The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1143 - LIVE From Cary, North Carolina With Michael Grella, Stefan Mijatovic, Chris Paul, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

On today’s show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys are once again LIVE from Cary, North Carolina on site of The Soccer Tournament, after Pat’s team, Concafa SC had a massive win last night against FC Cincinnati. They also discuss the start of the NBA Finals tonight, the rumors that Dan Hurley is getting courted by the Los Angeles Lakers, and everything else happening in the sports world. They are also joined by Pat’s Concafa SC teammate and former Premier League and MLS Legend, and now CBS Soccer analyst, Michael Grella who was on the receiving end of Pat’s assist last night and had one of the goals of tournament thus far. Later, going into his 20th NBA season, 12x All-Star, 11x All-NBA, 9x All-NBA Defense, and one of the men behind TST, Chris Paul joins the show to chat about how the NBA has changed, his career as a whole, the Finals, what’s next for him, and much more. Make sure you subscribe to YouTube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. Or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. We’ll see you on Monday. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello beautiful people and welcome back to glorious Cary, North Carolina at the soccer tournament. It is Concava's Buzzing Thursday, June 6, 2024. This bargain starts now. Concava! He's buzzing after a big time win last night. This tournament down here in Cary, North Carolina is one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of. There is a group of humans that have gathered on a hill here to watch us talk about sports. There is soccer games happening all around us,

and there's a million-dollar prize at the end that everybody is battling through pain and exhaustion to make it to on Monday. It is Thursday. You make it to the championship. That's not until Monday. Speaking of championships, the NBA Finals tips off tonight

as the Boston Celtics are six-and-a-half-point favorites over the Dallas Mavericks. Although they are six-and-a-half-point favorites, 89% of the bets have been on the Dallas Mavericks. Are Luka and Kyrie a more desirable duo? Or is Jalen Tatum and Brown going to be the guys that finally rise up after Coach Joe Mazzulla

was called a fucking genius by LeBron James on his Mind the Game podcast? Speaking of the Mind the Game podcast, one of the co-hosts of that show, J.J. Ruddick, he was going to be the next head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. We had Shams on yesterday, and Shams said nothing has changed since May 24th.

He is the frontrunner, considered the frontrunner. He wouldn't go as far enough to say J.J. Redick's going to be the Lakers head coach, but he certainly said it's a frontrunner and all eyes are on him. That ain't the same story starting this morning. Woj woke up this morning with a big old bomb in his phone. Dan Hurley, head coach of the UConn Huskies, back-to-back

national champions. He is the man that is potentially going to be the next head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. I believe Oriyema, the head coach of the women's basketball team up in UConn, actually talked to Dan Hurley last night. I don't know if he knew that this was coming or didn't know this was coming, but he told Dan Patrick

this morning, like, you win a lot of championships out there in L.A. They spend money. They got the star power. They're able to do it. Is Dan Hurley going to be able to make the adjustment from college ball to the NBA with LeBron, with that entire team? We shall see.

What's the contract look like? We'll dive into all of it. And is Dan Hurley, the man who wore the same underwear through the last NCAA title, in NCAA title is he gonna be an NBA guy will the NBA be able to handle a man with his character his moxie the way he goes about doing his business we shall see for the next two months before they probably make this thing yeah official I'm not the only one here there's a lot to chitchat about the toxic tables here at Boston calling at Ty Schmidt con man

he's got booed a little bit. I see you with that Celtics shirt and the America hat on this lovely D-Day, which isn't, you know, I don't know if it's a celebration or a reminder of what could happen, but today could be a big day for the Boston folks, Con. Yeah, a huge day for the Boston folks. And, you know, celebration reminder, I think it is a celebration. I think so, too. Yeah, because of the fact, you know, everything that happened. But as far as the Celtics go, couldn't feel more confident. I feel very, very good, celebration reminder. I think it is a celebration. I think so, too. Yeah, because of the fact, you know, everything that happened.

But as far as the Celtics go, couldn't feel more confident. I feel very, very good going into it. I don't know if you saw the promo videos. Tom Brady returned to the Celtics to do a nice little promo montage hype video. Also, Patrick Mahomes did the Dallas Mavericks one. A lot of people are saying Dak Prescott probably leaving the Cowboys because of the fact that he wasn't the promo guy. I haven't seen Dak courtside of any of the Mavs games.

No, he hasn't. And the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback is, but that's neither here nor there. Well, that's because he's focused on football, trying to win a championship. Oh, that's Patrick. Yeah, he just did it a couple times. Yeah, that's what he did.

And then Kelsey's there, too, with Hollywood Brown, who hasn't even played a snap as the Chiefs. Well, then I think Rasheed Rice is there, too, but he needs to get out of there. Yeah, he shouldn't be at the games. Yeah, he needs to get back to Kansas City. Yeah, immediately. Although, if he wants to be there for maybe game three, game four,

mix it up a little bit, cause some drama. That might help the Boston Celtics actually so he can stay if he wants to. Six and a half point favorites at home. Is this normal for the Boston Celtics? Is this a big spread? I don't think I know enough about it. No, I mean, for the playoffs, this is low. I think our lowest spread at home in the playoffs was the Pacers at 8.5 or

9.5, so 6.5 is low, but that's way too many points. This is one of those games, especially when you look at how the Pacers came out in the Eastern Conference Finals in Boston, where they should have won. Who cares? Should have won, though, still in Game 1. That was a 13.5 point spread, 12 point spread, but

I would probably lean towards the 6.5 points with Dallas if I was betting. Now, game as a total, you're taking Tatum to score 40. You're taking Jalen Brown to score 40. You're taking Luca to score 35. Bingo. You're taking Kyrie to score 30. That's the biggest worry is that everything with Kyrie is that he is in

a very, very good spot. We'll see what happens when Tommy from Watertown and Jimmy from Quincy are in his year screaming at him, but I feel very confident as a Celtics fan. All Celtics fans should, but it's going to be a long series, six or seven games. 8.30 on ABC, that tips off. A man who's a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, in soccer aficionado now.

In the Hawks' nest, A.J. Hawkins. Hawker. A.J. Hawkins. A.J. Hawk is here. Hawker. A.J. Hawk. Okay. A.J. Hawk. A.J. Hawk. I love that. We don't have any cameras on them, once again, because going into this, we had no idea that people would actually show up.

We appreciate you guys immensely. Oh, yeah. We're ready. The city of Cary, North Carolina, just continues. Unreal. This place is awesome. Yeah, it is. We just found out that the home of USA Baseball is just like right up the road.

They brought us a bunch of hats. Then obviously, I think the ACC championships are happening. Like everything seemingly happens in this city for good reason. Great logistics, great organization, great hospitality. Thank you to Cary, North Carolina for everything. A.J. Hawker. Now, obviously, the NBA Finals tipping off is a sign of things to come. You know, now obviously the NBA finals tipping off is a sign of things to come. Whenever the finals

are tipping off, that means the finals are potentially over. Now, this is going to be a long series in everybody's eyes, which is great news. The NHL Stanley Cup finals obviously starting soon as well. How do you feel about the state of sports, A.J.? And are you now a big soccer guy because of your time down here in Cary? I tell you what, your team, Concava, is making me

a big fan of soccer. I'm a fan of how you guys play. You guys played amazing last night. Obviously, a beautiful assist by you to grow. Thank you. Thank you. Beautiful, whatever you want to call it. That was awesome. But no, tonight for Boston, like for Connor and the rest of the Boston fans, this is kind of a weird time

because you're expected to win. It's like, hey, yeah, you win the championship. Cool, yeah, you were supposed to. If you lose, colossal meltdown. Do we have to blow the team up? Like, you guys are in a weird spot. Oh, yeah, it's brutal. It is actually the worst spot I think you could be in in all of sports, really. Like, even for the Chiefs.

Sure, they went into it. They're supposed to win the Super Bowl. But that's a completely different conversation. The Celtics have just dominated the entire year. So it is a situation where if they don't win, it is an absolute world exploder in Boston if the Celtics don't get it done. Okay, let's talk about this Dan Hurley news to the Lakers. Literally just yesterday, Shams told us there was going to be a changeup. Yeah, he did.

Zeroing in. What's that all about? I don't know. Shams might not know shit is what we were talking about earlier. Are they actively working against Shams like the rest of the media? Yeah. They may be using Shams as a puppet. Hey, let's get this out here.

Everyone's looking this way, and then we're going to slip in the back door, and we're going to go make sure that Dan Hurley is going to be our next. I think J.J. Redick was on maybe with Levitard. I forget what he was on yesterday. I think he was on yesterday. And he said something about, as the Shams news, we'll talk about that after the finals or whatever and then just kept the conversation moving but he said it was like almost basketball.

Dan Hurley though, as the Lakers head coach, I don't think any of us thought of this because I just view him as like a college ball guy. He'd be able to make the transition right as I'm talking to people that aren't really basketball people. Our opinion matters. Dan Hurley feels like a guy who can reach people and coach people no matter where they are.

I don't know the NBA culture well enough. I don't know what Dan Hurley feels like a guy who can reach people and coach people no matter where they are. I don't know the NBA culture well enough. I don't know what Dan Hurley does and how he does it. I just assume the guy's going to be able to coach wherever the hell he wants and have success wherever he wants. I don't know if that's the right way to look at it, but that's how I view it all. No, I think that's the assumption. I mean, you know, he's arguably, if not the best coach in college basketball. I think he is, right? I mean, that's not even like a...

Well, guys like Patino are still there, so you have some of the old guards still, but in terms of guys right now, absolutely. I just think it's tough. He seems like the kind of guy where if he were to go to a different team with a bunch of young guys where he can kind of mold everything and do it that way, I just...

The LeBron aspect of it makes it tough because it seems like LeBron's going to kind of butt heads with whoever his head coach is going to be because he's obviously played for so long. He's got all of his opinions. And with how fiery of a guy Hurley is, I don't know if that would necessarily work. But in terms of just like could this guy go win in the NBA, I think it's a no-brainer. We'll be talking to Chris Paul today in the second hour. He'll be here live.

I mean, perfect day for Chris Paul to stop by with the NBA Finals tipping off. He'll give us a lot of game on that. And also, like, how players will respond to a Dan Hurley-style coach. He's front of the program. I think he's awesome. I love everyone. I love his moxie. I love his attitude. I love how he doesn't give a shit. Like, he is going to be himself.

Not bad for LA, right? Los Angeles. Feels like he'd be, just like J.J. Redick would have been perfect for LA because he talks and his personality and does his thing and he knows ball it's like Dan Hurley going out there is going to be must watch if he has success there think of all the movie people are like we need to make character yeah after Dan Hurley some stats here on this particular graphic shout out to Derek for putting it together he signed a six-year 32 million dollar extension with UConn last year right yeah so that's like five points something a year.

He could potentially be pulling in $14-15 million in the NBA. He could certainly ask for that if he wanted to with the pedigree that he has. His teams have been dominant. They've had no let-up. Why not Dan Hurley for the Lakers? I was very intrigued with J.J. Redick, but then as I think about Dan Hurley making it,

it's like... Why are we just hearing about it, too? Obviously, they've been talking to him, and they know that he is willing and probably to come do this, but why are we just hearing about it? So, I don't know, but allegedly, Dan Hurley. It might have been with the team, like the UConn team. Oh, yeah. Yeah, when you're leaving a basketball program. College.

All these recruits. You have everybody that. It is a weird spot for Hurley. He's like, bittersweet. Yeah, I get to go coach the Lakers. Hopefully, I get paid a ton of money. But you're leaving where you are. You built this monster in UConn.

A machine. It seemingly was a machine. The next seven-foot-tall athletic guy is coming in here like Kling Kong had. And then we're just going to keep doing this thing. And he had it kind of ready to go, which is not easy to do in the modern world with NIO, with transfer, with everything. Not easy to do. Seemingly had it figured out.

So I would assume they were trying to keep it as quiet as possible for the good of the team. Allegedly, Fox Sports is reporting that he had a meeting with the team this morning and told them, like, very real. I am talking to them, trying to be as transparent as possible. But, like, that's a tough spot whenever you're telling kids when you're recruiting them. And this is why when college coaches leave jobs and go other places,

you know, we talk about it. We're like, oh, this team got better. This team got better because they got this coach. It's like there's probably a lot of uncomfortable moments with a coach because they went into families' houses. Oh, yeah. And said like, hey, come to my school. I will help become boy to man, make MBA. This is how we run things.

And then all of a sudden it's like, well, actually, with that being said. Yep. There's like a $10 million more per year job that I'm going to go get. And that's a lesson for you guys. If you guys ever get this opportunity, you should think about doing it as well. I assume that's why it was so quiet. And what's kind of awesome for L.A., it's like, hey, you get the number one college football coach and college basketball coach now. Like Harbaugh and Hurley all of a sudden kind of run L.A. together.

And they're almost like. And McVay looks like he's in college. Yeah, McVay is still a college guy. And the Clippers, Ty Lue, still a college guy, you could say. It's kind of great times for LA, no matter what team you root for. Yeah, I'm pumped about that. There is so much to chat about on this glorious sports day. I think every team now is in OTAs. Is that what...

I think so. I believe so. I believe every team. Congrats to the NFL. Yeah. They made it. They did it. Sad news.

Not good news. Kansas City Chiefs had to cancel their day-to-day because there was a medical emergency with somebody on the team. Yeah. Have we learned any more about that? So allegedly it was during a special teams meeting. One of the backup defensive linemen went into cardiac arrest and then they took him to the hospital and canceled everything else for the day. So I don want to uh that's t's and p's we've heard

good news good news we've heard good news medical wise good news but they have canceled their otas today and it's not like obviously the chiefs can do whatever the hell they want they have a good enough team but this is something that's very tough to deal especially in meeting room imagine that happened in the meeting room imagine how how scary that is. As scary as hell. For everybody involved. Somebody sitting next to him like, hey, hey, Tobe. Yeah. Like, something's going on here.

Get the trainer in here. We need to call an ambulance. We need to get him to a hospital. Like, that is a pretty traumatic event to happen. Chiefs were also the team, and I don't want to bring up other negative news, but like murder, right? Didn't that guy? Belcher.

Murdered his girl. Yeah. And then shows up at the parking lot and then ends up killing himself. Andy Reid, or not Andy Reid, was it Romeo at the time, I believe, and their GM are out there in the parking lot trying to, oh, man. If you start looking at all the things that just happened with the Kansas City Chiefs, it's like, man, there's a lot of controversy, drama out there,

and they're still able to keep it going. Hopefully, old buddy's okay, but OTAs being canceled and missed, I don't think is that big of a deal, especially if your attendance has been good throughout the entire thing. You can get better during this phase, I think, AJ. I think teams can get better during this entire thing. I had a coach in college who said, we can't win the national championship in spring ball,

but we sure as hell can lose it. If we come out here and we half-ass everything and we get guys hurt and we don't learn how to practice right, then, yeah, you can do some damage to your team. But, yeah, when you don't have pads on and you're just wearing helmets, it's still pretty physical. I mean, you know, like you're out there and you're still banging a little bit and you're still getting your fits and kind of learning how your teammates

interact and communicate with each other. So you absolutely should and will get better through it. Hey, kickers are going to have to do tackling drills now. Yeah. Throw your head in there. How does that even work? Like who are they going to have to do tackling drills now. Yeah. Throw your head in there. How does that even work? Like, who are they going to, what position group do they do it with? No, so they'll do that

rolling pad. Okay. They've evolved these pads so much. Oh, with the whole, no, not the power. The remote control. I mean, maybe, that's advanced level. They should do that. Yeah, especially whenever they get to the point, because those things are going 40 mile an hour, brother. Bingo. Those things are flying around. That little hole, the donut one, right, is probably what they're going to have these kickers.

Yeah, you dive and do like the gator roll tackle on the donut. That's the last thing we need to hear on O2. Boy, those are the highlights. We do not need to hear guys are getting hurt tackling dummies. Couple broken legs. You can. You can get hurt doing that. Yes.

You drop your head. Oh, yeah. Yeah, landing too. I mean, there's like potential. Because some of these, no offense, kickers. No offense. Okay? Love you guys. Punters, much more athletic than all of you. You know that.

But when it comes to kickers and everything like that, I don't know how much are they ever falling on your shoulder or whatever. That's an actual fear of mine for all these guys, because they're certainly going to have them do tackling drills. That is certainly going to happen. And some of them have never

done a tackling drill before in their life. Entire life. So my rookie year training camp, Ray Richleski was our special teams coordinator. He, hilarious human being. He was in college for a long time. Gets into the NFL. I think he's still coaching college. He did not want me to be the punter for the team. He wanted

Tim Mastay and Thomas Morstead. He was very open about that as well, like during my workout, during the whole pre-draft process. But then once I get there, we became cool with each other. But he was like a hard-nosed guy. So rookie training camp, he's got me and Tim Mastay doing tackling drills. And I'd been doing them.

Are you tackling each other? Are you running the ball and Tim's tackling you and then flipping? No, they got like third, four-string linebackers doing like jumping up and we're like tackling them. So I was like very comfortable with it. I was like kind of enjoying it almost. Like, oh, this is something to do. I was supposed to just stand here.

You know what I mean? Because like there's nothing else going on. Tim Mastay also very athletic. He was good with it. But those drills can go – you can look like a doofus in those drills. Like very, very quickly. Like you're not a professional real quick. He's like, this is pro,

this is the NFL football and you see some guys tripping over their feet and over their shoelaces trying to make a tackle and then dislocating their shoulder with no pads. And we got cameras

on everything. I am not happy about the state of where kickers are going to look in training camp and OTAs over there. But do it inside

like pre-practice where you can do it like in your indoor facility or whatever. That's how you stretch kickers and punters. Let's get the embarrassing stuff out of the way here.

Let's make our mistakes indoors. And we're saying this, obviously, because the kickoff coverage rule is different now. If a returner breaks through that first line, it's pretty much kicker or nothing. Not that it hasn't been like that forever, but these are things that all these teams are going to have to think about. I'm worried about the embarrassment that could come alongside of it.

There is a storyline brewing here in Cary, North Carolina. And that's that there's a team. Wow. As a massive goal is scored against the reigning champions. Newtown is in the green here. They won the million dollars last year.

Our guy, if you've been watching, the target score game winner, the goalie that we put in at the end. Massive leg. Great mullet. Stefanovich. Me. He was on this Newtown team last year. Okay. So he was champion with this team last year. He's now on our team.

He talked about how last year they lost their first game, too. Gave a nice little speech for what happened with us with the Reggae Rovers yesterday morning where we lose. This dude's an absolute beast. But this Newtown team buzzes. And they play like all year round. A lot of these teams have a lot of chemistry. A lot of these teams have a lot of like even plays, counterattacks. And they're taking a million dollars on the line.

That's a lot of money to potentially win. Our team needed to get our ass beat yesterday morning. And then last night came out. New formation. New style. New team looked like it really did basically and that cincinnati team just bad timing like they if they would have had his first game in the morning i think it's very different second game boys were pissed boys were buzzing we were

doing our thing and there was a guy that was pretty prevalent in the middle of the field and he had gold shoes on and he's a paisan and those were diodora so he had the italian flag on the gold shoes i got a chance to play soccer with him in like 2003 and whenever i was like kind of introduced to this guy because he was from new york and i was from pennsylvania so the way the regions work they were telling me like hey you get to go play with grella you get to go play with grella and he was like this mysterious figure pretty much. Same age, basically. 87 we were both born in. And then I got to go play with him, and it all made sense.

Like the smoothest dude of all time. Filthy at soccer. Fluent in Italian. The coolest guy of all time. He would go on to play professionally for a long time. I think he had some injuries that kind of railroaded some stuff, but now he's the glue that's holding Concava SC together. He's also the guy that's holding concava sc together he's also the

guy that made me look phenomenal last night he decides to do a ridiculous volley to put that thing home ladies and gentlemen friend of the program absolute stallion super pies on michael pies on michael grela thank you for joining us hey excited to be here man hey real quick yo just thank you for doing what you did last night. Right ear's facing the wrong way. Right ear's facing the wrong way. Right ear's facing the wrong way. Flip the right ear. Flip the right ear. It did look cool.

It's like you're... Turn it down. There we go. There we go. There we go. We're in business. Yeah. No, that was good. It was your pass, though. It was good. Yeah, all anybody said was, I was on the way out, walking out here and they're like what an assist what an assist I saw on social media McAfee with an assist I felt so terrible because what you did with that ball is so no no no people don't know that you you played that that's the thing about him they thought they were they're

surprised that the way that you can move the way you can play you did celebrate the assist like it was your goal bingo which I didn't I didn't 100% like but I came over to you though move the way you can play. You did celebrate the assist like it was your goal. Bingo. Which I didn't 100% like. I came over to you. I got to you, though. Yeah, you got to me. Yeah, I got to you. But I'm telling you, we got a bunch of ex-pros, a bunch of ex-indoor guys or indoor guys now,

all talented group. I don't know how many guys that could have played that ball. It was like a chop down on the back of the ball. The ball floated forever. Made it easy for me. Yeah, I did it on purpose, too. Of course. Yeah, certainly, certainly. It was incredible. You you literally you you screamed pat and i hear you and i see those gold cleats kind of running and i'm like all right here we go we're

gonna try to do this because if you remember my first touch last night i spiked the ball into the ground almost fell on my face i had this i had this great plan ball came into me i was gonna outside of the foot pass it and then i was gonna peel to peel. Old buddy was going to put me through. Like, I was going to outrun anybody. No, legit. And instead, I hit the ball into the ground, almost fall on my face. Almost a counterattack. We lose.

Like that, that was almost a problem. MCL, ACL was in trouble. Yeah, that is exactly the case. So I appreciate that that moment happened. That's why I was celebrating. And there was a chance I was going to act like I tore my hamstring during that too, so I didn't have to play the rest of it. But I'm having so much fun.

I'm really having so much fun out here. You obviously work for CBS, still cover the game. That's right. In a very massive way alongside coach Tony Miola. How often do you get to play? And when you're out here, does it feel like the old days whenever you're playing out here? I got to tell you, we play.

You got to move that closer to you. The wind is bananas. Yeah, yeah, got you. I play once a month back home. I got three little kids now, so I spend a lot of time with them. But I only play like once a month and try to keep somewhat fit. Knowing that I was going to come down here, I obviously played a little bit more and worked on a little bit more, but it's not something I spent a lot of time on anymore, you know? Yeah, me neither. Yeah, no. And now I

feel it. Like this morning, I really feel it. Like, I'm dead. Okay, we got IVs coming. And also, we got a little cold tub here in a matter of moments. Here we go. Pawn Man's got a question for you, Greg. Sure, sure. Hey, I want to let you know, the boys have become big Drella fans. Oh, yeah.

Now, I know I was getting all the credit last night. Mutual. It's mutual, boy. Okay, sweet. I know I was getting all the credit last night, but I hope you did see the reaction from, like, the actual world where they were like, what the fuck was that finish? So as you're running at that, you're thinking to yourself, I'm going to make this look as filthy as possible. Is that literally going through your head?

No, you know what? It's the Paulo Di Canio. I don't know if you remember him, but it's that sort of volley, scissor kick or whatever you want to call it. But by getting up there, I think you make where the ball is like level ground. I think that's the science behind it i'm not sure i mean it's something i've done forever you know and seen the canyon do it so it's it it becomes quite quite natural i think it's easier to hit it that way than it is any other way so and to be clear i tried to come celebrate with you everybody was stopping me yeah i know it took you long it took you long i was waiting until i subbed out immediately

the guns first i subbed out immediately did you know did you see that at the end of the video, I was like, all right, I'm exhausted. That was a lot of celebrating. I'm out of here. I think I'm going to be done with it. But I couldn't even fathom attempting to do what you did last night because everything in my body would rip. Look at the guns. You had to. I felt real good about it.

As it was flying in the air, I was like, oh, shit. This might actually work out. You couldn't believe it. I actually, at the end of the celebration, I grab him and I slap him around. Like this, y'all. Make sure you know what's going on because you looked a little confused at first. Yeah, I had no idea what happened. I got a text from Shane Gillis last night that was like, dude, this is actually good, dude.

And I was like so lucky. So many things had to come together for that. He was like, it looked like an EPO play, dude. And I was like, thanks. I don't think that's. Dude, it's a good play. It's a really good play. Well, that's because you finished it play, dude. And I was like, thanks. I don't think that's... Dude, it's a good play. It's a really good play. It's not easy.

Well, that's because you finished it off, brother. Hell yeah. And literally, as a kid, I don't know if you heard during the intro, and I told you this, and you were pumping me up all day yesterday, so I appreciate that. That's good leadership. But as I was going to play with you for the first time, everybody on earth was like, wait till you see this Cruella guy. Wait till you see this Cruella guy.

We're playing the same position. I'm like, this is pretty disrespectful to me. Everybody's got the same... And then as soon as I see you play, I'm like, oh, see this gorilla guy wait till you see this gorilla guy we're playing the same position i'm like this is pretty disrespectful to me like everybody's got the same and then as soon as i like see you play i'm like oh this is the guy yeah different styles you were more smash power you know i was a little bit more elegant so super smooth yeah yeah a little bit more smooth but i i've been building this guy up now for a few days like he came in he looked a little nervous about the whole thing they didn't know what was gonna happen so i was telling him hey pat you look good like you're moving well. Like, your touch is fine.

He said, you really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So building him up. Build him up to that assist. So that was great. That was good leadership, bro. That was good leadership. One block at a time.

Connor's got a question for you, Grell. Sure. So, Grell, yesterday, Pat kind of was telling us about this after the first game. Obviously, the first game doesn't go well, and it was kind of just all over the place. And he said, you know, the thing that pissed Grell off is because you're such a high IQ soccer player, footballer, if you will. That's what you guys say, soccer player. You know, a lot of things had to change. What changed from game one to game two?

And also, how is this style much different than, you know, the 11 on 11 that we're used to playing on field? Yeah, playing poorly yesterday morning is an understatement, a really nice one, actually. I've never been more confused in my entire life. I'm being dead serious. It was probably top five most embarrassed I've ever been on a football pitch. I mean, seriously, it was bad. And we had no answers. I mean, we lost every facet of the game.

If you watched it, I'm sorry. It was embarrassing. We were there. We were just, I felt like I broke my neck from tracking guys all over the place, and there was no communication. I mean, we had no system. Didn't help Tony showed up one hour before the game. Didn't know anyone's names.

Coach Miola. Coach Miola. So, Tony's the best. So, we figured out, we made a change that credited Jimmy Conrad, a guy I speak to, an ex-U.S. men's national team guy. He goes, girl, you've got to play this way. And what it was, was a 3-2-1 Christmas tree formation, if you could imagine.

Starting at the back. Yeah, yeah. Numbers start at the back, but you kind of try to keep everything on the outside of you, instead of tracking guys around. You know, we played the reggae boys, a lot of young fit guys that were just all over the place, and for guys like us, we can't track them.

That's not playing to our strengths. So stop tracking guys, following guys all over, and just sort of trying to stay in our shape more so. And then the attack, just try to let guys express themselves more and keep it, be a little bit more patient. And that kind of did the trick. So we'll see. We'll get another test at it tonight.

Which country is kind of the founder of playing that particular style? Christmas Street is Italian football. AC Milan, back in the day. They won Champions League. Change it up. They won Champions League doing that. You know what I mean? You guys defend.

Protect yourselves at the back, and then all the guys can express themselves and go forward. Kaká, Pirlo, all those guys. Yeah, of course. Grazie. Gabagool. Yeah, Gabagool was out there smashing the ball around. Croissant has so many goals. Oh, so good. So good. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Gorilla, going into this, you ball around. Brassant has so many goals. Oh, so good.

So good. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Gorilla, going into this, you know, we're looking at you guys' roster, and it's like, okay, there's a lot of guys. Like, for a guy like me who's not a massive soccer fan, like, I recognize several of the names. And you kind of just assume, I think, like, hey, they have so much talent. You look at some of the other teams, it's like you don't really notice

that many of the guys' names, but you understand, hey, these guys play in the MLS or whatever the case may be. How difficult was it, though, like in terms of just like the camaraderie? He helped put the team together, too. Okay, so like being able to play together. Like I think coming in, I kind of just assumed, especially when you get to the target portion, it's like, okay, the guys with the most skill, like the teams with the most skill,

like they're just going to end up winning because that's kind of smaller pitch, obviously smaller goals. But like how difficult is it coming out here and playing when you're playing with several guys? I mean, I don't know how many of these guys you've played for in the past, but how difficult is it when you haven't played with any of these guys before? That was the thing, too, in the morning. We don't know each other's tendencies. Thank God Pat and I played 21 years ago together. We remember that little combination came out. But it's hard. It's hard to also make sure everyone likes each other.

But we have a really good group. Foss did a great job of putting the group together. I don't know if he helped a little bit. Yeah, he's done so much. And everyone, even just in early stages, has taken on like a role and a responsibility. Everyone's happy. It's a really good vibe. I think the indoor boys that we had stayed up last night till 1 a.m.

wrestling each other, trying to choke each other out. That's what they do, though. They are a wild bunch. You've got to let them be themselves. Jiu-jitsu guys, apparently. And they were complaining at breakfast who choked who out and who was breathing heavier. Yeah, we got a great group.

They cleared the tables. We have a room at the hotel where all our shit is. Have food in there, have some recovery stuff. No, apparently they didn't clear the tables. They wrestled right in between the tables. We have a room at the hotel where all our shit is. Have food in there. Have some recovery stuff. No, apparently they didn't clear the tables. They wrestled right in between the tables. Banging into all of it. So we had a chance to enjoy some cigars with the Arena Boys last night.

Sure. Until about 12, 31 a.m. They live a wild life. They're nuts. That Arena Soccer League is a real thing. It's on CBS, right? Don't they? I think CBS has MASL rights.

And I've been told that they get really high ratings. It's like small, indoor... What's futsal? Is it similar to... Small ball, right? Futsal has no walls. Oh, it doesn't. That's more than I know, but I know the football is different. I know the ball is different.

It's kind of like a dead ball. It doesn't bounce much. But they had a lot of things and input on how we should play, because it like a dead ball. It doesn't bounce much. But they had a lot of things and input on how we should play because it is a smaller field. And obviously the outdoor ex-pro guys, ex-MLS guys, Jeff and Zatnite played in Europe and myself as well. We had a lot of input into how we should approach the game as well. It's actually right in between.

We figured it out yesterday because we tried the indoor stuff earlier on in the day. We tried some of the outdoor stuff. None of it worked. It's kind of a new game where you have to put all those things together and sort of figure it out. Hey, you talked about, you said letting guys express themselves. You're going to pack what three, two, one and get, what does that mean exactly? Is that like in a basketball? Like I want Jay Tatum, let him express himself and isolate and go, go to the hoop. Like what does that mean? That's exactly what it means. Yeah. You want the good players in space and let them play,

you know, and pass and move and not have sort of set place for them. Defensively, I think you're like more organized in the way that you want to approach the game. And it's a little bit more rigid in the structure that you want to have. But once we get the ball, I think it's more free flowing and get better players in space with the ball to do what they can do and express themselves. You know what I mean? Just like isolation. Like football. Give the ball to your playmakers in space.

Exactly. How many times can you get them in situations where they can be successful? And also, like football, we are in a shell coverage right now. Like, hey, we are not getting beat overhead. Makes sense. Against the regular Rovers, they were countering the shit out of us, and it was like three on one, two on ones. That's like your cover zero there pretty much.

We're running cover two right now. Like last night, though, they couldn't get a shot off. That's the thing. Your guys' defense was suffocating. They couldn't get it. Especially in the beginning when we had energy, but I got to tell you, like yesterday in the locker room before we went out, and I know, look, we're having a good time, and it's a good

group and everything else, but obviously we want to compete. I got the number 10 on my back. 37 years old. Washed up. Got the number 10 on my back. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Not washed up. We were calling you Landon Donovan on the sideline just so you know, okay? I heard some stories. I got gold boots on, and I'm like looking at myself and looking at other guys around me.

I'm going, if we have a bad game tonight, I think that's it. I'm out of here. I think I won't touch a football again for a really long time. So I'm glad that we got the three points, and it was good. It was much needed after the morning session. Can we talk about the state of soccer right now? Because obviously you cover it. Sure.

You guys are covering what on CBS? International, MLS, everything? You guys talk about the state of soccer right now because obviously you cover it sure um you guys are covering what on cbs international mls everything you guys talk about all ball we're doing so i got brought in to do city which is italian football right uh probably you're not seeing yeah yeah yeah second best league in the world right right now i would sign mls so so mls creeping up there uh but then we launched the Golosso Network at CBS. And so that's covering everything. Top five leagues, women's football, national team football, Euro Cup. Covering sort of the world of football and trying to get a piece of all of it. So it's been exciting.

It's been good, you know, trying to get it all under one thing. And I think they do a really good job. How do you feel about state of soccer in the United States of America? Because when we were coming up, obviously, there was always a hope and a dream. I think 2020 was the one that they were eyeing for the United States to be a real deal. Like, hey, soccer in America has been around long enough. By 2020, we should be able to compete with everybody. How do you feel about where we are in 2024 just from being in it and now covering it?

And what do you think the future looks like? We're going to win the World Cup, right? I mean, that's happening. It's coming home. That's going to happen. I think at some point, right, you would have to say soon. Soon. Soon. I don't know about soon. Next one.

Then I disagree. You don't know shit! You don't know shit about soccer! But I think the athletes are really good. You know, you got the Weston McKinney's, the Pulisics, the Tyler Adams of the world, Tyler that I play with. I actually spent my last year of my career with Greg Berhalter, who's the coach now of the national team.

So I think they have a good group. I think we're still some ways away from winning it. You look at the top European teams, you look at Argentina, you look at Brazil. The difference is still there. No, Messi's playing for America. Because there are different places in the world. Because he's in the MLS. Plus, now we've got that 14-year-old kid that just signed with Man City

who's going to the academy. Yeah, a kid from Philadelphia Union. Yeah, he's the next one up. Yeah, I mean, that's also a positive thing. Like I said, I think it's moving in the right direction. Man City and Chelsea and massive clubs in England, what they do is they have a roster of about 1,000. Well, they hate Americans.

Why do they hate Americans? No, they love Americans now. So the progression was they used to only sign American goalkeepers, right? So guys like me and Pat had no shot. No, you. And so, and then it started to move to the midfielders. And then, you know, we had some good defensive midfielders. And then now the strikers, obviously.

And so now the American players actually sought after in Europe. But these big teams, they can sign 1,000 players and take gambles on them, basically. So you sign a 14-year-old who's got some real talent, spend $1 million, $2 million on them, and then you loan them out and see what you get. And if you don't get anything, $2 million is not really a lot for them in the scheme of things. And if you do, you get maybe potentially a $60, $70 million player. So that's sort of the schematic behind that.

But it's good to see Americans even getting in those sort of opportunities and conversations. Did you do any Academy stuff? It wasn't really that prevalent, right, whenever we were going? I mean, in America. I guess Philly has one i guess chicago has one there's a bunch of img that's new that's a new thing though that that was not always there it was not really like like established academies yeah so you didn't do that here no we didn't know i was in the same boat as you for a long period it was like you went state team region one and

then you try to get in the national team which i I got in the national team. I don't know if you did. Never. No, yeah. Yeah, son of a. So that's the way you do it. But I went to, I ended up going to school. I got a full scholarship down here, actually, down at Duke. And so my parents were like, you're not going.

Hey, they hate Duke down here. Yeah, no, no. Yeah, I'm a big Duke fan. But so I went there. I went that route. And then as soon as I finished, I signed over at Leeds United. Went on a trial, scored three goals in the first game, and that was it. It was all done.

Had a good time. How old were you when you were over there? I was 20 years old. Were you playing in Europe whenever we were teenagers? Were you over there as well? I went over there on trial. Every summer I'd go and train for a couple months. I went to Blackburn.

I went to Darby County and stuff like that. The Darby boys. Oh, the Darby boys. Yeah, Darby, they actually got one of the worst records

in the Premier League that year. They were not good. Well, it's not because of you. No, I was not on the team. I'm sorry,

the way they talked about you was so awesome and then for you to live up to all the hype is crazy. No, it's fine, man. You went to stupid Duke,

I guess, which I love. AJ's got a question for you. Did you play any other sports growing up? And if not, what would you like? And also, when I look around your guys' squad, do you think there's any guys on your team or guys you've played with that

could have played other sports, like professionally? Basketball, football, anything? Oh, yeah. This happened NBA, NFL just happened. People argue about this all the time. It's hard not to look at Breck Shea and think that he's going to play another sport. UFC. He's a monster. I mean, we actually had Jiu-Jitsu UFC fights at 1 a.m., so we must have. There you go.

Some guys in there. For me, I played all sports growing up. I was good at all of them. I'm born of Italian parents, both born in Naples, my mom and dad. So my dad at like seven years old was like, hey, I'm not paying for all this shit anymore. Which one are you doing? So I'm like, I don't want to disappoint him. I know he loves soccer.

We watch in City Eye every weekend. So I was like, all right, I'll just do soccer. And so I just kind of focused on that at seven, eight years old and then just took off with it. Hey, you want to get in this cold tub? Sure, let's do it. You'll keep the headset. Which one's colder, though? To be honest, mine was chilly as shit.

They're even. Equal bags of ice in both. Ice melted a little quick. Either way. A little quick. You keeping the shorts on? Is that a linen shirt? That's sweet.

I'm just going to hide it. Yeah. Take it off! It's going to feel fantastic. We got IVs coming, right? In a little bit? Oh, yeah. Hey, the IVs worked yesterday.

Yeah, they're huge, right? Hey, the IV worked yesterday. Pretty good. Yeah. Got a little're huge, right? Hey, the IV worked yesterday. Pretty good. Got a little Toradol juice in there, too. Fosse was telling me that you were the new man after you got it. Oh, buddy, yeah. He told me it was the first time for you, too. You were all nervous.

The IV thing, yeah. I don't like getting stabbed, and especially with how big it is. I mean, I saw the hole they were putting in my arm. Oh, yeah. They're like, you just got to think about how good you're going to feel afterwards. It's like, well, I've never done this before, so I don't know how good I'm going to feel after. And I'll tell you what, they were right. They delivered.

You know how all those, like, Las Vegas has them. I think, like, you can get the IVs, and now it's like a modern thing. Like, hey, get IVs to your house during bachelor parties or everything. I'm always scared to do that because of needles and everything. But yesterday felt like a necessity.

Boy, we're going to ride that tortle train for the rest of this entire thing. I know, we got some coming up. How does the body feel, though? You feel like you're going to be able to be good because you've become a massive piece of our entire team. Now, let's go, Grillo. Yeah, no, no.

Listen, I sat down on the toilet this morning. I didn't know if I was going to be able to get up. Yeah, that's a problem. The quads were mushy, but we'll see. I'll be all right by tonight. Yeah, because I can go for 45 seconds at a time. You've got to run for like five, six minutes each time. Long time.

Let's go ahead and remember that. Do you keep track of all the other sports? I do a little bit, yeah, yeah. I've got to play off all playoff sports I keep track of. Okay, so Celtics are playing the Mavs. Starts tonight at 8.30. What are the favorites? What are the Celtics and what should we look for?

Celtics are minus 6.5 tonight in the series. They're minus 225, but Pat mentioned it. They're 89% of the series bets, so the Mavericks to win the series are like plus 180 are coming in on that side. I mean, you seem like a smart man. You know the Celtics are going to win, I assume. Do you watch any of the playoffs and do you see the dominant run that they're on or

are you just like, hey, I know the Celtics. It doesn't even matter. I don't have to watch. No, no. I became sort of a Celtic fan because I have a unique connection with them with the Pagliucas, actually. They own a team in Italy. So we have conversations about Italian soccer and about Atalanta, the team that they own, that actually just won the Europa League.

Is that Atlanta? Yeah. Atlanta was that. Okay. They got Atlanta. Same thing. Okay. Got it.

Got it. So they own, they have, I think, majority stake of the Celtics. So they invited us over for four seats. So we became fans of the team. And Tatum's Duke boy I know you all love Duke so yeah so I became sort of a semi Celtic fan North Carolina is known for a lot of things obviously Duke in North Carolina and how about that wolf pack here at NC State but there's one particular thing, Ty. What is it? We got Bojangles.

What? What? It's Bo time. Yeah. How many, bro, I know you're super healthy and play soccer, so obviously I do think. Did you house Bojangles while you were at Duke or no? I got to tell you something. Never.

What? Never had a Bojangles. You don't know Bojangles? No. No, I never had a Bojangles. You don't know Bojangles? No. No, I never had a Bojangles. We went to like a barbecue place that was open at night. God, I forgot the name of it. And we'd go there and get milkshakes and barbecue and stuff like that. Do you eat super healthy?

No. No. When you were playing, did you eat super healthy? No. Not at all. What was your conditioning and cardio? Not much, man. I'll be honest.

Just playing? Yeah, just playing. Listen, I got a big Italian diet of soppressata and salami. Oh my god, my boy! Yeah, mortadella and all that, bro. Monterey! Bourbon cigars. I'm not the example for a healthy diet

at all, man. Ty, you gonna have any of that Bojangles? Yeah, I think so. We got a couple biscuits with chicken on here. Look pretty good. You guys want one? Sure, I'll take one. Grella, have you heard? There's some world some world news yeah i'll certainly take some bojangles have you heard any world news uh did you know that starlink is elon musk's internet okay so it's able to reach places in the world that were never able to get internet there's a remote amazon tribe that is getting internet for the first time if you had to guess how that was going, what would you say, Gorilla?

A remote Amazon tribe that's getting internet for the first time? First time. They have access to the internet. First time. 2024. What do you think they're using it for? Remote tribe. These people were just living off the land. Obviously, they didn't know anything like that. I don't know anything about it, but my guess is that it went really well in the beginning. And then?

And then not so well. Yep, you're right. Porn and social media. Is that right? Yep, yeah, it's 100% right. Addicted. They're addicted to porn and social media. Oh, God. Because this is a true story that is happening right now in the middle of the Amazon. And who can blame them? Yeah, water's wet. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Can you imagine

that first night, how much fun they were probably having? Because, what, are they also getting access to, like, movies and things of that nature, or is this strictly internet i assume that the the beginning of it was like hey you guys get social media so you can get connected with the world and see what it is and then one of them typed in big booty or something and then all of a sudden look what we have here and then go around the whole town whole village like hey you know what we can do now?

Just beat the hell out of ourselves. Like a prophet. Every single night, and they have been doing it. Welcome to the modern world, Amazon tribe. Proud of you. It's a fun place. We have similar problems, and then every super religious person goes onto their social media saying, you gotta stop watching porn. What is that all about? I don't know. AJ, what is that all about?

Just high horsing it. What do you mean? How come every super religious person I see is that, AJ? What is that all about? Just high horsing it? What do you mean? How come every super religious person I see is like, you need to stop beating your... It's like anything in life. Just a little bit of everything's good. Not too much. Moderation. Well said. That's why you're the guy. Wise man.

You pay attention to baseball at all, Gorilla? A little bit. Tough sport to follow, but I want to let you know there's two electrifying baseball throwers in Pittsburgh who have taken on Shohei Ohtani in back-to-back nights. The Hundo boys, Paul Skeens last night, put 103-103-104-105 on the board, right? Ain't that right against Shohei Ohtani? Yeah, I think the first at bat was Ohtani. I don't know if it was 103, because I know Chapman did that later in their bullpen.

Yeah, I think he went like 101, 100, 101 to strike him out on three straight pitches, which is pretty damn impressive. And then, obviously, you know, Otani's a unicorn as well, so he took him deep later. But we were talking about this yesterday. Like, I mean, guys aren't supposed to be this good this early, but when you're

throwing, you know, just diesel all night long, 100 for the entire time he was in there. The Pirates really, they got a shot here. They really do. So apparently you've got to be able to locate this thing too, right? You can't just throw heat. Because I had a friend of mine, Craig Hansen, played in MLB,

and he threw gas, but he couldn't locate it, and they just ate him alive. Who's the tight end? Hayden Hurst. Hayden Hurst is a guy who got drafted to play baseball through like 100 miles an hour, I think. Yeah, former Panther. And as soon as he gets into the majors, or as soon as he gets drafted to play baseball, can't throw a strike. Yeah, I got the yip. Ball cannot hit the strike zone.

So it's going 100 miles an hour right outside the strike zone for whatever reason. Had to play football. Literally had to quit baseball. That's nuts. And go play football through the entire thing. Absolute insanity. Is this sustainable, Ty Schmidt? Yeah, for sure, because with throwing heat and locating it,

a big thing in the majors is being able to tunnel. Because a lot of guys are throwing over 100 miles an hour, and these major league hitters, they can hit that. But it's being able to locate your pitches and make your fastball look like the splinker. So guys are identifying it, like, oh, okay, he's throwing a fastball here, and then it just drops off the table. Yeah, if he stays healthy, it is sustainable.

Let's talk some Carolina football. Let's go to Clemson. Dabo Sweeney, who's a man who they won a national championship not too long ago. They were on top of the world. They were running the ACC just like SEC school in the ACC. Killing them.

The Clemson Tigers are going to be on a run forever, just like the run that Dabo does down that damn hill when he's striding out. Somehow his hamstrings aren't popping off his legs, just like mine somehow aren't popping off my legs on these fields, and I'm very thankful for that. Whoever is in charge, thank you for keeping these things. He doesn't do transfer portal. He's not much of an NIL guy, but he is a recruiter.

I don't know if you saw this video. Not a lot of people did. Here's a Brandon Jacobs' kid live on campus, Dabo Sweeney, making a TikTok. Hey, what's up, guys? It's Brandon Jacobs checking in at Clemson's official visit weekend with my best friend and head coach, Dabo Swin. Hey, and I'm Coach Dabo Swin, Clemson football, hanging out with Brady Jacobs.

The best. Five-star. Five-star. You're five-star. I should be a five-star. You're a ten-star. Ten-star. Ten-star in my book.

What do you think? You ever seen him in the basketball? I've never seen him in the basketball. First time. Hey, and, you know, we've been another. Another. with it I hope they both play the same position without that, but even though and he said a lot of battles. A lot of battles. Always be the best place to go. I hope they both play the same position without Dabo even knowing. He's had a lot of battles. So the recruiting in college football is, how do I say, embarrassing. It is really tough. True.

Because you've got to sell these 17-year-olds or 16-year-olds on some dream, and you're a grown adult, you know. It's a very wild world, especially with the NIL. And every time Dabo Sweeney does something, we're going to talk about it because he is a national champion coach. In soccer, was it weird, the recruiting process for you? And now, is NIL cracking into soccer? Do you know of?

And how does it kind of play out? I'm not sure if it's cracking into soccer yet. I would imagine that it's only a couple guys, if any, that are getting some. Who are the guys? Do we know who the guys are? I'm not sure. I would imagine the top two ranked, the top five maybe getting some stuff. Probably the top schools.

ACC is the best soccer, from what I understand ACC is the best soccer from what I understand. Best soccer league from what I understand. But, yeah, for me, it was really, listen, I got immigrant parents, you know. So I was getting phone calls from all different places. And one day I just had too many phone calls. And I said, you know what? I'm just, I didn't even know that much about Duke. And I was like, my mom was like, I said to my mother, I said, can I just go can I just go to Duke she goes where's that I go I think it's North National yeah you're good

boom signed up like I was like I didn't know it was like too much overload too much going on at any rate I knew Duke was a good space a good place so I was like you know what I'll just go there so for me it was for me it was a little bit different I know now it's it's more different it's more competitive um I will say Duke hasn't done that well in the soccer field anymore and some it was a little bit different. I know now it's more different, it's more competitive. I will say Duke hasn't done that well in the soccer field anymore, and it's a question that I ask because they should be able to recruit, so it's something that maybe I'm like,

how are they recruiting? Has it become more difficult? So it's something I think about sometimes, especially with the money on the table and the scholarship, but I haven't had much time to really look into it. We are in Target goal time here in the field behind us. Newtown, the reigning champs. What's the score?

Can you guys see this? Yeah, it's 3-1. Yep. Target score, 4. We've got 3v3 here, too. Yeah, this is late in the target score time. 3-1, target score, 4. These guys are dead right now.

Yes, absolutely dead. You guys went 3-on-3 towards the end yesterday. How brutal is that? I don't want to give away too much of our strategy, but with our Arena League guys, we're in a good spot when it gets to three on three. You can sub during the three on three? Yeah.

They're subbing goalie in and out here. Is that a move we're going to do or no? Yeah, I think so. I mean, we got Stephan doing it, the big serve. That's what Cincinnati got caught up in, though, during your guys' game, is they kept trying to sub the goalie back on. In and out.

Yeah, and it didn't work, obviously, that last time. And then you guys ended up scoring. It was awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, we are not just watching the target goal time here for Newtown, the reigning champs. They're up 3-1. Yeah. Okay, so they're looking to get to 4.

We got Dortmund here just now. The team. Marco Reus. Fantastic year, obviously. Bringing some brats and some sausages from the great country of germany appreciate you man no thank you thank you for having us sir how are you a couple good brats there hey guten tag guten tag hey yeah hey oh yeah yeah yeah need to survive buddy yeah need to survive how to survive. How you doing? That's a camera for them. I think Thank you for the box and how's the team? How we feeling?

See that Yes, I love good German meats I do a House of German meat all day every day. How are you guys doing? Ich habe auch deutsche Züge. Ich habe auch deutsche Züge. Wie geht es euch? Wie geht das Turnier? Dortmund ist jetzt auf der Welt. Sie haben die Champions League nicht gewonnen, aber die Finale ist natürlich mit euch. Es war sehr gut hier.

Wir kommen bald wieder. Nächste Saison spielen wir hier. Nach der Saison. Die Weltcup. In Amerika. Wir freuen uns auf dich. here after the season, the World Cup in America, and always to be here in America. Hell yeah. Well, we appreciate the hell out of you, man. Dankeschön.

Dankeschön. See, hey, nice assist. Hell yeah. We saw it. We all saw it. Grella, did you see the assist? It was a great assist. Yeah, it was a great assist.

Did you guys see who scored or no? Yeah, no. Thank you. Oh, yeah, a brat in the cold tub. Yeah, this is classic germany yeah okay hey did you hey did you boys ever see someone celebrate an assist like that before how do i how do i say uh cheers in german who post all right here's uh i'm gross beer bitter gross yeah yeah cheers to the boys cheers cheers cheers to the boys. I'll take an ice cold roast. What is this?

Cheers, boys. Thank you. Sky blue Kolsch. Ice cold roast. Yeah, there you go. All right, Dortmund. Yeah, yeah. Here you go, AJ.

Oh, thank you for the jersey. I mean, that is legit. I feel like a real player. Nasty kids. I can't put it on right now because Concave is rolling, but I do appreciate this. That's a delicious beer. Oh, yeah, I'll take it. Okay, let me see that. I'll get it Yeah, I'll take it. Let me see that. I'll get it back.

I'll get it back. Don't worry. Hey, thank you so much, boys. Cheers to you guys. Cheers to you guys. Safe travels back to Germany. Prost. Safe travels, boys.

Prost. Prost. Prost. Hell yeah, Dortmund. Thank you, boys. Thank you, boys. Cheers. Cheers, boys.

Cheers, boys. Cheers, boys. Thank you, Dortmund. What a little soccer celebration down here in Cary, North Carolina. Got Germans here. Hey, appreciate you guys. Thank you Norman What a little soccer celebration Down here in North Carolina Got Germans here Hey Appreciate you guys

Thank you Great assist Yep thank you Thank you Hey it's not working Yeah it's not gonna be great Hey how about that assist man Greatest play you've ever seen

Yeah probably Thank you Alright see you later brother Thank you Don Koshay Don Koshay You're super handsome man Yep yep

Absolutely Good lad Good lad Drell did you hear that Fuck you Great assist Great assist All of them They're from Germany Don Cachet, you're super handsome, man. Good lads, good lads. Did you hear that? Great assist. They're from Germany. They're speaking German about myself.

You never know there was a goal on the back of it, man. I loved it. As soon as the game ends, I'm cramping all over the place. We're celebrating. And Gumpy's like, wow, the internet is alive right now. I'm like, sweet, I can't wait to see it. The TST account goes, Pat McAfee with an incredible assist. I'm like, oh, no.

And I start reading the comments. And they're like, what about Groh? We're not going to talk about it. I almost became like heel in the entire thing. Another network was like, oh, and Breck Shea with the karate kick. No, that was the announcers. Yeah. That was the TST announcers. It's on ESPN, though.

You're a CBS guy, so they were trying to. You know what's nuts is I think the announcer is Mike LaHood, who's a guy who works with me at CBS. He didn't even know it was me. So he's jagging y'all. Oh, yeah. So they're just dumping on you, Gro. What's that all about?

I don't know. Are they down to two on two right now? Yeah. Yeah, that's what this little guy was telling me. All right, let's watch this thing. Wow, this is awesome. Hey, Gro, you guys are super physical. Yeah.

Were you expecting? Is that the plan? I think, you know how we talked about the shape before? Yeah. When. Hey, Grover, you guys are super physical. Yeah. Were you expecting? Is that the plan? I think, you know how we talked about the shape before? Yeah. When you come into that shape, you have to get hit. Especially your big dudes playing defense. Yeah. They're not.

Did you tell Breck Shea to punishment Martinez, Damian Priest, chokeslam that guy onto the ground or no? No, that was Breck Shea's own thing. But I was right there to help him out right away. Man. Once you come into that shape, you've got to feel us a little bit. That's sort of our trend. You guys are being filled.

I love that. We've got to go American toughness on our team. Hell yeah, we do. We're bigger, slower guys. We are a bigger, slower team. We're bigger and slower than you, and you're going to feel it the entire time. So this is two-on-two right now, including a goalie. Is the score still 3-1?

Yeah, still 3-1. 40 seconds left until they don't take people off. Do they go to one-on-one, Grella? Do we know the rules? I'm not sure. Oh, my goodness. Braveheart? Okay, they have to be so tired.

This is awesome. Shoot it. That's the goalie there wearing a penny for the Newtown team, who are the reigning champions of TST. Taking on the blue team, who we do not know their name, but we know they are certainly in one. If they get the ball, they can score and make this thing 3-2.

We have another upset in target score time. Last night, somebody came back from being down 4-0 to score five straight goals. Newtown passing to Rock. Seemingly can get an easy shot any time they would like one. Bang, there it is. Goal. It is over.

Newtown wins 4-1 one the patience has paid off but that might affect them a little bit later gorilla having that long of a game they're going to be exhausted that's right not ideal to play that long and you you wonder why they're not not really moving and if you're watching from the outside you're thinking oh just go just go and finish it yeah they're exhausted yes we're exhausted after three minutes of work i mean it's it's a lot it's more like a hockey shift than it is a soccer shift of like 190 minutes. I get on the field last night, and I turn the ball over, and I'm chasing somebody down. And then I run all the way back.

Everybody's like, good running, good running, good running. And Grella comes up to me. We don't need you chasing that guy. Because with how exhausted you are, if the ball goes the other way, we're fucked. I was like, thank you, Grella. I will stay more centrally located. Our team's awesome. Black kids only now, right?

Only strictly black kids. I don't think we make that decision, I've been told. I heard it's black kids only now. It should be. That's what I heard. Didn't you guys lose the white ones? No, I heard we got confirmation that it's black kids only. Black kids only, yeah.

Sorry. When you're built like me, brother, the white kid's not a good, you know. Me and Steph. The black kid makes you look a little slimmer. Bingo. Like I said, and I'm going to build you up again, you look fantastic out there, dude. You look great out there. Come on, we're having beers in the afternoon.

We got Burnley tonight. They're going to think we're not taking this serious. You shouldn't be. They suck. They're the worst team in the this serious. You shouldn't be. They suck. They're the worst team in the entire tournament. They shouldn't be here. Were you in this last year, Geller, or no? I don't remember.

I wasn't. No, I wasn't. I was invited to play with Clint Dempsey's team, but I didn't come. I was not fit enough. I was like, nah, no way. We try to get Clint Dempsey on our team. He turned us down. Yeah, he's playing golf right now, probably.

What's that all about? Big golfer, man. He's just lost the passion for soccer, and he's just golfing now. You too? You're a big golfer, right? Big golfer. Yeah, I enjoy it a lot. No one can kick me.

I can't get hurt playing it. So you do TV and golf now? And dad. Predominantly. And dad, yeah. You can get hurt too, by the way, if you run a red light or something and you got my pulley over and you get out of your car. Yeah, that happened in Louisville.

Don't be golfing in Louisville. Don't golf there. You saw the clips of that come out though, right? Oh, yeah. Brother, we've actually covered that pretty. We did some real journalism on that. Yeah, don't golf there. You saw the clips of that come out, though, right? Oh, yeah. Grella, we've actually covered that pretty. We did some real journalism on that. Yeah, closely. Nobody's talking about it.

Seems like Scotty's still the man. Huh? Scotty's still the man. Yeah, he went five under that day. He was in a jail cell. 66, I saw that. He's phenomenal. Hey, Grella, I appreciate you so much, man.

You made me look good when we were teenagers, and last night you made a highlight that I'll run with for the rest of my life. Pleasure, man. Got to score tonight. We got to beat Burnley tonight. Need to beat the shit out of Burnley. 10-0. We had a good breakfast this morning. A majority of the boys were there at first watch.

Felt like everybody's kind of dialed in. We understand what style of play we're gonna go for, and I think we got a good chance at this entire thing. Listen, we got something now, right? We got some shape. We got something, so. We got you. When can we watch you on CBS? CBS? Right now, it's a little bit slow time, but once the seasons start up again, there's a weekend program Saturday. Yeah, we watch you on CBS? CBS? Right now it's a little bit slow time, but once the seasons start up again, there's a weekend

program Saturday. Yeah, but aren't seasons all the time, AJ? Isn't there some tournament that's a thousand? You guys do some tournament all the time. We'll be covering the Euro and the Copa America as well. We'll be on every weekend. The Europe. The Colossal Network, yeah. Do you think they'll ever put the Europe's trophies up against the Concava champions, which is us?

They should. The United States? They will. We'll see. I'm sorry, you guys call it it clark okay well copa america is going to have uh you know united states and a lot of big teams so if they win that that's that's all that's right are we going to win that it'll be interesting where we play so i don't think we can win it well remember messi's playing with us this time around though let's change his name to lou messy he's got citizens yeah he's actually playing against us so and that, though. He's changed his name to Lou Messi. He's got citizenship. He's actually playing against us. That's a fact.

He's on America. He plays in the MLS. I thought he was saying, hey, I can't play against America because I kind of favor them more now, but I won't play against Argentina. No, I think he likes our money. I'm not sure how much he likes the United States. Well, he loves our money. We're giving him a lot of it, and for good reason. Just like we should be giving you at least a million dollars after we win this thing.

You're a pillar of this team. We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, American soccer legend. Howdy, Duke. Mike Grella. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get out of this club, man. Yeah, it's pretty high. You stepped on your shades, too. That's not good. That's true. Need them. Today I was able to stay a to get out of this club, man. Yeah, it's pretty high. You stepped on your shades, too. That's not good. That's true. Need them.

Today I was able to stay a little bit longer. You know why? Why's that? We're a little bit more sore. Thanks, boys. We're a day on. Hey, I appreciate the hell out of you, Gorilla. Hell yeah, Gorilla.

Thank you, buddy. Appreciate you, man. Appreciate you, appreciate you, appreciate you. You're the man. What do Ontario dairy farmers bring to the table? A million little things. But most of all, the passion and care that goes into producing the local high quality milk we all love and enjoy every day. With 3,200 dairy

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Carcade 4! It is buzzing. That's the team that will be playing Burnley this evening, which is J.J. Watt's squad, who I believe has been mathematically eliminated from TST before anybody else. They have the worst goal differential in the history of TST after two games. But a lot to play for tonight as J.J. Watt continues on his passion for football and maybe a goal to be scored on the greatest grass that I have ever felt in my entire life.

The Toxic Table is here at Boston Conner at Ty Schmidt. Con man, I see you with a bunch of brats and shit in front of you here on this June 6, 2024. Yeah, look, I don't want to bring it up, but sorry, I'm not going to eat any German food on D-Day. Sue me, okay? I appreciate the message and the feeling about it. I'll prost with one of their beers, but with the brat

and the German mustard and the whatever the hell's on top of that. Sauerkraut. Sauerkraut. Yeah, bingo. I'm not eating something that has sauerkraut in it, okay? And why would you? You know, because on this D-Day, on this 80th anniversary of D-Day,

there's nothing more American. There's no better way to celebrate than with Bojangles. We got Bojangles. We got Bojangles. Chicken biscuits from Bojangles. They are spicy. They are delicious.

To the Allied powers. I do believe, though, that they were coming up. On D-Day is one thing. They're paying homage. They're kissing ass. They remember, hey, you think those guys aren't embarrassed walking up here on D-Day? This is just like the Colts team for deflating.

Exactly. Exactly. We would like to not talk about that. Right. So, hey, we'll bring you our sausages. We'll bring you a couple sweet kits, some little pennants and whatnot. But they know. And they won't forget.

And guess what? We ain't ever going to forget either. A man who's up in the hawk's nest who epitomizes American muscle. That's right. American success. The president of Ohio. What? College football national champion.

What? Super Bowl champion. What? All-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. What? Greatest jawline in the history of sports. What? Father of 10. What? All-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. What? Greatest jawline in the history of sports. What? Father of 10.

What? COVID survivor. What? Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hall. Hey. A.J., A.J., I know that that Bojangles chicken has flavor, so that's not normally something you would try. Easy.

I'm not Orlovsky. I like stuff with flavor. I like spices. I'll eat it whenever I want. Yeah, there's no rules in it. You normally don't. Cheesecake Factory order late in the night last night. Always comes through.

I need the driest chicken you got. I need the flavorless rice that you got. Oh, yeah. Stat to the hotel. But I feel like you've actually enjoyed yourself down here, which I assume was not something you would think about for a soccer tournament as a man out of Ohio who is a football guy through and through. Son of a bitch, it's all gone.

Oh, no. Well, my only background in soccer, I played in second grade for the Green Hornets, and then I was able to play football in the third grade. But I loved it. I enjoyed it. My daughter played soccer for a little bit, but I was excited to watch. Like, I came down here, and I can't believe how good everybody is. Like, I don't know a whole lot about soccer, but everybody looks like a professional out here, at least to me.

There's a couple teams that got a couple, like, 300-pounders. I'm like, can we play them? Yeah. They probably got some great feet, though. I bet they do. They have to. Yeah. Dortmund's got a guy.

I mean, when we were leaving the Concava ass-beating you guys put on yesterday, we were looking up at the big board, and Dortmund's got a 6'8 house. That looks like a guy you want on your team. I assume he prosted a lot of these beers last night, whatever prost means. I think it means cheers. I do appreciate the fact that they're just handing out beers in the middle of an afternoon of a soccer tournament when everybody's trying to get hydrated at this stage. These boys are like, hey, you got some beers for you?

How about some brats, maybe a little bit of mustard? We got some dehydrating sauerkraut you can put on there as well. This might be mind games from the Dortmund boys. But we do appreciate them for stopping by. And also, we appreciate the soccer community for being so hospitable. Soccer.com made all of our merch, obviously. TST, which is its own entity, has been incredibly kind. And this Gary, North Carolina place, I can't say it enough.

It is the perfect spot for a sporting event wonderful now it has been great weather-wise i don't know what it's normally like down here the storms have kind of passed they were calling for storms in the middle of our show both days and if you call for storms especially in this area you think the humidity would be through the roof we've kind of missed it a little bit thus far although it has gotten hot and it's certainly thick and there is moments where you think to yourself, holy shit, this is heavy. It hasn't been like terrible. It's not like a Florida summer day. It's really beautiful here. No, absolutely. I was thinking, you know, hey, early June down in North Carolina, like we're

going to be in trouble. And especially, you know, I was thinking that it was maybe going to be turf. So it's nice that we don't have to deal with that as well. But yeah, I mean, wind in here the storms are at bay like it really has kind of i mean i don't want to say they got lucky but the stars kind of aligned for everything to go as well as they have so far that we've been down here speaking of things going well the vikings get a deal done with justin jefferson they draft the quarterback of the future which everybody thinks from jj mccarthy kevin o'connell's around there they're in a tough NFC North, but it feels like Vibes and Mojo are going in the right direction. Now they debut an alternate uniform

that is filthy. Yeah, might be the best. Absolutely filthy. They're calling it the Winter Warrior uniform, and in Minnesota winter means negative 45 degrees, and you can't go outside. These all-whites in that dome.

AJ, in U.S. Bank Field, that is going to be, I'm assuming it's going to be a whiteout. Oh, yeah. That's going to be a college atmosphere whenever they bust these out. The whole deal. Well, you can do it. The horn. I don't know if I got it right now because the yelling. Todd usually has it, but whatever. That was very good.

I thought it was there. I thought it was in the stadium. Close your eyes. Close your eyes. Think of a big, fat-ass Viking. Yeah, got it. No, missed it. Had it the first time.

Shouldn't have done it again. It was the big, fat-ass Viking that got me distracted. But this place will be alive. And this is like, not many teams lose alternate uniform announcements. There has been a couple this year where everybody goes, that looks like crap. Like the Giants look like shit. And Giants are part of the offseason hard knocks,

so they might have just got cursed from the hard knocks thing. But these rolled out this morning. I think everybody thought the exact same thing. Those are sick. Those are clean. And then you think about their fans and how they. Oh, yeah. It's going to be a whiteout.

It's going to be nuts. It'll be awesome in Minnesota. Man, Sam Darnham. Who do you think? Sam going to hold down the fort for a little bit until JJ gets comfortable? I mean, that flows into a good conversation. I think you should always want to give your rookie some time to learn and watch. Sam Darnold's been around, obviously played a lot of football in a lot of different places.

Has it been great anywhere? No. Has there been great moments? Yes. So maybe you let JJ kind of learn that thing. But then you also look up in New England. Jacoby Brissett has started. I wanted him to mvp at one point whenever he was playing for the colts until he got hurt he's been in a lot of buildings he's been in a lot of quarterback rooms

but what they're saying is drake may every single day it's like how long do you wait if jj mccarthy can figure out that offense which everybody says he can he's got weapons yeah you drop him into the deep end to give him reps like nfl reps that he's going to need and it's the same question that's happening in new england it's the same question that's happening in New England. It's the same question that's going to be happening everywhere with rookie quarterback. Yeah, with New England, it's such a situation, too, where it's not just Drake May being the rookie, you know, starting if he were to start week one. Like with J.J., you have Justin Jefferson. You have T.J. Hawkinson.

You have Aaron Jones now. You have Jordan Addison. If Drake were to go in there and be the day one starter week one, he's basically one of, if not the longest tenured guy when it comes to receivers and quarterbacks because they're talking about Polk and Javon Baker being the one and two. Both those guys are coming into their rookie year. I personally would want Jacoby Brissett, obviously, to start because of the fact that you don't want to start Drake May and then have to pull him and then put him back in because that just completely ruins it. But with J.J., like, if you know on half of your dropbacks, hey, no matter what you see,

just throw it to 18. Like, just throw the ball over there to him, and he's going to come down with half of them, and you're going to end up, you know, with 250 yards and two touchdowns. With Drake May, you just can't do that in New England. That's why it's like those situations, they really are situations are situational every team is different you can't spell viking without king yeah are they the new kings of the north especially with this winter is coming uniform ty i see you shitting your pants your face is getting more pink and more red just thinking about the dominance that the vikings might be able to display in these brand new uniforms that are going to shock and

all the world into a state of euphoria. No, I don't think so. The pinkness is from the sunburn and the messy tarp a little bit. It's kind of blending in. But, no, I think you're onto something with start and Darnold. Like, if the Vikings are realistic about what they're trying to do here, like you just re-signed Jefferson. He's 24.

Sure, Aaron Jones is there, but Hawkinson just got a new deal. Like, you're kind of preparing for the next four to five years or this window in terms of when you have a rookie quarterback, a rookie contract. I don't think they need to... Why would you put JJ out there, rush him out there? Because we always talk about

it's not like they're expected to win a Super Bowl this year, but if they go out there and go 2-15 and he just doesn't look good and gets the shit beat out of him, is that what you want to do with a guy starting his career? I don't know. Especially with the way J.J., all he does is win. Exactly. Literally, at IMG Academy, which is where

Breck Shea went to high school, which we need to pay a little bit more respect to. Especially with that football coach down there at IMG Academy who just produces top 10 talent every single year. They've got to figure it out, but J.J. won down there. He wins in college. He wins over the locker room. He wins over everybody that he's around.

It's like you have him in the locker room too. You have no idea what people are going to do. Because if Sam Darnold starts doing that Sam Darnold shit where he's throwing the ball to the other team numerous times, there might be like a little bit of a push for the rookie to get in there. And that's best case scenario for all parties if you're trying to think about the quarterback for the future as opposed to Sam Darnold, not not great but if Sam Darnold goes in

there does his thing showcases to JJ how to be a pro hey here's what you're allowed to do then he starts doing some Sam Darnold shit that we've seen him do then all of a sudden you have like a swell of like hey it's JJ's time it's like a perfect transition now AJ I'll ask you this we all kind of have the NFC North the same it's's Lions, Packers, Vikings, Bears. That's how everybody sees it up there? I don't know. Who is everybody? I don't know who has the Lions in front of the Packers at the moment.

I feel like the Packers. Everyone. Everybody has the Lions. Literally everyone, AJ. The Packers have a lot of momentum behind them. For sure. The Lions don't have momentum on them. They said the biggest draft of all time.

The Lions definitely are considered, at least publicly, definitely the one. You've got to prove I think that you are the one once you are the target. Once people expect you to be. People say, hey, you're the head of the class. Okay, you've got to continue to be the head of the class for the next four or five years if you want to prove and show everybody, yeah, that's us. We have arrived. I agree with that. And also,

Foxy doesn't really do this, but Lions fans in general, like I understand they went to the NFC Championship last year, but now all of a sudden Lions fans are acting like they've won 12 Super Bowls in the last 30 years. That's Buffalo football too, by the way. It's the same thing. So it's like, yeah, I understand the hype is there, but I agree. I mean, last year I guess they kind of did at the back half of the season,

but you're getting everybody's best shot now. It's good though. Guys, we did that last year though. They were expected to win the NFC North last year. They won the NFC North. They won two playoffs games. They went and go to the NFC Championship. They should have been in the Super Bowl.

They probably should have won the Super Bowl. Should have. So I think we got everyone's best shot last year. You can do that every single year with any team. Yeah, we should have been in the Super Bowl as well. We almost made the playoffs in Garner-Mischu. No, you guys lost. Yeah, I mean, to the Niners who beat the Lions.

The Packers are glad, though. It's good. The Packers want everyone in the NFC North to get better and continue to get better. We're battle tested once we get to the playoffs. You're going to have to beat the best teams anyways. But, Foxy, congrats to the Lions being the team. Thank you, boys. Thank you. Now, heavy is the head, brother.

Yeah, now we got to go. And also, we have new uniforms and new alternate uniforms that are awesome as well. So, Lions are ready. Nobody's talking about them there. Everybody's talking about the Vikings. Yeah, yeah. Well, ours are black ones. Ours are awesome.

There's like the old school, like Calvin Johnson days. What do they call them? I'm going to guess that they're called the Midnight Motor City uniforms. Oh. That's not a bad name. I totally just made that up. Okay. Like dark mode.

We know the Lions PR guy is really good at stuff So I assume he thought of a great name And had that entire situation pop off The Winter Warrior Is a sweet name Can we turn one of these Cameras to that Spot right over there on the hill

There's a man wearing sunglasses that just sat down Who might end up becoming the MVP of this entire tournament. He's Serbian. There he is. Get up here, Ovid. The guy who's sit down. I smoked a couple cigars with him last night. The guy down right on the camera

there, that guy's nickname is Life. Like one of the greatest nicknames of life. He's just hanging around with Steph. They are a tag team of problems Whenever it comes to the soccer world Hey, Steph, you're killing it, pal Absolutely killing it, Steph Steph's a lad, too

For one Lad of the lads Yeah, he's a lad of the lads Truly This dude plays soccer like every weekend He made the dude like fall down Like fake with the right Old buddy defender falls down

Just blasted in with the left to end the game Yeah, that's the goalie. Yeah, we'll have you fall. Did you see what he was doing when Ocho was on him? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I've cheated up more. Yeah, Steph saw Ocho Cinco in front of him and was like, oh, I'm going to dick with him.

Yeah, he's going with him. That's literally what he did. Yep. He's a dog mentally, and he's phenomenal for us. He's played goalie. He's played defense. He's played striker. Glad.

This dude's got an absolute cannon, too. He's 28 years old. He's played defense. He's played striker. This dude's got an absolute cannon, too. He's 28 years old. He needs to be on our national team. He's born in Germany, so I don't even know how that would work out. This dude, he needs to be representing soccer more, this guy. He's also meat. He's got a lot of meat on him. He has two game

winners for us, so we obviously appreciate him. Howdy, baby, Steph. Way to go, Steph. Howdy, baby, meat. Way to go, Steph. Howdy, baby, meat. Way to go, meat. Meat is a goalie. And he's a meathead, too, yeah, like full on. Hey, big meat. Oh, he's throwing his body around there. He's knocking dudes all over the field.

Meat, put this headset on, bud. He works for the Nike Moving Company, too. Oh, yeah. Five-tool player. Does it all. Five-tool player. No problem at all. Gritty mover. All rightitty mover. How we doing? All right, Steph. How we doing? Good, good.

Hey, take 20 minutes, Steph. Jesus. Yeah, yeah. Do you want to have a conversation? Yeah. I brought this for you, man. What is this, your arena league? Two jersey. This is my empire jersey.

The last thing on this. Oh. Good save. This one is the USA one. We did the mini World Cup in Dubai. Okay, I'm going to need you to sign me. You said Dubai. In Dubai?

Yeah, we talked about this last night. Mini football is like six on six on a smaller field. They had a full World Cup in Dubai. He was representing the United States of America. Hey, you've been crushing it here. Thank you. You knew you were going to, obviously, with the team that we had in winning last year, like this style of soccer just suits you so well.

That's why you play Arena League mini football, which is six on six, and then now out here you're doing great. You knew you were going to kill it out here, or what? Yeah, this is an indoor sport, so small-sided is what the MASL does. I think most of the guys here, there's over 100 players, so I think a lot of the guys you see in indoor are taking over this game, and they're going to be taking it far for sure. Okay, let's talk about this.

Why are you not on our national team? I know you were born in Germany and that entire thing, but your leg strength, your moxie, your soccer intelligence, because we were talking to Gorilla earlier, obviously the indoor guys have a little different strategy than the guys that play outside. You've been able to play with both groups, the guys that play Premier League and MLS guys,

and then obviously the Arena League guys, you've been able to do both. Was there ever a conversation of you being one of our guys? Because I would like to see you represent the United States of America on our team because we would go bananas and everything about it. But, like, how did you get here? I know you've been playing Arena League for, like, nine years, and we love watching. I mean, I had some injuries growing up.

So I tore my ACL at 19, broke my foot twice at 24. So a lot of obstacles, but that was the plan, to go outdoor and make it on a national team. But I'm happy where I'm at now, indoor, playing in MSL. I mean, our league's growing. I'm playing with Marco Fabian, a Mexican legend. So it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Hey, we're lucky to watch you. Hell yeah. I mean, you've gained fans from our board.

I don't know how everybody else is watching, but a lot of people are watching our games, I would assume. I don't know what ESPN Plus's numbers are going to be, but I think last night probably a good amount of people were watching that thing. They see you, obviously, on the field. Then they see you go into goal with no gloves, make some big saves, dribble the ball through his legs, exhausted, and then hits another game winner at the end of it as the goalie. It's like you're taking this thing over.

We're lucky to have you, pal. No, thank you. I appreciate you having us here. Can we talk about that assist yesterday? Yeah, come on. We talked about it. How about this? What are the odds for you to score tonight?

Yeah, well, we're looking for it, right? Hey, I need it. Steph actually told me last night while we were smoking some cigars late night at the hotel. He said, got to get you a goal tonight. And then he asked, if I just stand in a certain spot, Steph will be able to bank one off my body. Okay. Stay back post. I got you.

Yeah, you just bank one off me. I mean, we got an absolute goal. You won with Newtown last year. They were in a dogfight out here. It ended up being two on two. After target time, they were up 3-1. They would inevitably go on to win. You won last year this tournament with them.

Does our team have a chance here? What do we need to work on tonight against Burnley? Because a lot of people are saying that we should kill Burnley. I agree. Every game presents its own problems, though. That is literally how it is. We got to take care of business. They've gotten killed by both teams that they have played thus far. That's the reality of the situation. But what does our team need to do to really make a run at this, you think? So last year with Newtown, we actually lost the first game of the tournament to Kingdom FC, and then after that, we won every game straight.

So it's a similar story with us. We lost the first game, we regrouped, we got our coach to help us out, and then second game, we came out looking real good. What do we need to do? We just need to play like we played last time. We need you to score some goals, man, for us. Alright. Hell yeah. I'm trying to earn some time on the field for the boys.

I only got a good 45 seconds for you, but I want to let you know, Steph, watching you play and getting to meet you has been incredibly cool this week. We appreciate you, brother. Thank you so much, man. What's the last name again? Mijatovic. Okay, yeah. Stefanovic is here.

Appreciate you, Mij. Appreciate you, Mij. That's my Mij. Appreciate you, Mij. Mij. Mij. Mij celebrates, too. you, Meat. That's my Meat. Appreciate you, Meat. Meat. Big Meat. Meat celebrates, too. Oh, yeah. That's almost some of the best parts. It's like you're hoping just to get to that point because what he's going to do after the fact

is just as sweet. Now, Meat gets all jacked up. He gets excited. Meat missed the breakfast this morning, but that's going to happen. That's Meat football. That's right. That is literally Meat football. Meat's got to beat Meat. Yeah, the Arena League boys missed the breakfast this morning, but we got a night game. What are we talking about breakfast? Exactly.

What are we even doing here? It's been a lot of fun. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, I believe is one of the founders and owners of this tournament. Obviously, an absolute legend in the basketball world. Business acumen through the roof. Author, ladies and gentlemen, Chris Paul

Chris man great to see you dude the headset should be good yeah I think hopefully you need a cold tub too too. You can get into garbage cans. I went and worked out this morning. Dude, I don't know. You're in shape, though, still. I'm running on these fields for like 45 seconds at a time. I'm going to get Toradol today. Don't do the Toradol.

No, I'm doing it. Hey, Chris. Don't do that. Chris. Yeah. I want all the Toradol in North Carolina. Okay, that is what I'm doing. Let's talk about TST.

You're one of the owners of this thing, right? Yes, sir. Congratulations on the smash and success. And for making it. Appreciate y'all being here. Hey, no problem. Lucky to be here. So the basketball tournament obviously started this entire thing.

Million dollar prize, put teams together, let's go ahead and do this thing. Then the soccer guys, the two co-founders, I met them. They said they saw that. They pitched. They said soccer would be good. How'd you get involved? And then how many years you've been involved? Because I learned of this last year. And then this year seems to be even bigger, Chris. You guys are crushing. Yeah. So I got involved in the basketball tournament. And the way that happened was

I was watching the games during the summer. And I looked and I was like, man, I'm seeing a lot of guys that I played against in college. And it's competitive. And then I seen that you get a chance to win a million dollars. And so reached out to my brother we reached out to John boom got a part of that and then soccer comes on you're like I'd like to be a part of that as well yeah so it's you know John and all we we talk we have meetings about all all types of things and so we was like TST the soccer tournament because we could do that with just about anything but you want to see how it works so last year was the first year we did it right here in cary and it was it was a learning experience you know what i mean but it's one of those things that you got to be here to feel it to see what

it's like and that's why i'm happy that y'all came here we appreciate it dude it is awesome this might be the greatest grass i've ever i mean legit i don't want to put over like the city as much as i have because you know like I haven't seen every single chart of very city in a very great state might I agree we've been saying this the whole time like including Duke Salem I'm from what's the same just say hey these people hate Duke they. Okay. Just saying. Hey, these people hate Duke, right? They absolutely hate it. But the grass, it feels all like just very easily set up.

And I know there's a lot of work behind it, which leads me to talking about you. You played basketball, how long have you been in the NBA? Going into my 20th season. Hell yeah. That's not easy. Come on. Long time. That's not easy.

The amount of work you got to commit to your body, to your game, to everything. And then you also have this business acumen that is phenomenal. Obviously, we talked about you being the president of the MBPA, I think, for a while. I don't know if you're still doing that. No. You're out. Smart. Yeah.

When you were doing that, we all thought it was very stupid. Too much. Need you to get out of there. Eight years. Eight years. Eight years. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service.

I got to learn a lot, which is helping me in business. Yeah. So you love the business world, I hear. Absolutely. Eight years. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service. I got to learn a lot, which is helping me in business. Yes, you love the business world, I see. Absolutely. Enjoy it. Like, this is fun for you to kind of feel it, build the brand, get into it. How many different things are you kind of? I'm going to tell you this, Pat. How many years did you play?

Eight. Eight. AJ, what about? Eleven. You know what I'm saying? And I ask that because this is just a snapshot of your life, right? You got to play eight years. This is going into my 20th year.

I just turned 39, right? It's a lot of life. Happy birthday. Yeah. No, I mean, this year I turned 39. We missed a lot of birthdays. Yeah. Last one, too.

But y'all know, like I know, you got to do something else. You know what I mean? You got to do something else. So along this journey, you got to figure out what you're into. When did you know you wanted to do this? Oh, that's a great question. I have no idea. Exactly.

But you figured it out. During career, though. During career. Right. Started thinking about next career. Exactly. You got to do that, man. But you got to keep the main thing the main thing.

No, don't get that twisted now. You know, that's what gives you the opportunity. Sometimes people only care what you think because of what you're doing yes right don't ever put the other things in front of the main thing you know what i'm saying but there's a lot of down time you know that yes as a professional athlete how's the body feel 20 years in body feels good went over to carry academy shout out to that school who let me come over there and work out at a very carry academy yeah yeah shot the lights off and nothing yeah me and TJ Warren what in there oh no gotta work out okay nice a lot of people in here in the city TJ

Watt also walking around I said he's getting a workout somewhere in the side alongside JJ the NBA obviously massive daily the finals kind of tip off this Celtics team the conversation is if they don't win what a blow it up like they were supposed to be in the finals what since the since the middle of the season, it seems like. Why is it like that with that particular team? And do you think Kyrie and Luka have enough to maybe topple the odds-on favorite Celtics? It's probably like that just because

Boston's been there, right? They've been there. They've been to the finals. They won. I mean, he got the KG jersey on over here. You know what I mean? Anything is possible. But at this point in the season, both teams feel like they can win. In Dallas, they've been building, they're hooping, they believe in their team.

And I honestly think it's going to be a really good series. Yeah, six or seven is what everybody's saying. Connor's got a question for you. How do you feel about the playoffs as a whole? Like, obviously, it's a one seed versus six seed. So, in the West, it was a little more different. And going into the playoffs, that was the thing. Like, hey, the West is going to be great.

The East is going to be the Celtics. How do you feel about the NBA as a whole? And do you think there needs to be a little more in the East? Do you think a guy has to kind of come over? Do you think injuries as well? Well, it's funny. I've been in the West my whole career. I've never even been in the East.

You know what I mean? So the West has been like that my whole career. But you can only play against who's in front of you. You know what I mean? And I didn't realize it was a one seed and a six seed because Dallas is so good. Some of these teams, the seedings, depending on injuries, y'all know, the seeding don't really mean nothing once you get to Hooper. Do teams think about that?

Like for Dallas, during the year, it was like, hey, obviously they were kind of floating in that play-in game. Do teams think like if it's a Luka and a Kyrie, hey, we just got to get through these 82? Like we need to make sure that we're in that top six? You know, it's funny, like I've been on the competition committee for a long time too so I remember when we introduced this play-in

game and all this stuff. Before the play-in game, it's like, guys, let's get through this season, right? Let's just get through healthy. But now with the play-in, I think teams are very like we at least want to be a top six seed. You don't want to have to play any unnecessary games if you don't have to. LeBron James said that Joe Mizzoula is a genius.

How much does coaching come into play? Because I, as a non-basketball person, love watching basketball. But as a non-basketball playing person, I assume that your guys' basketball IQ is so high, coach just kind of has to keep personalities and everybody rowing in the same direction. I think what Missoula did against the Pacers was a couple different times

he started attacking them differently. Coaching very important in the NBA? Coaching is important. Coaching is important, but it depends on what type of team you have, right? Sometimes you might have so much talent that you just got to be like a manager of people, right? A manager of personalities.

But depending on how young your team is, what the basketball IQ is of your team, there's nothing like going into a timeout knowing young your team is what the basketball iq is of your team there's nothing like going into a timeout knowing that your coach gonna draw up a great play right and coaches that can communicate with their players because y'all know when you play you know sometimes you're like man we need to blitz this time damn we need to blitz and so you want to have a coach that you can that you can talk to about what's happening you know i mean i'll let you know what you see you You let us know what we see. And I think Mazzulla, I mean, he's what, like 36, 37?

You know what I mean? Youngest coach in the finals since 1966. Bill Russell. Bill Russell. Yeah, so I feel like he gets it. A lot of coaches get it and understand that that dialogue is important. Well, like listening to the dialogue and then actually enacting it is a whole different animal.

That's like a respect thing. It's a respect thing. It's a pride thing. You got to understand we all got the same goal i'm not trying to show you up you ain't trying to show me up we're just trying to win let's talk about dan hurley okay i don't know college guys in the nfl have not done what not i mean there's been a couple that have made it obviously people say that like uh pete carroll was a college guy because he coached in college but he started in the nfl uh save all of big-time coaches in college football have tried to make it in the NFL, and he's not gone well because it's two different humans, two different lifestyles,

two different operations, and you don't have nearly as much control. How do you feel about Dan Hurley potentially getting the gig over there for the Lakers? And obviously you're tight with LeBron. How would he feel with somebody like Dan Hurley coming in there from what we know about him outside looking in? Yeah, I don't know how he would feel, first and foremost. I don't know. Speak for LeBron, how would he feel with somebody like Dan Hurley coming in there from what we know about him outside looking in? I don't know how he would feel, first and foremost. Speak for LeBron. Speak for LeBron. That's what's not

going to happen. As far as Dan Hurley, I woke up just like y'all to that news or whatnot. Half of this stuff, you don't know if it's true. Shams told us yesterday, JJ. Bingo. He did. Shams literally told us yesterday. He wasn't the only one.

Everybody was talking. Why not JJ? He was my teammate. Yeah. You know what I mean? He would have been a good coach, you think, regardless. Well, I'm just saying. You ain't necessarily got to believe everything you hear. You know what I mean?

No, I'm just saying. Like, you play, right? Yes, yes. A lot of bullshit out there. You used to have Aaron, right, every, what was it, Monday? Tuesday. Tuesday. My bad.

Players mess up, too. Every Tuesday. Tuesday, right? So, all the stuff that would be going out there circulating, right, every, what was it, Monday? Tuesday. Tuesday. My bad. Players mess up, too. Every Tuesday. Tuesday, right? So all the stuff that would be going out there circulating about him, you knew what was true and what was not. Agreed. Right? Same thing with all the other stuff saying that this is going to be the coach of that, right? So you just never know.

But as far as Darren Hurley, I got so much respect for him because not just how he coaches, but how his players respond to him. You know, being players, you can see that when a coach is coaching if everybody is like in the huddle you know like listening yep you know you can see the way that guys like during a free throw body the body language guys huddle up or whatnot so i think ultimately if he does make that decision he'll he'll definitely have that respect is it taught you know so you think you automatically have success because of it or success no no i'm sorry the respect because of the success that he had at college, you think? Maybe, but it's a different game, and you're dealing with different things.

Now with NIL, though, college kids getting money. You know what I mean? NBA guys getting money, too. So I'm just as interested as y'all are to see what happens. Go ahead, Ty. Chris, obviously you still want to play. You feel like you've got a lot left to give. But you did a lot of the analyst stuff around the panel um you know throughout the playoffs doing the media side of it does that

trigger anything like oh you know like when i'm done maybe i wouldn't mind being up there and starting something like you know shack and kenny and all those guys not not really i'm gonna tell you it's funny because um when i did the show it was such a great time right because i have a different a newfound respect for all that goes into it, right? The preparation. Y'all know. It's a lot. Our show's a little different.

A little bit. Y'all can act like y'all don't know nothing. But y'all probably got an email chain or something. Y'all got production calls. Yeah, group text. No, no production calls. We got a group text. Once upon a time.

No, never. Everything runs through the group text, Chris. And that's what, to be clear, we probably should do more of that other stuff you're talking about. Because we end up in some shit. But anyways, go ahead. You were great on TV. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. But it was a lot that went into it. But at the end of the day, we was talking basketball.

And I respected the people that I was up there with. But I'm still in the locker room. So I'll tell you straight up. When they were like, you want to pick? Nah, I ain't picking. Because the way that I'm wired, if you pick against me, we got a problem. Don't come in the locker room and sit next to me. We're going to have a conversation.

And that's what got Draymond in trouble a little bit because, you know, he had the stuff with Rudy O'Bear and Carl Anthony Towns and was kind of going at them a little bit. And then after Minnesota won that game and all those guys were like, hey, just out of solidarity with our guys, we're not going to go do the postgame. But to each his own. You know what I'm saying?

To each his own. And Draymond, who I have a crazy history with, but got out. Damn. You got a bag of bugs? Yeah, you got to fix that. Hey, these North Carolina bugs? Get that done. Yeah, that might be the only thing that has been negative

is the amount of bugs. So, Dray, I got a chance to know him this year as teammates. Man, one of my favorite teammates I ever played with because we're wired the same, right, as far as competitive edge, wants to win, and that's not for everybody. You two got along. That was a big story whenever you got traded up there, right? It's always a story. It's always a story.

Well, you've been in the league for 20 years, so obviously. It's got to be something. Did you punch him in the face first practice, Jordan Poole? Hell no. Run it back. But what we did, though, is we went to dinner. I mean, we went to lunch. As soon as I got traded, I sent him a text. You know what I mean?

Yo, we need to talk. That's what adults do. Yes. Hell yeah. You know what I'm saying? You don't talk through the media. You let all these people make up whatever story they want to. And I mean it when I say it. It's one of my favorite teammates i've ever had in my career where'd you guys go

get lunch what'd you order wouldn't you like no i would yeah i wonder what the vibe was you don't know what the vibe was it like a sandwich place was it like a cafe it was a steakhouse hotel bel air oh you mba guys i forgot yeah i forgot the Yeah, guys. Yeah. We got a couple of steaks. What do we do? It was lunch, man. I don't know what you guys do. You rich guys do it. You can eat steak.

Rich guy, you just broke the bank. What you talking about? A couple of times. Right, right. Yeah, AJ. But it was a good lunch. It was a good lunch. It was a good lunch, we're saying.

I like that Eastside golf shirt you got on, too. Yeah, you see me? Yeah. I love their stuff. Everything they have is pretty solid. So you're entering your 20th season, correct? Yep. 19 years ago, how is the league different from when you walked in 19 years ago?

Not only schematically and the pace of play, but how are the guys different? What's the locker room like now compared to then? Hey, football, that's a big difference now. Yeah. Big difference. Basketball, it is, too. But I'll tell you this. The guys are a lot more talented. Yeah. Like, seriously.ball it is, too. But I'll tell you this. The guys are a lot more talented.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, seriously. Everybody can shoot, huh? Everybody can shoot. It seems wimpy. The athleticism. It's just cool to see.

You know what I mean? To see what these guys can do when they come into the league that it may have took me years to understand or realize, right? Like, because the pick and roll, all this stuff, these kids are already snaking the pick and roll. They're doing, I ain't do the Euro step, I think, until the 2008 playoffs. You made them.

Right. I don't think, until the 2008 playoffs against the Spurs. And now, I mean, my son, 15, he was doing it when he was eight. Yeah. You know? So they, it's, the league is in good hands, I'll tell you that much. Are guys still tight? Like, are locker rooms as tight as they once were?

Yeah, locker rooms are tight. But as y'all know, I'll tell you that much. Are guys still tight? Like, are locker rooms as tight as they once were? Yeah, locker rooms are tight. But as y'all know, everything has changed with cell phones. And people got EMPF. Did you guys used to go out? People have people, too. So, like, NFL locker rooms. Yeah. There's a good old saying that some really smart man said,

that teams come together around a keg a lot more than they do kale. Right? So, like, football, I feel like a massive piece of the team building was, like, actually going out out together having a good time obviously you have mormons and stuff that won't drink but at least they're there you know having a good time yeah then the cameras on your phone just kind of changed everything in the football culture and i think that is a little bit of a difference in the generation the nba guys did you guys used to go out change it changed and i and i'll be straight with you like look, players and everybody having our podcast and our ways to tell our stories or whatnot.

I just think we always got to be able to tell our stories without telling everything. You know what I mean? Like, some of those team bonding events or whatnot, drinking or whatnot. You know what I'm saying? Like, sometimes that's where you build camaraderie. But now I think, you know, a guy, you know, you just never know if a but now i think you know a guy you know you just never know if a guy is gonna cuss this guy out or something like that because four years from now he's gonna hear somebody talking about it well yeah especially with you like the the clip show

just came out the clippers show around that entire thing and oh my god one of the like is that something you think about like hey are they gonna tell all these stories during our time well you know it's funny i'm to keep it 100 with you. Me and my wife watched the first episode, right? And it was kind of cringy, right? Honestly, because you got somebody who's telling their vantage point of your life. One perspective. Yeah, one perspective.

You're a part of the show. Chris Paul is a character in the show, yeah. Yeah, and I seen my wife kicking it with Donald Sterling's wife. And I was like, what? That ain't never happened. Yeah, and I seen my wife, I seen my wife kicking it with Donald Sterling's wife, and I was like, what? That ain't never happened. You know what I mean? And being in the production space and knowing how movies work and all that.

And then, it's funny, man, my brother saw the credits or whatnot. Let's just say it was crazy. Who's playing you? Are you pumped about who's playing you? Handsome enough? It's better than Steph Curry and Clay Thompson. We know that.

Whoever did that, it is taking a shot. People got a job to do or whatnot. I mean, it's a show. Do they ask you? Do they consult with you at all? No. No, no, no, no, no. I actually seen Blake a few weeks ago somewhere.

I don't know where I seen Blake. But we talked about it. Like, JJ, we talked. Like, DeAndre Jordan, I talked to DJ about every day You know I mean, so I have no idea was gonna be on that show or whatnot, but we lived it and we sort of know The real I'm excited to get your takes on it on the podcast. Hopefully you'll be able to kind of either dispute it That's like Showtime with the Lakers. You know that show like we started watching it because I'm like, oh, this is a documentary I'm watching I'm watching a documentary right now of what happened. And then like every person that was portrayed in that thing was like, that's not how it was. I watched that too because I was interested in seeing what it was.

You know, when I watched the clip, that first episode or whatnot, I seen that white party that we was at. Y'all seen it? Who's seen it? I don't know. Just seen the clips. I haven't seen the full episode. Oh, okay. Yeah. It was like a white party. Introducing Doc. White party? Yeah. Donald Sterlingling seven white parties they didn't have a white party when I was there so

that said Donald Sterling said you're only allowed to wear the color of skin that I like you are okay so I got Bojangles up here. Do you know Bojangles? Do I? Do you know Bojangles? I used to. There's a Bojangles right down the street from my house. He's 20 years in.

I don't think he's going to be eating biscuits. Well, he worked out this morning. He earned that biscuit. Did y'all have it? Did y'all try it? Oh, yeah. Yeah, but? Did you get some sweet tea? Hoi tea?

What's it called? Sweet tea. Hoi tea? Sweet. You're talking about hoi tea? Knock it off. You Southern people, you know, speak a little bit slower. It's tea? Sweet tea. You're talking about hoi tea? Knock it off. These southern people speak a little bit slower. It's hard to keep up.

Let's talk about the future of the NBA. Yeah. Because Ant-Man was just getting crowned. Boom, boom, boom. That became the conversation of the playoffs. It's like the NBA has its next face. It's Anthony Edwards. The way he goes about doing his thing.

And then Luka seemingly heard that and was like, what are we even talking about? Is that something that in locker rooms chatted about? And how do the OGs kind of manage the conversation about who's the next one? And how do we find the next one? And is there a next one? Yeah, I don't think

it's just the next one, right? Like all these guys be so good in their own right. And I think with the way media works today, you're only as good as your last game. Oh, yeah.

So everybody will be talking about Luka one minute, then Shea started killing, and everybody was talking about Shea, then it's Anthony Edwards, then it's the next person. You know what I mean? Everybody was in love with JT, you know what I mean, just a second ago. So I think for those guys,

they just got to keep their head down, keep doing the work. Who do you like? Who do I like? Yeah. I like a lot of the guys in the league right now. How about Wimby? That's just different.

Oh, man. Wemby. Wemby is different. Wemby is the guy that after the game in the locker room, we all was talking about playing against him because we literally all had to change the way we shot a little bit. Yeah, because there's highlights of like Steph Curry driving into the lane, having a wide open shot and being like, nah, nah, nah.

It wasn't just Steph. It was half the league. It was legit a 45-second clip of like 10 stops nah it wasn't just Steph it was half the league it was legit a 45 second clip of like yeah you saw that right my favorite shot obviously is when I snake back to the right and I shoot a fade away and I got a picture of Wimby trying to block my shot man I shot the ball so high

I didn't make it because I usually don't have to shoot it that high you know what I mean but he and I think he's going to be so successful too because he's very competitive and he's likable, right? And he loves the game. And you don't see guys that size moving the way he moves. They've been preparing him in his body.

He's been doing like foot and ankle. Y'all seen that? You seen how flexible and all that stuff? They've been doing that since he's like 12 years old, I guess. Yeah, man. They knew something. Yeah, well, I don't know how tall he was then, but right now you look at him and you're like, oh, that's something that's different.

That one's an alien. There's another one over there, too. That's like 12 years old, 13 years old. He's already 6'10". You've seen that, too, huh? Oh, yeah. Oh, you own it over there. Dialed in?

Hold on. We got one, too, though. USA just beat Belize by 96 points did you see that are you 18 team no i didn't see that usa beat belize by 96 150 to 56 54. got a 7-3 white kid yeah there he is right there 150 to 54 right there usa verse belize bigger tv to your left he's seven three already oh yeah okay he's going to purdue he's going to dominate the big ten we need to see if we got that picture. Y'all know how I know him?

Y'all know when we met? Where? Down in the Bahamas. Down in the Bahamas. Yeah, you and Del Curry. You see this right here? Oh, it's a golf thing. Yeah.

Yeah, the golf tournament. He was the only one out there playing golf with no shoes on. Yeah, well. Hitting bombs. No shoes on. Thank you. I appreciate you saying hitting bombs because you and Del Curry were making me cut out three-foot cuts. And I did not make all of them.

That was a blast down there. You've always been involved in seemingly everything business-wise. That's why with how busy you've had to be to maintain such a good career 20 years through, you should be incredibly proud, Chris. I'm good. I also heard, straight out of the wake, I just got the text message here. You got a new vegan snack. It's a plant-based snack line. So vegan, you don't want me to say vegan?

Plant-based, whatever you want to say. Chris Paul is a vegan, and he has a new snack with GoPup. What do they have? Yeah, I want you to try them. Absolutely. Somebody got them. I mean, I'm a meat eater. I've been since the beginning because the humans did that.

We won. Yep. Hell yeah. Look at these. Oh, yeah. Hell yeah. I'll try them out. Cookies and cream.

Wait a minute. That's my shit. Let's see. Let's see. Try it. So they're supposed to be sweets. Throw me them too, eh? What's his name?

AJ. AJ, you look cool, bro. Give me another one. Ooh. So it's a little popcorn with some flavoring, seemingly. Tell me what you think. It's called Good Eatin' Popcorn. How long has this been around?

Three years. Three years. Okay. How are we doing? Are we in stores? We're on GoPuff. GoPuff right now. GoPuff is one of our partners.

GoPuff is DoorDashable, I believe. Donuts are fire. Hey, this one's really good. These ones are the ticket. Holy shit. Hold on. This isn't healthy for me? How healthy is this for me?

Is this going to make me better at soccer? I don't know about that. That was a nice pass you did yesterday, though. That was tough. That was tough. I'm sure y'all done showed it on the show, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, Chris. We have shown it a hundred times. Yeah, we will continue to do so. And as a point guard, I know you would appreciate it. Man, listen. It's tough, though. I absolutely want to play when I finish playing. Like, when I retire.

There you go. Right there. Yeah, pretty cool. That was pretty pumped. But, man, I can't say thank you enough for y'all being down here, man. Seriously, bringing the eyeballs here to North Carolina and the festival style that we have with all these games. Did you get it?

Yes. North Carolina football, baby. It's an awesome thing, dude. This whole entire complex. It's unreal. You guys have done great, and we can't thank you enough for, you know, kind of piecing it together and also being the inspirational leader. Hey, how about that ref that said he hates you?

What's that all about? Man. Hold on. As I was talking about you, because business-wise, I look at you and I'm like, Chris is able to do this and this and this. You know what's crazy? You're an inspiration. I want you to know.

Inspiration to me, though, the way you handle your business. Man, I appreciate it. Just like the bubble thing that happened with you and Bob kind of piecing that together. As a player, I want to let you know, I look at you as a very inspirational business person. So whenever I hear that some ref comes out and goes chris paul's a piece of yeah you know i do not love that i'm gonna tell you listen there's probably a lot more to feel like that you know what i mean i'm gonna be honest with you but that ref uh i had to look him up when he said what was his name

he was in the league for a long time and you probably can guess who one of his homeboys is. Oh, Scotty. But it was funny. He was probably mad that I didn't put him in that last State Farm commercial. The one with the referee? That probably was the case. You know what I'm talking about? Yes.

I got that State Farm commercial with the referee, and he probably wanted to be in it. No, but you worked the refs a little bit? All the time. Yeah. All the time. And hold on. That's you and Scott Foster, right? Every time he refs your game, you don't win. You said it.

It worked the coaches, too. I mean, Steve Kerr thinks that you think he's hilarious, and unfortunately, you don't think he's hilarious. If you recall that video of him walking off, you were with the Rockets still, right? Yeah. And Steve Kerr made a joke, and he did the...

That was so good! That was so good! That's maybe the greatest game of... right? Yeah. Steve Kerr like made a joke and he did the. Oh yeah. That's been the greatest game. That was in a playoff game. I think a lot of things with the refs too is like, obviously I know the game. I'm on the competition committee. Right. So knowing the rules and of course, you can say smart things a lot of times, you know what I mean? Sometimes they'll say stuff back, but yeah, that was, that was interesting that he said that we don't he'll never see me though out of nowhere too he'll never see me though so we got out to my pops up there my dad really that's my dad right up there with the hat on hell yeah mr paul hey you done good sir you done really good i know your grandpa very important too i think the last time we chatted

with you as part of your book your grandpa right yeah first gas station in north carolina yeah down in winston-salem uh owned by a black guy yup in north carolina yes sir and you took a lot of his kind of messages implement them yourself became the person you are obviously that look how handsome that is wow jade up two up there no doubt are you not hot as dad it is a thousand degrees out here i assume you're used to it play golf every day to end and why. How are you at golf? You still good? Yeah, I could use some work. I had another hand surgery this season.

I didn't know that. Yeah. How is body? We're good. Yeah. Did y'all see Torrey Holt? No. Torrey Holt was walking around.

His fingers look great, don't they? Man, I had never seen his fingers. Look at his left. No, no. Look at his pinky. Look at that pinky. No, turn that thing sideways. Oh, oh, oh. Look at his pinky. No, no. Look at that pinky. No, turn that thing sideways. Yeah.

Oh, oh, oh. Oh. They're about to puke. Listen, I'm going to tell you right now. If you can get Torrey to come up here and show you his finger, it's turned that way. Yeah. We took a picture over there because I didn't have five hand surgeries. I got 16 screws and a metal plate in this hand, 15 screws and a metal plate in this hand.

15 screws and a metal plate in his hand. Thumb surgery after the 2012 Olympics, 2017 thumb surgery, and right after the NBA finals. Is that for basketball ice? Basketball. It's all from stealing, stealing the ball. You know the NBA NFL conversation that Austin Rivers started on our show? Remind me. The one when J.J. replied to him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well yeah yeah yeah well JJ was in the

middle of a workout he was a little jacked up he was jacked up in that entire thing he was jacked up yeah he was jacked up just got out of a squat rack I actually facetimed him immediately after he sent that I was like hey he never said he would be a guy that be able to do it JJ's breathing oh I feel like an asshole but the the NBA thing, have you put much thought into that? I didn't know you had that many surgeries on your hands. Obviously, tough guy. I mean, that's how it goes. Everybody says you guys are soft, though.

That's the big argument against NBA guys, not being able to make it to the NFL. That's not me. I'm just telling you what the internet was saying about the conversation. It's funny because you'll find a lot of football guys who used to hoop, and a lot of us used to play football. Right? So I played varsity football as a freshman and sophomore in high school and played jv basketball you know what i mean i love football i played quarterback i played middle linebacker i played pop warner

since i was little you know what i mean like i played pop warner went to orlando for the national championship like i was football like this is north carolina right it's just crazy that once we started finding out all the stuff about getting hit in the head and stuff, my son wanted to play football, but I wouldn't let him. But I wouldn't be the basketball player that I am if I didn't play football.

Yeah, you're a football guy. Yeah, that's why I don't mind physicality or whatnot. Yeah, that's why the refs hate you. You're a football guy. I'm actually happy to hear that. Austin Rivers needs to maybe listen to what was just said. Yeah, well, that's the thing. Like, Chris, he just said he played middle linebacker and quarterback. Austin Rivers, you know, he went out there, put the pads on for 10 minutes,

got yelled at, and then cried and went home to his dad. That's a true story. That's what he said. Oh, that's what he said? Turn on our show. Not to cry and went home to his dad, but I assume that was on the back there. My dad laughing because that wasn't happening. You know, we were playing bull in the ring.

You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. Boom. Yeah, you get it. we play throw a tackle in the backyard it's all that so new era nba not really like that right y'all know let me tell you this my son ain't play football i wish he would i like there's a part of me i keep saying this all the time i wish mentality yes that you have yes now you obviously compared to normal humans, tall. Basketball, the beginning of your career, I assume, looking up at everybody. Now it feels like

size is getting a little bit lower because the skill and the speed and shooting. That's crazy. I never thought about that, but you kind of right to a certain extent. Journalist. It used to be a power forward and a center, but now with all the shooting,

like every size is interchangeable. When you watch Steph shoot, he's the one that changed it all. Yeah. Steph's the one that changed it all. When you watch him do his thing, is there anything other than like the guy's just a magnificent shooter that makes him be in the conversation of one of the goats of all time?

I mean, I'll tell y'all, and I can say this to y'all, because y'all are athletes, right? When you showed up before the game and you was kicking the ball, I don't know how far. Forever, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like people don't – you can say forever.

When you was kicking the shit out of the ball, it's the preparation, right? It doesn't just happen. It doesn't just happen. And I think that's what I appreciate about playing with Steph this year. Obviously, Steph is from North Carolina too. You know what I mean? So I've known him for a long time. But for us getting a chance to prepare before the games,

work out together and train, that's the thing that you appreciate about a guy. Because everybody just thinks, oh, he just shows up and shoots. Hell no. Yeah, it's a lot of work to get there. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of prep that goes into it. And a lot of sacrifice, too.

A lot of parties you miss, a lot of events you miss while you're trying to put up shots and make the hoop bigger. This was my fifth year living away from my family. Right? Damn. Yeah. So fifth year living away from my family. Right? Damn. Yeah. So my kids stay in L.A. My wife and my kids stay in L.A. the last five seasons while I've been in my NBA city.

Strictly because they had moved too much. Right? Yeah. They were moving too much. I was in L.A. Then I went to Houston. I was real far out in Houston. Then my second year in Houston, I moved closer.

Then I went to OKC and my parents did a great job with me and my brother in that I grew up with the same group of friends, right? Lived in the same house. I was fortunate, but for my kids, I just wanted them to have some stability. So even though I love what I do, that's the hardest part now.

Yeah, consistency is a big deal, I think. You know, for the rest of their lives, they'll take it with them. That's like coaches kids i don't know how they do it yeah like football they're moving every year and it's crazy as much as i love basketball right i love it and most people be like man you you you're gonna coach you're gonna coach there's a fight chris this is your time there chris this is your tournament you got guys throwing i had to do that yesterday i had to run out on the field yesterday and break up a fight yesterday. As much as you love basketball, there is some downfalls, obviously.

Well, everybody always tells me I'm a coach, right? And I would love to. I actually coached my AAU team during the summer. But I just don't want to miss as much as I done missed already. Every Hall of Fame speech in the NFL starts with guys saying to my wife, thank you so much for everything you did and to my kids,

I know I wasn't around as much but I hope you understand what that was, that is literally a big piece of it. You're away a lot and it's not just when you're at games

or practices, it's like when you get home and you got to figure some shit out that you're also not present. So for you for doing that for 20 years at the highest level, you should be incredibly proud of yourself. Appreciate man you got a little one right yeah 13 months

13 months right it's awesome i'm literally i'm flying back to la tomorrow morning for my daughter's graduation and coming back uh saturday night so i can be here for the finals on sunday and monday you're a good man we appreciate you there's a lot of other people that do that stuff too yeah well there's a lot of people that just don't fly back either. They went and got smokes at the gas station. See you later. Never came back. Goody and Pop, this is delicious.

You got one here. AJ, you got one here. This is really good. It's nacho cheese, legit. Oh, toss me the nacho cheese. You're going to want it. You're fucking them up. Oh, yeah.

The donut ones. The donut tots. I'll keep it low. That was good. Had to want it. You're fucking them up. Oh, yeah, dude. Yeah. The donut ones. The donut tops. I'll keep it low. That was good. Had to keep it low. What a cornhole play did my day. What time are you getting tonight? 7.

7. 7.15. 7.15. Is there a run rule, Chris? Because I think they might run rule them. Like 15, 18, nothing? Yeah. Is there like a mercy rule?

Because y'all playing Burnley? Yeah. And they suck, Jimmy. They're bad. How'd you let them in here? They're trying to put 20 points on it. Y'all are sick.? Yeah. And they suck, dude. They're bad. How'd you let them in here? Was there one of them 20 points on it? Y'all are sick. They're like the worst team in the history of DSC. Were you forced, like a charity

case here? Alright, fine. We'll put in JJ's team. JJ gonna find a way to make it competitive. I don't think so. We got that guy right down there with the hat on. That Italian stallion right there is Gorilla. And then the guy next to him, Foss. They pieced this team together. But you know what happens, right? So you guys have some guys that played last year.

Yes. Right? So this is Burnley's first year here. Yes. So I think a lot of people come down here and they see it's a lot more competitive maybe than they thought. And then they're like, all right, I got to get it together. Yeah, it was awesome. Just like you are.

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Paul. Yeah, Chris. We're coming up on a hard out here in about 10 seconds. We will obviously try to survive the rest of the time here in this beautiful place. We'll see you on Monday. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice that might change their life.

Hey, good work. Thank you, Chris. These are good. These are a real deal. We just went off ESPN. We're still on YouTube and ESPN+. Hey, you're going to be a billionaire, huh, someday? We're still live. People are watching. But you're going to be a billionaire someday?

I would like that. You're going to own a team, or what are you going to do? One team. Yeah, me too. That's kind of the end goal. NBA team or just any sports? I don't know. Cricket team right now.

I definitely don't own a NBA team. Seattle. Go get it, Chris. Bring it back. Let's talk about it. Yeah, hell yeah, dude. Yeah. Weapon. Yeah. Dog. Thank it, Chris. Let's talk about it. Yeah, hell yeah, dude. Yeah. Dog. Thank you, Chris.

That ref. I had to look up who that guy was, he said. Yeah, what the hell? He came out of nowhere. I don't know what that's all about. Because it was right after the Scott Foster thing, where he was like, look, I know that people don't like me. I don't want people to know who I am. And then that ref comes out after and just buries only him.

Yeah, it was just some guy. What if we were the only ones who mentioned his name? Came out of nowhere, yeah. Literally, we just woke up one morning and it was like, the ref we've never heard of says Chris Paul is a terrible. I love Chris, dude. He's always been good to us. He's always been good to me, always been good to us.

And I think every NBA player is like, yeah, we needed this guy for a lot of different things. That bubble they did during COVID, I think, is like him and Bob Iger's brainchild. Yeah. And that eight years where he was the MBPA president, like, that is why right now these guys are reaping the benefits of, you know, when Justin Jefferson's contract got announced, they said, oh, four years, 140, that's a lot. Jordan Poole has a four-year, $140 million contract. Like, that is what he has done for the NBA about them getting a 76 billion dollar deal yeah yeah and now allegedly tnt is trying to get back into the game did i saw that i saw that as well yeah they're

trying to be like a fourth member so do you think there's a chance that they're just trying to get a couple games from espn like they did with college football playoffs that's what that's what the article made it seem like that they they're just a very select package of certain nights and then maybe a few playoff games. But yeah, as an afterthought is basically what it was saying. All right, we're going to finish up this beautiful day here in Cary, North Carolina with another round of IVs. Thank you all so much for hanging with us today.

Foxy, I don't know if we can turn this. We can turn and get the camera on these people. Is it go there? Yep, there it is. As the camera spins for the fine people in Cairn. Look at this hill. People have just been sitting on this hill. That's pretty awesome.

Pat White. Oh, I can't go. Pat White jersey. Other way, Foxy. You needed to go the other way the whole time, I thought. I didn't know that was a 180. It keeps going right, just for the people that couldn't see. He's going to go back the other way.

I'll stand right here. Here we go. And we're back. People on the Hill, we appreciate it. Keep going. Thank you all so much for sitting in the hot-ass sun on a hill. No seats. You can barely hear us.

Yeah. You're good people. We're going to enjoy the rest of this thing down here in Cary, North Carolina. Elimination round begins tomorrow. We got a win tonight against Burnley to make it through that. And J.J. Watt's team has certainly not been good thus far. No. But tonight, we got to bury them.

That is the mindset of Concava. Hell yeah. I'll make sure we keep that in. Got a little spicy Bojangles chicken just caught me right here. That's Bojangles, baby. It's going to get you. Hey, Bojangles is pretty good. Yeah, Bojangles is top notch.

Any final thoughts here as we're in North Carolina, as we sign off, Ty, on this beautiful state? I'll be honest. The reality is when we first came down here, I thought this was just going to be Hayseed Central. And, boy, I was wrong. Here in North Carolina, it's absolutely beautiful. And I love Bojangles more than maybe anything else in the world.

Thank you. Thank you, everybody. When's Marty and McGee? When's that show? Well, technically, Marty and McGee are always on. But, you know, you can watch it on Saturday mornings. You know, they're kind of in the shed or whatever the hell, you know, they're calling it these days.

You know, the buck's head's on the walls and all that kind of stuff. If you're looking for something to do Saturday morning, watch Marty and McGee. It'll change your fucking life. I guarantee that. It's on SEC Network. That's right. We've got to give a big thank you to,

one final thank you to the city of Cary who helped us out immensely setting this entire thing up. TST for being incredibly kind. Mike Foss, who is underwater right now, but he has done a fantastic job making this all happen from the soccer side of this.

And then to Tim McAfee, Zito, and the entire team that set up this road show for us. First time Zito production back on the road since joining ESPN. Hell yeah. Great work, boys! Well done, lads.

Paddlebags, who is a skilled laborer, is how he would describe himself. Very Italian as well. Different than the Grella Italian. He's from Plum. Grella's parents are from Naples. Similar but different. Still Italian. Brucie Brown almost got a van hit by a train the other day, lugging everything down here.

Great work by them. Yep. Everybody kind of that has chipped in from our team to make this take place, we're incredibly thankful. This has been awesome. And I think it's worked. Yeah. The sound has seemingly worked. Mm-hmm.

The stage has seemingly worked. Shout out to Dave from Brazil, Indiana with his stage. Internet. Shout out to the internet from the people of Cary.ic is the guy's name i think the local guy technology wise shout out to kratz uh director of parks here in kerry he's the man it was nice getting to chat with him and it's been awesome we're lucky to be here we're thankful to be here we'll be back on monday maybe we'll see i don't know if Concava makes the finals which is on Monday

we will actually not be able to have a show because this stage is up and out of here but if we don't make the finals we'll be live on Monday recapping all of this the weekend we hope you have a fantastic one boys great work out here on the stage out of you Toxic Table way to go let's go get one

not done yet. Up in the Hawk's Nest. A.J. Hawk. What a performance. It's about jangles and Dortmund and Natalie's juices and good eating. Everything we've been getting in the Air Force. We did the sick flyover yesterday giving us stuff.

This has been an awesome couple days. We can't wait to be back next year. Have the greatest weekend of your life. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might actually change their life. We're in this thing together. Team on me.

Team on three. One, two, three. Goodbye.