The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Knicks Tough Decision with Karl-Anthony Towns, Inside the NBA's Future on ESPN | 6.2

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

On today's episode of The Right Time, Bomani Jones discusses the New York Knicks offseason and Inside The NBA moving to ESPN. Bo starts off the show by acknowledging that the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder is set, but he'll be previewing that during Wednesday's show (2:12). Bo brings up an article from The Athletic written about the Knicks right after their Game 6 Eastern Conference Finals loss (3:43), which highlighted issues with Karl-Anthony Towns, specifically with his defensive efforts (5:41). Bo also asks how Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson can be on the court at the same time if they're both poor defensively (17:00). Bo transitions to Inside The NBA leaving TNT and moving to ESPN (18:34), which has Bo hoping ESPN does postgame shows (30:41) and why Charles Barkley is the most important person in sports media (31:30). And finally, we have another round of If You Haven't Heard stories involving anonymous employee surveys, how to disappear off the grid and how every college student is just using AI (37:47). Then Bomani listens to some voicemails about the time you tried to fight your father. (50:32) If You Haven't Heard Contributors: Matt Alston, Business Insider, "I Spoke My Mind on an Anonymous Office Survey. Then My Boss Weighed In." https://www.businessinsider.com/employees-sick-tired-engagement-surveys-managers-happiness-hr-2025-5 Benjamin Wallace, The Atlantic, "How to Disappear" https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/extreme-personal-data-privacy-protection/682867/ James D. Walsh, New York Magazine, “Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/openai-chatgpt-ai-cheating-education-college-students-school.html . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media: http://lnk.to/therighttime Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Support the Show:Discover faster, more reliable search with Perplexity today. Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at perplexity.com! https://pplx.ai/bomani-jonesDownload the DraftKings Pick Six app NOW and use code BOMANI. Better payouts. Bigger wins. Only with Pick6 from DraftKings. The Crown is yours.Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/icdnkphp #CashAppPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A Wave Original presented by perplexity. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater.

We got a lot to get to. We're going to talk about what's going on. We're inside the NBA. The people seem to be very interested in that situation. I want to start talking about the, final. Of course, we got the thunder and we have the Pacers. I said a couple of weeks ago, and we're going to hold to this, all right? I ain't no businessman. I am not a stakeholder in the NBA. I don't really care about their money, right? I don't care how many people watch the finals.

I will be watching the finals, and I reckon a lot of you will be watching the finals, and we will enjoy the finals, regardless of who is not there. The people who get to decide whether or not something is good are the ones who show up, not the ones who do not. We go show up. We go enjoy it. This looks like a very, very interesting series, right? You got the 48 minutes of hell from the thunder and the Pacers who, in spite of being a bunch of dudes that, like I know all their names now, but I can't really put a face to all of them. Does that make sense? Like, what's the boy's name? Nimhart and Neesmith. I'm aware of them. If I see them on the streets in New York City, I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm going to know they play in the NBA, but I ain't

go know how much money they make. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't quite know exactly who all they are. But it's going to be good. We're going to roll with it. And I want to be very careful are very clear about what we're about to do right now with the show because I understand how some people might find this to be annoying, but you kind of got to understand the setup that we got here, okay? The NBA finals are the most important thing going, and we will talk a whole lot about the NBA finals on Wednesday show. We have lots of time to get ready to prepare.

You understand what I'm saying? To preview. Also, if I were to do all of that right now, what would I do all Wednesday show? See? See? See? All right.

Final start on Thursday? You feel me. Therefore, we're going to talk about something that happened that I found to be a little bit unprecedented. Okay? The Pacers put the pause to the Knicks second half of game six. went ahead, wrap that up.

They are the Eastern Conference champions. Shout out to them. And good graces. Shout out to you, Reggie Miller. You would have thought that man was still on the tee. Anyway, after a season ends for a team, there is typically a long post-mortem that somebody writes, where all the stuff they've had that's been in their notes for a year,

that for whatever reason they decided it wasn't the wisest idea to put out there during the year, all that stuff comes out in the end. I mean, you can pretty much find this on every team. Okay. One of those stories came out about the Knicks. It was at the athletic James Edwards and Fred Katz. Okay. Nothing wrong with the story, right?

These guys didn't do anything unethical or whatever. I am just floored that that came out before midnight. Like the night of the game they came out. They normally wait until the next day. I don't understand how it was that they turned that thing around so fast. I guess when you go back, it ain't even really got no details about game six. It was like one of those, like, For famous people that are old, they got that obituary ready already.

All they got to do is press sin. Like you think the Miami Herald was ever going to get caught being like, damn, we need somebody to hurry up and write this Fidel Castro obituary. No, sir, they just need somebody to click send. I just watched a TV show with an example of this happening. I don't want to tell you what show because if you watch it, it might be a spoiler. But yeah, like, boom, they had it out there. and everything with the Knicks was in this piece, right?

Everything that was there. You can go check it out. The details, I think the point to make in the story or what I think is relevant to point out. And I know this doesn't sound incredibly profound, but still sometimes you just kind of need to hear this, right? It's some kind of measure of reassurance of your own judgment and everything else. Everything that you've seen go on with the Knicks, the Knicks have seen go on. on with the Knicks. Everything that would drive you crazy. If you were a Knicks fan, seems to be driving the Knicks crazy. All right. And when I say everything, well,

the everything as presented there was mostly Carl Anthony Towns, which is not everything, to be clear. He had an all-MBA season this year. He had some big games in the playoffs, He had that big game in this series, in fact, where he brought it with the next or that. Like, it is very easy, regardless of what side of the Carl and Anthony Towns debate you're on, to get all the way wrapped up in what you see that affirms your side, because what you see that affirms your side will be overwhelmingly in that direction. When he's playing well, he looks like he could be the best player in the NBA. But then he'd be out there, man, on them rotations.

You ever seen somebody try to navigate an intersection that three streets come together? Now imagine, you know, it's like one this way, one this way, and then like a diagonal. This happens a few different ways in New York with like Broadway and streets like that, right? All right. And so what can happen is you feel like you got what's going on, you know, the walking like situation. But you get out there at the wrong time, right? Like it says a hand for you, but you looking at the traffic patterns, you think you know, you think you can make it, right?

But then next thing you know, you're in the middle of the street and its cars coming from everywhere, right? And you're just like, oh, man, where do I go to get to where I'm going? Okay. Now take that scenario, okay? Now imagine somebody doing that, but they own drugs. I ain't talking about smoking weed. I'm talking about drugs.

Okay? they out there in the street looking like that meme with all the math problems coming at your face, right? Towsby out there looking like, like he held a bumper car course and he just, he's like, what am I, what to go? Where do I go? Where do I go? Right.

Head spinning, turn around, everything. You know, Brian, you know what I'm talking about. He looks like a kicker when there's a run back. Yes. Especially as fast as the Pacers go on transition defense. He'd be at the top of the key and you'd see three Pacers running and he's looking like this. Yeah, he looked like he'd never practiced this.

Like, this is the first time ever. Like, there are no principles or rules for how it is that you handle the situation, right? That's Carl Anthony Towns often on defense. And the story made the point that the team didn't feel like he understood the consequences of playing bad defense. And I find that to be odd because I would think that the young man knows how to count. I would think that he would recognize that these other cats is getting kind. I would, I would think that that would be the case. But there's, that's an issue for the next.

There was a mention of that. There's a mention a few other things. One thing they mentioned, and this is things that people have talked about a little more quietly. But the fact that Mikhail Bridges is absolutely opposed to physical contact. I can't find the stat in front of me right now. But there's some crazy stat about how many shots he took and how few free throws he took. he avoids contact at every single turn, right?

So you got these two guys who were your big additions in the off season, who are kind of deemed by many people to be soft for two different reasons, right? Carl Anthony Towns, this is wild. Carly the town is seven feet tall between this year's conference finals and last year's conference finals in the West with Minnesota. So we're talking about 11 games in the conference finals. Carl Anthony Towns between those 11 games blocked a shot. Not a shot again.

One single solitary shot. Yeah, that happened. Okay. Now, I point these things out and I point them out because of the way that they were presented and these kind of post more than Nixon. You look at where you kind of think this team is going. Here's what I find to be interesting and I think underrated about the situation. these are fair criticisms of Carl Anthony Towns if you choose to make them.

My question for the Nix is, what exactly did you expect? And I'm not saying that rhetorically. I'm asking that as a sincere question, right? And this is the sincerity behind the question and why I think it's fair to ask it, right? Was their expectation when they traded for towns that they would get a better version, of him than the one that they saw in Minnesota? Or did they think that they would get or be able to create a different version of him? You understand what I'm saying? So if you took Carl Touns, Carl I think he took him, Carl I think he played in Minnesota and you said to yourself,

yo, if he just gets a little bit better, this will be out of sight. I think he'll be a little bit better here and you make the trade. Okay, that's one thing, right? But the question I have to is did they think when they made that trade, no, he's going to get here and he's going to play better defense and he's going to stop committing stupid foul. Did you think that would happen? Because if so, everything that happened to you is your fault. And the you, I feel pretty clear that I'm looking at is got to be Leon Rose. Because I tell you right now, ain't no way in H.E. double hockey sticks that Tom Thimidon thought it was going to be any different. He could coached the dude before. The Knicks put themselves in a situation where they could be very good,

but in the end, could not succeed. I think that's a fair question for you to ask, because the other part of it is this. Crown Avenue Towns is a one-way player. And to think about one-way players in the NBA, if you're really, really trying to win. Having one-way players in your lineup is kind of like the line that people say about having knuckleheads in your locker room. You could have one. but you can't have two, right? You think about this for a second. If you got two starters who don't play defense, 40% of your team doesn't play defense.

It's only five dudes out there. Like you can't, in this day and age, you can't have two offensive liabilities, which you used to be able to do, and you cannot have two defensive liabilities out there at the same time. And it's not just two of your five best players. Your two best players. Correct.

That's the thing. It's your two best players. On a team coach by tips. On a team coach by tips. But right, you know, early, like the first two games of the series, the two-man lineups with Brunson and Towns were terrible. One at a time and they were cool when they made that comeback in game three. It was Carl Anthony Towns on the floor and Jalen Brunson off.

They seemed to be in a situation where the two best players, you can't win big with their two best players in the game at the same time, and one of them makes $60 million a year. Crazy. And by the way, the other one, even though he like extended this if you wanted to, you think Jalen Brunson, despite whatever we may think about his willingness to sign that one contract for the cheat, you think he's not perfectly aware of the fact that Crawley-Hanthous-Makes twice as much money as him.

Yeah. I think everyone at work is aware of how much everyone, makes. Oh, at that job, they, well, because at that job, it's basically math, right? Like, if him, then me, you got like equations that you can run on that. But what do you do when you wind up in this situation and in this NBA that makes it very difficult for you to make moves? Minnesota moved on from towns, not so much because they wanted to get rid of them, but because they couldn't afford it.

But the Knicks got exactly what they paid for. They got exactly what any of us had watched him play, believe would be the case, right? and it's not all his fault. It's a bit of a flawed roster. It is a very good team. And there should be a celebration of the fact that the New York Knicks made it to the conference finals. They don't do that very much. Okay.

It should absolutely be celebrated that the Knicks got to the conference finals, period. And again, I've lived here now for eight years. I'll say it again if you haven't heard me say it before. And I think this is very important to note, okay? I understand if you hate Knicks fans. I have hated Knicks fans for most of my life. You just have to understand the Knicks fans in New York are a lot cooler, right? It's kind of like getting Vietnamese food in Vietnam.

It's just not to say. I'm saying anything else. It's the same way. New York has a problem that it does not export its best to the rest of the country. You don't. You guys, I've been saying this a long time. Y'all's ambassadors are doing a bad job for the brand. They really are. You would get here and you would find them a bit endearing. I understand them celebrating so tough after they want some of the little gangs, man, they ain't had the chance to do it. I'm not about interfering with nobody's good time, right? I'm not. But I have to note, the one thing about the Knicks fans that we would talk about in other places was all it took was a

couple of things breaking right and now they talk about a championship right they are easily siced up that has absolutely happened again last year in the in that year um after the bubble the 21 they seemed happy with their lot on life appreciative perhaps would be the better way to put it right that is what i gleaned was a measure of appreciation from them nah not not not not not no, no, no, no, they're a little salty now. They're a little salty now. And to be fair to them, they're a little bit salty because even though you can say that the Indiana Paces were a better team than them, they were not a team that the Knicks couldn't beat, except they kind of are a team that the Knicks couldn't beat. It's not a raw talent situation. I don't think it would have been

that much better if they go deeper on the bench. I just think they're in the wildest situation where it's fair to ask whether their two best players can be out there together. And if you have to make a change, can you do it? Is it possible? This is a new sort of reality with the NBA. I understand anybody, by the way, that looks at the Knicks and say, we might as well run this back. They'd be in a pretty good situation. Especially in next year's east. You've no idea what Boston's going to be like. Right. Maybe Milwaukee trade Janus. Right. Can, you know, Indiana put this together again for one more year. Who knows what's going to go on with Cleveland? If you're New York, can convince yourself again that you're in the best position in the east moving forward next

year. But I want to ask you this question about that story in the athletic. The criticisms of towns were pretty strong and strided. If your criticism of him is that he doesn't play defense, right? It doesn't perhaps understand the magnitude of it, but it's a little lost out there on defense. Jane and Brunson does not seem to be lost on defense, but functionally, not terribly different, right? He is not, he's a poor defender, okay? I did not feel like that article was that critical of Jalen Brunson.

No. As a poor defender. No. I assure you that Carl Anthony Towns is aware that he is not the only poor defender. It's always hard to solve a problem with another person when both of your criticisms of the other are-

Spider-Man, right? Spider-Man time, right? Everybody's right here. So how do you maintain that situation? Because at some point, he's going to get tired of getting all to blame, right? At some point, McHale Bridges is going to be tired because he's going to be the next person because they traded all those picks to get it. At some point, OG and OB and OB is going to be tired because he plays 42 minutes a game.

That's right. And at some point, they're going to be like, what about him? Who, notably in that story, not that much criticism of. And I'm just saying, he's got the key to the city. He's been had the key to the city. He also, he at once is so clutched in. so good and also perhaps a limiting factor. Carl D'Antheon Town is so big and so talented and perhaps a limiting factor.

That is what the Knicks are. I am so glad they are better and they made some people happy. But damn, I think everybody's just going to be frustrated in the end. All right, guys, inside the NBA is not done, but inside of the NBA is done on TNT. They did their final broadcast on Saturday night. it was very, very, very emotional. I can't imagine. Like, I've done a little work with those folks, man.

It's a different kind of vibe down there. I could totally see how hard this would be for a lot of people. Like Ernie Johnson's like I've been working for this company since 1989, a company that his dad worked for before because those of you who don't, you're a little too young for this. Those Braves fans know this. That's Ernie Johnson Jr. Ernie Johnson, Sr. used to call the Braves games to skip carrying all them boys, right?

And so it was a thing. and they did their sign off. And also, Ryan, I don't know if you saw it, but it felt almost like a wrestling shoot when they were talking about their arrival at ESPN. They sounded like, what if the NWO had done it vans promote? Yeah, it is very bizarre as they are, again, ending one chapter, but it doesn't feel like they're ending.

It feels like they're moving. Yes. But they're also not thrilled about where they're going. Well, yeah. No, they are, they got a, They got a vibe down there, right? And they want to, obviously, why would they want to have to make any changes? They're keeping this show together.

I imagine most of the people that work harder are going to be there. But you know, somebody's got to lose their jobs around this that they know with Turner losing the NBA. You know, all of those things, right? I think someone for me, someone, I'm, of course, a little bit younger than you. I didn't really put together how long they've been together. Charles has been there for 25 years. 25 years. Kay Smith got there in 1998.

Yes. And again, Shaq is the newbie got there in 2011. 2011, yes. Like, this is a longstanding thing. So I get it and they're coming to ESPN. Now, everybody's freaking out because is ESPN going to mess up inside the NBA? It is funny how people vacillate, by the way, between their love and hate for inside the NBA, just depending on whatever circumstances situation might be, right?

I worked for ESPN in various capacities for the better part. of about 20 years. Now, Ryan, you haven't done the ESPN stretch, right? No, I've never worked. Okay, you haven't done there, but you've worked, you've worked in television. You've worked at Fox. Yes. Like, you've worked it for real, like TV shows.

So this is an important perspective. We, right, and I've been texted about this a lot in the weekend because this is something that I think our whole industry is very curious to see how it ultimately goes, right? Also, you guys know, I typically don't talk a lot about ESPN business because I just think it's a little weird, you know, given. I will say, well, this is. is an inside media story. Inside the NBA is a cultural footprint. Correct. That exceeds our industry. Charles Barkley has been very famous for 40 years. Yeah. Jack's been very famous for 40 years.

And this is a show that, you know, has been Perry on S&L. Yeah. Oh, no. This is a story. It's a cultural institution. Yeah. I think everybody gets that part, right? I think that we are fortunate. And I'm going to probably be more likely to talk a little. I'll be more likely to talk about the things that I know about how that place runs that I typically am because I think it's worthwhile to engage it at this point. I personally do not think that there is great potential for ESPN to mess this up. I don't think they really will. And the reason I don't think that they really will is I've been watching what they've done with McAfee.

And McAfee was insistent on this. McAfee's doing the exact same show that he used to do. I see that they've managed to get some measure of compromise. out of him, like some measure of team play. Like, Ryan, this is something about McAfee that I was shocked that nobody pointed out. One day he stopped wearing tank tops. Nobody made a thing about it.

Like the tank top had become the trademark or whatever. But finally it sounds like, somebody was like, dude, can you just put a shirt on? I mean, yeah, if you don't know, his deal is he legitimately licensed his show. Yes. You know, ESPN has no creative control,

no creative input, and people are hoping that is the same relationship that inside the NBA, ESPN have. But it is, again, it is a licensing deal again, right? Correct. Like, that's what it is. ESPN, it's not like inside the NBA is moving to Bristol, right? The same people are going to produce the show. They're just going to put it on ESPN, okay?

Now, they're like technical inside baseball questions that saw Bill Simmons talk about this, and he makes a fair point. the structure of the commercial breaks is going to be very important because to me the reason that ESPN's NBA shows have not been that great. I've always felt there are two reasons why they have not been. Number one, I feel like ESPN treats basketball. They treat that show the same way they would treat a football broadcast. And these are different sports. They're different leagues. I think the viewers have different expectations of what they want. And so treating it like you would treat a show like NFL live or something like that doesn't work. Number two, with their

pregame stuff and halftime, they're trying to move so fast that, you know, boom, boom, boom, you talk, you talk, you talk, you talk, you talk, you talk. Like trying to get so much information in there that there's no time to kind of sit in whatever the topic happens to be. Okay. Inside the NBA is at its best when it sits in those topics. Is ESPN going to like fundamentally structure the broadcast in the way that allows that? That's going to be the question.

I don't know how much wiggle room Turner has in their production on being able to adjust that. My feeling on this, though, is if ESPN is going to get inside the NBA, they're foolish to get in there. Why are you trying to make extra work out of this? You know what I mean? If you're going to let Pat McAfee do the exact same show that he did before he got on, and keep in mind, I don't think McAfee's show, I don't have anything bad to say about it, right? Like, it's not, I don't have a negative opinion of it. I don't have like really fervent criticism of it.

It's not my favorite show necessarily, right? But it's a show on television. But it's a show on television where he called Caitlin Clark a bitch wants. And I want to be clear that he did not mean that negatively. He was actually intending to give her a compliment. But what I'm saying is the show that ESPN licenses, Pat McAfee could call a woman a bitch in the middle of the afternoon. And ain't no suspension. know none of that. Like, they've just put that show on. And I could be wrong here. You guys let me

know, maybe I'm crazy. But I feel pretty confident that if you will give that kind of rope to Pat McAfee, you'll give it to Charles Barkley. Okay. Call me silly, right? Maybe I am incredibly naive about what it is. But that is what I think is going to happen. The inside guys aren't really risky. Like, the thing about Charles is there's no telling what he might say. The thing with McAfee is, there's no telling what he might do. And they've managed to deal with that situation as they have. With Charles, he's just going to say something crazy every now and then. He might say something crazy about you. But lucky for you, the world has decided that we don't get mad about anything that Charles Barkley says. So, no big deal. You mentioned the Bill Simmons. I was listening to that in front of the

show Van Wath and brought up, like, that is inside the NBA is one of the few. places left where have decided that PC culture does not matter. Yes. Yeah, they have decided, you know, like Chuck's ability to say anything with a smile on his face. Yes. And with seemingly no repercussions is at some point a skill, right? They have a cult. First of all, the culture is entirely built around Charles. Like when I went down there and I did that alt cast last year, it's like, oh, I wore shorts on television. I'm getting roasted for hours on national television. by people I don't know. And baby, I better learn to laugh.

And you know why? It's because they can do that to Charles Barkley with no warning every day. And he'll laugh at it every time. He's an incredible, like people love him on television because he's so authentic. But he is also, he has built the show not only at laughing and others, but laughing at himself. Yes. Like who he played for is a giant joke about Charles Barkley. Did you ever?

So, hey, I. as someone who is not the best at laughing at himself. Hey, I just require you be funny. That's all. Charles is so good at it. And I don't know if you remember, because you were a bit younger, the first year of Charles Barkley on inside of the NBA? That is, that's before my time.

Buddy, the first year of Charles Barkley on inside the NBA was, I was my senior year of college. And it would be like, did you see what just happened? He would say anything. Robert Pack missed a game. with abdominal cramps. And Ernie is reading that off. And Charles stops and says,

abdominal cramps, guys are missing games because they own their period now. I mean, he's like, you see the clips going around about like, him making jokes about like not buying women watches because there's a clock on the stove and stuff. Like,

yes. Like, like not full archie bunker level humor, but you certainly not. That's close. That's close. Yeah. Year one,

Charles Barkley was some of the amazing, amazing television. But it worked because with Charles, they did this thing called the Champions Club, right? And they set it up, like, it was like a club, and they set it up in the set or whatever, and they had the Champions Club. And Kitty Smith goes in the Champions Club, and Charles Barkley tries to get in the Champions Club. And Kitty's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Charles. You're not a champion, man. Only champions can get in the Champions Club. And Charles stops and says, y'all play the joke on the Chuckster. You can't do this with anybody. else, right? This is the nature of what they do. This is why it works. It's a show that works on vibes.

But my feeling is that it worked on vibes and the reasons why it could. Number one is because I don't think there are a lot of basketball fans that want a lot of hardcore analysis of their basketball. I think there's room for that. I don't know if pre-post and halftime is really, really that. Like, if you really need to- People can find that now. People can find it. If you want Zach Lowe, Zach Lowe is available to you. Yes. And expecting inside the NBA to be that is,

is unrealistic and not what they do best. I think basketball is a fairly simple game. And I don't think that people need but so much of it. Now, could those guys be a little more prepared at times? That's a different discussion, right? But I don't think that people. Does their criticism of the league hurt the league as it goes forward? I think those are fair points.

I think those are all fair points. But I think the show works on we're having a good time talking about basketball. I think that that is enough for me. I think it's enough for most people. It's just it's a fun show to watch. The other thing was ESPN is a sports network. TNT is a network that carried some sports. And so what they were working with on inside the NBA was you could be a lot more Lucy Goosey

over there because the brand was a bit more loosey-goosey, right? This isn't Disney, this isn't all those things. So they could kick it a little more. The other part was once you got into post-game on inside the NBA, this is late-night television. Like, if you up at one o'clock in the morning watching them, it was, like, it's almost like the closest thing to it was the NBC version of lettermen, right? Like, they do it basically stupid human tricks over there. They ain't talking about anything. No telling where it might go. They just decided. it, they were going to have a good time. And that's why it worked. My concern about taking inside to ESPN, ESPN historically has not done postgame shows. It's just not what they do.

They go straight into sports center. They don't do postgame shows. If you're not going to do the inside the NBA postgame show, you're getting rid of the best part of it. Right? This doesn't seem like it'll be a gratifying experience if that's what you're going to do. But they also can't put that on ABC doing that stuff. That would be preposterous. that's to me the concern. ESPN, I don't think, is going to mess it up just as they're going to get in there and tinker with it. I don't know if the structure of the network allows

for what is the best part of the show. That is where I'm worried, right? But I will tell you this last thing, why I do not believe that ESPN can mess it up, okay? You can get Charles Barkley on board with what you're doing, but you cannot tell him what to do. He is the single most valuable and important person in the history of sports media.

Hey, don't forget, inside the NBA existed for like five years before Charles, and you don't remember nothing about that. He showed up and nothing was the same. Everything they do down there is based around the personality of Charles. And we know Charles will get up here and say whatever it is he wants. And Charles got so much money. Charles don't need whatever they give in him. You know what I mean?

He will say, and Charles Barkley very famously, you know, does lots of interviews. Yes. So if he is unhappy. we will hear about it the next day. You'll hear about it on your own network. Because that's another standard that McAfee is established. Like I can bring my workplace grievances onto the show. Granted, Charles would do it anyway,

but you know, you could go ahead and do this. I just, I spent the better part of Sunday watching the clips that people put online of the best moments of inside the NBA. it is so funny like at its best it's just it's it's it's they love each other

they're they're they can go any direction yes and they're you it's one of the few things one of the few TV shows in sports they're like you do not know what is going to happen next like you like like it is truly unexpected

and authentic and you know things from like the police presence thing just truly organic humor incredible off scripted humor well scripting humor is very difficult but all unscripted humor in the way they do it is tough we give us some leeway because sometimes it misses badly sometimes sometimes charles hits the side of the backboard and we just make the decision that we're going to act like this never happened

right like it can be super tricky but oh my god it's so much fun right like i just i think in the end i looked at it and i was like ESPN has never quite figured out fun right like that kind of and i've say this to somebody who's been there. I think we had a good handle on it when we had when I was working with Dan and his dad, right? Like we figured out a way to go in that direction. But it's hard to do sports and fun at the same time. It's certainly hard to do sports and fun in six minutes. Correct, correct. But I think it's sport. Okay. Yeah. Fun is open ended, loose. We can push this. We can keep going. We can take this bit out for another eight minutes about having to run a commercial like fun, organically.

fun has to be, that is their North Star at all times and they're always chasing that and nothing else matters. I think they can come to a measure of peace, but trust and I firmly believe this, and I haven't talked to Charles about this, but I believe this. But in the end, if ESPN try to go too far, those guys will tell them to fuck off. And they, if the McAfee situation is any indication, they will win. This show is brought to you by Perplexity. Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that searches the internet in real time to give you fast, high-quality, answers with sources. Unlike legacy search engines that respond with the list of links, perplexity skips straight to the answers you need, explained in easy to understand everyday language

with sources and citations. That's right, Bo. We often use perplexity on the show to look up things, confirm things. Just this week, we used perplexity to look up who was on the Steelers coaching staff to figure out who might, you know, inspire some accountability in Aaron Rogers. Discover fast and reliable search with perplexity today. Download the app or ask perplexity anything at perplexity.a.ai. It's playoff time, and if you're still just watching games, you're missing out. With pick six and draft games, you can turn your hoops knowledge into real cash. Nobody's dropping better payouts than pick six.

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That's cash app. We know you can't be on top of all the news and information of the day. No need for the social media feeds. We got you. Now, if you haven't heard. All right, Bo, this is the first story is it from the workplace. Hi there. I'm Matt Alston, a reporter with Insider,

and I recently read about employee engagement surveys. If you don't know what they are, I'll share a very quick anecdote about my experience with one. It's when your job sends you an anonymous form to fill out that says, how much do you like your job? I had a job I liked just fine, but one day I was in a bad mood and filled this out as though I were the person in the world who hated their job the most. I was vicious about my workplace, my coworkers, my CEO, the product we made, all of it. And it wasn't completely fabricated.

Like a lot of people aren't super happy at their job. My CEO read this and not knowing who I was sent me a message through the portal offering me a buyout. Would I quit on the spot so that he could find out who I was? That was basically it. And my reporting on this topic, these engagement surveys, has let me. to believe that I'm not alone. I'm alone in getting a buyout offer because I was rude on a survey, but in reality, two-thirds of employees in the country think that their management doesn't listen to the results of these surveys. It's a billion-dollar business with companies like

WorkLeep, Ladis, and the OKC Thunder's arena sponsor, Paycom, helping businesses ask their workers how much they like work. If you're disengaged, you're less productive, you're expensive to replace. And so they want to know how you're doing. The reality is, is that most companies don't really do much with this information. The two-thirds of you who think they don't listen are right. And William Kahn, the guy who invented the concept of employee engagement, told me as much. He said the best way to know if your employees are happy is to have real relationships with them and not anonymously offer them buyouts through workplace surveys. Ryan the I sit in a mean survey and the boss said well I'll let you leave did that sounds like a voicemail topic not if you haven't heard I thought that I thought this was in the wrong stack what an amazing story yeah it's just it's so funny like it's funny to me that like these companies you know they like they're they don't know how like to be just human just ask and also like if you're going to ask

Why you're asking if you're not going to like the answer, right? He said, why don't you just take a buyout then? If it's that guy, it basically was like, show your face. That was what he said right there. Say it with your chest. Yeah, we show you. And I ain't going to lie, man. I guess I don't know, I don't know our bad situation.

He might got kids or whatever. But that sounds like fighting words to me. Yeah, I'll take it. Now what? Meet me outside, bitch. You know, that would, imagine he had sent that to, Not that you aren't a real one, Matt, but imagine if he said that to a real one. Now it's like, oh, you want to see me?

I see you, plan. Let's go outside right now. All right. This next one is from Data. Hi, I'm Benjamin Wallace, and I'm the author of the book, The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto, a 15-year quest to unmask the secret genius behind crypto. I recently wrote a story for The Atlantic titled How to Disappear. It's about a set of people who, for a fee, help other people live lives of what they

sometimes call extreme privacy. Their clients include victims of abuse who fear for their lives, heads of cryptocurrency companies, a group which has recently been targeted with a wave of violent crime, and sometimes just regular people who are freaked out by the modern loss of privacy. It's really, really difficult to keep your personal information, including your home address, out of databases, and a lot of tradecraft is required to do it successfully. One extreme privacy consultant is Alec Harris, who by his own choice lives like a man in witness protection. His house isn't in his name. He gives Uber drivers a fake address.

The chew toys on his lawn are decoys. He doesn't have a dog. Many of the techniques he uses come from Michael Basil, an ex-cop-turned-privacy guru who has gone to lengths like backing up his data on a tiny microchip he put in a hollow nickel and then hit at a friend's house without telling the friend. A trick Basil recommends to mask where you live is to establish residency in South Dakota, which is friendly to year-round RVers and nomads who don't actually spend much time in the state. This all takes time and money, even if you do the work yourself, and hiring a consultant who can charge thousands of dollars a month is beyond the reach of most people. Extreme privacy also incurs what Harris calls cognitive overhead,

the burden of keeping all your aliases and excuses and paperwork straight. Things get even more complicated if you have a family. For playdates, Harris' wife will send another child's parent a pin drop rather than the home address. This can all sound paranoid, and doing what it takes to be private is daunting and unending. A term you hear a lot from privacy people is privacy fatigue. But with the rise of cameras everywhere, phone cameras, doorbell cameras, and an explosion in the number of corporate data breaches, we should all be thinking about this. Ryan, I got admitted.

I see the vision. I see the vision. I have to be, here's the thing that really stood out to me was like, when you think of disappear, we think of that as a one-time thing, but the, constantly having to disappear,

that sounds exhausting. It does, it does. It sounds like way too much, but I see, I see why you would start down that road in the first place. But I was listening,

but I was like, wow, I had thought about that. Huh, drop a pin, uh? Like the Uber pick you up at different ad, I like I do that. I don't call Uber to my parents' house because my parents live in Atlanta and boys be cracking cribs. You know, like I don't, I don't need somebody to think they, I don't need somebody to see as me and think that they done, you know, doesn't hit the lick, right?

Like there, there, I understand some of that, but that it, that was wild. Also, I'd like to say to shout out to the writer who was not, he had his close up, baby. Y'all go, y'all go know about his book on crypto. He started, he started reading that whole thing. I was like, I thought he was the disappear man. And he was. Sure. Sure was. All right. And this next story is about education.

Hey, Bumani. I'm James Walsh, a features writer at New York Magazine's Intelligencer. And I recently wrote a story called Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College. Just two months after OpenAI launched ChatGBT, a survey found that nearly 90% of college students were using the chatbot to complete homework assignments. So I spoke with dozens of students who described me how they use. AI for every facet of their education. STEM students are using it to automate their research and data analyses and to sail their way through dense coding and debugging assignments.

They're using AI, you know, to take notes during class, devise study guides and practice tests, summarize novels and textbooks, and brainstorm, outline, and even draft entire essays. As one college student put it on TikTok, college is just how well I can use. chat GPT at this point, she said, while copying and pasting her genocide and mass atrocity textbook into chat GPT. You know, it'll be years before we really fully account and understand what this is doing to students' brains. Some early research shows that when students offload cognitive duties onto chatbots, their

capacity for memory, problem solving, and creativity could suffer. As for the teachers, the teachers I spoke to were in. in like a state of despair because so many of their students were relying on AI. In a way, AI is kind of exposing the rot underneath, you know, an education system that hasn't really updated itself. AI is forcing teachers, administrators, and even students to ask themselves really difficult questions. You know, why are we asking students to complete assignments that can be automated? And what is the value of a degree now that someone's much of that work can be offloaded to a robot.

Don't you guys, like, at some point you have to know something, right? And I get it. Like, you can get, if I were their age and they presented me these tools and this way for me to get over, I probably would have done it. And I've long said that I look back on like that period of my life and I could have learned a lot more and I could have done a lot more and I could have been a lot better except for the fact that I felt like the task that people were presenting for me to do in school were just for me to check the box and to jump over to hurl to prove something to them, right?

Like to prove that I was smart enough to pass your class or to prove that I was an A student. And I didn't care what you thought, right? So I mailed it in on a bunch of that stuff because I did not appreciate the value of actually taking in the information, right? So for example, I ain't read none of them fiction books that they told us to read from like seventh grade on. I ain't read none of them. Because I thought that all you was asking me to do was to read a book and then take quizzes along the way to prove that I read the book. And boom, you were just seeing if I could remember if I read something. Right. I didn't,

nobody explained to me that there was a, like there was something we were going for. Like, if you told me there was something you wanted me to pick up out of that, I'd have been like, oh, okay, and I'd have been peeping game from it. But I didn't do that, right? And the loser in that in the grand scheme was me. right like nobody else lost more than i did in that but i just thought that the game was then not so much to get over but to be certified right like i was working for certification but at some point you have to actually know things and so i've heard about these stories about the teachers cracking down on the i i and the kids have absolutely no idea what to do and

i look at your parents at that point and i'm like hey man you got a you got to this message I'm talking about right now, you got to impart that because at some point, they're going to come across somebody who ain't going for it. There's going to be some job that they need to do and they can't. And that can't be tolerated. And then what is it exactly that they are going to do? So yeah, you can you can offload that stuff to the chatbot if you want, but I would also like to remind you, the chat by be lying, dog. It'd be flat out lying. I told you all about it. I told you all about. that man not get i'm not saying it gets stuff wrong i'm saying it lies it doesn't have it in it to just be honest to say you don't know it tell you any damn thing oh i think it just be fucking with you

did you ever watch cheers right i guess that's also another generation i understand the idea of cheers but i've not sat down like watched season now there is a great episode so the fraser crane character that became fraser in the sitcom you know this pompous haughty um i think he was a psychotherapist or whatever, right? And he's in this fairly working class bar, but he's very much so sees himself as being better than them and everything else. And so he decides he's going to get in there and talk to them about one of

the Dickens books. He may have been Oliver Twist, right? And they ask him what it's about, and he starts reading, like he decides he's going to do like book date at the bar. And he starts reading, he starts explaining what the plot is of the book, and he notices that everybody's rolling their eyes and fall asleep. And so he stops and he says, and it is about

for pizza, eating turtles who live in the sewer and everybody pops up. And so he starts coming in by calling it great expectations and making up plots for what the books were actually about because he got off on the attention that he was getting because now everybody wanted to hear about the books, right? That's what the chat by I think be doing sometimes. It'll tell you the Oliver Twist is about the teenage mutant turtles. We just have to decide like explaining the kids that age.

like why is it important to learn and what we want them to learn. Yeah, yeah. And can you explain it to the kids if you don't understand it yourself? This is a problem generations in the making. It did not just pop up with the chat. All right. A lot of great voicemails is always topic. Oh, to begin.

That time you tried your pops. Here's our first one. Hey, what's going on, Bo? Okay, had to show up my story from the first time. Sorry about that. All right. First time I try my pops, I'm 17. I was dating the girl.

She's 18. Senior high school, I was a junior. So, you know, she turned me out. I didn't even go a lot. So I'm tripping. I'm cutting school. I'm missing curfew, just trying to be up under her. And dad did not like it.

So he tells me, hey, son, you are not going to let this girl get you trouble. So I say, I'm sorry, what? He's like, look, I'm saying one more time, don't let this D word get you in trouble. So by this time I big did him. So I jump up. My dad, you know, he was 5-8. Southern Wet 145. I'm 510,

195 playing football. I think I'm hard. Davos drill sergeant, Marine, hand-to-hand combat specialist, and third-degree black belt. So there's that. So I jump up. He takes two fingers,

pokes me in the chest twice. Baw, bough. It pokes me in the throat. I immediately fall to the ground. I'm in a fetal position. I'm coughing. I'm crying. And I'm snotting.

All at the same time. And he stands under me says, hey son, I just want you to know you're never going to ever disrespect me like that again. And I just want to make sure that we're clear on that. And I can't talk, of course, because I've been poked in the throat with the death touch by my father. So I just look up at him and nod, nod, and that was it. Yeah, I should not have tried my hand-to-hand combat specialist, Vietnam vet, third-degree black belt father, over a high school girl that I literally, only dated maybe three weeks after that.

Yeah, so that's my story. Hey, enjoy your show, guys. Y'all be good. Brother, man, I got to ask you a question, all those things you told me that was on your father's resume. You know, the Black Belt, the drill sergeant,

the hand-to-hand specialist. Were you not aware of any of those things on the front end? Like, only on the back end, did he finally say, I have to confess to your son. I've actually been preparing for this day my whole life Because I feel like if I had known that on the front end,

like that girl must have really been doing something to you, boy, because that, that, that, that you was, you was cruising for a bruising, um, on, on the worst highway possible. I really like the phrase death touch. He said he was very,

perfectly specific. Yeah, that shit like he was just pressing the buttons on the phone. And then you was on the ground. He's just snatting and crying. I feel like he had you with some mace. All right. Here's our next one. All right, Bo and Ryan.

This is Ryan here from New York, originally from Cleveland. I wanted to talk about the time that, while I didn't go after my pops, per se, there wasn't the closest I ever came to going after A-Pops. It was my best friend's dad. It was Thanksgiving, 2012. After spending some time with my family, headed over to my best friend's house to hang out with his family, have a couple of beers, and enjoy the snowy Cleveland suburbs.

Now, that was the night. Mark Sanchez had placed himself into history books. It was the Buff Bumble night. spirits are running high. Now, one thing about this family, they're all wrestlers. The best friend wrestled in college. His dad also wrestled in college and also with the coach. The whole deal.

Me, on the other hand, had a health condition, never could wrestle. Because I was around wrestlers so much, I knew a couple of things. Well, let's just say after we had a couple of sodas, football was winding down. My buddy's dad decided it was time to coach the younger cousins. So he's showing him a couple of techniques. And he looks at me, he goes, all right, Ryan, you're up. I'm fresh out of college. I've got that swag, if you know.

As I said, never wrestled, but I could hang. So we square it up like it was about to be the state title. Thing is, Dad had a couple more sodas than I did. His reaction time, obviously a little bit delayed. So when we square up, I hit him with a quick ankle pick, then boom, man hits the ground. Let me tell you, Dad was not expecting that. I'm a small guy. About 5-5.

But the second he realized he was on the ground, the switch flipped. That man was wrestling for his life. Hit me with full reversal. And then before I knew it, I was locked up on the ground with some submission. I'd never even heard of. Like that man was reliving the glory days

of a high school title that he never won. It's a big to say, Beau. Decide I'm never going to be. The wrestling volunteer done me ever again. Have a good one, guys. Appreciate you. Bye. So, Ryan, I am a touch claustrophobia, right?

Like, if it's really, really, really cramped, I'll freak out, which is wrestling, right? Like, that's the sum total of the activity is claustrophobia is a disqualifying factor in any, any level of claustrophobia. I can't imagine as a grown man somebody being like, hey, you want to wrestle? No, I don't. And the thing about wrestling is, and to be fair to my man, ain't no telling who can win. Have you heard the story that John Randall tells about wrestling were Fouad Ravés in the locker room? And for people who don't know,

John Randall is a Hall of Fame defensive tackle who wore face paint like the ultimate warrior and was just energy, just full on energy and intensity. And Fouad Raves was a kicker. But Fouad Raves was an Allstate High School wrestler and broke John Randall down. You never know. Just I would avoid the activity.

Yeah, I mean, that story really, crystallized for me when the guy said, I'm 5-5. Yes, and he still had that one move, but he, nope, nope, no, no, no. Just the one. All right, here's our last one. Hey, what's going on, Bomani? This is two. This story is actually about not trying my father, but trying my grandfather.

I was 22 years old. I just graduated from college, and I was visiting my grandparents in North Carolina. My parents were with me, of course, and, you know, at the time, I got bigger, older. I'm an adult. you know, I'm kind of feeling myself. You know, I've been hitting the weight so I was a little big, and my grandfather had noticed.

And for those that I know my grandfather, he sounded like Ced to Entertainer off a barbershop. So he looked at me, and he said, you know, you're getting a little big, you're getting a little strong right now. And I looked at my grandfather, and I said, yeah, I'm strong enough to take you. And my grandfather laughed and was like, nah, I don't think you ready for that.

So I was like, okay, you know, I'm ready whenever you're. ready. And my father looked at me and said, too, he's nice, man. I said, you know, it doesn't matter. So I decided that I'm a shadow with my grandfather, shadow box with him. Needless to say, you know, I threw the first punch and I lunged too heavy. I threw a right hand.

I lunged. And by the time I could figure anything out, my grandfather hit me with a body shot, and he had slammed me on the bed. and he started laughing at me and he said, I told you you wasn't ready. My grandma, my father looked at me and just shook his head and said, too, I told that he was nice.

And Beau, that is the story about me trying my grandfather and my grandfather teaching me a lesson. Take care. He hit you with the body punch, boy. I was just telling the story over the weekend where my uncle Wilburne, my favorite uncle.

He didn't have the kids. He was everybody's favorite uncle, and he had one of the qualities, you know, the people like this for kids, just kind of want to, like, horseplay with you, right? He had that quality, and he was always very indulgent, but you don't know when you've gotten too big for that, and he don't know when you've gotten too big for that

until you land something a little bit too strong. And I don't remember exactly how old I was. I don't exactly remember exactly what shot it was that I landed, but I do recall receiving the body punch. and my relationship when Uncle Wilbur became a more adult one after that moment. You know, that's kind of, yeah, yeah, that's the way to look at it. I think, me and Uncle Wilbur may have the same age difference, by the way,

as my man and his grandfather, you know what I'm saying? So I relate, brother. I relate. Ryan, you got Draft Kings for the Peeps. That's right. We're looking ahead to pick six first game of the finals Thursday night. I like Pascal Seacum coming off his Eastern Conference Finals MVP more than 19 and a half points. And then Chet Holgram more than 16 and a half points.

You know, NBA finals are finally here. It's your last shot to win some real cash before the season ends. So don't miss your last shot to win cash this season. Download the Draft Kings pick six app right now and use code Bumani. That's code Bumani. New customers pay $5, get $50 in bonus picks instantly. Ride the upside only on Draft King's. pick six, the crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1-800-Gambler. Help is available for problem gambling.

Call 888-7-8-8-7-7-7 or visit CCP.org in Connecticut. Must be 18 and over. Age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. PICSix not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Void were prohibited. One per new customer. Bonus awarded as non-withdrawable pick-six bonus picks that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer. Terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this three times a week. Ryan Brumbley handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Also, thank you to our, if you haven't heard, contributors. Thanks to Matt Alston, a business insider. Check out his story on workplace surveys at business insider.com. Thanks to Benjamin Wallace of the Atlantic. Check out his story on how everyone's cheating their way through college at intelligence or.com. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater.

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