Tracy McGrady, Knicks Go Up 2-0, James Harden Is Still James Harden, Boat Pictures And Fyre Fest of The Week

Summary

Pardon My Take – Episode Summary

Episode: Tracy McGrady, Knicks Go Up 2-0, James Harden Is Still James Harden, Boat Pictures And Fyre Fest of The Week
Date: May 8, 2026
Hosts: Big Cat, PFT Commenter
Special Guest: Tracy McGrady

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Main Theme

This episode is a packed sports talk bonanza, blending NBA and NHL playoff recaps, Knicks fandom, the enduring James Harden Playoff Debate, a colorful segment with Tracy McGrady, and the recirculating “boat pictures”/Vrabel-Rossini drama. The episode’s overall vibe is classic PMT: loud, humorous, self-deprecating, and deeply passionate about both the highs and lows of sports fanship.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. NBA Playoff Recaps

Oklahoma City Thunder Dominate Lakers

• Thunder lead series 2-0: The hosts are in awe of how “good” and “deep" OKC is, noting the Lakers “should be allowed to give up” (04:40).
• Jared McCain as x-factor:
  • “Jared McCain just whapping threes—would never have traded that guy.” (03:28, Big Cat)
  • Reflecting on trade regrets, esp. from the Sixers’ perspective (“The Philadelphia f***ing 76ers can find minutes for him.” 08:09, Max).
• Nitpicking The Thunder: On attire (“I didn’t like the dark blue shirts … where the light-colored—pop, more intimidating.” 10:57, Memes), and minor flaws like Lou Dort’s 3-point shooting.

James Harden Playoff Narrative

• Another Harden letdown:
  • “As the playoffs go, we’re going to get James Harden missing a ton of shots, falling all over himself, doing ISO ball.” (12:17, Big Cat)
  • “Through two games, he’s got 9 field goals made, 11 turnovers... fourth game of these playoffs with more turnovers than field goals.” (15:16, Big Cat)
• Is Harden a ‘Choke Artist’?
  • “No … to be a choke artist, the moment has to be too big for you … I think Harden is just like ‘f*** it, I don’t really care.’” (16:21, Memes)
  • Hilarious theory: Harden plays worse in playoffs because he “makes 30 times less than in the regular season … not worth my time. I’m gonna go to the titty bar.” (13:41, Memes)

Knicks vs. Sixers Series

• 02:00 – 09:00: Knicks up 2-0 on the Sixers, but both teams battling injuries.
• Sixers missing Joel Embiid; Knicks win a tough game.
  • “For three quarters, Sixers are better without Joel … but they need him to be competitive.” (32:03, Big Cat)
• Drummond’s infamous “mop” fail, getting outdone by Karl-Anthony Towns at Madison Square Garden, becomes a running joke (37:06–38:50, Memes & Big Cat).

Around the NBA & NHL

• Barkley vs. Draymond Green “Bus Driver” beef: Draymond’s claim reawakens appreciation for Charles Barkley’s greatness and exposes a chilly set dynamic (52:02–55:35).
  • “If you put Charles Barkley on the Warriors, they’d probably win by more... Draymond was never the bus driver, Barkley was.” (53:11, Big Cat)
• Mention of the Spurs’ resurgence, Timberwolves’ letdown, and Anthony Edwards’ possible fatigue (49:18–51:59).

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2. Notable Quotes & Moments

On OKC Thunder

• “The Thunder are so goddamn good … they just throw the torture chamber at you.” (03:10, Big Cat)
• “I am also…this is the part of the playoffs where people start complaining about flopping…I'm just gonna respect the Thunder greatness.” (04:48, Big Cat)

On Harden’s Playoff Drop-off

• “I think Harden just does not give a f*** in the playoffs because it's such a massive pay cut … not worth my time.” (13:41, Memes)

On Knicks-Sixers Fandom/Despair

• “The Bulls are a non-competitive franchise. That is a joke … run by absolute morons and fools.” (07:01, Big Cat)
• “I think we're the Drum Circle. We're the only podcast that talks about Andre Drummond.” (36:33, Max)

On Draymond Barkley Debate

• “If you put Charles Barkley on the Warriors, they’d probably win by more…” (53:11, Big Cat)
• “Draymond’s never been the bus driver. Charles Barkley was.” (55:38, Big Cat)

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3. Tracy McGrady Interview (77:01–120:08)

Launching OBL (Ones Basketball League)

• McGrady creates platform for 1v1 basketball, focusing on giving exposure to underrepresented elite players.
  • “I'm highlighting…guys that love this space of 1 on 1 basketball … grew up with these dudes that can play at the highest level but just didn't get the opportunity.” (77:51, Tracy McGrady)
• OBL features eight city-based teams with notable owners (e.g., Jadakiss, Lorenz Tate, John Wall).

Iconic Origin Story

• Remarkable rise: From last invitee at ABCD camp to #1 HS player/lottery pick within 12 mo.
• Memorable Quote: “I took out $500,000 in cash just to see what it looked like…just jumped in it, bro. Just like Superfly, Jimmy Snooker … if you know where I come from…that was everything.” (85:50, Tracy McGrady)

Candid Reflections

• On defensive manipulations and “flopping”:
  • “SGA has manipulated the game the same way James Harden did…if they’re allowing it, keep doing it.” (95:57 & 96:26, McGrady)
• On greatest 1-on-1 NBA players: “Kobe, KD, Harden … 1-on-1 killers.” (87:14)
• On LeBron and the current playoffs:
  • “We should be happy we’re still watching him play. I don’t care what happens to the Lakers … they’re outmanned.” (111:47, McGrady)
• What-If Moment: Missing on Tim Duncan due to a “no wives on team plane” rule (108:55, McGrady recounts Grant Hill’s story).

Lighter McGrady Asides

• “Maybe I’ll have one more ‘Big Pants Night’ on TV. That’s a good promo.” (89:29, Tracy McGrady)
• Polk County local shoutouts, 1-on-1 future plans, and nostalgia (“I used to give [George Jenkins High] crazy hell over there.” 119:13)

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4. Running PMT Gags, Side Stories, and Morale

Boat Pictures & Vrabel-Rossini

• The “Boat Picture” drama resurfaces as an evergreen Barstool/PMT meme; “Story to monitor, they could be f*cking.” (74:14, Big Cat)
• “Nothing wrong with a little boys trip on the boat” (70:49, Zach)
• Speculation that “anything VRabel and Rossini do will be used as evidence” as the story refuses to die.

Bachelor Party Recap

• Heightened post-trip withdrawal (“I miss the boys...Maybe we should just live in a penthouse in Vegas with all of our best friends doing a sh*tload of stuff.”, 135:36, Big Cat)
• Musings on the impossibility of recreating a perfect Vegas trip.

Fyre Fest of the Week (121:39–129:39)

• Zach’s recurring issues: glassess, laundry, leaving half his bag in Vegas, and “nervous pee” at the live show.
• “After every bachelor party, the most relatable thing — I miss the boys.” (134:54, Big Cat)

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5. Additional Sports and Pop Culture Odds & Ends

• Charles Barkley’s True Legacy: Draymond’s slight causes a wave of Barkley appreciation; refusing to “become like Charles as a Rocket” spurs defense of his MVP/prime run.
• LIV Golf Psychodrama: Bryson DeChambeau’s grandiose claims, asserting his team’s worth and YouTube plans.
• Cubs Hot Streak: Cubs win streak and dramatic walk-offs; references to “Mo baller”, injuries, and divisional chaos.
• Quick-hit NHL notes: Sabres crowd, Ducks/Knight discussion, Flyers’ playoff woes.
• **Jokes about Hantavirus, “hintai”, and “girls trip” as catch-all euphemism.
• Shoutouts to Rebecca Romijn, Tony Gwynn, Billy Joel, and all moms and dads (Mother’s Day approaching).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Topic | Timestamp (Approx.) | |--------------------------------------------|-------------------------| | Lakers-Thunder/NBA Playoff recap | 03:03–12:06 | | Harden Playoff Theory/Choke Debate | 12:08–17:19 | | Knicks–Sixers Series & Drummond Mop Fiasco | 30:44–38:50 | | Barkley vs. Draymond Segment | 52:02–55:35 | | Tracy McGrady Interview | 77:01–120:08 | | Fyre Fest of the Week | 121:39–129:39 | | Cubs Talk/Baseball Segment | 65:43–69:37 | | Boat Pictures/Vrabel–Rossini Commentary | 70:10–74:14 |

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Overall Tone & Language

Classic PMT: a balance of sharp, sometimes self-deprecating sports analysis with running inside jokes, irreverence, and barstool-isms. Discussions blend humor and genuine basketball insights; even emotional moments (regrets, nostalgia, fandom agony) are laced with PMT’s trademark banter, e.g., “If you know Andre Drummond, you know he’ll always help—he’s like Batman, actually.” (39:06, Big Cat).

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For Non-Listeners: Why You Should Care

• Comprehensive and irreverent: All the major NBA playoff headlines—OKC's dominance, Harden’s “postseason” personality, Knicks’ prospects—plus a revelatory, personal look at Tracy McGrady’s journey and philosophy.
• Locker room humor: Expect live show stories, failed travel plans, “nervous pees,” and goofy recurring bits alongside the sincerity of sports heartbreak and triumph.
• Guest Segment Worth the Listen: McGrady’s reflections are a blend of inspiration (“If you have siblings or friends, you played one-on-one at something”—77:51) and straight talk on everything from league trends to why flopping happens.
• Never too serious: Even the biggest debates (Barkley vs. Draymond, Harden’s legacy) end up refracted through PMT’s funhouse lens of “bus drivers,” “strip club podcast” jokes, and self-aware fan pain.

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Endnote

If you missed the episode, this summary arms you with every major argument, running joke, and quotable moment—from NBA playoff analysis to the legendary Tracy McGrady’s real-life Scrooge McDucking. Whether for water-cooler trash talk or simply catching up on the world’s most “correct” sports podcast, you won’t be left behind.

Transcript

[Big Cat]

Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Okay, guys, it's grit week. This is the part of the football calendar where nobody's watching, but everything gets built. Early mornings, pads back on conditioning, film reps. Spring training in football is all about putting in the work when nobody's cheering yet. And and honestly, that's the same mindset behind the Chevy Silverado. This is a truck that is the definition of grit. Long days, dirty work and showing up day after day no matter the conditions. Strong, dependable and built for the grind. Because grit isn't about being flashy. It's about being ready when it's time to go. Check out the current offers and build your [e-mail] that silverado all grit, no quit. And you can build your [e-mail] today on today's part of my take presented by DraftKings. We've got Tracy McGrady on the show talking some ball. Great story about Scrooge McDucking into $500,000 cash. We're going to talk some ball. We've got some playoffs to get through. The Knicks are up to. Oh, the Thunder look unstoppable. We also have some more boat pictures or boat pictures, period. Not more. The story that will never die. We're going to talk some fyre fest. We have a little recap of the live show which was awesome. And it's all brought to you by our friends at Planet Fitness. Everybody can get strong at Planet Fitness. High value membership that supports any fitness journey as low as $15 a month. Over 2,800 club locations. Most clubs open 24 hours. We're all getting strong with Planet Fitness. We have the Planet Fitness corner in the barstool HQ Chicago HQ office. We have. I've been doing the free weights, the treadmill. I saw some guys on the treadmill today that was great. And they have it all. So stair climber, Smith, machine, everything at Planet Fitness. We're all strong on this planet. So go get Planet Fitness. Get a membership today. Join today in club online or in the free PF app. Hours, amenities and offers vary by club. Check out planetfitness.com or stop by your local club for more information. Must be 18 years old to enroll or 13 to 17 with a parent guardian. Okay, let's go.

[Max]

Football guy. Patino.

[Big Cat]

Aw, harry.

[Max]

Yeah, barn and mite.

[Big Cat]

Welcome to Part of my take presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Friday, May 8th and boys I think the Lakers are in a lot of trouble. We just watched the end of this game. The Thunder are so goddamn good. Credit to Lakers for being up at half. But that third quarter, they just shaded and even play basically in the third quarter. He got that technical. They just ratcheted up the defense and defense leading to offense. Jared McCain just whapping threes would never have traded that guy. I don't know. Pft like that. We, we said this before. It's not shocking because it's like we, we knew the Thunder were that much better than the Lakers, but when we had a halftime where the lakers were up one, you're like, oh, maybe, I don't know. Nope, nope. 18 point win. The Thunder are so goddamn good. They can do it. They have guys after guys after guys. They just basically, when they need to get going, they'll throw the, throw the torture chamber at you. They'll throw Caruso at you. They'll get it going on the defensive end, then get it going on the offensive end and there's nothing you could do about it.

[Memes]

They were cruising. Congratulations to the Lakers for, for winning a half, though. I feel like that might be as good as it gets. It doesn't look like Lucas coming back. It was. Even when the Lakers were up momentarily, it felt like they were getting every single break. Everything was going their way. And then, yeah, they're just too deep. The Thunder's way, way, way too deep. Chad had a monster night on defense. Crusoe always just scrappy, playing great defense and yeah, there's really nothing that they could do.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Memes]

The Lakers are done. Lakers, they should be allowed to give up. I, I would not hold it against LeBron's legacy if he did the fake injury right now.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I mean, and it's like you just look at what the Thunder can do where they just have so many good players. And Shea SGA has not had an SGA type game yet where he's, you know, making everything in sight and scoring 35 points. But it doesn't matter because in walks Jared McCain and Kayson Wallace and they go, I think they went five or six for eight from three. Like, it's just. How do you stop that when you have that many guys on the bench that can give you good minutes and, and their defense is always so connected and they play so well and, and harass everyone and everything feels difficult. I just, yeah, it's. The Thunder are just that good. I, I am also the, you know, this is the part of the playoffs where people start complaining about Flopping and all that stuff. I'm not gonna. I'm just gonna respect the Thunder greatness because that's what I feel like when I'm watching this team. I get it. There's some things that you might not like if you're watching this team play defense and then have. Have guy after guy hit big shot. You have to take a step back and be like that. They're just a great, great basketball team. And there's not a lot of answers for a team like the Lakers who are undermanned and injured and they just don't have enough.

[Memes]

I mean, yeah, tonight they didn't need to flop. The flops weren't necessary. It was. It was just good basketball. They just dominated with good basketball. Had a lot of guys off the bench scoring points. You mentioned Jerry McCain. That guy's really good.

[Big Cat]

Really good. That guy.

[Memes]

That's a guy you don't let out the building if you get him in inside your building.

[Big Cat]

Agreed?

[Max]

Agreed.

[Memes]

Down guy. And if you do get him out, you get a king's ransom for him, which I'm sure I'm. I'm sure Philadelphia got a decent amount of picks for him.

[Max]

Yeah, Jared McCain and AO. That's what you got to say about the trades that happen in what? This. Oh, you heard. You wanted me to say it again.

[Big Cat]

IO yeah. Well, you didn't say his name right, but it.

[Max]

You knew what I was saying.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, dude. The Bulls were trying to lose.

[Max]

So you just trade young guys. You can go for 43 in a playoff game.

[Big Cat]

Well, he was going to be. He was going to be a free agent.

[Memes]

I mean.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, the Bulls are not. Why are you making about the Bull? The Bulls are a non competitive.

[Max]

You're trying to jump on me. You did the exact same thing.

[Big Cat]

No, the Bulls are a non competitive franchise. That is a joke of a franchise run by absolute morons and fools. The Sixers are trying to win a title and they have an MVP on the roster.

[Max]

No one's saying really good tonight.

[Memes]

And he was a guy that. That should have been a rookie of the year.

[Max]

Just don't throw stones at glass houses.

[Big Cat]

I'm not. We also got four second round picks for a dummy.

[Max]

We got four picks total.

[Big Cat]

What picks?

[Max]

A first and two and three seconds.

[Big Cat]

I would rather have four seconds personally

[Memes]

because that way you can focus all your scouts on. On second round talent as opposed to having like now you're spread all over the board. You have to have guys that are scouting top 10 picks too.

[Big Cat]

That's. This is a reach Max, look at I. Yes, it is. Because the situations are completely different in the fact that Jared McCain could help the Sixers right this second. IO they were trying to tank and trying to finally lose and try to clean house and everything.

[Memes]

The.

[Big Cat]

I'll defend you on that. You said it at the time. You're like, why. Why did. Why did the Sixers make this trade?

[Max]

Because the season wanted to make this trade.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

No, no. Philly fans wanted to make this trade. Nick Nurse wouldn't play him in the first half of the year and nobody knew why. He would get like six minutes a game for a team that had no bench. Like I get there was a lot of guards that were like. There was a log jam at guards and it was tough to get throw minutes around. But if a guy is that good, like if the Thunder can find minutes for him, The Philadelphia fucking 76ers can find minutes for him.

[Big Cat]

Agreed.

[Max]

And right now we're going with a seven man lineup at best. And we have no scoring off the bench. We have one guy who can score off the bench.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

Quentin Grimes is the only guy who can score off the bench. And it's like once every three games. He gives us something. Jared McCain's coming in here. The past two games he's been. It's frustrating. It's frustrating. It's frustrating.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

He's. I think he's 4 for 5. 4 for 5. He's. He's 8 for 10 and he's.

[Max]

And he's just a microwave. And it's exactly what the Sixers could use. Like Tyrese Maxey wouldn't. Would have had to play 50 minutes yesterday if we had Jerry McCain.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And it's. It's. Yeah. I don't really know what else to say about this series. And I mean, watch Jerry McCain tonight. You are like, how. How is Sam Presti get. How did he get him? How. How is. How did the Thunder, who already had everything, just continue to add.

[Memes]

They'll probably get like another top 10 pick on Sunday when they do the lottery.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Memes]

That's crazy.

[Big Cat]

They 100%. You know that's gonna happen.

[Memes]

Reeves. Reeves was awesome tonight for the Lakers.

[Big Cat]

He was.

[Memes]

Give him a little bit of credit because he was explosive and he's a guy that like he, he was trying to do what LeBron used to do 10 years ago in games like these, in series like these. It was basically Reeves against the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight, and it. That just wasn't enough.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And it was a good bounce back game because game one which we didn't recap, but we kind of nailed. Or at least some of us, like the Thunder were going to win easily. The. He was bad in game one. He was. And he, like, he needed a bounce back game. But again, it doesn't matter. I don't even think if Luca was playing, it would matter. I really don't.

[Memes]

I think it mattered a little bit.

[Big Cat]

It would matter a little bit, but I'm saying it. Luca would. Healthy Luca. The Lakers still do not win this series.

[Memes]

Yeah, probably not. Yeah. I mean, he's not going to guard anybody.

[Big Cat]

Like, they might win a game or two, but like. And yeah, I mean, maybe game three, they're. You get the bounce of, like, being at home. And, you know, the Thunder have been beat before in the playoffs, but still, I just don't even think with Luca. This. This Lakers team, they're just. They're just completely outmanned by the Thunder because the Thunder are that good.

[Memes]

We should. We should nitpick the Thunder. I feel like we owe it to them. They've reached that level of dominance where we have to just try to find something wrong with them.

[Big Cat]

Lou Dort's got to shoot better.

[Memes]

Doors. Got to shoot.

[Big Cat]

But he doesn't.

[Memes]

He won't, but he has to. But you'd like to see him try. I don't like the T shirts tonight. I didn't like the dark blue shirts where. Where the light colored ones, they pop. They're more intimidating. The dark blue ones, you kind of. And then the colors that were on the court tonight, you kind of lose track of where the game is being played.

[Big Cat]

This is. This is an Adam Silver problem that we got to talk to him about next time he comes on. Because I said the same thing. The.

[Tracy McGrady]

The.

[Big Cat]

Obviously the T shirts were to match the jerseys in the court. This is the one alternate game they have to do. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I love the blue that the Thunder usually have. And I just. Yeah, it was. That was disgusting by the Thunder. There we go. We nitpicked him.

[Memes]

I did like the outline in the state of Oklahoma that was on the court, though. Yeah, that was a nice touch.

[Big Cat]

They're interviewing Jared McCain right now. Blake Griffin, our good friend Blake Griffin's talking to Jared McCain in the Amazon prime studio. You're probably saying, like, dude, you're so good. Also Jared McCain, if you Google him, because I was trying to figure out what the trade was. His. His, like, main image picture is just him shirtless, like, looking real sassy. That's sick.

[Memes]

I would Love it if that came up for me.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. All right. The other game boys. I. I love James Harden.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

It's just. He's so. You could just set your watch to it. It's just so funny that it's just. As the playoffs go, we're going to get James Harden missing a ton of shots, falling all over himself, doing ISO ball. And not only that, we were having this discussion before the show. Pft, Max and Zach. Cause you guys aren't here. Do we. As a new. We newly realized that we are a strip club podcast, primarily Zach and memes as a strip club podcast is James Harden. He's kind of our goat. Like we have to defend him, right?

[Memes]

No, well, I, I actually, I. I went through some stats tonight because I was talking to our good friend Ryan Rosillo the other night, who, by the way, still owes me a mashup. Highlight reel of James Harden, game one.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Memes]

He's like, you won't believe all these plays. I'm making a highlight reel. I'm going to send it to you. He promised that to me. So if my analysis is lacking a little bit, I. I hate to throw Ryan under the bus. He did promise me a highlight reel that he would handcraft for me. That has not made it to my desk yet. But based on what I saw tonight, I went online and I did some math. I think James Harden just does not give a the playoffs because it's such a massive pay cut that he has to take every single postseason.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Memes]

So in the second round, right now, each player is getting. According to last year's figures, the playoff pool might have changed a little bit. This year, each player is getting about $37,000 for this, the second round playoff series. That's regardless of if it's four games or if it's seven games. So that would be a maximum of about 10 days work for James, which would mean it would kind of extrapolate to $111,000 per month.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Memes]

Is what James Harden is making based on his play in this series. James Harden, Regularly, he makes 40. Let's see, he makes $3.5 million a month, $42 million a year. He is making approximately 30 times less than he would normally make to play basketball based on what he's doing in this series. I think at this point, he's like, it's not worth my time. I'm not getting paid enough. Fuck this shit. I'm gonna go to the titty bar. Yeah, I think. I think James Harden has been like this his whole career. Some guys really are wired because they, they really want to win badly and they want, you know, to have a championship. They care about legacy and all that. Jim Sharton, he's like, no, it's my job. I'm awesome at my job. I love being awesome at my job. You know why? Because I get hella lap dances. Because I get paid so much money.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah.

[Memes]

But not going to pay me a lot of money. I'm not really going to be that motivated in the playoffs. So I think that's the case for James.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I agree. It's. It's a compelling case. Through two games, he's got nine field goals made, 11 turnovers. This is a fourth, fourth of, fourth game of these playoffs that he has more turnovers than field goals made. He had zero points in the fourth quarter. He had that, that, that turnover at the, at the end. That was very funny where he just kind of started falling. He like broke his own ankles. And I listen, I know there's going to be a lot of people being like, bum like this, that or the other. Probably all true, like in the playoffs we're talking about. I think I love them because you can just set your watch to it. And it's. There's something about having a consistent, like a guy who consistently shows up and says, hey, you know what? The lights are too bright. I just love it. You just know. You just know. You. When you turn on the game in a playoff game in the second round, the lights will be too bright for James Harden.

[Memes]

I think we should embrace debate on this. We might disagree a little bit. Is James Harden a choker? I don't think he is.

[Big Cat]

No, No, I don't think.

[Memes]

I don't think he's a joke artist. I think to be a choke artist, the moment has to be too big for you. You have to care too much about it and get nervous. I think James Harden is just like, fuck it, I don't really care.

[Big Cat]

He. I would say he was maybe when he won an mvp, then you could be like, all right, choke artists. But like, at this, this point of James Harden's career, no, I do not think he's a choke artist because I just think we all know it's going to happen. It's not. It just doesn't feel like, oh, man, he choked. It's like, no, dude, it's just James Harden. It's, it's, it's. It's mid May, it's late May. Guy just doesn't want to be playing ball right now.

[Memes]

And I think that if you. If you asked him, like, if you have to really deeply care about something to choke at it. So he's like, I can't really disappoint myself or anybody else if I don't give my all.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Like, okay, maybe if I tried harder, I would have won. But guess what? I didn't care.

[Big Cat]

And they. They. They just. The Cavs as a team, like, Evan Mobley had one rebound. I saw there was, like, a moment where Donovan Mitchell just didn't even try to fight through a screen. And I can't remember. I think it was. Dean Wade was just like, come on, man. And it just. They stay. Feel. Feels bummerish for the Cavs because this is a team that has been, you know, been building, building, building. And the Pistons, all credit in the world to Tobias Harris, who had another 20 point game. Duncan Robinson, who just kept on hitting big three after big three. Also Duncan Robinson, incredible playoff mustache. Like, he knows that that thing is not really working, but it is working because it's kind of so bad that it's good. And it's like, whoa, is this he almost. His mustache is, like, the beginning of, like, a Netflix documentary where bad shit's about to happen. And it's, like, showing him, you know, smiling and stuff. You're like, sor. Something off with this guy. That's the mustache where it's like, he's not doing that mustache being like, look how full it is. He's like, hey, I. I might go crazy. I might fucking hit a bunch of threes in your face.

[Memes]

It reminds me of, like, early stages. Sidney Crosby, playoff beard. Yeah, like, late 2000. Sidney Crosby, playoff beard is what it's looking like.

[Big Cat]

And then. And then Kate Cunningham, who's like, you know, he. We were talking about the ascension of his superstardom. Like, in the fourth quarter, he's like, yeah, I got to take this game over. And the Pistons, I mean, they struggled with the magic for five out of the seven games. I don't. Maybe they. Maybe they lose a couple in Cleveland, but they. They look like the better team. And Cade Cunningham is the best player on the court, and that usually can help you win a playoff series.

[Memes]

Yeah, he was great passing the ball tonight, too, I think. I think it's. I would say six games, Pistons and six is what it feels like to me. I do think that the. That they're gonna win a couple games at home. The Cavs will. But the Cavs did go from being, like, young and really, really fun to just kind of depressing and sad. Real Quick. And I. And I don't know what to put my finger on. It's easy to just say, like, James Harden because it's playoff Harden, but I don't know if there's anything else to it. So I don't know what you guys saw, but they do feel like they've just become a pretty big bummer after a couple postseasons where it's, like, super exciting, super young. You don't know what you're going to get, but it's going to be a good time.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah. It's good. Good for the Pistons, though. The Detroit basketball chant always goes in the playoffs.

[Memes]

I would like to see the Pistons put a little bit more color in the key.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Memes]

I'd like to see some. Some blue and some red on the court. Like, the wood grain is kind of classic, but it's. It's looking too much like a 1970 YMCA gym.

[Big Cat]

I kind of like that classic look, like. It feels classic to me where there's just not a lot of noise.

[Memes]

Not a lot of noise. I'd like to see the logo be smaller. If you're not going to go with any of the paint on the inside, though, I think that would make it look even classic. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

More classic. I like that word. Classic. Any words on Tobias Harris, Max? Cause he. He has been playing well. Don't care.

[Max]

He's been fine.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Are you still flyered up?

[Max]

Flyers are dead.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Max]

I watched. I watched that whole game, and it was their. Their power play is atrocious.

[Big Cat]

They.

[Max]

Their power plays atrocious.

[Big Cat]

They also just.

[Max]

They had a five on three, and they couldn't even get a shot on goal.

[Big Cat]

They also, like the first period, they just couldn't get the puck in the net. I feel like they were so close. And that's credit to goaltending.

[Max]

But, yeah, I don't know hockey. I don't know hockey, but I feel like when you have a man advantage, you should at least get some shots on goal. That. That was my biggest takeaway of the game, is they had so many power plays. I was like, all right, this is the time. This is the time. Now. Now we go. Now we go. And then it was just like nothing. It was just a whole lot of nothing.

[Memes]

Yeah. From my experience playing against the Hurricanes in the playoffs, max, you're going to want to score a goal in the first 10 minutes, because if you. If you do the thing where you have a couple that go off the post, really good scoring opportunities, maybe you blow a power play and you're looking at a zero. After that first 10 minutes, you know that game's over. You have to. You have to, like, not make any mistakes early in the game so that you can get some confidence and play with the lead. Otherwise, you're totally fucked.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Do we have anything else before we get back to the studio and ourselves altogether? No. Hank, this episode. He's traveling. He's got a wedding. I, I, I will say that, Hank, we.

[Tracy McGrady]

We.

[Big Cat]

We're gonna have to demand a tux pick from him. We need to see him in the tux. Gotta see him.

[Max]

I'm also really upset he's not here to see my new mic. Yeah, I thought I.

[Memes]

It doesn't it sound good, Max?

[Zach]

Sounds so good, Max.

[Max]

The people. The people who are listening better appreciate this because Hank was adamant.

[Memes]

Say, thank you, people.

[Max]

Every. Everyone say, thank you, Hank.

[Memes]

Hashtag Hank you.

[Big Cat]

I saw Big Cat. So.

[Memes]

So we. We did go home. Big Cat went back to the office because his basement's being refinished. Yeah, but is Zach on the couch?

[Big Cat]

No, he's right next to you. He's right there.

[Zach]

What's up? Pft. I'm. I'm at home. I'm in the right now.

[Big Cat]

Bottom right corner.

[Memes]

Okay.

[Max]

All good?

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I'm in the office hybrid right now.

[Memes]

And I just heard your voice a second ago, and it sounded beautiful, and I assumed it was. It was a studio microphone, but you got. You got the Hank mic too.

[Zach]

Yeah, we got. We got some decent. We got some mics flowing.

[Big Cat]

We.

[Zach]

We sound good.

[Big Cat]

We had a little issue. Pft. Before you joined. Zach got up to take a piss, and we were just like, zach, we gotta get Zach a bigger apartment. Like, we're looking at his entire apartment right now. Like, we, like, we gotta find a bigger apartment for him. He deserves more. He can afford more. He deserves more. And then he came back, and we realized that he. His headphones were on the entire time. He just listened to us say all

[Zach]

of that completely unheard, untethered on the headphones. I was worried you guys could hear me pee. I kind of freaked out in there.

[Memes]

But then I remember the mic's in

[Zach]

here, so I was good.

[Memes]

That kind of happened this morning. We were doing Wake Up Barstool, and we had Taylor McGregor on. She does the sidelines for the Cubs and some college football. So she was on let's.

[Big Cat]

Let's introduce her the correct way.

[Memes]

What's that?

[Big Cat]

She's friend of Mincy.

[Memes]

She's, I guess, a friend of Mincy's too, but. So she was on the show. It's a commercial. We're about to come back. Titus gets up to go to the bathroom. They didn't cut his mic off. And so he goes in the bathroom, just takes a big piss. And Taylor had just popped onto the zoom call.

[Tracy McGrady]

And.

[Memes]

And all she hears is just Titus just pouring straight out.

[Big Cat]

And Titus has a hog.

[Memes]

He's got a hog. You could tell from the stream too. Like, for sure.

[Max]

Way down.

[Memes]

Bang.

[Big Cat]

He's guy is fucking hung. But yeah, the. The Taylor McGregor is great. The Austin Reeves, I'm. I'm finding this the. So I think Austin Reeves said, that's some bullshit for you to talk to me like that pussy to one of the refs. And then they had the meeting. I still don't really understand what the meeting that was. I'm trying not to. To be too mean to the Lakers because the Thunder just that much better. It's not. We all thought this, but to watch the Lakers have a meeting with the refs after losing by 18 and the Thunder just standing there laughing and giggling. That's a tough look. Like, that's a tough look. I don't know what was said. I don't know if there's real gripes, but it's just a bad look to have one team being like something's not fair and the other team just laughing and cackling and having a great time.

[Memes]

Yeah. It's like the trial is over. The judge bang the gavel. The. The prosecuting attorney is out on the steps of the courthouse doing a press conference, and then your attorney's going up to the judge. Be like, hey, can we just talk about one thing before we. Before we call it a full day?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Like, it's not. It's not good.

[Big Cat]

By the way, shout out our guy. Taylor Heinecke. Incredible career.

[Memes]

Yeah. Big time. Sad to see him go 33, I think he's only 33 right now, so I thought he would have a couple more years in him. Would have liked to see him play last year. But I did feel like when the. When the Colts decided to go with. With Philip Rivers instead of Taylor Heinecke, that seemed like the writing was on the wall for him.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Memes]

But he was a great, great player. Will always have that cover against Tom Brady in the playoffs.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Memes]

And that dive, he was. I think he's one of the best dive for the pylon guys that I've ever seen in my life. And I. I know that he's one of the best point downfield while he's Running around, scrambling, and then he does something really awesome or really stupid, but something really exciting.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Max]

I also have those shoes from Taylor Heinecke. Pfd.

[Big Cat]

That's right.

[Memes]

That's right.

[Big Cat]

That's right.

[Max]

Yeah. I think about Taylor Heinecke every time I put those shoes on.

[Big Cat]

Really? Yeah. That's a lot of things about Taylor Heinecke.

[Max]

I got them from PFT after the. After Taylor Heinecke beat the Eagles in a regular season game.

[Big Cat]

That was.

[Max]

That was the greatest loss. That was the greatest loss of my time here at pmt. I got a great pair of sneakers out of it.

[Memes]

That's right. That was a loss that got Doug Peterson fired. That was a loss that got Ron Rivera into the playoffs at 7 and 9. What an incredible loss that was for.

[Big Cat]

For everybody, for everyone.

[Memes]

I. I guess I. I can tell this Taylor Heinecke story now, now that he's. He's announced his retirement, but when he was about to be a free agent, I told him, I was like, straight up, man. Like, I hope that you just get a lot of money because you were back up. You were. You were living on your couch in 2020 or your sister's couch when Ron Rivera called you to see if you could step in in a playoff game. I want you to cash in. So whatever city, don't. I'm not going to be, like, mad at you for not taking a hometown discount. Whatever. You do what you have to do. Go get paid. And he was like, yeah, I appreciate that, man. I was like, so are there any cities? We started taping a show called Spinning it at the super bowl where we're just playing catch, throwing it back and forth.

[Max]

Slinging it.

[Memes]

Slinging it. Sorry, Slinging it. And one of my questions to him was like, is there any place that you don't want to go? And he starts throwing the pass back, and he goes, yeah, my agent's probably gonna kill me for. For saying any city, but, yeah, I don't really want to go to Atlanta. And I was like, oh, why is that? He's like, ah, you know, like, got so much family there. Would like to kind of spread my wings, but, yeah, I don't want to be a Falcon. I'm like, cool. All right, sweet. So we go back from the Super Bowl. We're about to put that episode out. Honestly, I think we're two hours away from putting it out, and it gets announced that Taylor Heinecke has signed with the Atlanta Falcons because they were offering the most money. So I text him, I'm like, hey, man. And he goes, hey, I was just about to text you. Can you cut that part out about me saying I don't want to play for the Falcons? I was like, yeah, I got you.

[Big Cat]

No worries. We should imagine if you'd put it out, like, if you put it out like, an hour before, that would have sucked.

[Memes]

It almost happened. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

But, yeah, great career for him. Okay, let's get back in studio, all of us together. We've got more playoffs to talk about. We've Got Charles Barkley versus Draymond Boat Pictures, Tracy McGrady, Fire Fest. We're back in studio. Wait, wait.

[Memes]

Before we go back to studio, we should sim the lottery one more time. Why lottery? Sunday night. I want to do one more. One more sim.

[Big Cat]

Oh, I thought you meant lottery ball.

[Memes]

No, no. NBA lottery. Yeah, I've got it pulled up right here. You want me to do it?

[Big Cat]

I got it. Simming it. Washington, number one. There you go.

[Memes]

Let's go. Let's go.

[Big Cat]

Number two. That's pretty good. I just. I simmed it four times. You. You were one two and then five and then back.

[Memes]

Five would be kind of a nightmare if.

[Big Cat]

I know, dude, there's so many good players. This draft is going to be awesome because there's you. You at least know all the names.

[Memes]

I got to get top four. I have to get top four.

[Big Cat]

Okay, okay, okay. Back to ourselves. Okay. Before we get back in studio, NBA playoffs are here. In DraftKings sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA brings excitement to every game day, the whole postseason. When the lights get brightest, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoff stars turn it up round by round, and DraftKings turns it up with them from the first round all the way to the finals. Bet player. Props bet live. From the opening tip to the final possession, every bucket, every dime, every clutch takeover matters. And only DraftKings sportsbook keeps you in on the action all the way through. New DraftKings customers bet just $5. You'll get $100 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app. Use code TAKE so you're ready for the moment. That's code TAKE. Turn five bucks into 100 in bonus bets instantly. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. Okay, gambling problem. Call 1-800- Gambler or 1-800-meyer-SET NEW YORK. Call 877-8-HOPE and WIRE. Text Hope and why Connecticut called 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org on behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas. Wager tax pass through may apply. In Illinois, 21 and over.

[Memes]

In most states, void.

[Big Cat]

And Ontario restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com Time offer. Boys, let's talk some Wednesday night action. The New York Knickerbockers are up 20 on the Philadelphia 76ers. That felt PFT like the perfect trap game for the Knicks in that Embiid out with a right. What is he got a right body? His right body?

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Probably something with the appendectomy.

[Memes]

His entire right side is just. Yeah. Broken down.

[Big Cat]

You get your appendix out. Ankle.

[Memes]

Although the appendix was like, that was a loser. Appendix. Yeah. I think getting the appendix out is what propelled him to be a winner.

[Big Cat]

But, yeah. And then Mitchell Robinson also out, illness. So it's like we go into this game like, okay, it's just going to be shorter guys running around and the Sixers looked good. They. They were tough.

[Memes]

Yeah, they're winning.

[Max]

They ran out of gas. We don't have enough guys.

[Big Cat]

Tyrese Maxey really, like, he had to do so much, and he truly ran out of gas.

[Max]

He played. He almost played 50 minutes.

[Memes]

He played his dick off. Big cat. Do you think that the Sixers are better without Joel Embiid?

[Big Cat]

For three quarters?

[Tracy McGrady]

Yes.

[Memes]

Yeah, I would say so.

[Big Cat]

For three quarters. Yes.

[Memes]

They honestly like Joel Embiid. He was great in the last series. I feel like he just left it all out on the court. I, I. Matt, I hope he can come back. I hope that his right side recovers entirely by the time they get back to Philly. But this is going to be one of the games that the Sixers will look at and be like, we, we probably should have won that.

[Big Cat]

We could have stolen one.

[Memes]

We could have stolen that.

[Big Cat]

Could have won that.

[Max]

Should have. Is not the correct.

[Memes]

You know what? Yeah, you know what? Hand up. I think Max is right. I think it's white. They could have won that one. That was one that if they look back on, it's like, if we had that one, which we could have different series.

[Big Cat]

I do. I. I think they need a hot take. They need Joel Embiid if they want to be competitive in this series. Because, listen, I'm a drumming guy. There was that one moment where he got put on skates by Jalen Brunson, and it looked like. It looked like one of us guarding. He. Jalen Brunson didn't even really do that many moves. He just Kind of shifted.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And Drum was like, I'm fucked. Because it was in space. And then Adam Bona is just addicted to fouling. He just loves to foul. He.

[Max]

See, here's the thing. Like we have, we have Adam Bona and Barlow who can. Are good defensively in this series because they're athletic, like little bit undersized guys that can run with, with the Knicks, but they're both such a negative on offense that, that you're just playing five on four.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Max]

Like Barlow had a couple good plays on offense, but then there were times in the fourth quarter where you, you were asking him to hold the ball for way too long. And it's like, this guy should not be put in this situation with the game on the line. And he threw it away in like a really crucial spot. He's just, he's just not a fourth quarter offensive player. And we were asking him to be that.

[Big Cat]

Right. And you, and you. It was like set up perfectly because Jalen Brunson was not making every shot. He wasn't like the Jalen Brunson. Oh shit. He's going to get the easiest 35 ever. And you had, you know, the first half it was like they kind of punched the Knicks in the mouth. Like, hey, we're going to actually play here. There was, I think I saw the stat. There were 25 lead changes, which was the most in a playoff game since game seven of Spurs Clippers first round in May of 2015. So that's 11 years. It was a really competitive, awesome game. Ran out of gas. Just ran out of gas.

[Memes]

I mean, you're talking about being a drumming guy. Drumming guys had a tough night last night. Yeah, a tough night.

[Big Cat]

Listen, you got to take the highs and the lows. If you're, if you're, if you're a. I'm probably going like day 15 drumming guy. If you're day 15 drumming guy, which

[Memes]

is being a day one drumming guy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah.

[Memes]

Exact same thing. Yeah. Now.

[Big Cat]

But I mean, I think there's just something about two.

[Memes]

I need your comment, I need, I need your specific explicit comment about one thing that Drummond did.

[Big Cat]

Okay. But before you say ask me this question, I. I'm now realizing I might have some anti Joel Embiid bias because I'm just doing the exact same thing I did with B ball Paul with Drummond where it's like not very good.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

But other. Other big guy. He's good.

[Memes]

Yeah. The most popular guy in town is a backup. Is a backup center for the.

[Big Cat]

I just obsessed with the other big guy.

[Memes]

And now that. Now that you mention it, I think I may have done the exact same thing with Gardner minshew and Tanner McKee on the Eagles.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

It's just whatever. To piss me off.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Max]

That is the bias.

[Memes]

And Joe Milton on the Cowboy. Yeah.

[Max]

Yeah, that's.

[Memes]

You're right. That's what we do.

[Big Cat]

I actually did have a moment on. On Saturday where I can't remember if it was your brother Dan or Nick. I said Drummond to him, and he's like, stop. They listen, and they're like, don't do this. Do not do this.

[Memes]

Listen, I. I've been a Drummond supporter. You know me, though. I am a. I'm a Joel Embiid guy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

I always have day one. This. This year. I said at the start, like, this is Joel's year. If he's going to get it done. A lot of pressure on the.

[Big Cat]

So legacy defining year.

[Memes]

Legacy defining year. I think that what we're looking at right now is a. The Sixers are dealing with a little bit of a Super bowl hangover from beating the Celtics in round one.

[Big Cat]

It's hard to. It's hard to come back and play a series after you change your legacy.

[Memes]

It really is. And so he's got to, like, establish a new one.

[Big Cat]

No, no, no.

[Max]

I said he was in the process of changing his leg.

[Memes]

Trust.

[Big Cat]

That's right.

[Max]

We ended up.

[Memes]

We had to trust the process. What you're changing what you're doing right now, Big Cat, you're looking at the results of the legacy. I care about the process of the legacy.

[Big Cat]

Correct.

[Memes]

As a, Joel and B.

[Big Cat]

Okay, so what was your question?

[Memes]

Big, big question for all the drum and defenders out there.

[Big Cat]

Me.

[Memes]

Would you guys have, like, a fan group name?

[Big Cat]

I think we're. I think we're the. The. The drum circle.

[Memes]

Okay. The drum circle. Do you have.

[Max]

We're the only podcast that's still. That talks about Andre Drum.

[Memes]

That's because we get deep into the stat sheet and. And what I'm about to ask is actually very important.

[Big Cat]

Listen, you. Everyone thinks, like, oh, yeah. Being the number one sports podcast. Football, Cowboys, Lakers. No, no, no. You come to this show, you're going to get a lot of live golf, you're going to get a lot of Andre Drummond, and you're going to maybe get a little bit of jizzing in the Grand Canyon.

[Memes]

That's just f. A ton of it. Okay, so with Drummond.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Last night.

[Big Cat]

Should I stand? I feel like I should stand.

[Memes]

Yeah. Yeah. Please address the address. The Bench. Last night, Drummond had a bad look. The ball got stuck on top of the basket. They handed him the mop. Yeah, he tried to poke it out about six times in a row. The crowd started booing him, and he got nervous, couldn't handle it. Cat walks right over to him. Cat takes the mop out of his hands. I've seen people say that he got mogged. He did get mogging. And then Cat. The first boop from Cat sends the ball flying, extracts it nice and clean. It was a tough look for Drummond. Like, that's. You can't let your opponent mentally alpha you at that point. I don't think that there was any stopping Cat from what he was about to do to Drummond. Sit back down.

[Big Cat]

Okay. If you want to sit here and say that Carl Anthony Towns has a softer touch with the mop and booping balls, I can't argue with you. I'm not going to argue with you. What I would argue is the game was being played in New York, Madison Square Garden. That is not Drummond's job. Maybe get. Let's get some fucking security. James Dolan, you have the CIA working for you. Let's get someone out there who can actually get this ball. Drop it. Andre Drummond should not be asked to do that. If the game was being played in Philadelphia, I would totally understand it. So I think we should be celebrating Andre Drummond for trying to help in a situation where it was not his responsibility whatsoever. And if you notice, he definitely loosened that ball up. He definitely loosened up. It was like opening up a pickle jar. Someone that loosens it up for you, or you can't get it open and you're just like, well, I loosened it. That's what happened.

[Memes]

So you're saying that Carl Anthony Towns has a softer touch with the mop?

[Big Cat]

He does.

[Memes]

He has a better grip.

[Big Cat]

He didn't mog him, he mopped him.

[Memes]

But he had a better grip on the handle.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Memes]

As he was going after the two hands. After the ball.

[Big Cat]

Correct.

[Memes]

Within separate. So wait, couldn't you say, though, that Drummond should not have even stepped up to offer?

[Big Cat]

Like, is that type of guy.

[Memes]

But he tried to big dick him and he was like. He's like, give me the mop. I'll get daddy. You'll get it down.

[Big Cat]

If, you know. If you know Andre Drummond, you know that he will always help, you know, when the situation arises and. And we're in a crisis. Andre Drummond is who? He's like Batman, actually. I think he actually might be Batman.

[Memes]

Okay,

[Big Cat]

we've got about 10 minutes now. We haven't talked to either Knicks fans in the room.

[Memes]

Batman and Catwoman.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Connor, Zach. Zach is in Hank's seat. I mean, that was a, that was a game that you got to feel good about because you shouldn't have won. Except for OG's injury. What's, what's the status of OJ's injury? And then let's talk game.

[Unknown Guest]

There's no status update as of yet. It looked like a hamstring or a dead leg. Hopefully a low grade hamster.

[Memes]

Okay, well, that's.

[Big Cat]

Those are two very different.

[Max]

Definitely. Hopefully.

[Memes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

What are you talking about? Or Charley Horse.

[Memes]

Yeah. Yeah. You're saying, would you rather have it. Would you rather have a bruised leg or would you rather have the muscle fall apart?

[Big Cat]

Would you, would you rather have your leg fall asleep because you've been sitting too long or would you rather have a grade three tear on your hamstring?

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah, I fucked up. I'd rather, I'd rather.

[Memes]

Charlie Horse. Yeah. A leg stinger.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he's just got a little leg stinger now.

[Memes]

How did, how did it happen? Did he had hit on the muscle or did he extend?

[Unknown Guest]

There's a video out there. It looks like he just stepped.

[Memes]

Okay, that's not good.

[Big Cat]

So David Chow saying, right, hamstring strain. This is significant for the, for this series because OG's been insanely good all

[Memes]

playoffs and sometimes second option, but a

[Big Cat]

great third option and great defensively. Just. I mean, Paul George has been kind of in hell where it's just. This is what the Knicks, The Knicks do have this where they have the wing defense to go up against anyone. So what if OG's out, let's say for two games? How are we feeling?

[Unknown Guest]

They should be able to. I'm still feeling fine. The Sixers are just playing too many minutes.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Unknown Guest]

And the Knicks do have other guys, but OG, if it's a grade 2, the playoffs are over.

[Memes]

Oh, if it's a grade 2S, the playoffs.

[Unknown Guest]

Playoffs are over.

[Tracy McGrady]

What?

[Big Cat]

Zach, do you agree?

[Zach]

Yeah. I mean, he stepped up in a big way. He's been playing really aggressive. So like lost OG would be big for. Would be big in the corner of people who don't want to see the Knicks succeed.

[Memes]

Right.

[Big Cat]

But I mean, it's Nick's people anti

[Zach]

Nick's guys love to see this.

[Memes]

It would also open up an opportunity for somebody else.

[Unknown Guest]

Yes, but he, he, he's one of the best two way players in the NBA and he, he covers the best guy on every single team. So it's playoffs over, essentially, but hopefully, hopefully just Charlie Horse now.

[Memes]

So you're saying that if he can't play, though, like, your playoff's over, obviously, but like, do you also mean like the series over? Like the Sixers will beat the Knicks if OG can't play?

[Unknown Guest]

No, I think, I think they should be able to win two out of five.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Unknown Guest]

But the last time, so two years ago against the Pacers, he tore his hamstring in game two. They went up 20 and they ended up losing that series.

[Max]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Okay, but this is different.

[Unknown Guest]

This is so much different. He. He couldn't even walk on that one.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Sucks though.

[Memes]

Now, will it be a home game when you go to Philadelphia?

[Unknown Guest]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Max]

Friday, Sunday. Really? Us too.

[Big Cat]

Why?

[Max]

Because they don't have to work. The Knicks fan. It's a lot easier to come, it's a lot easier to travel to Philly from New York on a Friday Sunday than it is if you were playing Tuesday, Thursday.

[Memes]

Okay. Yeah, but that also means like people from Philadelphia would be also probably easier to go to work.

[Max]

A lot easier for them on Tuesday, Thursday to go to the.

[Memes]

So the count, the weekend fucked you?

[Max]

The whole schedule, the whole. It was, it was a scheduled loss.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, scheduled loss, everything.

[Max]

It was, it was, it was Nick's schedule.

[Memes]

The NBA, you guys, by scheduling games in and around a weekend.

[Max]

Correct.

[Big Cat]

And also scheduling you every other day.

[Max]

Also correct. We could have used one. We could have used one two day break.

[Big Cat]

But you did get. I, I said to you after game one, I was like, I think you should just sit in bead for game two.

[Max]

I was completely fine with him like Embiid sitting that.

[Big Cat]

Get him some, get him some rest. Have him be a monster. Game three and four, then you got a three game series and you guys steal one.

[Max]

Yeah, got. Yeah, I mean it's, you can't. Can't give up home court.

[Memes]

Are you, were you upset when you found out that Embiid was out or were you thinking to yourself, no, I,

[Max]

I said I would.

[Memes]

02. Let's just think about Philly.

[Max]

No, I was thinking, oh, and one, let's fight. Let's see what can can happen tonight and then like try and get him as rested as, as he can. Because if he just kept playing every other game, every other day, every other day, he was going to be playing the whole series at 65%. If you give him a day off, maybe he can get himself up to 80% and then he got a chance.

[Big Cat]

What's the. So Max, we're obviously on this show, we're big believers in like, like you celebrating on Saturday. I thought that was great. That's with your brothers. You have to. Sports are too. It's too difficult to win a championship to not celebrate the ride and celebrate every little moment along the way. That's why we watch sports. You have to. You can't be like winning a big game seven and be like, well, we haven't won the championship, so we're not going to celebrate anything. So, like, I'm in for all of that. What's the series score? That you'd be like, fuck that really, like that really changed how I'm going to look back.

[Max]

I'm going to put it this way. I'm going to put it this way. How did it feel when you beat the packers in round one?

[Big Cat]

That's what I'm saying. I agree with you.

[Max]

Beating your rivals.

[Big Cat]

Agree.

[Max]

Matters when you get smoked by a team time and time again.

[Big Cat]

Agreed.

[Max]

And then you go down 31 to your rivals and it looks like totally, they're going to get us again. And then you come back. Like, that matters. That matters to a fan base.

[Big Cat]

I agree. What I'm asking you though, like, if we go that exact same analogy, if the Bears had then gone out and gotten like 30 piece by the Rams the next week, it would have, it wouldn't have taken away the feeling I had after the Bears beat the packers, but it definitely would have made me look at the season a little bit differently where it's like, ah, shit. Like that was. That really sucked how bad we. We went out.

[Max]

Yeah, I mean was series like 4, 1, 4.

[Big Cat]

You got to win a couple of games here.

[Max]

I would like to. I, I, I mean, I want to win the series. I want to win. Like then you're just, then you're just playing semantics. You either win the series or you don't win the series.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Memes]

That's a good point.

[Big Cat]

I, that's good.

[Max]

In a perfect world, I would, I would like to win in seven games. Yes.

[Tracy McGrady]

Perfect world.

[Max]

I would like to live in. Win in six games.

[Memes]

Actually, no. Perfect world, I'd like to win in that. Be awesome to win in seven games. What a game that would be.

[Max]

But like, at least last, last night was a competitive game. I want it to be a competitive series.

[Big Cat]

Like, I think this series is not like, I don't. Especially with the OG injury. I think this is going to be a competitive suit.

[Max]

Yeah. The line for, for game three is one and a half.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Yeah.

[Memes]

Max, he's got to go out there. He's got to be Superman, but he can.

[Max]

No, I think Embiid will be back. And Max, he won't have to play 47 minutes like that. It was. It was so clear. What? He just lost his legs. It was. Lost his legs.

[Memes]

It was like.

[Max]

He played the most minutes in the regular. He played the most minutes in the league in the regular season, and then. We're coming. We came off game seven and then right back.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

And that. No, but it's just. It was so obvious what happened to him. His burst looked less. He was. He was settling for shots that he wouldn't normally settle for, and he just wasn't making his jump shots because he was gassed.

[Memes]

And they scheduled you guys on a Wednesday when you couldn't make the trip up.

[Max]

Yeah. No, it would have been great if.

[Big Cat]

Philly people have to work.

[Max]

Yeah, Philly people. Yeah, Philly people have to work.

[Memes]

New York people don't.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

I mean, the stock market closes at, what, 2pm yeah.

[Memes]

Charlamagne doesn't have going on. Chalamet works, like, one month out of the year. He's like, okay, I did my movie. Now I can just watch sports full time.

[Max]

If Chalamet's sitting courtside, I'm gonna be. He cannot be sitting courtside in Philly.

[Big Cat]

Did you see the PDA after the game, Chalamet and was it Kylie Kendall? Kylie, there's something about PDA where it really. You know, I think if you ask a hundred people on the street, like, what do you. What are your thoughts on pda? Everyone's like, ew. When attractive people do it, it's like. Yeah.

[Max]

I mean, the cooler thing.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Like, it's. When you think of bad pda, it's just gross. People at a bar, like, being fat and gross and, like, hot dog breath making out. When Kylie Jenner and. And Chalamet are. Are sucking faces courtside. I'm cool with that.

[Memes]

I like all of it. Give me all the PDA you love.

[Big Cat]

All the people.

[Memes]

I just love. Love a guy like me. Yeah, look at that.

[Big Cat]

I wanted a little more.

[Memes]

He definitely would not have done that if they had lost either. That's. That's, like. I'm so happy about a win.

[Big Cat]

I'll.

[Memes]

Yeah, we're gonna start smooching.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we'll do a little smoochie after game one.

[Max]

He was just playing pickup.

[Big Cat]

I know.

[Max]

Yeah, like, that's the.

[Memes]

And he's wet.

[Max]

Being so famous that you can just literally do whatever you want, like, at your fa. For your fa. I can't imagine. That's got to be.

[Memes]

So Max, you went to the White House with the Eagles. Just. Just a reminder.

[Big Cat]

And you're getting a 99 meatballs jersey from Big Dom.

[Max]

The meatball. The meatball jersey.

[Big Cat]

That is confirmed gonna happen. Okay. So memes Zach, you guys feel good?

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Even with OG hurt?

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah, I feel good. I think we're gonna get another blowout coming up these games. But the rest will be competitive. And then you just got to figure out a way to win one of those games the way you did today.

[Memes]

So you just gotta steal one.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

The spurs. Maybe people prematurely wrote off the Spurs. They killed the Timberwolves. This was partially. The spurs are a really good team and I expected this. I think we said it on Monday. Monday's show. Like they're not. Or Wednesday show. They're not going to miss the shots that they missed on GA in game one the way they missed and partially. It's just the NBA. Like when you. When a road team goes out and wins game one, you just kind of expect that the home team's going to be able to have that, you know, extra gear to kick their ass. And the. Tim rolls. Tim Rose couldn't shoot last night and you could just see it. The spurs were ready to go. They're like, hey, we're not. We're not going to lay down. We're the favorites in this series for a reason and we're gonna win this game. And they did.

[Memes]

It wasn't a. It wasn't a must win for the sport. It was a can't live. The very definition of a can't.

[Big Cat]

Can't lose.

[Memes]

Going down 01 at home that second game.

[Big Cat]

That is.

[Memes]

That is, if you looked it up in the dictionary, can't lose. It's game two at home.

[Big Cat]

And the Timberwolves had the very definition of a can lose.

[Memes]

They had the very definition of night off. Yeah, like.

[Big Cat]

Like totally can lose this game.

[Memes]

It's no problem. We don't really care. Like this is gonna suck for a little bit but like nobody really tried too hard.

[Big Cat]

I am worried about Anthony Edwards because it does. You can just see that he just doesn't have the same. It's just the same burst that he has.

[Memes]

That's because of the big. The. The raid spray that they had in the crowd. You see, that's somebody.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Memes]

Instead of holding up like the offense sign, somebody had just a giant can of rage.

[Big Cat]

I like that.

[Memes]

To get rid of ant.

[Big Cat]

I like that a lot.

[Memes]

For the Wolves. We also had for the pups.

[Big Cat]

We had. We had. Pop came. The reports are that Pop helped with film review between game one and two, which is. That is a secret weapon that the spurs have.

[Memes]

That and Popovich being like, hey, guys,

[Big Cat]

here's what you got to do that.

[Memes]

And also they invented a new kind of three last night. That. That might be the coolest play that I've seen all year.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah, the no dip in the air.

[Memes]

In the air, you catch the ball. He had already started his jump.

[Big Cat]

It was Devin Vassall.

[Memes]

Yeah, Vassal. Yeah. When the ball got passed out to him, he was in midair. Did not cock the shot. Just let it rip from, like, his chin level. I've never. I don't think I've ever seen that in a game in quite that fashion. It was even cooler that the. The shot clock was. It was dying. So I think there was like maybe a second left on. So he knew he had to get up in the air to shoot the three. Caught it. And now it was maybe the first three point alley oop that I've ever seen.

[Big Cat]

It was so sick. I mean, a no dip 3 is sick to begin with because, like, how the. Are you so good that. I mean, I know how they're so good, but it's still just a crazy thing to watch when a guy can catch the ball and just go straight up for a three, but in the air, too. Very cool. But, yeah, total blowout. The spurs are really, really good. I think the series is going to be competitive. I believe the spurs have struggled in Minnesota recently, so that. That's something to watch where it's like, hey, they're going, yeah, last seven. They haven't won in their last seven games in Minnesota.

[Memes]

I think they're going to get one up in mini. Yeah, I think this series is going to go seven. I got spurs in seven. Seven.

[Big Cat]

I think it's going to go six. I got spurs in six.

[Memes]

Yeah, they.

[Big Cat]

I mean, there's really nothing else to say. Is that like the quotes afterwards? Chris Finch said, I told him we got punched and then. Or punked. And then Anthony Edwards said, we got. We got blew out. My mama used to tell me, hard head make a soft ass. Make a soft ass. That's true.

[Memes]

That's what I've always said.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, hard head make a soft ass.

[Memes]

I think they said that. I heard that first from Joey and Pat.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, shout out our guys. Little stay woke. We'll stay woke. So I assume you guys saw the Draymond Charles Barkley clip.

[Memes]

I did.

[Big Cat]

I draymond Green and Charles Barkley, those two guys are they. They're always kind of toeing the line of professional wrestling, kind of whatever. You know, there's. There's some. They're smart. They're very smart guys. I feel like Draymond Green might have just set it up for everyone to remind the world how good Charles Barkley

[Memes]

was, because that's the effect that it's had.

[Big Cat]

It's had the exact effect of, hey, Draymond. Charles Barkley on the Houston Rockets was actually good, and Charles Barkley won an MVP. And Charles Barkley scored 40 points against the. The Jordan Bulls in the playoff, like, in the finals. Charles Barkley was a really good player, so thanks for trying to make that point, but you're wrong. I think maybe Draymond did him a solid.

[Memes]

I think the.

[Big Cat]

And that might be too much online.

[Memes]

I think the unintended outcome is that he did him an awesome, solid, incredible. It's like, yeah, Charles Barkley average. I think it was, like 19 and 10 in the year that he was talking about on the Rockets. Like, Draymond would love to average that. Yeah, he would kill the average.

[Big Cat]

And if you put. If you put Charles Barkley on the warriors, they would. They'd probably win by more. And that's not. No offense to Draymond. Draymond's a Hall of Fame defender, but Charles Barkley was an elite offensive player, an elite rebounder.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

His defense wasn't Draymond's, but I don't know how you would guard if you just. If you just threw Charles into that team.

[Memes]

Okay. I have a theory about this, because I. I like your stay woke on it. I don't think that that's why they had it planned.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I think. I think Draymond is just doing, like, the.

[Tracy McGrady]

The.

[Big Cat]

The Plumbers and, you know, like, basically Anyone in this NBA says that the NBA from 20 years ago sucked.

[Memes]

So my theory on what happened is that they brought Draymond out there. He had this whole thing lined up to say he had his whole take ready to go, and then they're like, shaq, yeah. You're actually going to leave the set. And Draymond was like, I was going to use Shaq as my example, like, because he was the big cactus.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

The big aristotle.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

When he was a cavalier. Like, if he had made this exact same point, if Shaq was right next to him about Shaq, everybody be like, yeah, great point, Draymond. Great point. Charles would have jumped in and made fun of Shaq for You know, the. The years that he had at the very, very end. But then Shaq stands up. He's like, I'm gonna go use the bathroom. And then Draymond's like, oh, that's my analysis. And he's like, I guess I got to go against Charles. When he was on the Rockets, I think he had maybe did a last minute switch. It was great. It ended up being great for Charles, but it also.

[Big Cat]

It.

[Memes]

The. The way that Charles reacted and the rest of the group up there, it made me think they don't really love Draymond that much because.

[Big Cat]

Oh, you think?

[Memes]

Because nobody. I think Draymond wanted people to get, like, riled up by it and argue with him, and nobody really said anything.

[Big Cat]

That was the weird part.

[Memes]

They just kind of moved on. And that left it hanging. Like, when you have a really, really bad take that just hangs out there that no one even addresses, that's. That's as bad as it gets.

[Big Cat]

I am happy that this happened, though, because Charles Barkley, and we love Charles Barkley. We. You know, having him on last year, it was one of my favorite interviews we ever done. Hopefully we could do it again because he's that type of guy. He suffers from the fact that he does. He is such a funny guy, gregarious guy, that he's basically spent the last 20 years being the butt of everyone's joke of, like, never won a title.

[Memes]

Yeah, that.

[Big Cat]

It erases in people's minds just how good of a basketball player he was. And so for Draymond to do this, the whole world's like, hold on a second.

[Memes]

Yeah, wait a second.

[Big Cat]

This guy was really good at basketball. What the fuck are we talking about? And isn't it Charles Barkley's whole thing, like, there are bus drivers and they're passengers? And Draymond, again, we like Draymond, too. Hall of fame player, four rings. He's never been the bus driver. Charles Barkley was the bus driver. You know, he didn't win a title, but he drove the bus. So I. I don't know. I. I8. It's funny because it was a very awkward moment. And Draymond's also beefing with Austin Rivers. Who? Austin Rivers. I don't really know where this beef came from. Austin Rivers video was. That was a weird one where he was like, hey, Draymond, just so we can get this straight, I was way better than you in high school. I was way better than you in college. Yeah, you had a way better NBA career. But don't you forget So I think

[Memes]

I know where it came from.

[Big Cat]

Hold on. The NBA part is the important one.

[Memes]

I think Draymond said that he was as good as Rivers in high school.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Memes]

I think, I think he started it and then Rivers, if I remember he. They might have gone to the same school or the same district.

[Big Cat]

Rivers was like one of the. I think he was the, like one of the best players in high school at the time.

[Memes]

Yeah, yeah. So they played in the same area. Anyways. Rivers averaged 28 points a game in high school. Draymond average, I think 20 in high school. So Rivers had to remind him about that because, like, it doesn't matter how big you get, you still think back to when you guys were like 17 years old. Yeah, it's like I was. Dude, I was way better than you when we were 17.

[Big Cat]

But just imagine like, like, you know, doing serious face video.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And saying, hey, just so we're clear, man, there was before we both grew into our bodies. I was significantly better than you.

[Memes]

Oh, dude. In, in eighth grade, I was on the, like the, the local. Like not. We didn't have AAU at the time, but like I got like a full sweatsuit on the team I was on. I was cooking fools. And then everybody grew and I literally did not grow an inch since eighth grade. But yeah, a guy like me, you remind me of eighth grade. I'll go back, I'll remind you of some facts.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Now actually, you know what, I'm going to say this right now. Austin Rivers, if you want to get in an argument here, I'll just throw this out there. I would have fucked you up in 1995. I would have.

[Memes]

How old was he?

[Big Cat]

He was 3. 10. I would have fucked you up, dude. I would have fucked you up one on one.

[Memes]

Come get some.

[Big Cat]

That's just a fact. That's a fact. If we want to go back all the way. 1995, problem for you, I'll double down.

[Memes]

I'll say when he was 10, I would have him up.

[Big Cat]

I don't. I will not say that. Yeah, absolutely not. There's just no way. Nope. Nope. A 17 year old me versus a 10 year old Austin Rivers. I'm pretty sure.

[Memes]

Yeah, no, I'd him up. No, no, sorry. I would, like right now, I would beat the. Out of a 10 year old Austin Rivers.

[Max]

17.

[Big Cat]

Still not gonna do that. Still not gonna say that. You could barely walk right now.

[Memes]

But I'm way stronger now than I was when I was.

[Big Cat]

I will not say that.

[Memes]

I can beat up any 10 year old in the world.

[Zach]

You don't think he blows by you?

[Big Cat]

No, we're talking about basketball.

[Memes]

I'm talking about physical violence.

[Big Cat]

Oh, got about 10 year old Draymond.

[Memes]

No, he cooked me. Yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

10 year old Draymond would kick your ass.

[Memes]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. But luckily we don't have to deal with that anymore. But in the. In that same segment, do you remember when I think it was Phil Sims. I always get it mixed up if it was Phil Sims or Boomer. Or Boomer. But I think it was Phil Sims on CBS when he was like, you know, the goal is not to be like Dan Marino and end your career with that Super Bowl. When they were talking about Peyton Manning.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah.

[Memes]

And Dan Marino was right next to him at the desk and was like, dude, what the hell?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Like, why are you saying that about me? The fact that. No, that Charles didn't even have to react to it. I know when Draymond was like, the goal is to not become like Charles as a rocket. It. Because, you know, that. That does impact. Damn, Reno. He thinks about it a lot, but that was. But Charles is like, I don't even think about this at all, so I'm not gonna react.

[Big Cat]

And it was just the perfect way for Char play it. Because him not reacting brought everyone to his defense.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

If he got in an argument with Draymond in that moment, it might have played out a little different where they're like. But that non reaction. Yeah. I mean, he's. Draymond's getting bodied now, which at the end of the day, Draymond probably loves because he loves anyone talking about him. But it also is very funny to. To have that entire conversation. Well, like, Draymond, you're on the set because your team. Your team didn't even make the playoffs.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Like, what are we doing right now? Like, let's talk about right this second. Aaron Rodgers. Is he gonna be a Steeler?

[Memes]

Yeah, I think he's in town tonight. Yeah, he's. He's visiting in town tonight. He's got a whole new respiratory infection to. To study and educate people about. So if you think that he was going to dip out of the public eye when we had something like this coming back, you thought very wrong.

[Big Cat]

Do we have to worry about this Hantana? What is it?

[Memes]

Hanta?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Hintai.

[Big Cat]

I read it.

[Zach]

That's something else.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

The Hintai virus.

[Big Cat]

Is it the Hentai virus where all of our. All of our private parts get. Get blurred out? That would be. That'd be tough yeah. Is that what henta is?

[Memes]

What is hint? What is?

[Zach]

No, I think. I think that's like when they go and they pivot to, like, cartoons.

[Memes]

So it's. What's the difference between hentai and manga?

[Zach]

Manga's just. Manga's like a comic book they read backwards.

[Big Cat]

I always forget that I have Safe Search off on my computer. I just search hentai porn and then X out.

[Memes]

You type hentai porn? Pete's gonna love that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Do we have we. I read a thread today. I'm just gonna go off this, and I don't want to do the same thing that we did with COVID where we poo pooed it. It's too deadly.

[Memes]

Mm.

[Big Cat]

It's too deadly of a disease.

[Memes]

It'll burn itself out. That's what I read too.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

It's like.

[Big Cat]

It is. It's literally too, like the. The. The death rate for this disease is like 50%. And so if you can't. If you can't survive, you can't spread it.

[Memes]

The only problem, because I was saying the same thing, Big cat. I've been spreading that information to as many people because I'm trying to spread positivity.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

In this climate, because we see all over the place. We're back to doing the fear porn. Yeah, we did. In 2020, before this happened.

[Big Cat]

Did you guys see the one guy. The tweet from three years ago?

[Memes]

Yep, I did see that one sucked. I'm trying. I'm trying to spread positivity, so I'm educating people about that Same thing. I did have people tell me that the incubation period can be like a month, so you might not know that you have it for a month.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Memes]

And then once you get sick, then you die.

[Big Cat]

Just stay away from rat poop and mice poop. Right.

[Memes]

That's just. Yeah, that's good practice.

[Big Cat]

I know. That's what we're going to do.

[Memes]

And don't fly on an airplane with anybody that is really, really sick. If you're going, like on a cross country flight, I hope you don't have a seat that's directly next to a man that's sneezing on you and coughing on you for the entire flight to the point where you're trying to climb out of the airplane window.

[Big Cat]

That's also a really good point.

[Memes]

You should not do that. Max,

[Max]

I was reading. What did you say?

[Big Cat]

Don't do what you did.

[Memes]

You're good, Max. You're good.

[Max]

Should I read? No reading.

[Big Cat]

Try reading.

[Memes]

Yeah, we'll go back to Reading.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, just do some reading. Hockey. I think we should have biz on. On Sunday, but we have the Sabers. The Buffalo crowd is so electric. That series could be awesome with the. Those two fan bases.

[Memes]

And I saw somebody make a great point though that, listen, Montreal, they, they can travel on the road to Buffalo to Max's whole, like, Nick's scheduling thing. Montreal fans can travel to Buffalo. A lot of Buffalo fans can't go to Canada because if you have a dui, you can't cross the border.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So it's a problem.

[Memes]

Just something to think about. Keeping out the rowdiest of the Rowdies.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And the Ducks. The Ducks evened up the series against the Knights. I really wish the Ducks would go back to their old jerseys.

[Memes]

The. You don't like the traffic cones?

[Big Cat]

No, I hate them. I absolutely hate them.

[Memes]

What's the. Is it because they're in Orange County? Is that why they wear orange?

[Big Cat]

I don't know. It's just. I don't like. I, I'm like not. I'm not rooting for the Ducks. I don't have a team in this. But I, you know, obviously, Joel Quinville, I think he's an incredible coach, so. And I, I, I am looking forward. The deeper he gets to be like, yeah, he's gonna just. Some people up as series go deeper and deeper because he's that good of a coach. But yeah, I just, I, I wish they had the. I wish they had the Mighty Ducks uniforms.

[Unknown Guest]

I really do.

[Memes]

I miss him too. And also, I'm rooting for the Knights because Biz told us to or maybe his Yan. So let's put a future on him.

[Big Cat]

What is the. Let me look at right now because it feels like the Avalanche are going to win it all. They're up to nothing. That series has been insane with the goals that. The game on Sunday night was nuts. What is it right now? If we did. And I've done this before and it was stupid and it didn't work. If we did a. Yeah, no, duh. The best teams win the titles. Parlay Thunder. Oh, it's only plus 309. Thunder and avalanche. That is not enough.

[Memes]

That's not great. That is not great.

[Big Cat]

That's not great. Oh, I had a. Before we get to our interview with Trace McGrady, I had a couple other things wanted to throw out there. One, Golden Tempo. Not running the Preakness sucks.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Where we're at, it's load management. Yeah.

[Memes]

We're doing load management for horses right now. And I understand it. There's really no financial incentive. Besides, like, obviously winning the race would be great, but right now, Golden Tempo's got it made for the rest of their life that that horse is going to be fine. It's going to make a lot of money as Kentucky Derby winner. And there's really, there's limited upside to running in this race. I get it. I get it. And as a guy from the D.C. area, like, the pness is, it's a rite of passage for the spring. So like, like, people are still going to go have a great time at the race, but it's absolutely lost 100% of all national juice because this horse isn't racing.

[Big Cat]

It's auralist. It is, it's completely oralist now. And it sucks because, I don't know, it was. I love, I love the Triple Crown. I wanted to see, I wanted to see someone compete for the Triple Crown.

[Memes]

And maybe we're getting soft as a podcast, but back in 2016, we would have called this horse a fat. For not racing in the Preakness, for saying, like, there's a lot of working class horses that are going to be taking their families to watch you race.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Memes]

And you're just too big of a superstar now that you're, you're abandoning them. But I guess that's a sad state of affairs in sports where now we're like, it's, it's the horse empowerment. Yeah. And so we have no choice but to support them.

[Big Cat]

And then. So we're taping this portion of the show in the morning. But the Cubs are just the most exciting and best team in baseball. It's insane. They've. They walked off again. They had to play the Reds for the series finale. Three straight walk offs to the point where on Wednesday night we were up four, two in the ninth. We give up four runs. And I actually said, I know that people probably won't believe this. I said to myself, it's like, all right, whatever. We'll just walk it off again. And then Pete Crow Armstrong hits a, hits a two run homer in the bottom of the ninth. Michael Bush walks, gets a walk to walk in the winning run. Three straight walk offs. They have not. They've lost or they've won 14, I think 15 games in a row at Wrigley. It's crazy. They're just the hottest team in baseball. And while this is all happening, we just keep getting injuries to our pitching staff. Matthew Boyd got injured his knee playing with his kids.

[Memes]

He, yeah, he reached down to pick his kid up and he felt something. And then he called the team and was like, hey, I think I'm fucked. It's torn meniscus.

[Big Cat]

I, I think it might like at this point, maybe it's just every pitcher injury just fuels the Cubs to be that much better because it just keeps happening where it's like a guy gets injured and then the Cubs have another improbable win and they just keep staying hot and so much fun to watch. And the whole lineup is just awesome. And it's just. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.

[Memes]

You think a. What's a better way to end a game? A walk off walk or a walk off hit by pitch?

[Big Cat]

Walk off abs.

[Memes]

Walk, walk off abs. Because you get the double pop. So he calls strike three. And everyone's like, no.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

And then they're like, wait, he's touching his head.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Memes]

And then you see it on the screen.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Memes]

And the place goes nuts.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Memes]

Yeah, I think you're right for the crowd. Walk off abs. Walk would be the pinnacle, I think for the batter. A walk off hit by pitch where you make that split second decision to wear one instead of getting out of the way. That's got to be an incredible moment.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Like you should bat. Flip that.

[Big Cat]

So the, the, and this is a long season, so it's not like, you know there's gonna be a lot of ups and downs. Just right now the Cubs are playing so much like the baseball is so much fun and they're so much fun to watch. And Mo ballers is a true stud. Remember? Remember I, I, you asked me when we went to the game three weeks ago, you're like, put me on to someone.

[Zach]

I was like, dude, Mo baller might be the future. Great build.

[Big Cat]

Mo ballers the guy. But they're 20. They had a 20 game stretch, which I think goes, I think it was as of Tuesday where they had 17 wins. They went 17 and three 10 comeback wins, nine wins after allowing the first run. Six one run wins, four walk offs, four wins after trailing in the eighth or later, three extra inning wins. It's been awesome. What are you guys talking about in the booth there? Have you guys.

[Memes]

Max is reading.

[Big Cat]

He's reading. Phillies are back.

[Max]

Yeah. Firing your manager just fires up the club. Yeah, they've just, I think they've lost one game since they fired their manager.

[Memes]

We're, we're like a two or three game swing from three teams at the bottom of the American League west to getting the ass hat division We've got the ass at the start of it, and then we just need the. The Astros to win, like, a couple more games, and then we need the. The Rangers, I think, to lose, like, two games.

[Big Cat]

Well, there's.

[Memes]

And then it's going to read.

[Max]

Yeah, I've. They have the same records as the NLEs.

[Big Cat]

I know.

[Memes]

What.

[Big Cat]

What is crazy, but they say exactly

[Max]

what you're saying right now about.

[Memes]

No, it's you, Max. You guys.

[Max]

Yeah, yeah, got it.

[Big Cat]

The actual spelling. But it is crazy because the AL has three teams over.500 in the entire division or league, and the NL Central has every team over.500.

[Memes]

Yeah, it is. It is a crazy, crazy division. That's why, like, three games. You guys won three in a row against the Reds, right?

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And again, we're. We're taping this before the finale of

[Memes]

the series today, but still, like, three in a row against the Reds. It is the difference between first and last in the division.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it's been. It's been very fun to watch.

[Tracy McGrady]

It's.

[Big Cat]

I. Dude, Bregman is just the man. Just having him there is just everything just say his back, and he's awesome. Fuck. So much fun. Oh, I had one last thing before we do trace McGrady. And this is going to be. This is a hot take, so I want you guys to be prepared for this hot take. I'm starting to think that Mike Vull and Diana Racine might have been having an affair. I'm not all the way there. I'm starting to think that might be happening.

[Memes]

Gassy pnv. That's the gold standard.

[Max]

The story will never die.

[Big Cat]

I saw it. I was just like, oh, dude, they have a. It's like there's a tweet for everything. There's a. There's a Mike Vrabel and Diana Rossini date for every. Every moment in the last six years.

[Memes]

Yeah, there's. What sucks, too, is there's a lot of stuff that, like anything now will be used as evidence. The pieces fall together. Yeah.

[Max]

The signatures are tough. Like, it's.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that was the moment. That was the moment where I was like, they might be.

[Zach]

You never been on a boat with your boys.

[Big Cat]

It's true. It's such a good point, Zach. It's a little boys trip on the boat.

[Max]

Yeah. One V. One boat trip.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Nothing wrong with that.

[Big Cat]

What do you call it? PvP.

[Zach]

PvP.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

It's a PvP vote.

[Memes]

No, no, that would be. That would be PvE CO op.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Max]

Co.

[Zach]

If you like fishing Du Duo's campaign. Exact. Okay.

[Memes]

Duo campaign. Yeah. You're trying to catch. They might have been going fishing. Talk about that.

[Big Cat]

Very funny that. It came two days after the gone fishing graphic with them at the front of the boat.

[Memes]

Yeah, that's.

[Big Cat]

That's tough. Yeah. I'm just. Listen, we're going to monitor the story because it's literally never going to stop. But I'm starting to get the feeling that they might have been doing something more than just trading football talk. Maybe.

[Memes]

They did ask Drake May about it yesterday, and he just said, like, I love my coach. He's a good guy.

[Big Cat]

I mean, what else are you supposed to say? Like, if you ask Drake made that, he has to say that.

[Memes]

Love my coach. Great guy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, man.

[Max]

What do you think? What do you put percentages at of him being the coach of the Patriots?

[Memes]

I'd say close to 100.

[Big Cat]

I. I still think it's coming.

[Tracy McGrady]

It's get.

[Max]

It's getting less and less. So I would say right now it's like 85.

[Big Cat]

I think it's definitely less than 100. I would. I would put. If you made me, like, put my life on the line, I'd say that he's going to coach the Patriots.

[Max]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I think the next part of this story is whenever Diana decides to tell her side and how bad that's going to look for variable, which I don't think Diana would do that to him. Like, I don't think she's going to go out there and try to, like, go scorched earth, but that. That's where the story is eventually going. Like, we're not going to get a conclusion until she speaks and says, hey, this is what happened.

[Memes]

I think that whatever the explanation is, her. Her being able to tell her story about it is going to provide context to a lot of other stuff, and who knows what the context is going to be, but it's gonna. I think it's going to be better than everyone just making up what they think the worst parts of this story are without her filling in the actual facts behind it.

[Big Cat]

Would be funny if she just hit the girl strip button over and over like she's sitting on Good Morning America. We have this boat trip of the two girls trip. What about you guys in this bar in New York kissing? Girls trip. It's just girls trip. You can call anything a girls trip.

[Memes]

It's a fact.

[Big Cat]

I took a girls trip earlier this morning. It was a messy one. Right in the toilet. Flood his own girl trip. What's your. What was your Question.

[Zach]

Oh, my question was if it was a. Like more of a fishing charter or strawberries and champagne boat. But I can contest clues. Leads me to fishing.

[Big Cat]

Charter fishing.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I think they probably were. It was probably like Deadliest Catch. They were probably crab fishing. I see what that was. Yeah, I don't. I don't want to allege anything, crab fishing, but that was just the first thing I thought of my head. The Deadliest Catch. Yeah, it was Deadliest Catch. So it was just Wells overalls, full gear. Yeah. The yellow rain suits. Slippery. Yeah, they were just. They. They probably didn't even speak listen because they just had to be moving stuff around on the boat.

[Memes]

I. I saw like a documentary about Marty Smith going on to a boat with Nick Saban the other week on his lake. And we don't talk about that. It seems like a big double standard.

[Big Cat]

Rico Bosco going on Nate Oates his boat. Yeah, we don't talk about that. We actually do talk about that a lot.

[Max]

Way too much.

[Big Cat]

Okay. So I'm happy I got that off my chest. Story to monitor. They could be fucking.

[Max]

How much longer until you think the next. The next Rossini variable thing drops Friday. It's like once. Yeah, it's once a week.

[Memes]

It's until. Until people stop clicking on it. The.

[Max]

The thing they click every time.

[Big Cat]

Well, and. And the problem that they're going to run into now is that TMZ got bodied by the New York Post and now TMZ is trying to get their lick back. So TMZ's on the case and they're like, let's find everything they've ever done. So that's a problem. But yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it goes. Okay, before we get to Tracy McGrady, we are brought to you by our friends at Experian. It's never too late to improve your credit. With Experian Boost, you can raise your credit scores instantly for free. Get credit for the bills you're already paying, add your positive rent, utility, and even streaming payments to instantly increase your credit scores. Boost your credit scores instantly. Experian Boost is a completely free and is completely free and can instantly raise your credit scores. Get better credit scores, get credit for the bills you're already paying and increase your credit scores instantly for free. Now, paying rent could boost your credit scores instantly. So download the app, get started for free today. Results will vary. Not all payments are boost eligible or considered by lenders. See experian.com for details. And go check out Experian now we're also brought to you by our friends at twisted tea. Twisted tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. It's twisted tea season. Boys and girls, it's time. Sun's coming out, the weather's getting nice. Golf, backyard barbecue, pool, beach. It's all there for twisted tea. Twisted tea is the perfect drink to keep the good times going all day and all season long. Whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar, or day drinking with the boys, twisted tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time, a great time. We had a great time on Saturday drinking twisted teas with the boys, watching game seven, Sixers, Celtics, twisted tea. It is a truly delicious drink. It is so, so good. I love the half and half. Just goes down so smooth. So go get a twisted tea today. Grab a refreshing twisted tea today. Let's get twisted. Okay, Here he is, Tracy McGrady. Okay. We now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very, very, very special guest. It is Tracy McGregor. I think everyone's favorite basketball players of all time. Seven time All Star, two time All NBA First Team, All NBA. How many times?

[Tracy McGrady]

Seven times All NBA.

[Big Cat]

Seven times All NBA First Team, All

[Tracy McGrady]

NBA over All Star, any day. Yes, I like both.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Two time all NBA first team, three times second team, two times third team. That's. It's pretty, pretty damn good.

[Memes]

Fair to say walking bucket.

[Big Cat]

Yeah,

[Tracy McGrady]

yeah, you can call me that.

[Big Cat]

Two time NBA scoring champ.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

The list goes on and on. And he has a new one on one league called one's basketball league, the premier one on one basketball league in the world. Can we. Let's start with that. So you were one of the best one on one players ever and just, you know, a walking bucket. What, what's this league going to, going to be and what made you decide like, hey, we got to do this.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah. So I'm highlighting and giving guys a platform that loves this space of one on one basketball. Obviously, I grew up playing one on one basketball and if you have siblings or you had your friends when you were growing up, you played one on one at something because you couldn't find nine other guys to go and play a full court pickup game. So you had to play 21. Right? In my day it was 21. Every man for themselves. But when you talk about building, creating a platform for me, I look back to how I got exposed and that was on the abcd. Platform. When I was coming out of high school, Sonny Vaccaro had the best high school camp for all Americans. In high school. I was fortunate enough to be entering enter into that space, which I was the last player to, to be selected to this camp. Out of all the players that was there, I was the last one selected because no one knew who I was. So this platform gave me an opportunity to showcase my skills, ultimately leading me to be the number one player in the country and then getting drafted now ninth overall in the 97 draft. So it was a platform. So for guys out here, I understand. I grew up with these type of dudes that can play basketball at the highest level, has a high, have a high level of skills, but just didn't get the opportunity to play professional basketball like myself. I mean, that's very challenging and hard thing to do. And then a lot of these guys have skills and they go overseas, but I created this for them. Guys, right?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

Guys that something along their journey happened where someone probably in their family passed away. You had to step up and be the man of the house or, you know, you just didn't make the right decisions along the way. It's for these guys. And I just, I. This space is growing rapidly. If you see it on social media, I mean, everybody is talking about it. You see the Michael Beasleys, the, the Lance Stevensons, those guys going at it. So for me, it's just providing an opportunity for my guys. But one last thing on this, the element that I love most about this is I created ownership for guys that look like myself. When you look around sports, there's not a lot of guys that look like me have ownership in sports. I'm one of the blessed guys to have some ownership in the Buffalo Bills. So with this property, I wanted to create that ownership and creating the battles of the cities and teams we have. Starting out with eight teams and in those respective cities, I grabbed guys like New York, you talk about Jadicus Chicago, one of my brothers, my big little brother, I call him. And Lorenz Tate, the great actor, John Wall, you know, the great NBA player, had a phenomenal career, is the ownership of Raleigh Durham. So for me, that's the biggest component that I'm most proud of, of creating those opportunities for those guys.

[Memes]

Yeah, very cool.

[Big Cat]

That, that's awesome. And I wanted to talk about that, that camp because it is a great story. So you're. So you went to Sonny Vaccaro's camp. What was it after your junior year?

[Tracy McGrady]

After my junior year, yes, sir.

[Big Cat]

So you're so you're basically, no one knows who. Obviously, you're really good at high school basketball. In a small town in Florida, you go to this camp, you get number 175, the actual last person at the camp, like, on. On your jersey, and then, what, 12 month, 18 months later, Adidas signed you for $12 million, and you're. You're drafted number nine overall in the NBA draft. Like, how that's such an incredible story when you're getting to the camp, or do you realize, like, when you're walking in what's at stake and, like, what you could do? Or was it kind of like, hey, I'm gonna go play ball and see where this goes? And then it went to an insane place.

[Tracy McGrady]

It was a young kid from Florida that was, you know, fresh out of the conditions that I was living in. I didn't have anything to lose. I had everything to gain, and I realized that. And when I first got there, I just kept hearing about Lamar Odom, 6, 10 point guard. I'm like, what that. Like, that threw me for a look. Like, what the hell? 610 point guard. Where I'm from, you the tallest guy on the team. They made you the center at that time. But hear that? I was like, oh, I got to see this guy. And sure enough, it was every bit of what everyone was saying, because he was the first player that I faced. I was like, oh, this is a different level of competition that I haven't seen. But being me, being confident, I knew what was at stake and the opportunity that was there. I went forward, and I came out of that camp highly respected, highly known, and, you know, few weeks go by, in my senior year of high school, I'm the number one player in the country. Like, that's how fast that happened. Over just a few months, my life changed.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Was there one moment in that camp that you thought to yourself, I got it, like, mission accomplished. That's why I'm here?

[Tracy McGrady]

Well, the cherry on top for me when I solidified, like, oh, yeah, okay, this did it. It was an all star game. And I got a break coming down on the left side. Now in my mind, I'm like, I'm gonna do a windmill. Because I'm. I want to show. I want to be a showman. Because you got all the college coaches, you got NBA scouts in there. You got guys that I actually were watching at the collegiate level, that I respected and admired their games sitting watch me. You got Jay Z sitting, watching course. Like, you have these dudes in the gym. So for me, it's put on the show, man. And I got an opportunity to, you know, put on display our windmill. But in the middle of my windmill, I have somebody jump up with me in my chest while I'm going into my windmill. And I windmilled on the guy. And it was one of the craziest things that happened that weekend. Everybody ran on the court, the kids that, some of the coach, it was like, shut the gym down. That was one of the, you know, probably the, the most iconic moment of ABCD camp at that, at that time. Yeah.

[Memes]

Tried to stop the windmill. Like, don't never try to stop the windmill. Don Quixote learned that. Yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

So, so this all happens to you, and like I said, you go, you go. Eighteen months later, you're, you're, you're a top 10 pick and you're making Adidas comes for $12 million.

[Tracy McGrady]

What?

[Big Cat]

What, like you leave the camp? Are you like, all right, this is, this is now. I mean, you're laughing right now, but it is crazy. It's an awesome story because most guys, you know, either they were a top recruit for a really long time and everyone had talked about them for a really long time, or you'll see, you know, guys go to college and then come into their own. Not, hey, a guy goes to a camp in between his junior and senior year, and now he's the number one kid in the country, which bad scouting by everyone else. Like, where the fuck are the scouts in Florida? But you, so, so you, you then, you then go to, to high school your senior year in North Carolina. Was there a moment then in that year where you're like, okay, this is real. Like, this is actually, this is now happening. Everything is starting to get into place where I'm going to play in the NBA.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah, short. Shortly into my senior year, my coach was telling me all the scouts that were in the building, yeah, there's this guy, and this guy's with this team. Like, he was pointing them out and letting me know. So for me, it wasn't any pressure. I was excited about the opportunity, and I like to show out. You know what I mean? So if I got some NBA scout in there and I get winded at I'm showing out that night.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah. And I, I, I, I was doing research for, for you coming on, and I, I, I heard you say this, and I want you to tell your, your thought process behind it, because I, I love this story because we have, you know, different athletes on and different guys, and we always Ask like, hey, when you get that first contract, when you get that first big piece of money, like, is there something you buy? And a lot of people are, are very humble. They either say no or, you know, bought my mom a house or bought her a car. When you got your $12 million from Adidas, is it true that you took out $500,000 cash just to see what it looked like?

[Tracy McGrady]

Absolutely.

[Memes]

I love that.

[Big Cat]

Where did you put it? Where'd you put it?

[Tracy McGrady]

Well, well, I had it in the bags. I had it in the bags and then I put it on my bed and just was looking at it and I just jumped in it, bro. Just like Superfly, Jimmy Snooker just jumped in and just waddled in his money. Hey, man, if you know where I come from, bro, humble, very humble beginnings. And for, for me to have to see that and have the, the ability to touch that, that was everything.

[Big Cat]

That's incredible. And by the way, you did buy your, your family, you know, stuff, so that, that also happened. But like, that is the most relatable thing where, where I think most people be like, yeah, if I had that money, what first thing I'd do, I'd be Scrooge McDuck and just feel it out. Yeah, sure.

[Memes]

How nervous were you?

[Tracy McGrady]

Like, 18 year old kid just signed a $12 million. Are you kidding me?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Were you nervous like leaving the bank with the cash in the bags?

[Tracy McGrady]

Like, I made sure I had security with me. I, I was, I was good on that. I wasn't that stupid.

[Memes]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's got to be a great moment though. Just like I would fall asleep in that, in that pile of money.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Just for one night, a one night stand with my cash. That's all. It's cool that you're doing this thing with, with one on one though, because I feel like you are a guy that would get brought up when you're talking about like the best one on one players of all time. Is there anybody that you played with in your era that you, that you would say, yeah, that guy was actually better than me, one on one.

[Tracy McGrady]

I wouldn't say nobody. You know how we work, you know how our brains work. No, but to say there are some guys that I highly respect on that level. It's for sure. Kobe, Kevin Durant, James Harden, like These guys are 101 killers. It's, we have a lot of them in the league that are great one on one players because that's to me, when you watch the game, that's what it is. Nowadays, it's pickup basketball. There's highly. There's not that many sets that these guys. It's not a highly sophisticated offense that they're running. It's give me the ball, create a matchup, let me go one on one and kill you.

[Memes]

Yeah, Yeah. I feel like you would be, like, in the. Definitely top three, maybe number one in your era. Oh, today's game, for sure. Yeah. That actually brings up a good question. In one on one, what's the foul policy? Are we calling our own fouls, or is there a referee?

[Tracy McGrady]

No, there's referees.

[Memes]

Okay.

[Tracy McGrady]

No, But. But. But what I do have. I have a challenge, though. You're. You're so your player captain in your gm, they have one challenge. If they see a file that's not caught, they could call that challenge. And because we have three referees, two of the three have to side with you to get it through.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

Last time we had you on trees McGree, which was actually like a few years ago in our. Our studio in New York, we talked about your pants, your pants game.

[Tracy McGrady]

Because, you know, you see me on NBC now.

[Big Cat]

I know. Credit to you. Credit to you. Because I. We love the fact that, you know, everyone talks about those draft picks, the pictures from the draft in, like, the 90s, late 90s, early 2000s, and the pants and the suits, just absurd. And then you just decided, hey, I'm just going to keep wearing it all the way up until, you know, a few years ago. It's like, hey, I'm. I'm just doing the big pants. Can we get. I think we need more big pants. I need to get him back in the mix.

[Tracy McGrady]

Nah, no more big pants.

[Big Cat]

Come on.

[Zach]

We're.

[Tracy McGrady]

We're Taylor. We own NBC, but just throw us.

[Big Cat]

Throw us one big pants night. Like, imagine if it was Tracy McGrady's Big Pants Night.

[Tracy McGrady]

You know what? That's good promo.

[Big Cat]

Yes. Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

Maybe one night we might. I might have to do that every.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, every. So maybe if it's like a double header night and it's like you start the show with big pants, then halftime, they're even bigger, and then by the end, you're just like. You can't even see you because the pants are so big.

[Tracy McGrady]

You're on to something, my guy. I might have to credit you on this

[Big Cat]

big pants night with Rob.

[Memes]

Just don't tell anybody before you do it, because then everybody tunes in every night, and they're like, I wonder if tonight's big pants night, hoping they catch that glimpse, you know?

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah, I I, I might have to look into that. My guy.

[Memes]

I, I actually love the look. I think it's a great.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Why? I don't like that you're getting tailored. Was there a moment where you got, where you're like, hey, I'm done with this?

[Tracy McGrady]

No, I just wanted to tighten it up for, for NBC, you know. Okay. Now, like, it, it's, you know, it's, it's a different audience. Right. I gotta come, come different, differently against with the NBC audience. So I, you know, I want to look presentable for them.

[Memes]

Yeah. Yeah. When we're talking about you, you watching the modern day NBA and you're saying that, you know, it's a lot guys hunting matchups and going one on one. Is there, is there one guy or one team where you watch them play and you're like, that is very fun brand of basketball to watch. I love what they're doing.

[Tracy McGrady]

Well, San Antonio plays a great brand of basketball. Can't never leave out the Golden State warriors and how they play. Just fun, free, you know, getting up and down, a lot of movement. But I got to be in that role that Steph is in. I can't be the one that's, you know, always setting the screen, though. Yeah, I got to be the one shooting the ball. Shooting the ball. But no, it's, it's like San Antonio plays a beautiful brand of basketball. That's why they in the position in that day in right now.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. What. So we, we just did a live show in LA and we had our good friend Blake Griffin on and we, I, I, I like, I want to discuss the NBA. The NBA players have been great, but can you make a case for anyone else besides okc? Is it just, I don't want to say it's inevitable, but it feels a little bit like those warriors teams where it's like, all right, well, I don't really know how they're going to lose this because they're just so good defensively. Offensively, they have the mvp. So do you have a case for anyone else or is it, hey, they are this good.

[Tracy McGrady]

No, there are, they're good. But I do have a case for someone else. Just the case. I don't know if my case will help them pull through, but I think San Antonio has the personnel, they have the depth to match up with okc. It's just, can your guys sustain that level of greatness for the amount of minutes that they're in? Because when you watch okc, there's really, when they're, when their Bench comes in the game, there's really not a huge drop off. And if anything they elevate because these guys are so good at what they do with their, their craft. San Antonio has that same type of personnel, but those guys are young. OKC just has the experience going through, you know, the, the rigors of the playoffs, won a championship. So they've gotten that over that hump where San Antonio is working their way, their way there. That's my case. I just think, you know, having depth that can match up with OKC in terms of the skill set in which they bring. San Antonio has that. I just don't know if they can sustain that throughout a seven game series.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I mean, San Antonio Wemby's obviously just a total difference maker. My, my case against San Antonio and it might be stupid. Meatball. I'm not a very smart guy, but I really do think the NBA is the one league where you have to go through the wars to get over to the top of the mountain. Like you just. It just there's. They're very rarely a case of a team that is. This is their first time going into the playoffs that they're able to win the whole thing. Even OKC had to lose before they can win. And so that it feels like as good as San Antonio has been this year and unleashing Wemby and playing them all these minutes now, you still got to go through it and you got to learn how to win these like really tight playoff series.

[Tracy McGrady]

Unless you like a team like the 0708 Boston Celtics where they made the trade with those guys and they just came in and just whooped everybody ass.

[Big Cat]

But all those, all those guys separately had done it, you know what I mean, where they had been through wars, right?

[Tracy McGrady]

But they came together in one year and just, you know, put it together and just went crazy. I mean, they were so good defensively, but I think that's where it really lies. Like defensively, these teams are elite. I can't say which one is better than the other. It's just the offensive end of having to score late in games. Can you execute when it matters the most? And for me, OKC has the proven one, right? And Shay the most clutch guy in the, in the game today. Whereas San Antonio is still searching, right? They're searching. And if they end up in a matchup in the Western Conference finals against okc, that's going to be their learning curve. And I'm sure OKC will probably pull that out, but they need to go through that to be able to get over OKC for the following year because they know what to expect.

[Memes]

Yeah. Let's just say Oklahoma City makes it to the Finals, and then you could take anybody from the East. I'm not saying, like, who you think will necessarily win the east, although it might be the same answer. But if you could take anybody from the east and say they probably have the best matchup against the Thunder in the finals, who would that be?

[Tracy McGrady]

New York.

[Memes]

Okay.

[Tracy McGrady]

That's the Knicks.

[Memes]

And that's probably the team that you would think is going to actually make it to the Finals, too.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah. Okay. It's the Knicks for me. Their toughness, you know, their grid, and they have a guy that, you know, can match up with SGA in terms of being able to score, being a finisher, being able to close the games. And Jalen Bronson just, you know, magnificent skills defensively. You know, I'm sure there he will be a guy that they're target a lot, but I think in terms of their toughness, how they play, how they're built, the dogs they have over there, the skill set, I think they can match up with them. I'm not saying they could beat okc, but I think it'd be a good. Out of all the teams, I think that's a great matchup.

[Big Cat]

Do you think that SGA has a flopping problem?

[Tracy McGrady]

I think SGA has manipulated the game the same way James Harden manipulated the game. That's just what it is. He's getting the calls. It's his turn. It's. It works for him. I hate it, but what are you gonna do? It works for me.

[Big Cat]

That's kind of where we've always landed, where it's like, do I like watching it? No. And. But if you're able. That's a. That's an NBA problem. That's a refereeing problem. Like, fix that. It's not their fault that they have found a way to be more efficient than everyone else.

[Tracy McGrady]

That's what I. That's why I say I don't like it. But it. If they are allowing it, he shouldn't. You keep doing it if they're allowing it.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Tracy McGrady]

And it works in your benefit.

[Big Cat]

Right? Right.

[Tracy McGrady]

I feel about it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

If somebody had told you while you were playing, hey, if you do this repeatedly, the refs will give you that call every single time. Would you have done it?

[Tracy McGrady]

If I'm getting calls, why not?

[Memes]

I feel like every player in the NBA, they're just like. Like us sitting on our couch. We could be like, I would never do that if I was in the NBA. Yeah, you probably would. You probably would because you probably get league mvp. You probably make hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Tracy McGrady]

If I can get, you know, six free throws out of manipulation, I'm doing that. Why not? That's easy. Points. I would do that.

[Memes]

Now.

[Tracy McGrady]

I don't know how to flop. I don't know. I would be horrible at that because I don't know how to flop. But I will find other ways to get to the basket. And I, I was taught, look, we all find ways to manipulate the game. It's just the great players is one that gets called out at the level that SGA is at. For me, when we're in penalty, I found a way to get to the free throw line. I'm gonna run through the lane, hoping one of them big boys is sitting down there and I'm gonna run into him because when I run into him, he's gonna give me a check. It's gonna be a foul. There's a lot of ways to manipulate the games, guys. Yeah, I did it.

[Memes]

We'll get back to tmac in a second. He's brought to you by our great friends over at Microsoft 365 co pilot Microsoft 365 copilot. It lets you get stuff done. It works with stuff you've already got on your computer. You can work without leaving your workflow at all. It's built right into Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook. Copilot works where you work, helping you do more in the apps that you already use In Word. Copilot helps turn scattered notes into a first draft. In Excel, it generates insights from your data. In Outlook, it cuts the noise. It gets you up to speed faster. The apps know you go further with Copilot. Learn [e-mail] work that's m365copilot.com work. Tracy McGrady is also brought to you by Jose Cuervo. When Cuervo enters, every moment just gets better. You find yourself in the center of the dance floor. You can't help but stand up and high five those around you. At the game, the room reacts like it just got the same text at the same time. And you stop checking the time because suddenly small talk escalates to laughing so hard you can barely catch your breath. That's the Cuervo effect. It's a signal that everybody understands. It's a moment that anyone can join. It's a good time that just grows. All you have to do is keep it Cuervo. And now here's more.

[Big Cat]

Tracy McGrady, you are mentor to Jalen Brown. You're friends with him, close friends with him. What's going on with him?

[Tracy McGrady]

I haven't spoken to him.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Tracy McGrady]

I don't know. I mean, he's just. He's doing what athletes nowadays do. They go to their. Their own platforms and they tell their side of the story. I. I don't have a problem with what he's doing. I mean, you know, it's. It's content, right? We love content.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but do you. Do you think that's a. Like. Because it was a little weird to go live 24 hours after losing game seven and say things like, you know, this is the best. This is the best year of my life. When he. When he won a title two years ago, do you think that he's. It's sustainable for him in Boston, or you think there might be something down the road where it's like, hey, these guys are going to. He wants to have his own team. Jason Tatum has proven that it's his team kind of situation where it's going to. Going to end up being a split.

[Tracy McGrady]

I don't know. I remember having a conversation with him. I think it was like 2019 when he came to the house, and it was just a level of frustration on his part and in terms of, you know, where he was at and what he was thinking. And I kind of, you know, had a really good conversation with him and ultimately leading him to him staying and winning the championship and. And winning finals mvp. I don't know what he's thinking. I. I honestly don't. I haven't spoken to jb. I just know, you know, having. Did I say JB or jt? All right.

[Memes]

Jb.

[Big Cat]

Jb.

[Tracy McGrady]

I know. Just having JT back and the way they played this year, getting that second seed. I. Listen, man, to me, Boston is still a great team, I think. And when I talk about his frustration or not his frustration, but him being, you know, having this year as his best year. I just, for me, I put it in my own context, right? It's. We lose our best player, he's not going to be with us this year. Everybody wrote us off, right? This is a throwaway season for the Boston Celtics. No one is counting on this. Well, they end up having a phenomenal year. J. JB, J. All these JTs. JB had a phenomenal year. MVP candidate, number two in the Eastern Conference, you know, and I just felt like, for him personally gotta Think he's. He's been sacrificing all these years being with J.T. rightfully so. Right. So now he's in a different role. He's in a role where he can show who he really is as a basketball player. He has another level that he's taken it to and his leadership. I thought his leadership with this year was put on display and he showed great leadership. The guys play extremely hard for Joe Missoula and JB being the leader. So for me, I understand the context. If how I'm looking at it, they had a good year with everybody writing them off. Now it looks bad because JT did come back and play like 20 games. Y' all were up 3 1, and that's why it looks so bad. But I understand the context in which I'm putting in that. You go back to the beginning, no one thought about us even making the playoffs right now we get to the playoffs and it's a three one, you know, lead, and we lose that. Now it looks bad that I go on my podcast or whatever and, and say, this is the best year that, you know, I had with the Boston Celtics. But if people just put it in context and go back and all the sacrifices that he had to do to win a championship, now you want to roll, you could be the man, right? Everyone wants the opportunity to be the man at once. 1. One time in their career. He got that opportunity this year.

[Memes]

Yeah, I did a great job this year. I was looking at a picture of you from a few months ago because I recently watched the movie Marty Supreme. I saw it on the plane last week. I didn't realize that you were in Marty supreme, that you were a Harlem Globetrotter. And I saw a picture of you with Chalamet where you're wearing your Globetrotters warm ups. It looks like he's wearing pink silk pajamas. I'm not. I'm not sure what he's wearing. But my question was, did you have a chance to hoop with Chalamet? Because I saw a clip yesterday and he looked pretty good.

[Tracy McGrady]

No, I didn't get a chance, man. We were there. It was late. We were in Long Island. It was a late shoot. I actually had to end up. I ended up leaving the shoot. It was a couple scenes that I didn't make because I had to get out of there. I couldn't stay till like three or four o' clock in the morning. That's when they were shooting. I was, hey, man, I gotta go. I got some other things I gotta do. But it was good hanging out with him, you know, he was so nice and, you know, kind enough. I told him my kids was a big fan of him, and he was like, yo, call them right now. So I called my kids. They had no clue where I was at and who I was with. And to answer their FaceTime and see him on the phone, like, they just went bananas and lost it. But it was pretty cool, man, to be a part of that project.

[Memes]

Yeah. I don't know if you saw the clip of him. It was after the Knicks game the other day. They. They just let him play ball on the court at msg, and he just cooked. Some guy.

[Tracy McGrady]

He was. He got swag, bro. Yeah, he got some major swag.

[Memes]

He's getting a good shot, too.

[Big Cat]

During the first round of the playoffs, was there any conversation had between you and the Orlando Magic being like, hey, just bring me in because you guys cannot make a basket? And that's exactly what I can do, because I. I know. Look, it's been a long time since you've been in the league, but I actually think that you like the way that the Magic were shooting, especially in game six and seven. Just throw TMac out there. It can't. It can't be worse than what happened, man.

[Tracy McGrady]

That. That broke my heart, bro, because it just brought back memories when I was up 3:1 against Detroit. Oh, my gosh, man.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but I.

[Tracy McGrady]

Listen, I. I lost the three. I ain't gonna say I lost the 31 lead. I mean, I had a whole team. We lost the 31 lead, but we ain't losing like that. Like, yeah, 23 straight shots. That. That was crazy. That's. That ultimately lost them that series in. In game six. I. I just don't know how you do that. And I was here in Houston when they missed 24 consecutive shots. I was here. I watched that game. But it's just heartbreaking, man, because you. You had such a, you know, up and down season due to your injuries. You get into the play in, you play your ass off, and then you match up with the number one seed. And for me, it's like, it was the perfect freaking series for y', all, because how Detroit plays and who their identity is is a physical basketball team. Yeah, well, Orlando matches that because of their size and their physicality. And I just thought that was a great series for them. And they showed it. Got up three one. And it's just that game six, missing. No. Being up 23 or 24 and losing in the second half, only scoring 19 points, is heartbreaking. And when they lost game six, I knew game seven, they wasn't gonna win.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So let's say that going into game six are like tmac. We need ten minutes from you. We'll play zone. We'll play. Yeah, we'll play zone. We'll play zone. When you're on defense, how many points are you gonna score?

[Tracy McGrady]

I don't know how many I'm gonna score, but I'm gonna generate at least 10 to 15 points.

[Big Cat]

Okay, so they should have signed you.

[Tracy McGrady]

Don't work no more.

[Memes]

The, the 13 points you had in 35 seconds.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Has anybody ever been more in the zone? Was that the, the human pinnacle of like how in the zone one man can be,

[Tracy McGrady]

I don't know, to that many points? I mean, Reggie Miller had something similar. Actually somebody overseas just had a crazy game where they score score points like that, but in a zone to where you Scoring 13 points in the amount of time that I did. No. But you look back at some of the great scoring games. Yeah, some guys have really been in that zone.

[Memes]

How, how magical did that feel? Like, did you want the game to end? It's like, I will never miss a shot again.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah. I felt like in that moment, in that span that, you know what did it for me is when I hit the four point play on Tim Duncan. You got a seven footer that I got off the, off his feet and we had the three point line and I had the muscle to get that shot up. Bumping into him and getting that shot up 4, 3, going to the free throw line, making that. And once that episode happened, the basket just felt like it was, it was, I was throwing it in the ocean. Yeah, that a lot of times. And I just felt like we was going to win that game. That's why you see on that last play, I'm not going and trying to tie the game. I'm going to win the game because I have like something just came over me at that moment.

[Memes]

Yeah. You were never gonna miss.

[Big Cat]

You mentioned Tim Duncan. I don't know if we talked about this when you came came by a few years ago, but. But it really is one of the big what ifs where it could have been you, Grant Hill and Tim Duncan in Orlando. What, what, what was the reasoning for. Was it, was it something about flights or something that Tim Duncan.

[Tracy McGrady]

So Grant Hill told this story before it had Grant Hill, I guess they were at dinner and his significant other asked, can family or wives travel on a plane? And Doc river answer to that was no. And that was the deal breaker. And if that is true, I. I told you. Grant Hill told this story, so I believe Grant Hill. If you. Doc Rivers, and you have an opportunity to sign Tim Duncan, who just won a championship, and you team him up with. Forget me, because I'm the afterthought, but Grant Hill in Orlando in the Eastern Conference, and then what I later became to join that. Hey, man, give him everything he wanted.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

Give him everything he wanted.

[Big Cat]

Let his wife fly the plane.

[Tracy McGrady]

Should have bought him his own freaking plane.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

Back.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. It's crazy. It is such a fun what if, because that's, you know, when it's obviously, you know, after MJ and the Bulls and the east is kind of in a shifting spot, and you have the west, you know, with the Lakers, and what happens there. There. There was a spot there for a team, especially if it was you, Grant Hill, and Tim Duncan, you would have

[Memes]

been the original Big Three.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

You would have dominated these what if skies.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

What ifs with me.

[Memes]

Big Four with Grant Hill's wife. Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

And, yeah, I would have loved to have Tim Duncan, but what if Grant Hill was healthy? Like.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

And how great he was.

[Memes]

I was thinking about that. Do you think Grant Hill is. Is the biggest. Like, what if. If that guy stayed healthy in the history of the NBA because he was so good? He was what, six, eight?

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah, it's a lot of. It's. It's a. It's a handful of guys like that, though. I mean, you got D. Rose, you got Penny Hardaway. Like, Penny only had four good years, and that was my idol. Like, he only had four good years. Grant, he only. He had, what, five or six until his ankle injury, so. And D. Rose, man. Oh, my gosh.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I feel like it's. Yeah, it's like Grand Hill, D. Rose, maybe Bill Walton, you throw in there guys who, like, you know, were. Yeah, yeah. Their flash was so good. And then it just never was the same after, you know, a bunch of injuries.

[Tracy McGrady]

We missed out on the longevity of their greatness. We've seen it, but we missed out on the longevity of it.

[Big Cat]

Speaking of longevity of greatness, LeBron still, obviously, in the playoffs. It is really insane. What does he have to do?

[Memes]

I mean, he.

[Big Cat]

I don't know what he can do in this series. Like, going into this series, I said. I was like, there's. I'm not going to hold this against LeBron. The Thunder are just so much better than the Lakers.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah. Like, cold.

[Zach]

What.

[Tracy McGrady]

Against LeBron. I'm just. We should Be happy that we still watching him play. Yeah, I don't, I don't care what happens to the Lakers. Like, they, they're not gonna win this series. Are you kidding me? Some few guys have to get hurt for them to win this series. Yeah, they just, they're outmanned. They don't have enough to. To beat this team.

[Memes]

Yeah. Even if, if Luca was playing, would you say like maybe six games?

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah, yeah. I, I would say it'll be a little bit more competitive. And I would say this though. They. The. The Lakers, out of all the games that I've seen this year in the playoffs from Phoenix until game one, they actually had a great game plan. And I've never seen SGA play the way he played. Right. So the attention to detail and game plan that they had for SGA worked. Again, they just didn't have enough to sustain, you know, that level of play. When they come in with the bench, it's a huge drop off and they can't, you know, keep that up. But the game plan was amazing.

[Big Cat]

It worked. Yeah. Yeah. The SGA did not go off. SGA had a, A bad game for his, you know, he's 18 points.

[Memes]

Is.

[Big Cat]

That's not SG. Like, the problem is the Thunder then have just so many guys. Oh, Jared McCain's gonna go four for five for three.

[Tracy McGrady]

Right.

[Big Cat]

Okay, cool. What do you do for that?

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah, that's the problem. Right. You got Isaiah Joe, you got caruso, you got A.J. mitchell, you got Case of Wallace, you got check who had a big game. So it's It.

[Zach]

They.

[Tracy McGrady]

It's too many bodies. It's too much greatness. And I, I felt like, you know, I wanted to see the greatness of LeBron and JJ, of their minds, and how they was going to approach this game. And I must say I was highly impressed because OKC looked like a different basketball team than what we've watched in the previous games. A series against Phoenix Suns.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Is there a team out there that might not? Maybe they haven't won in the playoffs yet, but an up and coming one where you're keeping an eye on them for next year. Like, this is a team that's getting better and no one's talking about him.

[Tracy McGrady]

I mean, I say watch out for the Portland Trailblazers, man. I think they're, they're putting something special together over there. They had a phenomenal season. Think about what they went through in the beginning of the season. Losing their coach. Thiago Splitter had to, you know, sub in. Did a fabulous job with them, you know, to get him, you know, in there. And those guys respond the way they responded. It just shows that the great leadership from Thiago, from Jeremy Grant, from Drew Holiday, Dane, and you get Dane back. Hopefully they keep Drew and adds. I don't know if they're going to add, but I like Portland next year to be a team that we'll be talking about. Not saying they're going to be on the OKC San Antonio level, but they are a team that is. Is surgeon that we should keep an eye on.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, absolutely. All right, so TMac, everyone, like I said, the. What's the first date of the. The ones basketball league.

[Tracy McGrady]

So we're going to be in Orlando, Florida, guys, May 15th at Oak Ridge High School. Get your Tickets on online OBLHoops.com please, Orlando come out. It's gonna be phenomenal. We're gonna have all the legends in the building. Jalen Brown because he's the owner of the Boston, Boston, of the Atlanta team. All my owners, Jada Kiss, Tim Hardaway, senior Vince Carter, John Wall. I mean, the list goes on. Lorenz Tate, they all there. It's. It's going to be a phenomenal event. Hopefully you guys can make it. But we're also going to be streaming on FUBO as well, so.

[Big Cat]

That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, I had one last question. So the robot question. Rho, b, a, c k.com promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase. Q, zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code, take. Actually, we have a. We have a Florida boy in here. Our guy Zach, who's a big basketball fan. Zach, do you have a last question for TMAC or a couple questions?

[Zach]

I do. Trish McGregor. I do want to say appreciate for your time and I also want to say appreciate the way the positive light you always paint Polk county. And I think that's awesome, man.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yes, sir. You already know, baby.

[Max]

Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

From Polk county. All day, every day.

[Zach]

I agree. Yes, sir. From Lake of Florida, 863. Love that.

[Tracy McGrady]

Hold on. You from Lakeland?

[Zach]

Oh, yes, sir.

[Tracy McGrady]

Oh, man. Hey. Hey, my guy. You know how Polk county is, baby.

[Zach]

From the heart, man.

[Memes]

Of course.

[Zach]

Definitely.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I was curious, what was it like when you got that phone call that you made the COVID of NBA Live back in the day?

[Tracy McGrady]

Oh, man. As a, as a kid, it was just like, you know, really seeing someone with your. Seeing someone, you know, for the first time with my signature shoes on, I just. I went crazy. Like, damn, I made it yeah, but not to get that call that I was going to be on the COVID after, you know, being a fan of the game. It was just one of those moments, man, that, you know, all the joy just jumps on you and, you know, you're forever grateful for that. I. I get people to this day talking about that cover and just talking about that game.

[Zach]

Unreal feeling. Absolutely love that for you, man.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yes, sir.

[Big Cat]

You got another question, Zach? So wait, how far away are you guys from? Like, where is Lakeland?

[Tracy McGrady]

I could throw a rock from Arbondale to Lakeland.

[Big Cat]

Oh, hell yes. Yeah, it's like.

[Zach]

It's like 10, 15 minutes.

[Big Cat]

Lovely.

[Zach]

He put a restaurant, like, five minutes from my house a couple years ago.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, you go?

[Zach]

It was a short stint, but, yeah, we visited one time.

[Big Cat]

Nice. Oh, yeah?

[Memes]

What'd you think?

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah, it was during the pandemic. I should have waited. People didn't want to work, so I had to shut it down. But, yeah, man, Polk county is one of those. Those counties where it's just. All the neighboring towns is just connected, so. And we got a lot of talent that came out of there. Even like, Chris Sales. Chris sells the pitcher. He's from. He's from where? He's from Lakeland.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

A lot of guys, I think, from Lakeland.

[Max]

Right.

[Zach]

Lewis as well. Yeah. Another one, Kathleen High School. A couple guys, I think got a bad shake, you know, Corey Sanders, Dwayne Bacon. A lot of talent coming out of Lakeland.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yes, sir.

[Zach]

Pouncy Twins is a big one. There we go.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Tracy McGrady]

All right.

[Big Cat]

What else you got, Zach?

[Zach]

I was just curious. Are we going to see any of those 1v1 championships in Polk County?

[Tracy McGrady]

Absolutely. Awesome. Sure. You know, I got to bring it to the high school in Arbondale for sure.

[Zach]

Oh, you can bring it to the gym.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah. Oh, that's all.

[Zach]

That's all.

[Max]

Time.

[Zach]

Thank you for your time, man.

[Big Cat]

I love that, Zach.

[Memes]

Thank you, Zach.

[Big Cat]

Is there a favorite place that maybe you guys can bond over that you would. Restaurant or anything like that in.

[Tracy McGrady]

In Polk County? Yeah, I'll let him pick that.

[Big Cat]

You go with Zach.

[Zach]

That's. That's balls in your court there, Tracy. We might have.

[Tracy McGrady]

Hey, we might have to go to Orlando or Tampa, my guy.

[Zach]

Yeah, completely understandable.

[Big Cat]

Okay, okay, okay. Maybe I. I was thinking more of a gas station, because, Zach, you love gas stations.

[Tracy McGrady]

Boiled. We got a lot of them.

[Zach]

Yeah, it was the best place to go grab something to eat early or late night.

[Tracy McGrady]

What high school did you go to, Zach?

[Zach]

I went to George Jenkins High school.

[Tracy McGrady]

Oh, I murdered them. I used to, I used to give it to them.

[Memes]

Zach dropped a 50 piece one.

[Tracy McGrady]

They were a new high school when I was, when I was coming up in high school. They were a brand new high school. So, you know, the talent is out. I used to ah, give them crazy hell over there. That's where all the money at though.

[Zach]

No, but everybody's. But the thing is, like they say, you're supposed to have the zoning, but the zoning didn't matter because everybody was just changing the dresses. Going to play Lakeland and going to play Kathleen. Nobody was trying to. Is terrible.

[Tracy McGrady]

Y' all had all the money over there at George. Genius, man. Lakeland and Kathleen a little bit different.

[Zach]

You know, that's where the comps at though.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah, for sure.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. All right, well, TMac, thank you as always, man. We love having you on. We appreciate it and good luck with the, with, with the one on one tournament on May. May 15th. And we look forward to watching, man.

[Tracy McGrady]

Y' all know what it is with me. I appreciate y' all all the time. Anytime, man. Love,

[Memes]

Tracy McGrady was brought to you by Reese's. I love these new Reese's. So we got, we got the marshmallow, we got the PB and J. Everything happens for Reese's. If you remember school lunch as a kid, those times that you scored a Reese's, you were basically in kid heaven. Now you can go back to that same feeling because they're dropping new limited edition cups. The return of The Reese's Strawberry, PB&J and the Allnet's marshmallow cup. I've had the marshmallow a few times. Delicious. Had the strawberry yesterday. Oh my God, it's back. Younger. You would have done anything to get one of those. Luckily, adult you can, but only for a limited time. So grab one before they're gone. Everything happens for Reese's and fire fest of the week is going to be brought to you by Morgan and Morgan. Hiring the wrong people can be disastrous. That's where Morgan and Morgan comes in. If you're ever injured by the negligence of another. Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm for a reason. They've been helping people with their own fire fest for over 35 years. They have over 100 offices nationwide, more than a thousand lawyers with over $30 billion recovered for over 500, 000 clients. Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation if you're ever injured. You can check out Morgan and Morgan, Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to forthepeople.compmt or.£law£529 from your phone. That's for the people. F o r the people.compmt or.£529. This is a paid advertisement.

[Big Cat]

Okay, boys, fire fest of the week. You're in Hank's chair. Zach, by the way, the glasses.

[Zach]

Yeah, I had to go with the alternate pair. This is the backup pair.

[Big Cat]

They're hot. Respectfully, they're hot.

[Zach]

I appreciate you saying that, big cat.

[Memes]

I think they draw more attention to your eyes.

[Zach]

Yeah, I am adjusting to the bezel. I haven't had the. It's almost like blinders. Like a horse. Because the bezel's colored now, so I'm picking that up in my peripherals. But I do appreciate the kind words there, gentlemen. They mean more than you know. Hopefully get back to regularly scheduled eyeglass programming here soon. My favorite fest of the week is just that. I thought that I left my apartment in a better state yesterday. We finally got home. You know, we've been on the road for quite a while. There couldn't be more. More things I need to do to get my life back together in that apartment than there is.

[Memes]

Like, what?

[Zach]

I mean, the laundry is just, like. It's embarrassing.

[Memes]

The lingerie, there's too much of it just laying around.

[Zach]

There's never been. Unfortunately, there's never been any lace in that apartment. Is the laundry's bad? Left a couple lights on. The PC was left on the entire time. With my windows open, I'm a little bit worried about sun damage. That's a whole nother thing. I won't bore you guys with that, but my fire fest this week, it just said, like, it's gonna take maybe two to three weeks to get my life back together.

[Big Cat]

Wait, so you. You walked out of your apartment, just left everything on?

[Zach]

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Like. But I didn't plug the alarm clock, and I took a picture of it to make sure.

[Memes]

Wait, wait.

[Big Cat]

Take a picture of you locking your door?

[Zach]

Well, this morning I did a video.

[Tracy McGrady]

Yeah, but.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but did you do it on Friday?

[Zach]

Yeah, that's just as a business decision. Yeah, I make sure compounds squared away every day.

[Memes]

When you leave, do you also. You unplug the alarm clock and picture that too?

[Zach]

Now, I don't usually photo the alarm clock. I did when we left. Just because we were gonna be, like, AFK all the way away from keyboard. Oh, yes. I didn't mean. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

What's afk away from keyboard. Okay. All right.

[Max]

Memes is telling me that Zach has another fyre fest that he has, and.

[Big Cat]

Oh, so this, in terms of leaving

[Unknown Guest]

a room too early.

[Memes]

This is what we're talking about with Zach the other day. He. He says that the booth will not keep a secret, but this is the booth doing their job.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Like, you share stuff with the booth

[Big Cat]

and you got it. You have to.

[Memes]

You have to share with the class.

[Big Cat]

Zach, you are a star. The pop you got on Tuesday night was insane.

[Zach]

The live show is so much fun.

[Big Cat]

It was you guys.

[Zach]

What you guys are builds a beautiful thing. And to see from virtual eyes into IRL eyes. It was. It was awesome to see.

[Big Cat]

By the way, thank you for everyone who came out to that live show. It was awesome. And thank you to Jerry and Rebecca and Blake Griffin and Ryan Rosillo. It was. I think we all going into it because, you know, Netflix is a joke, is a big comedy festival, and there's a shitload of shows. So going into it, we're like, are we going to be able to sell enough tickets? And we like. It was. I think I got the final numbers. 90% full. And it was awesome crowd. It's great pot, like, great pop. Cool. YouTube theater was awesome. We're on the wall of fame now.

[Memes]

The wall of icons. Wall of icons next to Metallica.

[Big Cat]

But, yeah, it was a really cool experience, and we appreciate everyone who came out and celebrated with us. And I don't know what the future for live shows is, but I will say, if we ever do end up trying to do live shows, we will obviously spread it out to a bunch of cities. This was a specific one where it's like, hey, we're going to Vegas for matches. Bachelor party. We got this live show. Like, I. I get it. Some people are like, why don't you come to this city? Why don't you come to that Live shows? We've been asked to do them a bunch, and it's just, we never want to do a live show where we don't make it something special. And then traveling and trying to make an extra show, it's. It would probably hurt the. Our regular show.

[Memes]

Yeah, I think that it was really cool to do one time, and we probably will do some more in the future. But in terms of, you know, what this experience taught me actually is I do not want to do a tour. Yeah, like a tour of live shows. Like, doing the prep for it, getting one in, having a great time at it. I think it would really, really affect the rest of the pod.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Memes]

If we did multiple back to back to back. Even if we did, like, two or three a week, I don't think that I. I like you know, being snipers. Even sniper posts. Not the shotgun approach.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Tuesday felt weird because we recorded the entire podcast, then we went and did a live podcast. Yeah, like, this is weird.

[Memes]

I would not want to do that.

[Big Cat]

No. All right, so now you're real Firefest. So shout out everyone who came. We really, really appreciate everyone's support. It was a special night, and it was great meeting Rebecca Romain.

[Zach]

It was.

[Big Cat]

Jerry has told her nothing about us. That's what we really learned. She was completely in the dark about his entire world. He's living two separate worlds.

[Memes]

She's also way taller in person.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, way taller and way.

[Memes]

She.

[Big Cat]

She mogged, Jerry.

[Memes]

Oh, big time. Big time. She also kissed me on my cheek. Did she kiss you on your cheek?

[Big Cat]

She did kiss me on my cheek to piggyback, and that's all I'm gonna say. She's just kissed me on my cheek. I also have. I don't know if you guys have this, but actually, I'll use it for my Firefest. But go ahead.

[Zach]

To piggyback off the live show, I did step away to take a nervous pee in the worst timing possible when Memes had to defend the Knicks. And that's on me, Memes. And I owe you an apology. I should have had your back.

[Unknown Guest]

It was okay during the press off with Blake Griffin.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah.

[Zach]

I should have been there to have his back, and I stepped away. Nervous P. That's on me. And I. And I'm sorry for that, Memes. And I appreciate you accepting my apology.

[Big Cat]

So that was. That was your other fire Fest. You had a nervous pee during the live show.

[Max]

That's not what Memes was saying back here.

[Big Cat]

Oh, okay. So it sounds like we got a third Fire Fest.

[Memes]

Who? Wait, first.

[Big Cat]

First of all, he's just there. He's like, oh, no.

[Memes]

Who won the press?

[Big Cat]

I think it was. Well, the Knicks are up too.

[Max]

Well, I think it was icy vertical.

[Memes]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Okay, I see. Lib, what's your actual fire Fest? Now that we've gotten that out of the system, you've done a couple practice reps for Fire Fest. Now we're ready for our fire Fest.

[Zach]

I thought that was all the fire Zach was saying.

[Unknown Guest]

He left half his in Vegas.

[Tracy McGrady]

Well, that.

[Zach]

Yeah. So I guess to piggyback off the alarm. Wake up. I had limited time to pack, and then most of my things are Just in the. In hotel room in Vegas.

[Memes]

Not anymore. Yeah, they're gone now. What do we mean?

[Zach]

Like, most things, like bathing suit gone. Two pairs of my favorite shorts, some of the socks I just purchased, and like, several pairs of underwear. Like, just the essential stuff you would pack.

[Memes]

What about shoes?

[Zach]

Toothbrush charger, which is kind of a bummer.

[Big Cat]

You just listed everything.

[Zach]

Yeah, the toothbrush charger is really like the. I didn't notice that when talking about. Did you pack? Yeah, I got both my. Both shoes made it. A pair of jeans made it. Other half of the boxers made it. Some of the black T shirts made it.

[Memes]

What did all your shoes make it?

[Zach]

Double pairs made it. Yeah, the.

[Max]

The black T shirts could have stayed. You got. You got plenty of backups there.

[Zach]

I know. It just. What was in the. It was pretty much what's. What was in the bag got closed in. What was piled separately? No, I just closed and zip.

[Big Cat]

And we went. I was gonna say, like, everyone has left something in a hotel room before, but it's always, you know, you leave one thing, you leave a hat, you leave a charger, you leave a shirt. Not half of your bag. So you didn't pack?

[Zach]

I didn't repack. No, it was a quick zip, and we're gone.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Max]

I think Zach is in a point right now that he is worried that every time he sleeps, he's late for something because we had. We literal hell, we had no plans on what we left, what, Monday.

[Tracy McGrady]

Monday.

[Memes]

There was.

[Max]

There was no plans. There was no late for anything. And he's still worried. He was like, I. I slept through that alarm. I'm. Was I. Was I late? I was like, no, dude, you. You didn't miss anything. We didn't have anything to go to.

[Zach]

Max. That was an in transit convo.

[Max]

I'm saying this to help. To help.

[Zach]

You're right.

[Max]

Help ease your. Your. Your nerves.

[Zach]

Yeah, I wasn't sure.

[Max]

Everything is late.

[Zach]

There's no way to know.

[Max]

No, you have time to pack, but I know in your brain, you're like, holy shit, I'm sleeping past my alarm.

[Memes]

Right?

[Max]

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.

[Memes]

The funniest.

[Zach]

Doesn't matter.

[Max]

We gotta go.

[Memes]

The funniest part about Zach waking up in the morning, when we finally got him to rise up, he, like, popped out of bed, like, sat straight up. And then he went to do the glasses thing with both of his hands, but he didn't have glasses, so there was nothing on there. And then he just goes. First words.

[Big Cat]

I'M dialed.

[Memes]

I'm so dialed. Let's go. Like, the second that he opened his

[Zach]

eyes, I heard Pft's voice, and I was like, there. I'm probably late for something.

[Max]

Were you.

[Big Cat]

So we got. Maybe it's partially us, too. We got, like, yesterday I texted you. Did that. Did that freak you out when you woke up?

[Zach]

I was gonna ask you about that a little bit later, but we're good.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we're not good. At, like, 12:30. When I was on the Yak, we had a Cincinnati red come by who actually was like, I used to live in the town that Zach sold used cars. So he's like, I want to meet Zach.

[Zach]

Small town.

[Big Cat]

And he wanted. He wanted some ice cream. So I texted Zach at like, 12:30, and I was like, hey, are you here today? And Zach text me back at 6:30pm he's like, hey, I'm awake. What do you need? But that was okay because that was a travel day. Like, that was not that we. We were on the road for five days. I didn't expect you to be in. I was more just saying, hey, if you're here, come over. But I'm sorry. That probably freaked you out when you woke up.

[Zach]

No, I think accountability is important.

[Big Cat]

Did you sleep? You have a good sleep?

[Zach]

Yeah, I feel I slept from, like. Like 11 to text. Like three minutes before tax.

[Memes]

Yeah. What time are you waking up tomorrow? I got my alarm set for text. Whenever I get a text, I'll wake up.

[Big Cat]

Oh, man. Zach, I don't want you to be stressed like this.

[Zach]

No, no stress of all.

[Max]

I'm just.

[Zach]

You got. You got to get better. You know what I mean? One. One percent better every day.

[Memes]

When you say no stress at all, do you mean no stress at all or do you mean, like, I'm a little bit.

[Big Cat]

So much.

[Zach]

Well, everybody's got a little stress.

[Max]

You're so stressed right now. Yeah. You can't sit still. You're good. You're good.

[Big Cat]

You're good.

[Zach]

Dude.

[Big Cat]

You're a star.

[Zach]

I just love being part of this team. What a blessing.

[Big Cat]

We love having you here. Pft.

[Memes]

I mean, besides, like, hanging out with Max all weekend after he was hanging out with a guy that had the hantavirus on the plane. Besides that. What, that.

[Max]

That was going to be mine?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Yeah, besides that. I had a pretty good week. I'd say that I'm a. I'm a big Bryson DeChambeau fan.

[Max]

Oh.

[Memes]

And I'm a little bit worried about whether or not he's going to be able to assimilate back to the PGA Tour, given some of the recent comments that he's had.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Have you read.

[Big Cat]

What do you say?

[Memes]

Yeah. Have you read. There's an interview that came out. I, I don't know what planet Bryson Dechambeau lives on. I, I think he might not actually live here anymore. He's, I think he's just trying. He thinks that he's Mr. Beast right now. And so they asked him about going back to the PGA Tour and he's like, you know, I could very easily just triple my audience. And they're like, what do you mean? He's like, well, I could, I could re dub them in different languages and then I would triple my YouTube growth.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Memes]

Doing that. So he's, he's like trying to figure out the leverage that he has against the pga.

[Max]

Right.

[Memes]

And, and to be fair, the PGA Tour with the live guys potentially coming back, they're spiking the football a little bit. Yeah, they're big dicking them.

[Big Cat]

I would do the same.

[Memes]

They're like, yeah, you guys left, you tried to sue us, so you basically have to like, you have to kiss our feet before you come back. We want you to humiliate, play boar on the floor before you get back on the PGA Tour. Bryson and, and Bryson is trying to drum up whatever leverage he possibly can to kick back against that. So maybe the funniest part of this interview was when he says, the egos need to get dropped. Everyone needs to come in with a level headed playing field. And then right after that, he basically said, like, I could do so much for the PGA Tour. Yeah, you need to make it work for me.

[Max]

It.

[Memes]

He goes, I think it requires a little bit of everyone lowering their guards. The egos need to get dropped. And then he's like, also, at the same time, I want you to respect what I can bring to this or to this arrangement.

[Tracy McGrady]

Right.

[Memes]

And I want you to guess Big Cat, because he's trying to say the other different options that he has. He referred to the team equity that he has and the, that the other live players have in the teams that they built with live. How much, how much do you think Bryson thinks those teams are worth?

[Big Cat]

200 million.

[Memes]

Exactly. 200 million.

[Big Cat]

Really?

[Memes]

He. He said the teams are worth 200 million. Good for Bryce. It sounds like Bryson read the art of the deal. Or maybe Bryson, like did a Wikipedia on how to negotiate.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Memes]

So he's, he's trying to like, fill in all the things in his life to the like, ready made blueprint for how to negotiate against somebody. And then at the end, he was just. They asked the, the CEO of the live tour about Bryson, and he. He pretty much said, like, yeah, Bryson, he's an interesting guy. He's, you know, he's one of a kind. Like, pretty much saying, bryson's insane to be demanding all these things from the PGA Tour. And meanwhile, Brooks has it made. Brooks is just. Brooks is just hanging out on Thursdays at golf tournaments and being like, hey, wake me up if, if I'm allowed to play.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

If not, I'll just. I'll just take a nap. I'll be here if you need me.

[Big Cat]

He's won it.

[Memes]

So he's won that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

And then also other fire fests. Danny Woodhead almost made the US Open.

[Max]

Ah.

[Memes]

Or almost made the next round of qualifications. The longest day in golf, which Shane Bacon did qualify, so congrats. Danny Woodhead was. I think he, he birdied 18 to put himself in an alternate position. So if one guy drops out, then Danny Woodhead gets to enter that last round of qualification.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

So, Danny, you just tell me what guy we have to Tanya Harding, and, and we'll make the rest happen so that you can get in.

[Big Cat]

All right. My firefest is quick. I just. After every bachelor party, I think every. The most relatable thing every guy goes through is just like, I miss the boys. Like, I, I, I, I go through Jerry OConnell withdrawal. I really do. When, when we get to spend a couple days with him and then we. And then he's taken away from us, I'm just like, man, I miss this guy Dante. Same way I saw Dante this morning. I went up to say hi to him. He was doing the dozen, so we, like, couldn't talk. And I was just like, man, love this guy. So it just sucks. It always sucks. Leaving a bachelor party and just being like, man, that was. That was. Maybe we should just live in a penthouse in Vegas with all of our best friends doing a shitload of stuff.

[Memes]

The problem is. The problem with that.

[Big Cat]

I said stuff. That could be water slides. That could be maybe water slides, barbecues, golf.

[Memes]

I don't think I'm ever going to be able to do Vegas as good as I did Vegas last weekend.

[Big Cat]

Well, we might have to just do it every year.

[Memes]

It was the perfect setup. It was like, there's. It cannot.

[Big Cat]

Max.

[Memes]

Vegas will never get better than that.

[Big Cat]

Do you remember the, Remember the conversation we had when we were planning this? Max, you remember the conversation?

[Max]

Yeah. No, it was, it was very fun.

[Big Cat]

You said he. Max said to me, and I understood. He was like, I'm not a big Vegas guy. And I was like, max, listen, I understand it because when I was in my 20s, I wasn't the big Vegas guy either. But when you have the. The. The funds to be able to do Vegas. Right. Vegas is the best. It really was. Did it all. Maybe once a. Once a year, we just do it.

[Max]

It.

[Big Cat]

We just do a little. Little thing.

[Memes]

Zach.

[Big Cat]

We don't do a live show after. We just go home.

[Memes]

Zach, we need you to get engaged this year. Bachelor's party in Vegas.

[Zach]

Gotta find a wife.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Memes]

So you know how all of us, we have to bring a. We have to bring a friend to that podcast. Yeah. I would like it if you brought a future fiance.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Zach]

Okay. I can bring in a potential life partner.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Zach]

And then we can enter the dystopian future of Vegas again.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Together.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Memes]

We can get your glasses back.

[Tracy McGrady]

All right.

[Big Cat]

Max, you're sick.

[Zach]

I'm gonna get those.

[Max]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Memes]

Max, are you actually sick?

[Big Cat]

Numbers.

[Memes]

Max, are you actually sick? Yeah, I think so.

[Max]

56. Oh, no, it's exactly. I feel exactly. I'm doing exactly what the guy next to me on the plane was doing.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he was. I was sitting behind Max, and he was. The guy sneezed 75 times, did not cover his mouth one single time. Like, actually should be in jail.

[Memes]

You're in the haunted house. 77, 15, 26.

[Unknown Guest]

My fire fest. I miss my Colombian queens from the strip club.

[Memes]

Didn't speak a lick.

[Max]

69, 29, 22, 32, 32, 32. Just one today. Just one today.

[Memes]

Happy birthday to Trey, Lance, Tony Gwyn, RIP Billy Joel. Happy birthday, Billy Joel. Happy birthday, Shaboozi.

[Unknown Guest]

Happy birthday to all the mothers out there on Sunday. Happy Mother's Day.

[Memes]

What is their mother's. And shout out to the dad out there working hard behind the scenes.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Sunday's our day.

[Memes]

Yeah, you're working hard behind the scenes trying to make Mother's Day a special day for Mom. No one's saying thank you, but I will. Thanks, dads.

[Max]

Sa.