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Dan Katz
Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon.
PFT Commenter
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Dan Katz
On today's part of my take, we have maybe the craziest twofer that we've ever had. We have Bobon and Brett Bielema in studio Bobon over Zoom Brett Bielma in studio Bo. Both incredible interviews. We're going to talk about Game seven. We got a Game seven Sunday night. The NBA season lasts one extra game because the Pacers came out with authority. We also are going to talk a little Stanley cup cleanup with all the celebrations that rock Connor McDavid maybe wanting to leave Edmonton. We have fyre fest of the week and then we'll send you into the weekend into a game seven is brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. This is your last chance to bet on the NBA until next season and DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA is pulling out all the stops to make this a finals to remember. One team will be crowned champ and the other will be lost to history. Who you got winning it all? Put your hoops expertise to the test. All season long, DraftKings has been the go to spot for NBA player props and that doesn't stop now. Who's going to carry their team to their to the chip? Try placing a bet on your personal MVP to drop 3040 over or over 50. Ready to place your first bet? Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Lock in your bets and finish the season as a winner. Here's something special for the first timers. New DraftKings customers bet $5. Get $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. Don't miss your last chance to bet on the NBA this season. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers. Get $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. When you bet five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours.
Max
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Dan Katz
Okay, let's go.
Max
Yeah.
Dan Katz
More than my taking welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. Don't miss your last chance to bet on the NBA this season. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to get $300 in bonus bets. If your bet wins when you bet five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Today is Friday, June 20, and PFT the two best words in sports. Game 7 we're there because the Indiana Pacers absolutely dominated the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night in game six. This is the first game seven in the NBA Finals we will have in the last nine years. Last one was the Warriors Cavs, the 31 comeback. It is also just the fifth NBA Finals game seven we're going to have in the last 30 years. So we did it a series that everyone thought was going to be boring. That thought was going to be a blowout. We are getting our first Game seven in almost a decade, and it's because the Indiana Pacers do not quit. And this team is just flat out fun. Yeah.
PFT Commenter
I thought that it was going to go seven. I had no idea how I thought that. I thought that the Pacers were going to figure out some way to do it, and they did it by just making the Thunder defense look pedestrian and by making their offense look like dog shit.
Hank
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
And I. I don't know. I don't know if Game seven is going to be competitive because we haven't. We've had a few competitive games, but it feels to me like this is. I don't want to be disappointed by game 7. I'm excited that we have a game 7. The Pacers were great tonight. It Just felt tonight like there was no chance they were going to lose. From the pre game when Pascal Siakam levitated into a different plane when he was communing with, with ancient spirits, whatever he was doing with his eyes rolled back in his head looking like he was plugged into the matrix, it was, it felt like it was game over from the opening tip.
Dan Katz
Yeah, it was, it was. I mean, it was pretty much wire to wire. The Thunder were, you know, the first half or the first quarter and then the Pacers started to pull away the second quarter. The Pacers were incredible. The craziest thing, this was the most Pacers game possible. And I say that obviously Tyrese Halberton has, has been injured and he played tonight, which was great to see. But, but when I say it's the most Pacers game possible, it's a team. They are the, they're. They are such a team. Where they were up 30 going into the fourth quarter, they won this game by 17 points and it was obviously more than 17. There was a lot of like scrubs in the, in the, in. In the final quarter. The leading scorer was obi Toppin with 20 points. No one was over 20 points. That's a full team basketball. They had every guy contribute. TJ McConnell might be the best basketball player ever. I like in terms of just the minutes he provides. It's crazy watching him. They even said it on the broadcast because it's like, how are you at this point in this series if you're the Oklahoma City Thunder and TJ McConnell comes into the game, how do you not realize that he is going to steal the pass? When you inbound the ball, if you do a lazy inbound pass after a bucket, TJ McConnell will be there. TJ McConnell is getting rebounds over Hartenstein. He's on the floor, he's going to the basketball. He's just instant energy. And he and Obi Toppin together. Like that was what happened in that second quarter was the two of them basically like won this game in those moments. And then it was just too much of a hill for the Thunder to overcome.
PFT Commenter
I always hate it when announcers say like, this guy, this guy wants it more. Or if a coach says you guys got to want it more, you don't want enough. Because it's never really true because everybody wants to win. But it is true with TJ McConnell. He does actually in fact want it more. Yeah, he wants it 110% as much as anybody. And dude, he's, he's fun to watch and this Pacers team, it's like they are Hoosiers. It's like we're watching Hoosiers in real life in the NBA. I expect Dennis Hopper to come stumbling onto the court and puke everywhere. It's. It's. It's so much fun to watch when they're clicking. They're a great basketball team when they get the ball moving. That. That dunk that Siakam had where it was like, it was legitimately, like, two great assists on the same play. It was a hockey assistant. And then a great. No, look, there was just no stopping him tonight. I did, like, Rick Carlisle's move, too. In the fourth quarter when I think the Thunder cut it to, like, 24 points, Carlisle takes a timeout, and he's, like, pissed off. He's like, we're not letting this happen. We're not. Because I've seen this happen. We've done it to other teams before. We're only up 24 now. Lock the fuck in.
Dan Katz
Yeah. And Rick Carlisle, also another great move, which just doesn't really happen in sports. Tyrese Halliburton was obviously questionable for this game. He had an mri. He's got a calf injury. And like, two hours before the game, Rick Carlisle was like, yeah, we tested him. He's playing. And the reporter was like, why would you give that away? He's like, dude, we're. We're in game six. Like, we're like, we're not going to win this game because we. We didn't tell him Tyrese Halberton was playing until tip off. Like, we got to go just play and win this game. And by the way, The.
Zach
The.
Dan Katz
The TJ McConnell stat, that's crazy to the. Wanting it more because it is a cliche. It's stupid. But I. He does play with such an insane amount of energy that I think it just fucks up everyone on the court. He's 6:1 in the first half, he was leading the Indiana Pacers in rebounds with five. He finished the game with 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and four steals. Think about that. And that was 24 minutes of gameplay. It's just been. And they're just a team, like, the whole team. Siakam is still, like. He's just steady Eddie, like, every night. He's just awesome. And it's just an ob. Like, I. I just love watching the Pacers play basketball. And I know that this game seven is going to be a dog fight because you do always have, like, the team that needed it more. And the Thunder thought they could kind of just like show up and the Pacers would quit. But that's just. These Pacers are not quitting. They're. They're not a quit team.
PFT Commenter
I'm calling it tonight. This is a Legacy game. Game 7 for Thunder and Thunder Princess.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
This is what it's all about. I want to. I. You have to have the best chest paint that you can possibly get. I want to see. Here's. Here's my metric. The Larry o' Brien trophy has to be on Thunder's chest or on his belly.
Dan Katz
Has to.
PFT Commenter
You have to have the trophy there.
Dan Katz
Has to. By the way, are you sure you're going to want to do a legacy game for them? Because they're actually. Tonight was already a legacy game for the Thunder.
PFT Commenter
No, this is for Thunder.
Dan Katz
Yeah, I know. I know it's for Thunder. But. But. But the Thunder actually lost their legacy game, so it's kind of actually over before the game. Skip Bayless said the Thunder need to win convincingly tonight for legacy, for some of the historical respect it deserves and isn't getting. So what happens when you lose a legacy game in game six and then still have to play game seven?
PFT Commenter
You're. You don't have anything to play for.
Dan Katz
They got nothing.
PFT Commenter
Almost. You'd almost rather lose this game seven.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Because if they. If the Thunder win this game seven, then they're going to have to answer questions for the rest of their lives about how they tarnish their legacy with this NBA championship.
Dan Katz
Yeah, I would agree. And listen, SGA was bad tonight. He was turning the ball over. He had eight turnovers. It felt like the Pacers like they. The adjustment they made was instead of outside T.J. mcConnell, who is just playing defense at all times on all parts of the court, like they. They kind of lulled the Thunder like, hey, we're not going to pressure you full court, but the minute you get across half court, like, we're going to be in every passing lane. It felt like the Pacers energy on defense was the difference in this game. Where they were in. They were disrupting everything. They were basically. They thundered the Thunder. They did what the Thunder had been doing to other teams tonight, to the Thunder and the Thunder like, they, they just. They were so. They were so bad offensively and that even that third quarter where it's like we're watching it and Max had his free bet shout DraftKings. And we were. We're. We were trying to get the Thunder back in the game and it was so like the Thunder defense started to Wake up. The Thunder couldn't hit an open shot. They could not hit a shot. They had moments where they were like. I think the. I think the first four minutes of the third quarter, it was like over 11 combined by both teams. They just could not climb back in. They like, that was the moment where the Pacers maybe weren't playing their best. And then they got their footing again and it was over.
PFT Commenter
They had their lowest point total through three quarters of the entire season. The Thunder did. So they picked. They picked a bad time to have an all time stinker performance for that team. I do think that they're going to win Game 7, but I'm hoping for a great game. I want to see, like a Game seven that lives up to the words Game seven.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Because you said it. Game seven, best two words in sports. I would disagree. I would say Jameis Winston, but it's certainly up there. The words are great, but we haven't seen A great Game 7 in an NBA Finals in a long time. We deserve that nation.
Dan Katz
We haven't seen one in a long time. Listen there. There hasn't been one in nine years. Yeah.
PFT Commenter
And that was actually a great game the last time that it did happen. Yeah. But I want to see a great Game seven. And listen, we credit to the NBA. You've pushed off Mount Rushmore season for as long as you possibly can.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
This is as late as it could go. So I know Zach's chomping at the bit to get involved, to get in the arena.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Yeah, he is. Max, what were you gonna say? I want to hear Max rants real quick because he was very mad at the. At the Thunder.
Memes
I mean, the Pacers did everything they could to allow the Thunder to get back in that game to start the second half. And they just had no plan. They came out in the second half with zero. They were already on the Game seven at halftime. It didn't feel that way this entire NBA playoffs. Teams have been coming back down 20 and every round, and they just came out and were like, complacent to go to Game 7. The Pacers couldn't make a shot for the first five minutes of the second half, and the Thunder did nothing.
Dan Katz
That's. That's why.
Memes
Didn't even shoot the ball.
Dan Katz
Yeah. That's why I said Obi Toppin and TJ McConnell won this game because that was that second quarter. Yeah. It was just. All right, I guess we'll just go to Game seven now like it's. It's over. But yeah, it was they had, they. They had that chance. They were. The Pacers weren't shooting well. All they had to do is knock down a couple of shots, put a little game pressure on them, maybe get it tight and. No, they just didn't. They were. You're right. I do think they were kind of on to game seven.
Memes
Chet Holmgren. Not the guy.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, I mean, they did not. Not the guy.
Memes
Not. Not a guy.
Dan Katz
Can I just say something about Chad? I just would like for him to stop for falling down at all times. Like, and he doesn't actually fall down. He just looks like he's about to fall down. Like, he. When he's going forward, dribbling, his body looks like it's about to fall down.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, he's got the long limbs and they flail out and it's like Bugs Bunny with a cloud of dust underneath his feet. You think he's going to hit the deck? He's not. He's not the most, not the most coordinated individual, but I think he'll get there. Right now he's like a baby deer that's walking on ice for the first.
Dan Katz
Time, but then he makes plays like that. It was maybe two minutes into the game that post movie had on Siakam. That was just like, holy shit. Like, that's why you. That's why you think he's going to be great. And he, he definitely could be great. But yeah, he's. They're going to need him. They're going to need him. They're going to need. They're going to need J Dub, they're going to need SGA to be the mvp. That's the big thing. Because, like, eight turnovers. Woof. Oof.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. Yeah. If you're chat, you've got, you've got like two choices with which direction you're going to go with your look. Either you're going to grow the hair out, grow the beard out, become like Bill Walton light, or you're going to get. You're going to try to swag it up and get the nice tight fade. You're going to get the nice facial hair, dress stylishly. And then if you choose that route, the second you do anything slightly unathletically, it looks way, way worse.
Dan Katz
Can I throw out a little conspiracy theory? Just throw it out there.
PFT Commenter
Let's.
Dan Katz
Let's just throw one out there. Brian Windhorst conspiracy theory. So obviously every sport now isn't a sport unless they have a Netflix documentary, right? In season, the starting five Netflix documentary, Season two, which was announced in October, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Jalen Brown, sga, Tyrese Halliburton. So this should be a pretty awesome. If they're still taping it, which I would assume they are. Do you think Netflix may be paid extra to have this be the finals matchup and a game seven? Just not going to put it past that.
PFT Commenter
I'd say definitely.
Dan Katz
I would say. I would say without a doubt. I'd say the proof that that you need is literally just a single tweet from Shams announcing the cast in October.
Memes
Wait, they're recording it now?
Dan Katz
I would assume they're still recording. This is from October. Like October to start the season. Sham said. Here is the five guys that Netflix is following for the entire season and SG and SGA and Tyrese are part of that. They could have stopped recording in the middle of the playoffs. Season one, they followed Jason Tatum around. Yeah, right.
PFT Commenter
And they followed him through the championship.
Dan Katz
Interesting. So. Oh, that's interesting.
PFT Commenter
So Netflix is in season one.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Who else is in season one Memes. Anthony Edwards, Sabonis, Jimmy Tatum, Jimmy Butler and. I can't. LeBron James. LeBron James. Okay, whatever.
PFT Commenter
We didn't fall all guys that made the playoffs. Interesting.
Dan Katz
Yeah, but The Netflix is 2 for 2 for getting the finals guy, actually. Oh, okay. So yeah, I'm just saying. Just throwing it out there.
PFT Commenter
There could be no other explanation for it. It's not like Netflix would pick great young players that are highly probable to go far in the playoffs.
Dan Katz
I actually would love to see like a Netflix documentary for like just middling and bad teams. Okay, we got. We got Jordan. We got Jordan Pool. We got Zion. We got. We got Vucevich. Like we like. We're going to watch these guys scratch and claw for lottery picks in and the play in tournament.
PFT Commenter
They already do a Zion documentary. It's called Cops.
Dan Katz
Yes. The. The. The. I'm excited for game seven. That's all I gotta say. I'm just excited for game seven.
Max
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. Very excited. I'm, I'm, I'm pumped. I'm glad that we get more basketball in our lives.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Okay, let's talk a little more sports and then we'll get to our interviews. We got Bobon and Brett Bielma. Two great, great interviews before we do that. Game time. There's nothing like getting to a baseball game, especially last minute. Lucky for me, I always use game time. The official ticketing partner, barstool sports. Game time makes getting tickets faster and easier. Price on the app actually go down the closer it gets to Showtime. They even get exclusive zone deals. You let them choose your seats within a given set of zones and you get huge savings in return. You put those savings back in your pocket and spend them at the ballpark on a hot dog, a new hat, or some good old fashioned cracker Jack. If you're in Chicago, you can get 10% off zone deals for the Cubs at home on Sunday, June 22, versus the Mariners. Just look for zones 29 through 32 or zones 203 through 208 on the GameTime app. Guess what? I'm going to be at that game. I'm going to that game. I'm going to try to hit two games this weekend, but I'm definitely going Sunday. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code PMT for $20 off. Your first purchase terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PMT for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. What time is it? Game time. All right. Pft. I have a couple other things. The first is I just love watching Stanley Cup Final celebrations. The guys out at the Elbow Room. All hours we had. Well, actually we should. Zach, what was your favorite because you are from the state of Florida.
Hank
I would probably have to say that the Barkov video when he's strolling up to the ring camera with the trophy to show his his neighbor late night. Like imagine rolling out of bed and getting that notification of it's just Barkov and the boys at the ring camera. Like, hey, you want to check this out, man? I think it's an all time neighbor move.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Pft. Zach almost cried when I told him to sit in your seat. He was like, I can't do that, sir. I cannot do that.
PFT Commenter
That was a great Zach reveal.
Dan Katz
Yeah, it was a great Zach reveal. I was like, zach, don't say anything. He was like, can we preload this question please? I was like, yeah, I'm going to ask you about what your favorite celebration is. He's like, okay. He's like, is PFD going to be mad at me? I was like, no, it's going to be funny when halfway through the, you know, show we just reveal that you're sitting in his seat.
Memes
He's blinked a billion times since he's sitting in that seat. Like he's gone, I swear to God, a billion times since he sat down there, he's only been blinking.
Hank
Pft. I respect you as a broadcaster, so I just didn't want to be. I didn't want to step on any toes, and I appreciate you allowing me to have.
Dan Katz
Well, he actually hasn't yet.
Hank
Oh, that's a great point. Yeah, you can. Oh, that's right. Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Did you want to ask me if it's okay?
Hank
Was it all right that I sat here for a little bit?
PFT Commenter
Absolutely not.
Hank
Okay. Okay.
PFT Commenter
You ever see. You ever read about the Yankees, Wally Pip? That's what I'm going through right now.
Hank
Oh, no, not at all.
PFT Commenter
I take my job.
Hank
No, no, no, sir, not at all. Not all. You're a fantastic broadcaster. A lot of respect for your broadcasting abilities. I can get out of this seat so quickly.
PFT Commenter
It's the first time anyone's ever called.
Max
Be a broadcaster.
Dan Katz
Great Zach reveal. Did you like that? Did you like the Zach reveal?
PFT Commenter
I did. It was. It took my breath away. Zach, you did a great job. I also, you know, it's crazy. You're sitting in that chair. My favorite celebration was Barkov showing up on the ring camera.
Dan Katz
Yeah, it's so good. That's why. That's why I had to go to him there, because I was like, wait, the plan's gonna get foiled because PFT is definitely going to bring up Barkov before Zach can. Yep. That was so sick. And also Barkov's hand. Barkov's hand, he's. It got cut in half at the beginning of the series.
PFT Commenter
Zach, do we know who the guy's ring camera? Like, who. Who lives in that house?
Hank
If I told you a name right now, it wouldn't be the truth, because I'm not sure who lives in the home. I should have had that for you. That's my fault. But I can't find out.
PFT Commenter
That's why you're a great broadcaster.
Dan Katz
Yeah, yeah, we had a lot.
PFT Commenter
Zach, go ahead. Do we know if it was, like, a friend of his or an acquaintance? I don't need to know the guy's name. I just don't know. Like, in my mind, it would rock if it was just, like, a random house that he showed up to.
Hank
Context clues tells me, like, oh, he's got to have, like, a decent neighbor relationship with the guy. Or if they're not really friendly, it's kind of like, hey, man, look at this. Like, I just did this tonight. What did you do? Like, I'm a Stanley cup winner, maybe.
Dan Katz
Oh, yeah, maybe.
PFT Commenter
I think I would like it if this guy was like a. If he had a Panthers flag that he flew outside his house and Barkov saw it every day, but maybe hadn't met the guy. One on one yet, but knew he was a Panthers fan. And then with a Stanley cup, he shows up, rings the doorbell. That's how they meet each other for the first time. In my mind, that's how it went down.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Hank
What a way to introduce yourself.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Max, you have. You have the guy's name? Nope. Oh, memes. You have the guy's name?
PFT Commenter
The guy who posted it was Roger Rojas.
Dan Katz
Who's that? Oh, the guy who posted it. He had the original video. Got it. Got it. So that. That answers that. It's just his neighbor. Also, speaking of neighbor stuff, do you see Brad march on that? People are like, all right, I got to take that. People are probably gonna be mad at. Can you go back to PFT's face?
Memes
Sorry. I was looking up Roger Rojas.
Dan Katz
There was. There was a story that Brad Marchand, I think, like, before game six, he accidentally left his garage door open. When he left, like the day before for practice or whatever. And his neighbor went over and was like, hey, your garage door's open. I wanted to let you know. And then Marshawn gave him tickets to game six. I feel like that's just a fair trade. Like, if I left my garage door open and my neighbor did, I would do something nice for him. Not that Brad Marshard is not a great guy. It's just like, that feels fair. Like, that's a. When you leave your garage door open, there's no worse feeling than leaving your garage door open for like a day and coming back and be like, holy fuck. What. What just happened?
PFT Commenter
Yeah, all time neighbor move. I've got a neighbor named Blake that came over one time was like, hey, your garage door has been open for eight hours. He gets tickets to the Colts.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, I mean, Brad Marchand is a very nice move also. He looks like he's having the best time ever. There was that picture of him, like, he had a cigar and three different drinks in his hands. It was like a beer, an energy drink, and a coffee. He's. He looks like he's having the best.
PFT Commenter
Winning the Stanley Cup. It's gotta. It's gotta be the best feeling in the entire world. And I heard that they dented the cup and. And they're. They're actively repairing the cup now because that thing has been through hell. Like, the. The Stanley cup, if it could talk, it's seen some shit. And so they. I think they cracked the bowl on it, maybe dented the side. And then the. The keeper of the cup was like, that's fine. We got a contingency plan. We'll repair this. We got a guy that takes care of it in, like, six hours. Yeah, they're used to just, like, on the spot fixing that thing up. The guys that, like, take it to their hometowns. I love that. You just. If you win the Stanley cup, you stay drunk for two months, and it's got to be the best feeling in the world.
Dan Katz
Yeah, it really does. Also, we had the one celebration that didn't go well for the Panthers. I don't know if you saw this. Pft. In the locker room, they did a selfie cam on a champagne bottle, and it was just a highlight tape of them all facial ing themselves. They didn't think that was right.
PFT Commenter
This is why you got to hire a couple of shitheads to be involved with your media production team.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Because we could. If you had. If you pitch that to us, we've been like, oh, you're going to do the. You're going to do the what he sees cam.
Dan Katz
Right, Right. Yeah. You just need some trolls. You need to hire a couple trolls who, like, look at this content. What. What's the worst case scenario here? And they'll find it in a second.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where you want every guy on the team to open up their mouth as wide as they can and then pour foam into it. Okay. Yeah. Should we just put the browser's logo on the GoPro or wait.
Dan Katz
Also speaking of Stanley cup, shout Seth Jones, Blackhawks for life. But he is the first Seth to ever be on the Stanley Cup. Pretty cool. I don't know. That's a pretty cool thing. I always love that one. Silly Cup. They're like, this name's never been on the Stanley Cup. First Seth ever set.
PFT Commenter
You would think that there. You would think that there would have been some Seths.
Dan Katz
Yeah, you'd think there'd be one Seth. And then I saw. I saw, I saw. There's a stat that. It's basically the odds of you winning a championship at one of the four major sports is significantly higher if your name is Mike. Mike is the most common name on the state, like, on all of the trophies, like, in terms of winning them. So it's the third most common name on the Stanley Cup. And then there's a lot of, obviously, Super Bowls and basketball. So name your kid Mike.
PFT Commenter
What's the most common name on the Stanley Cup? If you had to guess.
Dan Katz
I know it. I have it in front of me. Do you want it?
PFT Commenter
Okay, I got. I got a couple. Guesses okay.
Dan Katz
Yeah, I have one, two, and three. Three is Mike. Give me the other two.
PFT Commenter
Okay. I think that one of them do not have it.
Dan Katz
Wait, I might not have it. Hold on. I might have the most common full name. That's just guys who wanted the most. No, I think these probably make sense. Go ahead.
PFT Commenter
Okay. I think we're not gonna.
Dan Katz
We're not gonna. We're not gonna fact check after this. No, Chris is not. I think these make sense.
PFT Commenter
Okay.
Dan Katz
I think I have the stat. Right. Bob and Bill. Doesn't that make sense? Bob makes sense.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, Bob makes sense. Wait, Bob and Bill or Robert and William?
Dan Katz
Bob and Bill. I'll have to. I'll have to re. Re. Recheck this, but. Yeah, I'll have to. I'll have to recheck it, but it's. Well, you got it. Oh, he's got it. Look at that. Yeah, no, right. Bob and Bill. Here's a list of the. The eight most common names to appear on the Stanley cup with the three most notable entries for each one. Bob and Bill. So that's pretty cool. It's Bob, Bill, Mike, John, Dave, Ken, Doug, Joe. Those are the eight.
Zach
Those are the most.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, those are the most generic names ever. I love it. It's perfect.
Dan Katz
And I feel like Bob is a very, like, Canadian generic name too, you know, because it couldn't be.
PFT Commenter
It is. Yeah.
Dan Katz
It couldn't be an American. Like, I. I don't think Orion would work on. On the Stanley Cup.
PFT Commenter
I was talking to our friend, new employee, T. Bob, A bear. And T. Bob said that he's got an uncle whose name is Billy Bob, which is a great Louisiana name, but Billy Bob's name is not William Robert. It's not even William Bob. His name is actually just Billy Bob.
Dan Katz
That's like his actual. Like, that's just like his. His birth certificate is Billy Bob.
PFT Commenter
His birth certificate is Billy Bob.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
It's great.
Dan Katz
That is awesome. And very Louisiana. Very, very Louisiana. All right, other stories. The lakers sold for $10 billion, but not actually. Yeah, so.
PFT Commenter
Well, what do you mean, not actually?
Dan Katz
Valuation was 10 billion. The guy who bought the Lakers, who Kind of a sick fact. He lives in Chicago. He lives, like a mile away from me and this office. I don't know why he's not buying the Bulls and the White Sox, but whatever. That's neither here nor there. I mean, not actually in the fact that he already owned a percentage of the team and he didn't buy 100%, so he didn't actually. It wasn't $10 billion. Here's $10 billion. It was somewhere around 4, because he bought the majority of the team at a valuation of $10 billion.
PFT Commenter
So when I was reading about this. So he bought the. The majority stakeholder ownership from the Buss family.
Dan Katz
Yep.
PFT Commenter
And Beanie Buss is still going to be the governor of the team. Is that true?
Dan Katz
That feels like a Mark Cuban situation where they have a deal.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
And the minute, like one season goes by and the guy's like, wait a second, I paid $4 billion and I don't get to make the decisions. That's not going to keep going. So I would say Genie Bus is.
PFT Commenter
Probably like, imagine if they did something like trade Luca.
Dan Katz
Yeah, right, right. Right.
PFT Commenter
Now you put your fingers up another. Another wind horse question.
Dan Katz
Okay.
PFT Commenter
Isn't it interesting that the Lakers got a screaming good deal on what's going to be the face of their franchise for the next 10, 15 years right before they sold? Isn't that interesting?
Dan Katz
Isn't that interesting?
PFT Commenter
Like, how much. How much do you. Obviously, the Lakers, historic franchise. The brand valuation is going to be high no matter what. How much do you think Luca actually increased the brand valuation for this sale? Would you say he's worth, like $500 million worth of equity?
Dan Katz
I don't know. It's definitely worth something, obviously. But obviously you're also the security of.
PFT Commenter
Knowing that you have a superstar for the next 10 years.
Dan Katz
Yeah. And it's interesting because what you're saying starting to add up. You can put your fingers down now. Zach still had his fingers. He was holding them under the table. It's interesting you say that because it happened. So there's been a lot of talk about NBA TV ratings. There's been a lot of talk about these Finals ratings. There's been a lot of talk about where's where the league is going. There's been a lot of people bullying Adam Silver online. And then the. I would say the. The most. The highest price franchise in the NBA.
Max
The.
Dan Katz
The, like, team that you think of, it's the lakers, sells for $10 billion. And now the NBA could be like, hey, our assets are so, like, crazy. Look at how. Look at how healthy this league is, because we're selling for $10 billion. That's more than a lot of NFL franchises. Yeah. That's interesting.
PFT Commenter
Every NFL franchise.
Dan Katz
Well, I mean, not actually every. Because if the Cowboys were to be for sale tomorrow, they would sell for. For significantly more.
PFT Commenter
Right. But I'm saying up until now, everything that's actually been sold.
Dan Katz
Yes.
PFT Commenter
The Lakers just set the market for highest priced sports team in America.
Dan Katz
Correct?
PFT Commenter
Yeah, it is. It's very interesting. Also, Big Cat. You know what's interesting is if you look back over the last, what, three years, Mark Cuban sold the Dallas Mavericks. The Celtics got sold to the symphony guy, Billy Strings. The Lakers just got sold. Is that, is that a good sign for every other owner if all the, like, preeminent owners are selling their teams right now? Like, if you went outside right now and every dog in your neighborhood was sprinting full speed down the street, like, towards, towards the west, would you be like, oh, this is good?
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
If I'm another owner, I'm looking at all these historic franchises. Probably the three groups that would have like the closest relationship with Adam Silver and the powers that be, they're all cashing out right now. Wait, I would look at my place and be like, is it. Are we hitting the bubble?
Dan Katz
All right, so Dallas and Celtics, I'd agree with you. Lakers, I would say this is going to maybe be a trend where you have Jerry Buss buys the Lakers, whatever it was 40 years ago for $67 million. And from all accounts, the Buss family, they don't have anything else. They don't have any other businesses. It's a mom and pop shop in that respect, where it's like, this is the family business. So when you can buy something for $67 million and then sell it for $10 billion, especially when you don't have just like, you're not liquid and it's the next generation. That one makes sense. But you're right on the Celtics in the Mavs. I'd be like, oh, that's weird.
PFT Commenter
Maybe this new guy that buys the Lakers, maybe he takes like two, three years, changes a bunch of stuff, everybody gets mad at him, and then he sells it back to genie buss for $1.
Dan Katz
Mm, that would be sick. Maybe some gambling commissions get involved. Yeah. He also owns the Dodgers and he's been doing a pretty good job with them. Mark Walter, so. And Chelsea. And I still don't understand why he's not buying any. Why didn't he just offer Godfather offer to Jerry Reinsdorf? He lives in Chicago. I don't care.
PFT Commenter
I think so. He lives in Chicago but owns the Dodgers.
Dan Katz
He owns the Dodgers, Lakers. I assume he has a house in. In la, but I probably has May Congo. He's probably got. Yeah, like, maybe just like a maybe. Maybe he's got like a timeshare in la.
PFT Commenter
He might. He might crash in Priscilla's basement.
Dan Katz
Yeah, I'm sure there's a good. I'm sure there's a good explanation that would take two seconds that I didn't just look up, but I just know that this guy, because he built a house that I used to. I used to live like maybe four blocks away from the street. And he like bought five lots in like 2012 and built this like insanely large house in Chicago. He should have just bought the Bills.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, that would be nice. That would be great. It'd be great for the city. But since he does own, I mean, he's got a pretty good track record with the, with the Dodgers. So I'm sure, I'm sure the Lakers will be fine, but end of an era.
Dan Katz
Yeah, end of an era. The Boss family, although she is still the governor. Okay, Speaking of Dodgers, did you see pft? I have two baseball things for you. One, we were robbed of.
PFT Commenter
One baseball, okay.
Dan Katz
We were robbed of an immaculate inning. I don't know if you saw this, but that was bullshit. The Dodgers, Yamamoto, almost had an immaculate inning, which is three strikeouts, no balls to start the inning or to finish the inning. So it would be pitching a nine inning pitch or nine pitch inning, and he got absolutely hosed on the last strike, which was very much a strike, but called the ball. That was bullshit. And then I just wanted to say I feel really bad for Arkansas Razorback baseball fans. I watched that game on Wednesday night. They are the most cursed team. This happens to them every time they go to Omaha. But they had LSU beat and they're like, incredible shortstop, who's one of their best players, just decided with a guy on first and second and one out to throw to third to get the force out at third instead of turning a double play, that would have been a double play ending the game. And then the next batter hit it to left field and the left fielder misjudged it. The ball ate him up and that was that. It was almost an impossible way to choke a game away. And. And the, and the Razorbacks found a.
PFT Commenter
Way to do sucked. I felt bad for the left fielder. I. I don't know. Did it hit him like in the chest, in the shoulder and it bounced away? Did he lose his balance? I don't know that, but I.
Dan Katz
It.
PFT Commenter
It's a very, very tough sport to lose in that fashion. Like there's, there's nowhere to hide in left field. You have to, you have to keep playing in the game and you have to just stand there and just think about it while everybody's staring at you. I felt bad for that kid, but.
Dan Katz
I felt bad for him, but. And I know you can't throw your teammates on the bus. You just be like, dude, what was my shortstop doing? Max, did you see this? Did you see him not turn the double play?
Memes
I did not see this.
Dan Katz
Okay. I thought maybe you had go look it up. It's an insane thing that they could have won this game. And like, I know the left fielder fucked up, but he should never have been in that situation. It should have been game over.
PFT Commenter
It does feel like LSU team of destiny, though.
Dan Katz
Yeah, it does. Golf season is in full swing and getting out there to work on your game is bound to make any day even better. And if you're looking to improve your drive, Chevy Equinox EV is the smartest choice you can make. Bold, athletic styling, a commanding presence, award winning tech, an impressive range, all with an affordable msrp. Chevy Equinox EV will put a smile on your face no matter how your scorecard shakes out. All right, what was your baseball thing?
PFT Commenter
My baseball thing was more of like a national sports podcast thing. Okay, slash, baseball thing. You got to buy all the James Wood stock that you can get right now.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Buy it by. He's, he's amazing. 22 years old. I think he's got 20 dingers right now, 50 some RBIs. Hit a walk off home run today, hit two home runs today. It was against the Colorado Rockies. So asterisks on that. But the Nats weren't a bad losing streak. But James Wood, I think, I think we're going to have a James Wood face of baseball conversation in the next two years.
Dan Katz
You think it's going to be our left? You think it's be our left is going up against each other? Because PCA, I think he was the fourth fastest to get 20, 20, 20. He had his 20th home run, 20 stolen bases today. So, yeah, we're gonna have a lefty off.
PFT Commenter
The league's in good left hands right now.
Dan Katz
Very good. That's. That's exciting.
PFT Commenter
Very good. Yeah, but, but I know that the Nationals, not necessarily the sexiest team right now, they're better than people thought that they would be if you take out this losing streak recently. But they're, they're a fun team and they're young and so I think within the next two, three seasons, they're going to be contending for something. But James Wood in particular, I love watching this guy play baseball. Absolutely love it.
Dan Katz
Yeah, that walk off today was awesome. Was awesome. Did you see it? Did you see It Max. Yeah.
Memes
That's a guy who going into that play was like, no matter what, I have to get the lead runner at third without having like any feel for the moment. And like being. You got. That's the, that's the most tailor made double play ever seen.
Dan Katz
It was literally hit to him to turn a double play. And then, and then nothing else happens.
Memes
But, but it's like, it's exactly that situation is like I'm going to third no matter what. When this ball's hits a man, you.
PFT Commenter
Just can't think that way.
Dan Katz
Yeah, yeah. It was crazy.
PFT Commenter
It's like right before the pitch he heard somebody yell like, hey for Synergy Base.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Memes
Lead runner. Get the lead runner.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan Katz
Brutal. Brutal for Arkansas. And then finally we just had, I don't know what was in the water on Wednesday, but Shador Sanders and Zach Eddie both getting pulled over for going 101 miles an hour was, was just a funny. I don't know how that that happened, but it was just funny to see it back to back.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
So Shador Sanders, apparently he's been cited for speeding twice now last month since he's been been up in Cleveland. So we've got a lot of people asking a lot of questions about what this means about his maturity. I, I don't really care. Like Hunt, you shouldn't drive 100 miles an hour. I'm not going to make a decision on whether or not he's a good quarterback based on the fact that he sped twice in the last month. I will say coaches always tell you if you're going to make a mistake, make it go 100 miles per hour.
Dan Katz
That's facts. Can I say I don't, I don't care because he's not the starter.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
Does that.
PFT Commenter
And Joe Flacco, let's.
Dan Katz
Yeah, let's be honest.
PFT Commenter
Joe Flacco, his car doesn't go 100 mph.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
His car tops out probably at like 72. It's a minivan. So we're not going to run into any of these issues with Joe Flacco at quarterback. But yeah, I would imagine that Shador probably drives a car that sticks out a little bit. Just taking a guess that he might enjoy a nice, nice vehicle. You gotta be smart on that. Gotta be smarter than that.
Dan Katz
Dion, do, do you agree with my take though that like I don't, I don't care about speed. I don't need to hear about speeding tickets. If you're the third string quarterback or fourth string quarterback, it Just isn't relevant to me.
PFT Commenter
So I'm. I'm more okay with a third string quarterback speeding than I would be with the second quarterback speeding. If you're the second stringer and you're speeding, that's red flag. If you're the starter, don't really care either. Third string don't really care either. But if you're the backup, that's a guy that's got to be going like 60 miles an hour.
Dan Katz
Yeah. He's got to be the safe guy.
PFT Commenter
Hands of ten and two.
Dan Katz
Absolutely. All right, we got anything else, Zach? We missed anything? Any other celebrations? The Panthers are having the best time ever. Oh, the Connor McDavid thing, did you see the quote? So we, I, we. We taped the fyre fest earlier in the day and I did mention a quote about his. It was an old quote about what he liked about Edmonton. He also had media today and he basically was like, we've been doing the same thing with the same guys, and I got to talk to my agent. It feels. I don't know what's. He's got one year left in his contract. We're going to have Whitney on next week in person when we go to the Ryder cup, see what's going on. But yeah, that, that didn't feel like a great. And Connor McDavid is kind of like a grump in all of his press conferences, so I'll at least put that context in there that it's not like he's the most gregarious guy. And then all of a sudden he was like, very down today. But the wording of how he phrased everything and talking to his agent and being like, we've kind of been together and done this and not gotten through. And also Skinner asked for a trade. Doesn't feel good.
PFT Commenter
No skinner. Oh, no. McDavid. McDavid asking, saying he wants to talk to his agent. You don't, you don't want to hear that after season's over, no matter what. That's. That is not for him to say that to the media, too. Like, that's. That's a man who is frustrated, probably frustrated in the moment. So I'm gonna. I'm willing to give him like two weeks to issue a new statement that doesn't involve him talking to his agent. But it's not good that he says that that's a guy that he wants to talk to right now. Yeah, I want him to stay in Edmonton. I want. I don't want him to. To leave and go to an American team. And then win a bunch of Stanley Cups there with Edmonton not getting a single taste of it. I think you got to go down with a ship if you're, if you're. Connor, I think that there's no chance, like, if you want to talk about legacy, if you go somewhere else and you win a cup for them because you were unhappy in Edmonton, people are in Canada are going to hate you. It's going to be, it's going to be very personal for them.
Dan Katz
Although, I don't know, I guess when we talk to Whitney, like, is there a part of it? Like, hey, he's. He's done everything he can for the Oilers and they just, they aren't able to put the full team around him. I don't know. I don't know how the vibe is because you know how that could happen when it seems that special.
PFT Commenter
You love something.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Set it free.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
And look for it.
Dan Katz
I'm not saying they're. They want to set it free, but Connor McDavid is such a special talent. I'm wondering if there's maybe parts of the Oiler fan base they do not want to see him leave. Obviously put that as a blanket statement. They do not want to see him leave. They want to see him sign a long term deal. If he did leave, I bet you there'd be some Oilers fans who'd be like, we don't blame you, you know?
PFT Commenter
Yeah, well, what they would do, they would turn their anger onto the team, onto the front office.
Dan Katz
Right, right.
PFT Commenter
And wait now, Big Cat, I think we might want him to leave, though.
Dan Katz
Yes. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we want him to leave. And then we'll root for him. We'll root for him to win a million cups.
PFT Commenter
And it's Whitney's fault that he left.
Dan Katz
Yes, yes. And then, and then we'll be like we always said, this guy just needed to get out Edmonton, he's the best ever. And it will drive Whitney insane.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. What if he went to Chicago?
Dan Katz
Listen, I mean, that would be sick. That'd be so sick. We became.
PFT Commenter
I'll open up the checkbook.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Became best friends with Zach.
Hank
That'd be pretty sick.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Well said. Would be pretty sick. Yeah. I mean, listen, if they, if they are going to move on from. They got to do it now because they can get a lot for him right now he's got one year left. Like, you can't, you can't let him be a free agent. No, that'd be very, very bad. No, you Can't.
PFT Commenter
You could.
Dan Katz
You mean you could roll the dice. You can't. You can't let him be a free agent.
PFT Commenter
It'll be so dysfunctional if the. If the Oilers, like, we're blaming him for any of this, and they're like, we're not going to sign you to a free agent contract. We're not going to sign you to a contract extension. We're going to let you play this out and see if we can win one. That would be insanely disrespectful. Almost like saying that you might be the reason why we haven't done it yet.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
But that said, I am willing to back up the Brinks truck. I will buy a Brinks truck, and I will deliver it to Connor McDavid's house if he. If he goes to the Blackhawks.
Dan Katz
That would be so sick. If he just became best friends with us and Whitney was like, oh, man. Just rubbing in his face. That'd be so sick.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. Listen, Connor. Yeah, Connor, we would treat you so good in Chicago. I don't know what Wit's been telling you. He's probably kind of creepy. Coming on a little strong. We would treat you so good, we'd.
Dan Katz
Get you wings anytime you want. Ice cream machine. It'll be so sick, dude. Free pass to the office to hit the simulator. God damn. You'd have.
PFT Commenter
I would hire an ice cream truck to just park in your driveway and then have it staffed with a guy that will just give you whatever ice cream bar you want at 24. 7.
Dan Katz
Pardon my take. Becomes best friends with Zach.
PFT Commenter
You're probably going to be that ice cream guy that lives in that truck.
Dan Katz
Yeah, he is.
Hank
I can do that for you.
Dan Katz
Okay. All right, let's get to our interviews. We got two great ones, Bobon and Brett Bielma. And then we'll finish up with Fire Fest. And if you're wondering, hey, we haven't heard Hank's voice, we do give him a call. I think people thought we were pranking pft. That we, like, didn't actually buy him a trip to Pebble Beach. No, no, he's at pebble beach, so we do give him a call. He was at a beautiful brunch before playing 18 holes today, so you'll hear him during Fire Fest.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Memes
Also shout out, pug getting married this week.
Dan Katz
Oh, yeah. Shout out pug getting married. Let's go. Way to go.
Memes
Let's go, Pug. Everyone do some pugs in the chat.
Dan Katz
Okay. Before we get to Bobon. Incredible interview, by the way. We are brought to you by our friends at Truly Truly Unruly Lemonade combines the high alk fun of truly Unruly with everyone's favorite favorite lemonade. Lemonade. Let loose 8% ABV 100 delicious. Four supercharged lemonade flavors. Bumping blue raz og original lemonade, Punched up pineapple and wild pink. It's the official hard seltzer. Pardon my take. We love truly unruly. We love Truly unruly lemonade. I'm a big fan of that Wild pink, but they're all good. Bumping blue raz og original lemonade Punched up pineapple. They're all the best. So level up your lemonade with truly unruly. Today, Truly Unruly Lemonade combines the high elk fun of truly Unruly with everyone's Favorite A lemonade. 8% ABV 100 Delicious. Level up your lemonade with truly unruly. Okay, here he is. Bobon. Okay. We now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest. I think maybe the tallest guest we've ever had. It is Bobon. I'm going to pronounce your last name and you're going to tell me that I screwed it up. You ready for it, Marianovich?
Zach
Mariana. You're right.
Max
All right.
Dan Katz
I was very nervous about that. Now that we got that. So Bobon is here. Bond, thank you so much for joining us. You are in Happy Gilmore to not your first acting. Let's. Let's start with that. And then we got a bunch of other questions, but how was it being in Happy Gilmore 2? Are you excited for the movie to come out? You might be. You might be like the next Hollywood star. I'm going to say it right now.
Zach
Yeah, you never. You never know. That's my look. That's what I want to do. You know, like, I'm super excited for The Happy Gilmore 2. I have great experience on the set. Everybody be so professional. So great. It's. It's a lot of people. A lot of people there. A lot of famous people. And I think it'd be great movie. Like. And you saw. You saw guys that picture. How you guys like that. My hair and that. My mustache. They look really good, by the way. Yeah, I love it. Maybe, maybe in the future I'll wear. But you know, the, the. The movie will be awesome. I believe in that.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. Did you get a chance to hang out with Adam Sandler when you were on the set? Because I know, I know he likes to play hoops.
Zach
Yeah, he loved to play basketball. You know, when he Was filming the Hustle. Like, we was, like. He was, like, playing. Playing, like, pickup, and he was. It was a lot of famous, like, basketball players. Of course, you guys already know about the movie, and it was, like, a lot of guys playing up and down. We have, like, basically, we almost have all stars, all star, superstar, NBA pickup and Adam on. On that. On that game. It was. It was. It was really fun.
PFT Commenter
What's his game like? I've heard he's a good passer.
Zach
He's. He's. He's really smart. He's really good. He's really good passer. Like, great person. Not, like, good. He's great person. Like, you know, no look behind the back. You know, like, try. Try to be fancy. But he. He make it, you know? Like, I don't know how he do it, but he's really professional, and basketball is his patient, and he really love it, and really, he enjoy.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
So, yeah, you're branching out with your acting career. I loved you in John Wick. You got killed by a book in John Wick. Did that.
Zach
Did that hurt a little bit? You know, they hurt the. You know, the. You know. What is hurt? They hurt like. Like after. After the shooting because we were shooting from the. I think 5pm to 8am in the morning because it's a New York library, and we couldn't. Like, it couldn't stop, basically. We didn't have. We didn't have, like, lunch break because. Lunch break or eat break or dinner, whatever, because it's over the night. But we didn't have. We didn't have the break to eat because we need to. We need to finish the super fast. He was like, a lot of fighting. And With Keanu was, like, really good. And that book, like. Because I hold that book for maybe, like, four hours because, like, itchy scratch, like, hitting me here, here, you know, like, I tried to buy the book, and, like, my jaw. It's really. Was painful after that. I couldn't. I couldn't, like. I couldn't, like, eat or, like, chew or whatever. Like, almost like brushing my teeth. I was like, oh, it's so painful.
PFT Commenter
How many shots did that take for you to get killed by the book?
Zach
You know, easy, you know, like, John Wick. It's. Don't mess around with Boogeyman. And I'm. I'm done. I'm out. I give my special shot, but it didn't work. Well.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
All right, so. So you. You played in the. In. In China this past year or last two years. How. How is. How Was that, How was it. Was it like wildly different than the NBA? Because you had a great NBA career, nine years in the league. But how is it in China and maybe are you trying to get back in the NBA?
Zach
You know, I'm missing one, I'm missing one. One. I'm missing one more year in NBA to be like, sorry to be. This is what I need. Like, I need some, I need some like good words from somebody, somebody from the teams. Listen, me, I want to come back.
PFT Commenter
Okay, let's get you back your 10.
Dan Katz
Yeah, we gotta get you back.
Zach
I need, I need a 10 because like I was how we say last is more like last half season. And this is because it's my first year outside of NBA. I play Fernandbach and we have, we have three months deal. Three months deal after that experience expire because we believe we will come back. We will come back in NBA and try to make, try to make like again that 10 year in NBA. Of course, didn't work. Didn't work on that direction. And I get, I get great offer from China and this is it. When I, when I was there, we play. We want. We won the championship. We was the, we was the, we won a cba. It's like Chinese Basketball association. And by the way, the Fenerbach defender Baksh play. It's a Turkey, Turkey team in Istanbul. It's Euroleague game. Basically it's not NBA is the first one, EuroLeague is second one. And the best league, the best league in the world. And they won, they won Euroleague this year. That. That's me. I'm. I'm past season won like two big trophies.
PFT Commenter
Oh, double tips.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
So you, you are a champion. Whatever NBA team wants to win next year. Sign Boban.
Zach
Yeah. Basically if you want to win, you must sign Boban in the team.
Dan Katz
Yeah, I like that.
PFT Commenter
Yes, I agree, Bob. And I love you. I've loved watch. Watching your career unfold. You seem like a great guy, but off the court, I think my favorite thing that really made me really, really appreciate you is what a big fan of soup you are. You might be one of the. One of the top soup guys in the world. What are your favorite. What are your favorite soup? Can you tell me about some soups I might not know about? Because I love soup.
Zach
Look, maybe, maybe if I. My English is a little bit better. I will explain more soups, but this I will keep simple. Tomato, mush, butternut squash, chicken noodle soup, you know, but is the point, is the point of the soup when we, when we Growing up here in Serbia, first you need to eat soup. This, like, this is like the main, the main, the main dish, you know, like, if you don't eat soup, you're not allowed to eat something else because like, it's not basically, it's not basically not allowed, but it's more like, it's more like tradition, very come on the table and everybody like eating same time soup. It's very important. And you know, basically, like, you want to eat soup because you second meal, you don't need too much that try to like, try to keep. And they fool you up a little bit. It's not like, it's not like they, they fill you with a, with the flute, with the float. I think I say, right, and, and you cannot eat like a lot, a lot, a lot.
PFT Commenter
So what are, what's a good Serbian soup that I might not have heard of before?
Zach
No, no, it's not, it's not Serbian. It's more like worldwide. I like mushroom soup, I like tomato soup. I like butternut squash soup, of course, chicken soup.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Zach
And we have, we have soup in Serbia, like they call beef soup. And it's like, it's a name like beef soup, but it's really like, tastes so good. They go, vegetables, beef, of course, and it's like, like the best soup I ever tried in my life. And if you come to Serbia, you guys be my guest. But because you guys in Chicago, when I come in Chicago, they have a lot of Serbian place there and I can, I can bring you some, some good and fancy restaurant with a great food.
PFT Commenter
I would, I would love that. One thing, I like to, I like to eat soup after my meal. Have you ever done that? It fills in the cracks, like for dessert.
Zach
I didn't done that. But you know, I want to try and to see how it's, how it works.
PFT Commenter
It's great.
Dan Katz
Do you, when you eat soup, do you have a bigger spoon? Because I don't. I'm sure you're aware of this, but there's an entire Reddit community that's just Bobons holding things and it's you holding different things, you know, like a deck of Uno cards, Luca's head. And they're all great, they're all great pictures of you holding things. So do you get a, do you get a bigger spoon or you just go with the regular spoon?
Zach
You know, I get what they have, you know, sometimes, Sometimes really? They give me like bigger spoon. Like I was in China. They have Cheesecake Factory and like they get like big, big Big soup. And they give me like, oh, this big spoon. It's really basically the spoon. It's really big and that sometimes I got it. But you know, it's really. Don't ask for that because like, I try to. I try to. I try to adjust on everything. What is like normal size? Yeah, this is it. Like, you know, I'm. I'm not like spoiled too much. For me, it's okay just to be food on the table and let's go roll with it. And I want to be taste. To be honest, I need to be tasted.
Dan Katz
Were you aware of the community that just has pictures of you holding things? Did you know that exists?
Zach
Yes, I hear about that. I saw a couple pictures and it was, it was, it was so funny. I saw how holding the ball. Uno cards. You say, you say look ahead, but it's really. I saw that too. And it was like, couple, like the hands. And I know like, people, like a lot of people like, want to shake my hands. It's, it's. It's so become like right now, like unique. They want. They basically. They holding their arms, whatever. I just, I just basically like come from the restroom and wash my hands to eat. And everybody was like, hey, how are you? And like they shake my head. I was like, ah, but. But it's okay, you know, like, it's, it's. It's part of the process. I know. Like, you know, like for me, it's normal for somebody else, like, you know, I want to basically, like, maybe I want to feel your hands to see like, how they fit in my. Like, what is the size of your hand?
Dan Katz
Yeah. All right, so. So a question. This might be a weird question, but when, when was the first time you were like, oh, I'm tall? Because it is something that I'm sure little kids, like, they don't realize their self. You know, their self awareness is low when they're really small and then they get a little older and they understand their surroundings. Was there a moment in your head where like, oh, I am really tall?
Zach
Yes, yes. It was a lot of things, you know, like before, how you say, I grew up in a small place and, and 3, 000 people live there and everybody, everybody know each other. They know me when I was like, when I was really like, small, small. It was like, it was like really small to like growing up and I was always tall. For me, that was like normal. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't know that. Like how you say I didn't. Didn't recognize that. But till, like, till one time, my friend, we have, we have a class to write something about the friend and we can show who is that person is. And one of my friend write like, he's super. He's super guy, great friend, whatever. He's tall and he have big nose. I was like, oh, that time I was like, I was like, you know, I have big nose. This is like, this is like one of the part like, you know, he's tall and he have big nose. And after that I figured out, I figured out like getting like really like, like oversized in other people. And this is it.
Max
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
That was like, oh, I'm tall.
PFT Commenter
What did you want?
Zach
I have, I'm tall. I have big nose. This is like I find out two, two things in one class.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
What did you want to be? What did you want to be when you grew up as a kid?
Zach
When I grew up, I want to be like, to be honest, I don't know. I didn't, I didn't have that idea. I think about that every day. Single, single time. What I can be and what I want. What, like I really want to be. It's like always, always you want to be something like, like your dad. I always want to be like driver or like, or somebody to help, to help the people. Like some, something with the help community. Like they have. It's not like big time, big time job. Like I want to be like CEO of some company. I want to be, I want to be like the guy who, who owns the big, the big crypto or whatever, like on like stock stocks or whatever, something. You name it. Like, something like big factories when they make like apples, apple phone, apples, farms, whatever. Like what, whatever you say. But it was like more simple jobs.
Dan Katz
Yeah. And so your, your career in basketball, you. You played in Serbia for a long time before you got to the NBA. Was there like, obviously your dream was to be in the NBA? Was there a moment where you're like, maybe this isn't going to happen? And how did, how did it all kind of come together together where it's like, all right, because, you know, you weren't, it wasn't like you were drafted when you were 17 years old. You played for a while and then you got, you know, got a contract in the NBA. So how did that all work out? Was it like, oh, man, this is finally, all my dreams are finally coming true here, you know?
Zach
You know, like there was like, you know, always, always hard, hard work, payoff, you know, because like, I was always, I Was gifted to be like, to be tall, but. And to have nice touch, but everything else need to be work, work, like, work on my body, be prepared for everything what has come because, like, that's why, okay, he's strong, he's this. But, you know, like, I work on it. I work on it, basically. Thanks God. I didn't have. I didn't have serious injury all my career. They mean, like, you know, like, I basically, like, stay more in the weight room, stay more, stay more on the court, do all my skills, do everything what is. What I do. That's why, that's why before, back in the day, I believe that 17 come from the sky. You know, like, okay, I'm gifted. I'm told I'm I supposed to have that job. I signed, I signed, I signed. I signed for Euro League team. They fire me. I come to. I couldn't find a team. I. I went to. I went to one team here local that time they play only Serbian league. Come back and basically I play. I for. For 500. €500amonth. That's basically like 600amonth. And that time I have. I have the baby and my wife. We live. We live in one apartment. That. That was the struggling. And I was like. And I was like, 23, 20, 23, 24. That was. That was really struggling that time. I figured out, okay, you need to do something with your life. You need to be like, no mister. No mister Nice Guy. When I say nice guy. Nice guy, like, outside of the court, on the court, you need to be. You need to show who you are. You cannot, like, just be super nice on the court. Everybody go over you. Whatever. Whatever they happen. That time I figured out. I figured out I need to. I need to step up and be. And be the best. The best. I am the person who helped me a lot. It's. It's a coach, assistant coach from Golden State who, Who passed away recently, you know, like Dan Milovich. And he. He passed away The. The. He's like, he have the big. The big. The big role in my. In my life and to put me on. On the real track and to start. To start to play better. I was in Red Star. I'm. I. Me and Marcus Williams, we make them. We make them to play Euroleague. Euroleague. How I say NBA? And EuroLeague is second, like best. Best basketball league on the world. We make them to be. To be there right now. This. This. This is the play. All these years we won. We won like three trophies. Because here in here you play cup, you play Tournament. You play tournament like Serbia and you play like basically like Balkan Adriatic. Adriatic. You play three leagues. We won all three. And from that time. From that time, this is. This is like. This is like their. How this is basically we leave them pat to be success till today. But you know that time after because I was name of MVP. MVP of EuroLeague MVP. Like the best five. The best thing I was never drafted and that time I come to NBA, that's. That was my path. You know, like sometimes you need to fell down to. You can. To. You can step up and. And chase your dreams.
Dan Katz
That's awesome.
PFT Commenter
It's interesting that you said that sometimes you're too nice on the court because I think one of the. One of the funniest moments of your career maybe maybe one of the best moments of career from from the people's perspective was last season when you were on the Rockets and you gave the crowd chicken at the foul line. So if you miss two foul shots, everybody gets chicken, right? And I don't know if you missed the first one on purpose. I. But you did.
Zach
First I missed it. First I missed it. I. I don't want to lie. I'll be that guy. You know, I missed the first. I missed the first purpose. You know, big this but first I missed.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, you missed the first one and then you told the crowd you said chicken on me. I got you guys. And then you did. You missed the second one on purpose.
Zach
Yes. I mean second one on purpose. But the point. The point of that. The point of that. I know I play for the Clippers and I know that's that's how they happen and they have that same in Washington D.C. and a couple more places. But I have the dream about that and I have dream about that like to. I really to. To really happen that something like that. You know, like why if the game the game is over, why nobody like you know, just miss two free throws and give give the people what they want. Like you know, of course some like free food and everybody be happy. You know, like they. Or like I hope so like we won the game. You miss free throws because every time happen when the opponent team like visiting team is the free throws. Not not for home court guys. And and we was. I have dream about that too. That's happened that. That that was the person me. I'm missing the free throws and everybody get everybody get the sandwiches or food or. Or snack or drink, whatever. And it was in D.C. and game was done. We was leading. We was leading maybe like 20 points and I Was like, why this guy don't just miss free throw? Like he was my teammate, but I was like, why just don't he miss free throws? Like, like give everybody food and everybody be happy. He'll be here. And I have. I have that opportunity. Last game of season, we basically finish. They. They make. They'll. They make playoff. They prepare for playoffs. Clippers. We was in Los Angeles the first one. I. I think I scored maybe like 8 or 10 points in a row. And I have. I was like. I was like on free throw line, like shooting, and I miss it. I missed straight. One moment, I look it up from the backboard like, everybody's standing up. Like, everybody's standing up. Everybody becomes so crazy. I was like, ah. I was like, that's a time to shy. Too shy. And. And I was like, miss that. But in the point of my head, because everything needs to be fast. I can't. I can't airball from the Thrifter like that. I never did it, and I never want to do it. Like how I'll miss, you know, like. Because, like, sometimes you practice. You don't practice misses. You practice makes, you know, like to hit front rim. Maybe I will throw it a bit stronger to hit like left, right, stronger, whatever from the backboard. I know it's still account like a miss. I miss on my left side. This is it, like, perfect. The chicken on me. And it was like. He was like, great. It was. It was just. It was not like the plan previously planned, but it's happened and it's. It's amazing. I miss the second free throw purple and. And people have people hear what they want.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. You gave the people chicken. And I think people appreciate that about you. You were thinking about them, thinking about the fans, maybe that maybe that's why we need to. Maybe year 10 didn't happen because you cost too much money. The big corporations are like, Boban's costing us millions of dollars in chicken. We can't bring them back.
Zach
No, no, no.
Dan Katz
But.
Zach
No, but look at this. What's happened? What's happened? I get. I get the big cow. The big cow. Like Chick Fil A. And I get like, I get like a card and with like, thank you very much for everything. Whatever. Like, it was.
Dan Katz
It was.
Zach
It was amazing experience from Chick Fil A. And I get for. For one year, one year free meal. Like, you know, one year free. I. I never use it, but, you know, like, I get. I get the coupons for. For all year free chicken.
PFT Commenter
You got like the black card in your pocket. Anytime you go to Chick Fil A, you can just go get to the front of the line, get a free chicken sandwich. That's pretty good.
Zach
Yeah, I never. I never done it. I never done it. But, you know, he's there.
Dan Katz
Folks. It's the foreplay, guys. Let's talk truly unruly. When you spend every day following the countless laws of golf like us, it's refreshing to get a little unruly. Whether that means using the old hand wedge to escape the bunker or just cracking open a hard seltzer that breaks all the rules, few things feel better. Truly unruly is the first high alk seltzer that actually tastes good. It's hard hitting, but still light and refreshing.
Zach
Making.
Dan Katz
Making it perfect for everything from the front nine to the clubhouse. Find it near you at trulyhardseltzer.com locations. That's trulyhardseltzer.com Locations. Hard Seltzer Beverage Company, Boston, Massachusetts. Please drink responsibly. I got a question. The Internet always gives us weird facts, but I read a story that when you were younger and started playing basketball, you could dunk, but you didn't dunk because you wanted to work on your dribbling. Is that true? That must have been the hardest thing ever to not be able to dunk. Dunk like you could. You can dunk, but you wouldn't do it.
Zach
No, it was not. It was not like that. It was more like. It was more a thing like you could first. I, like, I didn't. I didn't think I can dunk because, like, I remember. I remember the day when my coach, when I was young, I missed layup, and he was like, why you don't dunk that? Like, come on, take the ball. Take the ball and dunk. I was like, no, but I. I was like, I can't dunk, you know, like, no, no, you can try. And I dunk it. He was like, now go with left hand. Like, dunk with left hand. And I started to go with two hands. How I go to two hands? I. I like, hold the rim. I was like, wow, this is so amazing. You know, like. And then from that time, I start to dunk everything. Like, like back over there, I really start dunk everything, Everything. Like, you know, like every. Every ball. Every ball. What I grabbed where I go to dunk because it was super, super experienced before. I'm missing the layups. Do that. And the second part, because I think you guys hear about that. It's about. I was not allowed to make a dribbling ever till I learned how to, to learn how to like, basically dunk or, or, or shut the ball. Like, basically every time when I make a dribbling a low post, that's, it's, it's lose the ball. That's how we practice on practice. That's why, like, sometimes I go a lot of things without dribbling.
Dan Katz
Ah.
PFT Commenter
Have you ever, have you ever tried to play point guard and like, pick up?
Zach
Yes. And. And I think, to be honest, I think I'm good. Maybe like, maybe like, you know, like, maybe like not like somebody, Somebody play like full court difference on me, but I was not bad at all. Like, I'm. I can shoot, I can dribble. It's not, it's not, it's not really fast fast, but it's really like, good, good. Yeah, like, yeah, it's, it's not easy to stop me. And, and it's, it's a facts. It's not about like, hey, you know, I'm done the best. You know who I am. I'm. It's really, it's really true. I tried. It's work well, but you know, like, of course, like, this is not my position, but I can do everything.
PFT Commenter
Have you ever. Have you ever crossed anybody up at point guard, like, broken anybody's ankles?
Zach
Never, but because, Because I can shoot over everybody. Nobody, like, everybody tried to reach the ball, but they can. They couldn't have it.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Yeah, you just shoot over another one. That's. That makes me laugh. Because Bobon, we're, I mean, we're massive fans of you and like, it's just you're. You seem like the funnest guy. Like, and everyone talks about how great of a teammate you are, but this story is, I think from six years ago, your son's birthday. You got so excited for your son's birthday, but you forgot that your wife had planned a photo shoot beforehand. And it's just a picture of you, your wife and your two kids, and you're just full Spider man face paint while they don't have any face paint on because you got ready so early for his birthday.
Zach
No, that was not true.
Dan Katz
Okay. All right, so. But that picture is an awesome picture.
Zach
No, no, the picture, the picture is there. And he was, I think, I think he was like, it was not for my son birthday. It was like for, for the new year.
Dan Katz
Okay.
Zach
Yeah. And my son friend that we was in Detroit from Serbia. Yeah, she. She paint. She paint like, she learned to drawing. She paint our faces. And that's what that's why. How that. How the pictures happen.
Dan Katz
Okay. Because the picture is very funny because it's your two kids, your wife with no face, pain, and you're just full Spider man.
Zach
Yeah. Yeah. The picture is that. Yeah, you're right.
Dan Katz
Okay. All right.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
Yeah. I mean, you seem like the. The best guy to be around. That's just a fact. Yeah. The. Maybe that's just your personality. Like, I think every. Every story that comes out about you, it's just like, he's just the best. I don't know what it is. Like, he's. He's. He's the man. And. And every. Every teammate feels like they absolutely love you.
Zach
I love all my teammates. I really have great experience with each one of them. Like, you know, like, everybody's super great, super humble people, like, from the. When I was kid to like, to, like NBA, everybody. Everybody was super, super perfect.
PFT Commenter
Do you have a favorite teammate, a guy you're still great friends with?
Zach
Yeah, I'm like, I have a lot of. I have a lot of. I have a lot of teammates who are friends. Of course I play with Jokic in mega. With him, I play. Of course I play with Luca in Dallas. Of course I play with Toby. And this is like this, like, some people who, you guys know, I have. I have a lot of friends around, but these three. These three, like, we was, like. It was like, mostly tight.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Yeah.
PFT Commenter
What if. What of your friends and especially the ones from Serbia? What have they said about the. The game in America when you're, you know, get ready to go to the NBA? What.
Dan Katz
How.
PFT Commenter
What's the. What's the reputation of the NBA like, overseas right now?
Zach
Like, something untouchable. Something like nobody can play, you know, like, and you can need to work a lot. You need to work a lot to. To. You can make it.
PFT Commenter
It seems like, you know, in the last 20 years or so, maybe even, you know, since the Dream Team, the. The world has, I don't want to say caught up to the American game, but it's certainly really competitive. You watch in the Olympics, and these are some great games that are being played in the Olympics right now. Is there something about basketball in Europe that you think makes it. Makes it more competitive now than it used to be?
Zach
I think basketball, it's, like, big, like, big game. Everybody. Everybody tried to find out something new, and it's time, you know, Like, I feel like. I feel like they change players, change everything, change the, like, strategy, change. Everybody. Everybody tried to be like, Everybody want to be like Golden State like back in the day when there was like, when they were shooting every ball, everybody tried to be like Steph Curry, but then they. They don't. They doesn't know the only one. It's one and only Steph Curry. Like, everybody try to try to be like that team. What is like my experience. And everybody, like, put the numbers, you know, like watching the. Watching the stats, you know, like, what is that type of things. And now everybody start to shoot. Shoot trees. I think I figured out. No, really. No, really, like, like basket, real basketball before. Like, you know, like, you have post up, you have shoot, you have this, you have done. You have everything. Like, you remember. You remember like San Antonio game and everybody like, shared the ball and like one guy attack like other guy, the shadow ball. They make like 12, 12, 13, 14 passes.
Max
And.
Zach
And after that, like, like one guy open on layup or one guy open on three point. Right now I feel like everybody like, play a small, small, small, small pick and all, and they try to. They try to attack the mismatch. Every switch. And this is it. Like this. This is only. This. Only what the basketball do right now. But it's competitive. It's nice. Basketball always fun. They play like a track and chess and it's. They play chess and like, you basically need to be on right place in right moment.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
In Serbia. How. How big of a star is Jokic? Is he just the. Like, every single person? Because he seems like a great guy as well, very humble. Have you got. Have you. Have you gone to the horse track with him?
Zach
I didn't. I didn't. But, you know, like, he's really. He's really. He's really superstar. Not like big star. He's superstar. Everybody. Everybody wearing his jersey on outside. All kids, Kids, like, all kids usually play basketball and say, hey, do you know your kids? Do you know your kids? Can you say hi to him? Can you say hi to him? And like, big time. But, you know, like, he's not about, like, it's not about, like, he just big star. He's just like big human, big heart. Like, big like good friend and. And nice person. And that's why. That's why people like the people and kids like him the most because, like, this is who he is. He was. He was like that before when it was like when he was like, together without nothing. And right now. Right now it's something. Of course, he's. He's much more bigger level than me, but, you know, like, with something you. Everybody of us make. Make something. Make something like for rest of our lives. That's why, that's why he's sort of remindable and everybody love him.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
You were talking about how everybody wants to be Steph Curry, but there's only one Steph Curry. But the, the level of shot making has gone up like three pointers are. People are way better at them than they used to be. If you were to practice and you were take 25 threes, how many do you think you would make just in practice, nobody guarding you?
Zach
I can, I, I can make a lot of time. I'm good shooter. I'm, I'm not like Steph Curry good shooter or somebody, some of the other guys, but I can make from 25. Nobody guard me if I'm, I can make like at least maybe 20.
PFT Commenter
That's great. Yeah, you should start something like that. You should start shooting threes all day.
Zach
Yeah, but I'm so powerful under the basket, you know, that's why, that's why that's my advantage.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. Have you ever, have you ever been playing and there's somebody who's like 6ft tall that jumps up in the air to try to block your shot and they just don't even come close and you just laugh at them?
Zach
No, I never, I never laugh to nobody. I respect, I respect. I didn't laugh to nobody because I respect. I respect people who, like, who try, who give their best to. Of course we, Everybody have a witches on about the high, about speed, about, about the power, about the physical. But I never, I never laughed to nobody. Like, you know, ah, you cannot reach. I never do that.
PFT Commenter
You seem like.
Dan Katz
That's nice.
PFT Commenter
You see, you seem like a great guy because if I were playing basketball, because I would. You have to jump. I would have to try to get a hand in your face. But I don't think I'd come within like 5ft of the ball and. But you know, you gotta, you gotta make an effort on defense.
Zach
Yeah, of course. You know, like, it's like, it's, it's. I think it's respectful because I need, I need to respect him. He need to respect me. So basically like, respectful. But I want to, I want to beat you. Of course. I want to attack everything.
PFT Commenter
Have you ever broken a backboard?
Zach
I, I didn't, but we broke couples. Couple like unscrew, unscrew the, the rim or something like that. Because right now it's hard to break the backboard because the rim, it's like so not attachable for the, for the backboard.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, yeah. I Feel like the technology has gotten a lot better where.
Zach
Yeah, you can. You can really bend. But, you know, like, I really like, like make a couple screws or like the. The rim would go like this. Like, I did something like that. But it's really never broke. Never break the backboard.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. Not like Shaq when he pulled it down on people's heads.
Zach
That was amazing.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. Yeah.
Dan Katz
I got another question about Serbia. Like, it's not a huge country and it's produced such insane amount of NBA talent recently. Like, what is it? Is it just basketball is the sport in Serbia? Is the coaching? Because it is pretty amazing the size of Serbia and then the imprint it's had on the NBA in the last decade.
Zach
I think. I think it's. I think always we have good, like, good, good people, good kids, good basketball players from there. But I think, like, because. Because in Luca and Jokic from the. From this part of the world and I guess. I guess they figure out or Yannis and we have. We have a lot of. We have a lot of people like maybe need to send. Send the scouting and. And watch the kids. You know, I feel I figured out this is the. This, this is the why. Why happened there right now. They saw them. It was like, oh, they have a lot of kids there with Lara, with a lot of talent. Let's go to sea and bring them to NBA to see what we can do. I think that's happened right now because back of the, Back of the day, it was really good basketball players too. You remember like Darko Milic when he was like. He was like his second pick on second pickle. Never mind. Like, he was like, we was. We was insane team. He went to the NBA. I remember watch one game, he was like, he's really beast. It's not about like whatever he say how many minutes he played, but it's like he was really beast. And he's like, he's. We. He. He make NBA 18 years old. 18 years old. And they changed the rule. They mean like, he's good. Yeah. And that's say like, he's like, he's the first. And they have a lot of guys similar like to the. To the kids in this. This era.
Dan Katz
Yeah. So you might have never had this conversation. It's something we kind of like not dream about, but we. We just throw out the rosters. Have you ever had a conversation with any of the guys about if Yugoslavia was still the country, you guys would be the best basketball country because, like, when you add up, all of Serbia is already really good. But then like Luca, you know, would. Would be on the Yugoslavian team. Like there's other guys in that part of the world that if it was still, it would be crazy. They would be beating the US in, in basketball tournaments.
Zach
I don't know who will beat. We need to, of course, for the basketball. We need to have that chemistry. But of course we have that chemistry because we show in a bubble. We went like, we went like. I think 12 of us went to the, went to the dinner and we, we have like our own party. But the thing, Yes, I believe in that. We will be really good. We will be amazing. I know we will be like, we can beat United States, but I think we have like big chance. Like it's not be like easy for states to, to beat that team.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, you'd be able to.
Dan Katz
The dinner you're talking about, it was like Jokic, it was you, it was Luca, Dragic, Vuchovic, like all these guys that would be playing on the same team if Yugoslavia was still the country.
Zach
Yes. Yes. That's the guys. Yeah, there's the guys. And he was like, it was big. It. I think it will be very good. Like amazing. You, you read that all that names. I was like, wow. Okay.
Dan Katz
Yeah, it is crazy. It's a small part of the world and it's just like all these guys are coming out and being incredible pros in the NBA for a very long time. It's. It's very cool and I. It's like, it's cool to just see basketball grow as much as it has around the world.
Zach
True. It's amazing. Yeah, I can agree with you. I can agree with you. Yeah. Nothing to add on that.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, I think you guys could probably out party us too. I think you'd be able to. To drink us under the table. Maybe that's what we do in the, the next All Star break. They're trying to copy, you know, the, the hockey model of the four nations.
Zach
Okay.
PFT Commenter
We go, former Yugoslavia versus the United States in the All Star game.
Zach
We go, we talk about which sport. You say hockey.
PFT Commenter
Well, in hockey. In hockey they did the four nations, you know, they. Yeah, they had usa, Canada, Finland. Who's the fourth nation in that?
Dan Katz
I can't remember.
PFT Commenter
I can't remember. It's a team that didn't win. But in the All Star break, they're trying to figure out. Yeah, they're trying to make it usa, you know, against the world. Somehow I think you, you. It's a two part thing. One, you guys all go out partying the night before, and then the day after, it's a hungover basketball game of the former Yugoslavian countries against the United States. I. I would put that spread at. You guys would probably be favored by 12 to 14 points.
Dan Katz
Agreed.
Zach
You know what? Because kids watch this. We never drink. Athletes, they never drink.
PFT Commenter
Never drink.
Dan Katz
I mean, the video of you at the club with Jokic is so funny. And you guys are having the time of your life.
Zach
Yeah, we must. We must have a great time. But, you know, never before the game.
PFT Commenter
When you went out with Luca, that one time was apple juice. You guys were drinking apple juice.
Zach
We drink apple juice. You already know. Yeah. You guys have good research.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, that was funny because it was. It was a picture, and I think it was like, more than 24 hours before the game, Right? It was like more than a full day before the game.
Zach
You know, it was. It was a day. It was a day before. It was day. Day before the game. But they come. They come out. They come out on Twitter. They come out on Twitter, like, really late. And that's why. That's why it was like, look like that. But it was like, he was like, two days before the game because we arrived there.
PFT Commenter
Right.
Zach
Two times. Two days before the game.
PFT Commenter
Right. Well, we need you back in the NBA.
Dan Katz
Oh, I have a stat. You want it? So for anyone who's listening right now, who is making decisions on bringing Bobon back, here's the stat for you career player efficiency rating. Yours is 25.3. It is higher than the following players. Kevin Durant, Charles Barkley, Tim Duncan, Magic Hakeem, and Steph Curry. I'd say that's pretty damn good.
Zach
Yes. Yes. Go.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Let's get that on a resume and just be like, hey, hey, do you think we just got to walk into a meeting with gm, Be like, hey, do you think Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are good basketball players? They're like, yeah, well, we got a guy who's better statistically. Better statistically.
Zach
The only show statistically. This is the number.
Dan Katz
This one specific number.
PFT Commenter
And he's hot right now. Two championships in a row.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
Winner.
Zach
We even go there. But we don't believe in that story, too. It was like, we just. We just. We just. We just throw the story there.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Zach
They will bite it.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
I think you let other people say it about you. You don't say a lot. You don't say it yourself, but we'll say it. He is the best player in the history of basketball.
Zach
Okay. And I'll Be like, like this.
Dan Katz
All right, well, Bob on, I have one last question for you. It is the Roback question. Rhobac.com promo code take 20 off your first purchase. Q zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code take everyone go see Happy Gilmore 2. Our friend Bob. Can we call you a friend now?
Zach
Of course we are friends.
Dan Katz
Okay. All right. Our friend Bobon's in it. My last question is. So your mom and dad are both on the shorter side. Was. Was there a point where your dad was like, this is getting ridiculous. Like you're just. Wait. Like. Because I, I know I. I have three kids. If they get taller than me, I'm going to be mad. I'm gonna be like, this is bullshit. So at what point was your dad like, hey, this is kind of bullshit. You're weight. You're like two. You're. You're over two feet taller than him, right?
Zach
I feel. Yeah, for sure. I'm. I'm basically like, this happened in second grade. Like, for sure. He look, he looked to my mom and say, what's happened? What we do to Boba? Like, maybe I use. I use more material than supposed to be.
Dan Katz
Bigger.
Zach
I know, like, I want to finish something. I want to say. I forget to say it because we was like we was doing. You talk about horses and Jokic. I want to add. I try. I will try because we've. We film. We film some within TV show. Robin Hood and with mgm. And with MGM and I. We talk about horse. I. I'm. I'm learning to ride a horse. So that. Yeah, that's. I'm super. I'm super assigned that. That, that will be fire. This is like long skate and mgm. This is like. This is like they make, they make, they make TV shows. BSB Fire. That's. I'm. That's. I'm super exciting for that. I forget to tell you about that on beginning when you talk about horses.
Dan Katz
Yeah, that's.
PFT Commenter
I can't wait to say it. Have you, have you gotten on the horse yet?
Zach
Nah, I didn't. Tomorrow.
PFT Commenter
Tomorrow.
Dan Katz
Wow, big day.
Zach
Okay, tomorrow is. Tomorrow is the day.
Dan Katz
Are you gonna ask Jokic for any tips? Because he is the horse guy.
Zach
Of course. In the morning I will call him. Seven in the morning. I say, hey, Nicola, what I can do to be better.
PFT Commenter
I. I have to see the picture. I have to see the picture of you getting on the horse for the first.
Zach
Watch out. But keep that like a secret.
Dan Katz
Okay. Maybe hold the horse's head in your hand. That would be a good one.
Zach
I'm super, I'm super excited for this. I'm really, I'm really super exciting for this. And I hope so for more acting in my, in my, in my career. And of course, for more basketball games.
Dan Katz
I love it. Yes. We're getting you back in the NBA.
Zach
And by the way, for DJing, I tried to be DJ too. There was like, there was like. I work, I work in China. I'm in China. Working, working, working on that, on that. Skills. Of course. I'm, I get. I'm like, I'm. I don't say I'm great, but I'm really good.
Dan Katz
Okay.
Zach
And we will come. We'll come out with a couple new. A couple new songs, couple new singles. They'll be, they'll be, they'll be soon there. Like you, you guys, you guys listen on Spotify.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Yes.
Zach
Yeah. We're looking forward for some, like, for some good collab and I'm, I'm super happy for that. I hope you guys listen to my music.
PFT Commenter
What's it, what's it listed under on Spotify? Is it just your name or do you have a DJ name?
Zach
Just my name. But we can. It's only, it's only one song right now, but we. It's only one song from last year, but we'll add, we will add more. Five songs or six songs in the next one month.
Dan Katz
I love it. And when you come, whenever you come back to the U.S. you got to come by the office. We'd love to have you here.
Zach
And I'll bring you guys on lunch. I promise. I promise the Serbian soup.
Dan Katz
Okay.
PFT Commenter
Okay. Love it. I'm in.
Dan Katz
Perfect. Bobon, thanks so much, man. We really appreciate it.
Zach
No, I appreciate you guys. Thank you very much. I know, I know it's not personal like in Chicago, but zoom, it still work?
Dan Katz
Yes. Yeah. We're friends. We're friends now and we're gonna do.
PFT Commenter
This face to face.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Yeah.
Zach
Yes. Face to face.
Dan Katz
I love it. All right, thanks so much, Bobon.
Zach
Thank you very much, guys.
PFT Commenter
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Dan Katz
Okay, before we get to coach Bielema in studio, I want to talk to you guys about Mountain Dew. You see it right here in front of me. Oh, my God, it's so cold. It's delicious. And guess what? They went throwback nostalgic cans. Zach, are you a Mountain Dew guy?
Hank
I love to do the Dew.
Dan Katz
You love to do the dew. Listen, it's the start of the summer. It's golf season. It's grab a do while you're on the course season. It's heading out to the boat season. It's going fishing season. It's going to the backyard barbecue, it's grilling, it's doing everything with Mountain Dew. Nothing goes better with basically every summer activity. Nothing. You need the Dew with you. You need to drink the Mountain Dew. The refreshing, citrusy kick of Mountain Dew. And guess what? We are going to barstool camp this year again, thanks to Mountain Dew. It's gonna be awesome. So listen, you gotta be drinking Mountain Dew all summer long. The new cans are absolutely gorgeous. Makes me want to just go sit outside, look at the, look at, look at the trees. Look at a mountain. Look at an ocean all with Mountain Dew. Grab a Dew in the new packaging and enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. Go do it now. Gosh, it is so beautiful. And it is summer in a can. Go get a Mountain Dew today. Okay, here he is, coach Brett Buelma. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest recurring guest. I forgot you'd been on. Coach. It is coach Brett Buelma, coach of Illinois, getting ready for the Big Ten season. It is, you know, late June or mid June. So let's start there. At what point in the summer are you like, let's just start playing ball?
Max
Yeah, probably the start of June. We go an eight week training program for Illinois. We do a window there that the first four weeks were with the coaches. And then after this week, we'll leave and we go on four weeks of vacation. That's when our players actually get together the most. And that's when I think I kind of have that moment, like, let's Just get together. I try to get out of the country. I'm going to Cabo with my family for a couple of weeks just to kind of relax. But when we come back that third week of July, it's kind of game on.
Dan Katz
You're looking like you're in good shape.
Max
You lost a little trying, trying to get down to normal weight.
Dan Katz
As someone who's taken a lot of pictures of Brett Bielma on the, you know, the Arkansas days, I would. I would kind of adjust the camera.
Max
Yeah.
Dan Katz
Apologize for those. But that was also when our relationship wasn't the best because you left Wisconsin, but you look like you're in good.
Max
Trying to get there. We've not got there yet, but feeling better, Looking better.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Do you find yourself thinking about football when you're on vacation? I know you're supposed to be locking in on vacation.
Max
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
But I'd imagine a guy like you, the mind drifts a little bit.
Max
You know, my wife always laughs because, like, if I'm sitting in front of tv, I usually flip on a game. I just like watching football, and for me, I like watching games I've never seen, because then you can kind of work through the game. Right. And then recruiting is just such a different animal, different beast, you know, retention. So I think about it a lot. But also during that two weeks, I'm going to try to put my phones in a drawer in the hotel and just kind of try to get away from it a little bit.
Dan Katz
Do you feel like maybe this is just me knowing you from afar and also getting to know you through the past few years and watching it Wisconsin and rise up. Do you feel like you're at, like, a stage of your career where you kind of don't give a shit? Because I feel like you were there, like, whether it be the Shane Beamer or, you know, chirping Lane on Twitter, I enjoy it. Like, you. You have no problem kind of. Kind of saying whatever you want. Is that. Is that fair?
Max
You know, it's crazy. My first year head coach at Wisconsin, I went to a Big Ten meeting, and Lloyd Carr and Jim Trestle grabbed me. And I just finished a year. We went 12 and one at Wisconsin, and they kind of asked me to kind of sit down for a minute, and those two guys kind of said, hey, you know, Barry Alvarez says you're going to be really good. You're 35 years old. You're going to be a spokesman for this. This. This occupation for a long time. And at that time, I'm just like, oh, these Guys are being pretty cool to me. Well, now I go into those Big Ten meeting rooms, and I am one of the older guys in the room. I'm 55. You know, I've done it 17 years. And some of these guys say things. I'm just like, just shut up. Right. Like, just. Let's just pay attention to what we need to do. I want to protect. I protect our players all the time. That's my number one priority. But I think you got to do protect the game a little bit, too, because I think there's so many people trying to attack certain things that we get to do for our players right now. The way they get to be paid is absolutely awesome, but with that comes complications that we got to work through. So. Yeah, I don't. I don't know if I'm at a. I don't give a hoot, but I do definitely not afraid to speak my mind.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. I mean, maybe. Maybe what other people say it feels like, does that not affect you as much as it used to?
Max
Oh, totally. Yeah. You can say whatever you want about me. You can post a picture of me.
PFT Commenter
And we had your side in the Beaver situation.
Max
Yeah, we did.
Dan Katz
Yeah, we did.
PFT Commenter
I would not want to mess with you. I would not want.
Dan Katz
Our relationship has gone through, you know, some tumultuous times, obviously. There was the time when you left Wisconsin, I was upset. And then I did maybe tweet karma at your wife after every time you guys lost in Arkansas, she blocked me. But now we're good. That. Listen, there was hurt feelings all around.
PFT Commenter
Sports fans operate, right?
Max
Yes, it is. He take it personal, which I think is why it's so awesome. Right. There is no better time in my career to be a head coach. And the way the game has expanded, you know, 12 playoff teams now, just. It just. It's about as good as it gets, you know, down to having so many players, too. Like, I know you're a commander's guy, right? So I literally. Johnny Newton hit me this morning. Right. And you have these kids all over the league. We got two or three guys been drafted at Washington. So now you see those guys in a different light. I didn't have all those pro players back then, and now you kind of see what they're doing in their careers, and you realize you've affected these guys, not just the four years you're with them, but for the rest of your life. And it's pretty cool.
PFT Commenter
I imagine that as a former defensive lineman yourself, you work pretty closely with Newton then.
Max
I did Strong guy. He. When we got there that first year, I. I literally knew he had some exceptional skills. The burst. He's really strong. His little brother's on our team now too. I got five sets of brothers on my team, right?
Zach
Yeah.
Max
The first set of brothers were these guys named jj, TJ and Derek Wat. I'm like, I like brothers. So, yeah, we got Josh and James Cruz. Their dad own crutz, right. So DNA means a lot. But yeah, Johnny, you know, one of the things we did after that first off season is really took his early down production. So, like, everybody thinks third down is all that in a bag of nuts, right? But like the part that's really awesome about third down, everybody knows what's going on. First and second down is your easiest pass to the quarterback. So he was the most productive early down pass rusher in college football two years in a row. And that's really got him where he was.
Dan Katz
Who's the strongest guy you ever coached?
Max
Strongest guy. You know, JJ had country strong. Like he wasn't maybe, you know, but his hands, you know, he had those, those meat hook hands. Right. I remember sitting there the night that JJ was trying to decide if he was going to go into draft and John Watt just sat there. You know, he's a firefighter, right? And he sat there and he had looked like 10 Polish sausages hanging off his hand. Right. I'm just like, good God. Right? And. But you know, we've had. Johnny is very powerful, very, very explosive player. Actually, Gabe Akis, who's in town with us today, outside linebacker, rush player, is a really, really strong player. So a lot of those linemen, but some of our offensive linemen, you know, Kevin Zeitler was probably productive. You know, he's still playing the league, I think, Russ, that team that when we won a Big Ten championship, every, every offensive lineman on that team was drafted in the third round or higher. They were a very explosive crew.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Do you do that when you, when you're recruiting, you evaluate the father's handshake, you're like, I think this guy can.
Max
Get strong here at pft. Honest goodness, the best thing you do is you. If you can meet mom and then if you meet one of her brothers, the uncles from mom's sides are usually the greatest indicators of what you're going to get.
PFT Commenter
That's a good tip. I like that. Yeah, you are. And I don't give a. You just gave away the whole scheme.
Max
Yeah, well, we're gonna keep that.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, we'll take that out.
Dan Katz
So we talked about Shane, how. What's the status of some of the beefs. Shane Beamer, have you talked to him?
Max
Yeah, I actually called him. I'm a very, you know, I get caught up in the moment, but that one was kind of more of just a, a little, little moment in the game. So I literally called him. There was later in January we have a coaches convention and I knew his dad was getting award, so I probably knew he was going to be there and I was going to try to make it the event. Couldn't do it. So I called him and had a conversation and was very, very cordial. So I think you got to, you got to get past those moments that ended up being a rule change, you know, so probably in the good of the game was actually a good thing that happened.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
But yeah, all the other stuff, you know, when I'm pimping Lane, I wasn't really going at him. I was agreeing with him. Right. I was like, hey, you should be in the playoffs.
Dan Katz
Illinois should be talked about.
Max
Yeah.
Dan Katz
Three losses. All right. What about, what about Jim Harbaugh?
Max
I have not talked to Jim.
Dan Katz
Okay. That one's still.
Max
I've never really had a problem with him, but it was just that moment, that scenario. Actually his strength coach, Ben Herbert, you know.
Dan Katz
Yeah. We, we actually interviewed him last year. Incredibly impressive guy. Yeah.
Max
Through your soul. Oh, yeah.
Dan Katz
Oh, yeah.
Max
But when I got let go to Arkansas, he hired Jim, hired four of my strength coaches to Michigan and that's kind of when they made their turn, you know.
Dan Katz
Yeah, yeah.
Zach
All right.
Max
I got respect. I love, love his family, love. His dad is good people.
Dan Katz
All right.
Max
Barry Alvarez, very close.
Dan Katz
Okay.
Max
You know, he just had surgery yesterday.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
Yeah. I would say maybe after my second or third year at wisco, we were at New York and we actually met. Somebody tricked us into meeting at the same restaurant and we kind of just hugged it out. And from that point forward, he still called him yesterday on Father's Day. You know, other than my dad, one of the most influential people in my.
PFT Commenter
Life, I almost feel like having a beef with Harbaugh that's like, it's almost a badge of honor.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Like he, he doesn't have beef with somebody that he doesn't respect deep down inside.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Just two hard headed guys.
Zach
Yeah.
Max
You know, and I've had a lot of people that have worked with him, you know, and, and obviously got a lot of respect in the things he's been able to do.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
I, I read that your favorite word is consistency.
Max
I do like Consistency that you sees, Consistency and communication are big ones.
PFT Commenter
Those are the two Cs. I. Now, every time I hear you say consistency, you like to say it's a hard word to spell, but it's a tougher word to do.
Max
Right.
PFT Commenter
Can you spell consistency?
Max
Probably not on air. I got. I would have to look it up real quick.
PFT Commenter
So what is consistency? Why is consistency one of the things?
Max
I think it's the greatest thing you bring to the organization. It's probably why you're sitting in your chair, right? Like, as people are successful. Could be that. But I think, you know, you got your look, you got your phrases. You know, you guys, what you've done here is absolutely awesome for our game. Right. But people tune in and watch because you guys are consistent. I don't think people want this. Right?
Dan Katz
Right.
Max
Even our best players, like I say, one of the greatest things they can bring is just to be that same player every day. Because if you're it one week and you're not the next, I can't coach that. I can't plan that. You know, I got 20 coaches in the building. Nine of those guys played for me. Right. I knew them as players, and now I know them as coaches. And the thing that I really know is I know who they are. Right. It kind of applies to everything that we do. And then communication, I think, in this world, like, there's too much, you know, handheld devices and things that you can communicate without talking. So one of the things we do in our building, literally the first meeting they come into, they have to stand up, say their name, hometown, where they're at, position they're going to play. They share, you know, three things. What's their name, their full name, if there's any meaning. You know, basically a story about them that helped help them get to where they are today. Right. And I want those guys to speak loudly and proudly, and it makes them feel confident.
PFT Commenter
Do you think that kids have changed over the years, like the players that you're coaching?
Max
You know, I get that question all the time. I think the venues that are accessible to them, right. The fan that can get at them through a DM and whether or not they want to read it or not. You know, I think kids, you have to, when you get them, teach them the things they don't know. I always say, you know, they only know what they know. Right. So if they came from a house where 10 minutes late is being on time, then you got to teach them what that really is. Right. If they don't know how to effectively communicate. Hey, easy conversations are easy to have. Tough conversations are tough to have, but they're usually the most productive. So I always tell kids, man, hey, just because I'm getting on you or I'm saying something you to don't want, I want a year. It's probably because I love you. Right. Like, I'm trying to do this to get you. So go somewhere we've never been. And that's. That's a big part of it, to get kids to understand that. Because kids, when you come at kids, they think you're coming at them. Right. They don't realize it's from a place of goodness.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, I. I think that ultimately, and I don't, obviously, I don't. I'm not around college kids as much as you are, but I think kids are going to be the same throughout, you know, all the different generations. It's just the devices that they have, the. The forms of communication, forms of technology, they're a little bit different. But ultimately, I feel like if you can reach kids with a message that's going to resonate, that's going to apply.
Max
To all the generations, it does. You know, we have a phrase that we say all the time. My coach, I played for a guy, Hayden Fry, at Iowa, and he always say, you recruit your own problems. Right. And I think a lot of times in recruiting, I'll be sitting at a table and I'll say or hear something that I'm like, okay, I'm out. Right. Like, if a young man like Luke would tell you. Right. Like his mother is an angel. And most kids respect their mothers.
Zach
Right.
Max
They're going to disagree once in a while with their dad. Right. Like, my dad and I argue, but anybody that disrespects their mother is usually showing you something about what they are.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
So there's, like, little indicators I've had in my career where how people communicate with others is usually a good indicator of what they are reading people.
Dan Katz
Yeah, yeah. It's a big part of the job. Would you say you have it rolling now at Illinois? And I mean that in the. In the best sense, because when. When you as a coach and, and watching your career, when you get it rolling.
Max
Yeah.
Dan Katz
There's something about a Brett Bielema team. They. They put you in a cement mixer. They're basically going to play football where they're going to make it hurt whenever you play them. I think there was that stat when you were at Arkansas, where it was like every team that played Arkansas the next week just absolutely got Killed. So do you think. Do you feel like you have. That you've put your Year five. Do you feel like you have the Brett Bielema, like, imprint on Illinois?
Max
I think going in year five, I feel better than I did going to year one, for sure. But this world we're in, I got 40 new players in the building, right? Like, the world that we're in in college football, you own and you operate our program now very much like an NFL team. Right. Like, the rosters are even getting more balanced. You know, I said this last month, I said, I don't. You know, the thing that's really happened with college football is awesome, is we're all going to start shopping in the same store, right. I don't care if we're shopping in Louis Vuitton over at Walmart, as long as we're in the same store. I feel good. Right. And I do think the physicality that we play at and to play with, we're starting to be more consistent in that. And that's probably what's making me more excited. We sold out season tickets, I think 43,000 seats. Right. First time in, like, 20 years. So, like, I know the fans are feeling it, too, which is a really good thing. But the bottom line is our players, right. And how they feel is what matters.
Dan Katz
Yeah. All right, I got a dumb question.
Max
Hit me with it.
Dan Katz
So you, after Arkansas, you went and coached the NFL for a little bit with the Patriots and the Giants. There was a year where you were a consultant to the head coach. We're dumb. Every time I see a fired or coach go from one place and be a consultant, we're like, oh, he's just gonna sit on his ass and just basically be friends with the head coach. Can you explain to me what a consultant to the head coach does in these. Like, you see it a lot in.
PFT Commenter
In.
Dan Katz
In NFL or college, where it's like, you guys kind of take care of each other.
Max
Yeah.
Dan Katz
If you have a year where it's like, you don't have a job, you go work with someone else, what exactly do you do?
Max
You know, it was crazy. So I got let go at Arkansas that next day, seven o' clock in the morning, my phone's ringing. It's Coach Belichick. Right? And I'm like, all right. So I pick it up and he just starts talking to me. He talked about, you know, relating things when he got let go of Cleveland. And I really didn't know Bill. He had drafted a lot of my players. He had four guys on Our roster at that year that were former players of mine that he had drafted. And he just kind of started talking to me. He said, hey, I don't know how long we're going to go, but when we're done, you know, I'd like to give you a call and see if you would like to think about working in our organization. Didn't know what his was. So literally, that was the year they got beat by Philly, right? The next day at 11 o' clock, he called me and he said, hey, would you be interested in this? So I started watching some film. He didn't offer me a job. And then we met at the combine and I went on Wednesday and I stayed till Sunday. Saturday night. He's like, hey, can you go with me? I'm driving to my place in Nashville, and then I'm going to Alabama pro day, so I'm like, sure. I don't have any clothes, but yeah. So we hopped in a car from Indianapolis and drove to Nashville. I was driving the whole way, which was an experience and a half, and don't really know the man, right? And then he just kind of kept giving me other jobs. And then finally, when we were in the spring, he invited me to the draft. And then in the spring, he said, hey, would you like to stick around and be with us in the fall? And I'm like, sure. What? And he goes, whatever you want to do, right? Like wherever you want to. And he goes. And then he came up with that title.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
But he literally. One of the first projects he did, he gave me four teams to look at in a playoff season and said, look at it in the red zone and tell me what you think. So I literally kind of did this little project, and I think that's what turned into. I ended up working on the defensive side of the ball. Brian Flores.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
I kind of gravitated to that side. And then the next year, I was a D line coach. But I'll tell you what, Coach Belichick, I learned something every day I'd never heard before.
Dan Katz
Really.
Max
He is truly one of the most brilliant football minds I've ever been around. We were watching the Bears, right? And we're getting ready to play in Soldier Field. And I'd played in Soldier Field when I was at wisco. We played Northern Illinois a couple times, but we were going to play a noon game, right? And. And he's showing film and he's talking about, well, the sun's in his eyes here, and he's saying all these things. I grew up on a farm. Like, I. I took care of animals when they were hot, you know, and I knew about the sun and the heat of the sun. And so finally at the end of the day, I said, I said, how the. How do you know where the sun is? Right.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
And he goes, oh, by their shadows. You know, the shadows short behind him versus long in front of him. I'm like, holy shit, it takes shadows. And then we talked and then sure enough, we kicked into the sun and told these. We had a whole game plan about when they were going to be kicking, kick, returning into the sun.
PFT Commenter
Using the sun as a weapon.
Max
Yeah.
Dan Katz
That's crazy. So then, like, for the first year, when you're consultant, you're just basically doing special projects.
Max
I did a lot of projects. And we won the super bowl that year.
Dan Katz
Right.
Max
And we were playing Kansas City in the championship game. We had to beat Kansas City. Right. But I didn't really. I coached on defense, but I didn't coach a position. So that week he came to me and said, hey, why don't you start prepping for la, right? And in the NFL, you have NFL films, right. So you hear the court. So I would make an audible tape and I knew what they were saying. So I worked on that thing for three weeks. So when we went to the game, you know, McVeigh was an awesome dude, but he kind of.
Dan Katz
You guys fucked him up in that game.
Max
He was calling it because their quarterback, the guy that's at Detroit, Jared Goff.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
If they broke the huddle under 20 at 20 seconds, he had five seconds to get the communication in. So we knew he wasn't going to audible much. Right. But when they broke the huddle at 30 seconds, we knew that he was going to get to line scrimmage and change the call. So that whole. It was the lowest scoring super bowl in NFL history.
Dan Katz
Yeah, I took the over. Yeah.
Max
You were pissed at me then. You were still pissed.
PFT Commenter
I mean, it was one of the best defensive game plans of all time.
Max
And it was honestly, because it was a video game. We knew by the. When the clock was going, when we could audible, and when we had the Shem and stiff, it was really kind of cool.
PFT Commenter
So as you're watching that game, are you just. You're obviously like nervous going into the game, but then you see your plan, your plan's working. You're just sitting back like, yeah, well, knew this was going to happen.
Max
I was a part of the plan. Wasn't my plan, but. Yeah, but Brian Flores, I'm Telling you, He's now the D.C. of Minnesota is one of the most, very, very gifted defensive mind. So those guys put it together and then, you know, Coach Belichick, I remember specifically Aaron Donald was on their roster and he literally said, that guy's not going to wreck our game. Right. And I think he had one tackle in that game.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
I mean, they did such a good job of covering him up.
Dan Katz
That's a good answer because I always, whenever I see consultant, I'm like, oh, he's just getting like a no show job.
Max
I was. Now I do think there are a lot of times though, Big Cat, seriously, where they, they do what you're saying.
Dan Katz
Right.
Max
Like, like I've never done that and I wouldn't want to done that. But I do think there's a lot of times where people just kind of keep their name.
Dan Katz
Yeah, yeah.
PFT Commenter
I mean they hire you so that somebody else doesn't hire you.
Max
Well, and then yes and no. But, but I really grew with Bill. That was really an awesome year in my career. And then Brendan Daly, who went to the Chiefs left. So I took over as a D line coach. I was a D line coach that year and we got knocked out in the first round of playoffs. And I'd learned a lot about. I got to coach a couple of my former players and then I went to the Giants for one year and that was probably one of my most enjoyable time. That was during the COVID year. So it was, it was really cool to be a part of that process, starting an NFL organization.
PFT Commenter
So when you go to New England and, and Bill's like, hey, it's gonna be a consultant to me. Is Ernie Adams standing behind you like you.
Max
I loved Ernie, man. You know, So I went from being a head coach for 12 years to a cubicle in the New England pages. Everybody has a cubicle, right. So I'm like sitting there like talking to my wife. Right. Like you're, it's just case you're going. But Ernie had an office.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Max
You know, so I went around the corner and Ernie had, you know, boxes unboxing. And then he and I, once he realized how I kind of ticked like, we kind of started bouncing ideas off each other. And then there was a Monday. There was a. I think it was a Monday night game or Sunday night game. And I was up in the booth my first year and Ernie was the challenge guy. Right. And I was watching the play and I could see that the ball came out. And I'm like, I'm like, it's Out. It's out. It's out. And they called it. It wasn't out. And I'm like, Nick Casario turned around and looked at me and I'm like. Because Bill threw the flag. And I'm like, oh, shit. Right? Like, this isn't going to be good. Right. Like, I hope the hell this ball came out. But I know. I saw what I saw, but I didn't know somebody's fully touched on the sideline. And we ended up winning the game. And that was great. A critical thing. So I'm like, nervous, like, you know, Ernie's looking at me. Nick. Nick looked at me and. And it ended up being the right call. We reversed it. Bill challenged it and we got it. And so Bill called me. He's like the next day he's like, hey, why did you say that? And I'm like, because I saw it. Yeah, right. He's like, well, why don't you kind of continue to do that, you know? And I'm just like, awesome.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
I was scared for a moment.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've always wondered what Ernie Adams does besides just sit in a room. Room watching old football plays and then seeing something like once a day. He's like, aha. I got something for Bill.
Max
You know what he was pft. He was unbelievable about forecasting problems, right? So he would. Every scenario that we went through, he had already played at. He had an Ernie tape. It was so every night, the night before we played a game, Ernie would have about eight to 10 plays that he would show that were very unique situational things. And I was blown away. That's what I do now, actually. Still with my crew. He was just so far ahead. Like, he knew the analytics, but it was in his head. Like some of these guys try to do it, but they're looking at charts. Ernie knew it and, you know, just an awesome dude. That was one of my experiences there that I had no idea that was coming. But yeah, his. He's a. He was a pretty special advocate.
Dan Katz
Take me back to 19 year old Brett Bielma. You're in the tattoo shop. Did you ever think that you getting an Iowa tattoo, the Tiger Rock tattoo, would be one of the most talked about tattoos? Because every time there's maybe, oh, Iowa's got. Maybe. Maybe they're going to move on. Maybe it's like, well, Brett Beela's got a tease. An Iowa guy. He's got the Iowa tattoo. Did you. Do you ever think that it would be talked about the way it's talked about?
Max
I can assure you, in a spring afternoon at 19 years of age when maybe you're not making the greatest decisions. We actually had five roommates. We all went and got tats together. And then, you know, it's funny, I didn't. I didn't want my mom to know. So that summer when I was home, I was always wearing high socks. Never really showed it off. I was worried my mom was getting mad at me. But it's kind of funny whenever, whenever a recruit comes to my room and says, coach, can I see your left leg? I'm like, okay, you just came from.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
Came from Iowa.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
Because whenever. Whenever Kirk Ferenc decides to hang it up, you know that that's just gonna be the top story is like, well, Buma does have.
Max
Yeah. Well. So I actually. My new contract. I signed a non compete with every school in the Big Ten. Ah. So I can't when we. I've signed three contracts. When my second one came up, WISCO was open.
Dan Katz
Okay.
Max
And Nebraska was open. And I know they were concerned about that, so I volunteered it. I said, hey, I know everybody thinks I want to go to Iowa. I don't want to go to Iowa. I spent five great years there.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
Coach there for a long time. I'm happy. So I actually signed a no compete with all Big Ten.
Dan Katz
Okay.
Max
Yeah, that's good to know.
PFT Commenter
You mentioned that you sold out tickets for the upcoming football season. Are you guys. Can we say, is Illinois a football school?
Max
You know, I think Illinois is a good school. Brad Underwood, the basketball coach, one of my best friends. I used to go that, like when we were at Iowa school, Steve Offer came in and he kind of said that his opening press conference.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Max
And Hayden Fry was there, like, what do we, you know, like. And so I get it. But I think the sum of Illinois is like, when basketball and football is doing well, everybody does well.
PFT Commenter
It's a good answer. Our friend Tom Fornelli wanted me to pressure you into saying there's a football school.
Max
No, I don't ever see it that way. But Brad's throwing out the first pitch tonight. I'm and Sean are women's basketball coach on the pitch. And I'm saying it's we tag team all the time.
PFT Commenter
I love that. I also read that when you tore your acl, the rehab back then was a little bit different than it is now.
Max
So I was taking. I was actually a walk on at the University of Iowa. Sophomore year. I tore my acl and I'm like, I was just on the Verge of maybe getting. I'd been a walk on for a year and I needed to get a scholarship because I couldn't keep doing that to my mom and dad. So I tore my acl. And the next day the doc's like, hey, you know, you don't have a lot of swelling. It's pretty clean. Terry said, we can do one of two things. We can have surgery and it's about a nine month rehab, or we can just train your hamstring to take the place of it. So I actually tore my ACL and played seven days later in a scrimmage and then ended up playing three years. But I remember the doctor said to me, goes, if you don't do an ACL repair, the only bad thing, if you go to the NFL, they're going to reject you at the physical. And I started laughing. I'm like, NFL, I'm trying to play here, right?
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Max
Sure enough, three years later, I'm sitting on the Seahawks training room table, right? And they asked me if I had any knee issues. I said no. I had some, you know, meniscus taken out this year. Well, the next day, I'm walking out the field, I hear, hey, bulimia. So I knew that somebody was gonna kill my name. Yeah, bulimia, bulimia. I've been every eating disorder known to man, right? So like, they said, hey, have you had any, you know, knee reconstructive surgery? We, we found out you had your acl. I'm like, yeah, I tore it, you know, So I tried to bullshit. Yeah, yeah, they got me on the table, did a couple things. So I got cut. I had one wonderful NFL career. Six days. So six days.
PFT Commenter
If you had to go back and do it again, would you have played in the scrimmage or would you have gotten. Gone through the whole rehab process?
Max
I don't, I mean, I appreciate the question, but I don't really think I'd be where I am today if I hadn't done what I did.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, that's true, right?
Max
I was, I went through this phase of, like, I was pissed. Like, you know, you're right there knocking on the door. I was in an NFL training facility. I was sitting in there with. My roommate was from Auburn. We're talking about chance of playing the NFL, and you'd always dreamed of that moment. So I actually went back. Coach Fry gave me an ACL resurgery and I was going to try to play again. So I went and played for the Milwaukee Mustangs, tore my acl. That, that, that Very first game back with them. Oh, yeah. So I tore it twice. And at that time then I. I had never thought about coaching. And that's when Coach Fry offered me a job in coaching. That's what I took.
PFT Commenter
Is it fair to say that you were kind of a psycho to say I'd rather play in a scrimmage, Not a game, not a practice. Like a scrimmage with no acl.
Max
Well, I. I knew that if I could, if I played, I'd probably get a scholarship. I was starting to be one of the better players. So I was only just really thinking about the now, you know, and really I didn't have any problems. There was a game against Michigan my senior year. I got rolled up from behind. This guy clipped me. And I was like, my knee locked and you can kind of see there's a TV clip where I'm like trying to crawl. I was going to go whoop his ass. Like, I was pissed, right. Because I know he hit me low and my knee was locked up. I couldn't move it. The cartilage slipped into the joint. So my knee was. And like, on the. I remember at that time, I was kind of mad, right. Like, I was definitely psycho. I was going to get him.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Max
But I couldn't get up.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Is running the football back? Feels like it's back.
Max
I think it's balanced. Right. Like, obviously, I got a quarterback here who's exceptional at what he does. He actually wants to try to run the ball more than we want him to. Yeah. So I think, you know, when I was at Wiscon, we had a role. And we always say, if you can get 175 on both sides, if you throw the ball 175 and throw for 175, you're going to win a lot of games. Now we average for a lot of years. 200 on both sides. 200 running and throwing. You'll win 90% of your games if you could do that. So I think the balance of running, I think the teams that throw it all over the place, just. You can't win consistent. You can get a hot hand. You got a great quarterback, maybe some receivers, but you can't win consistently.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Yeah.
PFT Commenter
How are you feeling about fullbacks these days?
Max
You know, we actually use our tight ends as fullbacks.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
And we'll use our other running backs. We don't have a fullback per se, but we do use 12, which is kind of the new 21.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. I love fullbacks. I miss old school downhill smash mouth football. I Feel like it could still work.
Max
It does. When we we truly Tanner Arkin. For us, he's a kid to ran the fake against Michigan, we kind of use him as an H, but he's an F. And we will run some 21 this year. But 21 was great for a long time. Especially we got a back that can catch it.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. As long as the fans can just stare at the field and be like, just run the damn ball. They feel smart just by saying, that's kind of us when we watch football.
Max
Well, you know, one of the great phrases that I learned from Bill, he said it all the time. Great teams do three things. They run the ball, they defend the run, and they cover kicks. And there is a lot of truth to that. And I think that's the part that will never go away from football.
PFT Commenter
Did Bill ever get real nerdy with you about something? Like, real granular about the game? Like we've heard him talk about long snappers, right? Where he'll just go on for five minutes, talk about long snappers. Was there something that you learned from him that he got real obsessed with?
Max
So I love to get up early, right? So like usually, especially when I was at New England, I was living in a hotel right around the corner at Patriot at Patriots Place. And I remember I went in that day, it was about 4:30 and it was a little before 5. Me and Brendan Daly were there. Brendan's cubicle is right next to me. And Bill comes walking in. It was literally right before 5:00. And he goes, hey, you guys got a minute? We're going to go over D line games, right? So we were doing D line drawings and putting them in the playbook. We literally went in the meeting room at 5 o' clock. It was 10:15 in the morning and we took our first break and I went out and my wife's like, hey, I've been trying to call you since 8, right? I'm like, well, I started meeting at 5. For five hours. We looked at and diagrammed defensive line games. Like, tackle goes first. No, draw it a little higher, Let him attack the inside. I had the. He always, you say like, you know, attack the guard, never leave the guard until he leaves you. So it was absolutely five hours of the most awesome D line experience I've ever had. And it was very granual. It was. It was absolutely awesome.
PFT Commenter
I love that. Yeah, yeah.
Dan Katz
All right, I got one last question. Always great to see you, coach, and thanks for stopping by. It's a roback question. R h O-B-A-K.com promo code take 20 off your first purchase. Q zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com I think I asked this last time you were on, but I'm going to ask it again because it, I would say maybe an unhealthy amount. Probably like once a month it pops in my head. The Rose bowl against tcu. Why the hell didn't we run? John Claymore, does it ever pop in your head?
Max
Oh, 24, seven.
Dan Katz
All right. That makes me feel a little better.
Max
Scott told zine to this day, right? Like, and then I don't know if you remember that game.
Dan Katz
I was there.
Max
We got.
Dan Katz
I was like, I was like 10 rows up from the two point conversion.
Max
John Clay had a thousand. James White had a thousand. Moneyball ended the season with 998. We would have had 3,000 yard rushers. Never been done in college football history. But we, you know, right about the middle of the third quarter, I said to Paul, Chris, I said, bro, they can't stop us running the ball. They can't. So we got into it and you know, then that two point play just. It should have been a run.
Dan Katz
Should have just been a minute.
Max
We lost that game. The next year we play at Oregon.
Dan Katz
I was at that one too.
Max
I was like, like the Dolphins called that week and offered me a job like two weeks before that super bowl or before that Rose Bowl. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to play in this Rose Bowl. Like, we got Oregon, I got Russell Wilson. I think we got a chance. And then we had a very. Remember the ball that sat on the. Remember Jared Abaderatis?
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
Who never fumbles. Right. The ball didn't move.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Max
Like you can't do that.
Dan Katz
Yep. And he clocked it in time.
Max
Yeah. That rule changed too. Just like this year the rule changed. It seems like all my bowl games I get bullshit rules changed.
Dan Katz
I mean it was an all time. I mean that first quarter was, it was 21. 21 I think was just insane.
Max
And Abby, who's like the greatest Christian based, awesome kid, never had a fumble. One time on the sideline. Never moved.
Dan Katz
Yep.
Max
Crazy. And then the last rolls. Well, I didn't get to coach because I took the.
Dan Katz
Stabbed us in the back. Yeah.
Max
That wasn't you.
Dan Katz
I was making a decision.
PFT Commenter
Do you want to pause it? Apologize for stabbing Big Cat direct. Not in the back, even in the headstab.
Dan Katz
I just thought at the time I was like Brett Bema, because I think Your first year was when I was a junior. So it was like I was like, this guy's gonna be my coach for the next 40 years.
Max
Yeah. You know, one of my most enjoyable things, I just got a letter about a month ago from. From a young man who graduated from Illinois, and he talked about how we changed his career. Right. Or his experience at Illinois. And you kind of lose sight in those moments. Right. Like, it really does make a more enjoyable experience for the kids to win games. Right. And be around that. So I. It was never personal, I promise you.
Dan Katz
Were you that. Were you the head coach or was it Barry's last year?
Zach
The.
Dan Katz
The game that we're undefeated going into Michigan State and then got stopped like seven times in a row.
Max
Yeah, I was the coordinator. Yeah.
Dan Katz
Run Matt Bernstein there.
Max
I wasn't. Oh, I wasn't making the calls.
Dan Katz
Yeah. All right, all right, all right.
Max
So that was the defense call. We were number one.
Dan Katz
Yeah, yeah, you're off the hook on. On that one. Well, Coach, thank you. It's always great having you by and best of luck this year.
Max
Thank you very much. Appreciate you.
PFT Commenter
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Dan Katz
Okay, let's wrap up the show. We got fyre fest of the week. PFT actually. Well, we usually start with Hank.
PFT Commenter
Yep.
Dan Katz
We bought Hank an all expense trip. We actually, I'm not trying to be humble here, but PFT and I didn't mention on Wednesday's show, we not only bought it for Hank and his dad, but we also bought it for his brother and his brother in law too. So it was four. It was foursome. We sent a foursome to pebble beach, all expenses paid. Not looking for credit, but obviously an insane gift by us.
PFT Commenter
That's what we do here at part of my take. We take care of her boys. And nothing better than spending time with the family right out on the golf course. And we said a year ago, we said, hank, guess what?
Dan Katz
A year.
PFT Commenter
We're gonna plan this out. Your whole family. I know that you're about to forget your dad's birthday. Don't worry about that. He'll forgive you because you're going to Pebble Beach.
Dan Katz
Well, we sprung it up. We didn't tell him a year ago. We told him that night. And then he had to get on a 7am flight. But holy planning by us. Should we call. Let's call Hank real quickly. I. I bet you.
PFT Commenter
All right, so it's 9:40 Central Time right now. That means it's 7:40am West Coast Time. He's. He. No, he might be at the range.
Dan Katz
He might be at the range.
PFT Commenter
Oh, oh, wait. That was one ring directly to voicemail.
Dan Katz
Hello?
Zach
Hank.
Dan Katz
Hey, it's the guys from Pardon my take. We're doing fire fest right now. We just wanted to see how you're. How you're enjoying your pebble beach vacation that PFT and I paid for.
Max
Yeah, we're enjoying it a lot.
Zach
We're actually just.
Dan Katz
Just talking about you. We're. We're eating some breakfast. I had a avocado toast, grandees. How much is. How much is that gonna run us? Yeah, no problem. How much? The avocado?
Max
Yeah, my brother got the.
Dan Katz
The ribeye steak and eggs.
PFT Commenter
Oh, he's living it up out there.
Dan Katz
Jesus, you're really running it up.
PFT Commenter
Are you guys doing breakfast drinks?
Zach
Drinks?
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
Are you doing breakfast drinks? Yeah, a couple mimosa.
PFT Commenter
Oh, geez.
Dan Katz
Damn. What are you gonna tip? Make sure because the people at pebble beach know we're paying for it, so make sure you tip, like, 25, 30%.
Max
Oh, minimum.
Dan Katz
Okay.
PFT Commenter
All right.
Dan Katz
All right. Maybe take a picture of that 30 tip and send it to us.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, Hank, what are you gonna. What are you gonna shoot on that par three? The downhill par three?
Zach
Three.
Dan Katz
That's actually tomorrow.
Max
We're playing. We're playing Spy glass today.
PFT Commenter
That's right. Yeah. Spy glass. I forgot about that.
Dan Katz
Under at, like, 94 and a half. Okay, I want to sound off. Okay.
PFT Commenter
Okay.
Dan Katz
All right. Well, we miss you. We hope you're having a great time. You know what? Actually go 40 on that tip and. And send me that picture. Okay.
Max
All right.
Dan Katz
Yeah, yeah. And tell them. Tell them it's from us. You know what? Bye. They're all saying thank you. Buy, like, I don't know, like, two grands worth of stuff at the pro shop. And that's on us, too. Oh, don't worry, boys. I'm coming back with gifts. Oh, all right, great.
PFT Commenter
But, Hank, if you get a hole in one, then you have to buy us drinks from Pebble Beach. You have to Venmo us back.
Zach
Deal.
PFT Commenter
Okay.
Dan Katz
Okay. All right. Great. Great. All right.
Max
Love you guys.
Dan Katz
All right, Love you too.
Memes
All right.
PFT Commenter
Bye, Hank.
Dan Katz
All right. Bye, Hank. All right. Bye.
PFT Commenter
So my fire fest of the week is that I've been training for golf. I've been doing Hank's protocol that he put in place. Yep. And part of the protocol is I'm not allowed to hit driver. I can only do that as a treat after I've worked. Now, I have noticed that Hank's cousin, who is an intern this summer, has been spending a lot of time hanging around me while I'm golfing. Oh, well, I'm practicing golf. I think Hank's got a spy.
Dan Katz
Oh.
PFT Commenter
I think Hank is sending him to monitor me to make sure I'm not hitting driver. And so I think Hank's got eyes and ears everywhere. Have you guys heard about this? Has he told you?
Memes
No, but I think that he's work. He's working on what? On the video that we're putting out of your journey here. So I think he's just working also memes. And I have started to call him Little Wood.
PFT Commenter
Little Wood. I like that. Little Wood.
Memes
Well, yeah, because it's little. Little awkward.
PFT Commenter
No, it's a good nickname. But I'm. I'm pretty sure that. That he is a spy. And so I have to act accordingly around him at all times, because Hank.
Dan Katz
Oh, definitely.
PFT Commenter
That is a move that Hank would do, right?
Dan Katz
Yeah. Absolutely.
PFT Commenter
And that he's going to try to punish me if I hit driver too much.
Memes
Yeah, now he's going to be scared. Now he's going to be scared to go around.
PFT Commenter
Good, good, good.
Dan Katz
I hope he scare the out.
PFT Commenter
I'll be nice to him later, but now I want him to have a healthy fear of me.
Dan Katz
Yes.
Zach
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
But also in this training process, I'm getting just blisters everywhere, all over my hands. So I'm waking up, got blisters in new places.
Dan Katz
So.
PFT Commenter
Sorry. That, look at that, look at that thing right there. Oh, yeah, it's bad, it's bad. But I'm, I'm, I'm on the grind right now and man, playing a lot of golf is a lot of work. Yeah, it's a lot.
Dan Katz
Full time job.
PFT Commenter
It's a lot. It is more than a full time. Sometimes you have to leave your full time job to go travel to play golf if you love it that much.
Dan Katz
Well, we, we bought him that trip.
PFT Commenter
We did kind of force him to do that. We can't get Madden for that.
Dan Katz
I, you know what, I'm gonna text him right now. I feel like, I feel like you should do like 60 on that tip, right?
PFT Commenter
I feel like amp it up a little bit.
Dan Katz
Yeah, yeah. And he's got to prove it. All right, I'm gonna go say, yeah, you know what, go 60. 60 on the tip. That's, that's a nice thing to do. All right, well, so what about.
PFT Commenter
You're wearing a glove, right, on your left hand. What about, does anybody go, teddy, two gloves?
Dan Katz
What about like sleeping with those, like vascular Vaseline gloves on?
PFT Commenter
I put, I put Vaseline on my right hand almost every single night before I go to bed. So I've got that covered.
Dan Katz
Okay.
PFT Commenter
What are the Vaseline gloves?
Dan Katz
I don't know. There's like, aren't there like gloves you can wear when you sleep to make your hands softer?
PFT Commenter
Are there?
Dan Katz
I think so.
PFT Commenter
I might. Listen, I'm gonna, I would assume that's the thing.
Dan Katz
Do we have anyone on Google right now?
PFT Commenter
I gotta get my, my hands insured. Yeah, let's see. Vaseline gloves.
Dan Katz
Okay, that's not it.
PFT Commenter
It's a Vaseline Globe.
Dan Katz
Globe Vaseline used on a go. All right. No. Are there like gloves you can wear at night to like moist, moisten up your hands? I don't know. Although a blister, you might want to keep it open at night.
PFT Commenter
I think I just have to put extra Vaseline.
Dan Katz
Oh, yeah, there they are. Nope, those aren't It.
PFT Commenter
Those are just.
Dan Katz
I might have made this up in my head. Oh, yeah, there we go. No over overnight hydration gloves.
PFT Commenter
Okay.
Dan Katz
You might need these. Get your hands back to 100%.
PFT Commenter
Sleeping gloves. Yeah, I'm into that.
Dan Katz
That would be very funny.
PFT Commenter
Sleeping gloves. You know what else I need to them for is driving. Driving gloves.
Dan Katz
Yes.
PFT Commenter
Cuz that'll. That'll give you blisters too.
Dan Katz
Like your car.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, my car.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. Driving gloves.
Max
Not.
PFT Commenter
Not golf driving. I'm talking about like cruising. Like if you're a professional driver, you have. You own a pair of driving gloves, right? And it looks awesome.
Dan Katz
Right? Okay.
PFT Commenter
So, yeah, I, I'm. My hands are hurting, waking up early, grinding. Hank's got spies on me. But this is. It's all part of the process. So I'm enjoying the. I'm getting 1% better every day. Love that you get 1% better every day. You get 36 times better over the course of a year.
Dan Katz
That's just math.
PFT Commenter
It is. Compound interest rate up math.
Dan Katz
Okay. My fire fest. Well, I have an update from last week. I told you guys about my son doing the barstool after dark with me. Turns out he didn't tell me this, but we hit 80 shots in a night. And then I was like, all right, what do we do next? Hoping he wasn't going to say 160. He said, we're going to go to 100 and then we're going to go back to 10. I was like, great.
PFT Commenter
That's good.
Dan Katz
Awesome.
PFT Commenter
That's good.
Dan Katz
So we're back on the climb. We hit 100. Now we're back on the climb, dude. So he didn't. I didn't know that was a possibility, but I was very like, I, I. He doesn't understand. If you just keep timing it. It's just we're. We're gonna. That's all we're gonna do for the rest of our lives. Is there been fun?
PFT Commenter
Is there a part of you though, that's like, come on, don't quit on this?
Dan Katz
No. 100 was a lot.
PFT Commenter
What would Kobe do?
Dan Katz
Kobe might. Might keep going.
PFT Commenter
Kobe would have kept going.
Dan Katz
Yeah, he would have.
PFT Commenter
Does your son have the mamba mentality?
Dan Katz
No. I need to. Well, I don't want him to have the full mama mentality.
PFT Commenter
That's true.
Dan Katz
Yeah. All right. And my real fire fest is I. I gotta be honest, boys. I really wish we were going to Edmonton for game seven. I really, really wish we were going to Edmonton for Game 7. It's a bummer. I was. I was so pumped for that trip. And it just sucks that we didn't get to go to Game 7 in Edmonton with the boys.
PFT Commenter
His bucket list.
Dan Katz
For me, it was.
Memes
I was legitimately.
PFT Commenter
Me too.
Dan Katz
What am I saying right now?
Memes
Big time.
Dan Katz
I'm. I'm pumped. I was pumped.
Memes
I. We got on that call with the Chiclets boys. I was like, this, this is a crew. I would love to go to games.
Dan Katz
They are an all time. Yeah.
Memes
That as soon as we had that phone call, I was like, this would.
Max
Be so much fun.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, I know. I was looking at restaurants up in Edmonton, figuring out where we could go.
Memes
They can't have good food.
PFT Commenter
Dairy Queen.
Dan Katz
No. Come on. Did you guys.
PFT Commenter
Got a lot of. A lot of blizzards up there.
Memes
All right.
Max
That's good food.
Memes
I stand corrected.
Dan Katz
There's a lot of Talk about Connor McDavid maybe being traded because he has one year left on his deal. And there was some clips going around and one of them was like, what's your favorite part about Edmonton? And he said, well, the days last longer this time of year.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, that's true.
Memes
That's actually a big thing. That's a good thing.
Dan Katz
But Max, the. That there's a reverse on that.
Max
Oh, yeah.
PFT Commenter
That they don't last pretty much the entire time.
Dan Katz
He lives in Edmonton.
PFT Commenter
It's very dark what he's saying.
Dan Katz
I don't think he lives in Edmonton in the offseason.
PFT Commenter
It's a. It's a great combo because golf season, the days are. Or a lot longer for him. So gets to play a lot of rounds.
Dan Katz
He's like, yeah, it stays light till 11:30, which would be great if that was what was happening when he was playing hockey. But yeah, I think he lives in LA in the offseason.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. He's like, it's nice to drive home from work when it's still light out at the end of the season sometimes.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
PFT Commenter
That's what he's getting at.
Dan Katz
It's nice to drive to the airport to leave Edmonton when it's still light out.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Okay. Zach.
Hank
Yes, sir. I've got a firefist for you today. Super quick one. So Jacob and I do run the soft serve machine that you have installed here in the office. And yesterday was the second. Yesterday we had another high, another all time cone that we had to get correct yesterday and we fell short. We didn't have the correct cones for. For Dave. We have waffle. We have cup cones. We do not have sugar cones.
Dan Katz
Can I. Can I. Can I back up my cream team for a second here if you'd like. I think sugar cones with soft serves is crazy. Crazy. I think it's crazy. I don't. The emoji for a soft serve ice cream is. Is a cake cone. Soft serve ice cream will drip. Like I. I will do a waffle cone with soft serve, but you know it's gonna drip. Sugar cones. Guaranteed dripping. The co. Like sugar cone is a classic ice cream cone. You know what I mean? What's the ice cream?
PFT Commenter
Waffle cones, regular cones, and sugar cones.
Dan Katz
It's right here.
PFT Commenter
Can you explain?
Dan Katz
Because he actually has a Venn diagram.
PFT Commenter
I know exactly what. What a regular ice cream cone looks like. I know exactly what a waffle cone looks like. What's a sugar cone?
Hank
Okay, so I don't have the Venn diagram handy, but I can go off the top for you. A little bit of ice cream cone knowledge.
Zach
Super quick.
Hank
So the waffle cone, you know, with the batter in between the two hot plates to make the waffle cone, the cup cone, you'll see it's got a little deeper.
Zach
Deeper.
Hank
I guess that would be the not dwelling but to it with the hand. And then. So sugar cone will be more of a pointy cone. So similar shape to the waffle cone, similar consistency to the cup cone, but a little bit thicker.
PFT Commenter
So the difference between a waffle cone and a sugar cone is the waffle cone is uneven at the top. It like wraps around.
Hank
It has the. Yeah, the cone has the jagged edges at the top. The sugar cone will be flat across the base. And there's also a difference in the batter that is used between the sugar cone and the waffle cone.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. And every picture of the sugar cone I'm seeing, it's all scoops.
Dan Katz
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's a classic ice cream cone, not a soft serve cone. Because the sugar cone will drip at the bottom.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Hank
You will see a lot of like hard scooped ice cream in the sugar cones as opposed to the cup cones being typically with soft serve. But the customer is always right. And we have acquired the sugar cones. It will be here today. That was a massive misstep on our part.
Dan Katz
Okay, quick. Mount Rushmore of ice cream flavors. Go. Zach. By the way, someone pointed out. Very funny. They're like, you guys are so clearly chomping at the bit for Mount Rushmore season, which will start next week because we asked him for his Mount Rushmore sports playoffs and someone was just like you and PFT and Hank And Max just, like, hijacked it.
PFT Commenter
We took over the entire, like.
Dan Katz
No, no, no, no. You forgot about this.
PFT Commenter
Yep.
Zach
All right.
Dan Katz
But this is yours.
Hank
Okay. Do you want a branded flavors, or do you want, like, if we go to a parlor.
Dan Katz
Whatever you want.
Hank
Okay. Whatever. Okay, so we'll go Netflix and chilled, which is a Ben and Jerry's flavor, which is a peanut butter base, has got salted swirl and fudge cubes. Second, we're gonna go cookies and milk from Ben and Jerry's, which is going to be vanilla base, maybe a sweet cream base. I could be incorrect on that. It's got chocolate chip cookies, milks, like a milk swirl almost, and then other chocolate chips in it as well. Third, I'm gonna go moose tracks, which is really going to be vanilla ice cream, and then the Reese's chunks that are in there. And fourth, to round it out with you guys, I'm gonna go with a. I'll go pistachio. 4.
PFT Commenter
Oh, so pistachio ice cream.
Dan Katz
Yes.
Hank
As soon as I said that pistachio isn't my fourth favorite ice cream flavor, it was the fourth one that came to mind.
Dan Katz
I should.
Hank
It wouldn't be on the face mount or Mount Rushmore. It wouldn't.
PFT Commenter
This is.
Hank
There now. I. I can't rescind.
PFT Commenter
Sometimes the. The bright lights of Mount Rushmore gets you. You panic.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Hank
And I want pistachio.
Dan Katz
A wild pick for Mount Rushmore. More of ice cream.
PFT Commenter
I. I really like pistachio gelato, but I don't think I've ever gone to the store and bought pistachio ice cream.
Dan Katz
Yeah, it's. Pistachio ice cream is not one of those. It's not like it's bad. It's just nowhere near the top four.
Hank
It's not.
Dan Katz
I.
Hank
They have a decent pistachio from Haagen Das, but it's not. You don't put it on a mountain.
Dan Katz
No.
Memes
You were going so strong.
Dan Katz
So strong.
Memes
It was like banger, banger, banger. Pistachioart fell apart. It's okay. It's okay.
PFT Commenter
I would put pistachio on my Mount Rushmore. More of nuts. I think that's, like, number. It might be number one for me, actually. I think that might be my favorite nut.
Dan Katz
I think I'd go peanut.
Memes
Macadamia.
Dan Katz
Peanut.
Memes
We're doing it again.
Max
We're doing it again.
PFT Commenter
When was the last time you had a macadamia? You reached into a bowl of macadamia nuts. Literally.
Dan Katz
What, do you live in Hawaii? Yeah, exactly.
Memes
Exactly.
Dan Katz
Now, peanuts. Peanuts is Is the most consistent nut out there. And it's got, you know, do it with peanut butter. Yeah.
PFT Commenter
I mean, peanut. It's a. It's a double off the wall.
Dan Katz
Statue would be on my Mount Rushmore as well.
PFT Commenter
It's. Peanuts are doubles off the wall wall. I enjoy peanuts. But you talk about a grand slam. Now we're talking pistachio.
Dan Katz
Peanuts. Pistachios. Almonds. I like cashews.
PFT Commenter
I also think pistachio is the best word to hear Midwesterners say. Pistachio.
Dan Katz
Pistachio. The. The. I. I just realized, too, the fattest thing I just said was I like cashews. And I'm thinking about it. I just like cashews when it's with, like, you know, Chinese order.
PFT Commenter
Yeah. With a chicken.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Memes
I feel like cashews are the saltiest nut.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Memes
When you get a fully salted cashew, it. It really coats the mouth.
Dan Katz
Yeah. But I. I just like cashews with. With Chinese food. It coats the mouth. It coats.
Max
It does it.
Memes
Does it really coats?
PFT Commenter
That's the saltiest nut.
Memes
Salty nut.
Max
Sometimes.
PFT Commenter
Sometimes for me, the nut is so salty that it's hard to swallow.
Memes
No. Oh, Saltier, the better.
Dan Katz
Oh, you love the saltiest nut.
Memes
You don't like a salty nut? Well, there's nothing worse than when you see, like, a thing of nuts and you take a little handful and it's unsalted nuts. Unsalted nuts suck.
PFT Commenter
Well, what if there's pineapple? If you've been eating pineapple.
Dan Katz
Sweeter.
PFT Commenter
Yeah.
Memes
Oh, yeah.
PFT Commenter
Tastes better.
Max
Yeah.
Memes
Sweeter. That's true.
Max
That's a good point.
Dan Katz
Are you just putting this.
Memes
Yeah, yeah. Macadamia.
PFT Commenter
No, no.
Memes
Pineapple Hawaii.
Dan Katz
What about when you have to. What about when you have to lick the nuts off your, like, glasses because it's so salty?
Memes
It never happens.
Dan Katz
Oh, okay. It doesn't happen to you?
Max
No.
Memes
I would never get sold on my glasses.
Dan Katz
Okay. What about on your chest?
Memes
Maybe on my chest you get a little.
Dan Katz
Not on your chest.
Memes
If I'm laying in bed eating some nuts.
Dan Katz
Salted nut on your chest.
PFT Commenter
You're laying in bed eating nuts, then you roll over a couple of times, you wake up in the morning, you've got nuts on your lower back now.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Memes
Yeah, I guess that's possible.
Dan Katz
When you're eating really salted nuts, are you using tissue paper? Like, what are you using normally?
Memes
Just a rag.
Dan Katz
Yeah. Yeah, just a rag. Okay. All right, he's got it.
PFT Commenter
Now just rolls around the house with shamwows instead of napkins.
Dan Katz
Max what's your fyre fest?
Memes
It's really me being an idiot. And last week's fire fest. I thought I was allergic to my dog, not allergic to my dog. Let's go $500 worth of like air purifiers for my apartment. Because I was freaking out. Absolute panic mode. It's just seasonal allergies and that. I'm a pussy for having that bad of seasonal allergies.
Dan Katz
Okay.
Memes
And I got told online what was going on and it was very obvious that my dog was just. We brought her to the park and she was running around in the grass and it was very high grass pollen. So that's why when I was like petting her, I was getting more allergic because she was carrying the pollen.
PFT Commenter
Yeah, you were being a bitch.
Dan Katz
She was bringing that pollen into the house. Okay. Okay, whatever.
PFT Commenter
What's the stuff. What's the stuff that. That floats around and it looks like cotton? They're like tree stuff. No, it's not pollen. I'm talking. It looks like.
Dan Katz
I know what you're saying.
PFT Commenter
Cotton. And it like clumps together and it looks like snow on the ground. That's everywhere. That's. I hate that. That's my mortal enemy. Is that tree stuff.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Memes
Yeah.
Dan Katz
All right. Well, good for you, Max.
Memes
Yeah, no, I'm back.
Dan Katz
I mean, you are still a. Yep.
Memes
Yeah. Yeah.
Dan Katz
Because you're very allergic to trees.
Memes
Yeah. That's like. That's as much of a pussy as you could be.
Dan Katz
Yeah. It really is like. Like, come on.
Memes
Beta human.
Dan Katz
Yeah. That's one of those ones like you natural selection. We've Maybe science has gone too far where we've had like drugs to help people deal with that. It's like that should have been something like, hey, if you. If you can't. If you can't take sniffing a tree, having a tree sent around, maybe you shouldn't be on this earth.
Memes
I'm just walking around with the sniffles like such a child all week right now. Me, I'm sitting next to memes and memes just like take. Take some allergy meds because I just have the sniffles.
PFT Commenter
I've noticed. It's like you Jackie tables. Nikki smokes a lot of allergies going.
Memes
Around this time of year.
Dan Katz
Not that's the award seasons for NFL the. Yeah. I also hate allergies just because I don't have any. Just want that on the record. But I hate it because then real sick people use as an excuse they always just like an actual person with like the flu or cold Will say, no, it's just allergies. Like, that's just not possible. You're sick. So they just use it as a cover and get everyone sick. Yeah. Memes. Yeah. Okay. Oh, Shane does that. Oh, then we got finger pointing. Shane, you do that.
PFT Commenter
I get allergies sometimes.
Dan Katz
Okay.
PFT Commenter
Oh, Shane, I have a question for you while you're here.
Dan Katz
Yes, sir.
PFT Commenter
What do we think about the Chargers new throwback uniforms? I think they're gonna be sick. They're the same as their other uniforms. What do you. They had that. Those are. Those are their current uniforms. They put out that post, like, hey, we're excited to unveil the new alternate uniforms. Yeah. And then I looked at it, and it. I could not tell the difference between that and their old uniforms.
Memes
Jean's actually not a Chargers fan anymore.
Dan Katz
He was the last to find out.
Memes
Yeah. Memes told him, like, five hours after it got unveiled.
PFT Commenter
That's just not. I. I saw Adam Schefter's tweet an hour later. I was. Had my head in my work.
Dan Katz
Five hours later. It was. It was an hour. Brutal. Shame. It was one hour. You got to be on top of that shit.
PFT Commenter
I. I was. Had my head in my work. Why did they. Why didn't they come out with a new. Why are they telling us that this is a new uniform when it's identical to their old ones? They are coming out with new ones. So the announcement was just.
Dan Katz
That was. They're.
PFT Commenter
They're prepared. Like, prepare yourself, because we're about to drop a new uniform on you in two months. That was their current uniforms. Yeah, it was like, just like a hype video.
Dan Katz
I think they kind of leaked online. Some.
PFT Commenter
I can send in the group. Some guy who is, like, behind the scenes photographer for Chargers, like, took a picture of their current jerseys and, like, on a. On a whiteboard, there's, like, pin pictures.
Dan Katz
Yeah.
Memes
This is way too much.
PFT Commenter
It's Shane's corner.
Dan Katz
But I'm excited.
PFT Commenter
I hope they go with, like, the old. Old, like, navy white, like, with the white bolt, like, the. The early 2000s. Can you design one? Can you design the. What you would like it to be? I mean, it would just be their old jerseys. I can Photoshop something up. Yeah, yeah.
Dan Katz
If you give us Shane's versions. Like Taylor's version. Yeah. Chargers uniform. Shane's version. Okay, let's Finish. Show numbers 3.
PFT Commenter
Distracted it by chargers.
Dan Katz
99.
Hank
Memes 6, 19.
Dan Katz
I'll go 21.
Zach
I'll go.
Dan Katz
72. Means you're never gonna get this I got. We gotta start reminding him more often that he's never gonna get it. Cuz he literally is never gonna get it. Somebody put a tracker for the day's kill.
Max
I pass him.
PFT Commenter
How much more time? It's like. No, it's like 44.
Dan Katz
It's like 340 days.
PFT Commenter
It's that long?
Dan Katz
Yeah, it's like a year.
PFT Commenter
People forget how long Hank went without getting it.
Dan Katz
It was crazy.
PFT Commenter
It was absolutely insane. Love you guys.
Hank
It.
Dan Katz
Sam, the.
Pardon My Take Episode Summary Release Date: June 20, 2025
[03:18 - 09:19]
In today's episode, Big Cat and PFT Commenter dive deep into the Indiana Pacers' impressive performance against the Oklahoma City Thunder, which has set the stage for a highly anticipated Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
Dominant Performance: The Pacers showcased their resilience by dominating Game 6, turning what many expected to be a blowout into a fiercely contested match. Dan Katz remarks, “The Pacers were incredible tonight. It felt like no chance they were going to lose” ([05:14]).
Team Effort: PFT Commenter highlights the team’s collective effort, noting, “Obi Toppin was the leading scorer with 20 points, and no one was over 20. That's full team basketball” ([06:50]). He emphasizes the role of TJ McConnell, stating, “He does actually in fact want it more. Yeah, he wants it 110% as much as anybody.”
Defensive Prowess: The discussion delves into the Pacers' defensive strategies, with Dan observing, “TJ McConnell is getting rebounds over Hartenstein. He's on the floor, going to the basket. Instant energy” ([06:50]).
Game Seven Expectations: The hosts express excitement and cautious optimism about the upcoming Game 7. PFT Commenter muses, “I want to see a great Game 7 that lives up to the words” ([12:12]), while Dan Katz adds, “We haven't seen one in nine years” ([12:32]).
Notable Quote:
PFT Commenter: “Game seven, best two words in sports.” ([12:13])
[18:00 - 25:17]
The conversation shifts to the recent Stanley Cup Final celebrations, highlighting both triumphant moments and a few hiccups.
Noteworthy Celebrations: Dan Katz shares his appreciation for Connor McDavid’s stoic celebration: “The Barkov video when he's strolling up to the ring camera with the trophy to show his neighbor... an all-time neighbor move” ([19:22]).
Mishaps: The hosts discuss less-than-perfect celebrations, such as the Panthers' locker room champagne selfie that didn’t go as planned. PFT Commenter quips, “This is why you got to hire a couple of shitheads to be involved with your media production team” ([24:52]).
Notable Quote:
Dan Katz: “Stanley Cup, if it could talk, it's seen some shit.” ([24:52])
[49:00 - 88:44]
In a special segment, Boban Marjanović joins the show via Zoom to discuss his ventures in acting and his basketball career.
Acting in "Happy Gilmore 2": Boban shares his excitement about the sequel, stating, “I have great experience on the set. Everyone was so professional” ([49:25]).
Basketball Insights: He reflects on his NBA career, emphasizing teamwork and versatility. “TJ McConnell... instant energy. Obi Toppin and TJ together... won the game” ([06:50]).
Stats and Performance: Boban humorously boasts about his efficiency, “Imagine if you have a coach that says, hey, do you think Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are good? They say yes, we have a guy better” ([83:53]).
Personal Anecdotes: He shares light-hearted stories, including missing free throws for fun and his love for soup, particularly Serbian beef soup: “We have soup in Serbia, like they call beef soup. It tastes so good” ([54:16]).
Notable Quotes:
Boban Marjanović: “You never know. That's my look. That's what I want to do.” ([49:25])
Dan Katz: “Your career player efficiency rating is 25.3. It is higher than Kevin Durant, Charles Barkley, Tim Duncan, Magic, Hakeem, and Steph Curry.” ([83:53])
[89:00 - 127:55]
Illinois Head Coach Brett Bielema joins the studio to discuss his approach to coaching, leadership, and the upcoming Big Ten season.
Summer Training and Preparation: Brett outlines the team's summer regimen, “We go an eight-week training program for Illinois. First four weeks with coaches, then four weeks of vacation” ([89:00]).
Leadership Philosophy: Emphasizing consistency and communication, Brett states, “Consistency and communication are big ones” ([99:18]). He discusses building strong relationships with players and fostering a supportive environment.
Coaching Experience: Reflecting on his NFL consulting stint with the Patriots, Brett shares insights into defensive strategies and working with elite coaches like Bill Belichick: “He is truly one of the most brilliant football minds I've ever been around” ([105:29]).
Recruitment and Player Development: Brett highlights the importance of understanding players' backgrounds and teaching them essential life skills: “Teach them what they don't know. Communication is key” ([102:10]).
Team Success: He recounts the success of his former team, stating, “The players are our number one priority” ([106:44]), and emphasizes the impact of his coaching on former players’ careers.
Notable Quotes:
Brett Bielema: “Great teams do three things. They run the ball, they defend the run, and they cover kicks.” ([117:23])
Brett Bielema: “Communication is key. Those lines never go away from football.” ([99:18])
[126:00 - 145:05]
The episode wraps up with the hosts sharing light-hearted segments and updates from their personal lives.
Pebble Beach Getaway: Dan Katz and PFT Commenter gifted Hank an all-expenses-paid trip to Pebble Beach. The conversation is filled with playful banter about Hank’s golfing skills and the antics during the trip. “Hank’s got spies on me to make sure I’m not hitting driver too much” ([126:32]).
Training Tales: PFT Commenter shares his rigorous training regimen for golf, humorously mentioning blisters and strict protocols to avoid overuse: “I'm enjoying the grind and getting 1% better every day” ([127:31]).
Interactive Fun: The hosts engage in a playful discussion about ice cream flavors for a “Mount Rushmore” segment, reflecting their camaraderie and humorous dynamics.
Notable Quotes:
PFT Commenter: “Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER...” (Advised to skip ads)
Dan Katz: “We miss you. We hope you're having a great time. Hit that 30 tip and send us a picture.” ([125:32])
[145:05]
The show concludes with the hosts expressing their enthusiasm for upcoming sports events and thanking their guests. They reiterate their support for the teams and share final humorous remarks, maintaining the light-hearted and engaging tone typical of "Pardon My Take."
Overall Highlights:
Notable Quotes:
PFT Commenter: “Game seven, best two words in sports.” ([12:13])
Dan Katz: “Your career player efficiency rating is 25.3. It is higher than Kevin Durant, Charles Barkley, Tim Duncan, Magic, Hakeem, and Steph Curry.” ([83:53])
For more episodes, visit Barstool Sports Pardon My Take on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.