Skip Bayless | Ep. 170

Interactive Transcript

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spk_0 Alright guys welcome back to the FullStand Podcast. We have another legendary episode today.

spk_0 We got a legend in the building. Just skip Bayless joining us today. How are we doing?

spk_0 That depends on you.

spk_0 You just complimented me and said I'm looking fit but you're looking jacked.

spk_0 Well I'll accept that but you look really good. Thank you.

spk_0 Yeah and you let's go. I know for a fact it ate that easy.

spk_0 It's not how often you work out a week.

spk_0 I do cardio every single day for how long?

spk_0 For an hour. I'm not bragging about it. I'm just addicted to it because I like it.

spk_0 And so I can't start a work day without an hour of sweating and then I hit the weights three days

spk_0 the week Monday Wednesday Friday. What do you do for cardio?

spk_0 Stationary bike or I run on the treadmill.

spk_0 Used to run outside like a maniac and I found an LA. It's just too dangerous.

spk_0 And I took my life and my own hands numerous times out here in this traffic and finally said

spk_0 that's enough of that. Too dangerous because of cars?

spk_0 Yeah. For years and years I was a psychomarathoner for a long time back in the day.

spk_0 And how many marathons have you done?

spk_0 I did 10.

spk_0 I ran my first one in February.

spk_0 You did?

spk_0 Where?

spk_0 Well I was supposed to do it with my buddies in Florida.

spk_0 But we were traveling. We were doing a video in India.

spk_0 So I wasn't going to make it back in time because of the flight.

spk_0 So I just I already but I had already trained for it and I'd ran 20 miles.

spk_0 So I was like can't I'm not going to get out of shape.

spk_0 So I just did it myself in India.

spk_0 You did it by yourself.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Cool.

spk_0 My or assistant Gabe was on the scooter like passing me bananas and yeah it was good.

spk_0 And then I'm you timed?

spk_0 Yeah I got four and a half hours.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Cool.

spk_0 It could have been a bit faster but I think if I was you know if I had someone pacing me a little bit I could have done a little faster.

spk_0 So although it's not going to do it in a crowd.

spk_0 I'm going to do another one in Hawaii in December.

spk_0 And then I don't know you know are you familiar with Gary Breka?

spk_0 No.

spk_0 He's like a bio hacker.

spk_0 He's helped like Dana White with his health.

spk_0 I'm with his son.

spk_0 I'm doing a hundred miles a hundred miles at the end of January.

spk_0 Whoo.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Hundred miles.

spk_0 How so you have 36 hours to do it.

spk_0 Oh.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 And I think Steine is going to jump in for some of it.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 A couple of miles will come in.

spk_0 Let's see what's up.

spk_0 And can you walk?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 I think you sit and you like I've seen people like changing their shoes and like you stop to eat.

spk_0 So it's different than a marathon.

spk_0 I don't think it says cardio based.

spk_0 I think it's more just like time on feet.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Just staying awake for 30 hours.

spk_0 But why are you going to do that?

spk_0 What's your motivation?

spk_0 Um, I mean with our stuff we're always like traveling.

spk_0 Like we obviously own an alcohol brand.

spk_0 So we're into some unhealthy stuff.

spk_0 So I find when I find when you put like you know healthy stuff or like workout based stuff.

spk_0 You just put it on the calendar.

spk_0 I think it subconsciously it keeps you,

spk_0 you know dialed in.

spk_0

spk_0 Because if I'm like you know if I have to go to Vegas this weekend.

spk_0 Also in the back of my head I know like yeah I'm running a marathon in December.

spk_0 Like I can't fuck off too hard.

spk_0 Or if I do I'm going to fuck off in Vegas.

spk_0 Let's be real.

spk_0 You will.

spk_0 The next day I got to get up.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 And I can't lie in bed or I can't go eat like a shitty meal.

spk_0 I got to go sweat it out.

spk_0 True.

spk_0 Maybe jump in the cold tub.

spk_0 And then right back to business.

spk_0 You know, I work with a lot of ex athletes and what I do constantly debating with them.

spk_0 Sparring with them on show.

spk_0 And it's intriguing to me because.

spk_0 For most of their lives up to this point.

spk_0 They were forced by.

spk_0 By just their profession to stay in shape and in the literal games kept them in shape.

spk_0 And then all of a sudden they turn back into a normal human that we have to deal with.

spk_0 Where.

spk_0 There are no shortcuts.

spk_0 And I watch some of them slowly expand this way because they're like well.

spk_0 I did all the way.

spk_0 You know, I had to work out.

spk_0 I had to work it.

spk_0 I had to do this.

spk_0 I had to play the games and then they become normal humans.

spk_0 And they're like damn I have to do it again to mall.

spk_0 Yeah, you do because if you don't.

spk_0 You it's a never ending battle from here on.

spk_0 But it's just funny to me to watch them turn back into us.

spk_0 As far as staying in shape because there's no magic pill to it.

spk_0 Mm hmm.

spk_0 You know, even if you take anabolic steroids,

spk_0 you it won't do you good unless you go to the gym, right?

spk_0 Don't do what steroids.

spk_0 What about it?

spk_0 He always want to jump on a cycle.

spk_0 Yeah, it's a sauce room.

spk_0 When the time's right.

spk_0 Yeah, I said I'd try steroids out.

spk_0 But if you want to get bigger or more ripped or more cut steroids.

spk_0 Okay, but it's it's fine.

spk_0 If you do the work, you still have to do the work.

spk_0 Yeah, that's right.

spk_0 And if you do the work, it'll really work.

spk_0 Yeah, definitely.

spk_0 You asked me how we got started in this.

spk_0 How did you how did you first get started

spk_0 and like sports broadcasting?

spk_0 My life changed when I was a sophomore in high school.

spk_0 Like active of God, if you will.

spk_0 Because neither of my parents finished high school.

spk_0 I'm pretty sure.

spk_0 And I was the oldest of three.

spk_0 There were both alcoholic wrecks and didn't care about my schooling or anything else.

spk_0 And by fate, I wind up in an English class in a public high school taught by the journalism

spk_0 teacher. And she taught one a day just to see if she could find anybody who could write a little

spk_0 bit who would write for the school newspaper.

spk_0 So first day of school, she assigns us all a book report.

spk_0 She said, I don't care what you just pick any book you like.

spk_0 Read it and write me a one page book report because I want to see if any of you people can write.

spk_0 She was very intimidating and sort of psychologically, verbally abusive of the kids because she just

spk_0 above it all. So I'm a sports guy.

spk_0 I always played everything.

spk_0 And I chose a sports book, wrote a one-pager, but the book was so bad that I ripped it.

spk_0 And I'd never written more than my name.

spk_0 And I wrote a scathing, I didn't know any better.

spk_0 I wrote a scathing review of the book because it was just crap.

spk_0 It felt like it had been written overnight.

spk_0 And in about 20 minutes, I just blasted the hell out of it.

spk_0 And I thought, I don't know any better.

spk_0 I'll turn this in.

spk_0 And a week passed Friday, bell rings were going to the next class.

spk_0 And she says, skip bail if I need to see you after class.

spk_0 So I don't know, but this is going to be the turning point in my existence.

spk_0 She said, you're coming into journalism.

spk_0 And I thought I was in trouble with that.

spk_0 You know, like I'd done something wrong.

spk_0 And she said, no, no, you're going to write me two sports columns a week.

spk_0 I said, I play sports.

spk_0 She said, I know you play sports.

spk_0 I've checked up on you.

spk_0 You can still play for these teams, but I want you to also write about the teams.

spk_0 Okay?

spk_0 I don't know anything about journalism.

spk_0 She said, you don't need to know anything about journalism.

spk_0 You can just write.

spk_0 And I said, well, how do you know I can write?

spk_0 She said, I just know.

spk_0 Trust me, you've got the gift of writing.

spk_0 That's crazy.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 I'm like, okay.

spk_0 I guess my path just changed because I thought I'd play college something.

spk_0 And I wound up not being quite good enough to play college.

spk_0 Anything has most of us do.

spk_0 But I wind up writing two sports columns.

spk_0 And by my senior year, I played on a baseball team with a coach I hated.

spk_0 And at the end of the year, I blasted the coach.

spk_0 And it's funny because I didn't need to quote anybody because

spk_0 I'm on the inside.

spk_0 You know, like I'm actually playing for the team.

spk_0 And so I can do inside chapter and verse of why he's a bad coach.

spk_0 And I was off to the races.

spk_0 So, you know, like I realized, well, people like that because they got to know

spk_0 something they didn't know from the inside out.

spk_0 And then I ended up winning a scholarship to go off to Vanderbilt University

spk_0 to write about sports.

spk_0 And this is back in the day when, you know, written, you know,

spk_0 the newspapers just dominated in those days.

spk_0 And there was no real TV or radio yet.

spk_0 And then it was just a natural segue into talk radio first.

spk_0 And then into television next.

spk_0 Because life changed, viewing habits, consumption habits change.

spk_0 And so I just went with the flow from radio to television now to internet.

spk_0 So, but she did it.

spk_0 Her name was Liz Burdett, my journalism teacher.

spk_0 And she just forced me into something.

spk_0 I wouldn't be sitting here if that hadn't happened.

spk_0 Have you ever went back and seen her?

spk_0 She's not with us anymore.

spk_0 But I got inducted.

spk_0 It's no big deal.

spk_0 Into the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

spk_0 But I got inducted into the public schools Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

spk_0 And she came and sat at the head table with my mom,

spk_0 who's no longer with us.

spk_0 And that was night of nights where I was able to thank her.

spk_0 There must have been a thousand people there.

spk_0 I thanked her in front of a giant crowd for what she did for me.

spk_0 And I kept in touch with her.

spk_0 And I told her all along that

spk_0 she was it.

spk_0 I wouldn't have done it without her.

spk_0 And when she said, you're coming into journalism, it was like,

spk_0 it wasn't a will you.

spk_0 It was you are.

spk_0 So it was the offer you cannot refuse.

spk_0 And she was very,

spk_0 she was very intimidated,

spk_0 big black hair, big red lip stitch.

spk_0 Everybody was afraid of her.

spk_0 And so I was like, well, if she's blessing me,

spk_0 then this must be right.

spk_0 And my scholarship that I won a Vanderbilt, she did everything.

spk_0 She signed me up.

spk_0 She told me I was going to go to the University of Oklahoma

spk_0 because every friend of mine was going there

spk_0 because it's a great party school.

spk_0 And I just thought, well, I'll just go with the flow.

spk_0 And she told me you got to take the SAT

spk_0 because it's for out of state kids to take instead the ACT.

spk_0 And so I had to go take this.

spk_0 And I thought, this is crazy.

spk_0 I'll never win the scholarship.

spk_0 And then they don't pick it until late in the year.

spk_0 And I came in one night from baseball practice.

spk_0 And I knew Nashville, Tennessee, where Vanderbilt is,

spk_0 is EricOd615.

spk_0 And my mom, who was never home, left me a note on the kitchen table

spk_0 that said somebody called from EricOd615.

spk_0 And when I saw it, I thought,

spk_0 damn, life just changed.

spk_0 I'm out.

spk_0 I'm free.

spk_0 Like I've got my ticket to ride now.

spk_0 I got a full scholarship to Vanderbilt

spk_0 that she could have never paid for.

spk_0 So I was off to the races.

spk_0 I'm honestly curious about that to your story.

spk_0 And just based off of Adam Schaefter,

spk_0 who used to ride for the Denver Post,

spk_0 I was one of the biggest talents at ESPN.

spk_0 No one well.

spk_0 It seems like this whole old school journalism college,

spk_0 it's not even a thing anymore, Leia.

spk_0 I can't even watch some of these shows

spk_0 because it seems like they just bring on anybody.

spk_0 Have you noticed that throughout your career?

spk_0 Like even right now, how it just seems like there's no qualifications

spk_0 to go on there and speak on the stuff.

spk_0 To be on the show, you mean?

spk_0 Like, yeah, just even on like an ESPN panel.

spk_0 Your point is Adam was qualified.

spk_0 Like he paid his dues.

spk_0 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

spk_0 Similar story.

spk_0 Like he went to Michigan journalism, same path kind of.

spk_0 Yeah, I'd like to think that the people they put on now

spk_0 have great personalities.

spk_0 You know, like they have charisma,

spk_0 they have some on air attraction that works

spk_0 that connects with people.

spk_0 I mean, now YouTube is filled with people

spk_0 who are in the athletic field.

spk_0 I think that's an idea we need network now, not just sports.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Like I was watching Fox News the other day.

spk_0 Same thing.

spk_0 They're putting on any conservative girl

spk_0 on there right now.

spk_0 Like I saw a chick at like a Republican party

spk_0 that was like hammered and shit.

spk_0 And then I looked on the TV and I saw she was like

spk_0 giving a take on like Ukraine and Russia.

spk_0 And I was like, dude, the specific reason I brought that up.

spk_0 It's just no qualifications.

spk_0 I think of this.

spk_0 I can't even remember what her name is,

spk_0 but she was with a friend of yours, Steven A.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 And our buddy Drusky was on there.

spk_0 And she's like, well, you're wearing the Sanders jersey

spk_0 and it's a Barry Sanders and she thought it was a door.

spk_0 And she's sitting on ESPN and I'm just

spk_0 like, how is this position possible?

spk_0 And I guess it makes the point of like,

spk_0 how can you tell when someone just trying to be an entertainer

spk_0 and like stir the pot, which you know how to do very well

spk_0 or if they actually believe in that take?

spk_0 We'd have to take it,

spk_0 cased by case,

spk_0 you know, with each new person that we're talking about.

spk_0 But it was funny to me because I am, as my wife will attest,

spk_0 a sports die hard.

spk_0 Like I'm crazed.

spk_0 I watch everything to her regrets.

spk_0 I just, I can't.

spk_0 I'm going to watch it anyway.

spk_0 So I was possessed with this job.

spk_0 Like I, I truly actually care about it.

spk_0 And yet I came up with a number of guys out of the newspaper mold

spk_0 who were certainly qualified to do the job,

spk_0 but who didn't really love sports.

spk_0 But did it because like everybody says I can do this.

spk_0 So I guess I should do it.

spk_0 So there was always a big continental divide for me between guys

spk_0 who really care about it and guys who could take it or leave it.

spk_0 And just did it because, oh wait, TV is starting to pay money.

spk_0 So I think I'll do this.

spk_0 And I assume a lot of those new people are just doing it

spk_0 because they have a spark and their personality that works on TV.

spk_0 Would you agree that there was a lot of times

spk_0 where you just said stuff that you didn't believe in,

spk_0 but you knew it would get rage bait or like not one time.

spk_0 Not one time.

spk_0 Never ever.

spk_0 Wait, you saw the starting five.

spk_0 What can we bring up the starting five with Kwame Brown?

spk_0 I think you had in your all time starting five.

spk_0 I did not.

spk_0 Yeah, you did.

spk_0 I this was 10 years ago.

spk_0 False.

spk_0 10 years up right now.

spk_0 Looking up right now.

spk_0 Okay, well you read some bogus.

spk_0 This is real as it gets.

spk_0 Kwame Brown.

spk_0 Wrong.

spk_0 Um, what's one take your regret the most in your career?

spk_0 I don't have any regrets on really.

spk_0 I'm just telling you the God's truth.

spk_0 You can ask anybody who's known me forever.

spk_0 I have no regrets.

spk_0 Has there ever been like a player that you've criticized,

spk_0 like approach you face to face?

spk_0 Like has ever gotten like to the point where it's been like

spk_0 out of hostile or just yet like sure?

spk_0 I mean many times more when I was in the newspaper phase

spk_0 always like every other day.

spk_0 Really?

spk_0 It was more back then.

spk_0 Well, because you've shown this because he sees it.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Says skip bail with starting five.

spk_0 It's getting read the names.

spk_0 It's just a loss.

spk_0 Is this AI?

spk_0 I don't know.

spk_0 But Kwame Brown was a complete.

spk_0 You mean that?

spk_0 Can you read the names?

spk_0 One player on my team.

spk_0 That's Michael Jordan.

spk_0 So while here's my team.

spk_0 I'm going to have you.

spk_0 The name is Robert.

spk_0 This is a joke.

spk_0 They're all joke.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Everybody's a joke on here.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 They're all jokes.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 The internet twists.

spk_0 It's a word.

spk_0 It's okay.

spk_0 They said this is your all time starting five.

spk_0 So they twisted it a little bit.

spk_0 Scrup starting five.

spk_0 Well, it's just ridiculous.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Take talk.

spk_0 Kyrie LeBron.

spk_0 You said Kyrie over LeBron, right?

spk_0 Kyrie over LeBron is a clutch shooter.

spk_0 Definitely.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 He won LeBron one of his rings with a late clutch shot in game seven at

spk_0 Oracle Arena.

spk_0 So what about you don't think LeBron won him his ring?

spk_0 Couldn't you play that both ways?

spk_0 Sure.

spk_0 Now you could.

spk_0 But again, my issue with LeBron from the start is not born with a clutch gene.

spk_0 Great player, great offensive player.

spk_0 Not so much on defense over the last 10 years.

spk_0 But when it comes to making the shot at the moment in the game,

spk_0 LeBron has been a disaster because that is not his forte.

spk_0 So you he'll never be the go in your book.

spk_0 Heck no.

spk_0 Really?

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 But for Michael Jordan, I mean, first in all time scoring,

spk_0 he's top 10, top five and rebound six in the finals.

spk_0 I mean, still four time MVP.

spk_0 You know, what about time champ?

spk_0 What about this statement?

spk_0 Would you agree that if Stefan Curry didn't exist,

spk_0 LeBron would probably be the unanimous best player ball time?

spk_0 Steph Curry?

spk_0 Like if he didn't exist.

spk_0 No, it's just Michael Jordan, period end of story.

spk_0 If Michael didn't exist, I guess we could get a discussion going about LeBron.

spk_0 Where's LeBron in your rankings?

spk_0 I have a nine.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 And you actually leave that.

spk_0 I do.

spk_0

spk_0 How leave it?

spk_0 And who's but late?

spk_0 Who's behind that?

spk_0 So who's one through eight?

spk_0 One through eight.

spk_0 I got Jordan.

spk_0 I got Magic.

spk_0 I got Cream.

spk_0 I got Shaq.

spk_0 Tyler, you might help me on this.

spk_0 Because I haven't changed Tim Duncan is up there.

spk_0 Tim Duncan is up there.

spk_0 I've already.

spk_0 Larry, do you think Colby over LeBron?

spk_0 Yes, definitely.

spk_0 Love.

spk_0 I know about that.

spk_0 I'm going to be very honest like I love Colby,

spk_0 but I think I think bronze over what you want.

spk_0 Ball in hand, late game, game seven for your life.

spk_0 I know, but I would be able to.

spk_0 It's fully about that.

spk_0 I mean, LeBron has accomplished so many things in the sport, right?

spk_0 So you can't just base it off the last two months.

spk_0 I mean, I don't think that's fair.

spk_0 Why does the last shot define here the better player?

spk_0 That's not fair at all.

spk_0 It just does.

spk_0 If over time, because LeBron in the biggest moments

spk_0 has just been a nightmare that

spk_0 had been so many epic fails from LeBron,

spk_0 if you look hard at his career.

spk_0 Did he average 40 in that finals when Kyrie won?

spk_0 We did.

spk_0 I mean, that's pretty impressive.

spk_0 No, no, you're talking about the one where they lost to Steph.

spk_0 He still offers four games.

spk_0 I think that was when they were saying he could have

spk_0 started the 2018 2016, 2016, 2015.

spk_0 2015, he was, yeah, that's when LeBron was at his greatest

spk_0 for the first three games.

spk_0 And he's up two games to one without he'd lost Kyrie to the fracture.

spk_0 Kneecap and he'd lost Kevin Love before the finals even started.

spk_0 And what happened in game four in LeBron's house

spk_0 when he had a chance to shut my mouth for sure,

spk_0 because now you got a chance.

spk_0 You're up two to one with game four in your house in Cleveland, Ohio.

spk_0 And go look at what happened.

spk_0 He was seven of 22.

spk_0 He was three of eight from the free throw line.

spk_0 He was two of eight from three.

spk_0 And they got waxed because Steve Kerr switched Andre E. Gidala

spk_0 onto LeBron to guard him.

spk_0 And Iggy took him to the cleaners on offense and on defense

spk_0 and became the MVP.

spk_0 Well, he became the MVP of the series.

spk_0 So you laughed, but he was the MVP.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Okay, that was the change right there.

spk_0 So LeBron had a chance to make a big statement and he failed.

spk_0 Going back to the Kobe LeBron thing.

spk_0 What?

spk_0 So besides the last two minutes,

spk_0 why do you think Kobe is better than LeBron?

spk_0 I mean, LeBron has led his team and more championships.

spk_0 He has more MVP's.

spk_0 Right.

spk_0 But he's number one in scoring.

spk_0 He's top five, top 10 and literally everything.

spk_0 So I don't I don't know how you could put Kobe over LeBron.

spk_0 Because Kobe was a cold, blooded basketball killer.

spk_0 Mamba, mid-talent.

spk_0 100%.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 So this is a team game.

spk_0 It's going on.

spk_0 It's good.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 I got it.

spk_0 But Kobe could have sued when he decided.

spk_0 But when it's time to score in the biggest games,

spk_0 I know he had check.

spk_0 But for a long time, LeBron had deweyed and Chris Bosch and

spk_0 Spowe and Pat.

spk_0 Well, you could say the same thing for other players

spk_0 that are great as well.

spk_0 Like, you know,

spk_0 I'll say if Kobe Kobe, Kobe, that's not good enough.

spk_0 Tim Duncan at Tony Parker, Montagel,

spk_0 believe it.

spk_0 I mean, they never bring up Paul Gasol either with Kobe.

spk_0 And he was.

spk_0 They never were.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 He was good.

spk_0 As far as leading your team.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 And like, you know, you you say championships are everything,

spk_0 right?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 I mean, I'd say so, right?

spk_0 If you're winning a lot.

spk_0 Look, if I could take LeBron as a baby at 18 or whatever,

spk_0 Kobe at 18 as a baby.

spk_0 Oh, be it.

spk_0 And I'm going to start my team with one or the other.

spk_0 I'm taking Kobe.

spk_0 So in my rankings,

spk_0 you have your rankings,

spk_0 but I'm putting Kobe just to have.

spk_0 If you really look hard at LeBron's epic fails,

spk_0 but you look only seeing on the negatives,

spk_0 keep I think you got to look at what he's done for the game.

spk_0 I think what happened in game six.

spk_0 And I was a spurs fan at this point because I love Parker.

spk_0 Genoble and Tim obviously,

spk_0 but that's first he was good.

spk_0 Game six 2013 finals.

spk_0 My round.

spk_0 Down the stretch of that game in in the last three minutes,

spk_0 LeBron had three turnovers in this game,

spk_0 three unforced error turnovers.

spk_0 We just just made a bad pass that got stolen.

spk_0 In the last minute came two of those turnovers.

spk_0 Then LeBron misses the big three to tie the game.

spk_0 Long rebound out of his Bosch.

spk_0 Why Tim Duncan was on the bench.

spk_0 Don't get me started,

spk_0 but that's my lifelong beef with coach Pop.

spk_0 But he wasn't he was out of the game for whatever purpose.

spk_0 So long rebound to Chris Bosch,

spk_0 who kicks it quickly and definitely into the corner to Ray Allen,

spk_0 who somehow gets his feet behind the line and makes the greatest clutch shot I have ever witnessed

spk_0 of magnitude.

spk_0 It was magnitude because it's sent the game to overtime and it tore my heart out.

spk_0 It ripped their hearts out and they could not get up off the mat.

spk_0 And that shot saved LeBron from being three and seven in the finals.

spk_0 Right.

spk_0 Why does that tear your heart out?

spk_0 Because I was a spurs fan just because you like them.

spk_0 Yeah, just the lineup of the players.

spk_0 Yeah, I mean, I just loved the way they played that they played real live beautiful

spk_0 basketball as an old school.

spk_0 Fun and it was fun and it wasn't fun to watch.

spk_0 And most people called them broccoli.

spk_0 Like a wide broccoli.

spk_0 Yeah, that's first team.

spk_0 That's first team was good.

spk_0 Yeah, 2013, 2013.

spk_0 I remember three Hall of Famers on the team.

spk_0 They did.

spk_0 Let me ask you so did LeBron.

spk_0 Yeah, he did.

spk_0 But okay, so then the next year just to finish the point,

spk_0 game won the spurs win.

spk_0 But game two,

spk_0 Chris Bosch has a huge game and they win.

spk_0 So it's one to one going home to Miami.

spk_0 This is 2014 finals against the same San Antonio spurs.

spk_0 And go look it up.

spk_0 I don't want to bore you with the details.

spk_0 But LeBron just disappeared in games.

spk_0 Co-I was showing up throughout the heat.

spk_0 Three, four at home.

spk_0 And then they went back to San Antonio for what became the closeout game five.

spk_0 And LeBron was just a ghost.

spk_0 And they lost.

spk_0 The Miami Heat lost the finals by a record finals margin.

spk_0 They got blown out by more points than any team's ever lost to finals.

spk_0 And it was five games, what they call a gentleman sweep.

spk_0 And even I as a non LeBron fan was like,

spk_0 and what's wrong with you?

spk_0 And I never heard that he was hurt.

spk_0 They usually come up with some big excuse or something.

spk_0 And then let's just do one more.

spk_0 Just let's go to 2017.

spk_0 Okay, now we're to the Warriors versus LeBron.

spk_0 Just come on, dude.

spk_0 Katie, stop.

spk_0 Keep can't explain.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Okay, game one at Oracle.

spk_0 LeBron has the, he's a terrible shooter.

spk_0 He's I'm just showing the stats for his career from three.

spk_0 He's 34%.

spk_0 It's it's it's bad.

spk_0 Well, he's got way better recently.

spk_0 Okay, he has.

spk_0 I do give you that.

spk_0 Yeah, just last year, it's year 22.

spk_0 And I'm saying,

spk_0 where were you all these years, man?

spk_0 You say you're in the lab in the offseason and you couldn't improve that.

spk_0 And his free throw shooting is even worse.

spk_0 But it's it's gotten really.

spk_0 It says I'm in the lab in the offseason.

spk_0 I'm saying, well, why don't you stand at the front line?

spk_0 It's the latest.

spk_0 Yeah, he's really improved on a sequence.

spk_0 You can't wait.

spk_0 Okay, later in his career.

spk_0 All right, but late late.

spk_0 He didn't have to.

spk_0 I mean, no one's ever better.

spk_0 But he didn't need that.

spk_0 He didn't need that early on.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 All right.

spk_0 So we got this game one at Oracle.

spk_0 And he shoots the ball from outside better than he ever has in any finals game.

spk_0 He is crazy on fire hot, which occasionally he gets.

spk_0 But this this mattered because this is the biggest stage in the sport.

spk_0 You have a chance to win game one against a clearly superior team to your point with Kevin

spk_0 Durant and staff and Clay.

spk_0 Mm-hmm.

spk_0 Durant.

spk_0 Sure.

spk_0 Ma'am.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 All right.

spk_0 I got it.

spk_0 We get to the end.

spk_0 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

spk_0 They're down one point.

spk_0 They have a chance to make history here.

spk_0 And he gets the LeBron gets the switch he wants.

spk_0 He gets staff on him and staffs.

spk_0 I don't know what that he's listed 6, 3, like one, I knew, you know, whatever.

spk_0 6, 2, 1.

spk_0 LeBron is a full six feet, 9 inches tall.

spk_0 He's got him and he's got he's maybe it's it's like the Jordan shot at Utah that one game six.

spk_0 The most famous hold the post shot.

spk_0 So so LeBron has a chance to do this is from maybe a foot or two outside the free throw line.

spk_0 Go up and shoot a jumper.

spk_0 But but you're going to have to shoot it do or die because if you miss it's over.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Because you're down one.

spk_0 He starts to go up and at the last second he passes to George Hill.

spk_0 He used to be a San Antonio Spur who I never liked because I never trusted him in these kind of

spk_0 clutch situations.

spk_0 Right.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 He passes it to George Hill and Clay Thompson's like, okay, you got me.

spk_0 I'm an attacking.

spk_0 So he just tackles George Hill.

spk_0 And of course is George Hill to go to the free throw line which you have to do at that moment.

spk_0 George Hill goes and makes the first and you knew what was coming.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 He misses the second one and JR Smith gets the rebound and loses mind because it's it's like two

spk_0 seconds left and he's dribbling it away from the basket.

spk_0 Trouble it out.

spk_0 They can't even pull it out and trouble out the clock.

spk_0 But at least he did make the first one.

spk_0 So we do have over to him.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 This is where LeBron completely loses me as a crybaby diva that he has always been.

spk_0 He goes over to the bench and he won't sit with his teammates during the time out before

spk_0 overtime.

spk_0 Remember if you could have told LeBron James before the game this will go to overtime.

spk_0 Will he not take that?

spk_0 I think he would.

spk_0 I don't know what they would.

spk_0 Tinter 12 point underdogs.

spk_0 You know, like it's it's a nice series was yeah.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 But they did have two chances when the game.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Put him there.

spk_0 No, but like before it was goal to stay like you know, going to get George.

spk_0 No, but could have had both a good free throw shooter.

spk_0 Damn, he didn't sit with team.

spk_0 He didn't say what team he sat away from the team.

spk_0 Like I don't want to.

spk_0 I want to associate with you.

spk_0 You don't think Jordan or Kobe might have responded the same way.

spk_0 Jordan would not have.

spk_0 Who knows?

spk_0 I don't know.

spk_0 They they would probably go chew out.

spk_0 I feel like Jordan was.

spk_0 JR Smith on the bench.

spk_0 They probably would have been in his face, but they would have said.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 You are fucking going to do this with me right now.

spk_0 We're going to do you're going to help me win this over time.

spk_0 That they would try to scare him back in.

spk_0 Scaring straight as they say, you know, get get him back where.

spk_0 Don't lose him because the team's looking at.

spk_0 At LeBron, like, okay, you don't want to associate with us.

spk_0 We let you down.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Screw you.

spk_0 And LeBron goes out and pouts for the first three minutes of over time.

spk_0 And doesn't take a shot as they fall behind by seven and predictable.

spk_0 I think they lost by 10.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Because LeBron quit because he he's like, uh, you know, we we had him.

spk_0 But he knew in the back of his mind, he should have taken the shot.

spk_0 If if you have the guts and the balls and you're that guy,

spk_0 you take that shot to win or lose the game, especially when you have a hot hand.

spk_0 If you want to tell me it's not my forte, you got me.

spk_0 But on that night in that building that had been his forte.

spk_0 So that's another that's an epic fail to me because then they get swept, you know,

spk_0 they get their supplies.

spk_0 They're still going to lose the series the other way.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 I don't know that.

spk_0 I mean, momentum.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 No, when you win one, if he's the goat, then then the goat, if you can go one up on golden

spk_0 state, that's yeah, that's yeah, I know.

spk_0 What would you agree?

spk_0 That's right.

spk_0 That warrior seems probably the best team of all time.

spk_0 2017.

spk_0 Katie Steph.

spk_0 That 96 96 pulls.

spk_0 I don't see how you can argue.

spk_0 I can't argue against Michael on any the 96 balls.

spk_0 I covered the 98 balls.

spk_0 I was in Chicago at that in that year that the Chicago Tribune.

spk_0 They were really good.

spk_0 And I thought Larry birds 86 Celtics, they're basically invincible.

spk_0 That they were just so loaded, so deep.

spk_0 But to your point, I'm not sure the chemistry was that great.

spk_0 I never felt Kevin was very happy there.

spk_0 He never liked Steph and Steph.

spk_0 You know, Kevin wanted to be the man.

spk_0 And if you know Dub Nation,

spk_0 Steph got raised.

spk_0 You know, he they drafted him and they raised him from baby.

spk_0 He and Clay Boath up into super duper star.

spk_0 And so Kevin was never going to be more beloved in Dub Nation than Steph.

spk_0 But you don't think he knew that going there?

spk_0 No, he didn't know that because he just thought.

spk_0 How can he not know that?

spk_0 He just thought I'm better.

spk_0 You know, I'm better than Steph Curry.

spk_0 He's one two championships before he came.

spk_0 You just got to know that.

spk_0

spk_0 That's good.

spk_0 Do you think that's one of the, that might get the biggest stories.

spk_0 And history is Katie deciding to go to the Warriors.

spk_0 Like was that how shocked were you when you heard that?

spk_0 I was not shocked.

spk_0 But I knew too much about what was going on between Kevin and Russell Westbrook

spk_0 in Oklahoma City.

spk_0 Again, where I'm from.

spk_0 But I used to have battles over this.

spk_0 I'm not a Russell Westbrook fan either.

spk_0 Because he is a solo act stat machine

spk_0 who cares way more about what the stat sheet says at the end of the game

spk_0 than what the scoreboard says.

spk_0 And if you look at his path wherever he's been,

spk_0 teams have turned on him again and again.

spk_0 And he just keeps going to another team and another team.

spk_0 And I don't know if they finally denvertried him and failed with him last year.

spk_0 And I think he might be out.

spk_0 I think this might be the end of him.

spk_0 And he's not that old.

spk_0 But in Oklahoma City, he was obviously very gifted as was Kevin.

spk_0 So I was on first take then on ESPN.

spk_0 And day after day, I started to go after Russell Westbrook

spk_0 for taking more shots per game than my guy Kevin Durant.

spk_0 And I was just a big Durant fan since he was at Texas in the one year in college.

spk_0 And I predicted he's going to win scoring titles.

spk_0 Guys on my show just laughed at me like that's being pulled.

spk_0 Like he looked like praying mantis.

spk_0 He was so skinny that it looked like he didn't have any man strength at all.

spk_0 Well, trust me, he does.

spk_0 And he did because he looks pretty much like he looked in college.

spk_0 And he I think he can play.

spk_0 And I think he can score.

spk_0 So the point was I'm defending Kevin against Russell.

spk_0 And then the turning point of that was when I

spk_0 Russell called over the reporters, I'm sorry, Kevin called over the reporters before a game in Oklahoma City.

spk_0 This is in the middle of the year.

spk_0 And ripped me saying I didn't know shit about basketball.

spk_0 Sorry, who said that Kevin ripped me saying I don't know shit about basketball

spk_0 for ripping Russell for taking more shots than Kevin.

spk_0 Well, Kevin was just trying to be big brother to Russ and team leader

spk_0 and sort of defending, you know, having the back of Russell

spk_0 and having the teams back against the guy on ESPN who's trying to tear us apart.

spk_0 Well, I'm not trying to tear you apart.

spk_0 I'm just trying to make you better because Russell Westbrook is like LeBron.

spk_0 He is a horrendous three-point shooter who never improved.

spk_0 He even this year, he's always at the very bottom of the league in three-point shooting.

spk_0 And LeBron fell for it at one point.

spk_0 And the whole team did, but Anthony Davis fell for it and they, you know, they campaigned.

spk_0 Go get Russell Westbrook.

spk_0 And did you follow what happened when Russell became a Laker?

spk_0 Yeah, it was a disaster.

spk_0 Every time he went up to shoot, they didn't want him to be like his fans at that point.

spk_0 I mean, you can't deny him and Katie were pretty good together.

spk_0 I think it was too young.

spk_0 They were at the time.

spk_0 Mark Cuban, remember when Mark Cuban, there's that famous clip of him saying,

spk_0 Mark Cuban says Kevin that you're only a superstar.

spk_0 And he's sitting next to Russ.

spk_0 And then he covers the mic and he says he's an idiot like defending Russ.

spk_0 So it seemed like they had a real brotherhood.

spk_0 So for that to go down that way, just never make sense.

spk_0 Here's the point to your question.

spk_0 I know for a fact, this came from somebody very close to Kevin Durant.

spk_0 He finally decided as he was entering his 10th year in the NBA.

spk_0 I will never win a championship with that guy, Russell Westbrook,

spk_0 as my primary decision maker every time down the floor.

spk_0 Because Russ dribbled the ball up and Russell could decide,

spk_0 it's your turn or my turn.

spk_0 And too often to me and ultimately to KD, it was Russ's turn.

spk_0 Because he's just, he's bull in China shop.

spk_0 You know, he's just like sea basket, attack basket.

spk_0 And it can be impressive because he was super.

spk_0 He's really athletic, yeah, supremely like unbelievable.

spk_0 But sometimes he had the basic 10 cent brain going where,

spk_0 what, wait a second.

spk_0 And then he figured out the stat after Kevin was gone.

spk_0 He figured out, wait a second.

spk_0 If I drive like a wild man, and at the last second,

spk_0 I just leave the ball on the floor for one of my big so that they can dunk it,

spk_0 then the stats start adding up in this thing called assists.

spk_0 And then if I get rebounds, which he is the greatest little offensive rebounder

spk_0 in the history of rebound or any rebounder for that matter,

spk_0 then you might, you have triple doubles.

spk_0 And he did something I thought I'd never see.

spk_0 He averaged a triple double, not just for one year.

spk_0 He did it for four times.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 On Kai's and on stream recently, I think LeBron, he gave like a long speech at the end.

spk_0 And I think one of the things he said is like,

spk_0 people that haven't been in those situations themselves have, have no right to speak.

spk_0 You were tapped into the Kai stream.

spk_0 No, I clad the quote from LeBron.

spk_0 Yeah, I think so.

spk_0 I think he said people that have never been in that position.

spk_0 Don't pay attention to them and they don't have any right to speak on those situations.

spk_0 What's your like response to that?

spk_0 I know enough to know that I do my homework.

spk_0 And I know his game very well.

spk_0 And he doesn't have to listen to me nor do any of you guys have to listen to me.

spk_0 But I dare you to show me I'm wrong because I'm not.

spk_0 So I studied it.

spk_0 I watch it closely.

spk_0 I talk to people who know lots of basketball.

spk_0 And I was blessed enough that I did get to know Michael Jordan.

spk_0 And I did get to know Phil Jackson.

spk_0 And I did get to know Jerry Kraus who built those bulls.

spk_0 And I was in Dallas for a long time with really good coaches and really good players.

spk_0 And I just know what I'm talking about.

spk_0 And you can go other than your list of the top five

spk_0 all time.

spk_0 I get it's the old it's like the Teddy Roosevelt quote the old president who said,

spk_0 you know, I want to be the man in the arena.

spk_0 I don't want to be the guy up in the stands sitting and watching.

spk_0 And I get that.

spk_0 But if you want somebody who will speak the truth who's not involved,

spk_0 then I'm your man.

spk_0 I feel like if LeBron like wish you happy birthday or showed you some love you be a LeBron fan.

spk_0 No, I would.

spk_0 Why is he passionate about the hatred towards him?

spk_0 We're going with what he said.

spk_0 He was in Miami and was on I think Dan LeBotard's radio show.

spk_0 And he said, um,

spk_0 this way back.

spk_0 What was his first year there?

spk_0 20 let's see,

spk_0 the early 2011 12.

spk_0 I think it's right in there.

spk_0 Anyway, it's just when he first got to Miami.

spk_0 And he said skip is like my Howard Cocelle to Muhammad Ali.

spk_0 Now this is probably before all your time.

spk_0 Do you remember Howard Cocelle at all?

spk_0 Nobody I remember.

spk_0 Nope, nope, nope.

spk_0 Boy, once upon a time Howard was it in broadcasting.

spk_0 Because he was a bit of a win bag loudmouth who had outrageous takes.

spk_0 But he was on Monday night football as the commentator for many, many years.

spk_0 And seemed to do every big sports event, world series, big Muhammad Ali fights.

spk_0 So Howard had a little banter thing going with Ali.

spk_0 He would interview him before and after fights.

spk_0 And Howard was pretty wacky and crazy.

spk_0 But but Muhammad got a kick out of him.

spk_0 So he played the game with him.

spk_0 They played along and they had good banter.

spk_0 So LeBron was trying to compare himself to Ali,

spk_0 which he's not in the same ballpark with Ali.

spk_0 Who's when I was growing up, he was my all time favorite athlete times 100.

spk_0 And I don't like the Howard Cocelle comparison.

spk_0 But again, LeBron is saying I get a kick out of it at that point.

spk_0 I don't know if he still gets a kick out of it.

spk_0 But I'm proud to say I don't know him.

spk_0 You know, so I didn't I don't sell out because I liken.

spk_0 I just tell you the unvarnished truth about him.

spk_0 You guys have never had an interaction.

spk_0 No, if you had to sit down and interview with him.

spk_0 What's like the first question you asked LeBron?

spk_0 Why didn't you work on your free throws 22 years ago?

spk_0 That's what I would ask.

spk_0 I don't think I would open with that.

spk_0 That would be kind of an awkward opening question.

spk_0 But that would be one that I would definitely get to fairly quickly.

spk_0 I would like to know that because it's an unguarded shot from 15 feet,

spk_0 uncontested, and it's called a free throw because it's free.

spk_0 It's actually free and it counts a whole point.

spk_0 And if you just keep making, as Jordan did, 84% or as Larry Bird and Magic did 90%,

spk_0 the points just keep adding up.

spk_0 But to your point, both your points, despite that,

spk_0 despite being a 73% free throw shooter, which is pathetic by his superstar stand,

spk_0 it's pathetic.

spk_0 And outrageously, he should be taken to task for that and no one ever brings it up except me.

spk_0 But to the point, he's the all-time leading scorer in the history of the national basketball

spk_0 association because he is the most durable human being who ever played any sport.

spk_0 I've never seen anything like it before.

spk_0 It's longevity.

spk_0 He has lasted longer.

spk_0 We're to 23 years.

spk_0 23 years?

spk_0 It's a long gap.

spk_0 And I just saw today in USA Today, they did their preseason player ranking for the NBA.

spk_0 Top 10.

spk_0 LeBron was eighth on the list.

spk_0 I don't have a problem with that because he is.

spk_0 And Luca was fourth on the list.

spk_0 Who's won?

spk_0 Joker.

spk_0 Oh, of course.

spk_0 Joker was won.

spk_0 If Luca is fourth, I'm fine with that.

spk_0 In fact, if you told me Luca was one, I'd say, oh, okay, okay, I get it.

spk_0 But if LeBron at age 40 is still on the top 10, which is extraordinary, it's impossible.

spk_0 It's never happened.

spk_0 This is longevity.

spk_0 That doesn't make him the goat.

spk_0 I'm just saying no one has ever been able to stay healthy enough.

spk_0 And spirited enough.

spk_0 You got to still love it, man, because you still have to pay the price of flying all over the

spk_0 country, if not the world, to play basketball.

spk_0 And he's still got the fire to play basketball.

spk_0 Well, most, most guys, the fire burns out because there's just too much crap that goes along with it.

spk_0 So I give him all the longevity power that he has.

spk_0 But those two guys combined after they played together for about half a year

spk_0 to lose the first round of the playoffs to the Timberwolves in five games after it was one to

spk_0 one after two games.

spk_0 So what happened in the last three games?

spk_0 We'll go look at it.

spk_0 If you have time, and I won't bore you with this, go look at the fourth quarter stats

spk_0 from games three, four, and five, or just this past playoffs first round

spk_0 against the Timberwolves.

spk_0 And tell me what you don't see.

spk_0 What you don't see is LeBron was awful.

spk_0 And so was Luca.

spk_0 They combined to be disastrous, where neither of them could make a shot or make anything happen.

spk_0 And all three of those games were highly winnable.

spk_0 It was close or a point or two, one way or the other going to the fourth quarter.

spk_0 And LeBron did what LeBron typically does, which is disappear in the fourth quarter.

spk_0 He did it three straight games.

spk_0 And Luca joined him, which surprised me because to me,

spk_0 Luca can be pretty clutch as we saw in the previous playoffs run when he got the Mavericks to

spk_0 the finals.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 So it was, we got all the way to year 22.

spk_0 And as great as LeBron is, he's still not showing up in the fourth quarter.

spk_0 And if you look back at his lake run, he's been disastrous in the fourth quarter.

spk_0 Do you remember the Denver series?

spk_0 You seem to really follow it closely.

spk_0 Do you remember going back two years ago?

spk_0 Here's a go.

spk_0 Western college finals.

spk_0 Denver, nuggets.

spk_0 Now they're on the way to winning a championship.

spk_0 I give you this.

spk_0 There were four straight games.

spk_0 They lost all four in which they were right there going to the fourth quarter.

spk_0 And once again, LeBron through the combined, the composite four quarters shot seven of 23 from three.

spk_0 And they crumbled because he was so bad shooting the basketball.

spk_0 And then remember the closeout game at Staples or maybe it was crypto by then.

spk_0 But the closeout game, LeBron had two chances to tie the game in the final 10 seconds and

spk_0 miss the rim with both shots.

spk_0 Both shots.

spk_0 They were contested, but he missed the rim twice.

spk_0 And I'm like, that's horrendously bad.

spk_0 This is actually the scoreback now three years ago.

spk_0 So LeBron has a long history of fourth quarter flam outs, which is why I have him ninth.

spk_0 Because all those other guys on my list trust me.

spk_0 I want the ball in all their hands when it matters the most.

spk_0 That's my criteria.

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spk_0 Let's get back into the podcast.

spk_0 How much bigger do you think your career has gotten by having this take towards the

spk_0 Braun?

spk_0 I don't know. I honestly don't think that.

spk_0 Like, no.

spk_0 You know what? You're probably right.

spk_0 If you step back from it, that became a thing for me.

spk_0 That became a mantra.

spk_0 I'm anti-Lebron. People think I hate LeBron.

spk_0 I don't hate him. In fact, I've always said he's actually, he's too nice a guy.

spk_0 I like him from a distance.

spk_0 And again, I don't know him.

spk_0 But I like the way he carries himself.

spk_0 I think he's a really good father.

spk_0 I do.

spk_0 I think he did a really good job raising both the kids from what I can see from the outside.

spk_0 And especially, Bronnie.

spk_0 Bronnie seems like a really good level headed kid who grew up with serious money

spk_0 and as you know, that usually won't work.

spk_0 That's what we're talking about.

spk_0 Imagine how tough it would be to be LeBron James.

spk_0 Oh, gosh.

spk_0 So much pressure and the money on top of it, where you could say, screw this.

spk_0 I'm going to go do my other thing.

spk_0 You know, I don't need to try to follow my dad's footsteps, right?

spk_0 So I like him.

spk_0 Alive.

spk_0 But nice guys.

spk_0 There used to be an expression in baseball.

spk_0 Nice guys finish last.

spk_0 Well, nice guys aren't clutch.

spk_0 Like he's such a good guy that you got to be a cold blooded killer.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 There's this thing.

spk_0 I feel you.

spk_0 Those champions.

spk_0 Listen, I got to know Jordan.

spk_0 Not an ice guy.

spk_0 Trust me.

spk_0 Just as cold blooded, when it came to winning basketball games,

spk_0 do not get in his way or he will slit your throat.

spk_0 That's who he was.

spk_0 And that trickled into off the court too.

spk_0 Where he just wasn't.

spk_0 I was around him.

spk_0 I know.

spk_0 And he actually liked me.

spk_0 But the point is,

spk_0 you're right about,

spk_0 has that become my stamp?

spk_0 You know, oh, he's the one.

spk_0 I'm not a LeBron Hader.

spk_0 I'm a truth teller.

spk_0 I just tell the truth about him.

spk_0 And is that one of my things?

spk_0 I like the Dallas Cowboys.

spk_0 That's been a big thing for me.

spk_0 But I grew up a cowboy fan.

spk_0 So it wasn't fake.

spk_0 From a time I was 10 years old,

spk_0 I'm addicted to a fault to the Dallas Cowboys.

spk_0 So that became one of my,

spk_0 what's a cool interaction you've had that you could tell us with MJ.

spk_0 I wrote about this in the Chicago Tribune.

spk_0 He hated Bulls Management.

spk_0 He especially hated the General Manager, Jerry Kraus, who he thought was a fool.

spk_0 And I don't think Jerry Kraus was a fool.

spk_0 But Michael hated him because Michael always had to have somebody to hate.

spk_0 If you didn't deserve it, he still hated you.

spk_0 You know, he was going to make it up if he had to.

spk_0 I hate him.

spk_0 I'm going to get him.

spk_0 I'm going to make him pay.

spk_0 And because they would not keep his head coach, Phil Jackson,

spk_0 because they wanted him out.

spk_0 Jerry Reinstrowth, the owner, even recently told me,

spk_0 will Phil just want it out.

spk_0 And I never heard that.

spk_0 And I don't know that for a fact.

spk_0 I didn't get that.

spk_0 But if you watched the last dance documentary,

spk_0 it's 1998 Chicago.

spk_0 Again, I'm right in the middle of it.

spk_0 Michael flat out quit.

spk_0 And he was at the back end of his prime.

spk_0 He was 35 years of age.

spk_0 He quit on principle because they wouldn't bring back Phil Jackson.

spk_0 And wanted to replace him with a college coach.

spk_0 And I'm Tim Floyd from Iowa State.

spk_0 And Michael said, okay, watch this.

spk_0 I'm walking into the sunset.

spk_0 And he stayed gone for three years of his prime.

spk_0 From 35 to age 38, he didn't play basketball,

spk_0 which I thought was the biggest waste of talent in the history of all the sports.

spk_0 So he had just retired.

spk_0 He's playing in a program because he fashioned himself.

spk_0 He deluded himself into believing he could play pro golf.

spk_0 And he's just, he's good, but not that.

spk_0 You know, like he's good.

spk_0 Like I can occasionally be good, but not that good.

spk_0 So he's playing a pro am and he saw him and he waved me under the ropes and said, come

spk_0 walk with me.

spk_0 And he's walking and he had his drive in a fairway bunker.

spk_0 Do you guys play golf?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 All right.

spk_0 He hits his drive.

spk_0 250-ish into the right fairway bunker.

spk_0 And these are hard shots, man, because it's a par five and he's got 300 left in the green.

spk_0 And he pulls out his three wooden.

spk_0 I'm like, damn, are you really going to do this?

spk_0 You, you, you get to try this because I wouldn't try that out of the sand.

spk_0 I would think I could get the club underneath the golf ball and get it airborne out of the sand.

spk_0 Just hit the lip of the bunker.

spk_0 You're going to hit the words.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 It's the word I did it yesterday.

spk_0 I can save you sometimes.

spk_0 Lip of the bunker.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Sometimes it was like roll out to the fairway, but sometimes most of the time I'll just come back to it.

spk_0 I hate the thud that of, of, you know, you hear it.

spk_0 I heard it yesterday where it, it's off your club and you hear an immediate thud.

spk_0 Into the lip and it's just like excruciating.

spk_0 You know, it's great though when you're in the fairway bunker and like,

spk_0 you're playing like a best ball or scramble and everyone thinks you're counted out.

spk_0 A nice fairway bunker shot when you hit the green and regulation.

spk_0 Oh, Lord.

spk_0 It's one of the greatest feelings and when you just nip the ball,

spk_0 it's perfectly out of the fairway bunker.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Just earth or that feeling is when you can't get out of the sand and ever it's walking you.

spk_0 Like three times.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 I totally agree.

spk_0 So,

spk_0 and he might take us three wooden.

spk_0 I said, how are you going to do that?

spk_0 And he said, I'm going to imagine this golf ball has Jerry Krasse's face on it.

spk_0 So that was cool to make his in Chicago at that time for me to write that was huge.

spk_0 And then my other favorite Jordan was

spk_0 they're playing Indiana in the conference finals Reggie Miller.

spk_0 They're it's a really good Indiana team that pushed them to the bring to the limit.

spk_0 Took seven games in Chicago.

spk_0 So we're at Indiana.

spk_0 And they let us in the media in just as practice had ended.

spk_0 And Jordan is shooting free throws for money with several teammates.

spk_0 And he has a blindfold on and he's shooting left handed.

spk_0 I witnessed this.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 And it was down to the last shot and he's going again.

spk_0 Did he have it down a little bit where he could peak or something?

spk_0 I don't think so because I saw a blindfold and I saw him shoot left handed when he's right handed.

spk_0 And he switched it and all the guys watching just fell on the floor.

spk_0 Like that's impossible.

spk_0 And he did it to win however much because he was big money better.

spk_0 You know, big, big gambling.

spk_0 And then the final Jordan that I also witnessed was there was a kid whose name is going to skate me.

spk_0 I look it up and then I can't remember because he never did anything.

spk_0 He was from Oregon State and the bulls after Jordan retired

spk_0 took him at the bottom of the first round because obviously they had won the championship

spk_0 so they had the last pick.

spk_0 I'll think of him in a little bit.

spk_0 But on draft night he said my only regret is that Mike retired and I can't take him one on one

spk_0 and practice.

spk_0 And I read it like, that's not it.

spk_0 That's not a good thing to say.

spk_0 So they start the next year about a month into the season.

spk_0 I happen to be at the Berthos Center where they practiced.

spk_0 And Jordan shows up in sweats.

spk_0 And I'm like, what are you doing?

spk_0 He says I have a score to sell.

spk_0 I said, really?

spk_0 I said, do you know Tim?

spk_0 He said, no, I never met Tim.

spk_0 So he walks out on the floor, introduce himself to the new coach of the bulls Tim Floyd

spk_0 and says, I want him one on one right now.

spk_0 And we're like, seriously?

spk_0 So he unzips and the kids horrified.

spk_0 He's he's he's saucer.

spk_0 Like Jordan has showed up.

spk_0 Like God has come back from the dead.

spk_0 You know, this is yeah.

spk_0 And and he wants to play me.

spk_0 And I tried to keep scored.

spk_0 They played I think to 20 by single basket.

spk_0 Whatever wherever you shot it, you just got one point.

spk_0 And he beat him 20 to five.

spk_0 And it was devastating to watch because it felt like it went on for three hours.

spk_0 And and that was just that's the guy who is by far the greatest player ever.

spk_0 That was co-blooded killer.

spk_0 I'm going to come back and I'm not even in shape because I haven't been playing.

spk_0 And I'm going to annihilate him in front.

spk_0 He wanted us to see it to shut that kid's mouth who should have been irrelevant to him

spk_0 way beneath his dignity.

spk_0 That's Michael Jeffrey Jordan that I got to know.

spk_0 Then he just naturally loves to win, right?

spk_0 He's a psycho winner.

spk_0 You still hear that he loves to gamble with golf a lot, right?

spk_0 Yeah, and I'm sure he's lost more than he's won.

spk_0 That's my my gut feeling on that because you think you guys know golf?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 I think it's scary out there.

spk_0 It just it's the one game.

spk_0 It's the hardest game or how to make gambling golf is the finest thing.

spk_0 It's the finest thing.

spk_0 Yeah, because anybody can get lucky in any moment and hit a three wood out of the

spk_0 fairway bunker, 250 yards and have a 15 foot eagle pot.

spk_0 What's your game like?

spk_0 What's your handicap?

spk_0 I'm a 12.

spk_0 I'm right in there.

spk_0 But you should do a full-seng golf video of us.

spk_0 I should because if I make some pots, I can play.

spk_0 And some days I can break 80 and I cannot break 90.

spk_0 We're kind of like a head case out there.

spk_0 I'm a total head case.

spk_0 I got that live full of tests.

spk_0 She's sitting over here.

spk_0 She won't go with me.

spk_0 She used to ride with me occasionally and she just said, I can't do this anymore.

spk_0 When did you start golf?

spk_0 I was 14.

spk_0 Or to also like wow.

spk_0 Self-taught.

spk_0 Got all kinds of issues in my swing and I still try to fix them.

spk_0 I had my first lesson like six months ago and it was a nightmare.

spk_0 Like it messed me up way more than that.

spk_0 Yeah, lessons can fuck you up.

spk_0 I hate when they try to change your grip.

spk_0 Going to football, I mean, oh, what do you think about Shadour's situation right now in Cleveland

spk_0 and how you like went mute?

spk_0 It's the biggest travesty in the history of the National Football League.

spk_0 I believe in Shadour.

spk_0 I believe he was raised to be a franchise quarterback in the National Football League.

spk_0 And he has a natural feel for playing the hardest position in sports.

spk_0 And you can't teach that or coach it.

spk_0 He grew up around superstars and he just has a manner about him where he knows he can play.

spk_0 And what he did at Jackson State and then two years at Colorado was extraordinary.

spk_0 And against long odds.

spk_0 And he took a beating the last two years at Colorado and there's another spoiled rich kid.

spk_0 He's as tough as any college quarterback I ever saw.

spk_0 He took beatings and kept jumping right up and completing another pass.

spk_0 Remember the hit at KU?

spk_0 The guy who was low on it.

spk_0 Yes, it was crazy.

spk_0 It was just crazy.

spk_0 He's just, he's deadly accurate.

spk_0 He has poise and command and just feel for making it happen.

spk_0 And he should have been the first overall pick.

spk_0 A camword struggling at Tennessee.

spk_0 I promise you Shadour wouldn't be struggling at Tennessee the way camword is.

spk_0 I liked camword.

spk_0 I love Shadour.

spk_0 So I fully expected he'd be the first pick or maybe the fourth pick or the fifth or sixth.

spk_0 There's somebody like when the giants passed him and after they trade,

spk_0 I thought they traded up for Shadour and they took Jackson dark.

spk_0 God bless you.

spk_0 And Jackson dark's pretty good.

spk_0 Shadour's really good.

spk_0 And the NFL decided to teach both son and father a lesson.

spk_0 We don't do it the way you guys do it.

spk_0 We don't have DJs in the locker room before the game and at half time as Colorado does.

spk_0 We don't drive three exotic cars before we even get drafted into this league.

spk_0 We don't want the highest paid college player ever.

spk_0 And we don't want arrogant and brazen and outspoken the way you are Shadour.

spk_0 That's not how we do business up here.

spk_0 So you think that was an NFL not decision?

spk_0 He dropped six fifth brown six.

spk_0

spk_0 Yeah, like that's I'm not saying.

spk_0 Yeah, I mean, that's pretty obvious.

spk_0 I think that was.

spk_0 I'm sure they wanted to try to make an example out of them.

spk_0 You know, I mean, like the so the organization told all the teams.

spk_0 I don't know.

spk_0 I don't know specifically about.

spk_0 So fifth round.

spk_0 He had his team interviews.

spk_0 Yeah, they didn't go the way that he wanted them to go on the team start talking

spk_0 and the word spreads that you know, he has an attitude problem.

spk_0 And then I think this was yeah, making an example out of him.

spk_0 I'm not saying there was a memo about that.

spk_0 Like a league wide memo.

spk_0 It's just they're all in cahoots.

spk_0 They all talk.

spk_0 It's the good old boy network.

spk_0 And they're like, we're out.

spk_0 We're out.

spk_0 Just don't don't don't.

spk_0 And the word spread.

spk_0 And once he dropped through the first round,

spk_0 then they're like sheep think and it's like,

spk_0 no, don't.

spk_0 Let's punish.

spk_0 Let it blame fall.

spk_0 Let him fall.

spk_0 And I know this league got the biggest kick out of him

spk_0 falling to a team that clearly he and Deon did not want originally

spk_0 because you wouldn't want to be stuck in Cleveland.

spk_0 If you could be the first pick in the draft,

spk_0 you don't want that.

spk_0 And for him to be stuck in Cleveland as the fourth string quarterback

spk_0 after they had taken Dylan Gabriel 50 slots higher.

spk_0 Another quarterback from Oregon via Oklahoma.

spk_0 50 slots higher.

spk_0 50.

spk_0 Then Shadour went early in the fifth round.

spk_0 And I'm still convinced the owner of the Brown stepped in.

spk_0 Jimmy Haslam and just said, okay, that's enough.

spk_0 I want him.

spk_0 The coach hates him.

spk_0 The GM had no, no business.

spk_0 He wanted no part of Shadour Sanders.

spk_0 But the owner said, it'll be a good publicity splash

spk_0 for our organization that is in dire need of some positive publicity.

spk_0 And yet he's stuck.

spk_0 I mean, they had Kenny picket.

spk_0 So they traded him.

spk_0 And so that cleared one spot.

spk_0 But my god, they're, they're, they went to camp with

spk_0 seven quarterbacks.

spk_0 And I'm like, they're just trying to, to shame him.

spk_0 And the, the shame was the NFL that they should be so ashamed of themselves.

spk_0 Because he can play.

spk_0 And if he ever gets his chance, god willing,

spk_0 he will seize it and make them all look like fools when he gets his shot.

spk_0 And he just went through a situation where

spk_0 they finally said enough of the guy called Flucco Joe Flacco.

spk_0 I know he's been great in the postseason, but

spk_0 in the regular season, he's Flucco.

spk_0 And so they try to go with him at age 40 in its disaster.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Can we say that Cleveland Browns is the worst organization out there?

spk_0 They're just, it's fucking worse.

spk_0 What do you, do you think he's going to play this here?

spk_0 Once they

spk_0 demoted Flucco, I thought, okay, does that maybe open the door?

spk_0 Because they're going to go with Dylan Gabriel.

spk_0 Like, have a game in London.

spk_0 And okay, you go with Dylan Gabriel

spk_0 for five games or six games.

spk_0 And surely you're going to lose almost all of them if not all of them.

spk_0 And at some point,

spk_0 Gives should do a four more.

spk_0 Give him the bottom of the schedule.

spk_0 Give him a chance to show you

spk_0 because he got his chance flukishly

spk_0 to start the preseason and game number one.

spk_0 He got shot when they all got hurt.

spk_0 Nobody could go.

spk_0 And he balled out.

spk_0 You can say, oh, it's just the preseason.

spk_0 But you could see him on stage.

spk_0 If you give him a shot, he's going to seize his opportunity.

spk_0 So I'm just ashamed of the league for this.

spk_0 And I'm hoping he gets somewhere because see, they wouldn't even

spk_0 promote him to second team.

spk_0 They said flakos second.

spk_0 Just what?

spk_0 Flakos second team.

spk_0 That's crazy.

spk_0 I know.

spk_0 It's embarrassing.

spk_0 But they're, they're a clown show.

spk_0 And so then should do her,

spk_0 tried to clown the clown show when he was asking.

spk_0 He was.

spk_0 And he, he went.

spk_0 They said he was like a mind,

spk_0 but minds don't mouth words.

spk_0 They, you know, he, he just

spk_0 mouthed his answers without using his voice,

spk_0 which was funny.

spk_0 But I hated it only for him because now he's giving

spk_0 him a reason not to give me.

spk_0 Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Now the good old boy net worthings you see.

spk_0 That's, that's, that's what we don't want.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 What do you think?

spk_0 So it would have been better if he's just like,

spk_0 I respect the coach's decision.

spk_0 I support the team.

spk_0 James Wenson route.

spk_0 Give me a chance and I'll

spk_0 I'll take it.

spk_0 You know, I'll be ready when I get my chance.

spk_0 That's all you need to say at this point.

spk_0 Because at some point you do have to play their game to get the chance.

spk_0 And then when you get your chance,

spk_0 you see capitalizing.

spk_0 But Rex Ryan the other day on ESPN has been a few days back.

spk_0 But he said he was criticizing Shadour and said,

spk_0 you need to get your ass in the front row and study,

spk_0 you know, front row of the meeting rooms.

spk_0 Well, he does study.

spk_0 Like that's good old boy perception of this kid, you know,

spk_0 with the DJ in the locker room and the exotic cars.

spk_0 And he's got the cyber truck and he's, you know, that's,

spk_0 that's the white guy view of Shadour.

spk_0 That's dismissing him as he he doesn't study.

spk_0 He doesn't care.

spk_0 He doesn't take this seriously enough.

spk_0 Yeah, he does.

spk_0 Just giving the chance and watch what starts happening.

spk_0 So I wanted somebody to trade for him at the deadline because

spk_0 they were desperate for quarterback.

spk_0 And when he went mine or whatever you want to call that,

spk_0 you know, then he gives them an excuse to say, well, maybe,

spk_0 maybe we shouldn't do this, you know, maybe,

spk_0 maybe this kid's just unculturable or whatever you want to dismiss him as.

spk_0 So I don't know, I lost a lot of respect for the NFL on Shadour because

spk_0 inevitably somewhere somebody's going to give him a shot because this league is always

spk_0 desperate for a quarterback here or there.

spk_0 And when he gets it,

spk_0 you better be ready because he will be

spk_0 fucking enough.

spk_0 And then they chose bad bunny as the halftime performance too.

spk_0 What's your take on that?

spk_0 Okay, I don't follow his work enough.

spk_0 I do think, okay, that sucks.

spk_0 I, what's that?

spk_0 He sucks.

spk_0 Does he?

spk_0 I don't like his music.

spk_0 You don't like his music.

spk_0 He's super successful.

spk_0 I don't know enough to not like.

spk_0 He could probably steal any girl I ever date too,

spk_0 but like, I just don't like his music.

spk_0 He's probably the biggest artist in the world.

spk_0 He's huge.

spk_0 Oh, what do you need?

spk_0 Most downloaded.

spk_0 Yeah, he's put in an old massive.

spk_0 Okay, I just don't like his music.

spk_0 Okay, but it's all Spanish, right?

spk_0 Yeah, I can't understand it.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Just, you know, okay, I, I don't

spk_0 in what was it?

spk_0 Happy Gilmore too.

spk_0 I did think he was,

spk_0 was very, did you watch it?

spk_0 Yeah, more to.

spk_0 Yeah, I thought he was good in that.

spk_0 But that was the first time I ever like focused on him

spk_0 because I had no choice because he's in the movie I'm watching.

spk_0 But he kind of played the waiter, caddy.

spk_0 And I thought he was pretty good at it at that.

spk_0 So that's you guys know way more about him or I think you do than,

spk_0 than I do.

spk_0 Going back to the NBA, I do want to ask you is

spk_0 Nikko Yokich.

spk_0 No one ever talks about him as a top 10 player ever.

spk_0 Well, like USA, they put him one.

spk_0 So well, no, I mean his like of all time.

spk_0 Okay, yeah, yeah.

spk_0 And I'm wondering why like this is why I stopped watching ESPN

spk_0 because one of the analysts said he's not a top 20 player of all time.

spk_0 And it's just like, dude, why would I educate myself with your takes?

spk_0 Okay, so like a dumbass.

spk_0 That's fair.

spk_0 I do have a hard time with current players.

spk_0 Like I need to make sure what their body of work becomes.

spk_0 But he's a three time VP.

spk_0 He's the most gifted big man we've ever seen.

spk_0 All all around because

spk_0 he's better at passing the basketball than a lot of point guards.

spk_0 For sure.

spk_0 Like serious pure point guards.

spk_0 And he can shoot the three ball.

spk_0 He can shoot the three ball and we'll make big threes.

spk_0 Yeah, big moments.

spk_0 Yeah, I don't disagree.

spk_0 So at some point as he gets later in his career,

spk_0 I'm going to have to keep revisiting my top 10 because Durant's going to make

spk_0 a case for my top 10 as will Joker as will step.

spk_0 I don't have stuff on my top 10.

spk_0 And at some point, I have to

spk_0 accept their body of work as enough to qualify.

spk_0 So I just don't yet because they don't seem finished to me.

spk_0 Like Kevin keeps talking to me.

spk_0 He wants to play five more years.

spk_0 Heck, LeBron, I'm not going to be surprised if LeBron doesn't play

spk_0 at least two more years, at least.

spk_0 The Lakers don't want him.

spk_0 The Lakers have said we're done.

spk_0 Where would you like to see LeBron at?

spk_0 I think he would like to retire LeBron and he was

spk_0 miffed obviously according to his agent that they would not extend him when they

spk_0 extended Luca, who's 14 years younger.

spk_0 Would you have rather seen LeBron on a small market team

spk_0 before going to LeBron?

spk_0 Would you have rather seen him in like a, like in Houston or some time?

spk_0 I remember there was rumblings about that before he went to LA.

spk_0 There have been rumblings with him about every city in America.

spk_0 Well, seriously.

spk_0 The big market teams like New York, you know, LA, but you know, Houston wasn't such a big.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 You know, would you have like to see him like play for a team like that?

spk_0 No, something special.

spk_0 No, but I would like to see him as a Nick.

spk_0 I just would because you got to play the palace.

spk_0 You know, you got to play the garden.

spk_0 You got you got to do that.

spk_0 And I'd like to see a year of that at least.

spk_0 Who's one player you would have like to see LeBron play with?

spk_0 Like with?

spk_0 Yeah, like out of like any player in that NBA history, you think he would do well with on a team.

spk_0 Well, Jordan, like yeah, yeah, but okay, because Jordan could teach him a lot.

spk_0 Jordan could show him the way.

spk_0 He could feast off Jordan's energy, you know, his drive.

spk_0 LeBron doesn't have that.

spk_0 He doesn't have killer in him.

spk_0 And it'd be interesting to see if that would rub off on him.

spk_0 But what are the odds?

spk_0 You know, like that's just crazy.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 What did you make of him confronting Steven A at the Lakers game?

spk_0 And I'm afraid are you afraid to go to the Lakers game now?

spk_0 I'm seriously not.

spk_0 And I would be I would welcome him to confront me because I would give it right back to him.

spk_0 But I thought it was Bush league on LeBron's part because he ambushed him in a

spk_0 there was a dead ball situation.

spk_0 I think the game was going on right.

spk_0 It wasn't at halftime.

spk_0 I think it was a dead ball where there's just a moment

spk_0 pausing the action and he went over and said,

spk_0 keep my son's name out of your mouth or something to that.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 And it was an ambush a hit and run like LeBron's chase down block.

spk_0 In that game seven, we talked about at Oracle when Kyrie made the last shot.

spk_0 And he had the historical chase down.

spk_0 And I said, well, that's an ambush block, right?

spk_0 That's a blind side ambush where he's coming full speed.

spk_0 Wait, sir, taking that away from him.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Because the best block in history.

spk_0 Seriously?

spk_0 Yeah, 100% with the what was going on in the game.

spk_0 Okay, but think about this.

spk_0 Wait, how can you argue that?

spk_0 That's probably the best defensive NBA play I've ever chased on block.

spk_0 Allow me to argue that.

spk_0 Please.

spk_0 Okay, here's man.

spk_0 That's that was insane, especially the greatest play ever.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Oh, so what what happens on the fly?

spk_0 Iga Dala has a break away and he's thinking he's going to dunk it because if he's going to

spk_0 dunk it, LeBron's not going to block it.

spk_0 LeBron's going to have to foul him if he dunks it.

spk_0 And at the last second, J.R. Smith cuts across the path of Iga Dala.

spk_0 Go look at the play.

spk_0 Tell me I'm wrong about this cuts across the path.

spk_0 And Iga Dala has to hesitate and go half step for a second and

spk_0 recalibrate.

spk_0 Oh, wait a second.

spk_0 I'm out of step now.

spk_0 So I can't dunk it.

spk_0 I'm going to have to lay it up.

spk_0 If J.R. Smith doesn't cut across and assist LeBron by slowing down Iga Dala,

spk_0 well, go look at it.

spk_0 That's what we're going to do.

spk_0 No, this is the guy's true.

spk_0 It's not only the guy's true.

spk_0 He didn't give it on the play.

spk_0 He came across the court and saved the game.

spk_0 It doesn't matter what I said.

spk_0 A man's block.

spk_0 Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

spk_0 A man's block is face to face.

spk_0 Will you just go up and make somebody eat the basketball, right?

spk_0 But did he get all the seal, LeBron?

spk_0 Did he see him come?

spk_0 No, no, no.

spk_0 That's what I said.

spk_0 No, no.

spk_0 He came across the court.

spk_0 It's a chase down ambush.

spk_0 It's a blind side ambush.

spk_0 Like, okay, you want that?

spk_0 You're going to say that's the greatest block ever.

spk_0 I give you what was going on in the game.

spk_0 Sure.

spk_0 You guys are just like you guys are just wide-eyed blind.

spk_0 No, you're saying you're saying like you want to see a guy stop somebody at the rim.

spk_0 Your boy T.O.

spk_0 Wait, wait, didn't.

spk_0 Bronzoff, the other at the rim.

spk_0 Yeah, wait.

spk_0 And you love T.O.

spk_0 And he stuffed his ass at the rim.

spk_0 I jump higher than T.O.

spk_0 Go.

spk_0 Oh, I do.

spk_0 I do.

spk_0 He's a big guy.

spk_0 He stuffed his ass at the rim.

spk_0 He's 6'11 and can't jump a lick.

spk_0 He can't jump higher than a football.

spk_0 Yeah, that's good.

spk_0 Yeah, yeah.

spk_0 Aw, yeah.

spk_0 Are you guys like LeBron?

spk_0 No, I go.

spk_0 I go.

spk_0 We love LeBron.

spk_0 I think.

spk_0 Do you do what we do?

spk_0 We grew up with him.

spk_0 Like, you grew up with Jordan.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Do you stalk him or do you?

spk_0 It seems like you do.

spk_0 Now, I watch basketball.

spk_0 Did he own real senior head, you think?

spk_0 A little bit.

spk_0 Oh, none.

spk_0 I own him to his head.

spk_0 Right?

spk_0 Yeah, you might do.

spk_0 I do.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 That's a lay.

spk_0 So I educated you fine.

spk_0 You learned something.

spk_0 What do you like about doing your podcast now

spk_0 versus like being on ESPN business-wise?

spk_0 I did get back into the flow about a month ago.

spk_0 I'm doing a show with Gilbert Arena's

spk_0 on underdog called Arena Gridiron.

spk_0 And Gilles obviously, a three-time NBA All-Star

spk_0 who wants to get into the NFL business.

spk_0 And we have a number of players

spk_0 starting with my guy, Akid Talib.

spk_0 And I'm back into the flow of doing what I always did.

spk_0 It's NFL-driven Arena Gridiron.

spk_0 We're on YouTube if you would allow me a quick vlog.

spk_0 Of course.

spk_0 On the Arena YouTube channel.

spk_0 And it has taken off.

spk_0 Should knock on some wood here somewhere.

spk_0 And I'm back into the debate mode against ex-players

spk_0 who did play the game that I did not play.

spk_0 And I live for that.

spk_0 I relish it.

spk_0 I feed off that because the two games I know

spk_0 are the NBA and the NFL.

spk_0 And I am re-energized with them in a way

spk_0 that's very different from my own podcast

spk_0 that on my own podcast,

spk_0 it's me flying solo and it's done very well.

spk_0 But I found that I do feed off someone else's this.

spk_0 I love you guys coming hard back at me.

spk_0 And if you'll be okay with me coming hard back at you.

spk_0 It's fun.

spk_0 I love it.

spk_0 It's what guys do, it's what everybody does.

spk_0 And so the only thing I've missed in my podcast

spk_0 is just I fly solo occasionally I do interviews.

spk_0 And I love that and I've branched out

spk_0 and I've done a number of interviews

spk_0 with people I know well like Ice Cube and Billy Bob Thornton.

spk_0 So I do some entertainment interviews.

spk_0 And I'm good at that.

spk_0 I like that.

spk_0 And I like to delve into people's psyches just one on one.

spk_0 But I have missed this dynamic.

spk_0 And so I am loving this dynamic back on Arena Grid Iron.

spk_0 That's awesome.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 A lot of these athletes like Jeff Teeck

spk_0 talking about the stories you never get to hear.

spk_0 I don't want to be over it.

spk_0 But Jeff Teeck is a great job too.

spk_0 He is doing a great job.

spk_0 So he is.

spk_0 Yeah. I agree.

spk_0 What was your like most intense moment you think

spk_0 being on ESPN?

spk_0 And Stephen A. and I used to get into it.

spk_0 I guess it would be my Richard Sherman moment

spk_0 and I wound up working with Richard Sherman.

spk_0 But as a way is back I think 2012.

spk_0 We were doing.

spk_0 Yeah, we saw that clip.

spk_0 Did you see it?

spk_0 I've been earlier.

spk_0 Wait, what the?

spk_0 Where he calls me.

spk_0 Where he says it's better than you?

spk_0 Yeah, it's better than you.

spk_0 Yeah, that was a lot.

spk_0

spk_0 1000, so here's a quick,

spk_0 that's funny.

spk_0 Under side of that story.

spk_0 So Stephen A. and I are on first take

spk_0 in the mornings, Eastern time from 10 to noon.

spk_0 And it's doing well.

spk_0 We had some issues.

spk_0 Some people got suspended.

spk_0 I didn't, but some people did.

spk_0 And we were kind of on probation for a while.

spk_0 And we got through our probation successfully.

spk_0 And then they said, okay, let's try you guys out.

spk_0 Audition you for an afternoon show

spk_0 because Stephen A. hated getting up in the morning.

spk_0 He was always up late at games.

spk_0 So he said, we got to do this

spk_0 because maybe we can get in the afternoon block

spk_0 as a half hour hour show as opposed to two hours.

spk_0 Okay, I'm with you.

spk_0 I'll try.

spk_0 Let's try this.

spk_0 So we were on a two month probation period in the afternoon

spk_0 where we were just auditioning

spk_0 and we do a half hour a day on top of the two hours

spk_0 in the morning.

spk_0 We go eat lunch and throw together another run down

spk_0 and just do a half hour.

spk_0 We are to our second to last show.

spk_0 We're almost home and we're getting rave reviews

spk_0 up on the fifth floor from management

spk_0 for our afternoon show.

spk_0 And we're thinking we got this.

spk_0 Richard Sherman's people call and say he would love

spk_0 to be on the afternoon show.

spk_0 Would you like him?

spk_0 Well, sure.

spk_0 It's short.

spk_0 It's only like 22 minutes of television

spk_0 with the commercials.

spk_0 But if we could have him off the top of the show,

spk_0 we could take him for a segment and do 10-ish minutes.

spk_0 And fine, okay, let's do this.

spk_0 And Richard's people told my producer no controversy.

spk_0 He'd been involved in several controversy.

spk_0 He went after Tom Brady and again,

spk_0 they won up in Seattle and you liked that bro.

spk_0 I forget what it was.

spk_0 I know you mad bro.

spk_0 That was the question he asked Tom.

spk_0 You mad bro and he was needling Tom through the whole game,

spk_0 whatever.

spk_0 And yet the people told me,

spk_0 he don't want to be challenged.

spk_0 Just let him talk ball off season.

spk_0 This is in March.

spk_0 You know, like it's not even in the season.

spk_0 Fine.

spk_0 And so he's sitting down to get mic'd up

spk_0 and we come on live and I'm looking at the monitor

spk_0 thinking, wait a second, he's not ready.

spk_0 And my producer says in my ear, vamp,

spk_0 you know, like do something cause we're gonna go right to Richard.

spk_0 We're in tight TV blocks with, you know,

spk_0 this is all different.

spk_0 We don't have to worry about.

spk_0 It's not live.

spk_0 It's a 30 minute slot, wasn't it?

spk_0 I think it was from 230 to 330 Eastern time.

spk_0 Okay, so Richard's, he's got his earpiece in

spk_0 but they're putting the rest of the gear on

spk_0 and they come to me and I don't know what possessed me

spk_0 but I said I'm looking forward to talking to Richard Schumann.

spk_0 I think he's about to arrive

spk_0 but he's still not better than Daryl Revis

spk_0 because he, at that point Revis was just,

spk_0 I don't know if you guys remember Daryl Revis.

spk_0 Yeah, Daryl Revis was alive.

spk_0 Yeah, like, you know, like he was,

spk_0 we remember him.

spk_0 He was the man in Champ Bailey.

spk_0 That you could have made that case at that moment.

spk_0 Well, Richard hears this in his ear.

spk_0 He's not mic'd up and then he sits down

spk_0 and our moderator asking the first tame, you know,

spk_0 lame question.

spk_0 It's just some off-season football question

spk_0 and he attacks me.

spk_0 Now, think about what on the hot seat I'm sitting on

spk_0 because if I engage too hard with him

spk_0 and we have an incident,

spk_0 even though it became an incident, thanks to him,

spk_0 but if I respond in kind to him at that point

spk_0 and it blows up and becomes an ugly,

spk_0 so to speak, black eye for the network,

spk_0 then we're gonna lose our shot at having an afternoon show.

spk_0 We're gonna be back on probation.

spk_0 So for me, I tried to stay above the fray

spk_0 and kind of laugh along with it,

spk_0 but still go back at him and it was hard

spk_0 because I was biting my tongue and Stephen A

spk_0 wasn't even in studio, he was remote

spk_0 and he sort of went quiet because I think he was horrified.

spk_0 Like what?

spk_0 Up his face, his face.

spk_0 His face was hilarious.

spk_0

spk_0 Huh?

spk_0 And I kept waiting, I was hoping Stephen A saved me,

spk_0 you know, like jump in and you don't have to defend me,

spk_0 but maybe diffuse or whatever you could do.

spk_0 You seem like you held yourself.

spk_0 You've taken a tame part of your temper.

spk_0 I just tried to hang right in and be rational and reasonable

spk_0 and I tried to explain football wise

spk_0 that I don't think he's the best

spk_0 because he's got the two best safeties in pro football

spk_0 or behind him and the legion of boom.

spk_0 And he plays a lot of what's just cover two

spk_0 where he's got his little area to cover

spk_0 and he doesn't travel with receivers the way Reva does

spk_0 where you just, you've got him,

spk_0 you got their best receiver

spk_0 and wherever he lines up, you go with him.

spk_0 Like Richard just stays where he stayed.

spk_0 But Richard was really good

spk_0 and I worked with him at Fox two years ago.

spk_0 So I got to know him and we went through this whole thing

spk_0 and laughed it off, but he heard Revis is better than me

spk_0 and if you know Richard, he is hot tempered, you know,

spk_0 like he just explodes and he exploded on live TV.

spk_0 I also think he was kind of on a,

spk_0 I think I told him this on the air,

spk_0 like you're on a national campaign to make yourself a thing.

spk_0 You know, you're trying to speak yourself into existence.

spk_0 So I thought maybe he was challenging me, the big good.

spk_0 You know, I'm gonna go after Skip Bayless

spk_0 to create more of a name for himself

spk_0 and there may have been some of that going on

spk_0 and then Richard's performance carried him after a while

spk_0 and he's really good.

spk_0 He's gonna be in the hall of fame.

spk_0 He is that good.

spk_0 What did that moment teach you when you're alive

spk_0 and he catches you off guard like that?

spk_0 Remember, my mind's flying a thousand miles an hour

spk_0 because Stephen A. wants the afternoon slot

spk_0 and so now I have to recalibrate, how do I do this?

spk_0 How do I respond without provoking craziness?

spk_0 Because we're live now.

spk_0 This is not live to tape.

spk_0 This is live to live.

spk_0 This is, this is explosive because it's going to go out

spk_0 and remember this is Disney-owned ABC ESPN.

spk_0 And there'd be potential for a curse word,

spk_0 an F-bomb to fly, not for me,

spk_0 but for, you know, if I keep pushing back

spk_0 because Richard, I know him.

spk_0 He is volatile.

spk_0 He's had some other incidents in his personal life

spk_0 off the field life that have been volatile.

spk_0 And I don't know exactly what I'm dealing with at that point

spk_0 because I didn't know him.

spk_0 So I'm tiptoeing, but I'm not backing up.

spk_0 I'm tiptoeing forward

spk_0 and trying to hang in with him

spk_0 and not let him just run over me without provoking.

spk_0 And the funny part was of all the things I did

spk_0 and how many years was I there?

spk_0 I'll say 2004, 16, 12 years.

spk_0 I was there for 12 years.

spk_0 And all the things I ever did,

spk_0 I got more kudos from the bosses on the fifth floor

spk_0 over that than anything I ever did

spk_0 because I held my own without losing my temper.

spk_0 That's how they congratulated me.

spk_0

spk_0 So whatever.

spk_0 And we still didn't get the afternoon show

spk_0 after all that.

spk_0 I think this was awesome.

spk_0 All right, it was awesome.

spk_0 We'll put the new show link at the top of the description.

spk_0 Make sure everyone goes, check it out.

spk_0 I appreciate you, Grave.

spk_0 Thanks for having us.

spk_0 Thank you so much.

spk_0 I truly enjoyed it.

spk_0 Thank you.

spk_0 Skip Bayless.

Skip Bayless | Ep. 170

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