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On today's part of my take, we have a very special guest, Mike Breen, Legend of the game, awesome combo with him trying to get him do a triple bang at some point in the future. And speaking of Mike Breen, the NBA Finals are set. We're going to talk about our first impressions, Mavs versus Celtics. Also say goodbye to the Timberwolves and a hell of a run, but fall short in five. We got some hockey talk. I have some. I have some baseball topics for you. Pft. I'm going to throw you. I want your takes.

Bring them. I'm a seama head.

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Okay, let's go now. In the street there is violence and not a lot of stuff to be done no place to hang out or.

Washing and then I can't blame all.

On the sun oh no, we gonna rock it down to Electric Avenue and then we'll take it higher oh we.

Gonna wrap it down it's part of.

My take presented by Marshall Sports.

Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app now. Use code take. That's code take for new customers. Get a no sweat bet up to 1500 bucks if your first bet doesn't hit. Today is Friday, May 31, and we have an NBA Finals. The Dallas Mavericks versus the Boston Celtics. Hank is wearing his Boston remembers shirt with lucky stomping on Kyrie.

It's a JFK revenge series.

It is, and we're ready to go. The NBA Finals are set. We had a moment, so we obviously had a week with Memorial Day. We had a show on Tuesday. The Timberwolves won on Tuesday night, and then tonight they got eliminated. Credit to the Timberwolves for not getting swept. Anthony Edwards says he's never been swept in his career. He did also say, I've only been in three playoff series, so four playoff series. So he was kind of talking like a 20 year old, 20 year vet in the NBA. Yeah, but never been swept.

Never been swept. That's important. It's important to keep a clean sheet on the sweeps. Adam Silver, very happy that we at least got one more game.

A little closer.

It would have been weird if the series just ended on Tuesday night. Then we had to wait a very long time for the NBA Finals to start.

So still do.

We still do.

Still do.

It could have been worse. They called him Scott Foster. Uh, everyone was like, oh, Scott Foster, the extender. Uh, he tried to give that game to the mavericks on Tuesday. Tried his very best. Yes, his very damnedest, but, yeah, went five games. Timberwolves fans, Minnesota fans, I don't know if you're listening to this show. My guess is you probably are. I think Timberwolves fans are probably, they're very happy with how this season went. Obviously not happy with this series, but.

I'd say they're not happy right now.

But getting to a Western Conference final, if you look at perspective in the Giannis terms, it was a good, good season for you. Good year.

They lost to a team that they couldn't beat them.

Yeah, that's true. And also, if you're a Timberwolves fan, God bless you, because you are, you have to root for Carl Anthony Townsend. He must be so infuriating to root.

For some stat padding tonight.

I'm just saying he, he is probably the hardest player to, like, fully delude yourself into getting behind in the, Rudy Gobert's pretty fire, but also, they're on the same team. But, but I feel like you can be like Rudy. We don't expect anything from him on.

Offense, which was a weird strategy when they were like, let's, let's run the offense through Rudy in the first quarter. I think he had like six or seven shots.

We don't never see it coming.

Yeah.

But, yeah, Carl Anthony Towns, and to his credit, he played really, really well. In game four, he did. He had a great game for bounce back game. He could not be as bad as he's been in the past. And, yeah, he had that blip. That was his legacy game. Yep, it was game four. And then it's just so. It's so infuriating to see guy who's that big be so passive and also.

Like, cannot wipe a smile off his face. Yeah, I. I was saying this. I can't remember. I remember when I was saying this because it feels like all these weeks have just blend together. But when they show, like, going into break and they do the bumps and it's like, luca, like, staring at someone. Kyrie, like, crossover ant yelling in the crowd. And then they show Carl Anthony towns. It always looks like he's been practicing whatever he's doing for 20 minutes in the mirror right before they came out. Yeah, this is my pumped up face.

This is my three point, Dougie.

Yeah, he's kind of smiling and you're like, God damn it. Yeah, they were stat padding tonight. Also, the Timberwolves. You lost the game the minute you went with those jerseys.

Terrible jerseys.

Terrible.

You got the. You got the good classic one. Well, it's two things, max.

I saw your face. I. After I looked at him a little more. Max. Max can't speak. So when I sat down next to him to watch the game, he's like. I was like, yeah, the jerseys.

Yeah, jerseys are terrible.

That's exactly how it happened. He couldn't get it out. But I knew. I know his brain so well that when we flipped on the game, he just started making grunts. I was like, max, down, boy. I know the jerseys are different. Those are okay.

They're not back against the wall jerseys. No, those are game two jerseys. Yeah, bring those out. Game. Preferably game two on the road.

Where those uniforms really a game two of the season?

Yes.

In October.

That's a. That's a in season tournament jersey.

Yes.

That's what you should be wearing that for. And then they made their half court logo bigger, which is stupid. I like it when it's the only small logo in the league. Yeah, I like it. It stands out because it's so small. And they're falling into the trap that everybody else has been doing. I think we've talked about on the show, the half court logos are getting bigger so the announcers can be like, another logo three.

Another logo three. Hank, you want to just be. You know, I was saying before, we should maybe get some headphones for you, for the Luca glazing so you can put them on so you don't have to hear no bring.

It can be one of your last, last couple.

This game was over.

Get them in.

This game was over when Luka Doncic outscored the Timberwolves in the first quarter by himself. He could not miss. He was hitting shots and the net wasn't moving. He hit stathole, our guy. Stathole. Text me. He said that he had 165ft worth of shots in the first quarter.

That's so many feet.

Yeah. So that's it. Ties Steph Curry for most feet on shots made in first playoff games.

Huge in history.

Curry did it versus Boston in 2022.

I mean, that's incredible.

Those are the 2165ft of shots.

A lot of shots, Hank. A lot of feet.

So many feet.

You know how many.

Cool set.

You know how many feet the court is?

99.

I think it's 94, right?

Yeah.

94Ft. I know. Ball. Yeah, that's.

That's like.

That'S a court and a half worth of feet. It's pretty impressive.

That's a pretty impressive set also. Are you okay with the glazing? No.

Can again, like, you're not gonna have many left. I want you to get them in while you can.

The Tuesday, Tuesday nights game, I know the mavs lost, and it was. I do, like, put a little. What are you gonna say?

I'm just. I don't know how you're going to glaze Luca from. From Tuesday, but, yeah, I am.

Don't worry. I'm gonna land the plane. And I made fun of the pro.

That's a pro glazer.

That's a what?

No, no.

What? Go ahead. You're not getting upset.

Go ahead.

Jay Glazer.

Yeah, I'm pro glazer. Okay. I do give the Timberwolves a little bit of credit for not giving up because they gave up tonight, but they didn't get swept. Yeah. And I made fun of the Anthony Edwards quote, but I like, I like, I love Anthony Edwards, and I like how he's wired. And I actually think, in a weird way, he probably, at halftime was in game five being like, they still can't beat us down 30 or whatever. The Luca lob to Derek Jones was one of the coolest lobs I've ever seen. He threw an alley oop when Derrick Jones was still past the three point line. And it was like, the most. His lobs are just so precise. They lost the game, Hank. But you did. You do you know what lob I'm talking about?

And he had that kick out drive pass.

Oh, the kick out drive pass. That's going to go down as one of the best assists that will never show up. Yeah, because it was one of the best passes I've ever seen. Hit it off the back rim.

He threw a lob that Derek Jones was behind the three point line when he, when it released his hands or. Yeah, when Luco threw the, the ball and it was just a perfect, perfect pass. Lucas. Really good. Max. I mean, Hank, as you said, max.

He is a good player. They're a good team.

He did have a really good player.

He did have a heat check of a lob tonight, though. Yeah, he was feeling himself in the lobs a little bit. And he threw one that went. I think it went over the backboard. Yeah, it's a great lob.

It's a great lob. Great lob. All right. So that was my glazing of Luca. He is really fucking good.

Most feet in lobby, they had 20ft worth of lobs.

Hank's acting all cocky right now. He was watching that game un.

I wanted a good game.

I wanted to keep watching basketball. I don't want to wait.

This is pathetic.

It was.

You're afraid of Luca, though.

I'm not. I knew we're playing the Mavs. There was no doubt. My mind, we were playing the maps.

Yeah, but you saw what Luca did in the first quarter.

Back to fish.

And that was an embarrassing, disgusting performance in a elimination game from the Timberwolves.

Yeah, no, especially the second half when they sat padding. I agree, but it was also, the game was over because that's just unbiased, Luca. But you agree that the game was over when Luca came out and said, I'm going to beat the Timberwolves by myself in the first quarter.

I mean, the series was over when they went up three oh speaker zero.

Right. But that was when you go up 30 and then you lose game four, and then you go back to the other guy's gym and it's like, okay, if the t wolves come out hot here, we could have an interesting scenario. Luca basically shut that all down by himself. Was like, there's no, I'm giving you no hope. I'm giving you no chance. I'm gonna hit 165ft of shots. That's a lot of feet, Hank. Just say it's a lot of feet.

It's a lot of feet.

A lot of feet.

Who the fuck tracks feet, Jerry?

Who? But it's a lot of feet.

It's a lot of feet.

If there was. I will say that there.

I love Celtics getting triggered by him.

Yeah, you have the opposite of a foot fetish.

It's just. You're mad about that.

The Celtics almost did it last year and obviously it's never happened in the NBA. But when it does happen in the NBA, it will happen almost like it did last year. And I thought potentially maybe this year where it's going to be the home team. If the Timberwolves win tonight, they somehow win game six, they have home game seven.

Hanks very selective.

That's the.

He's very selective. That's the path in his opinions about feet because he does not like the feet stat. But all he thinks about is Kyrie Irving's feet on Lucky's face. You can't count 1ft and then not count the other. Do you not like feet? Is that why it didn't work out?

I've never been a fuck. I don't really understand the appeal, but.

165Ft, that's a lot of feet. A lot of feet. Hank, you bring up a good point that the 30 coming back, it's very, very hard to do. Never been done in the NBA. The only solace that I think Minnesota fans should have tonight, well, one is that you have Anthony Edwards and I don't know what Carl Anthony Towns, like Pft said, is maddening to root for. I don't.

I don't think there's a word to describe we need to figure out, like we needed to maybe invent a word like the Germans would do to describe Carl Anthony Towns and how frustrating it is to watch him if you're a fan of his and to see how aloof he is in the biggest moments.

Well, I also. Carl Anthony Towns is a self proclaimed best big man shooter of all time. I feel like you have to have post moves, like really good post moves to be able to say that, to claim that, right, you're just a tall shooter.

Otherwise he's just kind of like a chubby KD, right?

You're a tall shooter.

Yeah, that's it. But you're not a big man.

No.

There's a difference between being tall and being a big dude.

Back someone down in the post. But the solace for the, for the Timberwolves fans because this was a very fun season and it got a little crazy with the Anthony Edwards hype, which was not Anthony Edwards fault, not Timberwolves fans fault media. I took some blame for it as well. I fell in love with watching Anthony Edwards play basketball. This actually, in a weird way, you didn't have a classic Minnesota loss minus a classic Minnesota loss would have been winning game five and then, like, losing game six in a buzzer beater or something. So, like, not like. Yeah, because it wouldn't be classic Minnesota loss to get all the way to game seven. You can't get all the way there. But getting, like, a play away from being a game away.

I think if you get to game seven and you get blown out, like you did tonight, that's a Minnesota loss.

Yeah, but this was not a Minnesota loss, because it was like, you know, you had the moment, like, oh, we won one game. Who knows what's going to happen? And then it was just over.

It's just. The better team won.

Yeah, it was just over.

Well, that's it.

Anthony ever still doesn't know if they can beat him. That's.

Didn't get swept.

Didn't get swept. Kyrie also is playing insane basketball right now.

Kyrie's a great player.

Derek Lively is back, which is very important. I think he's their leader in plus minus. He's very important to their team. Chris stops back, way back.

He posted today, said, see you in the finals.

All right. Love that. All right, so let's talk about the finals.

Let's talk about.

Let's talk about the finals.

Can I glaze lucky real quick?

Yeah.

Yes, let me glaze lucky, please. All right. Kyrie Irving has lost his last ten games against Lucky and the sage.

Remember Sage?

He saged it. Yeah, but that sage didn't take.

Sage didn't take. Do you think he'll resage?

I think he should resage.

Oh, man.

I think he's gonna reset.

What will you do if he resages?

I mean, saging is, whatever, spiritual. I don't really have a problem with that.

But what would you do if he resages? Because that might be the sage that takes.

No, I mean, that's. It's.

I think you believe in that shit.

That's all for you like that.

This could be a mistake.

The only way to defeat Sage is with crystals.

Yep. You gotta give me the jerk off crystal.

You gotta get some crooked re.

We could reese right back.

Oh, yeah. Get some sage for the gambling cave.

A few sages. I will.

Hank, are you going. Are you gonna be on. On the wood at any point in this series?

I don't think so. I don't think Dave's inviting me. But even going to the games, a schedule does not line up great for anything.

So you couldn't even sage if you wanted to.

We'll see.

I mean, we'll see. I gotta. I got a. The schedule sucks for me, going. Being able to go to a game, which I'm sure everyone was wondering, number one. Yeah. I'm sure everyone was curious, like, how. How that was gonna factor in. And that's the answer.

What about in a week?

Oh, it's not good for that either. Until, like, game six. Game in game three.

Work.

I guess Dave said it. We're going to the Brady. We got invited by the Patriots to Brady's retirement ceremony. It's. It's fucking in the middle of game four.

What?

Or game three.

Wednesday, June 12. Is game three Friday the 14th?

Yeah. Why would the world. Because they try to do 612 for Brady, I guess.

And weren't they in the middle of the day?

That's what I thought it was until today.

It's at night, according to.

Yeah, I was listening to Kirk and Dave on the name show, and Kirk was like, it's at night. It supposed to end in 930, which.

I guess it in.

It's at Foxborough.

So you'd be with the lighthouse.

Yeah.

Oh, that's nice. Yeah.

That's nice. A good consolation prize.

Yeah. That's huge.

Tom Brady. Bad sports town, those Brady shop on the jumbotron. You should move it.

Yeah, I'm cur. I don't know what they're. I'm. I'm curious what they're gonna do. I thought it was just like a day ceremony, being a suite. I don't know.

If you're in a suite, then you're fine.

I don't know what Mister Crafts got in store for us.

You said a lot of bad things about the dynasty.

Yeah.

Be a shame if Mister Kraft got ahold of that before you were his personal guest. What were you saying about him getting jerked off?

I. Nothing.

Oh.

Do you think. You think Joe Missoula's jiu jitsu instructor is just.

I said it, not you. Hank. Hank loves Mister Kraft.

What do you think? Well, I'm not gonna say it again. All right. I said, you think Joe Missoula and Giselle have the same jiu jitsu person? Oh, it's possible.

It is possible. What are you going? What is it?

612.

What is it?

It is Tom Brady's retirement ceremony. And who invite induction into the hall of fame? Well, not me personally.

He should invite you for Brady.

For were invited.

Yeah.

You went to. You went to prison for him.

I saw what the EPA finals did. They dropped those charges, by the way, in. In Florida.

Yeah. No, no, for. No. That one, Hank. When Hank got arrested.

Oh.

Oh, yeah.

Drop those.

Yes.

Six months, no bad behavior.

Nice. Nice. Hank, how are you feeling? I. I'll say this right now. I have to look into this series some more.

I have to crunch and say that for a month.

Well, the series hasn't started you. I'm gonna look into some series, but I'll give you my gut knee jerk prediction, which I will not be held to because I'm going to give my final prediction when we have Racilla on next week. My gut knee jerk is Celtics in seven.

I think it's Celtics in six.

That's my gut knee jerk.

I think it's going to be, it's going to be a role player series. I think it's going to come down to, you know, our demons will start, obviously stop Kyrie and Luca as much as they can. They're going to make them, you know, pass the ball. And their guys have been hitting shots all playoffs if they in. But it's going to be the same for us. It's going to be, you know, I.

Also think this weirdly, we have a.

Better, we have a better. The way we have better role play.

The way Lucas been playing, the way Kyrie's been playing. I think this is weirdly like Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, like they are going to step up to the challenge because this is the ultimate challenge of these two guys. And Luca, especially, being anointed the number one guy.

They know Kyrie.

They've, they.

Jalen Brown has played Kyrie. He knows. He knows his game. He knows what he's got to do. They, you know, match up in practice for years.

Wouldn't, could you say the same, though?

Oh, he didn't think about that.

Yeah. Because Jalen doesn't, like, sometimes it takes a while for people to realize he can't dribble left.

Yeah, but it's Jalen neutralizing Kyrie is better for the Celtics than Kyrie neutralizing. Celtics have Celtics, like, that's, if that's, if they neutralize each other, then the Celtics come out on top.

Yeah, I think the Celtics have a better, like, depth and, and Drew Holiday is going to be important in this series.

Drew Holiday in Porzingis, that's the biggest difference. That's what makes me feel much better about this series, even though I felt pretty good against the warriors. But Drew Holiday and Porzingis just make, you know, are going to be the reason we win the.

What's your knee jerk gut reaction?

My gut reaction is Celtics in five.

Love.

Oh, love it.

I think so. I'm a bigger Celtics fan than Hank is, I guess.

Yeah, he said, because, like, I was.

Thinking about our role players, and I actually think that they're. I would say that Jalen over cancels out Kyrie.

Max just put up his hand.

I disagree.

What do you disagree with Max? What do you think?

I think that this is going to be a very close series. It's going to come down to very tight games at the end. And one team has two guys that have proven to be excellent closers against very good teams in this playoffs. And the Celtics have looked a little iffy.

I mean, that doesn't sound like Max came back.

We were down in the fourth quarter in three games in the Eastern Conference final.

Pacers.

They made it to the Eastern Conference finals, Max.

Yeah.

Playing against four teams who didn't have their best player.

You know what Celtics.

And for, I mean, listen, the. The Mavericks, like, you can't debate.

Like, did the Celtics close. You said that they did better closer to the Celtics. Close those games or not, fact or fiction.

One of the Patriots just gave them the game.

Okay. Literally wasn't so, like, if a closer comes in and makes no.

Yes.

But it's.

You can't watch those games and you watch the Mavericks and you see what Kyrie and Luca did and hit incredible shots against, like, all odds to win those games.

What about when the Celtics were down three with. Didn't have the ball with 8 seconds left and won the fucking game?

The pacer.

Talk about. Got it, got it. Nothing to do with Jalen Brown. Nothing to do with the Celtics. Just threw them the ball.

The Pacers lost that game.

But if Jalen Brown misses the shot.

Correct. That's a good. That's a good shot.

I think the harder you work, the luckier you get. How about that? And one team has lucky on their side.

Yeah.

That's the fucking Boston Celtics. To me, this is. This is lucky legacy. Lucky Legacy series.

I said it Tuesday, though. You can't, you can't ding the Celtics for who they play when they've been. They lost two games.

They're the best team in the NBA. What about the regular season, Max? Does that matter? Did they just play tomato cans then, too?

You.

I mean, I've heard you say, but.

With that said, hank, you have to say, like, when someone says, who's been more tested in these playoffs? The Mavericks have been more tested, for sure. So it's. It's a fascinating series because it basically is like, if you. If you take who the Celtics have played and you're like, will they be up for the Mavericks test? There's a chance like, oh, shit, they're nowhere near the Mavericks. I don't think that's what's going to happen. But it's like, the stakes for your happiness are so wild right now. Yeah. Because you could either win a championship or you could get absolutely clowned on the Internet.

And that's why, Max, something you, you'll never understand. Like, you just have to go all in. I'm not, I'm not going to be scared. I'm not going to be worried about it.

Disagree with that. Matt goes all. Every time. He goes every time. I will disagree with that. He goes in all that. He goes to all in, like, he needs to step back. Like, bro, take a step back. He was. Look, he was. He looks ridiculous.

I'm looking at game six right now. Game six, NBA finals, if necessary, Thursday, June 20, in Dallas, Texas. Hank, what do you think that could be a closeout game.

Yeah, that, well, that's. They're all show recording days. Like, that's where it's like, I don't want to, you know.

You don't want to, Rob, ask for a vacation.

No, I'm not talking about vacation. I say anything about vacation.

Where's game set? When's game seven?

I don't have that in front of me right now, but I do know that game six, I think game seven.

Game five is Monday, and 20. Fucking insane.

Will be at the beer Olympics.

You.

Hell, yes.

I'm so pumped you that one.

You could go to Dallas and do the show.

Oh, you're. Oh, that one. You were gonna go to game seven.

Well, I mean, beer went by.

No, I'm talking about game six.

Yeah. Okay. Down.

Under certain circumstances, there's a certain person.

That'S not gonna like hearing this. What? I have a lot of confidence in your trivia team.

Oh, my God.

Oh, that's.

That would be so fucked.

You guys are about to go on a magical run. Yeah. Yeah. Games.

Yeah.

We're also Vegas. You won't go to Vegas. Less for beer olympics.

I'll come Monday.

You're backing out? Sounds like we.

For the show.

You just said I could go to Dallas, but I can't go to Boston.

I think there's more content to be had in Dallas.

That's true.

Also, we. You could go. That would be hilarious if you won the NBA finals while we were in Vegas, and you could just do like a one man, like, party.

Go to Hawkinson probably fly out that actually.

Yeah. Ooh. They definitely would. They'd probably be there.

We're not getting ahead of ourselves. We're not. We're focused on game one.

We're focused on game one directly to Vegas that night. They might.

Maybe. They do, like, month. They usually go after the parade, so you have to stay in Vegas. You can stay in Vegas. Are we getting ahead of ourselves?

No, I don't think so. I think this is appropriate. It's cocky, Hank.

I don't give a fuck.

Yeah.

If the Celt. If the Celtics said now that the happiness thing is true of the Celtics, lose this championship, like, it's gonna be embarrassing. Just retire from the Internet for the summer, probably until the next basketball season.

Wait, so you'll just go silent when your team loses?

Oh, gotcha.

Well, they're talking about the podcast, Max, which is my job.

Not just silent Max. He's going deaf, too. He's not gonna hear or say blind.

They're talking about actually speaking words. You're talking about social media, which is not part of my job.

Yes. It is.

Not my personal.

Yes, it is. 100%.

Is it 100% screaming back here?

They track that.

They track that. When you ask us to, you know, retweet the documentary.

I I didn't ask that.

I will if you dunk.

I'm just so excited.

Okay.

So I'm excited to see Hank with so much on the line. That's going to be a real.

It really is. Because. Because if the Celtics have been tested along the way in the eastern conference finals, again, not their fault. And you get to the finals, like, oh, man, they lost this. Everyone. There are so many people who are entrenched with, like, the Celtics are not good, and the Mavs are way better. Like, so if that ends up being the case, you just have to just sit there and be like, well, I'm embarrassed.

I'm pretty sure. I mean, you tell me you guys are unbiased more than me, but it feels like the general public. It's like 80 20 maps or just not Celtics.

Yeah, because the Mavericks.

I don't know.

No one wants the Celtics to win it.

What do you think first line get? Whose line is anyway?

I think Celtics minus three and a half is my.

Maybe like, five. See, I think they're. I think. I think once we get to it, what is it?

Six.

See, I think the Celtics, as weird as the Eastern Conference playoffs, have looked because of all the injuries.

Wow.

All teams going down, like, Celtics are still a fucking awesome team. They. This is a very even series. Yeah, I have it.

Celtics and seven with Mavericks. It's like, luca is so fucking good. You can't deny how good he is. He's just the top of his game, at the top of the league, and he's also a dick. So a lot of people, they appreciate him for how good he is, but they're also like, I wish he didn't scream at everybody all the time.

Although it was awesome when he screamed at that fan tonight saying, yeah, who's crying now, motherfucker?

Yeah, it was great. It was great.

But.

But it's not like they're America's sweetheart.

No, but if you pulled the general public, who do you think they would choose?

I don't. Pretty close.

Yeah, I don't think. I don't think you're right on that. Oh, yeah.

I mean, I'm biased.

I mean.

No, but I'm saying as a fan, like a rooting interest. Like a fan just.

Yeah, rooting it.

Oh, yeah.

I'm not talking about, like, maybe they're gonna win, but, like, they want to win.

I think it's probably close.

You're. You're two and a half points off on that line.

Yeah.

Too much respect. I've been listening to fucking glazed doughnuts over here.

I've been glazing on straight glazing. Luca should be allowed.

No, I know, but I've been. The glazing has infiltrate got in my hair and, like, it's got in my ear and it's made me think that the baths are maybe. Are better than they are.

You got luca come in your ear?

Yeah.

Get you towel.

I also, it would be funny if the. If the Celtics win this. We said this a couple, maybe last week, but the Lakers would have lost to the maximum amount of teams.

Yeah.

Which would be very funny because they all Lakers fans were like, the Nuggets were the only team that could beat us as a bad matchup. Lost to the Nuggets. Nuggets lost the Wolves. Wolves lost the Mavs. Mavs lose the Celtics. It's just a domino. They had so many teams better than.

I have a very serious question about this. If the Celtics win.

Yeah. Vegas for sure.

If the Celtics win, does Blake Griffin get a ring?

No.

I would say no.

You don't think so?

I have a very serious answer. Why?

Because everybody want him on the team this year.

Right. I would love for him to get a ring, but I don't think Blake would take it.

I think they should give him one.

I don't think that would be a pity ring?

Yeah, they should give him one.

Was he in preseason camp?

He should go to a game. Yeah, you should get him to a game.

All you can.

If you can get Blake to a game and he. Your lot and he allows you to sit on his lap during the game, you can go and all the games.

Okay.

Okay.

But you have to wear, like, a Blake Griffin jersey, and you have to sit, like, have a pacifier and have the announcers think that you're his son.

You have to be like, Deuce Griffin. Is that Jason Tatum son's name? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Deuce Griffin.

Deuce Griffin. Just walking around. It's high five in players. We get, like, headbands signed. Yeah.

Get on the court before the game and shoot around, running around.

You got to put. You got to put little. You got to put sneakers on your knees and walk around on your knees.

The whole time and be, like, sprinting but never dribbling the ball on the court.

Do it right. Now let me see. You could take off your shoes and put, put. Put your knees into your shoes. Can you. Do you have this angle?

I think you could pull it off.

This is the best NBA preview for finals preview of all time. Just saying that right now. We're going to have Racillo on next week. Yeah, yeah.

There's dudes.

You get to go to every finals game. Deuce.

I just know that I like to ride with her guys, on this show. Blake. Blake is rooting for the Celtics. He is a Celtic right now in spirit. And we've got. We got white, we've got Pritchard. And I like Joe Missoula, so I.

I'm basing this all off, although Jason Kidd has been on the show.

That's very true.

Yeah. I'm basing this just all off of. There's no heart or, like, any. It's just brain. I think the Celtics are the better team in a seven game series. I just.

Same, same.

Yeah. All right. We'll find out. I'm gonna crunch more data, though, so that's. Again, don't. That's my knee jerk. It could even go. It goes, celtics in six. I go, celtics in five. I go, mavs in seven. I got to decide. I'm not excited.

I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm not gonna say I'm nervous.

One strategy. I actually. The one only betting strategy I think I have for this is I think I'm just gonna bet whoever loses game one, because I do think it's gonna go seven.

Yeah.

No matter who loses game one, I'm just gonna bet that they're gonna trade games back.

And there are enough really good players on both sides where it's like you can't count either team out. I'm just going on vibes right now. I'm going with my heart, not my. Not my head. Yeah, and also, Joe Mazzula said that the Celtics are weaponizing time. That's how they're spending this. This off week football guy weaponizing time. They're on some DARPA shit right now.

Dragon Ball Z.

What is that? I was trying to think of what it meant to weapon. I think it just means, like, practicing.

Rabel did it to Belichick weapons.

He did? Yeah, he stole time from him.

Stole time. This is. Yeah. What's that, uh. What's that confusing movie the Christopher Nolan made?

Tenant.

Interstellar ten.

Interstellar. No, tenant. No. Was it. No, it's tenant the most. No, before that.

Tenet.

Nope.

Tenet was the weird one.

There was another one.

Tenet.

Not interstellar.

Memento.

No, that is also time.

Kind of.

Well, the guy had interstellar inception.

Inception.

Oh, that's dream.

He's weaponizing dreams, but memento as well. Missoula definitely weaponizes.

Dream tenant is weaponizing time.

I never saw it, so I can't speak again.

This is great. NBA preview.

Which Chris or Nolan movie is most like?

The Boston Celtics.

Okay. All right, well, we'll change sports before we do that. Coors light, the beer of the summer. Shout out to the people who are ride or die fans. Despite multiple losses or bad draft picks, choosing a chill mindset makes the day to day better. Life too short to get worked up over small stuff. Choose chill and then reach for a Coors light instead. When you embrace a chill mindset, it's a good time to choose chill and crack open a Coors light. Coors light is mountain cold refreshment crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Hank, do you have a coarse light over there? Can you crack it? Can you crack it into the. To the mic? Listen to this, folks. That was incredible.

Hank passed me one of those.

That was incredible. So Corsla's mountain cold refreshment crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Wait. Oh, yeah.

Quick trigger.

Awesome. When you chill out, life gets better. Choose chill and then reach for a Coors, like. Get coors, like, delivered straight to your door with Instacart by going to Coors light.com. take beer this summer. Send us your. It's going to. It's Friday. You're listening to us. It's Friday. Send us your blue mountains on your cans and your bottles in your coolers. We love coors light. We'll retweet those because we love coors light so much. Have a coors light this weekend. We're also brought to you by friends at the farmer's dog. The days are warmer, the walks are longer, and one easy way to help your dog shine this season is with fresh, healthy food from the farmer's dog. The farmer's dog makes real fresh dog food and delivers it right to your door. Recipes are developed by vet nutritionists, made from real meat and veggies and portioned just for your dog, making it easy to say goodbye to burnt brown balls and feed your dog real food with real benefits. It's smart, healthy pet food. You can feel good about feeding your pup. It's the best option for dogs of all life stages because not kibble, it's not can goo.

It's real healthy food. The farmers dog isnt just healthy, high quality food. They also send the food pre proportioned specifically especially for your dog based on their unique needs. Ive been using farmers dog for a very long time with Stella. She loves it. Dogs at a healthy weight can live up to two and a half years longer than overweight dogs. You want your dog to live forever? Well, farmers dog can get you a little closer to that. So get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food@thefarmersdog.com. pMT plus you get free shipping. Just go to the farmers dog.com PMt to get 50% off. That's the farmersdog.com pmt. The farmers dog.com PmT. Okay, should we talk some other sports?

Let's talk football.

Yeah.

Hard knocks.

Yeah.

Chicago bears.

Yeah.

Windy City.

Yeah.

Caleb Williams.

Yeah.

Matt Dweeber waits.

Yes. Lakeshore Drive.

Excited for that.

Yeah. The lakeshore drive in the opening montage is gonna be great. The shot of Lake Michigan.

Yep.

Sears tower pan outs.

First time it's ever had it in the Bears franchise. We all kind of assume this is gonna be the case because hard knocks has these rules where if you are a playoff team, you can't do it. If you, which is like all the interesting team.

I think it, I think it was originally, if you're a playoff team, you can choose to not do it.

Right.

They ask you, they also, then no team wants to do it.

If you have a new head coach, you can't do it.

Mm hmm.

So I think that the decision was basically like the Giants, the Saints and the Bears.

I have a theory. Do you think that the Bears didn't fire Matt Eberfluss because they wanted hard knocks?

Mmm. No.

You don't think so?

No, I do not. I don't think any team wants hard knocks. I mean, maybe I listen for one pick. I'm excited to watch the hard knocks.

Bears try and get the new stadium. Yeah.

By the way, I think the lawmakers in Illinois have gone on vacation for the rest of the summer. Shadow Hank. So the stadiums, like, like, I will figure it out later. Is never getting built. There's a small. I'm very excited for hard knocks for the bears. I think it's be awesome. There's a small part of me that's worried that hard knocks might taint all the success the bears have had these last few years.

Yeah.

Like, this could go south.

Yeah. People are gonna get pumped for these bears, though.

Oh, yeah, it is. I mean, I'm already. There's nothing hard knocks can do that I won't already be thinking in my.

Head, I can't wait for the fashion episode with Caleb Williams. They're definitely gonna go out to, like, some designer stores around for a day.

Him and Roma Doon's a being. Best friends.

Already have him try some stuff on for the cameras. Yeah. Little catwalk.

Yep.

That's gonna be good.

Ryan polls getting to work at, like, four in the morning, which I respect. Hardworking guy. Genius. Yeah. I'm excited.

You should be.

I'm very excited.

Should be. But you should also be very wary of the fact that hard knocks makes us amped up for any team.

Oh, no. Pft. I'm so scared that I might be, like, way over.

No, no.

Going into September, and then they don't do well. When has that ever.

Not you, not you. Everybody else having the expectation, like, they already are.

They're already, like, over eight and a.

Half win total in seasons past with the Bears. You've been pumped up for the Bears, but everybody else has been like, maybe pump the brakes a little bit this time. Everyone's going to be like, bears, bears, bears.

You do realize there's literally nothing that can happen in this course of hard knocks and then the season that hasn't already happened to me. Like, what? What's the worst thing that could happen? I become a laughing stock of the Internet. Oh, welcome to every football season.

Yeah, I'm just saying. Hard knocks.

Yeah, that's why. That's why. It's like I'm at the point where it's like, what? I have nothing to lose. The only thing I could lose is just going back to where I've been.

It does give your enemies more ammunition. In terms of memes.

They have all of it.

In terms of things to bring up.

Pft, they have the stats.

I know.

3000 yard or passer.

Listen, I'm 30 are going to be good. I'm excited for hard knocks. They're a fun team. Their offense seems like they're incredible. Their defense seems like they're on definitely the right track on their way to being an elite defense. So I'm high on the bears, but I also don't want to see you get crushed.

That's a lie. That's a fucking lie. One everyone in this room wants see me get crushed. Everyone who's watching this wants to see me get crushed. That's a lie. I root.

I root way harder. Everybody else's teams, you're. You're the team that I root the most for. Out of all the teams that I.

Want to see lose, I think that's. I reciprocate that. The two I. There's nothing amazing what's gonna happen? People like, oh, I'm gonna get crushed. I've been flattened so many times, I'm in. I'm. Those compressor videos. Yeah. Rock, by the way. They are very like, squash a candle.

Yeah, we got to get on some oddly satisfying stuff on this show. Yeah, on the socials.

Yeah, I watched one where?

In my algorithm, I'll start sending over my algorithms.

Just tits and. And just tits. I was thinking what else it is. But it's not even food.

No, it's not even any dogs.

I think I've just basically curated. Just tits. The. They shave soap bars. You ever watch that one? Yeah, that one rocks.

But cleaning rugs?

Yeah, like rugs.

Biggest waste of water I've ever seen.

Have you watched.

But I watch them all.

Have you watched the lawnmower guy who just shows up for random people's houses? He is the best guy.

Unclogging drains.

All the drains. Dude, I have two drains in my back patio and I have. I won't clean up the back patio just because every time it rains, it gets clogged and I can just scoop it and I'll put it, like, right next to the drain just so I can watch it.

Yeah, the leaves. Yeah, the leaves and all the gunk in there. Yeah, yeah. The lawn mowing videos are very satisfying. Are you talking about the dude that just shows up to people's houses that don't have lawnmowers and does it for him, it's like, that guy rocks.

Or it's like a person has passed away and let.

Yeah.

So they'll go to the neighbor and be like, hey, can I clean this up?

Yeah.

Is our hard knocks preview. Well, they're on some good tangents right there. I'm having a great show.

There's definitely gonna be a grass cutting scene.

Yeah, yeah.

At the beginning of hard knocks, the.

Smell, the sprinkler, so many drone shots of the lake in the river.

Yeah, yeah. Listen, I'm gonna be excited to watch it. And again, team's gonna go the.

The Sears Tower, 360 tower.

What's the bonding?

Or whatever the fuck the will is. Hancock, the Hank.

It's the Willis. But it's always the Sears tower to me. They're gonna go on that. That they might be over words.

The bears, although they've. No, I think they've been back at Bourbon A. They don't do it at house anymore because of COVID They were doing it like everyone was doing at their facilities.

Oh, slow mo hot dog shots.

Yeah. I'm excited. I'm very excited. I. There's really nothing that could hurt me more than I've already been hurt. And I say that, and obviously, I'm gonna get, like, way more hurt. But come on. Like, save this. You. You guys know. You guys know how this.

It is porn. I would like. I would like to experience at some point, like, being a commanders fan, getting to watch the full documentary.

Right.

On my own team.

Right. Maybe you'll get the in season.

I might get the in season. Yeah. But nobody watches the in season.

And they did the offseason with the Giants.

Giants, yeah. So we're gonna see, like, free agency and draft.

Why doesn't every team just do this now? Also?

A lot of them do.

Also, we're gonna get, you know, episode three where we stop watching. I'll keep watching, but America will stop watching, because that is what happens now with hard knock. Yeah.

After the preseason starts.

Yeah. Okay, I have. Oh, we should talk some hockey. Oh, actually, wait, one more football topic. Memes. He doesn't look old. What are you. What are you talking.

I know what you're gonna say.

What? No, I was not gonna say that. Who are you talking about? Up.

You.

You know who I'm talking about. Who are you talking about? Aaron rogers. Oh. Is there a video out? There's a video. It was blister maintenance. Prevention.

What?

That's what Pat McAfee said. Okay. And how did he look running around? He looked fun. Oh, I thought he kind of was hobbling a little. Yeah.

Just got taped up.

So you're not worried? Not worried. Okay, great.

I mean, he looked, he looked really good last offseason. We saw with that got him.

Yeah, that's true. And he's also, he's young.

Maybe the secret is to just not be able to run away from defensive lineman.

Mm hmm.

Just get hit.

This is mean. This is mean. Memes, this, this video, you, what you watching? You got bothered?

I got a little bothered cuz people.

Just kept tagging me. Yeah, but it was the non achilles foot. I don't think the, look, the blister maintenance means nothing to me. It's him running around looking like he's 50 years old. Like he looks. That little hobble. Is that a blister? All right, it's a blister. It's just a blister, guys.

Might be Covid toe, might be Covid time. I don't know what that is.

But yeah, he was also, he was examining his feet a little bit.

We're talking about Aaron Rodgers hasn't picked up, but yeah, he looked.

Was that who that is?

Yeah, that is Rogers.

I don't know.

He's looking at his blister maintenance. Okay. He's gonna drop back, pitch it and then. Okay.

Oh, a little ginger.

Little ginger. Little ginger. Okay.

Well, Andy dome.

Yeah, ginger. We should talk hockey, though.

Let's talk teams.

This is the nice part of the show for you. The Panthers take a three two lead win at the Mecca. You have to feel like you're, you're, it's over.

I don't feel like it's over yet.

Feel like it's going seven, but.

Well, you literally just asked me before this show, it's got to be over.

It's got to be yet. Memes is in incredible prices mode with the Rangers being this close to a Stanley cup final. He, I walked in like, maybe at like seven, I don't know, 45. And the big tv was hockey and there was no basketball. And I was like, hey, can we put the basketball game on? He goes, oh, I totally forgot that there's a basketball game tonight.

He's so invested. I think he roots harder for the Rangers to lose than he does for the Islanders to win.

Correct.

Which I respect. That's a, it's a pure hater move.

Absolutely. Yeah. So, memes, it's over. I don't think it's over. So what is your analysis for the Rangers ability to come back here? I would like the Rangers to win game six. What?

What?

And then lose in historic fashion.

This is bad.

Me. Oh, that's a really.

You got to make this a must, right? Got to make this a must lose.

Playing with fire.

It's a must lose. You and Max are just two sides of the same coin. You don't understand. Must wins, must lose.

Panthers muscle in game six.

There you go. It gets it.

Yeah.

And then the Oilers. That was an incredible comeback. I know. There wasn't. It was only two goal lead, but it was more how fast they went from down 20 to two two, and then how fast they went two two to four two. And it was a gut check moment for the Oilers because they lost game three at home. Crowds amped up so loud. Game four, they come out flat. It's like, uh oh, this series is over. And Conor McDavid, turns out he's really goddamn good, even if he's not scoring goals.

Yeah.

He might be injured.

He's a good facilitator. You think he's got lower body?

No. People are saying. I was. I was reading some of my own Twitter replies saying that Conor McDavid might have something going on with his wrists, and that's why he's not shooting as much. And a little Adam Banks situation. Hold this stick and rotate upper body. And he got. He got screwed with that shot. That should have gone in the goalie stick was just sitting there.

Yeah. Yeah, he did. He did. I'm rooting for Edmonton to get to the final. I would like to see Edmonton and Florida.

Yeah. People will say we're anti Dallas. I was. I've been. Hank, am I anti Dallas?

God, no.

Yeah. Glazing. Been glazing. Luca.

Yeah.

I don't.

I want every Dallas team to win except the Cowboys.

Yeah. Okay. We're gonna have Whitney on, by the way, next week and possibly Yance. Neither of them know it, so if they hear this, just hit me. Hit me up. Do you want to do my baseball topics?

Yeah. Yeah, let's do it.

Okay. I got four. Baseball top.

Got one, too. It's probably one of the same ones.

Okay, well, you want to pick one through four? Three. Three.

Jinx.

Oh, okay. Three is good. Ben Verlander is the weirdest tweeter of all time. Was that he jinx me.

Oh, good.

Okay.

Thank you. Yeah. No, I agree. I concur.

Yeah. So he tweeted yesterday. It's so wild to me that when a pitcher throws up near Jose Altuve's head, fans loudly cheer. I honestly think if he got hit in the head and died on the field, people would cheer.

So here's the thing. Short king to short king talking here. It's hard not to throw near Altuve's head.

Yeah. They're all up and in.

Anything above the belt on a normal human is towards his head.

They would on. I honestly think if he got hit in the head and died on the field, people would cheer. I don't think that.

I don't think so. I think it'd probably be pretty quiet.

Probably.

Probably cancel baseball for a couple weeks. Maybe a week.

Yeah.

At least a day.

Yeah.

No. Yeah. Ben's way off on this one.

Yeah. You know what I have to have mon. You know what? Like, dude. What? Like, I. He seems like a really nice guy, but he just remember he said that he was literally dropped throwing up from Shohei. Oh, Tommy getting hurt.

Yeah. I I admire his passion.

I do, too. He's very passionate. I like that. But I just more want to be like. It's kind of like when we had John Rossi on. Okay, explain some tweets. It's not a good thing.

There's gonna be a lot of.

Don't. Yeah, I don't. I'm not, like, coming at you. I just. I would like to know what's going. Going on through your head when you're like, if Jose Altuve died, people would cheer.

I would not know. I would bang on a trash can.

Yeah. At his funeral. Like, bad bagpipes.

That's probably. Ben probably thinks that people would show up at his funeral. Like the Westboro Baptist church with a bunch of trash.

Yeah. It's also not hard to understand. We were robbed of making fun of the Astros because the COVID year. So people feel like we'll never get our full justice.

Yeah.

All right, that was topic one. Or those. Topic three. Hank.

Two.

Two. The Mets. Jorge Lopez. Did you guys see this?

I did not see this one.

He came off the field, had a terrible relief outing, and threw his glove into the crowd in disgust. And then afterwards, he was asked by reporters, what's going on? And he said, he's been on. He's on the worst team in probably the whole fucking MLB.

Did you see a statement, though?

What?

He said, because his efforts to address the media in English, he felt it made him the worst teammate in the entire league.

Oh, it's a good spin zone.

Well, what about the. Was a translation issue when he threw his glove into the crowd?

No.

Okay. And then he got cut.

Yeah.

DF eight.

Yeah. But, yeah.

Saying he was the worst teammate, not the worst team.

Got it.

Difference.

Got it.

But went by that.

That's the show high.

So did he get DFA'd because of the, of the quote or because of his play?

I think it was the throw. Yeah. He threw his glove, and a Yankees fan caught it, which is so perfect for the Mets.

Oh, that's tough. Yeah, that's really tough. So he threw his glove. They. They defend for throwing a glove. You can lose your job for that.

He threw it in anger at the crowd.

Means also bad.

Yeah. Yeah, that too. And the Mets are bad. Like, he's not totally wrong. I mean, there's a couple teams worse, but they're pretty bad. Sox.

Right.

White Rockies are pretty bad. Marlins are pretty bad.

Yeah.

Athletics sneaky. Not that bad.

Yeah. Unfortunately, we're hovering around.

We're right below 500. Yeah, right below 500.

Okay, that was topic number two, hank one. Okay, good, because it's four. I didn't want to do till the end. Did you guys see we have a knuckleballer again?

Yeah.

David Fletcher. He was the Angel Angels. He was Angels infielder. He's now on the Braves Triple A, and he's basically become a knuckleballer. And it's a very cool story because we've been saying for a long time, need one. We need one. Also cool part about David Fletcher, he's under investigation by the MLB for the Shohei Ohtani gambling issue.

Yeah, that is very cool. The fact that he's a knuckleballer is awesome, too. We do need a knuckleballer in major league baseball.

Yeah.

It's so fun to watch, if for nothing else than just to give everybody that's like 30 or above just the chance to think to themselves, like, if I really put my mind to it, I could become a knuckleballer.

Yeah.

I, too, could be major league.

Yeah.

Pitcher.

And that's what he's doing.

Yeah.

And he's also not under investigation. He was dubbed Shohei. Oh. Tani's best friend was gambling with the same bookie. Also, another teammate of his was gambling on games of his, allegedly with that bookie. A little messy, but the knuckle ball is cool.

Yeah, the knuckleball is really cool. Overlook all that stuff.

Yeah.

Just like Shohei. I'm willing to overlook it because show. Hey, so much fun to watch, right? If it's a knuckleball, pitcher. Absolutely. Yeah, bring him in.

Yeah. And then I had my last one was the negro league's records. Was that yours or no?

Yeah, that was mine.

Okay. I have. I. So it's, it's cool because guys that were kept out of the sport by the MLB are being acknowledged.

It.

Is it crazy to say, though, part of me feels weird. Not, there's a lot, there were a lot of people online, this is bullshit. We like our records. I don't give a fuck about that. The weird part to me is MLB segregated. The black players told them they cannot play in the MLB.

Yes.

Created, like, made them create their own leagues because, like, you cannot play. We're keeping you out. And now 80 years later, they're basically inheriting their statistics and putting them on the MLB website and almost erasing it. Like the negro leagues being like, oh, yeah, it's all part of MLB. Well, yeah, that feels weird to me.

They're trying to make people forget the fact that it was the MLB that kept black players out of professional baseball and made them start their own league for a long time. And by inheriting those stats and bringing those in, they're kind of saying, these belong to us now.

Right.

And that's not at all what happened. Like, what happened. If you were to ask players who played at the time, you probably could. I don't know what they'd say. I don't want to speak for them, but thinking if I put myself in their shoes, I'd be like, fuck you. You wouldn't let me play baseball. And now you're trying to act like that era never happened. It is very cool that people are going to get to see the records and the individual stats are going to come more to light on a much bigger scale, which is good. That's, that's the good part of it. The bad part is MLB is essentially doing this to try to make themselves into a good guy based on the fact that they were a very bad guy back in the day. Our friend Ryan Spader had a good, I don't know if there's a thread, if it was just one tweet, but he kind of laid out the case for it because MLB will start to now say, like, these are MLB stats, right. They're probably going to start to say NL Al record instead of MLB record.

Right.

For certain stats that were surpassed by players that played in the negro leagues that came over.

Yeah. So, all right, so we had the same thought because it's one of those stories. You're like, all right, well, you know, it's good that the negro leagues are getting the acclaim right now. And I know that getting some of these guys in the hall of Fame was very important. But the MLB feels like they're just kind of patting the negro leagues on the head, being like, these are ours now. And in 50 years from now, when you look up who was the leader and you see Josh Gibson, you don't realize, you don't get the full story that MLB kept Josh Gibson out of Major League Baseball and then also ended the negro leagues by not like a lot of times when there's a, you know, the ABA, NBA, they inherit some of the teams and some of the teams become part, you know, they bring them in as expansion. When the negro leagues went, when they started integration, they brought in a couple players, but they didn't bring any of the teams in. And basically that decimated the negro leagues. So it's like MLB, you kept them out, then you ruin the negro leagues, now you want the records.

I don't know. And I could be way off. People would be like, this is the wrong take. That's fine. I just, that was my initial. This.

I think it would be better to be solved like the way basketball does it. Professional Baseball hall of Fame or just baseball hall.

Yeah.

And have it not be, well, it might be. Is that what it is, a Cooper sound or is it MLB? I think it might be baseball.

Baseball.

Yes.

Speaker three I just know I went to MLB.com today and I looked up stats like career leaders and Josh Gibson is leading in, I think it was batting average. And you have to click on his name to see that he didn't play in the MLB again because the MLB kept him out.

So it is the National Baseball hall of Fame. So that's good. So that it tells the full story there. But for Major League Baseball to say, these are our records, when, no, in fact, you kept them out of Major League Baseball. So it's a little dicey and it's.

Going to get, as years go by, it will get confusing that the story will get confusing to future generations and it won't get fully told that they kept all these incredible players, which the negro leagues like, by all accounts, and like we've heard the stories also when guys went from negro leagues to major League Baseball, they flourished. So negro leagues was playing at a very high level. So the argument that, oh, they didn't play enough games or, oh, that wasn't as good. No, it was probably better than a lot of baseball players in MLB. That argument doesn't hold any water.

I think the stars would have been the stars no matter what, what league they were playing in.

Some of these guys left, played in negro leagues then after their prime, went to MLB and still dominated. Yeah.

They were also forced to do some barnstorming, so they had to play. There were some games that were against inferior opponents. Yeah, but. But you don't hold that against those players because they were forced to do that because MLB would not let them play professional baseball.

So I just. I don't know, that was just. I felt. And again, I could be way off, but it just feels like in 50 years, 100 years, the story will be so, like, confusing that it won't be fully told that Major League Baseball did not let black people play in major league Baseball for a large part of their history, which is very bad.

Yes.

Also, I learned Ty Cobb was actually not, like, a big racist.

So there's, like, one author that fucking hated Ty Cobb.

Yeah.

That just completely sullied his name. And I don't know if Ty Cobb had, like, some bad streaks. And I'm probably. Probably not an angel, but I don't think he was the bad guy that he's sometimes made out to be.

He would. I read a long story about it last night. He was a surly guy. He was, you know, quick tempered, thin skinned, but by all accounts, was not the racist that everyone was taught he was when we were taught about Ty Cobb, whereas, like, he's the most racist.

Guy in the world, but the statue back up.

Yeah. It really did look like it was one author basically wrote a book and that was just his story.

There's one author that really, really did not like Ty Cobb.

Yeah.

And, yeah. So be nice. Be nice to authors who might be writing your biography one day.

Yeah. Josh Gibson's arms were fucking massive. See pictures of those?

Yeah, yeah. Satchel Page. Beast was a monster.

Yes. Satchel Page is a perfect example. I think. Satchel Page, I think, pitched in MLB at the end of his career when he was well past his prime and was good. Correct me on that, Jake, if you can. No, I'm pretty sure he did. I'm pretty sure. In 50. Yeah. Like, in the early fifties, he pitched in major league baseball. But yeah, that was. It's a. It's kind of a, you know, people were getting angry at each other online.

48 to 50 on the Internet for one year.

Yeah. Look at him. He's 41 years old and he went to major League Baseball. You're not telling me Satchel page, if he was allowed to play in major League Baseball his entire career, wouldn't have been one of the best pitchers of all time?

Didn't he pitch like nine innings every single game.

Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, there. People were upset about their old stats. Who the fuck cares? I actually think you should just get rid of all old stats pre integration, because that would make the major league stats are also tainted. You kept, as you kept out some of the best players. You deliberately kept them out. You shouldn't be able to count those as those, like, the number one stats.

I think that people in general should just not fall in love with numbers.

Yeah.

Numbers aren't everything. Oh, my stats? Oh, the stats are different now? Oh, no. When I look at these numbers, there's a different name next to some of the numbers.

It's a very major league baseball story. Because major league baseball is, like, the number one. We got to protect the stats.

Yeah, they are. It's weird.

Yeah. Imagine if the NFL acted that way. Like, the. All the passing stats are gonna be broken a hundred times over in the next 20 years.

20 games now, 20 games in the city right there.

They're all gonna be shattered.

I mean, the only thing that. That really, whenever they change the amount of games in a year, it does make you go back and be like, OJ was built different every time they had another game, 2000 yards. Every time there's another game, OJ Simpson becomes .001% more likable.

Well, he's very likable dead.

That's true.

Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Before we do our great Mike Breen interview?

We had the spelling bee.

Oh, yeah?

What did that happen today?

The finals were tonight, Hank. One guy named Bruhat Soma. He spelled 29 words and a spell off in 90 seconds.

Spell off?

There's a spell off.

Hank, I got a question for you. His winning word was abseil, meaning a descent in mountaineering by means of a rope looped over a projection above.

Can you use in a sentence?

The mountaineer had a real great abseil. It fucking rocked.

To the language of origin.

English. It's an english word. Yes. Yes, Jake.

Yeah.

It's an english word.

Abseil.

Yes. Absale.

Yes. Hey, I'll use it in a sentence for you. No, actually, I won't.

No, you should do it. You should use it in a sentence. Hank, you agree that big cat should use innocence?

Yes. I don't really have a sentence for it. I was trying to figure out a way to do Hank. Hank promises that he will have a six pack, but I'm abseiling on that one. Absolute speaker two works if it didn't work.

If Hank is not able to dunk, he will abseil himself from the rim of the basketball court. In Barcelona headquarters.

Yeah. Hank can suck a mean. Abseil.

Abseil.

Absale. Absent a. Mountaineering.

I'll give it a try after a. Yeah.

B.

You just say in the Alphabet.

S. Okay. A I l. Ding.

No, they do the ding when it's wrong.

Okay.

Oh.

That'S what they do. Yeah. We don't know that. You know the bell? I don't. I have not watched spelling be in a very long.

I do know the bell, but in the moment when you ding, I think correct.

No, the guy goes, that is correct.

Hey, Scott doesn't brain, though. He's so committed.

Abseil. I'm gonna give it a shot. Abseil. What did you say? Abs.

He said abs. A I l. I'm a fan.

Absale.

There was a phonetic spelling. Be out, dominate.

Abs.

Is that just spelling words wrong?

Spelling them phonetically?

Ab sale. What was the language of origin?

English. It's an english word.

Absale. A b d.

S a l e. No.

Ab sale.

Ding.

Shit.

It's gotta be. There's gonna be, like, a u in there.

Yeah. I somehow got a date.

Very.

Was really close.

Sa le.

No, b s e I l. He said a I l. Very close.

Hank.

S e il.

Yeah.

That doesn't sound like an english word. I have to say it. I think Pft banged me.

I have no idea what fucking.

Well, that's a huge part of the spelling.

English word. I don't know where it came from. I don't know the words. Parents.

You can tell by the letters. It's not England.

Hank, spell the word. I. Cup.

Ooh, I.

K. No, you know it. He knows it. All right. That was spelling. Okay, let's get to our Mike Breen interview. Pft, you have a quick ad. Before we get to Mike Breen.

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Click that link and you can enter to get tickets to go see UFC 303 in sunny, beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. And now here's Mike Breen.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is the voice of the NBA, Mike Breen. You're going to hear him for the NBA Finals, which is starting shortly, but not shortly enough. Mike, thank you so much for joining us. I actually. This is a very dumb question to start. I always let. We always like, do our dumb questions right off the jump, but we talk about rest first. Rust with the NBA Finals and the Celtics having all this time off, is there rest versus rust for announcers? Is there a certain point where you're like, I'm kind of losing it, I need to get back in the booth?

Well, am I allowed to give a dumb answer to the dumb question?

Yes, of course.

No, that's a good. It's actually a good question. You know what, there's been a bug floating around the crew. So I've been battling a chess cold last couple of days, so rest is ideal right now, although we still prefer. I mean, I want every series to go seven games. But since this was, was a sweep, I'll take advantage of the rest.

Yeah, classic Tibbs. Announcer. Getting, getting drained by the end of the year, right?

Yeah.

Ran you too hard. Yeah, no, we love you. You're obviously like something that I think american sports fans can all point at and say, we like Mike Breen. Which is rare because you have to find something to hate about everybody. Do you have any haters?

Oh, of course. I'm sure there must be many of them out there. I mean, it's impossible. And this happens every playoffs, guys, where, you know, say it's, say I'm doing a Lakers Celtics finals. You go into Boston and the celtic fans are yelling at you, man, it's clear you want the Lakers to win. So you do the couple of games there, then you go to LA and it's just the opposite. The Laker fans are saying, oh man, can you try and hide how badly you want the Celtics to win? It's just it happens every year. It happens in every sport. You can ask anybody who does the other. Ask Joe Buck. He dealt with that. The world, the guys who do the Super Bowls, it's the same thing every year.

Yeah, we've actually talked to Joe Buck about that, and we said, I think every team has a part of their fan base that just hates you and thinks that you're biased against their team. And he told us which team he really hated and had a bias against. So which team do you really hate?

I really don't. I'll tell you what. You know what's an interesting thing that I wish fans would understand sometimes. Most of them do. But when you're doing an NBA game and one of the complaints, the fans will say, well, you're getting so much more excited for them than you are for our team. But often it has to do with where you're playing. For example, last night in Indiana, the Pacers hit a shot. The place is going crazy. You've got to raise your intensity to overcome the crowd. You don't have to do it as much when it's the road team because obviously the crowd isn't going as crazy. That does come into play sometimes because there's been some. Some games where, all right, say I'm doing warriors, Cavs, and the warriors are getting beaten. The Cavs hit a big shot, and it's in San Francisco, and you're yelling the top of your lungs what you should do on a big play in a big playoff game. But the people who are sitting around you are so quiet because the opponents are scored and they're looking at you like, can you please shut up? Can you like that?

So that that does come into play in terms of sometimes you have to go a little higher on the home team.

Yeah. I just want to give ourselves some credit. This is a big, big j journalist move by us. I know that you went to Fordham, and you've been in the industry for a very long time. Credit to us for lasting all of three questions before we started talking about the bang. Had to. I've been, like, holding it back. I'm the meme.

Holding in your bang.

Yeah, been holding my bang. When did the bangs begin? I have many questions. Let's start there. The bang. The origin of the bang. And when did you know? Like, hey, this is my thing. Like, I'm Marv Albert. Yes. Like, this is going to be my thing.

You know what? I started it when I was a student at Fordham, but I didn't do it on the air when I was sitting in the stands. I went to every Fordham basketball game, drove everywhere to root for my college team, and there was about ten or eleven of us, including Michael K, who, of course, is the yankee voice for so many years. And when we weren't broadcasting the game on the student radio station, we'd sit in the stands and we'd cheer like crazy. And when a Fordham player hit a big shot, I would yell it as a fan. And I tried it on the air as a student broadcaster, but I didn't think it worked. So I kind of shelved it. But then I started doing it again when I, one of my first jobs, I was doing this high school game of the week package, and we do these Friday night games, Friday night high school games in packed gyms. I mean, packed. They were small ones, but so loud. And it was hard to overcome the crowd. So I was searching for a concise call for a big moment, and a one syllable word seemed to work.

So I started using it there and I kind of like the way it worked. I've always tried to be less is more as a broadcaster. So that's when it, that's when it started on the air.

Okay, so that's a, that's a great story that it was, it was as natural, as natural could be that you were doing it while sitting in the stands. What then? The double bang. Do you know when a double bang is coming? You've done eight total. I know. I'm sure someone's told you this, but do you, what is that? What's the benchmark that has to clear for a double bang? Because when it happens now, it's actually like a seismic event online. Like Mike Breen just did a double bang.

Well, I'm concerned that you know how many there are.

Yeah. Well, we're big fans.

They're tracked.

Yeah. And when you, when we get a double bang, it's a big, big moment.

A great double bang. This playoffs. Fantastic double bang.

Yeah.

You know, it's, it's completely spontaneous. I'm still, I'm 63 now, and I love basketball as much as I did when I was six and first started playing. So when I watch something and somebody does something spectacular, and especially if it's a surprise, especially if it's, you know, in a huge situation, I just kind of lose it and I, I, I've never planned it, it just comes out. The excitement's, you know, so good. Like, for example, the Dante devincenzo hit one earlier in this, in the playoffs for the Knicks. And the way that game had turned on a dime. It's. It just came out. And I'd like to think that I maintain my fan love of the game and get excited when something unexpected like that happens.

Yeah.

Do you ever think to yourself, I'm about to say bang. So mf and loud.

I've seen the meme. The meme. Fortunately, I've been able to avoid using that word on the air.

You should do a bet where if you lose, you actually have to get that literally tattooed on your forehead so you become the meme in real human form.

That would work well at my age.

Yeah, no, we appreciate, like, the enthusiasm. Yep.

Yeah. Well, I was just saying, do you know, can you recall your double bangs in history? Do you have them like, it off the top of your head?

Well, Steph Curry was the first one.

Yep. Or also, when you do. So, Steph Curry is the first one. You double bang. Do you go back to the booth afterwards or the truck, and everyone's like, Mike, what the hell was that?

I said it twice.

Like, you. You've never double banked?

No. The first one even shot me was even. It was the build up to that shot. The whole game, the whole season. That was a buildup. Let's see, there was. Julius Randall had one last year in a game on the MSG network for when they beat Miami down in Miami, Eric Gordon had one. It was a huge game between Houston and Golden State, or maybe Houston Lakers. I don't remember now. And then there were two. There were two. This playoff. Steven Censor. And who's this? I've already forgotten who the other one was.

I can't remember who the other one was either.

I'm trying to think that was a big one because it was New York. You were there. It was an awesome comeback.

It might have been Jalen Brown in the corner. Was that a double bang?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, this. This is. Now, this is disturbing that I can't remember the one that happened last week.

The double bangs are great.

They are.

It does feel, and it captures the moment, because I like the fact that there's only been eight of them makes it extra special, where it's like it's only coming out for a really unbelievable moment.

Well, I think if I. Somebody told me that there were people that are upset that they didn't feel the Jalen Brown deserved double bag, so now they're rating the quality of the double banks. I thought it did. I mean, he basically saved a playoff game and an important playoff game because it was the first of the series. But again, it just comes out.

Yeah, they're saying that because the other double bang happened so recently. So it's like, oh, is he just becoming a double bang guy? Have you thought about ever doing a triple bang?

You wouldn't do a triple bang, would you?

I don't know. I don't think you got the chops for a triple bang.

That'd be crazy, Mike.

No, I don't think so. I've tried. You know, the other thing, too, is, is, you know, people think I say it all the time. I would say more than 50% of the games, I never even use one. I've tried because I think if you do it too much, it just, it wears out. Its welcome. So I've tried to be selective. Not just a double bang, but even just a regular bang for an important one in the game. There's been some games where it seems like, you know, there's going to have this phenomenal ending. Somebody's going to hit a three at the buzzer, and that's when sometimes I'll say, let's save it for maybe the big play at the end. And the big play never happens. The guy gets fouled and the winning points are from the free throw line. So I don't normally go bang on a free throw made, but sometimes I know even games that just, I don't even do any of them.

Yeah. What about if you, if you go that stretch where, like, there's, you know, blowouts or whatever and that you haven't used a bang in a while? Do you ever get nervous? Like, do I remember how to bang?

No. You know, talking about the free throw, you know, my kids show me a lot of stuff on social media, and somebody actually made a video of me scream. I mean, the ultimate screaming bang on. Just basic free throws made in the first quarter.

I love it. It's great. It's iconic. It is. Like I said, marv Albert. Yes. Like, you know, when the bang happens, like, that's Mike Breen. It's a big moment. It just works so perfectly for basketball.

Well, I mean, obviously, Marv was the biggest influence for me and, and people, at least for me, this is what Marv had different levels of. Yes. There'd be a first quarter guy make a nice move, hit a shiny yes. And then in the second quarter, there might be like a big 150 run. A guy hit a three pointer at the end of 150 run. Yes, a little more. And then, of course, he had the great ones at the end, a game winning call or a momentum changing call. And that was. The beauty of Marv is like, you could tell by the tone of the size whether it was. All right, that's a pretty big shot or that was the shot of the game.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have one more bang related question, then we can get back into the real interview. Do you have a favorite bang? What's your favorite bang you've ever done?

The curry double bang is very special because of that year, the way it happened. And the Ray Allen won, because the Ray Allen Bang was that shot decided who was going to win a title. He doesn't hit that. And the spurs win the title. But because he hits that, they win the game. They win game seven. So that one was pretty big. There was one which with Derek Rose that I've always loved. I was a big fan, still am, of Derrick Rose, just not only a wonderful player, but a terrific guy. And he hit one in Chicago against LeBron James and the Cavs to win a game at the buzzer at playoff game.

I was there.

Yeah, that was pretty exciting.

Yeah.

If you. This might be another dumb question, but if you go back and you listen to those calls, we love those calls. Like, I get excited just thinking about that Ray Allen shot and your voice providing the soundtrack to what I remember as like, a pivotal moment in NBA basketball. When you go back and you watch those clips and you hear yourself, do you enjoy your own voice? Do you enjoy your own bangs? Are you like, oh, my voice is gross. Get it off.

No, you kind of like, who is this screaming fool? Just chill out there, pal. But what I do when I do watch them or somebody sends something to me, it just brings me memories of the particular game and how exciting the games were and how a great player can step up. I'm still, I'm blown away by the talent of these guys and what they're able to do, you know, and for Ray Allen, like, especially Ray Allen, one, here's a guy, you know, I watched him play for however many years. I think he played like 17 years. And any game I ever broadcast that he played in, whether it was Milwaukee, Boston, Miami, and I must have done 100 Ray Allen games, maybe more. He was at the arena when I arrived on the court already shooting. And that shot he hit in game six, I saw him take hundreds of those in pregame warm ups. So that was no fluke. That was something that, it was just in his arsenal and the practice year after year of doing it. And in the biggest moment of his career, he was able to knock it down.

Yeah. Yeah. So, Mike, your, your career is fascinating because I think, you know, a lot of the guys that we hear calling national games, that's kind of what they always have done. But you started in radio and you, you know, you worked for Don Imus and you did. There was, I read a story that you basically were working, you know, 05:00 a.m. in the morning and then calling Knicks games at night, which, it's incredible. And it's also a testament to your hard work and getting to the place you are. But how much was radio, how much did radio help you in doing the live broadcast of games? And I would assume, like, you have a great sense of humor and I think, you know, when you're in, do you call back on that when it's a blowout or it's like, I got to fill some time.

Well, the radio part was instrumental. It's much harder to do a radio broadcast than a tv broadcast because you have to describe everything. You've got to be the, you know, it's not a cliche. You have to be the, the eyes of the, of the listener. And if you can do that, all you, when you start to do tv, you know, you, you have to pull back a little bit and, you know, there are other obstacles that are difficult. The way you work in your partners, a little more difficult. You obviously have a producer and director that talk to you in the year while you're doing the game. But radio is the ultimate foundation to start. And that's what I did. I mean, my first broadcasts were all radio with the Fordham radio station. And then my first job, I was a news reporter on radio for a Poughkeepsie radio station in New York. So it created a foundation that allowed me to be on the air quite a bit and get better. Because after you do it for a while, if you don't get better, then you need to do something else. But it gave me the chance to improve and work on my on air presentation, so to speak.

Yeah.

Mike Breen is being brought to you by meta and Facebook. Everyone should explore their interests. If you do it on Facebook, there's a world of possibilities that open up to you when you tap into the people and the products on their platform. With Facebook reels, you can discover so many sports tips, tricks, seriously up your game, maybe add a couple inches of that vertical. First and foremost is the people on Facebook. You can use the marketplace, groups and reels in your interest exploration. Facebook is so amazing. What's so amazing about Facebook is where it's going to take you. I am a Facebook user. I've been on Facebook since 2003. Old school, baby. That's right. I use Facebook all the time. I'm sure you guys have it. Check out Facebook reels. You're going to love them. If you want to discover more, visit Facebook. And now here's more. Mike Breen. So, unfortunately, we learned of the news of Bill Waltons tragically passing away yesterday. And we talked about him on Tuesdays show and how much of an icon he was and what a great human he was and what an interesting individual he was. And I know that you have a personal relationship with him, and at one point, you told a reporter that you would fight anybody to the death if you heard them speak ill of Bill Walton.

And I want to hear your story about Bill and why he meant so much to you.

Yeah, that was an article. Katie Baker, wonderful writer for the Ringer, wrote it, and I'll try not to make it too long. I apologize, guys.

No go as long. We loved Bill. We talked about it on our show. We had the joy of getting to interview him once. And it's like, when I retire someday, that will be up there with, like, I got to spend 3 hours with Bill Walton. That was incredible.

That's up there for me as well. The story was this about 15 years ago, my dad had Parkinson's disease, and it was advancing to the point where we were worried, he's not going to get out of the house. He wasn't going to be able to get out of the house. Now, we lived in New York, and my younger brother Pete called me up and said, hey, before he can't travel anymore, let's take them to see the USS Midway. The midway is the aircraft carriers. It's in San Diego right now as a museum. And my dad served on the midway in the korean war, had not been on the ship since he left the service. So we made plans to go and take him out to see the midway one last time. And I called Bill, because Bill lives in San Diego, and said, I need a hotel recommendation. Well, of course, Bill's like, you're not staying in a hotel. You're staying in my home. So we planned this three day trip out there, and for three days, when we got out there, Bill was by my father's side for three straight days. First thing he did is he put him in the bedroom, the Bob Dylan room.

All Bill's rooms in his home were named after people, mostly musicians. And the Bob Dylan room was a place of honor. So he put my dad in the Bob Dylan room, and, you know, every meal. John, you sit here next to me. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, we'd go for drives to places. John, you sit in the front seat with me. They were inseparable. For three days, Bill would not leave his side. And then the day we went to the. To see the midway, where I was thinking, we're just going to go buy tickets. Like anybody can get a tour. Well, the day before, he had called over to the midway and told them that one of your heroes is returning to the ship that he served on. So when we get there, we are greeted by the commander of the Midway, and he takes us on this two hour tour in and out. And, guys, an aircraft carrier is no place for a seven foot man who has back, knee, and ankle problems. It was a painful walk for Bill, but he, every step of the way, never left my father's side. It was really emotional for him, for my dad going back and the condition he was in.

And he broke down a couple of times, and every time he broke down, my brother and I did the same thing. And I'd look at Bill, and there's Bill. He's got tears just streaming down his cheeks. So then we get back to the house after this just amazing day that meant so much to my father and that Bill came with him. I couldn't find the two of them. Like, where'd they go? Bill had a teepee in his yard. I mean, an enormous teepee that you could sleep a number of people. And I go back looking, there's the two of them sitting in the teepee, just talking about life and Bill listening to my father's stories and back and forth. So when we left, it wasn't. Bill wasn't my friend. Bill was my father's friend, and he didn't live much longer after that. And my mother, who's still alive, she said, until he passed, he talked about that all the time. It was in a tough stretch. The end of his life was very difficult. Those were the three best days in the last years of his life. And there's a huge picture still in this day.

My mother still lives in the same house. There's a huge picture of the two of them sitting in the teepee together that. She adores the picture. And when I was given the gowdy award at the Basketball hall of Fame, I took my whole family up there, including my mother, and there are so many NBA legends there. She had no interest, and she's a basketball fan. She had no interest in meeting any of them. She just kept saying to me, where's Bill? I need to meet Bill Walton. And when she met him, and I get emotionally thinking about it, she just wanted to say thank you for what you did for my husband. What he did those three days were three of the happiest days of my father's life.

That's such a good story.

Yeah. I mean, that, and that is so Bill Walton, like, he just, like I said, even the three minute, 3 hours we spent with him, he makes you feel like the most important person in the world, and he does that for. It seems like he did that for everyone.

Right? You think you're the only one that he's sending these wonderful texts to, or he's doing those. He does it for.

I know, and it's.

You know how many people in our lives, when they say your name or say their name to you, the first reaction you have is you smile or you laugh. And anytime anybody would say, hey, tell me about Bill Watt, I'd either laugh or smile, and then I'd go into a story. And that's the gift he gave all of us in that no matter if he was with you or even when he wasn't with you, when he came up, you had to smile.

That's awesome. Yeah, he really was the best. So. So in your career, you know, doing the Knicks now, doing national broadcasts, is there a moment that you look back at and you're like, that was when it not became easy, but like, oh, I'm. I'm really good at this. And I can feel comfortable being in the booth because I'm sure most broadcasters, I deal with it myself, like a little bit of imposter syndrome. Like, am I going to be good at this? Was there a moment where it clicked and you're like, I'm really good at this. I'm Mike Breen. Bang.

That's interesting you say that, because that never fully goes away. Yeah, you always think, okay, I better be prepared. I've got to do my best, because, you know, do they still think I'm good enough to do this? So there are other people who are better, and that's something that drives you, but it's just a matter of. I mean, I still get nervous before NBA Finals games or a big playoff game seven or something, but it's good butterflies. It's adrenaline butterflies, and if I didn't have them, I think I'd be more worried than if I then I have them. And I think it's good. I think it's a good motivator, but it's like everything you do. Like, I remember the first NBA game I ever did. I was so nervous. My voice must have been so high. And then the first close game you did that. It's like this great fight to the finish. I was hyperventilating as the game is going on, trying to keep up with it. Then it's the first close playoff game you do. So each step that you take in terms of the magnitude of the game, you need to do it, at least for me, you need to do it a few times before you really feel comfortable.

But what's always helped me, whether it's a huge game, whether it's just a regular season game that doesn't have a lot of meaning, if you go in prepared, if you're fully prepared, then you can relax, knowing that whatever happens, at least you'll know how to deal with it. And that's what's always kept my confidence, is that my preparation allows me to feel confident when I go on the air.

Jeff? Yeah.

So, what does preparing look like for you? I think some people out there think that announcers are just. They're handed a big sheet of paper with all the stats that they have to read off, and that's it. Then they just go and they commented on what they see. When you're preparing for a game, how much time does it take, and what do you do specifically to prepare?

That's basically it. I get handed the sheep. No, it's. I tend to, and I'm sure every announcer will tell you this, you tend to over prepare. I think of all the stuff that you do, if maybe you get 15% of that preparation on the year, that's a lot. And the way I like to phrase it on a basketball game is, okay, so each player, like in an NBA game now, there are 13 active players on each team for that game. What I want to do is I want to have, if that any of those 13 players, either the best player or the 13, has the game of their life, I want to be able to have enough information on them to tell their story in terms of where they are in their career, what they've done, where they've come from. And that's. That's part of the preparation for me for an NBA game.

Yeah. Now, I assume the answer is no, but are you ever preparing, like, time filler, blowout, talking points? Do you ever go to a game, you don't want it to be a blowout, but in the back of your head, you're like, if it is, like, we could talk about this or that, or is it all just kind of stream of consciousness, whatever's happening?

No, that's pretty much every, that's part of the preparation. Oh, and like to have, like, for me with players, I like to have personal anecdotes about players. So when, when a game gets out of hand, at least you can do is you can kind of talk about their, you know, their upbringing, where they came from or their, their history in terms of clutch games or whatever kind of information you want. And the other thing they try and do is league issues. You know, have there been a lot of traveling calls lately? What's the reason for that? And even different things, like other, other NBA things that are going on, like they've been in a rash of technicals or whatever, but I try and have some league issues, stuff on the side and personal anecdotes on the side in case it gets like that.

Yeah. Has your job become more difficult with replay? Not because, obviously replay helps get the calls right, but the pauses in the game and you guys having to sit there while, you know, they, they look over video for three, four minutes in the middle of an intense playoff environment, has that made it more difficult to broadcast?

I don't know if it's made it more difficult. I think it hurts the product a little bit. It's become a necessary evil. And they're certainly not going back to no replay. But there are certain times that the flow of the game is affected, and that's when the game's at its best, the end of a game where they're just going back and forth and back and forth and when it stops with the replays. Now, the league did address that a couple of years ago, and they did change some of the replays, especially the out of bounds. If you remember, they used to have last two minutes, every out of bounds call they could review, and they did. They, fortunately, they got rid of that. So they're trying to do a better job, and I think it's worked. But those games, especially a playoff game where it's like a three, four minute review, those are maddening to me. It's like, okay, if it's going to take this long, just go with the initial call and move on, and everybody will accept that. And I think players and coaches would accept that as well.

Yeah, I'd agree it does. It gets stretched out sometimes and you're just like, okay, we see what the call should be. Why is it taking them so long to, to make that announcement? I'm curious to know because you've seen so much of the NBA. You've watched all the best players up close. Who's a guy that you got? Maybe it's a current player, maybe it's a former player that you would get the most excited to do his game, to be able to sit front row and watch the sky.

Plus, you know, it changes every year. Like this year. Wembanyama. I couldn't wait to do one of his games because I've never seen anything like it, you know, same thing in the last couple of years, like when Doncic first came in, like, oh, I got a Dallas game. Good. I can see this amazing player. Obviously, Kobe was. Every game, there was something electric about him. He just had something. And Michael as well, I think the current guys now, the two guys that you can't wait to see, and even at their age, that they're playing LeBron James and Steph Curry, the two of them, there's never an off night in terms of their focus and their effort in what they bring. And they know their responsibility, too, of the people who are paying a lot of money to come see them play in particular. So there's a lot of guys. Tim Duncan was another one that even though he wasn't flashy, just how, in such a businesslike fashion, he would just obliterate his opponent and never change his expression. So there's also. There's so many of them like that. And it's. That's why, I mean, I know this sounds corny, guys, but it's such an honor to call these games in a privilege.

These guys work so hard to play, and it gets to the level that you want to get it right. I feel you have a responsibility to get their moment right by a call that's worthy of the play.

Yeah.

So that makes me think, have you ever gotten it wrong? Have you ever disappointed yourself and then gone back home, been like, damn it, Mike Breen, what did you just do all the time?

I mean, I make mistakes every night. I've been doing that. I've been making mistakes every night for 30 years plus. But it's the end of game ones. There was a game, was it last year, game one of the playoffs, where Jason Tatum hit a big shot at the end? And, I mean, I butchered the call so badly because I didn't see it correctly and I didn't sync it with the clock, and it just. It was an absolute mess. I didn't sleep that night. And part of it is, you ruined the call for the player. So here's this big moment. You ruined the call the other thing is, you know, basketball is a team sport to play. It's a team sport to broadcast. And I felt like I let the rest of the crew down because we had, up until then, it was an amazing game. And we had all the right replays and graphics and sound bites. And Jeff and Mark, who were my partners, were outstanding down the stretch of this close game with strategy, I thought I was having one of my best games. And then the last play, I just killed it.

And it was. It was awful. Awful.

Here's a business idea for you. Why don't you just have a service where you'll redo any of the mistakes for a little fee, maybe then, whoops, Mike Breen's losing it a little. He's messing up a couple calls. Oh, Jason Tatum, you want this call redone? No problem. I got you.

It's like cameo.

Yeah.

The players calls that you screwed up.

Yeah.

Guys are always coming up with business ideas like this. I need. I need that kind of thought process.

We get a cut of that. That should have been. You should have read the fine print before you got into this interview. Any business idea we come up with, we get at least 15%.

Yeah. If you. Triple bang.

Yeah.

My lawyers.

After triple bang is for sure. We're getting. We're wetting the beak on that one.

It's become like the Razor wars, where it's like the first company said, we've got two razors.

Yeah.

The other company said, how about three races? I think about four.

I think you're gonna triple bang at some point.

Yeah, you will.

I think you just know you. You want to say you're not going to, but I think there's going to be a moment that you're just not going to be able to stop yourself.

Well, again, and I'm not just saying it comes out, if there's an NBA Finals game, seven, that's decided. Decided by a three pointer, I might lose it completely.

Yeah. It might be like ten bangs. You just might. That might be the only word that you say for the rest of your life.

A triple bang might sound better than a double bang.

I haven't. I haven't tried it yet.

Yeah. A bang, bang, bang.

How'd that sound?

That sounds good.

Sound right to me.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

Maybe a pause in between them.

All right, give us a triple bang right now.

No.

You'Re smart. You're smart. You're smart guys.

Yeah. No, yeah.

We would have definitely dubbed that over every. Every, like, clank.

Yeah. I think the three bangs would have to increase in excitement. So you start out with a normal bang. Louder. And then screaming. Just yelling your face off at the third bank.

Yeah.

Nice little crescendo.

Yeah. Can you tell us just how crazy the malice at the palace was from your point of view? Because I think we're at the point now where it's been over 20 years and everyone knows it, but there's a new crop of sports fans that don't understand just how insane it was watching. I remember watching it live and being like, what is going on right now? And you were there calling the game. Just how nuts was it to see that?

By the way, I was calling the game with Bill?

Yup.

Bill Gray was. Was our sideline. And I remember, I've never seen Bill so upset from something that happened on the court. He felt, he was wounded on how he felt this look for the league and the sport that he loved so much. He was really, really, really down after that. And we were up. We stayed up to, like two or three in the morning talking about the game. And he just couldn't believe that, that something happened on national tv because it was in person, it was uglier than when you watched it on television. And the reason was every time it seemed like the security and the refs got a handle on it, something worse happened. And then more. And even, like, when the players went into the stands, it was like, I don't believe we're actually watching this. And even when they finally got them off, there were some more skirmishes, and it just seemed like a wooden end. But the thing that worried me the most was we were on the opposite side of the benches. The crowd started coming down en masse. And that's what was worried, like, is the crowd going to come down and start more of this and attacking?

And then there's nobody that could possibly break it up. There's not enough security to break that up. And that was worrisome to me. This mob mentality that you felt was developing. And I'll never forget, I've told this story a bunch when the pacers, they were trying to get them off the court and to go to the visiting locker room. It's a narrow little hallway with the stands, like, right above. So if you're in this one part of the stands, you can almost reach down and touch their head. And I remember when the players were trying to get off, there was a woman who was really nicely dressed, like, dressed like she was going out to dinner. And she was, like, standing right there amidst these guys who were just screaming and yelling and cursing, and I'm thinking to myself, oh, my God, this poor woman is in the midst of this mess, and all of a sudden, she takes out a full bottle of water and just heaves it at one of the players heads. And that's, to me, that was like, okay, this woman would have never done anything like that, but she got caught up in this mob mentality that everybody's emotions just ran amok.

And that's, to me, that was the scariest part of the whole thing.

It was like something you hope will never happen again. But while watching it, just like, what is. You're right. It was just the waves of it where it's like, oh, man, there's another person. There's another person. There's another guy. Oh, there's turtle from entourage. He just got knocked out.

I actually thought you did a very good job of telling people what was going on as it was happening, because in a situation like that, it's just such chaos in the building. You still were like, you got. You got a job to do, Mike. You have to tell people exactly what's going on, who's in the stands, who's on the court, what's happening. Was that a conscious decision you made in the moment? Like, I'm going to stand here. I'm going to just kind of be like a play by play announcer for a giant brawl?

Well, I give credit to, at that time, the Knicks had been involved in a number of different brawls, so it wasn't the first one. You know, I talked before about how the first time you experience something on the air, you kind of have to navigate and sometimes make mistakes the first time, and then you get better each time. Well, I got better with each basketball brawl, and by this time, I had done a few of them. And I remember, I can't remember where I first heard it from, but they said, when something like that happens, do play by play. Just do the play by play. Talk about what you see. It's obviously not basketball. It's a fight, and that's. That's what I tried to do on that particular night.

Yeah.

I'm also curious to know, from your point of view, how the game. So the game basketball has obviously changed a lot in the last 2030 years. How has the announcing game changed?

True?

That's a great question.

Great question.

Thank you.

First off, you know, the technology in terms of coverage and the amount of cameras and the ability of the cameras to catch every little thing really gives you a better insight and feel of specific plays. In depth look at whether files are called, et cetera. I'm amazed by the technology. I do think the analytics has just gone crazy, and they're great for the game, they're great for the fan, but trying to find a balance between, okay, let's do some numbers, but let's not get crazy with numbers because too much numbers, the spoken word can just get all mangled up into one thing. So I think that's two of the ways that it's changed. You know, I think another thing, if you look back at old, any sport, and I'm sure you guys have seen this, you go back to an older game broadcast in the seventies or in the eighties, and often you don't think the announcers are that excited. It was a much more calmer way of calling the game. Even big moments. Yeah, they raised their level a little bit, but the calls have become much more high intensity than they ever used to.

Compare a 1970s or eighties call of a, of a finals game or a Super bowl and then compare it to now. It's different in a lot of cases, and I think that's a big part that it's become. Okay. In fact, it's become a good way to show you're excited as much of a fan. Back in the old days, you wouldn't do that because you'd sound like a fan now. I think it's more encouraged, and I think fans like that, that you're excited or as excited as they are sometimes on a big plug.

Yeah. I mean, I love, like, the home broadcast, whether it be for basketball or baseball, where it's like you can kind of mix that the guys are rooting for the same thing that you're rooting for for you, the Knicks. And then, you know, you, you call the Knicks all during the regular season, then you got to call them in the playoffs. Was that difficult? And did you get any, did, were Knicks fans mad at you because you are their voice and they listen to you all regular season? Now you're in the playoffs and you have to call it down the middle. Did you find yourself slipping at all? Or was there, was there any moments you're like, oh, man, I kind of hope, I kind of hope the Knicks win this game?

No, I'd hope not on the air. But we, you know, I know some Nick fans are upset. Like, Nimhard hit a big three to win a game, game three against the Pacers, and he got a bang there. And Nick fans were like, mad that I did a bang for an opponent. Acer fans were very upset. They felt we were way too pro Nick and rooting for the Knicks. You know, I went back, and especially on games like that, I don't do it a lot, but I went back and watched the games to see if I felt there was bias, because I'd like to think I'm my harshest critic, and I didn't see that, so I felt good about it. But I know, you know, there's always people that think that you're rooting one way or the other for whoever the team is.

Yeah. It's also just got to be difficult for you just sitting there because you're sitting in, you know, MSG and you've been doing it all year, and then you're watching the same team that you know so well. It's, like, kind of hard to not have something slip out. It's a testament to you and your professionalism. But I would definitely just be like, yeah, I'm rooting for the Knicks.

Yellow Knicks.

What do you want me to say? Like, I want to keep calling Knicks games.

I've done enough of them over the years, and there's so much to concentrate on in terms of the actual job that it's not as hard as you think. I'm sure there's some people that will disagree, but I'd like to think we did a nice, unbiased, down the middle call.

What about Luca? We were talking with Rachel Nichols last week about Luka Doncic and how he likes to get in the refs here. He likes to get in everybody's ear when he's yelling at the refs. Is he yelling in. Was it slovenian or is he yelling in English?

I think he mixes it up. He's trying to get better. He was really bad, probably the worst in the league for a couple of years, but he's really trying to get better. There was a game recently where he started to get mad, and he stopped and he went up to the rough. He had his hands together like he was praying, like, please, I just want to talk to you. I don't want to yell. I want to talk to you. He's working on it. You know, sometimes we do forget these guys are so young. It's like, I can imagine me, 22, being in that kind of hostile atmosphere, the pressure of playing against the best in the world. It's hard not to get emotional, and I think he's gotten better at it, and hopefully that'll continue because, man, he is a generational player. So competitive. And JJ Reddick, who now is one of my partners on ESPN and ABC, he played with him. And because Luke is pretty close to the best with the media, it's hard to kind of get close and get to know what he's really like. JJ says he's one of the.

One of the best teammates he's ever been around. The guy is, like, so normal, off the court, and just an encouraging, supportive teammate.

So what was your advice to JJ when he told you last week that he was going to leave and take the Lakers job after these NBA finals?

So when the word came out, we've been having a lot of fun with him, you know, it's clearly a compliment that he's thought of so highly his basketball mind that that teams would be interested. So I told him, I said, listen, if you take one of these jobs, I'd be so happy for you, and I'd root like crazy for you, and I would never talk to you again.

Yeah. Yeah.

He would collect, like, all the stones of being one of the most hated people, being a Duke guy and a Laker.

Yeah, you need to. You need to keep him around, because when JJ Reddick sits next to you, people will just, like, naturally be like, I like that other guy who's not JJ Reddick. Because, you know, just years of just having all this hate build up in us for JJ Reddick, you can't help it. You're just like, yeah, shut up. JJ Reddick. Let Mike Breen talk.

You know, he has. He has amazing stories about when he played at Duke, and it wasn't easy, to say the least. There was, there's some mean, cruel, ugly crowds that he had to deal with, and the amount of mental toughness to be able to deal with that and play at the level he played while he was at Duke, I find remarkable. And now getting to know him, the guy is just. He's got such a brilliant basketball mind. And what I love is he loves the game as much as any player that I've ever been around, and that combination is pretty cool to be around.

All right, we're going to cut that part because we're not complimenting JJ on this podcast. I wanted to go back to a name that you mentioned earlier, Michael K, who's the voice of the Yankees, who was your good friend at Fordham, and did you ever. I mean, do you guys pinch yourself being like, we were sitting, you know, at the freshman dorms or wherever it may be at Fordham, saying, oh, we want to be the voice of the Knicks and the voice of the Yankees. And then it happened. Like, that's crazy that happened.

Well, the first part did happen, and we would say that, like, if you could pick any job, what would you want to be? And his was the Yankees and mine was the Knick and mine was the Knicks. And we do. We talk about it a lot. We realize how blessed we are. We can't believe it. I'm so proud of him and how long he's been there. I mean, it's just incredible that maybe the number one franchise in all of sports, and he's been there for so many years and has done such a fantastic job. So it's. The odds of that happening, I think, are probably small, but we do talk about it, and we realized how lucky we are.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

When you were a kid, did you have, you know, we were talking about an athlete the other week that wrote down, like, I will be an NFL football player in the draft, and then put it up on the wall of his house. Did you want to be a professional athlete, or did you want to be a broadcaster for sports?

Oh, no. Hey, I wanted to be a. I want to be a major league baseball player. I wanted to play for the Mets. I was a skinny kid, so Bud Harrelson was my favorite player. So every uniform that I wore, little league. And I think even in high school when I played baseball, always wanted to get number three, so that was it. But I was. I have a lot of faults, but one strength I have is I'm very well aware of my limitations that I knew very early I had no shot.

Yeah. Yeah.

You're this high school kid with a booming voice, and your coach is probably like, have you ever thought about talking about sports instead of playing them? Like, when did you realize you had a good voice?

Yeah, I never realized that. And you know what? That's another part of the question you asked before, if I can go sideways for a second.

Yeah.

There was a time in the industry where if you didn't have those golden pipes that, you know, so many, you didn't get a job, and now you don't have to have the golden pipes. You just have to be able to project and have a voice that cuts through the sound and stuff like that. But I never felt I had that kind of, that kind of, you know, deep pipes that they. That they talk about. I just. I didn't start thinking about it till I was, like, 16 or 17, because a neighborhood friend was working at a college radio station, and he gave. He kind of put the bug in my ears guy. Tony Minicola in Yonkers, where I grew up, and that's the first time I thought about doing it.

Tony Minicolo. What a name.

Great name.

Yeah. Did you ever have to, like, lose the New York accent?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I still, there's still, if I get tired, it'll come out like the g on ing words. They're nowhere to be found when I start, and every once in a while, there's other words that come out. But I tried to. I've tried to work on it.

So did you have to practice that?

No, not really. Just like, just more enunciate. That was my biggest flaw, was that I didn't fully enunciate words. I'd leave off, like, the last letter of some words and just get a little lazy, I guess.

Yeah. What's the dumb. Probably a dumb question. What's the best arena to call a game in? Is it is because, you know, we asked that about, we asked that with athletes all the time, like, what's the toughest place to play? Is there a best and a toughest place to call a game at?

There's. There's a number of arenas that are just off the charts that it's just, you feel it in your bones when you're sitting there. Madison Square Garden is right up there. There is no better place when it's a big event.

Yeah.

Whether it's basketball, whether it's hockey, even like a concert, there's just no better place. The old Chicago stadium was the loudest building I've ever been in. You could be sitting next to, right next to the person, and when the Bulls fans were going crazy, I could be screaming and you wouldn't hear a word I say. Oracle arena in the Golden State, old arena was as loud as they come. The TD garden is fantastic right now. The one in Boston, Oklahoma City, it's like a college crowd there.

Yeah, yeah. Is there any bad ones? Is there. Not bad in terms of the crowd, but in terms of the setup where it's like, ah, the sight lines or, you know, it's a little bit more difficult. I got to be on my A game tonight.

Well, when you do national games, the sight lines are the same. Mid court, courtside.

Yeah.

Fantastic. Ask for better. What's changed in the industry? And here's another part of the other answer. They've now moved the local broadcasts, both radio and tv, in a number of arenas up above the first level. And that can be hard. There's. There's some really rough ones where you're way up and you wind up doing a lot of the game off the monitor as opposed to watching in person. You're there in the arena and you're doing the game off the monitor. And it's, I think there's like 13 arenas now where they have us way up. And it's unfortunate. I think it compromises the product. It's not good for the fans who are watching at home because we can't do as good a job. But it's all about selling, selling the seats down low where we used to be for a lot of money.

Yeah.

What about the meal situation? Is there one team that's known to hook you guys up with some real choice cuts?

Good question.

Thank you.

Well, if you've been doing this a long time, you know that that's not only a good question, it's one of the most important questions, because I eat wherever I like to eat at the arena when I get there. And when you have good food at a media dining, as they call it, dinings, depending on where you go, perhaps not the right word. There's no question.

We.

We talk about that all the time. We rate them. Who's got the best, who's not the best. Like, we're just in Boston. Boston has a great one. Just a great one. And Dallas is another one that has one of the better meal rooms, too.

What about, what's your pregame meal? Is it something that you stick to? Are you a creature of habit where you have the same thing before every. Or do you just kind of mix it up depending where you are?

So I'll eat anything I have. My. My appetite is whatever's available, and that includes as much dessert as possible. J in fact, JJ was making fun of me. Goes, how could you eat dessert before a game? And I say, how can. How can you not eat dessert?

Such a dupe.

Isn't he the worst? He's the worst. Ah. All right. Well, so, Mike, this has been so awesome. I have one last question for you. It's the robot question. Rho back.com promo code take 20% off you first purchase. Cusips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code take. So you have called so many NBA games. You're. You are the voice of the NBA. That's how I introduced you here. And I do believe that you've also called the Olympics. I would. I got to go try to find, track it down. You called ski jumping. How was that? Was that, like, what do they even do in ski jump? They just jump, right?

It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. And the thing is, here I'm the announcer on ski jumping. I was never on skis in my life at that point, but they gave me an analyst, guy named Jeff Hastings, who was an american ski jumper, and he took all care of the technology. I'd basically say who the jumper was, where he was from, his record, his history at all, that kind of stuff. And then the guy would take off and Jeff would take over and he would, he would, you know, he could see if this was going to be a good one or a bad one, how deep it was, how high it was, all that kind of stuff. And it was really fun because I took it from a standpoint of a novice, I didn't know anything about it. So the questions I asked him, you know, anybody who is an idiot about skiing, that's what they're going to. They were going to ask that, and that's what I asked because I didn't know any better, and I felt it was, I was actually really proud of that because I took it from a standpoint of I'm a viewer who does not know the sport, and I have a chance to ask him this, but a part of the thing that was so hard is you never, you couldn't do it live.

What we would do is you'd sit there and you'd watch 30 guys go off, and NBC wouldn't have all 30 guys on their coverage. They'd only take ten. So they would take the top ten scores. We'd go into a studio and now we'd have to announce it like it was live going on. And I could have cheated, you know, if I knew this guy was going to good, I could have said, and I just get the feeling this is going to be a special jump.

Yeah.

But I didn't do it and Jeff didn't do it and. But it was interesting trying to manufacture the enthusiasm on a big jump like that when we knew whether he finished second or he finished 43rd.

Yeah. Did you, did you bang it all then or. No, no. Would have been awesome.

Oh, that would have been a big crash. Not if they just.

What did they hit? Like a big one? I don't even know what a big one is called in ski jump, but they hit the big one. You just give them a bang. We can bang. Go in any other sports. Could you use it in any other sports?

I suppose we should think boxing.

Yeah.

Feel like boxing would be a good one.

Boxing, big, good. I did the NFL for a number of years, long time ago, and maybe on a great catch in the end zone.

I don't know if you'll go. Long field goal.

Yeah, long field goal would work.

Really? Field goal.

Winning field goal. Bang.

Works and bang. A field goal right now.

Do you do it like, soon as it goes through the crossbars? Do you wait to the hands go up?

I mean, I think you go hands.

Yeah, yeah.

You wait for hands.

You can't. You can't miss that. Bang. If it looks like it's good and it's short and the refs don't, you can't prematurely bang.

Yeah, yeah, no bang. Is there one off the pain?

Is there any other sport that you would like to do? Are you just going to be basketball for the rest of your life?

Yeah, I've been kind of a one trick pony. I think I'd love to do, because I'm a huge met fan. I would love to do a Met game someday.

Oh, you, you could bang. You could bang a third strike. For sure.

Sure.

Home run. Yeah.

Yeah. We should. We should do a broadcast. Mike Breen and Frank the tank.

Oh.

Got a color guy for you.

Yeah. Do you know Frank the tank? Are you aware of Frank the tank?

Yes, I'm aware of Frank.

I mean, everyone is. You can't be a new. I think that's the, like, you're not a New Yorker if you don't know who Frank the tank is.

But, you know, I think. I think. What else? I love golf, so I would love to. I would love to love to do a golf. Golf broadcast someday. Use my voice.

Yeah, careful with that. That's when we. That's when everyone started hating Joe Buck again because they already hated him. And then they started hating him again after that.

Well, it's funny, like you asked about, do you have haters? And you really do. After a while, you develop a thing. Thin skin. And you're like, you don't. You don't worry about it. And one thing that I think, I think Joe Buck is one of the most talented people who've ever done this. The guy is phenomenal at any sport. One of the greats of all time on the Mount Rushmore. Whatever you want to say. So if he gets criticism, anybody could get criticism.

Yeah.

He told us one time he peed in a bottle during a game because he had to go. Have you ever done that? It's probably harder for you because you're not up in the booth.

Joe went there. I don't think people need to know that.

Yeah, yeah, we know. We love Joe. He's a friend of ours, he's also addicted to hair plugs, so we should. We should. We should plug that for him. Almost took his voice away. Yeah, yeah, it's got a big head. He's got a lot to cover.

Joe has a big head.

Yeah, he's got big head.

Pretty big. It's big for. Yeah, for his size.

Oh, we got. Knicks fans are just, like, circling outside of our office, being like, oh, Mike Breen's on the call. We got a. So you have a lot of fans in this office. If you call bulls game next year, we'd love to have you come by. Maybe you could call us playing five on five, and that would be probably the end of your career.

I promise I will come by. You guys are so much fun. I'm honored to be on.

Yeah. All right, well, thanks so much, Mike. We love you, and we're excited for the finals and for you to give us great finals.

Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.

Mike Breen was brought to you by our great friends over at Chevy. Love Chevy. Love the Silverado. Everyone knows it's a Chevy truck podcast. They are the greatest trucks ever built. Our good friends at Chevy are big part of the. Part of my take story. We've had Chevy on board for many, many years. They do the low man trophy every single fall, give it to the nation's top collegiate fullback. The Silverado has taken us across the country to go to the big game. From Connecticut all the way to California. It helped us big. The biggest hole ever dug in the state of Ohio. At least we're in the back of a Chevy Silverado for that. Chevy Silverado. Long time awesome partner of the show. It's a truck with commanding, unstoppable grit, legendary capability, dependability, too. Every time we do a shoot with a silverado, I just have to stop and just stare at the truck for a good five minutes before I even start. Then I get in. I picture myself being a Silverado owner. It's a great feeling. Go to your Chevy dealership. Take one for a spin. Find out for yourself, like so many other awls.

Go to chevy.com. check out all the Chevy truck grits. Build your own Silverado today for do it yourself products, projects, to road trips, off road adventures, to tailgates. Whatever your thing is, it all starts with a chevy truck.

Okay, Hank, finish us off. Fire fest. Nothing.

Nothing at all.

What about the I'm in the John Daley challenge? John Daley challenge. No spoilers.

Yeah, don't spoil the video, Hank.

How'd you guys feel the day after terrible.

I felt concerningly good.

Yeah, I didn't feel that bad.

I want another cigarette.

Yeah, I didn't sleep that night and I felt bad. Oh, it's basically the John not Memorial Day weekend. The John Daley.

Yeah. Was a Memorial day weekend.

Left me six day strings hand up out.

You know, nothing.

Do you think maybe the not sleeping had anything to do with the. The copious amounts of Adderall you took before the challenge?

I did take a couple adderalls.

Prescribed?

I am prescribed, and I don't really. Yeah, whatever you just said.

We were driving up to the suburbs and he just said to me, I'm gonna. I gotta take some Adderall because there's no way I'm gonna smoke these cigarettes without it.

I don't like smoking.

He's just like. I was like, you want to drive the car?

I tried to drink, like, a couple beers, cuz I don't really smoke cigs. When I do, it's. I'm, like, very drunk. So I was like, maybe I have to, you know, feel a little alcohol in me.

I only drink when I smoke.

What was about to say? Fuck. Oh, and then I was also, Adderall makes me mute, so I, like, was just a miserable fuck on the video.

And you guys, makes you good at golf.

Yeah.

Tune in.

Yeah, I mean, that.

Or don't. Especially my mom at times.

You. So my fire fest was gonna be like, I miss smoking cigarettes. Yeah, I see a lot.

So, Hank, you just had an awesome week.

This week's flown by well, because it was only 40. I know.

Feel like this is a shorter week than every time.

This recording.

It's been three days.

It's Thursday. Flown by Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of Thursday. Yeah, that's a short week.

I mean, we had a fun week. We did it. We golf on Monday. We played roofball today. We got pop punk tomorrow.

It's been an awesome. It's been a fun week in the best weather. Like, today was the best weather possible. She's not a cloud in the sky. 72 degrees.

Or celtics are in the finals. Like, life is good.

All right.

Yeah.

Good, Hank. Happy for you. I want you to be happy.

Thank you.

To a certain extent.

How's Duncan going?

It's going well. I trained. I trained four times, as we call three so far. One more tomorrow.

I'll say, I'll say it. I'm getting a little nervous.

I'm.

You do look like you're in better shape.

I found a trainer that is, has his master's degree in, like, fitness. So he's like, we're going through a program that is designed for me to dunk, and it's. I'm doing stuff that I never would do on my own, and it's working.

So.

And I think if I just.

Maybe I need to.

If I just stick to it, like, and I've told this guy a million times, he doesn't want to hear it, but once we get to September and it's lock in time, like, the steroid conversation will probably happen.

Wait, what is this, like, special routine that you're in? What kind of exercises is he having you do that you've never.

Legs.

Do yourself.

Legs. All of the legs.

Feed the wolf.

A lot of plyometrics, a lot of jumping stuff. But, like, just.

Just.

It's also just like, gradual increases versus, you know, I'm like, let me put a bunch of weight on and try and do a couple good reps. It's like, lower weight, higher reps, and then the next week, you do more weight. It's obviously for anyone that lifts weight and trains, it's like, no shit, dude.

But.

But, yeah, I've never done that, so good working.

Good for you.

Good job, Hank.

Good job.

I got a couple fire fests. My first one was gonna be about, like, the golfing. I really enjoyed smoking the cigarettes. I don't smoke anymore, but now I'm. It rocked. It rocked. Honestly, smoking cigarettes on the golf course, and I truly miss it, but I'm not gonna do it, not gonna dive into it. But that kind of also goes against what I decided to do on last Saturday, which was, I just. I thought to myself, it's time to get back in shape. Got to get in shape before you're 40. Feel like anything you do before you're 40, that's who you're going to be after 40. 40 is like a big cut off.

But what about our deal? Because I'm with you, I've lost ten pounds since football season. I've been trying to eat clean. Donnie's been cooking for us, playing basketball. What?

I've been cooking those two.

Oh, Hanks. Been cooking those two. The ones you cook around bad.

Well, I just.

We agreed we were gonna get cut.

We were tomatoes for Donnie, but we're.

Gonna get in great shape at 40, and then just get fat again.

Then get fat. Real fat right afterwards.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I don't want it.

But that's what I'm saying. Like, if I'm in shape the day I turn 40, I can get fat and then get back in shape. No problem.

What weight are we hitting? I said 220, which is crazy.

So right now I'm at. I'm at 183, but it's bad. 183. So I got to lose, like, ten pounds and then gain 15 pounds back. So I want to end up at one. I want to end up at 190, but a good one nine.

I was, like, 247 jacked.

192.

47, 50, floating. After football season, I'm like, 235 ish. That's pretty. Loading. Seven, eight.

That's not bad. So too accomplish this, I decided to start intermittent fasting. Yeah, so you do. I only eat between noon and 08:00.

P.M. didn't eat any wings tonight.

Didn't eat a single wing tonight. It was very mean that you guys ordered wings after I told you I wasn't eating after eight. My favorite food in the entire world. But I've kind of put a twist on it because I think with intermittent fasting, you can just eat whatever the fuck you want between noon and eight. Right. So I'm trying a new diet that I think I invented, which is strictly uncrustables. So I've had. I had four uncrustables on Tuesday. I had four on Wednesday. I had two today.

And I look thinner.

I think I'm just gonna eat.

That's it.

I think I'm gonna eat uncrustables. Just. Only on get.

No wings.

No, but I'm saying. That's all. Like. That's your intake of the day.

Yeah, yeah.

Two uncrustables, no wings.

Well, for. Yeah.

My vote for bread.

My meal plan. There's no breakfast. My meal plan is I eat four uncrusted.

You know, jumble. I did.

Yeah, but that was. I also had the two on crush.

That was roofball jumble. I. Totally different.

You know any pizza at pop punk practice?

No, I didn't.

Max and he also have any wings.

You narc.

I was just one. I mean, we were chatting.

No, yeah, we were. We were chatting, but, no, I did not. I did not. And then memes is over here. Rain on my parade, being like, oh, you can't drink coffee.

How have you, of all people, not gonna have a wing?

I didn't have any wings.

Any wings? What are you talking about?

I have a single wing.

No way.

That's hard to believe.

I watched him. He went and sniffed, and he looked at him. It was very sad. I was like, if you have a way.

Jake, back me up on this. Did I have a wing today?

No wings.

No wings.

A never lie.

Pug. You were in the kitchen.

You were in the kitchen.

Did PFT have any wings?

Any wings?

I did not see pft have any wings.

Hug. Thank you, Pug. Nice, honest men.

Why'd you say that? So funny.

Yeah, but no, I think. I think that there's something to the uncrustable diet. I think that the uncrustable is probably the perfect snack, the perfect meal, the perfect everything. I did not have an uncrustable until I was. It was like, two years ago I had my first one. Changed my life.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Overnight.

They're incredible.

I mean, we just kind of talked about it, but since I'm, like, a fitness expert now, what about, you know, protein, peanut butter.

There's peanut butter.

No, he said you didn't have any wings.

Greens.

There's. There's purple and uncrustables. Purple is a green PFD. Purple is a vegetable.

You saw the wings. Would you think they tasted good if you. You saw them?

I mean, I can't imagine. I don't. I have no idea. Yeah, I would have. No, I had one.

It was hot as fuck. You tricked me with.

It wasn't that hot. Pussy.

You tricked me with one that looked like a barbecue wing and I almost died.

Oh, that was the natural hot.

Yeah, it was hot.

Yeah. I can't. I can't even begin to imagine what the wings tasted like. So I didn't have a single wing. No.

No, he did not have one.

He did not have a bite of one.

No, he did not have one. Or a bite of. You have two. I know he did not have two.

Did you have three?

I didn't. I didn't have. I didn't have a way, but, yeah, dude, fuck it. Like, I think that the uncrustable diet. Some. Some died out there. Tell me that I'm right. I just need one person.

You're right.

Dietitian.

If you were, like, one years old, I think you'd be in the clear.

You're right.

No, you think one year olds eat uncrustables?

Like, I don't know.

Yeah. Not one year olds, but like, two, three. My nephew.

My nephew eats it.

Uncrustable diets.

My one year old does.

It's the new diet. It's called eat how you dress. And I dress like a six year old crust. No, I dress like a six year old. Dress like a chicken wing most frequently. No, I dress like three chicken wings for. No. Anyways, me and big cat are gonna be fucking jacked dude, we are like.

Listen, can people be supportive? I know that I've said this many times before, but I like, 40 is. It's kind of fucking my head up.

Yeah.

And I would like to just be in decent shape. I'd spent my thirties being a fat fucking working a lot. Let's get to 40 and. And just be beasts.

And then we're gonna be like, 40 and a half and be fat again.

That's fine, as long as we kiss the wall. Just kiss the wall. Say we got there. We could get there again if we want.

That's what I'm saying. Like, you get there by the time you're 40, then when you're 45. Oh, I was in good shape when I was.

Let's go back to uncrustables in three weeks.

Exactly. I'm just gonna eat seven uncrustables a day. Get jacked. That's a good business idea. Like, what if there's uncrustables with protein in them?

Yeah.

Like, uncrustables for the guy that works out hard. Yeah, that lifts heavy.

Yeah. So I'm talking about. So please be supportive. We're gonna be 40. We should take pictures before and after. Well, I guess we're just taking pictures all the time. You'll see us when you see us. Super bowl week, it's gonna be fucking on. We might actually go topless all Super bowl week.

What does the intermittent fasting thing say about. About drinking beers?

I don't know.

I would venture to say most of my beer consumption is post.

Isn't fasting just food?

I don't think it qualifies when you're, like, enjoying yourself.

Okay, we're having a good time. If you're having a good time.

Super Bowl. I thought of a bet for our season long contest. I don't know how many bars there are on Bourbon street, but a loser has to put on a GoPro and just get a drink from every single.

Yep. In. In.

There's probably, like 50. Probably way more, actually.

There. My guess is I'm in.

I don't think you would do that.

I would have to.

It's 30. 30 bars.

All right, we'll figure it out. I mean, it would be funny. Maybe do man on the street. It would be funny. All right, we have a lot of time to decide that. All right, I have two. Fire fest. My first fire fest is next weekend. I'm going to 60.

Sorry, there's 60 bars.

60 bars.

That's a lot of drinks.

That's too many. Drinks. Next week, I'm going to Belmont, the Sara at Saratoga, and the Fyre Fest. I'm excited to go there. But you guys, I think some of you guys are going to be going to see the Red Stars play at Wrigley.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So the NWSL, they sent us some kits. NWSL is hot right now. They're playing a game at Wrigley on Saturday. So that's next Saturday. The Red Stars are playing. So shout out Nike for the gear. Hank's going to grab his right now. He's going to rep it on Saturday. So see you all there.

I'm a big Washington spirit fan.

Dude, a soccer game at Riggs can be awesome. Yeah, you. You have. I think they gave you some.

Oh, sick. Dennis Rodman's daughter, Trinity Rodman, she's awesome.

These are sick jerseys. Okay. Okay. That's an awesome jersey. The Red Stars. All right, so, Hank, you gonna go?

Yep.

Wrigley Saturday. Red Stars are playing the national women's soccer league. So. Look at that. Oh, that's a Washington. This is a Washington.

Okay, here you go. This is Chicago.

We just did a kit. We just did a jersey. Jersey. Wait, no. Oh, yeah, no, that. I want one of the DC and you take one of the Chicago. Hold it up.

Hold them up.

Okay, here we go.

Yeah, I'm trying to. I'm trying to just cross off, like, every Wrigley event that exists.

I love it. They. You know, they do. Like. Of course.

Come on.

Was it awesome?

Stupid to me.

Yeah, it was really cool.

All right. My. My other fyre fest is I share some stuff about my kids. There's. I think there's a good amount of dads that listen to. Pardon my take, because we're aging. We're about to be 40. I'm now in the questions I can't answer phase with my son, and it's getting increasingly difficult. Can I throw some of them at? You guys yesterday asked me, what. What blueberries are made of.

Blue.

That's what I said. Didn't really. He didn't really take that. Seeds. He also asked me, no, you die, do you become alive again? How do you.

Yeah, no, it's actually.

That's a good question.

Yeah.

Dogs.

Someone in his class is talking about death.

Incarnation.

I don't want that kid around my son.

You know what a good thing to do is? You got to answer those questions with a question. You get. Just got to say, why do you ask?

Yeah, that. That does. That doesn't work.

Just get, like, more. It doesn't work more childlike on him.

Why? No, his move is he goes, you're, you're the adult. Why don't you know?

That's a good.

He dropped that on me tonight.

It's a valid point.

You bust out the Bible on him.

Just go, Bible?

Yeah, just read him a passage and be like, this is your answer. And he'll be like, what?

You had the. The answers in this book?

Yeah, read it, read it. What's stronger, our house or our car?

House.

Is it though?

Yeah, that's an easy one.

Car could hit you.

Yeah, but if a car hit your house, the car would break. The house would still stay.

The car to the house doesn't move. The car moves to weapon.

The house is like an offensive lineman and the car is like a linebacker.

Okay. Alright, that works. And then the last one he had was he asked me if his younger brother, who's one, when he starts speaking, will he speak in English or Spanish? That one confused the fuck out of me.

You got teacher, one year old Spanish.

Just like, what?

Like, where do we get this one from?

What the fuck?

Whatever he chooses.

He's like, which one is he gonna be doing?

Did you hit the SAP button on this thing?

Yeah, I'm in that phase. Yeah. When he, when he, when he responds with. You're the adult, tell me. Oh, also, what are spider webs made out of? I said come.

Yeah, spider, come.

Yeah, that actually was.

Yeah, spider come.

No, spiders are back with a vengeance.

Oh, yeah, you got a lot of.

Spiders and I think it's with a vengeance.

Just fucking spray them, dude.

I have keep coming. Like, that's the problem.

Blowtorch them.

I ordered some smelling things that apparently might keep them away.

Those never work.

So is it still contained on your balcony?

I've taken them out. I took them out last year, got rid of them and then a couple weeks ago saw some webs, broomed them out. And then last weekend, like, I went out last night and there was. They're back. So it's like they're fighting back. And now I'm worried that they're mobilizing and like kind of in their.

Mobilize 100%.

They are talking to each other.

Yeah, they're gonna invade.

What about. What was that book? Charlotte's web. Get a pig? No, they'll become best friends.

Did that end up well?

Charlotte died. Yeah, but the pig, I think lived. I was speaking of Charlotte until he became bacon.

Speaking of Charlotte, have you guys heard the news? The Stingray update?

No, I only get it from you.

This fucking aquarium. A journalist went there being like, wins this fucking stingray. Gonna squirt out the pups. And you know what the aquarium did? They called the cops on the journalist.

Oh, wow.

And now they're. Now they're muting comments. Yeah, yeah, there's some fishy's going on at the aquarium. That's. That's what I'm saying.

Damn.

He was right, by the way.

We should have mentioned on Tuesday, show rip harambe. Eight years.

Yeah.

Eight year anniversary gone too soon. All right. Jake finishes off. Yeah.

I have a new addiction.

Oh, a few years. Pussy.

Oh, it was an azel spray.

Yeah.

Cocaine.

Mmm.

No.

Oh, oh, oh, mushrooms. Cuz you were in a hamster.

No, no, no.

Oh, prostitutes.

Yeah. There you go. Jake. I don't like you get wet stuff. Do it.

Mister position.

Come on, Jake.

This one I actually think is rated relatable to you guys. But no free ads. But a certain snack company has been sending a lot their product.

Because after. After the interview with McShay, I was like, I would stand on the table in terms of snacks in my war room for dots. Pretzels.

Yeah. Also, I do want them to advertise with us. Can dots, can you please send us some of the pork rinds? Because those are no carbs and they are so good.

I haven't had those.

Oh, my God.

Cinnamon sugar pretzels are the most addicting thing I've ever had. I went to the store the other.

Day, Jake, you also haven't had any drugs.

Right. But still zero addiction.

I've never been to a snack more than this. And it's.

It's crack now. It's crack.

It is crazy.

Yeah, they're all good.

They're so advertised, those thoughts.

Yeah.

We'll never say your name again after giving you.

Yeah, we're never saying thousands of dollars.

Never say advertising.

Also send us support grants. Yeah.

So it's been. I got to watch myself, but they're delicious.

They're good.

You're fine.

I don't know.

I hoard those things on airplanes, too. You want a small, small thing of pretzels? Yeah, I'll take three. Yeah, I'll just put them in my pocket. Yeah, have them later.

We just start smelling Jake's fingers.

I already do. Every morning.

Pussy or dots game we play with Jake every morning.

It's always doc Mondays.

What do you got, Max? You say something you're about to say.

So buy your father's day merch.

Yes. Last day. Last day. You got to buy it now. And you'll get it in time for Father's Day. We have a ton of awesome stuff in this one. Shout out all the dads.

Also, kyries, dad.

Great, Hank.

Get those shirts out right next to the camera.

Great, great. Father's day this year, us open final round.

Nope, nope.

Final round.

Right next to big cat's camera.

Yeah.

Pinehurst.

At Pinehurst. We played that.

All right, Hank, like that shirt. You should get that shirt blue.

That's my. Yep.

Nope, nope.

Thank you. That's sick. Coat, right?

This thing is.

Wait. Yeah, someone made that for me.

This is in the store?

Awesome. No. Oh, yeah. We're selling sport coats for my coffee company. Max has to come in here and do everything for Hank. Look at that, Max.

Oh, I actually wore the shirt today.

Nice.

A lot of compliments.

Nice. New mountains are blue. Go buy them. Father's day merch. Got to buy it now. Go to store. Dot bar soul sports.com. all right, great show, boys. Let's do what. What are you gonna do, Max? Go back to your seat. Go back to your seat. I haven't said anything. Numbers.

1823, 856.

Oh, shit. He got 56.

99.

Poke.

40.

21.

Two.

What was that?

42.

42. I have 20. Max, would you like to trade with me?

Uh, no, but. Pft, that. My voice. I'm worried.

What?

Oh, Max is singing with us tomorrow night.

Oh, no, my voice.

My voice just went right there.

Just don't talk. Yeah, just stop talking.

Max, would you like to trade with me? I'll give you an option. 24, 56, straight. No. Okay. What was your number?

Pft, I did eight.

Was everyone else in the booth?

1899.

How many songs is he doing?

Three.

I've never seen someone more nervous for something in my entire life.

You just did your one man show in Las Vegas that you spent six months talking about.

Literally ruined our life for half a year.

That was. That's what I'm saying, though. That was 60 minutes. If I was.

If it was two. Oh, Hank.

40.

42.

Jordy, 40.

You were so close.

I should have done it.

You were so close. I actually was also pretty close because two times 20 is 40. Max, you were not close. Also, you've never gotten it.

Love you guys.

Take on me, take me on? Only let's say after me it's no better to be safe than sorry? Just to play my worries away? You're all the things I've got to remember?

Shying away?

I'll be coming for you anyway? Take on me, take me love I begun I.