Throwbacks with Matt Leinart & Jerry Ferrara - Fly Eagles Fly, Red Carpet Interview with Shaquille O’Neal & Fixing the NBA Slam Dunk Contest

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Football season comes to an end with a dominant Super Bowl win for the Philadelphia Eagles! The guys look back on how Philly made it happen, what went wrong for the Chiefs and what it means for Patrick Mahomes. Plus, we recap our special Fanatics red carpet episode including Jerry’s awkward moment with Kevin Costner and Shaquille O’Neal’s wild method of ending an interview.  Then, with NBA All-Star Weekend upon us, Jerry tells us how he’d fix both the dunk contest as well as the 3-point contest and he gives his main observations from the first 50+ games of the regular season.  And finally, in today’s edition of the Throwback 3, the boys lay out their top 3 dunk contest performances of all time.  New episodes of Throwbacks drop every Thursday. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube and following on all podcast platforms. Also, make sure you’re locked in on social @ThrowbacksShow on all platforms for highlight moments, bonus content, and to engage with the guys & the Throwbacks community. (http://throwbacksshow.com/)      A big thank you to our sponsor:    Wendy’s    Go to Wendy's® and taste the difference in a hamburger.   https://m-wendys.app.link/hamburger25   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don't like him. Why? I don't like him. Why? Because I love you. It didn't feel like a joke. All right, welcome to another episode of throwbacks. We're alive. We're kicking. We've made it back from New Orleans. Barely. Barely. I pulled my back yesterday, so I'm not in good shape right now. Are you at the age now, though, where you I mean, you were a football player, so it's different. But I, you know, you're at the age you pull stuff, not really doing anything. I was. That's football life.

I was back. I was back in the gym this week and. I think I just moved a certain way. Just tweaked my lower right back. It's a little, a little, a little pulled muscle. Nothing bad. Last night I was walking around and Josie's like, are you all right? I said, no, I just, this is terrible. I'm 41. I just pulled my back. So you're not at the point though where like you wake up and you're like, how did I get injured sleeping? And you sneeze and you pull like a hand. That's the age. That's where I'm at. I get injured like that. I'm definitely not there yet. I'm getting closer though. My right shoulder is starting to bother me when I lift weights and now and now I'm getting pissed. I honestly that is

starting to get me get pissed because I'm not the biggest dude. Actually this week We're gonna recap the Super Bowl but this weekend I got the biggest insult from Colin Coward. Colin Coward saw me in the hotel He's like he's like dude. Are you on Ozempic? What's wrong with you? That's so messed up now because You're fit. You're fit, dude. I know, it's just, I just, yeah, I feel like I'm fine. Like, I think I gained eight pounds this weekend

just from drinking and eating shit. But he did. He saw it in the hotel lobby and we were talking and he's like, are you on Nozempic? And I was like, Collin, come on, bro. Come on. It's a compliment, he's basically saying you're speaking from a guy who almost just who passed out on live TV last week. Did you see that? He almost went down. Yeah, that was kind of

strange. I talked to him about it. He had, I think he got hit with the flu like right there. So I'm good. Body's breaking down a little bit, but I feel good. Well, we got a good show for you. You can follow us on all socials at Throwback Show. Subscribe to the YouTube, which a lot of you did for our live stream of the red carpet. Big shout outs. We're going to recap that. And then we're going to talk a little NBA All-Star break.

Our Throwback 3 today is going to be greatest dunk contest performance of Throwback 3. So it's one guy performance. Doesn't even necessarily have to be the winner. Some guys had great performances and did not win, which is sad. Are you teasing that? Maybe, maybe not.

There's a couple obvious ones. I didn't want to go too hard in this and just be like, just, oh, okay, I'm going to overthink this. No, you just, I respect some of the greatest dunkers of all time. Let's put it that way. So let's recap a few, let's recap a little bit of the red carpet live show and then maybe give the audience

what they didn't get to see once we got inside the party. But you mentioned that Calhart said you look skinny, but a lot of athletes on the carpet, was this the first time at moments you felt short in your life when Shaq rolled up. When Shaq rolled up. I haven't seen Shaq in years. I know he's huge when he rolled up. I felt like how you feel standing next to all the time, all the time.

Did you see the story I posted of you next to Shaq from the back? I showed it to my kids and they were like, wow, it's a giant dad. You look like you're four feet tall. Yeah. But it's okay. You know, we were talking- By the way, you can't even see me through him. That's how big of a man he is. We were talking with, he's now, I guess, our first repeat guest. We had Jack Flaherty stopped by.

And Jack's a big, big dude. And Jack is at least 6'2", 6'3", right? At least, he's not that much shorter than you. And we were talking with him, he just signed with the Tigers, really cool, and then he walks out, Jack comes in, and as they walk, as they switch positions, Jack even went, holy shit! He walked away just, but.

When you stand next to him and you look up, because I looked up and I was like, wow, he, he felt a foot, a foot and a half taller than me. I'm six, five and in shoes, I'm over six, five. He's seven, one, seven, two and shoes. And I felt like he was nine. Can you imagine Wemby? Like Wemby's four inches taller than him. Think about that on the court.

There was a, there was an uncomfortable moment. Let's call it what it was for me. I'm still reeling from this moment. And again, if you haven't watched our live show, it's up on YouTube, go watch the whole thing. It's about an hour, hour and 20. You can rifle right through it, but we have a clip for you of our,

what I feel like was one of my- This is the best moment of the weekend. Awkward, disappointing interactions with the great Shaquille O'Neal. Let's play the clip so you could see. Look at the top part of the weekend. Awkward, disappointing interactions with the great Shaquille O'Neal. Let's play the clip so you can see. Look at the top part of the clip, mainly. How are you, man? I didn't see you, dude.

How you doing, man? Now I feel short. I'm good. We ready? I know. Yes, we're good. I know you want to get in there. I don't like this fucking guy.

How was your party? I don't like him. Why? I don't like him. Why? Because I love you. See how scared I am? My voice went, why? I feel like we talked about power back in the day. Yes, you did.

You actually did a wonderful job. TV and music is always, and you understand what I'm about to say. So much pressure on us to perform, you can't think about it all the time. So you need two or three hours to go away, your show, listen to music, doing something else, and then we can come back to it. If we can get away from it and then come back to it, it always makes up a whole story. That's what I was thinking about the other day. You popped up and I'm like, I was thinking, I think I even heard True Fuschnickens.

I'm like, Shaq was doing music, doing so many different things. Now it's like everyone's a brand. Every athlete does so many other things. You were the first, man. Everybody's not really a brand. They just think they are. You were the first. I mean, it's cute watching them.

Like I tell people all the time, you have to be yourself. What I love and respect about you, you've always been yourself. I'm going to be myself. I don't do the, I am who I am. Like if I make a mistake, I want people to learn from my mistake. The smartest thing I said in a meeting one time, because they were trying to create an

image, I said, I'm not doing none of that shit. Image is reality. I'm not, I don't talk like that. I got tattoos. I like wheels. I like ice. You can't accept me for me. We can't do business.

So a lot of these people need to understand image is reality. Because a lot of times in our business, you see a lot of people show us this. But in real life- You're meeting their representative, not them. Yeah. No, you see a lot of people show us this but in real life You're meeting their representative not them No but them too like they show us this Yeah They show us this they show us this and then when reality kicks in they get all fucked

up and they lose everything you just got to be yourself so I'm always be myself and I got to take a shit right now Go in there Chuck you don't want to stop that maybe If you ever need me on your podcast you know I got you brother We had Chuck on Alright ok fuck Chuck We need How about no Chuck Love you know, I got you. We had Chuck on. Fuck Chuck. We need no Chuck. Love you guys.

Good to see you, man. Have a good time, man. There's a lot to unpack. I was about to say there is a first let me you don't look that short, by the way. I do. I'm short, but I actually stacked up. OK, that was the first thing I noticed is I didn't look that short. But you did.

Was your neck sore still from looking up at him? And I don't know why, I don't have the deepest voice in the world, but my voice went up a few octaves. You got nervous. It's okay. You got nervous. When he came over and there's so much going on and he just starts going and like throwing it away, I don't like this fucking guy. Yeah, twice that. It didn't feel like a joke. He said he loved you. And then it felt like he saved it.

Of course he loved you. Oh, because I love you. I felt like he saved it. And even with you, like he said, you know, we understand he's pointed right at you. You know, he's talking about athletes, dude. He's talking about athletes. And by the way, let's get Shaq on my pod

because apparently it's just my pod camis. At the very end, hey, I'll do your podcast, Matt, your podcast anytime you want. Great takeaways. The height discrepancy. Shaq probably took a monster shit when he got into the fanatics party. Oh, but he loves you inside that party. And he wants to go on my pod. It was a win. That was the best. Shaq liner. It's a throwback.

He said, fuck Charles Barkley, who we love Charles. So number one, I saw the bathroom situation in the party. There's no private bathroom. It's an event space. What's Shaq doing in there? If he did destroy it, I saw. I mean, I just honestly, I think he just wanted to go inside. You cannot ask someone to stay longer.

If someone says I got to go take. You cannot ask someone to stay longer. If someone says I gotta go take a fucking shit, you can't be like, wait, wait, wait, one more question. I think it was he's out with that. He knows he, and he's a savvy dude. It ends the interview, it's over. You cannot ask a follow-up question. Do you think he really had to take a shit?

No, if I had to bet money, I would think if he had to shit, number one, if it was if he had to shit, number one, if it was like dire, like hey, it's gonna happen, he wouldn't have stopped for us. I think if he had the early rumblings, he would have just fucking left the party and came back. I don't think he goes into the fanatics party and just drops it. He can shut the party down.

Could you imagine, I peed at some point during that party. I remember, I went in there there and again, like you said, no private bathrooms. You're in there, it's a couple stalls. Could you imagine being in line to take a piss or? Shaq comes out and goes in the stall and you just start to hear it just bleh. No, if I'm, look, I've been doing entertainment stuff

for almost 30 years. If I had to bet money, he's so savvy, he knows like, all right, he did liner, his boy liner the favor, gave him a sound, I'm gonna give him a sound bite, because that will be a viral clip, and also it ends the interview. But I did like some of the stuff he was saying

about brand and no one's really a brand, I do think that's a very overused word, and I really thought of, because I knew he was gonna talk to us, I really thought a lot about it. And I went back and looked at his old stuff with all the rap and music and just, he wasn't doing it because, Hey, this is how I expand my brand. Now he's like the spokesperson for every brand. So if anyone knows about brand shit, it's Shaq. He was just doing stuff he liked to do. And he was fortunate enough because of the NBA to be put in the spotlight

and it showed off some of his other talents. I think the biggest thing that, and I'm nowhere near Shaq's status as far as everything he's been able to accomplish. Business, on the court, all those things. But I think the most important thing that I've learned when you're putting yourself out there and when you're doing a lot of stuff

is just staying true to yourself and authentic to yourself. And I get asked that question all the time with social media and all that. And my biggest thing that I've learned and am learning is I'm just going to be me. And whether you are annoyed by me, you like me, you love me, you relate to me, all of those things. That's what it's all about. And you're not going to have everybody, you know, not everybody's going to like you and whether my opinions, it doesn't matter, but that's who I am. And I'm glad Shaq said that because in this day and age,

it's a lot harder to do that because you're getting social media. Just the more access that you're giving people. So you have to be very careful of what you do. But Shaq, like you said, Shaq is a pioneer and he's been into DJing and music forever. He's like kind of like a legit, he's a legit DJ now. He certainly is.

He's always been the same fun, unique personality and he can turn on when he's serious and he can goof around and all those things. But that's how he is. That's how he's on TV. That's how he was with us. And it's, he was awesome. It was awesome to see him.

I hadn't seen him in a long time, but he was great. Well, we gotta get him on the show because I really wanna, I've tried figuring out why he came in like that. Like I don't like this fucking guy meaning I don't know if he was maybe because my character on power or could be a little some people didn't love him in the end Maybe you could Shaq we Shaq and I I think you're over thinking this. I Think it's a joke. He was just he's a prankster He was joking one of the NBA all-star games years ago, in LA, the LA one. I went to one of his parties and he seeked me out

and was like, dude, I love Pat, like it's our favorite show. He was trying to get spoilers out of me. So I thought when he rolled up, it was gonna be so friendly, like, ah, I love this guy. This is my guy. He was like, oh, I fucking like this guy. I'm over it now, but I would like to talk to you. Clearly, clearly you've been thinking about this.

It wasn't the first insult that your boy went through. Everyone loves liner. No one really likes me or gives a shit. Well, we I did not expect we were pretty well prepped for everyone on this red carpet. And shout outs to everyone who made that red carpet happen. But the thing I think we both learn from doing a live event like that is prepare all you want. We had these iPads filled with questions for everyone and well thought.

Did you look at the iPad once? Once we got going, really? I did not, but you might have had a worse day than Drake did during the Super Bowl. Well, we didn't. The one person that was not in our packet, we didn't, first of all, we didn't know Kevin Costner was coming and we didn't know he would stop and talk with us. You have your draft day experience, we've talked about it. Matt auditioned for draft day, so you guys have a connection. I've never met Kevin Costner, although we've been at the same agency for a thousand years.

And talk about just feeling awesome. Do we have the clip? Let's roll the Kevin Costner clip again. Pay it's quick. Pay attention to just what he, what he says to me. My second snubbing of the day. You know, Jerry Ferraro, how are you? Good to meet you though. Which is fine. That's fine. You don't have to know me. It's fine. The best part is because I mean, he knew who he knew who I was. So I was like, Kevin, Matt, how's it going? So yeah, you know, Jerry, this is what I said. You know, Jerry Frarra and that's Jerry. I don't know. I do not know. Jerry. I looked at you for a brief second and I honestly, my heart, my heart sank for you for about

three seconds. And then I'm like, this guy's a big guy. Here's my thing. You're gonna roll with the punch. I don't expect him to have sat and watched entourage or power or think like a man, but I do think it's a little strange to be like, no, no, I don't know. Like if you could say, oh no, we've never met. Hey Jerry, never met before. I don't think good to meet you now. I was supposed to be like, no Jerry, I don't, I don't know. I don't think good to meet you now supposed to be like no Jerry. I don't don't know I don't think costner really gives two shits about how he greets somebody Well go watch it too because we did ask him his favorite sports movies He would he honestly he was put himself in there, which I thought for sure He didn't remember me interviewing him for the press junket either. I've sat with him. I remember I was shit in my pants

I just for I was I think I was working for extra and I did the whole press junket for all of them. It was awesome. I had a one on one with Jennifer Garner who I... You can actually YouTube this. One on one with Jennifer Garner. Actually we should roll this in this episode when it comes out. We'll put it out. I teased her or I talked to her about a playbook and I wrote, I gave some plays to her just

like I've done to you. And I said, can you, can you recall these plays? And that was my extra thing. It was awesome. And she was great. She tried to do it. She was fantastic. Costner was great.

And we talked about sports and baseball and all this. And I had a one-on-one with him for about 15 minutes. And then Tom Welling and the other quarterback in there that I put them through like the football gauntlet as well. It was awesome. So that's what I led with. Cause I'm thinking he's going to remember. He goes, Oh, I don't remember that. Oh, that was in New York right now. It was actually no, actually in LA where I'm from. Anyways, he was, he was great. He was great. And then I guess we could cost her. Let's, I mean, we could go to our third snub. This wasn't a blatant Snub, we got the chance to talk to Michael Rubin

At the Finalex right carpet big shout out to Rubin because he was the only person obviously all the people all the athletes and Actors come down the carpet. You ask them at the end. Who do you like in the big game? Everyone's like he the overwhelming consensus was Eagles. And I thought there was way more Eagles fans, but Rubin was the only one when we asked them, we said that Eagles are going to win decisively. And he said, no one will say it because they don't want to just in case look like assholes Monday. But Rubin walked up again, carpet was hot. Josie liner texted you, your wife, stop saying you're sweating because we can't see it and she was right That's an old veteran Entertainment move just because you're sweating doesn't mean the audience knows you're sweating and

He kind of came over and like he wasn't rude or anything. He just wanted to go in his party He was so this was toward the end of it. It was the very end and then so we did 45 seconds with them It was clear like mr. Rubin wants to go inside. So he walked off, but then came back. Roll it. You're not so skinny, I didn't recognize you. You got too skinny. And I'm like thinking in my head because he doesn't recognize anyone.

You got too skinny. By the way, I just lost all this weight on this carpet because it's so hot. So basically, again, he wasn't rude. He was just kind of like, what? He was looking at me like, who is this? Why is this guy asking me questions? Why is he here?

His wife is the one that said, hey, that's... That's Turtle from Entourage. It was from Entourage, right? Yes, yes. Well, Ruben was great. He was ready to go in, but he was great. Obviously, shout out to Michael and Fanatics for letting us be there.

But I don't think I said two words in that interview. And because we talked about his favorite Jersey, which we'll play Dr. J Dr. J. Dr. J. The first year is a and then they left. And then all of a sudden they came back and you basically I mean talk about you just getting slapped in the face all red carpet by Shaq by Cost Live TV, baby. And then they come back and the man of the hour, the man that runs it all, basically said how great you look because you lost 80 pounds.

He gave you the best compliment he could possibly give you. So you crushed it. You took a couple back hands, a couple back hands early, couple maybe backhanded compliment from Shaq. He's pranking you. But then Ruben comes back and says, I didn't recognize you cause you lost all that weight, which means he was a true fan.

Well, again, if you want to watch, want to watch all these interviews, they're up on the throwback show YouTube page, go, go watch as far we have miles teller, the first person that came on, we didn't know when guests were going to roll up. Jamis was the first person on the carpet and the last person off the carpet.. Jamis was the first person on the carpet and the last person off the carpet. And Jamis was, so go check it out. There's a bunch. And the MVP of the week, man.

He was all over the place. This is an ad from BetterHelp Online Therapy. We always hear about the red flags to avoid in relationships, but it's just as important to focus on the green flags. If you're not quite sure what they look like, therapy can help you identify those qualities so you can embody the green flag energy

and find it in others. BetterHelp offers therapy 100% online and sign up only takes a few minutes. Visit betterhelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com. So Matt, we had like our mantra before the live show, which was like, get to the drink, meaning do the carpet. It's going to, hopefully it's going to go well.

We have no idea how it's going to go, but once we get in that party, we're going to get a fucking drink and we're going to celebrate either way. Cause it's over. We did. I got loose in that party for a couple hours by the way. So we go in, we do our shot of tequila, we grab a few drinks, we walk into the party. Can I tell you one of the cool moments for me? So this happens to me every now and then

when me and the Entourage guys get together, when the three or four of us are together in one place. It happened most recently in the Bahamas at a craps table and a lot of people came over. It was like, whoa, they're all together. We were there hanging and Reggie Bush walked in and seeing you and Reggie embrace and chop it up. It's like, man, that's so dope to see.

Like this duo, which we all know and love, it just was really cool. And I get why people maybe get, like to see me in the entourage. It's just a warm feeling of nostalgia that you love. Yeah, I think that's exactly it's it's I mean you guys were a part of an iconic show and that still lives on 20 years later and you don't see each other very often, but when you do it's a huge moment. It's bigger for you than probably fans because you get to see your boys and you just it's like time never passed.

Yes, I work with Jerry or I work with Reggie for years at Fox. I was around him for a long time. I don't see him that much. But when we do, it is it's it's it's just there's just a love there that's, you know, there's a bond and a love there that you always have, no matter how many times a year you see him, his wife, his kids, all of those things. It was great to see Reg. I saw him Saturday night as well at a party and hung out with him a bunch there to had some drinks. But it was great. And the party I was trying to explain this to somebody because it is it is it is the A-list kind of most exclusive party of the weekend. It is almost Scott before it is Lou. It was at some point I looked up and it was Ciara or Sierra ludicrous,

Travis Scott, Post Malone and Quavo performed together. Yeah, I think maybe like sexy red, which I don't really know who she is, but she's been all over my time on Instagram because I think she performed at a bunch of parties this weekend. It was, it was an, and everybody was just kind of standing there watching. Like there wasn't, there were private sections or this and that, but everyone was kind of out on the floor watching, which I thought it was really cool. You know, it was one of those things. I mean, we hung out with miles, tell her for a bunch talking, just talking about life and stuff for a while, ran into old friends, new friends. It was great. It was great. And by the way, just, you know what? What a fucking

crush. We crushed it, dude. It was a great, it was an awesome experience. Throwbacks is in that we're in the newborn stage and we got to, we got to be on the red carpet. Our name was on the floor. I was like, this is pretty fucking cool. We had awesome people come by. You weren't, you know, you weren't a hundred percent, but you went out there like MJ in the flu game. A little bit of a flu game. Yeah. A little bit of a sweat. We were sweating our ass off. We got in, we had a couple drinks. You Irish could buy me. It's okay. We also, when we, we also played our game flag, no flag where we, we talked about some of those things. Everyone says the Irish goodbye is approvable. Irish goodbye famously is you leave a party. The only thing I took away from playing those games like is it okay to leave a party without

saying goodbye? Is it okay to wear sandals on a plane? People are going to see these clips throughout the next week, but we should have made it a little bit harder because everybody pretty much agreed that everything was acceptable. That's what I think. I'm like, damn it. Face time, guys, FaceTime and guys. I'm a huge fan. Brady Quinn hates FaceTime.

You're not a big FaceTime guy. I get made. I need to be prepared for a FaceTime. I get made fun of first FaceTime in all the time, but pretty much everyone said it was okay. So also shout outs to Reggie. Cause he took, there's a moment that happened that he took really well.

I don't think he had the drink, but people were over talking to him. He was hanging out, and someone just swiped down for like a dab and just knocked a drink down, and the glass broke, and the shit spread, and he got hit, and he made that face. You know in that hat,

everyone's had a drink spilled or poured on them, and you want it for a minute, go fuck, man. But you know it's an accident, he took it very well. He just was like, you know in that hat, everyone's had a drink spilled or poured on him, and you want it for a minute, go fuck man, but you know it's an accident, he took it very well. He just was like, all right. Yeah, I remember that. All right, and then, this has to be said, and I'm sure, I think someone else, I heard some other show say this,

because he was out and about, and this is not meant for disrespect. I'm saying this in a respectful way. You know, Bryce Young. Well, he came up, showed you love. Him and I said a quick what's up and he was walking around. And I swear to you, Matt, I thought that that was someone who looked just like Bryce Young and was just walking around the party. You told me a little brother.

He is not. He's not big. He is. I know everyone talks about, he was an undersized quarterback. I think what he's doing in the NFL is actually crazy at that size. He's way closer than my size than your size. He's, I mean, Kyler Murray is shorter than him.

That's even more insane. Russell Wilson's not very tall. He was at the party. He's not very tall either. Yeah, he bright. Well, that was the thing. Bryce Young's five. I mean, 510 with shoes on maybe. I couldn't believe when he walked out like, wow, that's just like that dude looks just like Bryce Young. And I did like a dog. I'm like, that is Bryce Young. Wow. Yeah, that's stuck out. And then we were at the party when AD pulled his groin and I had the pleasure of, I was, I just was talking with Jalen Rose. And Jalen Rose-

Jalen Rose came by and gave us, Jalen Rose is the best. I love that dude, man. He's a good dude. He has a great, first of all, I want to get- Yeah, we got to get him on because the coolest thing about Jalen too

is he started a school, the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy in Detroit, JRLA. Every year I go up to Detroit to the charity golf tournament. I mean, I just think it's the coolest thing. Like, dude, you started a school. That's not even like, oh, we have this charity donate money. He started a school, that's crazy.

He's such a good guy, clearly. And I just, I appreciate, because when I was in Arizona, I think he was doing he was doing a lot of of the like in stadium or in arena mic stuff. He was like he was not like a DJ. I don't know what they call him. But he was he was doing in arena stuff. And this was after maybe he used to I don't know. It was definitely Jalen Rose. And he was always so good to me. We're boys. He's obviously a little bit older than me. And then throughout just the last decade, I see Jalen in the airport during the season because I travel all the time. I run into

him maybe once or twice a year in some airport, probably Detroit a lot of times. And I see him in LA or see him at a party and he always, always comes up like he did to us. Yeah. It just says, what's up, guys? Love you. Like he is just, he's a, he's a great guy. I really, anytime I see him, I just, I'm always like, man, Jalen Rose is awesome, dude, like, and I was a fan of his growing up when, when he was playing Michigan and then in the league, but shout out to Jalen, we've got to get him on the pod, but it was funny too, though.

I did Irish goodbye. I was done at some point. I was just done, but it was funny talking to everybody even our boy Frankie everyone just like where you going after this? What's we're hearing everybody's moves like acho came about wait. I'll tell you what I did. I was everybody going after this I took down two cheeseburgers in the hotel lobby bar See I went that and I continue to drink my I had a tequila. I still kept going I slowed it down a little bit real fan life would know the Knicks played the Celtics See, I went back to my room. And I continued to drink my, I had a tequila, I still kept going. I slowed it down a little bit.

Real fan life would know, the Knicks played the Celtics, which was unfortunate at 8.30 Eastern. So I, Irish goodbye to you. I went back to my room to watch that game and I ordered $200 a door dash for myself. I was wearing anything I could get my hands on. Am I ever gonna see you just let loose? Are we just, I mean, you're gonna let loose

one of these days? I saw it. That was kind of it. That was a little, that was a little. If that was let loose, then I've been now I can't let loose an environment like that because I know I have to talk to people and who knows if Shaq's going to roll up and says, hey, I just took a shake. Could you come to come in the bathroom for a minute? You know, so the parties were great. The weekend was great.

The game not so much. Well, let's get into the game. First, I'll just say New Orleans was a great host city. I had a little, I had, I had, I haven't had great experiences in New Orleans. I'm just saying, put it that way. Same. For my own reasons, I've been there a couple of times.

I will say this, for the Super Bowl, and for those big events, it was it's a it really is a perfect host city for Super Bowl. It really is. And I saw everybody say that it should be in the road three or four city rotation. I totally agree with that. You could walk everywhere. It was a little hot, but the weather was great. It wasn't bad. You know, the weather was great. The energy, the vibe, everything you could imagine. It was awesome. Like I had a, I left thinking New Orleans was awesome.

Like they're gonna have a Super Bowl there every handful of years. Next year it's in Santa Clara. That's gonna be a buzzkill. Yeah, I only had one other experience in New Orleans. I did a movie in New Orleans. And I think I say my experience in New Orleans wasn't great because that movie wasn't great. So it's it's linked together. But I did remember a halfway through our trip

just being just saying to myself, I got to change my attitude about New Orleans. This is incredible. This is there's a billion people here and it still feels like you could breathe and everyone had energy and the food's good. So shout outs to New Orleans. You guys did it. The game, however, and we're not going to spend too much on it because everybody's given their two cents. We all felt that this Eagles team, or at least I did that this Eagles team, that this could have been a blowout. Now I didn't say that, but it could have, it felt like the Eagles could win by two touchdowns

the way they were built, the dominant lines, the running back. But the mystique pulled us all in. The Mahomes mystique pulled us in. But the mystique of the Mahomes, which rightfully so, I wasn't, I gotta be honest, I wasn't surprised watching the game. I was not surprised.

Now I didn't ever say they were, I wasn't Rubin and picked them to win by a blowout. I don't know, My biggest takeaway wasn't. The Mahomes narrative. It wasn't, you know, it, it just was more super pumped for Jalen hurts. I thought the best team won the super bowl. Clearly I didn't. I thought Mahomes played as we all did, probably his worst game he's ever played.

And he would sit, which is crazy. Uh, it just, and didn't have a lot of time and and you could see you saw him you saw that defensive line when when when things start to go like that for QB it is really even if you're Mahomes it's really hard to just settle in and that's what happened but chiefs are great it's a good they got there but they got their ass kicked and they got a regroup I mean that's simple as that but shout out to the Eagles and Nick Sirianni and all the storylines and narratives this year and Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, your former giant gets a Super Bowl ring. Great season, but ended in the Eagles championship, man.

So yeah, my quick two cents. Everyone in New Orleans, I said it when we were there, I felt that the Eagles fans showed up way more. I don't know what it was like in the Orleans. I said it when we were there. I felt that the Eagles fans showed up way more. I don't know what it was like in the stadium. Some people have said there was a lot of Chiefs fans in the stadium. I think it was like seven. It looked Eagles dominant to me. Burkhart said it felt very Eagles dominant. I think 70-30 or something like that. Right. And obviously our red carpet, you know, we have Miles Teller, we have all the, you know, Ruben, all these Eagles. Everyone's picking the Eagles.

In New Orleans, and I talked to some analysts that we know that are on TV, everyone I spoke to. Even Shady McCoy at one point was like, how do you vet against my homes? But I mean, look at the Eagles, right? We talked to Shady at the party. So I picked the Eagles earlier in the week with Bet MGM, and then I actually bet on the Chiefs

when I got back home, because I said, no one's ever right. The consensus is never all correct. It just doesn't happen that way. The public is usually wrong. Now fortunately, I hit a lot of good prop bets, so it equaled out, but for me. I was shitty on all my bets this week.

Look, you could spot this way easier. I kind of had a bad feeling after the first chief's possession, not because they didn't score anything. I just thought from the first possession, the way the chief's front four pushed the offensive line back, even though they didn't get to him right away, then they got to him a billion times. Mahomes looked instantly sped up. Everything. The first or second throw from Mahomes. Rushed. He missed Kelsey on that one because it was rush. And that was where as a quarterback, it was just like, Ooh, it just, you just, sometimes

you just know it's not going to be your night after the first couple of throws. And then all of a sudden you start to combine the elite pass rush and you don't have a lot of time. And it just, and they're the Eagles were great. I mean, the Eagles were dominant, the secondary dominant, the D line wasn't close, but the linebackers dominant, Barkley dominant, O line dominant. Like that team is nasty. Like that is, that is a nasty team and they made the Chiefs look like an average football team

in that game. Now the one thing I was disappointed by is it was very, like I said, first possession I saw, oh boy, he had that Tampa Super Bowl feeling where he had a little happy feet and he just looked like he was out there only rushing forward. They're not blitzing anybody. They didn't do anything crazy on defense. So he was out. They're only rushing for it. Not blitzing anybody. They didn't do anything crazy on defense. So that was concerning, but I thought, okay, they'll figure it out.

Even when it was like 17, nothing, and he threw that other pick. I just thought Andy Reid and the coaching staff would have made some kind of adjustment. Again, maybe you can't against that defense, whether it's one step drops, just get rid of the damn ball. Maybe they don't have the receivers to do that. And well, that could maybe be their issue next year,

but it just became so clear it's not happening. It's just hard when you can't, it's very hard. And they didn't run the ball at all. They were handed off twice and gave up. It's very hard when you're overmatched up front. It's very hard when you're down 17, nothing against an elite defense. And then against an offense that can control the you just your your playbook just shrinks

to this big and then you start to run out of time and Andy Reid is still one of the best they just you just couldn't get anything going and then they they had they had penalties they had some penalties. Get rid of the penalty chiefs get all the call. Yeah we don't need to get even missed a Jalen Carter double punching him in the face. They didn't call that. It just it just felt it just it just was one of those lopsided games is the best team, the best team one. What I'm what I would like to put to rest is the whole and this has been talked

about all week is the Brady Mahomes debate. Oh, yeah. But it's I just, to me, it's the same as Jordan and LeBron. And when people talk about who's better again, I put Kobe in there at number two, but Brady's Brady's the best there. Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback at whatever, maybe we've ever seen kind of like LeBron, just LeBron is the best specimen we've ever seen play basketball like LeBron just LeBron is the best specimen we've ever seen play basketball right i mean that that's fair but winning but winning and and greatness and the moment and just in that category it's it's Brady and Mahomes may or may

not get there and it doesn't matter Mahomes is Mahomes is going to go down is the probably the second greatest quarterback to ever play Maybe he catches Brady. Maybe he doesn't but two Super Bowl losses they got routed completely routed Completely routed so I would have thought to I Armchair quarterback situation. Well, this is more about the running back spot. I thought this before the game I said, I wonder if and I even bet a few props around this. I wonder if the chiefs are going to feature Pacheco more. He kind of lost his starting job. I did lose his starting job to hunt and he really, since he had that injury, never quite came

back. Hunt was a great comeback story. I just looked at it like hunt is great, but he's kind of a bigger bruising, a little slower foot. They could just never get, they just, they never got a little smaller, a little more elusive, not saying he would have ran for a buck 10, but maybe could have gotten them a little breathing room. That didn't happen. And you know, Saquon didn't have a huge monster day. He didn't break any runs clearly to cheese prep form. But I think Jaylen was great.

He was unbelievable. He led the game in rushing. But I really do think the amount of effort that Spagnolo and the Chiefs defense probably put into game planning to stop Saquon. I'm not going to say it made it easy for Jalen Hurts, but it just probably opened it all up. Because that threat is so big back there. There's just the difference when look how they played the Bills. Now the problem with the Bills game is because the Bills don't have a defense. So that was just a shootout back and forth and you can, you can take some more chances because you know, your offense

is going to score a lot of points. But when you look at the Bills, you have to game plan for Josh Allen. Okay. How do you keep them in there? You have to on the back end. That's when you disguise, that's when you blitz. That's when you do all of these things because you know, they don't have receivers that can really, you're not worried about Shakir. You're not worried about these guys. James Cook, like they can make some plays, but you're worried about Josh Allen. The Eagles, it's opposite. And it's, it's, you do everything. You do everything to stop Saquon Barkley. So you're going to give less looks. You're not going to blitz as much because you're going to do everything you can to

focus on, you know, stacking the box, as they say, and and let Jalen Hurts beat you and do some stuff on the back end. But the problem with that is he beat you. You have AJ Brown, who's an old receiver. You have Smith. You have Goddard. It's a very good player. You have Devontae Smith, who is just he's a very talented receiver He's that he's a great number two receiver and then you had Jalen hurts and Jalen hurts

I was gonna talk about this later in the show But Jalen hurts deserves to be in that category is as the elite quarterbacks in this league I just does I don't you don't have to throw for 300 yards in every game and 45 touchdowns in the regular season to be great. And he he deserves to be in that conversation as one of the elite quarterbacks in our game because a lot like we view Eli Manning and a lot like we view some of these these quarterbacks where when Joe Flacco when it matters the most these guys shine on the biggest stage and he's done that his very young career every time he's had a chance. Every single player.

Even in the first Super Bowl, he was the best player on the field. Every single player showed up for the Eagles to the point where after the pick six from Cooper Dejean, I did a little. Shout out to Cooper Dejean. Still a little YouTube search on him. Like, let me see some highlights. Yeah, he's a white corner, Jerry. No, no, no. Well, have you seen it? I ever seen his basketball highlights. I saw that. I saw it. He's just dunking on everybody on

his combine throwing it on people on his co we covered them at Iowa for Fox. We were, I saw him play a bunch of times. He's nasty on the court. I think his vertical was 40 something at the combine. He was like Ann Edward. He looked like he ran a four three something. He's a freak. He's a freak. If you got two minutes out there and you don't know much about Cooper DeGene and hoops go do a YouTube search of his hoops highlights and he is just throwing it on. I'd rather 70 different dunks. I'd rather see him in the dunk contest and some of the guys who are in this year's dunk contest. I know, I know, I know.

That's a good segue. That's a professional segue. So we're saying farewell NFL. I'm sure at the draft, a lot of D tackles and guards. I just feel like front four on both sides of the ball just rose up the draft class watching what the Eagles did in the Super Bowl. We tabled the table. We're going to table the NFL.

Yes. Combine comes up here in a couple of weeks. Yes. And then the whole draft process is pretty crazy. Should we go? Should we go? The Combine? No, the draft, the draft, the draft.

Well, I was gonna say, I think that we're going to the draft. I don't know. Yes, more live stuff. I don't know if that's confirmed, but I think throwbacks will be at the draft in Green Bay, which will be pretty cool. The draft is a massive spectacle now, so that'll be a fun event. We'll be live there Not exactly sure what we're doing, but we'll be doing something and it was a great year. It was fun

It's gonna be fun to cover your Giants here this pre draft to see what they do This did make me want to blight. I'm very happy for sake one as a Giants fan. I'm not one of these giant haters I do think stray hand went too far waving the Eagles flag while interviewing Saquon. Bridge too far for me, Michael. I love you. You're the best. I'm happy. Nothing.

I have no ill will as a fan, but it did make me be like, come on Giants, let's get back in the fucking game now. Let's get back in the fucking game now. We've been out. We're far away. Let's get back in the fucking game now. A little bit. A little. Let's get competitive. the fucking game now. Well, we've been out we're far away Let's get back in the fucking game now a little bit a little let's get competitive little birdie. Maybe Matt Stafford Maybe Cooper Cup. Let's go. Let's maybe Team up with Malik neighbors

Go drag go draft an impact player there at number. What do they pick three or three? You're gonna get you're gonna get that to get, that's going to be interesting. If Stafford is available, cause he'll be an elite free agent. You guys cousin. I mean, his wife announced it and that it seems like he's moving. So it has to be real. Right. Well, anyway, we're, we're going to, we'll table football for a bit. There'll be lots of football to talk about of course, the next couple of months with all the heat up for the draft. And you know, you know, the college, you know, college players way better. You are way better than me. So this is going to be my first real experience.

I only really follow stuff for the giants, but now I'm locking into everything. So I'm excited to hang with you draft time. There's some good, there's some, it's a weaker quarterback draft class. Uh, but you have guys like Abdul Carter, who's kind of a Micah Parsons mold. There's some, there's some Travis Hunter. There's some big time impact players outside of the quarterback position that are going to be Ashton. Yeah. The running back for the, for boys and sweat for me through like the first half

was the MVP. So you get an edge rusher like that. You could see what could happen in the biggest game of the year. So we love you, NFL. That was great. We're gonna hit a quick break comeback because we got some NBA stuff to talk about. It's time. You're gonna start seeing Ferrari on a whole different level. I'm a big NBA guy.

I'm a big NBA guy. If you follow me, you know I'm a big NBA guy. Matt, Matt, Matt really likes the NBA a lot. I'm a big NBA guy. He doesn't leave the fanatics party to go watch the Nick Celtics game in his hotel room. Yeah, but I actually enjoy socializing at a sick party, watching like a free concert with friends and people.

But yeah, I mean, it's fine. The problem for me too is you're tall, so you're able to see the show. I couldn't really see the concert. Oh, stop, just stop. Couldn't really see the concert. Let's just talk about your NBA, okay? Let's talk about your NBA. I couldn't really see the concert. Stop. I couldn't really see the concert. Let's just talk about your NBA, okay?

Let's talk about your NBA. Well, obviously All-Star Weekend's coming up, but we got something dropping tomorrow that we're pretty excited about. We obviously talked a while back about Matt and I, we talking a little shit to each other. We were going to have this three-point shootout because I really think I could beat Matt and Matt thinks I have no chance. So you got us the USC basketball court where they play and we have an official quick trailer because this video is now dropping tomorrow where you'll see the winner. So five foot six

Ferrara versus six foot five professional athlete Matthew Leiner. Which means nothing when you're shooting. Let's roll the trailer for the three point shootout. What do you think the total number needs to be to win? 50 shots. How many makes you think? You're both taking 50. We're both taking. We're going five from each station. I go, he goes, I go, he goes.

I'm going to say in this particular drill, I'm going to go 21. Wow. Her round? No, you're doing 50 total, right? 50 total. 21, Coach? 21 makes out of 50?

You think I'm shooting like low 40s? Hold on, Muscleman right there. His face is so great. Coach joined us. He was sick as a dog. Shout out to Mus when he when he did that. He was super sick. I remember. So that's dropping tomorrow on our YouTube again at throwback show on YouTube. Subscribe to it. It'll be up there tomorrow and you will see the winner from our time out at USC. And I just can't wait for people to see it. I'm proud of a lot of things that happened there.

And I'm not proud of some other things, but it'll be good. You're proud of your, okay, I was saying, making sure you're proud of your product. Matt, we made content, buddy. I'm proud of that too. We also made content. We did, we did. I don't even know what that is.

That was fun, that was a fun day. That was a fun day. Okay. First thing. What do you got? Yeah, was a fun day. Okay. First thing. What do you got? Yeah, well, all-star breaks coming up. And I know NFL and NBA are like different, obviously with the breaks.

And so I can't really ask you this as a former athlete, but I feel like once you make the all-star game and if you're one of those guys, like you're three or four years in, I feel like you want the break. I know, funny, cause I'm a Knicks fan, Josh Hart. There was a minute where they're like, Oh, Josh Hart could actually maybe make the all-star game.

He's been fantastic this year and he doesn't want it to interrupt his vacation, man. He's going to go put his feet in the water and in the sand somewhere. He said, I mean, do you think obviously it's a huge honor to be an all star, but if you get that once or twice, do you think you could be like, ah, pass? I'd be fine if I didn't make it. I'll go to Cabo. I call. It's a tough call because you have guys like LeBron and who just appreciate every year and they're there and they never you never hear them say, never. I wish I was in Mexico. Someone like Josh Hart, who's not an all star.

He's kidding player. But yeah, he's probably kidding. I'm sure if that guy was an all star every year, he would be there every year. There is something about those guys getting that big break in the middle of a season, for sure. And enjoying that, especially when you're not an all star. You'd rather go to Mexico where we're going to go anyway. Football is different. Football. There's no the Pro Bowl and all that is, is after the season. It's probably very similar to a buy in the NFL buys. The first thing when we get our schedule in the off season

is where's the buy? Literally, we just, where's the buy? Did you always travel? Like when you get a buy, do you, is that like vacation or do you just stay at home and relax? I would come home. I would come home and see Cole or just my family come back to California, no matter where I was. A lot of people family go in a little family. You don't really go on a vacation because you're only gone. You're only on off a couple of days. Maybe you go get away at a hotel or you just spend time with the kids and the family. That's sort of become Thursday night football now with the NFL, which is great too, because that is, we hate Thursday night football because it usually follows a Sunday game where it's three days a rest.

But you get two games done in four days. If you go to and oh, it's there's nothing better. And then your Friday, Saturday, probably Sunday off. So it's a built in buy as well. So you can get multiple buys. It's very different the NBA. So I think Josh Hart, probably joking there. I can't imagine someone not being an All-Star not being grateful to or being also not course, he's joking. Yeah, of course. My problem, my problem with the All-Star game and weekend and it could be NHL, it could be NFL with the Pro Bowl weekend, which they continue to try and change just to try and get eyeballs there. It's just not the same as it was before. And what I mean by that, I just grew up in an

era where it was East versus West. It was Jordan and Shaq and Kobe and just the guys that you and I grew up watching that way. I was just it was great basketball then and it was, they cared. I mean, remember when D Wade broke Kobe's nose in an all-star game? It just like they- And Kobe didn't like, he kept playing? Yeah, he was like, fuck it, this is great.

He actually loved it. It's just not, it's just, it's a glorified, it's a, what is it? I know the format is different this year. I get that. It's all different. We're gonna talk about that. It's 250 I get it. It's all different. We're going to talk about that. Two hundred and forty seven. It's not fun to watch.

There's nothing fun to watch about the NBA All-Star game. The three. Can I give you one quick fix? Go for it, dude. I just I just I wish it was. I well, I think the dunk contest and again, our throwback three coming up in a minute is the dunk contest stuff. I am of the thought with the dunk contest that it's very clear that the big stars that we used to get all the time are not going to do it anymore. They're not going to do it. Why? Why? Because injuries, I'll tell you why. I'll tell you

why. Injuries? Potential injuries and also potentially looking like an asshole. If you are a young up and coming star, if you're Ann you have if you were a young up-and-coming star You're an Edwards who you're a super how is he going to look like an asshole dunking if because Because so many times he may not win the bar to do crazy dunks has Changed and Edwards is an amazing in-game dunker And I bet if he took time and worked on dunks as opposed to his game for the NBA, he could probably come up with three or four just bangers. Guys like that don't have to work on dunks. We've seen every dunk. So guys are pushing

the envelope now so much further that it takes them like five tries during a dunk contest to pull it off because they're trying shit that's crazy. It's not fun to watch. It's not fun to watch. It's not terrible to watch. Matas Buzalis, who's that? I don't know who that is. Andre Jackson Jr., who's that? Oh, he's nasty.

Ajax is nasty. By the way, Max McClung is a dog. He's going for a three-peat. That's the real three-peat we're gonna see. I get it, I get it, but who? I would love to see Aunt Edwards. I'd love to see Ja Morant. I'd love to see.

Well, the famous thing is LeBron never, LeBron could have carried it forward like MJ did and he never did. He never participated. He never did it. Kobe did it. Vince Carter, we'll talk about all these. So, but hear me out.

I do think there's some good dunkers on that list you just said, but the Matt McClung thing, which is what I've been saying, I've been watching Matt McClung's overtime highlights since he was in high school, amazing dunker, works at dunking, he's probably gonna win, he's gonna be the heavy favorite to win, why not have two or three NBA guys on like a bracket, here's the NBA one,

and then have two or three just dunkers professional Dunkers will if you go look in YouTube and Instagram Well, but but maybe maybe we'll get this amazing matchup with Ajax Who's not a huge name but is an amazing dunker? Against some dunker that has a big social media following and has all the dunks in the bag and maybe then we'll get a cool NBA verse pro dunker clash and we'll get some drama out of it. That's that's gone for a living. It's fine I am I used to love like McClung like waiting up to watch the dunk contest It's the best one. It was the best part even the three three point shootout. The three point shootout should go last now.

That's how much it's overtaken the dunk contest. It could be. The three point shootout is still the same. It's still fine. You know, but the dunk contest, it just doesn't do it for me anymore because there's no big name. Mac McClung is great and he's watching him jump. It's like Spud Webb because he's not the biggest guy. He's like 5'11".

It's just there's nothing. It's like spud web because he's not the biggest guy. He's like 511. It's just there's nothing. The last. I think the last one that I enjoyed was and I might talk about this later and throw back was Zach Levine and Aaron Gordon. Let's save it. Table save.

Yeah. But but but it just to me, it's like. I am fix it. So don't contest. We're getting, say, two to four NBA players that we have, or maybe narrow it down to three, and then we get two to four professional, and we could even do a fun social media vote,

like leading up to it, how we get the pro dunker, and who that lineup is gonna be, and we tournament style that, and then here's a fix for the NBA three point contest. And I know it's branded by Spr- I know it's brand, I get it. Get rid of the fucking money ball. Get it out.

Get it out. The money ball's iconic. Get it out! No. Get rid of it. So I could hit more shots than you, but you could hit different, you could hit more money balls than me and beat me. I could hit 17 shots, you could hit 14 shots, but because you hit three money balls and I missed two, you could beat me.

Yes, so hit the money ball. Fine, sure, hit the money ball. I like the guy who makes the better percentage. It's been around for decades. And Matt, if we hold on to these things that have been around for decades, that is what now baseball is fighting so hard against to fix. Because they held on for things for decades and slowly everything dropped. And now they're trying to get back up to speed with changes of modern day stuff.

And it's working. Shout outs to baseball. But if you hang on to the thing that, oh, we're back. The dunk contest, the three point contest is fine. But you need your stars to play. The dunk contest was great when there were stars, when there were people you actually wanted to watch dunk. I agree.

Well, that's why we got to get the pro dunker. Some of the best dunks of all time aren't the most creative ones. They're just like the ones where you just, you're watching them and you're just jaw drops like, Oh my God, the Vince Carter just jumped. It's just like they're like Jordan back in the day. I'm telling you I'm right. There's no contest. There's no there's no star power in the dunk contest. The three point contest is fine. It's just fine. I think it's just everything is tired. Get rid of that money ball. Get rid of that money ball. Everything is tired. And again, I understand all like how many, I mean, the Home Run Derby has been rebranded. The Home Run Derby is one of my favorite things too. It's been rebranded a million

different times. But the problem is, is you're just not getting the big, the big, big guys. Wow. I don't know. Let me know if you guys like any of my pitches. I got some really quick because we have not talked a lot of NBA. I'll tell you what, if I miss the NBA dunk off this this weekend, I'm not losing sleep over it. I'm just letting you know. All right. I'll probably watch it. I have a few big takeaways from the first half of the NBA season because we have not talked a lot of NBA since we had Sir Charles Barkley on I'm just gonna shout him out. You could agree or not, but from everything I've seen We could talk. Ok see Denver Cleveland it is just not even close that the Celtics are the team to beat it's not even close

I know that some teams are having amazing regular seasons when those dudes turn it on and Want to clamp up and hit three? That's just because they're damn near on the ass dude They're with they're having a bad season and they're gonna walk to 56 wins leave bad season having a bad season by their Cleveland Cleveland's gonna Cleveland's nasty Cleveland is that Deandre? Yes, I love that they got Deandre Hunter and the 3D guy they've been looking for. But for me, you could talk, OKC is having an amazing season. So is Cleveland.

Knicks have been fun. Lakers have been awesome lately. You're just saying that you're just saying this so you prepare yourself when the Knicks lose and the Celtics. I had been saying this for months. I'm not saying this for months. The Celtics, this is just their team. I'm not saying this as a Knicks fan. I'm saying this as a basketball fan. The level that they can go to is far greater than any level any other team can go to. And interesting shout out that I thought, too,

with the last few champions we've had with coaching, right? Joe Mazzullo with the Celtics was much maligned as a coach. This guy sucks. He inherited Ime's team. He needs help on the bet, wins the championship. Ryan Day. He's like 38 years old too. Ryan Day. Oh, get this guy out of here. He lost to Michigan.

What a bad, wins the national title. Now we got our guy, Sirianni, who was much more on the hot seat coming into the season. This could be it, wins the championship. So shout outs to Joe Madsen. All three, by the way, this could be it, wins the championship. So shout outs to Joe Mads and all those guys. By the way, those three sports teams, Boston fans, Philly fans, and Ohio State fans,

three of the worst, three of the most savage fan bases in all sport, I'm telling you. So that's it for the Celtics. My Knicks, not as close as we may all have thought. Not as close. It's not, they're not that team. They'reicks, it's not. We're not as close. They're not that team, buddy. They're a really good team.

Trust me, I've watched enough Knicks this year to know that they are not that team this year. We have help coming. They're tough. We have help coming back that fills every single thing in the Knicks need. Let's move on to more important things. Did you see Luca suit up on Lakers?

That's my other big takeaway. LeBron giving Luke the option. Hey, where do you want to be announced tonight? We'll do it like LeBron's playing it perfectly. He's deferring just enough while still being a leader. And it's good. It's going to be a problem for the NBA. It is going to be a problem.

Lakers are going to be good. I'm telling you, I know I know the size. I get it. Trust me, I get it. I've I've I love that. Don't I know the size. I get it. Trust me. I get it. I love basketball. Just don't run into the... Jackson Hayes has the greatest opportunity of his lifetime to be a 10 and 12 guy and just be a presence. That's all. You don't need to score. Just be a presence. And the other night he was a presence. I think he had six points. He was three of three. He

just did exactly what he did and they blew out the jazz. Right. It's not a big game. Well, you talk about my Knicks might not be it. You're pending a lot on Jackson Hayes. It's a shame. What happened with the Mark Williams stuff? It is. Shout outs to the Lakers for avoiding the trade. What the hell happened? Well, Lakers trying to get Shams on, by the way, to discuss Lakers. Lakers are smart for not doing it.

You look at the guys. Let me just say this about the Lakers. Everybody's so worried about, well, the deep for the center and all this. Well, let's just say, okay, well, who's going to stop their offense? Who's going to show their offense? You have Boston could easily have. Yeah, I'm talking about the West though. And okay. She's great. I know Denver, but I'm just saying there's not a ton of bigs you have to go through that scare you in the West outside of Jokic and nobody can guard Jokic. Nobody. Anthony, if I were the Lakers, I know like seating is very fickle and you don't really duck people and some people even gone as far as

last year. The crazy stuff people were saying of you should just tank into the play in so you could avoid the no, but they should try to avoid the nuggets at all costs, especially in the first round. That is the worst matchup for them. They're two and a half games out of the two seed right now. The Lakers coming on strong and they're coming. I just, I just Luca, LeBron is LeBron. When you talk about him, Luca in the last Luca is led his team single-handedly almost to the finals. Luca is a dog in the playoffs. We know that. Our guy Hillbilly bogey Austin Reeves. And Hillbilly bogey. He is the X factor because everybody's going to be on LeBron. Everybody. I mean Reeves dropped 45 the other

night. Reeves is a Reeves is an animal and he's an elite ball handler as well. So they are going to be a nightmare matchup for other teams as well. Last few takeaways for me to have. Obviously the AD getting hurt. We don't have to spend much time on it. That just sucks because we it was looking he was on demon time. My last thing I want to just say, and this is a big picture stuff, but we are inching closely and I've been watching this because it does affect the Knicks because I think this could potentially be the first round matchup The Detroit Pistons are good, bro They're really good and fun And I know the Tigers just signed our boy Flaherty Detroit sport the Lions had a disappointing but good year Detroit sports is back. Cade has been unbelievable Ivy might be on the way back. They've been smart all throughout this whole season. It almost feels like kind of what the Knicks went through. There was so much dysfunction for so long. Similarly, even with the Lions. Now you're looking at it and you go, wow,

this is actually starting to work out. Cade Cunningham is having a season. Lions Knicks might be the first of Lions. Pistons Knicks might be the first round matchup. By the way, you guys will you got you'll handle the Pistons. They're tough, dude. They're looking at the roster. They're all right. Jay Nivies coming back to I just I love what I love is I love looking like a guy like Malik Beasley. He's having a great year. He was a Laker. He did nothing with the Lakers. I just I look at all these guys. He's like four threes a game. Dude, he's averaging almost 17 points a game game just, and he was a great shooter, but he barely played for us and that they try, but it's like,

that was a rough look. Cause you could really use Malik Beasley right now. That would be perfect player to go with LeBron. Well, you stick that dude in the corner with LeBron and Luca. Gabe Vincent's going to be an X factor this year too. He was hurt all of last year. You accuse me of being a Homer and you're talking talking gay Vince. It's going to be the ex fat. Okay. Well, it's time to move on to other stuff. It's now time for fresh moves of the week brought to you by Wendy's. Go to Wendy's taste the difference in a hamburger. All right.

Let me get a sip real quick before I talk about my fresh move of the week. Okay, All-Star Game is upon us. I love what the NBA has done, refreshing this All-Star format. I'm with you what you said earlier, Matt. Though 250 to 240 game, it just wasn't working. The guys, I get it, you don't wanna fully go hard, you don't wanna get hurt. I understand all of it,

it was not working. And I don't fully know if this is gonna work. What I like about it is, so we're gonna have four teams, three of which were drafted by our boy Shaq, our boy Charles, and our boy Kenny, and then the four teams are gonna be the winner from the Rising Challenge game, Rising Stars game. So that makes me interested in that game a little more.

The fourth team. The fourth team will be the winner of the rising stars will be coach Friday I know I coached coached by Candice Parker Okay, so I'm now more interested in that game. You check that box off. You got a little more Friday night heat But you could look it gets till 40, right? It's basically a pickup game now what the all-star game was always described as this is the greatest Pickup game we've ever seen where guys are playing to win the whole court. We sort of have that now So guys come on the court. You're only getting to think if you phone it in you think it's gonna make them play harder I think so because if you phone it in in a 40-point game, which could last six minutes long you are gonna get

absolutely flamed online for not even attempting to win a 40-point pickup game I think it might lead to guys don't care I'm sorry to shit. They don't care when when you could when it's a foot when it's a literally a 40-minute game and They're just going up and down. It's it's it's I don't know the answer to this. What's the incentive of winning the whole thing? Is there an incentive? It's financial. I'm sure. Is it? I don't know. I haven't heard. I haven't seen Andrew. Is there a financial award for the All-Star Game? I know. I know there is. I know now that the I mean the world the baseball used to be the winner got home field

in the world series, which was bananas. I think Shaq, Chuck and Kenny have done a good job with strategies. Like Kenny is going for like the younger player who hasn't made his mark yet and wants to maybe go score 30, which you always see, you know, Shaq said he's going star studded because they're not, their egos won't allow them to lose. There's some financial rewards. There's a pool of 1.8 million each player on a championship winning team receives 125,000. I know to these guys that's a drop in the bucket. No, but it ain't nothing. Money's money. Money's money. It's not nothing. So a prize pool of 1.8 million to the winning team. Yeah. Yeah. It it's saying that that was with each player

of the championship. Player in the championship winning team gets 125K, 50 grand at each player on third. Yes, there's a decent amount. So basically, you get 125 grand if you win. Yes. Matt, you have to win, what, two rounds to 40. So you have to win two pickup games to 40

to pick up 125 grand. I get it, but I get it. We'll see. We'll see. You're me to tell me too, but think about like this. What they did so well making the origin, the all-star game to a total and not timed. The thing we got from that is what if it's 38, 38?

Okay, and LeBron's team has the ball. They need a bucket to win. Who's taking the shot? And you don't think that other team's gonna want to try to get a stop. You think they'll just let them walk in and just lay the ball in and kick them off the court? If it gets to that point, look, they're gonna play.

38 37, you get to stop there. You can go for the game winning three to hit 40. It's gonna be fun. As a casual fan of the NBA, I would love to see how it all plays out we've never seen it before let's see let's see how hard they play let's see the intensity factor let's see if these guys want to show up if there's if if 125 grand is worth these guys playing their ass off I think it's gonna be awesome I think it's gonna be a refreshing take on a format that was dying a very, very painful public death.

So, that is my fresh move of the week, brought to you by Wendy's All-Star Game is back. It's gonna be fun. We are gonna take a quick break and come back and do our Throwback Three, greatest dunk contest performance. All right, it's time for the Throwback Three dunk contest happening this weekend.

We've talked about it. We're gonna go back in time because it is a time honored tradition, the dunk contest closing out Saturday night. Matt, we're gonna go back and forth. We got our top throwback three. Would you like to start at number three? Yes, I'm pulling up.

I didn't put the year, so. Maybe help you. Zach Levine and Aaron Gordon. Twenty sixteen. Twenty sixteen. So. I put both because. I just remember there were a couple of good years before that. And 2016 was nine years ago, so I was 32, still into it, still love watching that.

But it was starting to fade a little bit for me, just some of the years, some of the players. Zach Levine, and I'm going to say this about all my dunkers, but I loved the dunker who's like 6'4 to 6'6, 6'7. Now Aaron Gordon's bigger than that, so I get that. Yeah, he's 6'10. Yeah, I love that where they really truly feel like they're flying and that's why I just love Jordan and those guys. But have you gone, I watched this. It's the most rewatchable one ever.

I watched it and I was like, wow. So, I mean, Zach Levine had the one where he threw up and he put the ball behind his back and then like the one hand reverse thing. I think it was his very first dunk of the whatever. I was like, oh, it was insane. I would say both of them. I know Aaron Gordon had the one where he jumped over, the ball went under his legs and then whatever at 610. It was one of the best dunk contests of all time

with two of the best dunking players of all time. So that's really great. Do you know what's so special about it too? These guys were hitting those on the first try. I know. Which makes it way better. There wasn't that awkward 30 seconds of this guy trying to dunk that.

And then when he does it, it's not even that overwhelming anyway. These guys were hitting dunks like first they both try both had swag They both were getting the crowd that it was a it was a very fun Dunk contest to watch with two like rising stars at the time like two very very talented players that you knew could play So that's my number three. Okay. My number three is we're going back to 2003 Jason Richardson on the oh years And an honorable mention that year to Desmond Mason with because also it's something just so amazing that he's wearing the old

Sonics jerseys and he had some amazing dunks, but Jason Richardson who is again? He's miss six four he falls right into that Category of guy one of the best dunkers ever He's 6'4", he falls right into that category of guy you like. One of the best dunkers ever. But yeah, he was just doing, it was like so clear and I thought Desmond Mason any other year wins, but he just ran into a beast. So 03, another very rewatchable one, go scope it out. 03, Jason Richardson and then I also saw Young Amari Stoudamire in there and I think your

boy Richard Jefferson was in that one, I think. Rich was a high flyer back before you get one, he got old. All right. All right. I'm going. Look, I'm going to go Jordan 88. And. I think there's a lot of guys you could say that just are it's hard to say even better dunkers, but he's just guys that some of the dunks that you see in the dunk contest are like

crazy, like, wow. But Jordan 88 against Dominique. And I believe the year before Dominique won, right? Was that it was that MJ was trying to beat him and to the best dunkers of all time. And that was that was the free throw line where he's just flying through. And apparently the first time he did the free throw line dunk, he didn't plan it. And Dr. J had said something. Dr. J originated that pretty much. Dr. J had said something to him during that dunk contest that you should I think he pointed. I just read the article. So MJ just said, screw it. I'm going to do the I'm going to do the free throw line because Dr. J said it to him from the sideline or from the court. So that dunk that was just prime.

It's the most iconic, most iconic, but that's when the dunk contest. And again, we were kids, but that was when the dunk contest, you just, it was a must see TV. You couldn't miss it. It's in Chicago, Dominique Wilkins, by the way, who might be the best dunker of all time. And that era of dunkers. And just that's when that's when you wanted to watch the dunk contest. And that's because the biggest stars of the game were in it. And for me, it also launched my favorite shoe of all time.

The Jordan 88, the white cement 88. Like that to me, that when I saw that, I had that poster that to me, it's still the best shoe. It's my favorite shoe. I buy a new pair every year or so. I just love that shoe. Even the black cement ones off, those are amazing too. The greatest poster, sports poster of all time. Outside of Muhammad Ali standing over, was he standing over Sonny Liston?

Sonny Liston, yeah. I had that picture hanging up in my house in Arizona. M.J., where he's just. Yeah, I hope this doesn't step on your number one, because we did not discuss this in advance. But I got to give a shout out to the to the little guys. Did you know that? OK, I mean, you got to give a shout out to Spud Web. I mean, it just will never see that again. He's my height.

Well, Nate Robinson, Nate Robinson. Yeah, but Nate's still a little bigger. Nate's Nate's five eight, dude. Five, nine, maybe. No, but five, six. Yeah, it's incredible. So it's the difference of me and Bryce Young, essentially, who Bryce Young, not a big dude. But if you look at him next to me, he's a bigger dude. So shout outs to Spudweb. Never seen anything like it. That's, that's, that's it for me. That's number two. Number one, I went, I went through all his dunks. Vince Carter, 2000. Okay. The greatest

dunker of all time. The greatest in game dunker of all time. The first one he started with just the reverse kind of 360 windmill, right? I don't know if you watch this. Then he goes like a little bit of the baseline windmill then he has Tracy McGrady bounce the ball through the legs windmill and then the fourth one he hung his elbow remember when he got really high hung his elbow and then the last one to win a two hand off from right inside the free throw line a two hand just two hand dunk from off a one foot.

I rewatched it. I watched about six minutes of dunks last night. So fun. It's so fun. Vince Carter was, Vince Carter made the dunk contest fun. A lot like Michael Jordan, a lot like some of these guys. So he's my number one. So my number one was the 2016 Gordon Levine. Maybe we could start doing drafts for some of these so we could just sidewind it. So I'm gonna just rip off some honorable mentions really fast. Isaiah Ryder, 1994, first time he really saw that East Bay through the legs. And then obviously I thought

for sure you were gonna maybe mention Kobe. Kobe was great. That was like well, it was great because here's a young star who's clearly on the cusp of being elite and He not afraid and not afraid so I always respected that Kobe Did that so I give those are my two honorable mentions, but yeah the Gordon Levine. I'm sorry It is I can't the one that might be the great. I mean it It's just awesome. The wall. It is iconic. It's the one that might be the great. I mean, it's just awesome. The law. It was just awesome. I mean, the cameras are better. Like even like the Jordan one in 88, which is awesome. And obviously it's the most iconic. But like we finally like it all happened. We had good cameras. We had two charismatic dudes who are very,

very physically different. The dunks were like nothing we've seen before and they were doing it first time. It was awesome Dominique Wilkins was great He was a really just they yeah, so they dunked so like physically they don't you know I mean, it was just so Sean Kemp had a shot amazing ones flipped one like behind his back over his head and had a few Amazing ones. I never got into the Dwight Howard. I don't like when ones. I never got into the Dwight Howard. I don't like when 711, 711. I just don't, it doesn't it doesn't happen for me. Yeah, I'm telling you that six, I mean anything under 6-4 for sure, but that's 6-4 like Vince Carter's 6-6, Kobe, those guys are all 6-5, 6-6, maybe 6-7. 6-3 and 6-7 is awesome. Who can just absolutely fly. Those are the most fun guys to watch. I don't know. Matt, we'll see.

fly. Those are the most fun guys to watch. I don't know. We'll see. Last quick thing. You flew back. I know it's now been announced. I want to publicly congratulate you on the throwback show. You are no longer Maddie Ice. We are going to rename you on this show. You are Maddie Girl Dad. Congrats buddy. You had a baby girl. We had a baby girl. It's true what they say. I'll just say that. There's nothing like being a girl dad. And I have three boys. You're already getting feelings.

You're already getting different feelings. I had feelings the second she came out. And we found out because we didn't find out this one. Again, I have three boys. I had feelings the second she came out. And the moment that I had with Josie when I told her, I told her it was a girl, was one of the moments I'll never forget. And not to get too emotional,

but I said this after I said, there's been one or two times where I've cried in my life that it was like that deep, deep, just you can't control cry. When my mom died about eight years ago, just that that hit us clearly. And that was tears of sadness and grief and all that. And then when my baby girl was born, the tears of joy that I had when I got my girl and all of my kids and you know, I love all of my boys and they're all amazing but to experience the love of a girl. And it was instant dude, it was instant and it just felt I felt like I was her protector. It felt like she could do no wrong. It felt like all is okay. It was just it was it was it was something I can describe like this. But until you are a girl dad, which now I can say because I've never experienced this before. Now I know what my boys all told me who have girls are like it is they I hope you experienced that because it's just different. And I have both and a lot of my friends have both and it it truly is so

Josie's been great. She's a rock star. Everything was great. Our baby girl Camila May May's after my mom's middle name may that's great. She's beautiful. She's the best. She's been a saint so far knock on wood. She's our little angel and we're finally we're finally happy to shout out people we did a did a story with People magazine, which is. Yeah, go check it out if you have a really great story they wanted to announce. So we did that. But I will be flooding my storyline now with pictures. I'm here for the baby. My baby's in.

Two quick things, too. It's really cool to think that that little girl obviously has a great dad. But he's gonna have three big brothers. That's fucking awesome. And I'll say this really quick. Cole, my 18 year old, just in love. He's been just the way he looks at her and talks about it. It makes me happy because you know, he's older and 18 years is a big gap.

Kaysen, our five year old, right? It was real pissed when she, right when she was real pissed when she was, when she found out. What's this? But now he's very sweet. And Cannon, our little Cannon, our little guy, three and a half, is just was kissing her when he met her, he's in love.

So, but they, and I tell them every day, and Cole knows this, I tell them, I said, your job is to protect your baby sister all the time. And I say, what I say, what do you guys got to do? Protect your daddy. And that's what they're going to do. And I feel bad. She's going to be real tough. She's going to be a tough kid. Very solid chance. She might be the toughest liner yet. And really cool. The other fanatics party moment we didn't say we did get a Camila appearance. You FaceTimed Josie real quick. I forget who we were talking to, Frankie,

a bunch of people. And for a minute, she was up in the fanatics party on FaceTime, so I thought that was amazing. She was buffered to ludicrous, I think. Josie, I hope you're getting sleep. We miss you on the show. You gotta come back on when you feel up to it, but yes, that is nothing but great news over there. And let's just say I don't think my wife's watching right now, but I feel like we're on the clock now. I feel like we're on the clock.

Buddy, you've been on the clock. It's just a matter. It's just a matter of when that when that clock just sits green. Like a butterfly staying like a bee. You're not going to sting too much. You're definitely floating. You're not stinging. You need to start staying in, bro. All right. We're wrapping up here. Last bit of housekeeping. A lot of you, at least on my time, been like, where's the entourage episode?

Where's the Connelly? Do you guys taped it a year ago? Where we know good news is it's dropping next week. So look out for that. Me, Maddie Girldads, Connelly, Dylan. It was in studio in LA and we even have a fun accompanying piece of content with it. Let's just say it involved Kevin Costner at one point. A little sneaky messaging. So look out for that episode too next week. That's coming. We'll be all over socials at throwback shell. Matt, go go see if you need some relief. Good episode and peace out NFL. We miss you. See you next year.