PMS 2.0 1339 - Feel Good Friday With Shams Charania, Pete Thamel, J.R. Smith, & AJ Hawk

Summary

Summary of "PMS 2.0 1339 - Feel Good Friday With Shams Charania, Pete Thamel, J.R. Smith, & AJ Hawk"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Pat McAfee Show
• Host: Pat McAfee, ESPN
• Episode: PMS 2.0 1339 - Feel Good Friday With Shams Charania, Pete Thamel, J.R. Smith, & AJ Hawk
• Release Date: May 9, 2025

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1. NHL Playoffs Recap

Edmonton Oilers' Historic Streak

The episode opens with Pat McAfee celebrating the Edmonton Oilers' extraordinary achievement in the NHL playoffs. The Oilers have secured six consecutive playoff victories after coming back from significant deficits in each game—a record-setting streak showcasing their resilience and grit.

Pat McAfee [00:00]: "They have now won six straight playoff games, which is a record in the NHL after being down a significant amount."

Golden Knights vs. Oilers Overtime Thriller

Pat recounts a gripping overtime match between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Edmonton Oilers that extended into the early morning hours. The game was marked by intense gameplay, including a critical goal by Connor McDavid that secured the win for the Oilers. The Golden Knights' fan Ty Schmidt provides an in-depth analysis of the game's pivotal moments and the contentious refereeing decisions that influenced the outcome.

Ty Schmidt [02:15]: "It was an incredible game... just so much stuff happening... hockey is awesome and that game was spectacular."

2. Refereeing Controversies and Player Injuries

Controversial Refereeing Decisions

The conversation shifts to discuss questionable refereeing calls during the Golden Knights' game. Notably, a cross-check by Nicholas Waugh went unpenalized, leading to frustration among players and fans alike. The lack of appropriate penalties in critical moments potentially altered the game's flow, benefiting the Oilers.

Pat McAfee [03:19]: "You don't always get the calls."

Player Injuries and Impact

Braden McNabb, a pivotal player for the Golden Knights, suffered a broken shoulder due to a play involving Connor McDavid. This injury has significant implications for the Knights' playoff run, as McNabb's absence may affect their defensive strategies.

Pat McAfee [04:03]: "They blew it dead... he was Done after this."

3. NBA Playoffs Analysis

Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks

The Boston Celtics find themselves trailing 2-0 against the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals. J.R. Smith provides insights into the Celtics' struggles, especially in clutch moments, while highlighting Jalen Brunson's exceptional performance for the Knicks in critical game phases.

J.R. Smith [41:51]: "Jalen Brunson has 14 points. The Celtics have 12 in total."

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers

In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers lead the Indiana Pacers 2-0. The discussion emphasizes the Pacers' underappreciated success, fueled by strategic player acquisitions and effective payroll management. Pete Thamel elaborates on the Pacers' odds in the playoff race, positioning them as strong contenders despite being from a smaller market.

Shams Charania [07:37]: "The Oilers are now your favorites to win the cup at plus 300, followed by the Dallas Stars..."

Golden State Warriors' Struggles

The Golden State Warriors face internal challenges with Draymond Green accumulating technical fouls and an unprecedented hamstring strain sidelining Steph Curry. Shams Charania discusses Curry's injury status, predicting a timeline for his return and the Warriors' tactical adjustments in his absence.

Shams Charania [17:59]: "He's going to be out Game two. He missed game three, Game four, so he's going to miss at least three games."

4. Draymond Green’s Impact and Future

Communication and Leadership

Draymond Green's role as a defensive powerhouse and vocal leader for the Warriors is a focal point. Shams Charania praises Green's ability to communicate effectively across all player levels, making him an invaluable asset to the team.

Shams Charania [14:55]: "He commands games both from a vocal perspective and defensively... his ability to communicate is what makes him invaluable."

Behavior and Refereeing Relations

The show delves into Green's contentious relationship with referees, highlighting his history of technical fouls and the potential for suspension. Pat McAfee and Shams Charania express admiration for Green's passion while acknowledging the fine line he walks to avoid detrimental suspensions.

Pat McAfee [12:23]: "Draymond, we just want to let you know you're a victim of your own success, brother."

5. College Sports Updates

NCAA Commission's Reforms

Transitioning to college sports, the discussion centers on the NCAA Commission's efforts to reform athlete treatment amidst legal and financial complexities. Pete Thamel emphasizes the challenges of implementing effective changes without disrupting existing agreements and labor laws.

Pete Thamel [71:12]: "The most pressing issue moving forward is how they're going to treat the athletes."

Expansion of College Football Playoffs

The potential expansion of the College Football Playoffs from 12 to 16 teams is explored, with conference commissioners advocating for more automatic qualifiers. Pete Thamel assesses the logistical and competitive implications, noting the push from powerhouse conferences like the SEC and Big Ten.

Pete Thamel [73:53]: "The SEC commissioner and the Big Ten are pushing more towards it... 16 has really come into focus now."

6. Humorous and Light-Hearted Segments

Throughout the episode, Pat McAfee and his guests engage in playful banter and humorous exchanges. Topics range from fighting tactics inspired by football mentality to light-hearted discussions about fashion choices and travel mishaps.

Pat McAfee [123:16]: "He could break my entire sternum with the way he does what he does."

7. Player Highlights and Future Prospects

Notable Player Performances

The show highlights standout performances from various athletes, including Jack Eichel's dominance in NHL games and exceptional contributions from NBA players like Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton.

Ty Schmidt [02:15]: "He was the best player on the ice for most of the game."

Injury Updates and Recovery Timelines

Updates on player injuries, such as Steph Curry's hamstring strain and its impact on the Warriors' playoff journey, are thoroughly discussed. Insights into expected recovery timelines help frame the Warriors' strategic adjustments.

Shams Charania [17:59]: "He's going to miss at least three games."

8. Conclusion and Weekend Preview

Pat McAfee wraps up the episode by summarizing the key events and setting the stage for the upcoming weekend's sports action. The enthusiasm for the ongoing playoffs across multiple leagues is palpable, underlining the unifying power of sports.

Pat McAfee [114:35]: "It's all about the trenches, baby."

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Notable Quotes:

• Pat McAfee [00:00]: "They have now won six straight playoff games, which is a record in the NHL after being down a significant amount."
• Ty Schmidt [02:15]: "It was an incredible game... just so much stuff happening... hockey is awesome and that game was spectacular."
• Pat McAfee [03:19]: "You don't always get the calls."
• Shams Charania [14:55]: "He commands games both from a vocal perspective and defensively... his ability to communicate is what makes him invaluable."
• J.R. Smith [41:51]: "Jalen Brunson has 14 points. The Celtics have 12 in total."
• Pat McAfee [12:23]: "Draymond, we just want to let you know you're a victim of your own success, brother."

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This episode of The Pat McAfee Show offers a comprehensive and engaging exploration of the current sports landscape, blending in-depth analysis with entertaining dialogue. Listeners gain valuable insights into playoff dynamics, player performances, and the evolving nature of college athletics, all delivered with Pat McAfee's characteristic enthusiasm and humor.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello, beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome on this Feel good. Friday, May 9, 2025 this program starts now. Sport are happening all around us and we're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it. Obviously, the NBA and the NHL playoffs continued on last night with some magic taking place deep into the evening as the NHL had an overtime game on the West Coast. So that's a 1:32am call time if you were to watch the entirety of that game. We have somebody Thunderdome that actually did that and even tweeted about it about 2am and it is heartbroken by McJeezus and the boys of the Oilers, who have now won six straight playoff games, which is a record in the NHL after being down a significant amount. They've won six straight games after trailing. They've come back every single time. This is a gritty group. Obviously. We watched them do their thing in the playoffs in the run last year. We had them mic'd up. They had cameras in the locker room. McJesus is yelling at the boys. They thought last year was going to be the year. Is this the year that the Edmonton Oilers are the team of destiny? Is this the year that McJesus cements his name as not only one of the greats to ever play, but also a guy that's tough for Jackie Asas? Jackie Asas had a great game.

[Ty Schmidt]

He did.

[Pat McAfee]

That's Jack Eichel that just got absolutely demolished there at the blue line. Okay. He was the best player on the ice for the Vegas Golden Knights the entire game. Just so happened to get a McJesus train on him in the OT Bang. To lose the game. Now that's tough for Jack Eichel. Jack Eichel will bounce back. Jackie Aces is his dog Stoner also going to be able to bounce back. They think they got screwed because of a little bit of an ice pick that happened in Oak Overtime. Now, nonetheless, hockey is awesome and that game was spectacular. I don't think a lot of people got to watch it, but we have somebody that did. Let's go to the toxic table. Austinconnorai Schmidt. Ty Schmidt, you've been a Vegas Golden Knights fan since the Vegas Golden Knights were created. That's right. You were born and raised in Iowa. I don't think you were a big hockey fan. You joined this program. We're all hockey fans. You didn't have a team. The Vegas Golden Knights become a team. You say, that's my team. Have a lot of success. You followed along Last night you stayed up until 2am to watch this overtime thriller against the Oilers. Your heart got broke after the Vegas Golden Knights had another lead and gave it up yet again. What was your thoughts on the game and what is your thoughts on the NHL playoffs this year?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head, you know. You want to talk about heartbreaking? Listen, I try to watch as many of these games as I can, but you mentioned it. I mean the, these west coast start times when you, you know, hey, if this thing goes the distance or goes into overtime, like I think like 16 of the games so far in the NHL playoffs have like, we're looking at maybe a 2am you know, 2:30am Finish here, which isn't great, but it was an incredible game. I mean, pick it up right here in the third period. Golden Knights are on the power play. Jackie Aces is just dancing with the puck. You mentioned it. He was the best player on the ice for most of the game. Look at that. Just a nice little one timer apple to Victor Olufsen. Four, three. Then, you know, again the Golden Knights, it looked like the, the Oilers were going to kind of run away with it. And then we get an Alex pitcher Angelo goal, you know, tie it up.

[Pat McAfee]

Four, four.

[Ty Schmidt]

And this is all an ot. This is the one kind of the start of the play. You got Nicholas Waugh, who just, you know, nice little forecheck.

[Pat McAfee]

No, not a four check. Cross check.

[Ty Schmidt]

Cross check, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Forecheck is defense on the ice. Cross check is illegal. And he did it right to this guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right to his mouth.

[Pat McAfee]

I saw a lot of Vegas Golden Knights people saying, hey, what are we doing? That was a cross check to the Chicklets. I mean, that is clearly what they're.

[Ty Schmidt]

I get that. You know, that's a game misconduct. He's gone. It's five minute major. So, you know, the, the oil. We're on the power play for. For five minutes here in overtime, which obviously is not great when you got guys like Mick Jesus and Dry Sidle on the ice. But Aiden Hill has nine saves on the power play. I mean, just deflecting everything. And we're starting to think, okay, we get back to even strength here. Here we go. Not too long later, this is what a lot of Golden Knights fans were bitching about as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Including Lil Wayne.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep, including Lil Wayne. You got Braden McNabb, who just a classic ice pick here from, you know, Victor Arvidson right into the boards. He was down for a bit. And he also had to leave the game. He was Done after this.

[Pat McAfee]

They blew it dead. And let's go to the back 1/2 of the hammer. Don Cowboys, Bubba Gumpino, they very rarely blow a play dead and then no penalty is called in hockey, right? Yeah. I didn't get an answer on why that happened.

[Shams Charania]

Maybe they thought he was injured is.

[Pat McAfee]

Why they blew it dead.

[Shams Charania]

Because they have been doing that lately in the playoffs. But that's, that's stone cold right there. 10 times out of 10 penalty.

[Pat McAfee]

So they blow that dead. Everybody thinks the penalty is coming. Maybe the Vegas Golden Knights going to be on a power play instead. Refs review it, no penalty called at all. Vegas Golden Knights fans say we're scre. We got screwed here. We had a five minute major. Now we have this particular situation. You don't give it to us. All of a sudden it's even strength still. And then what happens, Ty?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, about a minute later, you know, we, the Golden Knights, you know, give away the puck. You know about center ice. And this guy, if you don't watch hockey, this guy, this MC Jesus fella, I'll tell you what, it looks like he's playing a different sport. Like we mentioned it multiple times. Jackie, Jackie Aces was the best player on the ice last night. And he looked like an eight year old, you know, trying to play defense against McJesus. Just sick. Nice little, nice little saucer over to dry Seattle and they end it, you know, I mean it really was. You go from thinking, hey, we're going to be on the power play. The Golden Knights have been excellent on the power play in the playoffs so far. And you know, they, they held Jackie Aces and Dry Seidel scoreless through three periods. And then, you know, it's just the longer the game went on, you knew that their two best players were eventually going to get you. They did Stoner right after the game goes over, taps a stick on, you know, the, the referees, you know, like we're there looking at the monitors and just kind of lets them know, like, hey, this one's on you. Okay, that should, that should have been, that should have been a penalty. We should have been on the power play. And he was pissed post game too. Like I think, and I think we have the clip of what he said pretty clear.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a penalty.

[AJ Hawk]

His sticks between McNabb's legs, he sends.

[Connor]

Him headfirst into the boards.

[AJ Hawk]

Pretty clear cut penalty in my eyes and I think everybody's eyes, right. But it's hockey.

[Pat McAfee]

You don't always get the calls.

[AJ Hawk]

But it's unfortunate. Now we might be down a D menu. We'll see tomorrow. But yeah, it's just a dirty play.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. And Coach Cassidy also, he was pretty upset as well when it came to that situation.

[AJ Hawk]

Listen, Gord's looking at it.

[Connor]

He blew it.

[AJ Hawk]

He missed the call.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know what else to say.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, it's a can opener trip. It's a dangerous play. It's all those things, things. But it didn't get called. So you got to keep playing.

[Pat McAfee]

And you know, Nabber is one of our guys that we probably one of the most popular teammates in the room.

[AJ Hawk]

So that is a tough part of playing through it.

[Pat McAfee]

It's not as easy as it looks. We're human, right? But at the end of the day.

[AJ Hawk]

That'S the task in front of you when those calls happen or don't happen.

[Ty Schmidt]

So players are up in arms, coaches and up in arms. Lil Wayne was not happy either. The Knights did just get robbed watching it live. I'll be honest, just because everything's happening so fast, you kind of just like, oh man, that's too bad. It looks like Braden McNabb may have broken his shoulder and he's going to be out for the rest of the playoffs. Like I wasn't thinking, hey, we need a penalty because you know, it was so high stakes moving back and forth. But yeah, you know, a power play would have been huge there. Ultimately the. The Golden Knights lose two at home, which isn't great. You mentioned it. The Oilers have come back in six consecutive games, but the Golden Knights have been here before that. You know, Colorado I believe in 2018, you know, they came back, they came back from down two zero. So this game was incredible. It really was. It was one. I mean if you like playoff hockey, like just unbelievable. The playoffs as a whole have been non stop action, really across the board.

[Pat McAfee]

Playoffs continue tonight. Leafs, Panthers. The Leafs currently up 2 0, which is a big surprise actually was a part of the reason why we called yesterday. Holy shite. Thursday. That game is on at 7 o' clock tonight on TNT. And then the Dallas Stars. Texas hockey take on Winnipeg jets. Fresh off a thriller up in Winnipeg, one half of the Hammer Cowboys. AP Tony's here. Gambling on these NHL playoffs seems to be tough. What are your thoughts?

[Tony]

It, it is tough because, you know, there's away teams winning, there's home teams winning, teams that have been hot, you know, just trip out like the. There's been a lot of comeback stuff like this. But as far as the overall odds to win the cup after last Night. The Oilers are now your favorites to win the cup at plus 300, followed by the Dallas Stars, who are up 10 on Winnipeg, which we just talked about, they're plus 325. And then you have a couple east teams following that up. The Canes, who lost last night to the caps, they're now plus 450 to win the cup, tied with the Leafs, who are up 20 on the Panthers. So those are, those are your favorites right now to win the Cup. Canes might be a little bit surprising to a lot of people because, you know, I don't think they looked like the better team in each of those first two games against the Caps, but we will see moving forward.

[Pat McAfee]

Caps get a big win over to Canes last night, three to one. Tom Wilson notches an apple and then an empty letter at the end. Obviously the hands, a menace from Washington is doing their thing. Capitals being the underdogs against Canes is crazy to me just because of what the season has been for the Capitals.

[Shams Charania]

But those cup odds were crazy seeing that the Caps were so far down there. Plus 1100.

[Pat McAfee]

That's good value for what that team is and what they've put together. So that spot right there on that graphic, and if you go to the NBA, one plus 1100 is where the Capitals are, which we like a lot. We like Capitals. I mean, others, this might be their year. And obviously the odds are saying same spot there, plus 1300. Pacers. I mean, that's good value on both those teams that are playing great right now. The Pacers obviously take on the Cavs this evening on ESPN at 7:30. And then the Thunder take on the Nuggets at 10 o' clock tonight. Pacers are up two. Oh, over the Cavs. And then Thunder Nuggets series is tied one one. We'll have Sham Sharania joining us here in a matter of moments. Get some updates on some news. This Golden State warriors team without Steph last night against Minnesota Timberwolves, I mean, they got smacked from the beginning there. Now look, whenever Draymond gets his Tech technical that everybody's talking about right now, and Draymond gave a quote about afterwards how everybody portrays him and everything because he's had five now technicals in the playoffs. If he gets seven, he'll be suspended for a game. This is Draymond Green football. I mean, in my eyes, that's just how I view Draymond Green. Like everyone saw. This is going to happen. This is in the second quarter. It was 33, 17 or something like that. So you're talking about just Minnesota dominating Golden State last night from beginning to end. And I think Anthony Edwards even had an ankle injury in the middle of this. They thought he was going to potentially be out. The whole place gets quiet. He comes back at the end of that thing. So with Golden State, I mean, there's a lot of question marks right now, and I think a lot of it revolves around the greatest shooter of all time, whether or not he's going to be able to make it back.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, T Wolves last night went up 13, nothing to start the game. And that was basically it. It was wire to wire. They won every single quarter. They were winning the entire game. Coming back huge for the T Wolves, they should be fine. But, yeah, without Steph, the Warriors just aren't the Warriors. I think we saw that in the spread of the game yesterday. I believe the T Wolves were 10 point favorites after losing game one by 11 points. So without Steph, it is. It's interesting, but there's still, I think, if you're a Warriors fan, faith in the fact that Jimmy Butler's done it on his own essentially, for years with Miami in getting it done. Even though that is the east and the west seems to be much, much better. The Draymond thing, look, he doesn't know what his arms and legs do. Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

That has been kind of like the conversation a few different times. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, that's just what it is. The right side of his body gets fouled, so his left arm throws a bow. I mean, it just is a natural because you reach around, left arm, bang. It doesn't really make sense. I don't. I don't know how that happened.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, in jiu jitsu, there's a moment where you get pushed on this side and the other side happens. But I would like to say this about this moment here, and Draymond Green felt the need to address it. About how everybody says, I'm an angry black man. I'm not an angry black man. I'm actually very smart in all these things, which he is. He's part of the new media. I love his show. I love the way he's handled. He's been a champion. He's made a lot of money. He's out of Michigan State. He's a graduate. Like, everything that he has done, I think would indicate. So there must be people saying things to Draymond Green. Let's make sure we have some respect for Draymond Green being Draymond. This is just Draymond Green Football. Like, in my eyes, that is literally how I view it. Just like in football, there are guys on teams that's like, Tom Wilson on the Capitals. Like, that's Tom Wilson football. Yes, Draymond Green has been Draymond Green since the beginning. So I don't like the fact that he feels obligated to defend himself and say, but that's only because I assume there's a lot of people that say that thing about him. He is an asset to that Golden State warriors team. Has been since the beginning. And every once in a while, situations like this are going to happen. Is how I view, as an outsider of the NBA world, the Draymond Green experience in the NBA.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, without a doubt. And, Foxy, if you can go to where Steph Curry's talking to him, I think that's why people like to pile on, because of course, you know, the coaches are going to say stuff and things like that, but when you see Steph Curry do it, I think that's when people kind of say like, hey. Even Steph is going over and saying like, hey, Draymond, you need to calm down. I'm pretty sure the broadcaster said, hey, Draymond should just go back to the locker room after this to calm down, because they don't show it in this clip. Here comes Steph to kind of tell him, like, hey, relax, it's the second quarter. We're okay. You know, we still need you in this game.

[Pat McAfee]

Just real quick, though. Draymond Green, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, has already been a champion. The fact that he's this passionate never gets talked about, you know, like, the fact that he's this invested, this is who he is. Like, this is his style of play. And I don't know. I don't like that he felt obligated to answer that because that means that that's what people are saying about him. It's like, this is how some people compete. This is how some people are professional. It happens in every sport. And I hate to just say it again, but, like, Tom Wilson for the Washington Capitals, he's on the line. He is an enforcer. He is. There's going to be a little dance. I mean, last night with a little toe pick on the thing. It's like, Draymond. This is what Draymond Green has done. And I think the Golden State warriors have benefited from Draymond Green being this since the beginning of his time out there with the warriors, for sure.

[AJ Hawk]

But now they're getting close to where he's going to Miss a game, if you remember.

[Pat McAfee]

Two more text.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. If you remember in the. I believe it was the Finals. Yeah. Where he got the, you know, the tech limit and he had to miss a game. And that was a huge conversation. I believe they ended up losing that game.

[Pat McAfee]

That was the 31 comeback year with.

[AJ Hawk]

LeBron, with the Cavs. Yeah. Now they're getting to the point where, hey, Steph's out. We need you now more than ever because of how great you are. Not just on defense. Now he's making shots. He's playing probably some of the best basketball on offense we've seen in the past few years. And now, you know, unfortunately, he's nearing that line of, hey, you're going to get suspended for a game.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who might have a little bit more intel on what Steve Kerr says to Draymond Green after something like this, or Steve Kerr says about what's happening with Steph Curry, or Steve Kerr says about this team maybe having to revolve around Jimmy Butler for the good of survival here as they take on a very good Minnesota Timberwolves fan. Also, some updates. Senior insider for the NBA at espn. Ladies and gentlemen, front of the program, the handsome seam, Sharon. Sean. So we're just wrapping up the conversation about Draymond Green. Thank you so much for joining us today. I just view that as Draymond Green football. I guess what Connor is saying is, like, without Steph Curry, with the position they're in, maybe they can't have Draymond Green football happen. At this moment, he's two texts away from a game suspension. Is that accurate? And what do you think Steve Kerr says to Draymond in these types of situations?

[Shams Charania]

Two technical files away, and then, yeah, I think a lot of what Draymond Greenwood's made him so great is this ability for him to be physical, to really command the game. I mean, he commands games both from a vocal perspective, how he commands it defensively and then even on offense, like, he's the master communicator. Jimmy Butler said it recently in one of his press conferences. He's like, you know, the best thing about Draymond isn't that, you know, how great of a player he is and the hall of Famer he is, but just his ability to communicate from the best player to the worst player and how he's able to get his points across. And I think that's what makes him invaluable. But, you know, plays like last night and the way Steve Kerr said it after the game, which was simply that, you know, we know there's a line that, that he sometimes goes over, but that's what makes Draymond so great. And you live with it, right? Because he's brought you, helped bring you four championships. And then last night with him getting that technical foul. And, you know, I saw his comments after the game, did a little probing this morning on exactly what maybe he was referring to. And I know, you know, he had the incident when he was on the bike during the game, a fan allegedly yelled a slur at him. So potentially it could be something like that. I think another part of this, from my understanding, it's also what he feels is this treatment that he gets from the officiating, believing that he gets calls on him that other players may not get and that. And that they potentially referee him differently. Like that play right there on Nas Reed. If this was the first time Draymond Green was making a play like that, I don't think they go to the monitor. But because of his history, they've suspended him in the past based on history. I think because of all that, he feels like he might be getting an improper whistle or improper treatment. Now, the flip side of that is everyone on the league believes Draymond Green has probably the best leeway, largest amount of leeway that any player has. He's able to have that back and forth with referees all the time. So it's a double edged sword. At the end of the day, only Draymond Green is going to be able to, like, explain exactly what this is. I think part of it maybe was that incident, but I think a large part is also the way he feels like he's officiated on a nightly basis and how his history is used against him.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, Draymond, we just want to let you know you're a victim of your own success, brother. I mean, that's just what, when you're around this long, people learn about you, people do it. And we would like to say we respect the hell out of the fact that you've been that guy since the beginning. Every team needs one. Especially successful teams in all sports. There's normally a dog out there that is a little bit of an enforcer, a little bit of a tone setter, a protector, and also a little bit of a wild card every once in a while. I think Draymond Green has had a hell of a career doing as such. And go Green. Foxy.

[Shams Charania]

Yes, sir.

[Pat McAfee]

Go, White. Lovey. Draymond. Yeah. Okay, so let's move on and let's stay in the Golden State warriors camp, though. Steph Curry's injury is obviously a massive ordeal for the Golden State Warriors. He's the best shooter in the history of basketball and he was getting back to form of being the guy that was able to pull up from everywhere. Felt like Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green maybe ignited an old school school Golden State warriors team feel. What is it with Steph Curry and how long are we looking for him to be missing some games because this Timberwolves team does not care and they are not waiting around for Steph to get healthy. When should we see him back and what are the realistic expectations? Shams, Pat.

[Shams Charania]

It's a hamstring strain. And you know, and everyone in there knows db, I'm sure, you know, wherever he has he, he knows like hamstring strains. That's not an injury you play with. He's really been limited to just doing treatment and he's going to be reevaluated on Wednesday, which means he's definitely out Game two. He missed game three, Game four, so he's going to miss at least three games. My understanding is it's probably not going to be, you know, at any point until game six at the earliest for Stephen Curry. And there's actually like a four day gap between games five and game six. It's a weird scheduling quirk. So, no, the NBA didn't do this because Stephen Curry got hurt. The NBA had already made this schedule, some alignment with the WNBA team there in the Bay, but because of that, they're able to have that period of time. So maybe you get Stephen Curry back there. But as I tweeted then, this is the first strain of the hamstring that Stephen Curry has ever had in his NBA career. He's never had this in his life. He'd never had a hamstring injury in his life, he said yesterday. So. So it's going to be a very safe approach I think the warriors are going to take with this. And I think at this point, you just try to get one back in the Bay Area. You try to win one, you know, in either game three or game four. And I think what happened last night, what we saw is Steve Kerr and the warriors really pinpointing yesterday's game to just throw a bunch of things at the wall, see what rotations we want to go with, see what our best way to win without Stephen Curry is. And, you know, I don't know how much they came into the game thinking we want to win this game. It was more like, we gotta figure something.

[Pat McAfee]

We gotta figure some out here. Yeah. Without Steph. Yeah, I understand.

[Shams Charania]

And I think. I don't want to say they punted the game last night because you never want to say that. But I think they knew when you. When you're without Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler, they're having fun with it.

[Pete Thamel]

Right.

[Shams Charania]

It's Batman. He is Batman of this organization, of this team. You lose Batman, you have to figure out exactly what. You know, who goes where. And that's what last night was all about.

[Pat McAfee]

And buddy, having the wrong shorts on. I mean, there's this. That's a. That's such a cool franchise because of what they were able to do over there. That run, they had historic. They changed basketball forever. I think they changed basketball forever. And everything that they've done. And then you lose the guy that basically did it all in the middle of a series while he's playing his best again, that has to be tough for Steve Kerr to figure out. And the fact that that's the first time that Steph is Pulled his hamstring with how much he runs. Yeah, he. That's crazy that that's the first time. Now once you pull it, you know, the fear is always. That's going to linger. That's going to linger. That's always going to be there. Anyways, Steph, we're pulling for you, buddy. We're pulling for you. But also Timberwolves. Let's talk about Anthony Edwards. That, like, what was that? What do they think is going to happen there?

[Shams Charania]

The guy's a freaking Wolverine.

[Pat McAfee]

I agree. Every. A timber Wolverine. He's a timber Wolverine.

[Shams Charania]

If it's like this LeBron James esque ability that he has. But like, he literally. He can have an ankle tweak. He can have like any body part will feel like he just sprained it. And he's able to just come back. He goes to locker room, he goes the back. He looks like he can't put any weight on that foot, on that leg. And then he ends up coming out. And the way he. For him to even get back on the floor, much less continue to be as productive as he is, I mean, the guy is just tough as anything. He has this innate ability to be on the court. And that was a must win game for them. They took care of business. I think you have to feel really good. If you're the Timberwolves and you can see even playing in Minnesota, the fans there are really, really involved. I mean, clearly they were involved with Draymond Jimmy Butler, you know, he came out after game one, made some comments about how he feels like the fans are, you know, need to keep it within the lines of the game. So like those fans in Minnesota are really rampant right now. They're going, they're vibrant and what they have in Anthony Edwards is they have a flat out superstar that they want to come out and cheer for. But he, he might not want to be the face of this NBA and be the young faces league, but his game, his charisma and at the end of the day, his ability to stay on the court, his productiveness is what makes him kind of that face of the league potential.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, so we'll assume that Anthony Edwards just going to be healthy somehow. Okay, that's awesome for him. I wish I had that ability though. Be very cool. And then Julius Randle, obviously a trade over from the Knicks, he's three boards away from a triple double last night. So when you talk about playing good ball, the Minnesota Timberwolves could be the team that maybe surprises everybody. And obviously you got to get lucky. And Steph Curry getting injured is certainly a little bit of luck in the Minnesota Timber Wolverine side. But on the Golden State side, not great. Let's talk about another series that does have a little luck whenever it comes to injuries on the other side. But who cares? They were the number one seed in the East. They're playing the Pacers tonight in Indian down to. Oh, Tone has a question for you.

[Tony]

Yeah, Shams. There's obviously some injury questions with the cavs before game two. Garland, Mobley and DeAndre Hunter all did not. They were not present at shoot around, but before game three here they all were present at shoot around. Do you have the status on these three guys for this huge game three tonight?

[Shams Charania]

Indiana, I'm expecting Tone Diggs. I'm expecting Darius Garland to definitely be in tonight. He wants to play, he wants to give it a go. He's missed, I guess the last two weeks. I think it's been two, two and a half weeks he's been dealing with this toe injury. He's been out and it's a sprain of the great big toe in one of his foot.

[AJ Hawk]

The great big toe?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. There's an average big toe and then there's the big, great big toe.

[Shams Charania]

I guess you could say it's the big toe, the great toe, whatever you want it. But he's clearly been dealing with something there. He missed the last two weeks. I would expect him back. The bigger questions, Evan Mobley, he was not able to put a bunch of weight on his foot, his ankle, after he sprained it the other night. He missed their last game. But all three, to my knowledge, are aiming to go into tonight's game with the intent to warm up and play in this pivotal Game three. I mean, at this point, I think all three will do everything they possibly can, at least make themselves available. I think that's what the Pacers are preparing for. And they obviously need all three. And if you can get any type of effort, because they've been competitive in both these games, but definitely they've been competitive last. The last game. In Game two, they feel like they really had a chance to win. They should not have lost that game. The patients obviously went out and took it. But as much as you can get out of those three, I think they're very hopeful tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, well, good luck to them. Obviously, we want to see everybody at their best. You know, that's what we want the playoffs to be. They're coming in here to Indianapolis, though, and I'll tell you what, the town's a buzzing town, is a buzz. And everybody's talking about how the Knicks. And I saw Mike Greenberg put together a beautiful monologue about the improbable run of the New York Knicks. Okay, why don't you go ahead and just talk about the Pacers as well? We would just like to take everything that Mike Greenberg said about the Knicks in the Celtics thing and put the Pacers name in there as well. They weren't even on primetime television. They were only on turnaround.

[Shams Charania]

Was it NBA TV or true tv? Which one were you going to say? Or both?

[Pat McAfee]

All the above. Yeah. It was impossible to find them through the playoffs. You make it to the playoffs, you're supposed to be on tv. Like, that is the purpose of the NBA playoffs. NBA tv, I guess, the four or five seed, whatever it is, that's going to happen on a regular basis because they don't want to get the 1, 2, 3 teams not on prime time. Okay, sounds good. Then they play the Cavs in the opening, the series or whatever, and they have it just on TruTV. And they had iRobot on TNT. They had the inside. The NBA Kickoff show on TNT and on TruTV. Then they put iRobot on TNT and they put the Pacers game on TruTV. And then later that night, Golden State was playing game seven or whatever it was on TNT and on TruTV. And I'm like, these motherfuckers picked iRobot over the Indiana Pacers. Versus the Cleveland, the number one seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. It's like this team is electrifying. Tyrese Halliburton is a superstar who is loved in this city. But not just Tyrese. The entire team is loved here for the way they go about ball. Remember, Indiana is a big basketball state and the basketball that they like, they like a team that is. We are, we are. We're passing, we're moving, we're running, we're respectful, we're doing this. We're still a little moxie if you need it, but we're a hard working team. And it's like Carlisle is like the perfect coach for this team. The team has come together perfectly. And what they started last year in the playoffs that nobody was able to talk about because they got swept by the champion Boston Celtics in the Eastern conference finals. Didn't carry into the beginning of the year either. So like nobody really had respect for the Pacers at the beginning of the season. Tyrese Haliburton played like absolute shit. Didn't even make the all star game. That guy didn't make the all star because how he played at the beginning of the season, I think he would even say did not play good at the beginning of the season. Then post all star break, Tyrese was able to sleep on to what the hell he was going on. He comes out of there even better. The team goes and they become the hottest team in the NBA and it's like they still get disrespected. And I think it's because it's Indianapolis. He gets voted the most overrated player in the NBA by the New York Times, the Athletic. And it's like, I love that for the Pacers team. Like I love that for them so much.

[Shams Charania]

I just hate the quirk that doesn't let you watch the Pacers when you're in Indy for some weird reason. That's what I didn't know. I didn't like that one.

[Pat McAfee]

I want to let you know I got a. A number that I did not know that worked at the NBA office that sent me a text saying, here's an NBA pass. Login. If you ever, please, if we could. And I would like to say the NBA. Thank you for that. I think you set up your distribution rights poorly that I can't watch the Pacers in Indianapolis. I assume that'll get fixed.

[Shams Charania]

I'm glad they hooked you up. I mean, there's long overdue there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, no chance I actually signed into that. I have no idea. I don't even know if my TV's smart enough to have the NBA thing on there. I don't know how that would work, but I do appreciate them hearing our messages of saying that was stupid and then also trying to be like, yes, we, we're gonna figure this out. I also like that the NBA has been tweeting like six minute videos on X. Great. Like, hey, here's the final two minutes of this. They need to do more of that because they dominate social and I'm happy to hear they're taking advantage of that. Anyways, the Pacers are for real.

[Shams Charania]

I got to add on the Pacers. So I'm a nerd. You know, I'm more of the, like the business side. Like, I'm very interested in the business aspect of this. And like, you think about these playoffs. Indiana and Oklahoma City are the two teams so far that are in it, that are in the bottom eight in terms of spending. So you think about it, bottom eight payroll in the NBA. And Oklahoma City's got one max player and Shay Giltz Alexander. The Pacers have two. Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam. They're a little bit more veteran laden team. So you think about, you know, cost for winning and what that Pacers for an office has been able to do to keep the payroll where it's at and to win at that level that they're winning at. I mean, to me it's impressive because it shows that you're identifying the players that are dogs, that guys that really want to win, that want to compete. You think about the Andrew Nemhards, you think about the Miles Turner. Miles Turner is going to be a free agent this offseason, Pat. I know, I know you're going to need to keep him in Indiana.

[Pat McAfee]

He's been here a long time. How long has he been here?

[Connor]

He.

[Shams Charania]

He just did a, he just did a, a nice little tribute article I think at the Players Tribune. Yeah, he's been, he's been in Pacer for I think 10 years. 11, maybe a year. Yeah, 10 or 11 years article and it was a beautiful read. But like he's been a guy that, like multiple times everyone was saying, you know, a lot of. There was a lot of chatter on his name being traded. And he stays in Indiana. He's there in Indiana. He signed an extension at one point and he's gonna be up for another contract this summer. And you think about free agents, he's going to be right up there and the Pacers are going to have to pay him a lot of money to Be able to keep him. But listen, you make it to two straight conference finals, potentially, if they're able to make it back, like, and you're able to do it with this type of a payroll, it's going to rise, you know, once you pay a guy like Myles Turner. But what this team has been able to do, it shows a lot about their ability, I think, to identify the right players.

[Pat McAfee]

Miles and Pascal are great, you know, so big, so athletic. So I don't want to say durable. Oh, versatile. There it is. So versatile. Miles knocked down a three anytime. I mean, Miles will get out there and knock down and then he's underneath too. He's been great for the city, even though big transition period basically while he's been here. And then we trade for Tyrese for obviously from Sacramento, Spicy P. Pasco Siakam from Toronto last year mid season. So it's like the moves they've made, the people they brought in and the coach that they have in Carlisle, I think it all is perfect for the city of Indianapolis. Legit. I think anytime a team represents its city well, I think that's whenever you have like real magic possible. Like, I think people will see tonight whenever we have the home game, like.

[AJ Hawk]

Team guys, like Siakam's an NBA champion and he could ask for 30, you know, 30 shots a game, but he doesn't bitch whatsoever. I feel like that's why it works so well.

[Pat McAfee]

T.J. mcConnell too. I mean, yeah, coming in here, we know that coming in here. He signed an extension, right? How many years with the Pacers he signed a new deal with.

[Shams Charania]

I think he signed a four year extension. I think it was last year.

[AJ Hawk]

Lifetime deal.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, at the end of the season. Because he was up at the end of the season and I was. I got a chance to meet Coach Carlisle at an event or whatever. Keeping TJ right. Pittsburgh kid needed to keep TJ McConnell around here. He's absolute dog.

[Shams Charania]

He gave you the word. He gave you the word.

[Pat McAfee]

No, absolutely not. They said, yeah, we'll see. You know, the business thing, I go to Tyrese, I'm like, yo, got to be keeping the Yinzer, right? Got to be keeping the inserp. He goes, I love tj, man. I don't, you know, he does that whole thing. So here's a question on whether or not he was going to come back. And it felt like he fit this team perfect. Like, it felt like he was. I think we have the makings of a good team, but so does Cleveland. And if they're going to be completely healthy tonight. Not completely healthy, but if everybody's going to be available tonight, this should be a Great1 on ESPN at 7:30pm Once again, Tyrese's dad not going to be able to be in attendance, which is a bummer. That will be a missing piece of the building night. We hope he is enjoying this playoff run, especially with how his kid has been performing. All right, let's move to the other team you just chit chatted about there, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Ty Schmidt has a question for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Shams, obviously after game one, you know where Denver looks great, they get the the game winning bucket from Aaron Gordon. They kind of like the Warriors. I mean, you don't want to say they punted, but they get beat by 43 and kind of just look like they were happy to take one steal one in okc. We've seen everything with Jokic where he's basically he's the head coach now as well as their best player. Do you expect the Nuggets to bounce back in a big way against the Thunder tomorrow night or how do you think the rest of this series is going to go after these first two games?

[Shams Charania]

I think this series has a chance to go, I mean six, seven games, you know, because Denver is the way they're playing right now. I think they're as in sync as possible. And, and you know, I don't think they went into game two. I think the warriors went into that game too. They were scrambling trying to figure out all these different rotations. I think the Nuggets tried, I'm sure tried to win, but I think Oklahoma City, it showed me more about what Oklahoma City's about, finding themselves because that's a team we've seen all season. That's really the team that we're known for their level of dominance when their games are right. I mean they've been absolutely killing the entire NBA in terms of their plus minus all season long. You saw in that series against Memphis, they were down like 25 points. Ended up winning that game by a lot in that game three in Memphis. So I think that's really Oklahoma City to me. But Denver is in a great position now to be able to go back home. Aaron Gordon, the way he's playing, Russell Westbrook contributing the way he is. Michael Porter Jr. Playing with a pretty banged up shoulder, giving everything he has. It's all at the end. They're going to boil down to though Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray and can those two guys be the best two players on the floor in any given order, that's really what's going to dictate. I think these Denver Nuggets winning because I think the last game. What was it, like, six fouls for Jokic, six field goal attempts? Like, you know, that's obviously not what's going to win Denver games.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I always assumed that Joker understood your team more and more as the series would go on. That's just kind of how I thought Joker was. So to watch how this game went, it was very, like. I don't want to say alarming, but it was like, oh, I didn't expect that. But I think what Oklahoma City people are saying is we play terrible game. We. This is just who we are. And this is why everybody thought Oklahoma City was going to win this series. When I was like, so you're telling me Joker is not the favorite? It's like, this has been the Oklahoma City team all year. Right? This is kind of. They've been dominant. They have been a. The best basketball team in the league on numerous different occasions. Right. This season.

[Shams Charania]

Yeah, they've. They've been the best team in. In the NBA. I mean, you think about the only thing that would hold this team back is they haven't been it. Been there, done that. Like, they haven't. They got to the second round last year, but they haven't made a deep run to the conference finals or the NBA finals. So even like Oklahoma City, in a lot of ways, they're still young, they're still building the right way. They only have one max player in Shay, Gillis, Alexander, now Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren. Those guys are all going to be up for extensions this summer, so that's when decisions start being made. But. But this is still a pretty young Thunder group in terms of what their experience is like going down in the playoffs.

[Pat McAfee]

Thunder, Thunder. Lightning and thunder. Thunder. Thunder. Do they play that? I assume they got to play that.

[Ty Schmidt]

They have to.

[Pat McAfee]

I assume they have to. All right, let's go from Western Conference, best team in the West. Let's go to the reigning champs in the East. Start spreading the news.

[Shams Charania]

Yo, hand the camera to bc. We gotta pan the camera.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's where we're heading. He's not scared. It feels like he's like in a. He's in a position.

[Shams Charania]

He's wearing a Patriots jersey. I thought he was gonna come in here.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tony]

It's football season for a big game.

[Shams Charania]

Three at the Garden. I thought he was gonna be wearing a vintage KG Celtics jersey or something. Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

I think the jerseys he's wearing is in the trenches jersey. That is an offensive lineman's jersey. Who just so happens to have the same last name as Connor. But with that being said, it feels like Joe Mazzola needs to dig into the trenches a little bit and figure this out. Connor does have a question for you about what's going on over there in the East.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Sean, I do have a question. And before I get to it, I will say, you know, I. I am not worried just yet. I've told the boys and Pat, I've opened the door of where the panic button and lives and I've looked at it, but I've not taken it out. I have not thought about pressing it because to act as if the Celtics can come back from down 2o is ridiculous. They've been down 30 and they forced.

[Pat McAfee]

Of course.

[AJ Hawk]

Of course, all this is very possible now. Being completely healthy would help a lot for the Celtics, obviously. Sam Houser, we all saw it. Ankle, that's a clear cut injury. Who knows when he's coming back? The Porzingis illness sickness has kind of just been confusing from the beginning. He missed a bunch of time during the regular season. No one really knew what it was all about. Game one, he leaves at halftime, doesn't come back with some sort of mystery sickness illness. Can you put any insight into that? Because game two, he's coming off the bench, still doesn't look like himself. What is this entire illness sickness, and will we expect him in the starting lineup for the rest of this series or playoffs?

[Shams Charania]

So, Kristaps Porzingis, My understanding is he's been dealing with a lingering of side effects from the virus that he had in March. And it's something that has zapped his energy. It's drained him. He's had to rely on getting a lot more sleep over the last couple months. He's had to take IVs, immune boosters, I'm told. So he's tried to figure out ways to. To mitigate it. Obviously, they've run him through a battery of different tests and they have not been able to, I guess, completely identify which. Which virus could this specifically be. But he's gone. He's seen doctors, he's gotten tests done, and to their understanding, the Celtics, the doctors, Porzingis, it's just been these lingering side effects and it's.

[Pat McAfee]

It, dude.

[Shams Charania]

It just imagine being the competitor he is. And Pat, this is. And BC knows this. Porzingis played through a leg injury in the finals last year that needed what, three, four, five months of Rehab before a return like this is someone that has already showed that he'll put his body on the line. He's a competitor. He, you know, he was. He. When he came into league, he had such high expectations. Made an all star team. I think this. And then he played for the Wizards, the Mavericks, and then I think the last few couple years playing for. For Boston, he's been their missing piece because when he's on the floor, that's an element. Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, none of their guards, they can't do. No one can do what Chris Os Porzingis does. So it's been a tough blow to this team not to have him 100%, but that's my understanding. BC is it's been lingering effects from this viral. Whatever bad viral bug he had.

[Pat McAfee]

That's. I couldn't imagine that lingering for that long. I'd be so mad. Yeah, think about how mad you would be. I had a cold. Not comparing. Okay. I don't know what that is, but I had like a cold for like, what felt like seven weeks, like just a couple weeks back. I had no idea. Every day I woke up, I'm like, this has got to be over. Like, it's got to be taken shit for it. It's just still there. I was so pissed. I couldn't even imagine a guy in the best shape of his life missing this type of game because of lingering effects from a virus. Like this long. Every morning, and I don't know what this is, obviously, but every morning you probably assume I'm going to be better. Like you're going to sleep at this day. Like, I'm going to be better. My better. And it just continues to go, that sucks. Hey, keep powering through, brother.

[AJ Hawk]

Sounds like mono. Like, actually, it sounds like something that is. That does. I mean, I haven't heard of anything that lasts that long.

[Shams Charania]

Bc I asked about that. I was told, no, not mono.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Shams Charania]

Not. I mean, no. They tested for Covid. They tested. I think they've done a bunch of. I think they've. They've tested on everything you possibly can, and there's. There hasn't been anything that showed up that's like, you know, you do xyz. But a few weeks ago, it seemed like he was over this. You know, all the things that he was doing, the sleep pattern, IVs, the immune boosters, it all seemed like it was working. And for whatever reason, he spoke to it a little bit after game two, there's some kind of a crash that, that he. That he's kind of had in the last couple weeks of last week. And obviously, you know, we want him to feel better.

[Pat McAfee]

Dr. Sandy yeah, we have no idea what that'd be a little bit of a. Hey, we're pulling for you mgh too, man. We're pulling the world. We're pulling for you up there in Boston. Great facilities. From everything that we've learned. All right at this moment, who's winning the NBA title?

[Shams Charania]

Pat, you know, I don't do picks. Come on, we've been doing this for six years. I don't do picks.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, who's.

[AJ Hawk]

Till today, who's going to win?

[Pat McAfee]

Let's make a show.

[AJ Hawk]

But when you look at the group.

[Shams Charania]

You, you look at this group, I think Oklahoma City, you know, they've been so dominant all year. It looked like, you know, obviously big, big, big game two win. Great, big game two win. So we'll see how, how the game three goes in Denver. But listen, I think a lot of people around the league still feel like the Celtics are going to be able to turn the corner. I mean, Even though they're down 2 0, lost both games at home, you know, it's crazy. I think the Celtics have done this before. BC if you remember the team with Isaiah Thomas on it, they went down 20 to the bulls. I think it was Jimmy Butler, Rondo D. Wade team. They lost both games in Boston and ended up winning that series. So it's never, it's never not been done. The question is just, can you beat a team like the Knicks? Where you think about their, the Knicks starting five, that's a really formidable group. And now you seem like they're, it really seems like they're clicking. They're all coming together. And I think that's what everyone's been waiting on, especially with the Knicks.

[Pat McAfee]

I forget the stat. What Is it, like 14 to 12 Jalen Brunson points in the final 30 seconds or minutes of.

[Shams Charania]

I mean, there's just no way Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are shooting like 32% from the field, like for the, for an entire series. They missed what, 75 threes?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Q.

[AJ Hawk]

Rich laid it out well. 45 wide open shots, threes that they have missed. The stat I think you're talking about is that the Knicks are outscoring the Celtics in clutch time, 28 to 12 in the fourth quarter. I think they're outscoring them like 55 to 30. So it's not just like they.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Brunson has more points than the Celtics in a Super duper close crunch. I forget how Greenberg described it. Him and Himbo went to work on a monologue and it was like, jalen Brunson has like 14 or 13 points in, like, maybe the final 30.

[AJ Hawk]

Probably last. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And then they. The Celtics has a total of 12.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, he is just out, like, let alone the entire team. And there's all these clutch stats that are coming out about this Knicks team. And if you're in the playoffs, like, that's in. In basketball, that is the shit. And that's where the Celtics. This is very abnormal for them just to go absolutely ice cold at the end of games because that is why they've been great. That is why they are currently our champs.

[AJ Hawk]

Yes, That's. It's old Celtics, like back when they were a younger team when they were trying to make the finals, trying just to get to the Eastern Conference finals, this is the shit that was happening. Like, they were down 3, 2 to the Bucs and they had to go to Milwaukee and win game six. And they did. That's why I think a lot of Celtics fans have faith, because they've been there, they've won in these high pressure moments. I mean, I remember the Heat Celtics series where Derrick White, or maybe it was Marcus Smart, gets a tip in at the end of the game with 01 seconds on the clock. And so I think that's why there's a lot of faith there from being down and coming back. But. But I mean, when things aren't going your way, they're not going your way. And it was just like the Pacers Celtics Eastern Conference finals last year where the Pacers are winning the entire game. And then the Celtics won the games. But now it's the Celtics are winning the whole game and the Knicks are winning the game in the end.

[Pat McAfee]

Here's the stat I just found from Greeny's monologue. I just went to his Twitter account because I'm happy he posted this. By the way, this was very well done with a lot of stats, and Greeny delivered in a great way. He posted it. So in clutch time points in the Eastern Eastern Conference semifinals. Jalen Brunson has 14 points. The Celtics have 12 in total. So what is like, we know the red zone. There's a high red zone, then there's the red zone. We don't know what separates clutch time to. So I believe final two minutes.

[AJ Hawk]

Clutch time is like when the game's within five points or within a certain number, whether it's one possession or two possession. Games like that's clutch time.

[Pat McAfee]

Final minute. And then I think they had all. They're. They're undefeated on the road. Five wins on the road or something. Straight by three points or less. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

So it's like this team, whenever it comes down to it, final cup on the table.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, you know, the Knicks are going to knock it down. That's just what it is. What were you going to say there, Tone?

[Tony]

The. There's been 12 minutes of clutch time in the two games so far. I found that. Not sure exactly what the definition is, but I know there's been 12 minutes of clutch timing.

[Pat McAfee]

And Jalen Brunson was voted what?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Clutch player.

[Pat McAfee]

Most clutch player of the year. Yeah. And then. So you would think maybe those awards are accurate sometime. And then you. You hear Tyrese Halliburton's most overrated player in the league, and then he's all over your city.

[Shams Charania]

There's just no way Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum aren't gonna be able to turn the corner to some extent.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, we thought that last game, didn't we? We thought that last game. We thought.

[Shams Charania]

But over a full series, like, I. I actually see Boston Connor's perspective right there. Like, they. We thought, you know, they were. They were potentially over this after you win the championship, and no one's going to take away that championship away from them. But, you know, to be coming down to this series in round two, this is a team that has championship aspirations. This season is not supposed to end in the second round by any means. And so I think having Faith in Jalen, LeBron, Jason Tatum, they've been there, they've done it. The amount that they've won at such a young age. But again, this. This is not a series where they can afford to have another bad fourth quarter. They just can't.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And I believe in Joe Missoula, big time, so I believe in Joe Missoula. Okay. I do.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, me too.

[Pat McAfee]

I do believe in Joe Missoula, all the boys. And I believe in. Yeah, I believe in that team after watching them and having to experience it alongside you and watch what they did to Indiana whenever they were here, whenever they were down a lot of those games, and they were coming back into clutch time to win last year during their championship. So I believe him. But it's hard to just think that this guy's just going to give it up. Yeah. Like, this guy's, hey, he's special. This guy is unbelievable. His mentality is special. And then you listen to his podcast, and it's just like. He's like a casual dude. And then he gets on the court and it's like, killer. Absolute killer. Yeah. What a series.

[Shams Charania]

Chicago's finest.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, that makes. Well, there's a Pope now. There's a. There's a Pope now from Bronson, Brunson, Shams, you know, CM Punk, Pope Leo. CM Pope.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

All those things. That was a great comment. Somebody left a comment in. So our Pope coverage yesterday, Shams, I don't know if you know this.

[Shams Charania]

I was watching. I was getting all my. All my information was coming from. From you guys.

[J.R. Smith]

Okay.

[Shams Charania]

I was watching pms.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. You weren't the only one. Okay. I got a lot of messages yesterday from a lot of people that I did not expect to hear from out of nowhere saying, hey, Pope coverage today, phenomenal. I would have never known. And it's like, well, we had no idea, obviously, clearly, as we were going in there, then as we start to learn, like, wait a minute, America's got a pope. First time in. He's the 267th pope. Okay, so I got that number wrong. 266. I said yesterday, 267th pope. It started at 30 A.D. between 30 and 70 A.D. the amount of things we learned about popes yesterday, I think a lot of people potentially learned alongside of us. I'm really. I'm appreciative of you tying our Pope coverage yesterday. You became like an authority. Yeah. In the middle of one of the. And then shrag's getting inside messages as it's all coming down. I enjoyed the Pope coverage yesterday.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, it really was like, if you aren't Catholic, then it's maybe whatever. Like, that was a massive deal. Like, that is something like in, like, we'll never. We'll never see that again in our lifetime. I don't think. I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime. Like, when you look at, like, the events of, like the last 100 years, you know, like, when things started being covered like this, like, this was a massive, massive deal.

[Pat McAfee]

We missed the terrible towel that was waving in the crowd. That's on us. We apologize. Because we were so in the moment trying to learn about it. And I even had some Catholics who, obviously a big deal, had some Catholics, American Catholics, send me texts that said, you even covered up being a scumbag Catholic hater whenever you were talking about. Thought we had pretty good. Non biased. I'm not a Catholic hater. You didn't pick Notre Dame. I was told. Okay, okay. That is not what that means. In this entire thing. But with that being said, I do understand that it was a huge day and I appreciated us all learning about it. So I do appreciate you, Ty. You were kind of put on in a spotlight there to give us right answers. And then working alongside Google, I feel like we did, I think we did a good Pope coverage yesterday.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think so too.

[Shams Charania]

This is an open minded for the people, people for everyone's show. Inclusion is very important here.

[Pat McAfee]

Amen. And also like it's happening in everybody's world, this piece of news. So we owe it to people that are watching to be like, hey, heads up, big deal just happened. Yeah. With the CM Pope, the Internet did great too.

[AJ Hawk]

That's often.

[Shams Charania]

We got to take him to a Cubs game though.

[Pat McAfee]

Do a little research on the Pope, brother. We don't know that he has no.

[Shams Charania]

I agree, but I need to, we need to see if we can convert him to the Cubs or go to a White Sox.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you're gonna, you think the Pope is gonna be disloyal to the team? That he's okay. I appreciate that. Ladies and gentlemen, we didn't do good enough coverage yesterday. Obviously joining us every single week seemingly to keep us informed on what's happening in the NBA for the last few years, even before he became Mr. Big Time on ESPN. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. Have a great weekend.

[Shams Charania]

Appreciate you guys does. Thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's get some more answers, ladies and gentlemen. Like who's going to win the title? I don't like that he won't make a pick.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, he's the worst when it comes to that stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't like that at all. Well, I don't want to upset anybody on either side. It's like, I get it. That's like when Herb street on game day, I'm calling a game so I can't make a pick.

[AJ Hawk]

It's like, okay, sternal is good gimmick.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's not live or die. We're, we're, you know, you can say.

[Pat McAfee]

Who you think is gonna win.

[Ty Schmidt]

We're trying to figure out who's gonna win a basketball game.

[Pat McAfee]

And I used to, I used to like making those picks on game day because you're in a big spot there. And when you pick against a team, these teams, especially in college football, with the passion that they have these teams in their fan base and their alumni in their current students group and the current people that just live in the area and the people that used to live in the area, that's a large number of People that feel like you're picking against me. Oh, yeah, I guess Notre Dame people felt that way.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

They're like, all of Canada, especially me being an Irish. Yeah, okay. They're like, you son of a. How could you do that? It's like, I'm just saying who I think.

[Shams Charania]

You live in Indiana.

[Ty Schmidt]

What do you do?

[Pat McAfee]

I'm just saying, who I think is going to win the game. I'm not picking against you. I am picking that this other team might be a little bit better in couple matchups that I like. And they're going to beat you in the game. It's like. So you just got to get past the point of people being mad whenever you say that you think one team's going to win. So at the beginning, whenever everybody was crushing me for picking these games, I'm like, I hate this. I don't like that this is what comes from this, but it just is a part of it. And if you think somebody's going to win a game, you just. You have to understand you're going to piss people off on the other side. And it's like, that's why sports are awesome. And guess what? The next week, if you think their team is a better matchup, some of them might hear you. But most of them, they're gone.

[AJ Hawk]

Most of them, they don't care.

[Pat McAfee]

They do not care. So you're gonna lose a lot of people. Shams. And we understand that. But, you know, ball bearing on Shams. You know, the inside information. So when you're giving pictures, you're helping out the people, you know, and that's where I have to frame it. It's like I'm. I'm trying to help out people with my thoughts. Even if they think I'm a doofus, they want to pick against me. Sure. Here's my thoughts. I'm trying to help out, but you're gonna get it on the sheins from a lot of people. People. Whenever you pick against them.

[Ty Schmidt]

And that's the thing, is you're not going to hear any of it. But, like, the team that you're riding with, like, they're like, oh, hell, yeah. MacV's. MacV's rolling with us.

[Pat McAfee]

Never hear it.

[Ty Schmidt]

You're never going to hear it.

[Pete Thamel]

But that.

[Ty Schmidt]

There's plenty of that out there, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but for seams, we need to tell them.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

And for Herbie, like, right, Herbie, you're just saying who you think is going to win a game. Then you can even carry that into the broadcast. But I guess it's not professional. You can say, to be honest. I mean, I said it this morning. I thought this team was going to. Blah, blah, blah. You can just kind of have it. But there is a change. There's a chance. There is a chance. Especially if you think about how these people think, that they'd be like, we're incredibly kind to you. We let you in our building.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We took. We showed you around, took care of your family. We did everything. And you just. So you saw what we did and you think, this team stinks. You think we're going to lose to the other team. You can see how people get offended. I assume that is what happened. Never mind. Herbie. Herbie should not be making fun of it.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, the Ohio State coaches at the Rose Bowl.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. When there's cake.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That was awesome. Or the Texas fans when you hit him with the horns down. That was all time. Yeah, it was a good time. That had to happen. But that was disrespectful by me. But there was a lot of disrespectful being said, you know, and not everybody sees the disrespectful stuff being said to me. Only, like, you know, me and, like, a few others see it. So whenever I potentially respond a little bit of a fashion to a school with a little bit more juice, you know, it's like a lot of those people that are out there don't. They haven't seen all the other things. So I'm just the ass. It's. It's an interesting game, picking games because really, college game day. Obviously it's three hours or whatever it is. Early morning on Saturday.

[AJ Hawk]

Very early, especially on the west coast, early call time.

[Pat McAfee]

That is in early morning.

[AJ Hawk]

Seeing that cow, forgetting how dark out it was.

[Pat McAfee]

Monday through Friday show. Okay. Then obviously have to watch ball all day Sunday and all day Saturday afternoon. So that's a lot of days of having to do stuff. Lucky to do it. But that's an early morning. That is an early morning. Especially after every. That's an early morning. Not really a morning guy. Never have been. Have become an espresso shot chugger, though, I will say, because I know what I'm here for, you know, I know early morning. I know what I'm here for.

[Ty Schmidt]

Can't really lay an egg either.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah. Never, Never, Never can. Okay. Never. Never will. Hopefully just try to work my ass off to do all that thing. Late night, too. Learning a lot.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Late night. Learning a lot. Early morning in that Entire thing. But it's all leading up to those picks. Yeah. So the most amount of people are watching you make those picks. So now not only did you potentially compliment that team in the first hour of game day. Okay. Like, huge. Put them over in a massive, massive way. Like, hey, showcased a lot of things. You just so happen to think that another top five team might be a little bit better. They had no idea that you think anything is good to that team. That just comes with it. Choms. That just comes with it. Shs. Every once in a while you're just gonna have to piss off an entire city. Exactly. I understand why it doesn't.

[Tony]

Even when you pick them, sometimes they get mad because I remember week one last year you went A and M against Notre Dame and then you guys did a bounce back segment in week two and you're like, oh, Notre Dame is going to blow out Northern Illinois. And they didn't. And then they got mad at you for saying Notre Dame was going to blow out Northern Illinois.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. It's just the Michigan people at the end of last year. Don't you even think a whole year about picking us? Don't you even think about it? I'm like, jesus, you guys are paying attention. Oh, yeah, we're paying. Not for you. Mostly because the guy that's next to me, I mean, how was Nick say, how was Nick Saban at picking or.

[Tony]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's a great question.

[Pat McAfee]

I wonder how he's gonna assume good. Yeah, I would, too. I don't know.

[Tony]

No, because I mean, well, Miss Amy, Miss Terry. Miss Terry. I don't know why I said Miss Amy.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, Miss Amy is a massive piece of the same team. Ms. Amy's awesome, by the way. Talk to her. She reps Jackson Dart, I believe.

[Ty Schmidt]

Really?

[Pat McAfee]

Hey. Yeah, I believe. I believe she is. She's a wet. Miss Amy's an absolute dog.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah. In Green Bay.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. I just saw her at the draft.

[Pat McAfee]

Everything that Coach Saban has around him is the best of the best. I think he is an incredible. That's why his coaching staffs are so good. He's an incredible. Like, I think he has a good eye for talent. I think he has a good eye and judgment for talent. And then he. That's in every. That's not just in the coaching business. That's in all of his car business. Great business. Yeah. That business is.

[Ty Schmidt]

I read an article on that. That is. I would highly recommend reading that.

[Pat McAfee]

Coach Saban and his ability to read people, figure out what and if and then make the decision and do it and then take care of those. The amount of time he invests in everything. I know he was an incredible coach and he invested a lot of time in Alabama and I assume he would. And then whenever he retires, he has a little bit more free time. I think all of his businesses are also starting to.

[Shams Charania]

All.

[Pat McAfee]

All the other. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All the others that are. That dude's special. Coach Saban is a special, special person. That's why the rumors that are coming out about him potentially being a part of it. I don't know if that is 100% a thing. I have no idea. I've not been able to, you know, kind of and have chose not to. To reach out to him. He's got a lot going on, I assume in his life. I don't know if that's official, but if this was to happen, this thing, there'd be no better.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Than this guy. And I think everybody feels that way. That's why whenever this gets reported, everybody's like, oh yeah, definitely. I don't know if this is. I'm not 100% sure if this is 100% a thing from what I'm hearing.

[Tony]

We hope it is.

[Pat McAfee]

But we all. Yeah. Hope. Fingers crossed that it is a thing. But we do understand that that might be an impossible task too. Like that's a lot of. That's a huge undertaking that you are trying to do with college. That's a huge job. So I just like the fact that that's being thought about like the news. If coach is a part of it, which maybe I've. No, I. We're not hearing it's official. But if he is a part of it, great. But the fact that they're thinking about trying to figure this out, that's the big news. I think that's good news. This episode is brought to you by Chevy Silverado.

[Shams Charania]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Shams Charania]

Rugged capability of its Z71 suspension and 2 inch factory lift, plus impressive torque and towing capacity thanks to an available.

[Pat McAfee]

Duramax 3 liter turbo diesel engine where.

[Shams Charania]

Other trucks call it quits.

[Pat McAfee]

The you'll just be getting started. Visit chevy.com to learn more.

[Tony]

Abercrombie's shorts and swim sale is live.

[Pat McAfee]

And they're giving Spotify listeners an extra 15% off with code SWIM AF. Abercrombie's shorts and swim trunks come in so many fits and fabrics, it's easy to find your go to pair prep for summer during Abercrombie's shorts and swim sale Excludes clearance Online price reflects discount. Use code SWIMAF to Get an additional 15% off almost everything at checkout from May 8, 2025 through May 12, 2025. Offer valid in Canada. Exclusions apply. See details online. Sports are the greatest. Yeah, we should take a moment, really acknowledge that. How about last night? Overtime game between two teams that are in cities that are far away from where I am this morning had me thinking to myself, damn, that's awesome. A guy who I've never met before, goes by the name of Mick Jesus, playing a sport on ice that I've never been able to skate on in my entire life does something. And the next morning, hours after it happens, I'm thinking to myself, that's marvelous. This marvelous McJesus fella is magic on the ice. And this Vegas Golden Knights team is obviously special. And Jackie Ace is the guy that just got crossed to hell back right there. Had an incredible game last night.

[Ty Schmidt]

He did.

[Pat McAfee]

He's a great player. But that can happen when you live in a paint. Every once in a while, you're going to get dunked on. Whenever you're on the ice with McJesus, there's a chance that you're going to get, especially in overtime, and then go on to lose it. Jackie Aces will respond. The Vegas Golden Knights will respond. And that's kind of the story of sports, is there's going to be another game. There's going to be another day. You have to answer the bill. Why? Because the game's going to happen. That's what we're experiencing right now. There's massive upsets, potentially lingering, historic, historic upsets, which also means historic runs in positive cities coming together more so than they've ever been in the past. The city of New York coming alive around this New York Knicks team. It's improbable run. I've got a chance now to be in New York multiple times during this run. Place is going crazy. The energy, the vibes are insane. People are more unified feeling than ever in the past. And that's what sports can do. And that's what sports are happening right now. The NBA, the NHL, in the middle of their playoffs. It's awesome. The NFL's got drama. College football's got drama, and we're all tuned in because sports are the greatest. The Pope is a sports fan.

[J.R. Smith]

That's right.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah, Big time.

[Pat McAfee]

At the highest of High levels. Sports are what make people forget about everything else that's going on and feel like they're a part of something special. Shout out to sports on this Feel Good Friday. It's not just me. The toxic tables here at Boston. Connor and at Ty Schmidt, one half of the Hammer, Don Cowboys, ap. Tony's here. And joining us live from an attic in Ohio is a man who has won a college football national championship, a Super bowl championship. He's been a Ryder cup winner, although the team lost. But he won. He contributed. We think that means something. He doesn't like that we say it because the team lost. We just mean he beat Europe in golf. Yeah. A.J. hawk, you did it.

[Connor]

Yeah. Rob Riggle and myself, we were able to, you know, squeak out a victory in our match, but, yeah, ultimately they were too much for us.

[AJ Hawk]

Save Malfoy, though. Yeah, you did.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[AJ Hawk]

You saved Draco Malfoy.

[Tony]

Saved his life on the course.

[Connor]

Oh, not me. Kelly's later. Honestly. Really? Did I believe. Yeah. It was a scary situation after that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Happy everybody's okay.

[Connor]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

And on that note, aj, you're a winner. That's what you are.

[Connor]

You, too.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what you've done at all different stages of your life. This guy was even an all state punter, I think, in high school. I know you stayed up last night for that Golden Knights Oilers game. What is your thoughts on Connor McDavid and how he is slicing and dicing at the right time for the team from Edmonton?

[Connor]

I tell you what, playoff hockey is different. Playoff hockey is. It's amazing to watch. Now, unfortunately, this one, I watched the majority of it. The following morning. Early this morning, I got to see a lot of the clips and a lot of the highlights, but I wish I would have been up to see this one. I really do, but just my time zone kind of messed me with this one.

[Pat McAfee]

Unless you're a Golden Knights fan. Ty Schmidt, Last night was everything that was spectacular with playoff hockey. You know, the playoff hockey, I think, in the broader sense doesn't get talked about enough, you know, and on this particular channel, which we appreciate for licensing our show, espn, I don't think there's been a lot of hockey talk for a long time. I don't think playoff hockey has gotten, like, kind of eyes on it. It for one reason or another, because it's on another network. There's no relevance to the conversation in there, whatever the case is. But now it feels like you can't help but just respect what's going on in hockey, every night there's a banger, every night there's something special, every night there is highlights. And last night, Capitals get a massive win over the Hurricanes. The handsome menace Tom Wilson notches an apple. And the goal empty and air nonetheless. Doesn't matter, matter no on a score sheet. Just keep it moving in that whole thing. It's like hockey always delivers for us, AJ it really does feel like that as, as sports fans feels like playoff hockey always delivers for us.

[Connor]

Well, don't you feel the. The thing about playoff hockey, has it always been 7 game series? Like playoff hockey is a whole nother season. Obviously the regular season is what it is, but playoff hockey, it's like two, three months long. It feels like that's what, what makes it great. All these games mean so much for.

[Pat McAfee]

Us and that's just like the NBA. It is a whole nother season as like a outsider of the NBA fan, but lifelong NHL fan. The NBA is the same way. The playoffs are the only thing that really matters to the grand conversation of the entire sport in the entire league because the best of seven series are so long and that's all eyes are on it. It's whenever the league is the league basically, for some people. And I think if you only tune in during the NHL playoffs, I think you, you are watching the best obviously in the world, but also the best act outside of. I mean, there was a couple even playoff football games that weren't that I'm trying to. Great playoff football, impossible to beat. Okay. In our eyes, in our eyes, especially if your team's in it. I mean, a whole different animal. But playoff hockey, if you have no rooting interest, you just tune in, you're going to be dazzled. It's going to be spectacular no matter what. So I appreciate them showing up in last night's game, going on very late, but also being very great.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it's the best. And hockey, it feels like, is the only sport where the bottom seed can go on a run and win the entire thing. Like even in football you can see the seven seed making it to, you know, the divisional or the NFC championship, but they're never going on to win the Super Bowl. Basketball is kind of similar, but it does kind of give you an insight on the 82 games, like we're talking about the Pacers, and how after the All Star break they got so hot and it's like you kind of need those 82 games just so water does find its level. And then once you do get to the playoffs, those teams are Going up against each other are the best. Like the east is now, you know, one verse four, two verse three. In the west you have a seven verse six matchup and a one verse four matchup. But now kind of looking back on it with how much we do shit on the 82 games and this is too much and you don't need to play this many games. It's like you kind of do. And then the level of play that happens after those 82 games is so much higher because they've kind of. Every team has found their rhythm a bit.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a long season.

[AJ Hawk]

It's long as hell.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, I don't even want to get into baseball right now.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's the same thing though.

[Pat McAfee]

Baseball. They need to, they need to have exactly 1,004 games.

[Ty Schmidt]

162. You have to. Because that's. It's a big like the, with the COVID year when they played 60 games, like you could argue like the best team didn't win this year because like that, that is, that's what they've done every year. That's the whole point is like can you go through the mental and physical rigors of like an entire summer and kind of find your formula, your right roster by the time the playoffs.

[Pat McAfee]

So it's just like, you know, I guess it's in the sports world. Interesting metaphor. We'll see how it is received. Soccer's 90 minutes and I think it's not kind.

[Connor]

Kind of.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You're talking about the extra stoppage time.

[Connor]

That we never know about. In the extra time that one person gets to keep at the time. I would imagine they can manipulate the game pretty good.

[Pat McAfee]

They put the sign up, they go four minutes, three minutes at the start.

[Connor]

Of the extra minutes. But you don't know until after the.

[Shams Charania]

90 minutes they put it up.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. So he is right.

[Connor]

Thanks for the two minute warning.

[Pat McAfee]

That is new. I would just like to say that is kind of new though. Back in the day they didn't do that and it all was just like how much time. Yeah. I will tell you when this. How much time power that person's got.

[Connor]

A lot of power.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You literally ask like, hey, how. How much we thinking here? And I'll let you like if my.

[Connor]

Team'S up one nothing. Oh, sorry bud. There's no extra time today. We're going. We're right at 90 tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

But anyways, they've evolved that a little bit. But 90 minutes is a long time. Golf, 18 holes, that's a long. That's a really long time. And in the modern world, it's like we bring that down to 12 holes, 13 holes. Can we do that? Just make golf a little bit faster, more efficient. Soccer, can we get that a little bit more active, you know, and it's like this is how it's always been. If you want to compare yourself against all the times and play the actual sport, we got to play 162 games. You got to play a long ass golf round and you got to go 90 plus minutes to survive this thing and probably run six, seven miles. Can we drop that down, make the nets bigger? Can we do, can we, can we make the game a little bit? Well, that's not the sport. It's been this way since the beginning of time. And that's another great thing about sport tradition. I think it's still a meritocracy. I believe in a lot of, I think it's, it's a beautiful thing. But I think these NBA and NHL playoffs right now, I'm more invested now because we obviously have an opportunity to showcase their highlights and meet people from their leagues and everything. It's like I'm captivated every single time. And I've never really been that invested in the NBA playoffs or the NBA at all.

[Tony]

Super captivating, but I'm on the other side. I wish, I wish, I Wish these were 11 game series. I wish these leagues played 100 games a year. I wish golf round rounds were seven, eight hours, soccer games four hours. The more they are, the more things. No, I mean, like you said, 90 minutes. I want the run time.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, play time.

[Tony]

Yeah, I want 180 minutes.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay, because.

[Tony]

Because if not if, if these. All right, say they were 40 game seasons, we'd have so many days where we had nothing on and nothing to do.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, you know, I agree. I guess we could just watch very boring thing for a long time and bingo, we certainly will. And that is our life. But there's a lot of things changing in sport as well, especially at the college ranks. Joining us now is the senior insider and the authority on college football and basketball. Ladies and gentlemen, from ESPN's College Game Days and the College Game Day podcast with Rhys Davis, Pete Thammel. Yay. How you doing, Pete?

[Pete Thamel]

I'm great, Pat. Coach Rodriguez told us on the College Game Day podcast this week that you did not have a curfew at West Virginia because you were so reliable on the field and maybe not so reliable with curfew. He just wanted you to make sure you showed up when the game started. Is that True.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I was an insomniac, you know, so what's that? Why am I being punished? I can't fall asleep, so I'm not allowed to do. Everybody else that's able to fall asleep has to live by the same rules as me. No, Me and Coach Rod had a hilarious relationship, I think would be the way to describe it. And he taught me a lot about life, man. Legitimately, a lot about life. And I find myself, as I get older, in every situation, I think back to something that Rich Rod either yelled at me or tried to get into our brains. And however he did it, every. I would say at least every day, every other day, I think about Rich Rodriguez. I'm happy he's back in West Virginia. How do you feel about it? How do you feel about the conversation with him? I think we're. I think we're about. We gotta make some big turnover. I think. I think we're gonna be in a good spot, but it might take us a little bit, right? It might take us. Is that what you're feeling?

[Pete Thamel]

Yeah. Big, big turnover numbers wise this year for. For Rich. And we'll see if your friend and Nico fits what he wants to do long term.

[Pat McAfee]

Right.

[Pete Thamel]

I think Nico will be a. Is a very good player and a good starter there. But we know what. We know how Rich wants to go.

[Pat McAfee]

Has that been announced? Is that the starter is Nico? Did he tell you Nico's the starter? He did not.

[Pete Thamel]

He's just, you know, the. The incumbent on the death. On the depth chart. You know, he started some games at the end of last year.

[Pat McAfee]

I was about to say, holy, that's big news. Nico's a starter. Because I love Nico Matsara. I love him. I love that he stayed, too. Right. Vastly different. Vastly different styles of culture are happening between Neil Brown and coach Rich Rodriguez. So him staying, I think, was. I, like, respect every time he played. Respect. But I. I didn't know if they named a start. That was because that. You just kind of got me pumped up there for a second, like, okay, Nico's our guy. I'm excited for the big Italian lefty to kind of do his thing. And then, you know, you're just telling me you're reading it. Okay. You don't have any information that I don't have at this point. Good. Happy.

[Pete Thamel]

No, I think you should have all the West Virginians that information. Pat, I will say this. Sitting here on May, whatever day today is, you'd be very hard pressed to get a college football coach to tell you who Their number one is if it's not like an incumbent thumper starter. Because the quarterback market is so fickle and guys leave so soon that I, you know, if I ever mentioned to a coach coming through through spring, hey, you know, this, this guy, hey, equal snaps, equal snap. Everyone's got a chance, you know, because everybody, they don't want to show their cards to have guys leave. So it's the games, the games the gentlemen play.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And the game might have been played there whenever you said Nico was a starter because we got some dogs behind him that we don't need to leave. Okay. We, we got some guys. Hey, I don't think the starter has been named yet, but let's talk about what you just chatted about there, people leaving and everything. College football is obviously in the middle of a wild change. College sports as a whole. We all heard the announcement about or reading on the Internet, the announcement that I think mutual friends of ours say that is not official, but would be cool if it was to happen. College commission happening and like getting rules and regulations on this. For the people that you talk to in the sport, are they all assuming that this is going to happen and are they thinking it's going to be sooner than later? Like what? What do you think about the guardrails that we're all kind of hoping for? What are the people in the world that you talk to thinking about the realistic expectations of that?

[Pete Thamel]

I think realistic expectations, Pat, is a great way to frame it. We all sit around and talk a lot about the issues and the problems and they're all pretty obvious with college football. And the goal of this presidential commission that's supposed to come together sometime in the next few weeks would be to really sit down and try to solve them. If these were easy issues to fix that didn't weave through labor law and weave through billion dollar television contracts and weave through higher education, they probably would have been fixed by now. So I have personally lived through lot of commissions that were supposed to fix college sports or some aspect of college sports, and I can't tell you right now whether this one, even though the President commissioned it, is going to be more or less qualified to find a place to go for a smooth path forward for college athletics. What is known already is that this commission is not going to all of a sudden be gifted unilateral rights to change the whole landscape. Congress would still be needed to, to use the, use the great buzzword, codify what they're hoping to have happen with the settlement. There's going to be some antitrust help that's going to be needed. There's a lot that is needed. And the commission in a linear fashion is not going to be able to just sit back and say this is what we're doing, let's execute it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, this is what we're doing is going to be a hard thing to get to too. Like what's the right answer? You're figuring out the right answer and getting everybody that's on said commission to believe that that's the right answer. Then if you think that's the right answer, getting everybody to approve their portion of the right answer, which is going to involve a lot of money. A lot of money, a lot of people, lot of, I assume lawyers, if I had to guess, because there's potentially money being taken away from employee. I mean there is. This is a huge, this is kind of where we always end up back at. On this particular program, whenever we talk about the college guardrails, everybody talks about that. The amount of, I would just say the amount of things that have to get fixed, that is, if somebody was to sign up for that job, that's it. Like that is. That is a full time thing. I think this commission might be tough to find. I think it's going to be tough to find who's going to want to do this.

[Pete Thamel]

I would just say this, Pat. It's a multibillion dollar business that is, you know, an extremely important part of the fabric of America. When you talk about college football especially, but college athletics in general and that multi billion dollar business sitting here on May, whatever today is, doesn't actually have rules in place for when it's going to essentially restart at a high level in late August. Like there are, no, there is not a system and a paradigm set up yet for how this multibillion dollar business is going to grow next year. So it's a very, it's a very weird moment in time that speaks to how sort of fraught and complicated the issues are.

[Pat McAfee]

Paradigm. Good word. You've been dropping all codify. Paradigm. I love. Every time I talk about to Pete Thammel, I feel smarter. And in this particular case, you feeling smart, you got to have the qualified right people in this position too because if they don't know ball or the, the reality of what it is, it's never going to, I hope. Hey, good luck. Whoever does this. We need you. We need you. Go ahead, A.J. i think you have something on it too.

[Connor]

Yeah. Pete, what would you say is the most like pressing issue that this committee or, or These guardrails that are going to be put up. What's the most pressing issue when you talk to coaches and administrators that you think needs to be figured out before anything else?

[Pete Thamel]

Yeah, that's. It's a really good question, AJ And I think there's a ton of macro things that need to be resolved and then there's obviously going to be some, some micro things. But I do, I think how they're going to treat the athletes moving forward is probably the most vexing issue. I think we all know it's going to get to some collective bargaining moment in time here. And there's a lot of pushback from that, from campuses, from presidents, employee, non employee. Like all those issues, if they're not going to be employees, they have protections. I think identifying what college athletes are in the future and how they are going to be, how they're going to be treated is probably the, you know, the single biggest issue going forward. And can you somehow fast forward through years of pain, which we see to be on the precipice of, and get to some collectively bargained solution? I think that would be like the biggest, most complicated macro issue for those.

[Pat McAfee]

That are not great with context clues. Vexing means causing annoyance, frustration or worry, which is what he was just referring to right there. And at a high level, the macro views involve a lot of lawsuits, lot of them. When you say taking care of the players, all those players that are making whatever or are supposed to make whatever, and then if they put just this one generation, because the next generation will understand these are rules. Like it's when there was a new CBA for the draft, like when AJ Got drafted. These rookies getting drafted never played a day in the NFL. We're getting paid more than 15 year vets with their assignment. Matthew Stafford got like 60 million or something in 2009 guaranteed whenever he was the number one overall pick. It was the same draft class as me. I got 45,000 pick, 222, bought an Escalade, didn't get the money for three months, almost got Escalade repoed. But nonetheless, that is a lot of people that are going to be losing money potentially whenever these things come in and there's going to be lawyers are like, we should definitely think about figuring this whole thing out. Who, who settles that?

[Ty Schmidt]

Good question.

[Pete Thamel]

Well, we still have to settle the settlement first, right, Pat? And that could come as soon as next week. But one thing I've learned on, on legal issues, this is from Judge Wilkins courtroom in Northern California. One thing I've learned about, you know, following enough of these legal cases over the years is they don't tend to happen quickly, but this one seems to be on the cusp. Everyone I've talked to in the industry is waiting for the settlement to happen. I don't think there's a, there's a plausible chance that it won't. You do talk to some extremists, however, who are almost rooting for it not to happen because then they would actually just have to figure out the rules. The settlement is. It's almost like like a ten year pause to like, okay, we messed up all this stuff in the back. Let's, let's back pay and fix that. And this gives us like rules of engagement for perhaps 10 years. It is the most temporary of fixes. To think again that a multi billion dollar business is relying on the whims of a judge in a Northern California courtroom who, you know, whose rhetoric indicates he probably doesn't have like 98th level, like expertise on how college football and how college sports work. It's a. But it's a really bad place to have your billion dollar business when it comes down to it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I'm excited for that ruling. Wasn't that supposed to be in April or something? Did I get punted?

[Pete Thamel]

So, yes, everyone was expecting to. And quite frankly the market acted like it was supposed to happen in, in April. It was April 7th. There was a day of the national championship game. There was some cool kind of confluence of this is the most important day of the NCAA calendar because obviously CFP is not under the NCAA umbrella. And here's this, this. But it was just a hearing. It wasn't a ruling. And I think people knew that that hearing would give some clarity in the future. But the it is, it has given way to more hearings and more filings and perhaps, perhaps next week a ruling.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, shout out to any billionaire that would like to adopt West Virginia. It feels like we're gonna at least have another season of what it has been. At least, at least another, another season. Because when you talk about like all we really know from outsiders of the law world is that it takes forever. Right? Isn't that like the only thing we really know about? And it's like they're not fast passing college football either. For everything else that is happening. It's like this is the law, rule of law. I'm intrigued by it all. How does it end up panning out? Because we thought last year it was going to get ruined by everything. And it was big. It was very Big, obviously the culture football playoff bigger than it's ever been before. People love the ratings. I think we're up on everything. It's like college football is great, but we'll be able to sustain years and years and years like it has with the way it's going with the who's where, who's what and then how much everybody's. And does this school booster not want to do it anymore? So now they fall off. It's like there has to be something. But there's so many questions. Now let's talk about the College Football Playoff. Ty has a question for you, Pete, because there's a, some lingering change happening there as well.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Pete, listen, we, we've heard that the SEC commissioner and the Big Ten, well, the conference commissioners, what have you, they're gung ho about, hey, we need a 16 playoff. Now to the layman, you might think the CFP committees kind of put themselves in a bit of a quagmire here because we were just at a 12 team playoff, now we're going to 16. Do you envision that this is going to shit at 16 and kind of just say that there or are we going to, you know, in two, three years from now be saying, hey, we have the NCAA basketball tournament for football. We're going to have 64 teams in here. We obviously know the economics of the situation are at play. So what's kind of your take on this whole, you know, ordeal with the playoff, if you will?

[Pete Thamel]

Yeah, Ty, good, good question. I appreciate a good quagmire, as you know. So where we are right now for the, for the, the playoff is year 13. They call it 2026. We're going into year 12 of the first 12 T12 year agreement for the playoff. This is the, the final season we're going to be at 12 and they've kind of soft agreed to go to 14 for the next iteration of of the playoff. I believe it's a six year run from 26 to 31. As the discussions have been honed in on that, there's been recent momentum for what was expected to be and thought to be a 14 team playoff to go to 16. And a lot of this comes down to automatic qualifiers. Automatic qualifiers are controversial in some sense because the Big Ten, the SEC are likely to have double what the Big 12 and the ACC have. So there's been some pushback on that. But as it has gone forward and the conversations have have continued, Big Tech commissioner Tony Petitti has been very bullish on automatic qualifiers. Greg, thank you the SEC commission has been a little more guarded in revealing what his hand is. But the notion that I've gotten especially in like the last week is Sankey has started to align himself more with Batiti on where. On the potential of four. And the compromise of all this is to create more spots for the College Football Playoff. Which is why 16 has really. Has really come into focus now. What the 16 team playoff looks like, how it goes, how the automatic qualifiers end up being determined. Do you have conference championship games? Do you not have conference championship games? Do you have like a 1, 8, 2, 7 etc sec big 10 play ins? Do you have the, the two teams who. The one and two play each other. They each play for the conference championship game but are also given automatic bids. How all that gets hashed out. We've probably got six weeks, two months before it all comes together. But I do know this and the SEC especially and in the Big Ten too, the, the coaches are pushing, they want automatic bids and they are pushing more towards it. And if the SEC is going to go to nine games which is appearing a little bit more likely, they, they want that extra protection that they don't want a conference loss to, to x them out. And this would essentially keep the top half of each league in the playoff conversation for the, for the entire year. And Petiti has a background in the NFL that's always been, that's always been his thing to have a Minnesota Rutgers game where you know they're hovering around 500 have playoff stakes. It's like having the seven and eight jets play the eight and eight patriots or whatever. 15 and there's. There's a wild card bid seemingly, you know, on, on the table.

[Pat McAfee]

Got it. Okay. Whenever they think about these College Football Playoff changes and maybe playing games and everything like that, do they think about how all the teams that have a buy hated it right. In that kind of. With how long everything's kind of expensive. Expanded. I'm sorry and extended. It's like the teams at the buy were not. I think we were all even talking at the time like they were off for three weeks before they had to play a game. They might have lost everything. It seemed like it was rust, not rest or maybe it was just worse teams. But whatever the case, I think that all kind of was too. I don't think it was beneficial. I don't, I don't think it was beneficial. So they're have to figure that out. If they're asking. I didn't play in games. That's another week of A week. Of a week.

[Pete Thamel]

Well, that would be championship weekend, Pat.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, okay.

[Pete Thamel]

There aren't a lot of weeks left on the calendar. And the NFL calendar I know you guys have talked about this is, you know, there's, there is some collision and crossover. Collision and crossover there with that. But it would, it would be. You'd play your championship game and then have playing games that same day. Or you would have four playing games. Could be two playing games. SEC in the SEC in the Big 12. So, yeah, inventory is, as usual, on the spike.

[Pat McAfee]

I love. Maybe they'll spice up that day. Maybe that day gets even more loaded, I guess. Right. That becomes a must watch day like wild card weekend kind of has become for the NFL. Okay, let's talk about some of these teams that are going to make. It feels like if you got the cash, oh the, you got the cage, you're going to be in a good spot. I mean, I just tried to summon a billionaire who still would like to make the offer on the table. If you have a lot of money and you're interested in college football, West Virginia would love to have you, would love to have you be a part of the Mountaineers. And we're not trusting to climb anymore. We got a hard edge. Okay, we are, we're, we're going out there. We're not climbing. We're trying to, we're trying to go fight some people right now. There's a team, though, that's going to be at the top seemingly for a very long time because there's a lot of interest around the university. Go ahead, con man.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Pete. Reports are coming out saying that Texas is spending 35 to $40 million on its football team. I assume they're not the only team, but for some reason they're the ones named in here. Are you hearing these are the numbers basically for a lot of these big programs spending money. And did this happen because the hearing got kind of pushed till next week, as you said, and that maybe some money was promised and then all of a sudden, oh, shit, we actually have to pay the piper on all of these deals that we made.

[Pete Thamel]

Yeah. We are in a quintessential college sports moment right now where everyone is in a hurry to front load. So when the settlement does happen, as we're assuming, it's going to happen relatively soon, that the amount of money spent against the cap, which is going to come, if you spent it already, it wouldn't count. So there was basically like a fake market Pat referenced earlier, like April 7, we need a bird by April 7. So there was this huge, huge push both in football and basketball to get all these deals done. I had agents, I was at a pro day. One of them came up to me, he's like, I've never negotiated with someone before who's like, no, no, no, we want to pay you now. No, forget later, we'll pay you everything up front. Which is obviously counter to usually how negotiations work. So player, I think in the, in the realm of like Texas and high end schools in the high 30 million range, that's not shocking to me. Like that's, that's in line. We were in the 20s last year. So with this for a window to be exploited, it's not surprising Texas is there. USC is spending a lot of money in high school recruiting right now. They have the number one, they have the number one class in the country. And that's, that's clearly another team that is going, that is going all out now until, until the paradigms are put into place. And in basketball, there's rosters that are in the, in the neighborhood of 20 million. So. And they only have, you know, 12, 13 guys on them. So once again, it is a weird feeding frenzy right now. That's, that is, that's flying around.

[Pat McAfee]

Once again, if you are at a university, this is the time where your alumni can really showcase themselves. And there's a lot of these schools. You talk about USC going. USC wants to get back to glory days. Remember what USC was whenever they were flying around. Obviously their alumni want LA to be a USC city and everything like that. Penn State. Penn State's had to sit all their alumni. A lot of success, lot of success. They have the most CEOs out of any university in the country. Country. Across the business world. Penn State does. I learned that this past year whenever we were up there for game day, all those CEOs get paid a lot of money. People get pissed about how much CEOs get paid. Okay, that's like an actual thing. So they all have a lot of money and they all like ball. Like, they all, they all like ball. And their athletic director is like, I've learned this pretty quickly here that everybody like, likes ball. They were able to just drop what, 700 million or something on stadium renovations. Boom. And then they were able to bid for whatever. It's like these schools that have alumni that are ready to roll, they're certainly going to benefit from that. Now with that being said, Ohio State Buckeye. AJ Hawk has a question for you, Pete.

[Connor]

Yeah, Pete, actually I want to know what do you think the max number is that we see in the College football playoffs 10 years from now? What do you think are we going to get up to like, like I guess the other Pete said a 64 team football playoff eventually.

[Pete Thamel]

So if we get to 16 here, which I would say is a high probability at this point, AJ I have a hard time seeing it jump up from there again. There's bracket creep. It's always back in the history basketball tournament. It's always grown. And there'll be another conversation about it growing next year in hoops, I would think. 16, you'd have to stay static there for a relatively short period of time. Now, 20 years from now, I don't know how it all, how it all works, but I would think there's already resistance, you know, from going 14 to 16 in a lot of ways. And a lot of this comes down to TV windows. Guys like the, we saw the overlap last year with the college Football Playoff in the NFL and there's, there's not a lot of places to put these games right now so that the appetite for fierce growth TV wise is likely not to be that high just because the windows to showcase and maximize them financially aren't there.

[Pat McAfee]

College football's got a lot going on.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, it does.

[Pat McAfee]

College football's got a lot going on. A lot of big decisions need to be made. Somebody needs to step up and decide them now. Somebody also needs to step up and be the brand new face of college football. Tone has the last question for you here, Pete.

[Tony]

Yeah, Pete, we, we talked a lot about the beginning of this conversation about quarterback depth charts and how coaches right now are not going to talk about that. But there are a lot of big programs who do have quarterback battles. Michigan's obviously got one with Bryce Underwood and Mikey Keane, the five star coming in there. Oregon's got Dante Moore and Austin Nova Sad there. Alabama has got Ty Simpson and Austin Mack down there. Have those big schools. If any of them leaned in any direction as far as who's going to be the face of their program moving forward this year.

[Pete Thamel]

Good question, Tone. And I think at least two of those schools, I feel like, like who starts the season may not necessarily end the season, if that makes sense. You mentioned, you mentioned Ty Simpson. I would think he's the experienced, safe son of a coach kind of guy who can, who can roll out their week one. The name at Bama that's got some buzz is Keelan Russell. He was the number one quarterback recruit in the country. Is he the kind of guy that can show the coaches enough where he could eventually, he could eventually end up taking over. It'll be really interesting for Michigan, as you mentioned. Obviously, Bryce Underwood's there. Mikey Keane's played a lot of college, college football. You go to Oklahoma Week two. Is, is Mikey Keane the, you know, is, is Mikey Keane the starter there or do you let Bryce Underwood rip? Remember there, there aren't a lot of, there's not a lot of empirical evidence of freshman quarterbacks like leading teams to conference titles. So you don't look at Dylan Rayola, for example, like he, he struggled at times last year, straight up. So when to break the quarterback in, to not curb his development becomes, becomes pretty interesting. And I think for, for Oregon, I feel pretty good about Dante Moore, you know, being, being the starter there with, with no super inside knowledge. Oregon had chances in the portal to go get higher, higher end players. They've had Dante Moore for a year. They seem to like what they have there. He was obviously the number one quarterback recruit in the country coming out of Michigan two years ago. Went and played for Chip Kelly at UCLA and then transferred up there and kind of took a red shirt year last year. Red shirt season last year. So, yeah, those are all going to be interesting summer, summer battles that we're following.

[Pat McAfee]

I love that you brought up Dylan Raiola, who's a son, son of a coach. Okay. So he, you know, he works his ass off. I seen him at RAW the other day in Omaha. Looking good, strapping big son. Coach Matt Rule obviously vibes high, hanging with the boys. And then E Money, Emma Johnson, the running back. His aura was immaculate. Like a confidence that, you know, I think you can't teach. I'm. I'm high on the Nebraska Corn Huskers after getting a chance to meet these boys and chitchat with them one on one post Monday night, Raw on the back. Now, because I did enjoy the conversation with them for so much, I hit all the traffic. Sure. 11,000 in Omaha. Okay. That's all leaving at the same time. So I did think about the conversation we were having while sitting in traffic in Omaha for a good bit there after the program. And I would like to let the Nebraska Cornhusker boys know. I said, worth it. It was cool to meet them. It was. That Dylan kid was. That was great. Like he was. I enjoyed the way he was operating like I enjoy. He just has like a star kind of vibe about him. And then E Money there right next to him to a great nickname. As soon as I saw it on his chain, I'M like, eat money here, dude. I didn't know who he was. I've learned Emmett Johnson's a dog. All right. I think Dylan RA Is going to be a star next year. Freshman last year he said straight up, didn't do was exactly. Guy's playing for Nebraska as a freshman. What are we. What?

[AJ Hawk]

He's huge.

[Ty Schmidt]

No. Yeah. Listen, I love the hype. You have to do better than six and six next year. This is the Big Ten, okay? We're not playing in the wax.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you see him in the end of the season? Did you see him at the end of the season? Yeah, I did.

[Ty Schmidt]

He looked like against Iowa.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

He actually fumbled. You know, kind of end of the game. Listen, he's a great player.

[Pat McAfee]

He learned a lesson. He did. He's a young guy. Just wait. Let's see what Iowa is, you know, going for.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, we will. We got Mark Gaski. We got the.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, I forgot. You got.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, we're going to be just fine.

[Pat McAfee]

I forgot about that. All right. Hey, Pete, we appreciate you, man. Thank you for taking time. I called you very last minute to join us today and you picked up the phone and delivered. We appreciate that.

[Pete Thamel]

Thanks, Pat. Thanks, guys.

[Pat McAfee]

The authority and host of the College Game Day podcast, Pete Tamhall. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want is a great feeling. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings and eligibility vary by state. If you want tools that stand the test of time without testing your wallet, Harbor Freight is the place for you. Expert engineers design and rigorously test Harbor Freight tools to bring you top quality. Whether your next project is big or small. Harbor Freight carries a wide selection, from hand tools to power tools to automotive tools and welding equipment. And with prices lower than other top brands, but with the same top quality, you're getting more for your money at Harbor Freight. There are over 1,500 Harbor Freight stores in the U.S. so come see for yourself. Whatever you do, do it for less at Harbor Freight. A lot of words in there out of Pete.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Holy hell.

[Connor]

It's hard not to hear just Ty every time he speaks. It's hard not to just hear Ty.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, you should see Ty when he's talking. Ty is watching film. Film as he. Whenever. Whenever Pete's on the big. When Pete's on the big screen there, it's just him. Yeah. Ty's like very intently watching. And then you're on the backboard here. We can still see you. Whenever you're not on camera, you're like next to Pete. Your reactions are our reactions at the same exact time. Yeah.

[Connor]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Everything you're. I think you even heard us one time into the mic. We had to like step away because we're like, geez, like, because.

[Connor]

Son of a. Son of a coat. What was it?

[Pat McAfee]

Son. Son of a cold coach. That was a good line. That's like a coach's kid is what I always said.

[Tony]

He said two words back to back times. I can't remember what they were.

[Pat McAfee]

Vexing. Came and came out of nowhere. That was certainly one codify.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Codify was something which. I still don't know if that's.

[Connor]

Every sentence has a few of them. Every sentence has one or two words. You're like, wow. I would not have thought that goes there.

[Pat McAfee]

That was Andrew Luck too. There was times where I'm like, my context clues abilities helped me out immensely here because some of these people are just speaking a different language of the English language and I don't know them, you know, And I tried to do the Dictionary.com Word of the Day thing. Trying to get better at this. Turns out I'm not that interested in it. I just stopped doing it. Sure turned off the notifications. I'm like, this is not helping because they'll give me a random word of the day that I would never be able to put that into my life. But somehow Pete figures out a way to get these words in. And Ty, I think. I think he respects the ability to match him with his brain and his wits. And I enjoy watching it. Literally. You watching film on him is fucking sweet. As we go through here, he gave you a lot to work with today.

[Ty Schmidt]

He does. Every single time. You know, I mean, he's reading these. These you know, legal speak documents that are 60 pages. So I mean his vocabulary is. Is, you know, better than most, if not better than all. But you know, you get those sweet little moments where AJ is trying to, you know, get a clarification after his question. And Pete doesn't hear anything he's saying. He's so locked in. Just completely ignores him and keeps answering the question. That's why he's the authority.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's a two time NBA champion, a former sixth man of the year. He's Obviously had an incredibly successful career in NBA. He's also a dog on the golf course. Ladies and gentlemen, host of the Par3 podcast, J R Smith. What's up, man?

[J.R. Smith]

What's going on? What's going on?

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, I watch you boys. I watch you react to the Knicks. Obviously. I've heard you chit chat about it all. Cavaliers, obviously a team that you're close with, also the number one seed. They're on a complete opposite end of the spectrum. What's going on with the Knicks? Are you enjoying the playoffs right now? Love. Loving it. How is your vibe towards what's happening in the NBA right now?

[J.R. Smith]

It's ups and downs, man. You know, I'm loving it for the Knicks. I'm terrified for the Cavs. Denver's series looks crazy. So I got three teams that I'm really pulling for. Obviously only one team can win, so it's gonna be interesting. It's been fun so far.

[Pat McAfee]

I've enjoyed, you know, recapping as we heard there was a chance you would be joining us today, which by the way, we're pumping month about. You need to be talking more. You know that. You know that.

[J.R. Smith]

I appreciate it, man.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, no problem. Especially with just who you are, your resume, everything and what you're doing, like everything you do. We are massive fans of. You just need to know all the way back to the coveted times. I mean there was. We are everything you do, we like just. You need to know that. So anytime you come out and start speaking, we put requests and thank you for joining us. Especially in the middle of playoffs and a very busy time for you. You have so much experience in the playoffs and in big games, obviously, whenever a team's down 2 0. What is the conversation in locker room like right now? What is Boston saying? They're obviously championship pedigree. They're down 2 0. Cleveland, they're number one team in the east this year. They're down 2 0. Is there panic? Is there an understanding that there's an urgency that's needed? What is the conversation in those locker rooms?

[J.R. Smith]

I mean, for a team like Boston, I definitely think there's panic. I mean, everybody's healthy for the most part. We just don't. The ball's not falling away. They're shooting a lot of threes and, you know, and that leaves opportunities for teams to come back. Like, you know, the Knicks have been. No, not to discredit the Knicks, but it's just, you know, certain situations, especially in the playoff basketball, you know, you got to change your Style up a little bit. Cleveland is in a different scenario. Darius Garland's out. A big hit of Mowbray missed the last game. Defensive. Former active defensive player of the year. So, I mean, that's. Obviously you want to take some hits to your ego and to your pride, but you got to figure it out this playoffs, man. Ain't no excuse, excuses. And you got the next man up.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, when Tyrese is going big ball of Burton on you, you know, that is. That's in your town. I mean, he's just all over it. What a time. Pacers. We've been able to pay attention, obviously, because we're in Indianapolis. They've been a very good team that nobody's really talked about. And I understand the Cleveland Cavaliers are also a team that was very good all season and not enough people talked about because the smaller market situation, I assume this series is going to get very, very, very good. We all expect that. Go ahead, A.J.

[Connor]

Yeah. When you watch this warriors team, do you think they have a chance to beat the Minnesota? Obviously, without Steph, it sounds like he'll be out this whole series. And what do you make of Draymond's play? And do you think he's going to think he's going to make it for the rest of the playoffs and not get booted?

[J.R. Smith]

I mean, to first answer your question, without Steph, I don't see it happening. They don't have enough people who can create their own shot and get other guys involved at the same time. Steph Curry, so many eyes on him at one time, it allowed a lot of guys to get off. Especially with an addition of Jimmy, who's a great, great two. I mean, he's not a. He's not a bad one, but he doesn't do anything spectacularly well on the offensive vents, where it's like, okay, we can throw it to Jimmy and get a bucket. So he's a great suit, but without Steph, I mean, I don't. I really don't see it happening. Draymond, I think Draymond, he could possibly stay into it. It's just a matter of his frustration levels with the team with the fouls. Being in a situation, obviously we know he's liable to do anything, but depending on the frustration level and depending on how you know and can be Ant and playing the way he's been playing, he could probably get under your skin a little bit. I wouldn't be surprised.

[Pat McAfee]

Tell me about Ant. I assume you're a big fan of the way he goes about his Business. We are, we. We love the way he plays. I love the way he acts. Now granted him taking a victory lap. Awesome. Love it. Everything about it. Then as soon as he has a bad game, he's opening himself up to get absolutely murdered. But I think he's cool with that. I think like that is who he is. What do you think about Ant man and what do you think about the run he's on right now?

[J.R. Smith]

Yeah, I think is incredibly talented, not only on the court, but off the court. His personality is second to none. He's. The kid is just a complete star. He shines and bright in every, you know, circumstances of his life. Just go, you can see his commercials. You see him online, she's playing video games. He obviously see him playing basketball. So I mean it's pretty remarkable what he's been able to do with the age he. He's at and to see him. I think this is what, third year to be at the level he's at so fast. I mean literally, I think he's, I think he's the best shooting guard in the game right now. And that's. We haven't said that about somebody that early in their career since, I mean easily throw.

[Pat McAfee]

He's old. He feels like an old school player too. Do you sense that? Is that kind of the mindset whenever you gather around all the OGs of the NBA that you chat with, I assume.

[J.R. Smith]

Yeah, 100. I mean he's a dog because he, he wants to, he wants the, the, not only the contact every play, but he wants that, that problem, that friction with the other star player and he wants to guard them. He wants them to guard him. And that doesn't really happen because we play into so many matchups and low management and stuff like that. It takes away a lot of the, the man to man, you know, ego and pride in the game. So to see him take that challenge head on, night in, night out, especially when they get the Phoenix last year, I mean it was, it was just, it's amazing to watch him and still have that almost 90 type 90s type dog.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I just, you mentioned the sun series. Him and Durant obviously. And Durant like laughing about it at one point because I think Durant also has massive respect for what's going on. All right, let's chit chat about the playoffs as a whole. J.R. smith, Legend, joining us. Go ahead, con man.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, J.R. feels like there are some younger teams like the Thunder, like your Cavs, even the T Wolves have some young dudes on it that almost have inexperience. You know the Cavs, they were out in the second round last year. Right now they're down 2 0. Thunder were a second round exit last year. I believe that series is tied up. How much is the playoff and experience like a benefit for some teams where you know the moment's not too big for them that they don't know it and then sometimes how is it, you know almost too much where they don't know how to handle themselves throughout a seven game series. And do you think either of those teams are trying to kind of grow through that inexperience to get to kind of a more vet level headed team similar to how you know the Celtics kind of grew over the last five years years ultimately leading to the championship last year?

[J.R. Smith]

Well, I mean it definitely plays. Being inexperienced plays into it so many times you just run out of finished games. The lights are brighter. The playoff basketball is completely different to the regular season. Every position counts when guys are on the game. When you know the game scheme and playing game plan gets tighter around you and what you do and around your team is, is you know it's not easy. It's definitely not easy season. You come running to some matchups and some series where it's just a bad matchup. So for inexperienced guys to. To not understand where to go next with how they you know, being guarded and trying to add more things to the game while the series goes on or even just dissect the thing. A lot of the seasoned vets, I mean guys who aren't playing the quote unquote UDS of the game, the PJ Tucker's now I mean those guys are the guys who are really important and film room and communicating you know between barriers of coaches and players because they've seen it the most. They understand a different perspective and they're watching the game from a completely veteran eyes and played numerous experiences so. But the downfall to that is being having over experience and seeing too many things and not being able to overcoach them too. A lot of guys especially like Ant, I can see times where he can be overcoached to where it's like just they, they want him to shoot the three more and it's like his game is way too diverse for that. He's. He can get to the basket, he can get to the free throw line, he can get to the mid range game, him to shoot 12 to 15 threes a game. He's just diluting his hero talent.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so let's talk about shout out to Ant man being a dog. But let's go to Boston then. What about that team that's very experienced? And then for. For some reason now down the stretch, in the biggest moment when you think experience would help you, it's going the other way. Do teams just get cold? Shooters get cold? What happens? You just turn the lights off at the end. How. Why do you think what's happening to Boston is happening to Boston?

[J.R. Smith]

Shooters definitely get coach. I mean, living. You can live by the three and die by the three, for sure. That's really one of my models. I love that style of play. Trying to shoot 50 threes a game, definitely up my alley. But at the same time, if you're not getting stops and you get long rebounds and you consist consistently put in transition position, especially being an older team, a younger team can run you out the gym. And a team like when you got guys like Josh Hart and Bridges who really, you know, just get extra possessions and literally wear you down, that takes a toll on you. Especially when you lose two at your home floor and you see that happen back to back and then coming back from. From big deficits, I think that can, you know, strike a major shank in your armor. But the only thing about. One thing I can't say about Boston is they have. They have. They definitely have the pedigree. It's just. I don't. I don't think it's. The lights is too bright. I think sometimes they just over. They overplay themselves. They play. They play the game or they play the. They play the clock and they play the score opposed to playing the game.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a bar right there at the end. Absolutely. You think Boston's gonna figure it out? Comment?

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah. I have full faith.

[Pat McAfee]

Still the favorite.

[AJ Hawk]

I. I have the utmost faith in. In the Boston Celtics beat in the Knicks in the series.

[Pat McAfee]

Junior, when you got cold, did you change?

[J.R. Smith]

No way.

[Pat McAfee]

How did you. Did you ever have a streak where you got cold, where you wondered maybe you should change your shooting style or anything like that?

[J.R. Smith]

Oh, shooting style? No, I've definitely had streets where I've gotten cold. Ice cold. What I'm shooting for me, my mindset. I'm just gonna make the next one, and if I miss the first four, I'm gonna make the next six. So I'm gonna keep shooting that thing. Y' all about to take me out.

[Pat McAfee]

Ty has a question for you. Junior?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Junior? When you look at the league as a whole right now, you know, everyone's basically saying, like, hey, Durant is done with the Suns. And then there's been a lot of talk about Giannis being done with the bucks. In your opinion, for both those guys, what do you think the best landing spot would. Would be for them to be successful if they are both to leave their teams?

[J.R. Smith]

Oh, man, I haven't dissected enough and honestly, I don't watch enough basketball. I've only watched the playoffs. But I mean, KD could fit anywhere. I mean, he's obviously, you know, to me, second best scorer in the league right now behind Kyrie, but I mean, he can go fit in any system and play any type of style. He showed us that would go and stick. Obviously. Okay. See, they played a totally different style of play. So for him, I mean, he can go anywhere. Giannis is. Obviously, it's a little harder because he's not as well of a score as kd, I would say, as far as a shooter, so he needs space and he shooters around him. But I would love to see Giannis in a big market city. I would definitely love to see KD back in a major market city, whether that be New York or LA or something like that, or Indiana. I don't know about that one stretch, but I definitely think that that's what the game is definitely missing. And I am happy about the Luca situation to where he gets to a major market to see where his startup can really go.

[Pat McAfee]

How do you feel about Luke and LeBron? Obviously, LeBron comes out on his podcast Mind the Game and says, like, yeah, I don't. Basically says it's a. There's a lot to talk about as opposed to just me and Luca taking the full blame on is what the point he was trying to make. How do you feel about that pairing? What do you think about obviously, as somebody that's had success with LeBron? A lot of it. What do you think about the pairing of Luka and LeBron and how do you think next year is with the full off season together?

[J.R. Smith]

I think it's a great fit. I just, for me, because Brian is where he is like on essentially passing the keys down. It's interesting how they will do it in the clutch moments during the course of the game, three, three quarters. I think it's easy because they'll alternate who's on the court and doing what and because they pretty much, you know, they have a lot of similarities in their game. Just filling the stat sheet as a whole and playing pick and roll and finding guys. So for me, it's interesting to see it down, down to the, to the stretch because Obviously, Luca is, you know, a bit of a poser. And LeBron has been there his whole career. So to see him get off of the ball and, you know, figure that position out like, like I was in a lot of the times, it'd be interesting.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you talked to him about playing off the ball, being a guy? Because we talked to Rich Paul after it happened, and Rich was Talking about how LeBron now can do what he was hoping otherwise other people would do. He almost has an advantage becoming the off the ball guy because of how ball dominant he was for so long of his career. Do you agree with that sentiment and how do you think that plays out in the long run?

[J.R. Smith]

A hundred percent. I mean, for a long. For the longest time, the main knock on LeBron was always quote, unquote, shooting. And now he's become such a dynamic shooter with catching shoots and off the dribble shooting. You can. He can really get off the ball. And I know obviously he was pretty damn good with playing picker roles and having the ball in his hands, but earlier on in his career, they put him in those positions mainly because they didn't want him to be catching shoot back with a guy like Luca, with Bron slashing backdoor and calling things out on the weak side, offensive side, not just the defensive side. I think it's pretty damn special.

[Pat McAfee]

They say he was it the Olympics. They were talking about LeBron at the practice.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

How the entire player. Is that how he is all the time? From what we heard, practice, we're loud, we're. We're the every minute basically, of practice. LeBron is active, vocal, and very communicative about the whole thing.

[J.R. Smith]

Yeah. 100. Every. Every practice he's like. That is. It's pretty remarkable because he's still doing it and still at the level of excitement every single day. And for me, I know how the dancer got burnt out talking to these young dudes, especially being in certain situations, in certain series, dancer got burnt out. But I'm glad he still has that joy that he finds every single day to sit up and do it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he's. I mean, just an absolute anomaly. Who knows what happens in the future. He might play with two of his kids. Two of his kids he might play with. That's absolutely absurd. Whenever you tell the story of sports in history. All right, last question here. Not about basketball. A.P. tone has one for you.

[Tony]

No, J.R. it's real simple.

[Pat McAfee]

When.

[Tony]

When are you going to qualify for the US Open? When are we planning on doing that?

[J.R. Smith]

Next year. Next year? I'M right now I'm getting to very close to a zero. So when I get on the other side of that, I feel more confident about being able to qualify.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So I was just trying to look this up. I didn't remember the exact school. North Carolina A&T State University.

[J.R. Smith]

Yes, sir.

[Pat McAfee]

You want to play golf? Are you still there right now?

[J.R. Smith]

Yeah, I got another year eligibility. I graduated in the spring.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so are you in class right now? Is that where you're standing?

[J.R. Smith]

No, I'm in the damn airport, man. They keep pushing my flight back. I'm trying to get to the Garden. I gotta get to the game.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. All right. Well, safe travels. Hopefully commercial airports and travel certainly care about that. You know, they will get to the bottom of it. They will take care of you. Yeah.

[J.R. Smith]

I was watching you on game day, man. Sitting that playing down here, dog.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, ladies and gentlemen.

[Tony]

Hope he's not finding Newark.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, I guess there's a lot going on. Yeah, I guess.

[Ty Schmidt]

Really outages with air traffic control.

[Tony]

They know they're so understaffed.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah. So it. And that's why it's late.

[Connor]

Oh, I didn't know that could be for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

The plane world is crazy. It is crazy. All the things happening.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Like if you ever just see like a map of all the planes that are in the sky and then all the things that can go wrong, I see, you know, we've kind of started seeing there for a little bit, which I don't like at all. It's a. It's a wild world and he has no control over that plane's taken off in 30 minutes. Or if that plane's taken off in 10 hours. Because that. It's the flight before you see it might be in two different cities before it gets to you. And it's like anything can go wrong in any of those places. So fickle. The fact that we had a time where it was like smooth seemingly. That seems like that was a. Of control.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. And they also don't give a. Like they probably know right now whether or not that flight is just going to be canceled. But like they will delay that thing a hundred times until it gets to 9:30. Kind of keep your prisoner at the airport. And then at 9:30 be like, it's canceled. We got one taken off tomorrow. Sorry. You were here all day. Figure it out.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And also we don't have a full plane available tomorrow because obviously there's been seats. Yeah. So you're. You're potentially getting there. It's like okay. All right. That's good. So what should I say?

[AJ Hawk]

So do I stay?

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, if you want to get there, you might want to rent a car and start driving.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tony]

I would have been scratched, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Getting close to zero. One more year left at North Carolina A and T State. Whenever he did that, I thought it was so cool. Like, because he's going back to school or he's going to school. Didn't get, you know, to finish degree. Do degree. So goes to school on a golf scholarship. Getting good down there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And now he's getting close to zero.

[Ty Schmidt]

Those teammates. How sweet that would be.

[Pat McAfee]

J R Smith's our teammate. He'll be captain of this team next year. He's a senior. Next you're going to be a captain of the golf team down there. Getting close to a zero. He loved the game right before he went to. Obviously, that's the reason he grew up.

[Connor]

Playing like I was gonna. I don't know what his background was playing golf.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. I wonder.

[Connor]

Guys like, he and Steph. The fact that he and Steph are so good.

[Pat McAfee]

Both good shooters. Yeah. I wonder. I heard somebody say shooting a basketball is in the show. Like, you could tell by loose shoulders. Like, how are the shoulders? I wonder if that helps out. Like, Ray Allen also.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, also.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. You know, like Reggie. Yeah.

[Connor]

All of them are super smooth, too. All very smooth swings shot all.

[Pat McAfee]

Have an incredible weekend. I got a big fight tomorrow night.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell, yeah. At WWE Backlash. We'll see you for overreaction Monday. I feel like I really nailed that. Hopefully I'm available to do show Monday.

[Ty Schmidt]

No kidding.

[AJ Hawk]

I know.

[Pat McAfee]

Hopefully I'm available.

[Ty Schmidt]

Most violent champion.

[Tony]

You might be in jail for murder.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, yeah. Okay. I don't think I've ever seen that. I realized. I started watching, you know, film on Gunther. I realized, man, my voice is on a lot of. I've watched a lot of Gunther, you know, I've watched a lot way back. Yeah. From all the way back, whenever he was Walter ring around. I've seen a lot of. A lot of Gunther. I'll tell you what. He is a tough Austrian. Yes, he is. But you know what? Come get some. That's right.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's exactly.

[AJ Hawk]

Pittsburgh Pies on.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, exactly.

[AJ Hawk]

Tough Pittsburgh P on.

[Pat McAfee]

I gotta do what I gotta do. Okay? We all understand this. Gotta do what I gotta do for Michael Cole. You can't. I just can't be the person that just sits there and then say, like, yeah, I'm friends with Michael Cole. And then watch his ass get snatched, you know, and then sit there and do nothing. What am I gonna do? Sit there and do nothing? He's an old man. I gotta live with that for the rest of my life. Oh, I just watched Michael Cole get punked out in front of everybody. Never going to do that. Never going to be that. Can't be that person. Can't be known as that person. Now there are people that potentially don't have the physical stature to be person that could stand up for friend. I understand that, but got to be a person that's known for. If your friend's going get punked, you got to show up. Even if you get. Hey, even if you take an L. Yeah, that's right. On film, you got to be the person running towards the fight, not the person staying away from the fight. That is just a must, you know, I think I might have learned that in football. I think I grew up with that mentality. But in football that I've never seen something more obvious. Whenever the film would be shown of a fight and our teams that I was on did get into it every once in a while, we were, we were a chirpy bunch. I think we had some of the greatest of all time potentially in the shit talking world. And there would be a scrum, nothing ever really, you know, but a couple of times, every once in a while we can get ejected for the game before the fight, fight even starts. But normally there is a push of yell, maybe a little bit aggressive and that we would see that, everybody would see that. And it's like the, my personal opinion, whenever I saw somebody see it and not move towards it, I was always.

[Connor]

Like, oh yeah, you're judging.

[Pat McAfee]

You're.

[Connor]

I mean, not even judging.

[Shams Charania]

You're.

[Connor]

You're kind of making a decision about that person for the rest of their life.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom. That is exactly the case. So if anything was ever happening around me, punter, kicker, whatever it is, I'm bottom of totem pole here. I would like these boys to know that. All right, I'm probably going to get my shit kicked here, depending upon who this is. But I'm gonna go ahead. I'm in it. I'm in it, you know, and in this time, you know, I feel pretty good. You know, he is big. He's a lot bigger than a lot of people. I mean, I'm six one, put those shoes on. Six two. I'm 245 right now. You know, I'm, I'm like all the things I'm looking at, it's Like. Yeah, Yeah. I mean, there's a chance that this goes really bad. There's a chance it really. But also there's a chance that I've.

[AJ Hawk]

You know, the big tree goes really good.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. What do you mean? Yeah, there's a really good chance. Yeah, there's a chance that I saw some odds have been placed on the Internet. Okay, that feels good too. That feels good too. I think he's like minus a thousand or something like that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Connor]

You're in a great spot. What a good spot.

[AJ Hawk]

It was plus 5,000. Who's that? Bill?

[Pat McAfee]

You're right.

[AJ Hawk]

And then what happened?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you're right. Right.

[AJ Hawk]

That white smoke came.

[Pat McAfee]

The CM Pope and Audi came too. The CM Pope plus 550 going through. Minus 1000. This is from B Online, I believe. Can't do this on actual.

[AJ Hawk]

Randy.

[Pat McAfee]

It hasn't gotten. It hasn't gotten.

[Connor]

Yeah. I was going to say. I didn't know you could gamble on these.

[Pat McAfee]

Hasn't got legitimized yet. You would have to find illegal sports book. But this is just for fantasy booking purposes. Sure, sure. And conversational purposes. Things. Yeah, I'm plus 550. He's minus a thousand. All right, all right, all right. Hey, I understand that. By the way, if I was outside looking in, I'd be thinking the same thing.

[AJ Hawk]

Might put the village on it, you.

[Tony]

Know, Else was minus thousand. Ryan Garcia.

[Pat McAfee]

Good point.

[Tony]

And that was the sweet science.

[Pat McAfee]

How about that weekend? Having the least amount of punches thrown in the history of boxing or something like that.

[Tony]

Yes.

[AJ Hawk]

That's tough.

[Pat McAfee]

That's tough. But they were so good.

[AJ Hawk]

Not what you want.

[Pat McAfee]

I think he's. Because they were so quick. I'm going to have to. I'm going to want to miss some of his.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, which you will.

[Pat McAfee]

I've been. I've been. I've been thinking about like, does he have any giveaways? You know, when it's coming and it appears as if there is a little bit of a tell. And it's. Whenever he does this, there's a big one coming. Okay. So I found that out through the film study. Detailed film study. When. What's he do right here? He might be standing like this. This Looking really intimidated. Okay. Then he will turn just a little bit like this. And that's not because he wants to give you the side profile, although it is. He is a large, large man. He's. He's. It's. There's a.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's winding up.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a womb coming. And that thing is Shattering.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, been doing a lot of push ups. Try to build up these pads.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Try to build up these pads. I'm not known to have, like, the biggest chest in the history of the world. Not really my. You know, so I've been trying to get a little. Because, I mean, he could break my entire sternum.

[Ty Schmidt]

He could.

[Pat McAfee]

He could break my entire sternum with the way he does what he does. I know that. You don't think I'm getting ready. We'll turn the stick and move. Oh, maybe foot to the thing. Yeah. Oh.

[Connor]

Imagine break his little fingies. Like, he goes to slap you, and you. You kick his fingies.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, big, big stomp on the thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Cause hurt is. Is. Yeah, that's a good idea. Hey, I like this. This is. This is what Bill Belichick did when he was with the Patriots, you know, all the way up till game time. We got film study here trying to figure out what we got to do. Fingies need to attack. Dump that so he can't see this. Dump that, dump that so he can't see this. Remember Poirier?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Exactly.

[AJ Hawk]

Pull that lever.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Pull lever.

[Pat McAfee]

Why is this guy laughing?

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't know. I don't.

[Connor]

I am. I'm just thinking of thinking that. I mean, you had him. You did have them.

[Pat McAfee]

I was in a big. I was in a big jacket because how cold it was. Yeah, but you saw me.

[AJ Hawk]

I was.

[Pat McAfee]

I was boa constrictoring. I just didn't get all the way in because he was a guest of the show.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right.

[Pat McAfee]

And then he was gonna. He was gonna steal my watch. He was remembering.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. He was trying.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I couldn't, you know. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Imagine how quickly he could have just broke every bone in my body right there. His ears tell me that he walks onto the set. His ears tell me this guy. Not only all of his fights, obviously, and I'm pumped to watch his final fight down there in New Orleans.

[J.R. Smith]

But.

[Pat McAfee]

But him, he could have just. Right on television there, two broken arms and choked out diamond dust Boy. Which is why I'm happy he trained me a little bit.

[Connor]

Exactly.

[Tony]

You're pretty tight with catering, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tony]

What if they were to bring a big plate of sausage and sauerkraut out during the match? Match. And he was just so distracted.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think that would distract him. I. I don't know if his sausage and sauerkraut would get him. He poison. And Walter comes out wasting a Visine. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Poison them.

[Connor]

Does that really work? To make people dump their pants.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, it worked.

[Ty Schmidt]

Enough of it.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Connor]

Like 10 bottles.

[Pat McAfee]

You're right. Venatori was always like, I don't want to go eat anywhere in the city because all I need is one sheriff to know who I am. And he doesn't need to kill me or anything. He just needs to make me feel like tomorrow there's a little bit of an advantage.

[AJ Hawk]

Accidents.

[J.R. Smith]

It's true.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe we need to call around St. Louis, see if anybody sees her anywhere. In general, I'm not above love. Taking these steps, taking that. He's in his prime.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, he is.

[Pat McAfee]

This guy was a world champion, what, three weeks ago?

[Tony]

He's violent.

[Pat McAfee]

He's the most violent.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. The most violent. You'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

He's the most violent champion of all time.

[AJ Hawk]

By far.

[Connor]

Okay, not tomorrow night.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Okay. Maybe.

[Connor]

Are you wearing. Are you wearing the deal underneath your stuff? I remember you said it really pulled you tight.

[Pat McAfee]

What's the.

[J.R. Smith]

See?

[Pat McAfee]

We'll see. Don't be giving away too much. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Geez.

[Connor]

No, no. We could. We didn't get to see it, but we just. You said your undergarments were pulling up through your. Like, really putting pressure on you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you're right. I did get a new pair of that.

[Connor]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

I. I was. Yeah. I wish you would have reminded me that earlier. I should have. Because I must say, Amazon's fast. But it was. There was only limited options. When I thought of this last night.

[Ty Schmidt]

Here.

[Pat McAfee]

I thought of that last night. I was like, oh, yeah.

[Connor]

Is it yellow? What is it? What colors?

[Pat McAfee]

Don't worry about it. You're going to be able to see it. When you see it, you're going to see. That looks cheap. Well, it was the only one that was available in less than 12 hours.

[J.R. Smith]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Get it.

[Connor]

Get it fast. You gotta click. Get it faster. Get it today.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, exactly. Didn't spend a lot of time on the gear. Okay. Strictly because I'm here to fight for what's right.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Working on a body.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Body mixing ahead.

[Connor]

Work the ball. You gotta work the ball.

[Pat McAfee]

His body.

[Connor]

You have to. You got to slow him down.

[Pat McAfee]

And what about when this bad boy comes?

[AJ Hawk]

Work the leg kicks too.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, Chandler Jones.

[AJ Hawk]

Exactly. Chopped that tree.

[Connor]

You could look like Bruce Brown.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, Bruce Brown is, though.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

I will need to do one of those, though.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't celebrate too much.

[Connor]

Right over your head. He's. That's gonna be sweet when he swipes right over your head and you're gonna stop and pause and look around. He's gonna know he's screwed.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't even think about me actually. Just ducking right into a total facial. That. Yeah. You're.

[AJ Hawk]

You're getting bonked on the head like Mason Rudolph.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, that would have been good.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no.

[AJ Hawk]

Hit you right in the forehead.

[Pat McAfee]

It's not giving away too much. Dump all this so Gunther doesn't see it. Yeah, yeah. Dump it all. Did you feel that?

[Connor]

I mean it looks legit. Like it looks legit.

[J.R. Smith]

I don't feel that.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you feel that?

[Connor]

I did. I don't. I'm not. I don't want to eat those shots. No, I'm not taking that.

[Pat McAfee]

Absolutely. The issue is I'm doing this. There's nobody on the other side.

[AJ Hawk]

Not yet. Preparing.

[Pat McAfee]

Not yet. Visualize he's gonna do one of those.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, yeah. Liver shot.

[Connor]

Well, there it is. There's that tell. There it is.

[Tony]

What would you say his weak spot is? Because you guys come from similar descents.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. What would you say his weakness probably is? AJ after watching a lot of Gunther film. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Democracy, jeez.

[Connor]

I'm telling you. I don't know about that. I'm telling you. I think you should wear. Is this a. It's a sanctioned match.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

But yeah, it's a sanction match.

[Connor]

We gotta still the rules. Right, though. Like we can. We can. The ref can turn the other way. Can we wear our spiky chest pad that what is his hand Early.

[Pat McAfee]

So the issue with the spiky chest pad is. I guess others have thought of this in the past against Gunther and I was told directly that it is in the rule book.

[Ty Schmidt]

So it's not hardcore match.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean if this was a street fight.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. St. Louis street fight.

[Pat McAfee]

That would be the best.

[Connor]

I think you could tire him out and frustrate him. Just circle, circle, circle, jab, jab, and then circle. You could tire him out.

[Pat McAfee]

Tire him out. The guy make it.

[Connor]

Make it a 50 minute match.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. That's what I want. Right?

[Connor]

I thought for sure that's what you want. Look how light you're moving around. You look like Bill.

[Pat McAfee]

These are brand new air forces too. Shout out to the dirties. Give me these. They're a little heavier than what I'm gonna be wearing in the. You know what I mean? Maybe I'll wear the rock climbing shoes.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's not a bad idea.

[Pat McAfee]

So I can really be moving with the little toesies.

[AJ Hawk]

You know, you can poke them in the eye with your Toe.

[Pat McAfee]

Little toesies especially.

[Connor]

Please do it.

[J.R. Smith]

Please wear those.

[Ty Schmidt]

You get up on the top row, open run all the way around the ring couple times. No problem.

[AJ Hawk]

Because the traction on those.

[Ty Schmidt]

Idea. What the hell?

[Pat McAfee]

These are all possible. Gunther, if you're watching, should be former world champ. Just.

[Connor]

Are you gonna. Don't punt. I mean, if you put another ball into his chest like you did Mr. McMahon, he might die.

[Pat McAfee]

Mr. McMahon did that to me. Thank you. Let's move along.

[Tony]

That was a six.

[Connor]

Are you okay? You still can't breathe?

[Pat McAfee]

I heard. I had a. Sometimes I had a punctured rug cage.

[AJ Hawk]

Freaking joke to you, huh?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Connor]

All right. I couldn't hit you.

[Pat McAfee]

People for real.

[AJ Hawk]

Like.

[Connor]

I'm not joking.

[Pat McAfee]

It looks good.

[Connor]

Like you look good.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I just jumped back and forth there 15 times. How many times did it look? Four, five. Yeah. That was 15. Yeah. And if you're. If it looks slow, it's your Internet. Okay. Figure it out. All right. We're gonna head into the weekend. I hope you guys have a great weekend yourselves. Massive lineup tonight in sports which will obviously set the tone for an incredible weekend. Tonight we got NHL. Tonight we got NBA. Tonight we got Cavs Pacers in Indianapolis at 7:30 on ESPN. Oklahoma City, Denver Nuggets at 10pm Back there in Denver, excited to see how Joker and the boys respond. Maple Leafs up two. Oh. Over the Florida Panthers at seven on tnt. And true TV convenient didn't do that to the Pacers. Cavs, game one. I don't know what that's all about. And in Game 2, Texas hockey taking on Winnipeg on TNT should be a great night. Obviously Friday night smackdown obviously on. And then tomorrow there's a whole list of shit starting at 3:30 as the Celtics take on the up to New York Knicks. Both wins coming in. Boston stealing home court advantage of the series against the reigning champions. They'll play tomorrow at 3:30. Then Timberwolves, Golden State, Washington, Carolina, Vegas, Edmonton after an overtime thriller that took place until 2am this morning. All right, let's enjoy the hell out of all of it. Great Jersey on you.

[AJ Hawk]

Thank you very much. It's all about the trenches, baby.

[Pat McAfee]

It's all about the Campbells.

[AJ Hawk]

Mike. Mike Brable's first pick.

[Pat McAfee]

That's right. Now all the numbers are out, right? In the NFL? Yeah, most of them. Abdul got 51. Is that what I saw?

[Ty Schmidt]

That is correct.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know who that was.

[Tony]

It's always him.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm excited to hear the reasoning. Is that always you for. Yeah. Okay. You're the fart one.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Because it's. You can't. You can't. All right. Okay. People at home probably think that I would know who that is. I. I do not sneak them. Yeah, it's a hard to decipher. Yeah, it's hard to decipher.

[AJ Hawk]

Sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

I wonder what the reasoning behind it is. Like, I'll be excited to hear the reason why. Maybe he hasn't selected a number yet.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, they change a lot of times. Like even the rookies will change the numbers after the training camp.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So 51 just happened just for this. And then obviously he'll have whatever he wants. Or there's a reason behind 51 and that's his thing. But this has been a talking point and has taken away from the fact this dude is a dog. This dude is very good at football. This guy is a stud. We watched his interview with Joe Shane and Coach Daboll and the defense coordinator, I believe over there and the answers he gave Day ball asked him just rapid fire questions. He's getting rapid fire questions. And day ball goes, what's your least favorite thing about football? And he said, I don't think there's anything I don't like about football. Just like immediately back and then he talked about his game and what he can do. It's like, this guy's a guy. This is. This dude's gonna be a stud in the league. 51 don't look bad. Doesn't look bad. No good jersey swap there. Is this a D Bone production? Attababy. D Bone. How about D Bone? D Bone in production. And if that's his number, I can't wait to see what he does. And if he changes his number, which at this exact moment in time before knowing anything, we assume it's going to change. Yeah, we assume it's going to change. But maybe 51's locked in forever.

[AJ Hawk]

It's a good number.

[Pat McAfee]

He's a beast. So is Wil Gamble.

[AJ Hawk]

Amen.

[Pat McAfee]

I got you. How about the center from the Raiders? You see him walks up to Ash and Genti. I'm Jackson, I'm your center. He's wearing like Crocs or whatever.

[AJ Hawk]

I love you.

[Pat McAfee]

He's got those stores. Yeah, love you. Love you, big hug, whole thing. I'm like, I love that. I love that. The vibes in that team are probably that exact thing. Then Pete Carroll is in there. Now Chip Kelly's in there. It's like all these behind the scenes videos we're seeing from draft and from like first week into building Everything's good right now. Everything's good right now. Potential hall of Famers littered on buses and cars going into facilities right now. Good luck to all of them. All right, A.J. we appreciate the hell. What's this weekend look like? You coaching stuff? What do you got going on?

[Connor]

I'm not. I don't coach much lacrosse. So that's. Yeah, we got a lot of lacrosse stuff happening.

[Pat McAfee]

That's. This time of year.

[Connor]

Aau, all that stuff.

[J.R. Smith]

Basketball.

[Pat McAfee]

So you got basketball, lacrosse, Foss. I think Foss goes to six soccer games.

[Tony]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Each. Each Saturday and each Sunday. Do you follow along with his IG story?

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah, it's awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. He's got, what, five kids, I think, and they're all at the age of playing sports. One of them's a menace, too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, he's awesome. Absolutely. But it's like, I don't know how parents keep up with that since the beginning of time. I have no idea how you have enough time to do all that. So shout out to parents making it all happen. And shout out to all the young kids chasing dreams. Maybe lacrosse. Olympians someday. Playing this weekend.

[AJ Hawk]

Lacrosse.

[Pat McAfee]

Spencer.

[Connor]

Pat Spencer. On the. On the Warriors. Helps it out. People love that guy. Obviously, he was the best lacrosse player in the country in College.

[Pat McAfee]

He's 60.

[AJ Hawk]

61 or 61.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Which is sweet.

[Connor]

Keep it.

[AJ Hawk]

It's been joked about, too, by Draymond. All them, like, yeah, he's awesome. He's incredible. His number stinks, but he's just rocking.

[Pat McAfee]

Needs to keep it.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. National championship chase that starts this weekend. NCAA tournament for lacrosse. I believe Notre Dame's playing actually, the Buckeyes Sunday at noon on espn.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, who's favorite this year? Michigan.

[AJ Hawk]

The Buckeyes are the four seed.

[Pat McAfee]

I. I forget what happened with Army. Army didn't get in the tournament. I saw a lot of people. People saw Captain Cons get mad about that because they're like the number one team in the country or number two team.

[AJ Hawk]

They lost to Colgate. When you're in a conference like that, Fairfield's not in it. When you're in kind of one of the worst conferences, you got to win your conference tournament. They didn't win.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Fairfield was number one in the country at some point, wasn't it?

[AJ Hawk]

So they never got up to one, but they were the last undefeated team. And then they lost in the first round, too, to Drexel.

[Pat McAfee]

So when you're in a smaller conference, you must win your championship to get in. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Have to. Because it's only, it's, I think it's only 16 teams.

[Pat McAfee]

Got it.

[Tony]

Cornell is your heavy favorite to win the.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, The Ivy League's back plus 150.

[AJ Hawk]

This is the combo with the Ivy League. We'll see if they win it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Cornell, they just had the number one pick, didn't they?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, cursed he. The youngest brother. Pll draft. No, no cj but yes, the Ivy League. I don't think they've won it since Yale in like 2018. I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, and I know it's a big conversation. We've learned it over the last few years following the Kavanaugh boys, you know, through their national championships up there at Notre Dame and then a conversation about, you know, the acc, the Ivy League, the Big Ten, everything like that. They all seemingly take shots at the Ivy League, you know, because I think everybody nationally kind of thinks lacrosse. We think, you know, a little uppity, which would be Ivy League, I think is what everybody kind of thinks of. In the acc. Boys, we got the best conference and then the Big Ten, I think, think they think they have the best conference. It's like lacrosse, college. I think college lacrosse is getting better. I think just from our viewpoint of like watching it, I think there's a lot of. Bobby Rood's kid.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. From Michigan.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. His kid scored, broke his thumb in his hand in the same game. He scored a game winning goal or whatever. It's like I followed their season with him. It was glorious. I enjoy lacrosse. Playoffs are definitely much better, I think, than a regular season. You'll be tough to get me during a regular season, no doubt. But definitely during this playoffs run, I think I, I'll watch a couple of these teams have some dreams come true.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, like Ohio State, they're kind of a new team. To be a four seed, like that's.

[Pat McAfee]

Very high for you guys spending money on the crossover there, I assume.

[Connor]

I mean they got a sweet facility now. I've been to games there and like tickets are not cheap. This. I, I believe the game is Saturday. Ohio State, Notre Dame. And I got my. One of my sons is going to go with somebody else. Tickets are not cheap at all. They weren't.

[Pat McAfee]

So Connor saying it's on Sunday.

[AJ Hawk]

I think it's Sunday at noon, I think. But also if you.

[Connor]

I hope, I actually hope it is. But yeah, if you want to get.

[Pat McAfee]

A ticket, you need to go to SeatGeek, the greatest ticket buying platform on planet Earth and the moon right now. Use code PAT30. PAT30. You'll get 30 off tickets to any live event and Seak has tickets to every live event. They have anything you could potentially want to do, they have the ticket for you and right now you can get 30 off with Pat. It doesn't matter if you're new or returning customer to SeatGeek. They have over 30 million downloads. Number one rated ticketing app because they are on your side. Shout out to seatgeek. They will actually have a like a green dot next to a ticket and it says this is a good deal and or they'll have a red dot next to a ticket and they'll say it's a bad deal. Don't buy this. That's a company telling you don't do this. Green one saying let's do it. Don't ever catfish you. And obviously some restrictions apply on a 30 off thing. Like I think if the ticket is less than 30 bucks, Pat, 30 will not work. But if this is for the Cavaliers in the Pacers game this evening, secondary ticket market still available. Let's go 30 off any of these tickets. Go watch. Indiana Pacers and the number one seed Cleveland Cavaliers tonight kick off a great weekend of sports and entertainment. We can't thank you enough, A.J. you're the man, brother.

[Connor]

Hey, good luck tomorrow night, man. I cannot wait to watch you put all that into action.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. Me too.

[Connor]

It's gonna be sweet.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody has a plan, they say.

[Connor]

Until you kick him in the head.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom. Great work in the back this week. Great work to everybody. Thank you all so, so much. Thank you for allowing us to do this for a living. You're the greatest people on earth. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice and might change their life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Goodbye. Rapper Sean Diddy Combs was a king maker. He had wealth, fame and power until it all came crashing down.

[Tony]

Federal investigators raiding two homes owned by hip hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm Brian Buckmire, an ABC News Last Legal contributor. As Diddy heads to trial, we trace his remarkable rise and fall. And what could be next? Listen to Bad Rap the Case Against Diddy, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Brad Milkey. You may know me as the host of ABC Audio's daily news podcast, Start here. But I'd like to add aspiring to true crime expert to my resume. And here's how I'm going to make it happen. Every week I'm going to unpack the biggest true crime story that everyone is talking about. ABC's got some unique access here. So I'll talk to the reporters and producers who have followed these cases for months, sometimes years. We'll bring you the latest developments and the larger context on the true crime stories you've been hearing about. Follow the crime scene for special access to the people who know these stories best.