The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1352 - Indiana Pacers Head Coach Rick Carlisle, Jeff Passan, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

On today's show, Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys discuss the Pacers officially eliminating the Knicks in 6 games to advance to the NBA Finals, the energy and excitement around the state and Indianapolis especially, as well everything else happening around the world of sports including the MLB, college baseball, and college softball, and lastly, Detroit Lions 3x All-Pro and 4x Pro Bowl Center Frank Ragnow’s retirement from the NFL after 7 years. Joining the progrum is 2x NBA Champion (once as a player and once as a Head Coach), 2002 NBA Coach of the Year, and current Head Coach of the Indiana Pacers, Rick Carlisle joins the show to chat about what makes this Pacers team so special, why having selfless superstars like Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam trickles down throughout the locker room, what challenges the OKC Thunder present, how the Pacers embody the city and how evident it is what they’re doing is special, and much much more. Later, MLB Senior Insider and journalist, Jeff Passan joins the show to chat about the latest on the investigation surrounding the financial dealings related to a multibillion-dollar firm started and owned, in part, by the MLBPA and NFLPA, the importance of the Dodgers/Yankees series from this past weekend for baseball as a whole, some bright young prospects coming up to the majors soon, which faces in college baseball will be making waves soon, and more. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow 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 tomorrow. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our hundle of both the Thunderdome on this overreaction Monday June 2nd 2025 this program begins now Sports are awesome especially here in Indianapolis, Indiana as the Indiana Pacers have made it to the NBA Finals for the first time since the year 2000. The city is alive and obviously in game six, whenever the Pacers beat the hell out of the New York Knicks, they punched their ticket to the NBA Finals to take on a very dominant Oklahoma City Thunder team

that'll begin on Thursday night at 8.30 Eastern on ABC. It'll be ESPN broadcast throughout the entirety of the NBA finals as Tyrese Halliburton and Larry Bird Trophy winner the MVP of the Eastern Conference finals Pascal C. Ockham take on Shay Jalen in a squad of Oklahoma City Thunderboys that are obviously scrappy gritty and Have a home court advantage. But don't look now. Indiana is alive. The city's world is abuzz after the New York Knicks get sent back to New York being Eastern Conference Finals.

Congrats to the Knicks. Congrats to the Knicks. Had a chance to be there. Was not sitting courtside. I think those tickets were like $50, $60 grand a pop or something like that. And I do love the Pacers. Not that that. And I do love the Pacers. Not that much, but I do love the Pacers up in a suite with the boys watching as it went down.

And you know, as the fourth quarter kind of unfolded it all got kind of obvious that the Pacers were gonna be going to the finals. And it's not just because Tyrese and Pascoe, Obe Toppin is absolutely beloved in this city of Indianapolis. There was numerous Obe Toppin chants as he hits his head off the rim every single time he seemingly goes to the rack. Thomas Bryant, former Indiana Hoosier, was with the Lakers. Now he's back with the Pacers. He dropped a couple threes to place one apeshit.

Tyrese Halliburton turned it on in the fourth quarter. Paschal Siakam is damn near unguardable. He's so fast, so long. Long. Long. Huge. And his Pacers team is in better shape than you are. TB there bringing the juice, he's been doing that for the entirety of the playoffs on the bench.

Now he's getting a chance to shine. Nemhard was playing some Nemhard defense on Jalen Brunson. Actually, Jalen Brunson headbutted Nemhard at one point. Obviously there was no call because number 39, the ref wearing number 39, little little white guy about this big, he really wanted the Knicks to be in it. I was watching him. He seemed to be having an angle. Now, I don't want to throw out any, you know, conspiracy fodder. Sure. Number 39, the little white, if he's ref in any of the games the Pacers are taking on Oklahoma City,

I don't know if he's anti Pacers. I don't know if he's anti-coach Carlisle. I don't know if he's anti-Pacers. I don't know if he's anti-Coach Carlisle. I don't know if he was pro New York. Whatever the case was, that thing was going the opposite direction for like a four or five minute period for the Knicks. And it was just, I got to the point where it was too big to rake. The Indiana Pacers were just a damn good basketball team.

And everybody all season was talking about how nobody was talking about Oklahoma City enough. This team's dominant, I agree. Oklahoma City fans all year have been saying hey our team is a real deal. The NBA people who are the super NBA people are like Oklahoma City this team is the real deal. And in the Eastern Conference nobody's talking about the Cleveland Cavaliers. And you give a Cleveland Cavaliers more love. Need to give a Cleveland Cavaliers more love. Everybody's talking about these small markets. The Oklahoma City team and the Cleveland team not getting enough

love. You know who got no love throughout the entirety of the season? Who? You know who got no love through the beginning of the damn playoffs? They're playing on an ion network somehow. That's right.

Whenever they had their first couple of playoff series, the Indiana Pacers, nobody talked about them. Last year they get to the Eastern Conference Finals. They get swept by the Boston Celtics. Now the Boston Celtics would never really go in the title, but they would get swept 4-0. Three of those four games, Pacers have good lead, and then they just kind of choke it away. So nobody even talked about the Pacers being the Eastern Conference Finals last year. Nobody talked about the Pacers having the best record since post-All-Star break in the entire NBA alongside Oklahoma City. Nobody wanted to see the Pacers on TV, and the

Pacers just became inevitable. The Pacers just became a team that was unflappable. They were in better shape than you. In this city and this team learned from what happened last year and now we're ready to take on the NBA Finals atmosphere and environment and the NBA Finals spotlight. This Pacers team might not have been given a spotlight all year, but this Pacers team is ready for the spotlight. They got dogs all over the court. Miles Turner has been here for 10 years, cuts a promo afterwards about the city, about the team, about everything he believes in.

He's seen a lot of transition with this squad. And Coach Carlisle, who'll be joining us in about 10 minutes or so, is a guy that's basically just been shooed out of everywhere he's gone. It's an island of misfit toys basically here for the Indiana Pacers who have come together and they will run your ass out of the gym. Now, will they be able to do that to Oklahoma City? We shall see. The two best teams in the NBA are battling in the NBA finals And we're lucky that our city is being represented and good luck to the Oklahoma City Thunder Nine and a half point favorites on Thursday. The disrespect continues for the Indiana Pacer team But first game I think they're gonna be trying to feel each other out

Who knows how this first one goes they could thunder could win by 20 in this first one that would not scare me Pacers could win by 15 to 20 and that would not scare the Oklahoma City team that's the seven series gonna have to feel each other out think this one is gonna go to a full seven regardless and I can't wait to watch it. What an exciting and electrifying time here in a great state of Indiana The talk's the tables here at Boston corner and that Ty Schmidt baseball happened this weekend as well Ty we will certainly dive into that in a little bit whenever the hammer die Cowboys AP Tony's here great shirt. See you representing for the Pacers. Yes, sir It's brother. I mean I've been Hoosier now for what eight nine years and I Pittsburgh doesn't have a basketball team

So why wouldn't I root for the Indiana Pacers? The best team in the NBA since January one. Well, second record wise, but you get it. I'm allowed to say that because I'm a service fan. A little bit biased, but yeah. Well, TJ McConnell is a Yens are on a team. Yeah, of course. Yeah, Duquesne, I'll wait till you see the TJ. Wait till you see what I got from TJ McConnell.

Okay, I'll try to get some gifts. What? We'll see you later this week. That's a piece. Yeah, I like to hear that. We're getting gifts. What? We'll see you later this week. That's a piece. Yeah, I like to hear that. We can be purchased. Without a doubt. You know, we can.

Tone, Tone's certainly somebody that can be purchased. T.J. McConnell starts filling. You know, Tone digs his locker with a bunch of merch. He's certainly gonna wear them. Look at the shirt he's wearing right now. I mean, he is. I bought this myself. Yes, sirs.

Yes, sirs. Yeah, sure you did. It's a beautiful time. And it's a fun team to be a fan of. If you're not an NBA fan, like from Pittsburgh there's no NBA team. There's a lot of people that maybe don't have NBA teams. I think a lot of people have potentially picked up

to Pacers because of either our program or because Tyrese Halliburton joining us. But it's also a good story because literally nobody has wanted them to win. Like none of the people have wanted them to win. I mean you go on getup, who's gonna win a series across the bottom? Knicks, who's gonna you go on get up when, who's gonna win the series across the bottom? Next, who's gonna win the series? Bucks, who's gonna win the series?

Cavs, they've been calling for the Pacers to lose. Every person on TV has been calling for the Pacers to lose every single series. I don't think there's been one person that has gone out and been like, I think Pacers are gonna do it this time. I think you could potentially get kicked off television. We know how some of those people operate.

There's a chance you get kicked off a TV if you were to say that. So it's a wonderful team to be a fan of. Consummate underdog, consument overlooked, consument underrated. Overwrite that Tyrese Halliburton 20 plus points, double, double in the game ceiling, game six or series series ceiling game six

Pascoe Siakam goes I mean, it's just a fun team yeah, and they're all dogs and none of them care none of them care about who gets the credit and The way they play is they play hard as hell and this city is gonna be electrifying come join us if you want to come To a game. Yeah, the Siakam story. I think is incredible too. Like was in Toronto wins the championship He was the g-league MVP like really did kind of come up through the ranks I think he went to New Mexico or New Mexico State like a small-school kid They talked about I think he talked about his press conference like hey Yeah, I moved to from Cameroon and completely committed myself to basketball and that's just kind of been my life

And then he gets traded, you know, from Toronto after they fall off a cliff and finds a home in India. And last year when he got traded there, that was a huge deal for them. That kind of got them back into kind of that top tier talent team. And then of course, with the way the season ended with the Celtics sweeping them, there was no celebration.

You've talked about it. When a team gets to the Eastern Conference Finals, like there was no celebration. You've talked about it. When a team gets to the Eastern Conference Finals, like the Pacers who weren't being talked about as one of those top teams, you expect to celebrate some sort of success like that, but because they got swept, there was nothing. And then this off season, a bunch of clips have been coming out. Miles Turner posted something about him, like, hey, we think we can surpass last year. See Ockham talked about too

Like you think this is gonna happen every year I went to the finals and I never sniffed the final so the fact that you know We were able to get to the conference finals last year was incredible now. They're going to the finals. There's a stat of You know both these teams the gumby shared it with us. They both average, you know Okay, see a 100 possessions a game. The Pacers 99 possessions a game and stuff like this is why the small markets are sweet. Like they really do care more about basketball in Indiana. That's a real thing. Oklahoma City. I've never been there. I'm sure it's a wonderful place. We've seen it on TV. That

is special. It is incredible. It's one of the best atmospheres in sports and the Shirts they do of course is cool, but they're on their feet and that's what happened in the Pacers game game six That I noticed like four or five minutes left. Nobody was sitting down You can sense it Connor obviously from Boston. How many titles this Celtics have 18 most of them be okay, obviously You're welcome. I just gave you that. Hey hey by the way turn if it's got to go anywhere At least it stays in here. Thank God. Yes, and you'll be shipping that obviously whenever it gets to Some team potentially get into four ways Look if SGA if SGA wants to reach out for maybe yeah, but on that note whoa all right listen We don't know if it's going to hit that's what you're saying. No. Yeah, but on that note

There's like five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Connor looks over, he goes, oh, you can feel it. Pacers are going to the finals. And I look around, and you could. Because the game got kind of ugly. Pacers started making shots. Nick subbed out the, before the Knicks even

did a full line change and basically just tapped out and put the white flag up. The entire arena was standing. And it was just like a buzz. It was like everybody in their own little groups was like, holy shit, we're Pacers are going to the finals. The Pacers are going to the NBA finals right now. And it was a cool moment where you were like,

you can feel, you can sense it right now. Cause you know, obviously Celtics fans were like, you guys don't get this a lot. But this is what the feeling is. This is what we're trying to bottle and experience nine year NFL vet, the feeling is. This is what we're trying to bottle and experience. Nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler is here.

D-Bush, great to see you. You look incredibly cool. Great to be here, buddy. Yeah, the atmosphere was electric in there. In that moment that he's chit chatting about, that was when Tyrese goes from the logo. That was whenever, you know, Thomas Bryant started going crazy from the side.

It was like that fourth quarter moment is why you pay the amount of money that you pay to be in that building. Yeah, thank you for that. In this city, yeah, no problem. No problem. Appreciate that. No problem.

Much more fun this year for you, I think. Yeah, last year was the worst viewing experience I've ever had in my life. Sorry, that's on me. It was on him and two of his Celtics friends were there. And I said, never in my life am I doing that again, especially at the price that I just paid for this week I'm not gonna watch people just dance in my face the entire time I'm gonna try to enjoy this we

certainly did that but it was a beautiful thing and it's amazing what sports can do yeah like this city you know I'm not saying that last year after the East Crawford finals the city was bummed out about the Pacers but they certainly were they were bummed out about how the season ended because how proud They were of the Pacers team Nobody thought they were gonna be able to make it as far as they did they do then can't even talk about it now It's like we all kind of understand what the team is the team represents city Well, and it's uh, you know, the vibes are immense. The vibes are so high

It's a spectacular you guys were there in the building You can feel that energy even watching it through the TV like watching through the TV hearing the Chance hearing the crowd regardless of what the score was the crowd was fully in you heard that even the chance for Thomas and obviously He's a Hoosier as well, but you talked about this state just being a basketball state in general So for them to be in the finals for the first time they have a real chance to win it I forget who it was that was on here talking about you know The teams and the makeup of the pers and how they play and with their pace like they can run you into the ground and they almost generate another

superstar with those extra 20-30 points that he just get in pace moving out saw some breakdown even against the Knicks with like some think a lot of people going after a cat or going after the big just not getting back down the court as soon as they give a bucket boom they're, they're out, they're leaking. Tyree is kicking it out and that is a bitch for anybody that has ever played basketball on any level. Like it doesn't matter, like, okay, so you got the SGA's or the Hardin's

or whoever who can ISO and take it, but when you can play as a team like that, you know, possession in and possession out, that is tough. I like what you said there, it's like an added super, their pace is an added super. It is the sixth man on the court is how conditioned the last year during the playoffs They kept saying well the Pacers are just playing against hurt teams hurt teams. It's hurt teams. It's like They might be the ones causing the other team

Yeah, they're sick superstar Which is their pace and their conditioning and their cardio might be making people be hurt and I saw the quotes about people getting upset About cat allegedly in his effort on defense. It's like, that was my big takeaway from watching that game courtside was like, Kat is too big to be running the amount that they're, because Pascoe Siocca, he is tall, long, and he can run, he can just run, he's run,

he was running, I mean, he was going OB, they all got pace. Miles is the only guy. Now he's been here for 10 years, doesn't have the pace, but he still knows that he's gonna have to run up and down. It's like, when you get dropped into play against his Pacers team, it's like, it's a track meet. Like it is about to be a track meet. After how long this season has been,

after how long the playoffs are, do you have enough guys that are gonna be able to keep up with the pace of play that the Pacers are gonna have? And it's like, nobody really has been able to do that yet. This Oklahoma City team though, they're saying can, because the depth, because the way they go about playing, and they kind of do the same thing, which is why it should be a very good,

should be a great series, is kind of how everybody's eyeing it. Yeah, it's gonna be incredible. And Miles Turner too, he's one of those guys that could, you know, be a little upset, want miles Turner to he he's one of those guys that could you know be a little upset want more Shots, but he knows his role like for Carl Anthony towns They're gonna be pissed at him if he's not taking 20 25 shots So he has to be in the game like miles Turner sure he can hit threes He can you know score in the post he can do everything

But he's not gonna be upset if he only has 10 shots because Siakam and Obie and Tyrese and you know, Mathurin coming off the bench and I always get his name wrong. I'm sorry, Ben, but he's Mathurin. Mathurin. Yeah. Even he's a dog. Yeah, he's an absolute dog. So it's like they have all these different pieces and nobody has an ego.

And I think it starts and ends with Rick Carlile because Rick Carlile has been around for so long. He knows how rare it is. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a top 10 statistical coach of all time in the playoffs, an NBA champion. A guy who's been to the finals six times, and now he's leading the Indiana Pacers

for the first time in 25 years to the NBA finals. Gave a great promo after the game, where he's had in 49 other states, it's just basketball, but this is Indiana. Huge pop. Also had the wherewithal to thank Ernie and TNT after the biggest night of this particular Pacers team's lives to give them a thank you for everything that TNT has done for the NBA and their show. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, guy I punch right in the shoulder of you, Coach Carlisle. Yeah! Come on!

Yeah! I gave you a little something something there, coach, congratulations. Yeah, yeah, what's up guys? Hey, so we gotta get this out of the way just for my own personal reasons. I do that promo where I talk on, you know, it's everybody in the fourth quarter,

let's turn this shit up. I'm gonna give the microphone back, you're right there, I punch you right in the shoulder, no cell out of you. I don't even think you glanced the shoulder. No sell out of you. I don't even think you glanced at me. Did you feel the shot? Was there a thought while I was talking? Or you locked in in a zone there,

don't even know what's going on with me. It's more so just basketball. Yeah, I woke up with a bruise the next day and I'd forgotten what happened. But no, listen, we appreciate you, Pat. We appreciate you getting us going when you sit courtside, it's awesome. And I don't care what other people think, it's good.

Okay, hey, I needed that. That makes me feel good, coach. We just chit chatted there about the depth of your team. And we talked about Miles Turner, how he's been there for 10 years. He gave a great speech afterwards talking about the state and the city. He doesn't care if he's not the one putting up 30. Feels like Tyrese doesn't care, Pasco doesn't care, Thomas Bryant

comes in puts up some major points. It's like what about your team do you think makes them so unselfish? Is that kind of what it is? And how do you find guys that are like that in 2025, in 2026 going forward? Well our front office has done a great job of getting great people. And then, your culture starts with your best players. So Tyrese and Pascal are both high, high level players that are great people. They're highly unselfish.

They put winning above everything else. And they're both connectors on the court. So that's gotta be the starting point for us. We're constructed a little differently. Things are changing in the NBA. It's the top heavy rosters of superstars are kind of a thing of the past, somewhat. And so our team has been built in a different way.

It's built on balance, it's built on togetherness, it's built on skill, and it's built on tenacity. And the style we play is not an easy style. It's very physically demanding. But we have great guys, and they've really leaned into everything that's going on in this run. And obviously we wanna keep it going. Yeah, they represent, you represent our city well.

So I think that's why you see such good buy-in from the fan base. That place was electrifying. You talk about it being physically tasking the style of play that you have. I did not grow up in the basketball world. I watched basketball, but I don't know the ins and outs. But I do know that last year during the playoff run all they kept talking about was the Pacers

They're just playing against hurt teams are playing against hurt teams are playing against hurt teams then this year Oh, well, they didn't get their best. They didn't get their best. I think it's cuz the pace that you guys play at I think that is an added weapon. I think you actually run people out of gyms I know that's not necessarily the thought but whenever you think about your team being able to run at the speed and the pace that they're able to have, does that go back to like training camp? Do they know that what they're signing up for or how does it kind of be instituted

that we're gonna be the better shape team as opposed to the other teams? Well, it's training camp, but really it's, you know, when we did exit meetings last year after the season, we talked about the importance of a great summer of conditioning. And look, this is one of the reasons that Tyrese had a slow start to the year. You know, he was coming off the injury last year in the conference finals to Boston. He got healthy basically just in time to start practicing with Team USA with the Olympics. And then once the game started, he wasn't playing much

and then he got dinged up in, I think, the second to last game. And then he was not really healthy until about two or three days before actual training camp started. So he missed out on a summer of conditioning and base building from a conditioning standpoint. And it's one of the big reasons that the start

to his season this year was slow. And so it's a commitment and it's not just, you don't just come into training camp to get in shape. Nowadays in this NBA, you've got to do your conditioning stuff during the summer and you've got to come in really tuned up. I think you guys are the most conditioned team that I've ever seen in basketball. I mean, like Chip Kelly came into the NFL, he was going to try to run hurry up and we're going to run more plays and with an 18-garrison, 17-game season, 16-game season, guys' bodies just kind of fell off.

It feels like you guys do that to other teams just from watching like I was watching poor call Anthony towns have to run back and forth back and forth and I'm like that's a weapon but how does your team stay in shape it's like your guys are just ready for it now let's talk about your big brain okay I know you don't want to do that you're always deflecting to others there was a moment caught on camera though go ahead con man yeah coach early on you guys ran a pick and roll with against Jalen Brunson and kind of abused him in the post if you will. And after I believe knee Smith, yeah, here lays it in the boys on the bench went right over to you and basically pad you on the head and back like coach, you're a genius. How do you do it? What was the adjustments

you guys made throughout the series and how important is that during a seven game series to kind of show one thing early on and Then maybe change it in the biggest moment like game six the closeout on Saturday Well the opening play was Was from one of my coaching staff and you know one thing that I I've got from Terry Stotz Who was one of my former assistants who went on to Portland, and he did this in Portland. He was the head coach there for nine years and very successful. Whoever had the scout of that particular game had the opportunity to draw up the first play.

So I've been doing this now for seven or eight years, and it's great because it gives your assistants, most of whom have very fertile minds and have really studied the opponent, the opportunity to draw something up where they think there may be a vulnerability or something. The staff drew it up. I happened to draw it up on the board and I was the one that presented it in our prep before the game, which is not the normal thing, but for time reasons, that's kind of how it went. So yeah, there's this thing. So I mean, Lloyd Pierce works with Miles Turner and he works with Aaron and some of our other

coaches work with the other guys, obviously. So if somebody draws up the first play and it works, McConnell always gets up and he's always saying, oh wow, what a great play. That was really, and they do this big thing. Miles Turner makes a post move and scores. First play of the game, he'll run up to Lloyd Pierce and he'll say, hey Lloyd, was that the step through? Was that the Bill Walton or was that the Robert Parrish?

So there's this fun stuff going on, you know, so It's kind of it's kind of not serious But it's also you know, just part of the character of our team and and I get the fun-loving group You know the guys love to compete and they love to compete together and they have fun with it Yeah, I love the TJ McConnell's just shit talking at all times. Yeah, Oh super genius. What a play What a play, you know good Yings or guy bring it all together I saw James Johnson put a fire out immediately with a New York Knicks fan that was heckling the bench It feels like you have the perfect combination of players in there to have great vibes Which leads to D butts question for you coach, you know professional sports egos are always a thing You mentioned, you know, some of your leaders earlier on with Halliburton and Siakam

How did you learn how to manage? You know egos when it comes to running these types of teams? Watching the team from afar, it seems very selfless, the ball moves, it finds the open shot. But what did you learn in your career how to manage different egos, different players, especially when you're having success? Well, I've been humbled just about every way possible that you can be in coaching and as a player.

And I've learned that humility and authenticity are the keys, you know. Players today, you know, they don't want to be bullshitted. You know, they really, they can tell, you know, if you're not being straight with them. So, look, we try to bring the truth to our guys. We try to let them know that we really care about them. It's important that they know that we are busting our butts as much as we can to help them succeed, not only as a team, but individually in their careers. So that they can play longer, they can play more years, They can play better. They can get good contracts and stuff like that

But we make it clear that our thing here is about culture and it's about What we can do together and and and we don't we don't accept situations where people put themselves before the team and and it starts with Tyrese and Pascal and Miles really and The buck stops with those three guys and those three guys walk the talk. I Love what your teams about me. Yeah, I do so good for our city. Oh, yeah We can feel it right easy to root for yeah easy to root But you can feel the city like I don't say like your team embodies a city because that seems like a big cliche But it's very real like it feels like yours your team embodies what we are here and uh, I think that's why you've seen how much

This city has been excited about this. I mean it was upside down. Yeah on crazy I mean it was upside down on saturday night We're expecting the same thing throughout the rest of the finals and then hopefully into a very thing throughout the rest of the finals and then hopefully into a very celebratory filled offseason. Now on that note, you're meeting a team that also has a great fan base. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, coach, during the NFL playoffs, we talk a lot about, you know, away teams having to use silent count and not being able to hear each other in the huddle and stuff like that.

When you go into an atmosphere like OKC that seems like it is incredible, is that something that you have to prepare for? Or is it similar to series that you have faced already in the NBA playoffs? Oh, we don't call plays anyway, so it doesn't matter. No, that's one thing. But to what Pat just said, you know, when I went to Detroit for my first head coaching job

in 2001, you know, we looked at the team, we looked at the city that we were in, and you want to try to come up with an identity for the team that somehow mirrors the fan base. And so at that time, you know, we had Ben Wallace, Cliff Robinson, Mike Curry, some really tough minded guys.

And so Detroit is a hardworking auto city, all that, and a lot of industry there. And so going to work became kind of the moniker. When I came back here, Indiana is so much about the purity and sanctity of the game and playing the right way and those kinds of things that we built the team, we built, you know, our talking points within our culture on selfishness, building skill,

being in great shape and doing the things that, you know, that Indiana basketball is really all about. I think it's an interesting series. You know, Oklahoma's historically great. They won 68 games, their defense is historically great. But it's two teams that have been built similarly and built on the same pillars and the same things of importance. Hard unselfish play skill, all those kinds of things. So we're looking forward. It's gonna be a great challenge.

This is gonna be, first game, I think we're already at 10 point underdog. Nine and a half, nine and a half coach, yeah. Yeah, but that's all right. You just gotta love the challenge. And so we've got a couple of days to prepare here before we get on the plane and we have great respect for them and we're gonna look forward to the challenge.

Coach, how often do you use those types of things as motivation? You knowing that it's a nine and a half, ten point spread for the first game. And then I assume you saw whenever Tyrese was voted the most overrated guy in the NBA by the athletics poll of his peers. Do you use that stuff as motivation? What is your messaging to the team on that type of stuff? You know, it's the stuff with the stuff with betting and point spreads is so prevalent now. You don't really need to talk to the team about it. It's all out there. People

are talking about it in real time during the broadcast. You know, I just sense today's players are just having awareness for a lot of things to begin with. I think that they realize, our guys realize the level of the challenge. You know, we played Oklahoma twice this year. We had a close game at home. We had a chance to be right there and we just were unable to hit a couple shots and it became a make-miss thing. And then later in the year we went to Oklahoma and we didn't play well. And I think we took a 20 or 22 point hit or something like that.

I mean they're great. They've got the MVP, they've got Jalen Williams who's a second star, they've got Chet Holmgren who's really the third star, and then they've got a supporting cast that's really, really good and they really defend. Caruso and Dort, Williams and Gilderys Alexander, these guys are all elite defenders and not only do they defend well, but they take the ball from the opponent. And so I believe during the playoffs they've been number one in points off turnovers. So a lot of this for us, we're gonna have to do a good job with ball security.

I know that's a football term too. We're gonna have to take care of it on the one hand. But we're gonna have to play fast and we're gonna have to move it around a lot and we're gonna have to rebound it because the possession stats in every sport really do carry the day. A hundred to ninety-nine average I guess on the possessions between you guys in Oklahoma City. You just talked about them playing defense that great. Ty has a question for you.

Yeah speaking of that coach there's a stat floating around that in you guys last eight playoff wins you've scored a hundred floating around that and you guys last eight playoff wins, you've scored 110 plus. And obviously, throughout the course of the series, you're going to score points. But do you think at some point in this series, you guys are going to have to win at least one defensive battle when shots aren't necessarily falling or whatever the case may be? Or is it one of those things where, hey,

we already know what the formula is for us to win, we're just gonna stick with that? those things where, hey, we already know what the formula is for us to win, we're just going to stick with that. I do believe that you're right. And, you know, the really, the wonderful thing about NBA playoffs is, you get into a series, every single game is different. I mean, you look at the New York series, every single game, game one was played one way, it went to overtime, game two was different, game three was you know, every every game is a new chapter Some are high scoring some are lower scoring

the lower scoring games Are tough games to win. I mean they're they're they're slugfest and they're you know, they're they're they're won and lost on the front lines you know in the Trenches, you know as you guys say in football. So look, we don't know what game one's going to look like. I don't know how intense it's going to be. You know, the finals stage is a different world. You go to the NBA finals and and now your media's things are different.

You've got hundreds of media people from all over the world instead of 50 or 60 in the conference finals. Your practice is during the finals, 30 minutes at the beginning of your practice, the media is in the practice. The stage is different. It feels different. But we've got to normalize things as much as possible. We've got to lean into the things that have helped make us successful, which is hard,

fast, unselfish, solid play. We've got to do a good job in the possession areas. You don't know how often you're gonna get to the NBA finals. I mean, you can have a great young team, it can seem like you have this runway and you just never know. So we've got to really embrace this opportunity and come out guns blazing. When was the time you noticed that this team couldn't go on a run? Was there a time this year where you were like, cuz post All-Star break, your guys' record is top two in a league or whatever.

You know, you guys were the hottest team, one of the hottest teams in the league going into the playoffs. Was there a time where you're like, you know what, this team has a chance. Maybe we do take a real run at this, because last year, you guys made it to the Eastern Conference finals. Nobody was expecting it. Get swept by the Boston Celtics. Nobody celebrates the fact that you guys got

to the Eastern Conference, kind of just gets forgotten about. This year started a little slow. You talk about Tyrese being injured, not maybe showing up to the season in the greatest physical shape that he could be in because of what he was dealing with in the off season. Then you guys get hot. Was there a time during the season

where you thought to yourself, okay, this is the team that we thought we could be after last year? season where you thought to yourself, okay, this is the team that we thought we could be after last year? Well, I felt coming into the season that the NBA is kind of structurally changing a little bit. There's been amazing parity the last several years. I believe the last seven champions have been, it's been a different champion each year. And so the kind of the way the league is going was heading that direction. been a different champion each year. Kind of the way the league is going was heading that direction.

We liked our pieces. We felt getting Matheran back was going to be a positive for us because he missed the entire playoffs last year. But again, you never know and you get humbled early with a tough schedule. The Paris trip was challenging because it was a great trip and we split with a team that's gonna be a great team in this league and is building toward that direction right now. But that was two games in nine or ten days and so

it put compression at the beginning of the schedule and a little bit toward the end. And so we had to deal with that. So you try to problem solve your way through it. You certainly have to lean on your veterans and your leaders in tough times to keep everybody's vibe up and for those guys to stay positive, which they did. And then you try to give yourselves the best chance that you can and January was key for us because there were no back-to-backs. We became healthier I think we had the best record in the league that month and then we were able to

Keep it going a little bit, you know as the year went on. Yeah, it was fun to watch We appreciate you so much. I got a chance to meet your wife on Saturday night We shared an elevator alongside my wife as we were heading up. Her vibes were immaculate, you know. I thanked her for what, you know, her and you have done for our city. And keep rolling, coach.

We appreciate the hell out of you. We'll punch her in the arm when you see her next time. Oh, close. I know we're trying to make a tough team out here, but maybe not now. Good luck the rest of the way. We appreciate you All right. Appreciate you guys. Be well. Take care. Hey respect

Respect me ladies and gentlemen NBA champion coach Carlo You're gonna give us one of those yeah, I gave it to you last time I'm not doing that again. I'm a little worried you didn't give it back. No, well, it's not the end of the season I'm not a good thing. Yeah, yeah last year they didn't win last year. They got off when he did it Yeah, that's probably why he doesn't dish it out anymore. It's like when Connor McDavid, you know didn't touch sure Charles Charles Robinson players cable Whole thing and then he touched it this year. One change up to Mojo.

Coach Carlisle smiling at the end of that series was wild. Yeah. He's not a big smiler. No. He is a locked in. Even right there. Yeah, super locked in. As he was, him listening to the questions is like every word I want to listen to this

to make sure we get a good answer out here. He's an intense guy. Been to the finals six times. He's been there, done that. And I think the boys have a respect for that Okay, if he says it it's gonna work. We assume it's gonna work. I don't think he's friends with the players either I think it's a vastly different relationship. I think he's coached. They are player. We're gonna keep rolling Obviously they have respect for each other and congrats to Herb Simon the owner of the Pacers

There was a tweet about his last 12 months Yeah Basically what the Pacers ownership group has been able to accomplish over the last 12 months. Obviously the All-Star game, Kaitlyn Clark has come to town. The Pacers have reached conference finals, now back to back years,

now they're reaching the finals. He goes into the Hall of Fame, and longest tenured owner, and then he'll host the WNBA All-Star game, and his family will. I got a chance to meet him after his first time Get a chance to meet him just you know such a jolly. I just so kind That trophies heavy though. Mm-hmm. They put this trophy in this guy's hands

He's supposed to just hold it out like he's like some sort of cruel and unusual punishment He's like get this thing the hell way too heavy 90 years old I mean, it's the weight of the world is in here, but it actually is like 40 pounds, I think are 35 pounds or something like that, their trophy. So it was everybody was kind of dragging it around, you know, not just doing a big ball dance. Congrats to the Pacers. We're thankful for them doing it here in Indy

and can't wait to watch the finals. Congrats to Oklahoma City. Cannot wait to see how you guys play. Now there was other sports that took place over the weekend. Baseball had a big one. I don't know if you know this, but the Yankees and the Dodgers had a three-game series Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Dodgers won the series two to

one but there was some magic that took place over the weekend, Ty. Yeah, absolutely. If you're just a fan of baseball in general you're starting to get into it. We've talked about this time and time again and kind of why baseball's been awesome so far this year. The best players are performing. Friday night, Shohei Otani and Aaron Judge in the top half of the first inning. Aaron Judge hits a 450 plus foot homer to center field to start the series. And then in the bottom half of the inning, yeah, you can see, I mean, just a monster shot from Judge there. And then answering right away, Shohei in the bottom of the first off Max Fried,

who is the Yankees ace. Boom. Yeah, he goes yard to stand. That's exactly what the MLB wants, right? Without a doubt. And because we talked about a bunch, you know, and people were bitching like, hey, this type of game shouldn't be on Apple TV. It should be on, you know, ESPN or Fox or whatever. You know, people act like no one has Apple TV, which is kind of a joke.

But that's, you know, neither here nor there. But it was also a 10-10 start time and you also had other stuff going on other sports So it did kind of get buried a little bit But the weekend as a whole they couldn't have asked for a better showcase Otani hits two homers in that Friday night game against the Yankees judge hits one and then on Saturday the Dodgers beat the hell Out of the Yankees, but judge hits two homers and then last night on Sunday night baseball the I mean it's just a great game very entertaining back and forth both Shohei and Aaron Judge go hit list last night and it was kind of the supporting cast who who came in and

you know did their damage but overall a lot of people saying hey this is a potential World Series preview of this upcoming year. It was obviously the World Series last year. And I think overall, just for the state of baseball, you could have done a lot worse. You know, I mean, all the stars were there, all the stars played, which is huge. And for the most part, outside of that Saturday game that was kind of a punt, you know, Yankees gave up nine runs in like the first inning. And obviously Shohei, he's got a new baby at home.

So he's very, very sleepy, obviously. 18 to two, you know. Can we end this game? Is there not some mercy rule with this entire thing? Exactly. So like, if you take that out, which is kind of just a throw away, overall, this is exactly what baseball needed. Now it would have been nice if that Friday night game

was a seven, 10 first pitch and not 10 10, but overall all three games on national TV, it was great. Okay. So not just professional baseball, obviously having their stars, college baseball is happening right now. Okay. And there's big news, historic news, the number one and number two overall seeds. Hi, right? Is this first time long time?

Yeah. So it's the first time since 1999 when they introduced like national seeding that the first overall seed who was Vanderbilt this year got eliminated. Great highlight here. You can see a pop fly to end the game from Wright State who not not a bad team, but again, these SEC teams. We've talked about it after COVID, you know, with the beers going crazy, like they pack out these stadiums. Vanderbilt, first number one nationally ranked seed

to not make it to the super regionals ever. So like they're supposed to win, you know, it's at Vanderbilt, it's at their home stadium. They're supposed to win. They don't, Wright State upsets them. And then later Texas the number two overall seed they get eliminated by Texas San Antonio the Roadrunners making their first meet making their first ever appearance in

the Super Regional so this is just the first round we still have another you know after the Super Regionals we'll get the teams who are going to Omaha but if you're just kind of like an ancillary fan of baseball this time of the year watching college baseball it is incredible. On that note West Virginia baseball yeah Kentucky where they from what conference? They're in the SEC. Oh really? Well well Virginia, Don, 12-8 in the eighth inning. Gavin Kelly hits a single to make it 12-10. Oh, no, the boys are back in time.

Bottom of the eighth, nine innings, obviously, in baseball, but all of a sudden, the bottom of the eighth, it gets a little sketchy. 12-8, now it's 12-10. Now, because of Ben Lumsden, he hits a single to make it 12-12 into West Virginia Faithful are going ape shit for baseball. Now it's a tie game bottom of the eighth they can't continue to can they? Yes they can! Armani Guzman he hits a single to make it 13-12 scoreless ninth inning for both teams. West Virginia knocks out Kentucky

in a double elimination first round battle. And West Virginia has a five run eighth inning to come back from being down to take the lead in a Mount Mears march on. Vandy, gone. Texas, gone. Kentucky, gone. West Virginia, rolling.

Shout out to college baseball. Huge for West Virginia too, because I believe they were slated to play Texas in the super regional if Texas would have advanced. So now they're going to be going, you know, they have UTSA instead. There is a very good chance that West Virginia makes college world series.

They need to figure out how to celebrate. Oh, that was some of the shittiest celebrations. They weren't ready. The boys were jacked. It was 1288. They thought this was over. They weren't ready to do the entire thing. You have a five run inning. I didn't know that was possible. Two outs. Whole rally was with two outs. I had no idea that was possible in baseball. Love that. I was not watching the game live. Should have been, obviously. I was just seeing WVU baseball

tweets that were popping up in my algorithm. Yeah, there's a couple people that fall. I mean, good joy. Good joy. It should have just ended it. Should have just ended it. Probably a good thing too, because in the grand scheme of things, they really haven't won shit. You know, this is more where they're trying to go. Look at them carrying the Gatorade in the water. Yeah, yeah, nobody gets it.

No, no, yeah. And we just dump it on the ground. Yep. That's all. What do you want? We had five runs in the eighth inning with two outs. We've already done our magic. We're going to be dumping pirate on anybody.

Save that for the next round. win though over Kentucky and it's not just college baseball that's electrifying it's also college women's softball season we need to be watching yeah without a doubt we talked about Oklahoma a little bit on I think it was Friday another you know just packed weekend of college softball action the the biggest kind of takeaway was the Tennessee and UCLA Drama a little bit of drama. Who is who is this again Megan Grant? Yeah, so Megan Grant hits a two-run blast She's one of the big boppers for UCLA. She was over nine in the tournament coming in She hits to run homer. Okay late to tie this thing up in first pit

Yeah, first pitch in the last inning. They need this. Otherwise, they're done She rounds the bases and gets jacked up celebrates with her teammates, but oh no Hold on step on home plate. What? Yeah. Yeah, she was excited Both feet could have technically close it cuz she did like a little skippity step in there could have technically touched it. Cause she did like a little skippity step in there. Back foot could have touched it, front foot could have touched it. Somehow both cleats do not touch home plate.

Correct. But they celebrate big, celebrate big. And I don't know one thing led to another. They ran up reviewing this to see if this should counter not. Yeah, they showed Tennessee's dugout cause they immediately were like, yeah, she definitely didn't touch home plate. And long story short, there's a review basically where if someone on base

at Spanx and it is Spanx on the field, that's like, oh, yeah, that's called a football playoff. Wow. Wow. He's got the same fit on and he's potentially blocking an angle. So he needs to watch his shit. Maybe get out of the way. Spanx. He's saying about you. Might be a UCLA fan. We don't know. He's got to review it.

Exactly. Anyways, they go back. Yeah, they review it. And there is a rule where basically another runner you can see here who is on base guides her to home plate to make sure she touches it. So it's not an automatic out. They review it. And the umpire says, hey, she did miss home plate.

But this actually isn't a reviewable call. So the runs will stand for four, we're going to extras. Appendix G actually states that this is not reviewable, even though they do review it. And the promo from the ump after the review, something special, because he goes and says, the call is upheld or whatever. So the UCLA people go crazy.

And then he goes, after review, we noticed that she did not touch home plate. She was guided back to home plate. Now the Tennessee fans are like, what are we even talking about? Then he says, but we found out through appendix G, not reviewable actually. So everything we just did was a waste of time.

But with that being said, count it, we're going to extra innings. Tennessee would go on to win. Yeah, but with that being said count it We're going to extra innings Tennessee would go underway Yeah, Tennessee walks them off in extras and so now we're down to the double elimination round Oklahoma still alive They have one loss though. They play Texas Tech today I believe so they have to beat Texas Tech twice to D But I know that Texas Tech's got an absolute dog as Kennedy their pitcher Million dollar woman actually got a million dollars in NIL transfer from Stanford

She had I believe, Gellman gave up four hits, seven strikeouts also hit a double So she's a weapon Texas Tech their first win in the World Series history So ever this the first time they ever go into the semi-finals and like you said double elimination So it got to be Oklahoma or Oklahoma has a chance to beat them if they lose to them. Right? Yeah Oklahoma's gonna have to, I don't believe they've lost yet. So Oklahoma has to at least beat them twice We respect and appreciate college ball and Stick sports in this time carrying us whenever there isn't a playoff game at night the NHL Stanley Cup finals begins on

Wednesday night first rematch since Penguins Red Wings. I believe a lot of people are saying you know Crosby very similar he played against the red wings in in the second years when he won his first cup so they're saying McDavid it might be his time now but yeah very jacked up for this and everyone's going back to last year where Chuckie said hey we'll see you next season baby and this is it and now we go you see the oilers up there they're minus 125 that is for game one and also the series they are minus 125 in the series yeah Connor McDavid is the favorite at minus 115 to win the consmite which is the playoffs MVP Bob is second favorite at plus 250 to win the consmite let's go to golf uh Scotty Scheffler racks up another tournament win the memorial over there in Ohio. And obviously, Scottie, if he's on a course,

we assume he's gonna win. It was a muddy track all weekend. It had a nice Sunday. Scottie Sheffler ends up winning. Old Ben Griffin, or Blake Griffin, who held the lead going into the weekend. He finishes second, congrats to him. Straka Taylor and Henley round up to top five.

Here's Jack talking about Scotty Scheffler's big win in Jack's tournament in Columbus, Ohio. Now, looking at the leaderboard today, he didn't have, I mean, Ben Grubin's a nice player. Stech Skrapp is, except Straka's a nice player. Nick Taylor's a nice player. those are all the guys that were there basically coming down the stretch. And he knows that those guys are not in his league. Now if he had, I don't know who else it might have been, but somebody else at the top, Zander

or somebody like that, he might been there, he might have said, well, that might be a little tougher. I might have to do something. He didn't have to. And I think, I always was, I'll just ask Scotty if he watched the leaderboard. He says, yeah, I do. I said, well, I did too.

I always watched the leaderboard and found out what my competition was. And I always felt like what level I had to play to fight that competition off and sometimes you'd have to fight it off because you know they'd self destruct. And so you know so you just don't make dumb mistakes and play solid golf and and you win. Jack Nicklaus is saying Scottie Scheffler definitely won okay I'm not saying he didn't win but for the tournament that I put together

and I host here it would have been nice to have a couple bigger and struck is a good boy he's a sweet boy boy buddy sucks that's not what Jack said he's a good ballplayer he's a good ballplayer but you know some of these guys are gonna self struck Scottie Scheffler knows that so maybe Scottie doesn't have to be as aggressive now Scottie Scheffler is known to be aggressive though he'll be up six and he's still going for the green, going for the pin. And I think what Jack was saying was, there was real no, Scottie never had a moment

where he was like, oh no, there might be somebody to come run up on me in this thing. Now he didn't mention Rory's name, right? Rory did not come to the memorial. It was an elevated event, Jack's event. So a lot of people were like, Rory and Jack maybe have a little bit of heat. But I think Jack was talking to the bigger story

about where golf is currently with the run that Scotty's having because I think Jack doesn't want it to be tarnished. I think Jack doesn't want people to hold over Scotty's head. Scotty you're not playing against a full field any any of these weeks because I think he has massive respect for Scotty but Scotty hasn't had the opportunity to have to dominate everybody in the world because of this current state of golf. Yeah, obviously Jack, you know, Barry can say whatever the hell he wants to say and he will and he's been holding this tournament for a long, long time, but he also mentioned

that Scottie is playing, you know, even better than Jack played during his time because of the competition that's out there week in and week out and you know, maybe it is some things with Rory not showing up and not being there or whatnot, but I mean, Scottie, rather, to me,

he plays like boring golf. And his version of boring golf is still elite. He's an elite ball striker, off the tee, obviously going into the greens. And then when he's putting decent, he's gonna win by a handful of strokes. So he's incredible, but I love, I do love what Jack said. And it's just kind of like what we say

every time we have an extended conversation about golf is we wanna see the best players playing against each other as often as possible. Some of those best players are in, you know, live right now and hopefully we can get them all together at some point, but I mean, Scotty, what he's doing is unbelievable. A long, long way to go to catch Tiger,

but he is unbelievable. Yes, I win 55 of 109 events now. Had to win 56 of 110. All right, knocked one off. So now I've got to win 55 of 109 events now had to win. That's it. Of 110. Yeah. All right. Knocked one off. So now we've got to win 55 of 109. And you know, like elevated PGA events to catch tiger.

Yeah. Insane. The elevated PGA events were supposed to be like the majors of the PGA tour. So like Rory not playing in that it's weird. Is an interesting conversation. I hope Rory's okay. Like I hope Rory's all right mentally, physically.

I hope everything like that. But I think Jack is getting a little bit worried. Like, hey, we put up a massive purse here. 20 million. Yeah, we put up a lot of, four million is what Scotty won. There was a lot more money out there for everybody else. This was supposed to be the elevated events.

So everybody in the PGA, you would think was supposed to be there. So Jack probably a little bit like, hey, come on, like this is what we're trying to, trying to do in this entire thing. Because if not for the elevated events, the only thing we can Like this is what we're trying to do in this entire thing because if not for the elevated events, the only thing we can really look forward to

for Scotty to take on all the greats is the majors. And it's like the majors are where the lid players are also at, but also all the big time PGA players are at. So I think there's a lot of convo right now. And I don't care, cause if I see Scheffler on the leaderboard, I'm gonna watch, okay, I'm gonna watch. I'm gonna have it on at least in the background.

And I'm going to hear people talk about something incredible that Scotty does. So it's certainly good for golf. But I do like that the old heads in golf are like, hey, boys, what are we doing? We drove in RVs from tournament to tournament, just like every sports. Oh, geez.

Back in my day. Back in my day. Back in my day. I love the golf really has a back in my day situation right now because I would have been nice if Phil Mickelson would have one played in some other tournament tiger could say so that I don't have to worry about him and it's Like Scotty's still winning these tournaments in my eyes. Yeah, if everybody's here, but we'll never know I guess that's what Jack said. We'll never know exactly And I guess maybe we don't but even if Roy's there even if everyone is there you assume

Scotty plays even better, but you need exactly that's how I view Yeah, like like he's still gonna you know kind of raise his level of play to everyone else But even just Rory's not enough obviously one. There's a big name He just won the Masters But you need more than that and you need people like Jack to come out and say like hey This is this is bullshit, basically. This isn't the competition that we've been used to forever. Now we have the guy, which it felt like there wasn't

in that little in-between period with Tiger. But now there is the guy, the clear number one. But there's no clear number two, number three, especially when Rory's not showing up. It's poplin' over there, yeah, go know, number two, number three, especially when, you know, Rory's not showing up. Yeah, it's poplin' over there. Yeah, it's like, go ahead, Tom. But no, I think, I mean, it could have been a little shot at Rory because literally every single person, everyone else on the PGA Tour was there, like Xander was there, Colin Moorcaugh was there, Cantlay was there, Olberg was there. They just didn't play well.

So when that happens, you know, those are the times that you kind of miss, if Bryce other guy or wrong was there that gives you just more looks probably going to run It gives you more chances to compete with Scotty because right now I mean he's on a absolutely different level Yeah, I'd need to watch him now should watch me If you're just a fan of sport what you're watching right now is a great in his prime It doesn't make a stick and it is even when he does he figures out a way to get around it It's it's unbelievable. They said this about Tiger back in the day too they said competition wasn't good so Scottie's just gonna keep winning and everyone's gonna keep saying shit. Yeah I mean that's what happens when you're at the top of the mountain I guess

is when it's the breeziest and Scottie is certainly up there. I also like that he's got a little bit of moxie. Yeah I like that Scottie's got a little bit more moxie and I think his baby had a big old bump too. So congrats the entire Scheffler family kind of getting it all out there. That's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Speaking of greats in their prime, did you guys hear what happened to Magnus Carlsen? No. Uh-oh. What?

He's the number one super grand master chess player. Yeah, he's world number one. He got beat by Gukash! No! Yeah, Gukash runs close to Cillian and Magnus Carlsen punches the table flips a couple of pieces It walks off as a loser is good. Kesha. Maybe I'm the grand king now Maybe I'm the super duper king of this thing now. Okay, even Magnus Carlsen can't take my shit So if he loses once he's no longer the greatest is that how it works or no

This is all that was disrespectful speed. No, no, he's Magnus. I love how he called himself They gotta shake his hand, you know Let's add a cat. Oh my god right there as well Incredible scene. I did hear the oh my god Magnus we won't let you know we appreciate all that you did for chess is the world number one You really represented it well, and we appreciate your passion, but I think it's good cash time, bro That's what I think and I've been calling it since I seen good cash it down for the first time I didn't say that you said hey, we got a future grandmaster here boys open your eyes up

I was watching Queen's Gambit and they just popped in on good cash out there in a park I seen a guy move into things better than everybody else and I'm like shit if Magnus Carlson's got a run into good cash When good cash is having a good night, there might be a new king of chess Who's the best good chess in all of chess. I mean that is the way it works. Gukash 19 years old. Yeah except Prodigy. I don't love that they have them playing with the peasants. They should be in some sort of like arena in the center I think you know because I mean you probably think Carlson is like well we play in the park or you know am I taking on a future Grandmaster. This should be in

front of 50 to 100,000 people. Yeah congrats to Kulkash also congrats to Mark Caboli had a big scoop on TJ Watt contract offer is available for TJ. TJ obviously has not agreed to it or he would have signed it but allegedly negotiations are ongoing that is a Steelers correspondent for the Pat McAfee show also contributed to WWE.com Mark Kaboli. Shout out to Kaboli and Mac breaking that news and I am gonna go pay my respects to a friend that passed away and left a legacy of greatness. AJ Hawk will be on the other side.

Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change their life. I'll see you tonight at RAW. Goodbye. What's better than a well marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered.

Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. For the team ready to conquer the grandest stage, immortality awaits. Moments of sweat and sacrifice towards the composition of champions. An unforgettable journey is nearing its finale.

The NBA final presented by YouTube TV begin June 5th on ABC. Sports! by YouTube TV begin June 5th on ABC. It's what we do here boys. Pat unfortunately had to take off. He's going to the memorial slash funeral service. I'm not exactly sure exactly what is happening with it, but Jim Ursa, huge, huge loss in the NFL community. So, you know, thoughts to he and his whole family and everyone that will be attending that today.

Pat had to take off and go to that before he heads to Tulsa for Monday night, Raw tonight. That should be an exciting night, boys. It really should. Oh, yeah. Beautiful first hour by you guys. We enjoyed it. I got to see a lot of it here. You know what?

You guys are really doing it, Ty. Thank you. You really are, Ty. You guys are doing great. It's a toxic table, Toshman. How are you doing today, buddy? Doing great, Hogger know great Monday. Hey, what a way to start the week You know, it's it's always a nice little surprise when you get to come in the studio And like you said usually, you know, we don't get to chop it up for a little bit like that

So I'm excited great weekend of sports really, you know, what's there to complain about nothing nothing nothing to complain Obviously you guys documented very much in the first hour how well the Indiana Pacers, I mean come on. This place is buzzing. I pulled into town today, this place is absolutely buzzing. I see Mitt back here still talking about it. Some boys went to the celebration, right? Saturday night after the game.

I see people spill into the streets. Is this like, is Indiana a basketball town now for life? Again, I know it's always has been a basketball town, but now we're rejuvenating. It's the state of basketball, brother. So this ain't a basketball town, has been a basketball town, but now we're in juvenile. It's the state of basketball, brother Okay, so they're saying a basketball town. It's a basketball state man. And yes, it was very cool leaving the game You know, there's a hotel right across the street. It was flooded It was like this for a long time. Were they trying to get this crowd?

I heard they were trying to get people out here and they said now we're gonna we're here all night I don't think they were trying to get people out they have you can see up there where the cop cars are that's not That's normal rather usually they will no matter what block off the street Just because there's so many people leaving the games, but obviously in this situation Everyone was you know sticking around hanging out outside It's it's a nice little area with bars and stuff right there. So people started going everywhere The Tim whistle was you know packed to the gills per year. What was that again?

What's it called? The Tim Whistle, if you will. That's one of the local establishments that you guys enjoy? Yeah, one of the local watering holes, Daniel Jones frequents there. Some others as well. But no, it was a wonderful celebration.

Cool to just kind of witness it. Personally, I've never been at a game where it's been like a close out of a series or to go to the finals or something along those lines. So it was very sweet. But you're playing a little injured today, Hawker. What do you mean? Everyone's saying you're back.

Is this? No, I'm gonna probably stand the majority of this time. Standing sitting, sometimes every once in a while you're back, just decide to lock up and something happens and you can't really move or bend over or stand up or sit down or lay Down but you know what driving here today? It felt better than I thought. I thought that might be a little bit tone tone digs How are you? You tell me I know you've had some back injuries in the past. You're a huge athlete You were an athlete. I watched you go through the blaster at Indianapolis Colts training camp last year very explosive movement I'm sure you

feel good but you've had some back injuries in the past. Yeah I have but I have a I have an app now um it reminds you to stretch every single night um so I do what? Nothing. I believe you. I actually believe that you do. Yeah yeah at nine o'clock every night. It pops up says hey tone stretch. Yes exactly nine o'clock every single night it pops up and then I go through my stretching routine so it's really helpful if you want me to show you it, show you some exercise stuff like that. Yeah, maybe later in the first hour. I know we have Jet Pass and join us here in about 12-13 minutes. I think he will, he will, he'll actually, maybe when Jets here you can care here in stretch. I know we saw, we saw Tony, Tony Roman doing some cat and camel on the side of a green at a US Open

Qualifier I believe last year but boys we've had some news that I gotta talk to somebody here in the back room he might be I think it's a tough day for some Detroit Lions. Foxy so Frank Ragnau all-pro unbelievable center for the Detroit Lions a centerpiece for what this team is and how he sets the tone for everybody just an absolute road grader. He decides today comes out we hear that he is officially retiring after seven years in the NFL. Foxy, why don't you tell the people that aren't as diehard Lions fans as you are, what this

guy meant to the team and what his production on the field and also what he brings off the field. Yeah, Frank Ragnow is the definition of Detroit football. He's gritty, he's tough, great teammate, fans loved him. He played through injury I'm pretty sure one year he had a broken throat. Last year he had a torn pec. Most guys would have been out for weeks he played right through it didn't miss a single game. The guy was everything you want not only in a football player but in the trenches and Detroit fans love him especially because he was there when we sucked okay he was there when

this team couldn't find ways to win he was there when we were the same old Lions and he helped us go from that and MC DC gets hired and he builds the brand-new Lions I am thankful and grateful for Frank Ragnaut did for us and I'm just glad he got to see success I'm glad he got to see what Detroit was like and the fans were like before and after how good we got. So thank you, Frank. This is a bomber, only 29 years old. So, uh, and we drafted a guy in the second round this year, Tate Ratledge out of Georgia. He has the mullet.

I'm sure you've seen him on the internet. He's going to be the guy that might come in and fill in for center. So we'll see if he can do that. yeah, we're gonna miss Frank right now a lot Yeah The NFL is obviously gonna miss a rag now old-school throwback tight player road grader the kind of offensive lineman you went now rat Which though tone I've been hearing he's been taking first team reps at center throughout OTA so far for this Lions team Yeah, I mean obviously he anchored that Georgia offensive line That was very very good for a long time and then he had a great combine

Not only with the mullet flowing, but also like testing off the charts. So he went in the second round and you know, there's a lot of great second round centers, but as far as like odds are concerned, it hasn't changed anything for the Lions just yet. They're still favorites to win the NFC North. They're second in the NFC to win the NFC behind the Eagles. Their over under is ten and a half

So even with what are you taking taking over on I haven't looked at the schedule yet to be honest I was very tough see I've done I've been doving to it yet, but there's been a lot of turnover not only you know on the offensive line But now you know both coordinators are gone Aaron Glenn. That's the question And what's the name Chicago Ben Johnson Johnson? Thank you very much It's like with that turnover. I mean it could be a step back. I mean, they're still favored or not favor They're still the overwind time was ten and a half games They don't think they're gonna be the old Lions, but there's definitely some change up in Detroit But as long as MC DC is under a man under the helm, they're gonna be good to go

I suppose they may have seen this coming because they yeah, you know drafted ratledge But foxy like for for you like is this guy is this out of nowhere? Did you have so idea that this might be so Frank wasn't at camp and everyone thought it was a contract thing So they all thought he wanted more money one of the best centers in the league Deservedly so and then when this news comes out that he retires everyone's like, okay I had nothing to do with that and then also in years past because of his injury history There has been some talks of him retiring early Did I expect it to happen this year when this team is so good and can win a Super Bowl?

Absolutely not but in his Instagram post he talks about how he wishes he could play He just literally has to listen to his body Prioritize his health and he just can't do it So it must be pretty pretty bad and the fact that he says in the very first line of that, these past couple of months have been very trying for him. So he didn't go into the off season, I'm sure planning on retiring, but he probably thought, okay,

I need to find a way to get this. I don't know exactly what the injury was that put him over the top where he wasn't unable to play. I mean, when you say, when you look at his list of injuries and says, fractured throat, so many injuries. Like, come on now, that's unbelievable.

Well, he said in the thing too, he's like, I'd like to say that my body feels okay but it doesn't. You know, like so he must, he just must be like, you know, hurting everywhere. Yeah, the fact that he thought he could kind of fight through it or rehab through all this stuff. I guess it's probably so many things that just add up on top of each other. Like, okay, if I fix this, if I get my knee feeling good, doesn't matter, my back sucks. If I get my back fixed, my throat throat I got a fractured throat he's

still trying to rehab I would imagine you still do you still think the Lions should be the favorites in the NFC North are they the favorites in NFC North they are the sportsbooks have in there and obviously they have the questions at the corner positions the Vikings have a new quarterback question the you know the Bears have a new coach question the Packers what's the least amount of questions I assume receiver still probably I mean that was like the bit I the Bears have a new coach question, the Packers. They're probably the team with the least amount of questions, I assume. Receivers still, probably.

I mean, that was like the bit, I mean, I know they added Matthew Golden, but that was kind of the whole thing. Last year's receivers kind of underperformed. And then, you know, Love still needs to, like he needs to make that next step and kind of perform like a $55 million a year quarterback. I mean, I get the biggest question from me, Tom,

would be the fact that the Lions replaced both their coordinators. I mean, I get the biggest question for me, Tom, would be the fact that the Lions replaced both their coordinators. I mean, that's what happens to great, especially teams that go from not good to becoming like a stable team that you can count on most likely making the playoffs and making a run like you're getting they're going to pilfer your roster. They're going to take your coaches and they're going to take some free agents away from you. They're going to sign with other teams. So how do you find a way to have consistent success? Well, and like, I mean, I don't know about the defensive side,

obviously they've dropped it very well, but like, are we sure Hutch is completely back too? You know, that's a says McNeil as well. McNeil towards ACL late in the season. That's going to be a problem. Yeah. But even with the ACL, I felt like the ACL has become more of a common thing to the point where, you know, you can come back and basically be what you were like that leg was So bad, I feel like I at least forgot about it till you know He came back and had that little sprints workout thing and then you kind of saw the clips coming back of when it really happened That was terrible. Have you ever played with anyone who's had an injury like that where I mean shit I guess when you were playing there's a chance that would actually career yeah it feels like you know the DAC injury was just as bad

and same field but not a cramp as well but it does feel as though if Hutch it doesn't come back a hundred percent and then maybe JJ McCarthy is great, then the Vikings are kinda in the front seat of the North. But to Tony's point, MCDC is still there and MCDC kinda starts and finishes that culture. And they, right now is unbelievable. Penne Sewell is still the best lineman on that old line. So I feel like no matter what the Lions are still kind of that team to be but That's damn near the best division in the entire NFL. Yeah, we're gonna be watching early on

I think in the season to see hey, what does this offense look like without Ben Johnson at the Helmer, you know calling the plays What's the defense look like what Kelvin Shepherd gets named defensive coordinator? Are they still the same team? But yeah, like you're a product of your success. You're good. They're gonna take your coaches That's what they do. Do I expect them to go 15 and 2 again? Absolutely not. The schedule is much more difficult. But new offensive coordinator Johnny Morton basically said,

I'm not changing anything here. I might add a couple wrinkles. But the offense is going to look the same. And at the end of the day, as long as that old line's blocking and you can pound the rock, we'll be just fine. For Shepard, he's in-house. Is Johnny Moe in house No, but he has history with MC DC. I believe Johnny Moe came from the Broncos last year

Oh, yeah, there it is. How much easier is it for Detroit because they just hired Shepherd who was my backers coach. I think yeah, who's already inside the building. Yeah, he's good player himself as well Yeah, I mean, it works. It can work all different ways. It can not work all different ways, whether you're hiring in-house or not. But for the players on that team, I think when you hire from within

and you don't have to change the scheme, it definitely cuts out some of the garbage of a new guy coming in with new terminology. It's always just terminology. Everything is, everyone kind of runs similar things. I'm sure you've heard it, but it's like learning a different language. When another playbook comes in, okay, we used to call this Bama. Now it's called Tulsa, like things like that. Just one word, little situations like that. You would assume at the very least too that they won't get snake bit by injuries defensively like

they did last year. I mean like that, you know, you know. You'd hope, I mean sometimes it's like 15, 16 guys. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. Like this year you would expect that to kind of go the other direction. I mean, I suppose it's possible it happens again, but I don't think that they're gonna be losing, you know, eight starters. I believe it was 21 guys on high R. Yeah, just on the defensive side. So what is that?

I'm sure they sit there and have like a self scout and they study that. What made this year so different? Probably so many dudes get hurt. You think it was? Maybe not enough up downs. I don't know. They don't want to hear that. Any Lions player don't want to hear that right now. You know, they're pissed.

They're pissed at me probably. Yeah, probably a nightmare. Maybe Aaron Glenn, you know, is so confusing. They were. Well, AJ wouldn't blame Aaron Glenn. You were saying earlier that you were just so mad at Aaron Glenn for not meeting with Aaron Rodgers for longer. Man, that was funny when Aaron brought that up on the show the other when he was

on a couple of months or two ago. Yeah. Yeah. I guess you fly all the way out there. What's he doing? Yeah. You touch. What is there? What is it? You tell us. I know you guys do like to come at me and think I have any information on Aaron Rodgers. You're the only one with his phone number Okay, that's false. You guys all I'm sure Contact with him all the time. No. Yeah, you are I saw you tie was ties been singing Mike stud all day long Aaron Mike stud event they might have five day tour first

Well, it's just Mike. Yeah, okay. He's changed studs gone get it right or pay the price Amen salute your shorts I thought there was some Mike. I'm sorry, Mike. He and Mike had been on this five, six day tour where they talk. They do like open podcasts, right? Q and a tech situation. They put on the concerts. I wasn't, I haven't been there in person. I'm not sure what's happened, but if he does play football, I would imagine Aaron would play for the Steelers, right?

That seems like the only gig open. I'm pretty sure more people from Pittsburgh want them from the podcast, right? Isn't that what you mean? Oh, you mean you mean after after yeah after Aaron was on stage answering those questions. Mm-hmm well, I don't know they There's been a bit of a groundswell over the last few days for Aaron to to sign now Oh, what happened? Nothing, nothing specific. Just people really want, a certain group of people now want Aaron more than they did a week ago.

A certain group, I mean this- That feels like breaking news. Is that breaking, I mean tones from your ear to the streets in Pittsburgh. I am from Pittsburgh, I've seen Twitter activity. What exactly happened to spur this action? Yeah, I thought Mason was kind of getting some aces to work, right? Well, so that there's a certain group that is now pushing Mason harder and there's a certain group that's now pushing Aaron harder

Oh, okay And is it because of Aaron's actions or Mason's action Mason's actions because he was standing up for a steel worker saying hey I'm with you. This is this is what build America, correct? So who is against that? Who's against it? That's a good question. And the Burt. That's a good question. Couldn't be me. I don't know. This is all confusing to me.

Good thing for us guys. We have a great guest that's waiting right now. He's hanging out on the line. He's sitting there. He probably knows what you're talking about, Tome, but let's let this guy come on. But great friend of the program, works for ESPN. He's actually the insider of all insiders.

When it comes to anything baseball, this is who we go to. Please welcome Mr. Jet Pass. God, I love this. I dressed up for you, AJ. Thank you. This is a monumental day. It is a monumental day, Jet. Now, I know you've been a bit cagey. I'm gonna have to get right to it. You're a bit cagey on your tweets and everything you're doing on X. What's going on with the FBI's looking into stuff with that the MLB PA the NFL PA what happened? What's going on any new information you have on this story?

AJ we're still trying to figure out exactly what's going on. What we do know for sure is that there is an FBI investigation right now into the financial dealings of the Major League Baseball Players Association, the NFLPA, and this company that they created called One Team Partners that essentially serves to license the NIL for all of the players and try to make money. They've done a phenomenal job of doing that so far. One of their original partners was named Redbird Capital and Redbird Capital had a 40% stake in one team partners that it sold in 2022 at a 1.9 billion dollar valuation. So this is big money that we're dealing with right now and while we don't know the full scope of the

investigation, anytime the FBI comes around asking questions of players, you know it's a big deal. And so this is a story that's unfolding right now and we will keep digging in myself and Don Vannata and try and get down to what the true facts really are. So Jett, you say the players are obviously not the targets of this investigation. Who are the targets? Can you name them? Like, do we know how many people are targeted?

I do not know at this point who these specific targets are and I don't want to speculate on that right now. You could if you need to, you can speculate. Yeah, I'm probably not gonna do that. That's, you know, that might be slander. It could be a defamation lawsuit. You know, we've dealt with defamation lawsuits on this program before, I believe. So I would prefer not to get you guys in trouble myself.

I don't care about that. But you guys, I don't want to do that to you. Okay. I appreciate that, Jett. Now, Tajshman has a question for you. Yeah, Jett, what's the news going around about Orlando potentially wanting or potentially getting a new MLB team because of how many tourists go through that area and everything. But then if I'm not mistaken, the MLB basically doesn't want a third team in Florida.

Is that correct? And how likely or probable is this whole situation? It's a really interesting question, Ty. And I was not expecting that one. We'll get to the other one later Yeah, we can you know what? Why don't we answer? Come on get just give it to me now. It's like you're buttering me up No, it's not buttering me up No, no, no just rip off the band-aid. Let's hear it Ty. Stop teasing him. Yeah, okay fine fine We'll go back to Orlando in a little bit because I actually am very interested about that whole situation

But everyone knows or at least I personally think you're a bit of a Yankee hater because you're from Kansas City I know you're a big Royals guy, but Wow, either you were at one time maybe no actually never was yeah, you're a Cleveland guy never mind excuse me But the that whole series how good what I mean Outside of the Saturday blowout game, which is kind of a dud throwaway in your eyes and like for the overall good of baseball How important was this weekend series with the Yankees and the Dodgers? I Just love it when two really good teams get after it man And that's what this weekend was.

And I appreciated very much that the Yankees got absolutely lambasted on Saturday and then came back against the Dodgers' best pitcher, the guy who beat him in Game 2 of the World Series last year. We can go on and on about what Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been. What he was not is a New York Yankee, which Ty Schmidt once reported. That being the case, they went after him and they hit him and they hit him hard. Ben Rice's home run to center field. I know it was a hanging splitter, but he hit the absolute snot out of that ball.

The Yankees showed. They are a very, very good team. The Dodgers, I think, showed in spite of their injuries and the fact that they're behind the Cubs and behind the Mets. And this isn't a team that's gonna win 120 games like some people thought. They're still really good.

And I would argue they're still probably the favorite to win the World Series at this point. We're gonna see him pitch anytime soon, Jett? I hope so, man. He's throwing, Shohei Otani's who we're talking about, and he's throwing bullpens right now. He's just, man, he's so good offensively. I just love watching every swing that he takes

because he takes these swings with intent and with purpose to punish baseballs. He wants to hit the seams out of them. And at his size and with his skill and all of the ability he has, I could watch Shohei Otani hit only for the rest of his career and be perfectly satisfied as a baseball fan.

But the fact that he's back on the mound throwing bullpens at this point, trying to ramp back up so that he can be ready for those important games come September and October, I think he's going to get there but we got to remember this is so much different than the typical pitcher who's trying to come back from major reconstructive elbow surgery. Those pitchers get to rehab just throwing, get to go down to the minor leagues and have 30 days to get their stuff together against live hitters in live situations with crowds. Ohtani has none of that. And so what the Dodgers have to do here is be

extremely judicious and not push him too far and hopefully have him ramping up in the games, you know, first start maybe 50 pitches and then after that 60 and then after that 70 slowly because what he's trying to do here, it's uncharted territory. Yeah, it is. But is, do we know, is Shohei pushing, is he pushing the Dodgers to try to get out there earlier? Like does he want like badly to go out there and pitch? I think he's being smart about it.

And the interesting thing about Shohei Otani AJ is that throughout the course of his career he is more or less dictated what he does because there is no playbook there is no script nobody knows how to handle two-way players and how to keep them healthy and clearly that hasn't happened when it comes to his elbows so I think going to the Dodgers in part, in addition to joining with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and this machine of player development that they have,

part of it was that the Dodgers have really smart people in that organization. Now, they still haven't been able to keep all of their pitchers healthy. So it's not like the Dodgers haven't cracked and figured out, but at least I think Shohei Otani knows when they bring him Information it's not just going to be guess. It's not just gonna be speculation Like there will be logic behind the ideals that they have

Jen I know Ty was teasing you earlier, but what about the Orlando situation possibly getting another Major League Baseball team? Is that on the horizon? I Can more or less promise that there will not be three teams in Florida because right now they have two teams and neither of them is really drawing. You know, the Rays granted are playing at Steinbrenner Field right now after Hurricane tore the roof off of Tropicana Field. But even when they were at the trop,

they weren't really drawing in the Marlins. They have a new ballpark, they built it and they did not come. And yet you look at the situation with the Rays guys and they don't really have a stadium beyond 2026 at this point. The hope is that the trough is going to be rebuilt in time to open the 2026 season and that they could play there. But if that's not the case, they're kind of homeless and they're sort of just floating in the wind right now.

A lot of people believe that Stuart Cernberg, the owner of the Rays, after the stadium deal collapsed there, is going to sell the team eventually. And perhaps there would be a buyer in Orlando at that point who could bring the Rays over from the Tampa Bay area to Orlando, it's an hour drive, it's nearby. Obviously the Magic have been successful there, but in terms of getting a third team in Florida, not gonna happen.

Boston Connor? Yeah, I mean, Jay, you should tell them they could come up to Indianapolis Indiana as well you know there's a very nice baseball stadium here even though I'm sure it would be a nightmare to play and with all that being said Jett you know baseball aside you had quite the night last night and I know as we've been talking here you've just been sitting waiting to address what you did What the hell was this about? I mean, are you gonna get sued for defamation for this guy?

Because boy, oh boy, you took him out the pasture and I don't know if we have the next two as well But Barry responded to your tweet and you went at it again So what was this about? Was this one of your favorite Twitter interactions you've ever had? Because your bio says you bomb atomically and it truly is something you do because this was fantastic internet. First off, thank you. That's a big compliment coming from you and I sincerely appreciate that. Do you guys know who Barry is? Like have you gotten Barry before? Is that McCaulkin or? Oh, him. Okay. Oh. Same guy. Oh. Yeah. Same guy. Same guy. Just a new name.

And look, if you can out troll the ultimate troll, you got to take the opportunity to do so. And I have, I developed a reputation on X for being somebody who takes no prisoners. And I would like to continue to do that because you know when people come at you, like the internet's a tough place, man. Like it is an unforgiving place. And you know, it's like in

the wire. You just gotta protect your corners. I get it. I get it. Tone Diggs with that being said, you got something. Yeah, speaking of protecting your corners, I'm not sure if you've seen but Don Kelly has got the Buccos playing salty ball. Love Don Kelly. Yeah. Love him. Yeah, Bubba Chandler is gonna be up soon. So, look for a Buccos run soon but team that's not gonna make a run, the nine-50 Colorado Rockies, is there a rule, do they have to play all 162, or is there a chance that the teams that have to play them in the

second half of the season just get an off day? I mean, they kind of do, right? Are they gonna show up to the park? Yeah, they do have to show up to the park. Yeah, they do have to show up to the park. I just look at what's going on in Colorado right now and it makes me sad. You talk with executives around baseball guys and they look at the Colorado Rockies job as being something that they would like to do when they're in like their frisky age of executive dumb. Like when they can go in there and just try and run experiments because it's like you're

playing on the moon when you're in Colorado. We ran a story on ESPN.com. Coors Field turned 30 years old this year and we went and looked back and talked with players who had been there pitchers managers hitters Opponents everyone and just got this collection of stories about how it's not like real baseball there and so the things that you might be able to do if you are a curious and interested and thoughtful

executive are manifold and yet the Rockies What they have is the disease of complacency. They have done nothing different. They have not changed things. They are not one of the clubs that's toward the top, the middle. They're right at the bottom when it comes to innovation. Dick Moffert, their owner, has talked about the idea if there's not going to be a salary cap in baseball of having a cap to spend on technology and other things of that ill, which is just wild. And I think it speaks to how the Rockies have been run for all this time. They're just an organization

that's a decade plus behind right now and some of that goes back to ownership, some of that goes back to front office, but there's a reason that they are where they are right now and it's fascinating to see. I mean, we see records like this in the NBA every so often, like if the team is really, really bad, they'll get to 50 losses before they get to

double digit wins. We've never seen this in baseball before and considering that this is happening the year after the Chicago White Sox set the new record for futility that we could potentially see that again it's just a shame what's going on with the Rockies right now and yet It's just a shame what's going on with the Rockies right now. And yet, and yet, they are drawing 30,000 people to that ballpark every day because it is a gorgeous park and people in Denver just like having a good time and watching a baseball game and I love them for that. What technology would he be talking about?

Hey, Jumbotron, like we don't wanna have to upgrade this. Like I don't get it. What is that about? We're looking more at like analytical models and we need to spend less on that. He wants to spend less or more. He wants everybody to be at like the same baseline. He he doesn't want the teams that have more money to go out.

And for example there's there's this pitching machine called the Traject. And what the Traject machine does is it takes all of the data that gets captured by the cameras around the ballpark and determines the spin on a ball and the spin axis and the velocity down to a tenth of a mile per hour. It inputs all of this data into this machine and this machine through all the things inside, not only can replicate every pitch that was thrown in Major League Baseball this year, like to an exacting degree,

but it also has an image on the front of the machine of that pitcher himself and his delivery, right? It's amazing. Yeah, so you can essentially take batting practice against the guy who you are going to be facing that night. There are some organizations that have multiple trajectories. There are some organizations that have none. And I think the idea that Dick Moffert has is to level that playing field so everyone's

the same. But I mean, at what point do you stifle innovation by doing that at what point is everything too similar and I think it's a fair thing to say that this is a real problem in baseball where if we're not encouraging teams to go out and be the absolute best that they can be at all times. What's the point of even playing the games? What's the point?

Ty? Jett, the artist formerly known as Jack Tani when he was at Florida, Jack Caglione, is getting called up by the Royals. I don't know, maybe for like casual fans, this is kind of like whatever, but you look at his numbers and what he's been doing in AA and AAA. Do you think he's the type of guy who's going to come in and make like an immediate impact and be like one of those future superstars in the next couple years? Because obviously if you watch him play, like he is absolutely electric. Like do you see him as being one of those really marketable

guys who we'll talk about in like this, maybe not the same sentence, but like up there with the judges and the Otanis of the MLB. Ty, I know you said that this is the kind of guy that maybe the casual fan doesn't really know about. They should. And I think they're going to because let's put it this way this is what Jack Caglione is he is a guy who has the kind of power that Aaron Judge and Shohei Otani have and there are very very few guys in baseball who can say that and and even more he has really good bat to ball skills so he doesn't strike out a whole lot the problem is Jack Caglione will go out of the zone and swing at pitches

that are chases far more often than either you like to see or far more often really than any productive or like MVP level Major League Baseball player does right now. And the reason that the Royals hadn't called him up at this point is because he was adjusting to a new position in outfield, and they wanted to see improvement in the chase. The guy is so skilled, those six foot five, 250 pounds, like absolute unit. And even if he does not tie,

get off to like an incredible start, he's going to hit a ball 450, 475 feet, just like that, that you're gonna see and say, oh my God, how does a human being do that? And when you have him and Bobby Witt Jr. in the same lineup together, if Jack Hangleon is what evaluators believe he's going to be, the Royals are gonna have

perennial MVP candidates hitting back to back in that lineup. Jeff, isn't that kind of like, I don't know, a reps thing to where you're gonna, as you get older, as you get more reps, you're gonna stop chasing balls out of the zone? Isn't that kind of a normal progression for a young player? Not always. It's a really fair question.

You would think that that would be something that every player, right, once they see more pitches at the big league level would improve on. But it tends to be that chase stays the same and less guys really spend a lot of time and energy and effort working on it. And in Jack Hagley-Owns case, it's really the only ding against him at this point. But it's about swing decisions and pitch recognition, AJ. That's the sort of thing that as you get older, maybe it improves a little bit, but you don't tend to see those huge leaps where guys who swung a tongue earlier in their career all

of a sudden get much more judicious as they get older. It's kind of like Tiger and Stripes. You are the hitter that you are and there can be some incremental improvements But I don't think we're gonna see the guy like turning into Juan Soto Who's swinging at only 15% of the pitches outside of the zone as opposed to Caglione who's at 35 or so? Okay, all right boss of Connor. Yeah Caglione absolute weapon I feel like I as a casual learned about him at the College World Series, Jett. And now, you know, this past weekend, College Baseball had a hell of a time.

Is there a star of this tournament you kind of expect to really shine, to really go, to put himself on the map, like Skeens-esque? I'm sure he's already on the map for the baseball people, but for the casuals, is there anybody that we should be looking at to perform very well or did a lot of those guys get eliminated with all the upsets this weekend? I was going to say we saw the number one team in the country, Vanderbilt get bounced. We saw the number two team in the country, Texas get bounced. You know, LSU with Kate Anderson, who I think might be the guy to answer that question. Ellis, you lost a game against a team that nobody thought they were going to lose against. This to me is like baseball in a nutshell.

It's just the kind of game where a team can come out of nowhere and go and knock off one of the big boys. And it's what I appreciate about the sport. You don't have to be the most talented. You don't have to throw the hardest. You don't have to hit the farthest. You don't have to run the fastest. You can still win baseball games

against more talented teams. And it's the beauty of this tournament. I'm not gonna say like it's June madness that we're dealing with here, but it's got some of those same elements to it. And it's not, last year the number one team in the country, number one scene in the tournament ran the table. Clearly, that's not going to happen this year.

And are we going to end up in a situation where there's another Coastal Carolina? It's the beauty of what's going on right now in college baseball. Just looking forward to the draft in July, there's no clear number one overall pick like Skeens was. Well, I guess Skeens wasn't even a clear number one overall pick because Dillon Cruz was in that draft as well and there were questions about that. But there's no obvious top guy who's going to ascend to

the top of prospect lists. The favorite at this point actually to go is Ethan Holliday, who is Jackson Holliday, the Baltimore Orioles second baseman's brother and the son of, I believe, nine-time All-Star Matt Holliday, who if Ethan goes number one, he and his wife Leslie will now have two children who went number one overall and they'll be trapped. That's amazing. Last thing we have here for you, Jett, Juan Soto, this guy's been on a pretty good run these last what, two, three, four games.

Do you expect this to continue, everything that he has been doing? Well, it helps when you're facing the Rockies. Oh, come on. That's true, it does. It helps when you're facing a teamies. Oh, come on. That's true, it does. Like it helps when you're facing a team that's nine and 50. They're easier to hit off of, not a novel concept. But I have not lost faith in Juan Soto. He has been too good throughout his career

and is still young enough where it's not like he's gonna be losing any of the things that brought him to this point. When you get the largest contract in North American professional sports history guys, there are things that come along with that, things that are unexpected. And it's very easy for us to look past those human parts of it because the guy's getting paid $765 million. And because, you know, like, hey, guy, deal with it. That's what the money's for like Don Draper said

But I think Juan Soto at the end of the day and at the end of this season is going to be a very positive and Contributing member of a New York Mets team that's gonna go into the postseason with legitimate World Series aspirations I lied about last question Boston Connor has one last thing. Yeah, sorry, Jed, I have to ask Red Sox land everyone just wants these prospects to get called up to the majors. What's going to happen there? Are we going to see these top prospects?

Because I believe they got two or three of the top ten in all of the MLB to kind of be those next dudes, are these guys going to get a chance here soon? I think Mayer was playing third base the other day, of course, but what, no, not John Mayer, Marcelo Mayer. But will these other guys get called up soon or what do you think happens there? Christian Campbell's up already and he had an awesome April and an absolutely abhorrent May. Marcelo Meyer, not related to John Mayer, is now filling it at third base with Alex Bregman on the injured

list. The one everyone in Boston wants though is Roman Anthony. And Roman Anthony is the best of the bunch. He is the number one prospect conner in all of baseball. And as the Red Sox struggle, I know you got him, but he's still not there. And I talked with Craig Breslau, the chief baseball officer for the Red Sox last week. And you know, he brought up some points that are understandable. Like the Red Sox, despite just being like mid right now,

they have a lot of good individual players at this point. You're not going to move Jaren Duran out of left field. Sadam Rafael is the best defensive center fielder in baseball this year. Willier Abreu has been the third best hitter on this Red Sox team behind Alex Fregman and Rafael Devers. And so where are you finding it bats for Roman Anthony? That's the question. But it's one that if you move Raffaella to the infield, you know, you play second base, you play short side, you move him to the infield and all of a sudden you have a spot in the outfield for Roman Anthony.

Rafael Devere being a designated hitter really sort of hinders things, but maybe he winds up shifting to first base at some point this season. And that just opens up all sorts of options and possibilities. So I don't know if the Red Sox in 2025 guys are gonna be all right. I do believe that the Red Sox in 2026 and beyond are gonna be an absolute force to be reckoned with in the American League East and that this team is set up extremely well for the future. Well, appreciate that Jed, that's awesome.

Actually, another quick one. I know I told you last one a long time. Don't worry about it. Jed, appreciate that, Jed. That's awesome. Actually, another quick one. I know I told you last one a long time. Don't worry about it. Jed, you're giving us too much good info. We're entering into the baseball, like the prime time of baseball. It's June 2nd. Between now and let's say August 2nd, what's the biggest thing that's going to be going on with this Major League Baseball?

What are you looking at? What's going to be a big story? Who's going to make a push to become the next big squad that we wanna watch? That's a great question and AJ, you are catching me in the midst of actually writing about that right now. I believe tomorrow we're gonna have our first trade deadline preview on ESPN.com,

where I go over all 30 teams, what they have, what their objective is, and what we can expect from them between now and the July 31st deadline. So cross promotion alert. Since then, Reds. Since then, I've written, no, I don't, I have the Reds right now in, I have a category called tweeners,

cause we do not know if they are going, we don't know if they are going to buy, we don't know if they are going to sell we we don't know what they're gonna do right now the Reds pitching has been incredible this year Andrew Abbott has a one-something ERA Hunter Green's been great Nick Lodolo they could trade Brady Singer or Nick Martinez or maybe they go out and add some offense because beyond Ellie Dela Cruz and Austin Hayes there just has not been a whole lot from that Cincinnati lineup, which is really disappointing because I have a lot

of young players who I think they came into this season believing we're going to hit. Yeah. Another team that was really believing was the buckos. I'm sure maybe, maybe they are believing again, the skeins trade stuff that's kind of died down right. Jed, is that kind of, okay. So is that kind of okay? I'm glad you brought this up because I feel like we started something last time I was on this show I was merely suggesting that being open to the possibility of a Paul skeins trade is something that I think smart teams would do now I understood this pissed off people in Pittsburgh

because finally they have someone that they can root for. Finally, they have something they can look forward to every five days. And here's this turd wearing a tie, coming in and suggesting that they get rid of that guy. I get the anger from the Pittsburgh side. And just to be clear, the Pirates have no intention of trading Paul Skeens at this point.

And I think part of that, guys, is because when we've seen pitchers of or near his caliber get traded in the past, it's usually been with like two seasons before they can reach free agency. Paul Skeens does not reach free agency for another five years. So trying to value that properly, I was talking with the general manager yesterday about this. I was like, what would you give up for Skeens? And he said, you know, I think that if I were the pirates, I would want 10 players coming back. And that's just

not something that we're willing to do for anyone Let alone a guy who throws a hundred miles per hour and has the inherent arm injury risk that Paul schemes does Because he throws so hard he doesn't have any I mean just because other people hurt your arm Doesn't mean he's gonna hurt his arm jet like why do you have to? Attention ever since Don Kelly took over there playing salty ball. And they got robbed on Friday night of a win, okay? Okay, okay. You know what?

I gotta say I am a huge Don Kelly fan. Thank you. And I love the fire. I think he's a smart guy. I think he has a great feel in the clubhouse. Players are gonna love him. He's put in the time, put in the effort, put in the work. I just hope that everything that surrounds him in Pittsburgh,

all the way up to ownership, is as good as he is. All right, well, Jett, we really appreciate you. You know, I kept you a few minutes longer than I expected, but we're looking forward to that piece on ESPN.com. Cannot wait to read about your insight into this baseball game. Obviously we're pretty early on into a very very long season almost halfway through. We get it. But ladies and gentlemen, Jett Passan. Thank you. Great job AJ. Thank you.

Thank you Jett. Killing it as always. can't we? I'll be reading that piece tomorrow. Yeah, have to. Yes, band.com. Have to. Well, actually, he already gave you kind of gave you- Felt like it was a set up. Like he briefed me before the show, like, hey, ask me about this. You already know. The Reds are tweeners. He doesn't know if they're going to be buyers

or sellers at the break. Which means we're in a great spot, right? Yeah. It means that's what we do. That's where you want to be in baseball. Great, unbelievable pitching, from what I hear. Yep. Ellie DeLaCruruz the next next big thing in baseball already is the next big thing in baseball Yeah, Terry Francona manager. What about Ellie Ellie's sister passed away tragically and then he kept playing air He ended up playing the game and hit a home run. He's actually yeah one of the he's one of those dudes when you watch them

Like how do you how would you root against that guy? He's always so those dudes when you watch him, like how would you root against that guy? He's always so juiced, like so, when guys just have, some guys have a certain aura about him where it's easy to be a fan. Like this dude looks like he's having so much fun playing baseball. You don't even think of any other players like that. Any other guys, think of any sport,

any dudes were like, man, why is the guy, he's a super high performer, but also seems like one of the best dudes that loves what he does, he's a great teammate. Yeah, Ty Reese is a similar guy. Right? Gronk. Yeah, Gronk definitely has. I guess you say they're like they're joyous.

They're you can see the joy on their face and in their body when they're playing. Jovial, if you will. Jovial. Yeah, I guess that's part of it. Men playing a kids game. That's what they're all doing. Isn't it?

That's why this is championship week, right? Tell them what do we have coming up? What days of the week? What we got basketball, we got Panthers at Oilers, And that was for Kings ready to throw all doing that isn't it? That's why this is championship week, right? Don't what do we have coming up? What days the week what we got basketball. We got Panthers at Oilers We got Pacers at Thunder. When do these games all kick off? So Wednesday we start with the NHL Stanley Cup and the Oilers are the favorites in that one minus 125. I believe Panthers are Plus 105 right there. You see it on the graphic in the series So that one kicks us off on Wednesday.

And then Thursday we kick off the basketball with the Pacers traveling to OKC where they are minus nine and a half in game one. And they are, the Thunder are minus. The Thunder are minus 700 to win the series. And if you remember correctly, if you remember back when the Pacers started the Cav series, I believe game one in Cleveland was also minus nine and a half and the series price was basically

the same. And that one turned out with Pacers winning. So whether the Vegas thinks that should be the line or not, you never know what you're going to get. You guys have an issue with Siakam winning the Eastern Conference Finals MVP over Ty Reese? It surprised me, but I don't think I have an issue. I mean, Ty Reese just wants the trophy. He wants the main trophy. Yeah surprised by who was voting

Certainly who all does vote on that? There's a little show to list right, but they both had such a good series I think the the crowning moment of the series felt more so like the Tyrese Halibur and triple-double 15 assists no turnovers like that felt as if it was the biggest, you know best performing Game, but then when you look at the you know, the box score, of course, the outcome had 330 point games I mean he was the first half damn near first three quarter Offense for Indy in game six a closeout game, but no stuff doesn't really matter This is what happened with the Celtics last year where Tatum But no stuff doesn't really matter. This is what happened with the Celtics last year where Tatum

Wildly regarded as the best player on the team same with Halliburton and Indy, but Jalen Brown won the Larry Bird conference finals award and the NBA finals MVP my worry here is that the The Thunder are the Celtics of last year and they are just an unstoppable Machine of a team And we live in Indiana, so we're trying to block that out of our heads because we want to know and believe in the Pacers, which I do, especially with Carlisle and the Thunder having a super young coach. It feels like that is a massive part of this. And, you know, the Pacers were in the conference finals last year.

They know how rare it is to get back here all of those things But yeah, the Thunder have just been a well-oiled machine all season long and now that they are, you know in the finals here We might see yeah kind of that next step Well, you guys have talked about in the NBA or excuse me in the NFL playoffs. We're like each round It just gets it's a yeah and better, faster and faster, more physical and then when you get to the Super Bowl it's like, hey, we're laying it all out there on the line and it feels like that with the NBA now too. If the Thunder, can they get better?

I don't know because they've been so dominant, but they've had a lot of rest so maybe it's a rest versus rush conversation game one, but the Pacers just got to steal one. I just got to steal one I just gotta get one. Yeah, and I just I just hope it's a good see I mean obviously, you know, we want the Pacers to win but like that That series against the T Wolves sucked. It was terrible It wasn't entertaining at all like the the Pacers outclassed the Knicks and they were the better team but damn near every single one of those games was still incredibly entertaining and Like, you know

You wanted to watch the last five minutes because anything could happen Like the the Thunder just beat the hell out of the T Wolves for the most part and it's like suffocating defense Yeah, that's the thing like it's it's almost like you take their heart in the fur in the second second quarter almost like okay This one good luck when this one fell Yeah, and I feel like the the Pacers will at least be able to punch back a little bit because they do play somewhat of a similar style. That's why it's gonna be fun. Right.

How they run, OKC's defense that they play is just, they just showed Caruso coming in for a steal. It would be so annoying to play the Oklahoma City Thunder. With how hard they play in defense, they pick you up. There's never, you can just never have a second to relax. And I think the Pacers, how they play as well, how fast they play in defense they pick you up like there's never like you can just never have a second to relax And I think the Pacers how how they play as well how fast they play like you make a shot You don't even have a second to watch it go in the hoop like you got to get back instantly because these dudes are going They're catching I mean what McConnell's throwing full court passes the dudes like obi topping somewhere catching catching oops dunking on people like I

Think it's gonna be a great series. I think even if you don't care about either of these two teams, you don't have any personal vested interests, it's gonna be fun basketball. Yeah, very, very entertaining. And I think with the Pacers, the three is the great equalizer. If they shoot incredibly well like they have been, they're not gonna be getting blown out.

They're gonna have opportunities. You shoot 40% from three with how many threes they shoot in today's NBA. But they don't even, that's a good thing. They don't have to. Don shoot 40% from three with how many threes they shoot in today's NBA. But they don't even, that's a good thing. They don't have to. Some teams have to shoot a very high percentage three to win the game. We've seen that happen in the NCAA tournament sometimes in college where a team is heavily relied on the three all year long. They get in the game and all of a sudden they get upset because you hit a cold night. Everyone has

a cold night. we know that. Yeah, even teams defensively to your point that are, you know, want some of the better teams defensively in March Madness and then they play a team that just can't miss. The cool thing I think too with this series is like the Thunder's three best players are 26, 22 and 21. 26, 22 and 23 or something with Holmgren, SGA, and Jalen Williams. We did this entire thing with the Celtics last year. This could be the start of a dynasty, a crazy run, and Tatum gets hurt, Brown has a torn

meniscus and they don't get it done. But the Thunder conversation is the same exact one. They got a very young coach who's going to be there for a while. SGA is about to get a massive contract. They'll be able to pay a lot of their players this off season because of the fact that, you know, most of them aren't that too, or not too high on the salary cap. Like I think they also are there in the bottom 10 as well. Bottom 10. Yeah. As far as, you know, total money being spent. So the,

the thunder could go on a massive, you know, multi-year dynasty-esque run if they can win. So it's going to be awesome. No matter what, to Ty's point, just keep these camps close. Please. We just can't be having massive lots. I mean, the Celtics won four one last year. For me, it was awesome. Seven games. But yeah, it wasn't great. You know, as far as just the casual basketball fan just want to watch the game. The hockey is going to be unbelievable. I think that is that is kind of the saving grace there with, you know, McDavid going after his first cup and the Panthers going for a back to back. Who do you think wins the hockey? Who do you think wins?

I'm on team McDavid this year. I think I want Marshy to win it, you know, because I would like to see Marshan voice the cup and I like Kachuk and them. But it just feels like it might be McDavid's year Yeah, that is I read something I would who was breaking that just that one clip of McDavid the crossovers and how many strides he took was something like nobody Else does like how he can move. Oh, yeah, he does. Yeah So if you're fast on skates, are you fast on land? Can you take the skates off? He is you run a good Ford. I mean Wayne Gretzky had absolute wheels., four three. I don't know if you've ever seen that race. He beat on track I did see that when they back in the day when they were like a bunch of sports stars racing

Yeah, and he toasted all he did toast a lot. That was back like wild world Oh, the service pretty course. I would assume he's quick would I would assume he could run they used to do that where they? Athletes from all different sports would get together and embrace and do different kinds. You can pop that actually back up, I'd like to see that. Here we go, look at this graphic. Colin Smyth, that's MVP of the finals? Of the playoffs. Of the whole playoffs.

Yeah, on culture. Yeah, on culture. Yeah. I'm not like Bob, I'm like Sergey Bobrovsky getting some love up here. Yeah, absolutely. McDavid won it last year after they lost. Yeah. Remember, there was a lot of drama with that.

He didn't come out to get it. He was already- I wouldn't want it either. Do you want to go out and get it? Absolutely not. What do you make of him touching the trophy? I love it. I think last year you don't touch it, you lose. Pick that son of a bitch up. I agree. Hockey is different. Hockey we all know like hockey players have routines. They have superstitions. They have all this stuff. So we all know like, superstitions they have all this stuff so we all know like this doesn't have any effect on the game like whether you touch the trophy or not I understand he wouldn't have touched it again I guess that's why sports are cool that's why sports are cool because we have these like irrational thoughts about things like

this hey if we touch a trophy that's why you guys lost because you touched the trophy I'm with you he's the best player in the world you know it's's like you can't win a Stanley Cup cuz you touch you touch the fucking trophy then guess what? You probably don't you probably aren't ever gonna win. Okay, what about the Madden curse? What about the ghosts of Gordie? How? That's a different story Gordie. Love that Gordie's not gonna he's not haunting it He was the one that started not touching the call coal the coal coal burn Cole how's your Yellowstone championship. Yep. No, I do feel like the oil is getting done, but another kind of different, one of those summer sports French open. We are also in the quarterfinals in the tennis season. Yeah,

we're in the tennis season. And this is one of the first majors or the first one wouldn't coming up that July first two weeks of July yeah so that will it's the first fortnight in July the French opens a different deal because you got to play on that that clay clay and you got a slide and everything I'm thinking well I'm picturing the doll slide wait one like 20 straight they put his signature on the court they did a dedication to him. They put, you guys ever play on clay tennis? No, before. Yeah. Tony, I bet you're a big tennis guy.

I mean, I could knock it around a bit. I wouldn't say I'm a big tennis guy. Tennis took a big hit when the pickleball crazed. Oh yeah. Pickleball still a thing. People still doing it. Oh yeah. AQ Shipley was at some massive tournament this week. I heard he got his rating up to like 4.9. He9 days. I mean he's working hard. He was with the goat McDuffie, right? McDuffie. He was not Peter McDuffie. He played with Peter McDuffie He's 5.3 it is McGuffin Duffy I don't know Tyson McGuffin McGuffin there it is who gives the ratings on pickleball It's not like a golf handicap where you enter your score. Gary Vee, the WPL.

You're right, I forgot Gary Vee does. He gives you everyone their pickleball. You don't know that it's not like a handicap? It might be. I don't know, that's why I'm trying to ask you guys. You guys were pickleball connoisseurs. So you played just as long as we did. Either way, tomorrow Pat will be back in studio tonight.

He is live in Tulsa for WWE Raw. See you tomorrow. Hawker. In tomorrow. Hawker. Hell, that Hawker. We didn't get to ESPN Plus and TikTok Live and all of that situation. But yeah, it kind of popped up on us. It's- We're just having fun.

It happens when you're dinking. Dinking and dunking, you're right. Yep. Pickleball terms. Dinking. Yeah. I played pickleball for three or four days straight with you guys and that was the last time I played well

And then we that we played for like a couple more weeks. Oh, yeah, you guys had under ball still Yeah, it was awesome. It was a great workout, but then you know That's serious come and go it's a lot of things do they they come and go. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I mean Pickleball is fun. I get it. It's great. I just don't play. I'm surprised your knees didn't explode while we were playing Well, that's that's part of it. That's part of it three days in a row, you know, Ty was my partner I think are you gonna really talk yourself up ours? You're here too is we switched to singles Which is a much different? Yeah too much pickleball is cool No sides you can make it as hard as you want

You could get as much out of it like physically as you want If you want to play super hard and die for those loose balls and run around you can get a great cardio Which we would you should you can also post up and try to be an assassin exactly see that's what I've always it's like if you Want to like have a really strenuous workout and be like running and diving and doing shit like that and like I'll play tennis Oh, yeah, you know it's like I won't do that on a pickleball court I see Dion just got into tennis and how he posted a video. He's working with a tennis program prime He was saying like just give me a minute. I'm just about to be my thing.

I was watching. He looked pretty good hitting the ball back. Pretty sure it was Deion. Not 100%, but maybe. But you should double check your sources. I was gonna say, that'd be interesting. The source was me watching a video that Deion put up. It'd be interesting.

I don't know how much time he has to dedicate to tennis. You know, he's a college football head coach. They all work out. It's his workout, bro. Oh yeah, sure, sure. That's what he does for his workout. Didn't you't you see Ryan day plays tennis every day again, seriously Yeah, he goes over it when he had like cuz he was just golfing the other day putting this tennis that day He probably did. Yeah, he was abused at the the Memorial Pro-am event

Of course that Scotty wins back-to-back another four mil another quick four million dollars. Yeah, pretty pretty sweet I mean scoots those elevated events. He's golfing against sweet. I mean, Scoots. Those elevated events. He's golfing against me, Ty digs in you, but he's the ghost. That's not true. Jack did not have water. Jack Nicklaus, yeah, I know you guys played in the first hour, I believe. Man, Jack talked about it.

If you have it, Zeke back there, if you want to run it quick, just Jack describing Scottie going into the final day here at the Memorial. Now, look at the leaderboard today, he didn't have, I mean, Ben Grimman's a nice player, Stech Skrapp, except Strauch is a nice player, Nick Taylor's a nice player, those are all the guys that were there basically coming down the stretch. And he knows that those guys, you know, are not in his league. That's because he's the best.

Now, Fida had... It's because Scotty's the best. I don't know who else it might have been, but somebody else at the top, Zander or somebody like that, wouldn't have been there. He might have said, well, that might be a little tougher. I might have to do something. He didn't have to. And I think...

I've always was a... I'll just ask Scotty if he watched the leaderboard. He says, yeah, I do. I said, well, I did too. I always watched the leaderboard and found out what my competition was. And I always felt like what level I had to play to fight that competition off. And sometimes you're gonna have to fight it off, cuz you know they'd self destruct. And so, you just don't make dumb mistakes and play solid golf and and you win Why don't I I guess I don't know I wouldn't ever you can't ever go into around counting on them to self-destruct, right? No, but now I thought there are guys who oh, yeah. Oh, it's out. Can you imagine like I had to happen yesterday?

I don't know if you guys watch the end of that thing Griffin was within two strokes. He had just eagled He had just birdied and then what does he do with two holes left within two of the lead? He double bogies. Yeah. So it does happen. It happens all the time. It just doesn't happen to Scotty though. You got to be Bill Belichick. Just let them make the mistakes. You don't make the mistake. Well, I also like, I don't think, you know, if we had all these guys from like live playing like, yeah, it'd be sweet. But like Scotty is in a league of his own.

100%. Like Bryson coming in, it's not like, oh, Bryson's gonna win now. You know, like it's, if Scott, if Scotty plays 90% of like his best golf, like he's still the best guy out there. So like, I don't think like, yeah, he didn't really have to do anything yesterday,

but like, you know, Digs mentioned this earlier and I think, you know, Jack said it early, like Xander was still in the field Speeth still in the field like there's still a bunch of speed was making a run early Yeah, exactly. Okay, then he melted as he everyone but roared to do it was literally everyone but roaring What's going on with roared? I don't know. He's heavy. He's healthy physically mentally. We all know he just I think because of his us open prep. He didn't come to the tournament. That's what yeah There's only I think there was only 72 players in the event something like that when there's normally 140.

I think that's all elevated events now. That's amazing. I guess I didn't realize the elevated events how the field is cut. We don't need the Mickey Mouse guys there. Yeah, they all made the cut. I mean look I like Spieth. Spieth hasn't won shit. Agreed. His scorecards are hilarious. So I agree like absolutely Scott. He's winning no matter what and I do think that and Bryson's guy who's shit down his leg in the past when you're Thinking about you know looking and knowing that other guys on the leaderboard would be you know You don't have to worry about him because they're gonna screw up just having them There is the biggest deal like when it is Scottie and then a bunch of guys that you know

Go like Foxy knows most of these guys who are going digs, but I'm not watching golf every single weekend. So when I turn it on and I just see Scheffler by two strokes, you know, I know it's over. There's no, that might as well be a 15 point game with, you know, three minutes left. The entire tournament yesterday there was no chance Scottie was losing now. Yeah, absolutely not Well, you look at those guys who are like supposed to be good like Justin Thomas shot an 80 in the first round It's like so, you know like any and he does this a lot Yeah, and then he comes back and shoots 67 and 69, but it's like you like Max Homa same deal He goes low on Thursday and then completely self-destruct like Scottie's just not doing that. He's not so like it I don't know I Yeah, it'd be awesome if Rom and those guys were playing just so the featured groups would maybe be like a little bit more interesting But at the end of the day, it's like, you know Scottie's just in a class of his own It's all he has. I don't know how you guys Scottie has like that

I'm not saying he's on a tiger esque run, but he kind of is Oh, yeah, he has that Tiger aura to where he... I saw, you're watching the tournament, I live five minutes from this course. I know I didn't go out to the tournament this year, but my son went out Wednesday to try to get Steph's autograph and Peyton Manning and all those guys. Went on to rob all the drunk people of their money. Yeah. Well, yeah, we're selling.

Well, Zen's next year. We're definitely selling Zen's next year. We're buying a bunch of them. Couple logs? Yeah, a couple logs. Yeah, it's going gonna be great. Get those guys that are really stumbling out. They'll buy a whole log for like $400. But whenever, I feel like anyone, when you, if Scottie's even on the leaderboard anywhere, if he's in the top 15 going like on, say going into Saturday, like, okay, Scottie's won the tournament. I feel like at least for me, and I was around to watch a lot of Tigers run,

to where if Tigers in the tournament, you legit felt like I would take Tiger over the field. I think, at least for me, I watched Scottie. If he's within 12 strokes of the lead after day one, I'm like, oh, he's gonna win this one probably. Yeah, and this isn't the first time this has happened either. I feel like last year was very similar,

where he was damn near Like what was it minus? He was like minus 110 to win No one's other than Tiger like Foxy has anyone ever been on a run like this no in my lifetime I said it this morning I think Scott has got to be the second most dominant player ever behind Tiger and in two weeks at the US Open I'd be more shocked if he lost then if you know or yeah I'd be more shocked if he lost than anything else we were insane we weren't alive for Jack or Hogan and that's what's up for Scott because no matter what for Scotty going

forward people will say like well he didn't play against the entire field like all those other guys did if if they really want to fix it guys like Jack have to keep talking you know know, hey, this is Bullshit we need to figure this out or Scotty needs to be like I'm going to live. Oh the thing about is like I was reading something like Live doesn't have anything that the PJ needs. Yeah, like that they like they know they call it on boarding in the article I or whatever I read like thinking like the PGA doesn't, like other than the players,

other than Brooks and the guys that went, like there's nothing that they need to take from the live. There's no event. There's, so how are they ever gonna figure it out? How are they ever gonna come up? I assume they both feel like that though. Like I assume the PGA's- Or Liv would love to have Scottie.

Yeah, Liv would love to have all the players. And like- Yeah, no, and the PGA- And the viewers. And the viewers in the tournaments, I guess, the courses. Liv saying like, well, we don't need the PGA and the viewers. And the viewers in the tournaments, I guess, the courses. Liv saying like, well, we don't need the PGA. But do they?

I don't know. I would assume no, if there's just still going. I read the same article you did. When they break it down like that, in terms of, but I think the difference is like Liv doesn't give a fuck about the business or the money aspect of it, but it was basically saying like, the PGA, the Liv isn't bringing any new sponsors. They're not bringing like a like the PG the live isn't bringing any new sponsors They're not bringing like a new TV deal They're not bringing any of that stuff and that's why the PGA has basically just been like we're not we're not negotiating with you guys You offer nothing to us

Whereas you know, I mean other than yeah, we'd love to have Bryson and Rom it might get him anyway, cuz aren't there con don't we hear conflicting reports that their contracts are up They that did live coming up Yeah, but it's really just Bryson are all yeah, it is 100% Yep, are any young kids like coming out of college signing with live or anything like that? I know well, I think wasn't that part of the thing with the contracts running out is like hey We're not we're not doing the big up up up front money deals anymore. Yeah, then you're not gonna get yeah exactly I heard Bubba though sitting when Pat said like hundreds of millions of dollars public bubble act doing the big upfront money deals anymore, yeah. Then you're not gonna get. Yeah, exactly.

I heard Bubba though, said here when Pat said like, hundreds of millions of dollars, Bubba acted like it was way less than what was reported that he got. Was he just being humble? I don't know, cause he wasn't at the height of his career when he went, you know? But he was still a giant name with multiple green jackets. Well, and the way he talks about it,

like they aren't looking at this as a five year deal, they're looking at it as a much longer term investment. That's the whole equity thing like he gets to own his team Yeah, that's how they presented these golf. So he's yard goats. So what is that? So the range goat do they want like some billionaire to come by the range goats and then you have equity Well, I don't know cuz I thought live offered PGA a billion dollars just to get like in bed with them. I thought that was the entire thing. And then what the PIF guy wanted a board seat, right?

And then they told him no. But we thought it was pretty standard operating procedure. So what the hell is going to happen? What are we going to do? Are we just going to keep playing? There's going to be two tours? Probably. Yeah, just in circles. And majors are gonna be the only but is live gonna get a new golfer So that's what they have to continue. I don't think it's gonna matter offers

I don't know if it's gonna matter if they get new golfers They need to end on Sunday at 6 o'clock 5 o'clock just like the PGA Yeah And there needs to be more drama and the other thing live will never have that the PGA has as let's say yesterday When Scott is in the lead and there's a guy that's never won a tournament in his life and he has a chance to do it like that's awesome. That's life changing moment for him. All the live guys are made men. So there's never going to be like that underdog or a guy that's like, wow, I'm going to go get my first tournament ever. And so like that's a part of it too

when there's not as many big names in the leaderboard. So there's just a lot of things but ending at Sunday at five o'clock, I can't stress enough is so important because everyone watches them. Can't do the shotgun start either. That's so Mickey Mouse. Nope. So they shotgun start even on their final day. I believe so. I think everything shotguns start. How many players on the live roster? Do we have any idea? Like everything contracts up soon too I thought okay bring him over 50 maybe yeah I thought it was so because you can get relegated

or 48 or something as like 48 and going to the shotgun start and I could be wrong about this but I leave it's like the last three groups they all kind of play like you would a PGA style so it's not like they're starting on different holes and shit so at least like they're expecting those three groups to have the winner in there And so it ends with a little more drama, but I could be wrong on that But I believe that's how it goes have you know you guys ever been to a live event I know D but has played in Pro Am's Annie's maybe I think yeah, just punch But Bubba did invite us to play in the program in August. Yeah

If the offers out there I'll go play the offers out thought you were going. You're going. I mean, I'll tell you what, if he, if the offer is out there, I'll go play. If the offer is out there, you were actually on. You committed to it on the show. I mean, if he remembers, you know, he's being nice. He's on camera. Like, hey, of course you guys can come, but I would love to. I saw him, he put it in his Palm Pilot. Yeah, the gourd on you. Did he have a stylist? He pulled out and left handed? How would you use a Palm Pilot if you didn't have a stylist? You want to explain what a Palm Pilot is to the younger generation generation Okay, I assumed everybody knew what a palm pilot was. It looks like your iPhone. It was a mini computer That you know, you kept track of your calendar It's all right. We don't get into it that's good. Talk to give one time upon pilot own one But yes, I'm well aware you guys probably have a pilot. Yeah the pearl but I was around. Yeah I never had a blackberry really never had a black loser. Would you have a sidekick? I was around. Yeah, I never had a blackberry really never had a black loser. Would you have a sidekick? the Flip where you at? I did not have I did not have a shirt to tell I had the old razor old-school razor Wow, it's a great phone black in the day Verizon Verizon was big under that everyone in the razor. Do you have a Nokia?

No, no, I don't think so. What you play snake on their break breaker. No, no, no I never got into phone games. Still not. It's because you were playing. I'm older. I'm older generation. Like Jim Mercer. God bless his soul, man.

Remember he said, I don't care about a new phone. I want to fly to Mars. I want to go where I'm trying to go someplace. I agree. I'm with you. I'm in that same generation. Right? Yeah.

So you were thinking that when you were 18, when you got your first cell phone. Like, I want this thing. I will go drive to Florida. Kind of, yeah. I want to experience the world, right? Sure. Anything happening tonight sports wise that we can watch, Tone, or we can bet on?

Baseball's on. Yep. Any big prime time matchups? Hmm, that's a good question. That's pretty sweet how the Dodgers, Yankees situation at least started off. It was awesome. It was cool. Yeah, it was cool. What was the a final score of that game. I believe eight to five. Okay, which game was 18 to I was the second game Saturday

Padres and Giants is is oh and then Mets Dodgers. Those are But they both started ten o'clock because they're on the West Coast. So other than that not super any college baseball Yeah punch college baseball in the baseball. Yeah women's um World Series Yeah, going on right now. What's going on right now? Those girls that pitch that I there's no way I would ever even make contact Yeah, there's around a hundred how far is it 48 feet away? He's on 45 cool That's nasty, but what's so weird is because there are motion. That's like a natural movement, right? They can pitch every day Yeah, yeah They said that the girl who starts for Tennessee has thrown like the fastest recorded pitch

I think in like the history of like softball or maybe it's not that but like she throws fucking gas and they were saying I think she threw like 79 or 80 and they said it's the MLB equivalent of like a hundred and fifteen miles an hour But I've seen her on the mound literally every single game. Yeah, yeah Carlin Pickens. Yeah But I've seen her on the mound literally every single game. Yeah, yeah Carlin Pickens. Yeah, she's like there's no like risers. Yeah, they're sinkers. They went to extras in that game against, Oklahoma I think it said she threw she threw like a hundred and fifteen hundred and twenty some pitches and that had to you know pitch The next day no guy has ever tried to do that and make a career in baseball from 60 feet six inches Oh, you mean underhand? Yeah

That'd be tough balls. Not quite big enough not quite big enough to be able to manipulate it quite like that. Like what if, yeah. I mean, once you try it, they do the... No, I can't even do it. I can't. I'm not good at it. I'm not flexible.

I don't know if shoulder flexibility. Fucking try it. No, I don't. Get out there and slide step. I can make that thing. I can make a dance. You're right. Nevermind. I got it.

I can still do it. It'd be a lot easier on my shoulder. I had some shoulder elbow injuries like in fifth grade from pitching. We just know one speed, fastball. And they say you gotta throw a change up. I said, if I throw one change up and this dude hits out of the park or hits it hard, I'm never throwing another change up again.

And I threw a couple change ups and guys made solid contact. So that was the last change up I ever threw. Mangold just took you deep. Nick could play. He could definitely play. He's a good first baseman as well. We played on a softball team in college, intramural softball. Love play. He's a good first baseman as well We played on a softball team in college Intermural softball love it Nick was Nick was a great first baseman

Alfie other he could hit the ball or you play Center I'm not playing third and not playing short, especially in softball. You know, I don't want I wouldn't I never grow I played short growing up. I never wanted to play a third though I don't know not take one directly off my face sure and I wasn't gonna wear a third though. I don't know. I'm not taking one directly off my face. Sure. And I wasn't going to wear a cup. Use your mitt. Yeah, okay.

You ever seen some of these dudes hit? Yeah. We're using metal bats back then too. Not an intramural coed softball in college. I don't know. There's some guys. I know. There's some guys that were probably on the, you know, probably on the Buckeyes baseball

team but they, you know, torn ACL, torn Achilles, something happened, right? Sure. Yeah. Yeah, no, I get it. That's how it goes. Yeah. Texas did beat Tennessee, huh? Didn't they? Mm-hmm. Oh, did they? Texas beat Tennessee to advance to its third championship series in program history. So when does that start then? Do we know? I think it depends because I think Oklahoma still has to like if they beat Texas Tech

They need to beat him again the blue bloods stay the blue bloods. It feels like in women's softball Yeah, I think that's a safe assumption. That's a that's a good way to phrase it That was the Oklahoma squad's who Pat went down and he got to hit with them. Yeah Yeah, she got a statue outside National championships or something like that. Yeah, of course. So Pat will be back tomorrow, correct, after he does Raw and Tulsa tonight.

Bingo. It's awesome. Wrestling is on a run. Man, it's fun. I see different clips pop up and people ask me, like when I'm out and about different kids' games, they ask me about different wrestling storylines going on. It's pretty fun.

It's a fun world to dive into that I didn't pay as much attention to before Pat has been so deep into it. Just a fun, It's a fun world to dive into that I didn't pay as much attention to before Pat and so deep into it just a fun a fun fun world Those people were awesome. What a weird like cool family environment They all create that we don't know but you wouldn't know but I'm saying from being lucky enough to see the inside and see how they How they operate like everyone's awesome. Yeah, they're all so cool. It's they shouldn't be yeah Yeah, and Netflix has been great. It feels like so far so Tulsa's gonna be UFC going to Netflix. I don't know. That's a possibility They said no really about it. Yeah. Well, I mean they're up. I think their deal is up Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be on ESPN anymore. That's for sure

They're starting to pull a bunch of stuff off of ESPN plus I saw already so it sounds like yeah Either Amazon or someone like that is that would be weird for for the UFC to go to that But that's where everything is gonna happen and WWE and Right you have you made a very seamless transition to Netflix. Yes seems like it's been great. Yeah, they can handle it I think so. Okay good and then Gumpy what's going on later this week pal? What we got going on, huh? TST starts Wednesday the boys got practice at 3 o'clock today. Explain TST to someone that may be first time listener ever. It's maybe the greatest soccer tournament of all time.

Winner gets a million dollars. There's 32 teams, maybe more. Our roster is absolutely loaded. We play Bournemouth first game Wednesday, 10 AM. That'll be on ESPN plus and ESPN you boom Do you know anything guys have a scouting report like have you do you have any idea how these other teams are? Bournemouth should be pretty good. They got a team in the Premier League

So they got some good guys, but every other team in our group, I think will shouldn't be a problem Just worry about your own camp. Don't don't have to worry. Yeah Be nice to get off to a hard start after how we started last year. Do you get like seated after your first couple of games, or like your first game or two, or how's that work? So you got your group, so you have three games in your group,

and then the top two teams in every group go through, and then the third and a couple teams go through as well. So you gotta win at least two of your first three to move on, you think? We won two last year and got through. OK. So you have to win two. Need to win two.

Yeah. Yeah, you need to win that first one. Yeah, and you guys lost the first game last year, right? Don't need to win the first one, yeah. You lost the first one. It'd be nice. I'm saying you really put your pressure on yourselves. But that's how you guys, that's how you respond.

Pressure makes diamonds. That's concave. That's what they say. Either that or you need to beat the piss out of a couple teams like they did last year Because what was the reggae rovers rovers walked us? Yeah, and then we had it we didn't really have a game plan Yeah, right, but then you beat the shit out of the FCE Cincinnati. I think it was like later that night He was like the coach or something

Talked a lot of shit that was funny chat. Okay. Whoa, was it go it was because you guys beat him Yeah, it's funny play. He can play. Yeah, they talked a lot of shit. That was funny. Chad can play. Whoa, was it Gump? It was. Because you guys beat him? Yeah. It was funny when they were eating their words. Eating the pitch. I tell you what, Chad Johnson, I respect that dude so much.

He had a professional boxing match a couple of years ago and looked good. Yeah. Looked good. As an athlete. He's an athlete. And can play soccer. That's a different type of athlete, too.

You can do everything. If you can play soccer, basketball, Yeah, that's a different type athlete. So yeah, you can do everything if you can play soccer basketball Football soccer is a whole new world. We'll also be live from TST on Wednesday and Thursday this program Yes, beautiful Wednesday Thursday normal time. We get the stage set up probably same spot. We were last year Foxy Yep, that's gonna be sweet fans can kind of hang around and that's a beautiful complex Yeah, whether it's supposed to be here, Lina North Carolina. The pitches look incredible from what I'm seeing. Is it? Is there any, is you guys playing field turf down there,

or is it all grass? All grass. Soccer players, you guys, you guys demand that, right? Yeah, but like back in Canada, we always played on turf. That's all there was. But those pros like won't play on turf now, will they? Messi did for like the first time. He played in Atlanta on turf.

What's the reasoning? They know that they tear ACLs and Achilles and other things much quicker than they do on grass Yeah grasses everywhere in the world might as well use this. See what happens the NFL think they're gonna get rid of field turf Nope No, no, you can't you can do too much With that being said guys, I think we're gonna wrap this thing up con man. What do you think? Yeah, I mean now I'm starting to think about TSD. It's gonna be fun, man.

We know what time you play, Gump. What time the squad's gonna be going? 10 o'clock's first game. 10 o'clock, Wednesday, first game. So before the show, before the program, that'd be awesome. We'll get to watch, hopefully a big victory. As the show is getting started, you guys are gonna be celebrating, coming over.

Maybe sit in the ice tub again, I think Grellar did last year. And then 6.30 that night as well. On show hey who's grellar that's what I call him so I call my door piece caddy he was is he still Jordan's I heard he's a stick and you play his name is also I believe Michael Grellar so I call Yeah Guys get it With that being said appreciate it boys in the back. Good job. Thank you, Mitt Great to see you as always wherever you are cruising around here D bone good work Gertie Z everyone boys appreciate you guys. Obviously. I love coming in here and seeing you guys

It's been a long time. I think since I've been in studio. Yes in Spain. Yeah, that wasn't in here those It's been a minute. It really has it's good. been in the studio. Yes, in Spainia. And I wasn't in here. That was... It's been a minute. It really has. It's good to see you, boys. It's good to see everything going on. Obviously, RIP Jim Ersane, everything going on there with his memorial service. People from everywhere.

Oh my God, yeah. Talking about how, what this guy has done, what he means, all the behind the scenes stuff that he has done. It's crazy, man. I wish he would have been around to see a lot of the love he is getting right now. But yeah, thoughts of praise with him everyone going through that situation, his family I'm sure he had a gigantic impact on the NFL and everyone around him. That'll be it for me today, Pat will be here tomorrow.

He'll be back on set Wednesday Wednesday Thursday show from Kerry, North Carolina Concave for soccer clubs looking to really gas him up coach Gump is on fire I saw him practice a little footwork here to get the boys ready during warm-ups Cannot wait to to get down there and see him everybody here appreciate you guys and Here we go. Let's bring it up. Oh, yeah, there you go. You ready team on me team on three one, two, three team See ya