The Kevin Sheehan Show - Thom's Personal Declaration Of Independence

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

Kevin and Thom with July 4th stories including Thom's personal Declaration of Independence story. They talked about DC's effort to land the NFL Draft 2027 and the Lakers' Bronny James charade.Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Happy 4th of July. Everybody, the show's presenting sponsor is Windonation. Give them a call at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com.

Mention my name for a free, no obligation in home quote. Tommy is with me. We are recording this podcast on the third. before the fourth. But we wanted to put out a show and share with all of you our Fourth of July memories and maybe do a little bit more. But Tommy, I'm going to start with this from Stephen L. 53, who gave us five stars on Apple, but said or wrote the following this review. I love the show and gave you five stars.

and will recommend to everybody else to do the same. But I can't keep up with Tom's alter egos. Lovie, Tommy Purify, and now Bobby Lane. Did he play quarterback for the Lions? I guess he needs all of these aliases when he's knocking off Chinese food stands in Brooklyn. First of all, when I read this, I laughed out loud because I don't think it was a Chinese food stand.

that you knocked off. You did something much worse than that. It was even more ridiculous. What did you do? You threw like firecrackers at a Chinese laundry? No, no, no. You're mixing up my Brooklyn story. Okay. I don't even want to revisit the Chinese thing because it's a really sad part of my life. Yeah. It was, yeah, it was pretty young and immature. Yes.

But it had nothing to do with July 4th or fireworks. That's a different story. Okay. Well, we'll get to that. But Bobby Lane, it was actually not Bobby Lane, it was Bob Lane, right? Bob Lane was the name that you had as a telemarketer? Yes. Bob Lane. That was my name on the script. Remember Michael Scott had a part-time job as a telemarketer? Of course. With Vickram. Yes, and he had a script that he had to read from.

They used to say to him, stick to the script. That's what I had to do. stick to the script, but he ended up doing movie reviews with everybody gathered around. He got more attention in that job than he did running Dunder Mifflin. You know, I didn't tell you, and this happened to me more than once, and I never knew if somebody was actually kidding or not. I would call people up and tell him, my name is Bob Layne. I'll just call and tell you you want two free dance lessons, Arthur Murray Dance Studio, and somebody in the other,

somebody at the other end would scream into the phone. I'm in a wheelchair, you asshole. Yeah, they... And I never knew if they were telling the truth or not. So that I would, you know, cheapestly hang up the phone and basically be miserable for the rest, more miserable than I already was. Yeah, I mean, at least you didn't ask him to prove it.

Yeah. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Well, the script basically at that point says, I'm sorry, hang up. Get to the next call. You know what? You got to get to the next call. You can't hang on as Michael did talking to people and solving people's personal problems.

That was the problem. It's stick to the script in its volume of calls because there is a, there's clearly an equation that says X number of calls. equals X number of closes. Anyway, we won't do the Chinese Brooklyn story today. Tommy told that story years ago. Did he miss on any of your alter egos? Do you have any other names?

Well, I mean, I had a nickname. Do nicknames count? I don't know. Have you ever shared your nickname before? Well, I mean, look, there's a period of my life, and particularly in the first, fraternity in Miami, where people only pretty much knew me as Woody. That was my nickname. I've never heard you mention that. Why Woody? Yes.

Well, in high school, when I was wrestling, I wore an Ohio State T-shirt and practiced a lot. So Woody Hayes. Woody Hayes. And that's how that evolved. And when I went to Miami, I told them this story. and, you know, the back of my fraternity jersey said Woody on it, and like people would get, we'd get calls at the pay phone in the fraternity for Tom Levero, and nobody, you know, you mean Woody Leverro?

You know, people wouldn't know that, and there are still high school friends of mine, a handful that still referred to me as Woody. Does Mary know you as Woody? No, she didn't know me as Woody. Okay. Because I had this other review that I've kind of been saving. I'm pretty sure I did not read it. But HTTD wrote, gave us five stars and titled his review, 50 Shades.

If only Mary would have known she would have been getting 50 shades of Levero. Keep the stories coming, Tom. Great show boys, as always. Mary of East Stroudsberg, hi, right? Yes. Yeah. Did not know Tommy is Woody, but his friends did. So, give me a Fourth of July story or two.

Okay. Well, most of them happened in Brooklyn when I was growing up in Brooklyn. There was one in particular, you know, like people on the block were around the block. I lived on Washington Avenue between St. John's Place and Sterling Place. It was a pretty busy street. and like, you know, families would kind of get to know each other on the block, and they get together on July 4th. And I can remember one night, you know, all the families getting together and kind of shooting fireworks off, you know, sitting on a stoop near my house, the stoop being, you know, the cement steps leading up to the apartment buildings. and, you know, shooting off Roman candles.

I remember people. I didn't have any. I was a kid, but the adults shooting off Roman candles and stuff. And the cops showing up, okay? And there was a police station like three blocks down the street. And my mom, who was pretty feisty, okay, getting into an argument with the cops, because right up the road, there were kids throwing cherry bars. off the roof of an apartment building at people walking down the street.

You know, so my mom is yelling at the cops. Why don't you do something about that? Why are you bothering us? And it got to the point where the cop grabbed my mom and threatened to drag her down the street to the police state. Whoa. And I'm a kid. Watch it all this happen. That's traumatizing.

I wasn't traumatizing. I was proud of it. I thought it was great. Well, this was your feisty Irish mother. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, she was.

And I'm assuming the cop was Irish. Well, probably. Brooklyn, in the early 60s, that's pretty much all they were. And so that almost turned into a wild night. You know, my mom, she was the one who, I'll never forget. But, you know, in Brooklyn, if you walked into the wrong neighborhood, it could be dangerous. You know, the wrong neighborhood could be a block or two away. Right.

You know, so I remember we were walking down this one street that wasn't our neighborhood, and there were some kids up ahead sitting on a stoop, some young ruffians, I guess you would say. And I was a real little kid, maybe six, you know. Seven. So I said to my mom, I said, Mom, let's cross the street, go and walk on the other side of the street. And she said to me, she said, no, we're going to walk by them. And you never let people know that you're scared. Right. That's, you know, that is. My mother telling you. Yeah, that's awesome. You know, that's really, and it's good advice. It's great advice. Yes. Yes. You never let people, but I was scared to death because, you know, if, that would have been just me and not my mother, I would have taken a beating, probably. You know, I didn't grow up with that as, you know, any sort of issue. I mean, I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. on the mean, mean streets of Bethesda, Maryland. But, you know, you have, you know, your own sort of

neighborhood things that you have to deal with growing up. But, you know, I don't know if I've told you this before, but my middle school, which was actually called junior high school when I was in it, because I went, my middle school was seven eighth, seven eighth and ninth grade. I didn't go to high school. 10th grade was the first year of high school for me. We didn't have a freshman class in our high school until my senior year. But my junior high school in the 70s, in the late 70s was one of the junior. high schools that the state of Maryland, or maybe it's Montgomery County, I don't know how it worked, but they picked it for busing. You know, there was, remember, you know, in trying to, I mean,

it wasn't that schools at that point needed to be integrated, but the schools, they bused kids from different areas into, you know, I guess perceived better schools. You know, I don't know a lot about the busing of the 70s. It probably, in hindsight, was not the greatest idea for anybody involved, although I thought it was a tremendous experience to go through for me and my friends because the school was very diverse. My junior high school was very diverse because of it, even though the neighborhood that the school was in was not very diverse,

which was odd. And then I went to a high school that did not have that. And, you know, I went to Whitman in Bethesda, and it was not a very diverse high school when I was there. You know, anybody of color in that high school, Tommy, for the most part, were, you know, kids of diplomats for the most part, you know, and spoke French. but I think it's whenever I hear you tell stories or friends of mine that grew up in New York in different cities and had those other side of the tracks like literally you would go one block and it would be a completely different neighborhood. I think that's a cool experience to have had in many ways. I wouldn't change it. I mean I had two very different experiences growing up.

Until I was 12, I grew up in Brooklyn, and then we moved to the place we used to go on vacation in the Poconos. And I had a backyard all of a sudden that would have qualified as a small park where I'd come from. And that was, I probably identify more with East Trousburg as my hometown than Brooklyn. But I wouldn't trade either experiences. They're both very different. I mean, I love the city. I loved the fact that when I was growing up there, I was pretty much on my own. You know, I come home for dinner.

I come home to go to bed. But, you know, I was pretty much on my own. You know, and in the city as like a 7-8-year-old kid. And then in a small town experience where everybody knew everybody, it was totally different. And I was blessed to have both of them. Yeah. You know, I just, I'm looking up busing in the 70s because I really, I don't, I'm not really familiar with what the intention was.

Obviously, the intention was to diversify schooling and to make perhaps better schooling available to areas that didn't have it, right? I think that's it. Yeah. I mean, I don't know that much about busing. The only thing I know about busing are the pictures I used to see from Boston of the fights that would go on between different sides. I really didn't, you know, growing up in East Towersburg, busing was never an issue. Yeah.

Yeah. And growing up in Brooklyn, my elementary school was a block away. You know, so I used to walk to school and back. My other July 4th story is similar, you know, maybe I've told this before, and that's where the Chinese laundry, the Chinese food market comes into play. Once I threw a firecracker, or I tried to throw a firecracker, into Al's delicatessen, you know, just to be an asshole, just to be an obnoxious kid. And it exploded in my hand, firecrackers did.

Now, it wasn't a big, like, M80. Right, I had just a firecrackers. Right, just one of those little mini firecrackers. A lot of times they would go off just as you were releasing it or whatever, yeah. Yeah, it stung, you know, and it shook me, but it didn't really hurt, you know, but I remember you know, not being able to get it in there. And now, you know, it's funny because I don't know why I did it. Al would could be an annoying guy, but he used to pay me.

He used to let me deliver groceries for him, little bags of groceries to different customers, and I would get the tips. So it was a money-making thing, too. I don't know why I was mad at Al. I was for some reason. I wanted to throw a firecracker into his store, and it backfired on me. The other day, yeah. In the Poconos, we used to go watch the fire company do a fireworks show.

That was totally different than Brooklyn. The fire company do a fireworks show, yes. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they were probably suited to do it safely. You're going to have me going down a rabbit hole today, or maybe I'm creating the rabbit hole of reading about busing in the 70s. Montgomery County. The only thing I can find is just PG County. And it was a huge controversy in the

DC area in the early 70s. You know, obviously we had Brown versus Board of Education in 1954 or 1955, whenever that was. But man, you know, the net of it is my junior high school, Tommy, was completely different than my elementary school experience and then my high school experience. But there's no doubt that it was beneficial to have had that. No doubt. For me, I think it was. And I think for everybody. Yeah.

All right. Have any July 4th memory? Yeah. So my grandfather was the 4th of July ringleader. in the family. We hosted Fourth of July at our house every year for my mom's side of the family. So it would be aunts, uncles, cousins, and my grandfather who would bring everything. I mean, he was a fireworks and firecracker master. But my memory is of being a kid, being so excited for Fourth of July, for my grandfather to show up and he would have this massive

green trash bag filled with fireworks. You know, they weren't, could you purchase them in Maryland or in Montgomery County in the, in the mid to late 70s? They were illegal. Yeah, so he probably went to Virginia, who knows, maybe he had to drive down to South Carolina. Because when you drive into South Carolina, there seems to be a fireworks stand on every, you know, every few miles. But when he walked in, I mean, he had that grin. going because none of the women wanted this.

They didn't want the, they didn't mind the fire works, but it was the firecrackers and Tommy. He had cherry bombs. He had the M80s. He had the loudest ones. And every kid in the neighborhood knew that the Shians on 4th of July

that Kevin's grandfather was bringing the loudest firecrackers around. And parents in the neighborhood didn't like it. Nobody liked it. But the kids We loved it. And, you know, I remember my grandfather, you know, my mother and her sisters would say, you didn't bring the firecrackers, did you? Dad?

No, no, no, no. I promise you. I just brought the fireworks, you know, the Roman candles and the different things that you'd light in the middle of the yard and everybody would be far enough back and it was, you know, on a level. But right when we went outside, you know, he had, he would take a whole pack of those firecrackers. Remember there'd be like eight or ten in a red wrapped pack. And there'd be, you know, he'd take one fuse and tie him to the rest of them. And then he'd light that fuse and throw it out into the yard.

And it was just, and that was the beginning of the night. But the cherry bombs were really loud. I have that right, right? They were cherry bombs. They were called cherry bombs. And they were M80. Cherry bombs and M80s were just a step up from cherry bombs. Yeah, and they were super loud.

They were like short. The M80s, I remember the cherry bombs were actually physically looked like a cherry with a fuse coming out. Yeah. But the M80s, I remember distinctly, they were like these short red capsules. You know, like they were like cylinder sort of capsule-esque, and they had a fuse and he'd like that thing. and everybody except for the kids and the cousins in the neighbor in all the kids in the neighborhood everybody else hated it we loved it and I do remember like everybody's saying you know you're gonna dad you're gonna poppy he was poppy to us you're gonna blow your

hand off but somehow he just unloaded that thing just in the nick of time but you know and we would sit down for dinner and he was you know sitting at the picnic table and he'd say Kevin come over here and he'd say, you know, take this match, light this thing. And I'd light it and he'd chuck it out into the yard and everybody would get all pissed off. That's my primary, you know, childhood memory of Fourth of July. Just being so excited for the holiday because my grandfather was coming over like Santa with a big sack of fireworks and firecrackers and it was relentless start to finish. And then the other for me was just, as I got.

older, you know, we would go down to the mall. We would go down to see the beach boys who seem to be there every single year on the 4th of July. And, you know, you'd bus it down because Metro was just sort of starting up. And it was just the longest of days because you would be drinking, you would be partying, it would be hot as shit. It would be, you know, on the mall, for the beach boys or whomever it was that would be performing, but it was like a six or seven year stretch where the beach boys would show up, including one year with Brian Wilson. I do remember that.

I just remember by the end of those days, you know, just, you know, barely making it out of that crowd and making it home. And just how you couldn't make it to the bathrooms. You know, you'd have to turn and find a spot to relieve yourself. right in the middle of the mass of humanity that was down there. Because, look, July 4th in this town, even money, it's going to be hot and humid, very hot and very humid with probably a thunderstorm or two. I remember a couple of those years where there were thunderstorms.

But I don't know, that's it. I mean, I think I've told you before, the day after Thanksgiving was the big sort of holiday friend memory. We didn't have a football game. We had a softball game every year the day after Thanksgiving in which we would put a keg at home plate and you had to chug a full beer every time you got up. So by the time you got to the third or fourth inning,

the game deteriorated, but they were great memories. And somehow, I don't know how we would make it back from there. I'm sure somebody drove when they weren't supposed to be driving. That's for sure. Anyway, what else? Do you have any others? You know, I've never done a Fourth of July in D.C. I'm usually out of town. We're usually out of town with relatives, you know, growing up with the kids, we'd all get together at this one relative's house up in a Poconos who had a swimming pool. So I've never done July 4th in D.C.

I mean, it was always a big deal still is. When the kids were young, we would go down and watch the fireworks. But I've had this routine on 4th of July when we've been at home where if you wait until about 9 o'clock and then you drive on to Key Bridge, which is a great spot to watch the fireworks. You know, you've got the monument in the distance. You've got the Kennedy Center. You know, you've got the Potomac River. It's actually a beautiful spot. Well, right when the fireworks.

begin, if you time it right, everybody stops their car on the bridge, gets out and watches the fireworks. And we did that when the kids were young for like six or seven years when we were in town on July 4th. And then the best part about it is they end and you get in your car, you drive off the bridge and you go home with no traffic. That was always the best and the easiest experience. I'm sure everybody's got their spot in D.C. And, you know, a lot of people start, like I did when I was young, start by going downtown early and trying to find the right spot to lay out some sort of towel with a, with beverages and food. And then that's a long day, man.

Now, that's too much for me. But, yeah. All right. Well, happy Fourth of July, everybody. So what are you doing on July 4th? I am as we speak, or as people, not as we speak, but as people are hearing this, I'm in Los Angeles. You know, hopefully, if the plane makes it. But I'm in Los Angeles for the fourth and the fifth and the sixth.

And my son, my oldest son lives out there. And then I'm going to Vegas for a few days. Why not? Why wouldn't you if you're in L.A.? And so I'm going to do Vegas with him. him and my nephew for a couple of days. We've done that. We did that last summer. We didn't have a better time than I am. I'm just going up to the Philadelphia area of Westchester, actually, to spend the day at a family barbecue. It'll be nice, but uneventful.

It won't be your weekend, that's for sure. Let's talk some sports. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Football season will be here before we know it, guys, but that doesn't mean we're not watching other sports, baseball, golf, tennis, soccer, the WNBA. If you want to have some fun watching those games, I would recommend, in terms of Daily Fantasy Sports, the prize picks app. Prize Picks is the largest DFS platform in North America. It's just you against the numbers. You don't battle thousands of other players, including pros. It's just you picking more than or less than on between two and six players, their stat projections, with odds. You can now win up to a hundred times

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86690 Nation, windonation.com. Something I haven't had a chance to talk to you about on the show because we didn't do it the other day is the story that Nikki Javala and Mark Maskey had the other day about Project Breeze, which is the city's effort to land the 2027 NFL draft. Did you read the story? Did you read some of the challenges to getting it done in D.C.? Yeah, I know that one of the biggest challenges is that, you know, the NFL likes to plan this thing a couple years in advance, and the park surface doesn't take basically reservations for the mall later than a year in advance. Right, right. Right, exactly.

Yeah. That's one of the issues. So that would seem to be the biggest obstacle, but let me ask you this. Yeah. By 2027, don't you believe the stadium decision will have been resolved? Well, of course, because they will have already broken ground on the new stadium, right? Okay. If it's in the district, then having the NFL draft here in D.C.

It's probably a no-brainer for the NFL at that point. if it's in Maryland, does the district still have the same appetite for hosting the NFL draft? Yeah, I think so. Really? Yeah. I mean, do you think that the Detroit Lions, if they still played in the Pontiac Silver Dome? I know it's still Michigan, but do you think that they wouldn't have been excited to host the NFL draft in downtown Detroit? I mean, Dallas plays, you know, not in downtown Dallas.

the 49ers don't play in San Francisco? What if there was just a bitter, what if there's a bitter battle between Detroit and Pontiac that just got resolved? And Detroit was the loser in that battle. Look, Tommy, I was thinking about this, and I'm glad that we're talking about this today, because what I'd like to see and what I'd want to know if I were the city, I'd want to know what three quarters of a million fans over a three-day period do for the local economy. I wouldn't give a shit about where the stadium was if it was an absolute 100% victory in terms of revenue into the city,

business into the city, because most of the fans that went to Detroit, it was 775,000 people over three days, were not from Michigan. NFL fans traveled to this. NFL fans of all 32 teams travel to the NFL draft. I personally can't imagine anything less appealing than sitting in a crowd of several hundred thousand people watching Roger Goodell announce who the draft choices. But bless their hearts, the people that go to these things, but it's big business. I would assume...

You're a good point. Good point. It's still a huge revenue producer for the city, even if they're licking their wounds from not getting the stadium at that point. How many events are going to draw near a million people over three days? You're right. Most of whom will be from out of town, will be spending money at hotels and restaurants. The other thing I wanted to bring up, Baltimore wants to host that draft as well. Oh, I didn't know that. I did not know that.

Yes, they do. They've never hosted a draft, right? They've never hosted one, and they made it clear they want to host a draft. And if 2027 is up, they'd be up for that. Now, if, you know, Baltimore, I doubt if the NFL is going to have the draft in D.C. and Baltimore within close timing of each other, figuring that in some ways it's a similar same market. Right. You know?

They shouldn't view it that way. Right. Right. But they would. I mean, I think most people would. Yeah. I mean, unless you're intimately familiar with it, I think most people would think that, well, we just had the draft there.

You know, you had it in Washington. So why would you do it 35 miles away? like two years later. So that could be, Baltimore could be a problem for the district effort as well since Baltimore and the Ravens want to host the draft. I'm looking up the list of cities that have hosted the draft. You know, it was in New York at, you know, the Marriott Marquis, right, from 1965 until 2014. And then Chicago hosted it back-to-back years, 15 and 16, Philly and 17.

Arlington, you know, at Jerry World in 2018, Nashville in 2019. There was no host in 2020 because of COVID. Cleveland in 21, Vegas in 22, Kansas City in 23, Detroit and 24. It's scheduled for Green Bay next year. Pittsburgh, the year after that, and 27 is the one that D.C.'s trying to land. I would think that other than Vegas, on the list of cities, that have hosted since it moved out of the Marriott Marquis in New York, I would bet Washington would have a chance to get the largest crowd.

I mean, we're already a city built around tourism in terms of industry, you know, federal government, tourism, et cetera. And, you know, if 775,000 people went to Detroit, no offense, to Detroit, Could Washington draw a million people to a draft? Yeah, I mean, I think if they can get it, I can't imagine that it would be a bad thing for the city. It would be a big win. I think it would be great. I think it would be huge if they could get it.

I just think that, I mean, besides the challenges that were already laid out in the story, I think the presence of the Ravens and Baltimore, unless I just think that that's going to be a big roadblock because it's not like they'll do it in D.C. in 27 and Baltimore in 28. Right. I wonder if the NFL draft, which is three days, and draws the number of people that it draws to the city, first of all, I'm curious as to what percentage of the people

that attend the NFL draft are from outside. that metropolitan area. I would bet at least half, if not more. Right? I mean, you don't have... 375,000 people are not attending the draft from the state of Michigan or from Detroit, I don't think. So I think it's mostly from out of town.

How does that compare to what a Super Bowl does for a city? Two teams, 75,000 people that have tickets, many more than that actually come into town for the Super Bowl. And it's probably a three-day affair, minimum. I would guess that most people that go to Super Bowls are there for the weekend. I know when I've been to a Super Bowl outside of being there for work, you know, it was get in on a Friday, stay through the game, come home Monday.

I would bet the NFL draft is a massive, massive moneymaker for the host cities. We'll see. But Tommy, 2027, wouldn't ground have been broken at least a year or two earlier? Yes. Okay. I would hope so. I would hope that this stadium thing, I would think that they would want this resolved by the end of 2025. Yeah.

All right. We'll finish. A year and a half from now. Yes. I mean, if right now we're obviously in jeopardy of having the decision on what. and when and when and what the deal looks like being delayed much longer than I think ownership wanted it. I think the goal when they bought the team was to have a deal in place by the time the 2024 season started. I think you've told me that before, that people have told you that

people. Yeah, they were hoping that, you know, this past legislative session that ended recently, they were hoping that this land would be in the district's hands by now. Right. And they could start talks with the city. Now we're delayed till maybe next January. Yeah. And that, you know, I hate to say this, but the chances are increasing day by day

that Tom's going to end up being right about this, that they're going to build the new stadium right next. to the current one. All right, we've got something else that we wanted to get to to finish up on. It is Brony James and the reception he's gotten from everybody in L.A. That's next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, most of us are interested in our mental and physical well-being to a certain degree. And with that in mind, I'd like to welcome and introduce a new sponsor to the podcast.

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interested in experiencing the EE system technology for yourself, will go to unifiedhealing.com slash sheen to learn more and find a center near you. That's unified spelled unifed-y-d-healing.com slash sheen. No material or testimonies on the Unified Healing website are intended to be viewed as medical advice or a substitute for professional medical advice diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, including EE system. The live fourth celebration of our country, the birth of a nation, you know, it's a great time to feel whatever the problems are to at least recognize and feel what it means to be an American. and if you're down in D.C. watching the fireworks, you know, maybe while you're listening to this,

take a stop over to Shelly's back room. Because Shelly's back room is American, baby. It's Americana through and through. Bob Matarazzi is a great American, the owner of Shelly's. And when I say American, I mean that you have people from all walks of life, from all different areas of the world wind up coming to Shelley's back room. You know, it's a very diverse place. And I think that's the strength of this country. Right. That's what we should be celebrating on July 4th.

And the best place to do that is Shelley's back room with a celebratory cigar. Happy birthday, America, light up a cigar, okay? Do it at Shelley's back room at 1331. F. Street Northwest. You would have been one hell of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, don't you think? Would you... Oh, okay.

Okay. Time out. I have a story. Uh-oh. What? Okay. Yeah. In our high school, near the auditorium, on the wall, they had this display of famous documents,

you know, copies of famous documents. Right. And they had the Declaration of Independence. Mm-hmm. Okay. Under a frame there. And let me see if I got this right. How many people signed the Declaration of Independence?

55. I think it's something like that. That makes sense. Well, in 1971, there was one more signature on the Declaration of Independence that hung. Oh, you're the worst. the auditorium. Oh, boy. I took it out of the frame. Not during school. You went in there after school or early? Yes. Yes. I wrote in Tom Laverro, put it back in the frame and hung it up, and they never found out about it. I was never gotten in trouble for it. I don't know if they've

ever discovered it. Did you put it right next to Hancock, or did you try to hide it somewhere? I tried to hide it somewhere. I don't remember exactly where I put it. Uh-huh. Uh, you know, but I think there were 55 or 56 signers, and I was one of them. So that's my Declaration of Independence story. I'm looking to... I mean, that's the kind of stuff I did in school because I was so bored. I mean, I was just there to have a good time. You know, I had so many classes in the library that I signed.

You remember the library? You had the card in the back of the book where you wrote your name to take the book out. Yeah. Well, I signed my name. I made it a mission to sign my name to the card of every single book in the library. You were just, were you supposed to be in class? That was where I had independent study. Oh, okay.

For a couple of classes, I barely went to school. And between skipping school and study hall and in the library, I mean, I was always looking for stuff do. So I'd sit there and go through shelf after shelf and I'd write my name on the card and I put it back on the shelf. Just so 10 years later, some kid would see that Tom Levero took this book out 10 years before. Oh, God. That's really, really ridiculous. And I can just see you hanging out there going from book to book. Not reading them, just taking the card out and writing Tom Leverro. 56 delegates were the signatures on the Declaration of Independence.

Yeah, nice. Did they ever find out? Did they ever see it? I don't know. I never heard anything about it. All right. Brony James, selected by the Lakers in the draft last week in the second round at number 55, was introduced, guess yesterday or two days ago, as you're listening to this, to the LA media. By the way, I got this from Ted. Ted wrote, hey, Kevin, I haven't heard anyone talk about this, but why did the Lakers use the 55th pick for Brony when they could have just signed him as a free agent post-draft? No one was going to draft Brony in the 55 to 60 spots, and there would have been zero blowback if he would have signed as a free agent. His resume doesn't warrant a draft

pick, not even close, but if you sign him as a free agent prospect, it's cool. Ted, 100% right. I haven't heard anybody talk about that. Honestly, somebody has to have brought up the idea that Brony could have just been signed as a free agent. Now, you know, would they have been able to justify the multi-year guaranteed contract that they gave Brony James? Would they've been able, Would they have been able to justify J.J. Reddick's comments where he said, quote, Rob is in Rob Polinka, the general manager. Rob and I did not give Brony anything. Brony has earned this. Brony has earned this through hard work, closed.

Why can't they just admit that he's on the team because he's LeBron's son? Why are they doing this? To be honest with you, I think a lot of people. would say, you know what, LeBron's earned this. You know, I'm okay with it. Oh, I think a lot of people would say that. I think a lot of people absolutely believe LeBron's earned that. I don't necessarily.

I don't have a problem with the 55th pick being used on his son. I think Ted's idea is much better, though. Well, the contract is ridiculous for a second round pick, you know, that 55th pick in the draft. And look, there's some people that, you know, they're NBA worshippers, they're LeBron worshippers, and they're just going to go along with anything that LeBron wants. But, you know, at least he'll get good coaching because I don't know if you saw who got hired on what's his name staff.

Who got hired? What his name? Oh, Nate McMillan got hired, right? No, Scott Brooks got hired. Oh, Scott Brooks got hired. Oh, Scott Brooks got hired too? Wow. I think so. You know, I actually texted back and forth with him a few weeks ago.

I wanted him to come on the show to talk draft and he couldn't do it. And maybe this is why. Maybe he knew that this was an opportunity. I did have Randy Whitman, who's such a good guest, by the way, just as an aside, talking basketball. Yeah, Scott Brooks got hired to the Lakers staff. Yeah, I see that. Look, Nate McMillan was also hired.

Nate McMillan. was an outstanding basketball coach. I think he was a much better coach than Scott Brooks. Yes. Bronny's contract, by the way, four years, 7.9 million total. So that locks him in to one of the 15 roster spots. And LeBron, you know, as we're recording this, reached a deal, of course, to stay with the Lakers two years, $104 million that includes a player option

for 2025, 2026, and a no trade clause. I mean, if he were going to get traded, he'd have to trade himself. So I don't think that that is a big deal in an organization run by the player, which is what the Lakers are now. I don't know, Tommy. To me, it's just like, just admit that it's okay for a lot of people, but they're creating this charade around he earned it. He didn't earn it.

he average four points a game for a terrible Pac-12 team. But anyway, there's your organization. Let's call him, Jr. That's who he is, LeBron Jr. Yeah, Brony. By the way. I mean, it's hard to take a man seriously who's called Brony. Like Lovie?

Yeah, there you go, like Lovie. Yeah, kind of hard. On your day off today here on the 4th of July as you were listening to it, if you want to watch all the baseball that's on, and it starts, by the way, with the Mets Nationals at 11.05 a.m. By the time you're listening to this, I'm sure the game is already underway, if not final, but there are games all day long, all night long. Why not get involved and have some action on these games?

If you're thinking about that and you don't have a place to bet, go to mybooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They've got all the baseball. They've got all the tennis, individual matchups. They've got all of the soccer, whether it's the Euro or the Copa America. And they've got all of their NFL prop bets up for the upcoming 2024 season. Washington's still a four-point underdog in the opener at Tampa Bay. Again, my bookie.orgie.org, use my promo code. D.C. Bet anything anytime from anywhere, only with my bookie. All right, anything else?

Happy 4th. I got nothing else for you, boss. Happy 4th of July, everybody. Tommy, I'll talk to you next week. Thanks. Okay, happy 4th of July. All right, that's it for today. I do have a show already recorded for tomorrow,

and the guest on tomorrow's show is Joe Lee, Joe is Quincy Wilson's track and field coach at Bullis. Quincy Wilson just became the youngest track and field male ever to be an Olympian at 16 years old. And he is local. I'm sure many of you have heard about Quincy Wilson. His track and field coach, Joe Lee, will be my guest on tomorrow's show. Back tomorrow.