The Mismatch - Kawhi’s "Carbon Footprint," Hardest Players to Root For, Offseason Enjoyments, and NFL Takeaways

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Verno and Jacoby return with 10 questions about the NBA Hall of Fame, Kawhi Leonard, biggest disappointments, the NFL, and more! (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch!(01:30) Question 1: Thoughts on the Kawhi Leonard, Steve Ballmer, Aspiration mess(16:00) Question 2: Are you watching EuroBasket?(19:15) Question 3: First thing you think of when mentioning Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard(33:15) Question 4: Which projected contending NBA team do you think will be a disappointment?(40:15) Question 5: Three players that would be hardest to root for if they played for your team(44:08) Question 6: What is the new Nike school in Memphis?(52:03) Question 7: Favorite movie or show you’ve enjoyed during the offseason(01:00:38) Question 8: What is something small that bothers you about the NBA?(01:03:47) Question 9: Do you care about the new All-Star format?(01:09:05) Question 10: Biggest takeaway from Week 1 in the NFL Leave us a message on our Mismatch voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David JacobyProducer: Jessie LopezSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and join him as he does every week from The Ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Verno, summer's over. The kids are at school. NFL started. I can smell. I could smell training camp about to start in the NBA. Summer's over. My kids have been in school for a month. I don't understand how that works. Different parts of the country, I suppose. Look, I need basketball to start. Me and our beloved Joe House are in. a skins league. Basically, you could pick the team's wins or losses, right? So, like, our first pick in the draft was Ravens wins. You saw how that went.

Mm-hmm. We also have, with the last pick in our draft, Bears wins. And so I'm so ready for basketball to start back after it's two nights in a row, Sunday night and Monday night, where both of our teams. collapsed in the second halves of the games. And so I need basketball to come back around. We are going to continue our summer series with

10 questions for each other. We have had quite a bit of controversy in the NBA over the course of the last week. So we are going to start with that. We have now had a week to take in all of the different

Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clipper stories. Kawhi Leonard getting paid an exorbitant amount of money for a no-show job. There are allegations of salary cap circumvention.

We have heard people that have law degrees talking about it. Michael McCann was just on with Zach Lowe. We have heard Pablo Tori, all of his reports. We have heard his interview with Mark Cuban. And we know that the NBA is going to investigate. So we've had a

week to take in all of this different Kauai Leonard's story. What are you thinking? I have had some time to process this, right? And I do not have any law degrees. I do not consider myself like a journalist or whatever. But I'll tell you how I feel. I think that they're guilty,

but I think they are not provable to be punished. Like I remember the podcast serial like Adnan Said? Yeah, I think he did it. But I don't think you should be in jail for it. The Karen Reid documentary that I watched. I think she did it. But I don't think she could be proven guilty in the court of law. I think that this stinks to high heaven.

I think there was collusion. I think that they are guilty. However, they cannot be proven to be guilty. Can we take a quick time out? You just dropped, just scolding hot takes in the process of talking about the Kauai letter. Like, let's not act. like these things have not been debated for some time, both the Karen Reed and Saeed.

Like, you can go by the people. They're both guilty, but they shouldn't be in jail for it. You can't prove that they're guilty. And I think, I think that Kauai was paid by this shady company. I think they were paid by this company to circumvent the salary cap, but I don't think that you can prove that. You can investigate as much as you like. You can hire the fanciest lawyers in the world, NBA, and investigate.

There will be no digital training. that there's no one's going to write a text message or an email that says, hey, aspiration partners. I've looked at this company. I don't even know what they do. Them as a company is one of the craziest things I've read about. Honestly, because of this is such a story that rocked the NBA. Two of the things that have not been focused on,

or number one, how insanely hilarious it is to hire. Kawhi Leonard as a spokesperson for anything. It doesn't speak. Spokesperson. It should be a silent person. Okay. The second thing is, from what I gather, again, me and you, same page, don't particularly understand what they're, like, it's a huge scam, right?

And scams come to an end. But seems to be make rich people feel super horrible. about their carbon footprint and then here you're doing a good thing by doing, right, you know what I'm saying? It's like you can pay your way out of your guilt for your carbon footprint.

And so, hey, no, I care about the planet. I know that I ride around a jet all day, every day. I know that I do this and this and this, but what we're, trying to do here is be good steward and show no no no no no i do care about the environment i care about global warming and so therefore i am willing to pay you and i'm going to show everybody that i care about global warming and so and and obviously look is it possible that kawai leonard

cares deeply about his carbon footprint i doubt it is it is it It's impossible, sure. It's greater than zero percent chance. It's actually impossible. It is impossible that Kauai Leonard cares about his carbon footprint. He doesn't strike me as the type that wakes up in the morning is like, poof, I got to work on this carbon footprint today. And so, yeah, I mean, I think, honestly, like, you and I need to come up with a business. Like, one of the best businesses you can have is a business that makes rich people feel,

guilty. Yes. How do I find that business? What can I do that will make super rich people feel really guilty? And these guys, look, they ended up getting caught, but on the surface, super smart idea. I was shocked by this. One of the biggest takeaways of reading about this company is like, if you go to Harvard and you have an idea, people will just line up to give you money. Just line up to give you money. This company was worth like, it was valued at like $2.3 billion at one. point. And basically it's like it round up to the nearest dollar and we'll plant a tree. That's basically what the whole idea is. It's like, we'll give you a credit card and you round up to the nearest dollar, we'll plant a tree. And then like they were investigated. They said

they planted 35 million trees and they actually planted like 10 million trees. They didn't be planted all the trees. They said they were going to plant. The other thing is you got to go back at time. And I do think that this is a super wake up call for the NBA in who is spending money with us because you've had that Sam Bamakman-Fried thing happened and you've had this thing happen like you guys constantly get the wool pulled over your eyes on these companies that aren't even real like

did you hear that and you're putting their name on arenas like yes that they they offered more more than the 550 million dollars that into it they offered like more than that potentially double and like who has this company think they are if they're trying to give the clippers a billion dollars so they can call it the aspiration dome.

Like, what is happening? And it's almost like maybe they did give Kauai Leonard $28 million for no reason. Maybe they did. I will say there were two things. When Pablo Tori interviewed Mark Cuban, there were two things that stood out to me. Because I know that there are a lot of people that are just going to roll their eyes. They're going to be like, oh, billionaire, defending a billionaire, surprise, surprise, right? Like, set that aside for a second.

The reason it was fascinating to me is because somebody like Mark Cuban thinks in a way that, frankly, non-billionaires cannot. He has been through all manner of different situations that you just haven't as a guy that, like, the idea that someone can invest millions of dollars into something and have the wool pulled over their eyes. and he even presented. He's like, do you think that all these people were goofy that invested with Bernie Madoff? Like, these were some of the smartest and best investors in the world. And they got the wool pulled over their eyes. And he said, so things have happened to me in the past where I have invested in something

that was not what it appeared to be. And sometimes it can be unexplainable that that can happen. And so just to hear him talk about how things can happen like that. Like in his mind, it's not insane, right? Like, I think that we all think about it logically as who we are. And that's why to me it was worthwhile to listen to a billionaire sports owner talk about, I know this seems crazy, but this kind of stuff can and does happen. And the second thing was, and I thought this was possible.

the most interesting. He said, you said up front that they made this massive investment into the arena and the clippers, right? He said, a possible explanation as to why they would spend this fortune. And yes, right into the contract that he has to be a clipper, because that's one of the things that keeps getting honed in on. He didn't have to do this. He didn't have to do this. He didn't have to do this. The only thing that Gwai Leonard was required to do was to be a clipper. And then everybody goes, right? His point was, and again, just take it for what it's worth. If I spend $350 million, whatever it is, on that, my investment, of course, it would be worthwhile for me to ensure that the best player is, is on the team and remains the best player on the team.

That investment is much greater than the other investment. And so it's not implausible that they would sign a guy like that to a crazy contract, maybe to ensure that their investment was safe. Again, that might be fooey. But it's at least interesting to me, right? And it is at least it presented an alternate side to all of this. I just think that Cuban saying that like, and the other thing was you don't think he would have just made this go away?

This guy's got more money than anybody. And so there were, I will at least say that I thought about it a little differently after hearing him. Maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe it's all bogus. But I think that the more I listen to small, people talk about this, the more it seems like everybody knew that there might be something up. Yes, this seems exactly what we think it is.

But there's not going to be some kind of paper trail. You can't prove it. And they're going to get punished. And then everybody's going to be like, you know what I mean? Like you got away with it, you know? There's no text. There's no email. they're not going to find anything that says, hey, can you please pay Kauai Leonard $7 million a year and not ask him to do anything because I own the clippers and I need you to do that.

Well, they do have people that worked at the company saying that's exactly what happened. But if you look at what other things about that, if you look at the company, this company is wild. Like, I read some Forbes article about it when it went into bankruptcy. Like, I don't know, they pivoted what they do like three times. I don't know how they're valued it. $2.3 billion. They went public. The co-founder, like, borrowed money against his shares for, what, $55 million and then $145 million a

year later. I'm like, what? I don't understand this. Like, I'm just like a regular person that, like, you know, works for their money. Imagine borrowing $145 million from your company. What? What do you need $145 million for? I mean, this is so.

And the other thing is, it's so brash if this was just pure salary cap circumvention, right? I don't think they'll ever be able to prove it, though, right? Doesn't seem that way. But here's a better question, Jacoby. Do they want to? I think if you are one of the other owners or governors that we're supposed to say, I think you would, I think they're looking at Steve Bomber at the meeting and being like, dude. They're just, they're like, dude.

you know what are you doing what are you doing here i mean the salary cap is frankly the salary cap as it stands with the first and second apron because of Steve balmer and guys like Steve balmer but he did build his own arena in a day and age where teams lose their franchises over arenas he built his own arena frankly and by the way the all-star game is being hosted in said new arena this upcoming year and so i don't know I think with a lot of things that we have been through in the past, this is going to be a huge moment for Adam Silver. What would be, here's all we'll say, and we'll wrap this up.

Would the most shocking outcome be in your mind if a story came out and they got absolutely hammered? Like death penalty, Joe Smith-ass. That would be shocking. I think that's the most shocking. I honestly think the outcome is going to be nothing. I think that Adam Silver, who is a lawyer himself, is going to say, we've investigated this. We used a third party investigator. They investigated everything.

They reviewed all of it. And there is, there is no. There's nothing there. Yeah. There's just nothing there. You know? I mean, somebody does have to explain why they paid him $48 million. That's a lot of money.

I mean, that's a lot. This is not like, this is not, it's not like he got to. to use the company jet. Yeah, exactly. Like, $48 million's a lot. $7 million a year for nothing. Unbelievable. I was there still.

Whoever this Uncle Dennis fella is like, and you know what? And the other thing, we totally missed the boat. I mean, it could have been the mismatch brought to you by aspiration. I know.

I know. We could have made so much money. Why don't we start a company? I feel terrible about my carbon footprint. Let's just lie about going to Harvard. I think that Harvard is at the core of all of this. No one's going to check. Mismatched partners.

All right. Next. Ten questions. Yeah. You want me to start? You start. We already started. That was the first question. Ask it. I already asked it. It was the quiet question. All right. Here's my question.

We're the number two. Come on. How much attention are you paying the Eurobasket? Oh, no. Are you doing this on purpose? a little bit. None. I always say like I don't lie in the microphones.

I'm not watching all these games. This makes me feel guiltier than my carbon footprint. I'm not even. I see the headlines. I see the headlines. I see the headlines. I don't know. It has 37.

I don't know when it's on. Like a Euro god. Yeah, France got beat. Right. Just what, Janus is good. Yonis is 37 and 10 rebounds. I see the headlines. But it's just.

Come on, and especially right when football started. Like, I am wall to wall. I watched football on Thursday night, Friday night, all day Saturday and all day Sunday. And I watched it last night. I mean, I don't even know when the thing is on. Do you know where I found the Eurobasket? Because I can't even like find the games. The Fandu app.

Oh. You can watch them there. So I start watching the game and they streamed the game without commentator. so you're just kind of like watching it, but you're not hearing anybody say anything. So it's kind of like you're sitting in the stands, but you're watching it on your phone. And I'm watching some France game just to watch like Yabusele.

Which isn't a problem except I don't know the players. That's the thing. So I'm just sitting there being like, I wish there was someone saying these people's names while they're playing the game. Or maybe like a little arrow on top of them. Like, you know, like in the old school, like in the old school,

old school video games where it'd be like Ron Harper. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I'm sitting there watching it and I'm like locked in on this game. My kids are like have knives and they're sticking them into electrical outlets. And I'm like, I'm sitting there being like, what am I doing with myself? Like, what am I doing? I need to stop doing this. So I've not been paying that much attention to Eurobasket.

Skinny Luke is awesome. It appears. And Yonis is awesome. And I mean, like, but no, I don't know. I see the highlights. Again, if you want to put something in front of me and tell me like, hey, this game is on then at this time on ESPN or it's on whatever. I mean, okay, like maybe I'll go out of my way, but I mean, it just, it's just not on my radar.

Not when football started. When football started like the Eurobasket thing. And I don't know. And I know like, look, there's always going to be people from overseas that are going to be like, you really should watch it. And I can't believe, you know, with as many players in the NBA, why don't you care about it, whatever? I don't know.

I mean, are people, it's, it's kind of not here and it's not American player. Like, do people in Europe, like, watch the MLS and K or outside of, like, maybe a random player here and there? I don't think I'll watch the semifinals and finals. I'll watch the finals. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I mean, if you think I should be watching Eurobasket, I think you should be watching Mississippi State, Arizona State. You know what I mean?

The finals are. on Sunday. So it's probably in the morning before football. All right. Tell me when it's on and where it is. And like put it in front of my face and I'll go out of my way. I think I'll watch the lines. All right. Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard both inducted into the Hall of Fame over the weekend. When I say their names and I'll do it individually, what do you think of? We'll start with Carmelo Anthony.

Now, I can't be wrong here. I just want to say that out loud. This is what I think of is the question. I think of him catching the ball 12 to 15 feet from the basket on the baseline as a New York Nick turning to face his defender, putting the ball behind his head. You know how he used to do that? Yep. He was like, he's like a soccer throw in and then just operating from there. Like that's what I see.

I see him turning around slowly, putting the ball behind his head, not looking to pass to anybody. There could be all four of his teammates could be wide open under the basket. Does not matter. And then he's doing a couple dribbles in some sort of like fadeaway shot and just operating from like the mid post with the ball over his head and scoring as a knit. That's what I see when you say Carmelo Anthony. So if you were to close your eyes, you think of him as a Nick. Yes, absolutely.

You do not think of him. Without question. Interesting. Without question. I'm not, I can't be wrong. This is what I think of when you say the name. fascinating because I think I might think of Syracuse first. Oh, I'm not kidding.

I love that. I love that. Everything he happened throughout his entire NBA. I almost think that the Syracuse thing and the Team USA things almost come to my mind more than NBA exploits. I know that sounds crazy. It does. But the Syracuse thing, and I've. Maybe it's the image and him being a freshman.

And I remember, I don't know why this stands out to me so much. I remember Clark Kellogg picking them and picking them because of Carmelo Anthony. And that was such a huge deal that a freshman could carry a team to a national championship. And I don't know, man. I don't know. Do you know what I really remember about that run to the championship? his smile. Like he didn't play

with a scowl. You know what I mean? He played with this big huge smile when he was at Syracuse. He was just like beating everybody with this like huge smile on his face, the entire run. Just like he was having the time of his life.

Well, and it was super rare for the best player to be, you know, a freshman. Oh, yeah. It just wasn't, you know, that wasn't a thing where you could like go to college and be the best player on the best team. A lot of times when you win the whole

thing, right? When you think of national championship teams, right. You often think of teams. Like, oh, they had this guy and this guy and this guy. They had Carmelo Anthony and that's it. That's right. You know what I mean? Like, they had him. That wasn't really a team. It's kind of crazy. It's kind of crazy. After a long

huge career, like I think probably more about the Syracuse and Team USA things than I do Nuggets or Nicks. things that happened with him. Strange though, Dwight Howard. So this is what I think of, not him on the magic. I think of him during that like Lakers Rockets period. Really?

Yeah, that's what I think of. Because I think that's when he was like most interesting. It was just like, yeah. Again, I can't be wrong. Obviously he was best when he was with the magic and he took him to the finals and MVP, blah, blah, blah. that's when he was at his peak. But when I think of him during that, like Lakers Rockets era,

when he was still effective, but like not really. And he was weird. You could tell that his teammates, Kobe in particular, weren't the biggest fans. And he was just sort of like eclectic. Like that's what I think of when you say,

Dwight Howard. I think a lot of people see that, like the Superman thing, like that image of him doing the Superman thing. right in the dunk contest and whatever else and yeah it is kind of odd this is one of the greatest players to play in the NBA he is go look at it like I don't know if anybody's off-the-court antics or attitudes hurt their perception more if you were just line up his accomplishments if you were just a line up his accomplishments and exploits throughout his entire NBA career

I do not think people think of Dwight Howard in the dominant way that he actually existed. And I think that that is off the court. His peak was so high. Oh my God. Like, when he was... Like truly a dominant player. And, you know, I always say there's 50% of the time

you're on the basketball court you're playing defense. He was just an absolute defensive stopper. Right. And he's forcing you to miss it. He's getting the rebound. Like when he was at his peak, the blocks and rebounds were crazy. Crazy. Right.

And in the irony of all irony, I think it actually happens with Shaquille O'Neal as well, right? Where it's like, because those guys had their own thing. But I think that part of the, you know, the smiling, the goofiness, the, you know, the laissez-faire attitude in some people's mind sometimes took away from the fact that these guys were absolute forces of nature. And it is way worse than Dwight than it is with Shaq. Like I think people, I think when you mentioned Dwight Howard to people, they roll their eyes. Yeah. And they shouldn't. I also think because Kobe called him a bitch.

I think people, do you remember that? Everyone remembers that. Kobe called him a bitch. Everyone's like, well, I guess he's a bitch because Kobe called him a bitch. You know, and it's like, well, it's not exactly that cut and dry. Well, the other thing is if you were to, if you there are what would you say

probably a million to one in terms of if we're splitting down here are people that Kobe called a bitch here are people that he didn't probably like a million to one on one side he's not the only people he didn't call a bitch or people he hasn't met yet come on he's not in rarefied air

being called a bitch by Kobe Bryant I don't think that's too big of a knock I also do want to mention that I was at Hall of Fame over the weekend. What? In Springfield, Massachusetts. Is it worth going to? I'll tell you, my, my good friend and brother, Jalen Anthony Rose, what was the recipient of the Ice Cube Impact Award?

Oh. So for Jalen Rose is a lot of good work in his hometown of Detroit. In many communities, he's got a school there. So it's sort of a Ice Cube now has an award named after him at the Hall of Fame, and Jalen received it. So I brought three of my kids, not the baby, to the ceremony in Springfield. So we saw him receive the award, speeches. And he was busy.

You know what I mean? So he's doing interviews and getting pulled here and that for pictures and whatnot. So we didn't spend a lot of time with him. But then we went through the Hall of Fame. I'm actually from Western Mass. I'm from Amherst, which is right by Springfield. So I haven't been to the Hall of Fame in like 30 years. And I will say I love basketball.

Like it's one of the most important things in my life. And I should be having the time of my life at the basketball Hall of Fame. I'm going to say it out loud. Kind of boring. Kind of boring. It's just like a lot of sneakers and jerseys. Some cool old stuff. But like, oh.

I was like, I was kind of like, eh, under one. 20 minutes and I'm good. There's a subway there and like a Coldstone creamery. I was like, what is going on here? What? Like a subway sandwich and look at ice cream. It was weird. How far away?

I didn't love. I guess you fly to Boston, right? And then? Yeah. Well, there's a Bradley's in Hartford, which is actually a closer airport. But I drove from New York. It's like three and a half hour drive,

three hour drive. To Springfield. To Springfield Mass, yeah. But, you know, like I said, my mom lives there. My brother lives there. So I went and saw them. It was like a little weekend trip. Okay.

Okay. But if I were, if I, you would say, number one, do not go to the basketball Hall of Fame. Well, this is just me personally. If I were, you would fly into what? Hartford. Hartford, yeah. Oh, my God.

I've flown in there before. Years ago when I went to ESPN, I, when I was in my 20s, they sent me up there. They're like, hey, you know, you're the next big thing. So, right. You would, like, audition or something? No, no, no.

I, they had me with my, and Mike and then Colin Cowherd and Dan Patrick for the day. Like I just like I basically went in there and watched their shows and walked around and then they were you on on air or you just kind of absurd. I don't mind. I don't I don't mind saying this. So I'm probably I'm like mid to late 20s and they had like there was a guy there that really liked me. And so then they they bring me up. I tour the campus.

They have me. I'm with Mike and Mike. By the way, Mike and Mike, all those guys super nice to me. Dan Patrick, super nice to me, like all of them. And so I was kind of like in there, like watching their shows all day, whatever. Then like, you know, we're kind of wrapping up the day. The guy sits down to me and he starts talking to me about doing weekends, right? On ESPN radio.

Okay. And I don't mind say. It's been years. What do I care? So I go to Dan Patrick, who I had met and I like a great deal. I love Dan Patrick. Dan Patrick told me not to do it. What?

He didn't. He said, wait. He said, wait. And it was great advice. He said, if you start doing weekends, they will, or night, they will always view you as that. Wait until they're going to hire you for the real job. do you know what? Dan Patrick was intimidated by you.

He saw your star potential and he and he sabotaged your career. Dan Patrick was terrified of you and he sabotaged your career. That's exactly what happened. He did not. And so he's like, Dan Patrick is terrified of you. Wait until, wait until, wait until.

And so, uh, and honestly, how many guys moved from weekends to get the real gig? He said they will always view you like that. You were in that building for, forever, you know, there is like, you know what I mean? Like the guys, week as, week as and nights on ESPN radio are kind of like inning eaters. You know what I mean? It's like the middle reliever that gets put in when you're down by eight rounds.

And they don't move you up. It's not like you're going to turn up one day and you're calling. Yeah. That's not the road to get there. And at that time, again, it's a different world. It's sports radio with the, this is like early 2000. Yeah, there's no podcasts. Yeah.

Internet's not, you know what I mean? the internet's not, you know, in part of our daily lives in the same way. You're getting in your car and you're like surfing the AM dial for sports talk. Correct. Yes. That's the way it was going. And so anyways, yeah. I mean, God, I hadn't thought about it that in so many years, but true story.

And I will say that I liked it up there. I did like it up there. But that's the only time I've ever been to Hartford. And I remember flying in and I'm like, this is the smallest air. I have ever been in my life. And then you have to get there and then they give me a rental car and you got to drive, what, like an hour, hour and a half? Yeah, to Bristol. Something like that.

Yeah, 30 minutes. It is. Bristol's in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere. Nowhere. There's nothing. And then you just pull up on it. And you're like, this is wild.

And pre-9-11, there wasn't really security either. You know, like, you just pulled into the parking lot and, like, walked on a campus, right? Anyways, yeah. So Hartford to Springfield Now I'm always going to have in the back of my head that it's not worth going to, so I'm never going to go. When I was a kid, they had this like conveyor belt thing that you could go on.

It was kind of like, you know, those, you know, when you're those people movers in the airport, right? You don't talk about? Yeah. So you, at the Hall of Fame, I remember this distinctly, you would get on that and they'd have all these different hoops at different heights and distances and balls in front of you and you just shot you just get you just shoot shoot and you go around you can circle back and do it again and I was looking for that thing I was like where'd that thing go that was

awesome and I will say the Hall of Bay might be great for other people if you're into the artifacts and the collectibles I am more of a do something than look at something person like when I went to Washington, D.C., I was like, there's the monument. I'm like, oh, okay. Like, the Lincoln Memorial, guess what it looks like every picture I've ever seen of it? Like, I don't like looking at things. I like to read things, learn things, and do things, but just like looking at old pair of sneakers that Shaquille O'Neal wore, that doesn't do anything for me whatsoever? Next question. All right. Which NBA team is currently considered a contender do you think will end up being a huge disappointment. Okay. So this isn't the easiest question because, look, it's got to be a

team that has like a win total over 50, right? Yeah, it's got this like a contender, like a championship contender. But I do think that one of the things we learned about last year in the Indiana Pacers is now we have expanded our who is a contender. Like, we have to expand who is a contender. Anyone preseason last year that said they saw the Pacers coming is a liar. They're a liar. They're absolutely lying. But for the interest of this question, I'm just going to go with the teams that are expected to win. And typically, if you win in a high amount of games that you are considered a contender.

So you have Oklahoma City. They are obviously in a class by themselves. In fact, they are, I believe on Fandu, they were like six or seven games higher than everybody else. You have, these are the teams that are in the 50s for winning. totals. Cleveland, Houston, Denver, the Knicks, the Magic, the T-Wolts. So are we saying that those are all, they're all contenders. They're all teams that could be. Of course.

I think on the east side, obviously Cleveland, right? Like, I mean, again, you've got to deliver. You have to deliver. I don't know, though, if people are sitting there. This is a hard one, Jacoby, because I don't think there will be one. person in the world that picks them to go to the finals. So is that fair for me to say they're a contender?

I think there's a lot of these other teams that somebody might pick to make the finals. Do you think there will be one human being outside of the city of Cleveland that picks Cleveland to go to the finals? Yes. Right? No. Yes, I think I think yes. No, you don't. If you look at the Eastern Conference,

come on. What are you talking about? They won the most games last year in the regular season. They started Sam Merrill against the Pacers. I remember what I was watching. He was game two against the Pacers where I was like, Garland was out, Alan was out, Mitchell was out.

I was just like, the end of the bench was like an all-star team of street clothes. Like if you are a Cavs supporter or you believe in the Cavs, you say we were injured against the Pacers, we were the best team in the Eastern Conference all year, and we had bad injury luck in the playoffs. You can say that. Right. So I don't think it's, I don't think it's inconceivable to pick them to go to the finals.

Okay, there will be an inordinate amount of Nick's picks, right? That's going to be number one by a wide margin for people picking a team to go to the finals out of the Eastern Conference, especially in the absence of the Celtics and the Pacers, okay? I think there will be as many people pick like the Hawks and the Magic and these other teams as they will pick the Cavs. That's what I do. I disagree. So I don't know. I disagree.

Okay, then I'll say the Cavs. Right, the calves. And then I'd say, the Minnesota thing, there could be a transition year here, right, where you've gotten an older Conley, an older Gobert. We've talked about how they got guys more on the way, right, with the Terrence Shannon and Dillingham and that kind of group. But like, so there's a possibility. At some point, there's going to be the transition year with that team because of age. And obviously they lost Nikiel Alexander Walker, who was.

super essential to a lot of what they did. And then I would say, you know, I've expressed my, on the Rockets front, just like, hey, you are changing an entire dynamic, right? That is not the team that accomplished what it did last year. And so whenever you are changing dynamic and you are changing pecking order, there's always going to be some level of transition. And you are also putting a lot more on guys that may be as much, much wasn't put on because Jalen Green played huge minutes for them and Dylan Brooks played huge

minutes for them and it's easy to say well yeah but these are good players and they're just going to fit the role and you have Kevin Durant like the other thing is if Kevin Durant at his age goes down for 30 something games right then you're in its spot right and so they did it as a collective last year and so I think that it's easier though for me to go with the East team this is long-winded it's easier for me to go to with an East team because there's not one human being I mean maybe there's going to be some contrarian everybody's going to have Oklahoma City everybody's going to have Oklahoma City as their Western Conference representative in the NBA finals they are for the preseason picks for the

preseason picks everybody's going to have Oklahoma City yes they are maybe some Denver's I think there'll be some Denver's maybe some Denver's maybe some But that will be But so those will be the two. If you said to me Oklahoma City or the field to make the finals, I would take the field. Because I don't like the or the field questions.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the field is always the answer. But if you said to me, Oklahoma City or the field, I would take the field for sure. So I would get, I guess I'd have to say Cleveland, right? They have the highest win total in the entire Eastern Conference,

but I'm still not a full believer. And I very well may believe in the magic more than them. after their offseason acquisitions. And they're the, yeah, it's one of, they could win 70 games and we're still going to be like, got to see it in the playoffs. You know,

it's very Donovan, Utah, right? That team won an inordinate amount of games. 60 plus games that won the one seat. And we were all like, yeah, all right, let's see it. But the playoff, the playoff failures of Donovan Mitchell

are never Donovan Mitchell's fault. You know what I mean? It's like it's always like a teammate gets injured. He puts a 45. Like he, it's never, it's like James Harder. You can look at James Harden and be like, he has not shown up in game sevens in his career.

But if you look at Donovan Mitchell's playoff losses, it's rarely, and I'm trying to think in my head, his fault. He's putting up 40 in losses. He's one of the great, he's one of the great scoring playoff performers in the history of the NBA.

That is fat. Yes. Go look at points per game in the playoff games and Donovan Mitchell's right there at the time. Because I think you can look at his playoff history and say, oh, can't get it done in the big game. It's different than the James Hardin can't get it done in the big game. So a lot of times it's James Hardin's fault. He goes down. Right.

You felt like James Harden didn't go down swinging. You felt like Donovan Mitchell did. Sometimes I feel like Donovan Mitchell just needs more help a lot. Ben Simmons rejected a Knicks offer. So it's still a free agent. Oh, I can't imagine. imagine how frustrated you would be having to root for Ben Simmons on a nightly or at least quasi-nightly basis. Give me three players that would be the hardest to root for on your team.

So they end up wearing a Nick's uniform and you just kind of have to, I really kiss this guy, but I have to root for because he's on my team. So I disqualified some players. I think that a lot of people that have a, how do I say this? A checker legal history would be difficult, like a domestic violence history, things of that nature. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to take them off the table. Okay.

You know what I mean? Like, there's certain NFL players that I can't have on my fantasy team for those reasons, right? But I'm taking them off the table. And I've got three players that are all on this list for the exact same reason. Where do you say, I don't want to, I do not want to root for this guy. Yes. And they're all on the same. They're all excellent, excellent.

all-star caliber. Oh. Potential Hall of Fame players that I can't root for for the same reason. Okay. Joel Embed, Chris Staps, Porzingis,

and Kauai Leonard. If you are healthy, if you are available, and you are at your peak, we're going to the finals. So the frustration level is, but just watching them say, oh, guess what,

day to day with a hands, or load management or out and out today for whatever reason. Like it's got to be so frustrating to look at the 76ers roster on paper and be like, why are we not championship favorites? Okay. Because Joel and B is not available. So those are the three. Those are the three right there.

I mean, look, is it, did at least the last week change your opinion somewhat in finding out that one of those three players cares deeply about his carbon footprint. That's a good point. I didn't consider that. Yeah, Kauai Leonard is going to save the planet for my children. Right. Yeah.

So maybe I should take that into consideration. So at least you could tell your kids. Yes. And my grandkids will be able to breathe the air in the atmosphere because of Kauai Leonard. The reason the earth is not going to burn up. And so this is a noble thing to root. That's a good point. Should I take him off my list?

I think you should. I think I need to. After finding out how much he. Do you my number one is on this? This all time? Because I just make current players, but all time, my first player that came in my mind that I just could not root for, Bill Lambeer. I just couldn't do it. I could never root for Bill Lambeer.

Oh, look. His game is just so ugly. Just gross. I'll tell you, long-term mismatch fans would know that. I would end this show if Memphis ever attained Rudy Gobert. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it.

In the words of my, in the words of my daughter, when my wife tells her that, like, that she says, what's for dinner? And she's like, well,

you can eat what I'm eating, or I can cook you something else. And she'll go, what are you eating? And my wife will go salmon. And my daughter will go, uh, that's me.

the grisleys are thinking about retaining rudy gobert i hope it happens no i hope it happens i can see a world all right next question all right um this is one that you literally wrote for me to ask you

so i'm going to be fully transparent yep i gotta say it what is the new nikey school in memphis i have no idea what this is Okay, so the reason I'm bringing this up is because I want to get your take on this. So the reason this is significant is because there is a team now in the region, this Tennessee Collegiate team, okay? It has been established and it's in Memphis and it is a Nike school. What do you mean?

Collegiate team? It's a college. It's not Tennessee or Memphis? They call it Tennessee Collegian. Okay. So it's a high school. Yeah, it is a high school. but the best players from all over, right?

There's kids from North Carolina. I think there's only four Memphis kids on the team. But it is a Nike team. And so what they are doing is they have a high school that they have partnered with, and that's where the kids go to high school. But it is, and I don't know how aware you are of this. And the reason it's becoming significant to me is because there's a team. I mean, they literally practice right down the street from me, okay?

It is the EYBL Scholastic League. Okay. And there are, I believe, 20 teams now in the league, in the country. Like you know that four of the kids got drafted off of that like Mount Bird team that had Cooper flag and all that crew, right? And so there are four kids that are the local kids and then there's kids from all over and they're playing. and they basically go and play a 35 game schedule, but they play all the best schools from around the country. Like it's a Nike league,

and they play all these best schools from around the country. And the reason that this is significant to me is because it's another team that is added to that league. I am seeing it, like, I will give you an example. There's like a seven-footer from New Orleans on the team. There's a Mo Williams kid is the point guard. There's all kinds of kids that are on this team. They're all mostly like four and five-star kids.

But the reason that this is surprising to me is because I think what we're seeing now is we have seen Collegian Athletics change massively with NIL. Okay. Like there are different players on teams every single year, the transfer rules, the NIL and what these guys are all getting paid. One of the things that is sneaky happening, and I think this signals, which I don't know, there's always been some kids like the Cooper flags of the world that go in Maine. they don't end up playing for their high school, they go to these like prep schools, right? Maybe they go to IMG, maybe they go to Mount Verde.

You know, even back in the day, Carmelo, Carmelo Anthony, Brandon Jennings and Cam Thomas and all. But that was like, there weren't that many, right?

Like I, I see this and I wonder, am I going to look up in 10 years, five years, and nobody is playing for high schools anymore? Like, their own high school, right?

Yeah, yeah. is nobody playing for their own high school anymore because I'm seeing it now. Like, I mean, this has been, this is a hotbed market for basketball. So for the kids, the best kids, right, they're all playing for this team. And then there's kids from all around the region, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, whatever, right? And all these kids.

And so it used to be like there were some kids that went to a prep school, right? and you would see the, but I really do wonder, right, on the level, and this has already been happening, but now I see it and it hits close to home. Like, are we ever, like, is this just the, like, we've already seen college basketball changed so dramatically and the haves and the have-nots. Now it feels like nobody's even going to play high school basketball anymore. It feels like, for their actual high school. If you play.

All the best players are going to be in this league playing against the. other and then there's going to be little Tommy playing for his high school team. But that's it. If you are playing for the high school that you are zoned to play for, that means you're not that good. That's where we're going to be. That's where we're going to be. I don't love that.

If you are playing for your hometown high school, you must not be that good. Because if you were good enough, you would have been plucked by one of these schools that you're mentioned. It's basically a minor league for basketball. Yes. Right? you know what I'm saying? But it's even starting earlier. And then what happens if it infiltrates football?

And then they just start making, you know what I mean? Like it's not as widespread now, right? Kids still play for their high school football team in a way. But I just find it super fascinating that we may look up in 10 years and no one played high school basketball for their high school team. They all played in this EYBL scholastically. And that's really all the half. If you look at the first round of the draft, they will all those players will not play.

for their hometown high school, all of them. Yes. That's exactly where we're heading. Do you care? I wish it wasn't that way, but I understand why it is, and I'm not going to swim against that stream. You know what I mean? I get it why it is this way,

and if it's hard to say, like, if my kid. Maybe it will produce, maybe it will produce even better because, look, they do this with, like, soccer clubs in overseas. Like, we sit there and we go, why are they so good at soccer? And it's like, well, that's because, you know, Luis Suarez was somewhere, like, he left this country in 14 or whatever.

You're 10 years old. You're playing for like, man, you. You know what I mean? You're like on Arsenal when you're 11. You know what I mean? So it's just like, sure. And so it's like, I, but I'm saying,

I understand why it's this way. I like, I like the idea that like some kid in Schaubuygan is scoring 50 points a game. And he ends up going to Syracuse and then he gets strapped in the first. round. That's more fun. But if that kid in Sheboygan was scoring 50 points a game in his sophomore year,

then this school in Memphis is going to fly him to Memphis, and he'll be on that team as junior year. I mean, they basically have just taken AAU and says, okay, it's not just a summer thing. This is an all-year thing. And so all the best players

are going to be playing against all the best players throughout the year. But there's 20 teams or whatever, right? And then, so if you're if you go to some high school and all of a sudden it's like oh so and so right like he's the next big thing at the high school like he's not the next big thing at the high school because he's going to end up getting right plucked by one of these and he's going to be playing basically aAU basketball all year round yes but at least it also forms them a team you know that's one of the things is like they just kind of pick players here and there throughout the summer like i do think that has been one of the downfalls of things is that like, you know, you go to the summer and now you play this huge summer circuit and then you might have this player this week and this player this week and right, not necessarily building a team, having practices, whatever.

And so I do see the benefits of this. I just lament the fact that like we're going to look up and there's no awesome kid that's playing high school basketball anymore. Well, there is. I mean, they are, but they're playing against a bunch of other. I will say this. There will always be the like the Steph Currys that went to Davidson and the Jama rants. There will always be the late bloomers that weren't plucked when they were 14, 15,

and those ones, they'll still happen and they'll be just as much fun to root for because of that. You know what I mean? Like the idea that Steph didn't have like college offers and he's like one of the best, you know, 10 best players to ever play the game is like those stories are so much fun. So there'll still be a little bit of that. They'll make it fun to root for. What do you got? The best off-season entertainment or the off-season entertainment that you have enjoyed the most, right?

There ends up inevitably throughout these summer months as we head into early fall. Football started back, so that's going to take up a lot of television time. But there's a lot of time to be able to watch shows, documentaries, movies, etc. The ones that you enjoyed the most over the course of the last couple of months in the absence of basketball. Okay. I've got a few here. Start every Sunday, my phone used to tell me how much screen time I was using. every day and it started to get me really depressed.

So I started reading a lot more like actual physical books. I read a great book this summer called The Will of the Many. I like fantasy books. Okay. So there's one called The Will of the Many is the book offseason that I loved. The... What, are you going to tell me what it's about? No.

No. No. No. The Will of the Many. The title's a little weird, but it's a good book. I love, and this is because I have kids. If I didn't have kids, I would still watch this show religiously. I love Wednesday on Netflix.

Oh. I love it. I absolutely love it. I watch the first season twice. I can watch every episode twice. The world that they've built and the character Wednesday and Jenny Ortega's performance, it is one of my favorite shows out. I love that show.

I do have like a 12 year old son and two nine-year-old daughters, so it's like right in the wheelhouse for them. And that shared experience is one of the reasons that I do love it. But I love that show. It's visually, it's Tim Burton. So it's like every frame is like a, like a Renaissance painting. It's such a great show. Oh, I need to watch this with my daughter.

I would love this show. Start with season one episode one. Dude, you'll watch season one episode one. I dare you to not watch episode two of me in the afterwards. I dare. I love that show.

And also, I have to, I have to, one of the things that I love is, is those stupid documentaries. Like this, I've watched the Karen Reed thing. I watched every second of every Karen Reed thing.

Unknown number that recent one. Don't tell me. I haven't watched yet. No number. Poop Cruz, dude. Poop Cruise was a, oh, poop Cruz was a,

was a, it was just an amazing, an amazing hour of television that I just, I was just glued to poop crews. Amy Bradley is missing. I watched that one. About the lady. She fell off the cruise.

She fell off the cruise, dude. You don't think she's still alive. It's not. It's, what do you think happened? What do you think happened? They say they saw her. These people say they saw her.

No. There's a lot of people that look like that. She would have called home. She was hammered. It's 5.30 in the morning and fell off the boat. It's that simple. They were trying to blame the basis of the. band. Remember the bass's the base's daughter? The base's daughter is like, I saw him,

I saw him with a bunch of pictures of white women like, okay. That doesn't mean he killed a girl. You know, like, what are we talking about? What was his name? Bubbles, yellow. What was his name? I can't remember. I don't remember either. I love those docs, man. I love those docs. I just can't, I can't get enough. If there's a murder, I'm watching. If there's an unsolved crime, I'm watching. Like just, I just keep them coming. So you think Amy Bradley is missing and she's just going to be missing forever. Yeah. Yeah, of course.

It's not complicated. She was hammered and fell off the boat. That's the same thing with the Karen Reed story. It's like the, you know what it is? Hey, should I watch these 12 hours of documentary about Karen Reed? Let me sum it up for you. She's hammered. That's what happened.

She was absolutely hammered and ran over her boyfriend. That's what happened. Is that simple? All right. Next question. What about you? What did you been watching? What did you been watching besides Poop Cruz?

I watched the Cowboys. Obviously, I'm a Cowboys fan. Oh, yeah, I saw that too. I love it. The Cowboys died. I watched the Amy Bradley thing. I watched, oh, I went back and watched the,

I was super fascinated by this. There was an old HBO when I saw some Instagram video at some point and they were like, you got a, here's one that many people didn't watch, but you need to go back and watch and I was like,

I don't know, a lot of people didn't watch it. What's the guy's, the guy that was a real estate thing in New York. It's HBO. His whole family owns a bunch of real estate in New York. No, no, no. A bunch of real estate in New York.

And the guy had like three different people that have ended up dead. Oh, I didn't see this. Oh, yeah, yeah, three different people that have ended up dead, including his wife. It's on, it's called The Something on HBO. It's an old documentary. You don't know what I'm talking. about uh the guy that he admitted himself he confessed in the bathroom when he was miced up yes

yeah yeah i forgot what that was called what is that oh that one's so good the jinks oh that's so good that is so good yeah i watch the jinks listen it's someone who works in television it's so easy to forget that you're miced up it's so it's it's ruined so many careers that you just forget you have a mic on and you say something stupid i watch the jinks oh the jinks is really good the jigs you know I mean, I don't want to go on and on about this. You know what else I saw? I like to go into movies not knowing a thing. Like, I like not knowing a thing besides the title.

And I saw, me and my son saw weapons. You heard about this one? Oh, yes, I have heard about it, but I have not watched it. Good movie. Yeah? You liked it. Good movie. I'm not going to say anything about it because I went into it knowing nothing.

You will not regret going to what see weapons. I have not been, I don't think I went to the movie theater. this summer. What do you do? You parent your children? I take my kids at every single movie that comes out. My son saw Superman. I asked him if he wanted to go.

And he said, I'm going with my friends. Oh, I see everything. I see everything. I see every movie. And I didn't go to the kids movie one that my wife and daughter went to. Fantastic.

No. No, they went to Jamie, the Freakier Friday. I didn't go to that. That was for the girls. I skipped that one. girls did that one.

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I didn't, I don't think I've been, but I have never, I don't know if I've ever been more excited for a movie than the rock put out the new trailer for this. Oh, that was a punishing machine, the smashing machine. Yeah. Dude, the new trailer, I watched it this morning and I like, I got emotional watching. Here's what I can't stand. It got a 15-minute standing ovation at Venice School Festival. 15 minutes is a long time to clap. If I'm clapping for 15 seconds, I'm out. 15 minutes of clapping,

I'm calling bullshit on that. No one's ever received a 15 minute standing ovation for anything ever. You can literally cure cancer after 90 seconds of clapping. I'm like, I'm good. Good job. The reason I believe it is because this, the reason I believe it is because this morning, I watched the new trailer and they use a fil-

Collins in the background as the music. And I'm getting emotional just watching the trailer. I'm like, oh my God, I almost gave the trailer a seven and a half minute. No. Yes, I did. I challenged you to clap for 15 minutes in a row and stand. Someone could say, I'll give you $100,000 cash. $100,000 cash in this double bag.

After 14 minutes of clapping, I'd be like, you know what? My life was five before the $100,000. I will tell you, I almost did it for the trailer. So I believe it. You could never, you could never stand in class. for 15 minutes. You could not do it. No one's ever done that. Seriously.

I'm eye for this one. It looks awesome. And that Phil Collins music in the background got me super emotional. All right. Next was the studio. Studio. Studio. No. No.

What was the band? Phil Collins was in? Genesis. There you go. All right. Here we go. Next one. This one's for me. what is something small that really bothers you about the NBA? It's just like a nitpick. Not like, oh, they shoot too many threes.

Like a little something, something. Okay, so the first thing that comes to my mind is not small, so that's not fair. That is the replay thing. I mean, you know that pisses me off to know it. I hate it. Okay, I'll give you one small, and I've actually come around on this

because I used to roll my eyes. My longtime producer, John Rosa, who you know in Memphis, has been bitching about this for the last 20 years, and I used to always roll my eyes at it, but now as I have gotten older, maybe he just became an old soul before me. It's the game's not starting on time.

Oh. It has now gotten annoying to me because I have watched so many different sports where if the game's at seven, the game is at seven. 712. The idea that it's 712, 714. And then we also do the. pushbacks on everything too, which is going to be an absolute nightmare when these games are starting at 11 o'clock Eastern.

What are doing? I mean, the game times, it dry, it does. It's now because of all the pushbacks too. So not only do you have games don't start when they're supposed to start, like just start the game. Like I do, I've now gotten to that age and that is something small. I want the game to I want to tune into the game and the game starts

right and the game starts that's fair I want to tip off like movie times like you can't be late to a movie now it's impossible why can't we just or you know what

you know what they do it when we were there in New York like at Broadway shows well if you're not in there you're not in there you're not no yeah if you're late the door's closed you're waiting you are waiting you are waiting

you are waiting. And you can't just go to your seat in the middle. No. They'll not let you. No. So why don't we just roll it back and start the whole whatever, like all that in-game and pyro and intros and whatever? Start those little early. Yeah.

I mean, or just speed them up. Like the game's starting, you know, like this rolling time of game starts. That is something small that does irritate me now. It does. and especially because games are like games last forever. Games last forever. With the replays and everything and the timeouts and all the stuff. It got so bad two years ago that they stopped calling fouls the second half of the season.

Yeah. They had a meeting. There were games with like one free throw. I think baseball has done a great job of solving that problem. Baseball's done a great job. Baseball is like, we have a problem. The games are doing long. fix it. They fixed it. Right. Yes.

Follow suit. Yes. So that's what I would say. I would say the game's starting, the rolling clock, the fact that the game is supposed to start at this time, but it never starts at that time. It's annoying. Do you care at all about the new All-Star format they announced?

Yes. Oh. I care. You do. Because it's because you hate it? I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Here's, so one of the things about me is I don't have a problem with the All-Star game. Like, even when everyone said they needed to fix it, it's not competitive, this, and that, I'm like, I don't tune into this to watch the NBA finals. Oh, it was better in the 90s. Yeah, I was better in the 90s. They used to care.

They would try really hard in the last five minutes of the game. But I don't, I want it. Here's, let me just say this. Just make one game, maybe one game. The three team's thing with two teams. Nause. And the thing is, they're like, oh, well, this time, it's going to be two teams that USA players and one team is the world players. Do you know what I did? I made the mistake to look at last year's teams when they had three teams.

It was already that format. I don't know if you remember this, but Team Chuck had Yokic and Tatecoupo, SGA, Wembenyama, Siakum Sangoon, Towns, and Mitchell. You could make a case that Mitchell is the only true American. representative on the team. It reeks of, oh, the NHL played with a bunch of world guys, you know what I mean? I like USA versus the world, but make it

one game with two teams. Why do we need three teams in a round robin style tournament? Once I have to think, once I have to think about it, like, oh, well, team A is going to play team B, and then they play team C, and then team B and C play, and then whoever gets out of the group stage is going to play in the finals. I just think, look, I just play a game. The thing with the NHL was people took

pride as they were representing their country. No. Do you think Luca Dodgich or Janus takes pride in the world? In representing non-USA? Yeah. Yeah. No. I don't mind if it's just dude shooting threes and throwing alley-ups for 48 minutes.

That's fine with me. I don't need it to be super competitive. If it happens to be close in the fourth quarter, cool. Then it'll get good. And you know, I've told you 100,000 times, it's like, bro, just make it east and west. Stop trying to figure out how to make people care, right? You can't keep changing the format. Your problem is not the format.

Your problem is that nobody cares and take it seriously. So then the question is how, and so some dumb ass sat there and went, well, how could we make them care? I don't know. How about we, you know, these guys from the world around. really going to take pride in the world is better than the United States. Okay. Like, here's the deal.

Put the money up and they will care. Do you see the thing where Kevin Durant said he would play in a one-on-one for a million dollars? Why don't we do that? Can we do that? A $10 million one-on-one tournament? I'll, I'll, look, I have $1,000. It's literally

the only reason. That would be so fun to watch. You have gotten, if there is a lesson of while your fans don't particularly care while the world doesn't typically care, the players do care about the in-season tournament. So how did you pull that off? One way. Money.

One way. Put the money up. They're the only ones that care about that thing is players. Seriously. And so I have a 12-year-old son who's not like a big sports fan. He's just not his thing. He likes planes. Imagine I'm trying to get him to watch the All-Star game, and I say to him, hey, Quincy,

well, there's two teams that are American-based players, and there's one team which is non-American players. They're all going to play each other in a round-robin-style tournament. And then the best two teams with the best records, if they're tied, point differential, he's already out of the room. He's already gone. He's gone. He's not even listening anymore.

He's literally gotten up off the couch and walked out of the room before I'm even done, explain. the stupid tournament. What are we doing? What's wrong with having one game? I don't care if they're just shooting threes and throwing alley-ups. That's fine. Remember what you kill O'Neill? Like, what do you do? Put it between someone's legs and then got al-Upe? That's fun for me. That's awesome. You know what I mean? I don't need this. It's not hard. Just go east-west again. Just go back to that. And every four years we'll get a competitor. It'll be close at the end. And you know what's fun, watching somebody try to be the MVP. I like that. I like when somebody hits that first three-threes,

and the whole team decides they're going to try to feed them the ball to get the MVP. I like that. Also, just make it for $3 million. One-on-one tournament for $10 million. No, no. And let them split the money. I promise you they'll care. Yes.

They always care. This is not hard. No. This is not hard. In fact, you can get a sponsor to put up the money. They'll do it. They'll do it. Yeah.

Qatar Airlines. They'll do it. All right, last one. What are your biggest takeaways from week one in the NFL? Great week of football. Great weekend of football. Look, and I think that this was, this is relevant when we were watching last night. I mean, look, I watched Red Zone all day, and I watched these night games that have taken place both Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday.

It was great. That Bill's Ravens thing. loved it. And how truly unbelievable both of those teams are is just, that is what I am left with. I am left with how did we get that unbelievable of a game in week one? How is Derek Henry still an absolute machine? And then you get like both guys in Lamar and John.

which was the MVP debate last year like both of those guys delivering like this would be honestly like if we had the first game of the NBA season and Luca had 58 and yonis had 57 triple overtime and somebody won on a game winning shot yeah yeah yeah it's like how was how was this this good like that game was that it ever. everything else pale than comparison to that so much so that that's what I was left thinking about the most. And I just can't believe that that happened in week one. It was so good. Like if they put that on like NFL network this morning and it was on like I would leave it on the TV, but like this is awesome. I can't believe how good that game was. I still, it's two days

later and I can't believe how good that was. And the way it all played out, and Henry fumbling and them coming back and winning. It's just crazy. And the kick to win when the bills have so many kicks to lose. I loved it. That by far. And the other thing is it was so much better than everything else I watched. There was not a game that was even close to that.

Not even close. Well, not even close. I was driving back from Western Massachusetts with my kids in the car. Oh, I tell you this. No, Steelers Jets actually was infinitely better than I thought it was going to be.

I thought that Balkans Bucks was good. Steelers Jets was great. But when I was driving back and I had Red Zone on my phone and my headphones in, obviously I'm driving, so I'm not watching, but I'm listening. It was Red Zone. And when it happened,

I almost wanted to cry. They play that music, and it's the witching hour. Oh, yeah. Wins become losses and losses become wins. When that happened and who, they were like, we got four games, you know, we've got five games within one possession and four of the teams that are down by one possession, have the ball. I just wanted to cry. I was like, this is, this is Sunday in America.

It made me so happy. It made me so happy. Also, look, I got to give a shout at it because it's fresh in our mind. the J.J. McCarthy like turning it completely around last night. 21 points in the fourth quarter. I mean, it looked so bad and that pick was so horrendous. And then he nutted up, man.

All right, J.J.J. McCarthy. Like, he looked like a different, like, who did they insert in the second half of this game? It's weird. Stunk in the first half. Yes. My entire timeline was memes of sad. Justin Jefferson realizing that this is his life now and like all this crap. And then like the guy, it was like he turned up a notch and turned into a hall of favor in the second half.

That was kind of cool. There was nothing about him in Michigan where I was like, this guy is going to be a great NFL quarterback. But at some point, you have to be like, I guess all he does is win. Yeah. It's like, I guess I guess so. Yeah, I mean, that was, it was just you can't have a guy look like he did. and then look like he did. Like that is just so, and especially because it's all first impression stuff.

So everybody's first impression was, oh, my God, what have they done? This guy stinks. They've turned the keys of the, you know, they turn the keys to the car over to, like, this is what they're going to rest their fate on, is this rookie quarterback? And then if you would have just watched the second half, you'd have been like, this guy is awesome. Then there's got to be a part of you because I'm a mentally weak athlete. Like if I miss my first four shots, I just like stop shooting and I go into a shell. Imagine being him and your first start in the NFL, week one, Monday night football, and you suck.

And then you go into halftime and you're like, don't worry, guys, I got this. Like, shout to him. I could never do that. I could never. I made some big throws, put his head that ran to the end zone. I was like, oh my God. This is shocking. Absolutely shocking to watch it unfold.

So anyways, yeah. But Ravens bills. I mean, I can't get over it. I can't get over it. I need to see that in the AFC. In the AFC championship game. I can't see it. I can't believe that that was the first game of the season.

So good. So good. I think you also can't breeze over the Jet Steelers game either. Oh, that's great. Like, that was fantastic. Especially because of the drama of the fields against his team, Rogers against his team. theme. It's fun to watch.

I was, I might have, like, my Fandual app was like, bro, like, are you okay? You know what it does that? Does the reality check thing? It's like, are you, are you okay? That's what I switch apps. You just go to somebody.

Like, I want somebody that's not going to be rape me. Shout to my Fandual app. I was burning that thing this weekend. All right. That's going to do it for today. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez as always and Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week.