The Press Box - ESPN vs. NBC on the NBA, Trump’s Health, and the Splendid ‘Star Wars’ Discourse. Plus, a New Feature With Jason Concepcion.

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Today on The Press Box, Bryan and David kick things off by discussing Bryan's Memorial Day trip to the movie theater and why the ‘Star Wars’ discourse has become more interesting than the movies themselves. Then they offer a side-by-side comparison of the NBA playoff coverage on ESPN versus NBC (19:10) and analyze the recent reporting surrounding Donald Trump's health (44:52). Then they debut a brand-new segment, the Obligatory List, with some help from Jason Concepcion (49:00). Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week, and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline! Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Guest: Jason Concepcion Producer: Jon Roemer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Activia. You might already be eating yogurt, but not all yogurts are created equal. Activia contains over one billion probiotics per serving to survive and reach the gut alive. When it comes to gut health, Activia is the number one family doctor-recommended probiotic yogurt brand. Choose Activia. Feel good from the inside out. Visitactivia.ca for more details. David? Yes.

Yes. For Memorial Day, I took part in a red-blooded American tradition. I took my kids to the movies. Oh! I was thinking of something more violent. That's great. You thought I went to war. Yeah.

No, I don't know what the greatest American tradition would have been. Probably war, yeah. Anyway, go ahead. We saw The Mandalorian and Grogu. Mm-hmm. We once again went to a theater with moving seats. Oh. any movie is 20% better when the seats move.

Any movie? Yeah, the last time we tried this out was with the latest Jurassic Park sequel, which needed a 20% boost. The Mandaloid and Grogu also needed a 20% boost. Oh, I thought it was great. I liked it. Yeah. It got to the three out of four star grade for. me. Yeah. Everything everybody said was true. It did feel like a couple of episodes stapled together.

There were some horrible special effects and really bad acting. But you know what? I had a good time with the movies. Yeah, it was a good time. I went on Sunday and did not have a special theater. Well, I mean, it was an AMC that used to be an Alamo draft house style. We serve you food in your seat place and I guess they stopped so you could still they would still bring you food from the concession stand but there was no like you didn't order from your seat or anything you could get red vines brought directly to you like I went up there and I ordered like some can I was with my seven year old so he got some like candy and like a drink and he got like a water and I got a soda and it was the soda it said on the menu what's it called the freestyle like the coke freestyle

you get the big cup and you put whatever like concoction of drinks in there. So I'm just waiting for the cup and she's just like, oh no, we bring you that. And I was like, but I didn't even tell you what I wanted it. And she said, no, you said Coke. And I was like, oh, I must have said it absentmindedly. But yeah, they bring you the, like, you tell them what you want and they fill it up for you. So I was like, what if I want like a half Coke zero with vanilla? And they're like, we can do that.

I'm like, okay. And they did have moving seats, not the right kind. I sat in the seat and just fell over backwards. This AMC needed some work. But yeah, I thought it was really good. Also, my seven-year-old fell asleep about two minutes into the main feature and slept through the entire thing.

Oh, no. That's fine. So it was nap time. Yeah. Yeah. It was. On those grounds, if nothing else. Yeah, it was like 5 o'clock or something like that

when he finally passed out. And I was like, this is a really bad time to take a nap. But I'll just let him sleep. And he didn't see. disappointed at all. He was like, yeah, okay, well, maybe I get to go back or maybe you'll see when it comes out on TV, but it was a cool story for him that he just slept through a whole movie, I guess. When you're seven, you're on a different scale. If you're looking for the real moving seats versus David's broken Barka Loungeer, it's called D-Box, which is a really funny name

and sounds kind of like I'm calling you something. David, don't be such a D-Box. But that's the name of the moving seat technology? D-box. Does that code? Do they have 3D? D-Box? Well, this is the thing. I'm sure you do this. You go buy tickets on your phone. Mm-hmm.

And there's IMAX. You and I understand what IMAX is. Yes. And then there's a lot of sub-Imaxes. Oh, yeah. That all sound exactly alike. And when I first got the moving seats, I just assumed D-Box was like IMAX, but not official. Yes.

Bigger screen, better sound, movie projected on the sides of the theater, which I also accidentally bought a ticket to the other day. My son and I went and saw the original top gun. And it was on the screen, but in certain scenes, it was also on the walls of the theater on each side. And I was like, I don't know what this is, but D-Box means moving seats. You think they'd do a better job of messaging

what all those different tickets meant in an era where they're trying to get people to the theaters, right? You would think, because these feel special. Also, they're more expensive. I don't know if you had this experience when you saw the Mandalorian this weekend. But I was with my son and my daughter at the Chinese theater in the heart of Hollywood. The heart of tourist L.A. on Monday morning, there were five total people in the theater, including us.

And I know there's this whole thing about whether the Mandalorian was a bomb and how well it did. Let me tell you something. we went to the same theater and had the exact same experience for the last Avatar movie which made $1.5 billion Why does every movie feel like a bomb now?

Yeah. It used to be meaningful that you were in an empty theater you're like, oh wow, this is a big story. Now it's like, this movie could be doing fairly well, but nobody's here. Yeah. Except us?

It's really hard to tell. I can only speak just anecdotally but when I went to go see it we walked up and bought tickets like we were at the mall and my son was like hey there's a movie theater didn't we say we were gonna see a movie

and I was like yeah let's go and there was one playing in 10 minutes so we went but I had to pick the seats you know so they could deliver me my red vines and and it was like over three quarters full

right I mean it was like packed we got like you know you could either get if you wanted to sit two people you're either on the far right side where it's like the you know that's that's at an angle or second to last row in the middle. And so we picked second to last row in the middle.

That's where they had a broken seat. So when the previews came on, we just moved. I was like, yeah, maybe they won't be here. And if they are, we'll move, you know, whatever. And it's at that point I realized that, like, none of the reserved seats showed up. Like, all of the seats that were previously, like, everybody that was there, I swear, was in seats that were available

when I bought mine. And, like, I swear, like, like, 90. percent of the big blue you can't sit here swath was just empty. I'm sure fantasies explained this, but something really weird is going out. I don't know. And it's not just people not going to theaters as much as they used to. I understand the societal trend here. Yeah.

But there are movies that do well, and they're either empty or people are not in the seats that they allegedly bought. Yeah. When you looked at the seat map. Well, the, that's so weird. The box office thing, I mean, it's so hard to, like, just understand. And the prices, which you mentioned before, it's officially gotten to the point where like I just sort of laugh

every time I go buy tickets online because it's so expensive. But it has gotten, I feel like laughing is better than what our parents did. But I feel like it has officially gotten inflation and just general just money making techniques. The theaters have gotten to the point where it's the way our parent, we were reacting the way our parents reacted to movie theater prices. Our parents just didn't get it, right? They were like, they were like, $12 for two people see a movie?

You could make a movie for $12. But like now it's officially at the point where it's like if you're not, like you go in saying this is $100. Just like, you know, and we'll and I got to know that going in. Yeah, we did the swing by the gas station to buy the cheap concessions. Oh yeah. Which made me feel some amount of shame because again, it's such apparent thing to do is like the gummies are cheaper here.

Yeah. The M&Ms are cheaper. I ain't paying. 10 bucks each for those. I've got a take for you. The Star Wars discourse has become more interesting than the Star Wars movies themselves.

Okay. It's certainly become more something. I don't know if I would have gone interesting, but explain. We have been talking about Star Wars in a critical way for 27 years now. 1999 is when the Phantom Menace came out. What other subject in American culture who we've been talking about for 27 years? LeBron maybe is on the list.

We haven't been talking about Jonathan Franzen novels for 27 years. No. Can you think of something that has been a rolling, contentious, often bug nuts conversation other than Star Wars for that length of time? No, absolutely not. here's how I progressed this last week you had those people that go to the premiere and apparently are allowed to tweet something about the movie but not a full review of the movie

you know what I'm talking about and you've never heard of any of them yeah they came out of the Mandalorian and Grogoo and they were like it's a movie that's pretty good in parts that was the first uh-oh yeah by the way I love how those people tweet

because they tweet like people who've been reading movie posters or watching the TV ads and seeing the one sentence clip from the review their entire lives. Yes. And they write in that very stilted style. Yes. And I always love when journalists do that. It's like my friend David Shoemaker has written a book about Hulk Hogan that's like a wrestling match itself. Epic, but also highly personal.

It's like, no, no, nobody talks like that. Just tweet what you actually think. You're not writing for the poster here, right? Maybe you are if you're one of those people. Who's the Rolling Stone guy that was on every poster? Peter Travers? Peter Travers? Thank you very much. For all the we knew, yeah, for all we knew the entirety of the written review was one of the year's best exclamation point, like that, because that's all that anyone ever saw that.

It's really funny. We've got to have Peter. Is Peter Travers still with us? He is, 82 years young, Peter Travers. come on the press bike sometime. That was a first wave. Then we got the wave when the actual embargo lifted and we started seeing critical reviews,

which last I checked were at 62% on Rotten Tomatoes. Is that good? That feels good. Yeah. Decent is the word for it. With all the things we talked about, feels like a TV show, not a movie. Also, they made the related point

that there have been so many Star Wars TV shows that the movies don't feel special anymore. People are now mad at Dave Faloni. He's the new Dark Lord of the Galaxy replacing Kathleen Kennedy and before heard George Lucas. Another criticism that Star Wars movie is now too up itself. It's all about cartoons that you may or may not have seen. These are characters that Faloni created himself. I've been eagerly awaiting the moment where my seven-year-old really deep dives all those cartoons

so that I can watch them for the first time. But yeah, yeah, it's a lot. Other critical strands I saw CGI versus practical effects. It's been going on for 27 years as well. Yeah. Big Think Pieces is Star Wars a dying brand. Oh. There were specific ones.

Why isn't there an opening crawl in Star Wars movies anymore? And also Jeremy Allen White played Rod of the Hut very lazily. Is that a joke? joke. Kind of. It felt like a low effort voice acting performance to me. He was like doing, was he doing a voice or did they modify his voice? Allegedly they modified it.

I don't, I don't, it felt very odd. Yeah. It is a very strange thing where it was like, there were like so many celebrities in the opening credits. I wasn't, I didn't do any, I didn't watch any of the preview stuff for this one. So when I saw his and him, I was like, oh, cool, Jeremy Allen White. It's on Martin Scorsese. I'm like, wait, what?

That's got to be a joke. And then, yeah, none of them were actually in the movie. So that's just where we are now, I guess, post-Gardings of the Galaxy or whatever. It's all celebrity voices, which is cool, not uncool. Yeah, I just kind of felt like for me, and I'm not the most diehard Star Wars fan in the world. But for me, it's like I think that they needed, and what they've needed for a long time is just to kind of hold serve in the movies, you know, just to not actively. anger, a huge portion of the fan base. Not that a lot of that anger was legitimate, but,

and I thought this one was sort of perfect. I did that, and I thought they probably needed that just for, for, you know, financial reasons too. Hey, let's just do a regular movie to show people that we can just make a regular movie that doesn't blow up in our faces and, you know, doesn't necessarily shoot the moon. But you're right, it's all very, the, the, the, the, the, certainly there is no, like, nobody walked out of, out of, out of, the Mandelaar and Grogu going, oh, that, like, my mind is exploding with how this connects to the

story that I know so well or anything like that. No, but the whole talking about Star Wars Industrial Complex just went berserk. And some of it's like anger, you know, it's old school yelling at William Shatner at the Star Trek convention stuff. Yeah. But a lot of it's like very thoughtful, very interesting. I was watching Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson doing their House of Our breakdown yesterday. It was like fascinating.

I learned they did a great job with that. I learned a ton. And I'm like, there are like 9,000 other podcasts like that. Yeah. That are happening right now. Yeah. It's an enormously fertile industry talking about Star Wars. And it will never end.

Do you think that those deep dive podcasts, maybe we don't want to know the answer to this or we don't say it out loud, do you think the deep dive podcasts encourage rewatches or do they just sort of like fit like fill in for a rewatch I think they encourage you to go back they certainly have encouraged me to go back and watch TV I don't know if they encourage you to go buy a ticket

I mean I don't and I'm not disputing it I just don't know I would think when it comes back to Disney Plus maybe you're you're interested in going and seeing something you missed yeah because because I know Joanna Mallory like they're finding like little parts of the Star Wars universe which you and I

by the way you and I once qualified to Star Wars nerds now we are people we're like you know voters it's like who's running for president we don't know anything anymore our voting platform is like you know i vote with the unions we're just really out of step is what i'm trying to say i want somebody's going to get in there and change things that's some fresh ideas that's like you know i know you got it i mean it's they make it fruitful to be you remember when we were when we were die hard star wars fans

there were so little content out there and we hadn't even had the cartoons we even had we had you know you can count the first the you can count the prequels I guess right we'd had novels we had the original trilogy and then we'd had novels even before the prequel and weirdly unsusantuated rumors too like I didn't know anybody that was on

a message board to talk about Star Wars but we I felt like it was like widely known that George Lucas prohibited anyone from using the wookies in their novels do you remember that there was like Yoda's backstop? story, I think, was off-womeness. There was like a checklist of three things you weren't allowed to do when you're working in the margins of Star Wars lore. Yeah.

We didn't have any of that stuff. Come back to this idea that John Seabrook had in The New Yorker when he wrote about Star Wars years ago, where he said that the magic of the original movies was that things had been lost. Westerns by 1977 were lost. old school medieval sword and sorcery tales had been lost and that somehow the magic and I'm paraphrasing him here but that in the future we would get these things back there's this unnameable thing as he put it

that had been lost but somehow we would recover it and when you think of Star Wars discourse that idea drives it to whether your lost thing occurred from 1977 to 1983 whether you're a child of the prequels, that's real Star Wars for you, starting in 1999,

whether you're younger than that, and the first awesome Star Wars you encountered was Mandalorian Season 1 or Andor. There's always this thing that's been lost, but there's this possibility, this optimism within Star Wars discourse, that we could get there again. Somebody can make a movie or a TV show,

we could fire Dave Faloni, we could fire Kathy Kennedy, we could just, will eventually someone will figure this out and unlock this magic, this pure magic of our childhood one more time. And beyond all the just glorious nerding out and being mad, that is the thing I think that drives this. That something will come along and be great again. And it's a very optimistic idea, very sweet in a way. You and I might have progressed the point we're like, hey, if a cool Star Wars movie comes out, we will go see it.

But also we're not mad if it doesn't. We'll just forget about it and go read a book or do something else. Sure. But I do love that that to me is the gas in the tank when it comes to this stuff. So anyway, congratulations to everybody on their Star Wars podcast. Yeah. Please know there will be decades and decades of Star Wars podcasts to come. This thing ain't going anywhere.

All right. Coming up on the press box, who's doing a better job with the NBA playoffs? ESPN or NBC? We have a side-by-side comparison. Plus, yes, reporters are covering Donald Trump's health. Why can't we make reporters like Barbara Walters anymore? And we debut a new press box feature, The Obligatory List, with a little help from our friend Jason Concepcion.

All that much more on the press box. A part of the ringer podcast network. Hello media consumers. It's Brian Curtis. It's David Shoemaker. It's producer John Rohn. are sitting in with us today. David, conference finals

offer us a chance to see two different ways of covering the NBA. ESPN's way and NBC's way. I thought we'd do a little side by side to compare and contrast and see who's doing a better job.

Let's start with ESPN. Okay. Which got to televise Nick's Cavs Game 4 last night, which anybody who does not host an NBA podcast turned off at halftime. A couple of observations.

You know how we decided now that every time we have an important NBA game, we show the starting lineups inside the arena? That was kind of a cool idea. Yeah. Well, I'm watching the game. And when the Knicks are announced in Cleveland in Rocket Arena, the PA system or the sound system, they played the Imperial March.

first of all that's a good one such an oldie but goody yeah but also if you wanted to demoralize the road team wouldn't you play something else i mean like you're not a conquering force like play something it's a little bit more demeaning yeah Darth Vader had a lot of road wins before like the like the big heen theme song or whatever like is that the sure bennie hill did you say bony hinn sorry benny hins the pastor i'm going to get hyper corrective on that for the rest of my life that's terrible the bini hill theme song, yeah, we sound ridiculous. Which is what a fool

believes. I mean, just something that just doesn't fire us up and feel like the bad guys. Also, because... What would be the worst song? What would be the worst song that you could get away with playing during another themes, another team's starting lineup? It's a good question.

You could probably get a nice reaction from YMCA in this day and age for any number of reasons. But Donald Trump likes YMCA. I think I felt that's kind of been rescued from the pop culture remainder, Ben. Well, that's what I was sort of pointing at, but yes. God, what would be the word? I'm just like a very slow moving song.

Even YMCA kind of gets you fired up. Yeah. I think a ballad is the way to go. A long ballad. American Pie from the beginning. Sure. Wait, did you have to play the whole thing? Yeah.

Yes, exactly. The road teams are standing around. So now we have to have folk dead. It's their fault. that that's happening. Yeah, or go for the reverse Jenks. Just play Queens We Are the Champions, just as they get introduced.

Sure. And watch them all try to hide from cameras while they're like, while it's being played. Especially if you're down 3-0. Yeah, why not? Why not? Also because the networks show us the starting lineups now. They also show us the very generic video

that plays on the scoreboard at every NBA stadium before the home team starting lineup. These all look exactly the same. It's just very funny to see that on television. Series is a total dog. So the announced team of Mike Breen, Richard Jefferson, and Tim Legler,

they were really, really trying to make you interested in Game 4. They were. I enjoy listening to Legler, Legler during meaningless basketball about as much as anybody. But he's got a voice that is, like, it sounds like he's trying really hard. when he's not. Like he's got a very effort-fueled voice. He does.

And by the third quarter, it was, it felt like he was doing a lot of work. Well, it's funny is that at the beginning of the game, they did the whole, you know, the desperate team. They're coming out, right? They're 3-0. They don't want to go down like this. And then five minutes into the game, they were just calling the Cavs failure to get back on defense inexcusable. It's like, actually, these guys suck. What do we think about Breen Jefferson and Legler? as a team now that we've had a little time to live with them. I feel like there is a, gosh, do you ever prepare an answer for this?

Because I was not prepped. I feel like there's a sort of like antiseptic quality to them overall. That would be the negative. You know, Breen is a very, without the history, without, you know, everything that you've gone through Mike Breen with has in some ways a very, like, you know pull the string and watch the announcer toy play voice you know it there's a very like just a sort of robotic aspect to it and both the color guys are they don't come I mean they don't project as like that's a guy I'd like to have a beer with on the broadcast right they're not just

affect it's a lot of brains too but I think they're all really good I think something because because of the style of their delivery I think I was waiting for them to kind of sink into a more comfortable place that would really make it click. But I don't, I mean, I don't really have any complaints. It's just not, uh, I, I, I, I, I, you know, I think they do like an overall pretty good job. I would, I guess I would, you know what, I'll give you a personal example. My dad's a preacher. As close listeners as this podcast might know, when I went to college, you know, we tried to find a new church to go to. It was one, uh, is in Texas. And it was really

hard for me to find someone who was just like, you know, I've been listening to my dad for all, but like, you know, 30 weeks my entire life. But my choice was to go with, like, the egghead. He wasn't as charismatic as my dad. He wasn't as, you know, he didn't do a lot of things like my dad. But, like, I never felt like I was being talked down to. And that was I realized. He knew how to talk ball, essentially.

Yeah, I realized that was my baseline. I wanted someone that, like, did the homework, you know, and, like, wanted to feel it. And, uh, and I feel like that's what this, that's the way I feel about this, this booth a lot. That's definitely Tim Legler. I tell you the thing that struck me about them and maybe the, this goes to your sense of them feeling mechanical. Richard Jefferson and Tim Legler don't really talk to each other.

They're both doing the game. They're both saying interesting things, but they're not interacting all that much. I feel like they interacted a round or two ago. I'm trying to remember I wrote down the joke, but it was like Tim, like it was at Tim Legler's expense. And it was totally. funny but I think that like we weren't sure

if Legler was in on the joke at any point during the whole thing you know and it was just so it just came off kind of awkward Legler for some reason always has to do a gambling read in the middle of the game and last night RJ did the thing of like you know I would have liked to have been asked to have done this read. Oh my gosh RJ does this

all the time and it does not come across very well I mean it does I guess I came across to me but yes it doesn't it doesn't feel like he has like the contempt for Tim Legler that he did is it felt like he had for Doris Burke last year. Yeah. We just was like blowing her off.

And I think part of it, his sense of humor is very dry. Very dry. It's easy to misread. He did have a funny moment last night when they were talking about all the Nix fans who'd flown in to see them close out the series. Tracy Morgan, Fat Joe,

et cetera. And he said it's so cool to see them in Cleveland for the first time. That was good. But I feel like he carries himself like the lead dog, like the lead analyst. And he is just doing the game. And whatever Tim Legler does is just going to happen over here. Yeah.

But I'm calling the game. I mean, contrasted with the way Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford talk to each other on NBC. It feels very team effort. Yeah. Rand Hill and Bill Raftery on CBS doing the Final Four. It's just interesting. And I don't know if that's just Jefferson's personality. I don't know if that's how his sense of humor hits.

But that's what I keep coming back to. Now, I've always enjoyed Jefferson's sense of humor. And I don't think he should necessarily change. It'd be nice if everybody, the other two guys in the booths reacted to it maybe in a more apparent way. But yeah, I mean, I think they're all individually very good at what they're doing. And I don't know that I don't sit around saying, man, I wish they had better chemistry. But certainly that would be where the, you know, where the holes are. Part of it, they just haven't worked together very long.

No, not at all. aesthetics of the ESPN broadcast. I wrote these down last night. We still have oldies going into break. ESPN will never, like, you know, Sirius is closing down all their oldies stations. ESPN is still keeping the light on for songs from the 60s and 70s. At the end of the first half,

we had this crazy, choppy video fly around, maybe it was the first quarter of the stadium that looked like something that was produced in the 90s. You know how I always make a lot of, fun of ESPN for having like pictures of old basketball players as we go to commercial. Yeah. Last night they actually had John Starks and his dunk against the Bulls in 93. I was like, oh, this is relevant.

Here's John Stark's court side. Here's a great moment in Nick's history. This feels relevant to the game rather than here's a picture of LeBron. Yeah. For instance. Then we get to halftime. And man, if ESPN has the advantage over NBC anywhere, it is. is the halftime show.

Sure. It's inside the NBA. Of course it's going to be better. But you know what? Last time we get there and the halftime show starts with Barclay saying, I looked up, I quit in the dictionary and they put a graphic up and it just said, Cavaliers, Cavalers getting killed at halftime. And then Kenny and Shaq just put on top hats and we're dancing and saying starts spreading

the news. Again, it's halftime. The game's not over. But they're just like, actually, we're not going to pretend we know the calves have given up this series is over. It was like, as really funny. It was a smart move too from just a programming point of view because by the end of the game

there was all the error was taken out of the studio show too. I mean, it was like, it was like, you know, all the fans who had walked out of the arena where I'm sure I'd been shutting off the TV. It was one of the most low key post game shows, especially a conference winning, you know, conference title winning

post game shows I could remember. And the Knicks. Like, that's a big deal. That the Knicks are in the finals. Mike Breen's been calling Nick's game since 1997. That's when Marv Albert went into timeout. So he was around for the 99 finals. But it's very cool that Breen is calling a Knicks finals. Born in New York City.

He went to Fordham. Fordham, the school that also gave us Vince Scully and Michael K. Fordham, very expensive school now compared to when they were going there. But go on. Is it an expensive? expensive place? No, we just did some college, we're just done with the college tour season. It's, it's everything in New York, though. You know, I mean, it's like, I feel like you could use to be able to go to some of those, you know, lesser known New York City schools for

community college prices, but no, not anymore. It's all very expensive. Breen has said that he and Michael K, when they were there, would talk about the jobs they wanted to have. Mm-hmm. Breen's calling Nick Games, lead NBA announcer called the NBA Finals, and Kay's calling the Yankees. Here's Brean talking to...

Sadly, they both wanted to do tennis. It's only... Well, they realize their true dream. Here's Brin talking to Monaco, nut on MSG, about a Knicks finals. Right, Mike, before we let you turn the page to the finals responsibility at large, you and Clyde have sat with this organization

through the highs and lows for you personally and for your partner, What goes through your mind? It brings such joy. I mean, I've been broadcasting Nick games more than half my life. And again, to sit next to one of the all-time greats and have this lifetime friendship with him. I get emotional thinking about it. And, you know, we've broadcasted a lot of bad basketball for a long time.

And again, it's to see the game played in the most beautiful way. For Clyde to say that this team reminds him of it, he doesn't say that very often. For him to say that Jalen Brunson reminds him of the leadership of Willis. He doesn't say that about anybody. So that kind of joy. It's the way the game is supposed to be played. And there's such a high character bunch that you root for them because of the effort and the type of young men that they are.

So, I mean, there's just such joy. I've been rooting for the Knicks since I was seven years old. And to have a team like this is pretty darn special. One cool thing about Breen is, there is a vulnerability to him, a human quality that is very hard for a lot of announcers to project, at least project in a convincing way. He's a lot like Scott Van Peltin that way. Yeah.

You believe Breen when he takes out the earpiece and leaves MSG as a real person who has feelings and thoughts. and again maybe that's you know we're thinking about that because we've been watching him and talking about him during this period in his life when his house burned down and you know other things you know that he's that we've we've sort of weathered with him he had COVID missed part of the finals a couple years ago but there's a quality to him that's very cool well you mentioned Walt Clyde Fraser is is you know Nick's booth partner and there's some of that to him too I mean for I think everybody's first first opinion, yeah, your first opinion of, of, , of,

Clyde Fraser is that he's basically just like an animatronic, you know, like, like, you know, fantastical creation. And especially if you aren't familiar with this plane career,

you're just like, what am I watching right now? Who is, why is there a legend that only exists on, you know, MSN or, I mean,

not MSN, I mean, MSG. MSG. Um, but he's also, like, strikingly,

he's like, sentimental and human. and if he listened to him a lot. You know, there's a lot of that to both of them. So I think that's really significant. Over the next week or two, you're probably going to see a piece that asks if Mike Breen can call a Knicks finals in an unbiased manner.

Folks, we don't have to do this. Nobody, nobody cares. Nobody is actually mad at that. If somebody's mad at that, that just means they're an OKC or San Antonio fan and they're just mad anyway. Yeah. We don't even have to acknowledge that that's an idea.

Mm-hmm. You see all the people getting mad at Joe Davis the other day when he was calling the Mets game. It was, oh, no, the Mets. It's like, that Dodgers announcer has it in for the Mets. Isn't this the perfect? I mean, just the intersection of, of, like, you know, referee conspiracists and just journalism conspiracists, like people that care about, people that care so much about, you know, journalistic integrity, although they probably couldn't tell you what it is.

is they can just tell you when they're mad about it or whatever. Yeah. Or they have to just like fit everything into a Columbia journalism review box. Like will Mike Breen be able to be unbiased? Who gives his shit? It doesn't matter. Yes is the answer. And go away.

And Joe Davis, making fun of the Mets is, is America's pastime. We're not going to take that away from him. And you think like a Dodgers announcer is biased against the Mets? You don't think a Dodgers announcer would be biased against the freaking Yankees? Get out of here with that stuff. Yeah. get out of here. NBC, David.

We opened on Sunday night with the Lenny Kravitz recorded open. Yeah. I could have saved NBC a lot of money and said, you know what? Carrie Underwood worked. Let's just declare victory and not do this anymore. I know we want to make this look special,

but I don't know if we needed this so much. Who would you get if you were in charge of recording the next song? Do we have to? Can't we just save the money? Do we have to pick somebody? Yeah, that would be the move. Who wrote the Benny Hill theme song? Can we get him out?

Just use free, like, you know, just some free music off of the internet or whatever. Something that's unlicensed so you can do it. And then just the whole video package is you throwing the money around that you didn't spend on the song. Don McLean is still alive and still touring if we want American Pie to open NBC. Can you imagine if it's just a 13-minute song? How was he only 80? that's unbelievable NBC announced

Who's older? Don McLean or Walt Clyde Frazier Oh I think I'm going to go early 80s for

Frazier right That's correct The thing is 81 I just looked it up and forgot But I believe But he's definitely older than it

NBC's announced team is Tariko Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford Mm-hmm Watching game four of Spurs Thunder

There was so many great Tariko moments to open the game. Frostbank Center where the Spurs play is three miles east of San Antonio. It's such a Toriko detail. Yeah. Not only is it not San Antonio's three miles and it's specifically east. He noted that Wembe had won the opening tip of each of the first four games of the series. All right.

Love it. Miller and Crawford talk to each other more. I mention that. I still feel like Jamal Crawford is. playing the sixth man, even as an announcer. Like, I'm not a featured guy here. I got to come in and get my shots where I can. Yeah.

I'm never going to be exactly the lead announcer, but he's doing a good job. He's making those moments matter. You know what I really like about Crawford and I spoke his praises, sung his praises previously on the show, but what I've really liked this postseason is that he's way cooler than Reggie, and Reggie's very aware of it. that there is a clearly there is like a hall of fame resume imbalance between the two but i feel

like i feel like it's but it's balanced out by just the cool the coolness factor so it's so so so reggie miller who might you know might be tempted to talk over somebody else who's sitting in that third seat after his you know with it with all the games that he's called in this time is a little bit just you know, has that sort of reverence for Jamal Crawford that maybe, you know, someone wouldn't expect. That's such a good point. Is that why Reggie overcompensated and wore the pinstriped blazer on Sunday night? They look like Nathan Detroit.

I mean, and Reggie is great for his longevity, such as it is that he's also the connect of tissue between the other two guys in the booth. I mean, they are of such separate generations. It defies even the normal, I'm a play-by-play guy. I'm an ex-player vibe, right? So Reggie holds it all together. Reggie is really frustrated to a lot of people. I understand why, but he does not frustrate me that much.

He's, you know how you used to say Triceman sounds like football? Yeah. Reggie sounds like basketball to me. Maybe that's because we've had such a lack of continuity over on ESPN. He's the one analyst who feels like he stretches across more than 1.5 years of professional basketball. Yeah. he sounds like basketball to me It's true and I think even to his

I don't I'm not to take nothing away from Troy I think both of them sounded a little bit corny when they started I think they sounded like they were trying to do a voice or whatever when they first started and both of them have sort of grown into it NBC does a really good job of feeling the moment during a game so game for the Spurs scored 14 points in a row

in the first quarter went up 218. and timeout and the truck is like, okay, we're not doing music here to go to the break. We're not doing oldies. We're not doing pictures of old basketball players. We're doing nothing. We're going to take a shot of the crowd and just let that cheering play us off. Yeah.

That's it. And again, that's just a moment where you didn't plan on that. That's not on your sheet. It's just like understanding the moment of the game. Spurs are kicking ass. They're feeling like they're going to tie this series. Let's do that. All right.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. There's another moment that Jordan Cornett and the nuns. Did you see that whole thing where they're being blessed by the nuns? So as soon as he has a big moment, we are going back to the nuns in the crowd, all sitting together. Yep. Looking amazing. That's some great old school NBA on NBC stuff from the 90s. Just that sense of humor, knowing when to go to it, knowing not to overdo it.

but it's a little moment and then you move on and do the basketball very, very good producing on that telecast the halftime show. Okay. You don't like it.

Maria Taylor, Carmelo, Anthony, Tracy McGradie and Vince Carter. Didn't it feel like one of those NBA super teams that was made out of veterans who were all 32 or over? I feel like everybody's...

And we just put them all together. It's like, yeah, we could win. We're all... Our best days are behind us, but what if we have a lot of us? I don't disagree with you, but I do kind of feel like everybody's coming out kind of following the Dwayne Wade model of like, like, I'm going to shrink to the size of my role, sorry, sort of, you know,

it's just like, I am not the star of this show, I'm just here to do a job, you know? And I feel like everybody's very, very, I don't know, like, everybody's just like very, um, kind of refined. Everybody's very like like holding it holding back almost a little bit. It just seems very low key sometimes. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of NBC's NFL halftime show.

Yeah. Where they don't have the stars on that level, but it's all very modular. Like yeah, I'm going to talk and then you're going to talk. Yeah. And then you're going to talk and then Maria's going to pick it up. And it's all,

it all feels like it's happening in exactly as many. seconds is it supposed to happen. Yeah. And it's very smooth. And then you go to break and I'm like, I don't remember a single thing anybody said. No. I don't remember even one point. And they were on the court for game four for the halftime show and I could barely hear any of them.

Yeah. I was like, I cannot hear these people talking. Mello to me should be better at this. And I don't know if we just need to unlock something from Mello, but he had a, he has a chance. I won't say had. He has a chance to be really, really good. For sure. And I don't know if he just needs to be a little more critical, assertive, sharper, sharper elbows.

Yeah. I mean, he's very what much being himself, right? I mean, I think he's one of the guys for whom, like, well, if you're a fan of his broadcast work, like, I think it's how it helped him to have a podcast, you know, and to sort of put in some, do the reps, put in the reps without, you know, trying to just strictly emulate Richard Jefferson or wherever. whoever had done it before him. But it does feel almost like, like it doesn't, it almost doesn't match the vibe of any halftime show. Like I can easily as much imagine that he could change none

and be widely regarded as the best to ever do it in 10 years. Or that like, you know, this is just like going to be seen as the greatest fail experiment ever. I just feel like he's not of this time, at least for like, you know, just people like me.

I don't know why it is because Dirk's very laid back. on Amazon and he seems to be more effective. It's not like Dirk's criticize. That's a very, that's a very, that's a very, that's the most laid back show, I guess. It's a most laid back, but somehow to me it works a little better than Mellow. Yeah. Only in sports journalism, this is from alert listener Joe Godelsky, notes that the Knicks took a commanding 3-0 series lead and Cleveland was trying to claw its way back. into the series.

How many times did you hear those words? All right, David, coming up at 30 seconds, you heard us right. The press box is making lists now. But first, let's do the overworked Twitter joke of the week where we celebrate a gag that was so obvious that all of media Twitter made it at exactly the same time. Send your nominees out of the press box pod

where they are always, always gratefully received. David, you saw the news that Republican congressman and noted Trump critic Thomas Massey lost his primary in Kentucky's fourth district giving Trump yet another victory on his revenge to her. It was an overworked Twitter joke to write, don't think of it as losing a congressman, think of it as gaining a podcaster.

If you thought, congrats to MS now on its new Republican pundit, congrats, you made the overworked Twitter joke of the week. All right, quick things in the notebook dump. I was reading Dan Diamond's story in the Washington Post on Donald Trump's health. Diamond writes at President Donald Trump on Tuesday is expected to undergo his third scheduled medical checkup in 13 months. Trump went in for a checkup last April and then in October. Turns out that was for a CT scan to rule out any cardiovascular issues.

The administration has not been forthcoming about any of this, not surprisingly. And of course you have this whole Twitter journalism looking at photos culture of look at Trump's bruised hands, what's going on with that that has leaked a little bit into the mainstream press.

Diamond notes that a recent poll conducted last month found that a recent poll conducted last month a recent poll found that 40% of Americans thought Trump had the mental sharpness to serve as president down from 47% last September and 44% of Americans thought Trump

had the physical help to do the job down from 54% last September. And I bring this up because one of my favorite tweets is, hey, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. What about Trump's stamina? What about Trump's ability to be president? Yeah. Please look around. It's being reported.

Yeah. The Iran negotiations are ongoing as we record this podcast. God. there was a media piss test pointed out by alert listener Dylan Hirsch, an unnamed official told CNN that when it came to coming out to some kind of peace agreement with the Iranians, it was trust but verify on steroids. God, that's so bad.

I love that. Oh, and I just wanted to mention this to you. This is video going around of Barbara Walters interviewing Donald Trump. Have you seen any clips of this? No, I've not. This is the stuff of liberal Twitter accounts like Brooklyn Dad Defiant. Like, why can't reporters ask questions like Barbara Walters did? This is an early 90s interview she was doing with Trump.

Two things. One, wonderfully ironic that this is circulating on Twitter at the moment that Brendan Carr is asking whether the view Barbara Walter's old show should be considered a new show or not a new show. Number one. And number two, I want to go back in a time machine and tell y'all. young Brian and young David, that someday people will be saying, why can't we have TV interviewers like Barbara Walters anymore? Only somebody was willing to ask the truly tough question of our politicians and our celebrities.

Finally, David, a new feature here at the press box. Turns out you and I have been doing things wrong. Not to put too fine a point on it. we thought we could create a hit podcast solely by focusing on ethics in media. Turns out all we did was, it didn't. All we did was create a thirst trap for Brian Stelter and Ben Mullen. What we should have been doing, David, was making lists. Oh, well, okay.

every hit podcast makes lists they make lists of the next podcast they're making another list why did you and I not get on the bandwagon earlier um I think we've trained ourselves to be a little bit snarky um you know from it from our Staller and Waldorf-esque seats up here no we don't we don't we don't have to do what all they what all what all those people have to do what a mistake on our part to oh huge

train ourselves that way. Yeah. But we're going to make a list. We're going to air quotes it. Stadler and Waldorf style. We'll call this the obligatory list. And here to start this new feature is an old friend of this podcast. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update.

Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. Jason Concepcion, the New York Knicks are in the finals. It's amazing.

It's happened. I can't believe it. I'm floating on air. It's been wonderful. At no point during this Eastern Conference, final series against the Cavs, was I concerned? And that is strange. So just amazing.

You weren't concerned up 27 in the first half last night? I can show you my, my, my, my, my, uh, my, my, uh, my Knicks WhatsApp chat where I say multiple times in that chat, we're fine. We're going to win this game. And I believed it. And I don't understand who this person is, but, but I'm, I felt that way. You're here to help us kick off this new feature. Yes.

Uh, it's called the obligatory list. Okay. We've kind of fallen behind at the press box. Okay. With the whole list game. We're talking a lot about media ethics. Okay. So I thought you could help us with this one.

Top five Knicks fans who will benefit from a finals run. Career-wise, personal-wise? Define it however you like. Okay. Top five Knicks fans who will benefit from a finals run. Your number five selection, sir. And this is going to be in no order of impact on their personal financial. or professional careers.

Mayor Mamdani. Okay. I'm going to put number one. I think it would be a, I think he's already come in with tremendous momentum, a few kind of hiccups aside. And I think being there when,

and if the Knicks should win it all, I think would be a tremendous feather in his cap. It'll be something that people will always talk about. He will be linked to that. that. Fast forward 50 years when they do the documentary on, you know, on the 2025-26 season, he will appear in it multiple times, and as a talking head, one would assume. So I will go with the mayor who, I will also say his sports fandom mirrors mine. I'm an Arsenal supporter and a Knicks fan. It's been a great time to be both of those. And so he must be absolutely buzzing.

and I really feel like it would be a cosmic stamp of approval on his administration as mayor. Sewer socialism works. Yes. If the Knicks can win a title. It's, you know, Mandani San, welcome. So last night he had the retweet of a vague Ramoswami. Yes. Who was in Cleveland as a Cavs fan.

That was fantastic. He had the tweet to the New York Sanitation Department. I'm a report a suite. A report a sweet. Beautiful. That was funny. Do we believe he's a real sports fan? Like he could talk Nix with you.

Yeah. I mean, there's been archival content that has come up of him talking Nix, talking Arsenal from years past. And I have absolutely no doubt. He was in the upper deck the other day, too. Truly a man of the people. And people tried to, you know, the New York Post, the beleaguered New York Post tried to criticize him for that saying, Mayor Mundami appears at a Nix game taking an opportunity. away from a real fan and spending, you know, untold amounts of money on a ticket.

That's the nosebleeds, folks. Come on. With the real people, come on. Come on. Come on. No, Knicks game is cheap. You think the nosebleeds are cheap? Yeah.

All right. Number four on your list. Salome. Okay. I think he's another one is an absolute real, legitimate Knicks fan. You can't fake the picture of him. And I believe it was Landry Fields, like at Grand Central Station. with a young shallomay looked to be 12 or 13 years old.

Like they had the Knicks players ran some sort of find us like a fine Waldo type feature. And it was a young Tim Salomey that did it. I just think he is the future of Nick's celebrity fandom. He's going to be our Jack Nicholson for decades to come. And there's no doubt that his rise to that prominence as a feature at Nick's game. has also married the success of the team, and I think it'll be fantastic for both entities to continue the success.

And it's good timing. It's a great timing for him. He just lost the Best Actor Award. He got into an argument with ballet, the art of ballet. The Art of Ballet, which he's handled, I think, with some grace. Grace of a ballerina, you would say. And this is America, and nothing washes away the taint of content. controversy like success and winning.

And so I think, I think bygones will be bygones. This is what reminds us of what we like about Tim Chalemay. That's right. This and the Dune 3 will be, will be him. Okay, so there's Chalemay. Number three? Um, you know, Spike, I have to say Spike. These are not going to be.

It's good. You know, very few. I think Spike needs a lift too. I think Spike needs a lift. He was there for the original championships, 69 and 73. That's right. as a young person. As a young man, he tells these stories,

he used to sneak into the garden. He has the original championship banner. Somehow he is, I guess they, you know, recreated the banners to be more aesthetically in line with the banners they currently hang. And so the original banner he somehow purchased. So I just think, you know, obviously it would mean a lot to him. I will say that one time I was wearing Nick's gear

on an airplane and a guy came up to me and was like, I thought you were Spike Lee. So now every time we see Spike at a game at my house, my wife goes, look, there you are. And he could get another movie commission. That's not crazy. We see Spike Lee.

We're reminded, you know? I think if they do the 25, 26 documentary or the document about this period of the Nix since Jalen Brunson came or since Leon Rose came, whatever the demarcation is going to be, I think he will be the guy that makes it. These are three great talking heads for documentaries.

Mondani, Shalame, and Spike Lee. Yes. All right, number two. Waiting for a certain someone here. I'm so excited. Really? There might be a media Nix fan coming up. Oh, I think there will be.

Let's see. Don't hold on to me too long. Let me think about this as we're losing spaces here. Oh, gosh, I'm going to say, well, Let me do this first. Myself. I'm going to put myself in there, number four. Jason himself.

I think my, and I'll say this candidly, you know, I think that my, the lane that opened for me through social media to media happened in large part because of insanity, which put a lot more eyes on my tweets at the time, allowed me to co-author a book with various, Southern New York area Knicks writers about Linsanoe, about that period. And just the fact that we're talking about the Knicks right now in almost June, I can't even imagine if they win it what that will feel like. The people that have reached out to me already being like, it's happening, you believe it, it's happening. So I'm myself. And I'll tag on like all the Knicks fans I know who are also.

Sean Fantasy is part of this. Okay. You know, I think Sean having a respite from the Mets is going to be fantastic for him. And I loved listening to him with Bill the other day talking about what this all means. Like, this is a tremendous moment for Nick's fans, whether or not we win the championship. And I really hope we do. All right. Jason himself and also Sean, number two. And number one, Nick fan who will benefit from a.

finals run is? I'm going to put them, I'm going to put them all together. Okay. All the Knicks Legends who sit in the Knicks Legends seats, that's Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Latrell Spreewell, Larry Johnson, Bernard King, Tim Thomas, all of them. It's, I mean, I'll be honest. They started this movement, I want to say 10 years ago, once Nick always a Nick.

It seemed like a joke at the time. They began with this slogan as an attempt to connect the Knicks to their past greatness, the current modern culture of the Knicks to that past, and it seemed very surface level at first. But it's grown into something I think that truly feels organically different than that. And the fact that Jalen Brunson grew up around the team because of his dad being a bench player on the team. You see all these pictures of Young Jalen and Nick's gear, Young Jalen with Marcus Gambi, Young Jalind sitting on Patrick Ewing's lap, running around the locker room of the

garden. I think that there is a genuine affinity from that group of legends, Nick's legends, with this current team through Jalen Brunson and his dad that is real. And I think it will be a tremendous catharsis for people like Ewing, people like Starks who were so close at one time and didn't manage to do it. So I think, you know, for the legends, for those Knicks legends, I think this will be tremendous if they can win. I love that because, you know, I like sports nostalgia. But sports nostalgia is often badly handled.

Yeah. When I see those Knicks at Courtside, I'm like, this is cool. These people are cool. Yeah. Patrick Ewing is cool. John Stark's is cool. Like these guys, I'm not a Knicks fan, but they are cool. It is cool to see them there.

Yeah. I mean, when you can't, they're not good enough to act out the emotions that they are clearly having. I mean, like, listen, it got a little dusty in the house when Clyde Frazier and Ewing delivered the Eastern Conference MVP to Jalen Brunson. That is just an incredible full circle moment. And we haven't even closed the circle all the way. Like, if they can do this, it is going to be a great thing. And even if they don't do this, that will be painful. But these are the good old days right now.

Those good times are happening now. And, you know, I'm just drinking it up. It's fantastic. I noticed you left Stephen A off your list. Well, where can you go from where he is? Here's why. The argument is this. He's going to have a lot of content over the next couple of weeks.

He will, but, like, would that not have been the case? Here is my case for leaving Stephen A.F. Case number one. He's at the apex, and I don't think you can go higher than where he is, other than the presidency, which I don't think will happen, and I don't think the Knicks will elevate him there if they do indeed win. Number two, to your point about the content, the content is going to be there. Win, lose. Knicks in the finals, somebody else in the finals, some other thing happening. Stephen A will fill that space. And then thirdly, I don't want to speak for Nix fans, which are, it's a massive population of people. But the corner of Nix fandom that I am in and that I engage with via social media and elsewhere, I think there is a, there is a astroturfy, carpet baggy. there's a you know there is an open it's an open question as to what kind of nix fan stephen a really is and what the legitimacy of that is and and how much of it is a put on for the cameras and for the persona of stephen a smith and so for all of those reasons i did not i did not put him there but there's no question that he is at the pinnacle of success already feels very opportunistic it felt like there was a moment where every tv opinion guy had to just claim the tuesday he was a moment where every tv opinion guy had to just claim the tis team. So Nick Wright goes chiefs.

Skip went Cowboys. Stephen A. went Knicks. And you record videos of yourself in the car, being mad or throwing a jersey in the dumpster when they lose. The New York Knicks. You know, that kind of, that kind of diatribe. And I agree with you.

It feels, there's a, it rings hollow in some way that I can't put my finger on, but I think a lot of people may feel that way. This is a strong list. Thank you. We're going to listen to you on the wait a second podcast. That's right. Where you'll be sorting through conspiracy theories, many of which turned out to be true in 26. That's the world we live in. That's the world we live in. Jason,

thanks for coming on the press box. Thanks for having me. All right, thanks to Jason. It's time for David Shoemaker guesses, the strained pun headline. Yeah. Last week's headline about Vegas's NHL team shutting out the press was Silent Knights. Silent Knights. Today's headline comes from dozens of alert

listeners. I will give it to Twitter to 46% on Blue Sky. It's from Vulture David. The 79th Cannes film film Khan. Are we calling it con? I feel like I feel like it was con and then

somehow I was told that was wrong. But the 79th con film festival kicks off next week. But you know who won't be doing any kicking off, kicking on or off anytime soon? Jacob, He was not on the con jury, David, because of a foot injury. So I want you to think of Jacob Allorty missing jury duty at con, as you ponder. What was Vultures strained pun headline?

Well, he was in Pride and Prejudice. He was in Frankenstein. Yeah, that's kind of high tone for this. This is real, this is pretty basic, but just a lot of puns. Start with the name of the film festival. He didn't go, so he did this to his con plans. Canned? Yes, Jacob Allorty Cans' con plans, not in jury due to injury.

That's the full headline. Good stuff. I think we could have done better. Well, don't tell that to the nice people at Vulture who provided us some grist for her. I've got my illordy, a lordy, look who's 40 headline, just waiting,

waiting in the back pocket here. When you turn 40, were you a recipient of any greeting card that bore that inscription? I'm sure. I'm sure. He is David Shoemaker. I'm Brian Curtis.

Back to Magic! By John Romer. Thank you so much, John. Follow us on IG at pressbox ringer. Write us, press box ringer at gmail.com. Yesterday, David, Memorial Day, we had a special episode of this podcast go up. Sarah Longwell, the publisher of the bulwark. I've been wanting to have her on, and I saw she was in town doing a live show.

Incidentally, that featured Van Lathen, our very own Van Lathen. So she was nice enough to come into the Ringer headquarters here on Friday. We had a great discussion about Trump, the post-Trump GOP, what her focus groups are telling her about Vance and Rubio, building the bulwark, all kinds of things. That podcast is up right now for your enjoyment. Joel's here on Thursday, and David, I'll see you next Tuesday. Actually, I won't see you next Tuesday. You know what we should do? We should announce this.

You and are about to record the May issue of the press box. Do we want to tease it or just leave it as a big old question mark? Let it be a surprise. Let it be a surprise. David and I are going to record that tomorrow. And then that will be up on Sunday, May 31st. Yeah. Sneaking under the rope for May. I will see you then, David, with more

lukewarm takes about the media. See you later, Brian.