The Mismatch - NBA Summer Storylines: A Motivated Luka, Ja’s Joy, and Is LeBron Really Planning for 2026?

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

Verno and Jacoby discuss the new-look Luka Doncic that is featured in the latest edition of Men’s Health magazine. They debate what kind of impact a healthier Luka will make on the Lakers, the topics were not discussed in the article, as well as his surprise appearance at a Yankees game. Next, they take a deep dive on Nikola Jokic’s agent's cryptic photo with LeBron James and Maverick Carter, Verno explains why he expects a big bounce-back season from Ja Morant, and they debate where the remaining restricted free agents could possibly land. After, they discuss Billy Donovan’s contract extension with the Bulls, the anonymous Nets executive who says Michael Porter Jr. could lead the league in scoring next season, and Verno shares his experience staying at Jacoby’s apartment when he visited New York. (0:00) Welcome to The Mismatch!(2:15) Luka Dončić 2.0 Has Entered the Chat(17:40) Reaction to Jokic's Winning Horse(18:35) Breaking: Jokic's Brother is the GM of KK Joker(23:40) Reaction to Jokic's Winning Horse(25:40) LeBron and Maverick Carter's Yacht Meeting(33:15) Ja Morant's Nike World Tour(41:20) Restricted Free Agents Still Unsigned(50:05) Billy Donovan's Extension(54:00) MPJ "Might lead league in scoring" - Nets Executive(56:15) LaMelo Hot Cheeto Feet(58:50) Tyrese Haliburton's Proposal at Iowa St.(1:01:30) Verno's NYC Trip(1:24:05) Thanks for Watching! Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David JacobyProducers: Jessie Lopez and Tucker TashjianSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatchup, Chris Vernon. And joining me see us every Monday night from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. All I want to hear about is what your New York City experience was like. That's all I care about. I know it's at the end of the pod, but it's all I want to talk about. We will do it at the end of the pod. But I will tell you at the very beginning of this pod that this was a trip,

unlike any other, I had been to New York before. outside of when I was a kid and like I grew up in Brewster until I was eight years old. And so that was like, that's kind of like towards white plains. It's the suburbs. I had never been to New York and not stayed in a hotel. And so the fact that we stayed at your home, you're in New York for, I really, I lived in New York for three days. And that was a, and that was a, enough. We'll get to it. We'll get to it.

It's quiet. It's calm. People smiled at me today. It was like it's a wonderful life or something that I came back to in the southern part of the United States. Wait, you're safe in Memphis? So it seems, at least for today. I will say this. No one has yelled at me.

Well, they'll tell certain sports personalities that. you're safe in Memphis. I understand. We've got a bunch of stories to get to because while this is the off season, over the course of this last week, since we last talk, there have been at least 10 things that we have texted each other that we want

to talk about. And they run the gamut from like the most potentially earth-shakingly changing, this is a huge deal to like tattoos. The goofiest things possible. Right. So we are going to start. We're going to go through 10 things that have stood out to us over the course of the past week since we last spoke.

The first of which, and I just happened before we are recording this, I was scrolling through just to see if I had missed anything that it happened this evening. And on my feed pops up Michael K. in my beloved New York at the Yankees game in the booth with Luca Dodger I didn't think it was real was it real is it real?

It's real! I watched it and I was like I didn't even think I said it to you I was like I don't know if this is real or not no no no there's a video of it and then there's a video of Luca Donchich before the game with Aaron Judge and he is saying

I can't but like this basically they're having a conversation about how big judge is and Luca said I think he could play power forward then they get into the conversation to catch people if don't follow baseball Michael Kay is the announcement for the Yankees and Luca apparently was in the Bronx and

went into the booth I just saw a clip of this on my phone I did not I was like I think this is real I don't know if I said it to you I was like I don't think this is I don't think this is real I can't go to air with this because this might not have happened it happened I watched the video of him in the booth

and Michael K says to him, hey, the Dallas Mavericks, a lot was said about you being out of shape or whatever. And I'm paraphrasing, but it's basically, do you think they saw the men's health? Do we need to send them an issue? And Luca says, I'm pretty sure they've seen it. And so number one is obviously Sveld Luca, which is the most predictable thing in the world. we knew that Luca Dodgich, we thought it would be because he moved to Los Angeles, right?

And so he starts eating better. He starts, you know, the sunlight. It's just a healthier lifestyle, right? The other thing is, and this is the more important, as you know, as I know, as anybody that is at the advanced stage that we are knows, there is nothing like a breakup to motivate. Do you know, sometimes you see one of your friends post on Instagram, you're like that post was for an audience of one.

Like there's only one person that they want to see that post. This article was for an audience of one. Of one. Nico Harris. Yes. And so there he is on the Yankees broadcast talking about how I'm sure they've seen it. And of course, you can see him like this is this is one of those that was super interesting because article comes out, the cover of the magazine comes out, everybody, like my whole timeline

is like, look at this, they've got the pictures from inside it. The title of the article is Luca Donchich 2.0 has entered the chat. It talks about him and his diet and what he's been eating and these two days where he's been training and all manner of training and these resistant bands or whatever. And then they evidently, I don't know, saw this morning, our buddy Nick Wright, went off on a thing saying that the 42-inch vertical that is showed that says in the article that that's like from AI and the reporter just got that all wrong. Oh, Bruno. Let me tell you something. I take this podcast very seriously. Yeah. And I might have had some time to prep today because I'm away from my family. I did something that most people

don't do. I read every word of the article. I read every word of the article. And I've got some highlights. One of my favorites is it's at the end of it in parentheses. An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated that Don just recorded a 42-inch vertical leap at the 2018 NBA scouting combine. He, in fact, did not participate in the 2018 NBA scouting confine. And anyone who knows anything about a vertical leap, if Luca had a 42-inch vertical leap, we would have seen it by now. Because that dude could barely jump over a phone book.

and it's still a top five player in the NBA, but continue, because I've got some more quotes from the article I've picked out. Okay, and so the article, so here is my original point. My original point is you see the cover of the article, you see the pictures, and it's like, wow,

do you think his arms really look like that, or do you think this is like Photoshop? Do you think this is face-tuned or whatever you could do to these pictures to make them look amazing? And so I was very interested in seeing him sitting in the booth next to Michael Kay. And I will tell you, he looks incredibly skinny sitting there in the booth.

I was like, all right, it's not, it wasn't photo trickery, right? He's overseas and it's a cover of men's health, which you don't know when it was shot and whatever else. But like, I saw him on TV tonight. The guy has lost an inordinate amount of weight. This, I have a lot of thoughts about this article. You and I are both sort of like media veterans. this is normally like a GQ profile done by my guy, Zach Barry, right?

Like this is normally a GQ. I'm trying to think of another publication. This is No, Sports Illustrated, but the fact that it's in men's health tells you everything you need to know. And the fact that men's health gets this article tells you that Lucas teams controlling everything about this article. The three men that are training him are mentioned like every paragraph. paragraph. This is basically written by Lucas team. The pictures

he's got Air Jordans all over him. The Slovenian team logo all over him. This is a very orchestrated attack on the sort of like MBA consciousness about what great shape he's in. And just listen to some of the

wording that is using this. Since June, Donjich has gone on an intermittent fasting plan designed to limit inflammation and help his body recover better. Six days a week. He chokes down two high protein meals and one protein shake. He doesn't have that first meal until he's crushed his 90-minute morning workout. By the way, it also mentions the shake is made with almond milk. Yeah, yeah. It's very specific.

Also, like, chokes down to high-protein meals, I'm sure they're delicious. You know what I mean? and it crushed his 90-minute workout. Like, okay. It's ridiculous. This whole thing. By the way, he is a professional athlete. His job is to be in shape. Yeah.

But what happens is it all gets to still down to the Instagram post or the TikTok post where you see the pictures and you see the poll quotes and you're like, oh my God, Luca Donge is in the shape of his life. But this thing is a press force. It's not like an in-depth. profile of an athlete. It is a rest release. I was at least impressed

that the writer was able to sneak in there how he likes to imbibing in, you know, beer and hookah. Well, that was, no, he quoted The Mavericks as saying that. Oh, oh, okay, okay. But I also like the six days a week thing.

I'm like, what about the seventh day? Like, what's he doing that seventh day? Yeah. What's he doing that seven day? I've got some more for you just from the article. he remembers seeing Mavs legend Dirk Nowitzky, then in his final season in Dallas, training hard. Donchers also saw the same qualities from two players he's long admired, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, both of whom were known for their maniacal off-season training regimens and the dominance late in their careers.

Quote, MJ and Kobe, you know, they really did a lot in their careers. He says, they sacrificed a lot. Is there a name missing from that list of players, veteran players? that he admires their training regimens and what they've done through the, is there anyone that comes to mind, Barneau? Is there any name that comes to mind? That he shared a locker room with? Maybe.

Who famously spends a million dollars on his body every year, which I think is $900,000 worth of hair implants and $100,000 worth of working out. But sure, whatever. I will say this. Reading that article and then seeing those pictures, It was just you knew this was coming. I didn't need the article to explain it all. We knew that Lugidajic was going to end up being in the best shape of his life.

At some point, he was going to decide, okay, and a lot of times it is a little bit later. As we've mentioned, I don't know the reasoning, but as I've told you many times, like 26, 27, when these guys get to their upper 20s start to grow up a little more. They have different priorities, right? They've sewed their wild oats, whatever the case may be. Or they just decide at some point like, hey, I am going to be the absolute best version of myself. Here is what I want to know from you. Do you think this happens? If I am Nico Harrison, you know this is going to happen, right?

You know if you trade him and he goes to L.A., he's going to get in the greatest shape of his life. You know this is going to happen. Do you think that there is, that they would say, yeah, and that never would have happened here? You don't think we tried. You don't think we, you don't think we encouraged. You don't think Michael Finley was literally, you know, protein shake around him before. Yeah. You don't, you know, you don't think that like we couldn't get him to.

That was the whole thing. The whole thing was that we couldn't get him to. And that's why we didn't want to commit to this franchise being built around this guy. And so, yeah, you can say that we, and again, I'm not saying I agree. I'm saying this is what it would be like if you were out to dinner with this guy. A couple things. A couple things. And first of all, address this article.

The questions I want to know, the questions I want answered from Luca Donchich right now this summer, aren't about when he either. and what his workouts are like and whether he does Romanian deadlifts and what his delts look like. I've read this article. It's all about men's health stuff, which is why they went to men's health. I want to know what it's like

supplanting LeBron James as the sort of go-to offensive engine on the team. I want to know what it's like being a top five player and being traded in the dark of night. Like I want to know sort of like, I don't care physically what he's going through.

I want to know psychologically, mentally what he's going through. that's the profile I want to read about Luca Donchish. And obviously they're not going to give us that. They give us this fluff. This is fluff. This is what his, this is very like Instagram influencer.

This is what you need to eat. This is what you need to do. I care so much more about so much more things about his life than what his workouts and his meals are like. But fine. They give us what they want us to have. But. And we've got to pause on the,

in inordinate celebration of him getting in the best shape of his life when like that's kind of what the money's for as they say yeah the reason the reason that you and i know that people say look it doesn't matter if he's in shape now what matters is what does he look like in february and january and whatever else and i will just say this and and i know that you will feel the same once you're when you're in your 20s and you do get in the best shape of your life, you love the way you feel and you love the way you look. And it motivates you to keep that going. I do think I am one that thinks it will be a change and he will stay this way

and he will stay the best version of himself and that the Lakers are going to build this thing around him and that he'll probably be the best player in the world. I think it was this article actually mentioned Chris Paul, Shaquille O'Neal and Yokic. I think it was this article. I might be misremembering as like, hey, man, you can be a dominant NBA player and not look like a Greek God with your shirt off. And to me, like, I don't care whether he's got ripped triceps or whether he looks skinny.

Right. I care what he plays like. You know what I mean? because I saw him looking kind of doughy and take his team to the finals and putting up 40 to 19 and 20. Like I was like, that's fine. Like I don't care if you're skinny. Maybe that makes you more susceptible to injury. I don't know, but like just be healthy and play well.

That's what I care about. I don't really care about your workout or your protein shakes or your intermittent fasting. I want to see you perform in the basketball court. And I'm going to say it again, like I care so much about what it was like when he got traded on that day. and it was not covered in the article. What was it like putting on that uniform, not covered in the article? What is it like being in the locker room?

What is your relationship with LeBron James? What do you think about LeBron James sort of putting pressure on the Lakers to be good now? None of that was addressed in the article, and that's why it was in men's health. You know? That's why I wasn't in the Times or the Washington Journal, or GQ, or someone where they answered the real questions

and do like real interviewing and profile. He is going to be absolutely amazing, though. He will. okay where do you see the lakers finishing the season everyone's healthy i i mean i think they could for sure be a home court advantage team they're very much a high ceiling low floor team yeah yeah like it's someone's this is not a very popular answer when you're like a you know speaking to microphones for a living i don't know i don't know i don't know what the lakers are going to be this year i don't know could be lucca lebron figured out and they're amazing they and they win i mean i just think

Fifty-five games. I don't know. He's one of those guys that if he stays healthy, your team's never being bad. If he's chip on his shoulder, pissed off, I'm going to show my ex-girlfriend who I am now, Luca. That alone is like 45 wins. And then LeBron on top of that.

And he throws lobs to Aiton. I mean, you can see it. They were the three-seed last year, bro. Yeah. They were the three-seed. So it's not. stands to reason. Sell me on La Ravia.

Sell me La Ravia. Sell me La Ravia. Oh, for goodness sakes. He'll be playing behind Marcus Smart now. All right. Not a great sell. It's good to go to number two.

What's you want to take off that man, Fitzchristis's uniform? Furlow just loses the love. I mean, it wasn't like I was Mr. Loravia when he was here. No. I don't think he was mentioned on this podcast over from my year. All right.

Uh, Number two, Nicola Yokic on Cloud 9 with a horse win. I mean, this one hit the internet light, I mean, with all the flame emojis. Because what happened was everybody's showing the video of him popping champagne after the Nuggets won the title and seemed rather non-plus. Happy. And he's like, and then show him in Serbia. and he is spraying champagne on horses. Crying.

And crying. And everybody. By the way, oh, I can't believe I, I'm burying the leaf. I'm sorry. I promise you we will get back to the Yokic conversation. But I did get a Instagram message that I am just now remembering that I have to give to you. This is from Benjamin. No, I just, I will get to the Yokin.

Target guy? No. better, Yokic's brother. One of our listeners, what? Benjamin says, hey dude, I figured out why Strahinha.

Strahinha. Strahina. Yeah, yeah. I figured out why Strahina was at Summer League. He's the GM of Team Joker, a Serbian team. He was likely

scouting. They're in the second division of the ABA League. How many texts have we exchanged over the past 48 hours, Verno? Why is this coming up now? We built a whole rundown for the show. I'm sorry. Unaccepted. Unaccepted. I do not accept your

apology. I'm sorry. I'm looking at my phone and our text read, you've texted me the most dumbest shit in the world and you're bringing this up now in the middle of the show. You texted me like, oh, some guy shot up Midtown today. Like the algorithm didn't feed that to me. Like, I have no idea.

What are you talking about? No, I did it right when it happened to assure your safety. Oh, please. There's a madman running around New York with an AK. It's not funny. We can't joke about it. It's a game for a joke about it because people got hurt or whatever. But like, I got it.

This is huge news. Huge news. I just saw on the sheet that it says Yokic and a horse win and it dawned on me. Oh, my God. I haven't told him that this guy messaged me and gave us a reason. he was not stalking me out. He was not there doing dastardly deeds. There was a reason he would have been at the Grizzlies Clippers summer league game

after literally everybody has left the city of Las Vegas. This guy is a talent evaluator. Grinding. Grinding for Team Joker. He's finding players. Grinding, because we were wondering because Yolich was in China. Now it makes sense. Now it makes sense.

Yes. everybody has gone why would he be there it makes no sense his brother is spraying horses with champagne and crying and he's on day 10 in Vegas anyone who's been in Vegas knows that day 10 is not a good place it's not a good place for you unless you have a home I had a guy send me a picture he snapped the illicit picture

I got just some research on T-Joker real quick I have a guy that sent him me an illicit picture he took of him waiting for a cab in Vegas and he has on a shirt that says American made across it. No! Yes. Yes.

Amazing. KK. Joker is a men's basketball club in Sambor. There you go. Oh my God. They're currently competing at a top level basketball league of Serbia, ABA League's second division. The club takes his name from Serbia and three-time NBA

MVP Nikola Yogish named Joker. founded in 2002. Oh, they changed the name. Oh, my God. This is a real thing. He's working. There's a work trip. He's a GM.

I thought he was in love of the stripper. I just want to say, Straanya, however you say your name, I apologize, officially on record. I did not know this is a work trip. I did not know you're just grinding tape,

scouting prospects for KKJoker. Imagine contract negotiations with him. Do you think, Yokic would be, more excited if the Denver Nuggets or KK Joker won a championship beyond. I mean, his brother involved the KKKKK. Yeah. Probably KK.

Joker. Based on what we know. A horse doesn't even speak. Speak. And he's excited about it. Look, my apology should have been deeper. I totally. I apologize. I totally should. And the whole Yokic family and the KK. Joker franchise. No, no.

I mean to you because I totally buried this. Oh, yeah. This is ridiculous. But it's in a... You know what? Benjamin should co-host next week. It's an amazing revelation. It is. It's an amazing revelation. And it makes all the sense in the world now.

Listen, if we had like real producers, Jesse, I'm talking to you. You need to track KK. Joker's signings this offseason because I promise you. I promise you, someone from Summer League will be playing for KK. Joker. Imagine you get summoned to room 6342 at the win for a potential. business deal to play professional basketball. And you bring your agent. No, no, he summons you to his room. You bring your agent, knock on the door.

And there he is, looking like he looks. And he says, you play for KK Joker next to you. Are you negotiating with that, man? That's what I said. Negotiations would be. You don't negotiate with him. You're like, I guess I am. I guess if you call your girlfriend, I'm playing Serbian next to her.

She's like, why? I don't know. I just don't know. I guess here's our point. When people see it and they go, why is he so much happier about a horse winning than he is winning at NBA championship? The answer is because he likes horse racing more than basketball. And that's fine. That's okay. You know what? I developed, my reaction was kind of like, dude, like you're misguided.

And then I started watching it over and over again. I was like, this is just his passion. He's so happy. This is what he loves. Yes. This is what he loves. He just happens to be the best basketball player in the world by accident. He loves horses.

That's what he loves. That's what he loves. He was mad when they told him when the parade was because he was, it was like my work is done. Three more days away from my horses. It is like a nine to five and he just wants to go home and do what he wants to do. That's work. This is fun.

I did, like I said, I had a little time. I did a little research on his horses and his horse career. His favorite horse was named Dreamcatcher. And he named, I believe he named Stable after that horse. I saw a guy selling Dreamcatchers in the subway while I was at your house. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. He was like playing like a big wooden flute and selling Dreamcatchers. That's my guy.

I know him. The one that won this was named Demon Delist. I don't know what that means, but that was the name of this horse. But one thing I noticed about his celebration is he loves horses, but he celebrated with the human more than the horse at first. You saw that. For sure. He hops the fence. He goes to the human being, big hug, horse, just two pets.

Yeah. So he's a people person. He loves horses, but he, you know. He loves people. That's right. That was the second most Neely Yogic interesting thing to happen in the NBA over the last week.

Because number three is his agent posting on Instagram on what appears to be a yacht with LeBron James and Maverick Carter saying, I'm paraphrasing, in the summer of 2025, plans get made for the fall of 2026.

Yeah, I think it's a great time to make plans for the fall of 2020. 26. I have a lot of thoughts in this. Let me hear it. Do you remember the video that we spoke about when LeBron was at a sushi restaurant? He was talking about Savannah wants me to retire. I would look at New York. But it was like filmed from someone else's perspective

that it seemed like it was filmed without his consent, right? Which I frowned on. Yes. I don't think that an NBA agent would post a picture of himself, LeBron, and Mavv and captioned it. way without LeBron's consent.

Is that fair to say? Oh, no. That was a conversation of let's set the internet on fire. This did not blindside LeBron James. It would have been deleted. It would have been one text from Mav to MISCO that said, take that down, and it would have been deleted. Just like the pregnant LeBron memes.

We'll discuss that in a second, which is another very important news story. We don't have to. We don't have to. We know, look, whether it's dunks or memes, LeBron can get things deleted. So we know that this would have been LeBron memes. I haven't seen a single one. They're suing over this thing.

I didn't see a single one of them. I didn't even. I haven't even Googled it yet. But my point is, is this is an orchestrated attack. This is another LeBron James. Look at me. I'm going to capture the nude cycle.

I'm going to be one of the 20 topics they talk about in morning top television. This is not the sushi restaurant video, which was not orchestrated. This was orchestrated. and I don't know exactly why or what the motive was. Because he knew the men's health was about to come out. He's on the cover of the next men's health.

LeBron James, five workouts a day. And then he says he always looked up to Kobe and Michael. Yeah. But I found this, I found this like actually interesting. Or he says, my favorite teammates I've ever played with are Kyrie and AD. Oh, yeah. No, the best teammates have ever played with. Best team minutes have ever played with.

Verrajao. I did a little research on this one too. All right. Essentially, I looked at his client list. I believe it's his all-time client list because there's not a lot of current NBA players involved. All right. But really what this is is he works for Excel,

which is sort of like a conglomerate agency that has a lot of players. I think that he's sort of like the European guy that has Excel connections. Because currently, and again, I'm not a journalist, I didn't spend an hour on this, but he has Topich, Yovic, and Jetty Osman.

Jerry Osmond is no longer in the league's playing there. Yeah, so it makes sense. Like, a guy like this gets those players. He is their agent, and then Excel brings him into their fold. This happens all the time. He is a European agent. Yeah, this happens all the time.

The big ones, I mean, you know, years ago here where I live in Memphis, the biggest college football sports agent by far amongst coaches was Jimmy Sexton. And Jimmy Sexton had this place, athletic resource management, which was his place, and they folded into CAA. So now they're all CAA guys. And this is the way it goes, right? I am an agent. I have these clients.

I end up folding into these big places. So you've just got the client. You've got the clients. And so they want the clients in the fold. And you have a bigger and better infrastructure by going with the big place. And so I'm sure that this guy, like he was going to have these players anyway. And so it's like, okay, we're not going to steal these players, right? But what we can do is we can fold in the.

agent into this company with us. And so that's probably, I would imagine. Do you think that Straanya will end up working for MISCO? Maybe. Or, I would say. Or Miesco ends up working for Stranya. I don't know if it's saying it's a name right. And I think everybody took this as, hey, you know, LeBron's got one more year in L.A.

Who knows where he ends his career? The other way to take this is Could There be some kind of Maverick Carter You know, Rich Paul deal with those guys You know what I'm saying? You could do the reverse Right?

Sort of like leave XL joy clutch Right Or you just don't know I mean that or But you know they knew how that would be taken And they knew everybody would talk about Most likely and again this is just this is not reporting anything. I'm just saying most likely

your boat is near my boat. We get word. I come over for lunch. Wouldn't it be funny if we posted a picture? That to me sounds like the most likely scenario. And I've guaranteed you. I don't see LeBron on the Nuggets. I don't see Yonka's jumping to clutch. I don't see them ever playing together ever. I just think it's like let's just do a funny thing and make the internet

talk about us and we'll get 10 minutes on the mismatch about it. But one thing I did, I did notice that I did, I'm glad. I googled this guy in his bio. Because I saw he had long shins. Long shins. He was a professional basketball player for many years. Miscoe Rosnadovich.

You spotted it. Oh, one of my favorite habits, and I'm going to tell you, I know you're a New Yorker now. One of my favorite habits in my entire life, and I encourage everyone else to do this, is to look at dudes in their 50s and 60s and tell yourself, that guy was a bucket. 30 years ago. That's one of my favorite things to do in life. I saw this one security guard and his hands were down to his knees and he was skinny and he walked on his tippy toes and he was in 60s and I was like, that dude could throw the ball off the backboard to himself and dunk in traffic. And now he's a security guard at the building that I'm entering. And I encourage everyone

listens to the mismatch to make that hobby of their own because it's brought me so much joy. in my life. And I, and I, and I, and Miscoe is no different. He's got a lot of, we've had a lot of happiness. We've got Luka, we've got Yokich, we've got LeBron and Maverick on a, on a yacht with Yokic's agent. We're breaking news that Strahani was it. He's called a GM. The Yokish brother is a GM of KK Joker who was scouting summer league harder than all NBA scouts out there. That's right. He was on the front row. Oh, we got breaking news. No one was grinding tape more than here. We got breaking news on the mismatch.

So it seems, I don't know what it is. What is it? No, I think it's a little late that we broke it. Yeah. I was saying Straanya. I don't know how to say it. The joke, the yoghers brother, the scary one. Yeah, don't offend them.

All right. Number four, John Morant's World Tour. So we've got the unbelievable John Morant dunk in China that they showed that went viral all over the internet. So he has launched the Jai 3, which is the best of the signature shoes that he has put out. But he has been in Augusta, Georgia. He has been in New York City at the Foot Locker on, I think, 14th Street for two days. He went to China. He is now heading to Tokyo.

And then he is going to Manila Philippines. And I will only say this. Obviously, everybody saw the dunk. And we know when healthy he is. Steph Curry just called him the best athlete in the entire NBA. His ability to Steph Curry called him the best athlete

in the NBA. He has been absolutely spectacular when he has played. But I'm just going to say this. On the bottom of the jaw threes, if you look at it, it says a happy jaw is a scary jaw. And I will say that this

Hold on. I'm looking at it right now. You know I have covered this. Are you sure it says that, buddy? Yes. It says it on the bottom. I'm looking at it right now. I mean, one of my co-hosts on my local show has the shoe. Has the shoe.

I mean, I've seen it in person. Yeah. He's got the New York edition. And so I will only say this. And we've obviously talked about it a lot, being of Memphis. John Morant went from unknown high school plays. to Murray State, to being the second pick in the draft, to being rookie of the year, to superstardom, Nike deal,

world of this feat, the whole thing. Year two was the happiest I have ever seen. I mean, you can't find a happier athlete. And ever since year three, it started, like, to me, it was always a story of fame. and this fame that overtook this kid because I saw, I know him, I saw the kid, I know what he was like. And then it all started going down the wrong path, whether it was the party and whether it was the Instagram stuff, whether it was all the off course stuff, all that stuff that took place. And then the injuries.

And he has been just so down and so despondent and so like, mopey you know what I mean like it's all too much he even talked about you know battling battling depression and dealing with it and all the things and I will say this summer tour that he has been on and people will see it all over if they follow NBA NBA stuff it's all over because he's on a Nike world tour this is by far the happiest I have seen him in four years four years easily and so if nothing else look everybody loves to tear somebody down and then for them to come back, right, from that to rise above all of their prior transgressions or whatever else.

And, you know, like, everybody's made all the jokes. Everybody's taking all the shots at him or whatever. And to see him now come out, we'll just say this. You never know. All indications are he's come out on the other side of this thing, right? All the problems, all the injuries, all the depression, all the everything. and looks like the guy that we saw the first two years when everybody in the NBA fell in love with that guy.

I don't know. I mean, I don't know what all has been going on throughout the last three years, right? On and off the court. But I will tell you, this looks like the guy that I covered for the first two years. Okay. When he was in the NBA. Allow me to speak for the majority, over 50% of people that are listening to this podcast. let me speak for them for a second.

Let me hear. The devil's advocate and say this. Yeah. What's up with the gun stuff and the grenade stuff? That was the last thing we saw of him. The grenade stuff happened in like, like, I don't know, end of the season. Right. Like, what are we doing?

What's that? All right. Have you been watching, I don't know if you've seen Ronald Ocuna, who actually is wearing John Morant shoes now? Every time he hits a home run, he's doing it. The grenade celebration is literally all over the world. now all over the world. And that was to be funny.

And anybody that doesn't find that funny can go to hell because that's funny. The grenade, dude, when you, when people make, make the biggest deal in the world out of finger guns when literally every player does it, they say, but it's different when you do it. I got it. Right. We're not talking about finger guns. When you then say, fine, I won't do finger guns. And when you hit a three, start throwing a grenade in the.

air and covering your ears. That is objectively funny. And I will speak for 99% of all non-internet troll idiots and say they love it. The internet's not real. And you know what? This whole summer has been a grand indication that the internet's not real. I even saw John Morant tweet tonight. His dunk from last year against the Celtics

was voted dunk of the year and he even tweeted they said I lost all my fans I thought my fans were gone Wasn't there some stat that he wasn't dunking anymore too? And he's going around worldwide Was there a stat? Remember midway through the season It was like Jabberance like dunked like 14 times this year

Last year at this time he had dunked 45 or whatever You saw that And he's gone around worldwide and saw I mean it's like the Beatles show up When you see these videos of him in China Tokyo, Manila, all these places. Even New York City last week. Sold out two seconds.

So, I mean, the internet. The internet. I don't think he made it over that way. But it's good. In New York, Hernandez, we've been searching for, I hope that there will be people out there that hope it is a sign of things to come. Because especially in the absence of Tatea, we need Zion and Jha and these guys.

Forget my association. I want all of these young American players to turn out to be awesome. There has been an absolute, right, Anthony Edwards, Cooper Flect. There's been a lock, a lock on the best players and slash MVP awards. And Wembe's on his way. We need some of these young Americans to pop off. Right.

Shane. Because we ain't got much. right you know we need that next who are the guys that are going to fill in for step curry lebron jane i just have to speak for the people who don't live in memphis and say like ja had opportunity after opportunity to be the person whether there's injury or self inflicted suspensions he had opportunities you know what i mean like you know all that stuff happened like when the jaw ones were coming out and i will tell you rees are coming out and happy jaws a danger and i also think people have forgotten what he is

he is a guy that scored more points in a playoff game than any 21, 21 years old. That's never happened. He scored 47 in the playoffs the first time he was in him. They forget what he is, which is when he plays, he is one of the best players in the league. Okay. We will have plenty of time to discuss the upcoming Memphis Christmas season as it gets later into the summer. It's a happy job. Watch out.

Number five, the unrestricted. Now, these guys are all unhappy. It's a broken system. It's just a broken system. I mean, this has gotten played wrong. It's a broken system. So you got Cominga. You got all these guys, and they say they all want to get paid.

They all think they should get paid like Jalen Johnson gets paid in Atlanta. The problem is they're not as good as Jalen Johnson. Right? So Jalen Johnson got like, what, five years, $150 million. It's not as good. It's more like don't show the potential of promise that Jailon Johnson does. They're not as good. Camp Thomas,

Jonathan Cominga, and Josh, maybe you could argue giddy, okay? But the other two, they're not as good as Jalen Johnson. And they want $30 million as well. And they're not going to get $30 million. Right.

Jonathan Cominga is being offered reportedly. He gets $30 million for three years. Well, they're saying word is, he's getting offered more like 20. and Giddy's getting offered more like 20. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's fair.

That's a fair price for those players, I feel like. Right. And Cominga, it's going to be interesting to see how that one plays out. Because he's got, they can't get a sign of trade done. So you got one, the two rumors are that the teams that have lined up for a possible sign of trade were the Phoenix Huns and the Sacramento Kings. Phoenix does not have a first round pick to put into a trade and the Warriors desire a first round pick. Okay. Kings, the reported trades were like maybe Devin Carter, Dario Sarich, or first.

And it says that the Warriors, they kind of fancy rather like Keon Ellis or Keegan Murray or one of those. So maybe something can end up working out with Sacramento. But what we know is Kaminga does not want to sign the contract that has been put in front of him. The Warriors are the only people that haven't done anything this offseason. Like it's all been on hold because of this. Like they got to figure out what's going on with Kaminga because there's reports about Melton, D.A. Melton and Al Horford. And they kind of figure it out what the rest of their roster is going to be.

Just waiting for this domino. You know, just waiting for this domino to fall. Right. Seth Curry, I think I saw another place where Seth Curry, Steph's little brother, maybe.

And so, Cominga, and the other thing is, whether it's Comingo, whether it's Giddy, whether it's Camp Thomas, none of them want to play out the qualifying offer and then become unrestricted,

especially if you're comminger or Camp Thomas, because then they can really screw around with your minutes, right? And they can just say a... They've already screwed around with Camagas, right? And Caminga, from all reports, the die was cast, as they say,

when he didn't get in the Houston series, right? He didn't get to play really until Curry went out in that next series. Can I defend Kamika for a second? Let me hear it. Because I felt, like they say, perception is reality, right? And I watched all the playoff games. It's like most people listen to this podcast. And Kamiga could get on the floor,

in the Houston series. And it was like this, and we all knew that he was coming into a restricted free agency, and he had fallen out of favor with Steve Kerr. And I trust Steve Kerr's basketball intelligence, and I trust that he was making the best moves to win basketball games, and he decided that Cominga should not be on the floor in order to maximize the Warriors' chances of winning the basketball game.

So my perception of Jonathan Caminga plummeted, but I did a little just light research. to Kaminga. I just like to remind everybody, in the last four playoff games, he had 1830, 23, and 26 against the wolves. Okay, all losses,

but he was scoring in playoff games, he had 30-point playoff games, and he played 47 games last season, and he was only in single figures. He had 10 or more in 41 of those 47 games. He shot under 40% from the field. People have bad games. games in 13 of those 47 games.

And I understand that defensively is really where he struggled. But I think the perception has dipped below the reality of Jonathan Kaminga's production. And I don't base that just on a quick basketball reference browse. Like I just think that the idea that he's a worthless basketball player that can't find the floor in the playoffs is just off from who he actually is as a basketball player. Fair.

There's probably probably somewhere in the middle. He is nowhere close to a $30 million player. No, I would not pay that man $30 million. I don't know where he falls on your pecking order if your team is awesome.

Low. I don't know. Right. Low. Okay. But he is also not close to work. as you. That's what I'm trying to say. Which is, which a zero minute player. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say. I got it. There's somewhere in between, uh, for sure. I, I don't think this was just obviously a very terrible offseason to be a restricted free agent because there's no offer sheets to go sign, right? Like that's what you need. Life is leverage. You need offer sheets to go sign. This is what I'd

guess. I have no idea what will happen with Camp Thomas. I know he's delusional in terms of what he wants. I'd imagine he'll probably just end up signing what the Nets have for him. I would imagine Josh Gideon, the Bulls just end up working something out. And then I think I frankly would be very surprised if Comingo is wearing a warrior's uniform next year. Oh, I would not. I would not. Really? So how do you think it works out?

I think that there's some. Yeah, I think there ends up being a sign of trade somewhere. there come this i would imagine that there's sign of trade somewhere i think that giddy is not getting enough attention because of his seasonal arc oh he'll just get somewhere in the middle but he played so well in the last two months of the season like he was like really efficient and just like really good across the board so i saw that being as like he's in a contract here playing himself into a contract i didn't think he'd play himself into july 29th and he's just waving in the wind.

Well, you also, you traded for him and you made the Caruso deal. You can't just, that can't be the end of it. Like, just pay him. Just pay him. These guys aren't going to play out one year on an unrestricted, you know, to become unrestricted next summer. Cam might, I think it would be foolishness, absolute foolishness. But he's probably the most delusional of all of them.

Um, Kim Thomas, he's a bucket. He's an absolute bucket. But he's a Lou Williams. He's a Jamal Crawford. He's a Jordan Crawford. No, no, no. Yes, he is. No, no.

Lou Williams and George Crawford brings so much more to a basketball team than Can Thomas does. And I don't want to say anything about Ken Thomas because he came for Zach Lowe. And anyone who comes for Zach Lowe. No, no. I'm saying that's the role. Yeah. I'm not saying the both players. I'm saying you're a bench heater on an awesome team.

That's what you are. He thinks he's one of the best. I'm going more like Jordan Clarkson would be more of a comp than, you know, fine. Jamal Crawford, who's like one of the best to ever do it. And can't flip games and Cam, like, Cam, Tomas is a bucket. He is. Oh, yeah.

He's a bucket. An absolute score. But those guys do not get paid $30 million. They get mid-level exception deals. That's what they get. Those guys were all, you know, I heard Jeff T talking about this the other day. Those guys are always been underpaid. That's not a value.

It's not. Jamal Crawford, Jordan Clarkson, Lou Williams. To be fair to what Teague was saying, and I agree with them, is it's not valued by front offices and sort of the NBA structure, but it's a very valuable

basketball skill to be able to score baskets. They probably should get paid more than they do. Yes, yes, but they don't. Life is unfair. What it is. Anyone that has kids, has to tell the kids that all the time. Yes.

Number six, Billy Donovan got a contract extension. All right. Well, you can thank your New York Knicks for, I saw he as a, what is he? Is he 10 games under 500, I think? I think it's 10 games under 500 during his tenure with the, with the Bulls.

I mean, unbelievable jobs. They're commitment to the plan. It's just, it's admirable. It's just, their commitment to mediocrity is consistent. Okay.

So obviously, we had, We had, Greg Popovich is no longer going to be coaching, right? So he's no longer going to be coaching in the NBA. And so now we go to longest-tendered coaches, okay? Because we lost Popovich as a coach of the NBA. Billy Donovan got hired in 2020. Okay?

That's when he got his bulls job. in 2020. How many guys do you think have been at their place longer than Billy Donovan? And I will say he got hired in September of 2020. How many guys do you think have been at their jobs longer than Billy Donovan has been at his job? First of all, I don't like pop quizzes. But I'm going to say Eric Spolstra, obviously comes the mind. That is one. There's one that's already been mentioned on the show, and so I'm not going to be laborer with you.

He is Kaminga's coach. Oh, duh. Steve Kerr. Steve Kerr, not chasing kids. Oh, no. You're done. Yeah, I was about to say, yeah. That's it.

So you have to win multiple championships to coach longer than Bill of Donovan. You have to be like a dynastic coach to coach longer than Bill and Donovan. Well, by the way, a lot of these guys that have either been in the finals or gone to the finals recently,

Frank Vogel, Mike Budenholzer, Monty Williams, all these guys are gone too, right? So, like, they don't have jobs. All right.

So he was, Billy Donovan was hired on September 22nd, 2020. Okay? So we are coming up on five years. In October of that, year the Clippers hired Ty Loo.

So they have been, that's the same number of seasons, right? That's the same number of seasons that they have coached for those teams. And then in November of that year, Mark Dagnall. Huh.

How about that? I would not have guessed that. I would not have either. I would not have guessed that. November of 2020. As long as Dagonal's been with the Thunder. I would not have guessed that. How about that? The only guys that have had their job longer than Billy Donovan are Eric Spolstra and Steve Kerr. And somehow the sons have had 13 coaches in that same amount of time.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And he got a contract extension. And all these guys signed five-year deals knowing damn well they coached the last two. All of them. Oh, side note, Billy Donovan hasn't won. dick. Footnote asteris.

Billy Donovan has it one dick. Extend him. Extend him. Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable. So yeah, we've got a Billy Donovan got his contract extension. We have number seven.

The Nets have an executive that was quoted. Now, he is not, we don't know his name. The executive. An anonymous executive. I suppose, okay? It said that an executive for the Nets opine

Michael Porter Jr. Mike could win the scoring title. Well, then he'd for sure have to make sure Cam Thomas isn't there, okay? Yeah, I mean, you want to talk about a basketball with no air. Let those two hit the court together. Quote, we're transitioning our roster. of course, I think as you have been for quite some time.

We're going to play a lot of young players, but we need some vets to balance that. And of course, we need to score some points. Porter will help us a ton there. I'm not saying he'll win the scoring title, but I think it could be close. Sounds like somebody's going to have to buy the Gotham app this year. Listen, I'm on the Gotham map.

It's an add-on. You have to upgrade from the next. Knicks to the Nets. They ask if you want it. I'm not doing it. I will not see a single second of the net. For the number one scorer in the league, possibly. No chance.

I actually buy this. I think Michael Porter Jr. could probably score 20 something. If Cam Thomas is a very, sure. Yeah. I mean, he average 18 as what the best third option?

He'll be in New York. He'll be putting up 27 a game. That's a great lifestyle. It's a great lifestyle for him. They're going to win 20s. seven games. And he is going to be the best player and the leading score on a horrendous basketball team. And then we'll get a couple big wins in front of a good crowd.

And I'll probably be in the crowd because I can't afford next games. You got to get the Gotham app, man. I have the Gotham app. It's an add-on. But you've got to get the add-on for Michael Porter Jr. man. You can't miss this. All right.

All right. You guys might be the leading score in the league. All right. Some goofy ones. Lemelo Ball got his toes tattooed as hot Cheetos. I don't know this. I don't know this about it.

Do you have any tats? Not a single one. I don't either. Not a that guy. Not a tack guy. I don't have them either. I was, I went to a tattoo parlor when I was 19

and I wanted to get a dragon on my arm and I didn't do it. And ever since that day, I've been like, imagine I'm walking around right now with a dragon on my arm. What are dragons mean to me? You know what I mean? When you're in college.

Ever since that experience, it's like, I'm no tattoos for me. No tattoos. I think I remember thinking in college it would be awesome to get a 3-Eleven tattoo. I don't even know what that means. Is that your area code? The band. Bro. I don't even.

3-Eleven. No idea. No idea. It's like a little kid pop-punk thing. I think I'm right there, right? Oh, my, for God's sakes. What is the band 3-11? What's their biggest song?

What's their biggest song? Go look. Go look up at them after we're on the air. No, I'll do it right now. 311 tattoo? Oh my God, Ferno. I didn't get a tattoo. 311 band.

I just remember 11. Yeah, once you have an idea to have a bad tattoo, you just kind of, you're out the game. Yeah. What are their hits? Amber? Down? Down?

Down. Down. No, no, we've always been done. I thought they were cool. No. You know, in high school. Oh, they're from Omaha? Yeah.

Omaha style. My mom's from Omaha. So anyways, she is? I'll learn something new every day. Shout to Victoria. So anyways, no tattoos, but.

Let's get to the good part. La Mello's hot cheetahs? No, no one cares about his tattoos. We care about your stay in New York City. No. I'm going to ask you if you were going to get a food tattoo. You are, yeah, you do food news.

If I made you get a food. A food tattoo? Yes. Oh, God. You have to get a tattoo of something food related, like LaMello's hot cheetos. Oh, hot chitos? All right, personal, I'm not prepared for this. His hot chitos.

It would probably be just a hot dog on the side of my dick. You mean a beanie weeny-weeny? I don't know if that's a technical term, but that's exactly what I would do. I apologize to all the dads driving around with their children. of the car. Yeah. Yeah, that was out of control. All right. Also, congratulations. Congratulations to Tyrese Halliburton for his engagement and making all of us that had horrible engagement proposals look terrible because I did not rent out Iowa State and get, will you marry me across anything? In fact, I did it in my living room on her birthday

so that I didn't have to buy two gifts. Oh, my God. That's bad. mine was excellent. It was a surprise. It was a good surprise. Yeah. Yeah. Because it was like, hey, hey,

it was like a happy birthday. Oh, you're never going to believe what I got you. It's a birthday special. Yeah. And was everyone there? Was there a lot of people there?

No, it's me and her. You guys. That's, so that's what I've learned. If you're ever going to propose. No photographer. No nothing.

If you're ever to propose to somebody is I nailed the proposal. Furno. 10 out of 10 nailed it. You did. Yes, I had the, first of all, advice for people that are going to propose to somebody. Once you get the ring,

that thing burns a hole in your pocket. So whatever plans you have, you're going to give it to her ASAP, right? And I was broke at the time. I had to borrow some money from my buddy Jesse. Shout to Jesse, the buddy. And so I had to borrow some money from him just to get it. And once I got it, it was in my pocket.

I had to give it to her. We went off bike ride. We're halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge. And I was like, let me take a picture of you. And she's just like, she's vain. She's like, sure, take a picture of me. And I was like, no, no, no, let me take a picture of your back, like your butt. She's like, yeah, of course, I've got a great butt.

You're sure you want to take a picture of that. And then I got down on one knee and I proposed to her. And it was perfect. Beautiful night, skyline, Brooklyn Bridge, amazing. However, you can't just plan the proposal. You have to program the whole evening. Because once she says yes, and I've got the ring on, her finger. It's like 9.15. And we didn't have anything to do. No party planned, no nothing.

We end up going to a bar in Brooklyn that I didn't know was a lesbian bar and we're just kind of sitting there with each other and we order champagne. It was probably cheap Prosecco and we're just sitting there and we're just like, now what? And I'm like, I don't know, now what? So my advice to people that are going to propose to their significant others. Have it planned. please don't just plan the proposal. Program the entire evening. There you go. All right.

And the last thing. I got to spend three days as a real New Yorker. The great Dave Jacoby offered me and my family his home. And so we stayed in his home. There's a lot of back and forth. Are you serious? This is okay? No, we want to stay in a hotel.

a lot of convincing had to take place. Okay. Number one, you're an unbelievable human being for letting me do this. I didn't let you. I insisted. It was a really nice area that you live in. No one has overrated a rat problem more than you. I was there for three days and did not see.

I spoke to the rats. Not one. I spoke to all the rats. In fact, I spoke to all of them. We're on a group text with the rats. I'm on a group text with the rats. I said, my boy Chris is coming.

Just give me three days off. I got very disappointed. I don't understand. All right. So do you want to just hear all my notes? I wrote down notes. I want to hear all. For my trip to New York.

Okay. In your area, not only did I not see rats, tons of, like, kids. Oh, yeah. And tons of dogs. And everybody's dogs are so well-behaved. they're not barking.

They're not running at people. They're like, all these dogs were like well-behaved dogs. Because they're used to be surrounded by people. Maybe. If they bark at everybody, then what are they going to, it's like you,

what are you going to do? Barking every single person that passes by when 14 people pass by every block? I guess not. But like, the dogs are infinitely more well-behaved than the human being. Crazy take. It's a crazy take.

No, New York City. Good dog. No, they do. These are nice dogs. It's a wild take. Nice dogs. I don't know what's going on in Memphis. I, nice, nice people, nice dogs everywhere.

Yes. I mean, I mean, nice, no, no, no, no. Kids, nice kids, nice dogs. Yeah. Right. Actual human beings. Oh, crisis. I mean, these people, they are such dicks.

I mean, really. And I, I heard more people yelling at other people in three days than I have heard in the last decade of my life my kids

have never heard their dad or mom yell at a stranger. You yelled at a stranger? No. But then they cut but now they see all these people interacting, yelling at each other all the time. And it got to the point where one night

I tried to live your life. So I walked up to your neighborhood bar and I saw your beloved bartender Vinnie. I sat down and I explained to Vinny. I said, Vinny, you got to come down to the South sometime and just see. It's like welcoming and charitable and people just are nice. They're nice to each other. They look you in the eye. They smile. The pace is slow. Whatever. I said, why are you people all so stressed out? Why are you pissy? Why? And he goes, he says to me, Vinny's explains. He goes, you know, it's funny you say that. Because this is a nice guy I'm talking to. He goes, but I'm like, I'm more like not angry all the time. He goes, but I've, but I've, yelled at three people today.

Why? And he's like, that's just, that's just how it is. And so, like, I'll give you an example. You sent me to a bagel shop up by your house. So I walk up to the bagels shop. I stand at the bagel. So I just walk in.

I'm like kind of looking up at the menu, whatever, right? And I'm like trying to figure out what I want to get, whatever. I mean, immediately, I'm talking. I look up at the menu. Immediately right behind me. Oh, you in a line of what? I'm like, I like turn around. I'm like, huh?

And I was like, no, no, man. I'm not in the line, whatever. And I mean, he, I mean. Why aren't you in the line? I was just. What else are you doing besides being in the line? You look at the menu while you're on the line. I was about to get in the line, but I was looking up to see what I was going to order everybody, whatever else.

And why is everybody in such a rush? Like, calm down. Everybody there's just got to calm down. seriously. It's too much. It's too much. You guys are too angry. You're too mad about stuff.

I had, so I'll give you a great one. You live on a one-way street. Everyone is. All streets are one-way streets. Okay, okay, sorry. The cars go up both sides. So there's no place to park on your street. Okay?

No. So we get dropped off by a cab. Okay? Getting dropped off by a cab. This guy, here's a little sports tip. Everybody, when I was in New York City, I saw a million Knicks things. I saw a lot of Yankees things.

And I saw a lot more this time met than I had ever seen before. They're doing well. They're doing well. They're doing well. So I saw, you wouldn't even know there is a football team in New York. Not doing well. Neither. I didn't see one Jets or Giants thing anywhere I went.

Nowhere. Nowhere. Not a jersey, not a nothing. Okay? And so anyway, that was just something I noticed as a sports fan bouncing around the city. Nick's crap everywhere, though, for sure. So anyways, this guy, this old guy picks me up and he's wearing a Mett hat. Okay.

And it's like talking about my brain. Yeah, yeah. This is outside of the MET. So we're jumping in a cab from the MET. We're going back to your place. So you're on a one-way street. The Mets's amazing, by the way, first of all. He's just talking to me like he's like, you know, like a grandpa.

Old-timey cab driver couldn't be sweeter. English first language? Yes. Oh, wow. That's rare. Those are few and far. Those guys talk a lot. Waring a Mettax.

Talk a lot. So anyways. And he's like talking to my family and whatever he drops us off. And so then we stop on your street. Wait, you got a four person family. You had three in the back and someone sat in front? Me. He sat in front.

Yeah. Correct. So we're getting dropped off on your street. and of course there's no place to park or pull off to the side. So you just got to stop and then we're getting out of the car. There's nobody else on your street except one cab behind him. And as we are getting out of the car, as soon as he stops, bamb, bomb, bomb.

I mean, this guy is weighing on his horn, laying on his horn, the guy behind. He sees we're getting out and walking to this apartment building. Okay. He's yelling, get out of the wall. way, get out of the way. We're like, what in the world is going on? This sweet old man that's been driving me rolls down all four windows. Now, again, we're walking out, rolls down all four windows, sticks his head around, earmuffs for the parents in the car, sticks his head out, and he goes,

the more you honk, the slower I go. So shut the fuck off. And my daughter is losing it. She thinks this is the funniest thing that she has ever seen in her life. My 15-year-old is like, what? This, P.S., it's 10 at night. These guys are screaming at each other now in the middle of the street right outside your apartment building. Okay?

And my wife's like, well, kids, there's your. New York cab experience, whatever. And they're like, why are they so mad? And I'm like, sweetie, I don't know. They're really not. They're not. They're not. They're not.

Just how they interact, whatever. You had told me the subway was fine. Your house is not far from the subway. So we took the subway everywhere. It's easy. And of course, you said, you're going to see some stuff. Yeah, you're going to see some stuff. All right.

So basically, like the first time I bring the whole family we get on the subway. Not the first time. Yes. Oh, the first time we get on. This is it like nine in the morning, okay? And I'm like kind of scanning, like as soon as we're about to get in the car. I'm like, all right.

There's nothing. Is there anybody like, you know, cracked out on here or whatever? And so I just go and we just walk in the car and sit down. And all of a sudden I look up and across me. Because we're the first stop so you get seats. Which is big. Oh, there. And of course.

Now my daughter is sitting next to me. There is a guy across from me. And I'm not kidding you, Jacoby. I think he's been on the subway for three days. He has basically a lot. I didn't even see this when we walked in. He has basically a life-sized teddy bear. What?

And is hugging it. And he's just banging his head into the bear's head. over and over again. Does that happen across from you on the subway? My daughter is right when you walked on the train? Yes. And my daughter's like, is he on drugs?

And I was like, sweetie, just don't. I hope so. It'd be worse if he's not on drugs. You're just banging. No, it's like a life-size teddy bear.

Like you went in like a carnival or something. Yeah. And he's holding it and he's just banging his head into the teddy bear's head over and over again. And he did it the whole. never said anything, never bothered anybody. My daughter's, and I was like, thanks a lot, Jacoby. That's my cousin, by the way.

Yeah, I probably was. Yeah, Jerry, Jerry Jacoby. Anyways, everybody yelled at each other. The other thing, I walked everywhere. I, we got there Wednesday night, we left Saturday afternoon. I walked 68,000 steps. Damn. 68,000.

That's a lot, bro. That is a lot of walking. So we went to Times Square, Union Square. We went to Hamilton. We went to the Met. We went to... I love the Met, by the way.

I love it. Yeah, I do too. A bunch of restaurants that you guys have recommended. If the kids aren't into it, it's hard to sell the Met. But like, if you go, if you're an adult, go to the Met. They loved it once we got in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The idea is a tough sell.

Correct. but yeah we did that to walk past Central Park obviously but we got to live like I mean it was it's great it's a great respite from what my life is normally like

I have total respect for you or anybody else that can do that daily I can't live anywhere else I can't understand I can live anywhere else but I'll say this is um the honking is like a honk in New York

isn't, it's a different currency. Like a Canadian dollar versus American dollar, a honk in New York doesn't mean anything. I honk at people for anything. And I don't mean it. It's not a fight. We don't care. You curse it strangers.

You're not going to fight. You're not disrespecting each other. It's just the, it's just modus operandi. Hey, the other thing is, the way people talk to each other. The other thing is,

those bikes are so dangerous. Yes. That's a new, that's a new phenomenon. And everybody's on them. It's like these friggin' motorcycles, but nobody has helmet. And I'm like, that's been having the last two years.

It's just like the bikes, you look, you think when you cross the street, you have to worry about cars. You don't. But if you're from out of town, you really have to worry about bikes. Because they're much more reckless and unpredictable.

And they're not following the street signs. How fast do those things go? They're flying. Yeah. That's the tough part with kids. I want to ride with, my kids can ride bikes. I want to ride around the city with them.

But it's just like, it's just chaos. That's a new thing with the e-bikes. But, One thing I want to say about Hamilton, spoiler alert, if you haven't seen Hamilton in the past 15 years or whatever, I'm not a big Broadway guy.

I like Broadway. I enjoy good plays. Purpose is an amazing play. It's out broadly now. Hamilton, I've always heard the songs, and I always knew the story, but I never saw the play until like two years ago. I found that Hamilton was amazing.

And then the intermission happens. I heard post-intermission, I was lost. I had no idea what was happening. I've never heard these songs before. I just felt like it was two different plays. One play I loved. The other play I was like,

can I just leave now? Like pre-intermission Hamilton slapped. Post-intermission, I was like, can I just leave now? I don't even want to see this anymore. This is so wild that you say that because I've seen it once before. But I only went years and years ago

after it first came out with my, wife. And I had gotten I had gotten these tickets and they serve at Hamilton this wine. It's called Federalist of course, right, for the Federalist papers. Federalist wine. Okay. I drank enough Federalist wine

to, for, I mean, a party's worth. And this is so funny you get drunk with video you don't get drunk with Hamilton this is so crazy that you're saying this you slept through the second

you slept through it no it was like I hadn't seen Hamilton before because I didn't remember anything that happened in the second half

it turned out and so that was all somehow I've seen Hamilton but that was all like new to me and I'm like this is awesome

There's like a whole other part of the story. I just feel like anyone, anything anyone remembers from Hamilton happens pre-intermission. Room where it happens. A burr, sir, when it emerged, sir, all that stuff. It's all pre-intermission. Post-intermission, we're going to France. People are cheating on each other and wives are dying. I'm like, what is this part of the story?

So I grew up, I grew up going to, my dad was always big on taking those. And my sister was big into musical theater. So I saw all of them growing up, right? Like we just always went to these. And so I've seen a lot of them that are there. I saw the music man when Hugh Jack was there. I just saw that Sunset Boulevard with that chick from the Pussycat dolls. Michelle says, yeah, she was great.

I saw, obviously I've seen Hamilton, saw Dear Evan Hanson. I've seen a lot of the, most of the big ones, right, that have been there. But this was one that I thought the kids. would make it through, you know, and that's why we went to that one. I think they probably would have made it through the Michael Jackson one as well, but we made it through and it was great. Like the guy, I mean, look, I like, it's something different. Getting to see people perform right in front of you is a different experience.

And the Broadway performers are always just the singing is crazy. They're so good. So I enjoyed it. And interestingly enough, I had a different experience with you than Hamilton because I didn't remember the second back of that thing. And I was like, I'll be damn.

I'll be, I'll be damn. I was like, I'm just kind of, I got interested to see how this thing ends. I totally forgot. I am a, I find that generally people think that New Yorkers have a bad reputation,

that they're much nicer and kinder than their person, than the perception. But I like that you were like, no, dude. Like, come to the south. Why are they yelling at each other all the time? I do it all the time. I curse the people.

I curse the strangers every three days. Why? I don't know. That just never happens where I live. That would be so crazy. You would have to do something so egregious for someone to like yell at you. It doesn't mean anything. Nothing comes of it.

I know. It's just in passing. Everything's in passing. Everyone just moves on with their lives. It's not like some egregious disrespect that needs to be like following. up upon. Hey, I'm just not used to it. Everybody's just always so nice to each other. It's a different, it's a totally different world. It really is. It's a different world. I'm really glad you got to experience it. I liked it and your neighborhood's nice. Like people around there.

Yeah, ever, I mean, there's a lot of families, a lot of kids, a lot of dogs. There's much cooler. There's much cooler neighborhoods. You know what I mean? When I go to other neighborhoods in the city, I'm like, oh, this is where young people wear weird clothes. Oh, this is where people stand on bars until two in the morning. Like, oh, this is the city that never sleeps. Like, like, oh, I live in the part where the city sleeps. I live in the part where the city like puts the kids to bed at nine and watches a couple of reality TV shows and goes to sleep themselves by 11. You know what I mean?

Like Vinny closes up shop usually around 1230. You know what I mean? Like I live in a sleepy, family oriented, relatively inexpensive part of the city. And you can walk everywhere. And I'm happy. We got everything you need. Anything you need to get, you can walk to get. You can walk to get.

Yeah. Do you have a car? Yeah. Do you both? No. Oh, no, that's crazy. You have one. Dude, I can't even say how much I pay to park my car in the parking lot a month.

You have one car. One car. But between car payment, insurance, and then parking lot payment. The best thing that happened to me financially is the guys that work in my parking lot were absolute crazy people. I don't even know how they're employed there. They've crashed my car twice. It's the best thing that's happened to me financially.

Because then I just charge them to fix it and I get credited in the parking lot so I have to pay for it. for it. It's great. And I go to my guy who's my auto repair guy. No one cares about this. I'm going to end the podcast now. But I go to my guy, I'm like, you fix every single thing that's wrong with this car because they're paying for it. Oh, good idea. So they'll break the window and I'll be like, you fix the bumper, you fix the front bumper,

you fix the transmission, you fix everything in this car, and they're paying for it. And then they pay for it with parking lot credit, which is basically like 30% to them. One last New York question before we end the pot. Okay. Because your buddy Vinny, your barton. could not explain to me.

I said, Vinnie, I got one question for you outside of why everybody's mean to each other. And he said, he said, look, I crossed that bridge to New Jersey and I go to a different world every night. Right. That's what he said to me. And I said, what is up with the trash? Why do people just put bags on the road? Why don't you people have, why don't you have cans? I'd love, listen, let me tell you something.

Don't you have trash cans? Verno, I didn't even notice because we moved from L.A. I was doing Jalen and Jacoby. We moved from L.A. to New York. And Jalen got a place outside of the city. I was like,

Jalen, like, you're rich. Like, you could live anywhere. You could live in a penthouse in the nicest part of the man I had. Like, why would you live outside of the city? And he goes to me, he's like, there's trash everywhere. And in that moment,

since he said that to me, and I had spent 17 years in the city, I didn't even notice. And now I notice. My block is a particularly trashy block. But why don't you have? But why don't you have trash cans? It's too much trash.

People just throw bags on the road. Yes. And then people go through those bags. And then the trash ends up everywhere. So it's like you're waiting through just like food trash. That the homeless go through them. Go through it. They get five cents per bottle or can.

Yes. So, but then they just go through the bags and then the trash is all over the side. All over the street. What is, why? You don't have to, you don't have to put your trash in cans? I live in a building where you put the trash in a can and then they consolidate those bags, put them in bigger bags that are tougher bags, and then put those bags on the street, and then dudes come in trucks and throw those bags into the back of the truck. Okay.

All right. It's a very trashy city. I just don't understand. It would be fine if they were in cans. I went internationally. Every time I go internationally, I'm from New York. They're like, does all the trash everywhere bother you? Like, I didn't see it.

But I remember I was like a. And now you see it. Yeah, now I see it. I was in where was I? It was at the World Cup in Qatar. And I was meeting all these people from everywhere. And they're like, does the trash bother you in the smell? Like, does that bother you?

Because we live in big cities too and it's clean. And I'm just like, I don't even have a. tort. I'm just like, uh, greatest city in the world. Greatest city in the world. I just don't understand why it's not in can. You're just too many too much to a trash. I think there's 30, 40 story buildings. Like you've got a driveway with one house so you can put it in a can and wheel it out to the bottom of the driveway. That's easy. But if you've got literally like 45, 50 families living in a building, how many cans are going to put out there?

Trash you sit. It's got to be a better way to throw it on the street. Well, you're welcome. You're welcome. Maybe that Zohan guy can come up with it or whatever. What's his name? And the pot. And the pot. All right.

All right. It's going to do it for the mismatch. Thank you, our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. I think that's the psychic from the, from big,

the movie. Oh, oh, yeah. No, that's Zoltar. I saw him at F.A.O. Schwartz. I saw him, too.

I went there. It was actually broken. I was going to try to get my future. That's why you look so young, Chris. Yeah. Thanks to Tucker, our video producer, Jacoby. I'll talk to you next.