The Pablo Torre Interview with Throwing Fits

Summary

Podcast Summary: Throwing Fits – The Pablo Torre Interview with Throwing Fits
Release Date: February 26, 2025
Duration: Approximately 128 minutes
Hosts: Lawrence and James
Guest: Pablo Torre

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1. Introduction and Welcome (00:01 - 01:30)

The episode kicks off with Lawrence and James warmly welcoming Pablo Torre, accompanied by playful and humorous banter highlighting Pablo's intelligence and notable reputation in journalism.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [00:30]: "It really does feel as good as everybody does."
• Lawrence [01:18]: "Pablo, how the hell are you?"

2. Ethnicity and Identity Misconceptions (01:31 - 03:00)

The hosts discuss frequent misconceptions about Pablo's ethnic background due to his name. They humorously navigate the assumptions people make, clarifying Pablo's true heritage.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [01:56]: "I'm white, in case anyone didn't know."
• Lawrence [02:24]: "What's this in between garment that's on top of the alternate timeline?"

3. Fashion and Personal Style (03:01 - 14:00)

A significant portion of the interview focuses on Pablo's unique fashion choices, particularly his socks and undergarments. The hosts humorously critique and discuss the intersection of fashion with personal branding in sports journalism.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [03:08]: "New Balance RC 30s that I'm gonna wear a lot of stuff today..."
• James [03:57]: "A masterpiece."

4. NBA All-Star Weekend and Sports Events (14:01 - 35:00)

Pablo shares his insights on the NBA All-Star Weekend, expressing disappointment in recent events while contrasting it with other sports like the NHL. The discussion delves into the commercialization of sports events and the challenges the NBA faces in maintaining authenticity.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [25:32]: "Hideki Matsui's porn vault. We are slowly but surely gaining ground."
• Lawrence [26:35]: "Do you think the NBA should just scrap it?"

5. Political Commentary and Athletes (35:01 - 55:00)

The conversation shifts to the political aspirations of sports personalities, particularly focusing on Stephen A. Smith. Pablo critiques the blending of sports commentary with political discourse and its implications for the integrity of sports media.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [51:45]: "Stephen A. just unleashed in the way that you want."
• James [52:07]: "That's my fucking president, ladies and gentlemen."

6. Personal Experiences with Celebrities (55:01 - 75:00)

Pablo recounts memorable interactions with various celebrities, including Steve Harvey and Tony Kornheiser. These anecdotes highlight the often surreal experiences journalists encounter while navigating fame and personal rapport with high-profile individuals.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [55:07]: "Steve Harvey shaking his hand and then just being on episode of Family Feud was the most out of body I've ever felt."
• Lawrence [74:05]: "What's the best part about working for ESPN and what was the worst part?"

7. Sports Moments and Journalism (75:01 - 95:00)

Pablo reflects on significant sports moments he has witnessed firsthand, such as "Linsanity" and pivotal NBA games. He discusses the role of sports journalism in capturing these events and the personal impact they have had on him.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [83:16]: "Linsanity at the Garden."
• Lawrence [84:00]: "What's your Mount Rushmore of sports moments that you've witnessed?"

8. Fashion in Sports and Criticism (95:01 - 118:00)

The discussion returns to the theme of fashion, with Pablo critiquing the current state of sports apparel and its lack of personal expression. He reminisces about iconic figures like Pat Riley who used fashion to convey personality and authority.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [109:40]: "I miss, I miss Pat Riley on a sideline."
• James [113:00]: "The Michael Jordan high end."

9. Closing Remarks and Constructive Criticism (118:01 - 128:51)

In the concluding segment, Lawrence and James invite Pablo to share any constructive criticism for the hosts. Pablo advises them to assert more authority and expertise in their discussions, emphasizing the importance of genuine insight over sensationalism.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [120:20]: "I have enjoyed asking you guys questions. So my job, my constructive advice is that you guys should be like puffing your chests out more about the expertise that you have about the subjects..."
• Lawrence [123:59]: "What about like don’t jump on the beep?"

10. Final Banter and Outro (128:00 - End)

The episode wraps up with continued humorous banter, touching upon various light-hearted topics like Disney, apparel brands, and personal anecdotes. The hosts and Pablo exchange playful jabs, maintaining the show's signature informal and comedic tone.

Notable Quotes:

• Pablo Torre [128:17]: "You got your plug, Pablo Tor find finds out is the Show. It's on YouTube."
• Lawrence [128:35]: "We appreciate you, Pablo, for everything you do, Chef. Take us out."

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Overall Themes:

• Humor and Camaraderie: The hosts maintain a light-hearted and comedic atmosphere throughout the interview, often engaging in playful teasing.
• Fashion and Personal Branding: A recurring theme is the critique and admiration of personal style choices, especially in the context of sports journalism.
• Sports Culture and Media: Pablo provides insightful commentary on the commercialization of sports events, the role of journalists, and the intersection of sports with politics.
• Celebrity Interactions: Personal anecdotes about interactions with high-profile individuals add depth and relatability to the discussion.

Utility for New Listeners: This detailed summary encapsulates the essence of the Throwing Fits podcast episode featuring Pablo Torre. It highlights key discussions, humorous exchanges, and insightful commentary on sports journalism, making it a valuable overview for those who haven't listened to the full episode.

Transcript

[Pablo Torre]

You're pretty smart when people talk about you. Too smart comes up a lot. So why are you trying to prove them wrong? Why aren't you pushing the limits of science and powering the nuclear engines of.

[James]

The world's most powerful Navy?

[Pablo Torre]

If you were born for it, isn't it time to make a smart choice? You can be smart, or you can be nuke smart. Become a nuclear engineer at navy. Com Nukesmart, America's Navy. For forged by the Sea Throw gang.

[Lawrence]

We are joined by the titan of the take, the journalism general, the Filipino pharaoh. You got no hoes. He got co hosts. He must have been raised by urologists because the stream's going crazy. You Reggie, he Regis, you drop feces. He dropped feces. The King of Cambridge. He said potter go to the Ivy League. He doesn't around, but he will find out. How you say broken Tagalog mean a Pablo. Pablo Sisson. More like Pablo got that on. Oh, you're not with Pablo Sison. How many Pablo sit on these nuts? All this flak flexing. Got his arms strong so he stay around the horn. You bozo, he adobo the facts are squared, but the table round, he's sitting with thought leaders calling the Pinoy pip. Never been to Neverland, but when he's on Mike, he be busting. You can't jack his cuz. He a master debater. Call him Greg Lugan is because his deep dives hit it on the head. He going beastiality mode. How he's in all these rabbit holes. Sports writer, podcaster, TV host. Pablo Torrey. Pablo, how the hell are you?

[Pablo Torre]

It really does feel as good as everybody does.

[James]

Yeah. You need a cigarette?

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, my God.

[Lawrence]

Tighter than a rabbit hole, baby.

[Pablo Torre]

I live trying to figure out where are the puns that I can make for my own personal branding. And you somehow found, like, 20 of them I hadn't considered.

[James]

Dude, he digs deep.

[Lawrence]

You never heard of master debater?

[James]

Yeah, a classic.

[Pablo Torre]

Thank you.

[Lawrence]

Thank you for coming down from the throne and joining us. Peons in the trenches. But as a fellow podcaster, as a.

[Pablo Torre]

As. As a fellow person of truly, I think, confusing ethnic origin.

[James]

That too.

[Lawrence]

My Uber talking to him.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, to both of you guys.

[James]

I'm white, in case anyone didn't know.

[Pablo Torre]

The Uber driver on the way here started talking to me in Spanish because he makes inferences based on just the name. And so I just got a. Dan Lebatard's father, Papi, used to do this also. He would just assume I'm Hispanic and I would have to break out my, like five sentences and then tap out.

[James]

Yeah, your stock. Stock phrases.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[James]

Hola.

[Lawrence]

Do you get a lot of. Do you get a lot of. What are you.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. Oh, I mean, my favorite Twitter response or just like mention is who is this Chinese guy with the Mexican name?

[James]

Damn, they fucking read your ass.

[Lawrence]

Dude, that's just a Filipino guy.

[Pablo Torre]

You have reverse engineered colonialism.

[James]

Yeah, just every Filipino ever.

[Lawrence]

You figured it out.

[James]

It was that someone just watching you on TV and was like, I need to get to the bottom of this.

[Pablo Torre]

There was literally a Yahoo Answers about this at one point.

[James]

God damn, dude. Okay, well, we're not gonna ask what you are because we know. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Race check. Done.

[James]

Yeah. Let's get into a quick fit. Check. Pablo, what did you wear to come on the only POD podcast that matters besides Pablo?

[Lawrence]

Tori finds out.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Starting from the top down.

[James]

We don't really do that anymore, but that would be the wrong answer.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. Starting from the bottom of bing, bing, bing. Yes. Okay, so new balance RC 30s that I'm gonna wear a lot of stuff today, you'll discover, okay. That are made in part by people who are of Asian extraction. It turns out I was pondering this on the. The Uber ride on the way here and I was like, okay, so my Filipino friend Leonard, AKA Buttery Pat, AKA Unky Leroy, okay, He designed these with our. With our buddy Donald Glover for his. The balances. The aforementioned Regis High School is the source of my socks.

[Lawrence]

Oh, wait, they're not from your high school years, are they?

[Pablo Torre]

They are. Oh, wow.

[James]

How many holes are in those bad boys?

[Pablo Torre]

Look at the bottom.

[James]

Oh, Pablo, come on, bro, you're making too much money.

[Lawrence]

Come on.

[James]

Sock on your right foot.

[Pablo Torre]

Metal on a media wall. That just for the premium metal arc media.

[Lawrence]

What are we doing, dude?

[James]

You do realize that is there's an L for left and that's your right foot.

[Pablo Torre]

Is that what that there is a for less. It seems I've taken a number of.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, that is. There's a few Ls on that sock.

[James]

On first of many today.

[Pablo Torre]

That would explain some things. And then do you have a lot.

[Lawrence]

Of clothes left over from your high school years of 20 some odd years ago?

[Pablo Torre]

Yes, yes. Regis High School vintage bookstore. Dead stock. Yeah, yeah.

[Lawrence]

OG Merch.

[Pablo Torre]

Shout out to Andre Anselm the librarian, who would also be the history teacher.

[Lawrence]

But Regis was a uniform. You had to wear a uniform at school, right?

[Pablo Torre]

No, so it was. The uniform was collared shirt and slacks.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

Which gave I think a. A Young man. Just enough room to be stressed about what they were doing.

[James]

The college you were going to or just any college.

[Pablo Torre]

Colored color, Collard.

[James]

I thought you said college excuse.

[Pablo Torre]

That'd be very funny, though, if it was.

[James]

Sorry, bro, you're speaking Chinese. I can't. Fuck.

[Lawrence]

Wow.

[James]

I kid. I kid. Okay. Collared shirt.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes, Collared shirt and slacks. And then so inside of that, you got the whole universe of polos, button downs, some kids who were going Alex P. Keaton, and some people who just wanted to wear these socks for the next 30 years.

[James]

There you go.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[James]

Different strokes for different folks.

[Lawrence]

Damn, bro. Get some new socks.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Please come away from this podcast with anything. It's buy some new socks, please.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. Or send me some new socks. Yes.

[James]

There we go.

[Lawrence]

Honestly, whoever is running a sock division of an apparel brand, send. Put Pablo on floating. Yeah.

[James]

We need socks.

[Lawrence]

He needs it.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, I really do. If it's still Andre Anselm, who is hopefully still alive. I want those.

[James]

Was he an old guy when you were there?

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[James]

Oh. So odds are the bookkeeper.

[Pablo Torre]

He had good skin, though. So, you know, fingers crossed, Shannon Crossed.

[James]

Where you are.

[Lawrence]

You're wearing Regis corduroy.

[Pablo Torre]

I am. I'm wearing uniqlo.

[James]

Nice.

[Lawrence]

Also Asian of Asian attraction.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right. The T shirt underneath. So my friend Andrew Kuo.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Bootlegs. And so this is a New York Knicks championship. 2015, 2016.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

So I just like to imagine an alternate dimension where they didn't win 30 games, and instead Jimmer Fredette and Kylo Quinn and Chris Absport Zingis Melo on there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a fun game of like. Do you remember these faces?

[James]

We got one of the Lopez brothers down there.

[Lawrence]

Yep, I remember the. I remember the faces, not necessarily the names. Like this dude. 2 took mellows left 11 over to the left.

[Pablo Torre]

This guy.

[Lawrence]

Who's that?

[Pablo Torre]

I think that's Kylo Quinn.

[Lawrence]

There you go. All right, who's. Who's next to him? No, no, on the other side.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, that's Chris Tops.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, that's Chris Tops.

[Pablo Torre]

Here we go. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[James]

Damn. Okay. A veritable who's who of of would be NBA champions.

[Pablo Torre]

A literal who's that Of NBA players.

[Lawrence]

Who's that guy?

[James]

Shout out. Andrew Quill. That's a great. You're right. Beautiful. Alternate timeline that. You know, whoever's on that timeline, I hope things are going better for you than they are for us.

[Pablo Torre]

Right. I abandoned Knicks fandom after Jeremy Lin was summarily banished. Yeah.

[James]

Who you just did a talk with at All Star.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Lawrence]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

In front of Yao Ming.

[James]

So he looks gigantic. And why do they let him put him in the front row? He's blocking so many people.

[Pablo Torre]

I don't know. Look, I've. I've hung out with a lot of seven footers in the course of doing my job.

[James]

Fucking flex alert.

[Lawrence]

Literally.

[Pablo Torre]

And. And Yao. Architecturally, just a different.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, it's pretty good for a big man, let me tell you. The Lynn Sanity highlight reel still fudgeing hits at the afters.

[James]

It's.

[Pablo Torre]

It's. So when I say that my happiest moment as a sports fan is also my most journalistically conflicted. I was covering insanity for Sports Illustrated, all that shit. And when he. I was so. I was there for 38 at the Garden. And when I tell you that my body did things that the Columbia Journalism School would never have permitted it, it was obscenely, obscenely visceral, that reaction. It's the most fun I've ever had watching sports was that game.

[James]

So you couldn't cover it from an unbiased journalistic perspective, no matter how hard you tried, is what you're saying.

[Pablo Torre]

I like to think that my. My journalistic Kegels were strong enough.

[James]

That's a phrase no one has ever said, ever. Until now.

[Pablo Torre]

I had been practicing discipline, muscular discipline, but it's impossible like that. Anyway, I don't want to talk about Jeremy Lin for this entire podcast, although I could. But that. That highlight reel for people who don't remember still hits. It's. It's just the most cinematically fun shit for anybody, Asian or not, who grew up.

[James]

It was Lyn Sane.

[Lawrence]

Do you think Asians are coming for the NBA the way that Europeans have dominated it?

[Pablo Torre]

Quietly. So, again, so. So, James, you're a case study in this. Like, there are people who are. I don't want to reverse engineer your DNA.

[Lawrence]

Let's do it.

[Pablo Torre]

But when I tell you that Jalen Green's Filipino, Right? I mean, Jordan Clarkson's been out here for a long time.

[Lawrence]

Absolutely.

[Pablo Torre]

But on a part Asian basis. Yeah. We're everywhere. Yeah. And the only question, shout out that.

[Lawrence]

Wide receiver on the Steelers. What was his name?

[Pablo Torre]

Yes. So for me, like Sean Lee on.

[Lawrence]

The Dallas Cowboys, he was white, though, just named Lee.

[Pablo Torre]

For me, I used to be able to. I could tell you everybody, I had the Professor x cerebro of part Asians.

[Lawrence]

Hell, yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And now there are just so many that it's hard to keep track.

[Lawrence]

So you're actually the guy being like, what are you to the half to the part Asians.

[Pablo Torre]

I am the one.

[James]

You're against me.

[Pablo Torre]

I. I'm. I'm measuring skulls with your forceps.

[James]

Yeah. For knowledge.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm quietly swabbing people's DNA.

[Lawrence]

23Andme is named after Jordan.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, that's right.

[James]

You're just only doing a podcast to get DNA off the mics.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, yeah.

[James]

See, again, who's on the. The good guys versus the bad guys.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. The racial purity tests. Yeah, I'm all about that. Turns out.

[Lawrence]

What's this in between garment that's on top of the alternate timeline?

[Pablo Torre]

Nix T. That's right. So this is a. A. This was more Asian. And it had. It had one of those things where it was like, oh, an obi.

[James]

Like a nairagi.

[Lawrence]

I only know it's called an obi because it's always a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle.

[Pablo Torre]

Somehow the most Asian part of that sentence was the last part.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. So I took that off. But it's. It's a cardigan from a pig and rooster, I believe.

[Lawrence]

Pig and rooster.

[Pablo Torre]

Which I think is. I got it in Japan, but I took off the parts that I think are identifying in any way.

[James]

You colonize the cardigan.

[Pablo Torre]

Gentrified.

[James]

Gentrified. Excuse me. Looks great either way. It must be a nice warm mid layer.

[Pablo Torre]

It's a wonderful mid layer. Thank you for asking. And then the top. This is a. So I had to Google a YouTube video of how to say the name of the manufacturer.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

But I bought it on Broome street at their store, which I don't think exists anymore. More. But it's sage. De.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Which is Japanese.

[Lawrence]

I don't know if there's. I think the brand is still around. I don't know if the store's still there.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But I wander into that. So I used to live in Greenwich Village, so all I would do is get lightly stoned and, like, wander into various establishments.

[Lawrence]

And what do you do now?

[Pablo Torre]

I. I get really stoned and go on TV shows.

[James]

Yes. We'll talk about it.

[Pablo Torre]

More or less correct. But yeah. And this is. Yeah. A sort of like their, you know, Japanese workwear.

[Lawrence]

Utilitarian work.

[Pablo Torre]

Lots of. So many pockets. Yeah.

[James]

Speaking of pockets, you got a lot on this beautiful jacket you wore. I think I can guess you guys.

[Pablo Torre]

Can identify based on what I've conspicuously removed. Removed.

[James]

He went badge off.

[Pablo Torre]

I did. I did.

[James]

Do you normally go badge off on the stone?

[Pablo Torre]

I have, but now I lost it and I so the resale value is very low.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

But Stone island, it has a lining, like an inner. As they often do. They have an inner lining that makes it warm. I wear that all winter. I don't have to do a park.

[James]

You can buy probably badge Lucy's on like ebay, I would imagine.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

Just like with. With a. Like a lot of high end watches. You can just buy the box.

[Pablo Torre]

I like the idea that like in the way that you can go to a bodega and buy like the 19 bucks on eBay. Right.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

It's fake.

[Pablo Torre]

Exactly.

[James]

Yeah, exactly. You go walk into a bodega and broken a 5. Stone island badge.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right.

[James]

Yeah. They got everything. It's probably what you got to do is from my experience, as you take the badge off and then you put it somewhere in an interior pocket so that it stays with the garment and you don't have this problem.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[James]

Just as a little, you know your next stone. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

I was going to accuse my daughter of stealing. It was.

[James]

What was she going to do?

[Pablo Torre]

She had expensive taste, man. Yeah, clearly.

[Lawrence]

City kid.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Panties, panty. What I was going to ask about jewelry, jewels.

[Pablo Torre]

This. This the ball and chain.

[James]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

Tiffany ball and.

[James]

Oh, okay. Fancy one.

[Pablo Torre]

Which I. Which I learned you can get cleaned for free there.

[Lawrence]

Oh, nice. Oh.

[Pablo Torre]

Until my wife informed me that you can also just like buy on Amazon.com.

[James]

Like a thing which is a cleaner.

[Lawrence]

Good tip for a lot of good tips for everyone. For no one listening that has a tip to eat Wedding ring at home. What are the panties? Are the panties also 25 years old from your high school?

[Pablo Torre]

They are Uniqlo.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

And they're about 10, so.

[Lawrence]

10 years.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. I gotta cycle them out. Yeah, bro.

[Lawrence]

How so this is worn in like at the contact points.

[Pablo Torre]

How often do you guys change out your pants?

[Lawrence]

More off more often than 10 years.

[James]

You know, when you know.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

My is so I wear cheap Hanes boxers. So the elastic kind of gets like stretched out in the wash, whatever. And then I just cop another 12 pack.

[Pablo Torre]

Right. I think I just bought so many Uniqlo pairs of underwear that maybe they haven't been worn as much as if I had bought fewer.

[Lawrence]

Right.

[James]

Also, your bench is deep.

[Pablo Torre]

Also, counterpoint, you've seen my socks.

[James]

They're disgusting.

[Pablo Torre]

So thank you.

[Lawrence]

I hope you wear your underwear the right way. Unlike your socks. You're like, he's got.

[James]

He's got a little flap on the butt like some child's pajamas.

[Lawrence]

Is there breeze in here?

[Pablo Torre]

I'm feeling some wind I have the. The Uniqlo union suit.

[Lawrence]

Nice.

[Pablo Torre]

Just unbutton the back door, baby. Yeah, right.

[Lawrence]

All right. And you're sipping on a bottle. Pollen Spring, I believe. That concludes today's fit check and drink checks. Let's get into the meat and potatoes. Throwing fits. Pablo Torre. Are you really any relation to Joe Tori?

[Pablo Torre]

No, but I have been asked that.

[Lawrence]

Another Brooklyn boy or city boy.

[Pablo Torre]

So what I did though, was I was an altar server. Okay. So again, Catholic socks. Other jokes I could make about how the socks look that I'll. My mom just. I don't wanna. She still reads at mass. I don't want to make.

[Lawrence]

Oh, and the hole in the back of the underwear.

[Pablo Torre]

We can go there.

[Lawrence]

We can go there.

[Pablo Torre]

But we were all. We were all. We were all circling.

[Lawrence]

Hey, Pope, if you're listening. Hey, get up, King.

[James]

Yo, Pope, if you're listening. The Pope does listen to the show, as does your mom. So, you know, we want to keep it kosher.

[Pablo Torre]

Pope gang is strong. But. But I was an altar server at our local parish and the priest was the team chaplain for the New York Yankees.

[James]

Oh, shit. And so you know he's good.

[Pablo Torre]

So I didn't.

[Lawrence]

And that must been during the 90s.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. At a time when it was the best.

[James]

When God was on the side of the New York Yankees.

[Pablo Torre]

Clearly. And so for, for me, like, I. I got a spring training program autographed by Derek Jeter, who in the inscription said to Pablo Tor. He had misspelled just one R. Misspelled my name, to which I was like, your literal boss has the same name. Who have you ever met with the last name of Joe?

[James]

Pablo, real quick, speaking of names, have you ever reached out or spoken with the soccer budding star Pablo Torre?

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, so this is, this is an episode that we've been working on.

[James]

Yeah, I mean, when you Google Pablo Torre, he comes up first.

[Pablo Torre]

More than that. When you have various social media accounts and people are both confusing me for a 18 or 19 year old Spanish kid, or they're blaming me for trying to pretend to be him, I have a verified badge and he apparently, I guess did not at the time also.

[James]

Have an S in there to also have an S, hopefully avoid any confusion. But.

[Pablo Torre]

But he's, he's really up the. The SEO for you, for me and my. And my various programs.

[James]

But you've never parlayed with Pablo.

[Pablo Torre]

We are, we are actively attempting. Okay, yeah, there's a whole searching for Pablo Torre episode that, that I'm working on because I don't what I want to. I mean, there are many questions I want to know the answer to with him. I want to find out about does he know of me in the way that I know of him?

[James]

I'm gonna say, how is he?

[Pablo Torre]

You can double check. He's like, I think, 20 years old.

[Lawrence]

Are you on Tick Tock?

[Pablo Torre]

We have my show. So this is an old person thing. My show has an account that clips our stuff.

[Lawrence]

Yeah. Well, let's talk about the show. So you have a podcast called Pablo Torre finds out what's the craziest you found out so far?

[Pablo Torre]

So many, many candidates to this question, I'm proud to say. But we found the tape that the Knicks made when they were. They were recruiting LeBron James with a B. And Nick.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

In the summer of the decision.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And so if you are even vaguely familiar with. With that story or just the Sopranos, it was one of the last. I mean, it was a bar mitzvah video that James Dolan made to recruit LeBron James.

[Lawrence]

The Knicks was his band playing the background.

[Pablo Torre]

So the straight shot was not there, but the number of people on the roster. The Avengers, he assembled of James Dolan. When I got this video, which had been a bit of like a sort of an Ark of the Covenant situation for certainly, like, basketball nerds, when I opened it and saw what was inside, it fucking blew my mind.

[James]

Melted your face.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes. So he made a custom video. So again, like, it's the. It's the Knicks. What do they have to sell? It's celebrity, it's power. It's access to all of these people in this video.

[Lawrence]

It's wise guys.

[Pablo Torre]

And the first. And so the first thing you see is a customer. Like, scripted scene.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

With James Gandolfini and Edie Falco, where they are reprising after the end of the Sopranos.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

The characters.

[James]

Can't get that on Cameo dog.

[Pablo Torre]

It's.

[Lawrence]

Can't get that in Milwaukee.

[Pablo Torre]

Absolutely not. And James Gandolfini, who has. He's wearing a beard and he's in, like, his. His piera terror, I think, in Manhattan.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

It's actually his apartment. People ask questions or along lines of like, what is this shitty apartment? And it's like, that's.

[James]

Do you think, Tony.

[Lawrence]

Do you think James Dolan had. You think James Dolan had dirt on Gandolfini and Edie Falco, or do you think he was dangling courtside tickets for them?

[Pablo Torre]

I think it's the latter. I think James Gandolfini, also big sports Fan. Enough of a basketball fan to realize if I can make a dent on LeBron James recruiting, then this is actually going to change.

[Lawrence]

I think Edie still sits courtside.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way, so does Steve Sharipa is out there. Just like, there's some, there are some characters in the cinematic universe who are just absolutely real Nick fans. But the point being, you get through that. That video, which is on our YouTube channel, you can watch it and then the first face you see after that is Donald Trump.

[James]

That age real well.

[Pablo Torre]

And it proceeds from there.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

What does LeBron know?

[Pablo Torre]

So by the way, like, deeper into the video, you get Rudy Giuliani.

[James]

Yeah. America's mayor.

[Pablo Torre]

You get Harvey Weinstein.

[James]

That's right.

[Lawrence]

I mean, this is all James Dolan. Like, this all checks out.

[Pablo Torre]

You know, it's very on the nose. It's just, just, it's, it's just a mad lib that I would not have expected to make it past however many levels.

[Lawrence]

Woody Allen.

[James]

Yeah. Jeffrey Epstein.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

You know, just another, Another who? Pope. Yeah. Wait, Pablo, here's a question for you. So that if that's the, the craziest shit you found out thus far. Have you thought about if you were like staring down the barrel of your final lap and you knew, and you knew that. What? What's the one question you'd want to answer before going out?

[Pablo Torre]

Ooh, like a deathbed.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Mystery man.

[James]

The world is your oyster in this hypothetical.

[Lawrence]

Can I make a suggestion, please? Can you find out what the fuck's going on with Tom Brady's face?

[Pablo Torre]

So I, I, I, I have my own theories about that.

[Lawrence]

Yeah. You talking to a doctor. Dr. Miami.

[Pablo Torre]

We just did an episode, actually, in which we investigated Bill Belichick's girlfriend.

[Lawrence]

Oh, his agent. His agent.

[James]

His agent. Assistant, whatever.

[Pablo Torre]

His momager. His 23 year old momager.

[Lawrence]

His girlager. Bro, it's not a manager. That's a girlager.

[Pablo Torre]

The stuff I've heard since that episode came out, just about how much influence she has over his life has been very funny.

[James]

I'll say.

[Lawrence]

She got that, she got that gorilla grief.

[James]

I was gonna say this is just me talking. That is whipped. I'm saying that's his momager. God damn.

[Pablo Torre]

In ways. In ways.

[Lawrence]

Going for it on 4th and 5.

[James]

Yes.

[Lawrence]

Pablo, it's got that goal line D.

[James]

We could go on.

[Pablo Torre]

I mean, I was hoping you would.

[Lawrence]

Honestly say something, something. Dime defense. I don't know.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, something, something. Malcolm Butler. Interception.

[Lawrence]

Beast mode.

[Pablo Torre]

Deflate, deflating ball.

[James]

She deflates these balls There it is.

[Pablo Torre]

There it is.

[James]

That's why you're professional. Dude.

[Pablo Torre]

I would love to get further to the bottom of that. But in terms of.

[James]

That's what he said.

[Pablo Torre]

In terms of my deathbed mystery.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, my God. There are things on the list that I don't want to jinx because I think we're close to doing them. But I do want to mention the one that I have a bead on that we were sort of chatting about.

[Lawrence]

Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

Because I'm trying to get to the. To the. To the innermost sanctum in, I believe, sports lore.

[Lawrence]

Absolutely.

[Pablo Torre]

Which is Hideki Matsui's porn collection.

[Lawrence]

Yes. Porn is like no porn collection.

[James]

Yeah. But I'm saying, could we take it.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm not here to yell.

[James]

I don't think it's.

[Lawrence]

I mean, himself, at a certain point, he's like an art collector. Right. He's just amassing an archive.

[Pablo Torre]

The vault is considerable and legendarily like hundreds, if not thousands. Thousands. What I've been told of DVDs.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And so the idea that Hideki Matsui has a porn pornographic Criterion Closet. Yeah.

[James]

I want it right into the literal vault.

[Pablo Torre]

I want to pick some favorites. I want to put in my tote bag. I want to know what he did in the. As he was transitioning, as we all did, to just like On Demand unlimited website.

[Lawrence]

It's got to be like the. Like the Criterion Closet videos, but it's just you with surrounded by a bunch of crazy porn.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, I want to know what he likes.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

In a genuine. Again in it. What do you think?

[Lawrence]

What do you think he likes? Lefty. Mvp. What do you think?

[Pablo Torre]

Tentacles.

[James]

Oh, Hentai.

[Lawrence]

That might be somebody held up a drawing of his wife.

[Pablo Torre]

My favorite. Yo. So I've been. So when I tell you that I've been like, at work on an episode like this, and I'm. I'm trying to make it happen. The drawing figures in. Oh, the press. So I just. That people. I don't. Because you guys, again, people who live in New York who know this legend, Hideki Matsui held up a drawing he had made of his. Of his.

[James]

He commissioned.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And it was a shock to everybody on the Yankees when he announced it.

[Lawrence]

He didn't commission it. He literally drew it. He drew it at the table of the press conference. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And it's a pretty good drawing, but human. But it has, like a proof of life aspect to it.

[James]

But could you beat off to it?

[Pablo Torre]

So you're gonna produce this episode.

[Lawrence]

That's a Question on everyone's minds. So how close are we to like. So you have these urban legends floating around sports. Right. Like the Gandolfini James Dolan tape, the Hideki Matsui porn vault. Hideki Irabu getting suicided. When you hear. When you have like a nugget of information. Like and then he's pulling that thread. Like how deep does this go the porn vaults? And specifically I'm talking about.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, look, I. I think all the time I'm wondering am I using journalism to keep that tradition alive or am I indulging conspiracy at a time when people are actually looking for any excuse to say you guys are not journalistic at all. And so for me, like having an Internet. We just did an episode about whether the government invented stuffed crust pizza.

[Lawrence]

And.

[Pablo Torre]

And thoughts. There is a great deal of truth at the gooey center of that story truly involves government cheese and how the government and was basically handing out farm subsidies to the dairy industry for a long time and collecting billions of pounds of cheese and putting in. In. In secret storage facilities. And involves Ronald Reagan basically saying for the first time seemingly in his. In his tenure as president, we can give this away to poor people.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And like help feed them crack because he wanted to get rid of cheese.

[James]

Is the bee's knees, my friend.

[Pablo Torre]

Crack and cheese were really high up. It turns out on his priorities list.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

As well. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But the point being like that was a wildly viral tick tock theory investigated and it turned out there is truth to it. But also we found the guy who actually invented stuff crust pizza. And he was a spy. He. He was a private citizen. Is it was not not federal employees.

[Lawrence]

Was he made right by his genius or is he like he. He is he get paid?

[Pablo Torre]

He has. He has been awaiting the do that culturally he is owed 100%.

[Lawrence]

Let's make this right, people. All right. So Hidekimatsui's porn vault. We are slowly but surely gaining ground.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[Lawrence]

On that gold mine.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[Lawrence]

Unfurling the sock on that off white creamy mine. I want to ask you where we want to ask you about like just like the larger world of current contemporary sports. One of the big stories, the NBA All Star weekend just happened and it fucking sucked dick. Do you think the NBA should just scrap it?

[Pablo Torre]

So the counterpoint to all of this, the. Sorry, the. The thing to juxtapose the All Star game against I was in San Francisco for the All Star weekend stuff. It was a bummer. Yeah, it was a bummer. Especially when you compare it to what is going on with the NHL, which is not a thing I say very often.

[James]

Fire.

[Pablo Torre]

But literally they had three fights in the nine seconds.

[James]

Incredible.

[Pablo Torre]

And it was premised on nationalistic, jingoistic resentments.

[Lawrence]

Hey, man, if Canada's gonna boo the national anthem.

[James]

Yep.

[Lawrence]

I'm not gonna say anything.

[James]

You're gonna catch these hands, brother.

[Lawrence]

Because they should.

[Pablo Torre]

And we're all the people involved, also all Trump voters. Probably not exactly a convenient morality play.

[Lawrence]

But do you think has the Trumpiest athlete voter base? Is it hockey or baseball?

[Pablo Torre]

I think I would guess baseball, just because the Canadian demographic might dilute it. But otherwise, in among American athletes, I would say hockey and baseball are.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, well, hockey has a lot of Russians, so, you know.

[Pablo Torre]

Right.

[Lawrence]

What about NFL, though? That's like a lot of. A lot of players from.

[James]

I mean, that the league.

[Pablo Torre]

The reality. If I had to back of the envelope estimate a majority of all of these guys.

[James]

He did win by a landslide vote.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, but. But more than that, just like for tax reason reasons.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And for general apoliticism. They don't really necessarily care. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

But I think you're pretty stupid too.

[Pablo Torre]

They do vote with, you know, their wallets in the way that lots of people.

[Lawrence]

That's true, but. Okay, so back to the NBA. Also.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

You think it's time to.

[Pablo Torre]

You gotta do USA with the world.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[James]

Not white versus black.

[Pablo Torre]

So I would. I. I would. I would click. Yes, I would. I would. Absolutely.

[James]

And we get a Filipino team in the mix. One of the four. The four nations. Yeah. Right.

[Pablo Torre]

So Nate Robinson, who is one. I think Nate Robinson at one point told me that the boxer. That's right.

[Lawrence]

His.

[Pablo Torre]

His I believe grandmother or great grandmother is Filipino and he just got a kidney transplant. Shout out to Nate Robinson had. He was looking openly, please, I need a kidney. And I believe he would now be healthy enough and would qualify for Asian for the Asian team.

[Lawrence]

Nice.

[Pablo Torre]

So I would like him.

[James]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm just. I'm just gming the squad right now.

[Lawrence]

You're race drafting.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, exactly. I would look if it was up to me, I would love to see a race war just straight up.

[Lawrence]

Hey, hang on.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Give it some time.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, but I. Yes. White versus Black versus Asian versus, you know, Spanish speaking.

[James]

Sure.

[Pablo Torre]

Europe, everything else.

[Lawrence]

Where are we putting the Serbians?

[Pablo Torre]

It's a great question.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

It's a great question. Yeah. Could we get. Could we get the former Yugoslavia to just be its own squad?

[James]

Sure.

[Lawrence]

Do you think the NBA, with the All Star Game and like incorporating Mr. Beast and LaMelo, they're like trying to get win the youth viewership as like a knee jerk reaction to the fucking ratings being such dog this year.

[Pablo Torre]

So the NBA has this like gift and a curse. The gift is that it's actually really popular in ways that are clearly authentic to the digital. Whatever. I sound old talking about the digital generation. But like young people love consuming NBA shit online. What they don't like doing is watching games.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And so there's this problem where the thing that you used to get money from which was just games, your product is not. Where the most valuable demographic available that you do have is. Is active in any way. And so yeah, when they're. The Mr. Beast thing. I, Jimmy, the other Jimmy, it just feels beneath the NBA.

[James]

No shit, Pablo.

[Pablo Torre]

But, but you go to enough of these meetings, these like conferences and like it's the dream to get Mr. Beast.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

To bless your event.

[James]

He's the Pope for real.

[Pablo Torre]

And so all, all I want to remind the NBA of is that you guys suck. Just pretend like you're still cool.

[Lawrence]

Mr. Beast will give whatever team gets, you know, ratings of 98. We'll give him $10 million. For real.

[Pablo Torre]

So I, I didn't, I didn't love it obviously. I thought it was beneath a sport that is. Yeah. Swimming actually in cultural relevance. Other than that, what do you think.

[Lawrence]

Is the reason why ratings are down? Is it that the players are just too good now and it's just like so routine. It's like basket. Is it just players shooting threes? Is it the fact that the final two minutes takes 20 minutes.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

To play out a lot of suspects in the murder mystery. I would say two things. Number one, the games during the regular season just don't feel important. The NFL by contrast, everything is, is like. It feels like it's life or death. And it's also one.

[Lawrence]

It is.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And sometimes it almost.

[James]

That'll bite you later.

[Pablo Torre]

But for me, like I, I think you want scarcity of, of the event that you're trying to draw people to. That helps. The NBA has 82 of these things. It's way too many. And then parallel to it, it feels like the players, because they're being medically load managed because otherwise they just know that the playoffs are a whole. They're a season on. Playoffs are two and a half months long.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So they're saving themselves. And so you're asking people to care about this stuff more than the actual competitors.

[James]

Yeah. Right.

[Pablo Torre]

And in the NFL that's just not an issue. And so the solution is probably to Cut it down to 66 games started in, you know, on Christmas Day. Let it, let it be its own thing that the NFL is not sort of like breathing down the neck of let that wrap up. But yeah, I think that the problem with that solution is just that that requires you to have fewer games, which means less money, and so the basic math on it will never work out. So more Mr.

[James]

Beast, do you think? Just real.

[Lawrence]

More Beast.

[James]

Just putting a bow on this. Do you think that Adam Silver's job is even remotely in jeopardy?

[Pablo Torre]

No, because he just tripled the value of the NBA's media rights deal.

[James]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

He, it's, it's a remarkable thing to basically be that successful while also that anxious about being cool enough.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

And so it's, it's, it's, again, it's a good problem to have. But when it comes to every like, it's sports is funny to me because only during, I mean, fuck, ESPN's a big reason for this. Only on all sports television channels and at certain like celebrity events does everybody even get the sense that they're in the same like business like the NBA and the NHL and the NFL and Major League Baseball. Like, they don't really have a lot in common other than the technical fact that they are sports and the Trump voters and also that. But when you get them in the same room or you're forced to reckon with, okay, what's the pecking order here?

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Then you're like, oh shit. Well, the NBA feels like it's a distant, distant second or third, honestly, behind the NFL and college football.

[James]

Oh, true.

[Pablo Torre]

I mean television ratings for college football. College football is the second most popular sport in America and it's not close Right. By ratings. And so the NBA feels its insecurity whenever. Yeah. You have to measure yourself against these other things. Even if you've just tripled billion dollar deal. You have.

[Lawrence]

Do you think we should implement North Korean basketball rules?

[James]

What are those, James?

[Lawrence]

It's like a 25 foot hoop. Like, it's like a 10 pointer. I think a block is worth some points and I think like a missed free throw is like, you duck points.

[James]

I'm sold.

[Lawrence]

I think there's like no fouls allowed in the last two minutes or something like that.

[Pablo Torre]

That's a good episode of my show. Honestly.

[James]

Do you get murdered if you lose? Yeah, that's tight.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, you do. You get launch into space.

[Pablo Torre]

Dennis Robbins, the Commissioner.

[James]

Yeah, it's Mr. Beast Games. But in real life. Life.

[Pablo Torre]

But also like, so the rules of like playing.

[Lawrence]

Can I Just. Okay, so slam dunks are worth three points.

[Pablo Torre]

Great.

[Lawrence]

If you swish a three, it's worth four. If you miss a free throw, you lose a point.

[James]

That's awesome.

[Lawrence]

Field goals in the last three seconds are worth eight points. And ties are allowed, which. That's. That's weird. I don't know about ties.

[James]

I love deduction, dude.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

Or around the horn rules, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes, I'm in. Yeah.

[James]

I'm so sold. 100.

[Lawrence]

They should, they should, they should integrate slam ball the game with trampolines where they had to end it because some guy lost a foot. A lavaro.

[Pablo Torre]

Is that what happened?

[Lawrence]

I don't know. Maybe public needs.

[James]

I know, dude. You're just getting free game here, bro.

[Pablo Torre]

Losing a foot feels like. Traditionally, that's lambo. Traditionally that's like diabetes.

[Lawrence]

So like they had a warehouse. They had a warehouse. I think they filmed the whole season over the course, like three days. Right. And I think some guy's foot got caught in like the in between trampoline part and it just got torn off.

[James]

Oh, no, not slam. Slam ball. Limbo, dude.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, you know.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes, yes.

[James]

Prayers up for the, for the boss of the balls, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, I.

[Lawrence]

Those big ball brand shoes were not it.

[James]

No ankle support.

[Pablo Torre]

So. Okay, so North Korean basketball rules.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

As long as whoever. The current autocrat presumably still Kim Jong Un. As long as he plays.

[Lawrence]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

Like playing against a dictator. In those video. You've seen like the videos of like Vladimir Putin playing hockey. I just want that to be part of the dynamic.

[Lawrence]

And if you beat him, you get to be dictator for a day.

[Pablo Torre]

But if you try to beat him, you also will get a sniper.

[Lawrence]

His snipers on the roof.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[Lawrence]

It's like watching Justin Bieber play hockey where everyone just like, oh, also you.

[Pablo Torre]

Remember that video of Obama playing basketball? Yeah.

[James]

He was big Hooper.

[Pablo Torre]

But as much as I love Barack. Right. There's. You can get. When you play pickup with somebody whose importance is so outsized compared to everybody else, you get a version of this.

[James]

Get the drones on standby, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

Come on.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, we talked to. When we were talking to Brian Greenberg of How to Make It America, he was talking about playing pickup ball against Leo's, the, the Posse, Clooney, Leo, all these guys, Toby Maguire. And he's like, like, yeah, these guys like they get there and like, yeah, we're ready to play ball. And they ran like a three man weave and like they were so used to like guys like just being so deferential that they then they just got blown out and they were so pissed.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

That, like, Brian Greenberg at his squad that grew up, like, playing basketball. New York actually, like, knew how to ball.

[Pablo Torre]

Brian Greenberg's like, dunking on Richard Kine.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

Well, it's the, it's the hardwood version of yes Men. Right. Like, it's not, it's not real.

[Pablo Torre]

So I played pickup once with Manny Pacquiao.

[James]

Oh, okay.

[Pablo Torre]

And this was a version of that. It was in a pre fight training camp. I was doing a story on him for ESPN at the time. And yeah, he does his catapult three pointer. He'll do insane 360s in the lane on layups he had. It's a very Filipino style. Honestly, as much as it's ridiculous, it's like I. I know this is a style I am familiar with.

[James]

Jordan Clarkson, Jalen Green, etc. Manny Pacquiao.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. But with the added component of everybody, like, being. It's like the reason I was there doing it was because I was embedded in the entourage with 40 Filipino dudes.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So I have no idea if Manny ever even knew that I was a journalist at any point. You're just a guy, any of this. But playing against him, it's like, don't. Don't let him fall on your foot. Don't play defense. Like, let him have a clear path.

[Lawrence]

Don't box him out because they'll think you're being gay and then knock you out.

[Pablo Torre]

By the way, Manny Pacquiao's political platform has been one of the bigger bummers.

[Lawrence]

Yeah. How do you feel about that as a. As the goated Filipino athlete, he now is a fucking bigot, or always has been, I guess.

[Pablo Torre]

He is absolutely tight with the Philippine zone autocrat as well. He's also unfortunately and inconveniently an actual senator.

[Lawrence]

Oh, that's right.

[Pablo Torre]

So it's not merely man, Senator Pacquiao, this guy has bad takes. It's. This guy is like one of the most powerful people in the country passing bad policy.

[Lawrence]

He's like the Herschel Walker of the.

[Pablo Torre]

Philippines passing bad policy. But not the ball.

[James]

Right, right, right.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, he's a ball hog. He loves jacking shots.

[James]

Yeah. He's taking 360 layups in the lane, dude. He ain't passing the rock, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

But, man, if you give me a month, a highlight reel montage of Manny Pacquiao knocking out, like, the greatest Mexican fighters of their generation. The Mexicutioner. Yeah, Give me the Mexican highlights.

[Lawrence]

Is he the goat? Filipino athlete, personally. Okay. You separate the art from the artist.

[James]

Yeah, yeah. Of course, when it comes to YouTube.

[Lawrence]

Highlights, the Mexican, it's either Manny Pacquiao or that one guy that sings Creed really well.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, there are a lot of guys who sing Creed really well.

[Lawrence]

What's your. You're famously Filipino. What's your go to karaoke song?

[Pablo Torre]

Total clips of the heart.

[James]

Oh, banger. Dude.

[Lawrence]

Do you do the Will Ferrell version or you do it straight up?

[Pablo Torre]

I do it straight up because I have an appreciation for the way that the Bonnie Tyler would say. Yeah, Bonnie Tyler. For the way the chef intended. But. But Filipino karaoke is also an episode that I am like, oh, yeah. Like, why is it. Why are we so good?

[James]

Why is water wet? Dude. Yeah. Why is the sky blue? Yeah. More Filipino question since we're just kind of jumping around here. What's Pablo Torres take on jolly?

[Pablo Torre]

Be the best.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

What's your order?

[Pablo Torre]

So the spaghetti has sugar in it and fried chicken, so I'm getting that. That. But I'm also getting them. I mean, the mango pie is the greatest dessert in fast food. Like, I can make an argument for the spaghetti and the empanada, dude. It's. It's in.

[Lawrence]

In.

[Pablo Torre]

In a Mortal Kombat tournament of fast food desserts. The jollibee mango pie is fatalitying everything else.

[James]

It's finishing so good.

[Lawrence]

Even the apple pie. Apple strudel.

[Pablo Torre]

I love the McDonald's apple pie with the mango pie. A jollibee is. Is an improvement on that.

[James]

Yeah. It's more fried and better filling.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. But the spaghetti is great.

[James]

Spicy chicken.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, I'll do that.

[James]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

But for me, like, the fact that you got to go to Port Authority to eat that.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

Or you guys, there's one in Brooklyn on Kings highway that will deliver to.

[Pablo Torre]

Right, right, right, right.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

The greatest Filipino food in New York City, obviously. Queens and then Jersey City.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Which is.

[James]

There's jollibee in Jersey City. Shocking.

[Lawrence]

Do you eat the. Do you like the duck fetus dish? What's that called?

[Pablo Torre]

Balut.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

You with it?

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, I do. They had, like, a bullet eating contest at a Filipino, like, street fair last year, and I think there was, like, some, like, oh, we're gonna make, like, viral videos of people, like, you know, trying this. Yeah. And it was just people, like, casually eating it and like, oh, it's delicious.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Like, this is just. This is.

[Lawrence]

This is good. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, it is. It is, though, Eating a duck abortion, so.

[Lawrence]

Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[James]

A little zygote for the. For a treat.

[Lawrence]

Adobo abobo, as they call it, they don't call it that. Speaking of Manny Pacquiao being a big. And also. Manny, if you're listening, please don't kill me.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, yeah.

[Lawrence]

What do you think from like the WNBA salaries and Caitlyn Clark making like pennies on what she do does for the league to the fellas at inside the NBA losing their job soon. What's the most egregious injustice in sports right now?

[Pablo Torre]

Ooh. Ooh. I kind of still think it's the max contract.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So in the NBA, and this is true of, of I guess sports in general, but it's a world in which the greatest players cannot make what they actually deserve.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

Because it's convenient to ownership, but also it's convenient for like the rest of the athletes who are their colleagues. This is now getting into like some union analysis.

[James]

No, I was going to say, right.

[Pablo Torre]

This association probably there's a middle class that benefits when LeBron James can't make his full value of $100 million or whatever it is a year.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

And so the, the basically the artificial restriction on LeBron means that everybody else.

[James]

Can make the governor on his salary and just throw max in the title there and everyone's satisfied.

[Pablo Torre]

Right. But the other second injustice is the fact that we're all still pretending like Caitlin Clark isn't like actually.

[Lawrence]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

The greatest gift to women's basketball.

[James]

Totally.

[Pablo Torre]

There's and by the way, there's great delicacy on this topic because you don't want to say what came before her was invaluable because of course it is. And she has contemporaries who are excellent and they're self evident. Asia Wilson down, down the line. But Caitlyn Clark, when it just comes to like who are we tuning in to see the fact that Caitlin Clark is in fact on a rookie contract and the WNBA's own rookie wage scale making $80,000.

[James]

Right. But bringing 36 million, they said to the league, to Indiana, whatever.

[Lawrence]

How you're not wearing a WNBA T shirt, Pablo.

[Pablo Torre]

So Andrew Co has made. Yes.

[James]

Oh wow. You passed the buck quick, dude.

[Lawrence]

Making a decent wage. How about that? Yeah. Why aren't you one size via bootleg?

[Pablo Torre]

The revenue.

[James]

Let's knock her down a peg.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Anyway, but look, I, I for me like WNBA is legitimately it's a really fun product.

[Lawrence]

I just Ellie the elephant with a telfar bag.

[Pablo Torre]

So Ellie the elephant is I, I've seen Ali grind on people that would not appre that in any other context.

[Lawrence]

Did you twerk on Eric Adams? Am I making that up.

[Pablo Torre]

That feels like a thing that happened.

[Lawrence]

It feels like a Hideki Matsui porn.

[Pablo Torre]

Big girl that when it comes to, like the, the. The catching up that we're doing in terms of the business of women's basketball. Yeah. I think you can agree that, yes, WNBA is a great product without Caitlin Clark, but also the fact that she is there and is the son of this universe. Yeah. She probably deserves a lot more than she's already getting.

[James]

The son and the daughter.

[Lawrence]

Absolutely.

[James]

Universe.

[Lawrence]

I mean, she's a star, Right. She's gonna be around for a minute. Let's hope. I don't know. Do you have a. Do you have like a white whale of someone in the sports world that you want to have on the podcast or do a story on or. Or just like spend time with and dig into their story?

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, absolutely. So the person that I think, like, I just want to know what I want to do. Okay. Is ask LeBron James for a series of extemporaneous book reports. Okay.

[Lawrence]

Oh, you don't think he's not a real reader.

[James]

No. Come on, dude.

[Lawrence]

He's not a real page.

[Pablo Torre]

He's not good at pretending that he's a reader.

[James]

He's a terror. He's terrible.

[Pablo Torre]

All of those photos are like, anybody knows? If you're pretending that you read the book, you got to, like, have it dog eared towards the middle. And LeBron's walking around like he just started them. Which in its own way is an honesty that I appreciate.

[Lawrence]

Right.

[James]

It's more, you know, starting.

[Lawrence]

Starting books can be hard. Starting anything is hard start. Like you got to get into.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, sure, sure.

[Lawrence]

You're telling me you don't have any books that have been on your nightstand for like months that you're like, if.

[Pablo Torre]

LeBron James wants to join the Infinite Jest book club and finally read that shit, I am here for it.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

But I would genuinely, like. I think LeBron is so controlled.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

In his image that any way to like, get. I have interviewed him before. Not for the podcast, but I remember I interviewed him for ESPN and I interviewed him after a Lakers practice, I believe. Or maybe it was when the Cavs were visiting la. I forget if he had already gone to the Lakers, but he threw the basketball like 40ft off the wall in the practice gym, let it bounce in front of him, and then Tomahawk dunked it and then walked over to me and was like, yeah, I can read.

[Lawrence]

How come you didn't ask him then?

[Pablo Torre]

Because I believe I was on an assignment for a magazine story. Not about this.

[Lawrence]

Okay, okay. But you didn't want to, like, up the rapport, up the vibe.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, yeah. I re. I had five minutes with LeBron and I regret. I don't even remember what I asked him, so I regret not following my own instincts.

[James]

It's literally like a Twitter prompt. It's like five minutes with LeBron or like a hundred thousand dollars.

[Lawrence]

You don't get. Do you get starstruck anymore?

[Pablo Torre]

That. So that moment when LeBron dunked it and walked over was the most starstruck I've ever been. But in general, like, my nerve endings are pretty numb, pretty fried.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

When's the last time you guys felt starstruck?

[Lawrence]

Ooh, good question.

[James]

I feel like I'm on the show again.

[Lawrence]

This wasn't the last time I was starstruck, but I do remember this is that I was once going to a Knicks game and I got into an elevator with John Starks, and I. That was like, whoa. Like, what do I say or do right now? But I don't know. I mean, in. In the capacity of this job. Like, not really.

[James]

We were in fast benders wake when we went to the Louis Vuitton show last summer in Paris. You know, big flex from us. That was cool. He didn't look good. Like, he looked pretty shitty and old, but, like, Fastbender is Fastbender, so I.

[Pablo Torre]

Will say the one. There was a moment when I meas what it means to be famous.

[James]

I was walking Fastbender's penis.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, measuring, that is.

[Lawrence]

Didn't have a ruler big enough. Didn't have a yardstick.

[Pablo Torre]

There was a. There was a time when I was. I was in the wake. I was reminded by you saying in the wake up. I was in the wake of Paul Rudd leaving a concert, and I was walking behind him, and you just overheard a thousand people all say some version of. That's Paul Rudd or Ant Man Man.

[James]

Yeah. Jesus Christ, it's Jason Bourne.

[Pablo Torre]

But.

[Lawrence]

But it was.

[Pablo Torre]

It was like, oh, that's what it. I. I felt like I was. I was like, eavesdropping on, like, that's his life. Yeah. Yeah. It's just. That's the level of just actual fame.

[Lawrence]

Do you get.

[Pablo Torre]

Do you get that my version of fame is the best?

[Lawrence]

What's that?

[Pablo Torre]

It is general. Like, I can eat a sandwich on a park bench like Keanu Reeves and not get photographed.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

That level of comfort.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But then there are enough people who know sports and have watched ESPN where at a restaurant, right. They might treat me a little bit better.

[Lawrence]

Yo, that. Yo, that young soccer player's here. But he looks like.

[Pablo Torre]

He looks. He looks like he's very active.

[James]

Who's this Chinese guy with the Mexican name? I look at the reservation.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, but it's a very.

[Pablo Torre]

It's also, like, historically, like, you know.

[Lawrence]

Do you get, like. Do you get, like, good sports? Do you get, like, good seats at games and. Or is that against your journalistic take Integrity? My.

[Pablo Torre]

The. The seats I get at games are when I'm with friends who are actually famous.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

And I'm their plus one most famous friend. The person who I suckle at the teeto of most when it comes to courtside seats is Jason Sudeikis.

[James]

Okay.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

Who is a friend who has been taking me to all of these things. And yeah, it's. It's.

[James]

Could you get him on the show? Like our show? Not. I don't give a.

[Pablo Torre]

About it. Yeah, okay, okay.

[James]

We'll have you maybe.

[Lawrence]

Don't worry, we'll make fun of his sneakers too much.

[James]

Yeah, that's right. He loves Jordans with the suit, dude.

[Lawrence]

Let.

[Pablo Torre]

Let me review the transc. Of your show and then connect you to.

[Lawrence]

Well, okay, going back to the last time you were like, quote unquote, starstruck when LeBron James committed a superhuman feat of athleticism and mind body connection. What was it like going through puberty with a father who you once described as the LeBron James of Filipino urologists?

[Pablo Torre]

What a distinction I grew up playing in the way that I think any normal kid would with, like, the stuff that your dad has around the house and these sort of like, medical devices that I would unknowingly like, use to like, pick up, like, dinosaurs and like, GI Joes.

[James]

I hope you cleaned them first.

[Pablo Torre]

Were. Were urological.

[James]

Wow.

[Pablo Torre]

Devices.

[Lawrence]

So. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So, I mean, crazy. Genuinely grew up with the least possible anxiety around the penis.

[James]

Right?

[Pablo Torre]

Because this was.

[Lawrence]

Because.

[Pablo Torre]

Because as. As I believe David Foster Wallace said, this is water, right? Penis. Like, we're all. Yeah. What's the.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, real meat beater over here.

[James]

I can't wait till Harvard asks you back to deliver your this is penis address.

[Lawrence]

Does that make you. If he's LeBron James, does that make you the brawny, a Filipino urologist? And if so, how many penises have you mangled? Because he is not good at basketball, man.

[Pablo Torre]

It does remind me there is an athlete who has mangled Filipino penises.

[Lawrence]

What? Oh, Tim Tebow.

[Pablo Torre]

Correct.

[James]

Wow. Dude.

[Pablo Torre]

This is why I listen to you guys show.

[James]

That's right. I forgot that that was his. That was his charitable.

[Pablo Torre]

He was a missionary.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Circumcised.

[Lawrence]

A real. Yeah, real cutter.

[James]

Real sniper.

[Lawrence]

Snipper. Snip gang.

[Pablo Torre]

He, he converted many young Filipinos and their penises. Stole their penis skin. Wow. Wow, wow. So no biggest injustice in sports, was.

[Lawrence]

He better converting Filipinos to Christianity or converting third downs?

[Pablo Torre]

Absolutely the former. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I, yeah, I'm, for most of my career, it has been me trying to explain to my parents I'm not going to be a doctor. Are they ashamed to do the Ronnie.

[James]

Thing, being a podcaster?

[Pablo Torre]

They, they were concerned for me until I think there was enough very superficial public recognition from people they knew because they're not, not die hard sports fans. Right. My dad certainly, like, is responsible for why I grew up, like in the Yankees and, and watching basketball, but they're not like reading or swimming in sports tanks.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, right.

[Pablo Torre]

So when they got a sense that this was actually a real career, it was because of espn, frankly. And then they were like, yes. Being on mute in a sports bar.

[James]

Hell yeah. At three.

[Lawrence]

That's my son. That's my son mouthing.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

The American Dre.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

It's why they came to this country.

[James]

Yeah. Every just fucking regular. Is the guy being like, why is this Chinese guy have a Mexican name? Because they can't hear you speaking English on mute.

[Pablo Torre]

Correct.

[Lawrence]

Yeah. Oh, is badminton on. Ping pong. Table table tennis.

[James]

Sorry.

[Lawrence]

Speaking of the American dream, speaking of espn, do you think that Stephen A. Smith has a future in politics?

[Pablo Torre]

He does. And I, I have, I, man, I, I, I have made jokes on my show about how it's going to be Stephen A and Hunter Biden on a ticket together.

[James]

Fingers crossed. Y. You have my vote.

[Lawrence]

And, and, But Stephen A is anti marijuana.

[Pablo Torre]

Correct.

[Lawrence]

Or was. I don't know what he, he's pretty straight.

[James]

He's pretty straight laced.

[Pablo Torre]

I feel like he has been friends with Sean Hannity for many, many moons. He is not discernibly a Democrat in any way, by the way, which is maybe an asset.

[James]

He's an Eric Adams Democrat.

[Lawrence]

He did go to fashion school.

[James]

Yeah. F I.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right.

[Lawrence]

Isn't it crazy that even the fashion school fit?

[James]

Let's get to the bottom of that.

[Pablo Torre]

Stephen A. On the show. Yes.

[Lawrence]

Oh, we, yes.

[James]

We've been, we've been trying through our boy Bailey who does social media.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right. So forever. So part of my whole amusement at Stephen A started with, I just want to see him at a debate. Yeah. Obviously, I have various criticisms of, like, Stephen A's Actual takes. But the guy who said about the New York jets gangrene, that's an insult to gangs. I want, I want on the debate stage.

[James]

He's putting 10,000 hours. He could cry.

[Lawrence]

Do you agree with his takes on Big Booty Latinas?

[Pablo Torre]

As I believe he said on the record quote, I'm a bottom feeder.

[James]

Yes. That's my. That is my fucking president, ladies and gentlemen.

[Lawrence]

Single issue voter over here eats ass.

[Pablo Torre]

So Stephen A. Just unleashed in the way that you want. Like, like, again, it's like when. When Godzilla is attacking your country. Like, can we get our own monster, right, to fight that? Yeah. Ideally, I would like eventually a president who is, you know, not graded on the criteria of are you enough of a monster to defeat the other monsters.

[James]

Are you Meca Godzilla?

[Pablo Torre]

Are you Mechagodzilla? But Stephen A. Is also somebody who I've learned a lot from.

[Lawrence]

Really. What's the best.

[James]

We all have.

[Lawrence]

What's the best lesson he's taught you?

[Pablo Torre]

His. His mastery of. Of silence.

[Lawrence]

Oh, oh, we could learn something to do.

[James]

Speaks volumes.

[Pablo Torre]

Some say on live television. Time feels like it's passing by so quickly. The confidence it takes to say Carmelo Anthony, 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi, 4 Mississippi is bad. It's like that's. That's a master. That's a master of the master at work. So for all of the reasons that Stephen A. Was, you know, raised in the darkness, born in and molded by it. Like, yeah, you want to give takes. Here is. Here is our gladiator. Yes, I would like to see that. Even though, again, like, I always just think of that Darren Revelle tweet, which is a sentence that is a disturbing one. I. I feel bad for our country, but this is tremendous content. Like, yeah, I want that. That for that reason, Stephen A. Yes. Go be president.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

It's also horrifying for all of the reasons having to do with. I don't even know how much he knows about politics in general.

[Lawrence]

So do you think he's running?

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, okay. I do.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

I do. The Stephen A. Super PAC is going to be crazy, by the way.

[James]

That's a.

[Lawrence]

That's a big tent.

[Pablo Torre]

Absolutely.

[James]

He's beloved by a lot of powerful people.

[Pablo Torre]

A big tent full of, like, big jeans. Like the, The.

[James]

The.

[Pablo Torre]

The older generation of guys that, like, text step, like his sources, like, he's.

[Lawrence]

Got the unk vote on lock.

[Pablo Torre]

It's a remarkable thing.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

And we're all invited to the.

[Lawrence]

The Michael Jordan jeans platform.

[Pablo Torre]

The most. So speaking of all of this, the most Star Trek I've ever been was when I met Steve Harvey.

[James]

Oh my God. Tell us about that interaction.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, please.

[Pablo Torre]

So the greatest moment of my life was when I went on Celebrity Family Feud.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

And I don't know if I'm skipping ahead, so forgive me if this was a thing. You have any curiosity.

[James]

We're flexible, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

But when I think about what Steve Harvey wore that day, it is associated with the happiest day arguably of my life. With all apologies to my wife and child.

[Lawrence]

Him.

[James]

But, but them kid.

[Pablo Torre]

But Steve Harvey wore a metallic like almost military green brown tie shirt jacket. You know, in the way that this felt like, like, like again, it wasn't quite Hunger Games, but it was kind of like, I hope there's a planet in the Dune universe where this man is the one who greets you when you descend from your spaceship.

[Lawrence]

He sounds like Gaddafi ruling Gaddafi Corp. Yeah, so.

[Pablo Torre]

So Steve Harvey shaking his hand and then just being on episode of Family Feud was the most out of body I've ever felt.

[Lawrence]

How are his Howard's teeth? How are the veneers gleaming?

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Inspirational. The torch that the staff that the Statue of Liberty holds should be replaced.

[Lawrence]

You kind of feel like you're talking to just a giant hamburger.

[Pablo Torre]

Nobody as like dictates, nobody has made me feel more like I've climbed inside of a television.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

Than when talking to the aforementioned glorious.

[James]

You met the wizard of Oz.

[Pablo Torre]

Correct.

[Lawrence]

How do you do on Family Feud.

[Pablo Torre]

I, I. Not to, not to just, just brag about the greatest day of my life, but you're talking to the owner of the all time record for largest comeback in the history of Celebrity Family.

[James]

Wow. Okay. Congratulations. So.

[Pablo Torre]

Okay, thank you.

[Lawrence]

You also moment.

[James]

You also are the record holder of the most points ever on around the Horn. Correct.

[Pablo Torre]

I believe it's the opposite.

[James]

The most points, second most. According to Wikipedia, you have the most points ever awarded in the second most ever deductible locked in. Does that track?

[Pablo Torre]

I, I think it's mostly that I, I used to predict every year that a 16 seed would be the 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, it's gonna hit once. And the year that it happened, Uva.

[Lawrence]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

It was UMBC beating Uva and I picked the wrong 16 seed. And so I got, I believe the most negative points are the second most in the history.

[James]

And you also have the third most in terms of records.

[Pablo Torre]

That tracks. Yeah, that tracks facts.

[Lawrence]

Do you think, you know, talking about Stephen A's takes. Talk about, I don't know, just takes in general like, do you think that take culture and sports media. We've. We've hit our peak where people are just saying that's as outrageous as possible to go viral.

[James]

16.

[Pablo Torre]

She's gonna be the one seed this year.

[James]

As you wear UVA.

[Pablo Torre]

As. As somebody who is. Who. Who resembles the problem. Who has been accused of resembling. Well, look, at a certain point, it originated to peeking around the horn in its original days. Like these were veteran newspaper columnists who worked for decades in order to earn the right to give a take on television. The barrier for entry obviously is low enough for absolutely everybody to start a channel and to say whatever they want. And so again, democratization, Internet, I am not whatever. It's. It's all good. Cool. Let us all compete against each other in an all out take war. But I do feel like part of the whole premise of my show is that that undervalued at this point is the very basic concept of are you finding out anything new? Because we are regurgitating largely everybody's. We're. It's a human centipede of takes.

[James]

There's no new take.

[Lawrence]

Bottom feeders abound.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

I mean, the worst part of the human centipede, obviously the front last.

[James]

The caboose.

[Lawrence]

No, you're at the front. You have no ass to eat.

[James]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

I think it's the middle.

[James]

Oh, because.

[Pablo Torre]

Because you're eating someone else's.

[James]

And then you go.

[Pablo Torre]

And you're shitting in someone else's mouth.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And if they're fighting it, if the caboose is fighting.

[James]

Oh, I see what you're saying.

[Pablo Torre]

Every in and out, it's a struggle. At least the caboose has the relief of just unencumbered. Excellent.

[James]

Wow, great point. You should be on tv.

[Lawrence]

How's Zen?

[James]

You did earn it.

[Pablo Torre]

This is a take I've been waiting to unleash on somebody.

[James]

This is going in the description.

[Pablo Torre]

But all we are is, you know, we're a snake eating our own tail. So in of just like, how do you break through? Like, truly, like, you need to be an artisan like Stephen A. Yeah. Who is theatrically the best to ever do it. Or you have to be. You know, again, with all due respect to my colleague who I. Who I genuinely enjoy encountering in the world, but like Kendrick Perkins, I'm like, big perk. Like a perk. All I. What I mostly want is like stories from, you know, like, tell me about what you did. But beyond that. So when Kendrick Perkins said, says the leader on the Oklahoma City Thunder, when it was Kevin Durant and James Harden and Russell Westbrook was me. Kendrick Perkins. Like, I want. I will. I will.

[James]

Leaves that, though, in his own deluded mind.

[Pablo Torre]

Absolutely.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

So I love that.

[Pablo Torre]

And I love that he does.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But like, that is. That's something that's grounded in your lived, firsthand, primary source experience on something.

[James]

Oh, you like that? That's what you want from him.

[Pablo Torre]

I like it because at the very.

[Lawrence]

Least, you want the war stories.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm not saying that professional athletes can't give takes like everybody else, but their. Their differentiation is you guys have done things. When you speak with authority on something, you've done it. It is different. So just lean into that. But the more that we're all just competing in a debate tournament.

[Lawrence]

But then why does. Why is Tom Brady so bad at it while KG and Paul Pierce are so good at it?

[Pablo Torre]

Because KG and Paul Pierce, I think, are just naturally likable and they're more drunk.

[James]

At least Paul Pierce is drunk.

[Pablo Torre]

Typically the Paul Pierce poker game or whatever. That was the video.

[Lawrence]

Oh, and went live with the.

[Pablo Torre]

He's getting a massage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That guy vaping. Love that.

[Lawrence]

Incredible.

[James]

That's real. That's also. That's his lived experience. We're talking about the truth.

[Pablo Torre]

But. But Tom Brady, just to make the point, like, Tom Brady is constantly sounding like a person who is imitating a professional broadcaster.

[Lawrence]

He sounds like he's trying to be Romo.

[James]

Yeah. This is Romo's fault. Right. To some degree.

[Pablo Torre]

I think Tony Romo put it in Tom Brady's head that. Yeah. That you. You can be praised as a football genius and for. For. For announcing a game and Tom Brady just doesn't have it.

[Lawrence]

Doesn't have it.

[Pablo Torre]

You don't have.

[Lawrence]

You don't got it another way. Look, in a super crowded ecosystem where everyone's just fight time fighting to cut through the noise. Yes. You can just like manufacture outrageous. Takes another way to go viral. Getting super blazed and going on the Dan LeBatard Show. How. How high were you?

[Pablo Torre]

You'll have to be more specific around which.

[Lawrence]

The most recent one you kind of went viral for. Get la.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

[James]

On your boss's show.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm accused of this semi frequently. If you're asking me have racism.

[Lawrence]

Because I was say that's.

[Pablo Torre]

I think it. I think there's a bit of just. Yeah. Like eyelid. Eyelid bigotry. I would claim that the lights in the clip you're referring to. I think it was.

[Lawrence]

I think very high. Oh, it was pti.

[Pablo Torre]

So I think it was on. I think I was doing PTI from Miami.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

And I had done Dan's show earlier in the day and people were claiming that I was stoned all day.

[Lawrence]

Damn, Chuck, you really me on the.

[Pablo Torre]

If I'm thinking the same clip and maybe there's another. I. I've been again again incredibly Right. Unfortunate.

[Lawrence]

You don't remember. You were stone in your mind.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Out of your brother also. Unfortunately is. Is. Is largely accurate.

[Lawrence]

Okay. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But the lights I think made it seem like I was, you know.

[Lawrence]

Do you ever to up for hitting the camera?

[Pablo Torre]

Have I in the past. Sources close. What's the statute of limitations on this say yes.

[Lawrence]

Sources close.

[Pablo Torre]

My lungs, my other lung.

[Lawrence]

But that, but that's a way to kind of cut through. And you did. Whether or not toking.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

You were it like it surfaced.

[Pablo Torre]

I think, I think that everybody who does professional sports broadcasting should be micro dosing mushrooms.

[James]

Oh, I love that.

[Pablo Torre]

And then just see how it feels.

[James]

Yeah, yeah. Take it from there.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, out cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to Libsyn ads.com that's L I B S Y A ads.com today. That's something the NBA I think has over the NFL is their more relaxed drug policy. Right.

[Pablo Torre]

So the NBA, when it came time to like negotiate the collective baring agreement, they were like, all right, I guess we'll. We'll give you guys what you really want. Like no, more like punishment for weed. Yeah. The secret of that whole decision was the NBA was all. I mean at that point it's just like what a. It was a concession that they didn't even care about anymore. Yeah, it is so it New York. I believe that New York, by the way, is just the most weed friendly city in the world at this point. Honestly, like I've been to. I went to Amsterdam. The restrictions seem to be far more rigorous. Denver, LA No, I mean la, you can't smoke work.

[Lawrence]

You can't smoke and drive.

[Pablo Torre]

The rule.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

But the rule in New York where you can smoke weed wherever you smoke a cigarette.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Is essentially diplomatic immunity for anybody all the time. No other city really has that. In Amsterdam, it's not that way. In la, is not that way. In Seattle, it's not that way. So I say that all to say when it comes to the NBA giving up on something, it's like that was not really a concession. It was just about time.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

I think it's also illegal in Amsterdam to sniff bike seats. And you can definitely do that in New York. They don't go. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But I did, I did do an episode.

[James]

Stephen A.

[Pablo Torre]

Told me that I did. We did an episode once about whether weed could be a ped.

[James]

Oh.

[Pablo Torre]

For basketball players. And so we interviewed Matt Barnes out in la and the stories of what those guys needed to do to evade.

[James]

Oh, wow.

[Pablo Torre]

Capture. There are stories where like the NBA tester would show up and literally watch them pee. Like, watch them pee.

[James]

Like your dad at his. At his place of business.

[Pablo Torre]

Correct.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

A urological level of, of. Of intimacy.

[James]

Rigorousness.

[Lawrence]

Have you ever done a. Pablo Tori finds out on who wants to sex Matumbo.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh man.

[Lawrence]

Rip to the God.

[Pablo Torre]

Rip.

[James]

I. I have your fingers up.

[Pablo Torre]

I have interviewed Kevin Batombo. I had breakfast with him once. I was doing a story about the afterlife of seven footers.

[James]

Oh.

[Pablo Torre]

Like what happens when.

[Lawrence]

Short one.

[Pablo Torre]

So, so the actuarial character art is not encouraging.

[James]

No.

[Pablo Torre]

To our, our, our, our centers.

[James]

Our big fellas.

[Pablo Torre]

To our big fellows. But he also told me that, yeah, you have to get a special toilet made because you know, for his dumps. Yeah, you got to get a higher toilet.

[James]

You got to get a toilet made for a triceratops dude. Or I guess a brontosaurus in this case.

[Lawrence]

What do you. Platform seat.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

He had to get the seat raised. Yeah. Elevated. But also along those same lines, like I, I went to, I went to, to Deer Valley with Mark Eden. RIP. A 7 foot 4 center with the Utah Jazz who's like one of the NBA's all time blocks leaders. And you just get a sense of. I flew with him on the plane, went skiing with him, borrowed ski gear from him.

[Lawrence]

Rough.

[Pablo Torre]

Got a sense of what it feels like to be the most infantilized a person can possibly be. As I'm like not good at skiing. And he's picking me up with one hand and my like nose is snotting.

[James]

I'm like, like it's cradling you.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. So the point being that at every level of. Of existence he was. And every seven footer is being constantly photographed. Yeah.

[James]

Yeah. Just because you're a freak, you're a freak.

[Pablo Torre]

By statistical measures, you're a freak. And so when it comes to what's it like to be in someone's wake, the most jarring one was just hanging out with a seven foot title retired NBA player.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

It sucks as much as it's also absurd and delightful. It is incredibly invasive and lonely despite being surrounded all of the time. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Imagine being that tall and you aren't a Hooper.

[James]

You're worthless.

[Lawrence]

I would really suck.

[James]

You have no value to society.

[Lawrence]

I've talked.

[Pablo Torre]

I've talked to such people.

[Lawrence]

Oh.

[Pablo Torre]

And it's as you describe it is. It is. It is.

[James]

It's a waste of. It's honestly spitting in the face of gun God.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So the statistics we did, we did this, this calculation for the story. I did this for Sports Illustrated many years ago. If you are 7 foot or. Or taller in America, you have an almost 20% chance of being in the NBA.

[James]

That's crazy. One in five. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

That's how rare it is to be a seven footer. And so if you're one of the four other dudes.

[James]

Come on, bro, it's you.

[Pablo Torre]

You are, are obviously being.

[Lawrence]

Can't you be in like practice squad and just like put your hand up.

[Pablo Torre]

Then? They invented that.

[Lawrence]

Oh, the little.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, they invented like a broom with a hand.

[James]

Yeah. They could stand outside of car dealerships and flail around. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So by the way, speaking of the actuarial chart of all of this, like we're talking on the day that Victor Wembanyama was just announced, he's out for the rest of the season.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

He has a blood clot lot in some. I'm just like, I don't know what that injury is.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

It just cut his career short.

[James]

NBA champion Chris Bosch.

[Lawrence]

I've had thrombosis in my main vein. You know what I mean?

[James]

Throb. Excuse me? Throb.

[Lawrence]

Thrombosis. Yeah. Not my shoulder though.

[Pablo Torre]

How did that feel?

[Lawrence]

I'll ask your father about it.

[James]

But real quick. Speaking of main veins, speaking of tall guys, Matt Barnes, Right.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[James]

Getting in a lot of trouble with his fiance, say for.

[Pablo Torre]

So I, I had seen that on social media. An old person's way of saying, I think it was say that it happened. It may have happened. I don't know.

[James]

Well, she's, she's just claiming that he cheated on her in one month with like eight different women. But I wanted to go back to this idea of takes in virality and just throw it out to you. Have you ever thought of doing the Shannon Sharp method to get some more eyeballs on you going live? Beat some cheeks.

[Pablo Torre]

I have been dismayed by how little investigation there has been into the Shannon Sharpe into Ankh.

[Lawrence]

What are you trying to find out?

[Pablo Torre]

Out how many.

[Lawrence]

They found the woman.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, allegedly the lover, the. The paramore. Yes. I. I just want to know truly, how many steps it takes to accidentally go live on Instagram.

[James]

Totally. Yeah. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Two buttons.

[James]

Really? Let's.

[Lawrence]

Okay, you got to open your phone.

[James]

All right. Pablo, get naked.

[Lawrence]

Instagram.

[Pablo Torre]

I'll start moaning.

[Lawrence]

Okay. You go to Instagram, you go to post, and then you hit live. Oh, should. Am I alive? No. Hit a button.

[James]

Yeah, but why would he be on Instagram if he's getting intimate? You could. You should be in your photo app if you're trying to take flicks or vid.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

You know what I am merely suggesting is that inside job. There are. There are incentives. There are incentives, economic and otherwise, to having something like that come out. I'm not saying that he definitely, you know, jet fuel melt steel beams. A sex tape.

[James]

He was knocking down a tower of a different kind.

[Pablo Torre]

Allegedly.

[James]

Yeah, allegedly.

[Pablo Torre]

But I'm. I'm just saying we. We took all this at face value.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

And so have I considered relatedly, self releasing my own audio sex tape?

[James]

Oh, yeah.

[Lawrence]

Just to see.

[Pablo Torre]

Right. You know, just to see if we.

[Lawrence]

Can get some theories.

[James]

Yeah, yeah. That's all.

[Lawrence]

Well, look, you can do that now because you work for a progressive independent company.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right.

[Lawrence]

Not really. Such was the case when you worked at a little outfit up in Bristol, Connecticut called espn, the worldwide leader by Disney at that point.

[Pablo Torre]

Imagine always and forever.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

At this point. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Mickey Bucks, baby. What were the. What was the best part about working for espn and what was the worst part?

[Pablo Torre]

So being worse.

[Lawrence]

You couldn't. Come on. Throwing fits.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right.

[Lawrence]

We were chatting like, I can't, bro.

[James]

I work for. So I will get fired.

[Pablo Torre]

So the distinction was being full time at espn. And I'll. I still do pti.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

And around the horn, but I don't.

[James]

And we love that.

[Pablo Torre]

Allegedly. While I am. Yeah, yeah. Very, very high. But being a full timer at espn, the greatest thing was that you would walk into any Disneyland or Disney world and they would say, hello, cast member. Wow. When you walked in.

[Lawrence]

So you're on the Same level as Goofy.

[Pablo Torre]

Correct, Correct.

[James]

I was rats and goofies.

[Pablo Torre]

I was among my people. I would walk in and it was like me and the guy who, you know is.

[Lawrence]

He plays Gaston, the backup.

[Pablo Torre]

Gaston, right. Yes, the understudy.

[Lawrence]

Was that like. Did you flex on your daughter? You're like, yeah, yeah, welcome to daddy.

[James]

Did she get that big perk?

[Pablo Torre]

Speaking of perks, we haven't broken the seal on Disney. She was too young at that point. But it is I have given you get like.

[Lawrence]

So were you a Disney adult? Is that what I'm getting? You and your wife go to Disney by.

[Pablo Torre]

No, no.

[Lawrence]

Without s kids.

[Pablo Torre]

So. So I would go with my friends who are Disney adults.

[Lawrence]

Oh, you should.

[Pablo Torre]

I would never be.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, no, for sure.

[Pablo Torre]

Not yet, right?

[James]

Dude, I don't like Star Wars. That's for nerds.

[Lawrence]

Did you do the around the World where you like have a drink at every country?

[Pablo Torre]

We did not, but I. I have because of them. I've become familiar with like the whole lore.

[James]

Oh, because of them. Totally.

[Lawrence]

The lore of Disney. The anti Semitism, the frozen head.

[Pablo Torre]

Like 33.

[Lawrence]

What is.

[James]

What's Club 33? Can you. Are you at liberty to disclose?

[Pablo Torre]

Club 33 is a private club, an inner sanctum, if you will, inside of Disneyland, at least in la, that you can only access if you have like been accepted into this tiny group of elites. And so there's a private restaurant, there's a whole little St. James.

[James]

This a little St. James type. There's a lot of kids around. It's Disney World.

[Pablo Torre]

I don't know what happens in Club 33. All I know is that what happens.

[Lawrence]

Stays in Club 33.

[Pablo Torre]

It's a. It's a goal. Yeah. It's the dream of every Disney.

[Lawrence]

You must be this tall.

[James]

33. Speaking of the inner sanctum, when you're at ESPN, who is like the most fun person to like hang out with? Like, who's a good time?

[Lawrence]

Who's the best get a beer with?

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Co worker Jalen Rose.

[James]

Oh, we saw in Vegas at the Super Bowl.

[Pablo Torre]

He's the mayor of any town.

[James]

He fucking rules.

[Lawrence]

He was wearing at a pretty insane fit. His fits are pretty head to toe red, like tracksuit.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

And then like sunglasses.

[Pablo Torre]

Like big aviator sunglasses with hairline, measured with a protractor.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

Spray painted on Carl's boozer style.

[Pablo Torre]

Jaylen. Jaylen would buy lunch multiple times a week for everybody who worked in the seaport. So a deeply generous and knew the value of like a locker room that was well fed.

[James]

Oh, totally.

[Pablo Torre]

Number one but number two, you'd go to like, Toronto for All Star Weekend. And Jalen played for the Raptors at one point. But like, I walked into a restaurant and he was like, behind the bar, like, taking photos. Just like being the, the, the unelected leader of any establishment he walks into.

[James]

He's a great coworker.

[Pablo Torre]

Being good at fame is a skill.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Like, and Charles Barkley might be the best of all time at it in terms of, like, I know I'm being watched. I know people are trying to get photos with me all the time. Time. I know that the women of San Antonio probably hate my guts, but to, to make everybody you encounter feel like they're getting a special private sort of encounter.

[James]

This is like the Bill Murray thing.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[James]

I mean, like, no one's going to believe you. And then he, you know, he just gives you the right, gives you a.

[Pablo Torre]

On the subway and then disappears. Charles Barkley and Jalen Rose are really, really good.

[Lawrence]

You've hung out with Chuck.

[Pablo Torre]

I have, but at All Star Weekend, which is like, you know. So the secret of All Star Weekend being terrible as a television product is that behind the scenes, it's always fun because the entire NBA world, entire basketball business descends on a city.

[James]

A lot of women would agree with you.

[Pablo Torre]

And it's, and it's, I mean, there is some, by the way, like the, the time that they did All Star Weekend in Las Vegas, I would go to, I was not there, but I would go cover fights, like boxing stuff in years since. And all the cab drivers would talk about All Star Weekend in Vegas. Like they're a medieval peasant that watched a dragon burn down. They would be horrified and tell these tales of, like, how all. So the point being that it's a giant party. It's nicknamed Black Thanksgiving. Like, that's the, the other name for it, historically. It's, it's a, it's a, it's the stuff that happens after the event.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

And in that setting. Setting, you can hang out with Charles Barkley and he will make you feel like you are very important.

[Lawrence]

You ever hit a buffet with Chuck? It's got to be pretty.

[James]

I, I, San Antonio style.

[Pablo Torre]

I have, I have not. But I did have in Vegas an all time buffet experience, just in general. Well, so I, So a friend of mine is this guy, Jeff Ma, a fellow Asian elite. Jeff Ma is otherwise known as the actual Asian guy. Guy who was on the MIT blackjack team. Okay. That inspired the movie and the book, Bringing down the House.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And so Jeff is banned from Playing blackjack.

[James]

Every casino.

[Pablo Torre]

Every casino. But what he can do is, like, apparently sit next to me and just tell me what to do.

[James]

Oh, wow.

[Pablo Torre]

So we did that.

[James]

Seems like a overlooked loophole.

[Pablo Torre]

It looked. I was worried. I was worried and not sure that this would actually result in me leaving.

[James]

Maybe casino's just racist and they think he's just another Asian guy.

[Pablo Torre]

So. Speaking of that, though, what happens is it turns out like in Vegas at these casinos in the back, back, back rooms, there are Chinese buffets that are catering to the ultra wealthy whales.

[James]

Wow.

[Pablo Torre]

And all we had to do was walk in and be Asian, right?

[Lawrence]

Nobody.

[Pablo Torre]

And nobody.

[Lawrence]

Yo, yo, yo. That's a whale. That's a whale. Yeah, that's checked out.

[Pablo Torre]

I think Jeff may have, like, held a bunch of cash in his hand. I just like, followed nervously riding the.

[James]

Wake, as we've said. But you of the whale.

[Pablo Torre]

A through line in this episode is me just following people who are more influential.

[Lawrence]

Chinese generally famous.

[Pablo Torre]

And there is a secret high end Chinese buffet that's open like 24 hours.

[James]

That sounds like dream.

[Pablo Torre]

You survey this and it's just like sleeping Chinese millionaires in suits just like.

[James]

Scattered getting up, taking a little quick breather before hitting the tables.

[Pablo Torre]

And the buffet isn't incredible.

[James]

Dude, that's.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

Yo, we need to. Next time we're in Vegas. Well, I'll follow you and we'll see if we can pull this off.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, I'll pull Lawrence from spilling beer into the roulette wheel.

[James]

We had a good time, which happened. But we were also macro dosing mushrooms because it was helping our gambling.

[Lawrence]

So, you know, just watching Tick Tocks. Like, wait, no, I think we're supposed to go up the middle here.

[James]

Just menaces.

[Lawrence]

You ever hit the. You ever hit a strippy with any NBA players? Because that's got to be quite an experience.

[Pablo Torre]

I have not.

[James]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

I have not. Not.

[Lawrence]

That's like seeing, you know, Michelangelo paint the Sissing Chapel.

[Pablo Torre]

There is a whole David Edinburgh aspect. Honestly, I'm just like, seeing. This is why you.

[James]

This is what you studied, bro.

[Pablo Torre]

But I have been, you know, I haven't been to a strip club with an NBA player, but I have been in Miami at like, a nightclub watching Dante Culpepper.

[Lawrence]

Oh, my God.

[Pablo Torre]

Just make the rounds, dude.

[Lawrence]

So you just, like, notice, like, Dante Culpepper.

[Pablo Torre]

This is not a story in which you feel better for Dante.

[James]

2K, whatever.

[Lawrence]

Is this a contest? Like, like, this happened recently or this was like, in. When he was in the league?

[Pablo Torre]

No, this was retired Dante Culpepper.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Maybe five or six years ago he.

[Lawrence]

Was working as a busboy or it.

[Pablo Torre]

Was confusing why he was. Why we were perpetually encountering Dante Culpepper.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

But it was just like he's the.

[James]

Boogeyman of where Miami.

[Pablo Torre]

It felt absent him being actually lost and looking for his friends. Which maybe that happened. It just felt like it's where you go as a retired athlete to feel like you're still in the game.

[James]

You're still on the COVID of NFL 2K. Whatever. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[Lawrence]

Damn. Is there has Dante Culpepper making the rounds, clearing tables at 11. Is that like the saddest you've seen a retired player? Because for us it's. Who do we see? We saw Rick Flair just comose at a steakhouse in Chicago just like he sadly shoveling steak. And oh, his drink of choice was a red wine and Red Bull.

[James]

The Italian car bomb.

[Lawrence]

Italian carbon bomb. And then anytime someone asks for a photo he'd perk up, be like woo. And then go back to just like drooling and putting.

[James]

I had a different read on it. He seemed quite content.

[Lawrence]

He seemed very.

[James]

It's not completely.

[Lawrence]

Very sad and very brain dead.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So I have two stories that that reminds me of. One is learning that Marshawn lynch used to drink a shot of his own design. That was called Patronacy. And it's what you imagine it to be. Patrona. That's sort of the recipe pretty good.

[Lawrence]

Should trademark that.

[James]

The Brown Hulk.

[Lawrence]

We want to find something out. Who is the bigger dude. Leva. Tony Kornheiser. Michael Wilbon.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, Tony Kornheiser. I invited him to my wedding.

[James]

Oh.

[Pablo Torre]

He agreed to come.

[James]

Uncle Tony.

[Pablo Torre]

And he did show up.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

And what he said was I'm going to leave at 9:30.

[Lawrence]

Awesome.

[Pablo Torre]

And he left at 9:29.

[James]

Wow.

[Lawrence]

A man of his word.

[Pablo Torre]

So the. The best. Like he's my personal goat.

[Lawrence]

What did he get off the registry?

[James]

Oh yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

I don't think he got us anything. He got us present. You got us his presence.

[James]

Yeah. And did he.

[Pablo Torre]

He wore black tie. He wore. He was a black tie event.

[James]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Very, very fancy. And he showed up. No. And he shook me and my wife's hands, gave us a hug and left.

[James]

And that's not Irish exiting because he told you.

[Pablo Torre]

Correct. That's just a straight up Tony Kornheiser exit. Which is I told you I was leaving and I'm leaving.

[James]

That's awesome.

[Lawrence]

Bye.

[James]

Shout out your. Shout out your goat. And a lot of People's go, Tony.

[Lawrence]

Hey. He has a year. I don't know if he got married within the last year, but he has a year to get you a wedding present, which I think you got married like eight years ago or something.

[Pablo Torre]

So I will text him.

[Lawrence]

The clock is ticking.

[James]

That's incredible.

[Lawrence]

What's something about Tony Rally that might surprise people?

[Pablo Torre]

Ooh. Tony Rally wore black leather pants to my wedding.

[James]

What? That's the most Italian I've ever heard of. Italian black tie is leather.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh. Oh. He. And. And no one. He was the MVP of the wedding reception.

[Lawrence]

How so?

[Pablo Torre]

Because he was dancing with every woman. Woman over the age of 50.

[James]

Oh, dude, perfect Italian man.

[Lawrence]

Does he have a type? And is it milk?

[James]

A woman over 50. A Filipino woman over 50.

[Pablo Torre]

The type is anybody who can match his energy level, which turns out to be the woman who's holding the iPad filming my wedding. Wow.

[Lawrence]

Wait, you hired an iPad to film your wedding?

[James]

Oh, someone wielding an iPad. Come on, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

By hire, I think it's more accurate to say welcomed my mom's friend who I didn't know.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

Who was taping the whole thing.

[James]

They say you get married for your parents. It's for your parents.

[Pablo Torre]

There are a lot of older Filipino people that I was very glad to have at the event that I did not.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

Quite.

[Lawrence]

What did he wear to accompany the. To match the leather pants? What was his top?

[Pablo Torre]

Up top. It was like standard black tie leather.

[Lawrence]

Pants, but it's kind of a. A black tie mullet.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[Lawrence]

Party down below.

[James]

The Tony Reali. Definitely difference.

[Pablo Torre]

The black tie. Stadn island mullet. Yes.

[James]

Sh. Reali.

[Lawrence]

Dude. Pablo, we got to ask you. In your lifetime, in your lifetime, you're. We're all about the same age here. What's your Mount Rushmore of sports. Sports moments that you've witnessed?

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, in person.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

L. Let's. I think. I think I can go in person because.

[Lawrence]

Okay, I. I've seen a bunch. You've seen it all.

[Pablo Torre]

So linsanity at the Garden 30th. The Garden. Number one. Number two. I was at so. So game seven. Warriors Cavs. Oh, it's the block.

[Lawrence]

Wow.

[Pablo Torre]

It's all that I had. Absolutely crazy. Eating a number of blueberry chocolate covered edibles. Incredible. Witnessing that block, witnessing LeBron James play that game. Game while high, was one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

[James]

That's awesome, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

I transcended this mortal coil.

[Lawrence]

Do you watch it on TV and replay and you're just like, it's not as good not high.

[Pablo Torre]

It's hard to replicate the feeling. Yeah. Of. Of that must have been communing with the basketball.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, yeah. It was an out of body.

[James]

Yeah. You'll never get that serotonin back, brother.

[Pablo Torre]

It was just like sometimes when you feel so the through line there, by the way, is that the linsanity thing in that. When it feels like the. That the main character in the story is you.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

Where it's like this is about me. Like I get to. The universe is orienting itself, bending itself towards my entertainment and pleasure. The opposite. But also I think on the Mount Rushmore of personal sports experiences was I covered the World cup in Brazil for espn. One of those trips where the global security. The Disney global security people put you into a meeting and they're like, here's a video. Watch this video, video. And it's a video off of YouTube or something where someone gets shot in an ATM. They're like, don't go to the ATMs.

[Lawrence]

Produced by James Dolan.

[Pablo Torre]

So you get like a whole. You get like a personal security, like GPS device, like a panic button, a tracker. They made us do all that. At some point. I went to a hotel. It was like 11 cities. I went to a hotel and in the backyard there was a jaguar in a cage. It's like pacing back and forth without like a discernible zookeeper.

[James]

Was it the Qatar World Cup?

[Pablo Torre]

Qatar has. Yeah. To clear the Brazil standard.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

More.

[James]

More people killed, more people making it, you know, putting it together, at least as far as we know.

[Pablo Torre]

Alleged, allegedly the bone sawing of the region. But the. The event that I went to at the World cup in Brazil was Germany 7, Brazil 1.

[James]

I. Oh no.

[Pablo Torre]

So watching that in Brazil, in Sao Paul was. Look, I didn't have a horse in that race, but. Holy.

[James]

That's crazy. That's an all time beat down out.

[Pablo Torre]

Of body in the opposite.

[Lawrence]

You could like, you could pick out the Nazis that fled to Brazil in the crowd. Just like the old guys cheering for Germany. Right?

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, I believe that the. The Argentinians who came across the border to enjoy that one. It was a bit conspicuous.

[James]

Your Argentinian girlfriend has a. Any German grandparents? You might want to double check the 23 of me, my friend.

[Lawrence]

That's three. Is that three or four?

[Pablo Torre]

That was three and then four. Honestly, I'll give it to the NBA All Star Game in Toronto. I just saw when I watched the. The Zach Levine, Aaron Gordon Duncan.

[James]

Oh yeah, classic dude.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm like, that's. That's to me, the Greatest dunk contest of my conscious professional life. But in there, the worst, by the way, a bonus worst thing I ever attended.

[Lawrence]

Sure.

[James]

Let's go.

[Pablo Torre]

Was as a fan when I went to game five of the. Of the World Series Series when Judge dropped it. Yeah. I bought Step up tickets for a lot of money.

[Lawrence]

That was.

[Pablo Torre]

And. And rode the roller coaster of oh my God, it's all. Again, I'm the protagonist of this. Everybody's coming in. Everybody is coming in. In the clutch.

[Lawrence]

We had. We had some hope.

[Pablo Torre]

It was incredible. And then. And then Aaron Judge drops it and then all sorts of things happen that make you feel like you're being waterboarded.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And that sucked.

[James]

That sucked. And you spent your own money on that. It wasn't I may or assignment because.

[Pablo Torre]

You know who threw out the first pitch? James Nolan, arguably the greatest pornography collector on planet Earth.

[Lawrence]

Oh, Hideki.

[James]

Wow.

[Pablo Torre]

That's why part of why I went was to try and just.

[Lawrence]

Is that. Is that the best perk of the job is that you can expense going to watch sports?

[Pablo Torre]

Absolutely.

[Lawrence]

You could expense like you're like red zone and like MSG package.

[Pablo Torre]

Part of, part of beyond that. Part of what my job actually is is to like follow my curiosities. And so plausibly.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm curious about. Quite a bit curious about dinner weed improve my performance.

[James]

We're gonna. Pablo's gonna find out.

[Pablo Torre]

We did. We did an episode where we taste tested athlete weed brands.

[Lawrence]

Oh yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

With Katie Nolan and Dan Soder. Gary Payton, the Glove.

[James]

Gary Payton smoking out of the glove packs. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

The gold standard.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But we absolutely expensed all of those strains. Magic Johnstone. We expensed that, that, that Mike Tyson strain.

[James]

Oh, the Knockout strain.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. We.

[Lawrence]

That where the gummies are in the shape of ears.

[Pablo Torre]

Right. Yeah, we didn't do the gummies because that was. Yeah, that was too much. But the. Yeah, the Wii was okay.

[James]

All right.

[Pablo Torre]

It wasn't as. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Quite. Sports movies. What's on your mountain? Rushmore Sports movies. Cinema.

[Pablo Torre]

I mean to be a like a Criterion Collection snob.

[James]

Let's go, baby. That's why I here like Raging Bull.

[Pablo Torre]

Like cinematography, black and white. Dairo Peshy. Yes. Just like violence depicted artistically.

[James]

Domestic violence also. Yeah. I mean. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[James]

He was a. He was a rager. A fuel rager.

[Pablo Torre]

Correct. I think I'm going again. The critics pick. I'm going Raging Bull. But the movie that I, I still. That I. By the way, Field of Dreams. I never obviously I never really got him. Are you guys, you guys have genuine nostalgia for.

[James]

No, no, it's. I like the natural.

[Lawrence]

I thought the. The field of dreams field that they.

[James]

Yes.

[Lawrence]

Played a game. And that was cool.

[James]

That was awesome.

[Pablo Torre]

We did an episode with Mike Sher who attempted to create a field of dream series for Hulu in which he rebuilt an entire baseball field in Iowa.

[Lawrence]

Did they come? Did they Matsui come?

[James]

If you build it, they will bust. Did he get picked up? Did the series get picked up?

[Pablo Torre]

This. The show was canceled in production.

[James]

No.

[Pablo Torre]

But there is this field that just exists. This like high end baseball field.

[James]

But that's not where they play the field of Dreams game at.

[Pablo Torre]

Correct difference.

[James]

So there's two there.

[Pablo Torre]

There are two fields at Iowa, presumably that are.

[Lawrence]

I'd rather watch Angels in the outfield than Field of Dreams.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. I. I like to me my nostalgia like rookie of the year.

[James]

I enjoy we're of that age.

[Lawrence]

What's his name? Gary Busey, baby.

[James]

Wait, is beauty Rookie of the year.

[Lawrence]

As a kid who pitches for the Cubsy plays rocket. Oh, you're the grizzled veteran that.

[Pablo Torre]

You're right.

[Lawrence]

May or may not have the kid's mom, who turns out was the actual goat pitcher. It wasn't his dad.

[Pablo Torre]

Damn.

[Lawrence]

It's like that real riddle, yo. Dad takes his son to the hospital and the surgeon goes, I can't operate on him. He's my son. Oh, the mother was the surgeon.

[James]

Paulatory found that one out.

[Pablo Torre]

She was standing on a block of ice.

[Lawrence]

The mother was the picture.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Murder weapon was an icicle. Yeah.

[James]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

God.

[James]

What other movies you're missing of? I think a one that this pod would agree goes on this list. It takes place in Miami. It is a football movie. And they scratch and they claw for every inch.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, I mean, look, any given Sunday.

[Lawrence]

Someone'S eyeball pops out the Lawrence Taylor.

[Pablo Torre]

I appreciate that. So one of my favorite things an athlete has ever said retired or. Or. Or active was when Ray Lewis gave a speech that culminated in how football games prevented, quote, what we call crime.

[James]

A murderer said that Alleged.

[Pablo Torre]

But when. When. When you meet enough football players, you realize that there is like a Shakespearean drama that they are waiting. A monologue. They are wait. They're all waiting to deliver football players Specifically. Yes, because they. Because. Because they might plausibly die.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

Booby don't lift Counterpoint. Marvin Harrison, man. A few words. Also an alleged murderer.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm not gonna weigh in on that.

[Lawrence]

The Alpacino speech. In any given Sunday, if you. If you're at the afters, you do Lynn into that. Oh, my goodness. Altimer.

[Pablo Torre]

The inches we need are everywhere around us. Hideki Matsui knows how to get those inches.

[Lawrence]

Oh, yes.

[James]

Matsui just like Willie beaming. Keeps him creaming, dude.

[Lawrence]

Yeah. All right. Is that on your Mount Rushmore?

[Pablo Torre]

We got Rookie Sunday's on there.

[Lawrence]

Any given Sunday.

[Pablo Torre]

Raging Bull.

[Lawrence]

Raging Bull. Do.

[Pablo Torre]

How did Cool Runnings age?

[James]

I don't know. Probably pretty well based on a true story. Is it?

[Pablo Torre]

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

[Lawrence]

There's the Swiss flines. Money Ducks.

[James]

Oh.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh. So D2, Rudy.

[Lawrence]

So D2.

[James]

D2.

[Lawrence]

Knuckle puck, baby.

[Pablo Torre]

D2 caused me to buy rollerblades.

[James]

Wow.

[Lawrence]

You know everyone with the Lithuania 92 tie dyers.

[Pablo Torre]

Grateful Dead.

[Lawrence]

What about the Trinidad and tobago jerseys in D2?

[James]

Those are flames. Sick.

[Pablo Torre]

Sick. Yes.

[James]

Is that Greenland? Iceland? Is that that 1D2 or that Greenland?

[Pablo Torre]

Lots of ice.

[Lawrence]

Let's go shake the Hans.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[James]

Great villains.

[Pablo Torre]

But Keenan Thompson, like, who. Who. Whomst among us did not try to shoot a knuckle puck.

[James]

Oh, come on, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

And then realize this physics.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Doesn't quite add up.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But D2 might be. I think D2 is the movie that left the biggest imprint on me at the time.

[James]

You and a generation of people for sure.

[Pablo Torre]

Woo.

[Lawrence]

Woo, Kenny.

[Pablo Torre]

Woo.

[Lawrence]

Woo, Kenny. Woo, bro.

[Pablo Torre]

Hell yeah.

[Lawrence]

The Bash Brothers.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes. Dean Portman.

[Lawrence]

Who's that?

[Pablo Torre]

One of the. One of the Bash Brothers. Portman. Julie the Cat Gaffney.

[Lawrence]

Gaffney.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Hans the.

[James]

Where are they? In the Cor.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes. His. His Nordic.

[Lawrence]

Who the Was that guy?

[Pablo Torre]

Coach Guy who had a twin brother. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

He's just sharpening blades up in Finland.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yep.

[James]

Will Deep.

[Lawrence]

Pablo, do you consume barstool sports content on.

[Pablo Torre]

On social. I do. I pay attention.

[Lawrence]

What do actual sports journalists think of Dave Portnoy?

[Pablo Torre]

I think he is a terrifying figure who can summon an army.

[James]

Yeah. To weaponizing the boost.

[Pablo Torre]

A meme coin to attack your friends. To weigh in. Like, I think that in the way that, like. And this is a compliment, honestly. Like, I think of him the way I think of Trump, which is. He's really compulsively watchable.

[James]

Yeah. Facts.

[Pablo Torre]

You guys worked there, right?

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

What's yours? So what's.

[James]

He's a more normal guy in person.

[Lawrence]

Well, this was also like. This was also like seven years ago. You know, he's definitely maybe turned the corner.

[James]

Let the record reflect.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, sure. Maybe. Maybe five years ago.

[James]

But I'm saying, like, but who's counting?

[Lawrence]

Yeah. You know, this is before barstool, I think really cultural force. That.

[Pablo Torre]

It.

[Lawrence]

That it is now. And that he has become, like, the cult personality and, like, personality that he is now.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

So I don't know what he's like now. We don't know what he's like now.

[James]

Yeah. Richer.

[Pablo Torre]

He's definitely richer.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Look, I think that with him, he.

[Lawrence]

Has sex like Craig Bijio.

[James]

That's right. Stance. My man was stanced up like this.

[Lawrence]

You know, just it. Shannon sharping his way like Craig.

[James]

Yeah. He. He pulled an unk on that one.

[Pablo Torre]

I. I think she is, like, he's living in the right era.

[James]

Yes. Oh, he was born in the right era, for sure.

[Pablo Torre]

Like, everything that I see him getting into, I'm like, yes. He would be good at that. He would be good at crypto sports gambling, creating reality television.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Out of a crew of. Otherwise, like, in a different era.

[James]

Oh, for sure.

[Pablo Torre]

What Barcelo's figured out is what I think everybody is trying to do, which is how do you get people to consume your. Because they're invested in you as a character. So you can go and create a contest in which you guys are, you know, shooting free throws for 24 hours, but because you're invested in these characters, you want. So, look, I. The strategy of, like, what he's built, I respect. Yeah. The stuff he actually chooses to weigh in on and support and attack. I'm like, not for me, right? Yeah, not for me. And at the same time, I also understand that, like.

[Lawrence]

Like, it's entertainment.

[James]

It's professional wrestling.

[Pablo Torre]

So what he's figured out, again, in the Trump way, I'm like, look, have I watched more pizza reviews than my politics would suggest? Absolutely.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

There was a morbid curiosity to, like, what is this? Why am I enjoying this despite everything else I know about this guy?

[James]

He puts asses in seats and slices and gullets, man. He saved how many small businesses.

[Pablo Torre]

Look, I'm not. I'm not even gonna fact check whatever he's doing. I'm just saying, like, I. I will click and then hopefully seek some sort of spiritual atonement on a podcast with two his former employees.

[James]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

As you have. Are you. Are you yourself. Are you good at sports, or are you 100 nerd?

[Pablo Torre]

I am probably 90% nerd.

[Lawrence]

Okay. Did you play any. Do you play anything at Regis?

[Pablo Torre]

I retired in eighth grade after playing CYO basketball. Catholic Youth Organization. Basketball. I was the captain of a varsity sport in. In high school.

[James]

The varsity team.

[Pablo Torre]

Debate team. Oh, that's right. New York State champ. Debaters. New York State champions.

[James]

You had a, like, A letterman jacket for that.

[Pablo Torre]

We did not. Although I did call our. Our debate coach. Coach.

[James]

Nice.

[Pablo Torre]

And I still do to this day.

[James]

That's cool.

[Lawrence]

They don't. They haven't made any movies about debate teams, have they? I guess like Stand and Deliver.

[James]

I don't know.

[Pablo Torre]

I think there's room for there. The culture of.

[Lawrence]

What about a spelling beat movie? That'd be sick.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, have there been a good doc. There's been a good.

[Lawrence]

I think there's. I think there's been a 30 for 30 on that as a 30 for 30s mid RO.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes, that's right.

[James]

A Pablo Tor joint.

[Lawrence]

Yeah. What's it like to have a. A movie, a documentary called Broke, named for your work?

[James]

Yeah, bro, that's another L for you.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. So Billy Corbin, who directed that, who's also done Cocaine Cowboys.

[Lawrence]

You and he's.

[Pablo Torre]

He's amazing.

[Lawrence]

A sunny place for shady people.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right. The first time I went, I joined espn. The first. First thing I worked on was broke. The story I did for Sports Illustrated was I think the most popular story on SI.com, which spoke less to my like, journalistic revelations. Although maybe you could argue there were some. It was mostly that people wanted to click on this shit.

[James]

You put a guy in jail, dude, you're a snitch. He deserved it.

[Pablo Torre]

I hope that guy does not listen to the show. Oh, he does.

[James]

He hates you.

[Pablo Torre]

I hope he's not out of jail. He probably.

[James]

Yeah, I wonder. It was a felony conviction, right?

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. So this guy who ran this company, Trade and Financial. The reporting in the story, like, resulted in him going to prison because he was scamming athletes.

[Lawrence]

You don't keep tabs.

[Pablo Torre]

Among others.

[James]

Yeah. You got. Is your number one op dude or you're his.

[Pablo Torre]

I've been. I've been mis. Ranking my ops.

[Lawrence]

Yeah. Who's your. Who was formerly your number one up before this guy that's going to come kill you.

[Pablo Torre]

So it was Vivek ramaswamy. Oh, yeah. Mr.

[James]

Pick Me Loser. Himself.

[Pablo Torre]

Himself. Speaking. Just somebody who is trying to be a real American while also occasionally revealing that he mostly condescends and has no respect for the audience that he's cultivating.

[Lawrence]

When you were classmates with him at Harvard, was he wearing oversized shoes then to give a false impression that he has a giant. Giant.

[James]

A hammer.

[Pablo Torre]

I wasn't paying attention so much to the shoes. I was paying attention to the way that he would raise his hand in class, which was. Was in the shape of a V. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

What should.

[Pablo Torre]

Like, can you. It Was like. It was like the. It was like a.

[Lawrence]

Was it for like the Vex turn?

[James]

That's personal branding.

[Lawrence]

Something to say.

[Pablo Torre]

He was that.

[Lawrence]

But why do you bully his ass?

[Pablo Torre]

He was. He what? So Vivek Rabiswami, beyond being a guy who in college was rapping. He a rap.

[Lawrence]

All rapping.

[Pablo Torre]

He was definitely rapping. Yeah, but he was. He. He. It was. His alter ego was called De. So when you see that video of him, you know, rapping Eminem at. At the Iowa Caucus or whatever, like, it came from a place of years and years and years of doing that.

[Lawrence]

What a loser.

[James]

So you must be loving the public downfall as.

[Pablo Torre]

As much as I can, while also recognizing that he's only become more influential.

[James]

Okay. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So him getting, like, basically defenestrated out of the. The White House administration and now like, running for governor in Ohio, I have enjoyed. Because the whole thing he did with the H1B visa stuff, which is a brief recap, was simply that he accidentally revealed his true feelings.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And he was like, American culture worships the quarterback in the Prom King. And he said one of the most insane things a politician has ever, which is that we didn't respect Urkel enough.

[James]

Yeah, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

We were a nation of Stefan. Stefan Urkel stands didn't save by. He. You know, again, he also totally misread what Boy Meets World was about.

[James]

He did perjure himself, though, as like a no pussy getting nerd, which you can't do. No one wants to have a beer with that guy. You. We want to fucking give that guy a swirly. We don't want to fucking buy. Buy him a beer.

[Pablo Torre]

And for those reasons, he was kicked.

[Lawrence]

Out of the current no losers allowed in the White House.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Because he went. He went against. I mean, again, as much as he's now, like, showing up at sporting events conspicuously courtside, shaking hands, like, the guy sitting said publicly that we care too much about sports in America. Yeah. And we need more immigrants to be good at math and science, which again, I get. But also, you are one of these people, is the real you.

[Lawrence]

You don't say that. You don't say that when you're.

[James]

Come on, dog.

[Lawrence]

Did you ever hung out, hang out with Zuck?

[Pablo Torre]

I was the 199th person to join Facebook.

[James]

Congrats.

[Lawrence]

If you vote on that. When it was a hot or not thing, did you vote?

[James]

Oh, yeah, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

No. But Priscilla. Women. Yes. And one of the women who I respect. Respected. I haven't talked to her in forever, was his wife, Priscilla Chan. Who lived in my freshman dorm.

[Lawrence]

Oh.

[Pablo Torre]

Which is why I joined. And the only reason I know I was 199 was because the URL for your profile was the number you joined the site back when there were, like, 500 people.

[Lawrence]

Who are you and Zuck? Eskimo bros. I mean, sick pick.

[James]

Hey, yo.

[Pablo Torre]

Confidently. The answer is no. Okay.

[Lawrence]

Okay. You wrote. While at Harvard, you wrote your thesis on child murderers. You must have been very fun at parties.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, yeah. I was waiting. I was waiting for you guys to bring up my thesis.

[Lawrence]

What was more painful, researching the murder of children or the fits at Harvard?

[Pablo Torre]

There was. There was a point during the Harvard, like, academic calendar where before finals, everyone would go streaking.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So when you mentioned, like, fits, like, the most notable thing about, like, wardrobe was that everybody. Most everybody. I didn't. There are no photos of this, just in case you were wondering.

[Lawrence]

Although you are very comfortable on the penis, correct?

[Pablo Torre]

Correct. No, no, no.

[James]

Grew up at all. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Right. But it would be all the Harvard students. Yeah. Street freaking throwing off their clothes and then all of the tourists photographing them.

[Lawrence]

That sounds illegal.

[Pablo Torre]

You would. You would think so.

[James]

Sounds like something Hideki Matsui would love.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

His genre. His favorite genre of porn is just new bile streets. Harvard streakers before finals.

[James]

So you don't remember the. The. The quality or lack thereof of the fits?

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, no.

[James]

You know, you're thinking of the complete lack thereof.

[Pablo Torre]

But in terms of, like, fashion, like, I did. So I grew up again, again, like, all boys, Catholic school, all scholarship school, nerd school in New York City. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

But also, you grew up as a city kid. Right.

[Pablo Torre]

And so when I got to listen.

[Lawrence]

To rap, like, being in the cultural center of the world.

[James]

Rap bastard. With James.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So when I. When I got a taste of, which I didn't really know before, was what it meant to be, like, an elite wasp. So these, like, private final clubs, the social clubs at Harvard. Like, when I remember, I was in a creative writing class with somebody who was, I believe, on a lacrosse team. And I had no idea what these clubs were, but he punched me for them, which is to say he brought me into one of these events. Like, the look, the most lax.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But by look, literally, look most Lacrosse.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Do one of these, bro.

[Pablo Torre]

Heavy finals.

[Lawrence]

Cover your drink.

[Pablo Torre]

I just remember encountering. Oh, like, like, these kids all went to boarding school.

[James]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

This is. This is what. And so that whole, like, you know, again, I've since become genuinely, like, interested and impressed in some ways by, like, the whole, like, the take Ivy sort Of like.

[James]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

You know like it's the.

[Lawrence]

It's the Winkle bosses.

[James]

Yeah. The Winklev I.

[Pablo Torre]

One of the. One of the first people I interviewed as a sports writer at Harvard was the Winklevi. Because they were heavyweight crew. Yes.

[Lawrence]

Like what was it like to.

[Pablo Torre]

I like my instinct instincts for where their lives would go were clearly not good enough. I was just like. I think the story I wrote was like about how their crew team was the greatest generation in like college crew. They were like really good.

[James]

They didn't even medal at the Olympics when they represented the United States.

[Pablo Torre]

Is that right?

[Lawrence]

Also I was saying they it at that whatever the. The Gallant or whatever in the UK.

[James]

I was gonna say how accurate. How accurate is the Social Network my favorite movie. Exactly.

[Lawrence]

It's a documentary.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

It's true. It is spiritually.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

It's the most perfect film.

[Lawrence]

I'm a creep.

[James]

That's only in the trailer. It's only in the trailer. You're talking about the Henley Regatta is when they. They lose to. It's the. It's the fast. It's the closest race I've ever seen.

[Lawrence]

We lost to Jamaica.

[James]

Yes. Call back.

[Pablo Torre]

I love so I love that movie. Various boring inaccuracies but the they get it right. Yeah.

[James]

Is there a problem?

[Lawrence]

They caught the vibe on on in Crime Bridge.

[Pablo Torre]

They I believe I believe that again what. What the Facebook was really about which was a deeply power hungry and spectral would be, you know, captain of industry.

[Lawrence]

No Getting.

[Pablo Torre]

Not getting enough and creating a site that would allow such things things and then getting into a blood feud with the people he founded the company with that that I mean directionally they got all of that pretty much dead on.

[James]

Let me leave you with the best piece of advice you're going to get in the show. The Pablo Torre show. Drop the. It's cleaner.

[Lawrence]

Yes. Well look obviously you. Your sense of fashion did not necessarily was. It wasn't percolating at Harvard per se or maybe it was percolating but our mutual hunger homie. And your producer Rob.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh YC yeah.

[Lawrence]

He clued us in on your Cookie Monster as Bodhi Cardigan. When did. When did that become. What was the process of making that your signature piece on the show?

[Pablo Torre]

So I needed something that could. That I could interview like the executive of a billion dollar franchise wearing. I could do do that also just leave in the closet like Mr. Rogers change into when I walk into the office. And so Lawrence has seen this.

[James]

Yes, I have.

[Pablo Torre]

I take it out of the closet, I put it on and.

[James]

No, that's we're looking at, we're trying to find the price point so we can embarrass you publicly.

[Pablo Torre]

It's I, Rob.

[Lawrence]

Rob has betrayed him on your every man.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Real Mr. Rogers Media is gentrifying the neighborhood for why. Yeah, I've, I've.

[Lawrence]

But so this is, this is, do you, is it like your cape, Is.

[James]

It like your Superman cape security blanket or Superman cape? Because you know, the price point, it's.

[Pablo Torre]

A security blanket more than anything else. It's also something that allows me to like think less. I, I, I, I'm genuinely curious. I, I had this thought coming over here, like, how much time? So again, the Zuckerberg thing, right?

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Wearing jeans and a T shirt.

[James]

Fuck you, flip flops.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, but like you have to prod at the cleaners.

[Pablo Torre]

But like that whole thing of paralysis by analysis, like he's cut out. This is the Silicon Valley thing, you guys. I imagine with the time when it comes to calculating the time you've spent on an every. So how long does it take?

[James]

It's innate.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, but that time would have otherwise been spent fucking gooning out like Hideti. So it's like. And versus getting the creative neurons firing. Right. Thinking about like, it's like Zach Galifianakis or you know that gift where it's like all the, you know, hangover. It's like literally the dozens, if not hundreds of articles of clothing that we could put on. Like creating the singular permutation that only works for this exact and only moment in space and time.

[James]

That's why you're always getting high, dude. Time wasted is not wasted time.

[Lawrence]

So it is.

[Pablo Torre]

So in other words, for me, like having a very expensive blue cardigan that can sort of plausibly be worn with any vaguely white black or gray T shirt underneath. I'm like, this helps me. But yeah, please don't Google how expensive that is.

[Lawrence]

No, definitely not. What about like, gotta ask you this, obviously, you're a Fitzman. You're ball nowhere. It feels like the current intersection of sports and fashion has both simultaneously never felt more prevalent, but also more seemingly forced.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[James]

Transactional.

[Lawrence]

How do you feel about like tunnel fit and, and collaborations and like all that. All that.

[Pablo Torre]

So I have two big takes about this. One is that I miss, I miss Pat Riley on a sideline.

[James]

Oh, in the Armani and the good.

[Pablo Torre]

George, like just go back and see what he was wearing.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

He was sponsored by Giorgio Armani.

[Pablo Torre]

So the first of the first of.

[Lawrence]

Its kind, I believe.

[Pablo Torre]

So the fact that we have all of these guys wearing quarter zips.

[Lawrence]

Careful now.

[Pablo Torre]

Beyond, beyond, beyond the specific, specific uniformity of it.

[Lawrence]

This is Margaret Howell.

[James]

As if that means anything.

[Pablo Torre]

What I. What I miss is fashion as an expression of personality.

[James]

Deion Sanders, Pat Riley, you're making.

[Pablo Torre]

Again, to the whole point. You're making a choice.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And so Pat Riley is saying something about himself. How these guys look at Hubie Brown. Okay. How that guy used to dress. He was avant garde in the 70s.

[James]

Like Steve Harvey was avant garde.

[Pablo Torre]

But like you, I. Some of the stuff these guys used to wear would be startling because now you. We don't get a sense of who these guys really are.

[James]

Right.

[Lawrence]

And so it's like, hey, this is how much money I make.

[Pablo Torre]

I. I think that the. A coach who dresses in any way with adventurousness. I want to know. I want to. I want to know which. I want to know who. Who in the NBA coaching fraternity might plausibly listen to this podcast.

[James]

I don't know all of them. Only the champ, only champions.

[Lawrence]

Yeah. Maybe an assistant coach.

[Pablo Torre]

But the other thing I was going to ask you guys this. Do you judge a player? Do you think differently if you know that a player has a stylist?

[Lawrence]

I mean, I. I think we respect any. Any celebrity that. And I think it definitely shows when they. When whether for better, for worse, they are dressing themselves.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Versus just like having a. Styles big. Hey, put this on. When it's like Travis Kelce. That's the other thing is like, now that. I mean, there was this tweet, but I talked about it at. Who's like the. The Buffalo Bills receiver that came in wearing like, animal.

[James]

Stefan Diggs.

[Lawrence]

No, no, he's the guy that goes barefoot.

[Pablo Torre]

He went to Carolina. Matt Collins.

[Lawrence]

Yeah. And I was like, does he have to go home wearing that Muppet mask? And someone said that about Travis Kelsey, where it's like, I know he feels like an. Going home in that glittery red disco suit. The mirror suit.

[Pablo Torre]

Right.

[Lawrence]

So I think, like, I don't want to speak for Lawrence, but I think that if an athlete or celebrity dresses themselves and does a decent job of it, it at least shows personal expression style a lot more than just what clearly having a stylist being like, hey, here, you know, this brand paid you to wear this. Put this on for me.

[James]

For me, it's easy because there's only one. 1 real Fitzman in the world of sports. And that is what I would imagine will be. Not to jinx it. Future NBA mvp sga.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. So I Was trying to Google this. Does Shed Gilders Alexander have a style?

[James]

He definitely has someone who helps him with the shopping element, though I have no doubt he loves to shop. You just don't have the time. So they will help you with like. And a guy like Rocky or, you know, I'm sure Tyler even to some extent. Maybe not so much Tyler because he really seems like he cares so much. But if you don't have the time, someone's going to help you with the style. Style out. Give you some photos.

[Pablo Torre]

Absolutely.

[James]

There was just a great article in GQ today about how Rocky kind of did this with his stylist, our friend Matthew Henson, for his trial. Where it's like, yo, I got bigger going on. But like, you know, I'm not gonna look bad.

[Pablo Torre]

Right.

[Lawrence]

And it's still the difference between like wearing something and being. And being told to wear something is like, you still make it your own. Even if the style is like, yo, here's like the four things you got to wear. You can still like, judge this and fuss with that and make it your. Make it your own.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[Lawrence]

Accessorize.

[Pablo Torre]

I like to think that Kyle Kuzma chose that sweater.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[James]

The raft J.

[Pablo Torre]

You know what I'm talking about? The sweater.

[James]

The, the, the sleeves.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[James]

The uncircumcised sweater.

[Pablo Torre]

Tebo.

[James]

Imagine Tebow got his hands on that sweater with a scissor.

[Lawrence]

You need like those prop scissors they like do ribbon cutting ceremonies with.

[James]

We might have to bring in your dad for a job that big. Dude.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, my God. Yeah. So look, I, I to me, we are at an all time. It's just obvious that, that when it.

[Lawrence]

Comes, it's also, it's also money.

[Pablo Torre]

Right.

[Lawrence]

There's money at stake here where it's like the inter. Integrating various aspects and pillars of culture into one another. There can now be like partnerships and synergies and bottom lines padded out.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. And they're like, architecturally they are the perfect billboards. The perfect skeletons to wear what feels like. Yeah. The most expensive clothes in the world.

[Lawrence]

Unless they're too tall.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Or unless they're too. So unless they're built because like a six foot two point guard will look good. A fucking six five and above.

[James]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Doesn't work.

[Pablo Torre]

So I did, So I did a 30 for 30 short film about this store called Friedman's in Atlanta. And it's the shoe store where every NBA player would get their shoes because they carried the only store in the world in America, at least they carried 13 to like 25 and so it was this place where every NBA player on a road trip to play the Hawks would stop by and so Shaq and like. But the point being that you got.

[James]

To kill a whole crocodile or alligator for one shoe type.

[Pablo Torre]

Genuinely. Like, this was a store, a family owned story that must have been the national leader in just yardage of crocodile skit.

[James]

The worldwide leader. Yes, yes.

[Lawrence]

Guess the real crocodile hunter.

[Pablo Torre]

To, To, To. To. To make the point though, that at a certain height, it's actively inconvenient to get stuff.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, you got to go custom.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

But no, we're living at an all time. We're. We're living during peak sports fashion when it comes to the player and the tunnel stuff. My only concern is how synthetic it does.

[James]

It already is.

[Pablo Torre]

It's all about expressing personality. Like if you, if you.

[James]

It's a branding exis now. It's a shame, shame.

[Pablo Torre]

But that's. Is this. Is this just spawn con is always the thought I have, like, yes, it is like a truly viral tweet anymore. Like, because it's monetized.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Like, the only true tweets that impress me because of their virality are the ones that are not.

[Lawrence]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

Monetized.

[Lawrence]

Well, the first two things you got to ask are, is this AI. Is what. Is this staged? John Rocker, Patrick Poem Senior. Like, that's so obvious.

[Pablo Torre]

You staged, by the way, Drake throwing.

[Lawrence]

The slide at a drone. So I was like immediately staged.

[James]

Do you think that was staged?

[Lawrence]

You can see the drone operator in the reflection of the mirror.

[James]

God damn it. I fell for it. God damn it. Big scorpion got me again.

[Pablo Torre]

But the idea that Patrick Mahomes dad and John Rocker would then go fight in a barstool sanctioned boxing.

[Lawrence]

I mean, that's kind of awesome.

[James]

They kind of killed that though, literally.

[Pablo Torre]

What happened?

[James]

They? No, I'm saying they. They killed.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, they. They like sold the hell out of it, man.

[Lawrence]

I got my friend a John Rocker cameo and tried to bait him so badly and he did not take the bait.

[Pablo Torre]

I. I bought a friend a George Santos cameo and nothing has aged poorly more quickly.

[James]

Just like that cost more or less than the Bod Cardigan.

[Pablo Torre]

Less.

[James]

Speaking of things that are going to age poorly.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, but just like the novelty was over within five minutes of receiving it. Right? Just like, oh, I am the problem.

[James]

Yeah. Actually, the fleeting nature of the cameo as gift to some extent, you know, speak of cost.

[Lawrence]

How much money do you make, Pablo?

[James]

There we go.

[Pablo Torre]

I make good money.

[Lawrence]

How many bod cardigans can you Buy in a year.

[Pablo Torre]

So I own three of them.

[Lawrence]

Wow.

[Pablo Torre]

No, I have, I have, I have the blue, I have a navy, and I have like a maroon.

[James]

You're not joking. You're be.

[Pablo Torre]

I have three. Three of these cardigans.

[Lawrence]

You got to like, tie them up like the crypt blood flags.

[James]

Or wear them all at the same. Or wear them at the same time like lil. Yachty. On. On.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, I, I, I make enough such that I don't regret not becoming a doctor.

[Lawrence]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

Which I took. I took the lsat. I'm so glad I didn't actually go through with that.

[Lawrence]

Are you making more than a GP right now?

[Pablo Torre]

What's a gp?

[Lawrence]

General practitioner.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh.

[Lawrence]

What do they make? I don't know.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm competitive. I would say I'm competitive with aggressive gp.

[James]

We'll, we'll pull that up for you so we can get an accurate figure.

[Lawrence]

A general practitioner. New York City, on average makes just a touch over $200,000 a year.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, yeah. Come on, let's go.

[Lawrence]

Like a chief of surgeon. Maybe not so much, right?

[James]

Oh, now we're. Okay, we're gonna really, we're gonna try to get a, we get a range here.

[Pablo Torre]

Price. Compare partner at a law firm.

[Lawrence]

That's just surgery up to $35,000 to $671,000.

[James]

So you're in that range.

[Pablo Torre]

Probably. I would say I'm probably at the level of like a really good plastic surgeon in a not popular city.

[Lawrence]

Okay. So Tom, whatever Tom Brady's guy is.

[James]

Making, this guy's making in Cleveland, Ohio.

[Lawrence]

What do you, what do you like? Okay, besides bod. Cardigans, Marijuana.

[James]

Disney World.

[Lawrence]

Disney World. And your family, what do you like to spend your heart in money on?

[Pablo Torre]

I go out to eat.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

What do you. What's hitting right now in New York?

[Pablo Torre]

Look, I, I am, I am, I am lucky enough to be compromised by having people that I maybe won a Family Feud episode with. Like David Chang was on my team.

[Lawrence]

Oh, nice.

[Pablo Torre]

So I went to noodle bar recently, and noodle bar still hits. Guys, guess what? Momo Fuku noodle bar in these village.

[James]

Spoiler alert.

[Lawrence]

Yo, you got to go to the the new movie Como. Although it's more of a bar with snacks, so.

[Pablo Torre]

CO was my favorite place because of Co bar that you pull the drawers out, there'd be like hiding forks and knives. You can get off of the three hour tasting menu. You can get it up front. Yeah, it was the best. And so when they announced that it's closed, I was bombed. When they announced that it's reopening and they're specializing in Jamaican beef patties.

[Lawrence]

That chef is supposed to be fire.

[Pablo Torre]

I could not be more excited. I am. Am a patty. Appreciate the bobsled team. Right. To bring it full circle here. I am somebody who believes that. Oh no, I believe that in this case it's genuinely a guy who is not mining the culture of beef patties. Like this is Jamaican is the master of that.

[James]

Yeah. And like Hideki Matsui, you're a jerk enjoyer.

[Lawrence]

Nice. Did you. Were you a little bummed when David tried to sue the crisp folks?

[Pablo Torre]

I talked to him at length about this and I totally understood where he was coming from in the end.

[James]

Really? Really.

[Lawrence]

As a bit as a cutthroat businessman.

[Pablo Torre]

Because it turned again. I. There's a Google search here. But like the short of it is in order to keep the license, you need to express a defense of it.

[James]

Ah, victim blaming. That's right. Okay, got it. Cool. Yeah, got it.

[Lawrence]

Must be nice to have friends in big places. A fellow podcaster, David Chang.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right.

[Lawrence]

As a fellow podcaster. As someone making more than a general practitioner in New York City who has three bod cardigans. Last time I counted. We have zero between us.

[James]

Zero.

[Lawrence]

We would love to ask you, Pablo. We'd love to find out. Does Pablo have any construct criticism that you would like to give us?

[Pablo Torre]

Wow. Wow.

[James]

After two hours.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. I. So I have enjoyed asking you guys questions. So my job, my. My constructive advice is that you guys should be like puffing your chests out more about the expertise that you have about the subjects that may seem on. On their face, like don't matter.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

Things that people don't want to find out about.

[Pablo Torre]

No, I mean like I. I think it's adorable that you care what I think about NBA fan fashion.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[James]

You're a ball knower, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

And. And I've thought about it at length.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And I again. I believe that the quarter zip again. Sorry, James.

[Lawrence]

It's okay. It's Margaret how diffusion line. Margaret how for broke boys.

[Pablo Torre]

He's wearing the Eli Manning collection from Lululemon.

[Lawrence]

Hey, what do you think of him getting stumped for the hall of Fame? That's our boy.

[James]

I know. That's egregious, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

So it's a two time Super Bowl.

[James]

MVP with the two hardest super bowl wins ever. Statistically.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm going to tell you the most Filipino thing that I will say all day.

[Lawrence]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

My dad's cousin was the nanny to Eli Manning's Kids.

[James]

Wow. She raised greatness.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm just saying, my Tina Vicki may or may not be responsible for the well being of the future. Several scions of the Manning.

[James]

Right. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And I don't think Eli Manning. I don't think Eli Manning knows this.

[James]

He doesn't know his nanny's name?

[Lawrence]

No.

[Pablo Torre]

No. So Titavicki has told me that Eli was very kind in like driving her to church on Sundays. That's great.

[James]

Before he wasn't busy.

[Pablo Torre]

Maybe it wasn't on Sundays.

[James]

It couldn't have been. He would have been, I guess, out of. When he's not in season.

[Lawrence]

Sure.

[Pablo Torre]

In the off season.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Maybe if he didn't drive my Tita Vicki to Mass, he would be in the hall of Fame.

[James]

He should be. Come on, dude, that's.

[Lawrence]

He was like, to practice because of your cousin.

[Pablo Torre]

It's a funny thing to be a media member talking about Eli Manning, knowing that your Tita.

[James]

Vicky, do you vote for any of these?

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, I don't have a vote for.

[James]

Okay.

[Lawrence]

Hall of Fame, but those are two players that are good at game casting. Right. The Manning cast. But also like as. As expertise Havers and also kind of like play by play and call guys. Like, that's some entertaining.

[Pablo Torre]

I watch the Manning cast over Al.

[Lawrence]

Roker or not fucking. What's his name?

[James]

Al Ral Roker.

[Lawrence]

The other guy.

[Pablo Torre]

Joe Buckingham. Troy Aikman.

[Lawrence]

Oh, they do Monday night now.

[James]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Joe Buck and Jay Z. White Jay Z.

[Pablo Torre]

So maybe the greatest journalistic accomplishment of my life was me asking Troy Aikman if he knows.

[James]

Oh, that's right. That was. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

That he is White Jay Z.

[Lawrence]

And.

[Pablo Torre]

And he quote, unquote, didn't get it. Oh, he has heard it, but he, like, doesn't see it.

[James]

Did you ask before? After part of my take. Also asked the same thing.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, yeah, I guess.

[Lawrence]

You know, it is.

[James]

If you get. If you get Troy in like, and you're a chill. A chill podcaster, you ask.

[Pablo Torre]

I mean, it's. It's undeniable.

[James]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Like, people should continue to ask him.

[Lawrence]

Also, Troy Aikman, underrated as a Texan stick man. Apparently he was just slaying trim throughout the 90s, was America's team. And people are like, oh, he's gay because he had married. He's like, no, my man was tearing it up.

[Pablo Torre]

Being the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys in the 90s is when you're like, yeah.

[James]

When you're not.

[Pablo Torre]

Dak Prescott is basically in any given Sunday character.

[James]

Yeah, he's Creaming Troy Beeman, dude. Yeah, something like that.

[Lawrence]

Tony Romo, no homo.

[James]

We'll workshop it.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, we'll keep going. Okay. So your construction criticism is banging our chest more.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Like the silverbacks of sports fashion.

[James]

We are back to the stew.

[Pablo Torre]

Look, I think that, again, I've enjoyed the interview. You. I just want more of your takes.

[James]

Oh, you could. Well, you. You. One, you got to book James to even the scales now. And then, two, have us both on, and we'll. You could talk to us for as long as you want, baby.

[Pablo Torre]

Ooh.

[Lawrence]

Got nothing but time.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, that's not true. Should we do it? Would it be a good.

[James]

No, that's been the show, ladies.

[Lawrence]

We could. We could. Now that we've. You've kind of teased us. Yeah, the little Matsui.

[Pablo Torre]

Now that I've scooped myself on your podcast.

[Lawrence]

Yeah, that's true.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[James]

Yeah. But that's gonna be a banger when it comes.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

We're always available for you publicly as goon cave experts.

[Pablo Torre]

So when I had Lawrence on to do the athlete scent episode, it made me think, is there an episode in which we are effectively taste testing, Smell testing? Like, athlete fashion?

[Lawrence]

Brady Brand, Michael Jordan apparel from back in the day.

[Pablo Torre]

Who would be in that. In that category that you would want to, like.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Critique or test?

[Lawrence]

I don't know. I mean, I'm trying to think like. Like.

[James]

Like that. Like a line. Like.

[Lawrence]

Like, you're not talking about a signature shoe.

[James]

No.

[Lawrence]

Or like a.

[Pablo Torre]

A. I think ideally there is, like, a Brady Brand kind of an aspect where there is something about the product that says something about the person.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, we.

[Lawrence]

With Brady Brand, we wear Brady Brand draws.

[James]

Oh.

[Lawrence]

Apparently Ronaldo.

[Pablo Torre]

Cristiano Ronaldo, he's all over all this.

[James]

Yes. Some say maybe Westbrook had a brand at one point.

[Lawrence]

David Beckham had a brand. Steph Curry has a brand.

[Pablo Torre]

Right.

[James]

Oh, Curry brand.

[Pablo Torre]

Right.

[James]

That's, like, on the level of Brady Brand, where it's like. It's all athleisure, dude.

[Pablo Torre]

Right, right.

[James]

It's all athleisure. I mean, with that said, like, we would definitely have opinions, but. Yeah, I don't know, man. That's. Honestly, that's. Your job is to figure out what we're gonna find out together.

[Pablo Torre]

It's true. It's my job to focus the. The goonery.

[James]

Yeah. Focus the.

[Lawrence]

You know what? Federer has had some stuff I don't know if he still does with Uniqlo, and I guess he. On.

[James]

Yep.

[Lawrence]

Right. He's like a founder of on again.

[James]

Athleisure that's what we're talking, right?

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[James]

The Michael Jordan high end. Like, they made like loafers. Not just like, it was like Jordan brand. And I forget what the line was called that actually now because of like this Y2K moment. How the trend cycles go is like a cool, like if, you know, you know, grail for people. Some of these footwear options that are not sneakers or hybrids of sneakers and loafers, and they're very interesting.

[Pablo Torre]

I want to get. I want to assign you guys to go, go confront Michael Jordan.

[James]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

And ask him about his pants.

[Lawrence]

Oh.

[Pablo Torre]

Does he feel vindicated?

[James]

Yeah. Right.

[Pablo Torre]

I mean, we've come all the way back around. I mean, again, we always come all the way back around when it comes to.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Pant size. But like, does he. Does he take any pride in being. Actually setting the TR now in vogue.

[James]

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

[Lawrence]

And his son doing cool drugs.

[Pablo Torre]

So. All right. That was my second enemy was Marcus Jordan.

[Lawrence]

Oh, why?

[Pablo Torre]

And Larsa Pippin. So I had them. I had Marcus and together on the show. And then they went and did an interview or no, sorry, the New York Post. There was a headline in which they called me miserable.

[Lawrence]

Wow, they called you.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Lawrence]

Larsa and Marcus.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. Yeah. Because we.

[James]

Typical jock versus nerd.

[Lawrence]

I still think it's kind of under, like, underrated that Michael Jordan's son is or was dating Scotty Pippen's ex wife.

[James]

And some Gucci. This is.

[Pablo Torre]

This is why we did the episode. Like, quietly, the most fascinating story in sports was like relegated to the tabloid section, but in every way. Like the Game of Thrones about Scottie Pippen post Last Dance.

[Lawrence]

Weirdly incestuous.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, no. Scotty Pippen in the Last Dance felt so disrespected by Michael Jordan. And then simultaneous to that, his ex wife is dating Michael Jordan's fucking shithead son.

[James]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Who then recently crashed his, I believe, a Lamborghini on a train track.

[Lawrence]

It wasn't crashed. It just got stuck on the rails.

[Pablo Torre]

Excuse me. It got stuck pointing the wrong direction on actual railroad tracks all time.

[James]

Do you know who my father is?

[Lawrence]

Moment.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. Truly like. And I say this knowing the weight of where we are in our country. It made me glad for body cam videos.

[James]

Same with your chest, Pablo. Literally.

[Lawrence]

All right, on that note, Pablo Torre. Where can you follow?

[Pablo Torre]

You got your plug, Pablo Tor find finds out is the Show. It's on YouTube. It's a podcast also. Please subscribe. We talk about journalistic Kegels over there.

[Lawrence]

That's right. Yeah. Wow. Big call. Back to two hours ago. All right, this has been another episode of the only podcast Matters. Chef.

[James]

Yeah. Thank you, Pablo. We grew up on you, bro. From TV to the stew. It's amazing how far we've come and how far you've fallen.

[Pablo Torre]

It's an honor. It's an honor to fall in this far. It's hard to pay, you guys. Paywall. Premium subscription prices.

[Lawrence]

We appreciate you, Pablo, for everything you do, Chef. Take us out.