try to build

everybody up. Like, you know, I'd be more excited if, you know, if I'd be more excited to see one of my friends do something that's 99% less meaningful to me, but it would be really meaningful to them because I want them to do great. I want everyone around me to do great. I don't like watching, you know, there's a little bit, and you tell me, you guys correct me if you think I'm wrong. I think there's a little bit of a black culture of like, it's black hate on hate. It's like that black judge that Meek had, that hated on him and wanted to put in, go extra hard on him. It's what people always say to me. It's like black hate on hate. So I think it's

terrible. I think it's something that it's, I think it's culturally wrong. And I'll probably get killed for saying this because you're a little- I'm glad you're saying it openly. If this is the conversations that are being had- I have it all the time. Yeah, I want to hear this. Yeah, so I think it's wrong. I think like, why do you not want to build everyone up around you? Why do you not want

everyone around you to do great? The best way for everyone to do great is to push each other up. Okay. I'm always pushing everyone around me. It's why I spend, you know, a quarter of my days helping other people because I want them to do great. And by the way, it's why people always, if you think about this, no one ever came at me before last year. Okay. Last year we had the bunny hops you brought up. You brought up the, right. Okay. Which are each completely made up. None of these things had any real, you know, they weren't real. They were made up to hurt people. Okay. Yet everyone still comes out for me because they're real authentic relationships. And I want to help everyone in every way I can.

So to me, if I could say one thing, let's everyone go out with a positive energy to try to make everyone do great around us and build people up. Let's not try to bring people down. You don't do better by taking your competition down. You do better by pushing everyone up together. You want all the wind behind your back.

So when you see other, when you see black people tearing other black people down in your mind, you'd be like, I would never do business with that person because of how they treat their own people. Well, I don't see, I don't really see the people I'm around tearing people down. What I see is the conversations that we have about people tearing, you know, trying to tear them down. And I think like, you know, even if-

Because Meek brings that up a lot. Meek doesn't bring it up a lot, but I'll bring it up to Meek and be like, look, when you grew up the way Meek did it, you grew up the way Baby did it, these guys are tough, okay? You know, you grew up,

you didn't even think you were going to make it to the age you are today. You're coming out of a pretty violent background. You know, I think you feel fortunate. But I think the reality is like they're aware that, you aware that there's a lot of hate

that comes with their success. Even if someone's trying to get out of it. I grew up in a ruthless environment. I'm trying to improve the people that are around me. Then the people that you grew up with, they want to take you down because you don't have the same people around you. How about you want to grow and you expand? It doesn't mean you don't want to help the people around you.

Meek does so much for his community. A completely around you. Meek does so much for his community. A completely different situation, but Baby does so much for his community. So I just, that whole thing really does bother me because I think it's wrong and I think it's culturally hurting the outcome of the black community. I think it would be much better

if everyone tried to push each other up. Are there examples of that in the white community? Let's keep it, look, look. I'm Jewish. I'm not remotely religious. Oh, okay, in the Jewish up. Are there examples of that in the white community? Let's keep it, look, look. I'm Jewish. I'm not remotely religious. Oh, okay, in the Jewish community. I'm not remotely religious. Okay, it's just who I am.

Never have been. Okay, but the hate toward Jewish people now, it's horrible. And it's not affecting, I feel more bad for like my daughter. You know, you see like, you know, she's going to USC next year. And like, you have, you know,

you have situations where people can't even get into their college because Cornell in New York City, not in New York City, Columbia in New York City literally couldn't even control and make it safe for Jewish students to be there. Why is this good? This is horrible.

We all want to bring people together. By the way, why do I want to do Fanatics Fest? Because I want to bring tens of thousands of sports fans together. Why is sports great? Because to bring people together. By the way, why do I want to do Fanatics Fest? Because I want to bring tens of thousands of sports fans together. Why is sports great? Because it brings community together. Hate is bad. Any type of hate sucks.

It's why my dear friend Robert Kraft started the Blue Square, to eliminate hate. Like, if you'd say in life, if we could just, like, get people to always support each other, get rid of hate, like, that's, you know, why is this all this killing all the time? It's from hate. And so, yeah, I have a lot of conversations about it. In the Jewish community, do you guys support each other more? Do you see more support? I think

in most communities other than I think in most communities people are pretty to support. I support everyone around me. I don't care black, white, purple, yellow, gay. I don't care. I'm going to support everyone around me. That's't care, you know, black, white, purple, yellow, gay, I don't care. Like I'm going to support everyone around me. That's, that's the way I've always

been built to push everybody up, to push everyone around me. I think that's generally great for me. You know, I think most communities do it that way. I mean, you tell me, do you think I'm right or wrong about, you'd be honest. I mean, listen, it's uncomfortable to hear you say it as a Jewish man. Right. But I can't say that you're wrong. That's why. But one thing I always say is that when I'm talking about like what we call Uncle Tom's, I always say all of these Uncle Tom black men think white people like that and they don't. They think that people that are in white people or Jewish people, white people, Jewish people, whoever, in positions of power,

they think that they like the sellouts amongst us, and they don't. They don't like to see a black person selling out another black person. I say that all the time, right? So I was going to ask you about, there's a guy named Sid Rosenberg who called Vice President Kamala Harris's husband

a bad Jew. So when you hear language like that, is that the same as, is that self-hate amongst Jewish people? I don't know any of the background to it. I didn't even know her husband was Jewish until he just told me. But you've heard that term before, though. You've heard somebody call somebody a bad Jew.

I think people have told me I'm a bad Jew. People tell me I'm not doing enough for the Jewish community. People say to me, you do so much for the black community. You start the Reform Alliance. You spend so much money, time, and energy to fix the probation and parole system. Why don't you do more for the black community you start the reform alliance you spend so much money time and energy to you know fix the probation parole system why have you done more for the jewish community you know for me i never i was always great at giving money away i never did the work and then when obviously and you guys know the story so well when you know meek went to prison for not committing a crime i'm sitting in that courtroom and watching what was a really close

friend of mine you know go to get sent to two to four years prison for popping and wheeling a motorcycle. It like, that was the most out of control I ever felt in my life because I'm used to in business being able to control my own destiny. And I think that's when my whole perspective changed of like really having to not just give money, but really make a difference.

And I think that's when, you know, once he got out, we started the reform alliance. Now we have this giant make a wish partnership, which everyone's so excited about, where we do every sports wish. We help to make it better and crazy to get the athletes really involved to make the wishes great for the kids. And, like, we love giving back. I get told I'm a bad Jew all the time because, like, hey, people say you've only posted 10 times about what's going on.

But to me, you have to do things that are authentic. I got so emotionally involved in fixing probation and parole once I saw how fucked up the system was. And so I'm honored to do that. You also can't do all things to all people. Make-A-Wish, the way I got sucked into it, which is actually amazing. I really didn't,

like everyone knows of Make-A-Wish, but I didn't really know how it worked. And a kid had a wish to do something at the Sixers. And he wanted to sit courtside at the Sixers. And so I set up from the courtside at the Sixers. And we were playing the Orlando Magic like three or four years ago,

probably three years ago. I said to the kid, look, after you beat the Magic, I'm gonna bring you in the locker room to meet Joel, meet James, meet everybody. And the Magic at that point sucked. They were like one of the worst teams in the NBA. And of course we lost to the Magic.

It was really embarrassing. So I went in the locker room. I said to Joel and James, I said, hey, I'm bringing this kid from Make-A-Wish into the locker room. And they said, like, we just lost to the Magic. It was really embarrassing. So I went in the locker room. I said to Joe and James, I said, hey, I'm bringing this kid from Make-A-Wish into the locker room. And they said, like, we just lost against the Magic. Don't bring a fucking person in the locker room. I said, no, I'm bringing him. Anyway, of course, I didn't listen.

I brought this kid in the locker room. The team probably spent 45 minutes with this kid. And literally that night, Joe hit me. James hit me. Tobias Harris hit me. Maxie. But they're all like, yo, that puts everything in perspective. Like, seeing this kid, listening

to his story, you know, like, man, that really, like, thank you for doing that. We then called the CEO of Make-A-Wish and said, we want to be the exclusive person to do all of your sports wishes. We love stuff like that. So, again, for me, you have to do things that are authentic. Like, we can't do a lot of things, but like, you know,

when I get called a bad Jew, does it bother me a little bit? Yes. Because I think I'm doing everything that's comfortable for me, but I can't also fight every fight. Like we spent a lot of time on probation and parole reform. We spent a lot of time on Make-A-Wish. And you know, I work 17 hours a day at Fanatics,

which is, you know, my part-time job. Do you miss owning the 76s at all? Do you miss that job 76ers at all? Do you miss that job? No, I'll tell you why. I think when I bought, when we did the Sixers deal in 2011, I was in a different part of my life.

And I think Fanatics was way less established. And I think we were a much smaller company. It really got, it went from in the early days, helping the growth of Fanatics and helping, it was kind of like a little bit of a business development platform. And then I learned so much from the Sixers and I was able to really help in a meaningful way.

As Fanatics got a lot bigger, now we have thousands of deals with individual athletes, which are prohibited by all the leagues. We're not in the betting business, which is prohibited to take bets on your own team. It was really in the way of Fanatics growth. And so selling the stake in the Sixers allowed me to just take Fanatics to the next level.

And on top of that, I'll tell you, I don't think there could be a bigger opportunity for me in my life. When I look at where Fanatics is today, I feel like I'm just getting started with it. And I look at like, I just watched the Nike movie like a year ago, Nike Air. And you look at that and you're like, he's 87 today.

Okay, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. Like my opportunity is massive. I have so much gratification and satisfaction of working around, you know, hundreds of millions of incredible sports fans, incredible athletes, and you know, to get to spend time with guys like you, it's like, you just, it's such a fun job. I don't want anything to be in the way of it. I also will tell you that my relationships with everyone is so much cleaner now because I think before I felt like guys I was friends with would still look at me a little bit different. Like, you know, Book

or Jason Tatum. When I owned the Sixers, I felt like there was just always a little bit, hey, this is my moment with the Sixers. Now it's kind of like everyone knows I'm just their guy and we have an authentic relationship. And by the way, we do a lot of business with a lot of these guys too.

They're significant partners. So it really cleaned up the relationship. Does it ever get to you when people say stuff like, because you seem like such a nice guy, that like, why are all these artists flinging to this white guy? Or like, why do they want to support this white guy? Like, especially because they show up for you so much.

Yeah, so I don't, I didn't even know that narrative till about a year ago. So I like, I, I'd say in the last year was an adjustment for me because I went from, I'd say up until a year ago, um, it was all love to me all the time. And then the white party took on a life of its own. FNAF's got a lot bigger. We got in multiple businesses. And so then you had, you know, someone start that narrative on the bunny hops. You had someone start the narrative on your baby with the hugs. And so then I started asking questions, like, because I was oblivious to it all. Okay. And people told

me that narrative, but it's out there. So I think what I always want to do is be super aware and make sure that I'm always doing so much for everybody to make sure that like, they feel like the relationship is great for them. And so I'd say I'm more sensitive to make sure that no one, I don't want to ever do anything with somebody that's not great for them. I'd say I'm more sensitive to make sure I'm doing that today.

Like someone just told me something a couple of weeks ago, like, hey, one person who doesn't like me because they don't get invited to the white party is telling people, well, all these people perform for Michael. So I'm making sure, like, hey, I don't want you to perform unless you really want to perform.

And by the way, I'm trying to, and I'm always trying to help people. There's so many businesses. If you think about it, like, look at Jay-Z, he's an investor in Fanatics. We own Fanatics Sportsbook together. We own Mitchell Ness together. You know, look at Travis.

We're doing the collabs together. Look at Meek. He was an investor in Lids. By the way, Meek's single best investment in his life. You know, hope I won't get in trouble for saying this, but he put $200,000 in Lids and got $8 million back. Wow. Okay?

Go ahead, Meek. Shout out to Meek. Yeah. So, like, I always want my friends to do great, and I'm always working to do things that are great for my friends. So does it bother me? Look, I am the most thick-skinned individual you'll meet. I mean, I'm the most self-deprecating person.

I love to make fun of myself. Like when I put out the baseball thing and show how uncoordinated I am and everyone makes fun of me, I think it's funny. Does it hurt me a little bit if it's hurting somebody else? Yes.

That's what I'm aware of. I think like, you know, if something's, I want everything I do to be great for people. I don't ever want to do anything but help people. I read somewhere that you were selling, you were trying to sell a stake in Fanatics too? Completely made up.

That wasn't true, okay. By the way, it's crazy now that I've learned about, and look, you guys deal with this because when you get more well-known, people just make nowadays. How many times has anyone ever said anything about you that's completely untrue? A million times.

So somebody reaches out and says, hey, we heard that you turned off your IPO, that you were going to go public and you're now not going public, and also that you're selling a billion dollars in your company. So we've never even had a discussion about going public.

Will we eventually go public? Most likely. Have we had one discussion with one bank about it? Not one. Okay. And by the way, we told them, we've had no discussion about going public. We've had no discussions about selling,

you know, a billion dollars. It's just completely made up. You know what they said? But you just did the white party's great clickbait. We're running the story anyway. We got a source. Wow. Wow.

Okay. You know- Shout out to the New York Post, who I generally love. Wow. They just ran the story. They're both BS. After the ass.

Completely made up. After the ass. And we told him it was completely untrue. One more thing I want to talk to you about. Speak to us about the role Governor Shapiro played just in Pennsylvania. Like, I love all of the things that he's doing with probation reform and criminal justice reform, but a lot of that started because you, when he was AG, got him on the meat case. I like Governor Shapiro a lot, by the way.

So, first of all, I hate politics. I don't ever want to be involved in politics. I think it's just bad. Okay, because generally politics can't get anything done and people just fight over everything.

So I generally try to stay away from politics. That's it. I love Josh Shapiro. Okay, Josh Shapiro, I met when he was the county commissioner

of the county I live in and he was trying to get to me. I was trying to avoid him like the plague because I don't want to be around anyone in politics and I think I actually

wrote like a, I don't know, a around anyone in politics. And I think I actually wrote a $25,000 donation to not have to meet with him. Okay. And then he asked my chief of staff, could he have a meeting in my office one day? And he walked by me in the hallway

and started having a conversation. I'm like, oh, this guy's actually really smart. And so I've known him for a long time. Josh gets 100% of the credit. I called Josh the day when Meek got sentenced

to 2-4 years in prison in November I think it was 12th of 2017 I called the governor of Pennsylvania he was attorney general of Pennsylvania and the mayor of Philadelphia I thought this would be easy by the way getting a black person out of jail that shit is not easy

tell us more tell us other things you don't know. I'm saying that in a sarcastic way. Maybe my delivery wasn't good. But so I called him like, guys, like, he didn't do anything. He popped a wheel in a motorcycle. Like, you got to let him out. The governor's like, well, I don't have the rights to let him out.

The attorney general was like, Josh originally said to me, don't get involved in this. This will be bad for you. And I said, Josh, I love you. You're wrong. Okay. And by the way, if you go back to November of 2017, every single person I knew said, don't get involved in this. This will be bad for you. And I said, Josh, I love you. You're wrong. Okay? And by the way, if you go back to November of 2017, every single person I knew said, don't get involved

in supporting me. The only people that stood up for him was Jay and Des and me. Everyone else said, stay the fuck away from the situation. And by the way, Sixers fans were canceling season tickets because of this. Okay? I was getting destroyed in November and December. It's so crazy because it seemed like online, like the support was so big. Not in the first month or two. What happened was we hired

like 30 investigators who actually went out and found out that the judge was crooked. Okay. That actually the people that arrested him originally, he used to always say to me, Meek would always say to me, Michael, if a black man points a gun at a police officer, that's called suicide. Okay. And I never thought about it because he said it to me. He always wanted to prove to me that he never pointed the gun at people. I'm like, Meek,

I don't give a shit what you did when you were 19 years old. Who cares? You're a different person. And so anyway, we hired the investigators. Investigators proved. The first cop came forward and said,

no, he never pointed the gun. The whole thing's a lie. We were stealing drug dealers' money. It was like, we were like training day. This cop told us. We said,

we signed the affidavit. He said, yes, that's ultimately how the case got overturned so Josh then turned and said Michael you were right get him out of prison

but when you get him out of prison you have to make this about something much more than me so Josh gave us the original idea to start the reformalize

it didn't come from me it didn't come from Jay it didn't come from Rockcraft it didn't come from me it came from Josh Shapiro okay now Josh said you gotta fix the probation and parole system. That's how we got the idea.

And then obviously, you know, you're starting on a home plate when you start something with Jay-Z, Desiree, Meek, Robert Kraft, myself. I mean, it's a pretty good group of people to start something with. So it was very funded and, you know, a lot of strong personalities. Watching Josh's development has been amazing for me. I mean, watching him go from county commissioner to attorney general to governor. I mean, watching him go from county commissioner to attorney general to governor. I think in Pennsylvania, I'm told he has like the highest, like he has-

61%. Which I don't think you can have any- Overrated or something like that. Right, which you don't get that in politics. You're lucky to get 51%, right? So he's incredibly, I think, supported in Pennsylvania. I think he's really capable. I mean, I'm almost relieved that they didn't pick him for VP

because I'll have nothing to do with this election now. And had it been him, it's my guy I would have had to support in a meaningful way just because of my strong personal affiliation. I was disappointed at first that he didn't get picked as the VP, but Tim Wall seems solid. Yeah, you know, and look, a lot of people say he didn't get picked because he was Jewish. And I think that's, you know, I think if that's really the reason,

that sucks, but you know what that means? We all just got to bring people together. Like, you know, you guys have this amazing show. You know, I think one of the things you guys can do with the show is bring people together. Okay. I think that's one of my responsibilities. Like, you know, look, I do have, you know, I suck at a lot of things. I'm a decent leader, so I should help bring people together. So, you know, to me, you know, I think, you know. I don't think he wanted to get the gig. I think he feels like his job's not done in Pennsylvania. Well, I talked to him a couple of nights before I was, I was in Europe and I had a long conversation with him and I knew he was, I think he's a very, um, he believes he'll do the right thing for his country and he loves what he's doing in Pennsylvania. But if,

if, if the world, if the country decided that he was the right person, I think he would have been comfortable to step up and do that. But I think he's incredibly excited about what he's gonna do in Pennsylvania. And for me, I just have so much respect for him, even though, again, I'll say this a hundred times, I hate politics. So you think he didn't get it because he was Jewish?

I mean, it's what people are saying to me. He didn't say that to me. Like, again, I don't follow this stuff. Like, I'm not like, you know, I'm someone who's born Jewish. I'm just not religious. I'm not embarrassed of that either. Like, you know, my sister's actually a cantor in the Jewish religion. So you have me who's, you know.

She's a cancer? Cancer. Cancer. What is that? She's like, she sings on stage. Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. So, and she's very religious. I'm not religious at all.

But what I like to do is like, again, learn from everybody around me. I have heard that narrative a lot. Like, I hate this, you know, we should get rid of all self-hate of all cultures. We should bring everyone together. Like, we want the whole, like, let's flourish. Like America's, look, I think America's the greatest country on the fucking planet. Okay. And so we're all blessed to be here.

And we have so much opportunity. Did you ever dream that you'd be doing this 20 years ago? I mean, you're doing amazing. You guys are all doing amazing. And you guys are going to keep doing more amazing. That's right. When I came on the show with you on Comedy Central, it was like, this guy's built to do this.

And it's just so like, we're all so lucky in what we do. And we just got to bring everyone with us. I agree with you. The world has your optimism. That's right. By the way, I wake up like that, go to bed like that, never drank a sip of coffee in my life. Well, this weekend,

Fanatics Fest, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. What are the times? What are the prices? How can people buy tickets? You go to Fanatics Fest site. General admission ticket's 50 bucks. That's what most people will buy. And come from open to close

and just have the time of your life. There's going to be so many fun things. 200 great athletes. So many great stunts. All the league activations. I want to see you guys. Who's coming? You guys coming?

Am I going to be here this weekend? I won't be there Saturday. You can come on Friday. I'm going to try to bring my Sunday on Sunday. I might pull up one day. Why not? I'm not really a sports person. So come on.

We love to have you guys. We love to have you guys. The artists. It's going to be a bar there like the White Party. 40-40. Popped up in the middle of it. I'm going. Okay. We'll get a bar there like the white party? 40-40, popped up in the middle of it. I'm going. We'll get the three of you guys set for that. The way my anxiety be set up though, these those type of vids be a big bunch.

Come on, everybody put your hands in. We're going. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. No. Show them I don't like people.

He actually does like people. He just tries to talk shit. He does like people. He wouldn't do what he does. He does. He could do what he does if he didn't like people. Is it 13 to talk shit. He does like people. He wouldn't do what he does. He does. He couldn't do what he does if he didn't like people. Is it 13 hours long, though? You never entered that one.

That one is 9.30 a.m. till 7 p.m., so it's actually like halftime. Okay. White party's a much bigger test to be resilient. But we do this three days. Got you. No, we do the pre-party. I'm going to pop out. I want you guys there.

Come on. Hold on. What are you wearing? Huh? I need you to come in a uniform. Let's go, baby. I'm wearing whatever keeps you from hugging me from the back. Okay?

I knew it. You got the picture? Go right there. Let's go. Here we go. One more? Let's go. Let's go.

Is that uncomfortable? Oh, come on. Let's go. I had the chair as protection. It was like a condom. Yours looked like it hurt. Michael Rubin, y'all. Let me try.

Let me try. Let me try. Let me see. Let's go. Oh, okay. Let's give him a drink. All right. Come on, come on, come on.

Noah. Come on, come on. There you go. What is this, a DP? It's called being comfortable in yourself. Yeah, I know. That's right. All right.

We just had a threesome up here. Michael Rubin. Let's go, baby. Oh, my God. I watched. You did. Ew. It's The Breakfast Club.

Good morning. Wake that ass up. you did it's the Breakfast Club good morning wake that ass up early in the morning the Breakfast Club