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Pat McAfee
Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome on this sports Thursday, June 26, 2025. This program begins now. Sports are awesome no matter what sport is happening. It is more awesome than anything else that is happening in the world. For instance, last night there were some baseball games on. That was fun. I had good baseball w stuff going on. That's good. And the NBA's first round of their draft and there was obviously some drama building. Where's Ace Bailey going to go? This guy's turned down. Workout says he doesn't want to go. He goes number five overall to Utah. Absolute dog on the basketball court. Utah would also pick up Walter Clayton Jr. At number 18 out of Florida. He was a bucket getter for the entire of March Madness. Obviously national champion. We saw him watch him. He's 22 years old, though, so he's a little bit older than all these other guys are getting drafted at 18, 19. A lot of people saying the Utah Jazz had a massive night on the court. Now how will everything else work out? We shall see. We'll be joined by Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz and owner of the Utah Mammoth. Toss up, toss up, toss up. He was in the draft war room or the draft war room for the Utah Jazz while also having to handle business with the Mammoth. The Mammoth make a massive trade of Buffalo Saber, J.J. peterka, Paterka. Shit, it's on me. I'm where he comes from. It's probably Peter. Yeah, I was trying to just be as cultured as I possibly could.
Connor
He's from Germany, Paterka.
Pat McAfee
So he would say nine to all of my negativity. Anyways, all is good. Sprechen z Deutsch. Just a tiny bit. But anyways, he's headed to Utah, so a lot happening around. Rider Lyons goes to BYU earlier in the week after his mission, obviously. Then Utah Jazz have the draft that they have. Then the Mammoth make a massive trade. I mean, there's a lot going on in Utah. Ryan Smith will join us. We can't wait to catch up with him. Sham Sharania will join us at about 1240, 1245 Eastern. Hey, what were some surprises last night, Shams, or some back conversations that were happening that maybe never came to light? What were some opportunities? What are some expectations for this evening and what is everybody saying about how everybody else did in the draft? Shams wasn't tipping picks last night.
Ty Schmidt
No.
Pat McAfee
Well, then he started to. Because when trade happens, he's going to. Yeah, they're trading. Blah, blah, blah. Who's with blah, blah, blah. Couple things ahead. So we're learning who's getting picked and then we're also learning you're not going to be there. You're going to be at a different place. The NBA needs to figure that out big time. They need to figure the hats. First of all, I thought we were over this. I thought we're done with the hats. The hats never fit. Nope. The hats never fit and they never look good. Let alone the fact when you got to put a hat on and then on a screen, it's saying it's getting traded to a different team. But in a draft you're saying you do that. Can we not just say, you know what? It's real confusing. Yeah. Can we. Can we just put the team that traded just in there?
Ty Schmidt
Exactly.
Pat McAfee
And just say congratulations. Instead of it being like traded to. As the small one. Shouldn't trade it from. Be the small one. Where they're at now should be the big one. In my head, just as somebody that was trying to watch and learn the entirety of it last night, that was. I was pretty confusing. That was pretty. Yeah, that was a pretty confusing situation. Now I understand this is probably how it's been for a long time. I know the hats thing has always been a part of it. Like they don't fit in the NFL ever. They really may be options.
AJ Hawk
Sure.
Pat McAfee
You know, maybe scarf. Yeah, Maybe it's like a pin to.
Ty Schmidt
Put on their blazer.
Pat McAfee
Boom. Right on. Sick. A lot of sick. Fits.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, great.
Pat McAfee
A lot of sick. See the guy with no shirt underneath? Yeah. That's law moxie. I like that type of confidence. Would like that guy on my team. I guess he bobs. Yeah, he locks down on defensive side. But the hat thing, obviously they never fit. It always looks. You make the person look immediately stupid. And they're trying to get introduced to the league, you know, into their team, into their fan base. Mason. I mean, all these guys. How about the guy out of China? He's sitting up in the auditorium eating his knees.
Ty Schmidt
Oh, yeah, that's Yang Hansen.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, it is, isn't it? He's the guy.
Ty Schmidt
He is the guy.
Pat McAfee
He's gonna be. Rich Paul represents him. We see Rich Paul at the end of this video here. That guy's eating his knees up in the auditorium. How you doing? Thanks for coming to America from China. He was supposed to be a second round draft pick. Holy shit. It's happening right now. Here we go. I'm off and running. They start showing his highlights. We're talking. No, look, passes like, got a lot of. Got a lot of yokich in his game. Got a lot of joker in his game. Wasn't supposed to be until the middle. There's Rich Paul saying, hey, come on. Good to see you. That's good. I love that. Rich Paul is about to run tonight. We'll talk to shams about 1240. You see what we should expect for this particular. I'm excited to see what happens with Yang Hansen.
Ty Schmidt
Me too.
Pat McAfee
Favorite player of the draft legit up in the auditorium because he's supposed to call tonight. Tonight's supposed to be the night, but he's coming from China, so we gotta get there. We might as well go watch the show at least, right? You're drafted, bub. Congratulations. Welcome to Memphis via. Yeah, you get it. That's that whole. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
I'm not even sure what team he's on.
Pat McAfee
Portland. Portland.
Ty Schmidt
There you go.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, he's a trailer.
Ty Schmidt
He's gonna say him and Jar.
Pat McAfee
But look, it says, like, just do the thing. He's at Portland. Yeah. Why do they do that?
Ty Schmidt
He is Portland.
Pat McAfee
Now, I'm sure some basketball purist is gonna tell us that we don't know what we're talking about, which happens a lot, believe it or not. We are told we don't know we're talking about a lot. Now, I will say if you were to revisit those conversations a little bit further down the road, might be a whole new conversation at the time. But we are just your basic doofuses. And whenever we're trying to lear your shit and that's. Look, we had some names.
Ty Schmidt
That's what I was gonna say. At least the broadcast was flawless.
Pat McAfee
I mean, it was a. It was a. It was a lot of different options to watch. Obviously. It was a ABC option. There was an ESPN option. There was an ESPN radio option. I believe there was a digital option as well. So they did the full takeover of the draft. I think a lot of people didn't know that there was other options. Saw a lot of that on the Internet. That's like whenever we do our draft Spectacular and people start tweeting. Or whenever we do our simulcasts, when we do the alternate cast of games, when we're on the sidelines, people start tweeting about how terrible we are for the game. And how is this what ESPN. ESPN's ruining college football like for us? They have no idea that Kirk and Fowler, one down. Just. If you were to do that, simple. So that happens with the draft. I think there should be maybe a heads up that.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, you can find this in a couple different places.
Pat McAfee
And maybe they did. Maybe we weren't paying attention, but I was bouncing around. I thought it was a good show. I thought it was a good show. Especially when there's nothing no other sports watch. I'd rather have that than Love Island. Ain't that right, foxy? Did you watch NBA last night or did you watch Love Island? I watched NBA actually last night. Love island was off. See, but he would have been. It's only off two days a week, and last night was one of them. I think he would have been a little. Oh, and when you guys get back after those two days, so much has happened. Thursday episodes are crazy. Sunday episodes are crazy. Yeah, okay. Yeah, see, that's where we're at now. That's where we're at now.
Ty Schmidt
That's set.
Pat McAfee
So whenever we're talking about the second round of the NBA draft tonight, deal with us. Okay.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
We're going to ask Shalom's a question about the second round of the NBA draft. And just know in the moment, we do care. Okay. We do want to know the answer. Because all these guys are going to go on to be superstars, all stars.
Ty Schmidt
That's right.
Pat McAfee
Who was the number one pick last year?
Ty Schmidt
Zachary Ricochet, I think. Something like that. Yeah. I know it doesn't look like it's. That's how it's pronounced, but I have heard people say it like that.
Pat McAfee
Okay, so he was first pick overall last year. He went obviously to the Atlanta Hawks and he played outstanding at the end of the year.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, exactly. I think he was kind of hammered dog shite the first half of the season. Then he kind of figured out he's.
Pat McAfee
13 on the year. Not bad. Not bad. Okay, so he bounced back.
Ty Schmidt
Exactly.
Pat McAfee
And number one overall pick before that was Wemby. And the number one overall pick before that was.
Ty Schmidt
Oh, I couldn't tell you. That's. That's getting a little too far.
Pat McAfee
In the past, number one's normally hit though, right? Isn't that kind of the thing of the draft? I mean, last year's draft, I remember there being a conversation about it being crap. They said, this is not a great draft is what they said. That was rude to those kids. You guys make your own decision on if you're a crap draft class or not. Because any draft class in any sport could be the best of all time or could be the worst of all time. Right. Every draft pick could be the best player of all time or the worst player of all time, which Is why it's such a fun, exciting time. Feels like basketball hits at the top more often than not everybody else. I think I'm kind of a little bit lost on last night. Knew a lot of names late. Knew a lot of names. Like Connor. You had a theory on why that was the case, why we knew a lot more names. And I think it was because there was a lot of college March madness, like Walter Clayton Jr. Being available at 18. I was so surprised. I'm like, this guy's available for the NBA and he's fallen this far. He was. He took over games. I mean, he just absolutely took over games. I guess there's a lot more projection on what you could be in the NBA and then the names being known. It's like a lot of college guys got drafted last night. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
And a lot of guys make their names in March. Like, I feel like even not just Walter Clayton Jr. But there's a few guys who transferred to bigger schools, and then they become names.
Pat McAfee
And mark guy, Derek Queen, gets drafted last night down in New Orleans. They. They paid a hefty ransom to move up 10 spots to get him.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, People weren't happy about that.
Pat McAfee
People are calling that guy that's run into the Pelicans a big dumb dipshit. Yeah, that's what people said. We did not say. No, no, we did not say that. I cannot reiterate that enough because we like Derrick Queen. So if Derrick Queen goes on to be a perennial All Star, which it could be, very tall, very athletic, very smooth, and a dog. Remember in the game that you show the highlight where he wins it in the huddle. The coach said, who wants the ball? And he said, I want the ball. And then he got. I'm sorry, I want the motherfucking ball. Then he gets the ball and does that. It's like, okay, that is a guy I would like on my team. Now. You trade up 10 spots and give up a unprotected first rounder. I guess next year, especially with what the Pelicans could be potentially. Or they could be very good nonetheless. But if they end up being good and Derrick Queen's good, none of this matters.
Ty Schmidt
Bingo.
Pat McAfee
Just like the NFL draft. Like somebody makes a stupid move, you reach to get somebody. If that guy's an All Star, none of it matters if that person's not fired. Yeah. Speaking of that move, Dallas Mavericks, all of a sudden, this Nico guy wants to bop wood. Yeah. He said, why'd you get rid of Luka? This guy led your team to the finals. Last year we said it like, this guy thinks he's more important to the Dallas Mavericks than Luka Doncic. What is this guy doing? Is he trying to piss off the fans so bad that they have a right to move the team to another city? That was the theories. This guy is trying to tank his team to be bad is what they were saying about this Nico guy. Gm, now there's stats coming out that are like everything that Nico has said he wants on his team, he has assembled. He is Cooper Flag, also a shot blocker. I mean, 50 blocks in 37 games. Obviously when you're that tall, that athletic, you're able to do it. But now they just got size and they are going to play defense, which is exactly what he came out immediately after trading. Nico said, I feel there is a way to win games. I think it is through a defensive style of basketball and I think you have to be in tremendous shape. And he like kind of just sat in the pocket on that. Just very much sat in the pocket on that. He got murdered. We were a part of the problem.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. Yeah. Well, kind of rightfully so, though. Still, he got very lucky after exactly the trade.
Pat McAfee
Getting the number one overall pick for Cooper Flag, I think is obviously a massive ordeal. But if you look at the vision that he wants, feels like he's setting it up. And now I guess Kyrie won't be back until January.
Ty Schmidt
Or February start break even.
Pat McAfee
So he's going to miss the first half of the season. But whenever Kyrie comes back. Oh yeah. And if they're already rolling, it's like his vision is perfect. Can they stay healthy is the big question. And what will Cooper Flag be? I think. I think with what every human is saying about him, it's going to work. Yeah, like he's going to transition well into the NBA. Congrats to him on a coronation basically of being the next one.
Ty Schmidt
Well, especially in the west too. Like, if you think about those three guys, Gafford Lively and Anthony Davis and you can throw Cooper Flag in there. But looking around, Chet Holmgren and OKC and Hartenstein, they're both. Those dudes are seven foot, big bodies. So I mean, again, they match up well with them. You look at the Nuggets, of course, Jokic, big body, got to match up with them. The Timberwolves, you know, of course, Rudy Gobert, not as good on offense, but the. The main one. Yeah. Victor Wembanyama. Like, if you're looking just to win the state of Texas in general, first and foremost, of course, you have that kind of manpower now. But the. The thing.
Pat McAfee
The league's getting big.
Ty Schmidt
It's getting huge.
Pat McAfee
It's getting huge. Now, granted, you still got T.J. mcConnell doing his thing. Jalen Brunson still doing his thing. You'll still see some of that. But the size of these dudes is outrageous right now with what they're able to do. So smooth.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
So smooth. All of them. All of them have a jumper. You know, it's like. Well, they don't work. The paint. It's like. I think they can. I think they can make short shots, too. Oh, yeah. Like, I. I think they could do that, but they just opt for three points instead of two because they're such prolific shooters. It just. It's a wild spot of basketball as somebody that just, you know, casual watcher. It's like these seven foot four humans.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
First of all, I didn't know we could do that.
Ty Schmidt
Not many of those.
Pat McAfee
And then when you see it run, it's like, that's unbelievable. And then it's just shooting better than I could ever shoot my life. And it's like, this is what this is. This is what? Basketball. It's an Avatar's playing basketball.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. And we just watch.
Pat McAfee
I mean, we literally. Chad Holmgren is an Avatar. Bingo. We just watched OKC with Chad Hartenstein. Two huge guys playing defense and having huge guys. And then you talked about Jacob Sully. Gets into that thing, shuts that thing go into his brain.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Soul sucked out, dropped into an avatar. He's 13ft tall, runs, jumps, does the whole thing. That's what the NBA is becoming. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
They play hoops in that movie.
Pat McAfee
They do. Sorry I cut you off. I was just. I was thinking to myself that that is what Chad. I mean, Chet was like throwing the ball down. Yeah. At the hoop, backwards from like four feet away, but so tall. Wemby's out of the blueprint now, but you're talking about number one overall picks. So from the 2020 on, it was Anthony Edwards. He's pretty good. Cade Cunningham, that guy's pretty good. Paulo Bunchero, pretty good. The elite Ricochet, obviously, Wemby and then Cooper Flagg here.
Connor
So there's a.
Pat McAfee
There's a pretty good chance that Cooper Flagg is going to probably be the rookie of the Year and be good in the NBA. Ricochet.
Ty Schmidt
We think with the S. It's like ricochet or something. Yeah, it's. It is. It is not pronounced how you think it would be.
Pat McAfee
R I S A C H E R. I know The ER is an A sound, right?
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
With the S is becoming a Zach.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, I mean that's, you know. Again, I. Zachary, I just looked it up.
Pat McAfee
It's Reza Shay.
Ty Schmidt
See, knew it was in the ballpark.
Pat McAfee
I took like eight classes of French and I'm like, I don't know if an S turns into a C in that language. They seemingly are great at basketball though.
Ty Schmidt
Very good.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, French, good basketball. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who, you know is in the middle of a lot of action right now. Obviously, Qualtrics. When you're talking about surveying and accounting and everything like that, Best in the best.
Ty Schmidt
Only one name comes to mind.
Pat McAfee
Qualtrics. Boom. Great business. So good it's been sold multiple times.
Ty Schmidt
It's crazy.
Pat McAfee
For billions of dollars each time.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
The person that did that said, well, I'm like 40 years old now. Love sports. What should I do? Oh, I'm going to buy my hometown NBA team. The Utah Jazz. Becomes an owner of the Utah Jazz, obviously brings in Danny Ainge from the Boston Celtics, tries to build up a winner in his city. Then also he says, you know, I love this state. With what would this state need? What would be great for this state? All hockey team. So then he starts petitioning the NHL. Hey, whenever a team is either going up for expansion or for sale, we would like to be a part of it. I think my state, the one that I'm from, would be a wonderful host city of an NHL team. And I think we would show up for you. You got it. Team goes up for sale in Phoenix. Bang. All of a sudden, now he owns an NHL team and an NBA team and he's under the age of 50, ladies and gentlemen. A self made billionaire with a great team around him. An owner of an NBA team and an NHL team. A guy who's living out a lot of odd dudes dreams in America and has remained a human somehow. I don't know how that works. Ladies and gentlemen, Ryan Smith.
Ryan Smith
What's up guys?
Pat McAfee
That last question. Shoe collection. So okay. Oui, oui, Messi. Beaucoup 2 a trey extraordinaire. Defeat covers. I don't know how you say shoes. Yeah. Your shoe collection's outrageous. You know that? That is beautiful right there. That is wonderful. How often do we change those out? Are they always the same spot?
Ryan Smith
No, it's great. I always change it out. Like if I just show up and I'm like not filling what's what. I'm rocking on the feet. I just look around and there's Something. Something there.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, but are they always all in the same spots or do some people get kicked off the team? Like, hey, I'll tell you what. Third row up on the left side, 15th shoe in. I haven't worn these in three years. Take them off the damn rack. They don't deserve a spot anymore. We need to put some new bad boys up here. Is there any. We need to put Crocs up here.
Ryan Smith
So what's actually. What's actually happening is I find that they're disappearing. People will come in and then, like, walk out with a pair of kicks. And I'm like, all right, we got to find something else there.
Pat McAfee
Zito said in the back, that is classic Big J there. He's going right to the top. Big J's going right to the top. No doubt about it. Okay, thank you for joining us. Great night last night for the Utah Jazz. I assume that's how the entire organization feels. Danny Ainge, obviously genius over there. You bring in so many big brains into every business that you do. It feels like you are okay delegating power to other people and trusting the ride. How was the room last night? Whenever you end up with Ace Bailey at five, outrageously talented player who may have said that he didn't want to go to Utah. I don't know if that was just on the Internet, but that was kind of being speculated. And then Walter Clayton Jr. The guy of March Madness, had to feel like a great night for the Utah Jazz. Ryan, is that accurate?
Ryan Smith
Yeah, it truly was. I mean, I think. I think we brought in Austin Ainge a couple weeks ago and he came out for the press conference from Boston and didn't leave. Actually, he has not left to go back home to back up or anything. He has been heads down and I think a couple weeks ago he said, if we could walk out of this draft with Ace Bailey and Walter Clayton, that's exactly what we want to do. And the team executed on exactly what they wanted.
Pat McAfee
Okay, so whenever the chatter about Ace Bailey happens, as the owner of the team, I assume that is something that you have to take into account, especially in the modern era of sports. What is kind of your thoughts on that particular narrative About Ace at 5 to Utah? With everything that's been said leading up to the draft?
Ryan Smith
I mean, look, I think our philosophy and where we're at as a team is we want to take the best player on the play board and. And we love Ace. I got a chance to talk to Ace and Walter last night, and, you know, all I Saw was a kid who was humble. He was grateful, he was excited to. To be in the NBA. And I think that's all you can ask for from. From our standpoint. I mean, naturally, probably doesn't have a lot of experience out west here with Utah. That's our job to go make him love it. I just. I'm confident in our state. I know that, you know, he'll feel love like he's never felt before. People are fired up to have him, and reality is there's nothing that. That Ace and others can't accomplish here. And so I think we've seen that with the NBA finals this year. You guys have felt that love. You are along for a hell of a ride with. With Indy and okc, and he's going to do great. He's going to do great. And he's got a young coach who's fired up about him. You know, he's got a lot of really smart people around. I mean, with DA has been in the league 46 years with A. With a group of veterans on our team that are also incredibly unselfish. And I think that's really important so he gets a chance to learn. But everyone wants this guy to succeed, and so we couldn't be more excited.
Pat McAfee
Hell, yeah. And as I was watching and reading that narrative kind of take place on the Internet. And I don't think it was just Utah. I didn't want to. I think there was multiple. You know, I think it was, like, considered a conversation about Ace leading up. I'm like, there's no way he's ever been to Utah. Ace, I want to let you know, you and I obviously not same people. I had little to no expectation of Utah. I'm just going to. Let's keep it a buck. How it will. Going out to Utah. I was planning on doing show, hotel room, show, plane. Get me the hell out of here.
Ty Schmidt
Yep.
Pat McAfee
Okay. Get me the hell out of here. You invited me to a game, which is very kind. Hey, the owner of the Utah Jazz would like you to come to a Utah Jazz game tonight. Ah, I can't. Can't do that. I got a big schedule, big things planned. And then I think Zito was like, hey, you should look up who the owner of the Utah Jazz is. I looked it up. I saw you, and I was like, this is not what I expected out of the Utah Jazz owner at all. I looked into your story. I looked into how you treat people. I looked into everything, and I was like, oh, I'd love to go hang with this guy. And what we got a chance to do is experience Utah, Walked around downtown, got a chance to go out. We saw the people, we saw the building. We experienced everything about it. It's like, this place is amazing. We. We thought about picking up and moving there. Like, that was. That was where we're at, let alone the views and everything else. And I think obviously conservative is a word that is thought about Utah. But I, I think people automatically assume that's boring. It's like, I don't think your city was boring at all. Like, I think we had a great time out there.
Ryan Smith
No, a lot of times in life, I think the picture in our head can. Can actually lead us into a really weird spot, and it actually limits all the opportunities in front of us. I mean, growing up as a kid, I never thought I would be an enterprise software. Like, that picture of the head just didn't seem what it is. You know, I'll never forget D. Wade's quote, right when we, you know, obviously were hoping for, you know, the draft lottery and everything came out. And, you know, his quote right away is like, hey, there's been a lot of killer players picked at number five, you know, back at where he was. And so I think, look, it's natural for people to be uncomfortable. I think you went down the entire draft board and you're like, okay, where's everyone's preferred destination? It's probably not the right move for them where they think it is in their head. Because everything I've had in my life, that's good. It has never been the picture I had in my head. It's actually always kind of uncommon sense where it comes out and it's like, oh, that all makes sense. And all you want is the ability to accomplish everything and not be held back. And that's what, that's what all these guys are going to get in Utah.
Pat McAfee
Let's not talk about.
Ryan Smith
And by the way. And by the way, I mean, like, this, this little.
Pat McAfee
He's going to do it.
Ryan Smith
This little view, like, if that's not good for your mental. To get locked in, to go. To go reach up for something where the air is thin. I don't know what else. Like, we're in the picture business here.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, your postcards. Postcards, brother, A lot of those. Yeah. You got the mountains in a mountain resort view on one side, then you got 2000 pairs of Js on the other side. Utah, baby lake over there we got a basketball operation.
Ryan Smith
It's a great lake.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, it is a great Lake.
Ryan Smith
We do.
Pat McAfee
Well, it's not a great lake. Great lakes are on our side of the country. Yeah, exactly. Okay, let's make. Yeah, please. Homes, brother. Homes. Thank you. No problem. That's Michigan right there. That's right. I'll shout out to Erie too. You know, one fishing up there in Lake Erie Superior is a big sun.
Ty Schmidt
Oh, yeah, big.
Pat McAfee
That's a big. That's a great lake right there. Ontario and Huron though, they hold up their end of the bargain because you can't spell homes. Hoe right there.
Ryan Smith
That's right.
Pat McAfee
So that's why we got the Great Lakes on our side. You understand it, Ron. You got good lakes over there. You got good lakes, you got good salt. All right, let's move on. Let's move on. I think Ace is going to love Utah is all I'm saying. And I think you're like, if I was going to be a professional athlete, you would be the owner that I would. Or style of owner that I would want to play. You are fully invested. On that note, Ty has a question for you.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. Ryan, how difficult is it having to kind of split your time with. Obviously when you have the draft, you have all that prep and then you're also looking at different acquisitions and different players to bring in. And on the flip side of it, you also have to address everything going on with the mammoth. Like I know you've said to us, you're not really that the hands on guy who's going to be involved in every, every decision and want your fingerprint all over it. But how difficult is it really kind of properly dividing your time between both your teams when you're trying to make both teams better before next season?
Ryan Smith
Yeah, it's like a, it's like a two game parlay. You're trying to, you're trying to hit it all every night. Like it's. It's hard. I think, I think just like your guys world, you gotta, you gotta pick your spots and you gotta try to figure out how it all works. There's no real playbook. I think people ask you like, hey, how are you going to be so, you know, last night was an interesting one. I'm in that draft room right there, right. Like, what is my role there? And my role in my mind is very simple. I'm there to support them. Like I've never seen a business that has so much revisionist history because every organization last night with 30 picks all were clapping for the guy that they got. We got our guy. And then five years from now, everyone's going to look back and be like, I can't believe we didn't get the guy one up or one below or we got luck. We were lucky. And my role here is to let Austin know and DA and coach. We're riding and dying together. I'm in it with you. There's going to be no revisionist history. We're making that decision. We're going to be in it together. I'm going to look back. I was in the room, and I'm here to support you. We're going to win some, we're going to lose some. We're going to be aggressive. I'd rather have you swinging. You know, we've never had a championship in Utah. We're not going to tiptoe into that. We're going to miss some. That's fine. But I want you to know that then I'm here in that hard moment to validate. I'm not in there telling them how to do their job. Although last night it was interesting because I'm sitting at that table, we're in the middle. The of my phone rings, and everyone's phone's ringing on the clock and everything, and they're like, why are you taking a call? And it was, you know, it was. It was Terry Pagula from the Sabres going, hey, there's a hockey deal going on right now. Are you involved in this? Is this for real? What's going on? And, and, and. And I was like, yeah, I think this is going. Everyone's kind of looking at me going, like, why aren't you on the call? I was like, hey, like, don't worry about it. But, like, you just kind of blend it all together. And then my family sitting back there and our friends are there, like, there's no real separation. It's just pulling it all into one organization. I think that's one of the benefits we have in Utah, where we do have the same ownership structure in both organizations. It is the same arena, and it's easy to kind of put on one broader hat and hire really smart people that my job's to support and get out of their way. But also let them. Let them do the job, let them feel comfortable, let them take the risk and know that it's a safe place. And, you know, we're not expecting perfection.
Pat McAfee
Knowing that your owner is invested financially and also wanting to win is a huge deal for the fan base. I assume the Jazz in the Mammoth have fans have told you that, but also hiring smart people and letting them do their job and execute their vision is also something all fans want their owners to do. Now, let's talk about the people that you've hired. Bill Armstrong over there for the Mammoth. Right. Ain't that accurate? Yeah, he's the GM that did the deal. Whenever Pegula called you and said, hey, are you in on this? I got Bill Armstrong. What do you. You talk to Bill Armstrong there. People around the hockey world say, great trade here for the Utah Mammoth. Now, granted, I think you signed him to a deal immediately and some people are questioning the contract details, whatever that is. But getting JJ to your team, I think everybody in the hockey world was like, good move. How do you feel about the move and what should we view. How should we view the Mammoth over the next few years?
Ryan Smith
Yeah, so, I mean, first of all, this is bittersweet because Castle, Ring and Doan are amazing humans and, and you know, they're both, they're both young and, you know, it's obviously what, what Buffalo wanted. I think we, we. I mean, I think to take a next step for us, you know, we need a little bit more scoring on that front line. We got a left winger and now we have four guys on our team under the age of 26 that are 60 point guys and hopefully it gets better. You know, three of them are under 23. I think that's really encouraging if I look out for, for the Mammoth. But once again, you know, you know, Cass and Donor were huge in our first season. They handled the transition, the move, they rallied. You know, there's a lot of leaders on these teams and so it's a little bittersweet, but, you know, it's a move we got to make in. And you know, when it was brought to me with the recommendation, it was, it was something that we were pretty excited about just because of the potential and the upside of feeling that that was one of our big off season desires and to have it come. I don't think we saw it coming this way, but I think it's good news for, for, for Mammoth fans. And you know, I've looked into it a little bit. There's good years ahead.
Pat McAfee
I've looked into it a little bit. They talked about the money that JJ is getting now, and I thought about you as an owner, you know, and I don't remember if we've ever chatted about it, but the NBA money and the NHL money is crazy. Sidney Crosby just signed for $8.7 million a year. $8.7 million, that's like three weeks pay for some of the NBA guys, you know, and I'm not saying that it isn't warranted, like, you get whatever you need. You get whatever money you can get. But for you, has that been an interesting experience in the NHL? Like, hey, I am used to spending money on the most valuable assets of the entire franchise, which is the players. Has that been interesting for you with Bill Armstrong?
Ryan Smith
I mean, it's all within a cap system, and I think, you know, we've got, you know, we brought Bill in, we hired Chris Armstrong. So we have two. Two Armstrongs that are in there.
Pat McAfee
Two Angels, Two Armstrongs.
Ryan Smith
Yeah, two Armstrong, two ages. They're not related, though. But like, Chris. Chris is someone that I work with for a long time, and, you know, I would say his job is present. One of his jobs is to get me really comfortable and then work with Bill together and to say, hey, you know, how's this going to play out? I mean, we still don't even have a full arena yet from a seating standpoint, and we're under massive renovation right there. There's a video out there. I mean, we're trying to do something that really hasn't been done from a basketball, hockey arena to make it super intimate, like we have in hoops, which you guys have seen, but also have it be able to almost expand like an accordion for. For hockey and arenas.
Pat McAfee
When's that. That's going to take two years to build you.
Ryan Smith
It's going to be. It's going to be two years, but there's. There's new technology with seating where it's almost like you can press a button and it's like, hey, go to two, come back to one. As opposed to most arenas, seats start off wide, and then they come in for kind of that moment. We want to stay in the. The best, most intimate basketball arena in the NBA, but be able to press a button and kind of go out to. To maintain that same intimacy for hockey. And so we've been working on this. That'll be full. But we're. We're trying to be aggressive, but also plan for the future. We're very, very close. We were close to getting to the playoffs this year, and honestly, it was. It was pretty storybook to. Yeah. I mean, the second. The season end, we put a crane on that floor, and it's not coming out till the second we start. I mean, it's pretty massive, what we're doing here. Yeah, yeah. It feels like mammoth. It's a mammoth undertaking.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Did you walk in there with your hard hat on? Did you do the whole hard hat photo shoot.
Ryan Smith
Oh, you're not going in. You're not going in there without. Without hard hat and.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, but did you do the photo shoot with the scissors on the thing to break ground or the shovel to break ground? Did you do that whole thing?
Ryan Smith
I'm gonna be honest. By the time the season was over, that thing was gated in and we just moved fast in Utah.
Pat McAfee
No, you got it. You gotta do the shovel thing.
Ryan Smith
Now. We'll do a shovel when we kick it off and you guys are there hosting opening night when that thing's done. But, you know, look, I think I had an interview. A reporter question from Canadian television asked me once how I thought about the cap going up in hockey. And like, oh, it was going up 10% or what was going to happen? And I was like, as opposed to what? I mean, we're kind of used to that in the NBA where it kind of increases at a level which is a big jump. But look, I mean, what the NHL is doing and where it's going, you guys are seeing that. You guys covered it. You were early to the beat there. It's on a heater. It's absolutely on a heater. And I don't see this thing slowing down because the world very, very easily relates to the teamwork and what they're seeing on the ice and the way they go and, you know, even the celebrations, like, we're watching, and it's a pretty cool thing to be a part of and to be able to bring that to Utah, you know, it's probably one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I'm happy you're getting part of the hockey world. You know, like, I think you wanted to bring a hockey team to Utah because you knew Utah would love a hockey team. Like, I think that's what you did then. I think as you started learning about hockey more and more, you know, it started feeling like you started becoming like, oh, this is a sport that I'm very, very much love and have a lot in common with. Because how about them just fighting? How about it? Like, it's so old school in there. Like, hey, you. You want to disrespect my friend? Sweet. I will see you center ice in about two periods. So we will handle this entire thing. And then the speed and the town, it's. It's a fantastic sport.
Ryan Smith
And then they're taking one night off and playing again. You're like, wait a minute. Shouldn't they just play next Sunday?
Pat McAfee
No, no, no, we got 84 games coming, allegedly. Now, on that note, Connor has a question for you.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, Ryan, new proposed CBA for the NHL. Pat just mentioned it. 84 game season, the max, 6 year deals for free agents.
Pat McAfee
No dress codes.
Ty Schmidt
No dress codes, which is ridiculous.
Pat McAfee
Let the boys put sandals on. Ryan.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, please. The long term ir, which has been a very kind of priority for some of these teams to win is to use that long term ir. I know people in Florida were upset because Ekblad goes on the 20 game suspension. They get new players. It happened with the Golden Knights, it's happened with Lightning. With Kucherov, it's happened forever. That's another thing. They're thinking about changing. What is kind of the main things of this new proposed CBA. Is it locked in for 84 games here? And what do you think? How is it going to change the game?
Ryan Smith
Yeah, like, I don't know how it's all going to kind of shake out, but I, you know, right when I came in, I had like three or four different owners and managers of the NHL call and be like, dude, we got to keep the suits. The dress codes got to stay the way it is.
Pat McAfee
Really.
Ryan Smith
I know you're, I know you're a big hoodie guy, but, like, don't, don't. Like, we got one thing. And I've actually grown to love the suits. Like, I love the look, I love the culture. You know, it's game time. You know, when it's coming. There's something about it. Right. And, and so we'll see how it all. I'm sure it's a lot of work for the guys, but we'll see how all this shakes out. I mean, 84 games, it's incredible. It's incredible what they do, how physical it is. You know, diving in front of pucks, doing that. I mean, it's, it's, you know, these are real athletes.
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
Ryan Smith
And, and they, they go hard and they go a lot. And I think, you know, we're, we're going to see. You know, I think they're in the middle of it where, you know, it's kind of a template and, and we'll see where it all shakes out. I mean, I can't comment too much on it.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, got it. Okay. Because whenever I read this on the thing on the bottom of the photo, it said major potential changes in next NHL, nhlpa, cba. But then in the tweet it says, could be announced tomorrow, per Frank Cervoli. So then, so it's kind of Conflicting. Like, if this is potential, but then it could be announced tomorrow. That sounds like there's an agree to terms then.
Ryan Smith
Yeah, we haven't voted on anything yet.
Pat McAfee
Okay. All right. That's good piece of information. All right, so we haven't voted on anything. We're getting close. We'll see how it all shakes out. Whatever the case, hockey is going to remain awesome. And we appreciate how great of an owner you have been for the Utah Jazz and a Mammoth thus far and how cool you've been to us. We appreciate the hell out of you.
Ryan Smith
No, you guys are awesome. Congrats on all the success, fellows. And congrats on the run in Indy. Man, it was fun watching.
Pat McAfee
It was. How about Simon? He was the man.
Ryan Smith
I wanted one for Herbie a little bit, I'm not gonna lie.
Pat McAfee
Like, I ran into backstage, our back court, I guess you would call it, in the bottom, in the tunnel, in the tunnel of the arena after we won the Eastern Conference finals, I think. And he was just walking, smiling. They were on his way somewhere and just in a suit coat, you know, sport coat, walking, happy. Has, like, glasses. They might be sunglasses. Glasses. Tinted glasses. A little bit. He's walking through, And I go, Mr. Simon, my name's Pat McAfee. Congratulations. Or whatever. He goes, pat, thank you. And I said, congratulations, man. I was like, can I get a selfie with you? He goes, absolutely. And then he turns. Me and my wife take a selfie with him, and he goes, all right, I'm gonna go celebrate. And then he turns around, walks away. I'm like, this guy, he's awesome. He's older.
Ryan Smith
That's my guy. That's my guy. Like every All Star, I just, like. I sit next to her. But I was like, you are a G. You are like, he's 90 years old and, like, he just wants to hang. And I'm. I want as much time with that guy as I can get.
Pat McAfee
What.
Ryan Smith
What an amazing human hall of Famer.
Pat McAfee
Super vibes out of that guy. I mean, like, super vibes. Not just, like, kind of. He's 90. It was like, this guy is amazing. All right. We appreciate you, Ryan. Good luck with everything.
Ryan Smith
Hey, we'll see you.
Pat McAfee
Hey, toss up Keegan over here. Foxy, can you go over here?
Ryan Smith
Let's go.
Pat McAfee
Ryan Smith, ladies and gentlemen.
Ty Schmidt
Why won't he do it?
Pat McAfee
I don't know. I think maybe he doesn't want to because he's a big. Let's see what the people say.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Remember, quality. People have spoken. Yeah. I think I Think there has been a contingency of people that have spoke, but I think he doesn't want to force anything either. He's very much like, let it happen now. We'll see how. We'll see how it all shakes up. You know, we'll see how it all. I let the guys do their jobs too. I like you saying that. I'm in the room. Certainly I am there. Hey, listen, I'm here to support you. And five years from now, I won't be judging your decision because I was there whenever we were all in there. We actually just had one of these conversations in the think tank over there about a decision that was made by me like years ago that we look back on and go, so stupid. That was a bad decision. It was like. But in the moment, in the moment, it was felt like a good one. And that's life. You're gonna keep going. That's an American dream story, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Believe he dropped out of high school. Something like that. He's like an outlaw.
Ty Schmidt
Because they started in his basement.
Pat McAfee
It was. He was like an outlaw.
Ty Schmidt
The outlaw Mormon.
Pat McAfee
He was. And then he just surveys, and then he started pounding pavement with these surveys. And then he like showcased the companies that like, you can do like the original surveys. And I think it's hard in the digital age because we all hate surveys. We all know of surveys, but when surveys like first became like a thing, people would be walking off an airplane and they'd be like, hey, would you take five minutes to do this and we'll give you a five minute gift card or five dollar gift card or something like that for the future. Sure, no problem. And then you get like a thousand of those filled out. And then I think you show the company like, hey, this is what your customers are literally saying. And he like changed businesses like the Qualtrics people. And then he sold that thing twice. Billions one time. Yeah. Still owner. Get a little bit more back. Sell it again. Still own it. Buy the Utah Jazz. Still own it. Buy the Utah Mammoth. Utah Hockey Club. It's like he's 48 or something.
Ty Schmidt
Crazy beast.
Pat McAfee
48 years old. Was not born a billionaire. Like, this is not like family money. This is. He created the money alongside a lot of great people. I'm not saying that he didn't have a great team, but it's like he's doing everything that, like, you know, a lot of little boys dream of. Like, he grew up hooping in Utah, in Salt Lake City. Love the Utah Jazz. Owns Utah Jazz. Yeah, I love the state of Utah. How we give a. Got to get a hockey team here like it is, hope they win. That's a hell of a story over there. What's that?
Ty Schmidt
I said I hope they win.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, me too. Utah Jazz not good this year.
Ty Schmidt
No, they haven't been good for a little while now. Yeah, I think the Mammoth, you know, I mean, what we've seen in the NHL, like, with these newer team, granted they're not an expansion team, but, like, they're obviously, you know, they. They. They could be good next year. He said it. They almost made the playoffs this last year.
Pat McAfee
Expansion team, better option in the NHL. Nick, correct me if I'm wrong. Expansion team, because you can get, like, vets from other teams. Whenever you buy a team like the Phoenix Coyotes, who move up to Utah to become the Utah Hockey Club, now the Utah Mammoth, you pick up their entire building basically, right? Isn't that kind of how it is? So you already have the roster set, as opposed to being able to build your own roster with a plethora of veterans that are on big contracts that you can potentially sign. Right, Nick? Certainly a lot more flexibility with the.
AJ Hawk
Expansion options, but Ryan got a great opportunity here because of that tweet we just had up on the screen there where the youth. A couple of those guys. Cooley was a draft pick. Gunther and Keller were already on the team.
Pat McAfee
Now they trade and add pityrka.
Ty Schmidt
Like, they've got a really good situation going in Utah.
Pat McAfee
Young, young team.
Ty Schmidt
Gunther.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, Gunther's a dog, as we could have said. Who's the Pittsburgh boy? There's a Pittsburgh boy on this team. Logan Cooley. Babe. Everybody, you're out there. Go on, Cooley. Go on, Cooley. All right, let's turn our attention back to the NBA. Obviously, the NBA draft was last night, and there was a little bit of a different experience during this NBA draft than there had been in the past. My friend Shams wasn't tipping every single pick, was he? Let's ask him about. Ladies and gentlemen, Sham Sharan Shams. How you doing, buddy?
Shams Charania
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. My head is kind of spinning. We got second round of the NBA draft tonight. I'm actually even getting ready for free agency coming up in a few days. So we have a few different things on the docket right now we're wrapping our minds around.
Pat McAfee
Are we about to do the whole Sham screen time post? Is that coming soon? Is the Sean time post coming?
Shams Charania
That's likely. I feel like that's likely. I think. I think the people want to see the June 30th and July one screen times, but if they don't want to see it, we won't. We usually give the people what they want to say.
Pat McAfee
I think that's all right. All right, let's talk about what the people didn't see last night. It was noticeable. I live on X. You were trending while not being active on X because you weren't tipping picks. A lot of great tweets about Shams not tipping picks last night. Just the way the Internet has the ability. More specifically, NBA Twitter. Okay, I guess that's. Sure that's not the name, and that is the best Twitter. Let's not even get into it. But that's neither here nor there. They had a field day with the Shams not tipping pick. Then all of a sudden, pick 11. We're getting tipped picks now with trades. Now we're getting with trades. What was your experience last night? Because with all of us who are friends of yours and followers of yours, it was a little bit different, and people noticed.
Shams Charania
It was hard. It was. It was hard, you know, knowing the picks five minutes in advance or knowing the. Knowing what's happening in different places. Well, before it was hard. It was definitely unlike, you know, past years for me. There's no doubt about it. There were times I was like, you know, I just, you know, let me.
Pat McAfee
Fire one of these off. Let me fire one. Yeah.
Shams Charania
But, you know, I. I think this year I took the approach of being a good teammate and being a good partner for. For the people that I'm around, the people that I. I work with on a daily basis, you know, by.
Pat McAfee
Not.
Shams Charania
By. By approaching it and not tipping the picks. But, you know, trades, though, are different, Pat. You know, trades, they get processed. It's just. It's a totally different, you know, element of the draft. And so to me, keeping our broadcast as up to date as possible on which pick is going where, you know that. And if. And if a trade is processed, it is my job to report that.
Pat McAfee
Absolutely.
Shams Charania
To me, you know, I think I handled it, you know, the best I could.
Pat McAfee
I thought you did very well, by the way. I thought you did very well. And you talked about being a good partner and a good teammate and everything like that. We run the draft spectacular, and we. For a very long time, as soon as somebody on the Internet reported what the pick was, we would just be like, yep, here's the pick. Because we're. We're on the Internet, you know, like, that is. This is what. How Business is being done on the Internet. Then, you know, once we start our show being licensed through espn and then the NFL gives us a spot at the draft, and it's like the ESPN production people are building the set. The NFL gave us the fucking location. It's like in. The NFL in the past has been like, hey, could you please. You know, we kind of want that to be a big deal. You know, whenever you and all the other insiders that have probably been given the same speech are like, hey, don't, please don't tip the picks. They all talk shit on everybody tipping picks. So I can understand the pressure that you had on you yesterday and the decision making because I literally had to. We literally had to make that decision. Like, that is something we had to do because it's like we did NFL.
Shams Charania
Picks on the show.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, years ago.
Shams Charania
You were cracking. Yeah, yeah, 2020. I was. I was getting in the mix there. Kobe D. I remember that.
Pat McAfee
It's tough, though, because you do want to be a good teammate. Like, you do want to be. For us, like, we would like to be a good teammate for the NFL. Like, we respect the NFL. So whenever the NFL was like, hey, is there any way, you know, because a. Every other broadcast partner we have is getting pissed than us that, you know, you're doing that.
Ty Schmidt
Guys are eight picks ahead that you.
Pat McAfee
That they can't. We don't let them do it. But also, like, don't you think that this is a bigger moment if it just happens? And I'm like, yes, if. Yeah, I do. I do think that is the case. So that was like an easy give. I think you did the right thing. And then whenever you're reporting the trades, we get. We did get a little. We got some tips, you know, we got some tips picked. So I think you did great last night, Shams. Now, with that being said, what were some of the big storylines of last night? Obviously, Ace Bailey goes five to Utah. We just talked to Ryan Smith. Is that the biggest takeaway from last night or what is it in your eyes from what everybody is talking about?
Shams Charania
There are a few for sure. We can start with Utah. Ace Bailey going at five. You know what's crazy? A few days before the draft, I actually heard Ace Bailey, that that was the spot he was destined to go. And then, you know, but classic, like in the NFL. I'm sure it's the same way. Smoke screens, you hear this. It's like every single day it's a new rumor. You hear, oh, no, he's actually did Washington he's actually gonna go to New Orleans. Like, I heard everything in the book, but I did trust the person I heard that from. But, you know, I went into the draft eyes wide open. We'll see what happens. I think at pick four and five, there were a lot of conversations about moving back, moving up, things of that sort. None of that happened. And once Ace Bailey got to five, I wasn't really that surprised. Ace Bailey had a very, I think, an unorthodox process, but it's not a totally different process. It's not the first time a player and his representatives chose to handle it and really shield him and keep it private and kind of throw different smoke screens in their own way out there to shield his process and whether he got to where he wanted to or not. What I was told going into draft night was that he was very comfortable with his process. He was very comfortable with the fact that no matter what he does, whether he works out with teams or doesn't work out with teams, whether he's a good Samaritan or isn't a good Samaritan in the, in the team pre draft form, he's going to go somewhere between three and eight. And that's exactly what happened. He ends up going five to the Utah Jazz. They're thrilled. And I think them getting Walter Clayton Jr. I'm sure Ryan Smith and that organization is through the roof because you get those two guys, competitors, shot makers, shot creators, those are two good gets. Atlanta is another team, I think a big winner not only of the draft, but this week. Getting Kristaps Porzingis earlier in the week, if he's healthy and he's good to go, that is a massive get. He became really an indispensable part of the Celtics and their championship team in 2024. And that's a big get for them. If he's healthy. And then, yeah, that's a great tweet. Bob, Bobby, Mark, shout out, Bobby Marks, my teammate. And then last night they move back 10 draft slots and they end up with an unprotected first shot pick of the best favorable out of Milwaukee or New Orleans, given the uncertainty around both of those teams, and I don't know where either team is going to finish, one of those picks might end up being a high pick and if it is, Atlanta essentially move back 10 slots and then gets another lottery pick next year potentially. So that was some shrewd movement by their new general manager, Ansi Salah, but I think Atlanta overall has to be looking at themselves pretty good right now. And They've got a 25.3 million dollar trade player exception. I do anticipate them using that. Either they're going to take in contracts with draft picks and assets or they could get a game changing player at that salary slot.
Pat McAfee
Okay, so let's talk about Joe Dumars, who's the general manager of the Pelicans doing that trade. I believe Bill Simmons said it was worst trade he's ever seen in professional sports. I think is something along that line.
Shams Charania
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
In the last decade that far, huh?
Ty Schmidt
Last decade.
Pat McAfee
Okay. In the last decade is what Bill Simmons said. He's followed basketball, obviously he's a basketball guy. I, I don't know the business of the NBA as well. I know they don't care about picks, but they do care about picks. So much so that they'll move up 10 spots to draft somebody. Dairy Queen, dog ball player, absolute dog, by the way, Great player. If he ends up.
Shams Charania
How can you judge that? What if he ends up being a Hall of Famer? What if he ends up being a perennial All Star? Then no one is going to be talking about this in three years. So clearly Joe Dumars, Troy Weaver, that organization, they felt very confident in the player that Derrick Queen is. Only time will tell exactly how that is. Now from, but again from the Atlanta perspective, they clearly we're fine moving back 10 slots and then they get an extra asset. So for them that is looked at as a net positive. For the Pelicans, it's all about how Derrick Queen ends up, how he develops, what is he like in his NBA career. And to me it's too early to judge whether they won or lost. If next year's pick ends up being a lottery pick with Derrick Queen ends up being a perennial All Star caliber player. Like, are we really having a conversation?
Pat McAfee
I don't know. 10 picks in the middle of the first round were worthy of an unprotected first round pick next year. I don't know what the right play is and what history says in the NBA, but I do know they'll trade the 2041 number one overall in like that. They'll do that for like the ninth man off the bench. So the NBA is certainly an interesting place. Go ahead, Todd.
Ty Schmidt
Well, I was just going to say like that's, that would be the devil's advocate.
Pat McAfee
Right?
Ty Schmidt
It's like, why would you trade this unprotected pick that could potentially be a lottery pick when you could just be like, hey, we'll give you 2035 and 2036. First round pick and then a couple second round picks.
Pat McAfee
Well, that's because new GM down there at the Hawks that I don't play those games. Yeah, okay. I need that thing right now unleaded. Yeah, okay. I need. Go ahead. Connor.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, Shams, you mentioned the next steps, the free agency starting pretty soon here after the draft. And you mentioned Kaminga being a guy that the Miami Heat are looking at. Are there any other big names? Nas Reed I know is a guy that most teams want. I'm pretty sure. What is kind of the next thing after the draft or is it the honest trade? Is that happening?
Shams Charania
Well, I think the Giannis situation, we'll see he a lot of observing this week, draft week, free agency week. What can the Bucs do to get better? So that's a little bit in the, in the, in the distance, but as far as what we have in front of us, there's only one team with significant cast race. That's the Brooklyn Nets. And what they're looks like what that, you know, that organization led by Sean Marks of general manager. What they're doing is retooling younger. They used five draft picks last night. That gives you a window into what they're trying to accomplish. They're continuing to build on a young timeline there. So they have a ton of cap space. They got Terrence Mann, they got a first round pick, I think continue to take on salaries, getting assets. That'll be a focal point of what they're working on there. But the fact that they're the only team with cap space, that means there's a whole lot of free agents right now. James Harden, nas Reed, Julius, LeBron James has a player option. He has a deadline of that, if I believe on Sunday. There's a bunch of player option decisions on Sunday. So I think, you know, what we're going to see is a lot of free agents are either going to resign with their teams, work on signing trades because there's only one team with significant cap space. So I definitely, you know, I'm tracking, you know, let's see what happens with LeBron James player option. I said on our show in Indy, actually our first show we did outside Gamebridge, it's likely, still is likely, LeBron James opting into his player option just under $53 million. But he has until Sunday to make that decision. And then there'll be a host of other players making similar decisions on Sunday.
Pat McAfee
Well, Good luck to LeBron deciding whether or not he wants 53 million. You've earned it, buddy.
Shams Charania
Just give For Matt, pretty good place to be.
Pat McAfee
There's a lot of players that have that option this weekend. I'll be excited to see who goes where. Let's talk about the Phoenix suns. They acquire two centers in a matter of 10 minutes or something along those lines?
Shams Charania
Yeah, it was. This might have been the other shock of the draft. So. Come on, Malwa, watch.
Pat McAfee
Come on.
Ty Schmidt
Come on, come on.
Shams Charania
I think, I'm not gonna lie, I think I botched it a couple times.
Ryan Smith
Sorry.
Shams Charania
Come on, Malwatch. I get it.
Ty Schmidt
Come on, come on.
Pat McAfee
It's. Come on.
Shams Charania
Seems like a great, great kid. All I hear around the league is he's got a high character. So shout out. Come on, Malawatch. So when, when he, you know, a lot of people thought he was going to go between 7 and 9 and once he fell to 10, I think the Suns were looking at it like we never expected this kid to fall to us at 10 and at the same time kind of working on this Mark Williams trade. And so both things kind of developed really quick within minutes of each other. And you think about the Suns last year, they had massive front court issues. Yusuf Nurkic, Nick Richards at center, you know, he played a much bigger role. He, he actually was their most, you know, I think consistent presence at center. But they had Mason Plumlee there. So that was clearly a position of need. So to be able to get two guys with high upside, who knows, maybe one of these guys developed, develops a three point shot or develops some kind of outside game that maybe allows you to play them both together. But they clearly address their need. And, and come on, Malawash, no one expected him to drop at 10. There was actually conversations. I thought the Suns were going to move the 10th overall pick and potentially move back. They were in conversations with a couple teams to potentially move back, but they end up drafting at 10 and now they go from like having massive issues at the center position to having two guys with really high upside.
Pat McAfee
Okay, we got about a minute before a hard out, actual minute. Any expectations for tonight?
Shams Charania
So the first pick of the second round tonight, number 31, Minnesota Timberwolves. I'm told that pick is actually currently in the process of being auctioned off to the highest bidder. So there's multiple offers coming into the Timberwolves, multiple future assets potentially. And so they're going to continue to have those conversations. The draft is several hours away tonight. So just leading off the draft tonight that, that first pick tonight likely seems to be, there's serious traction on potentially.
Pat McAfee
Trade there currently on the market. We can't wait to watch the second round. You doing the coverage again?
Shams Charania
I'll be on there. I'll be on there.
Ty Schmidt
So. Yes.
Pat McAfee
Ladies and gentlemen, senior NBA insider at espn, senior Sham Sharanya. What an answer. Yeah, pretty good.
Ty Schmidt
I mean, the Internet was hot last night.
Pat McAfee
Where's Sean's? We don't get his tweets or we'll just. Just take the night off. This guy.
Shams Charania
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
What are we doing? This is his night. How about him saying it was hard? Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
Oh, there he is.
Pat McAfee
And he's in the background. See you. Sean's. Tonight will be his night. Oh, yeah. First picks up for grabs. Summer's here and Nordstrom has everything you need for your best dress season ever. From beach days and weddings to weekend getaways in your everyday wardrobe. Discover stylish options under a hundred dollars from tons of your favorite brands like Mango Skims, Princess Polly and Madewell. It's easy, too, with free shipping and free return in store order pickup and more. Shop today in stores online@nordstrom.com or download the Nordstrom app.
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Pat McAfee
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Pat McAfee
Sports are happening and obviously the NBA. Second. The second round of its annual draft will take place this evening. Last night's first round of the NBA had storylines in abundance. Jay Bilis will be joining us who was on the NBA draft coverage in about eight minutes or so to chit chat about all things NBA draft and also three Duke dudes in the top 10 of the NBA draft. Congratulations to Duke. He'll obviously celebrate that. Cannot wait to chat about what we should be looking forward to this evening. And how are his thoughts on every everything? Haven't talked to Jay Billis in a long time. Yeah, it's been a long time.
Ty Schmidt
Probably about a year this time.
Pat McAfee
Yes. Beautiful day here in Indianapolis until the show started. Then thunderstorms, I guess just dropped into our atmosphere. Out of nowhere, Foxy's got a super cool Bronco. Sweet Bronco. So it was one of the first Broncos. Whenever they relisted Broncos for sale, Foxy bought one of the first ones. We're talking the prototype of the new Bronco coming out. And that thing obviously has the ability to take top off. Sure. It's a Bronco. Get some sun. Take the rag top down so your hair can blow. Bronco. You know, that's basically what Foxy does bingo. So anytime Foxy gets the opportunity to let that beard breathe, put some sunglasses on, let that hair in that Bronco, Right hand on the steering wheel, left hand out the window. Anytime he has a chance to do that, he's doing it. It's summertime, baby. Not in Northern Michigan, but in Indiana. Loves bingo. So this morning he pulls in here, top back, feels so good about the day.
Ty Schmidt
Conquer the walk.
Pat McAfee
Well, we're going to have a nice little Thursday here, aren't we? Walks in, does this Thursday. Okay. Thought it might have been Wednesday still. No, Every day is basically the same.
AJ Hawk
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Foxy walks in here, says, we're going to have a nice Thursday. We do the show. All of a sudden, about halfway through that first hour, we hear outside, I didn't know there was thunderstorms. I don't think anybody knew there was thunderstorms. No, especially the guy that drove in here with the open top on his Bronco. So what did the boys do? Debone and talk one out there. D. Bone laid on top of the Bronco, right?
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, he laid on top of the Bronco. Kind of planked, almost.
Pat McAfee
Right hand on the front, right where the passenger shotgun would be. Corner of the windshield. Left hand where the driver windshield is. Right foot on passenger back, passenger corner. Left foot on driver, behind passenger. You get it back. He held himself up like that, Planked like that. Screaming, blocking the ring. And then talk went in there. Yep. Put the top on. Bang. They came back in here. As we went to break, there was two soaked dogs that walked in. Soaked. It's raining out there. Talk said as he's actually dripping. And then Bone comes in. Oh, it's coming, dog. Yeah. And then they explained to us. They explained to us that Foxy didn't put his top back up whenever he parked here. And I asked Foxy, did you tell them to do that because you knew that, or did they notice it and go do that? They noticed that one did that. That's good team culture. Yeah. I gotta believe it. Good work, boys. That's awesome. They sacrificed themselves out there. There he did. Bone hasn't done a plank like that ever.
Ty Schmidt
No, ever.
Pat McAfee
And in crunch time, he had to do it. We know him. Left tackle, guard, crunch time.
Ty Schmidt
Exactly.
Pat McAfee
Euchre. What? Trump, you know, whole thing. Yep, he's in there.
Ryan Smith
Come on, talk.
AJ Hawk
I can't do it much longer.
Pat McAfee
That's amazing. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
Unbelievable.
Pat McAfee
Thank you, boys. Hero move, by the way. It really was. Yeah. And I checked the weather this morning. It said perfectly sunny all day today. But you're gonna get got sometimes times, and that's going to happen. That's Indiana, baby. If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. Toxic tables here at Boston. Connor at Ty Schmidt. I think it says a lot about our building. Yeah, without a doubt.
Ty Schmidt
Without a doubt. You kidding me? I mean, Bone, too? Yeah. He doesn't have to work out for another year now. Well, I guess, but, I mean, we've never seen Bones sell out like that.
Pat McAfee
Would you guys have done it?
Ty Schmidt
You too? No, I would.
Pat McAfee
I would talk.
G
Gertie, hurry up.
Pat McAfee
Get out there. Where's Mitt?
Ryan Smith
Where's Mitt?
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
I don't know.
Pat McAfee
Cowboys AP so me and Tone would have went out there. Sure. Just would like to let everybody know I would have went out there for you for that Bronco. Hold on, hold on.
Ty Schmidt
For that Bronco.
Pat McAfee
That's a nice Bronco.
Ty Schmidt
Honestly, if 90 of the cars out there had their sunroof open, I would argue yes. For the Bronco, which you could argue is damn near made to get wet. Okay. Maybe that's what Foxy's Bronco needed, was a little water inside that roof. I don't know if any of us are going out there.
Pat McAfee
Okay. We might not be the right. We not be. Might not be telling, right?
Ty Schmidt
Oh, no. Come on.
Pat McAfee
Open the door. Debone was not planking on top of that Bronco. And also, they didn't put the tops on right. The tops aren't screwed in right now, so that thing's getting soaked. I thought we had a nice hero story.
Ty Schmidt
I just didn't want to back out there.
Pat McAfee
Live shot. We don't have a live shot. This is a recording from what happened there. Obviously. Very honest.
Ryan Smith
Where's the button?
Pat McAfee
They haven't even got close to putting a roof on that thing yet. They are 35, 40 seconds out there. They're in the back, boys. They're in the back. What are. What should we get? Should we get. Boys, great work, EG. Work.
Ty Schmidt
Gentlemen. Tom's looking for the button to close. Close the subrout.
Pat McAfee
There we go. Hey, Good. Fine, though. They go straight to the back. I appreciate that. Gotta put the other one up. Wait a minute. Not that one. Okay. It's like one of the door handle things where the hinge.
Ryan Smith
Okay.
Connor
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
No, they got it. I think they matched it up there up top, didn't they? Yeah, yeah, they did. I think that one's flat with. Yeah, that looks flush in the middle. I'm talking about not the corners. Yeah, it's good enough.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Oh, no, it was better they it up. I know. And now they're gonna show. The door is probably gonna hit the window. Probably. Windows are broken right now. Yeah, they made it worse. I'll still buy them lunch though. They deserve it.
Ty Schmidt
I mean. Shocking.
Pat McAfee
Good work, boys. Thank you.
Ty Schmidt
Good work, gentlemen. It's weird. I. I would.
Pat McAfee
That thing's gonna be drenched.
Ty Schmidt
Oh, God.
Pat McAfee
It's built for tough. Don't worry about it. All right, let's move along. Coming to us live from an attic in Ohio is a man who's a college football national champion, a Super bowl champion, a Ryder cup winner, and a man who he would have planked. Yeah. He would have no other option.
Ty Schmidt
No, exactly.
Pat McAfee
If it was his truck, Right. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawk Hawker. We thought that he was potentially planking that entire thing. Turns out that was not the case. Kind of bummed out about that. Kind of bummed out.
G
Yeah. I mean, I do like to see the recorded video. It is fun to watch them try to troubleshoot in real time. But yeah, it made me think of TC from what, the first Mission Impossible when he drops down. And may like thinking of Deebone do that plank on all four posts of that car. That's what I was thinking of, like in my head. Like a weird super advanced Pilates move that D Bone had.
Pat McAfee
When talk told us that that's what happened, I didn't really believe it. Just to be clear, I did not think D Bone had his right hand on the windshield corner and his left hand. I didn't think in my mind immediately upon being told that. I was like, that doesn't sound real. Yeah. Then I went to the bathroom and I came back and he was drenched. His back was.
Ty Schmidt
It was. It was.
Pat McAfee
So I was like, maybe he did become a pond up there.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
And turns out, nah, they just. They were just as confused as all of us. That would have been insane. Foxy, you're there, bud. It's okay. The entire interior. But if it. It's supposed to have its top back, everything should be good, right? Cuz they prepare for that type of stuff. Yeah.
AJ Hawk
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
I had a Jeep. I had a Jeep that. Yeah. We forgot to put the top on, you know, numerous times. Because if you can't, they're meant to.
G
Get rained on, Right. They're like. Usually they're vinyl or whatever the seats are. You can wipe everything. It's good.
Pat McAfee
A couple boom booms in the back.
AJ Hawk
Sure.
Pat McAfee
Couple twelves. Neither of them worked at the same time ever.
Ty Schmidt
Okay.
Pat McAfee
Which was really cool. But after the rain got on neither of them worked. They were actually just kind of taking up space in the back. So there is some downfalls of just letting rain in your car, but whenever a storm comes out of nowhere, what are you supposed to do? AJ did you watch the draft last night? Big night. Cooper Flag officially a Dallas Maverick. And now they're talking about the big D down there in Dallas. They got a lot of big dudes that play big defense for the Dallas Mavericks. This is exactly what Nico had been talking about. And we buried them. We weren't the only ones, obviously. A lot of. A lot of people buried Nico. I think people will still wait and see if Nico was right or if this was a decision that inevitably leads to the Mavericks never making it back to the finals like they did with Luka literally the year before, before he decided to trade him away. I appreciate the fact that he's sticking to his guns and how he thinks he should build a team. And obviously, if you get the number one overall pick, a generational talent like Cooper Flag, you should feel pretty good about yourself.
G
Yeah, I would say he feels pretty good about where he's at.
Pat McAfee
8%, A.J.
G
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, the fact that they got the pick alone is. Is nuts to. To think about, but it seems like they're doing. He's following his plan. Like when he. When he kicks Luka, you know, out of the club and says, see you. We don't need you anymore, and everyone gets all pissed off at him, like, he has a plan. I didn't know if he anticipated getting the number one overall pick, but it's pretty fortunate spot to be in.
Pat McAfee
It certainly is. And, yeah, he stuck to his guns. Hopefully it works for him. People thought it was such a bad move that he was trying to tank the team. Instead, it's complete opposite. And Cooper Flag is a dog. That's the main event. I saw Marty out in the Atlantic. Was he in the Atlantic Ocean? Marty?
Ty Schmidt
I think so, Yeah.
Pat McAfee
I saw him on boat. I'm gonna tell you a story. Yeah. And he did. And he definitely did. Then he was on land there for a little bit with the water, the backdrop. Think that could have probably happened, you know, got the point across.
Connor
Sure.
Pat McAfee
But I did like that he was out there.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. Marty's gonna hunt in lobster.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, he probably was looking for some lobsters.
Ty Schmidt
Looking for some lobster world.
Pat McAfee
Maine's the lobster. This the lobster capital of lobster?
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. Would be Maine for sure.
Pat McAfee
I've never been to Maine. I do not believe.
Ty Schmidt
Oh, it's Beautiful.
G
Me either.
Pat McAfee
Oh, that's way up there. Way up.
Ty Schmidt
It's gorgeous. Way up.
Pat McAfee
Way up. Yeah, yeah.
Shams Charania
You're.
Ty Schmidt
You're touching Canada. It's higher than where Sid was born. Yeah, it's higher than Sioux Fall Falls or whatever or. No, not falls. Whatever. I don't know what it's called. It's right up there.
Pat McAfee
All right, we got some breaking news in the NFL. Our geography lessons are, I don't know, Canada.
Ty Schmidt
Sue me. I'm just as pissed as the kid that got drafted to Toronto about.
Pat McAfee
No, I don't think. I don't think that was.
Ty Schmidt
That kid. Colin Coward was pissed that he was going up there.
Pat McAfee
That's not his name. Okay. There's so much to. To digest there. I think that was like a. So there's a Bob Knight video about why the word. And there's going to be a lot of. Just no sound here on ESPN, but YouTube and everywhere else will get to hear this. There's a Bob Knight video. There's a lot of Bob Knight videos. But there is a Bob Knight video about him off the record, doing, like, a mic check, explaining why fuck is his favorite word. And he breaks it down. You can say it whenever you're dismayed. Oh, whenever you're mad. You. When you're happy. Oh, you can use it in so many different. He literally goes on this full breakdown of the word and why it's his favorite word. And then he, like, literally just stops and they go, okay, Mike's working, or whatever. And then he just move on. And he has a golf lesson video that you need. I mean, there's Bob.
G
I love the golf video. That's a. That's a beautiful one.
Pat McAfee
Yes. But that. That more his favorite word one. I think there's a chance that he was like, Like. Like a good.
G
Here we go. Yeah, yeah, here we go.
Pat McAfee
Or relief. And humans talk. There's some humans. I know not all cultures do this, but there are some humans. I happen to come from one of them where, like, that word, in other words, are just like, much more. And Bob Knight says, like, much more versatile than how some people kind of view them. And it's already been proven that people that swear are considered more honest people and more intelligent people. People. So I don't want to hear it from you. People that are filtering yourself all the time. If you filter one thing, how much thing are you filtering? Dan Orlovsky, you said mother fudging the other day. We know what you wanted to say, Weirdo. That was. We know in your Head. You said it and you made us say it, so thanks. So God heard you say it in.
Ty Schmidt
Your head on you.
Pat McAfee
Something to think about with your mudging. Yeah. Can't even get it out. Anyways, I think it could have been a positive one. But boy, everybody's like, this guy's thinking about Canadian taxes already. Bingo. I think it was a relief. One like, that's my favorite is a.
Ty Schmidt
Relief where it's like a sigh.
Pat McAfee
Like it's all like, I'm in the NBA. Yeah, you're right. Could have been. Definitely could have been that one that.
Ty Schmidt
Tony just did sounded more like a. Oh, I guess we gotta do this. That's what I picked.
Pat McAfee
The eye of the beholder. Yeah, but he literally just said that what he was doing was relief.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, yeah, but the sound of it.
Pat McAfee
This is like what Colin Morikawa said to that reporter.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, Bingo.
Pat McAfee
Hey, the way you wrote that surely made it sound. Well, I didn't know I even. That's so focused on your tone.
Ty Schmidt
On my tone.
Pat McAfee
We know what you were doing. I'm a Colin going weaned. Then he had take the high road. Then everybody was calling more cow out for that. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
Yes.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. It was like more cow was the guy we're going after in that situation. Because he finally just said, hey, I don't like the way you painted me in that entire thing. I had to do this. This is a big part of the whole pga. These sponsors, two and a half hours. This is part of the business, brother. That's what you see. These tables they paid for. I love that. I love the Colin morale fighting back. I love the breakdown of one fuck while standing up after getting drafted into the NBA. I love the thought of Ace Bailey doesn't want to go to Utah. Doesn't want to go to Utah. This is the last place he wanted to go was Utah. That's a narrative out of it. Is there any basketball narratives like, hey, these players fit in on these teams in a really good way. Joining us now is a man that will help us break that all down. This man played center for Duke. Okay. Don't you worry about it. You want the Duke was a Dukey is a Dukey. There's three Dukeys drafted in the first 10 picks last night. Obviously a part of the college conversation in all sports, but more specifically basketball for espn. We've grown up with him on television. Ladies and gentlemen, Jay Billis. Yeah. How you doing, Jay?
AJ Hawk
Did you just call me old by saying you've grown up with me?
Pat McAfee
Yeah, that's. That's like the. That's the way I slip it in, you know, that's how I slip it in there. But with that being said, you're aging wonderfully. Hey, you look young, Jay. You look young. Good moisturizer. I don't know. Good moisturizer. Good. Good teeth. You look great.
AJ Hawk
Yeah, I guess if you call beer. If you call beer moisturizing.
Pat McAfee
Right. Let's talk about last night. Three Duke guys go in the top 10. Obviously you have the Blue Devils shirt on there. We have a Duke fan who is a graphic designer who made this at 2am last night as quick as he possibly could. What are your thoughts on the current Duke guys getting this much of a nod? And why do you think the style of play is relating so well from Duke into the NBA in your eyes?
AJ Hawk
Yeah, I mean, it's a good question. I don't know that it's necessarily style of play as it is just the talent of these individual guys. Like Cooper Flag, he's the real deal. Like, people ask like, well, what's so special about him? I was like, dude, just watch. He does everything. And he's got a level of competitiveness that is on the upper tier of players that I've watched over the last 30 years. I'm not going to say he's the most competitive, but he's right up there with the most competitive that, that I've seen. And with his size and athleticism and all the different things he can do on, on both ends of the floor. As long as he stays healthy, he's going to be a great, great NBA player. And then Con Knippel can really shoot it. Like he's got an elite NBA skill. He can really shoot the ball and the shot. He's not a, an elite NBA athlete, but because he's got that shot credibility, you got to get out to him and he'll give you a shot fake and just drive right by you and make a play off two feet. And he's tough. Like, he's always around. He gets so many loose balls. You know, he wasn't like a top, top 30 recruit. He was probably ranked in the, in the 40s maybe. But I know John Shire, when he was recruiting him, he said, I don't, I don't care. Like, this guy is who I want. And he proved it. And then when Flag was out during the ACC tournament, if I remember right, he twisted his ankle like in game one of the tournament. And, and early on, you know, Knipple stepped forward. He was the best player in the in the tournament after Flag was out, he averaged 21 a game. They won the tournament. And then Malawatch is, is, you know, he's long, he's got like a 76 wingspan. He's like a Condor. And, and he had like 90 dunks on the season. 40 of them were lob dunks off pick and roll or out of the dunker spot. And he's a high level offensive rebounder. And I don't know how you guys felt about all the crying last night. There was a ton of crying. But when, when, when some of these guys were crying when they got drafted, it was really moving, especially for him. He's from South Sudan. And you know, I think some of our people that spent time interviewing, not just like a post game or interview, but like Bobby Marks does these sit down interviews with these guys at the combine and preparing them for the draft. And he said in the years he's been doing that, that's the best interview he's ever had. Just a tremendous kid.
Pat McAfee
That's awesome. I cried on my draft day. I was picked 222. I'm cool with it. It's a whole life's work, a dream coming true, but also an understanding that you have an opportunity now to kind of be talked about amongst the greatest of all time if you go and do your shit. It's a really emotional evening. I like that a lot more than though we're trying to judge whether or not a guy's happy that he's getting drafted to the place that he's getting drafted to. You know what I mean? Do you agree, Jay? I do.
AJ Hawk
I mean, you know, look, it's kind of a balancing act for, for a guy like me. So, you know, you don't want to sit up there and say every player's the greatest thing since sliced bread. But at the same time, you don't want to dump on them because it's a, it's a really important night. Like, I look at draft night as kind of, okay, this for the players, this is a celebration of reaching a dream. Now, the day after the draft, they got to go out and deliver.
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
AJ Hawk
Like, that's the way I look at it. But I don't want to rain on anybody's parade. But at the same time, like, you got, you got to be straightforward and say, okay, this is what this guy does really well. This is what will make him a good NBA player. But at the same time, these are some of the issues he's got to overcome.
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
AJ Hawk
Because not everybody's going to Be an All Star. Not everybody's going to go to the hall of Fame. And sometimes, you know, you get through the draft and some people say, oh, everybody's good. You know, you have to, you have to kind of balance it out and you try to do the best you can.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I understand. You got to give realistic expectations too, for the fan base as opposed to just expecting these. That's why, like, player comps are so tough when we do the draft. I hate when people do player comps because it's like, well, he's very similar Tom Brady. It's like, where Skins white, he's tall. How about in between years? What about, like, you can't. It's tough to do those types of comparisons because the difference is here, which we all kind of understand whenever it gets to professional sports or high level sports to begin with. And I don't think you can really tell that, you know, like you said, Cooper Flag is competitive edge. Like, I love to hear that. Like, that is. Every great has had that. Like, it feels like that is something that every great has had. And if you're wondering if somebody has it, maybe they find it, maybe they don't. I think that's the biggest detail or determiner of bust or not that's in our sport, at least. Jay?
AJ Hawk
Yeah, no, it's the same, but at least I think it's the same. But, you know, Cooper Flag's the easy one. You know, like my first draft for ESPN was 2003, when LeBron was coming out. And like, you knew that's different. Like you knew that. That didn't take some, some like, basketball genius to figure that out. But to your earlier point, like V.J. edgecomb of Baylor, you know, he's 19 years old, he's from the Bahamas, and on the player comp side, you know, you're saying, like I'm saying, okay, he reminds me of Victor Oladipo when he was 19 and Dwyane Wade when he was 19. And I try to be intentional about saying, look, I'm not saying he's the Miami Heat, Dwyane Wade yet, but at 19, you couldn't tell these two guys apart. You might even take Edgecomb, because I think Edgecombe at 19 is probably better than Dwayne Wade was at 19. Now at 20, Dwyane Wade was the real deal. And you were going, man, this guy's going to be really good. But you know, you do the best you can and, and most reasonable people will, will take it the right way and some people will run with it in the other direction. What are you going to do?
Pat McAfee
Yeah, you'll get quoted out of context, too. I mean, that's life these days. Go ahead, A.J.
G
Yeah, Jay, in this, in the second round, we hear people in the NFL draft, they talk about drafting like, best available, the best available player on their board. What are these like, especially day two now, are you trying to, are these teams trying to find like, the guy, hey, this is the best talent, or are they trying to find someone that fits in with their team and their scheme and everything that they run?
AJ Hawk
Yeah, that's a great question, A.J. not, not that, not that Pat's questions weren't equally great.
Pat McAfee
I set the table for the great question.
AJ Hawk
I, I think it's. If you've got a player you think is, is the best available and he's a, he's a great asset that you can, you can use not only with your team or maybe there's, there's value out in the marketplace for him. Of course, you take him. But I do think there's a, there's a component of fit in the second round. So you're looking for guys that have an NBA skill. So if it's like Chaz Lanier from Tennessee who didn't go in the first round and he's, he's available in the second round, he can really shoot it and, and he's got, he's got length and athleticism, but that shooting piece is, is really valuable. You don't need him to come in and be everything you need to come in there and make shots. Or if you got a guy who's a, got size and is a big time shot blocker, like, I happen to think that the, the best available player to start the second round is guy named Rasheer Fleming from Saint Joseph's and he's one of those three and D guys that's got these freakishly long arms and he can guard multiple positions and he can knock down open shots. You don't need him to come in and be Scottie Pippen. You need to come in like, like this is where you're finding guys that can play a role and help you win. And if it, if somebody turns out to be Draymond Green or you find like, I don't know that anybody thought that Nicola Jokic, when he was drafted in the 40s, his draft year was going to be the, at some point, the best player in the world. He's referred to as the Taco Bell pick because we were in commercial and a Taco Bell commercial was playing when he was picked and then we had to report the pick afterwards. Yeah, like, who knew? Yeah, but, but you know, you're, you're, maybe you'll hit a home run, but you're really trying to find a player that can help you not only now, but in the future and maybe can develop. And then a lot of these guys are going to be two way players. There's going to be some guys signed to standard contracts. They're going to be a number of guys in the strap. Maybe half the guys in the second round might be signed to two way contracts where, you know, it's a, it's a combination. You can play like 45 days with the NBA team and the rest of your contracts. G League and they're, they're, you know, those contracts are, are obviously cost effective, but then it helps, it helps the teams with roster management.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, we saw Bronny do days in the G League go up. We've seen the two way players. Alex Caruso actually just talked about how coach Daggs treats everybody from Shea to the two way players on the roster the exact same, which is why he thinks they do such a good job. I think that's a good way to describe, you know, alpha and omega of the entire team, I believe, from top to bottom, from beginning to end in it. Whenever you think about those role players, we're talking like Shepard Neesmith, TJ McConnell. Yeah, these are the guys we're talking about. Right. They're more vital than anything, I think, especially if you watch these NBA playoffs. How many of these guys. I, I don't know if this is a good question. Probably it depends draft to draft, percentage of success of guys in these drafts? Because I know like the top always does good. And then there was.
AJ Hawk
Are you talking about the, in the second round, Pat, or just overall first.
Pat McAfee
And second round as a whole? Like, because I know like the top good. But there for a while, everybody from Europe was getting drafted. He'll be over here in like two, three years. It's like, I don't even know what that means. Like what is percentage of hit rate out of the draft? Like, how should we view it?
AJ Hawk
Yeah, I, I think having a productive NBA career in the, in the first round, you're probably looking at, I would venture to guess 60, 70% that are going to play multiple years and have, have solid careers. At least in the second round. It's, it's more, it's probably flipped the other way. And maybe 30% of the guys do okay. You know, there aren't that Many spots in the league, you know, you got, you got 15 roster spots plus a couple of two ways. So you know, the average, I think the average length of career is like three or four years. And then you got some of these guys that have played. LeBron's been the league over 20 years and KD like 16 or 17 years, whatever it is. It's crazy how long these guys play now when they're super talented and how they take care of their bodies. But I don't know, like the miss rate I think is high and not necessarily miss rate of, of a player who's going to make the NBA or not. It's not a binary thing. But you know, sometimes like it's amazing how often you're going. I did not see Shay Gilgis Alexander, he was taking number 11 when he came out in 18, I think it was. And, and you know, hands up, all that, we're saying he's a future mvp. Just didn't see that. And other guys you think are going to be really good and they turn out to be, they're good, but they don't, they don't scratch the, you know, the greatness level. And you know, you can sit and try to make ourselves feel better that, you know your sport. You get four and five years to look at these guys and there are still mistakes made. Basketball you got, they're 18 and 19. But one thing to your point about internationals and all that, one thing you're seeing with nil now, players are not only going to college, they're staying in college longer. So the, the second round is probably not, I haven't like, you know, done this with a microscope, but at the second round this year is probably not as good. Is a second round like two or three years ago because a lot of second round picks are guys that would have come out two or three years ago are staying in school because they're going to make way more money to stay in school. So if they're not going to be first round picks, they're staying in NIL.
Pat McAfee
For us is making the later rounds better because there's more players kind of coming out and staying longer for basketball. It's interesting because they got a lot of. Hey, just quick off topic, Connor was going to bring up nil to you. We had a conversation earlier in the think tank. These Big east teams that don't have a football team really and with that revenue split they're going to be right and that doesn't that feel like quite an advantage with the way this revenue split thing is going.
AJ Hawk
Yeah, I think it puts them in an advantageous position to be able to marshal more resources to acquire better talent. Absolutely. And that's kind of the thing now is people are going to have to make decisions. This current system with the $20.5 million cap under the House settlement is only going to last for a certain amount of time. There's no way this lasts for longer than four or five years at the most. All this does is give the NCAA a chance to. It gives them some time to breathe without getting challenged and in court so that they can come up with a long term solution. Whether that's collective bargaining. I think that's one option. Try to figure out a way to collectively bargain with the players where you can get to a number that everybody's satisfied with. Or go to Congress and basically say to Congress, look, you told us to get our act together. We settled this case, we paid past damages and we've got this framework. Take this framework of the settlement and make it law so that you can, you can help protect us. But Pat, the one thing I think that, that maybe people aren't thinking about is if Congress comes in and they're going to limit the players, they're not going to let the coaches make the kind of money they're making. Like, they're going to say, all right, you get a cap too. Now, like, so, you know, head coach at Alabama, you're not getting 12 million while the players are getting limited. You're going to be limited, too. And we're going to limit things across the board and make this a little more sane. I think that's a reasonable possibility that that could happen.
Pat McAfee
So many potential lawsuits all the time in that whole thing. They're talking about a commission approving advertising deals. It's like, okay, go ahead and say no to one of those. That's a lawsuit immediately. That's just one. They said there was already 135 things being presented to a commission that I don't even know if they know what they're doing yet. It's like you can't turn down any of those unless they are given the power of law, which. How does that even work in America? I don't have, you know, I don't even know. I don't even know how long that would take. If you started that today, would that. Is that 10 years? Is that how long? You know, isn't that kind of the way the world works with making laws? In the ncaa, they're not like they're the Titanic as well they're not like the most nimble thing then government, not the most nimble. I don't know the college shit. Every time we bring it up, I get worried about the future. I don't know how you figure it out. I don't know how you figure it out, Jay.
AJ Hawk
Yeah, I'm not worried about it because in my view, multi billion dollar entertainment industries just fold up because they have to pay their revenue drivers. That's not a problem. I get it that the coaches don't like it, the administrators don't like it because they had it a certain way for a long time and now, like, the way I see it, everything's going to get a lot more efficient. You're not going to have as many jobs in administration. You're not going to see as many suits and in team pictures because they're going to want to allocate that money to, to getting the best talent on the floor, on the field. So I think that'll, that'll shake out a certain way, but I'm not particularly worried about it. They'll, they'll figure it out because the amount of money that's being made, nobody wants that train to stop rolling. And, and with all the complaining, and I get it, but not one game has been canceled and not one check has been late. Everything's rolling along just fine. It's just a little more difficult to keep your roster together. But if you want to keep your players, like, if you want, if you want to keep players and not have them transfer, then sign them to contracts, put a buyout in the contract. Let's, let's do this like the rest of normal American business. It's really not that difficult.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. So allegedly that is a part of this ruling that just took place in California or whatever for the next four to five years. Hopefully that's able to settle it. And also a lot of these contracts that are given, who knows if they're ever going to be actually paid. I mean, there's a lot of fraudulent contra. I mean, it's, that's what I'm talking about is all the, there's just so much kind of on the outside of it. The product is so good. To your point. All right, let's get back to the draft. You talked about the Taco Bell pick. Let's talk about another guy that we learned about last night. Go ahead. Ty Schmidt.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, Jay, when you look at some of the other leagues drafts, I think you'll see teams reach every once in a while, but it's not crazy. And Then last night we saw Yang Hansen out of Nowhere get picked 16th. He's sitting up in the cheap seats. In your experience, how often does this happen in the NBA where like a guy who kind of everyone pegged as like a mid second rounder all of a sudden goes just outside the lottery?
AJ Hawk
Not very often. Good question. And, but I'll go back to the Nicola Jokic thing. So Jokic was drafted in the 40s when he came out of Serbia. And if it had been the same thing where, where Portland picks him, number 16 and he walks out of the stands or he's not even there, we'd probably be left scratching our heads going, wait a minute, I ranked this guy in the 40s. That's a reach. And they probably would have taken some criticism, but they got the guy they wanted and look who he turned out to be. So my view is if you don't have to give anything up, if it's just this one pick and you know you want this guy, what difference does it make? Go ahead and get him. Like why wait and why take the chance that somebody else is going to get him in the meantime, if you're targeting him maybe in the second round where you had them slotted or where most people had him slotted. The one that, that is more of a head scratcher to me was New Orleans. So New Orleans made a trade to get up to 13. They made a trade with Atlanta to go up and get Derek Queen from Maryland, big guy and good player. But in order to do that, they had to give up first round draft pick next year. That's unprotected, which means that that pick could turn out to be a top five pick. So that's the one you question was how much did you have to give up in order to get it? Like Portland got the guy they wanted, but they didn't have to trade anything to get it. New Orleans had to trade something and, and who knows? Like they believe in Derek Queen. They took Jeremiah Fear as number seven and then Queen. So you know by itself you're going, hey man, that's a good draft. But then you go, but look, look what they had to give up to get Derek Queen. Is that worth it? And we're not going to know for a while, but if that turns out next year to be like the number one pick, they're going to hear about it.
Pat McAfee
Yes, for sure. And if Derrick Queen lives up to what we all, I think you watched him, we got a chance to chat with him, love his mentality, love his answer. He Gave in the huddle, you know, before the game, winner shot. What he said to his coach about giving me the ball. Love his mentality, love his ability. I think he had braces. Like, real young. We're talking about, like being incredibly young. You mentioned that, about being 18, 19 years old. So obviously we hope it works out. And if he ends up being a perennial All Star, nothing will be said. Just like Nico down there in Dallas. He got murdered loud. He was loud about how dumb this guy was. He's trying to tank the Mavericks. This guy's the worst general manager in history. He's got to deal with the league to make the Lakers better. This guy who's the general manager of the Mavericks. And then all of a sudden we're looking at the team going in next year. Wait a minute. Nico had a vision here. It seems like they might be able to have a team and they got a 1.8% chance of winning that lottery. They win it. Maybe Nico's being blessed by the basketball gods. We never know until a few years down the road. If Derrick Queen's a guy, they won't judge him. If he's not, this Dumars guy's going to be called killed. They said the worst. Bill Simmons called it the worst trade in the all of sports in the last decade, I believe was his quote. It's like Bill was a NBA basketball guy. He wasn't the only one saying it. There's a lot now on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. AP Tone has a question for you, Jay. Yeah, Jay, real simple. Did you have a favorite pick from last night?
AJ Hawk
That's a good question. I mean, I. Well, my favorite pick of scooper flag, Dylan Harper, because they're the two best players. Wow. I, I thought, I thought okc, you know, being defending champion, got. Got a good pick. I can't remember. I think it's around 15. They took Thomas Sorber of Georgetown and he kind of fits their culture perfectly. Like, I don't know how you guys feel about it watching Oklahoma City, but if, if they don't have the best front office in basketball, there's not a long roll call in that. Like, Sam Presti is so smart and they draft talent, but man, they draft character. And they got a guy in Sorber who's a, you know, shop blocker, kind of interior, you know, lane presence. And I think he's got a chance to be, to be very good. But he's going to fit. He's going to fit what they do. And I just, like, I got A chance to do a bunch of NBA games this year, and I loved every second of it. But I loved watching Oklahoma City more than anybody just because of the. How hard they play together and in the way they guard. And to your point earlier, when you're talking to Caruso, who's a great dude by the way, he like, those guys, they never get too high or too low. And like Mark Daignall, if they win or lose, his whole thing is, let's win the off days. Like, we're not going to beat ourselves up over losing, and we're not going to crown ourselves king over winning. You know, what did we learn from the last game is going to make us better in the next one? And, I mean, it's a really cool organization. And Sorber, I think, fits their culture really well.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Yeah. In fact, it looks like they're going to be good for a while, though. That's what it looks like. As somebody that lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, I think they'd say Presti and Pritchard and Bird over here in Indiana, pretty good at putting teams together. First two teams to make the finals without hitting the luxury tax in the history of the luxury tax being implemented. So you're talking about building a team the right way. Now. Decisions are going to have to be made, though, because once you start winning, that's when you know the money goes. So getting a young dog pivotal to the entire process. Go ahead, A.J.
G
Yeah, Jay? What are your expectations for Cooper Flag in his rookie season? What do you think it looks like? Is the team going to be successful? Do they have to win for people to look like. I mean, it seems like a lot on this dude's shoulders. Obviously, number one pick, there's high expectations, but people are expecting to average a triple double off the jump.
AJ Hawk
I feel like, well, he'll have some triple doubles. He won't average it because he won't need to. The key for Dallas is going to be can they get Kyrie Irving back healthy kind of middle of the season, like, he had an acl, so he's going to be able to come back from that during the season if everything goes well. And, like, Flag's one of those guys, you know, talking about, like, you know, sort of competitiveness, his mentality, like, he's not one of those guys that's going to go into a game thinking, I'm going to get 25 in this one or I'm going to get a triple, triple double. He really does think about, I'm going to make the the right play.
Pat McAfee
Oh, no.
AJ Hawk
And then he stacks the right play over and over again. And at the end of the game, he may have 25 and 12 rebounds and six assists and, you know, three steals and a couple of blocks. That's kind of the way he's built. He's got this interesting, interesting combination of humility. Like he doesn't think he knows it all and he's going to be a member of a team. And ego, because he knows he's the best player. And like, that's the. Like, he's got a great ego. Like Coach K, you say all the time. Not all the time, but he. Like, he wasn't interested in this thing about check your ego at the door. He's like, no, bring your ego with you. Like, your egos are great, but blend your ego in with the we part of the team. Like, make your ego part of the team. All these egos blended together are really good. And. And Flag kind of does that. I don't want to say it's natural, but. But whether it's learned or natural, he does that. And he. He's a. He's a unique dude, and they don't make him. They don't make him that good very often. Not only athletically skill wise, but. But his makeup as an athlete. It's really impressive.
Pat McAfee
That ego quote from Coach K makes sense. Why Coach K is Coach K. Because that is such a better way to describe it than. We don't need egos. Right? It's like every guy that's a professional athlete has an ego. Every. Every single one of them. Let's try to get these egos to be rowing in the same direction as opposed to stealing moxie or confidence from somebody. Cannot wait to watch Cooper. Cannot wait to watch second round of the NBA draft. Are you on it tonight?
AJ Hawk
Yeah, yeah, I'm on the. You know, I was a fifth round pick, so second round is still a dream for me.
Pat McAfee
Okay. Well, we can't wait to watch you live a dream, brother. Ladies and gentlemen, J. Bro, that's awesome. With a Venmo debit card, you can Venmo more than just your friends. You can use your balance in so many ways. You can Venmo everything. Need gas. You can Venmo this. How about snacks? You can Venmo that. Your favorite band's merch. You can Venmo this or their next show. You can Venmo that. Visit Venmo me debit to learn more. You can Venmo this or you can Venmo that.
Ryan Smith
You can Venmo this or you can Venmo that.
Pat McAfee
You can Vemo. The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp bank and a pursuant to license by MasterCard International Inc. Card may be used everywhere. MasterCard is accepted. Venmo purchase restrictions apply. After Zoomie's at the dog park, it's time for drive up at Target. In goes a big bag of kibble and one squeaky chicken toy for the good boy. Drive up. That's ready when you are. Only in the Target app.
Shams Charania
Just tap Target.
Pat McAfee
Great skin.
Ty Schmidt
He said he drinks beers teeth too.
Pat McAfee
Oh yeah, I was around him I, I think two times. Every time we've had I think one, I think I've had a jock and diet. He's had a beer. I believe every single time we've seen him. Jay Football. I think it is Jay Billis football. He does game day. Obviously he did game day for a long time. Does game day for a long time. Big So a lot of the same people that do production stuff for football game day also do basketball game day. They, they say he is a legendarily hilarious person. They say like, yeah, dry, it's all very, you know, but he's always, I guess, great teammate. And then that coach K quote, awesome.
G
AJ that's so good. So good. Because it's such like an old cliche thing. Oh, Chuck ego at the door. Like, especially basketball, you better have an ego because if you miss the first three threes you take, you better continue to put them up. You hear what Q. Rich saying, hey, I'm a shooter. Like if I missed the first seven, guess what, I'm still shooting 8, 9 and 10. Because something it's eventually going to go in. Like you have to have delusional confidence and ego. I think to play basketball, it's kind.
Pat McAfee
Of taught to you, I think, like, hey, this is how you're supposed to think because there's going to become bad days. It's like whenever you're like a kicker. When I was doing my kicking stuff, they would tell stories of previous kickers, you know, after missing, asking to line up again and kick it again. Like these are like mantras. Like, hey, this is how you should be thinking as a kicker. This is the mindset you're going to need to have. If a member of your team bet you that you'll miss, you always double it and say you'll make it. And then by the way you make it. That is like kind of the basketball players shooters more specific. It's like every shot's the best shot next Shot's best shot does not matter. Golfers, I think the same exact thing. Especially you, A.J. i mean, A.J. has an opportunity, unflappable positivity whenever it comes to golf. I don't know if that's just your mindset, what you think other golfers should be, but you have it. Because if you get into a slump in anything, basketball, golf, kicking, pitching, batting, it's all in between here, you know, and normally it's you telling yourself that you're in the slump. So if you have, you know, somebody that's like, hey, you should be a little bit. Yeah, we want you to walk in here with that. It's like you're going to need that problem probably at some point as well.
Ty Schmidt
Well, and Cooper Flag, too. Like, he's going to Dallas. And Anthony Davis and Cooper Flag, they were a part of the whole entire Olympics training this summer. So if anybody knows, like, how good Cooper Flag is, not just from watching him or everyone talking about him, like, Anthony Davis was in the gym with Cooper Flag as they're getting ready for the Olympics and Cooper Flag is, you know, making moves on Kevin Durant and, you know, falling his own rebound in Duncan. So it's almost. Almost like, hey, the proof is in the pudding, of course, with college and all that. But, like, Anthony Davis has been able to see Cooper Flag do this against legitimate NBA, some of the best players in the entire league. So if there's any ego from Cooper Flag, I bet Anthony Davis also, who was the number one pick to New Orleans. New Orleans also, that was during the time when, you know, they tried to trade Chris Paul. The Lakers conspiracy, of course. But still, if there's a guy that knows, like, hey, you don't need to check your ego because you are that good, it'd probably be Anthony Davis and the guys in there.
Pat McAfee
I love that Nico might end up getting the last laugh. Yeah, I don't.
Ty Schmidt
I'll be honest.
Pat McAfee
Why I hate it. I'm pro player. Like, I hope Luca has a lot of success in LA as well. But just the way the entire world responded. Just Sean's tweet out. Yep, one response. Anthony Davis wasn't even a part of this thing. Anthony Davis wasn't even part of it. It was Lucas with LeBron and then this guy's addiction. That was. That was the two responses.
Ty Schmidt
He got bailed out by Adam Silver in the commission. And whether you want. Whether you believe that or not, like, let's say you don't believe that. Fine. And I'm not saying I believe that. Per se. Nico to me, is still a dipshit. He just got so lucky. And whether you think it's luck or not, like if he didn't have Cooper flag and they. Let's say they were the third overall pick and then they, they draft Ace Bailey and Ace Bailey doesn't want to go to Dallas. Yeah, of course. But something along those lines, like he got so lucky that the.
Pat McAfee
That we don't know yet. We don't know how it's worked out. Nico said, fortune favors the bold, brother. He did say that. Not a bad quote. He should be doing a lot of that and then we'll see if they end up winning. Speaking of. Of winning, we're going to talk to a man who won everything that he's ever done.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
When I say his name, you'll immediately think of like 45 different things that he's done. All of them could die.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Every one of them. And he's just smiling. Jump out of a plane with no parachute. This guy. Jump a dirt over every the world if it was possible. This guy. Race nascar, this guy. You name it. This guy. Can he die? Yes. Who is it? This guy. Ladies and gentlemen, the 30th anniversary of the X Games will take place on ABC on June 27th. Representing the X Games, a man who made us all fans because of his big old gut sack and talent. Ladies and gentlemen, Travis Pastrana.
Connor
Thanks for the intro. Much appreciated.
Pat McAfee
That's real. I told you that I went to a Nitro Circus show here in Indianapolis that you guys had on the south side of Indy. I watch your entire crew do the thing. I grew up watching you be an absolute madman. Now I know that is not how you view it. You just. Well, it's just kind of my town. But thank you all that I appreciate your commitment and risk taking for our entertainment. So first of all, Travis Pastrana, we appreciate you.
Ty Schmidt
Thank you, Travis.
Connor
Are you kidding me? Thank you for having me on the show, man. I really appreciate it. It's been, it's been a lot of fun and.
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
Connor
Gonna live forever. Hell, let's go.
Pat McAfee
Okay. All right. So I love that that still exists inside. You're not competing at this year's X Games, but I do believe obviously we're celebrating the 30th anniversary. What should people know about what's happening at the X Games and is it changed at all since the, you know, over the last 30 years of watching?
Connor
Man, X Games is awesome. It's still, you know, ABC and espn. I mean, you can now stream it On Roku. You can watch it pretty much everywhere. YouTube. But at the end of the day, what's really cool now is that X Games has evolved so much. Where it used to be, you know, bungee jumping and downhill street luge, and now it's your best BMXers and your best skateboarders, your best motocrossers. You know, people are going to the Olympics from the X Games, so it's no longer that sport, the hooligans in the corner. It's people like, since Tony Hawk and Tony Hawk's pro skater, going out there and actually being able to make a living on kids toys, making a living on their passion, and it's pretty cool.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. And Salt Lake City is a beautiful place. The backdrops are going to be outrageous. I always enjoy the setup of everything that takes place. Who are some of the big names that we should look forward to? Who should we do some research on in this X Games? Who's going to steal the headlines?
Connor
Oh, man. You know, I'm. I'm a fan of the old school guys. You got Ryan Sheckler coming back. Anyone that's been around, he's reality. The state guys a run for their money, which is going to be really cool. Colby. Raha.
Pat McAfee
He.
Connor
He's always just someone that's so exciting for me to watch in freestyle motocross. And our Willie, dude, he started out as a scooter rider, a nitro circus. Everyone gave him a hard time because we're like, oh, scooter kid. So he jumped on Andrew Ahimada's BMX bike in Final trains, did a trick that no one in the world had ever done on a bicycle, not even his own bicycle. Went on to become the winningest and the greatest big air action sports BMXer in the world. If I was going to say watch one person, it'd be our Willie.
Pat McAfee
Oh. So our Willie starts at Nitro Circus on a scooter, goes over to a bike, becomes the greatest of all time.
Connor
Yeah. Thank goodness he hadn't gone motorcycles yet. I still got a job over here.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Amen. Amen. Sounds like our Willie could probably do whatever the hell he was willing to do. So on the scooter, he did the backflip. On the big. The big thing on Nitro Circus, the big ramp.
Connor
So our Willie has done, and I he. So the Aussie roll was the biggest trick that I ever did on a motorcycle. Two back flips and one three, six, 60. So, like, basically a, you know, double cork 1080 for the snow, snowboarders. But the coolest part, Our Willie on his scooter.
Ryan Smith
He did it first.
Connor
And they did it on a BMX bike, too. Three backflips and a full spin. He does two backflips, two full spins. It's like full gymnastics, but they do it with style. And it's just. It's really amazing to see. So he's been trying, basically, a double backflip. But not a flare on a half pipe. I want to see if he can get that done this year.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, me, too. Our Willie. Let's go. Let's see if we can get that.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
And then I remember Scheckler. Is this him? Is this our Willie?
Connor
This. This is actually our Willie right here.
Pat McAfee
That might be in Indianapolis, Indiana. Right there. That setup. I might have seen that happen live. You had a lot of talent. I mean, there was. I believe there was a man in a wheelchair that did a. A backflip off the padded ramp. On nitro Circus show.
Ryan Smith
He.
Connor
He just learned. He landed a double backflip, full twist. Aaron wheels Fotheringham spina bifida.
Pat McAfee
The.
Connor
The world gave him a wheelchair, and he made it. He turned it into an absolute just icon. He started his own sport, Wheelchair motocross. Man, he's a true inspiration, this dude.
Pat McAfee
Outrageous. I mean, he. Top of the thing, obviously. Zoomed in on the camera. You see it on the thing. Everybody's going crazy. He rolls down this ramp that's, like, straight down. And then this ramp, send. It's a full. It's a high school football. It's a football field. So they're going like 30 yards, 40. I don't know what the exact amount is. You probably know that to a certain science or whatever. He's flying through there. He lands. Fireworks go off. They start sending. It was the outrage. It was the most outrageous thing I'm on. I don't know. At that time, probably 80 milligrams, just sitting in the stands like, what is going on here? It was. It was wonderful. But nonetheless, I probably saw our Willie, then let our Willie know we can't wait for him to do his thing. And Sheckler's reality show was fantastic. So handsome.
Ty Schmidt
Oh, yeah.
Pat McAfee
So cool. So cool. Shaq, go ahead, A.J. go ahead. Yeah.
G
Travis, Pat mentioned you jumping out of the airplane, obviously shirtless. No, no.
Pat McAfee
Shoot.
G
All that. You linked up, you. You figured out this was such a bizarre situation. Like, out of everything you've done, I'm sure you've talked about, like, what gave you the most anxiety, the most nerves Going into a certain thing that you've done, you've obviously ridden everything, jumped everything. Like, was this. The moment was like, right now when you have nothing and you're just free falling, like, what did it feel like?
Pat McAfee
Right now he's doing flips. He's like, I had.
Connor
I had great people around me there. That's kind of a pass or fail test. Always like, those the most for sure. I think anything that you're not prepared for, you know, at the end of the day, you know, when you get to X Games, you have your stuff. You should have it pretty well dialed. And, you know, that's what. For me. Nitro Circus is what kind of we started. And like, you're talking about that. It was just. It's. We used as much safety as possible to make the biggest, most outrageous stuff and the. The best ways for people to learn. And they're taking it now to the Olympics. They're taking it to snowboards, they're taking to. Every other thing on X Games is kind of that it's your Olympics. Of all of action sports. So it's the biggest, the best, and it's really cool. Kind of, you know, if Nitro Circus went away to try to do the big era of action sports where, you know, we want to see how big the ramps can go. X Games went and said, okay, let's standardize it a little bit. Let's make it so everyone is on an equal playing ground, and let's see who is truly the world's best. So it's kind of like if you take Nitro Circus is what can be done and how can we make it as safe as possible? And X Games is like, okay, you figured out how to do it with your trick ramps and your. Your airbag landings. Let's take it to dirt and let's see who's got the guts to really land it and figure out who's the best.
Pat McAfee
Overall, I love that. I love the evolution here of extreme sports. And what was that you guys had that padded landing. What was it you used to have to get a crane to get your bike out of it? What was it?
Connor
Yeah, so we started with the foam pit. We realized that foam as a petroleum product is actually flammable. So we went to airbags after that, which doesn't catch on fire with.
Pat McAfee
You just said the airbag pit there. So what do you do? You just have a massive airbag like. Like the stunt people do that are jumping out of there, and you just jump your bikes onto.
Connor
So over the past 20 years, the evolution of airbags. We use, like, this company called Bag Jump, and we're like, hey, what if we put. So when Josh Sheehan came out here to learn a triple backflip on a dirt bike, he's going over 100ft high, right? And you're like, okay, if you mess this up, up, it is. It's not life or death, metaphorically, it is life or death. And Josh was, you know, he was actually pissed in blood and broke a couple ribs and knocked himself out just going to the flat bag. He said, can we get a bag that's on the same incline as the down ramp? So when we make this wood or metal or dirt or whatever we're going to do, he's like, I need to know that I'm spot on. And we've just taken every step that we can, and it's always going to be dangerous. It's never going to have a reset button. But at the same time, how can we keep everyone to be able to, especially during the show, how can we get the guys to do the. And girls to do the biggest stunts night after night? And yet it still hurts. It still sucks. But to be able to get back up and try it again, and I feel like that's the evolution since, you know, since our day riding, you know, BMX bikes and setting up wooden ramps in the. In the backyard and doing it to concrete, we figured out a way to go way bigger, way more spectacular, but it's not the evil Knievel, you know? Yeah, let's see.
Pat McAfee
That's.
Connor
We're good. Let's send it.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, More information. Feels like science has gotten involved. I think there was pad on the ramp as well, but it wasn't, like, enough pad that it slowed you down because, like, that's also a massive deceleration. Not great. I don't think so either. In all this, I mean, you got to measure it all out. I love that we've gone full circle on, like, the crash pads. Well, the one was flammable, so turned out, like, yeah, the crash landing, not good. Fire, much worse. We've had to move along. I appreciate that you're a guinea pig for an entire thing of sports. With that being said, we are a little bit older. Ty has a question for you.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. Travis, you just talked about the inherent danger with, like, everything that you do, but as you've gotten older, obviously you're married, you have kids now. Are there certain things where you're just like, hey, guess what? The. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze doing this type of stuff anymore because I am getting older or are you gonna basically continue to do this type of shit until you're physically not able to?
Connor
Risk versus reward, sir, it's, it always changes. And there's a lot of stuff that I don't regret doing anything because it built the person that I am today. But there's a lot of stuff. You look back when my dad, I'm like, man, hindsight 20 20, he's like, I could have told you exactly what was going to happen before you hit.
Pat McAfee
That ramp, you idiot.
Connor
So it's been a fun ride and now my goal is actually kind of safety for the next generation. It's to say how can we get the most amount of people? I mean there was a girl, so she went to a nitro circus show in England in the O2 arena and she reached out to my wife on social media who's, you know, she's actually my wife's skating right now in the she shed. It's got a half pipe in the background. So it's an action sports family. But this girl Olivia from England saw a nitro circus show, reached out to my wife on social media and says I want to be the first girl to ever do a backflip on a dirt bike. Fast forward three years she's kept in touch with my wife. She comes out and at 11 years old she lands here at my house, the straw land or whatever you call it. She did a backflip on a dirt bike at 11 year old. I mean you can imagine Kerry Hart, he is now married to a rock star for trying for crashing a backflip in the 2001 X Games. And you have an 11 year old girl that can reach out and figure out a way to safely make that progression now. And that's been such an honor and a privilege to be in a position to kind of help. And yes, it is dangerous. Yes, there are many things that can go wrong. But, but for people that have the passion that want to do this stuff, let's make it as safe as possible and let's help everyone kind of get to their goals. No matter where you are in life. And I think now with all of the Internet and the social media and everything, if you truly are working hard, if you are dedicated, if you are doing something that no one else is doing, you'll be found. That's pretty cool.
Pat McAfee
Hell yeah. That's good. That's good speech right there about life, not just extreme sports. Pastrana Land, you said. Whatever you call it is that what. What you call it sounds like. That's what you call it. Sounds like a great place.
Connor
No, that's what everyone else calls it. I just call it home in my head.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. In my head, I just see like perches for things that get jumped off. I. I see you. Right, like Pastrana Land. There's a helicopter I think probably somewhere.
G
Around there, maybe shipping container that you people blast their shoulders off of when you don't hit the foam pit. I remember that.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Boom. Yeah. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
Everywhere.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Oh, we got an eyes on Pastrana Land here. Actually. Up. God, just missed the entire pit. Yep. There's a racetrack, obviously. We got that. That's the pit I'm talking about. Oh, we're taking beers. Made it. Oh, sounds like good slide. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what I thought Pastran Land would be. Yeah, I do appreciate that.
Connor
Now my wife just. We just got the she shed put up because we're getting older. So it's now house, air conditioned heater. We got the gym in there. My office over top for like, you know, doing whatever, you know, whatever I do. And Lindsay actually is skating right now. There's like 20 people over there. I was just actually upside down in a vehicle. I don't crash very often, but we got a lot of rain and someone's like, oh, hit the big jumps. I was like, yeah, sure. And literally that's why I'm here in this and not in my studio that's up there because I was just flipping back over a vehicle that was stuck under the mud literally like 30 seconds before I got on here. So, yeah, life hasn't changed much. Thanks for having me on. This is. It's been a great, great experience.
Pat McAfee
Wow, that was a great fucking close to that. We're still live. We are no longer live on E. ESPN. We are still live on YouTube, ESPN plus Disney plus and maybe TikTok live. They take us down every other day. But like you nailing the out there because you saw the countdown on the screen. Obviously you saw that. Okay, how many. How many concussions do you think you have suffered documented on film, like out.
Connor
Cold for more than a few seconds? I've had at least probably 30 on film.
Pat McAfee
Okay, that's 30 concussions. Hold on. Broken bones now, broken bone, let alone, let alone all the other concussions. I mean, I know there's probably others that you haven't just been on film, knocked out for numerous seconds. How about the broken bones? Is that a tough one? It sounds like you said it's a tough one.
Connor
It's a tough one to answer because say you have 40 fractures over seven bones, but it's one injury is like, do you count every fracture? You know, I mean, like, so I had. I shattered my hip and pelvis. I don't know what that means or how many broken bones. Like, I did tailbone, back, multiple. Like the hip, pelvis was shattered, ended up with a new hip. My foot, for instance, I broke tube fib. And then everything across the foot was just powder. So, like, there's instances where, you know, humans aren't supposed to go 70 miles an hour and fall from 100ft in the air with 220 pound motorcycles on top of them. Yeah, you know, nothing like football where you got huge people running the other direction.
Pat McAfee
But, you know, I didn't do any of that. AJ did a lot of that. But with that being said, it wasn't from 70ft in the air with gravitational pull working against you and weight. And I think E equals MC squared has happened to your body numerous times. You've had 30 documented knockout concussions. You've broken a thousand bones. Whatever it is, you're the first one to see the countdown clock on the screen and hit it perfect. You need to know that. Just feel good about whatever the fuck you're doing with that brain. You need to share that information with the NFL maybe. Yeah, like that is in fight, mixed martial arts, I think boxing. You're on it. Hey, you're on. Are you taking care of your body? Do you do brain stuff? Do you do body stuff? Like, how do you manage all that?
Connor
So my dad was a marine. We have a lot of military in this area. We've always kind of reached out. We've been lucky to be friends with a lot of the black rifle coffee guys. And what's really cool is Marcus Luttrell is the lone survivor. Wahlberg played him in the movie. His brother Morgan is a representative in Texas and everything. He was a Navy SEAL as well that he got. His helicopter got shut down. And this guy, he was beat up more than anyone on the face of the earth. And he actually went down to Texas and found like the best head doctors, the best everything. And we went through the boot campaign. We paid for ours to go down. But learning what all the military has learned and all the injuries that, you know, that they've suffered over the years and what the US Government has put into it, they took some NFL players and they took some nitro circus athletes. We went down there and learned a lot about head injuries, learned a lot about what's really interesting is genetics. Almost all the top freestyle motocrosses. Our grandparents were almost all boxers. My granddad was Golden Glove boxer. He was in the Navy. Josh Sheehan, you look down the line. So I'm sure it's a lot of the same in football. Like, we come from. Maybe not the most intelligent family, but all of my uncles, all my cousins, they're all division one. You know, they didn't go for. For the education part, but they definitely went for the sports part. They were. If they were military and they were. They were rugby, they were wrestling. So I was the run to the family. And I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by just a really good group of people that my uncle actually played quarterback for Denver Broncos. 69 and 70. He got knocked out by Hightower from police academy. Ended his career early.
Pat McAfee
That sounds like that's a family combo. That sounded pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah.
Connor
But so my uncle said, uncle Allen, he goes, the moment that you stop, you're done. And, you know, he had no ACL in either knee. His back was all messed up, his shoulders, everything. And he ended up teaching. Well, he taught lacrosse and football at a local community college, but he also took senior citizen or taught senior citizen health class. And he. So every morning he was up early with all the seniors doing aerobics, and that kept him. He was as fit as can be. He was broken as can be, but stayed fit. And I think. I think him every time I got hurt from the time I was broke, my first. I broke my first bone when I was 8 years old, and he took me from the time that cast came off physical therapy. And that was his biggest thing, was figure out what your body needs, keep moving, and let's get healthy.
Pat McAfee
That's an awesome message, I think, for everybody trying to maintain lifestyle and life as a whole. You got to stay active, got to get the blood pumping. It's not just physical, too. It's mental as well as you move forward. Last question about the X Games here. Travis Pastrana, and we can't thank you enough. We got life lessons in here. We've heard some stories. Yeah. Health lessons. Health lessons in this entire thing.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Pastrana land. Neat. Where is it? What state is that?
Connor
No, it's off the grid. It doesn't exist. It's in Maryland. If you ever get bored, come on out. We'll have some good times.
Pat McAfee
Okay. So Rough Riders anthem music video made me want to ride a dirt bike. And then Travis Pastrana made me want to backflip a dirt bike. Sure. Now I can do a backflip on a trampoline. I can do a backflip. Used to be able to do standing backflip. Can do backflip off top rope in wrestling ring. Is that all good news for me to be able to backflip a motorcycle, Is that a part of it or is that all bike? Is that body control or bike control?
Connor
100% body control. The best riders in the world have a really hard time doing a backflip. They take off and you're programmed to always see where the landing is. You take someone with no experience to my wife. Three time X Games gold medalist in skate, two time world champion. Great. Like trampoline, air awareness. Can't ride a motorcycle. Save her life. Her second day ever on a motorcycle. Barely made it to the takeoff ramp. Got a backflip all the way around the wheels just in the foam pit because if she took it to dirt, she wouldn't know what to do after she landed. But you, my friend, no problem. Day one, attempt one, you're going to get it right around. It's just commitment.
Ty Schmidt
Boom. There it is.
Pat McAfee
Straw land. Yeah. Yeah. All right, last question about the shout out to your wife, by the way. Yeah, yeah. Absolute dog. Sounds like skater, we're saying. Is that what we said, Gator?
Connor
Yeah, I got, I got really lucky. For sure. She's, she was actually in the last Tony Hawk pro skater. And yeah, it said so. She won her first X Games gold medal when she was 14 years old, so definitely lucked out. She's a badass and definitely an awesome mom as well.
Pat McAfee
Pastrana Land. Pastrana Land. That's what it sounds like. Tone has a question for you. Yeah, Travis, you, Shaun White, Tony Hawk are all legends of the X Games, but I saw Sal Massicala is back hosting for 2025. What is like, what does Sal mean for the entire X Games community and all those sports and that he's hosting and has been there for so long.
Connor
Dude, to have Salema back is absolutely amazing. He's, he's, he's the voice of X Games. And honestly, you got this guy, Jeremy Bloom who took over because when Covid hit Football guy.
Pat McAfee
Football guy. Football guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Connor
So two time Olympian for the US for skiing, goes, gets, comes back NFL draft, plays for, I think got drafted, I think for the jets, ended up.
Pat McAfee
Eagles with the Steelers.
Connor
We're not going to talk about the Steelers, but you know, I'm, I'm a Baltimore guy. But, but anyway, Aaron Rodman's playing for the Steelers.
Pat McAfee
Now, oh, mama, I'm in this. Well, I'm not going to get into it. You're right. You're a Ravens, great team. John Harbaugh just squatted 405. I saw John Harbaugh, Squad 405 the other day, but go ahead. Jeremy Bloom, obviously part of it, but.
Connor
So, so Bloom, he comes back and I mean, just a smart, smart human being. Been successful at everything that he's done. And he comes in with that athlete perspective. He's like, look, when X Games was huge, we had larger than life personalities. Guys like Dave Mirra, Tony Hawk, you know, you had even Ryan Sheckler a little bit later. Mike Metzger, Mad Mike Jones, like everybody was this character. Brian Deegan, metal militia.
Pat McAfee
And he's like, we're going to come.
Connor
Back and we're going to give these athletes a place to grow their brands. He goes, let's, instead of thinking about how we can make the event better, how can we make the athletes bigger, how can we find more talent, how can we make it more accessible? And I think this is going to be the start of a new, new generation of X Games. And you know, I'm just so excited to see where it goes. I mean, I'm Nitro Circus. We're kind of like the big air, not sideshow, but we tried to do the newest stuff and Bloom's reaching out, saying, okay, how can we get, how can we safely merge this to where you guys can be the crazy shenanigans over here that are pushing this culture? And let's, let's build these athletes together and let's see how we can make these men and women actually make them a good living by doing what they love and traveling the world of friends.
Pat McAfee
Great brand. X Games is a great brand, always has been for our generation. Shout out to Bloom, understanding the opportunity, earning the opportunity. And now I can't wait to see what he does with it. Football guy.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
And he was returner, right? I think if I recall.
Connor
And he was receiver a little bit, but yeah, punt return.
Pat McAfee
I think he was returned. That's how I think. And I think I've been at a, maybe a function or two with old Bloom. I remember. Great dude, great athlete, obviously sound businessman. And if he's bringing sound Maskela back, he knows what he's doing. In my eyes, I think he knows what he's doing. And also partnering with you. We appreciate the hell out of you, Travis. Stay safe, dude.
Connor
Do my best. Hey, you guys too. I want to see you out back flipping all you Guys, come on out to Pastrana Land one day.
Pat McAfee
Okay? Do you have good Internet there?
Connor
Yeah, we can get it.
Pat McAfee
Okay. That sounds like a no.
Ty Schmidt
All right.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Sweet. You're right, ladies and gentlemen. Travis.
Ty Schmidt
Travis.
Pat McAfee
We can figure that out. Okay, we got 14 ramps around here. We build things around here. Yeah, we can get a Starlink plugged in here. Yeah, we can certainly do. How about that aerial shot at Pastrana Land? Got a racetrack over here. Got a barn over here. Got a state ramp, skate ramp over here. You got a jumping pad over here. I used to watch a lot of the Nitro circus stuff in Travis Pastrana in the X Games. That was great. Times Summer. Just say, what are these psychos gonna do?
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, it's perfect.
Pat McAfee
Legit. It was like, what are they?
G
He's always so juiced, too. Like, it is.
AJ Hawk
Is.
G
It's unbelievable the amount of injuries that do. Is it fake hip? I don't know how many fake body parts he has, but, like, the fact that he can walk still and he's always. He's always so juiced and so pumped about whatever he is doing. That's why he's so fun.
Pat McAfee
I was trying to contemplate on whether or not we bring this up and ask him if this is actually his X ray or if somebody just made this up, but it would make sense.
Ty Schmidt
Probably.
Pat McAfee
It makes sense. They obviously got one thing wrong. We know that there's a. Yeah, yeah, we know. Stratus Pastrano, he's got past.
Ty Schmidt
Pastrami between his legs.
Pat McAfee
He is. He is a beast. Thank you to him for. Thank you for him for committing so many dangerous acts for our entertainment. And it was literally my generation. Yeah. That is what. Yeah, it is. I've seen this guy do everything. How about him just jumping over to nascar, too? I think he just ran over there. Yeah. You know, some guys, 10 years training, usually 15. 15 years training kids. They've been doing it since I was a kid. I picked this up about a month ago. Yeah, I'm gonna. Gonna redline this thing too. Don't you worry about it. While on the weekend, I'm gonna go do a double backflip. And then look at those flash bulbs.
Ty Schmidt
Those are the days all over the place.
Pat McAfee
And anytime Pastrana was on the top of a ramp, that's before social media. Everybody somehow knew, like, hey, Pastrana's about doing it again.
Ty Schmidt
He's doing it again.
G
Come on.
Pat McAfee
Sean White was the same Sean White whenever he was at the top of the snowboard Ray. Sean White's about to do Some.
Ty Schmidt
Tune in. Tune in.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Pastrana's about to do some. And now he's got Pastrana Land. Now he's got Pastrana.
Ty Schmidt
He's the goat here.
Pat McAfee
Tony Hawk. He's still just handing out skateboard. Do a kick flip.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, Yep.
Pat McAfee
Handing out skateboards.
Ty Schmidt
His documentary is unbelievable.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Great story.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
About how much work he put in as a kid. He was. He was a little boy. He was the guy. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
Dog.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. They're talking about him being though, like, what, he was six, seven years old.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. And then, like, through the video game era and, like, how when he was. I know. Don't know, 20, 22, skateboarding, just fell off a cliff. And so, like, him and a couple other guys were doing it, and then the X Game started, and they were like, the bell of the ball.
Pat McAfee
And then Tony Hawk, pro skater. I don't know how much money he made off of that.
Ty Schmidt
He goes into it about that, about how, like, they approached him to make a video game. He said, sure. Basically doesn't hear anything, but the game starts blowing up, blah, blah, blah. Couple years into the game, he gets, like, called into the PlayStation's office or whoever, you know, created the video game, and they just, like, slid him a check for $10 million.
Pat McAfee
And he was like, thank you, buddy.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
AJ Hawk
What the holy.
Pat McAfee
Thank you. This is a good time.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Good for them. That was a different era. I think Jeremy Bloom, though, has the right idea. We need to make stars competing against each other, not just the competitions themselves. Now for the Olympics, I'll turn on the free skate, you know, to represent for America and all that shit, what they're doing in the Jagger street skate or whatever open. Yeah, yeah. Dog. Young Jagger eating absolute dog. Like, I watched that. But I think for the X Games, it is the Meta Militia people remember Meta Militia they were taking on. There was another group. Yeah, it was that other group.
G
The guys were like.
Pat McAfee
They were.
G
They were too. Like, you knew. I don't know. I couldn't. I could name 10, 20 different, like, athletes in the X Games back in the day when I was watching, like, in high school.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. He talked about Pink's husband, I think.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. I was almost gonna start singing a Pink song about her boyfriend being a rock star, because I think that is a song, but I think the next couple lyrics aren't the best. Sure. So, yeah, I stayed away from it. Yeah. Well, every Pink song that I was thinking of, what she was saying was not like the, you know, she's a weapon.
Ty Schmidt
Oh, yeah.
Pat McAfee
She's Speaking of X Games, she's full circus away.
G
Yeah, her whole concert's a nut.
Pat McAfee
Hey, where. Where are you on swing at today? How about from that fucking tip of the stadium to that one? And I'm going to sing the.
G
Yeah, I'm singing the whole time too. Upside down.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. And I'm not going to miss it. It's going to be. It's like, Jesus Christ, what a weapon. And then she's got a. They got a daughter, I think that's a little bit older. And then maybe a baby. I watch her documentary daughter climbing the fucking. Whatever. These are for the scaffolding. Yeah, like just ready to go to the sky. Just like zero fear out there. It's unbelievable. X Games. I hope it gets back.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, this would be sweet. This weekend already. Yeah, it's a great time for it.
Pat McAfee
That's tomorrow. Okay. See, everything's kind of blending together right now. Everything's blended together. We got America's birthday coming up. One of the greatest cold shots in history. Nobody talks about it.
G
True.
Pat McAfee
We said, haha. And then there was still a lot of oh, yeah. To figure out. Yeah. And then like, we said, yeah, you know, that's kind of how that whole thing works. We'll be taking the second week of July off because Wimbledon will be on all things. And also we're gonna enjoy summer a little bit. Maybe create some things, maybe. Maybe meet some people, maybe do a little up to something. Are things cooking right now?
Ty Schmidt
I don't know. Maybe. Could say.
Pat McAfee
I know this sounds crazy, but it's been a lot of chatter. Obviously, me being able to sleep in my house and not get three hours of sleep on Monday nights over the last couple, couple weeks has been a huge help.
Ryan Smith
No way.
Pat McAfee
I will say, I will say, yes. I miss it a lot. I do. But on Tuesdays when I have, you know, like meetings in the morning, because I do business, like not only show, but I also, I try to do the business as well because I feel like I should learn and also potentially speak up. And I enjoy it and it's all those things. So I'm walking into meetings Tuesday morning, zoom calls or whatever calls in general, 9am you got people that I'm talking to that are very good at what they do. And I'm rolling in there, three hours of sleep, you know, and it's like, I'm the energy guy normally. And it's like, at what point does this do you look in the mirror and go like, yo, you ain't gonna make it like this and shout to Nick Khan at the WWE being like, bro, you need to breathe. You need to breathe. Now, Nick Khan has also seen me in these meetings, so I think he understands that I do. I do perform. I do well in these, you know, and it's nice. It's good for everybody when it happens. So I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be able to breathe for a little bit. But I do miss the out of it. And Night of Champions this weekend, Saudi Arabia. Yeah. A lot. Bill Goldberg, Gunther. What? My God. Saturday night main event in Atlanta. Saturday night Champions this weekend. Saturday night main event. Goldberg and Gunther. But I'm just saying, there's been a lot that has happened since we have, you know, not been there. So to everybody at wwe, I love you people. I appreciate you people. To the Internet wrestling community, yourselves, all of you. Go back to my NXT run. Everything I said then still remains. I'm talking to you. These people are outrageous. They're talented and mean, passionate, and they're in abundance. Yeah, Golly. I'm like, what the. Man? Don't look at your comments. Well, I have to. Our show is like, I have to live on the Internet. Like, that is. How do I know about. Literally, I don't say everything, but too much, I'd say at this point. Have to know what? Daily show have to know everything. Scrolling through. Okay, there was a big trade. Sweet. Good show today. Sweet. Hope you kill yourself. Okay. What the fuck did I do? All right, let's go to this. Oh, shifter and rap. Oh. One has the breaking news, one has the information. I like the way that's working. Get the fuck out of the wwe. You ruined my night. Okay, let me go down here. College Game Days won an Emmy. That's pretty cool.
Ty Schmidt
Congratulations.
Pat McAfee
That's pretty cool. Okay. Show's doing well. Okay. You're the worst thing to ever happen to the wrestling. Okay. Geez Louise. Let's go back in there. Bunker buster. What the fuck is that? Are we okay? Okay. Pat McAfee should jump off a. Okay. All these people are coming from the same. Same department here. And it's like, that does get a little bit old. Yeah. Something makes me laugh rather hard, though.
Ty Schmidt
Sure.
Pat McAfee
I will say, those people are mean. Yeah, those people are mean.
Ty Schmidt
Yes, they are.
Pat McAfee
It's been nice to not have that. Sure. Every single week. I would imagine those are multiple things. And also Corey great. Wade great. Booker T. Great. You know, so there's a lot of dudes over there and women in the commentary department department that are amazing. So it's like, as I'm watching it. I, like, read some of their stuff. I'm like, yeah, Corey is much different than me. That is. And I enjoy the out of correct. I can understand that. Thank God this piece of isn't here. All right. Just trying to watch the NBA finals here. It's a lot. I'm lucky and thankful for all of it, but it is a lot, you know. Mackenzie, the greatest. Yeah. Boom. Whoa. Boom. Yeah. Yeah.
G
Oh, that just happened.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Got a tattoo for the daughter. That's her birthday, May 4, 2023. Taurus, obviously. I too, Taurus, you know, bull birthday, Taurus birthday, Mackenzie, you know, whole thing. Did I get pressured into it? Kinda, kinda. That hurt right there.
G
That's like an upper ribs first tattoo.
Pat McAfee
Feels like it's the right one for the daughter. And Sam, Samantha got matching tattoo as well, you know, on her. So it was good. It was really nice. First tattoo. Obviously, Samantha has a lot of tats. You know, she's got a lot of tattoos. So I am the soft one of the household because I've never. I've signed up to get a tattoo to before. I've sat down and then I've been told how long it was going to be and I couldn't move and it was going to hurt. And I said, all right, don't think I want that on my body anyways. I've gone up and left three times. That has happened three times in my life I've done that. This one sat down for the daughter. Yeah, this is what I want on my body. Go ahead and make it happen. It's a cool thing. Yes. It did hurt, though. There was moments I no sold it. No sold it for sure. I was around a lot of tattoo, you know, tattoo people were there and they are obviously very tough. They are tougher than all of us that don't have tattoos because they have to deal with the which certainly real thing. But it hurt like hell. Yeah, some of the parts hurt like hell. You know, they got.
G
What made you choose that location?
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I don't know, to be honest.
G
Yeah, it's a very painful spot. You could definitely chosen other spots that weren't as painful, I'm sure.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Yeah, I was told that. Yeah. And I. I thought about that as it was on my ribbon. You know, there's like a 6, 7. Anita is the lady's name, I believe. Rose Inc. Tattoo. She was great. She was incredible talent. She was really good. She also not a full shading, a little bit of color. I don't know. I don't Know, but there you could feel whenever she was really tightening in on something, you know, especially right there on the rip. Sound like a Dennis Tate in your tooth.
Ty Schmidt
Exactly.
Pat McAfee
That's what it felt like in your body, you know? And there was certainly some pain. Wife sitting there looking at me, just seeing.
G
And you're like, no, this is nothing. What do you mean? Just do the whole. Do the whole rib cage while you're at it.
Pat McAfee
I did a couple yawns. You know, those were hard.
G
I didn't have to get it retouched. I know a lot of times they'll fade, and you got to go get it refilled in again.
Pat McAfee
Like, I think the fade would be a part of the art, you know? Yeah.
G
I think this one like camo. Okay.
Pat McAfee
I think this was. I think this one's good. Yeah, I think this one's good. Everybody says you're gonna get the bug. You guys come up with another McKenzie McAfee. Sweet tattoo. I will certainly dive back in there. And if I do that lady who did it, shout out to Anita. She was great. But, yeah, I mean, I had to lay there for 40 minutes, 45 minutes. AirPods in a lot of this, you know, with the leg, like, I come out, I stand for this show. I mean, people that host talk shows do not stand. They sit. That is literally what they do. I can't sit like, I am a. I'll either fall asleep. Okay. That is a real thing that could happen. If I sit down too long here during the show, I'm sure people notice it at home. I start to get really bored, and I. I really start to zone out. So if you see me stand up, it's just like, me trying to stay alive. So when you're doing a tattoo and a on your ribs and I can't move, and if I move now, it's gonna look.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Like, I don't know what. I do not know what. I signed up for one through my head a couple times. Well, how much longer is this? Don't want to ask, though. Don't want to look soft. And then you look over, and it's like, well, it doesn't look like anything's been. Yeah, I could barely see it. It was a whole thing, but for my daughter, and I think it looks cool. And Samantha's got the matching one for you. Anything, you know, let's go and do that. All right. Let's get the hell out of here. What a day. Holy. What a day. Ryan Smith, owner of the Mammoth in the Jazz.
Ty Schmidt
Legend.
Pat McAfee
Legend. Big night. Last night. Ace Bailey's gonna love Utah. Let's put that to rest. Legit. He's gonna do. They are gonna do everything that whole state will do everything to make sure Ace has a great time out there. That is like how they feel. I think that's how they operated. That's how they treated us. I would say assume they would do with somebody that could actually help. Yeah. You know, in the entire thing. Sean Sharan. Nug tip in the picks. Being a good teammate. Good play. What a guy.
G
You agree up there tonight too. He's gonna be big time part of it tonight too. Right?
Pat McAfee
Was his mic off for.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. Like the whole show, I think.
Pat McAfee
No, I heard him. I missed it. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
I muted it early though. That's probably why.
Pat McAfee
Because you're re. Yeah. Jay Bis. Good to have him on. He's great. Yeah. Great answers. He's very knowledgeable.
G
He is.
Pat McAfee
It's not lotion. It's beer. And he's a lawyer too. Do you think he pours the beer. Yeah.
Ty Schmidt
And leave it out.
G
He dunks his face in. I think he pours it into a full.
Pat McAfee
Like Ashton Hall.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. With the cubes.
Pat McAfee
4:30Am so he's been losing races. A lot of them. Right. Ain't that kind of been happening to him? I saw one. Speed's very fast. His name is Speed. I don't think people should be signing up to race Speed. Just who do you want to get in a race with a guy named anything or a guy named Speed when your entire thing is running but your name is in Speed. I don't think we're doing that. And you're going on his. It's his people. Yeah. And it's a lot of people. Like the most amount of people. Why are they always racing on uneven ground somewhere too? Like because you just go outside.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
Walk outside. Catch me outside. How about that?
Ty Schmidt
On site.
Pat McAfee
That's what they say. He's so explosive. His backflips out of nowhere. You just watch the explosion. Like, holy. What an athlete. I. I wonder what sports he played before. He just said, I'm gonna make hundreds of millions of dollars being a streamer of my everyday life. Legit.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
Pat McAfee
And I'm gonna become the mayor of a. Or the president of a country. I don't remember what it was when the entire country showed up for him. I wonder what sports he did play. Big. So. Soccer guy.
AJ Hawk
Right?
G
Hope he ran track.
Pat McAfee
I've seen clips of him playing soccer. I don't. I think he likes soccer. I don't Think it's necessarily like his.
Ty Schmidt
Main sport, track would make sense.
Pat McAfee
See America, Speed. Yeah, yeah. He got speared out of his. I don't know. He loves soccer and he's always in Europe, so I didn't know. Well, he left Speed.
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, sure.
Pat McAfee
Have a little respect, please. The only person who loves soccer in here is Canadian, so I didn't know. We all love soccer in our own.
Ty Schmidt
No, no, no, I do not.
Pat McAfee
I like soccer.
Ty Schmidt
I like the video game.
G
I like tsd.
Ty Schmidt
I like dst. There we go.
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I like tst.
AJ Hawk
So you do love soccer.
Pat McAfee
Hey, think Breaking news, by the way. Look for it. It just came up in discussion earlier today. I'm gonna say it publicly, so we have to do it. Look for Thunderdome soccer, Super Duper cup coming at some point. Three on three. We're gonna build boards in here so there's a little bit of physicality. Three on three with a goalie, two nets. We'll commentate it. We'll get some of the Arena League boys in here. We'll put up a $10,000 per winning player prize or something, and we're gonna have that happen out here. We need to see the arena boys again. I only saw him for two days because I got invited to go down to Parris island, which. What an experience. What an amazing experience. That was really cool. He said his dad was a Marine. I almost immediately. I don't know if you saw. I immediately broke chains. Oh, yeah, right there. Let's go ahead and do that. Love everything about it. Didn't even want to get into it. He goes through Paris Island. Had to have right on the east coast there. Absolutely. That place was awesome. That was a life changer. But I only got to see the arena boys for two days. See, Gordo Gordson threw out the first pitch for the Yankees in a concert jersey. I saw that.
Ty Schmidt
That wasn't the Yankees.
Shams Charania
No.
Ty Schmidt
Yes, it was. Oh, in the same day.
Pat McAfee
Yeah. He was lefty and righty. Be a friend, Tell a friend something nice. If I change your life, we're in a sing together Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three, team. Goodbye. In 1979, the first words spoken on ESPN weren't just an announcement. If you're a fan, they were a sports prophecy. What you'll see in the next minutes.
Ryan Smith
Hours and days to follow.
Pat McAfee
Glad you're with us tonight.
AJ Hawk
Convince you you've gone to sports heaven.
Pat McAfee
And right now you're standing on the edge of tomorrow. This fall, the next era of ESPN begins. Sports forever.
Podcast Summary: The Pat McAfee Show – PMS 2.0 1369
Release Date: June 26, 2025
Episode Title: NBA Draft First Round Recap, Utah Jazz/Mammoth Owner Ryan Smith, Shams Charania, Jay Bilas, Travis Pastrana, & AJ Hawk
Host: Pat McAfee
Guests: Ryan Smith (Owner of Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth), Shams Charania (ESPN Senior NBA Insider), Jay Bilas (ESPN Analyst), Travis Pastrana (Extreme Sports Legend), AJ Hawk (Former NFL Player)
Pat McAfee kicks off the episode by expressing enthusiasm for the NBA Draft’s first round and the recent developments surrounding the Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth. He sets the stage for a lively discussion encompassing draft recaps, team ownership insights, expert analysis, and a special guest segment with Travis Pastrana.
Key Highlights:
Ace Bailey: Selected 5th overall by the Utah Jazz. Bailey, a highly talented player known for his defensive prowess, faced speculation about his preference regarding team selection.
Pat McAfee [00:45]: "Ace Bailey goes number five overall to Utah. Absolute dog on the basketball court."
Walter Clayton Jr.: Drafted 18th overall out of Florida. Clayton Jr. garnered attention during March Madness, showcasing his scoring ability and competitiveness despite being slightly older at 22.
Pat McAfee [01:38]: "Walter Clayton Jr. at number 18 out of Florida. He was a bucket getter for the entire of March Madness."
Discussion Points:
Pat McAfee welcomes Ryan Smith, highlighting his dual ownership of the Utah Jazz (NBA) and Utah Mammoth (NHL), and his strategic moves during the draft night.
Key Insights:
Draft Strategy: Ryan Smith emphasizes the Jazz’s philosophy of selecting the best available talent, underscoring the acquisition of Ace Bailey and Walter Clayton Jr. as pivotal moves.
Ryan Smith [18:15]: "Our philosophy is to take the best player on the board. Ace and Walter embody that, and we're excited about what they bring to our organization."
Team Development: Smith discusses the integration of experienced coaching staff with young talent, fostering an environment conducive to growth and success.
Ryan Smith [19:02]: "Ace is a humble kid eager to learn. With our seasoned coaches and unselfish players, he's set up for success."
Ownership Philosophy: Balancing responsibilities between NBA and NHL teams, Smith highlights trust in his management team and a commitment to building winning cultures.
Ryan Smith [24:55]: "Supporting our teams means trusting our management to make the right moves. We're in it together to win championships."
Notable Quotes:
Guest: Shams Charania, ESPN Senior NBA Insider
Shams provides an insider perspective on the draft nuances, emphasizing the challenges of maintaining confidentiality and the impact of trades during the draft process.
Key Points:
Draft Dynamics: Unlike previous years, Shams refrained from tipping picks, focusing instead on reporting trades and real-time developments.
Shams Charania [42:36]: "I focused on being a good teammate and partner, not tipping picks but reporting trades as they happened."
Big Storylines: The Utah Jazz’s selections were highlighted as major takeaways, with Ryan Smith’s ownership strategies playing a significant role.
Shams Charania [46:58]: "Ace Bailey going five to Utah was a major storyline, along with Walter Clayton Jr.'s selection."
Player Projections: Discussions on players like Derrick Queen and the implications of their draft positions for their respective teams.
Shams Charania [50:01]: "New Orleans traded up for Derrick Queen, which could be a pivotal move depending on his development."
Notable Quotes:
Guest: AJ Hawk (representing Jay Bilas)
AJ Hawk delves into the performance of Duke players in the draft, the impact of college performance on draft positions, and realistic expectations for new draftees.
Key Topics:
Duke Representation: Three Duke players were selected in the top 10, reflecting the program's strength and the players' readiness for the NBA.
AJ Hawk [72:26]: "Cooper Flag, Dylan Harper are two of the best players, making their mark in the draft."
Player Expectations: Emphasizing the balance between celebrating draft success and setting realistic performance expectations for rookies.
AJ Hawk [75:24]: "I view draft night as a celebration, but players must deliver and handle the pressures that come with their selections."
Second Round Strategies: Discussing how teams approach the second round, focusing on fit and role-specific skills rather than just the best available talent.
AJ Hawk [78:38]: "In the second round, teams look for players who fit specific roles and can develop into NBA contributors."
Notable Quotes:
Hosts: Pat McAfee, AJ Hawk, Shams Charania
The conversation shifts to the second round of the draft, exploring team strategies, the impact of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) regulations, and the evolving nature of player development.
Key Insights:
Team Needs vs. Best Available: Teams balance selecting the best available talent with addressing specific roster needs, such as defensive specialists or three-point shooters.
AJ Hawk [85:00]: "Second-round picks are about fitting roles and providing depth, not necessarily becoming stars immediately."
Success Rates: Recognizing that the second round has a higher miss rate, with a significant number of players only having brief NBA careers.
AJ Hawk [81:03]: "Approximately 30% of second-round picks have solid NBA careers, while others may not make a lasting impact."
NIL Impact: The rise of NIL has influenced draft strategies, with more players staying in college longer, affecting the pool of available talent in the second round.
AJ Hawk [84:10]: "NIL has led many players to remain in college longer, impacting the quality and readiness of second-round picks."
Notable Quotes:
Guest: Travis Pastrana, renowned for his participation in the X Games and Nitro Circus.
Pat McAfee introduces Travis Pastrana, celebrating his contributions to extreme sports and discussing the evolution of the X Games.
Key Topics:
X Games Evolution: Travis highlights the shift from traditional aspects like bungee jumping to including elite BMXers, skateboarders, and motocross athletes.
Travis Pastrana [103:18]: "X Games has evolved to showcase the best in action sports, turning competitors into professional athletes."
Safety Innovations: Discusses advancements in safety measures, such as the transition from foam pits to airbags, enhancing athlete safety without compromising the spectacle.
Travis Pastrana [104:32]: "Our move to airbags significantly improved safety, allowing us to perform more spectacular stunts safely."
Personal Anecdotes: Travis shares stories about mentoring young athletes, emphasizing passion, dedication, and the importance of safety in extreme sports.
Travis Pastrana [111:36]: "Helping young athletes like Olivia achieve their dreams safely is a true honor."
Notable Quotes:
Throughout the episode, Pat McAfee and his co-hosts engage in light-hearted banter, sharing personal stories, discussing tattoos, and engaging in humorous interactions. Notably, stories about their experiences with outdoor adventures, vehicle mishaps, and show dynamics add a relatable and entertaining layer to the episode.
Highlights:
Bronco Incident: A humorous recount of a co-host attempting to secure a Bronco amidst unexpected thunderstorms.
Pat McAfee [60:59]: "They sacrificed themselves out there. Good work, boys."
Tattoo Stories: Pat shares his experience getting a tattoo for his daughter, emphasizing the emotional and physical aspects of the process.
Pat McAfee [133:16]: "For my daughter, I wanted something meaningful, even if it hurt like hell."
Pat McAfee wraps up the episode by reiterating the excitement surrounding the NBA Draft, acknowledging the strategic insights shared by guests, and celebrating the ongoing evolution of extreme sports with Travis Pastrana. The blend of expert analysis, personal anecdotes, and engaging conversations underscores the show’s commitment to delivering comprehensive and entertaining sports coverage.
Key Takeaways:
Notable Quotes with Timestamps:
This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the episode, highlighting critical discussions on the NBA Draft, team ownership strategies, expert insights, and the vibrant world of extreme sports. Whether you're a sports enthusiast or a casual listener, this episode offers valuable perspectives and engaging content that reflect the unique blend of expertise and humor that defines "The Pat McAfee Show."