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Hello beautiful people and welcome

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to our humble abode the

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Thunderdome on this new champs

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tuesday june 25th 2024

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this program starts now Sports

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are the greatest thing on earth sports make

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us all feel better whenever we're going through

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stuff sports unify The entire

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world and sports crown champions in

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new places every Single year

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seemingly last night two new teams are

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able to celebrate being the greatest in

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the world at their particular sport We'll

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start a college world series tennessee volunteers.

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Congrats. We'll break that down in a

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matter of moments We'll also have

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carl ravitch Obviously baseball legend from esb and

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was on the call last night for the

0:41

third game in the best of three series

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in which the tennessee Volunteers became champs. He'll

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be joining us in a second hour and then

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down in south florida Ladies and

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gentlemen, we knew history was going to be

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made if the edmonton oilers were able to

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get the big game seven win Down in

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florida. They'd be the first team since 1942

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to go down three zip in a

1:02

series and then come storming back and

1:04

win four straight in a stanley cup

1:06

championship Instead it's the first time since

1:08

1945 That

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a team has been up three then

1:12

given up three and then win in

1:14

game seven and that's the florida panthers

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Who are stanley cup champions for the

1:19

first time? in the

1:21

franchise It was a

1:23

kg affair. It was a great game two

1:25

to one. They end up getting the big

1:27

time dub bob rofsky kachuk Barkov

1:30

and the boys have been celebrating all night

1:32

and all morning with the stanley cup down

1:34

there in south florida We will visit some

1:36

of the scenes down there and where lord.

1:38

Oh is taking some trips to shout to

1:40

the elbow room Yeah, seemingly being the hub

1:42

of the stanley cup and also the atlantic

1:44

ocean i'm not alone here today No, no

1:46

i'm with a great group of dudes the

1:48

toxic tables here at boston corner at thai

1:51

schmidt And we're calling this new champs tuesday

1:53

And obviously it's because the florida panther is

1:55

a brand new champion and a tennessee volunteers

1:57

are brand new college baseball champions also

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joining us today in the second hour, Brad Stevens

2:02

of the Boston Celtics. First time he has won

2:04

a Lario championship con man. You gotta be pretty

2:06

excited. Yeah, I feel fantastic. You had a press

2:09

conference earlier today too. Said a lot about the

2:11

future of the Celtics. So I have a feeling

2:13

that you might have to make some room on

2:15

this stage for a couple more of these real,

2:17

very legitimate Lario Bryant trophies. Well, that might not

2:20

be the only trophies that need to be made

2:22

some room on this particular stage. And not because

2:24

of one half of the hammer, Cowboys

2:27

tone digs in the teams that he cheers for.

2:30

It's because there's a nine year

2:32

NFL vet, a man who's been

2:34

a diehard, the hockey fan for

2:37

a long, long time. There

2:40

he's Jay Buller. Yeah. Congrats

2:43

on the Stanley Cup. You

2:45

got Lord O'Pow down in South Florida. And

2:47

it's because of fans like you, Gary Bettman

2:49

said it while he was handing out, Gary

2:51

Bettman commissioner of the NHL gave

2:54

a couple of great speeches last night afterwards. Looked a little

2:56

bit nervous early when he was talking about the con smites

2:58

because he was about to awarded to an opposing team player

3:01

and Connor McDavid who ended up winning

3:03

the cons might first time since 19

3:05

some forever, forever, four goaltenders. And now

3:07

two players have been able to win

3:09

the cons might, which is the MVP

3:11

of the NHL playoffs throughout its entirety

3:13

without winning the Stanley Cup. Connor McDavid

3:15

wins it. Gary Bettman had to give

3:17

that speech in Florida's barn

3:20

about somebody else wanting it. When they all wanted Bobrovsky,

3:22

the goalie of the Panthers to win. Turns out voting

3:24

wise, he was like fourth on the list. He wouldn't

3:26

have won it anyways. But

3:29

then Gary Bettman cut an entire promo about

3:31

the Florida Panthers franchise and the

3:33

team and the fans and the

3:35

ownership. And then he handed that

3:37

Lorde off to Barkov. And he

3:39

said multiple times, aside

3:41

from the players, the most important

3:43

part of this entire championship run has

3:45

been the fans of Florida Panthers, which has certainly been one

3:47

of them. So congrats to the team. A

3:50

lot of people thought it was going to be an

3:52

Edmonton Oilers home game because how many tickets were sold

3:54

and videos on the internet before the game with a

3:56

lot of Oilers fans walking in there. A lot of

3:58

Florida Panther right in there in that place. Because loud

4:00

congrats to you guys. I was never worried about

4:03

them glassing people made some money selling their tickets

4:05

to other Florida fans. I've seen Chuckie talked about

4:07

it last time he was on the show how

4:09

special the environment has been how the energy has

4:11

been down there. It was people texting me calling

4:13

me my brother my friends down

4:15

there kind of in the areas celebrating

4:18

and like people who never watch hockey was never

4:20

in the hockey until a couple years ago or

4:22

three or four years ago. You boys shout out

4:24

you boys really get me you know into the

4:26

into the game obviously they've been down there

4:29

30 years now so to win it just

4:31

bringing that energy obviously you know

4:33

dolphins are on the clock now

4:35

but hey shout out to the

4:37

Panthers Chuckie Barkey who survived the

4:39

nasty fall yesterday all odds were

4:42

against us the coin. You

4:45

know Roberto Luongo talking trash about him

4:47

he reversed the cozy he came up.

4:49

Congrats to him big win against Evan

4:51

for the long go. Obviously you know

4:53

Swaggy got to start always shows up

4:57

we need him most man but shout out to

5:02

the guys and then Bill Zio obviously you

5:04

saw how obviously emotional he's been throughout the

5:07

whole playoff run but then to see it just him kind

5:09

of let it all out and celebrate. Paul

5:11

Maurice as well gave a legendary kind of

5:13

post game speech man but the sport is

5:16

awesome obviously a lot of a

5:18

lot of a lot of new people talking about

5:20

it. I don't know about your timelines your a

5:22

lot of new guys that's good are getting into

5:24

the game so it's great for the sport obviously

5:26

this show I think has a huge part of

5:28

as well obviously what ESPN is doing but hey

5:30

shout out to the game shout out to the

5:32

Panthers man hey you guys

5:34

man congratulations. Florida

5:38

Panthers getting a chance to experience Lourdo for the

5:40

first time and it's 30 year history I had

5:42

no idea you guys are down there for 30

5:44

years I think if it's been 30 years wow

5:47

go ahead and have yourself a nice mo

5:49

delo right at the top of the Lourdo

5:51

just like the boys are doing down in

5:54

South Florida as we speak right now none

5:56

of the Panthers have slept they seemingly have

5:58

been living large congrats If you're

6:00

going to be doing white boy shit, you got

6:02

to do it. That's

6:07

hockey. That's go, Ben. That is, I

6:10

hope it tasted damn good. I hope you savored

6:12

every single drop. Delicious. There's a chance it never

6:14

happens again, and that's the greatness of the Stanley

6:16

Cup. And Gary Bettman talked about 120 year

6:20

history of the Stanley

6:22

Cup and how it's the first finished captain that has

6:24

ever led their team to a Stanley Cup championships in

6:26

Barkov. He actually said that in a speech, and then

6:28

he talked about obviously South Florida getting it for the

6:31

first time. And you said there's a lot of new

6:33

people talking about the sport. It's incredible because hockey is

6:35

awesome. But I think it's also because South Florida wins

6:37

it. Miami obviously has a lot of humans in it.

6:40

Miami has a lot of notable people

6:42

that probably aren't normally hockey fans. But

6:44

right now, they're all getting a chance

6:46

to celebrate something, and people enjoy celebrating

6:49

shit. And if you can enjoy

6:51

and celebrate a Stanley Cup, especially the environments that have

6:53

been created down there, good for hockey, good for South

6:55

Florida, good for the Panthers. Florida is now home to

6:57

three of the last five champs in

7:00

hockey. Tampa obviously winning a couple. Now Florida

7:02

Panthers winning one. It's like, is Florida the

7:04

new state of hockey? Minnesota's not going to

7:06

be happy. No, not. Michigan's not going to

7:08

be happy. No. Pennsylvania's not

7:10

going to be thrilled about anything, but Florida is

7:12

seemingly the place for champions. Arizona

7:14

has a lot of ex-NHL guys who kind

7:17

of all live there, and their kids play

7:19

hockey there. And Arizona State, I

7:21

think hockey is kind of on the rise. They got

7:23

nothing on Florida. Florida just wins. Stanley Cups. That's

7:26

seemingly what Florida does, and hopefully

7:28

that'll change, and hopefully a real hockey town

7:30

will win. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Amen.

7:33

Amen. You're right. You're

7:35

right. And when we talk about real hockey

7:37

towns, I mean. Did you see that live

7:39

shot from from from Blaso, this Boulevard, Fort

7:42

Lauderdale Beach, palm trees, ocean. I mean, that's

7:44

hockey town. I've never seen that. Come on.

7:47

D-Bud is obviously feeding the narrative here, but with

7:49

the celebration that's been taking place down there, I

7:51

got nothing but respect for how South Florida is

7:54

celebrating this. And the boys have been taking it.

7:56

Obviously the elbow room has made some. the

8:00

WWE title around his waist. He is also

8:02

drowning people in beer from Stanley Cup from

8:04

the second floor of the elbow room. Obviously,

8:06

we've chatted about the elbow room. It's

8:08

a Fort Lauderdale staple pretty much. So if you go down to

8:11

Fort Lauderdale, you're gonna end up in the elbow room. My wife

8:13

thought it was a strip club we were talking about the entire

8:15

time. It's like nobody's getting naked in the elbow room. And

8:18

if they are, they're not remembering. They're getting kicked

8:20

out. Yeah, they are. Elbow room is a fantastic

8:22

time. Not only has it been at the elbow

8:24

room, obviously, it's made its way into the Atlantic

8:26

Ocean. Yeah, Chuck took

8:29

that thing into the Atlantic Ocean earlier today and took

8:31

his title off. Obviously, let's make sure that doesn't touch

8:33

the sand. Somebody needs a hold this. I don't wanna

8:35

throw this thing down. Shout to the WWE. I

8:38

think Lorta needs to take a trip into the

8:40

ocean, don't you? Yup, dives in. Back

8:43

bump. Stanley is in there. Now,

8:45

right in front of us, pause that, please. Right

8:47

in front of us here with the purse. She's

8:49

got socks and shoes on. She is a social

8:51

media person for somewhere. Always gonna get the shot.

8:54

Thank you for your attention to detail, lady, as

8:56

well. And then obviously,

8:59

Stanley Cup was at one of the boys'

9:01

houses this morning. His people were boating by

9:03

and they were celebrating with the fine people of

9:05

South Florida. And I think there's some people

9:07

that maybe didn't even know that they won

9:09

the Stanley Cup until this morning and then

9:11

they saw it. And they're like, yeah, we're champions.

9:13

This is gonna help grow the game. This is

9:15

incredible for the game. And we got brand

9:17

new champions in Florida Panthers. I actually love

9:19

the fact that they won. Yeah. The Edmonton

9:21

Oilers would have been a fantastic story. Conor McDavid,

9:24

with everything he was able to accomplish his playoff

9:26

series, with how many points he scored, breaking

9:28

Wayne Gretzky's records. He was on the rise.

9:30

The world got introduced to Conor McDavid, the

9:32

greatest player on ice right now. And he

9:34

was certainly quite a spectacle. He was dazzling with

9:36

how fast he was. He was magical with

9:38

his mitts. And what he did was certainly

9:40

bring a team all the way back to

9:42

a game seven that we didn't think was gonna

9:44

be possible at one point. And inevitably, he loses.

9:47

Now, the entire world was introduced to this

9:49

particular character. Next, you're gonna be watching, okay,

9:51

can he put his team back on his

9:53

back and lead them back to the Stanley Cup

9:55

like to Chuck and the boys were able to

9:57

do down in Florida this past season. But

9:59

I appreciate it. the fact that they gave

10:01

it up. They're up 3-0, they give it

10:03

up. And if you listen to Paul in

10:05

his speech afterwards, Coach Paul, he

10:07

was giving a Q and A with Emily Kaplan,

10:11

who's timing of people she was questioning. It's

10:13

not her fault. They obviously don't. Kachuk gets the

10:16

Stanley Cup first time. They're interviewing a

10:18

guy that got traded down there at the deadline.

10:20

He's been around a long time. And then we

10:22

have a camera on Kachuk getting it. Her interview

10:24

seemingly not even her, just like, hey, Kachuk just

10:26

got the cup for the first time. We

10:28

need to be paying attention to that. But

10:30

she's talking to Paul, head coach of the Florida

10:32

Panthers. And she asked him one question, and all

10:34

of a sudden the last player just got done

10:36

with the cup and goes right over to him. And

10:39

he just turns around, so calm,

10:41

cool, and collective, and does what he does, and

10:43

then gets right back into the interview. And

10:46

you're now a Stanley Cup champion. Describe your

10:48

emotions right now. I can't. I don't know

10:50

what to do. Hang on for a second. We got

10:52

a visitor. Hold on one second. Two visitors. Kachuk

10:56

on the cheek. Let's

11:00

get a close look at this thing. Is this real? Look

11:04

at that pose. Yeah, that's awesome. Drink

11:09

it down, soak it in, and obviously he gives the kiss to

11:11

Stanley Cup. They cut away to go to the crowd. I mean,

11:13

there was a lot of things that happened last night during the

11:15

coverage of the Stanley Cup celebration.

11:17

But Paul Maurice getting his opportunity to do

11:19

that. And then he goes right back to

11:21

the interview. And he says, that's

11:24

Florida Panther Way right there. We had to make

11:26

it hard on ourselves. Nothing's easy. He talked about

11:28

the entire year. And then the interview, I think

11:30

another player, I forget who it was. And they

11:32

said, we don't like anything easy. We like it

11:35

hard. It's almost like the messaging going into game

11:37

seven was like, hey, this is exactly how we

11:39

would want this. This is exactly the story of

11:41

the Florida Panthers. This is exactly the story of

11:43

this particular team. We could have done it the

11:45

easy way. Yeah, but that's not us. We do

11:47

things the hard way because the hard way is

11:49

what leads to great challenges and to great accomplishments

11:51

in the Florida Panthers winning game seven at home.

11:53

Magical moment. Paul Maurice seems to be the perfect

11:56

coach for that. He has, I think

11:58

he's lost the most games as a head coach in the end. I think

12:00

that is a record that he has.

12:02

He has the most lawsuits in NHL history as a

12:04

head coach. I think there was only one person that

12:06

really wanted to hire him at that particular stage. It

12:08

was Bill Zito. So this is going

12:10

to be my guy. He's been loyal to him. Paul

12:13

Maurice has obviously been loyal to the Florida Panthers. He's

12:16

been loyal to that dressing room, that change room.

12:18

And now their champions had all paid off. And

12:20

what a magical night. And yeah,

12:22

I've had the opportunity in Pittsburgh to be a couple

12:25

of these, be a part of a couple

12:27

of these celebrations where beers are getting tossed out of it. It

12:29

brings the city together. And I'm happy

12:31

people are getting introduced to hockey in this

12:34

particular fashion. Joining us now is a man

12:36

who's been covering this sport all throughout playoffs

12:38

and obviously throughout the entire season. He's

12:40

been on every single sports talk show for good reason.

12:43

What a great ambassador for the sport of hockey.

12:45

Ladies and gentlemen, in front of the program, P.K.

12:48

Subey. Yeah. How

12:50

you doing, brother? I'm

12:53

great. I'm great. Just licking my wounds.

12:55

Had a long night last night,

12:57

early morning tonight. But all good. All

13:00

good in the world of hockey. I know

13:03

yesterday you were campaigning hard to be a

13:05

part of Stanley Cup celebrations last night, whether

13:07

it was the Oilers or the team that

13:09

you picked, the Florida Panthers in seven games.

13:12

Did any of the boys remember and appreciate that you

13:14

picked them in game seven? And did

13:16

you have a chance to celebrate last night with any

13:18

of the Florida Panthers? Didn't

13:21

get the call for the Stanley Cup

13:23

celebration. No. No.

13:27

Did not get the call. Actually, had a

13:29

couple of Florida Panthers fans actually let me

13:31

know that I suck, which is pretty awesome.

13:33

They were screaming that at me in the

13:35

building. So that was the highlight

13:38

of my night, actually. But

13:40

you know what? Last night got to catch up

13:42

with all the ESPN folks. We

13:44

had a couple of barley sandwiches. Tied one

13:46

on. Great night. Last night

13:48

with Mess. Mess had his son in the mix

13:50

last night. Watched the game with us the whole night.

13:53

Had a couple of barley sandwiches with him. And

13:55

yeah, we're off. Did

13:57

it turn into a gong show or what he has been? because this

13:59

is a wrap up of a hell of a season, right? You guys

14:01

have been on the road for the last three weeks or

14:04

four weeks maybe. So this was kind of a wrap up

14:06

for you guys. You did a great job. I hope you

14:08

guys celebrate it. How great you guys did for the sport,

14:10

Pete K. Yeah, no,

14:12

you know what? The whole team, it

14:15

was a celebratory night. I think for

14:18

us, that was our Stanley Cup, you know? It's

14:21

a long road and it's a huge

14:23

responsibility at ESPN, specifically with hockey. You

14:26

know, we're trying to grow the game.

14:29

We're trying to highlight the superstars,

14:31

highlight all the bright spots in

14:33

our game. And, you know,

14:35

as much as it's gotta be entertaining, it's gotta

14:37

be educational too. We had a lot of new

14:39

fans, I think, learn things about our game and

14:41

about the players in it. And, you

14:44

know, we're pretty happy at where we sit right

14:47

now. We're pretty excited about next season and the

14:49

future for hockey. But what a

14:51

day this is for hockey. I mean,

14:53

the first Stanley Cup in Florida Panthers

14:55

history, well-deserved, you know, couldn't have gone

14:58

to a better team. They earned it,

15:00

they deserved it. They went to the

15:02

final last year, they lost, they learned,

15:04

they got back there and they got

15:06

it done. And as you heard

15:08

Paul Maurice said, they didn't want it any other way.

15:10

They knew it was gonna be tough. And

15:12

that is the way it should be. It's the hardest trophy to

15:14

win. And it took everything

15:16

they had to get it done. And

15:18

that's what stays with you forever. That's

15:21

why it's a brotherhood. That's why it's

15:23

not a, Mark Messier said this on

15:25

the broadcast yesterday. He's sick and

15:27

tired of hearing people say group. You know,

15:30

he doesn't even think of it as a team. He

15:32

thinks of it as a family. And you could see

15:34

that last night with all the families and the kids

15:37

on the ice and wives and girlfriends, all

15:39

the people, you could just see sort

15:41

of that Charlotte's Web of everybody

15:44

that was touched and

15:47

connected to the Florida Panthers organization and

15:49

those players that helped get it done.

15:51

Because it's a long journey, man. Like

15:54

that's a long road

15:56

to get there. It's

15:58

82 game season four. really hard

16:00

rounds, lots of travel, lots of

16:02

ups and downs. People have

16:04

lives too, lots of things going on, your personal

16:07

life with family and all that stuff. So to

16:09

get there, it's their moment now and they should

16:11

be enjoying it. I'll tell you this right now,

16:13

listen, I

16:15

could easily party my way out of the league after

16:18

winning the cup. So I hope those guys enjoy it

16:20

and get back in the gym because I think they're

16:22

gonna have a good enough team to potentially do it

16:24

again. I don't know if you saw there at the

16:26

bottom, a Canadian team has not won since 1993. How

16:31

good, at 19, it's our sport. That's

16:33

right. Boom. It's our sport and we

16:36

are, yup, sorry, it's

16:38

hot in the oven, but when you go

16:40

against the United States of America, especially if

16:42

you're from Candadia, you got no shot. That's

16:45

what I'm learning, that's what stats are telling us.

16:47

First time since 1945, a team goes up three

16:49

zip in a series, lets

16:53

the other team come back and then ends up winning

16:55

in game seven. The Toronto Maple Leafs did that to

16:57

the Detroit Red Wings in

16:59

1945. I think a

17:02

big reason why they won game seven

17:04

is obviously they came out a little

17:06

different and yada, yada, yada, but Bob

17:08

Hrovsky, hey, old Bob was getting Bobby

17:10

chants throughout the third period and there

17:12

was numerous saves where if you're watching

17:14

along live, you couldn't help but think to yourself,

17:16

well, if Bob's gonna stop that or if they're not gonna

17:18

score on that, I guess the hockey

17:20

gods are with the Florida Panthers tonight. Was

17:22

Bob Hrovsky all the way back in full

17:24

form whenever you're watching them live

17:26

and when Connor McDavid has this one here

17:28

in a matter of moments right in front,

17:31

wide open and Bob gets the big, here,

17:33

I think it's gonna be right here. Bang,

17:35

Connor McDavid, stop, stop,

17:37

diving bodies in front of the net

17:39

and it doesn't go in and they're under

17:41

a barrage all third period. Did

17:43

you think that Bob Hrovsky was gonna be the

17:45

difference maker early in this and how did you

17:47

feel watching Bobby do his thing? Well,

17:52

I was confident in that. People

17:54

thought I was nuts for

17:56

picking Florida to win that game last

17:58

night, but. A couple

18:00

things. One, Sergei Bobrovsky has been

18:03

the best defensive player on the

18:05

best defensive team the past two

18:07

seasons. The Florida Panthers have been

18:09

the best defensive team and the

18:11

hardest team to play against the

18:13

past two years, and he's a

18:15

big part of that. This

18:18

guy, as great as Florida is, he

18:20

covered up a lot of mistakes. He

18:22

plugged a lot of holes for that

18:25

team. And I think what we saw

18:27

in the latter part of the Stanley

18:29

Cup final was him just mentally and

18:31

physically exhausted. And I'm gonna tell you,

18:33

this whole clip here is

18:36

like the season in a nutshell for them.

18:38

It's desperation. These guys blocked a ton

18:40

of shots. They sacrificed their body. They

18:42

played the right way. I mean, that's

18:44

Volodymyr Tarasenko at the top of your

18:47

screen there, who is a superstar, has

18:49

won a Stanley Cup for St. Louis,

18:51

had scored goals, guys who killed to

18:53

have this skill that that guy has,

18:55

but everything that you're seeing in

18:57

this clip has nothing to do with skill. It

18:59

has to do with heart, will, and

19:02

those guys laid it all on the line.

19:04

They emptied the tank last night, and that's

19:06

where they are in a nutshell. They had

19:08

to get back to their identity, and that's

19:10

defense first, but it starts with Bob, and

19:12

Bob was phenomenal. He was phenomenal in this

19:14

game. I knew once he got a little

19:16

bit of rest and some recovery time for

19:18

one game, he could do it, and he

19:20

made all the saves when he needed to

19:22

do it. But Gustav Forsling, I

19:24

said he was the best shutdown defenseman

19:26

in the game. Well, he made

19:29

the biggest play of his life on Conor

19:31

McDavid when he had that empty net. If

19:33

you watch carefully, it's stick on stick. It's

19:35

man on man, and he

19:37

saves their season, really. I mean, Edmonton

19:40

ties that up. It's

19:42

gonna be very, very difficult to beat Conor

19:44

McDavid in extra time. Edmonton was putting on

19:46

the pressure, but they bent, they didn't break.

19:48

Look at that stick by Forsling. Unbelievable. I

19:51

think it's a little sauce afterwards. Dumps it in

19:53

the net. Let's go ahead and eat that. You're

19:56

talking about Terrasenko up in the front.

19:58

These dudes are putting their faces on. in front

20:00

of a puck that could be going to like

20:02

a hundred miles an hour. So guys are there.

20:04

This isn't just like, oh, they're they're trying to

20:06

block a shot. Like people say that. And I

20:08

think people new to hockey are like, yeah, they

20:10

block a shot. They got a bunch of pad

20:12

on. It's like they don't have a bunch of

20:14

pads on. There's a lot of exposed areas where

20:16

there isn't pads because they have to for the

20:18

way they skate. And also their faces are wide

20:20

open. And if you see most hockey players smile,

20:22

they got busted grills. Oh, yeah.

20:24

Just faces just been hit with pucks

20:26

all over the place. So that type

20:28

of dedication, that type of

20:30

grit, that type of will to win. He's

20:33

beautiful. It's great for the sport and it's

20:35

great for Florida Panther fans. Terry Stapel. Absolutely.

20:38

I got to ask you, P.K. Sorry, Barkey.

20:41

I told you, I told you. Hey,

20:44

you were on the right side. You know, you

20:46

were on the right side of history. I appreciate

20:48

you. But started off, looked like it might have

20:50

been a high score and went obviously quick back

20:52

to back goals. But like you said earlier, got

20:54

back to kind of Florida Panther hockey.

20:56

What was different, you know, able to been able

20:58

to stifle Conor McDavid and those guys for this

21:00

game and kind of some of the last game

21:02

as well with as far as regards to Conor.

21:04

What was different as far as getting back to

21:06

our defensive game pen and mentality? Well,

21:10

defense wins championships. It

21:12

doesn't matter what sport you're in. You

21:15

need offense. And I think that

21:17

performance last night showed what

21:19

winning in the NHL is all about. You have

21:21

to have skill. You have to have a

21:23

mix of all of it. But if your players

21:26

don't have the testicular fortitude, man to man

21:29

to outwork your opponent and beat the guy

21:31

across from you. And that means putting it

21:33

all on the line. If you got to

21:35

block shots, if you got to get physical,

21:38

you got to win puck battles. I

21:41

think that the Florida Panthers out of any team

21:43

in the league had the most buy in. Those

21:45

guys all bought in. And what you have to give

21:47

credit for, there's a lot of guys on that team

21:50

that did not play in the Stanley Cup final

21:52

last year. I think it's like eight or nine

21:55

guys. Luster Eden was there. He had a broke

21:57

leg. He didn't play. So they had guys who.

22:00

had to come in and get that

22:02

experience quickly. And I think the culture

22:04

that they built in that locker room

22:06

starting with Matthew Kachuk, that was the

22:08

difference. That is the difference. That's

22:10

what you lean on when you face adversity is

22:12

do I trust the guys in this locker room?

22:14

And that's why I picked them. I felt that

22:17

they were the best team and the closest team

22:19

because of what they went through last season. To

22:23

go to a Stanley Cup final and

22:25

get back in this situation, be

22:27

up 3-0 and have that team come back.

22:30

The only thing you can lean on are

22:32

your past experiences and looking around that locker

22:34

room. Do I know the guys that are

22:36

in here? Do I believe in those guys?

22:38

And I truly believe that they

22:41

had a tight group and they believed in

22:43

each other. They just needed to reset and

22:45

get back to their identity. And that's meat

22:47

and potatoes. Not trying to make

22:49

it look pretty. Just get your

22:52

hands dirty and get it done. And they did.

22:54

Protein and starch, let's get out there. Let's do

22:56

some grittin'. John and some sawn paper and do

22:58

this entire thing. Paul Maurice, whenever he was asked

23:00

in a follow-up question after he took the cup

23:03

and lifted it and looked at it and did

23:05

the whole thing, goes back to his interview and

23:07

he talks about everything being hard and that's how

23:09

we won it. It's Florida Panther Way. And then she followed up

23:11

and said, why do you think this group of guys or whatever,

23:14

and he talks about how close they are. They're

23:17

like, this team is incredibly close. Like,

23:19

signed guys at the trade deadline, they

23:21

fit in perfectly. Like, we have a

23:23

crew, which leads to Ty Schmidt's question for you,

23:26

PK. Obviously, hate doing this

23:28

the night after they win, but it's got to do

23:30

it. Yeah, you have to do it. And you just

23:32

mentioned them, they look good to

23:35

potentially repeat next year, but a lot of

23:37

their key guys, they have signed

23:39

for multiple years here. And you just mentioned

23:42

it with what they have in

23:45

the locker room and how close they are

23:47

and the chemistry and all that kind of

23:49

stuff. Are we looking at a potential dynasty

23:52

with the Panthers here? Oh, no. I

23:54

mean, how do we approach this? Well,

23:57

I'll say this. They're gonna have

24:00

to... retweet their defense a little bit. I

24:02

think they're gonna have to share that up. Obviously,

24:05

I think Montor's contracts up, they're

24:09

gonna have to retool that. I

24:11

think that they're gonna have to continue

24:14

to get some speed and skill in

24:16

that lineup. Their power play was non-existent.

24:19

That's an issue. They're gonna have to address the

24:21

power play quarterback at the

24:23

top. All of them, Ekman Larson

24:25

was put into that situation. I don't

24:27

know if that's someone that they're gonna look

24:29

at to run the power play next year,

24:32

maybe to start the season, but they're gonna

24:34

need somebody back there that can log those

24:36

minutes and play that

24:39

power play because for them to

24:41

win another Stanley Cup, they're gonna

24:43

need special teams to get it

24:45

done. And the way that

24:47

they played though, the brand of hockey

24:49

that they played was a very, very

24:51

tough brand of hockey. We haven't seen

24:53

a team play that way in

24:55

a long time in the National Hockey League, man

24:58

to man. So is it potential

25:00

that they can be a dynasty?

25:02

Maybe, but there's a

25:05

lot of hockey left to be

25:07

played. I wouldn't be saying that's

25:09

necessarily sure. Connor McDavid might have

25:11

something to say about that. Yeah,

25:13

sure. Yeah, speaking of Connor McDavid,

25:15

that's brand right there. That's brand,

25:17

it's Jim Harbaugh football. That's

25:19

Florida Panther hockey. I mean, there's

25:21

numerous other teams. Pittsburgh Penguins, obviously. We got one guy

25:23

that does this. He's actually a lefty. His name is

25:25

Sidney Crosby. He's our best player. Our best player is

25:27

also our toughest guy, which is certainly a problem in

25:29

Pittsburgh. We don't need to talk about Pittsburgh. We

25:32

don't need to talk about Pittsburgh. They're never winning the

25:34

cup, so don't worry. Well,

25:36

they have. We already have. Sorry,

25:38

again. Sorry, never again. Anyway, that

25:41

Lorta that D-Bud is drinking

25:43

out today. Yeah. Come this side.

25:45

That came from right here. What? They

25:47

came from right here. Oh yeah, but they have. Actually came

25:50

from right there. From right here. I did taste

25:52

that Sweet Nectar last year. Yeah, but that thing

25:54

was lifted quickly right back to hockey town, right

25:56

over here. It's in Boston next year. No,

26:00

Pittsburgh. Detroit? Detroit, listen,

26:02

1945, 1942, I don't want to have to read this.

26:06

But history was made last night, and the

26:08

losers, no matter how it went, were both Detroit

26:10

Red Links. So if you wanted

26:12

to just dive into that whole thing. No,

26:14

we don't have to. Okay, all right, sweetie.

26:17

We'll talk about teams that made Stanley Cup

26:19

fun, because they play great hockey all year.

26:21

Let's go to Con, man. Yeah, PK, obviously

26:23

a lot of the conversation on the broadcast

26:25

was talking about how the Oilers towards the

26:27

end kind of ran out of gas. Was

26:29

that something that you saw from them? And

26:31

how long did McDavid actually spent on the

26:33

ice? Because it did feel as though at

26:35

least watching 18 of those 20 minutes in

26:37

the third period he was on there. And

26:39

then did you see Leon Drycetl's comments as

26:41

well? I might have be I might be

26:43

getting got about this. But is there a

26:45

chance that he doesn't resign with Edmonton after,

26:47

you know, everything that happened? Well,

26:51

Connor McDavid definitely looked tired of the third,

26:53

but he played half of the third period.

26:56

I mean, any human that plays that much

26:58

in the third period after that long of a

27:01

run, I don't care how fast you skate, you

27:04

know, or how good you are, you're

27:06

going to be exhausted and you could

27:08

see was visibly exhausted. And they still

27:10

had opportunities to tie that game. They

27:12

had their looks. They had

27:14

their looks. They could have tied it.

27:16

But you know, Florida bent, they didn't

27:18

break and the best defensive team got

27:20

it done. You know, as far as

27:23

Leon Drycetl goes, you

27:25

know, obviously he's going to reflect, you

27:28

know, on the Stanley Cup final and

27:30

his performance. It's

27:32

a grind, man. It's a grind like,

27:35

you know, you got to see what his injury report

27:37

is. Was he banged up or not? But I'll tell

27:39

you this, who isn't banged up? You

27:41

know, come the Stanley Cup final, everybody's got bumps

27:43

and bruises. This guy is

27:45

a top 10 player in the National Hockey

27:47

League. He's that good. When

27:51

you win the Stanley Cup, you realize

27:53

when you get to the Stanley Cup

27:55

final, you realize how difficult it is

27:57

because it's a physical grind.

28:00

And for me, you could see he had

28:02

one game maybe in the series where I

28:04

felt that his skating he was he was

28:07

skating like you normally see Leon do through

28:09

the middle of the eyes at a trading

28:11

creating. He's a facilitator. He's got to be

28:13

a facilitator. And I, I didn't think he

28:16

could find that confidence in his game enough.

28:18

So you know, personally for him, I'm sure

28:20

he's going to look back and want

28:23

to be better in his next Stanley Cup

28:25

final. He'll have an opportunity to do it

28:27

again. Will it be in Edmonton? I'll

28:30

tell you this, you know, it's

28:32

difficult, man. When you go somewhere and you're

28:34

the number one guy, it's a lot different

28:36

than playing behind Connor McDavid. And

28:39

if I was Leon Drisidal, I'd

28:41

write, I'd want to be riding shotgun with

28:44

Connor McDavid all day long because the game

28:46

ain't going to get any easier than that.

28:49

He's the best player in the world. And

28:51

you know, if he's in Edmonton, they're going

28:54

to continue to put great players around him

28:56

and build a winning team around him. And

28:58

the goal is to win a Stanley Cup.

29:01

He's already started his career in Edmonton. He's got

29:03

a great legacy there. You know, if I

29:05

was him, I'd want to stay with

29:07

Connor McDavid, but that's the choice. He's earned

29:09

his independence. He's that great of a hockey

29:11

player. He can go wherever the hell he

29:13

wants to go and play more power

29:15

to him. He's elite, but

29:17

he's going to have to look at

29:20

his game, reflect and get better the

29:22

next time he gets an opportunity. He

29:24

goes from Connor McDavid to Sidney Crosby.

29:26

Congratulations. Welcome to Pittsburgh. Drisidal. Welcome

29:29

Pittsburgh. Once we come, once

29:31

we win a cup, you go ahead and do that. We

29:34

started rattling off hockey players in

29:37

here whenever you said he's a top 10 player. And it's like,

29:40

there's a lot of really good players that haven't been

29:42

playing in the playoffs. So like, maybe you forget about

29:44

him because it's much like the NBA. If

29:46

you're not playing in the playoffs, you are

29:48

very much forgotten about like very McKinnon, obviously.

29:50

I mean, he has not played for like

29:53

a month, seemingly or two months. So he

29:55

is out of sight, out of mind. And then Nick

29:57

in the back, oh, Nikki Skates was like. And then

30:00

you talk about him playing alongside McDavid. It's like we

30:02

saw Gensil doing that with Sidney Crosby. And

30:05

I thought to myself, if I'm Gensil, I'm taking less money so I

30:07

can continue to play next to Sidney

30:09

Crosby. Then he gets traded to Carolina and he becomes

30:11

her star. He obviously is on those daily. So like

30:13

I assume dry settles also potentially seeing that whole thing

30:15

take place. And

30:18

I'll tell you, I can't wait to see

30:20

what the moves are this offseason. I

30:22

can't wait to see what the injuries have been for both

30:24

these Oilers and Florida Panthers whenever they're in

30:26

the game. Because I think a lot of people knew

30:29

to hockey don't understand there could be like a broken

30:31

sternum that on one of these teams that was just

30:33

playing last year. That was literally

30:35

just playing last night. Like, oh God, I

30:37

was playing through like a rolled ankle or something. No, actually he had

30:39

a broken femur. Yeah. Well,

30:42

what do you mean? Like, yeah, he he's going to be

30:44

out for eight months shattered. He's

30:46

actually missing the beginning of next season because of getting played

30:48

last night, knowing that it was going to happen. You

30:51

hockey players are the best. It was a phenomenal

30:53

year. Congrats on the great coverage. And we appreciate

30:55

that. How are you, man? Thanks, Pat. Love

30:58

coming on the show. And

31:00

thank you for everything that you've done for the league

31:02

this year. It's been a huge difference. The

31:05

amount of people over the course of the Stanley Cup final that

31:07

talk about me coming

31:09

on your show and just your show in general was

31:11

pretty awesome. So continue to do the great work, man.

31:15

Love watching you guys. We're lucky to do it. You make

31:17

our show much better. We appreciate the hell out of you.

31:19

Ladies and gentlemen, NHL legend. J.

31:28

J. Hey, Pat, hold on

31:30

yesterday. So

31:33

I went down to Elbow Room for one drink.

31:36

So we went there. That's how anybody knows. Yeah,

31:38

it was already a gong show in there. It

31:41

was already a gong show in there. And there must have

31:43

been like 10 guys in the bar that they just said,

31:45

hey, PJ, they yelled and I thought they

31:47

were going to say like, and they started going like this. And

31:52

then I just didn't even say anything. I just went like

31:54

this. It's

32:00

awesome. It's been an incredible gimmick. We'll be talking

32:02

to Brad Stevens next hour. I'll, I wonder if

32:04

he has seen your Jay Tatum impersonations throughout this

32:07

entire year. You're the man, ladies and gentlemen, PK

32:09

Subbe. PK

32:12

has done a fantastic job for the sport. Yeah.

32:15

Weapon. Yeah, he really has. Him, Moose, Levy, they

32:17

really get along. Oh yeah. You can see that

32:19

kind of radiating through. They, you know, they know

32:21

the opportunity here with ESPN having the rights, having

32:23

the Stanley Cup rights and with what hockey is

32:26

doing right now. I think the ratings are up

32:28

like 54% or something like that. That's

32:30

huge. Yeah. That's just obviously linear

32:32

rating. Then you go to the streaming and then

32:34

the social media now has kicked up a notch.

32:37

The NHL was once in a stone ages when

32:39

it came to social media, sharing of clips and

32:41

everything like that. Now it's up. It's

32:43

like the acknowledgement of the NHL being

32:46

top three sport. You know,

32:48

if you go like NFL, college football,

32:51

and then NBA NHL battling, right? The

32:53

NBA is obviously has an advantage. Many

32:56

more millions of viewers, whenever you're talking about

32:58

the playoffs. But if you start, if you're

33:00

Gary Bettman in the NHL and Gary phenomenal

33:02

job, his promo last night

33:04

was sweet. I'm telling you, he was

33:06

trying to get the crowd to go

33:09

crazy as opposed to just customary commissioner

33:11

bullshit speech. Like he was talking about

33:13

and nobody's more important than you fans

33:15

here. And they obviously all go and

33:17

then the hand off of the Lord.

33:19

Oh, it was fantastic. But if you're

33:21

Gary Bettman in the NHL, you have to be looking at

33:23

the trends for hockey and you got to be looking at

33:25

the trends for the NBA. And you got to be like,

33:30

hold the phone. Good spot. We are in a good spot. We

33:32

were climbing. We were hot. That's good news for all of us.

33:34

Cause if the NBA, you just got a $7 billion

33:37

investment from, uh, NBC,

33:39

Amazon, and ESPN into their rights. And the

33:41

NHL has got a massive investment and these

33:43

sports are catching fire. We got new young

33:46

stars that are about to take the reins

33:48

of the entire thing. We got potential dynasties

33:50

being built in certain places. It's like, we're

33:52

in a great spot. Congrats to sports. Congrats

33:54

to hockey. And that's why it's so awesome

33:57

that Edmondon made it like people that didn't

33:59

watch hockey. that have never seen Conor

34:01

McDavid play, hockey must have been watching that

34:03

like, this is a completely different sport when

34:05

that guy's on the ice. Like the highlights

34:07

of him, you know, in game five when

34:09

he's dancing through everybody and dishing the puck.

34:11

Like him being on the biggest stage is

34:13

awesome. And also like a team like Florida

34:15

that isn't known as a hockey state or

34:17

town at least, now kind of cementing themselves

34:20

as a premier team in the NHL, sweet.

34:22

Do you remember when we were down in

34:24

Tampa, Dora in there standing up like, Oh

34:26

my God. You walked in and out of

34:28

gas stations, go boats, go boats, go boats,

34:30

go boats, go boats. Literally.

34:33

And obviously that's why never Tampa Bay Buccaneers had

34:35

Tom Brady and they're doing their thing as well.

34:37

So it's like Tampa became the sports hub and

34:39

you would hear a lot of people say, go

34:41

boats, go boats. And I'm not saying that Tampa

34:44

hasn't been a hockey town for a long time.

34:46

I'm just saying, whenever you have success, more people

34:48

buy in more people and everybody says, well, you're

34:50

bandwagon, you're bandwagon. It's like, I like

34:52

to think that those people just like happiness. So

34:54

whenever they see something that could potentially bring

34:57

them happiness, they're going to get on

34:59

board, especially if it represents them and their town. It's like

35:01

Florida Panthers are going to have many

35:03

more fans next year, just strictly by osmosis is

35:05

a celebration and the people talking. That's good for

35:07

hockey everywhere. And it was also kind of, I

35:09

mean, for us, you know, we didn't really talk

35:11

about it that way. Cause it sucks because there's

35:13

not as much sports on, but like, it was

35:15

huge that the NBA ended when it did because

35:18

then like hockey kind of came at center stage

35:20

for the last two games. All eyes on hockey.

35:22

Exactly. And like, obviously, you know, there was the

35:24

college world series last night, but like that's, that's

35:26

bringing in a casual fan the same way. Cause

35:28

like people, even if you don't watch hockey, like

35:30

you know what the Stanley cup is, you've heard

35:32

of it. And it's, and it's easier to find.

35:34

And I think more people be like, okay, this

35:36

is, this is the only game in town. I

35:38

guess they'll, I'll check this out. Like I saw

35:40

way more people saying like, you know, last night

35:42

on, on social media and everything, like, oh, this

35:44

is actually awesome. Like I haven't been paying attention

35:47

to this at all, but like, this is incredible.

35:49

And if we have the NBA still going on

35:51

at the same time, like who knows if we're

35:53

getting that? How about the Florida Panthers trailblazing

35:56

the way into the future of a bigger,

35:58

better hockey as a whole. I love it,

36:00

man. You mentioned being down in Tampa. Like,

36:03

it's harder for teams in areas where

36:05

it's so much shit to do,

36:07

or it's just nice weather all the time. Like,

36:09

you like Vegas, like, you got to be good

36:11

being Vegas. You got to be good if you're

36:13

going to be South Florida, LA. Like, you got

36:16

to be good in these places for people to

36:18

care, unless you're like, you know, like the Lakers.

36:20

But like the Clippers, like, they won't have a

36:22

real fan base. And like, even though the Chargers,

36:24

like teams like that, like you struggle in these

36:26

nice, you know, nice cities. It's easier when you're

36:28

in these blue collar cities, when it's cold, you

36:30

know, half the year. And it's like, hey, my

36:32

team is, this is what I got. This is

36:35

what I look for. Something to do. Yeah, it's

36:37

so much tougher. But it's great, like you said,

36:39

it's great for the sport to have a superstar

36:41

like Conor McDavid, obviously, as a

36:43

centerpiece, and then a team like

36:45

Florida, back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. Now,

36:47

I'm not, obviously, a hockey aficionado,

36:50

but how often does

36:52

the Conn Smith Award, or Smythe

36:54

Award, go to Conn Smythe

36:56

Award? Go to the losing? Almost never. Almost never.

36:58

This is the sixth time in the history. Okay.

37:00

Only second time. It's a scam. The other four.

37:03

Nick, now you guys feel like you're getting... No,

37:05

no, no, no, no. Look, I understand... Oh, it

37:07

hasn't happened since the 40s. That's

37:09

interesting. There's an issue. I understand he

37:11

was up there with the great one.

37:13

And I understand that is an award

37:16

given to the player for, you know,

37:18

over, you know, all the playoff series.

37:20

But I mean, she's like, that's

37:23

tough. That's tough. Tough spot for Gary to

37:25

be in. Maybe I owe Gary an apology.

37:27

I did call for more boos. I heard

37:29

the broadcast muted. So I'm sure, you know,

37:31

the crowd was giving some pledges. Yeah, I

37:33

wonder what they were saying, because I saw

37:36

a mouth saying Bobby. And then I saw

37:38

it getting muted. I'm like, so they're not

37:40

saying Bobby something. So is it

37:42

Connor they were going after? Was it Betman they

37:44

were going after? I heard Bobby. I

37:47

was watching voices say Bobby as well, but it was

37:49

muted for like a good 20 seconds. There

37:51

was like a 20 second mute that

37:53

took place. In our show understands that

37:56

the mute is brought out for one

37:58

particular word. Right. Yeah,

38:00

but it was on ABC, so maybe it's

38:02

a couple others. You're

38:04

right. But Gary Bettman walking

38:07

out there, first thing he's got,

38:09

all right, first order of business. Let's get this

38:11

over with, quick. I need

38:13

Carter McDavitt to come back from

38:15

the locker room. You're the

38:17

best player in this whole series. Fuck

38:20

all these guys. And that's

38:22

a tough, it wasn't his vote. Yeah, but he's

38:24

got to speak. And

38:26

we've seen in other sports like LeBron, when he

38:28

led both teams, he points rebounds, assists, and everything

38:30

against the Warriors. He's like, all right, if this

38:32

ever a time, Jerry West, we talked about a

38:34

great Jerry West. When he won, so

38:37

I guess it happens, or it should happens at

38:39

times, but I was just confused. There's

38:41

an issue with the voting process. Oh,

38:44

no. You see, so McDavitt, obviously, incredible,

38:46

incredible, incredible playoffs, okay? After

38:48

game five, I was like, sure, give them the cons, no

38:50

matter what happens. Doesn't have a shot

38:53

in game six, doesn't have any points in game seven or

38:55

whatever. What you're listening to right

38:57

now, by the way, is a guy that unloaded his-

38:59

You can't see him. He took about 10 minutes left

39:01

last night. I'm like, that's all the story is, okay?

39:03

So I made a deposit in

39:05

a new account. You

39:08

pulled money into account. There's no way they're gonna give

39:10

it to a guy that has a shot to get

39:12

it. Bob did it on his head, so I put

39:14

a bunch of money on Bob to win the cons.

39:16

He wouldn't have won it anyways, Barkey wouldn't have won

39:19

it, but any, so it's a mute point. But Nick

39:21

told me this morning, voting cuts off with 10 minutes

39:23

left in the game. So at that point, it's two,

39:25

one Panthers. How's that even happen? We need two, one

39:27

Panthers. Gary! Gary! Gary! You gotta ask

39:30

the journalists. So if Edmonton scores- Yeah, the journalists. They've

39:32

got it all figured out. Hey, pop, let's

39:34

just do what you're told. So yeah, I don't blame

39:36

the voters because it's two, one at that point. Say

39:38

you vote for a Panther, okay? And Edmonton comes back

39:40

and wins. And McDavid. And McDavid's not the cons, by

39:42

the way. What if he scores two goals in the

39:45

final three minutes? Yeah. So the voting

39:47

had flawed. Like that's why he had to

39:49

win though. Like he was clearly, and I

39:51

get like the player on the winning team

39:53

should win. I understand that thought process completely.

39:56

This was a generational, hasn't been done

39:58

in forever since Gretz- type

40:01

of performance in the playoffs. Like I do

40:03

understand like as a Celtics fan, if Luca

40:05

were to one after, you know, a four

40:07

one victory for the Celtics, I would have

40:10

been pissed. But if Luca had a triple

40:12

double every damn game in his entire, you

40:14

know, finals run had, hadn't been seen since

40:17

Michael Jordan, then it's like, okay, well it's

40:19

kind of undeniable how great that guy is.

40:21

Like it is the same thing with McDavid.

40:23

Like as a Panthers fan, I'd be pissed.

40:25

It was such an awkward moment. It just

40:28

looked awkward. So Gary having to do that

40:30

entire thing, when Conner's not on there is

40:32

the situation we're talking about once again, Connor

40:34

McDavid, when he was minus 5,000, I

40:37

was like, yup, daddy, we're watching history

40:39

right. Like we were watching history happen

40:41

in front of us, but the whole

40:43

10 minutes left. That's tough. That can't

40:45

happen. He was minus 200

40:47

when I placed my bet. So his odds did

40:49

drop a little bit. But the whole, like the

40:51

NBA, I think does texting just immediately after the

40:54

game. Yeah. That's what they told us. They just

40:56

group text into a group. That's how it should

40:58

be. Because with 10 minutes left, anything could happen.

41:00

Come on, you puppets. Come on. You

41:02

guys can't send a text after everything. Well, we have

41:04

to type it up first. And then we got to send

41:06

it to our editors to approve whether or not our vote

41:09

is okay. Then we got to pull in her. Just send

41:11

a text, make that happen. Could you imagine if

41:13

they did? What if, what if Bobrovsky

41:15

scores the game winning? Yeah.

41:19

What if, what if Bobrovsky scores

41:21

the game, stands on his head somehow, flicks

41:23

what goes all the way down the ice

41:25

and skitter falls. Beats to a skitter. He

41:27

goes in, and then the goal is a

41:29

shooter. He has the game winning goal and

41:32

also stays on his head. And then let's

41:34

get Connor McDavid out here. Just moments later,

41:36

that would have been, Gary Bemann's going to

41:38

get that sorted. Cause he was on the,

41:40

he was, listen, we were figuring.

41:42

Yeah. I'm not doing that yet. Okay. And

41:45

it's tough on Connor too. It's tough on, like I was

41:47

like, cause I, once again, I haven't watched many of

41:49

these. I'm like, is he going to skate back out

41:51

here? And he's just like, no, no, no. They

41:54

were waiting on him though. They were starting

41:56

to show like the crowd. Okay. We'll wait for him.

41:58

We'll wait for Gary. What if David? Did Anne

42:00

Rory come back out? Rory?

42:03

You know, because everyone was pissed at Rory for

42:05

just peeling tire and getting out of there. Rory

42:08

McIlroy. Yeah, okay. It's like

42:10

Rory. Yep. Yeah. I

42:13

appreciate that. He shows up

42:15

in Rory's car. The

42:21

last guy this happened to, JS Jaguar, John Sebastian

42:23

Jaguar was the Ducks goalie in what, 2003 on

42:25

the losing team. He

42:28

got the consummate and he went out and took the

42:30

trophy and there are pictures of it. He's

42:32

with Gary. He looks miserable. It's just not, it's

42:35

not a good presentation. It looks awful. It's

42:37

a shame. To your point, like

42:39

if Bob were to have done that

42:41

goal, what about the opposite? What

42:43

if they voted Bob and he lets into muffins?

42:45

Yeah. And then

42:47

David stand at the blue line. Yeah, exactly. The

42:49

Oilers are about to get to Stanley Cup and

42:52

yeah, come on out, Bob. Yeah, let's see it.

42:54

That's like 10 minutes left. Anything could have happened.

42:56

That's a lot of time. Yeah,

42:58

so before we get to our next guest,

43:01

Nick Benz and wait to hear

43:03

this story. It's going to be about two minutes.

43:05

We have to talk about college world series last

43:08

night, game three and a best of three

43:10

series between Tennessee and Texas A&M and beautiful.

43:14

Oh, Nebraska. We

43:16

had a thriller. Now listen

43:18

early. It was like this

43:20

Tennessee volunteers team, the number

43:22

one team in the country,

43:24

Matt business. They win game

43:26

two in dominant fashion and

43:28

in game three, the national

43:30

champion deciding game first batter,

43:32

Dom shot. Yeah, Christian Morris is

43:34

stud. We are up one. Oh, Peyton Manning

43:36

celebrated Morgan Wallen. Also Rick

43:39

Barnes and Greg. I'm

43:41

in Tennessee royalty is

43:43

in Omaha drinking boozing,

43:46

celebrating and opening

43:49

not pitch. I guess there was

43:51

a couple of pitches for Dom

43:53

shot. I got one zip. Now

43:55

we fast forward a little bit

43:57

later into the seventh

43:59

inning. Two run. Danger

44:02

from Dylan Driling, who is the most outstanding

44:04

player of the tournament. Congratulations,

44:07

Dylan with a two run shot in

44:09

the seventh. It goes from

44:11

three one to five one. Now

44:14

let's stay in the seventh inning for

44:16

the play of the game. Obviously,

44:19

it is five to one still. We

44:21

are just chatting about that. Ball gets

44:24

hit off the wall. That's a

44:26

double. What's going on? It's somebody round

44:28

in third. He's going to get home,

44:30

throws on time. Dodge

44:32

is the catcher. Tag's home plate.

44:35

Spike's helmet. Six one Tennessee. That

44:38

would go to review, but it would find that.

44:41

Hunter Ensley. Hunter Ensley is

44:43

safe. Look at this play.

44:45

Catch closes eyes. He thought he... Old

44:49

school, they thought they were getting run over, but new school, you can't

44:51

get run over. So I don't know why you would close your eyes.

44:53

The mustache man. Jukes

44:55

the shit out of the catcher. Tag's

44:58

home plate. Six to one.

45:00

Hey, why is that important? Well,

45:02

not only because it's sweet and it's sick and

45:05

it's something we don't normally see, and there was

45:07

an incredible helmet spike, but this

45:09

is because going into the eighth, it

45:11

was six one. Then what? Two runs

45:13

for Texas A&M. It's six three. Then

45:15

in the ninth, two runs for

45:18

Texas A&M. It's six five. This

45:21

game would inevitably end. Six

45:23

to five Tennessee volunteers beat Texas

45:25

A&M in a late thriller in

45:27

Omaha, and we have a brand

45:30

new national champion. The volunteers win

45:32

the College World Series for the

45:34

first time in program history, and

45:36

it got tight late. And a

45:39

lot of people were thinking, is

45:41

Tennessee going to blow this instead?

45:44

Nasty pitch to end this. And back in

45:46

Rocky Top, they're celebrating all summer long. Ty,

45:48

what a game. Yeah, it was incredible. I

45:50

mean, I think that's why the College World

45:52

Series is so sweet because typically, you know,

45:54

like when it's six one late in these

45:56

games, it's like, all right, this thing's over.

45:59

He really don't. Like you could tell,

46:01

cause a lot of these kids, and we were talking about this a little

46:03

bit before the show, like I think people are

46:05

assumed they look last year and you got Paul Skeens

46:07

pitching, who is now one of the best pitchers in

46:09

the major. So you just assume that a lot of

46:11

these guys who are in the championship, it's like, these

46:13

guys are going to be playing in the majors, like

46:15

without, you know, within a couple

46:17

of months here. Like that's not the case.

46:19

A lot of these guys probably will never

46:21

play baseball again or won't go and play

46:23

in the pros. So like there's some nervy

46:25

situations here. I mean, you never see something

46:27

like that. Like that is a routine. That's

46:30

game winning. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Being heady

46:32

to be able to get around there

46:34

and miss the tag and probably knowing

46:36

too that like, Hey, you know,

46:38

six, one, whatever, like we're going to need every

46:40

insurance run we can get because that's just kind

46:43

of the way these things go. Like once the

46:45

avalanche kind of starts there late and they start

46:47

putting runners on, guys for Tennessee start getting tight.

46:49

They have to go to the bullpen and pitchers

46:52

can't really get into a groove. Cause their coach

46:54

said, you know, before the game, I think we

46:56

talked to McGee was like, Hey, we're leaving nothing

46:58

to chance here. You know, so if you see

47:00

a guy walk someone and someone gets on base,

47:03

we're yanking him. We're bringing someone else in. And

47:05

it really did. I mean, it got to a

47:07

point there where it's like, Oh shit, Texas A&M

47:09

is going to like, they're going to come back

47:11

and win this thing. And then ultimately, you know,

47:14

after that is kind of tough because I mean,

47:16

just a wicked little slider. Yeah, but, but they

47:18

did, they went through, you know, four pitchers late,

47:20

like in late innings and it felt like, okay,

47:23

this one might get away from Tennessee, but I

47:25

mean, it was, it was an incredible game. All

47:27

you could ask for from a college baseball game.

47:29

How many pitchers for Tennessee? Tennessee used five guys.

47:31

How many Texas A&M pitchers? Three. Okay.

47:33

So we saw eight different pictures last night.

47:35

Obviously 11 runs, a lot of

47:37

them coming late. And that's been the MO of

47:40

this college world series. His games get tight late.

47:42

So no matter what's happening, you got to stay

47:44

on the edge of your seat before you can

47:46

go celebrate. I couldn't even fathom the amount of

47:48

shots that were bought at Rocco's. Morgan Wallen and

47:51

Peyton. That crowd was awesome. The

47:53

crowd was awesome. Every song that Morgan Wallen

47:55

sings is about Boozin. So

47:57

whenever something happens, you know, where a

47:59

chair happens. Everybody's like, all right. Yeah,

48:01

he's boozed up. Born with a beard.

48:04

Obviously mistake. Can't be doing that shit.

48:07

We gotta, you know, come on Morgan,

48:09

obviously. And Peyton Manning, known

48:12

celebrator. Yeah. He's

48:14

a known celebrator. I think Hypo gets

48:16

down too probably. And then let's not

48:18

hypo definitely. What about Ryan McGee? Yeah.

48:21

Oh my God. Ryan McGee's into, I

48:23

mean the amount of drink, I assume

48:25

Omaha has been drank dry before. And

48:27

I assume last night is no different.

48:29

Congrats everybody down at a rocket top.

48:31

And associated with rocket top.

48:33

Also congratulations to this man. That's going to

48:36

be joining us right now. Salesman

48:38

at Golf Galaxy here in Indianapolis, Indiana. That's

48:40

right. Has found his way

48:42

into qualifying for

48:45

the Rocket Mortgage Classic this weekend

48:47

in a PGA sanctioned event. How'd

48:49

he do it? Well, on a

48:51

Monday qualifier, he won seven under.

48:54

Whoo. Then pretty good.

48:56

There was five people tied for

48:58

four spots open in

49:01

the PGA sanctioned event this weekend. So

49:03

through eight holes of overtime

49:06

play, he secured a spot

49:08

by getting a birdie on like the eighth hole or whatever.

49:11

So not only is he an Indianapolis legend,

49:13

not only did he fight and battle his way

49:15

to get into a PGA tour event, he did

49:18

those entire extra holes, eight of them, boozed

49:20

up, had three beers before he went out

49:22

there. Ladies and gentlemen, our new favorite golfer,

49:25

Nick Benz. Hey. Hey.

49:28

Hey. How you doing, Nick? How you doing, brother?

49:30

Doing good. How are you? Great. Not

49:32

as good as you were feeling on a first bonus hole after

49:35

you had three beers. Hey, what's up with beer we drink in

49:37

there? What's up with beer? Was that, and this is normal operating

49:39

procedure for you here, Nick. Yeah,

49:41

this was just another day. It was a summer shandy

49:43

that I decided to, I had three of them. The

49:46

first one was anticipated to be a little bit

49:48

of a celebratory beer, thinking I was already safely

49:50

in. And when I realized

49:52

that, oh, nope, not safe, I decided, you know

49:55

what? The only thing good for the nervous system

49:57

is two more. Why, maybe a

49:59

little vlog. If that thing doesn't

50:01

start at a time, you're gonna continue to

50:03

drink, or did you have a preparation of

50:05

just three, no matter when the starting extra

50:07

holes were? Well,

50:10

it all happened so fast, because I thought I was

50:12

in until maybe two or three groups left. So I

50:15

was mid third beer, I probably had like a

50:17

quarter of it left, and I

50:19

quickly refreshed the scoreboard, and there was five guys

50:21

all of a sudden tied for four spots. And

50:24

I looked at the guys that I was sitting next to at the table, took

50:27

a quick drink, finished it real quick, I was like, we gotta go

50:29

warm up, all right

50:31

boys, one more. No, three's

50:34

good, let's go do this thing. And obviously

50:36

you play phenomenal golf, eight extra holes to

50:38

secure a spot in this weekend's tour. So

50:40

are you gonna be boozing before, is this

50:42

like, and why does the PGA feel about

50:44

this? Because I think, what was it? Joel,

50:46

Joel Domineau, Joel Domineau did somewhere he drank like

50:48

a, white U.S. opening. White

50:51

claws, and then he won like 500 for the

50:53

back nine, and he ended up qualifying into this

50:55

entire thing. So I feel like these stories happen.

50:57

John Daly right here in Indiana at Crooked

50:59

Stick, whenever he was kind of called in

51:01

on a Tuesday, drove in for markets, I

51:03

was nervous as shit, was drinking beers in

51:05

styrofoam cups while walking down fairways, ends up

51:07

winning the entire tournament or whatever in his

51:09

first ever tournament. Is this something you normally

51:12

do? Like when you're a golf galaxy, given

51:14

lessons or selling clubs, you're like, here's the

51:16

first thing you need to do. Get a

51:18

little boozing, get a little swing juice, get

51:20

a little lubrication in you. Is that your

51:22

go-to? Is that your MO or no? No,

51:25

I mean, everybody needs a little bit of swing oil. He's got

51:27

to find the right balance. For me, it just happened to be

51:29

three this week. He's

51:33

gone. Oh, the hangover. PGA, PGA

51:35

say he can't be here talking about getting boozed

51:37

up. Come on, yeah, come on. We got enough

51:39

battles right now. Did you hear what Saudi's doing?

51:42

You're a qualifier, buddy. We don't need you guys, you

51:44

don't need you out here talking about how boozed up

51:46

you are in this entire thing. I think we got

51:48

a point across. Yeah, yeah. That guy qualified for the

51:51

Monday thing, plays seven under, goes

51:53

five birdies and an eagle to go

51:55

seven under, plays, I assume, one of

51:57

the best rounds he's ever played. I'm

51:59

gonna. PGA event for the first time in my entire

52:01

life and then all of a sudden I'm not so fast

52:03

but for me, I'll even

52:05

be busy engulfing our whole lives. Who

52:07

cares? Let's do exactly what happened for him.

52:10

Congratulations, Nick, Ben. Oh yeah. Ken Lintz, come buy some clubs

52:12

off of you at Golf Galaxy or even better win this

52:14

thing that you don't have to sell clubs ever again. You

52:16

can just get into every tournament like your Michael Block. Yeah,

52:18

I think he put exactly at me. I mean, I

52:21

don't know what place he would have to get, but I

52:23

don't know what he makes it Golf Galaxy, but I would

52:25

assume, hey, you get you finish top 30

52:27

in this. Nick, that's two years worth

52:29

of work in at Golf Galaxy. What

52:31

a feel good story coming out of any. We got

52:33

beer, we got golf, we got a long shot. We

52:36

got a Golf Galaxy employee. Guy loves the game.

52:38

Loves the game. Loves the game. And then to

52:40

get to that Monday qualifier, he had to hit

52:42

a pre-qualifier to get to the qualifier. So

52:45

we're talking about a qualifier, I think last

52:47

Thursday, then a qualifier on Monday, then some

52:49

beers, then some eight extra holes. That's

52:51

25 holes or 26 holes in

52:54

one day, three beers in one qualification

52:56

for a PGA event. Nice little Monday for

52:58

Nick Benz. Yeah, that's all. And then I

53:00

can imagine, you're playing eight extra holes, you

53:02

know, you're just waiting like, okay, but like

53:04

the amount of tension when you get that

53:06

close, it's like, okay, like listen, if I

53:08

play seven holes here and I'm the one

53:10

guy who doesn't qualify for this, like you're

53:12

never coming back for that from that. So

53:14

thank God he got it done and he's

53:16

going to go play in the rocket mortgage.

53:19

Yeah, because people would say, well, he's an

53:21

alcoholic. Bingo. This guy's a booze bag. Exactly.

53:23

This guy ruined his entire opportunity. He's

53:27

almost been like an old

53:29

buddy from Kevin Costin. Tin

53:31

cup. Tin cup. Yeah.

53:35

Exactly. Working at Golf Galaxy, giving out

53:37

terrible lessons in golf simulators about a bunch of bum

53:39

ass golfers. Finally gets his

53:42

opportunity. He shoots a seven under. Yeah. This

53:44

guy shoots a seven under. Filthy. No

53:46

bogeys, five birdies and an eagle to

53:49

qualify. And then he gets reminded

53:51

about an hour and a half later that this is not

53:53

a little guarantee, sir. He's

53:56

already free. Me and the boys already. What, he's

53:58

having shannies? It's the summer.

54:00

I'm in a PGA event. I love it.

54:03

I love it if he finished the third

54:05

one though. Yeah. Halfway done. Oh, I got

54:07

to go back. All right. All right. Let's

54:09

go ahead and do this voice. Listen, if

54:11

Rocket Mortgage starts off rough throwing Nicky Benz

54:13

here. Exactly. He needs to stop

54:15

at a house on the side of the course. Like

54:20

he's in top of Lordo. Mm hmm. Just

54:23

go ahead and do that. Yeah. House it. We

54:25

need just a hammer drunk

54:27

offer to win this thing. That'd be awesome. So

54:29

bad. That'd be huge. He might win

54:31

it. He might win it. Yeah,

54:33

he might. Who's playing it? Tom Kim's

54:35

your favorite. Oh, fresh off last week. Top games

54:38

playing good golf. Tom Kim's a healthy player. Tom

54:40

Kim's got a lot to prove right now too

54:42

with him. Young is your second favorite. He shot

54:44

a 59 on Saturday. I believe to get back

54:46

to running is a letdown weeks for these guys.

54:48

Yeah, I feel good about Nicky Benz. Yeah, potentially

54:51

Nicky Benz going on a run this weekend and

54:53

we will obviously be pulling

54:55

for him. Now, I couldn't

54:57

lead the show with this because there was still information

55:00

being told by my wife and

55:02

her family to friends and close

55:04

people to her family. But

55:07

now that I've been given the go-ahead

55:09

yesterday was a day that is obviously

55:12

a day that will be remembered forever in

55:14

our family because

55:17

my father-in-law passed away

55:20

unexpectedly after the show ended

55:22

yesterday in a hospital here

55:25

in Indianapolis, Indiana. He had been in the

55:27

hospital fighting an infection and on Friday we

55:29

were told that he was probably going to

55:31

be discharged by Sunday. They had figured it

55:33

out and he was going to be okay. So

55:36

we are all in high hopes with incredible optimism

55:38

and then yesterday literally as the show is ending

55:40

my wife calls me and says that I have

55:43

to get to the hospital because there had been

55:45

an emergency. So I head over there and what

55:48

my wife and her mom

55:50

and her aunt and

55:52

everybody in her family saw go

55:54

on was her dad being a

55:56

badass. And trying to kick ass

55:59

and inevitably. losing his fight

56:01

in this particular day. And

56:03

whenever something blindsides an entire family

56:06

like that, obviously it can be

56:08

wildly devastating. My wife is a

56:10

daddy's girl. She actually has a

56:12

bear tattooed on her because she

56:14

calls her dad Papa Bear. She

56:17

has her dad's quotes all over

56:19

her. So last night was obviously

56:21

a very difficult night for our

56:23

family. And it was

56:25

a nice reminder to, and thankfully

56:27

my wife and her mom

56:30

with her dad, the last things

56:32

they said to Bob, who

56:35

was a great man, was, I love you.

56:37

And I think this is a nice piece

56:39

of perspective and a moment to

56:41

tell everybody, like, hey, tell your people you love

56:43

them. You literally have no idea what's going to

56:45

come. It can literally be the last time you

56:47

see somebody any time you see them.

56:49

And a lot of people tell us that our show

56:51

helps them escape from things and get away from things.

56:53

Well, that's what it is for me today. And I

56:56

can't thank you all enough. Hey,

57:01

Michael Fabiano, fantasy sports guru here. If

57:03

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restrictions apply. Sports

58:36

are the greatest thing on earth. Sports

58:38

help distract you from anything happening in

58:40

your life. Sports help unify the world.

58:43

And sports bring championships and celebrations to

58:45

cities all around the world.

58:47

More specifically last night, South Florida, whether it's

58:49

sunrise for Lottie Dottie or Miami, I assume

58:52

we'll see the cup at some point. And

58:54

then down there in Knoxville, Tennessee in Omaha,

58:56

Nebraska with the Tennessee Volunteers, winning their first

58:58

ever college world series. The talks the table

59:01

is here at Boston Connor and at Ty

59:03

Schmidt. Conman, I know you got that Larry

59:05

O sitting right next to you. Brad Stevens

59:07

will be joining us in about 10 minutes.

59:10

Are you excited to deliver a question to

59:12

him perfectly just like you have done in

59:14

the past with all the other Boston heroes?

59:16

Oh, good Lord. I blow that question. So

59:19

no, I'm not really kind of excited for

59:21

that. We're prepared. When it does seem like

59:23

you do get a little starstruck every once

59:26

in a while, which was

59:28

the one where your friends texted you and

59:30

said, you should have just that O'Neill. That

59:32

was the starstruck. That was just like, ah,

59:34

Jesus Christ. I suck at this. What am

59:36

I doing up here? But I mean, Brady,

59:38

you could say for sure. Bill, you

59:41

can make an argument. I don't know if I'd go that

59:43

far, but no, Brad, you know, I'm more so just looking

59:45

forward to thanking him for the

59:47

domination. You know, a lot of, a lot

59:49

of teams, like we mentioned throughout the playoffs,

59:51

you know, every single round, the Celtics won.

59:53

It was never about the Celtics. It was

59:55

more so about why the Celtics won't win,

59:58

not about how great and They

1:00:00

truly were and to

1:00:03

go from coach to president of basketball operations. I

1:00:05

assume that was a move. So I'm more of

1:00:07

excited to hear what he has to say about

1:00:09

the squad, about the future of the team and

1:00:12

more so about stacking a few more banners because

1:00:14

it's packed up there in the garden. More. I

1:00:16

just want to let him know, hey, this ain't.

1:00:18

No, this is cool. But one's

1:00:20

nice. Okay. Hey, I saw you with the backwards

1:00:23

hat, having the fun, talking about the team and

1:00:25

celebrating everything like that. Yeah. We're past that. Yeah.

1:00:28

We're going to need a couple more or you're

1:00:30

going to get the hell out. Is that what

1:00:32

you're going to tell Brad? I'm not going to

1:00:34

tell him to get out. No, lifetime contract, NBA

1:00:37

executive year, possibly the greatest NBA executive in the

1:00:39

history of the NBA. But I will say like,

1:00:41

you know, it separates dominant teams is dominant dynasties

1:00:43

and that's what we need to go for. You

1:00:46

know, the last six years, there's been a different

1:00:48

NBA champion every year. It's time we have another

1:00:50

run of one team being that team in the

1:00:52

NBA. Well, it's funny you say that. So the

1:00:54

Las Vegas aces, uh, the Yukon Huskies and the

1:00:57

Kansas City Chiefs have all won back to back.

1:00:59

I saw on first take earlier says which team

1:01:01

is most likely to win three in a row.

1:01:03

I mean, the chiefs obviously have had their eye

1:01:06

on it since the beginning. Las Vegas aces. There's

1:01:08

a chance with Asia Wilson still being the best

1:01:10

player in basketball. The WNBA is

1:01:12

certainly in a different place now

1:01:14

than it was the last two

1:01:17

years. And that's because there's one

1:01:19

player. Not good. Did

1:01:22

you see, sorry, real quick. Did you see the graphic that

1:01:25

was put together? The one we made? No. Cause that one

1:01:27

didn't get seen cause I was a dumb. There's

1:01:29

a different one put together about a comparison and

1:01:31

two players and they combined it one stat that

1:01:34

was just an asinine stat to combine. But we

1:01:36

don't know enough about even though we've invested $40,000

1:01:38

in season tickets

1:01:42

in the NBA fever has any other journalists do

1:01:44

that? You tell us puppets, you know, in your

1:01:46

entire chicken entire thing. Yeah. Boots

1:01:48

on a wood. Everything you guys are

1:01:51

talking about in WNBA right now, if you go

1:01:53

back to like the first month of WNBA season,

1:01:55

you probably hear everything you guys are addressing right

1:01:57

now from one group of

1:01:59

dumbasses. in this entire thing. Nonetheless,

1:02:02

Kaitlyn Clark's trying to figure it out. I think next year,

1:02:04

good luck to everybody. They're

1:02:07

starting to go crazy now to be fair. They're

1:02:09

going to run. They're going through a box, Ben.

1:02:11

This here is not over yet. Have you ever

1:02:13

changed the rules? Kaitlyn's rolling. Kristi Sides has actually

1:02:15

been... I need Katie Lou to get some more

1:02:17

shots up. Well, and Samuelson as

1:02:19

well. Bingo. Yeah,

1:02:21

Samuelson is the beast. She

1:02:24

drains threes, legitimately. Anyways, or

1:02:26

the UConn Huskies of

1:02:29

the men's college basketball. I think we all agreed

1:02:31

that men's college basketball is probably the most gettable in

1:02:33

this entire thing. After those back-to-back dominant

1:02:35

runs that we've seen in martial medicine, that's who

1:02:37

I will have the most. Well, is there any...

1:02:39

Maybe a little bias. Is there any chance, yeah,

1:02:42

you're a UConn Husky, is there any chance that

1:02:45

nine-time NFL vet Darius J. Butler's Florida

1:02:47

Panthers go back to bat? We've been

1:02:49

there back-to-back. We figured it out. Obviously,

1:02:52

been there. Like P.J. said, we

1:02:54

got some things to figure out, but yeah,

1:02:56

with that court, with that coach, Paul Maurice,

1:02:58

with Bill Zito, seeing all those guys, that

1:03:00

whole family down there, sunrise. Well,

1:03:02

we got to win two first before we get into this conference. Oh,

1:03:04

of course. Of course, yeah. I got to go back-to-back. Easy as that.

1:03:07

That's the lower third tomorrow, by the way.

1:03:09

Who goes back-to-back? Who's more likely to go

1:03:12

back-to-back? The Florida Panthers? Or the Indiana Fever?

1:03:14

To Chuck or Tim? Or

1:03:16

the Boston Celtics. Or the Boston Celtics.

1:03:20

There's a man on the map of the hammer, Da Cannon, Cowboys, 10 Digs

1:03:22

is here. He unloaded his account

1:03:24

on Bobrovsky to win the Kon Smice

1:03:26

last night in the third period. Instead,

1:03:29

Connor McDavid becomes the sixth player

1:03:31

in Stanley Cup history to be on

1:03:33

the losing side of the Stanley Cup while winning

1:03:35

the playoff MVP award, which is the Kon Smice.

1:03:38

Sports are wonderful. Joining us now is a man

1:03:40

who's a college football national champion and a Super

1:03:42

Bowl champion. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawke. Yeah,

1:03:45

he's there. Two new teams becoming champs for

1:03:47

the first time in their history. I'm pumped up

1:03:49

about it. Congrats to Tennessee. Congrats to the Florida

1:03:51

Panthers, A.J. Yeah, I think both games actually

1:03:54

delivered, too. And I

1:03:56

know you said earlier, it was a bit of a cagey affair

1:03:58

in the hockey game, too, to win. one, but you

1:04:01

could kind of feel it like every single

1:04:03

thing mattered. And I like I enjoyed hearing

1:04:05

PK and mess everybody leaving on

1:04:07

the intermissions talk about how like, I

1:04:09

think mess said, Hey, if you're if you're behind

1:04:11

your guy by two feet, it might as well

1:04:14

be two miles. Like everything is everything is magnified.

1:04:16

And everyone is playing like such elite hockey. It

1:04:18

was honestly, it was really fun to watch what

1:04:20

a goal right there too, by the way, filthy

1:04:22

deflection, obviously, that is a tactic in hockey for

1:04:24

those that don't know is get in front of

1:04:27

the goalie and deflect, deflect, deflect to completely change

1:04:29

the direction of the puck from missing the net

1:04:31

to being five whole goal, massive

1:04:33

skill set in big goal, obviously,

1:04:35

Stanley Cup, game seven, and Rana

1:04:38

puts one in for the two

1:04:40

one lead as Bob Brodsky would stand on

1:04:42

his head the rest of the way and

1:04:44

secure the Stanley Cup for the Florida Panthers.

1:04:46

And then for that college world series, AJ,

1:04:49

hey, at the four

1:04:51

runs by Texas A&M in the last

1:04:53

two innings, six, five, all of a

1:04:55

sudden, we got an overthrow. Somebody basically

1:04:57

just walks in six, five, holy shit,

1:04:59

the tension in all the orange that

1:05:01

was around Omaha was very palpable in

1:05:03

very real Peyton Manning, Morgan Wallen one

1:05:05

from saluting and cheers into arms cross.

1:05:07

What do we have here? What do

1:05:09

we have here? Instead, they hold on,

1:05:11

get a big time dub. What a

1:05:13

game. What a win. Yeah,

1:05:15

I was thinking of the of all these kids parents

1:05:18

sitting in the stands. Honestly, I was like, man, if

1:05:20

any of these people were my kids, like how nervous

1:05:22

would you be? And then the absolute relief and excitement

1:05:24

for the team that wins? Yeah, like, I'm happy for

1:05:26

them, man. College Baseball has a cool atmosphere. They need

1:05:29

to figure a way to bring that into the major

1:05:31

league somehow. Well, there's that's never gonna happen. I mean,

1:05:33

that's like, college

1:05:36

football, you know, in the NFL, that's

1:05:38

just not, I mean, the NFL makes

1:05:40

so much more money, obviously, because they're

1:05:42

a phenomenal business and the ratings are crazy.

1:05:44

But if you just talk about environments, you're

1:05:46

talking night and day there. Yes. And I

1:05:48

think obviously you went to Ohio State, so

1:05:50

you got to experience this and you grew

1:05:53

up in the state of Ohio, you're basically

1:05:55

a Buckeye from birth. And I think they

1:05:57

actually give you Buckeye, like yeah,

1:06:00

as soon as you're born in the state of Ohio, like you're

1:06:02

gonna be a Buckeye, but like college

1:06:04

football atmospheres are just different, especially at

1:06:06

those big schools. West Virginia, our fans

1:06:08

are obviously absurd, but you go to

1:06:11

some of these like cult-like, religion-like college

1:06:13

football places, and it is a different

1:06:15

ball game. It's like a religion for

1:06:17

these people. College baseball in the South,

1:06:19

I think, not everywhere. College

1:06:21

baseball in the South though, very similar.

1:06:23

And whenever you hear that dang off

1:06:25

the bat, everybody, it's an instant Pavlov's

1:06:27

dogs lose your shit. Some of these

1:06:30

videos that come from the regular season games are

1:06:32

bananas, and then the Omaha, entire

1:06:35

Omaha thing is beautifully done.

1:06:37

Packed house, feels like the city is

1:06:39

ready for it. Hospitality through, like here

1:06:42

in Indianapolis, I got nothing but respect

1:06:44

for what Omaha did, because all the

1:06:46

workers there have to buy in like,

1:06:48

yeah, we're gonna deal with drunk idiots

1:06:50

that aren't from here. So like a

1:06:52

lot of cities, like in Pittsburgh, drunk

1:06:54

idiots not from Pittsburgh, not handled well.

1:06:56

Normally, Aspie kicked out of bar, don't

1:06:58

come back here. In Indianapolis, it's

1:07:00

like a part of the gig. Hey, there's

1:07:02

a lot of conventions here. There's a lot

1:07:05

of events here. There's gonna be a lot

1:07:07

of drunk doofuses from other walks of life

1:07:09

in other cities wandering our streets, and the

1:07:11

people of Indianapolis are cool with it. That's

1:07:13

good to see you, you should head over

1:07:15

there. Okay, let's stay away from that particular

1:07:17

group there. Let's go somewhere else. Omaha is

1:07:19

the same damn thing. They're dealing with the

1:07:21

drunkest of drunk alumni and richest of rich

1:07:23

alumni from all of these schools. Everybody

1:07:26

sings their praises. So shout to Omaha, Shouts

1:07:28

College Baseball for having a remarkable year yet

1:07:30

again. Yeah, I mean, like we've been talking about

1:07:32

the shot counter. Like that's one of the big

1:07:34

things. Like they're encouraging people to come in and

1:07:36

like buy a thousand shots for people

1:07:38

and they're keeping track of it. And I think one

1:07:41

of the big things too is you

1:07:43

get down there and like you said in the South,

1:07:45

I mean, there were four teams from the SEC and

1:07:47

four teams from the ACC that made it. But

1:07:49

like for the most part, obviously there's always gonna be

1:07:51

drunk assholes and stuff like that. But with how much

1:07:53

people are boozing down there and doing all, like you

1:07:55

don't hear a lot of like fights. There's not a

1:07:57

lot of like, you don't see videos like. physical

1:08:00

altercations. It's like a lot of people who

1:08:02

genuinely just do love college baseball

1:08:04

and like they go to Omaha to kind

1:08:06

of celebrate it together and who wins is

1:08:08

kind of secondary, which you don't get that

1:08:10

a lot in sports anymore. And what a

1:08:12

play by. Yeah, Hunter Ainslie. Do

1:08:14

you see that agent? He gave a yeet. What

1:08:17

do you like? I mean, the catcher, did the catcher assume

1:08:19

that he was gonna run him over even though you know

1:08:21

you're not allowed to run him over? There's all the rules

1:08:24

are weird now. I think Deebach questions athleticism. Nah, I mean,

1:08:26

I just think he closes us. He might be a great

1:08:28

athlete, but it's kind of a bang bang. I mean,

1:08:30

it's happened to me before. I missed the tackle. I missed

1:08:32

the tackle on Tyree Hill, that same way, screen pass, thought

1:08:34

I had him. Kind of closed my eyes

1:08:36

right before and boom, he was gone. Yeah, Antonio Brown

1:08:38

got me, and yeah, same exact thing. I

1:08:40

was on the ground. But you know,

1:08:43

how far outside the line is he allowed to

1:08:45

go? I mean, you're really

1:08:47

not supposed to like stray from the baseline.

1:08:49

Cause that was good usage, I think of

1:08:51

the area. For sure. It was coming

1:08:53

wide. That's why, like the catcher was setting up wide. That's where

1:08:55

he was coming. He was watching his play though. This

1:08:58

is a great play. It's a great running, I

1:09:00

think. He set him up, it's like kick returner.

1:09:02

He set up his block almost and then gets

1:09:04

around. It was a phenomenal play. And this is

1:09:06

the game winning run right here. So it's gonna

1:09:08

be, I assume there's gonna be a photo of

1:09:11

him going like this. Oh yeah, for sure. Right

1:09:13

there. Right here. Yeah, across all

1:09:15

the Tennessee volunteer baseball shit, whatever it

1:09:17

is, weight room, dugout facility.

1:09:20

I don't know what all they have. You can

1:09:22

tell the catcher is preparing for contact. And then

1:09:25

he realized at the last second, oh, he's not

1:09:27

gonna contact me. Then tries to reach. Never even

1:09:29

turns it. Yeah. Oh,

1:09:32

that sucks. If he contacts him, it's an automatic out,

1:09:34

right? So the catcher, if he takes that, yeah. So

1:09:36

body part counts? Like if you,

1:09:38

or does. I thought you had to punch him. With

1:09:40

a ball. Like, oh, no, no. If

1:09:43

you run him over now, the ball has to touch

1:09:45

him. So like if the ball's in glove, but like

1:09:48

if he just like clips him with like a, like

1:09:50

part of, like, no, he has to make contact. Okay,

1:09:52

so I think I saw in game two, second

1:09:55

base guy got tagged in the face.

1:09:57

Did you see this with the bruise and his tarp? Then.

1:10:00

Ball fell out. Safe.

1:10:02

No, this guy is in between first and

1:10:05

second. He came to, what's

1:10:07

that? Second baseman or shortstop on the right side?

1:10:09

Second. Yeah. Second

1:10:11

baseman then. So somebody hits it to second

1:10:13

baseman, there's somebody on first. He gets ball,

1:10:15

guys running from first to second. He goes

1:10:17

to tag him, okay? Pretty good contact. He's

1:10:19

on the inside of the guy, guys on

1:10:21

the outside. And ball ends

1:10:23

up skirting free, but this guy gets

1:10:25

punched in face with glove. So he's

1:10:27

laying on dirt. Ball skirts out underneath.

1:10:30

In my head, I was like, I think in baseball, he could get

1:10:32

up and go. Yeah. Guy

1:10:34

picks up ball, tags him. He gets up,

1:10:36

busted, busted open. Just walks off, I'm like,

1:10:39

baseball's pretty sick. I didn't know we're punching

1:10:41

people in the face while we're running the

1:10:43

bases out here. So if, let's say old

1:10:45

buddy there isn't able to get around him,

1:10:48

but he hits him hard enough, which I

1:10:50

don't know, you guys are acting like he's not possible anymore.

1:10:52

And that ball comes out, he's safe. That's how it used

1:10:54

to be. Like back in

1:10:56

the day, show some clips from the majors. Yeah,

1:10:59

the dude's protecting the plate. And they changed everything

1:11:01

after what, Maurer, whoever got hurt? Yeah, you used

1:11:03

to just be able to run over the catcher.

1:11:06

Like full speed collision. And

1:11:08

guys would block the plate and get absolutely destroyed

1:11:10

and drop the ball. And then the guy's safe.

1:11:12

And then yeah, it was, I think it was

1:11:15

Buster Posey, who was like one of the best

1:11:17

catchers in the majors. He got blown up, got

1:11:19

hurt for the season. They're like, we're not doing

1:11:21

this anymore. So he's not allowed

1:11:23

to, his intent can't be to

1:11:25

run over that. He has to act like he's

1:11:27

getting around him, but he could have easily. Yeah,

1:11:30

if they make contact, I think a lot

1:11:32

of times it's like, it's the umpire's discretion

1:11:34

as to whether or not there was intent

1:11:36

to knock him over. But most of the

1:11:38

time, yeah, like no contact is allowed. That

1:11:40

was filthy. Yeah, so big time. That was

1:11:42

absolutely filthy. And the fact that that's the

1:11:44

game winner and you got that mustache on

1:11:46

your face, you got to feel good. You

1:11:49

got to feel really good. You got to feel good

1:11:51

about your time at Omaha. Afterwards, he

1:11:54

was probably up there with Morgan.

1:11:56

Last night, he let the liquor

1:11:58

down. Him and Peyton brought. Oh

1:12:00

yeah. Oh yeah. That was me. Yeah.

1:12:02

Yeah. I was this one here. Then

1:12:07

McGee came in. I seen that 19, uh, I think

1:12:09

it's 79. You remember Bo Jangles? Bo

1:12:14

Jangles for you right here. He actually had the same

1:12:16

exact move. All right. Let's pivot away from college. World

1:12:18

Series. Congrats to the volunteers. Great school. Great

1:12:20

university. I've been down there a lot with College

1:12:23

Game Day. It is fantastic. So I'm happy they

1:12:25

won in Texas A&M. What a run. They've never

1:12:27

won a title either. Hopefully next year. It was

1:12:29

fun getting to learn about your team, speaking

1:12:31

about learning about teams all year. We

1:12:33

didn't hear shit about one team. Okay.

1:12:35

Because they were considered too good. This

1:12:38

team's already got into the playoffs. This team's so

1:12:40

far ahead of everybody in the East. Let's not

1:12:43

even talk about them. Now, granted, we are a

1:12:45

football program. We don't cover the NBA as much

1:12:47

as we should, although it seems like in the

1:12:49

future with the relationships we are building, we will

1:12:51

certainly do it. But the folks that cover the

1:12:54

NBA refused to cover this team because they were

1:12:56

too good. Let's not even talk about it.

1:12:58

We'll talk about them in a playoffs. And it got

1:13:00

to the playoffs. It was like, they're not that good.

1:13:03

They're actually just playing. And then what do

1:13:05

they do? Well, they have the most dominant

1:13:07

run in recent history to a championship. Joining

1:13:09

us now, ladies and gentlemen, Indiana man, who's

1:13:12

leading the Boston Celtics, formerly as their coach,

1:13:14

now president of operations. Ladies and gentlemen, Brad

1:13:16

Steven. Hey,

1:13:19

guys, how are we doing? Coach, people still call

1:13:22

you coach or no? They

1:13:24

do. And then they usually say afterwards, they

1:13:26

usually say, I don't know why I still

1:13:28

call you coach. Well, that's because once a

1:13:30

coach, always a coach. And I think that's

1:13:32

right. I think that's a compliment more so

1:13:35

than anything. And we saw, you know, Zionsville

1:13:37

High School photo of you the other day

1:13:39

on the Internet. You've always had so much

1:13:41

swagger that the world could not handle it.

1:13:43

Let's talk about your life right now. You

1:13:46

obviously go from coach to front office. And

1:13:48

that's been something I assume you've had to talk about

1:13:50

at length or ad nauseam. For me, as a guy

1:13:53

that was in Indiana, whenever you were in your

1:13:55

run at Butler, and how much all these people love

1:13:57

you in Indiana and how much respect everybody has for

1:13:59

your best. watching you leave

1:14:01

the sidelines to go up to the

1:14:03

front office. I didn't fully understand it.

1:14:05

Now, obviously, it's like the greatest

1:14:07

decision any person's made in sports at this

1:14:10

point. But when you make

1:14:12

the transition from coach to executive, was there

1:14:14

nerves? Were you ready for? I

1:14:16

think there's been numerous people that have said like you were ready for

1:14:18

it. But did you know that all this

1:14:20

was coming? And that's like such a crazy question. But

1:14:23

was there nerves? Did you expect this? And how has

1:14:25

it gone since the transition has taken place versus what

1:14:27

you thought it was gonna be? No,

1:14:29

I mean, yeah, there were nerves, because

1:14:32

it's totally different, right? You spend 21

1:14:34

years coaching

1:14:37

and that's kind of what you build up,

1:14:39

you know, your knowledge base in and you

1:14:41

know, that's the old rule of 10,000 hours.

1:14:44

Coaches get to that pretty quick with

1:14:47

how many hours you put in. But

1:14:49

I really love

1:14:51

to build team. I

1:14:55

really like to fit pieces

1:14:57

together. We had an

1:14:59

amazing staff in the front office that I

1:15:01

knew could help me get better at understanding

1:15:04

the intricacies and the nuances

1:15:06

of, you know, the cap in

1:15:09

the CBA and understanding all the different decisions that

1:15:11

you have to make along the way. But

1:15:14

I felt like I had a good base of

1:15:16

knowledge about our basketball team and specifically our best

1:15:18

players and what would compliment them and hopefully, hopefully

1:15:21

we could put the right pieces around and

1:15:24

just continue to be sustainably

1:15:26

good. I don't think you ever, you

1:15:28

know, you always want to win championships.

1:15:30

You always want to be in the mix for that. And

1:15:32

that's, you know, that's what we've tried to

1:15:34

do. And we also recognize how

1:15:37

much good fortune you have to have to

1:15:39

actually do it. Right. And so it's

1:15:42

been fun. Plus my calendar is a

1:15:44

little bit more open up, Pat, during the year. Like

1:15:47

I didn't miss very many of my son's

1:15:49

high school games. My golf games gotten better.

1:15:52

I've been to a lot of my daughter's soccer

1:15:54

games and, you know, coaches, as

1:15:57

much as we try to be present, we miss

1:15:59

a lot. And so it's been the best

1:16:01

of both worlds for me. Well, I'm happy to

1:16:03

hear the golf game's gotten better. Happy to chance

1:16:05

that hanging out with your kids and not have

1:16:07

to be fully immersed in basketball. And

1:16:09

how do we get better all the time? And

1:16:11

what play sets should we run? What is this

1:16:13

team going to do? What did you see in

1:16:16

Joe Missoula? Okay. Cause I went to school at

1:16:18

West Virginia at same time as

1:16:20

Joe. Joe was known as an incredibly cerebral,

1:16:22

smart guy. Everybody loved him on the basketball

1:16:24

team. And obviously his jump and the youngest

1:16:26

coach to make the final since 1969 or

1:16:29

something like that. What

1:16:32

did you see in Joe? And does Joe

1:16:34

ask you questions? I saw Pep was there.

1:16:36

I think he tried to pick Pep's brain.

1:16:38

Who's the Manchester city. No, yeah. Yeah. Manchester

1:16:41

city coach. Does he talk to you? Do

1:16:43

you chat with Joe? And how was your

1:16:45

relationship coach to coach seemingly? Well,

1:16:48

I love Joe. I hired him as an assistant long

1:16:50

ago. And he's been an

1:16:52

assistant here prior to being the head

1:16:54

coach under unique circumstances last year. And

1:16:56

I thought he did an amazing job

1:16:58

last year. And he backed

1:17:00

it up with an even better job this

1:17:02

year. And that's to be expected. We're supposed

1:17:05

to improve as time goes on, especially when

1:17:08

you have kind of a growth mindset

1:17:10

that Joe has. Joe is an incredible leader.

1:17:13

He knows the game. He makes

1:17:15

good decisions in the game on both ends of the

1:17:17

floor. But I think his

1:17:20

impact goes way beyond that. He's amazing in

1:17:22

the locker room. He's amazing with the guys.

1:17:24

He's not afraid to challenge people.

1:17:27

And he has the stamina to

1:17:29

work. And that coaching

1:17:31

thing, when you're talking about 200 some

1:17:34

odd days or

1:17:36

250 some odd days in a season, we

1:17:38

started September 28th. The coaching

1:17:40

brain never kicks off, right? And so to end

1:17:43

in June 17th, and

1:17:45

to be on that whole time and

1:17:48

to have that kind of stamina and that kind of

1:17:50

work ethic is real. And

1:17:52

he's got it. His motor is

1:17:54

always going. He's done

1:17:57

a great job of creating a network of people.

1:18:00

like pep in sports that he likes

1:18:02

outside of basketball, um,

1:18:04

that I think he really, um,

1:18:07

you know, really tries to learn from this.

1:18:10

You never worry one minute about Joe

1:18:12

Missoula feeling like he's

1:18:14

got it all figured out. He's always trying

1:18:16

to learn, grow, get better. And

1:18:18

he brings a great energy to the building and we're

1:18:20

lucky he's here. Yeah. There was a story that came

1:18:22

out about him winning coach of the month or whatever.

1:18:25

And he's, nobody cares. Walking

1:18:27

by. It's like, like that. Yeah.

1:18:29

That, that like humility is something that all

1:18:31

coaches have to have. And you talk about

1:18:33

200 and some odd days. That's not just

1:18:35

like at work. That's like on road travel.

1:18:38

That's like the,

1:18:41

and always thinking about it. Like it

1:18:43

never leaves your mind, right? Like even

1:18:45

when you're trying to disassociate and get,

1:18:47

you know, hang out and go to

1:18:49

dinner or whatever the case may be

1:18:51

with your family or be at a

1:18:54

kids' game, you know, you're always thinking

1:18:56

about the team because that is, you're

1:18:58

just trying to figure out how to get

1:19:00

the pieces all to work together as well

1:19:02

as humanly possible. It's a big difference between

1:19:04

my job now and his job is you

1:19:07

don't, you don't get into the weeds of

1:19:09

the every day in this job. Like you

1:19:11

do as a coach, you're more of the

1:19:13

10,000 foot view and how it's all

1:19:15

going to fit together and thinking about what's next.

1:19:17

And, um, but I just

1:19:19

got a great respect for his motor. He brings

1:19:21

it every day. Yeah. So I didn't forget it,

1:19:24

you know, and not forget it as in like,

1:19:26

uh, don't think about it for you, but it

1:19:28

is like rotisserie chicken. Let's just put that thing

1:19:30

in there. And then Missoula is the one that's

1:19:33

spinning the chicken. You

1:19:35

guys are great tag team. It's been fun to watch.

1:19:37

So incredibly dominant. Go ahead, AJ. Coach,

1:19:40

why do you think in professional sports, it's so tough

1:19:42

to have sustained success. Pat and I talk about it

1:19:44

all the time. Like what the Patriots did, what it

1:19:47

seems like the Chiefs are in the middle of right

1:19:49

now in the NFL, what you guys are hopefully going

1:19:51

on, like what's the plan and how do you continue

1:19:53

to kind of like push the envelope and continue to

1:19:55

get better? Well,

1:19:58

I've been really fortunate. studied a lot

1:20:00

of football, AJ, and my time

1:20:03

at Butler when I was in Indianapolis,

1:20:05

the sustained success of the Colts. Through

1:20:08

the Peyton Manning years, and then in transitioning to

1:20:11

Andrew and all the great players on offense and

1:20:13

defense that you played with. And special teams, yeah,

1:20:15

special teams. Brad, and special teams.

1:20:18

I counted you as defense for some of

1:20:20

those tackles. Oh, okay, okay, I actually wore,

1:20:23

I actually wore defensive jersey in practice. Hey,

1:20:25

Brad, you know, yeah, this guy did study.

1:20:28

You know, yeah, sorry about that. My

1:20:31

bad, my bad. And then, you know, I

1:20:33

move out here and you're right in the

1:20:35

middle of the Patriots dynasty. And, you

1:20:37

know, the quarterback room, when I went

1:20:39

and sat down with those guys were,

1:20:41

you know, it's Brady and Garoppolo and

1:20:43

Brissett and Josh. And you have all

1:20:46

these future head coaches walking all over

1:20:48

that building. And Bill is obviously, you

1:20:51

know, the most amazing resource you could ever have

1:20:53

here. And so

1:20:55

you learn a lot from those people. And I

1:20:57

think what we've been fortunate

1:20:59

with in our long run of playoffs

1:21:01

is that we had a chance

1:21:04

to be good. And at the same

1:21:06

time had a couple of other picks that

1:21:09

we were able to, that we knew were

1:21:11

there, right? And Danny just had to get

1:21:13

them right and boy did he ever. And

1:21:15

so when you get in back to back years, Jalen

1:21:18

and Jason, then you have

1:21:21

a head start on being sustainably

1:21:23

good. And then it's about, you

1:21:25

know, we've had different iterations of our team as

1:21:28

they were growing and going from 19 year old and 20

1:21:30

year olds with a little bit less responsibility to kind of

1:21:32

carry in the torch for us. But

1:21:34

it's about finding the people that fit

1:21:36

best around them. How we can accentuate

1:21:39

them. You know, I think of

1:21:41

like how, you know, the receivers that

1:21:43

the Colts could put out there for Peyton

1:21:45

or the receivers or the running backs that

1:21:47

the Pats could put out there for Brady.

1:21:50

Like, that's what you're just trying to do.

1:21:52

That's the way you're thinking about it. Let's talk about

1:21:54

Tatum and Brown. Obviously it was a big piece of

1:21:56

conversation in the sports media world. Is

1:22:00

Tatum doing enough or

1:22:02

is this Brown's team?

1:22:05

I'll tell you what, if I'm Brown, I'm thinking

1:22:07

to myself, why is Tatum still on

1:22:09

the marquee with me? Like there is a lot

1:22:11

of that from the outside, right? That was, they

1:22:13

didn't talk about your team. I don't know how

1:22:15

much you pay attention. You can't pay attention. You

1:22:17

got to do your thing. Nobody really talked about

1:22:20

your team. Now granted, Connor was screaming for a

1:22:22

long time. Anytime we brought up basketball because he

1:22:24

is obviously a massive fan of yours. He was

1:22:26

an absolute asshole walking in here the other day

1:22:28

after you guys won. So thank you for creating

1:22:30

another championship for this guy to celebrate. But

1:22:32

they've been trying to drive a wedge between

1:22:34

those two seemingly since you guys became Uber

1:22:36

successful. Why do you think those two get

1:22:38

along so well? Why do you think those

1:22:40

two are going to continue to be pillars

1:22:43

for you? And how do you maintain this?

1:22:46

Like, I don't want to say, oh, something

1:22:48

just happened. Yeah, it was sweet. Something just

1:22:50

happened right behind you. It was pretty cool. But how do

1:22:52

you, why do you think they are that way? And

1:22:54

how does this, is this possible forever, I guess,

1:22:57

with the way these two operate? We're

1:23:00

so far into the tax. We're saving money on my

1:23:02

lights and my office. You got to pay one of

1:23:04

those guys. Yeah, you got to pay one of those

1:23:06

guys. Yep, yep, yep. If I

1:23:08

don't move for five minutes, the lights

1:23:10

automatically go out. You

1:23:13

know what? Save the world. Yeah, this

1:23:15

all starts, Pat, with the character of the two

1:23:17

people. And at the

1:23:19

end of the day, these guys are

1:23:21

workers, great teammates, you

1:23:24

know, awesome players, but competitors.

1:23:27

And, you know, it's

1:23:29

funny because now that you win it, you

1:23:32

know, all the narrative is, is man, they're

1:23:34

way ahead of schedule when you look at

1:23:36

their age versus what they've accomplished versus

1:23:39

the rest of the league. And they

1:23:41

were ahead of schedule the whole time. And

1:23:43

that's, again, why we've been fortunate enough to

1:23:45

kind of build around them. They're

1:23:48

the kind of teammates you

1:23:50

want to have on your team. They're the kind of teammates you

1:23:52

want to build around. And we asked them to do a lot.

1:23:54

They're not, you know, when you think about

1:23:56

it, a lot of times scoring and

1:23:58

the ability to put the ball in the basket. it gets all

1:24:00

the attention and, you

1:24:02

know, Jaylen Brown is picking up Luca full

1:24:04

court. You know, Jason Tatum in

1:24:07

our last three series guards

1:24:09

the center so we can switch all the

1:24:11

centers picking roles on Luca and Cockery and

1:24:14

he's got the size, strength and ability to

1:24:17

communicate and direct the defense from behind to

1:24:19

do it. You know, and those

1:24:21

are the types of things that winners do, you

1:24:23

know, and so we don't

1:24:25

have time for, you know, all

1:24:28

of the talk about, you know, breaking

1:24:30

apart. We're too busy trying to work together to

1:24:33

win and those two guys have to

1:24:35

lead the way in that. They'll continue to lead the way

1:24:37

in that and that's just who

1:24:39

they are. They were, they were, they, their

1:24:41

families are amazing. They're amazing and

1:24:43

we're lucky they're Celtics. Yeah, hell yeah. I

1:24:45

love your answer. That's the way winners operate.

1:24:47

A lot of losers saying a lot of

1:24:49

things it seems like winners are operating in

1:24:51

this particular fashion. I think everybody in Boston

1:24:53

loves the way you and your team operate

1:24:55

as a whole. Speaking of Mass Hole, Connor

1:24:57

has a question for you, Brad. Yeah, Mr.

1:24:59

President, I just want to say thank you

1:25:01

for everything you've done for Boston, of course,

1:25:03

as both a coach and now, you know,

1:25:05

the president of basketball operations. But, you know,

1:25:08

going forward here, you know, one's nice, you

1:25:10

know, I'm gonna hold on to this one

1:25:12

for a while, but like, like Joe said,

1:25:14

there's room up in these rafters, there's room

1:25:16

on this desk for a couple more maybe

1:25:18

three or four. So something to think about,

1:25:21

but as you do kind of prepare and

1:25:23

transition into the next season, and I think

1:25:25

you said the night of the championship, like,

1:25:27

hey, we got we got draft workouts tomorrow.

1:25:30

So I'm pretty jacked up about that. But

1:25:32

how often during the season and obviously now

1:25:34

are you trying to kind of pick and

1:25:36

place other guys in spots that we may

1:25:39

need? And are you worried about the potential

1:25:41

that when you start calling teams, they're going

1:25:43

to pick up and say go to hell and hang

1:25:45

up because they know if they trade with you that

1:25:47

the Celtics are going to continue to dominate. Oh, you're

1:25:49

talking about Drew Holliday. Yeah, Drew Holliday. I mean, you

1:25:52

could argue Derek White, Christos Borzingis. It kind of happened

1:25:54

to Danny Ainge actually, right before you took over where

1:25:56

people are like, hey, if Danny Ainge calls you tell

1:25:58

that son of a bitch to go. go to hell

1:26:00

because he's making a bad deal for you. Are

1:26:02

you worried about that, Mr. President? I'm

1:26:06

not because every trade we've done, I think has

1:26:08

been good for the other team. They were all

1:26:10

in different ages and phases and

1:26:12

trying to maximize assets and those type

1:26:15

of things. And so, listen,

1:26:17

we haven't had a first round pick yet in

1:26:19

the three years I've been here. Tomorrow we have

1:26:21

number 30 for now. And so,

1:26:24

we'll see what happens. But I think

1:26:26

the, at the end of the day, there's

1:26:29

a lot of smart people around the league

1:26:31

and there's a lot of teams that are

1:26:33

looking at wherever, whatever window they're in with

1:26:35

regard to building or trying to maximize it

1:26:38

right now. And we certainly, again, when we

1:26:40

got Jason and Jaylen, we've got to find

1:26:43

the right people to build around them. And

1:26:45

so, from my standpoint, our

1:26:48

job, and I

1:26:50

think I don't have all the expertise that a lot

1:26:52

of these front office people do around the league or

1:26:55

even in our building. My

1:26:57

only background is in coaching and how

1:26:59

teams function together. So, we

1:27:01

try to make it as easy for a team

1:27:04

to compliment one another,

1:27:06

to bring out the best to one another, and for the coaches

1:27:08

to have a group that

1:27:12

you can easily create roles and role

1:27:14

definition around. And I think that

1:27:16

that's kind of what we try to do. And yes,

1:27:18

you're always thinking about it. And

1:27:21

tomorrow, whoever we draft, wherever we

1:27:23

draft, in the

1:27:25

next couple of days, I think that we're just

1:27:27

trying to try to keep adding people that are

1:27:29

really good people that are interested in competing and

1:27:33

that are ready for the responsibility of

1:27:35

wearing this uniform, which is not normal.

1:27:38

It's just, it is

1:27:40

a real responsibility when

1:27:42

you play for the Boston Celtics and it hits

1:27:44

you pretty quick. Most championships in the history of

1:27:47

the NBA that happened this year, 18, passing

1:27:49

Lakers, 17. Congratulations. When

1:27:51

you talk about the pressure of being a Celtic,

1:27:53

and you said you got 30 for now, and

1:27:55

then you said, wherever we pick tomorrow or the

1:27:57

next couple of days, and with all

1:27:59

the the money. You got a lot of money out there.

1:28:01

More money on the way from what I've been talking about.

1:28:04

You got a lot of money and I don't know how

1:28:06

your NBA salary cap works. Feels like you guys just pay

1:28:08

fucking everybody. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how it

1:28:10

works. It feels like, yeah, we'll just pay luxury tax, whatever

1:28:12

we need. We can do it. And you guys, obviously you're

1:28:14

in a standpoint where you got incredible players, but I would

1:28:16

assume being able to draft somebody who's

1:28:18

potentially young and cheap would be great addition to a team

1:28:21

that has a lot of money. Is that how you're viewing

1:28:23

it? And whenever you, I should know this, I should have

1:28:25

done more research before this conversation. You're trying to move up

1:28:27

in the draft from 30. I don't want to give away

1:28:29

your entire leverage, but you're obviously trying to

1:28:31

move. Is that? I would

1:28:34

say there are certain scenarios where maybe we

1:28:36

look at moving up and there are certain

1:28:38

scenarios where maybe we look at moving back.

1:28:41

You know, the way that the draft works

1:28:43

in basketball is, is all of

1:28:45

the salaries are slotted in the first round.

1:28:47

So it's slotted one through 30, exactly what

1:28:49

those, you know, contracts

1:28:51

will look like really over the course of four years. And

1:28:53

then in the second round, you know,

1:28:56

you can, you can be a little bit more creative

1:28:58

with contracts. But,

1:29:00

you know, and even to the point where, you

1:29:02

know, later in the second round, there's a lot

1:29:04

of people that will be drafted that in the

1:29:06

past will either continue to play overseas for a

1:29:08

while or, you know, we'll be on

1:29:10

two way contracts in the G league. So there's, there's all

1:29:13

kinds of things that we could

1:29:15

do on draft night,

1:29:17

but you know, if the right person's there

1:29:19

and, and we're, and we feel like they'll

1:29:21

come in and help and somebody we can

1:29:23

invest in, you

1:29:25

know, we're looking forward to making that pick.

1:29:27

And if not, then we'll, you

1:29:29

know, we'll think and obviously talk to everybody in

1:29:32

the league about moving around that it's,

1:29:34

it's going to be, it's, it's fun. I mean,

1:29:36

if we get everybody back and we hope, you

1:29:38

know, that we look pretty similar to last year,

1:29:40

barring any health issues, then, you

1:29:42

know, it's going to be hard for whoever we draft

1:29:44

to crack the rotation, but we've got to

1:29:46

start, we've got to continue to build and grow

1:29:48

some of these young guys so

1:29:50

that when we, you know, when we do

1:29:53

have to transition, we can

1:29:55

do so while again, trying to be sustainable.

1:29:58

I didn't even know there was more than 30 guys. Getting

1:30:00

drafted right? That

1:30:02

one French guy. Yes are sorry, and

1:30:04

there's another Ronnie and brawn. Ronnie. They're

1:30:07

the only two eligible guys So

1:30:11

congrats on one I guess Holy

1:30:13

shit, one of those guys going to something

1:30:15

he's gonna do it. He's having somebody. I

1:30:17

know there's anybody else to get drafted I

1:30:19

had somebody from Purdue perhaps Oh big tall

1:30:21

guy. Yeah, big song, bitch Oh Look

1:30:25

out Indiana. Hey can move to

1:30:27

some a shit. He got in great shape for the

1:30:29

for his last year here He's moving around. He's got

1:30:31

good moxie to men. You guys did you jump Pat?

1:30:34

Did you jump on the Purdue bandwagon when they went

1:30:36

to the final this year? Yeah, that was sweet Yeah,

1:30:38

I mean coach I will hop on a bandwagon if

1:30:40

we're gonna have a good time, you know, I'm here

1:30:42

for it We

1:30:45

can boiler up if we have to in Butler Let's

1:30:48

go Bulldogs whenever you guys good need to get

1:30:50

over there to some games No, I was it

1:30:52

was so much fun to see paint and that

1:30:55

Purdue team go to the final. They ran

1:30:57

into a juggernaut But yeah, I'm right.

1:30:59

I was I was really happy for coach

1:31:01

painter. He's one of the best Okay, coach

1:31:03

painter obviously awesome guy and there was a

1:31:05

lot of doubts about the Purdue team ever

1:31:08

getting over the hump So then making it

1:31:10

to the finals is obviously a huge combo

1:31:12

taking on Dan Hurley in the Huskies Okay,

1:31:14

do you pay attention all the shit that's

1:31:16

happening around the NBA? I guess you would

1:31:19

have to in president or basketball ops Dan

1:31:21

Hurley right in your backyard Seemingly there at

1:31:23

Yukon in the area. Did is there a

1:31:25

thought of like these? Cuz Joe Missoula

1:31:27

young he coached in college I think and

1:31:29

then he's assisting with you guys and then

1:31:32

bang he becomes head coach Dan Hurley was

1:31:34

potentially gonna be the coach of Lakers JJ

1:31:36

Rettick now the coach of the Lakers like

1:31:38

whenever you have Joe Missoula Is there like

1:31:40

certain traits you're looking for in these young

1:31:42

guys in are you scouting all these? People

1:31:45

that are potentially coaches or players because you never

1:31:47

know what's gonna happen in the future while it's

1:31:49

taking place Yeah, I

1:31:51

don't think that I actually go into

1:31:53

gyms thinking about it in terms of

1:31:55

scouting But

1:31:57

I leave practices you

1:32:00

know, you know, incredibly impressed a lot.

1:32:02

And one of the things I really enjoy about

1:32:04

my new job is going to college practices and

1:32:07

watching different people work. And that could be

1:32:09

the head coaches, the assistant coaches running the

1:32:11

offensive defense, whatever the

1:32:13

case may be. With Joe in particular,

1:32:15

we had Joe in Maine on

1:32:18

our G league staff in I believe 2014 or

1:32:20

2015, but

1:32:23

after he left, I used to do a

1:32:26

round table where we'd bring in coaches from

1:32:28

across the country in the summer so I

1:32:30

could learn. It was pretty selfish, right? It

1:32:32

was, I wanted to bring people in to

1:32:34

talk and learn, and I would steal things

1:32:36

or plays or defensive drills or whatever the

1:32:38

case may be. But it also

1:32:41

became something where we tried to have a couple of

1:32:43

speakers a year that were these kind

1:32:45

of young coaches that you

1:32:47

needed to keep an eye on. And Joe

1:32:49

actually was one of our speakers, I

1:32:52

think in 18 or 19. And

1:32:55

then we hired him, now I think it must've been in 18,

1:32:57

because we hired him in 1920 and

1:33:00

he's been with us ever since. But yeah,

1:33:02

you gotta keep your eyes open. And

1:33:05

Danny obviously is a great

1:33:07

coach and great coaching is

1:33:09

not monopolized at any level. There

1:33:12

are great coaches in the youth basketball

1:33:14

area. There's great coaches in high school

1:33:16

and middle school and college. And

1:33:19

you gotta keep your eyes open. And

1:33:23

certainly if Danny ever wants to make that transition, I

1:33:25

think he'll do that well. Hey, there's a fourth grade

1:33:27

basketball team that had JJ Riddick coaching it though, before

1:33:29

he got up here to the NBA and they were.

1:33:31

They're good. Splash, splash, splash. You can shoot the rock.

1:33:34

Yeah, these fourth graders were traveling a bit. I think

1:33:36

they were a little bit of travels, but that's gonna

1:33:38

happen, but they are shooting a rock. Don't wanna give

1:33:40

things away, but I think the Lakers, they're

1:33:43

gonna be running like that fourth grade team.

1:33:45

You talk about the Celtics and obviously the

1:33:47

weight of the logo being on your jersey.

1:33:50

It also happens, I assume to everybody, go

1:33:52

ahead, Ty. Yeah, coach, how jarring was that

1:33:54

when you first leave Butler and you go

1:33:56

from the lovable Cinderella and obviously everyone knows

1:33:59

fans. in Indiana are basketball

1:34:01

craze, but kinda just affable people in

1:34:03

general and everyone wanted to see you

1:34:05

guys win. And then you go to

1:34:07

the Celtics where, let's just say, people

1:34:09

on the East Coast maybe have a

1:34:12

little bit more hard edge and like

1:34:14

the expectation is, hey, you're going

1:34:16

to win. You're coaching now for not

1:34:18

just one of the most historic teams in

1:34:20

the NBA, but in all of sports. How

1:34:23

jarring was that jump from just like, hey, we're

1:34:25

just kind of happy to be here in the

1:34:27

final four to like, okay, that's great, coach. Like,

1:34:29

go win a title now. And how

1:34:31

long did it kind of take for you to kind

1:34:34

of get used to that and just

1:34:36

like that entire culture change of going

1:34:38

from Butler to the Celtics? Well,

1:34:41

one of the things that really drew me

1:34:43

to the Celtics was that Danny and the

1:34:45

ownership group had always really stuck by coaches,

1:34:48

man, really like they were patient with the

1:34:50

process and they understood that they weren't going

1:34:52

to ride the roller coaster of an 82

1:34:55

games, even in this market where,

1:34:57

you know, obviously people always will

1:34:59

have an opinion and you know,

1:35:01

or enormous fans. But

1:35:04

I think that one of the things that, and

1:35:06

I've said this before, I don't know why this is

1:35:08

the case. And maybe it was because when I was

1:35:11

coaching at Butler, I was, you know, between 30 and

1:35:16

And maybe it was just my age, but coaching in

1:35:18

your hometown where you went to high school, you

1:35:20

know, basically where you went to college and then where

1:35:22

you've worked your whole professional life, that's

1:35:25

a pressure too. And

1:35:28

in moving out here, the

1:35:30

responsibility of putting on the Celtics

1:35:32

jersey and having an

1:35:36

intriguing part of doing it. And

1:35:38

at the same time, you know, I think that

1:35:41

the pressure of coaching in your hometown

1:35:43

really prepared me well. There

1:35:46

have been so many, you know, pinch

1:35:49

yourself moments as a member

1:35:51

of the Celtics organization. In

1:35:53

2013, when I became the head coach, we had just

1:35:55

traded Pearson Garden. We weren't expected to be very good,

1:35:57

at least in that first year.

1:36:00

and we, you know, we got better

1:36:02

soon thereafter, but that first year was

1:36:04

tough, but you knew the

1:36:06

weight of the, of the Jersey when,

1:36:09