The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1355 - LIVE From Cary, NC at TST with Wayne Gretzky, Johnny Damon, Chris Paul & Clint Dempsey

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

On today's show, Pat, AJ, and the boys are LIVE once again from Cary, NC on site of The Soccer Tournament coming off a MASSIVE 2-0 Day 1 for Concafa SC. We recap Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final that saw the Oilers come back and win 4-3 in OT over the Florida Panthers, and look ahead to Game 1 of the NBA Finals where Tyrese Haliburton & the Pacers will take on SGA's OKC Thunder. In the first hour, The Great One, 4x Stanley Cup Champion, 9x NHL MVP, Wayne Gretzky joins the progrum and breaks down what makes Connor McDavid so special, the speed and physicality of the Oilers, the evolution of the game of hockey, what makes the Panthers & Oilers so succesful, his golf game, and much more. Also in the first hour, 2x World Series Champion Johnny Damon stops by the TST set and chats about how much fun Aaron Judge & Shohei Ohtani, what he's got going on with Drip FC at the tournament, and more. In the second hour, 12x All Star, 11x All-NBA, & 9x All-Defense, NBA Legend Chris Paul joins us live on stage to talk about playing with Wemby this past season in San Antonio, Tyrese Haliburton and the facilitator style of basketball, working out with Cooper Flagg, his basketball future, and more. Also in the second hour, USMNT Soccer Legend Clint Dempsey stops by to talk about the state of US Soccer, what it means to represent the country in the sport, what the team needs to do ahead of the World Cup, and more. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2pm EDT), ESPN's YouTube (12-3pm EDT) or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you, we'll see you tomorrow LIVE in Cary, NC. Cheers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello beautiful people and welcome to the Wakefield soccer park in beautiful Cary, North Carolina. The host of TST and our program that starts right now. Clark K-5! SC is 2-0 at this TST. We have a team that is potentially going to win $1 million. We aren't the only squad that's hoping to win TST. There are an abundance of teams out here. I just got a jersey from the West Ham United team. Go Hammers they say. Dortmund was buying us beers last night. They charged Ty 60 bucks yesterday for those same beers we had last night. Seamus is obviously here. Johnny Damon is here. And the game that is gonna be played behind us today,

Hope Solos team is here. In the game that is going to be played behind us today, Hope Solo's team is here. Solo FC will be taking on the Speedy Turtles as the women's TST kicks off today as the men's have their last game of the first round today. Now, elimination games begin tomorrow and our concava team has punched our ticket. Tonight though, we play Wrexham. We're trying to get a number one seed so that we can take on a bum ass number three seed from another group as we can continue to move on in this electrifying TST.

If you've never been, I would recommend you come. If you're not a soccer fan, this is a style of soccer I think you would enjoy. And if you are a soccer fan, there are legends walking all over the place around here. Nani's here, obviously. How about Ledezma, who's on our team? Jeff Cameron, Breck Shea, you're talking about legends everywhere. Tony Miola is just strolling around. The soccer community is represented in a beautiful way. And Conquefa is being very, very, very dominant.

We got this guy right here, Ledecia. Absolute weapon. Absolute weapon. Filthy. He played for Cincinnati last year against us and he was doing shit, not that great of a team. That was Chad Johnson's team, do you remember? Not that great of a team, but he was a weapon.

So we reached out and said, hey bud, we'd love for you to join our squad. He's got along with everybody. There's Derek Huffman, He's an Arena League goalie. There is just an entire squad. We're tighter than ever. Here's Ruggles. He is a problem.

Yeah. Ruggles is a problem. The porch run on the Stammer goal. Back porch, Chad porch, absolutely incredible. He tried to give me a goal yesterday. I put it into the woods, going 100% on me. Not the worst, miss. There's porch right there, winning the game.

Foss with the pass to me. Pass to Richie Costanza, a kid I grew up playing soccer with as a high schooler. Back to me. Not the worst miss. There's porch right there winning the game. Foss with the pass to me. Pass to Richie Costanzo. Kid I grew up playing soccer with as a high schooler. Back to me. Over to Foss. Ah. Good save. Great save. Great save. As soon as I put that ball down the line right there I think to myself oh no now I gotta run. Which I did. Back to Foss. Oh. Mike Foss, senior vice president ESPN, general manager of, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, about 25 seconds later and in about a minute and 15, I got to the point of exhaustion where I almost vomited out there and was a part of three or four. Here's porch, maybe the best player in the whole tournament. D, gone. Exit stadium. Great boot.

Place where the one bananas. It has been fun down here, but it's not just concave and TST that has been electrifying. The NHL Stanley Cup finals started last night. With that being said, we have Wayne Gretzky joining us in about 12 minutes or so on FaceTime. He is not in North Carolina, he was in Edmonton last night. The greatest hockey player of all time, the great one joins us. Last night, after the second period

and the second intermission, he actually called exactly what Connor McDavid needed to do. He said this Florida Panthers defense is playing a Rick Tauke style. Connor needs to get the puck on his stick. He needs to go behind the net. Then he needs to find somebody. Third period, same exact thing happens.

Then they go to overtime. McJesus does his thing. Dry-subtle knocks home a winner. And the Oilers are up 1-0. We will go through all these highlights. We will chit chat about this game. And whenever you talk about the Stanley Cup finals, you think of electricity. Last night, game and whenever you talk about the Stanley Cup finals you think of electricity last night game one

Lived up to the hope almost had a double overtime Stanley Cup final game one in a rematch between two teams that are clearly the best in the NHL We'll see what Wayne Gretzky has to say and then tonight the NBA finals start in Oklahoma City with the Thunder being a nine and a half point favorite over the great gritty tough Indiana Pacer team. Now yeah this graphic is filthy. D-Bone was in his bag I believe is what people would say. Whenever you talk about not utilizing the luxury cap it's like the first time two teams in the final since 2004 haven't spent over what the salary cap is, haven't bought their team. These are two teams that have been built in similar fashion. Second time in NBA

finals history that both teams had 25 or fewer wins three years ago. These teams have built from the bottom, come all the way up to the top, they play together and it should be electrifying just like the NHL finals. We're lucky to be talking about all of that. We have Johnny Damon on the show today, obviously. His team Drip FC had a big win yesterday and last night. He texted me and told me the fans have got on his side. He said they're booing the refs, cheering for his team.

I can't wait to chit chat with baseball legend Johnny Damon, especially with the MLB viewership up as much as it is. We'll also be joined by Chris Paul. Chris Paul, obviously local dog from down here in North Carolina, Wake Forest legend, which is right down the street, partial owner of TST. We'll ask him about the NBA finals. And then we have Clint Dempsey,

one of the greatest soccer players in the history of the United States joining us in the second hour as well. He's launching a new podcast. Okay. Don't want to give too much away. Okay. Good tease. One half of the hammer.

Cowboys, AP Tone is here. Tone, as you look at last night, did we expect an overtime game? Did we expect that many goals? And when we're looking ahead to this evening, what is the bet our pocketbooks need to be yearning for as solo FC in the speedy turtles start right behind yeah when you look at last night at the line and then as far as the book is concerned it was minus 120 for the Oilers which is basically if you don't know betting is a coin flip for the game so you know as far as the game

goes going to overtime not a huge surprise I think the expectation for this series was to be a super close series as far as the game goes, going to overtime, not a huge surprise. I think the expectation for this series was to be a super close series as far as the goals were scored. 3-3 at the end of the OT. I believe the overrunner was 6 and 1 half, so it was right on point there. So as far as the bookmakers go, it went exactly how they thought it was.

And then tonight, NBA finals, 9 and 1 half for the Thunder. It is an absolute huge spread as far as the NBA finals is concerned. Thunder are minus 700 to win the series, but let's not forget Pacers, they go into Cleveland, game one of this year, down nine and a half. It was same for the series, minus 700 against the Cavs, and they won game one. Obviously won game two, won the series.

So the Pacers are not, you know, they're not ashamed to be a minus nine and a half. They are not afraid to win down nine and a half. Now they were born being a nine and a half point underdog this year, especially with how they've been talked about or lack of conversation about them. I mean, anytime a poll comes out and says, hey, you're superstar, most overrated guys in the entire city. Tough.

Anytime you're not put on national television, even in the playoffs, they had them on TruTV. They played iRobot over the Pacers in the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs. They had them on true TV. They played I-Robot over the Pacers in the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs this year. That was the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. Cleveland Cavaliers had to feel disrespected. The Indiana Pacers are just sitting there going, what about us?

What about us? What about them? They've become inevitable. Let me give you some stats here. This is from Hembo, shout out to Hembo. No team has ever shot 55% from two and 40% from three in a single postseason entering the finals. The Pacers are at 56% from two, 40% from three. That is an offensive juggernaut.

Tyrese Halliburton has scored 11 points in 135 career half court matchups with Lou Dort as his primary defender. That's not good. No, Lou's a player. The Dortcher Chamber is what they call Lou Dort as his primary defender. That's not good. Lou's a player. The Dortcher Chamber is what they call Lou Dort. And Q Rich, I believe, said, he'll be fascinated to see who DeGeno puts Lou Dort on. Will he go on Pascal or will he go on Tyrese? Because basically, whoever he decides to take out of the game,

this is Rivas Island. This is see you later. You're done for the series. In the last 40 years, Tyrese Halliburton is the only player to do both in a single postseason. 150 assists, five times more assists than turnovers. He has 156 assists, 31 turnovers. Wow.

Nobody's ever done it. We'll talk to Chris Paul about that here in a matter of moments. Turnovers this postseason, the Thunder have 188. Their opponents have 288. That minus 100 margin is already 21 more than any team ever in the history of a postseason. So you're talking about a dominant defense in this Oklahoma City Thunder, but they also take over on the offensive side. It should be a great game. Speaking of great games, Solo FC and the Speedy Turtles are

getting after it behind us. Beautiful setup here. The toxic tables here at Boston Connor, at Ty Schmidt. Ty, I see the Tyrese Halliburton shirt on. Is that an homage to what's going to come tonight or just public support? I think, well, see, I don't know if they're going to, I don't know if Oklahoma City is going to choke, but you could say quite a bit of public support. You mentioned it. I mean, they did this with the Knicks and Pacers series. Everyone picking the Knicks. Hey, there's no way the Pacers can win. They did it with the Cavs series, and the Pacers just keep winning, and then will and behold,

we get to the finals, and it's the same thing. Hey, why are we even playing? You know, Oklahoma City is going to beat the hell out of these guys. They have no chance. All of their players need to play perfectly, have the game of their lives. So, the Pacers are battle-tested. They're ready to go. They understand. They've been through, you know

This song and dance the last several rounds. So yeah, I'm very excited for tonight coming off an unbelievable Stanley Cup finals game last night Or exactly we're in it now boys. Yes T happen exactly We got hope solo in between the pipes behind us right now sports are happening in a big way Let's go to college football national champions Super Bowl champion Ry, Ryder Cup winner, all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, father of 10, AJ Hawk. Good to be here. Great to see you, AJ. As the people of North Carolina, give you a

resounding applause of approval, obviously. What have been your thoughts on what sports are doing right now? Tonight, do you think it's going to be a 9.5 point spread game? Last night, did you expect overtime? TST, did you expect it's gonna be a nine and a half point spread? No, last night. Did you expect overtime? Tst. Did you expect it to be this electrifying? Where's AJ Hawks brain on? I'm at TST. So first off TST the concave the boys are playing Well, I don't see how anyone scores on you guys are still have not given up a goal yet this game

The defense is off the charts the goalies are standing on their heads, but hockey last night Are you kidding me from the jump? We had goals and then we had answers So I me being somewhat of a casual hockey fan, I wasn't, I loved it. I was locked in all three quarters and over time last night. Three periods. Three periods. Yeah. Three quarters. It was actually four quarters. It was. Yeah, it was. Joining us now is the man who played four quarters of hockey a lot. A guy, nine time MVP. I want to make sure I get these all right. Four-time Stanley Cup champion. A man who at the time of his retirement held 61 NHL records. Now he's on TV.

He's not a hater. He's not jaded with the new group. Loves the sport, loves the players, loves the league. Ladies and gentlemen, the great one, Wayne Gretzky. Yeah! How's everyone doing? Wayne, it is an honor to have you on the show. Now, the people of North Carolina.

I'm so happy to be on it today and what a great sports day. You guys got it right. Okay, Wayne, I'm happy to hear that. I just want to let you know, though, that we are very thankful that you made time out of your life to join us. We're massive hockey fans and the fact that you're taking time out of your life to chit chat with us, we are grateful. Let's get to last night's game.

You know, after the second period, you got on air, and we assume this has happened on plenty of occasions this year and last year when you're on television, but you say, hey, McDavid needs to get the puck on his stick, needs to go around the net, then he needs to find somebody. This Rick Tauuckett defense has obviously been a little bit cagey. That's then next period he does that. Do you think that whenever you see McDavid play,

you see a lot of yourself? Do you think whenever you watch McDavid play, do you think like, man, this guy has the capability to take it over? What are your thoughts with Connor McDavid being the guy that everybody talks about could be the next great one? Wayne O? Yeah, I think we're past could it be. There's no

question he's the best player in hockey. He's an unselfish young man. He loves playing in Edmonton. He loves being the captain of the Oilers. He wants desperately to win a Stanley Cup. That's all he wants. That's what he cares about the most right now. And good on him. He's just been great for our game. He's been great for the city of Edmonton. And you know, what a year he scored the winning goal at the four nations cup and overtime. He sets up the goal last night by dry saddle. And let me tell you, I know it's a little bit difficult to see on

TV, but live it was a physical hockey game. You had to be a man to play in that game last night. Both teams played, hearts out. T'Chuck's playing a little bit injured. Reinhardt's playing a little bit injured. But they still put everything on the line. And listen, it's hard to knock off the Stanley Cup champions.

It's one game, it's four to seven. I'm sure they're gonna bounce back, but Edmonton has to keep home court advantage. That's a must for the Edmonton has to keep home court advantage. That's a must for the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup. Obviously you played nine years, I think, eight years for the Edmonton Oilers at the beginning.

10. 10, sorry, jeez. I had one year in the WHA where I started in Indianapolis, and we were drawing 3000 people a game, so they sold me. Hey, we're thankful that you started your hockey career in Indianapolis, Indiana. We should put that on a statue. Probably a statue of you there. But Edmonton, all anybody talks about is how great the fans are, how great the barn is up there.

But obviously no Canadian franchise has won the Stanley Cup in forever. Is this the team to do it? And if so, why do you think that is the case? Well, this is the team to do it. One, I don't think Florida's played a team that's as physical as Edmonton. The speed of Edmonton matches Carolina, but Edmonton's a little more physical.

And when you get to three championship series in a row, you're physically beat up. And right now, I hope Florida can rebound, but they put their guts on the line the last three years and it's hard to get to the Stanley Cup finals and they play hard and they're led by guys like Tichuk and Barkov and Reinhardt. I expect them to bounce back, but listen, Edmonton feels it, the city, that's all anybody talks about.

I was beside the arena yesterday and at 12 o'clock noon, a band started playing. I thought I was on Columbus Street in Manhattan for a Labor Day parade or something. It's crazy. I love the shots outside the arena. Like that feels like that happens in hockey more than any other sport. Yeah, and it is the entire city shows up there. Let's talk about that Florida team before the boys have some questions for the great one. You mentioned all the leaders of that team and obviously they make the trade for marshy.

And I know back in the day, there used to be goons on teams. Okay, there used to be goons. There's always been some, you know, little, yeah, little protectors, but there's always been a little greasy things that have happened in hockey. Then goons come in there.

How do you feel about the Florida Panthers culture being like hey, we're gonna hit you There's gonna be some shit and you just know that that's happening Do you think that is the right style to win? Obviously it is but do you think that is sustainable and you think more teams are gonna try to be like the Florida Panthers? Absolutely, we're copycat leagues, right football basketball baseball hockey Yeah, absolutely. And I will tell you this. Last year, Florida was a little bit more physical in that series than Edmonton. Edmonton went out this year. They got a little bit bigger. They're more physical than they were last year, and they got the

key ingredient. They got number 97. He can be the difference maker. But listen, in the old days, we had those protectors, right? Now the TV is the protection for the players. You used to be able to get guys behind the camera or behind the scenes and nobody would see it. Now there's so many camera angles, the league protects the players now and that's how it's done. I like it too.

And I liked the fact that Beckman came out and was like, we just don't want this stage fighting. We're okay with fighting. We're not trying to get rid of what hockey is. We just don't want this stage fighting. So I okay with fighting. We're not trying to get rid of what hockey is. We just don't want this stage fighting. So I think the game's evolving and obviously numbers are up. Last year, the NHL viewership was bigger than it's ever been. I assume it's only gonna continue

because the superstars are playing so well. AJ Hawk has a question for you, Wayne. Yeah, Wayne, did you, we see all these analytics and different things that teams have to where they can give you these shot charts on how goalies can, whatever I guess they do well whatever they stop whatever they can't when you play did you have a book on goalies did you have an idea going in on what this guy was going to do and how you were going to beat him yeah I think everyone has that sort of feeling and belief that the more you

study and the more you prepare the better off you're going to be but let me tell you this the game is so fast. You can't tell me that guy knew exactly where he's shooting the puck, because I couldn't shoot it exactly where I wanted to, because the game's so fast. And listen, I heard you guys talk in the beginning of the show, the game is better today. These players, these athletes, they're better athletes.

They're bigger. The equipment's better. The ice that they play on is better. So our game is just getting better each and every year. They're bigger, the equipment's better, the ice that they play on is better. So our game is just getting better each and every year. And you look at guys like Barkov and McDavid and Dreissel and Reinhardt, these guys are tremendous athletes. They're superstars.

I mean, they're great people. They sell the game. They worry about our sport. They want to excel. And listen, I live in Florida what the Panthers have done Vinny Viola Bill Zito their Organization Paul Maurice what they've done for hockey in Florida is just been truly amazing And on top of that you look at Tampa Bay with John Cooper and his group winning Stanley Cups

Hockey is growing leaps and Browns in Florida, and that's what that was our problem over the last 50 years We were good in pockets, but now we're growing in Texas, California, Nevada, Florida and our game is expanding and kids are going to games saying you know what I want to try to play this game it looks like it's fun and we're getting better athletes every year that are participating and playing hockey. Don't you think too the fact that you guys are still like an old school style league? Like we just talked about the fighting there. Very rarely, 2025, unless it's UFC, boxing, or slap fest, is anybody like, yeah, you should go fight somebody. But in hockey, it's like a part of the sport. It's like a self-government sport. I appreciate that.

And I'll tell you one of the reasons why that's the case. We're the one sport that carries around a lethal weapon, the hockey stick. And the last thing you want to do is hit somebody with your stick. So the natural thing is to drop your stick and drop your gloves, right? And so if we didn't have fighting, there'd be a lot more stick work. And I'm glad they're, listen, I always say to people when they say to me, he was fighting real in hockey. I said, well, if it wasn't, I would have been in more fights. Trust me, it's real. These guys are tough and they're hard-nosed and listen, they just want to win championships. You can't take silly penalties though. You've got to be smart when you do it.

Consequently, if you're not, you're going to penalize your hockey team. Hockey is such a humble culture. you know? Very rarely do you hear any players speak out. Very rarely do you get to hear any interviews or personality. I think that's kind of growing now with the way you guys have been able to open folks up. You, Biz, the TNT crew, obviously Spitton Chicklets is doing a great job. I think we're learning more about the players, but all the players are team first guys, tough guys,

and the sport is so hard. I think everybody has to respect the work ethic. I think it's hockey's only on the precipice of a massive like, cause I think there's a lot of football fans that'd be like, we like the way these guys operate. They just gotta get exposed to the sport. You know what I mean, Wayne? Yeah.

When I first went to LA, I said, the more people that we can have come and see the sport and realize the art of our sport, it's physical, It's physical. It's fast. You got to skate. You got to be unselfish. You got to play hard.

You got to take a hit, give it a hit. And the more people we can get to view our sport, the faster and bigger it's going to grow. And that's what the league has done. And so when I came in, I was so lucky. We had Brett Hall in St. Louis and Eisenman in Detroit, Mario Lemieux in Pittsburgh, Mark Messier in New York. Not only were they elite players and Hall of Fam Detroit, Mario Lemieux in Pittsburgh, Mark Messi in New York. Not only were they elite players and Hall of Famers, they knew what it took to sell the sport.

They were great with the media, they were great with charities, great with kids, and they were unreal hockey players. So we've been lucky, we've been blessed that the people in our sport from Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr and Bobby Clark all the way down to now, cross me and Ovechkin, just two of the classiest sports athletes there are in the history of any sport. And so we're lucky we got good culture in our game. Yeah, let's talk about that culture a little bit more. And you just mentioned all the heroes of the past

and obviously the future and who's gonna carry it. You've never sounded jaded ever about the next generation. You've never been a goat in everybody's eyes that has kind of weaponized that against the younger generation. Why is that been a goat in everybody's eyes that has kind of weaponized that against the younger generation. Why is that? Is that just how hockey is? Like you showing up for Ovechkin. I think you said something about your dad told you, hey, when somebody breaks your record, you should be the first person at this. You were, you went to two games. You've never said anything bad about anybody. Sidney Crosby comes in, they're

saying, hey, this could be the next Wayne Gretzky. You never took that as a shot, seemingly always supported it. Now with Connor McDavid, the same thing. Why is that? And why do you think it's so hard for some goats to kind of have a similar mindset? I don't know, I can't speak for other guys, but I'm really being honest. I think our athletes today are better in every sport.

There's no question. Now, do I think Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player ever lived? That's my opinion. I'm not a basketball guru but that's just my opinion right? Then you take Tiger Woods you know probably the best athlete we've ever seen in golf so it's progression right and listen these guys today knowledge is such a great thing remember those old commercials about, I lost my knowledge. And we have so much more knowledge today,

just from physical fitness, nutrition, practice, coaching, the equipment, the equipment they wear today, the skates that they wear today. When we wore skates, they were leather. And if they got wet, they were five to 10 pounds heavier. It was just, it's not the same game. It's a better game today. Simple as that. And so I'm happy for them.

Everything I have in my life is because of the NHL and hockey. Why would I sit down and want to be critical of the game that made my life? I got to travel the world, meet some great people. It's the greatest sport in the world to me. And I love it. You're the greatest. You are the greatest. You guys had actual cement in your boots.

Whenever those. Yeah. You had no, no, we would play on a Sunday night in Chicago. 6 a.m. We'd be at the airport for a flight to Detroit play that night in Detroit, but our equipment would be still be wet because the trainers couldn't really hang it. So you put your skates on at 7 o'clock at night and they're about 10 pounds heavier. That's the way it was though. And you guys also, and I don't know you, I don't think I've heard any stories about you, but if I know the hockey culture well, in between that Chicago and Detroit game, we also have to hammer some vodkas and some beers. Yeah, some beer.

As well for team chemistry. It feels like that is a big thing in hockey. You guys are very much a hangout together group. Yeah, we're always together. I mean, especially when you're playing, you know, it's 20 guys and you go to dinner together. The teams that do that are more successful. The teams that four guys go one place and three guys go another place, they're not a team. It's, you look at the Edmonton guys, they're always together.

You look at the Florida group, they're together. Tampa Bay, those teams are year after year successful. There's no secret to why it is. They'll go through a wall for each other and you gotta have that in our sport. Yeah, I agree. I think teams come together better around a keg than they do Kale.

But who knows if the next generation will continue that on got to have team chemistry. It's the biggest deal. Boston Bruins fan who has quit on them. I want to let you know that Connor has a question for you. That's not true. Congratulations to Marco Stern, new head coach for the Bruins and he's gonna do a great job. Wayne already mentioned Bobby Orr is going to build and blocks the NHL so he gets it. There's a clip and you talked about you clip, and you talked about the growth of the game. Obviously, they did the 24-7 series on HBO before.

They followed a bunch of guys last year with Amazon, I believe. I think if the more layman fan were to be able to see hockey players like yourself go up against other superstars it might help we have a clip of you just dusting I believe sugar Ray Leonard Pele might have been out there and attract me and I think most people aren't really sure that hockey players are athletes then they off their way holy shit Wayne Gress he might be Usain Bolt in a hundred meter do you think how did this first of all happen and do you think most hockey players are fantastic athletes but people don't really think about that and they just think hockey and everything. Cindy Crosby threw a

football for a million dollars that big night at it back in April for Pat and I feel like most people were blown away that a hockey player could even get their hands around a football. Well let me me say this. First of all, it was a charity event for Bjorn Borg in 1982. And he asked me to go. And of course I was a huge Bjorn Borg fan. And I said, well, of course. Now there were six events. The other five I came last. Let me tell you. And I remember I said to my dad, he was there with me. I said, I got to do well in the running because I grew up a runner. I said to my dad, he was there with me, I said, I got to do well in the running because I grew up a runner.

I said, I got to at least show that I'm somewhat of an athlete. So I said, okay. And then I looked down and I saw Sugar Ray Leonard and Pele and I'm like, oh my god, I'm in the wrong event here. I think I jumped before even that gun went off. I was going no matter what. But it was a wonderful event. But let me tell you, most hockey Europeans are the Russians,

but in North America, a lot of our kids, they grow up playing box lacrosse, soccer, baseball, and then they make hockey their priority at the age of 14, 15, 16. So there is a lot of great athletes who play in the National Hockey League, trust me. A lot of them, I see guys that go to batting practice and guys are hitting home runs, whether it's in Detroit or Anaheim.

It's pretty remarkable. And of course, we got so many guys that are good golfers. Everybody, every time I play golf, and my son allows one of the greatest players ever in two major winner, and people go, what's wrong with you? How come you're not a good golfer? Do you suck at golf, Wayne? No way. Oh, I'm not very good.

So I would tell you this. Compared to Dustin? Hold on though. Compared to Dustin or like compared to others? Compared to you. Compared to you, I'm bad. No, I'm an ass, Wayne. I am a bad golfer.

No, no. So I always tell people, they go, what hand did you shoot in hockey? I said left-handed and play golf right-handed. How come you play right-handed? I said, well,handed and play golf right-handed. Come and play right-handed. I said, well, it's 16. I went to buy a set of golf clubs. My dad said, you know, you should learn how to golf.

The hockey players have charity events and you don't want to embarrass yourself. So I went to buy a set of clubs. And the guy said, we only sell right-handed clubs. They didn't sell left-handed clubs in those days in Canada. Oh my God. Jeez.

Yeah, so somebody said, well, why don't you switch? And I said, well, I got all these free clubs. I'm not switching over to left-handed. So no, no, but it all changed when Phil Mickelson came along and Mike Weir. I don't know if you saw this, but Mike Weir when he won the Masters, he had a handwritten letter from Jack Nicklaus that he wrote to Jack Nicklaus and said, I'm a left-handed kid. I play left-handed. Should I stay left-handed or switch to right?

And Jack Nicklaus wrote him back handwritten, young man, you stay left-handed if that's what you're comfortable with. And he became the first Canadian to win a major, which was remarkable. Okay, so let's talk about that. You still golf righty? Yeah, and I'm still bad.

Wayne, I think I know the problem. I think you're supposed to be looking this way. I think you're supposed to be looking this way, brother. Not even a putt? Not even putting? Feels like that is. I tried putting left handed for two years because Mike said to me, Wayne, try putting left handed. Well, I got worse every day. So I said, ah, I'm going back right handed.

Golf is so hard, dude. Uh, like any other sport, you gotta practice. I don't practice. I have to be good. People go deep. Are you competitive golf? Michael Jordan, so competitive. I said, competitive.

I know I'm no good. So why worry about it? If I hit a bad shot, hit a bad shot. Yeah. And then I'll pick it up. Uh, I'm going golfing with Darren Pang today here in Edmonton. So it'll be fun. Okay. You're going to go, I think you're going to go scratch today. Way down real low. Yeah. Panger's about five foot six and 125 pounds and he's,

he's doing a lot of golfing though. Just like we don't get to practice enough. Wayne, we're working. Yeah. We don't have time. Just be on the golf. You should play lefty today. I'm going to try enough Wayne. We're working. Yeah, we don't have time. Just be on the golf You should play lefty today I'm gonna try a few shots left-handed today. If we get that on camera, we'd appreciate it cuz everything I know about sports I'll get biz to tape it and send it to you guys perfect perfect That feels because it feels like you should be a left way and I don't even I don't want to say anything disparaging I'm glad this is my problem. I'm reaching out to you for golf tips. Bingo.

Bingo. If I was Wayne Gretzky, though, I'd look, I'm fucking doing, aren't you doing this? Isn't this like your thing? This is literally. I played Pebble for five years with Jake Owen, myself, Jordan Spieth, and Dustin. I had the greatest group.

There was Jordan and Dustin and Jake, so wonderful to me. But they draw the biggest crowd, those two guys. There's 25,000 people on every hole. And I'm shaking like a leaf, and they go, you didn't get nervous playing hockey? I said, I could play hockey in front of a million people. I wouldn't even know they were there. But to play golf, you know how it is

when you go to the first tee and everybody's in the clubhouse watching you? And you're like, oh, I don't want to hit a bad shot. We'll try to get 25,000 people down the fairways and you're hitting the ball. I, I'm telling you, Wayne, you go lovely. I think I have a record for the most people hit in pro-am tournaments. I played with president Ford one time in 1980. I was a kid, Palm Desert.

And I was so nervous standing on the tee, right? First shot I hit, I sliced it into these trees. And all of a sudden we heard a thud. And I go, what's that? And the president said, that's one of my secret service guys. Usually I hit them. Ah, that is amazing. I love to hear that you love the game of golf

and suck at it, because I do too. So if Wayne Gretzky sticks at it, that makes me feel a lot better about myself. My wife Janet is a great athlete. She's a better golfer than I am, and she's more committed to it than I am. We do a lot. And yeah, she loves it.

And trust me, she's a better... If you're playing partners, you would take her, not me, trust me. No, we're gonna have some beers with Wayne Gretzky. We're not trying to win, I stink at golf, you gotta remember that. You just talked about how people say,

hey, are you competitive at golf? Michael Jordan's competitive at golf. You rattled off a couple others earlier, Tiger Woods. I assume we could put Phelps into that conversation in the sports world, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, I don't know who you put it. Do you guys have a group text? Because you guys are like rare air.

No, but Michael and I played in this charity event for TNT last year. And we were both so nervous on the first hole. You'd think we'd never been in any kind of a sporting event ever before. We were so nervous. So what do you guys, like why do you think, have you ever done

any this could be a deep question way knows coming straight off of you sucking a golf convo do you have you looked back and wondered why you were so much better than everybody else because I wasn't better than everyone else but I tell you what I did my preparation and I had respect for every player I played with and I had respect for every player I played with and I had respect for every player played against and I have nothing but good good thoughts you know the guys I played with guys like Mark Messi and Paul coffee and Luke Robita. Brett Hall incredible people and then I played against guys

like Brian Trotty and Dennis Popman who played physically hard and they were hard to play against but when it's all said and done we're all here for the same reason. We love the game and that's what it's all about right and you're here to try to win championships and practice is everything and if I tell parents I get people come up to me and they'll say will you tell my son how many hours a day you used to practice at nine and ten and eleven and I would say listen I didn't practice that's what I loved doing I'd skate for eight hours because I loved it Bobby or same thing Gordie house same thing we didn't think we were practicing if you think that at the age of ten you're gonna have a long miserable run of it right so I always say listen just

go enjoy the sport and the more you enjoy it, the more you want to get better, and the more you're gonna want to love it. And that's the way I look at it. Yeah, because if you're considering it practice, it's almost like it's work. And if you're viewing it as work already as a child, as opposed to just something you want to spend your time

doing, you're probably not gonna sign up for it for the long haul that you're gonna need. Yeah, Mark Messy had one of the great quotes years ago. Somebody asked him, is there anything about hockey that you don't like? And, Mark Messy had one of the great quotes years ago. Somebody asked him, is there anything about hockey that you don't like? And he thought about it for a second. He goes, there's not one thing I don't like about it. I love being with the guys.

I love being on the bus with the guys. I loved hanging out with the guys. I love going to hard practices. I love going to great practices. I loved it when we lost, had a tough loss and we were all together. There wasn't one thing that we didn't love about it, right? and that's makes it special. Yeah, that's what it's a boot Yeah, that is what it's a boot. That's what it's a boot. My wife always says I say sorry wrong. So

Ty is a question for you great one. Yeah Wayne speaking of you know golf and everything like that There's been a lot of discussion lately mostly from you know Biz he kind of started it about how a lot of these teams who are in states with no state income tax are gonna have a massive advantage moving forward because not only are a lot of them warm weather and guys can go there and play golf and kind of enjoy themselves, but you're obviously not forfeiting a bunch of that money like you know some of the places in Canada or California Or New York or wherever the case may be Do you think a lot of those teams that are in those situations?

Are going to be inherently better or have an advantage moving forward over the next couple years Well, let me say two things Obviously Florida and Tampa Bay is a unique situation Dallas Dallas, Vegas, from a financial point of view, if that's what a player's thinking about, obviously. But if a player's thinking, you know what, I wanna play in a hockey culture, like playing and living in the city of Edmonton. I loved it for 10 years I was here.

And the culture and the mindset of the people. So it's a different feeling when you leave the arena in Florida after a game or leave the arena in Tampa Bay, but you leave the arena in Edmonton, you know you've been in a hockey game and you know there's 1.5 million people who live here and 1.3 million have watched that game and the other 200,000, the only reason they didn't

is because they were working. So, you know, it's what you wanna do as a player, how you wanna approach this. Look, do I wanna go to where everything is hockey? Or do I want to go to a place where financially it might be a little bit better for me? Now the good news is Tampa Bay and Florida are great organizations and they have a chance

to win every year. So that's a business decision that a player has to make. Wayno, is Florida going to be the state of hockey forever? Oh, absolutely. It's growing leaps and bounds. I'm so proud of the people who've done such a great job. The Tampa Bay Organization, Florida, more and more kids are playing. I see it. I live there, so I see it.

And it's just going to grow leaps and bounds. I think it's going to get bigger every single year. And the thing is now we're attracting great American athletes into our sport. Where the guys who used to say, I'm a baseball player or a football player, a lot of those great athletes at 10, 11, 12 and are going, you know, I really enjoy playing hockey.

This is great. Yeah. And I'm going to be a lefty on the ice and then I'm going to golf righty. Yeah. Yeah. You're by left handed clubs now. Yeah.

Hey, thank you so much for the clubs now. Yeah, yeah. Hey, thank you so much for the time and thank you for giving. Thank you guys so much and keep going. I love the fact you guys promote hockey. Like I said, everything I have in my life is because of hockey. So congratulations to you all and have a great day. Well, thank you so much for that, for being kind, being a professional, being the great one. But also thank you for doing television as the GOAT.

I think there's a chance that because you did that, now Michael Jordan's getting into TV. It's good to hear from the GOATs, legit. I don't know if you saw it last night, but the guys were calling me GOAT. And right now we're calling Biz GOAT because he's got GOAT. You're the man, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for having me.

Hey, that's Wayne Gretzky. That is what it's about. And I'm sorry to everybody else that does the hockey. If one panel has Wayne Gretzky on it, they're probably going to have a little bit of a head start. That's just like when Nick Saban was at the college game day. It's like, sorry to anybody sorry doing anything else it's like Nick Saban's words are gonna matter and if you're good at it and if you're like humble and you enjoy the process of doing television and talk about your sport you can give back to your sport in such a big way which I think is what Wayne has done over the last two years being on TV having Wayne Gretzky promote the game is great for the game you know

some of these goats stay away for whatever reason. They're jaded and I talked to them about hating the younger generation or not liking the current game or maybe people are getting compared to them so they get a little self-conscious on what they're about. It's like he doesn't seem to care at all and everybody has the same opinion about him. It's good for hockey. He's doing TV. It's unbelievable hockey. You couldn't have a better ambassador for the game. I mean the great one, the greatest of all time. And the fact that he says the game is better now than it was when I played.

The athletes are better. Like, yeah, what a hopefully Michael Jordan becomes the Wayne Gretzky of basketball broadcast. Yeah. Well, besides here, he gives us that perspective. I believe Solo FC is up to zip behind us. Hope Solo played the first half in goal. She pitched a shutout. Her team can run. Oh, yeah. I pitched a shutout. Her team can run. Oh, yeah. I was watching. Yeah. Her team can move. Yeah. Solo FC is a good squad. Austin Ryze is

here. I think they have a lot of really good players. The US women's national team has a team. They have Carly Lloyd on the team. Yeah, okay. One last year. Okay. Yeah. They are very good. So, I think there's a lot of good quality soccer coming out of here at Kerry. There are some teams that are ass. Yeah, certainly. Some teams that are ass. But that's going to happen. Played two of them so far. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

We made them look that way. We made them look that way. That's what I mean. Joining us now is a man who put a team together that is not as no, no. They are great, just like this man was. I want to rattle off all of his two-time World Series champion. First on this particular sheet says Boston Red Sox legend. Well, of course.

But there are also people who say he is a. New York Yankees legend. Oh yeah. And also a. Kansas City Royals legend. And also a. And Oakland A's legend. And also a.

Detroit Tigers legend. And also a. Life legend. Savannah Bananas. Wow, that too. Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Damon. Yeah! Johnny!

Yeah! How are you guys? Fantastic to be here. Well, that's it. Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Day. Yeah. Are you guys? Yeah, I'm doing Johnny. What's up? See you, my brother. Thank you for making this happen. Oh, thank you. Sox legend. You know that. Well, yes. Oh, drip FC. Oh,

I appreciate you. Not you. Thank you, man. Sorry, Johnny. World Series. I know. Hey, so they're you got to put the mic down. It's on the left side. Oh, I got it. Yeah, there you go. I don't do this much. Let me put this behind you. Okay. Thank you. The professional. All man. Thank you. There we go. So professional. All right, you are a pro. No, I'm not. Not like you.

Did you hear the little bickering that happened here? Because Boston Conner, obviously a big Red Sox fan, calls you a Boston legend. Ty, over there, massive New York Yankees fan, says New York Yankees legend. Just won a World Series with the New York Yankees. When you look back at your career, the fact that you were beloved on both sides of the biggest rivalry in the sport, what do

you think that means or says about the sport and you as a player? Well the great thing is I've been loved and hated everywhere. So I went about my business the right way, played the game, hustled. That's the only thing you can really control in baseball is hustle. Like your best wing can turn into a out your Bats way can turn into a base clearing Double so it's a you have to take the ups with the downs and I always did I was always a fan favorite because I learned from Cal Rickett He signed an autograph for me when I was 10 years old at Tinkerfield

so I understood the the fan aspect of it. So I continue it to this day. A bunch of these people love me out here. Hell yeah. I'm part of Drip FC. Hell yeah. My team is showing up, they're balling out and we had a great game last night.

You know, unfortunately things didn't go our way. Oh, you lost? Oh no. All right. No, no, we didn't lose. We won. We won. lost? Oh, no. All right. Why'd you do that? No, no, we didn't lose. We won. We won.

Our team balled out. Check out the replay. What are you guys now? What are you guys now? One and one. We have the replay, actually. We have the replay here. I've not, this is my first time seeing it.

Drip FC. That's a replay from the first game. Yeah, I've won. And they tore this down last, yesterday. Yeah, we appreciated them coming over here. Last night, we do not have the replay of last night what happened you guys got screwed I want you to check it out please you sent me a positive text so I thought you guys won oh no no we won personally our team we're a great team and we're still in it

we're going to we're gonna keep on rocking we're gonna keep on bringing our A game little controversy maybe with the Drift FC game last night take a look okay we And we're still in it. We're going to keep on rocking. We're going to keep on bringing our A game. Little controversy maybe with the Drift FC game last night. Take a look. OK, we certainly will. I saw the clip you sent me of you playing some soccer, scoring a goal. Are you coaching the team, general manager of the team,

owner of the team? What is the title you have? I sponsor the team with my drinkagame.com. We are a healthy alternative to what's out there no artificial anything no forever chemicals like no yeah so we are good hi Dr. Rock it yeah we got Gary Brekka we got Tyler Adams Bo Jackson's been with the team for a while so yeah we're ready to rock the roll okay you just brought up Bo Jackson yeah how closely do you pay attention to current baseball I

started to pay more attention because I have eight kids. Was that eight kids? I have four kids. Four kids. Okay. I heard 10 earlier. He does have 10 kids. They're all over the place.

You have eight kids? Yeah, man. Irresistible. And I just have to be obliged, right? Obviously. Okay. So you've been paying attention more. The MLB viewership is up 10% on both networks, Fox and ESPN.

It feels like it's because the superstars are playing well. Is that what you agree with? Like baseball is good when superstars like you are playing well and the teams that everybody wants to see are playing well. Do you think that's why they're having success? Absolutely. There is so much talent out there and everyone asks me who I root for. I root for the back of the jersey.

Like I'm always going to root for Aaron Judge. I love the way Durant plays for the Red Sox. It reminds me of a young- Young- Yeah. Yeah. No kids. There's so much talent out there and Shohei.

Wow. Fun, right? Yeah, it's fun to watch. As an ex-baseball player, what he's doing, can you, especially if he gets in in pitches this year, which I guess there is a chance, when he was starting his career with the Angels and he was pitching and hitting, we were talking about him as people

that don't know baseball that well, as like, holy shit, we got an alien here. Why is it so abnormal? And what are your thoughts on Shohei? Well, because you do have to concentrate on something. And Shohei hasn't pitched in a while. I think he could be very successful, but stepping back to the mound

after taking a year and a half off, it's tough. I think he can do it, but for how long? I mean, Babe Ruth was the epitome of greatness. And in our day, we had the Brooks Kieschnick with the Cubs who could do it, but they just didn't want to take away the best part of a player's game. It's kind of like Travis Hunter right now. What's he gonna do? Shohei, he's the greatest hitter going right now with

Aaron Judge and why take that away from him? There's a lot of stress that goes on to being a pitcher. You give up a couple runs and now you have to go hit. I think it's very tough. We did it in Little League. He's doing it in the big leagues. Okay, so I appreciate you saying that. Ty Schmitz, our baseball aficionado, he's been basically saying the same thing, although it would be sweet to see Shohei do both.

Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, actually, I wanted to ask you about the Savannah Bananas experience that you had. Yes. Because, you know, like, as, I won't say that I dislike it, because I don don't but as someone who's like a die-hard baseball fan like I would much rather watch the Yankees you know then obviously you know what they do with the kids and everything and then 80,000 to a hundred

thousand people going to the stadium to do it but how cool was that experience as a whole and are you surprised that they've had the the kind of success that they because I mean it is crazy, they're selling out football stadiums and those guys can still play. It's not just like a Mickey Mouse, you know, hey, show up at the ballpark and these guys are gonna kick it around,

Harlem Globe Trotters type thing. So what did you think of the whole experience? I thought it was so amazing that I decided to go out three times. And I didn't go out last year. My last at bat, I got a base hit. We didn't go out last year. My last at bat I got a base hit. We won the inning. We celebrated. The guys got me on the dugout. We took our shirts off and I forgot to shave my chest. But yeah, I kind of forget you

can't step out of the track. But it was so fun. I'm so happy what they're doing because they can probably sell out the Oakland Coliseum more so than the A's did. Yeah, so it's, I love it. It's fun. It gets the kids into baseball. And when you see the game, it's fun. I mean, Ken Griffith Jr. made the, with his smile, he made every, he was the kid and everybody loved it.

I played the game, I loved it, I understood the ups and downs and as I always mentioned, you gotta bring it every single day, you gotta bring your A game and your best may not get it done sometimes. So you have to keep plugging away. The pitcher, he's trying to make a living too. So he's trying to take it from you and you're trying to get how many games you guys play in a season? It's 162. But if you count spring training and the playoffs all the way to the World Series,

it's about 210 games in about 235 days. Rock stars. Yeah. Just living on the road. I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you stay focused. I don't know how you keep your body together. I don't know how you don't get incredibly lonely on the road. I don't know the mental battle of a MLB player

is huge alongside the physical battle, obviously, and you're failing a lot. And there's a lot of droughts that come with that. And they have the mental toughness to stay positive. Wonderful. I think that's the most important thing that baseball players have. AJ has a question for you, Johnny. Yeah, Johnny, I know you played for almost 20 years. I just wonder, in the clubhouse, how did that clubhouse change from, say, your first year in the Bigs

to your last year? I've talked to some guys that maybe played 15, 20 years and they were just the drastic difference from when they first got into the majors until the end. Just how guys kind of carried themselves, took care of their body, all of that, how did that change for you? Oh, it changed drastically because I got called up from AA in 1995, never had a big league spring training, so I show up and the Royals released Vince Coleman, like one of my childhood heroes, and I'm like I'm walking into this clubhouse and my childhood hero is leaving leaving so I never had a Experience of the six weeks of spring training at the big league level and then there's some growing pains

You know they love to do the Ready lefty if the lefties pitching you might not be playing, but I've always hit lefties well So you kind of had to understand that but I learned how to play winning baseball when I got traded to Oakland Like Kansas City was great. We had the best offense in the league for about three straight years But we didn't have pitching at the time. I had Mike Sweeney Jermaine die Joe Randa I mean we got after it Carlos Beltran and then I Had to go to the U.S. in Giambi and learn how to play winning baseball learn how to have fun on and off the field and we got after it we won a hundred and two games Seattle won 116 that year but we had Molder Zito Hudson but at the end I became like a

father figure to a bunch of these guys because I'm hanging out with the parents after the game and not the players when I joined Tampa I was like wow this is a little strange my wife and I were like all the kids wanted to go back to the room and play their games and we wanted to go relax have a good time. Boozy! Yeah we started hanging out with the parents. I love that and especially if you're an OG and does it the right way which it sounds like you did. Did you drink urine? No never drink urine. Oh that's what he did. Did you drink urine? No, never drink urine. Oh, that's what he did. Sure? Yeah, no, never. That's what he did to stay healthy. No, no. Did you know anyone that did? I never did. That was Moises and Salou. No, there could be rumors, but no, never drink it. No, no. What about peeing. Callous. Callous. Take him stick here. He sticks it hard. It's a stage. Was Moises Alou

the only one to do that in the league? Or was there a lot of guys peed on their hands? I've never heard. You guys peed on your hands? I've never heard. Do you do it on other people's hands? Is that something baseball does? Yeah. Who peed

on your hands? We don't talk about it. If anyone's going to do it, it's my wife. That's right. But we're not that way. So. You guys have so many of those like rituals and stuff because of how long the season is. In every movie we've seen about baseball, there's some absurdly ridiculous routine that takes place or ritual that happens before games.

Then we start learning about stuff that you guys are doing. It's like, hey, the baseball guys kind of freak you over there. Yeah, the golden thong, when you went into a slump, we shared it in the clubhouse. So slumps didn't last too long. Yeah, hey listen, let me get my ass cheeks some floss here and then we'll get out of this quickly. Tone has a question for you Johnny.

Yeah Johnny, these two were arguing but like out in public do more people come out to you about the game seven with the Red Sox or the 0-9 Yankees World Series run? Man it's both. I mean I was a love player. I'm a legend everywhere. Well, I was a fan favorite everywhere. It kind of depends. So when I go to New York, yeah, I wear the New York ring when I go to Boston. I wear the Boston ring.

So yeah. That's smart. Yeah, I don't want to get into any trouble. I want to go about my life. But I do flash both rings at certain times. And it's a cool feeling, because it's only Babe Ruth and I who are starters who won for both teams so I'm in great company and I'm you know the Yankees need to figure it out but the Dodgers are

the best team out there they're so deep. They're saying New York is the Mets town now. No not yet no it No, it's uh, it's early. It's early, but now they paid one soda 750 million bucks Oh, they can afford it and they could give them a suite but Five or six players who made the team better So I think they have a stronger run against the Dodgers this year But the Dodgers are so deep and I kicky Hernandez What a great baseball player he is he can play every position and he has fun playing the game like he became one of my favorites and

I root for the back of the jersey and he's doing great Connor roots for the Red Sox Yeah, no doubt about it and Johnny someone asked me earlier, is there bad blood between Damon because he went to Yankees? I'm sure there was at the time. I think most people can agree. Any player who reversed the curse on that team is kind of good for life. So thank you for all that. But big conversation in baseball this offseason so far.

Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe kind of now being OK to go into the Hall of Fame. How do baseball players feel about those two guys? Pete Rose, I think Jeff Hasen said it, you can't really tell the story of baseball without Pete Rose. Do players want him in the Hall of Fame? Is that how most of the players feel about guys

who might have made some questionable decisions or is the gambling kind of separate from the steroids, Eric, would you say? Yeah, well, I think it's about time. I mean, it's been forever. They had to wait for him to pass to figure this out but I was with Shooter Joe Jackson the other day, DB Sweetie down in Mexico and we had a great time but yeah Shooter Joe like the gambling incident gambling is all over the sport right now and if you're going to let the fans gamble I mean we

all played fantasy football we're not gambling on the team and if Pete Rhodes gambled on his team to win yeah I love my manager to say we're gonna we're gonna win I'm gonna make money we're gonna win but I mean let bygones be bygones I mean there's so many things going on. I mean, we had the Otani incident where his guy, just sweeping under the rug right now. I know there's a lot of bigger issues in our world that we need to take care of.

And even the steroid issue, I was against it back in the day because I was a guy who was always accused of it because I was a beast. And now you're seeing these guys, against it back in the day because I was a guy who was always accused of it because I was a beast and And now you're seeing these guys like I hope to see Barry Bonds get into the Hall of Fame He never got busted, you know, yeah His hat size they say that we can see it but well when we get older, I mean everything grows Yeah, like our church everything everything. older, everything grows. Like our birth, everything.

Yeah, everything. Yeah, Jonny. Barry Bonds was like the best player that, if you ask my era, who was the best, Barry Bonds name is first on the list. Also, Roger Clemens. Yeah. He never got busted. He had someone try to tell on him, but Roger Clemens, amazing.

Hold on, so I have a question for you. During that era, when it was happening, the summer of baseball or whatever. Summer of slam. When Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire were doing their things. Save baseball. What's that? Save baseball. I think so too. Biggest ratings of all time. Yes. Biggest ratings of all time. We were all very interested. You were during that era. Now, I, the way I view it from outside looking in is that steroids was just very available. No, no, like I never saw anyone take a... Nobody talks about it in the locker room.

No, well, especially me because I wasn't part of it, but I don't know what they talk behind closed doors. Because like in the NFL locker room, nobody brings it up. Nobody talks about it. No one talks about it in the big leagues. Back then, whenever that was all happening, it wasn't just like an open like, hey, open like hey if you need some old the baboon who's over here right he can help it wasn't like that it wasn't that lacks of days it was in that lack of days ago and it's grown men making decisions on their life let them decide what they want to do let them get better I didn't have to get better but I found

out towards the end of my career the guys who were getting popped they were getting four or five year contracts because they cared so much about what they were doing so I'm like hey have at it do do what you want. Yeah but that felt good for you looking into me or being like these fuckers are using full pharmacies. Keep up with me. We're about to hit a heart out and I just want to say thank you so much for making time I think you also follow the show is what I've been told yes I do follow the show and that's everyone follow the game tonight my guys that drip FC they're bringing their a game and we're we're

here yeah you guys gotta wait yeah yeah yeah check it out big L last night Johnny. Yeah, I Don't consider it. It was five to three, but our boys pulled out check out there What's the need you guys by two? So I didn't this wasn't a one. Yeah, check it out. We have to check this We had some goals taken away from us we had a few things. Oh, they're against you they're working against you Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean we you. They're working against you. Oh, yeah yeah, I mean we're facing a tough team, you know and we're facing a bigger drink company right now

All right, yes, we're going into a hard out we'll be back in the next hour Chris Paul will join us Clint Dempsey will join us Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments. Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, the credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. Time to drive away from the grind and unwind in your new 2025 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross.

No phones, no signal, no meetings. Just the smell of adventure. Lease the Eclipse Cross today for the equivalent of $89 weekly at 3.99% for 36 months. Plus get a no charge, two year maintenance package. Visit your local Mitsubishi dealer today or see mitsubishimotors.ca for details. Conditions apply. He is obviously the team that we are here representing and the team that we are proud of and the team that is potentially going to win $1 million at this TST. Right now, Hope Solo's team is taking on the Speedy Turtles right behind us. They are currently up 3-0, but let's remember that no game can end without a walk-off goal happening in target score time. This is an electrifying style of soccer. We're lucky to be here. This Cary,

North Carolina Wake Med Soccer Park is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen constructed. There's been some rain today. There's going to be some lightning later, but this grass will remain impeccable, and the setup and the facilities are remarkable. Shout to Cary, North Carolina. Shout to the TST folks and shout to Concava Soccer Club potentially going on a run this year. The boys are buzzing, we're undefeated. We got a game against Wrexham, as you know that is Mr. Reynolds and McElhaney's team that there was an entire documentary about. This is not their professional team but I believe this is some ex-players from Wrexham that are here.

They're a good squad. They'll be our best challenge. That game's taking place at 5.30 Eastern this afternoon. Cannot wait to see how the boys respond after a great day one of TST. Now, I'm not alone up here. No, one half of the hammer, Don Cowboy's AP Tone is here.

The Toxic Table is here at Ty Schmidt and at Boston Conner. Then there's a man who's a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Rota Cup winner, and a father of 10. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawker. You want to be a hoggle? Hawker, the legs look good, bud.

You've been squatting every morning, huh? I like you showcasing the calves. There's some big ass calves. Wow, not every morning, but I did see Grella in the weight room the other day. He's out there grinding away, getting ready for the squad, for the stretch run you guys have coming up. Grella, a member of Concaifa soccer club at one time during

the year he was not on Concaifa. Was actually gonna cancel all of Concaifa and then you know we got Grelia back on the squad back on the right path and the boys are now buzzing it's not just obviously TST the NHL Stanley Cup finals Solo FC has won the game. They've done it. Target score time. Solo FC dominating 4-0 win over the Speedy Turtles, who weren't speedy enough. No they weren't.

Solo FC's team, they can run. You can watch, just like in hockey, you can see what team's faster. In TST, you can see what teams are faster, what teams can run more. Also, Solo solo FC very deep a lot of players on their bench that's good news because there's a lot of subbing this is an exhausting event as hope solo puts the golden scarf golden fleece on whoever hit the target score time I had a chance to do that just yesterday it is an honor NHL

Stanley Cup finals started last night. Edmonton Oilers up 1-0 in the series and an overtime win in Edmonton over the Florida Panthers. We'll talk to Wayne Gretzky in the first hour. He chit-chat about how he feels. It's probably gonna go 7. Florida Panthers are gonna answer. But maybe this is the year that a Canadian team wins the Stanley Cup for first time. Long time NBA Finals start tonight in Oklahoma City as the Thunder, our 9.5-point favorites, as the Indiana Pacers flew over there two days ago in the middle of a tornado.

Yeah. Actually got rerouted. Plane almost ran out of gas. Had to stop in Tulsa, refuel, get back up in the sky, go over to Oklahoma City. Five, six hours of travel time, I do believe, with probably some rocky clods. I'd say as soon as this first series in Tornado Island.

I believe Oklahoma is right in the middle of tornado time. Yes, it is. And T's and P's, everybody. Indiana also. Without a doubt. This is the shortest distance between two teams that are playing in the NBA finals. Oklahoma City and Indianapolis represented in the finals.

Two small markets, two fan bases that are yearning for a dub, and two fan bases that are going to be incredibly passionate. A great style of basketball is going to be on show, on display. That happens tonight. Let's talk a little bit NFL football. There's been some news out of a training camp happening in Indianapolis. Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson has suffered a shoulder injury and will be out for minicamp next week. Shane Steichen would also go on to say that the hopes are that he will be back for training camp. The hopes are that he's back for training camp in a couple months from now. It's obviously a little bit alarming but he has had a

shoulder injury in the past, got tackled, had surgery, missed a season, came back last year. Obviously he's had numerous other injuries as well throughout his short NFL career thus far. Shoulder injury, not good. Hopefully this isn't something that has been lingering and hopefully this is something he can get past because this year is a year where he can explode on the scene as a superstar in the NFL.

Live up to the number four overall pick hype that he was just a few years ago. Daniel Jones has been brought in to compete with him. Danny Dimes looking to make Indianapolis his forever home after everything that happened in New York. Obviously an injury in mini camp and OTAs is not great, but at least we got Danny Dimes there. Supposed to be a competition.

What does this mean to you AJ looking forward for the Colts? I mean, yeah, I believe that definitely it's going to be a competition. But if you're Anthony Richardson, you want every single rep you can possibly get, whether it's OTAs, mini camp. And like you said, the fact that he said he will hopefully be available for training camp is what would worry me.

Thinking, all right, we're six, eight weeks out of training camp, six weeks most likely. I want to make sure my quarterback is 100% going into camp. Steven Holder reported that Shane Steichen says Anthony Richardson aggravated his right AC joint, which is the surgery that he had two years ago. Not great. No, not at all.

Not great. Especially if you're, I mean, they're not, they're not hitting him obviously. If you aggravated just throwing, that's definitely not good. CJ Stroud also had some soreness in his right arm and I didn't throw it at OTAs we're all alarmed by that. Hopefully Anthony's able to get healthy. Hopefully they're able to have a full roster going in a training camp and a full competition. What's that Connor? Well they don't and it sucks but if you're

Danny Dimes this shouldn't be a competition anymore. It should be hey these next two weeks this is my team and after that they're never gonna turn it back over to AR. That's just me personally I assume Danny Dimes if he wants this to be his forever home, which hopefully he does He will just say you know what this competition is over. This is my team now I'm not gonna you know pitter-patter around while Anthony Richardson is getting better I'm gonna take advantage of the time and basically show everybody hey AR there's a fun time but it's it's Danny Dimes time in Indy okay sorry. Leading the meeting rooms obviously leading the hangouts the throwing in the summer everything like that this does kind of open the door for

Danny Dimes to potentially feel as if he is the starter as opposed to in a competition not wanting to piss anybody off because there's gonna be allegiances and alliances in the locker room. Battling through that is a part of having a quarterback competition, especially when you bring in a guy from outside getting paid more than the rookie that was drafted number four overall. Interesting situation. Hate that he's hurt again, but this is kind of becoming Anthony Richardson's story in

the NFL. Hopefully he's able to get healthy. Derek Carr spoke about his shoulder injury that has sidelined him for the rest of his life. This kind of came out of nowhere. Yes, it did. It's kind of came out of nowhere. So last season happens, Derek Carr and the Saints

obviously don't have a great year, but then the off season arises and it's like, okay, Derek Carr's gonna be their quarterback. He got back into throwing. He had some shoulder soreness, I guess. Then he goes to the Saints, they start talking, what's the future, what's this? He retires, he's no longer their quarterback.

Now we're getting more information. He basically said he would have needed surgery. If you would have got surgery, you would have been rehabbing all season. They would have had to pay him 20 million or whatever the amount of millions it is. He would have been doing nothing. So instead of that, he just retired.

Babyface move by Derek Carr. And also, how can you have that serious of a shoulder injury without knowing it for a while? That's seemingly what happened here for Derek Carr. Either he's incredibly tough, and he's just like, ah, it just hurts a little bit, or this thing came up out of nowhere. I don't fully understand how he got here.

I don't fully understand either. I would think after the season gets over, that's when you have your postseason, you know, they check you, you get your MRIs and everything and you're thinking if I get this shoulder or if I got injury let's get it fixed. The initial injury. Yeah, he hurt his, what was it, hand or arm or wrist and then they didn't realize that his shoulder was hurt at all until his wrist completely healed after the season.

Wrist heals, he goes to throw, oh shit I hurt my shoulder as well. So they just had no idea that this guy had a bum shoulder until he recovered from the initial Wrist injury that he got from launching himself for a first down, which is comedy Yeah, it is a layer especially in the time of the season and the expectations at that point of the season Yeah, what Derek Carr tried to do? Kenley Mo down there is the first time head coach of the New Orleans Saints. They know it's gonna take a while. Yeah. They know it's gonna take a while. But that's why everybody said why didn't they draft Shador? They need a starter. That's fair. They didn't really address it early. Shador Sanders threw a touchdown

at Cleveland Browns many a campaign. Wow. I wonder if Tyler Schuck is throwing any. Probably not. Shador Sanders looking comfortable spinning it. Touchdown Cleveland, Brian Shador Sanders. Will he be the quarterback in the fall? We shall see. If he goes from fifth round to starter with the amount of people that are on that roster That'll be a great story and he has definitely earned it. Good luck to Shador. Good luck to the Sanders family I also like the fact that Coach Primes coming out talking going you guys are lying about my bowl. I don't like it. We shall see how it all works out joining us now ladies and gentlemen is a man who's a two-time Olympic gold medalist 12 time all-star in the NBA 11 time all-mv8 9 time all defense he bops the wood

That's got bops the wood ladies and gentlemen a member of the San Antonio Spurs, also selected to the NBA's 75th anniversary team, Chris Paul. Yeah, Chris! What, no chips? No, why? That was the right song. Nine time all-deaf. What's up, bro? How you doing?

I do not know that stat. It's OK. Nine time all-deaf. I do not know that stats Legit as I read it right there. I was like, oh god. Oh Should have been 11 should have been 10 probably should have come a couple more maybe maybe like 11 or 12 I don't get the watch because they don't show it enough. You're smacking the wood every time they're coming down. He's doing all that Why not? We can't bop the wood every time they're coming down? He ain't doing all that. Why not? We can't bop the wood a little bit? I play offense too. Okay let's talk about you playing offense.

You're a point guard. They put you together with Wemby down there. What was it like playing with him? Is he different than anybody that's ever played basketball? And what's your takeaway of the San Antonio Spurs going forward? Wemby is different. He's different being seven foot four able to move the way that he does and he just loves the game. He loves the hoop. I think the Spurs are gonna be great. You have Harrison Barnes who's a great vet. They brought in De'Aaron Fox. All of us you know I think it's just team wants to stay healthy. Allegedly potential landing spot for a couple free agents. Allegedly, San Antonio Spurs might be active in the market

to get some other big time names down there. Everybody obviously chasing the playoffs in the NBA Finals, which tip off tonight. You're a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Great years there. That fan base, we've allegedly been told, best in all of NBA. Allegedly, huh?

You know what I mean? It's competitive. I didn't see that hat you got on. Go ahead. fan base we've allegedly been told best in all of NBA. Allegedly, huh? It's competitive. See that hat you got on, go ahead. Yeah, but I'm just telling you, it's being alleged. I've never experienced it myself. I could see it on TV. It looks amazing. What would a championship mean for that city and why is that team perfect for that city seemingly?

Everything, everything. I'm sure there's the same things you would say about the Indiana fan base, about everybody just being hard working. I played my rookie year in Oklahoma. My first two years in NBA, I played in Oklahoma because I got displaced with Hurricane Katrina. So I literally grew up there. My first two years in Oklahoma City. Then I had an opportunity to go back when I left Houston. And the fans there are just genuine. They love their team. They love their team. They appreciate you if you played for them before, but when you come to play against them, they're

about their team. Let's talk about SGA and his crew. Obviously an incredible... He's six foot six, I guess. I didn't know that. I had no idea he was six foot six from watching him play because all the NBA guys, you know this, are so abnormally tall. So tall. Let alone Wemby. Me too, right?

Well that's the thing, that's when I see you. You're a tall actual human. Yeah. Walking amongst us, tall guy. On a basketball court, absolutely absurd. I had no idea SGA was six foot six. Can you talk about his development

from whenever he got there to what he is now? And is that the team you're picking, I assume the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the NBA final? I ain't picking nothing, you know what I mean? No, say it with your chest out. I'm gonna tell you straight up, because I mean, I'm a fan of the game, not even trying to be as you but one of the assistant coaches for Indiana Pacers is was in my wedding by my brother.

Oh, I like that. I like that narrow part go who I love. That's my brother. You know what I mean? So I think it's gonna be a hard hard ball series. Obviously, I definitely have ties to OKC with Shea, with Luke Dort, with the coaches, with Sam Presti, all those guys.

But I'm going to definitely pull up to a game to see it. Can't wait to see you there. Can't wait to see the reaction. Let's talk about Tyrese Halliburton. I feel like he is an old school point guard. I feel like you probably feel the same way. I don't want to speak for you. Whenever they look at his stats, I

feel like his points are always the first thing that people attack him for. He is the facilitator for that whole team though. And he loves that position. Is that normal in the modern NBA? And how do you view Tyrese's game? Man, he just plays like with a spirit, with a joy. You know what I mean?

And you can tell anytime you see a point guard, you can tell how they are when you look at their teammates. Right, so his teammates, they always know they're gonna get the ball at the right time, he's gonna make the right play, so it's a fun way to play. But actually my favorite player on their team to watch probably is Nemhart.

Dude, he get head-butted by Jalen Brunson. Well, he's a two-way player, you know what I mean? He plays defense, he takes that assignment night in and night out, but also he'll go get a bucket if you need him to Pascal Siakam also insane he can run that team runs how many I think Oklahoma City probably known for the same thing is there teams that you guys know like a Carlisle team for instance this team is gonna run and how do you prepare for that is there tough man the Pacers are like that they play fast right and the

thing is any great team they want to figure out what their identity is and that's what the Pacers figured out and that's what OKC figured out. OKC so good, Shays out there, Jalen Williams out there but all of those guys they star in their role they defend and they have fun playing defense. Nine-time all defensive selection should have been 11. Should have been. Or 12. Maybe, maybe even 13. How many years you been in the league? Just finished 20.

Jeez. Oh yeah, definitely just 12. Those first seven years. AJ has a question for you. Yeah, so if you were coaching the Pacers, how do you beat this Oklahoma City team? We hear no matter how much the Pacers want to run, OKC can run.

They can kind of do whatever you want. You want a scouting report. You. What version you want to play? Yes, you're scouting your point. You're a point guard. You're a coach on the court. Because it does kind of seem like to take on OKC and beat them seems like it's a very, very difficult task right now. How would you go about attacking them, I guess?

What's interesting is watching Indiana play in the playoffs, right? Even when they played against the Knicks, most people, you talk hoops with them. They're like, man, look at the score of this game. Usually the playoffs are a lot slower, low scoring games. I think it was tough for the Knicks to beat them because you look at it, it still looked like a regular season game. So I think that's a lot of credit to Indiana and continuing to pay play at that pace. And that's hard to do, especially in the playoffs when everybody's trying to grind out each possession. Like that's a mindset that you have to have

that make or miss, get the ball out and we gone. I think it scored 130. Yeah, it's crazy. In a playoff game. It's fun to watch. It's fun to watch, man. And if you score on them, they don't care. Like if you score on them, their entire bench,

I was lucky to sit there, push. Like literally as soon as that ball's in a bucket, that thing's coming back the other way. And if you can do that consistently all game long, long. It's like where's your out? Yeah It would be it can but if there's a team that's built for it is okay see Connor has a question for you Chris Yeah, Chris a lot of conversation after this whole Dallas Mavericks thing getting the number one overall pick Shaquille O'Neal came out of the story, you know, David Stern asked him if you want to play in the heart of the cold He said hot the magic at the first pick

LeBron said some things about you know, it's not as big of a Coincidence that the Cleveland got the first pick when I was there Derek Rose Chicago obviously there was the situation where your trade allegedly the Own the Pelicans hornets, well then. That wasn't alleged. That wasn't alleged.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just wanna make sure, I never know. That happened. That did happen. David Stern said, no, we're not letting you go to LA. How do you feel about the fodder around the first pick? Because most people think, of course, the Mavericks trade Luca to LA.

What do the Mavericks get? They get a Coober Flag, who's everyone's saying is worth $500 to a billion dollars by the time it's all said and done. What do you think about that? Just so you know, I'm just like everybody else, right? Like I'm a fan. I was at home in LA, and I was watching the ping pong balls

like everybody. And then when I seen the Spurs, they popped into the top four. Yeah, they got top four. So we was going crazy. Guys in my team, group chat, we like, oh shit, what's about to happen? And I'm in LA right now and Cooper Flagg has been out there. I've been in the gym with him a couple of times or whatnot.

So he is as real as advertised or whatnot. So for me, I don't know. I'd be like, man, that is crazy. Yeah. That is crazy. But just so you know, that Laker situation, that's not allegedly. OK. Yeah. So what the team owned the Pelicans at the time, right? The league owned. The league owned. Right. So our owner at the time, George Shin, I guess it fell on hard times and didn't have the money. And so he basically gave or sold the team back to the NBA to the league and they were running at the time

And Stern said we're not yeah, right? I hate to go play with Chris ball. Yeah, right No way. I'm the I get it was interesting is it was right after the CBA negotiations, right? So you were a pretty big voice in that entire thing. I was on the executive committee at the time Oh nice. That's good spot to be in the ownership box They really screwed if it's anything like the NFL. Are you an unrestricted free agent right now? Yeah. And you're playing? That's my plan is to play. Okay so I know 20 years in you look in phenomenal shape you have a snack company that's like healthy snacks. Yeah thanks for bringing them. I assume yeah

thanks for bringing last year we got a six bag right here we got them right here with the pickle chips right where the snacks yo they're having a conversation as they should snacks where the snacks yes snacks do we have the snacks there you go yeah anyways you take care of your body yeah body just temple obviously you're all in absolutely have you thought about how many more years is there a conversation because everybody right now is doing the LeBron condo. Yeah.

It's like, well, how much longer can LeBron go? How much longer can LeBron? Hey, team, how you guys doing? Wow. Hey, eating good. Thank you. We're eating good out here. Thank you so much.

The Big Deal Ranch. Thank you, Big Deal Ranch. All that. Big Deal Ranch is my go-to. Thank you. That's my favorite right there. You got to try that. This is good eating popcorn.

It has surprisingly plant-based ingredients inside of it. my go-to. Thank you. That's my favorite right there. You got to try that. This is good eating popcorn. It has surprisingly plant-based ingredients inside of it. No artificial flavors, no preservatives, no synthetic colors, and it's deliciously vegan. That's true. Okay, so this one is popped in coconut oil. Obviously that's what you're supposed to be eating. That's good for you. I like to cook my steaks in coconut oil or just get a little fish're supposed to do. I like to cook my steaks in coconut oil, just get a little fish oils as well for the joints, everything that Chris Paul is doing. But everybody's talking about LeBron, how long is LeBron gonna go, how long?

For you, similar situation, what is the conversation you have? Like is it with your family, is it with your agent, is it with yourself, is it with training? How does it go about that decision and looking at the future? It's with my family more than anything you know I see you Pat and how many kids you have one daughter I see you with your daughter

thank you she's beautiful I know everybody has their own situations I talked to my family about it my son just turned 16 my daughter's 12 the past six seasons I've lived without them right so? So I go to San Antonio, Phoenix, Golden State, no, they were in Houston with me. Okay, see, but I've been around a few teams, but I've been away from them for the last six years. So it's a little different. That's the conversation?

That's the conversation. You think body's good? Yes. You think body's good for this season or do you think like I could still play play for a while if I wanted to? Well, I don't think I want to play for a while. Wow. I'm being honest with you. Like I want to be dad.

You know, I still love to play. I was up in the gym at six a.m. this morning. How do we shoot? Pretty good. I didn't shoot this morning. I worked out this morning. But yesterday I was in the gym day before I was in the gym the gym, you know, and it's crazy. My daughter actually hoops now. So before I flew out here, I was in the gym with her for 20 minutes. Like with kids sometimes you just got to do short sessions. So I was in 20

minutes doing ball handling with her and it was priceless. You don't get that time back. Yeah, you're right. And it seems to go faster as they get older from what I've been told. Yeah, but I want to hoop, because I love to hoop, but at the same time, I do want to be that. You're kind of battling that. Yeah, Boston's a good place to bring the family. That's really far.

He lives in Atlanta. That's a furthest you could possibly. But I'm just saying, some of those other places may be not the best. Boston, the schools, the high schools, the private schools, the colleges. Yeah, that's what we've heard about Boston. Oh, that, yeah.

Yeah, I'm telling you. Yeah, very welcoming people. It's up? Yeah, that's what we've heard about Ty has a question for you Chris, I'm curious how the players in the NBA feel about it We always talk about the NFL like going into a season every single fan base is like hey We can we can win a Super Bowl right here But guys who actually play or people who are in know, know like there's probably only eight teams who are gonna compete this year. We've seen that, I think this is gonna be the seventh or the eighth year in a row where a different champion is crowned.

Which is crazy, yeah it is. Does it feel like going into seasons like with where the parity's at in the league, like more teams can actually compete and win a title? Yeah, I mean, I've been on all these different committees for years and know how they want parity in the league, but the thing that you can't ever calculate is injuries. Right?

Injuries are everything in any league. Yeah, Anthony Richardson just hurt his shoulder in OTAs for the Colts, we're out of quarterback. Again! Thanks for bringing it up. Just happened 10 minutes ago. But those are the things, you know, the injury to Jason Tatum, right?

You know, Kyrie Irving getting hurt when he did. All these different guys, you know what I mean? What is y'all laughing at? All right. I'm just hammering. We're eating your popcorn. We're getting pitched at. We are getting yelled at from the truck.

Our sound guy just came in the door. We are getting yelled at. If you eat another chip from the microphone, I'm gonna kill you. me some chips, man. This is good eating. Eat them chips, man. How have you been going out here? My bad. How are you doing out here?

I played last night. Oh, I seen it. You had a wide open shot. Excuse me, the goalie was imperfect. That goalie for their team was really good. He gave up five. He was working all night. You had a wide open shot from I think it was actually a new goal that had to give up any put it in the woods. This is the one that really should have gone in. But looking at assists. I'm Chris Paul. Yeah, I do get that. Get that out of here. Chris Paul with the assist. And then here's porch might be the best player in the league. He actually won the tournament last year. That right there. They almost hurt yourself. No not almost yeah we're the back ball. You see the power on the shot though. I fell a couple times last night. I hadn't touched a soccer ball since last year's TST. I remember what you did last year. Thank

you Chris. This is a great tournament. Hey this is a great tournament. We're a part of it right? Absolutely we are so grateful for y'all being here. Seriously man seriously it's something I look forward to, obviously, which I was in the finals and couldn't be here, but listen, this is a great time. Are you gonna play ever? Running your mouth a lot. Are you ever gonna get on the field?

Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Maybe you play for our team next year. Next year? Yeah. If I'm done playing, if I retired, I will absolutely get out there with y'all. Okay, you're on.

All right, deal. I'll get out there with y'all. Okay, you're on. All right, I get out there with you. Chris, from what I know with the way you play and the way you operate, you're gonna love our team. We are a hard-nosed team. Is that right? We're smacking the woods. Talk a lot of junk. Yeah, a lot of shit being talked out of our...

Tony has a question for you, Chris. Yeah, Chris, last week we played a clip of Joe Flacco. He was asked about mentoring Chauder and Kenny Pickett and Dylan Gabriel, the younger quarterbacks on his team. And he basically said, if I answer this and say, yeah, I want to be a mentor, it means I don't want to start. Or if I say, no, I don't want to be a mentor, it makes me look like an asshole.

He basically said, if these guys don't pay attention to what I'm doing and realize that I've been in the league for 15, 16 years, whatever it is, like that's kind of on them. How does the NBA treat that? Like now that you're a veteran, the Spurs obviously had the last two rookie of the years. Like do you feel like you have to be a mentor or is it on them to kind of follow you and watch kind of what you do?

I think it's a combination of both, but you got to be who you are. And I've genuinely always just, I'm not a hoarder of information. So I'm going to share what I know, what I see to all the guys that's been my teammates. But I say this all the time, guys only gonna respect what you're saying if you can hoop. And then this new generation, they don't care about what you did. They wanna know what you can do now. And so from the different teams that I've went to when I went to San Antonio this past summer, the first time I went to go hoop with the guys that I've went to when I went to San Antonio this past summer

The first time I went to go hoop with the guys. I don't know why I remember this I think it was because it was around my daughter's birthday. It was August 12th through the 16th It was a mini camp. Yeah, and I I treated that like almost like the finals because your first impression is everything, right? So I made sure that when I came to the gym that I was in tip top shape and when we hoop, I was going to get to it because once they see that now they'll they'll listen to you and the mentorship kind of happens. Okay, so let's talk about Usain being in tip top shape and showing up like that was the finals. Luca just came out on the Mind the Game podcast and said that when he got to LA

I seen this guy do something never seen before. He said he was there 10 hours before the game. He said I was getting there and he was already finished with his workout. Feels like I've heard that story a couple different times and is your generation like kind of the last generation that was those types of dudes? Do younger generation guys pick it up from you guys? Like how do you think that kind of works? And you obviously know LeBron very well. Has he always been that way and what is your shit? I assume you're a very diligent worker as well. You didn't put up any shots today. I actually put up some shots today. I think my jumper got better

today. Sure. Chris? Yeah. I don't know. Actually, when you get older, you actually like work out more. Right? So takes longer. Yeah. I mean, we have shoot around at 10 o'clock this past season, seven, seven 30 a.m. every single day, myself and Harrison Barnes is at the gym every single day. Right. It's just it's part of your routine.

Right. Do you drink your own urine? I don't know. That's what he did. No, no, no. That's what he did. That's what he did. To get better. Who told you that? He just did this with Johnny Damon. It's a whole thing. I've heard of that before. Bingo, yeah, right here. He's his own. Oh no, no judgment if you do. No, no, respect. My pee is so hot. I'm not drinking. Put it in the fridge.

My pee is so hot. I'm not drinking. Why not? You put it in the fridge. I would never. I've never sat down. So what do you do? You do acupuncture and all that? Do you have like a full? Yeah, I do. Sauna, cold tub, massage, diet,

all this different type of stuff, man. But the biggest thing I try to tell you, you gotta keep moving. More than anything, keep moving right anything keep moving yeah that's why you saw what you saw yesterday I don't move a lot I move I will you work out forever you think you think you'll be a guy that wakes up every morning works out forever yes you won't get like super lazy when you retire no I'm there's a level of vanity that goes to it too I'm outside a little

bit too much I go know what I mean? I go too many places. Yeah, too good of a smile. And you know what? You former athletes, right? Former athletes. When you meet other former athletes, right? And you see them and they don't look like they did.

As soon as they walk away, what y'all say? Y'all be like, fat ass. Yeah. Connor has a question. Chris, another thing I feel as though came up last year a little bit was kind of the changing of how the NBA is getting more physical and how awesome it is. Now this year, the conversation throughout the playoffs,

especially with Brunson and SGA, has been kind of the free throw artist type of it. You've been all NBA defense nine times. When you're playing someone who, you know, kind of flops, if you will, when you get a little physical with them, how do you kind of get over that? Because we saw Jada McDaniels at one point say like, all right, screw it. I'm just going to push him as hard as I can to the ground. I know SGA is your guy and you guys have, you know, a great relationship, but that style of basketball as an old school player,

does that bother you at all when you see it happening just because of how different it is and how the old school guys look at the free throw artist as like, yeah, see, this is why they wouldn't be able to play in the 90s and all that. The game has changed, right? And fortunately, I've played long enough to be able to see it change.

Somebody was showing up, I saw a playoff game on Instagram the other day from back when I first came in the league and the final scores were in the 70s and 80s. Yeah, like the game changes, right? And so guys are stronger, maybe faster or whatnot, learn new moves and all this stuff. So I think you just got to study and know what they like to do. Like I play against Shay too. And I know that he's going to try to hit me with that forearm or whatnot. Right. But the same thing with Nimhart. Y'all ever seen him when he drive and he hit guys with that shoulder?

There's a physicality of the game, but there's an awareness that you you got a guard and you got to be ready for that. Right. So it's tough. And this is why this is the best players in the world night in and night out trying to figure out how to curate points. You got to change the game. We can't let the game change you. Ain't that right Chris? Look at you. Bars. I didn't make it up. That's been said before. Shrek. Definitely. We actually have a graphic for you to see Chris just so you could see what it could potentially look like next year. Wow! Another potential signing with Messi.

Yeah. Lou Messi. Lou Messi. Not Lionel, Lou. And we're trying to get him to play for the United States of America too because he's lived in Miami for a while now. We think that should be fair. But Lou Messi potential signing. There's a chance he gets a billion offer from Saudi, I guess. Have you TSC I heard about that no there's been a lot of conversation a lot of soccer chatter you know I've been around yeah sure oh yeah him in and Lou Messi's Lionel Messi's contract is coming up

I don't know what that was all about yeah I think they're late entry row rumble. Oh no, someone said there's been a player laying down. Oh no, say word FC team for the last few minutes. Oh shit. I'd say like 10 minutes. I think there has been a group of people standing over there did not know that there was a player down in that group. But there has been a player down seemingly got injured as a coach during warmups.

Seems to be sitting up. Passed out. Passed out. Coach rigging word that coach passed out on the field there during warmups for say word FC. Yeah, definitely. It has been a he didn't move. We did see a move though. Right? See, if we had to he's up right now. Yeah, he's sitting up. All right. So we have there was a

while though he was just down. Yeah. Like while you were giving a great answer. It was a great answer. I didn't listen to any of it. But the tone you're speaking seemed to be a good answer. I was looking this way. You are sick. I saw him move, Chris. I saw him move. Oh, he's a mooner. Very good.

There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. That's scary stuff. You never know. You literally never know what it could be. Happy he's OK.

So you could potentially be on Concafe next year. Good luck to you in all your decision making that you have to do. And I appreciate y'all. And you would like to make a prediction for the finals. We appreciate you doing that. Who? Who you predicted? Me Pacers in 6. You think so? Pacers in 6. Okay. AJ? AJ? Pacers in 6. Connor? Thundered 5. Disgusting. Ty? Pacers with seven.

Love that. Tom? Sam. Chris? Do y'all contractually have to say that? I said, what are you talking about? I said thunder. No, he said Pacers.

I don't know, do we want our food to get spit in as we go out to eat? I said thunder and five. He said thunder and five. Quick series, he said actually. Your prediction, Chris, follow me. It's gonna be a good series. Seven games. You you think that's what you just said good series gonna be a good series six games he says okay right series would be seven yeah got it smart anything else who has more talent you know it's funny honestly and I tell

you this it's cool for guys to get a predictions and all that stuff like that I always say that I play. Like I'm, I still play. Isn't it so stupid, the prediction thing? How are you supposed to know? No, it ain't even that. It's just that the way that I'm like built and orchestrated it's hard for me to fool with you after I seen you say

that you think somebody else is gonna win. That's, that's, that's me. Yeah, cause you have no idea what's gonna happen. First of all, we don't. When we make predictions, people care so much. If you were to give a prediction right there, That's me. That's me. You have no idea what's gonna happen, first of all. We don't. When we make predictions, people care so much. If you were to give a prediction right there, Chris Ball hates to pace you.

Oh yeah. It would have been immediately. Last thing here, before we let you go, and we appreciate your time. Adam Silver talked about a Team USA versus Team World concept that they're gonna do for the All-Star game. I believe he was on Fox on... Yeah, I believe he was on Breakfast Ball.

Breakfast Ball, Morning Ball. He said on there that this is something they've been thinking about obviously a lot of players are interested in this do you think this will heighten the all-star game because Pro Bowl has a problem too we went to flag football the NHL figured out with four nations I think Adam Silver's seeing that and saying hey there's a chance we can maybe capitalize on this do you think guys will care if team world was to beat the team? Usa's ass do you think that'll matter? I got a lot of thoughts and stuff on the all-star game stuff

You know that was news to me when I seen that to what are your thoughts on the outside? Um, I Mean it needs some shaping and some fix and hopefully this does it what they tried last year wasn't it? I'd say That was on the same weekend as four nations to with hockey you know a few years ago when it was a you know a few years ago when it was in Chicago I don't know if that was 2020 2021 what not we took the model from the TBT and that was the first all-star game with the target school yeah that was the first time we did all-star game with

that targets I believe in basketball it's called Elam Elam ending He's a man. I believe is the name. It's great. There's always a walk-off exactly So we did it in the all-star game the Chicago all-star game should that do that for USA World? Should have target score time The worry I know is just like any time it's an all-star game Like Luca and Yoke each make a point to just basically dick around. Will guys actually try still?

I mean, it's not just them two. First and foremost, you just got to make sure that the guys really want to compete or whatnot. You got to have them play for something. Being at the union for years, well, we took the money up. We took the money up to a certain number, right? So now the number might have to go up again. Yeah, it does.

Get in there and negotiate it. That's, no, no, no, no. That's for you to do. No, no, no. Four Nations was just a trophy and guys were out for the entire season. Pride. Like Matthew Kachuck and Charlie McEvoy

both got hurt for the entire, the last thing they did in the regular season for hockey was play for their country. And then they did in the regular season for hockey was play For their country and then they were out until the playoff. They cared Chris That's why people are like hey they're compared to four nations baseball doesn't do what's his name anymore though, do they like the winning team? World series yeah, they got rid of that alright Chris. We'll assume you'll figure it out We appreciate you doing that Good luck in your free agency journey. Good luck in your basketball journey. Good luck in your family journey. And good luck next year when you're playing for Cone Caffer. Yeah. Okay we need a goal out of you. Okay if there's a wide open shot we need you to

put that in. I gotta I gotta ask Mugger them is that in the bylaws if I can if I can play on the team. Bylaws look good to meet you. Yeah, you do. That's bullshit. That's a lie. That feels like bullshit. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, he'll be on Concave for next year. Unless he plays again. I mean, if he can cut it, let's be real. There's a lot of good talent on Concave.

Yeah, there is. There was actually some talent from last year's team that acknowledged that there was a lot better talent this year. And so you know what? You can have my minutes. There's a lot better team here for Conquista. That's a good team. Maybe Chris Paul will be joining us.

Our team would be great. A guaranteed dub. If this next person that's joining us would join our team. He was a pro soccer player, obviously, for 141 caps. Wow. For the United States of America. He's a 2016 MLS Cup champ with the Sounders, which they talk about. Yeah.

A lot of people say that's one of the best professional sports scenes of all time He's tied with Landon Donovan for the most international goals at 57 We need a ladies and gentlemen a man who is launching a brand new podcast with the men and Blazers media network called the deuce ladies and gentlemen Concafe. Concava. Have some respect. Clint Jesus. We appreciate you joining us man and obviously we hope you'll get down here to TST in the future. It is a beautiful celebration of the sport that you were so damn great at for so long. Let's talk about you moving into the media world a little bit more here with the deuce with the Men in Blazers media

network. When do we expect it it what's it gonna be and congratulations this is awesome news for everybody appreciate it man starting on the seventh you know I'm happy to be joining men and Blazers in the platform they've created and Raj the energy he brings to the game and yeah covering the US as they have these friendlies go into the gold cup it kind of a stressful time as we build towards the world cup with the performance we've had in the past. But yeah, I mean it's a platform where you can just kind of keep it real and shoot people straight and hopefully people tune in and watch it.

You're one of the greatest United States soccer players of all time. You'll be in a Mount Rushmore conversation as Chris Paul just hucked some chips across the stage. Sorry about that. Shout out to Chris Paul. Good pass though. Still got it. Still got it. Still got it. That was a good pass there. You're one of the greatest United States soccer players of all time. I grew up dreaming of being on the United States soccer team. You've won the gold cup three times. You've had a lot of success. Our U.S. soccer team, our men's team has not had a lot of success. That's.S. soccer team, our men's team has not had a lot of success. This was supposed to be the generation in the era that was going to be great too. What are your thoughts on the state of U.S. soccer? And can we win this damn thing? We

would like to win it all. We would like us to win it all. Is that ever possible or how long do you think? I mean, I think it's possible, but hey, you got to look at the scenario we're in. I mean, we're last Cope America. I think we're the first host country to never get out of the group so that was a failure and then you have CONCACAF Nations League semifinals where we lost to Panama and then we also lost to Canada in the third fourth place game and then for me this kind of makes Gold Cup important again. I mean back when I was playing there was a few gold cups where if you want it you got to go to Confederations Cup but for

me this is such a huge tournament. It's because to get this fan base back on board and get people believing again in this US team and what they can do. Because you're never going to have moments like this or opportunities like this to play in a World Cup in your own country. You saw what happened with 94, how

it brought about the professional league of MLS. So it's a big opportunity. If we don't take advantage of it, man, it would be one of the biggest failures of all time. Why would it be? Would it be because of the players? Would it be because of the system? Would it be because of the selection process?

Like, what do you think is the thing that has held us back? Man, that's a great question. I think there's a few things. I think since COVID, you have a situation where you have the same teams just playing each other too often. You have Concord Caff Nations League, you got Gold Cup, you got World Cup qualifying, and you're just playing the same teams over and over. I think it'd be better if you kind of mixed it up where you had Gold Cup, then it was

Nations League, it was the next year, then another year would be like Copa America, and then it makes it a little bit more prestigious not to have it back to back to back all the time. But and also to give you opportunities to play against other countries and in their countries. I think that only helps you to get better and get people more excited about playing in those type of games. I think by playing, you know, each of, you know, the same teams over and over and over, it kind of loses the hype. And maybe it makes people not to want to get called in or come in. But for me, it was always represent my country. I always dreamed about playing for my country, playing in World Cup as a kid.

That's what I pray to God at night for. So like, anytime there was a tournament, if I could walk, man, you know, I was going to be there. Yeah, you're a dog. I feel like we need more of yous nowadays. Hopefully we'll be able to get that under Coach Ponce, I assume one of the boys is gonna ask about. You talk about you know too many of similar opponents and maybe people losing interest. I think there's a lot of interest in the MLS right now, maybe more so than ever. I remember when Beckham was brought in, given a percentage of the league and a future team and I forget how many millions he was making like every two days. It was a massive ordeal.

It was supposed to swing the MLS into superstardom. Kind of happened. Obviously Beckham sold places out, but with Messi coming over, every stadium was sold out. The Apple deal obviously was a big one for the league. Who knows what the future looks like in either of those. You're a former MLS Cup champ. Do you like where the MLS is? You've obviously played around the world. Is it good enough? Should we talk shit for the MLS is, you've obviously played around the world. Is it good enough? Should we talk shit for the MLS more for being a good league? Or what are your thoughts on the home domestic league here? I would say yes and no. I would say yes, it's bigger than it's ever been. Players are making more money than they've made in the past.

It's something that's being covered more often. You talk about Messi and what he's able to do in terms of bringing mainstream America to watching soccer here. Because in the past, it seemed like it was every four years when a World Cup happens that soccer would kind of move the needle. And where Messi coming to enter Miami, he is the needle.

He moves that every season that he's around and the popularity that gets to it. The only thing that maybe I worry about a little bit is like the young American that's developing and whether or not we're finding these creative players that are able to take risks, take people on and be into the attack or is it going to more South American type players. Back in the days, you seemed like there was more young guys that were attacking players that were American that were making the all-star and I'm just not really seeing that much lately you think we've lost our pizzazz

used to take dudes on yeah we want to be the gondigal yeah I like to feel more of it man I like to see people being creative and taking people on if you don't have someone to pass to like try to create something make something happen I think too many times people play safe. They play back They play sideways just to keep the ball and there's just certain time You need to pull the trigger you need to get the bar to pat back if you get that cross in the Gretel We need to have one here, yeah Why not have one find the boots find. Find the boots. Rip one.

A lot of the boys are getting baptized in soccer here. Getting baptized in soccer here. There's a 14 year old from Philadelphia. Kevin Sullivan. Kevin Sullivan. Have you heard about this dude? Have you talked to this guy? They're already shipping him out of the country. It's like what are we doing? Why don't we let this guy play? Why don't we... Isn't that like the type of player that we should be, you know, trying to make a great like it? I don't know. How do you feel about the treatment of something? I mean, I think wherever you're going to play is the most important thing. Wherever you're going to go and get the best compulsion and get the best opportunity to get games. If you're not getting in games, then then what's the point for sitting on the bench? So I think there's a way that you just got to make the right decisions on the teams you go to. Are they playing the style of play that you like to play? Are they allowing you to express yourself?

Are they trying to change your game? I mean, it's all it's kind of like picking a college. You know what I mean? You got to figure out what what's going to be the right fit for you. And hopefully he makes the right decision. But I think there's a balance. You can have players that are going to Europe being young and competing at the best clubs but at the same time there's some people that got to go the MLS route first and I was one of those guys I

paved my way in MLS broke into the national team and then through doing well in World Cups they got me to go to Europe and play in the Premier League one of the first ever out of the United States of America obviously Tim Howard had quite a run in the Premier League you You as well, Clint Dempsey. Us young lads looked up to you. Tone has a question for you. Yeah, Clint, that's kind of what my question was around. It feels like the lore, the prestige of the Premier League

and playing over in Europe is like the young US stars are going over there and just sitting on the bench. Feels like Christian at this point is really the only one who's going over there and getting meaningful minutes. Like, do you think the US team would. team would fare better if the U.S. talent stayed home more and just got more playing time and kind of were more of a cohesive unit? I think it's a mix, right? You need people that are staying home, getting those regular minutes for their club.

But you got Anthony Robinson, Tyler Adams and Christian and Wes McKinney are doing well in Europe. But it's also picking, picking the right teams, picking the right leagues. I like what Holland has there in terms of playing for like the IACs or PSV. It's a place that you can kind of go there and develop or if you're able to go to Portugal and play with like FC Porto or Ben Fica. Teams like this that have a history of producing young talented players. I mean, getting the opportunity like in Dortmund as well in the Bundesliga where you've seen Christian kind of come through.

It looked real bright, but you know, picked up some injuries. But I think you got to have a mix. I'm eating chips right now. So I apologize for being disrespectful. But Clint, we need you down here at TST. Will you play for our team next year? Hey, you never know, man. Hey, have Mike Grella hit me up.

Do you still got it? You play it all? I play a little bit with my kids, but I mean, I could go out there and maybe do a little something, be a superstar. You never know. Welcome to the team, Clint. Yeah. Welcome to the team.

Probably shouldn't have Grella hit him up, because he's going to take his spot. Cock the caper. Let's go. Yeah, there it is. OK, you nailed it. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the greatest of all time the host of the deuce from the men and Blazers media network in next year a member of

Thank you Clint rapper as well, well. Yeah. Chess player. Very talented. He was a dog on the field. Yes he was. He was and he was he wanted to try people. He made it cool. He made it fun to watch Team USA. Yeah then his raps weren't like corny. No. Like oh no Clint Dempsey has come out with a song. I was very scared as a massive Clint Dempsey fan. I was like don't we don't need to be doing that. Then he listened to it's like oh Clint Dempsey's got bars actually. Names right in the song, don't tread on this guy. It was great for the soccer world.

I'm happy he's getting back into the media world. Him talking about it, just like Wayne talking about it, is good for the sport. With the World Cup coming around, the concave-a-pod, Clint Dempsey with the dudes, feels like soccer's kinda back in it, AJ. The US has to do well at this World Cup. I mean, like Clint said, every four years the World Cup comes up and it does kind of soccer does move the needle.

These people become household names. Do we have those guys right now with it? Polisic? He's not even playing in the Gold Cup. The US has never. Are we counting on who are our marquee dudes for the US that we're focusing on? Our marquee dudes we're focusing on is Kevon Sullivan. Look, we talked to some former Team USA members yesterday and

I'll tell you what, I'm punting on the World Cup next year. Word on the street is these boys are already tired. We were pretty worried about their mentality going into it and sure they got all the skill in the world. But and I'm not gonna quote verbatim what they said, but look you got a guy who's coaching the team who doesn't really want to be there. You got players. He wants to be there. You got players that aren't the best in the country that don't want to play on the team. What?

We're calling the guy Captain America. Has Christian Polisic ever even been a freaking captain of a team? I don't know because I don't know shit about soccer. But what I do know is the vibes aren't high on this year's team. I just agree. We're finding our team. It's a little late in the game to be finding our team. The World Cup's right around the corner. Thank you.

Have you been doing your part? No? No. What's on our hats? USA baseball. The flag. You guys haven't done your part at all. Tell you what, I think Ponce does care. What do you mean? Boots! Find the boots!

Ponce does care, but if he doesn't, I saw a coach down in a lobby hotel this morning watching tape and trying to get better. That's a real coach. You're talking about Coach Miolo and Coach Tab Ramos? Yeah, Tab Ramos, wow. So Tab Ramos, just real quick, I think he was the first ever draft pick of the MLS.

He's a top two United States soccer player of all time. He's been coached in multiple places, him and Tony Meola best friends. And he's our assistant coach for concave coach in the World Cup for Team USA when he when they went on that run and beat Algerian is so him coming in doing concave. So I think I'm like 10 different times. So cool. Thank you for doing this like legitimate and also invested. And we learned our players. They're watching film.

They're trying to figure out seven on seven. It's a big opportunity. I think it's good for the sport here. Yeah. Here's Tony Miolo and Tab Ramos watching film this morning in the lobby of the hotel. Obviously, they had a meeting bright-eyed, bushy-tailed. Let's go ahead. 7 a.m. Tab, you and me, we'll watch film with the team.

Who's our guys? Who's not our guys? You think they watched my minute and a half last night? Yeah, I saw some. We were reading breakfast half last night yeah I was when they were just enjoying it going what son of a but I sat with them for a second they were watching the Bournemouth film I don't think they'd made it to last night's game yet did not love the way we started in the Bournemouth zero zero KG affair very dominant we gotta start taking more guys on with that being said it's been raining for like the last hour there's just people posted up out here. We appreciate you guys.

It's beautiful down here in Cary, North Carolina. Let's go back to the truck. Bubba Gumpino is back there. Gumpy is one of the assistant coaches for Concafe SE. Gumpy, how do you feel about the tournament and how the team's doing? The squad is unbelievable this year. We are just on a different level from start to finish. Last night, I mean, Chad Porch, everybody's getting involved. Everybody's getting touched. It's been an absolute joy to watch these boys.

Yeah, it is good. I don't like that our assistant coach is gasping the boys up as much. Tony Miolo will come in and bury him. Yeah. I heard he was pissed at the start of the game last night. He was not happy about our warmups yesterday. So we had five balls for warmups.

Four of them got blasted into the woods. So we had one ball for warmups for our entire team. So there's a lot of standing around, dicking around. Yeah. I also did not love what I was watching from the team in warmups. That's when you went and got ready. Like, oh, I guess they're going to need me because these

guys need my boots. I'm going to put my boots on. Tony Miola says, I don't like anything that I just saw here's a starting lineup figure it out walks off love that he had like his moment and the boys did figure out yeah they answered the call five nothing three nothing lead at halftime five nothing total and I me and Foss blew two goals yeah I think should have been seven I don't know about you and Foss but I do know what you're saying a A lot of meat left on the bone.

Oh shit. Reggae Rovers just had a highlight real goal. Oh, they're back. The Reggae Rovers are now up three nothing. This was filthy. I don't know if we have the, here it is, replay, watch it. Ah, gets the pass outside. One on one with the the goalie what are

you gonna do with it? That's a reggae rovers. You want to talk about teams who just know how to put boot on ball? A reggae rovers. We'll be off tomorrow. This is our last show of the week. We'll be back Monday live with a full overreaction of everything. Oh, yeah, including tonight's mba finals starting with the pacers traveling to oklahoma city It's nine and a half point dogs last night

Oilers panthers dropped puck for the nhl finals Let's do a full game highlight of that because people need to understand that last night's game was electrifying from beginning all the way to the end. Let's go one minute into the game. Kaepernick gets it the dry side. Goal! One zip at home. Edmontons upside down. Will they be able to hold on to that lead for a long time? Will they be able to ride the momentum of all of Edmonton? ten minutes later Florida Panthers Sam Bennett puts one home Carter Verhege in Kichuck with the assist one one game all of a sudden we have a tie puck all of a sudden what happens later in the first two minutes later Florida Panthers go on a run another goal to one Brad Marshon within a filthy pass from Nate Schmidt.

Top drawer 2-1 Florida Panthers. Now what will happen? Will Edmonton answer? Uh-uh. Bennett puts the Panthers up 3-1 with his second goal. Another filthy saucer pass. He goes mid net. 3-1. Is this over? the Florida Panthers gonna go in a run clap bomb from all of it sing listen this seems like one that Bob should have stopped but this thing was going 175 miles an hour yeah bit of a screen yeah clap bomb in there Arvindson goal then let's go to echo mu ties it up 3-3 right after Wayne Gretzky says Connor needs to go behind the net and find somebody who does this that it goes to overtime think it's gonna maybe go to

double overtime because how long the damn game was dry sidle snapshot from Connor McDavid who has two assists on the night Edmonton takes the lead they are up 1-0 in a probable seven game Stanley Cup final series all right right, we have our game at 5 30 here today. Then I am off to a place that I've been invited to go to that I don't think you're even allowed to say no to, but I'm certainly honored to get to. I'll be posting about it on my social medias at Pat McAfee Show from all the boys here,

from everybody in the back, from the crowd that's been hanging out in the rain, from everybody here in Cary, North Carolina. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. Have the greatest weekend of all time. We will see you Monday. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change their life.

Goodbye from Cary. with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? You can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get chicken parmesan delivered. Sunshine? No. Some wine? Yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. See app for details. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that actually they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer so download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes plus enjoy zero dollar delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over

deliver. groceries that over deliver. All right, that was good. All right, we're all done. Well done. Thank you, thank you, thank you. What's up, man? What's that? Shout out Reggae Rovers.

Who? Oh, I can't hear you in the back. What'd you say? I don't know. You gotta take the ear out. Shout out to the Reggae Rovers. Shout out Reggae Rovers. Hey hey, thank you man. Good game Okay, was he not listening he just walks out of field I love that guys moxie love his right

first half three nothing reggae Rovers over Say word FC over FC last game. I think oh maybe say word Looks like a good team. These are last game. can you go two and one and still not advance no no so you went two out of three you're going I think so yeah you're moving on but you could go one and two if you do is by a little bit I think they take top three they take top three from a couple of the groups like we're in group F they called it the group of death and turns out that the only death that was happening was from from a couple of the groups. Like we're in group F, they call it the... Group of Death.

Turns out that the only death that was happening was from us to other groups. Group of Fun. But Wrexham also 2-0. So I think like, it depends on what your record is, they'll take top three from groups. How many in a group? Four. But not every group gets all the top three.

So if you're a one seed though, you get shitty third place team from other groups. So if you're a one seed though, you get shitty third place team from other group. So really wanna win your group. So like tonight against Wrexham is a very important game because in knockout round, you would like to play a team that is not as good as somebody else. Because once you get to elimination rounds, it's target score time the entire game.

You're in trouble. It's not actually, but it feels that way. I gotcha. See that'll be Saturday starts... Friday. Friday. Tomorrow. Friday starts sudden death. Yes.

Got it. One game per day. Friday knockout run. Saturday knockout run. Sunday knockout run. Championship on Monday. Oh wow. So you could potentially be in Cary, North Carolina for three weeks. Coach Gump's got a flight Tuesday morning.

6, 10 a.m. Tuesday morning. He's planning on pulling an all-nighter if the boys win, as he should. Not 100% sure I'll be able to be here, especially with the invite that I received like last week, hearing that we're gonna be down in this part of the country. Also, Money in the Bank on Saturday in Los Angeles, who's gonna be electrical? Hell yeah, we got some WWE fans around here. Four letters, one word, ah, ah.

Yeeters. Okay, there's a lot of yeeters here. I respect that standing in the ring. Money in the Bank is on Saturday. Then Monday Night Raw is in Phoenix on Monday. Oh, okay. So there's a lot of things happening in my particular life before the championship, but the Concaval boys are locked in.

They understand that they can win at all ages. They know. I saw the Indianapolis Outlaw early this morning in the lobby. Sawner. Yeah I saw him too. Killing it. He's got an infant. Grell is playing golf. He's going to hit some balls. He's a great golfer and whatever cools the mind, whatever frees your spirit to play your best ball especially at 530 against Wrexham with McElhaney and Reynolds boys. Yeah. We gotta play well we're gonna show up tonight we saw you know cap the old firm that was eating breakfast with black boots and water bugs so obviously

everyone is black boots is Mario Alvarez arena league boy water bug is Pacheco arena league guy also told Tony and coach Ramos. Hey first two games are fun I think we figured out the 11 we need right going forward rather than seven on seven, of course But we can knock some guys out, you know Rotation now well, it's like tonight. I think we need to make sure that Desmond is healthy. Yeah He had a little hammy yesterday said it was a crank had a little general soreness that's always scary He'll play he'll play he doesn't even playy yesterday. He said it was a cramp, had a little general soreness. That's always scary. He'll play. He doesn't even play that much though. He's unbelievable. So yeah. Porch, unbelievable. Yes. Meat, still unbelievable. Rugs. Ruggles, awesome. Yeah.

He was gonna fight a guy. Yeah, he was talking a lot of junk. Justin Mirum. Here's Ruggles. Give me that. Absolute firecracker. Absolute. And then he does the nice little heel toe... I forget what this was. Remember this had a run. This dance had a run. Victor Cruz too. Mirum is the provider of happiness. I don't think that's a salsa. I believe that's a... What's that? Is Mirum the provider of happiness? Mirum is a dog. I got a chance to hang out with him for a couple hours last night. He is hilarious. He also started a war about 15 seconds after Brexey got fouled by somebody and then the guy stood over Brexey. Miram felt obligated to toe poke a ball into the guy's balls. It was like 15, 20 seconds late. It was right in front of me. I watched it all happen. Great

shot too. And then that started a fight. Brexey obviously goes in there. That's what our con quaffa boys are about. Yeah are about absolutely when you want to talk about fit the culture too Justin Miram has really fit the concave a culture really has more than maybe anybody in the history of concave to a tee yeah he's in there H and in another team what's that team culture yeah team high culture yeah that is our thing he was outed by a couple people, I think a few different times for what his profession is off the pitch,

but it's legal and he's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Let's get out of here. Let's let these people get out of the rain. Let's prepare for an incredible weekend. Where I'm headed, I don't know how many people get invited to go do. I don't think-

Not many. I don't think Dan or anybody gets invited. I don't think it's really get invited to go do. I don't think. Not many. I don't think anybody gets invited. I don't think it's really a thing. It's pretty insane to think about. This morning, I woke up thinking this is the first time where I'm like, OK, tonight I'm headed to this place. This is tomorrow. That I don't think a lot of people really get to go to.

And I was like, what should my mindset be? Go to Inter Open Minded. Pumped to follow. Like, pumped to see what your person. Did you bring a special fit for it? No. So every time I ask what I'm supposed to wear, because I don't want to be an asshole,

they said, just wear whatever you wear. I'm like, do you know what I wear? I'm like, I don't think you know what I wear. They're going to give you something to wear. That's what that means. They'll definitely give you some stuff. You think so? They definitely will.

But I don't know if it'll be at the beginning or the end. All I got to say is, hurrah, my friend. Bingo. And it is an honor. AJ, thank you for traveling down here. Final thoughts on Kerry, North Carolina, and TST? Well, I mean, it's clear that you guys have the top squad. The concave of boys.

How do you ever score on these guys? Honestly, I told you this morning, with Zat back here and all the boys, you can't even have a shot at them. You guys have pitched two shutouts already. Nah, we gave up a goal in the first game. Yeah, it's all right. That didn't even matter. Doesn't matter.

Actually, it was it was an extra time that shouldn't have been extra time. So it was in the 40 second minute. Yeah. What are we playing? 50 minutes? Absolute shite. Yeah, we are the biggest team out here by far. No questions asked.

It's part of our culture. You know, you got to get in where you fit in. What you fit in here is you got to be big. We got some small guys. Pacheco, a little smaller. He'll get rolling. He fights, huh? Yeah, we got a lot of elbow. Gordo.

Gordo will fight his bro. Gordo laid someone out yesterday. Yeah, Gordo cross body check. There's so much, like, you guys knock so many people down, it doesn't always get called. So I don't really know what you're allowed to do. You're allowed shoulder. You're allowed socket. I did see the ref do this, shoulder.

So I can just shoulder to shoulder. I can run as fast as I can and blast you with my shoulder. As long as you're near do this shoulder so I can just order as fast as I can and blast You with my shoulder long as you're near the ball, but I can't what I just can't extend my forearm. Yeah, that's push You gotta go shoulder just like basketball. Okay, this is great If you're running next somebody balls there you can shoulder Okay, if you go to leverage and lift probably a penalty keep my little chicken wing tucked in. Oh, okay. I love it now There's a chance they will flop and they will call it. Okay, so it's similar to lacrosse. Like if I blast somebody in lacrosse,

it'll be sixth grade that I watch. If the kid falls, it's gonna be a penalty. If he doesn't fall, I'm good. Yeah, kind of. But these refs will pass up on some dives, they will. And then people will get pissed because they won't pass up on other ones. We've seen a few unbelievable dives.

All we're looking for is consistency. That's all we're looking for here. It Yeah, that's all we're looking for here It sounds like Johnny Damon thinks the refs really screwed them. It is coming That was a one score loss it is poor we had to look at it All right boys your thoughts on soccer toxic table. Yeah, I mean I said it the first day we were here It shocked me kind of took me back a little bit that red boots didn't have his red boots on and then I saw the way Mario Alvarez was playing out here with the black boots you know hey listen I wish we could stick around through Monday that's just not feasible not something I'm gonna be

able to do but I'll be locked in and making sure that the boys bring the title home I know they will I know coach has been the ESPN yeah on the ESPN I know coach has been up late late night drawing up set pieces drawing up different plays you know making sure that our rotation is is locked and loaded so I I mean it's joy every time we come down here and it does seem like this thing has gotten much bigger than it even was last year like this is a this is a great tournament yeah exponentially better that's it that's my big takeaway from do you think it's just strictly where we're staying this year

I think also the set being built massive part of it Thinking about what breaking down the set right after this what that would entail a massive part of it But I think as a whole you can kind of tell the logistics of the entire thing and the amount of you know craze and buzz around it. Last year I heard that you know a couple people from the area were going to come check it out. Turns out when they did check it out on the Friday, Saturday night a lot of people they're expecting to come back tomorrow with all their friends, a lot of people. So it's not just like us who are kind of a part of it.

It feels as though the town, rally, carry have kind of taken it on as their own as well except for the one restaurant but it feels like they have kind of taken it on as their own we got a call from that restaurant yes you did but thank you for the call what's done is done no thank you for the horrendous experience bingo but it's fantastic I'm also glad that we understood what the game is. Coming into it last year, we had no idea. I mean, shit, the team was kind of compiled with a bunch of big field players.

Now we kind of understand what the game is. We're not learning the rules. It's a wonderful tournament. Not exaggerating here. This week has been a thousand times better than last week. I just have to- Last year. Last year, excuse me.

Just have to hammer that home as well. And the guests, you know? We had Wayne Gretzky on today. Wayne Gretzky, John Damon. Chris Paul. Every team has gotten better, I think too. Yeah. It's also nice not seeing JJ Watt.

But- I missed JJ this year, I think- this year I think last week I think that's why yeah you're right telling your thoughts on this it's your first time right yeah but yes didn't come last year in case lightning struck I was back in the Thunderdome you're gonna host that show yourself yep didn't want to do that it's kind of nostalgic like you I grew up playing 150 soccer games a year going to soccer Shout out beeling by the way, I don't know if you brought that or someone gave that to you boss got it for you

But just like how well run there's what is there? There's 20 fields here at least and it's there's a thousand games a day How well run it is and how how much everyone cares and like everyone's got sponsors stuff like that. It's a really cool event Very very excited to come back every year. Close there. Well, you got the wet pitch. Does it remind you of being young? Yeah, so I watched it two years ago when Ruggles in Newtown won it. I was watching the finals.

Ruggles actually has a little boy gets tossed up in the sky in the middle of this rainstorm. I appreciate that happening in the background there. I watched as Ruggles won a million dollars and I saw like a bunch of names that I grew up playing soccer with over there. Little boys getting tossed in the back out. I think you just do the background shot of tone in him. And he's down. He's a heavier child. Looks to be a little bit older than a normal. heavier child looks to be a little bit older than normal than a normal I don't know if that guy's lats are dying off or whatever and he's back up and he's back up the boys back up the boys back up that kid what's up brother that's okay

kid rock you think it rocks like no we met we met a guy last year or a kid who good for that lad good for the the guy that lifted him up his that great energy over there too by the way I think he was that big night out that's only way you can have that hoodie appreciate you coming through all of you thank you for representing would like to make an early announcement after this show ends we will take a couple photos couple cannot be standing out here for four hours. Okay so let's have an organized let's have a good idea of what's gonna happen here let's take some photos to have a good time let's make sure we're not did

you see what happened yesterday yeah oh yeah brother I it was you got screwed it was awesome I mean everybody yeah but people had no idea who I was just saw people coming there was just Just saw people coming. There was just 1,000 people. I don't know who you are, is what they were saying in my face. That's always the best. But will you sign this? It's like, sure.

Got nowhere to be. Got it. So with that being said, need to meet this group over here. Need to meet this group over here. Need to meet this group up here. The lads up on the hill, I appreciate you so much. If we could set up a... If we could set up almost like a buffet line.

If we could set up like a... Up, up, up, up, up, up, up. Like undercover. If we could figure out how to set this up. It's still on the stairs. It is. One walk up the stairs. Up the, up the, up the steps.

Bingo. And then I head left. And then we go, yeah. Okay. I don't know, it looks like lightning's coming in. Can't, this isn't safe. Oh no. It's not safe. For the safety of in. This isn't safe. Oh, no. It's not safe.

For the safety of everybody. It's not safe. Let's go mountaineers. Guy's got a West Virginia flag up there. I appreciate the hell out of him. He wanted me to start a war this morning. He wanted me to say a lot of things on camera and jump on things on camera.

I appreciate where his head is at. To the TST people, I'd like to say thank you for the hospitality, TST people. It's not lying. That's lightning, man. Oh yeah. To everybody in the truck, great work back there, boys. Thank you, boys.

To the entire ESPN production crew that set all this up, we can't thank you enough for showing up early in carry, making this go off without a hitch to you, figuring it out. We'll also be live at the finals, game three and game four, outside Game bridge fieldhouse in Indianapolis Indiana come join us if you can if not what a beautiful backdrop downtown they will all be setting it up so thank you to them thank

you to Scott on the jib out of Louisiana Scott out of Louisiana on the jib he's a weapon as are his jibs yeah he's literally jib man jib man it's got a couple of the jibs I need a home's literally jib man, jib man. He's got a couple of the jibs. Oh, really? They need a home, he says. Yeah. Wow. He literally just walks around with at least three of them things on him. Okay. He's got all the jibs, all the magic he could possibly need. He's from Louisiana. He does eat gator. Oh, yeah. He loves gator. Have we had gator yet? Other than those gator nuggets? No, just had the gator nuggets. Have not had any g gayness into the off. We need to go down to a Scott Gator hunt down there With with potentially governor Jeff Lange Down was that I like one of them governor Jeff Lange Gator parts more than one of them Scott Gator

What but I think Scott Scott would also say I mean look I ain't no governor I'm just a normal gay. Oh, you're a corporate. I'm not a corporate Premier I'm just a normal gator hunter. Oh, you're a corporate. I'm not a corporate gator hunter. I'm a premier gator hunter. And I think that's what GG does. Thank you. Yeah, it's pouring out there. I'm trying to figure out if we just go longer and wait for this to slow down before we go out there,

be very selfish of us to do that, or if we just go ahead and grit and bear this thing and figure out an exit. So I think what we're going to do is we're going to head up that stairs right there. We're going to head up that stairs. So I think if we could get along the... No, everybody's gonna slip on the hill. That might be something that we just have to deal with.

Yeah, hold on to the pole. Sometimes things happen. Look, what do you... No matter what, something's gonna happen. Somebody's gonna be pissed. Yeah. We're at a soccer tournament. I assume most of these people have boots on. So they do probably have boots on. We could just hop over the fence. That guy's got a what's the state Indiana Alabama Jones hat on right there. He looks like he's got it figured out. That's a good play right there. Tip of the cap to you. Thumbs up. All right let's get the hell out of here. Have a great three

day weekend. I'm gonna go experience something that I don't know how many humans get to experience to be honest with you. I will document it all. I will be on my Instagram and X throughout it. I don't know if I should though. It feels like when they gave me permission to do that, that felt wrong as well. Well read the room. They gave me permission though. Because you also just want to experience it. Yeah I want want to be in there. Yeah. You need to focus on... There is a pretty heavy non-vitamin law, I guess, where I'm headed. Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah. I think you'll understand when I get there tomorrow.

They've given me a heads up, though. Like, hey. Just keep it right outside the perimeter. That's where we're going to head. The perimeter. Dig a hole. Don't be given too many things away. Don't be given too many. Don't be given too many things away.

I could have said something else, but I didn't. What would you have said? Start rhymes with, nope. Nope. Starts with a B. All right, we're gonna get out of here. Thank you all so much for allowing us to be a part of your lives.

Have a great three day weekend. Concafe plays at 5.30. Then if they got an elimination game tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, we'll be following along. Money in the Bank is Saturday. The NBA playoff, our finals start tonight. The NHL Stanley Cup finals continue. It should be a great weekend of sports.

We're lucky as hell to do this. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Shout out to Kerry, North Carolina. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three, two, goodbye!