The Mismatch - The Lackluster Knicks, Jimmy’s Troll Job, Love for Suggs, and the Farmer Garner

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Verno and Jacoby discuss Jimmy Butler’s agent calling out Shams Charania’s reporting, Bronny James's road G League debut, and more (01:07). They then shift their focus to the teams (15:35), players (33:36), and things (51:00) that they love and loathe from this week in the NBA, including Trae Young’s dice celly, the Warriors, and Dairy Bird.The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers here and we are back for another season of OffGuard. Me and my guy, Pasha Giggy, are hitting your podcast feeds every Monday and Thursday talking everything hoops. Austin is bringing that 11-year NBA veteran perspective and of course keeping you guys entertained throughout the season. Make sure you tap into OffGard with Austin Rivers on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. And don't forget to follow everything we've got going on social media. The OffGar podcast, Ringer NBA, and of course check us out on Ringer MBA's YouTube channel. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and join me as he does every week

from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacobi. What's happening at Berneau? The Emirates Cup is set. Full swing. Full swing. Headed to Vegas. Bucksawks, thunder rockets. We will get to all of it in our love and loathed

from the week. But some news and notes that we need to touch on. We've got an old-fashioned newsbreaker agent war. Love it. place since we last spoke. Love it. For those unaware,

Shams Sharania, who is the preeminent newsbreaker in the NBA, reported the following. Something that we touched on in our episode earlier in the week were the Jimmy Butler rumors and different teams that Jimmy Butler might be open to being traded to, given his contract situation, and the obvious ability for another team

to sign him going forward would have to be part of the deal. There would have to be some kind of agreement with that. So anyways, he had mentioned a couple of the Texas teams. He had mentioned the Warriors. And then he updated it and said, hey, the Phoenix Suns are another team. The Jimmy Butler's agent, Bernie Lee, has indicated in league circles that the Six-Time All-Star is open to as a trade destination. That's joining Dallas and Houston and Gold. and state.

Okay? So that was breaking news. And this is the first time I can remember this, got community noted on X. Under the Sham Shirania tweet, it says Jimmy Butler's agent has publicly stated these claims are unfounded and false. Oh, that's a nice way of putting it.

That's a very nice way of putting what Bernie had to say. Here's what he had to say. All right, listen, I gave you a pass yesterday because I was busy. If you don't stop putting my name on your complete and utter made-up bullshit, because you know you normally aren't worth my time to acknowledge. Then he went on and said, I don't know what I'm going to do because I'm a middle-aged dad, but just know it would indicate severe dislike.

World, all of this is fabricated. I have never, and honestly, it wouldn't help me, or the position I represent to do anything that's been reported by said, quote, journalist. Love it. He said, I got time today. That's what he said.

He's like, yesterday I was busy. Today, I got time for you, Shams. Now, I understand how this sausage is made, and I'm not here going to speak to this microphone and say who's right or wrong. I have no idea, you know, who said what to whom. I'm pretty sure that Shams got some information from some way, someone. He just fabricated out of nowhere.

So I don't know how exactly this happened, but I love that it happened because I love this kind of gossip and rumor and palace intrigue. And there's an even better aspect to this story, which I find more intriguing. Front offices and people within these organizations, every one of them talks to Shams now, Jacoby. Woj is gone. So let me just explain. There were the Woj teams and the Shams teams. Okay. And you were one or the other.

Wodge is gone. He's at St. Bonaventure. All these teams are talking to Shams now. So he is getting it from the teams. He's getting it from the teams. Hey, have you talked to Bernie, whatever. So it's from that side. So Bernie Lee wants to be mad. I mean, he can be mad at Shams Sharania for saying that he has indicated to these teams. So, and I guess you could presuppose that the teams are lying to Shams. But that's how that conversation goes. They're both 100% right in their version of the events. Shams got some information that he felt solid enough to report. And Bernie is like, I never said this. And they're both 100% right through their perspective. What the objective truth is, we're not going to parse that out and figure that out. But, Berno, this is what I want to talk about. Not the back and forth between the agent and the reporter.

I want to talk about Jimmy Butler's braids. Because tracking the color of his braids is interesting. First it was golden And then it was a royal blue Huh Huh Those are the colors of the golden state warriors And then it was a Rockets Red

Huh Interesting And if you watched a little bit of that game Last night against the Raptors He now has a bright Orange Braids What team

Has bright orange Is it the Knicks? No The Sun It is not a coincidence that the color of his braids match the exact colors of the four teams that were mentioning these reports. Do you think that is a coincidence? I didn't even realize that this was going on. Oh, that's why you have me on the show.

That is why I have you on the show. That's why I'm here. He's changing his braids based upon reports? No, not based upon reports. It's just his way of trolling. You know, that's what he does. He's kind of a troll. So he gets us talking about these things,

but it's not an accident. This isn't like, and it's also, you know, like, listen, two middle-aged dads to use Bernie's, two middle-aged white dads talking about black hair can easily get us in trouble. So I will just say this. I, my wife is black.

I didn't realize how long putting in braids and taking braids outtakes until I married my wife. I didn't realize it's like a full day thing. So this is, This is like a lot of time and effort that Jimmy Butler is, not just like the color of socks he's wearing. He's putting a lot of time and effort into this.

And the last four colors literally match the colors of the four teams that he was rumored to be traded to. The other thing that stood out to me as this story is breaks. And I see the amount of anger that came from Bernie on this is it feels to me like those stories come out. and Bernie is then directing his anger at Chom Shorani, and he's doing it very publicly, because this is what I would posit.

Pat Riley called and screamed at him. Oh, interesting. That's what I'd guess. Interesting. Yeah. I would guess that this caused him big problems on the heat side. That's what I'd guess. And so let's just talk about the actual trade.

Because Pat Riley is not to be trifled with. No, no. And he's not afraid. And he's not afraid to call you up and chew you out of years. And he is so far beyond the point of caring. Well, it's interesting because Pat Riley, don't forget, at the end of the season, Pat Riley was like, we need Jimmy Butler to play basketball. Like before we start talking about extensions, let's talk about him playing basketball.

He was firing shots like right. It was like three days after the season ended for the heat. So that's what it seems like to me. It seems like that became a very uncomfortable. situation probably on that end, which made him even more angry about the report getting out. And so he's got to turn his attention to and also make it look like, hey, I am not talking to teams. I am not gauging their interest and letting them know, hey, if you do want to make a trade for my guy, you know, if you want to saddle up and you want to make this deal, then we're there.

and he will sign with you going forward. And so that is something that if I am, and I understand that, if I am Pat Riley, I would be very upset about that as well, right? Because that's how that comes off. And so it's, I think it's totally plausible that he, that he's doing that. But I also know he, the last thing on earth he would want is Pat Riley or anybody else thinking he's doing that. Well, it's the agent. Who's interested in signing Jimmy Butler to a mass extension? Who's interested in that?

Right. Who wants to do that right now? Like a one year rental on a, you know, contending team is one thing. But like trading $48 million of stuff to the heat, if you're going to give up that much, you want to get more than just four months of Jimmy Butler back. He's got a player option next year from $52 million. But he wants a huge extension. at 35 years old.

The last, since he's been with the heat, he played 58, 52, 57, 64, and 60 games. And there's some playoffs where he was hurt too. Like, if you're a GM in the league, do you want to trade for Jimmy Butler and then sign Jimmy Bellar to an extension until he's like 39 years old? I do not. I do not.

Totally fair. I will say, I do not believe Shams Sharania gets his stories from chat GPT as he was accused. No, no. I don't think so. But that would be awesome. I've had trouble using chat, GBT.

I've tried to get like, I try they can make an image with AI. I can't get it right. I can't. I can't get it right. A couple of other things that we've got to get to. The games were pretty much duds last night and did feel like a letdown, especially after we had gotten so into the cup.

One thing worth mentioning is Subonis, who we have credited many times throughout this year. It was a close game against the Pelicans. but maybe the most consistent star we have in the entire NBA. He, like, virtually never has a big game or a bad game. It's only a matter of how big it is. And they needed every bit of his 32 and 20 last night. So another huge game for him.

It's worth mentioning. Pelicans just don't have anybody down low. No, they just don't. They just don't. There's just no one home. And we knew that going into the season. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you're playing the Pelicans and you're scoring big, you're going to have a night.

Keep that in mind for your Fandau accounts. Do you want to mention Brony James who played for the South Bay Lakers and had 30 as much as he's gotten beaten up and joked about over the course of the last six months. It is worth mentioning that he did play A in a road game. Road game is first road game. And B, drop 30.

So shout out to Bronte for his first big game in the G League. Well, I said to myself, I was like, let me take a look at this. So I watched the highlights. He's hitting threes. Cut an alley-oop, through an alley-up. He looked really comfortable. He hit his first two-threes early in the game, and I think that gave him the confidence.

You know what I mean? You know when you're playing? It's just like, you hit your first couple. You're like, oh, today might be my day. And it was his day. He looked good. He looked good. Shout to Bonnie James.

Meanwhile, nobody knows what's going on with his dad, who mispractice and is now out for tonight's game against Minnesota for personal reasons. I'll tell you exactly what's going on. I'll tell you exactly what's going on. During this week, because he's an all-star, So he's going to be so busy during All-Star weekend. This is basically like a little mini break.

That's what this is. Because they don't schedule that many games on that Tuesday, Wednesday, are just Cup games. I don't know what the Lakers schedule is. They think they have one game this weekend. And he's like, all right, I'll miss a game, but I'll be gone for five days and just get like a mini vacation break. This is what he's doing.

He did this a couple years ago at All-Star, where he just kind of popped in, popped out. Yep, yeah. That was on vacation, right? Well, maybe that's so. other thing that we've got to mention is one of the very good young stars in the league scotty barns you and i were both watching the nix toronto game a few nights ago and scotty barns had what looked to be at the time pretty bad injury and turns out it was pretty bad terrible news for the raptors as they are going to lose him for a quote several weeks so this was not your average throw it in water deal with the swelling ankle sprain there was sustained by Scotty Barnes. This is something that's going to keep him out for a

long time, possibly months. Yeah, remember he just got back. I think it was Yokic. He caught an elbow in the face. I think it was Yokic, but I might be mistaken. But it was, I remember it was a huge big, with a powerful elbow to the face. So he had an orbital fracture. He just got

back from that, like three games ago. And then here he is again with a really bad spring. Landed on Cat's foot. And Cat pretend to be hurt, too. And then he realized that Scott was really hurt, so he got up. So years of ago, when I first started in media, you know, you kind of look at the landscape of the media jobs. And one of the things I always thought I would be great at is being a headline writer.

I always thought that I'd be very good at that. Like, not, I couldn't edit because I'm not a writer and I can't fix your article. But if you just want me to read the article and then put a great headline with it, and especially one that someone would click, I could be really good at it. So what I want to do, and I need you to do me a huge favor, okay? I'm not promising anything. No. In this moment where I debut my headline writing chops, I need you to stay mature, okay? I need you to stay mature.

Because I am offering my services to the Toronto Star, given these. terrible circumstances where they're going to star went out. So we have with Barnes out, Toronto needs Dick more than ever. Growth of Dick. Growth of Dick very important after Barnes lost. With shortened roster, wraps will have to write.

Okay. With shortened roster. Here, you could do that one. Strong Dick. more important than ever. Yeah. Dick needs to rise to the occasion. Obviously, our thoughts with Scottie Barnes.

All waiting for Dick to rise to the occasion. So if the Toronto Star needs any of our help, we can. Yeah, you can be help in this situation. All right. Let's get to the teams that we've loved and loathed this week. And obviously, unfortunate that you were unable to stay mature during that. Just trying to help. Team you loved.

It's easy. You know, the Tuesday night cup night, first cup experience, I'm thinking, all right, the Bucks are just going to steamroll the magic. It'll be a nice little, nice little appetizer. I'm sure we'll get to that game later. And I was so excited about the Mavs Thunder game. I was so excited about that game. I thought it was going to be like a true, true showcase night,

showcase game, sort of like that Mavs Warriors game was when Clay went back to the bay. And man, the team I love is the thunder. I mean, they had a game plan defensively, and they executed it. And they made Luca, they just took Luca completely out of the game. Now, I don't think that doubling Luca at half court is a sustainable strategy. But when they did it in the first half, they would get the ball out of his hands, and they were so fast and would swarm and scramble behind that double team that they couldn't really take advantage of it the way you would expect, you know, an NBA offense that's playing four on three would.

And between, like, Dorr, Caruso, and Kaysen Wallace, Luca just had absolutely no answers. This guy had two points at halftime. He was one for seven and looked completely lost. The thunder swarming defense, I absolutely love. And also those orange jerseys, again, it just seemed like they were buzzing everywhere. and they forced 18 turnovers in that game, and I've got a stat. Last season they led the league with 12 games of forcing at least 20

turnovers. So far this season, remember a quarter of the season has gone by, they have 10 games where they've forced 20 turnovers from their opponents. Like their defense is just absolutely phenomenal. And then when you add the Shea Gilder's Alexander 39 point performance on the offensive end, And he just seems so comfortable that I love this team so much.

And I mentioned it on Bill's Pod, and I have to say it here too, I'm watching this team, and I'm saying this is easily the best team in the West, because the defense is just so good. When the magic showed us in the previous game, when you have a defense that good, you're always in the game. And the magic showed us that in the previous game, even though in a loss. But they kept cutting to Chet. And just remember how good Chet was before he got hurt.

They're going to get Chet back. this team, which is easily the best team in the Western Conference, is going to get dramatically get better very soon on both ends of the floor. And of course, Hartinstein, you know I love. Team I love, Oklahoma City thought. Easily the best team, hmm? Easily. Oh, that's why you're smirking?

You think the grizzies got a shot? Interesting. The grizzlies have a shot. Is that why you're smart? I was wondering why you're making those faces. Easily the best team in the Western Conference. Easily. There's absolutely no question about it.

Okay. There's one team that's right behind them that has lost the most games to injury this year. And they're two and a half games back of them. Okay. And they're also much farther along and actually have had some playoff success and have award winners. But that's neither here nor there. That's neither here nor there. I love the Oklahoma City Love Fest is very real.

One thing I will say for them is that they played against that team, a team they lost two in the playoffs, by the way, last year. and that's where, you know, this is retribution, right? They lost to that team in the playoffs last year. PJ Washington cannot be that important because they mauled them. They mauled them. And PJ Jones, Derek Jones is good in that series too. Both of them. I mean, they really got done in by PJ Washington and Derek Jones Jr.

in that series last year. And it was very noticeable that neither of those were available. I do think they missed Jones Jr. in that perimeter defense. he was the guy that they put on people every single night. At the end of the year, there was always, and I think you're seeing, on the wing defense front, you're seeing that from teams around the league. There was a chart at the end of the year, most times spent on other teams' best perimeter player. And right there at the very top of that list was Derek Jones Jr.

Right there at the very top of that list was Contavius Caldwell Pope. And I think both of those teams have missed those guys as teams. that were, you know, considered elite-level teams last year in the Western Conference. And I think that's part of the reason that they're having a much tougher time because not only were those guys, part of those teams last year, those guys were the assignment, right? If you have whoever your best perimeter player was, it's the, it's the Lou Dorts, it's the Derek Jones Juniors, it's the Dylan Brooks's, it's the Cattavis Caldwell Pope. Those guys get that assignment every single.

night. And you really need more than ever you need good wing defense now in the NBA. I think you're absolutely right. One thing I do want to say about this game and the Oklahoma City Love Fest, I watched that game and I walked away saying, if this was a seven game series, I'm picking the maps in game two. Like after a Luca game like that and a Kyrie game like that, and I just felt like they had a strategy for Luca that they weren't ready for. But if this was a seven-game series, I would expect the Mavs to dramatically bounce back in the second game, if it was. But it's a one, that's why the, that's why the Emirates NBA Cup is so, is one and done.

One and done. It's a bracket. Team that I loved, you're not going to love this. The Atlanta Hawks. Oh, I love them too. Trey Young had 22 and 11, but the story was really the wings, DeAndre Hunter and Jalen Johnson, who Hunter had 24, Jalen Johnson had 21, 15, and 7. They outscored the Knicks, 61 to 46 in the second half.

They won points in the paint. They won second chance points. They won fast break points. They mauled them in bench points, 43 to 14. And this was a terrible three-point shooting game for both of these teams. The Hawks were 9 of 31. The Knicks were 11 of 42. So you're talking 29 and 26 percent, respectively.

But the big thing to me was how hard this team played in what was this was not a game where guys were making a bunch of shots and that they had 22 offensive rebounds in the game and just ran out the Knicks in that third quarter, flipped the game completely and won it 34 to 18. Both of their big guys, both Capella and Ocongwu. You know, Capella had 11 and 13 and Okongwu, I think, had 12 and 11. Both of them were like less than 25 minutes. So, I mean, you're talking big production out of of those guys at that, you know, that big role. And I was mega impressed, man.

I was mega impressed in like a one and done do or die game. I just thought how hard they played. And I know Tibbs was a little upset about the whistle after the game, though he did not go as far as some of his peers in terms of blaming the officials. That to me, if you watch that, that looked like, and that's what was a little upsetting on the Knicks front, which is it's so trite to say one team wanted it more than the other,

but you saw the Hawks flying around in a way that you did not see the Knicks flying around. They got those offensive rebounds and they got a lot of that stuff done because of the effort that they were giving that it felt like their opponent was not. So I'm gonna piggyback on this because the team I loathe is the Knicks.

And part of it was just what you hinted at the end there, there was just seemed like a lack of urgency and a lack of effort. And we know the offense is the number one offense in the league. But what really showed against this team, the Hawks, like as you mentioned, they didn't have a great shooting night was just, they just had nothing. They could not get a stop in the fourth quarter. And in Conlonity Towns, listen, he's not the best defensive player in the world, but he just seemed in between on every pick and roll.

He was in between blitzing or hedging and getting back to his men. man, and it just seemed like in the fourth quarter when they needed to stop, they weren't just not getting stops. They were just getting easy lobs to baseline cutters or to the roll guy. It was, it just, they seemed disorganized, which is so uncharacteristic for a Tom Tibido team, but they could not get a stop. And watching the game, it just felt like the Knicks kind of felt tired, they felt older, and they felt slower. That's what I was watching.

And it was an effort thing. It was a Wanted More thing. And it might have something to do with having to play the Raptors. on Monday night, you know, it might have something to do with that because no one else had to play Monday night. There was the only game, but that's not an excuse. I expected the Knicks to win this game, and I expected them to win it pretty easily, and they couldn't get a stop in the second half.

And the Hawks were getting easy buckets, just dumps. Yeah. You know, it was a really disappointing. You can't lose every category. They lost every category. Oh, bro, 22 offensive rebounds. The Hawks had a possession where they got three offensive rebounds. Like it's one thing to not get a stop

But to not going to stop and then not going to stop And they're not going to stop and then not going to stop In one possession What did you do better? Did you win points in the paint? Nope. Did you win fast break points? Nope.

Did you win offensive rebatt? You can't lose them all. I'm watching with my wife and she's like, aren't they supposed to make open threes? I was like, yeah. Yeah, they are. They are actually. That's the idea.

Yeah, yeah. Like, Deuce McBride, who's been shooting the ball really well from three this year, just couldn't make a thing. Holy mackerel. And that is one of those things where it's like, geez, can you at least give me something off the bench? Anybody? Because there was that one segment of time where it was like,

precious that she would pulling up for three. And then McBride took like the contested one in the corner. It's like, God. Well, that Bridges had an open one in the corner just missed it. McBride had two open ones in the same corner, just missed them. It was a, it was a, it was a, I load that performance from the Knicks. I did. Team I loathed, the Golden State Warriors, because not only did they lose, then they blame the officials with their coach coming out, blaming the officials.

And they did like everything wrong at the end of that game. Everything. You had Draymond up three, horrible turnover. You have multiple shot clock violations. You have Steph Curry, who you're counting on, take this outrageous three with 11 seconds left on the shot clock. 13 seconds left in the game and they're up by one. You're winning the game, Step Curry, a double step back from the top of the key. What do you doing?

Then you have pods getting blocked obviously at the end. And so then you go to the press conference and all and every headline then becomes how the warriors were screwed. And if you notice and if you were listening to it, Kurt never says that he didn't foul him. He said it was unconscionable to call it and he had a challenge. and basically his idea was we wouldn't win the challenge. You wouldn't win the challenge because the guy fouled him. And so the idea is that you shouldn't call that in that moment.

But to make that game all about that circumstance, which by the way, Gary Payton Jr., what is he doing? Or Gary Payton second, what is he doing anyway by throwing that ball away? It was just, I mean, to me, It was crazy to make it look like they lost because of Bill Kennedy. And I thought it was super funny that the NBA came out immediately and been like, yeah, we stand by this. This was a foul.

That happened. Yeah. I mean, I agree with Steve Kerr that in that moment, you probably should not make that call. But when you look at the replay, when Draymond Green initially engages with Jalen Green, he hits him right across the shoulder and reaches through his body. to get contact with the ball. It was technically a foul. Now, again, I agree it should not have been called,

but you were right about this. That was it, we always focus on the last possession. Like, that's one thing that we always do as basketball fans and media. We always talk about the very last possession of a game. But the previous four Warriors possessions were not exactly perfect. They're turning the ball over left and right. Steph Curry himself, like down the stretch, he didn't play well. And again, just like, it's, it is, I understand what Steph is trying to do.

He's trying to do like Olympic stuff, like Paris stuff, you know, dagger and then do the night night. That's what he's trying to do. And he's done it so many times. He's been successful doing it so many times. But just from like a down and distance perspective, shooting that shot, a tough step back with 13 seconds left in the game and 11 seconds on the shot clock, when you are ahead in the game by one point, it's just not smart. It's not smart. And then every headline became the Warriors lost. because of the officials, according to Steve Kerr.

And I think if you're Steve Kerr, I think the appropriate way to handle that is to say, I didn't like that call, but we lost the game down the stretch with what we did. Well, your team scored 90 points. We can't control what the referees call, but we can't control every other possession, and we can't control taking bad shots.

We can't control not turning the ball over. I don't know, man. It wasn't great. But do you think that this is an example of why the Warriors should be in the, trademark to get a second creator. I mean, I thought they needed that anyway. I think that's why they were showcasing everybody over the course of the first,

you know, two months of the season. Playing everybody to try to get, and that's why they're trying to do this with Kaminga right now. They're trying to get Kaminga's value up. Why is Jonathan Kaminga taking the most shots on the team the other night? I don't know. In a game. He's the one that most field goals attempted is Jonathan Kaminga in that game.

So the Podfather did a good job on his pod. Sort of breaking down the trade stuff. And mentioning the Nets, I thought was interesting. And I thought mentioning Schrooter in particular, I thought was interesting. I could see that working. Absolutely. I could see that working, you know. I'm going to see him in person tonight.

Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah. I can't wait to watch Dennis Schrooter. Phoebe Schrooter? He's been good this year. He's been good. really good. That team has been much more competitive than I think anybody expected them to be coming

into the year. Now, they very well may trade. They may trade Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney Smith, the Dennis Schroeder, but they're doing a good job, you know, building the value up of those guys as well. But yeah, I would be shocked if the Warriors don't make a win now move. The timeline, you know, this is the time. All you do is look at Tramon Green's beard and you have to be in win now mode. There's a lot of gray.

A lot of gray in that beard. You got to get this. That beard says win now. That beard says win now mode. Also, I want to get a quick shout to my guy, Schengun. Some big buckets down the stretch. He did it. It was also a good example of like the rockets.

We've talked about it a lot, but the rockets like need a guy. They've got like seven B pluses, but no A minuses. And down the stretch, you're like, who are they going to go to? And they go to Schengun against Draymond Green. or Kevin Kvon Looney. And it's also going to be hard. Like this is a team that has done it with defense. We have seen some of these teams that have started off the year that have really hung their hats on the defensive end.

And that's why they're able to be successful this year. And we know that when it comes playoff time, that that's when the lack of offense is truly going to be able to show up. On a game-to-game basis, this is why you have seen, you know, when we have chronicled throughout the weeks, the Clippers, with their defensive efficiency, what they've been able to do so far. We've talked about the Thunder, the Magic, the Hawks, the Clippers, the Rockets.

These teams really being able to win with defense, which on a game and game out basis during the regular season gives you the opportunity to have an outstanding regular season record and maybe outperform what we initially expected because each and every night they defend, and that's how they're able to get it. And yet when we're thinking forward and we're thinking about their ability to be able to, you know, have a trajectory where they can win playoff series, you know that it's not good enough to be okay or bottom half of the league offensively.

That really shows up when it comes to the playoffs. You can get by during the regular season being awesome defensively and okay to subpar. I'm sorry, awesome defensively and okay to subpar offensively. But you cannot in the playoffs. No. Well, I think all those teams, and this is an example of what we're talking about, the Rockets is the Hawks, let's say a last possession, the Hawks are going to give it to Trey, right?

And, you know, the Thunder are going to give it to SGA, and the measure you give it to Palo or Franz, and the Rockets, you're just like, I don't know. You know, we're talking about these defensive teams. You're like, well, the Rockets are going to maybe Shangoon, maybe Jalen Green, like maybe Van Blit, like, I don't really know. Also that Warriors team, another one.

Yeah. The defense has been the story for what they've been able to do thus far this year. I mean, they have not been some kind of offensively potent team. Player you loved. So I'm a die easy Knicks fan. Like, I'm not a loyal for life sort of fan. I grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, and I was born in 78. So, like, I'm prime Larry Bird.

like Larry Bird like I was like 7 8 9 10 11 watching Celtics games I had a Larry Bird legend a poster that I would literally play pray to before going to traveling team games I would look at the legend Larry and I would pray to it but like Larry give me strength to get buckets tonight big Larry Bird fan right I lost my fandom of the Celtics when I moved to New York just wait to too many next games but player I love this week is Dairy Bird theory. A.J. Green, undrafted from northern Iowa, entered the portal.

And he said, you know what? I'm not coming back to college. I'm going to the draft. Didn't get drafted. Goes to the Bucks on a two-way. Now starting to get some real burn. Because what was the problem with the Bucks early in the season? They looked old.

They looked slow and they couldn't defend anybody. Now, A.J. Green is not going to be a defensive stopper. he works on that end, but he can dump it, man. And in that game against the magic, it was not a great half. The first half was not great for Derry Bird. A couple air balls,

two air balls. One air balls, one thing with two air balls in the first half for Derry Bird. But at the end, he hit some big shots, and he had nine points, four rebounds, two assists,

one block in 33 minutes. But in the previous two games, leading into that magic game, two from three. So Derry Bird's been a little bit of a streak And what's happened here is You just like the name I like the name I just wanted to say Derry Bird a lot

You just wanted to say it I wanted to say Derry Bird a lot But I will say this is This is actually real between Andre Jackson Jr. and Derry Bird Pat Cunnington is just like He better be getting his cardio somewhere else Do you know I just saw

Something popped up on my Instagram yesterday That it was like You could some people could probably find this. So I'm just saying this at passing because you bet you content. It was like Pat Conitin's estate management or Pat Conantton. It was like

already as. 500 million dollars. Yeah. I was like what? Yeah. He like flipped a house when he was in Notre Dame. They already have 500. Like yeah. I get so mad at this stuff. It's at 550 million dollars in assets and I was like what? He's got a real estate mogul.

Okay. Pat Connox is a real estate. So he doesn't need minutes. He doesn't need minutes anymore. He owns half of the Midwest. These guys play Monopoly. Yeah, good for Pat Connington. Well, he's not getting run anymore.

He's not in rotation. The other thing is, do you think anyone has ever been disappointed when A.J. Green walked in for a dinner reservation? And they, oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you remember that one? There was like, was it a Sports Center commercial? years ago, I think it was.

With the Michael Jordan thing? Yeah, the Michael Jordan was making reservations or whatever. I don't think it was a sports. There's an ESPN commercial with all the other Michael Jordan's in the world. Yeah. And so when they make a reservation, like, yeah, they make a reservation as Michael Jordan. But I mean, A.J. Green is a rather unique name to have. And he was one of the great receivers.

And he was in the Midwest. He played in Ohio. So it's like it's not implausible if you're in the Midwest and you've got a fancy restaurant and you've got A.J. AJ Green on the reservation. And the other dairy bird walks in, he's like, table for AJ Green. It's someone at the host end, it'll be like,

I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry, sir, but you're not AJ Green. Yeah. We thought this was the receiver. Yeah, yeah. They switch the tables really quick. All of a sudden, the dairy bird is back by the kitchen in the shadows. But originally the AJ Green was supposed to be right in the center of the restaurant.

And he's like, look, I'm not the receiver, but I play for the bucks. They're like, get the hell out of here. You don't play for the bucks. People are like Googling it. Proof it. Proof it. All right. A player that I love is a losing effort.

But my God, I am an absolute love with Jailet sucks. Godly, I love it. I mean, so we talked about it earlier in the week how the minister, Jonathan Isaac reportedly stood up in front of the team in a team in a players meeting after they had lost Franz Wagner to the oblique bug that is going around the Orlando Magic. And he said, we need to follow. Jalen sucks.

He's our guy now. And then he rewarded him with a huge game against the Phoenix Suns, and it was this great story. And there we are. They've got this chance that everybody expects them to get absolutely buried by the Milwaukee bucks. But instead, they were game the entire time. and you get to that second half, he's got 23 in the second half,

and then you get to the fourth quarter, and it's like, okay, they've got Damiennianis, you've got Suggs. And he had 18 in the fourth. He did everything he possibly could to try to win that game and then miss that three with 12 seconds left to go, and it broke my heart, because I thought that could have been

just the most unbelievable story. Oh. I mean, they lost Paolo, And Franz stepped up like crazy and showed this ability to do more. It also shows how much they sacrifice for each other when everybody is healthy because of their ability to do it individually when they are down guys. And he played like a superstar in that game. Oh, hold on.

I don't know what he did to his thumb, but his right thumb. Yep. His right thumb. He had to go back to the locker room and get it taped up. And I was like, oh, no, now they lost him. It looked bad. I think it was caught in a jersey or something. I don't know exactly what happened.

But imagine if injuring your right thumb so bad that you have to go back to the locker room and get it looked at. And then it's your shooting hand. And then coming out and scoring 18 in the four. Like, I thought they were done. I thought Suggs was done for the game. It was his right thumb. And then they threw a pass to him, right?

Right when he got back into the game. And it was a little bit over his head and it's a little bit, you know, it's a heavy pass. And he couldn't even catch it. He couldn't even catch it. And I was like, oh, this is over. Suggs Day is over, the magic are over, and then as you mentioned, he just kept going. I really feel like if Suggs was hurt,

next thing you know, Anthony Black is going to score 30. Anthony Black gets hurt, go-go-Patazi scores 30. If he, Gogh, Patzi gets hurt, then Cole Anthony scores 30. Like, it was wild, dude. They got a good chemistry. They got really good players. And the other thing with Suggs is he is a constant reminder of

everybody's trajectory is different. If you would have decided what Suggs was after one year, if you would have decided what Suggs was after a year two, it is a radically different opinion than everybody has as of today. And I loved him at Gonzaga. When they were going through the draft, I remember falling in love with him even more after watching his football highlights.

They get like, oh, God, this kid is an absolute, like, he's one that you want in the trenches. This is one you want to go to war with. But it took a while. It took a while. for him to become what he has become. And so it's a great story all around, and his ability to step up in a do-or-die game

was everything I think you could have bargained for. And damn near got it done against the team that they probably had no business getting it done against. Now, we celebrated Sugg's extension. We celebrated him as a player in the preseason, but we weren't talking about his offense as much. We were celebrating his defense. And the extension, and I know that some of the, you know,

some magic fans hit me up. The extension, not that I paid the extension, I was just surprised because of the limited amount of games. If you look at the amount of games, he has played thus far, but it feels like it very well may be

not at the same level. I'm not calling him Steph Curry, but I'm saying in the sense that you might have gotten a much better deal that enables you going forward to pay Franz what you got to pay him, pay Paulo, what you're going to pay him?

Because they're going to catch a break on the Paulo thing because he's not going to be able to make all NBA and everything for that, you know, Super Max extension. But you're going to look back and you're going to go, wow, they dedicated themselves to this guy. They got him at he is a guy that has a tremendous ability. And I would foresee a circumstance where it's 100%. He outperforms his contract. Absolutely. I agree. So good job by them.

Good job by them. A lot of people forget that the key of the Warriors dynasty was Steph Curry Hurtig and Zach. For sure. That was the key. That was the key of the dynasty. That was what unlocked it. And then I love that Suggs game. You did mention that three that he missed.

I didn't love that possession. They got Dame in front of him. And he goes between the legs four times and then just pulls up. And if you've got Dame in front of you, like, Dame Lillard is a great player, but he's not a great on ball defender. And I think I think the whole reason that no one is setting you a pick in that spot is so you can drivel past him and use your size. And I just think going between the legs three times and then just pulling up and taking sort of a quick trigger three I didn't love. But it was a great game by him.

And that's certainly a player that I love this week as well. Player you loat. Who'd you loathe? What player? I went with person I loath. Part of the NBA experience. And I feel very passionately about this. And there are children in the car.

I'm just going to let you know now. I'm going to curse. Uh-oh. There is part of my NBA watching experience. pisses me off every single game. I get so mad about this. So once upon a time, I got irrationally upset about the Antonelli's cheese shop commercial.

Do you remember that one? No. It's the Capital One Antonelli's cheese shop, and it was in Austin, Texas cheese shop with the Antonellies, and they sold cheese, and they were a small business, and Capital One has a small business card that would help you out. every game that I watch

I can't fucking stand Jennifer Garner acting like a farmer I cannot stand it this is supposed to be a small business and Jennifer Garner is walking through an apple orchard you might know me from my other job and then she's in overalls acting like

she's like tilling the soil and she needs a capital one small business card to keep her small business afloat Once Upon a Farm. Well, guess what? I did some fucking research, Jennifer Gardner. You just got $52 million in funding. This is a $100 million company.

No, my family farm supplies the Once Upon a Farm product. Yeah, you didn't, you got out of Phillip in Beverly Hills. And then I go to the website of Once Upon a Farm, and here she is in fucking overalls, holding pumpkins with boots on, acting like she's watering, pumpkins every day. You're a Hollywood actress worth millions of dollars. Your company is worth a hundred million dollars. You're not a small business. And she's in the kitchen acting like she's whipping up a new recipe for baby pouches. It makes me so fucking mad. And then she's like, oh, you also get access to airport lounges. I can get used to this. You're Jennifer

Garner. You don't need a capital one small business card to get in the lounge. I hate it so much. And anyone who's ever operated a small business that's had to hold it together with blood, sweat, and loans, it's got to be so mad that Jennifer

Gardner's acting like, my family farm. You're not a farmer. You're Jennifer Garner. I need to ask my uncles. Both of my mom's brothers are still farmers to this day. They've got to be so mad. Oh, I wish I would have had this.

I wish you would have done this before Thanksgiving because they're I mean these are the guys that get up at like 5.30 at the morning and go farm soybeans and wheat every day, right? They are literally in a tractor every day of their lives. They've got to love the Jennifer Garner cover. I hate it so much. Literally she's like picking apples. And then I went to the website and she's got overalls on. It's like just stop it. Stop acting like a farmer.

You're an actor. And then I googled her fucking. fucking family. Her grandparents did purchase a 20-acre farm in 1936 for $700. So there is like some legitimacy to it. Like there are some farmers in the Garner family. So like shout to them that really do the work. But stop pretending like you're keeping this business alive using your capital one card just to just to get through the month and you can barely pay the bills.

You think those overalls are a costume. Yeah. The wardrobe department provided those overalls and boots. You don't think she has those from her day to day. Why? And then so this woman, God bless the actual starter of this company once upon a farm, because in 2017, Garner and the former CEO of Annie's, like a businessman, they entered the scene in 2017 and took it from a $1 million evaluation to a $100 million dollar valuation. And on top of that, she's a millionaire. She lives in

Los Angeles. You do not need Capital One to keep your business afloat. I get so mad every time I see it. And everyone that listens to the mismatch is going to feel just as fucking mad when they see her walking through that Apple Orchard and acting like she's never been to a lounge

lounge in an airport before. The only reason she's never been in a lounge in an airport before because she flies fucking private. I am glad you call her. I am glad you called for ear muffs because my goodness the children out there oh god some need to hear it though some need to hear it i mean i don't even want to do my player i loathed i mean because i had luka he needed a capital one card to buy a buddy in the first half i'm just gonna go through this

quickly to do or die game it's superstar time done of a first half come back out in the third quarter and I'm expecting, all right, let's stop acting like, oh, the Oklahoma City did some, Lucas faced every defense in the world, right? You're allowed to have assists if they're bothering you. And instead, he comes out in the third quarter and it's like one for three with zero assist. Meanwhile, SGA's on the other side and he's got 16. The game, this is like, okay, here's how the first half is going. Now third quarter very well may go a long way towards deciding this game.

Their superstar went bonkers. You were an innocent bystander to the harbor. Oh, no, no. I like that you said bystander because it was Candice, shout to Candace Parker. Her documentary is fantastic, directed by Joey Jacoby. And I will say this. Even Candace is like, hey, Luca, like maybe we should get some offball movement. to get him involved because a couple times he would pass out of the double team and he would

pull a James Harden. He would just stand there and be like, you guys operate. And that makes me so frustrated because as you mentioned, he's seen double teams before. He's Luca Donchage and he's seen Lou Dork before. And if you have to have. They just played them in the playoffs last year. They need a counter strategy. If they're doubling you at half court, which I think is dumb personally, but you know,

someone tells me Mark Dagenal probably knows more about basketball strategy than I do. But if you're seeing that, you need a counter. And I just felt like he wasn't putting forth the effort. And that's why I brought up the third quarter. Because it was like, okay, like you're doing one of the greatest players in the world. Got a good coach. Like, you guys will figure this out. They came out in the third quarter.

Got their ass beat even worse. It was pathetic. It's crazy. I found like just the effort level didn't seem to be there for, a team that you played in the playoffs, a team that is the top of your conference, that I understand that Lou Dora is difficult to score on. I understand that they were double teaming you taking the ball out of your hands,

but you have to have a counter for that. And it just seemed like he kind of gave up a little bit. I'll say it. Yeah, I load him too. It's a good call, Bruno. All right, thing you loved. Jennifer Gardner. I went with Trey's dice roll.

Did you love this or hate this? Okay. I have to admit that I didn't understand it. I want the maximum amount of smoke between Trey Young and the next. I just wanted to keep on getting more and more heated. But I was like, why is he rolling dice? I was trying to figure out the meaning. He's going to Vegas.

Then I figured it out. Yeah, then I had to do some research and he talked about going to Vegas. But I didn't get it at first. I was like, okay. Oh, come on. I didn't get it. He's going to Vegas. It's the dice roll.

I liked it. Do you what I loved about it? I like celebrate. When do you ever see guys celebrating on other teams? That was like the, it was the equivalent of all those flag planings we had in college football. I was going to bring that up to. Where everybody starts fighting each other. And yeah.

But I love the most about the dice rolling is Jalen Brunson after the game was asked about. And here's what he said. I mean, we should win the game if he doesn't, if we don't want to do that. Wow. That's the attitude I like. Not, oh, don't disrespect the low. go. He was like, you know what? If we don't want him to do that, we should win the game. I love that response. We need a like a New York congressman or senator to make it a felony

to dice roll on mid-court of the Knicks like that guy did in Ohio State. There is some Ohio councilman that tried to pass a law that you can't plant a flag in the middle. Win the game. I love Brunson's response to it. We should win the game if we don't want him to do it. I loved it. But I did like the dice wrong. And as you mentioned, like I love the Trey Young versus New York storyline. And I think everyone involved loves it too. Yes. I think,

I think Trey loves it. I think New York loves it. Do you remember when they beat New York in Atlanta? And he was talking shit to the Knicks fans in Atlanta after the game. He's like, I hope those Knicks fans go home now. Like he's not just doing this in MSG. He's doing it in Atlanta too.

I love the dice roll thing. I loved it all. I loved that when he threw that, through that lob, he started skipping through the, it was like a 10-point game with like four minutes left. and he was just skipping around through MSG. And every time he would just look at the crowd.

He was just trying to make eye contact with anybody in the crowd. I loved it. I love the villainy. I want to see a playoff, a playoff series between these two. Thing that you loathed? Outside of Capital One and Jennifer Garner.

God, I really love that. I mean, we are never getting them as a sponsor. Oh, that's a good point. I take it all back. Yeah, edit that out. Edit that out. No. Hollerate us, Chase.

I got an Amex I got a business Amex The thing that I loathed It's not the concept It's the execution It's the NBA courts For the car Oh

It's not that I don't like The courts The idea that you're making a new court And making it special It's just the The blank colorization of it Like the Rockets one It's just so red

and yeah but yeah but that way and they should have leaned into that welcome to hell yeah that's what yeah curry said it was like the fifth circle of hell or whatever yeah just like i did i i loath that and another one that really bothered me is i watching the bucks game and there's a there's a skim's logo on the court and i'm like can i enjoy an NBA cup game without thinking about the Kardashians like can i just can i just have a Kardashian free NBA experience please that's superimposed i know it is but It makes me think about the Kardashians while I'm watching NBA basketball, and that bothers me. And those are the basketball things that I loathe,

but I have a quick personal story I'd like to tell. Just give me 60 seconds of personal time. The real thing I loathe this week is we do a thing where we drive to New Jersey and cut down Christmas trees, right? And we've gone to various different Christmas tree farms. Some of them we show up and we just have to leave because the Christmas trees are so janky, but there's this one really good one that we go to. Charlie Brown Christmas tree farm.

It's about two hours away from my house. We drive out there. The trees are huge, gorgeous, just great trees, like perfect shape, wild trees in this farm. And I get down on my knees. Do you bring an axe or do they provide it? No, they provide everything. They provide the saw, not an act.

Do you wear your overalls? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get there, provide a saw, saw the thing down. They don't tie it to your car, so it's always a little nervous because you have to tie it to the car yourself.

Wait, but you have like little kids, so are they just standing around watching you saw? No, they're running around and picking out trees. What about this one, Dad? What about that one, mom?

Like, you know, it's fun. It's a huge, huge thing. We're all running around picking trees. We find the one tree we like, everybody agrees and we, and then they're like, I want to saw, dad. I'm like, go ahead, try it.

And they can't saw the thing. It's not hard, but they're kids. So I get down and I saw, right? I'm sawing, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I get as a Saturday. So a week ago last Saturday, right? So it's now 10 days out.

And a couple days later, there's like this little bump on my arm. I start scratching it. And there's another bump. Start scratching that. Next thing you know, my entire hand is covered in poison ivy. Oh, no. Have you ever had, I haven't had. I had poison ivy since I was like six.

Have you had poison Ivy? Not since I was a child, the Calamine lotion. Oh, no. It is nasty, nasty stuff. It's now, I'm now like day 12 of poison ivy, and it looks like really contagious and nasty, and I'm on the train and I can see people looking at it and like shifting away from me. Get away from the leopard. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I was like, I feel like a leper. And honestly, there's a part of me just wanted to drive back to Charlie Brown's Christmas tree farm and take the saw. and just saw my arm off. That's how bad it was. Seriously, I was like, I was like, I'm not here to complain about the poison ivy. I'm here to borrow the saw.

Oh, wow. So the thing I really lov this week is poison ivy. I had to go to the doctor and get steroids. I'm on steroids right now. That's why you look so swall. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. I'm like me and Vince McMahon.

Yeah, you and bits of McMahon. Poison Ivy is the thing I love. Also, why I have an artificial tree. Yeah, listen. No poison, made of plastic. Fold it up, put it in the basement. That's it. No, it's in the attic. Yeah. Bring it down.

Bring it down. Put it up. Put it up. There you go. Yeah. God. Boys and Ivy is the thing I load this week. What about you? The thing that I load is all the stories now. You know, I lamented a couple of weeks ago about all the rating stories. It's like all this stuff always like making something that you love. Like, hey, we know you love the NBA, but ratings are down. things stinks and people don't like this thing and now it's and i saw it last night and this is going to be

a real thing and it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out but if you want to go to go to Vegas and go to these basketball games you could sit in the lower bowl for nothing because with the way it played out with bucks hawks and with thunder rockets i mean you're into these things for less than 40 bucks there's already stories about how these ticket prices. So I was there last year for this. They got absolutely saved by the Lakers. You got absolutely saved by the Lakers because I remember it was just such a weird experience. The first game was the great game, which was Pacers and Bucks and you had all the

Halliburton smoke and you had him doing the Dane Time thing and whatever else. It was really weird because there's not Bucks fans and there's not a lot of Pacers fans that are there. They kind of darkened everything in the arena and then had the court lid up. up. And then the way they do it is it's not like the NCAA tournament where you kind of buy to both sessions and then you go to two games. They cleared out the entire arena. And then as I walked out of the arena, it was such an odd experience. Nelly is performing this, you know, concert outside. The T&T guys are out there. And there's just the wrongs everywhere outside of T-Mobile of purple and gold. I mean, it's just everywhere. This was a Lakers invitational

that took place last year in Las Vegas, which is a big national brand, but also close to the vicinity where Lakers fans could just go up there, and that's drivable. Now is the real test, because none of these are big national brands. And, you know,

one of the things that I have lamented over the course of the last couple of years is how many decisions don't seem to be made with fans in mind, right? with the customer in mind, the coutowing to the players and how many games they play and there's all manner of things that take place.

And this is another one of those where it's like, bro, if you're a fan of one of these teams, you can't just schedule, hey, I'm going to go out to Vegas and support my team. No, right? So you are counting on either big national brands or somebody that is drivable. to that. And so, look, you can throw all the conspiracy theories away because if there was a

conspiracy, you would have believed that they sure as hell wanted Steph Curry and the Warriors there. They didn't call on that. But I mean, I just, I worry, as someone who was there last year, I worry about how they're going to get people in that arena and how this thing is going to look. And then kind of maybe having to rethink this because this is with the four teams that, that made this. You want it to be an event. You want it to feel like a big deal. And yet the in-person product is going to be,

I mean, for God's sake, you can get into this. I mean, you can't even get into regular season games for these prices. The prices are, do you see there, you get into this buck talks for 25 bucks?

See, I saw those headlines too, right? And I saw that you were going to talk about this. So I went on the ticket app. Yeah. Just to see, it's not as bad as you would,

think pricing wise, right? There's still $150, $250. I saw a $1,600 ticket. There was close to the court. So it's not that bad, but it's, there's two things. This is a made-for-TV event, right? And the people that are going to be in Vegas

are people that are NBA fans, not die-hard one-one-team fans. Because even as like a Knicks fan, which I'm a Die Easy Knicks fan, I would have to assume we're going to beat the Hawks and then buy tickets in advance. And then you just, get screwed when they lose to the hawks and laying egg like they did.

But the in arena experience, because of the way it's set up, because you don't know who's going to be in it until three days before, is going to have sort of an all-star game crowd. And we've all been to those events where it's like, just kind of corporate and it's just kind of like league people. But if you don't have a California team, I don't know if you're going to get a truly team loyal situation. I just think you and I have both bought.

into this. We both like the cup. I'm for sure going to watch both these games. I just lament the fact that the environment's going to be so lame. Yeah. Yeah. There's just no way around it. There's no way real hawks, bucks, Thunder or Rocket fans are there.

There'll be some Thunder fans. There'll be some, I mean, there'll be some, but it's not going to have an energy like a regular season game even has. Correct. Where there's a, where there's a a loud crowd in the fourth quarter. Right. On the edge of their seat, standing up. You know what I mean?

Like, they might stand up on a final possession, but if a team goes on a 10-0 run, there's not going to be a crowd standing on their feet, and you call time out and everyone loses their mind. Like, that's not happening. That's a bit of a drag. But they didn't plan it. There's no,

I think there's no college football, right? Yeah. I wish there was a way to have real fans as your team advances to this, because it's just going to be such a smattering of because you also have to you have to try to plan for two games but if your team loses

exactly that's another thing right now you're there for an extra couple days you're having to book hotel room and probably just lose your ass gambling I was about to say yeah I was like I can't I've learned ever since I was like 28 I'm not spending more than two nights in Las Vegas ever again I go every year for summer

league and I've gotten so much better about it so it took me here but I decided that What have you learned? So we never regret going to shows and we never regret going out to eat somewhere great.

Okay. We virtually always... That's not what I was interested in? What do you regret? We pretty much always regret going out super late or gambling super late. Those are the two things that we typically

always regret. So we did a very good job this past year where it was like, okay, tonight, what are we going to do? And so we would just go and say, let's find a show and go to it. And so I went and saw Chris Angel. I went and saw Garth Brooks at Caesars.

Sure. I went and ate it like these awesome restaurants. And it was so much better than usual. Like I came home from Summer League this past year with less regrets than ever. It's, it was hard. I remember being in Las Vegas, you know, when I was in my 20s at a bachelor party. And I got nothing left in the checking account.

I can't get any more money. And I'm at the hard rock. I need to get to New York, New York. And I'm walking down the street, right? I think I've got like $1.50. I'm walking down the street and I see a homeless man sleeping on a bench. And I looked at him and I said to myself, me and you were in the same spot, buddy. Does it mean you got the same amount of money to our name right now?

I remember flying from Vegas to Los Angeles after losing all my money and looking, we're flying over some mountains. I remember saying to myself, I wouldn't mind if plane just ran right into that thing. That's a lot of problems for me. That is the shame spiral death I've been to in that city. I'm just too grown now and mature. Oh, I had one.

The one night that I did, I was like, you know what? I just kept going back to the ATM and just kept all losing. Do this fingerprint thing? Have you done that thing? No. And then I... They take your fingerprint and give you money. They don't even get your bank account.

I'm not... Come on. I've done that before. I've done that before. I did. The one night I did lose a bunch, I walked out and I've just got like my... I've got my head down. I'm like, I've done it again.

Yeah. So stupid. So stupid. Why? Why do I... Why did I even go back to the AT? This is so dumb. And I'm walking out and I'm walking out all of a sudden.

and I hear all this commotion, right? There's like people like coming from this way, coming from this way. And I look up and it's all three ball brothers walking in. And they're all like, you know, people try to get pictures, trying to get artists.

They're like, La Mello, La Mello! Meanwhile, I'm just sitting like trying to stare at the floor, contemplate why I'm so stupid still at this age. A couple of things I've learned from Vegas is Can't spend more than two nights.

And one of the problems I've had there before is when you go to the nightclub, it's just me and my buddy, Mike, we go to the nightclub. I forget what it was. It's got a Japanese theme, Tao or something. I forget what it was. We're going there and get to the front. The guy's like, who are you with? Whatever, it's like two guys.

They're like, you have to buy a bottle. All right, well, how much is a bottle? It's like $600. I'm like, screw it. Let's do it. But the problem with buying a bottle with two dudes is you, end up drinking the bottle. You know what I mean?

It's like, we're sitting there. You have to. So it's like, well, what about we bought us? What else are we going to do? So the next thing,

you know, we each drink half a bottle of vodka and now we're hammered. You know what I mean? It's a terrible decision. Don't buy bottles unless you got like four or five people because you're going to end up drinking it. And whatever you do,

make sure that you're in bed before the sun comes up. And one time I was in Vegas and I was down bad, but I had a capital one small business car. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. Jacoby, I'll talk to you next week. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 over and present in D.C. You got a gambling problem?

Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-888-789-7-7-7-7. or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helplinema.m.m.m.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts. Or call 878-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N.Y in New York.