Pardon My Take - NBA Playoffs W/ Kirk Goldsberry, USMNT Goalie Zack Steffen + Hank’s Huge Announcement

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

The Timberwolves are dead and we’re done with them. The Jazz team needs to go home. (00:02:24-00:13:21) We talk Celtics/Nets, Bulls maybe being back and Jay Wright retires in the classiest way possible. (00:14:49-00:36:12) Kirk Goldsberry joins the show to talk NBA Playoffs, vibes of the different teams, and what happened to Kevin Durant. (00:37:01-01:18:57) USMNT Goalie Zach Steffen joins the show to talk soccer, playing overseas and more. (01:20:33-01:42:37) We finish with Fyre Fest and Hanks big announcement (01:42:39-01:55:40)You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake

Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take, we got a two for for the people we have. Our good friend Kirk Goldsbury on to talk NBA playoffs. And then the goalie for U.S. Men's National Team and Manchester City. Zach Stephan, American hero on to talk a little soccer.

Yeah, we did tennis. Now we're doing soccer. We're doing it all and we have a recap of tonight's games. Recap of Wednesday night's games looks like the Celtics are in control. The Bulls might be back and then we're going to finish with Firefest of the week. Oh, also J. Wright retired classy, classy move by him. And we were brought to you by our friends at Roman. Look, we all know that change doesn't happen without action.

Whether you're looking for gains at the gym or a better experience in the bedroom. There's never any shame in showing up for yourself and your health. The folks at Roman and online men's health company are changing the game with Roman swipes, the secret to longer lasting sex. Roman swipes are a clinically proven way to last longer in bed. They're effective, easy to use and fast acting, but don't require prescription. Roman can ship swipes to you in discreet unmarked packaging. And each swipes packet is small enough to hide in your wallet for whenever you need it.

They're super easy to use. Just take the swipes out of the packet. Swipe it on, let it dry and you're good to go. That is it. So go to get Roman.com slash take right now. Get Roman.com slash take to get $10 off when you choose a monthly plan. That's get Roman.com slash take get Roman.com slash take today and you get $10 off. Make sure you're doing the good stuff in the bedroom.

Get Roman.com slash take. Okay, let's go. Oh, boy. Now in the street there is violence and a lot of stuff work to be done. No place to hang out or wash in and then I can't blame all on the sun. Oh, no, we're going to wrap it down to electric revenue and then we'll take it higher. Oh, it's part of my take isn't about harsh to a sport. Welcome to part of my take presented by Roman.

Go to get Roman.com slash take to get $10 off when you choose a monthly plan. Today is Friday, April 22nd, and the Minnesota Timberwolves are dead. I fucking hate that team. We got swindles. We got bamboozled and sold a bill of goods. We're idiots. Actually, I actually I gained a newfound sympathy for the good people of Minnesota because we fell in love with the wolves after that play in game.

The atmosphere looked electric. A rod was popping. The biceps were popping and we got Minnesotaed. Like we believed a little bit in this team. And now I understand just like the tiniest bit, just the tiniest bit. I had a glimpse into the life of Minnesotans and I don't like it at all. That was that was the stupidest game that I've seen any team play in the NBA. Probably in the last five years, it was so dumb.

I don't know if we got swindled. We just really need someone to chain themselves to a basket to protest because it's the analytics do not lie. The well, I don't know what that was. My computer is made of noise. By the way, we're recording the first 10 minutes in our apartments and we're back in the studio. The analytics do not lie when there's a protest of Glenn Taylor, Taylor,

the Minnesota Timberwolves are two and oh, and when not their own two. That game was so, so stupid. The Timberwolves blow blue to separate 25 point leads. Is that right? 25. But they were up like 47 to 21. I know it was to 20 point leads. I don't know if they if they both got up to 25, but it was bad. They were the Timberwolves went on a 21 oh run or sorry, the Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies went on a 42 to 12 run in a 13 minute span. It was we've talked about this before. We did the Mount Rushmore of Sounds. It was one of like the craziest, stunned, silent, random screams sound arena has ever had Minnesota. This is why we we stood up for you when you celebrated the playing game because that was an absolute disaster. It was so bad.

I agree with you. By the way, I tweeted it out during the game, but they needed like an extra time out from the fans. They needed somebody to go down on the court, like climb up the net, handcuff themselves to the basket and stop the game for a while. It was it was so out of hand. And the weird thing about the Timberwolves is they they go up big and then they simultaneously stop playing offense and defense.

You can get away with one of the two. But you can get away with a five minute span where you don't have anything following if you play decent defense, or at least you don't completely. They they did the thing where the controller was unplugged for about seven minutes on offense and defense, and it was so so bad to watch. Patrick Beverly, I think Patrick Beverly needs to get more pissed off. I think he's too happy. I need him to like people have been respecting him as much as really what he needs to do.

There's that. But he's been respected too much recently. Patrick Beverly needs to get angry again. He's he's too happy. I think people have respected Patrick Beverly a little bit too much the last week, and he earned that with his, you know, his performance definitely in the playing game. But he's at his best when he's got a chip on his shoulder. And the last couple of weeks, it's been like Patrick Beverly.

We underestimated him good for proving the clippers wrong. I need people to start writing the articles being like the clippers were right to move on from Patrick Beverly. So he comes out next game and actually, you know, plays a little with a little bit more heart. And then, you know, you're right. He shot the ball in the fourth quarter and that's that's not his game. His game is not to shoot. Yeah. So the Grizzlies won 37 and 12 in the fourth quarter.

And as much as I want to be like Patrick Beverly, you shot too much because you you scored 14 points on 13 shots. I don't think that you can say that because Carl Anthony Towns, your Max player was three for four. He shot four times. There's so fucking weird. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done with Carl Anthony Towns. I'm definitely done with him.

I love Anthony Edwards. D'Angelo Russell is nice. I love Patrick Beverly. I still will will ride with Timberwolves fans, not Vikings fans. It's a very big difference there. This is where I'm going to compartmentalize like, you know, be like, I ride with Browns fans, but I hate little bronze calves. I will I will back Timberwolves fans, but Carl Anthony Towns.

He's a bum. He's a bum. I don't know what to say. Like he has to he has to basically he now has a legacy series at his hands. He has to come out and dominate the next like three games to restore his legacy because now the playing game and then tonight he was a complete no show. And I get it. Sometimes guys have bad playoff games. You are that you are supposed to be the Timberwolves best player.

They're franchise piece. They're they're guy that you build around and you just no showed. They're so weird. I've never seen a team play like this before ever. It's shocking to me still. And credit to Hank. Hank saw it coming all along. Hank, Hank, congratulations to Hank.

His winning DNA continues to be Michael Jordan. Like I think Hank is up like a billion dollars. Hank is the biggest winner in the history of getting quite a run. I'm on quite a run. That's it's a it's a it's a strategy, though. It's a system if a team is down by like 10 to 15, 20 points. And it's still the first half. Just live bet money line.

The other team. It's it's a it's a it's a simple system work for the Celtics last night. The Sixers were down. They weren't down that much, but they were down. Also, I bet them live at them. It's like, I just wait, wait for the games to start. And then when teams go down big, it always comes back to even they may not win the game,

but no lead is safe in the NBA, especially in the playoffs. And we we should say, let's not just shit on the Timberalls, even though they deserve to be shit on for this, because that was a baffling baffling game. The Grizzlies are awesome. Like they to fight back in that situation to be down 20 plus points two different times in a hostile environment. John Moran had a triple double Desmond Bain.

It felt like he was just like he had every shot down the stretch. I they were they they deserve a ton of credit for winning that game, because that was that's hard to do to be down once come all. You see it all the time when a team comes all the way back and like they run out of energy or, you know, like they chip away, chip away, chip away, then they run out of energy. They 37 to 12 in the fourth quarter is insane. That's an insane score.

Yeah. Yeah, it's nuts. It's it's so weird. It's infuriating. And I've been a Minnesota Timberalls fan for a week. I can't imagine how the people of Minnesota have to feel. And yeah, I'm with you. Like I feel sympathy for them. I feel empathy for the good people of Minnesota. But I'm done. I got to cut bait.

I root for enough shitty teams already. I can't I can't afford to attach myself to another stinger. Yeah, no, this is this is this. Wait, so if they win if they win if they win game four, you're no. No, no, don't trick it. No, no, I'm not I'm not I'm not falling for it. PFT. Not fall for it. We got married in Vegas and we got it in an old.

Yeah, that's what just happened. We just we got back. I'm sobered up and we're like, wait, well, what did we just do? No, no, no, I'm just trying to warriors in my future and just not even worry about the rest of the West. Exactly. For the Warriors. I'm a fan of a winning franchise, finally.

Yep, nation. Don't try to convince me otherwise. You're a bad friend right now, Hank. You're being a bad friend. I'm not being a bad friend. We just talked about my gambling. I have a I have the Timberwolves to win the series and I have a parlay with the Timberwolves to win the series

and the Celtics to win their series. So I'm I'm still with the Timberwolves. I'm riding. We've got a game for even series best of three. All the momentum and I mean, I don't feel great about it, but it's when we're in the next game, 15, it's tied. That's why no Timberwolves fans should be upset that we're hopping off because they know I'm not hopping off. No, but they they should know like we should have done that.

And yeah, maybe even you'll win now. We got excited. Listen, the playing game was incredible. I don't I don't regret falling in love. That's what life is all about. It's feeling these emotions. Feelings are never wrong, big cat. The way you react to them can be.

And right now I know that I thought I fell in love. I got obsessed with the Timberwolves and I'm recognizing that's a toxic relationship where we fell hard. We fell fast. We were addicted to each other. And now you know what? It's not going to work out. I understand that better to move on right now before we have any kids

and then damage it that way. So we're we're in the window right now. We're in the post nut window. All right. We have some clarity. Let's just not because because what will happen is we'll get our testosterone back up in two days will be horny again. We're not we can't do it. We got to walk away.

J.J.O. Yeah, J.J.O. Two days on. You touched on Jabbaran a little bit back to basketball. Jabbaran loves falling down. And the answers are talking about a little bit of how we talk to Alan Iverson. Alan Iverson was like the court is the only thing that doesn't give when you run into it.

And he's like coaching Jota, maybe stop falling down so much or leaping through the air without thinking about how you're going to land. I just watch him and I'm like, it's awesome to be young. That's that's the feeling like if you're playing, whether it's like at recess or if it's like in high school or whatever, you just you just jump around and you just land on your side all the time and then you bounce back up and you're not even sore. John Moran is still in that window where his body can take that.

And he's he's a lot of fun to watch. Also shout out to John Moran. I know that I personally do this whenever I have a gambling pick that goes like that a public gambling pick that goes well. I just search out everyone who doubted me after. But he's doing that like on steroids because he actually like caused the win and he went and searched Twitter after. And that's got to be the best feeling ever.

Really, Marty Musch caused the win from tweeting at him last year saying they sucked. Yeah, I remember years ago and he wouldn't work the year. Do I don't even want to talk about the jazz. I actually just tweeted like jazz fans. This is a safe space, like you're just as sick of this team as we are, right? And everyone's like, yep, yep, yep. So there's like what I can always tell if people are truly sick of their team.

Like just based on how many how many reply tweets I get saying the bears suck. And I only got like two. So that means they're really sick of the nice thing. We're overrated. Yeah, look over the nice thing for jazz fans is a religion they can always root for multiple other teams. And that's totally copacetic.

All right, we don't know what happens in the Warriors game. Here's Stella Cam. We're going to watch the fourth quarter and we'll talk about it on Sunday. Great night of basketball for everyone that doesn't live in the state of Minnesota. Pretty much, right? Yeah, or us or us a great night for Hank. Hank always comes out on top. Congratulations. No matter what, Hank wins.

What an ace. All right, we're going to get to the rest of the show back in studio now. Big announcement coming up later, too. Oh, yeah, I still I stand with you, Hank. Thank you. Yeah, that's Hank's underselling it, if anything. Shady rays, I want to talk about shady rays real quick. Shady rays back for another run around the sun. Shady rays sunglasses offer an industry best combination of fit

style and performance without the big brand price tag. It doesn't stop at the quality. Shady rays offers the most insane protection program in all of IWARE. Every pair is backed by lost and broken replacements. And if you lose or break your pair, even on day one, they will send you a brand new pair. Wear with confidence wherever PFT wears them all the time. I wear them all the time.

It's nothing right now. Nothing better than being having that moment occur in like mid spring, where you're like, oh, it's sunglasses time now. Like we're rocking sunglasses. Stock up. Yeah. So they also provide 10 meals to fight hunger in America with every order. And if donated over 20 million meals to date, look good in your shades and feel good by making an impact.

If you don't love them, exchange for a new pair or return them for free. Within 30 days, there's no risk when you shop with shady rays. Their team always has your back, exclusively for our listeners. Shady rays is giving us the very best deal this season. Go to shady rays dot com slash PMT 50 for 50% off. Two plus pairs of polarized sunglasses. Shady rays dot com slash PMT 50 for 50% off. Two plus pairs of polarized sunglasses.

OK. Wamp bet. Looks like Celtics might be doing the Wampen. Well, there's there's no Wamp that's going to happen for the Nets. The Wamp was taken off the table, unfortunately, last night. And I am playing the I'm doing a couple of things right now and in my own defense of my own ego. One, I'm thinking to myself that I should. I regret not taking the Celtics.

Now, I'm talking myself into loving the Celtics. OK, you guys are right about the Celtics. They're fun to watch. I absolutely love watching this team. I wish that I had taken the Celtics. I was wrong about that. So they're a very good team and Payton Pritchard's right up your alley. Great guy. Celtics fans.

Weird, much as P.P. Fast P.P. Celtics culture. Yeah, I'm all about it right now. I mean, the Nets are. Well, they just they have two really good players, but they have not been consistently good all year. And so their defense fails at key times. And Kevin Durant, we're going to talk about it

with Kirk Goldsbury in a second, but the Celtics are just locking him down. Like, I think he'll still have a couple of moments in this series. But you can't say anything other than the first two games. The Celtics defense has been fantastic against Kevin Durant. And the Nets do have moments where they look like they are capable of. They're playing what, 15? Yeah, they they won't them for a little bit last night. But unfortunately, 17.

Yeah, a wamping has to go for four quarters for it to count in the scorebook. So how are you? How are you feeling, Hank? You got to be you got to be on cloud nine right now. I would say cloud nine, but I'm feeling good. I'm feeling confident. Again, winning that first game, that was kind of the confidence they needed. I have a pretty large bet on the Celtics to win the series four to one, which now you're going to be rooting for the Nets.

No, I'm not. But like, I agree that, Katie, there's two games in Brooklyn, going to both shot to game time. Greatest ticketing app in the world. He's going to have 50 in like one of those games like he's going to go off for like 50 to 60 points and just absolutely like go crazy. It's due. Right. It has to happen. That's the other thing I'm telling myself would be crazy. It's still going to be a wamping, though.

That's the other thing I'm telling myself, which is that if you told me that Kevin Durant would go what, 0 for 10 in the second half. Yeah. And and the Nets would only lose by seven. I'd say like great job by the Nets. Yeah. Keeping it that close. Katie had like the maybe the worst playoff half that he's ever had. Probably. And it can't get much worse from there, right? I mean, I don't know. I don't know.

Because the defense was that good on him. Yeah. And he was just exhausted. Even on offense, he was exhausted. I like what Hank just did there for people who don't realize he just said, a wamping is going to happen, but it'd be crazy if it was a sweep. That has nothing to do with the fact that he needs it to go exactly five games. Yeah. Like there's no chance there's a sweep.

You're threading needle big time. Yeah. I'm big time. I'm mostly concerned. I'm not that worried about losing the wamp that besides like it's going to ruin all the credibility that I've built up over the years of being an NBA analyst. But I'm more concerned with what it's going to do to our darling Jake. Him trying to do an entire tin of dip for the first time is going to be

like Jake might actually die. He might become the first person to overdose from school. Scared. Yeah. Yeah. You know, he said to me earlier, he was like, it says right on the label. This product can give you cancer. Why does anybody do it? Why would people do that?

Like, don't do this. I mean, drinking is bad for you. There's a lot of things that are bad for you. Drinking a Diet Coke is bad for you. Nasal spray. Yeah, but it doesn't say this can give you cancer. Right. On the. Yeah, I think I think it actually does.

I think it says this product contains aspartame, which causes cancer and lab rats. Yeah, use your phone, 5G cancer. You live in your windmills. Yeah. Cancer. Anything for the fence. They matter. There we go. They matter.

It is. We are kind of over. Look, the Celtics, that was a great game by them, but we are forgetting that game one was a buzzer beater. So it's not like this. We wouldn't be sitting here on what it would be Wednesday show and be shocked that it was two to two. I don't think anyone would know, but it was a very like dominant second half by the Celtics.

They do look like the better team. Overall team, because they actually can get defensive stops in the need to. Yeah. I mean, Marcus Smart, when he put on that robe and walked into the arena at that, at that moment, I realized I was wrong about the Celtics. Yeah, that was pretty awesome. The other big story, the Bulls might be back. Yeah, sure. Well, no, no, I'm not going to.

I'm not going to talk you out of believing. Here's all I'm going to say. Here's all I'm going to say. I was down on the bulls, obviously, going in this series. They played incredible on Wednesday night. DeMarco Rosen was insane. I think it was like the fourth player in Bulls history to have 38 or sorry, a 40 plus playoff game. It was like him, Ben Gordon, and then Michael Jordan has 38 of them.

I wouldn't say the Bulls are back if it weren't for the fact that Chris Middleton also got hurt. Like that actually makes it so I think the Bucks are still the better team. But the margin for error is a lot slimmer for them now because you're going to the United Center on Friday night. That's going to be a crazy crowd. First time first home playoff game in five years and they don't have one of their best players.

They can't they can't screw around. And I I don't think DeMarco's score 40 every single game. But we have the honest stopper, and Alex Caruso. Caruso was money. Caruso was money last night. To you know, best. You knew that he was going to show up on 420. Dude, he's the best. The last guy to probably in the history of the United States

to be arrested for pot. Yeah. Yes, he actually was. Yeah, it was it. They ended the laws right there in college. It wasn't even in college station. I think it was a grinder. Yeah, I don't even think it was like he had weed. Well, he was in the flower, as they say. He was in the worst possible place at College Station, Texas.

Yeah. Is they're the holdout. They'll be enforcing marijuana laws until the year 2030. He's the he's the honest stopper. I'm confident in saying it. So you can you can say that. However, he's not going to guard Yanis the entire time. But when he needs to and when he needs to, but when Yanis needs to,

I feel like he's the most when this guy needs to guy. Yeah, no, he can take over a game similar to the KD thing. I'm waiting for the Yanis nuclear game. It's going to happen at this point, though. I'm in the mindset of making a three game series, making a three game series, win one of these next two, making a three game series. Anything can happen to steal one at home, still one at home.

No, but I mean, I was it was fun watching that game because that was the bulls that I watched in November, December and January showed up for that game. And it was like, oh, yeah, this team is awesome and a lot of fun. And where the hell have they been in the last three months? Yeah. So what you're doing is those bulls. Correct. Could beat these bucks. And I know box fans would be like, that was I think the first time

the bulls beat the box in like 14 games. So I would say the odds aren't on my side. But all I want to do is believe for a second. And Friday night, I'm like already excited for it. I'm going to clear my schedule, which I have nothing going on anyway, and sit on my couch and watch that game and be locked in in the very pump. I'm not going to talk you out because there's nothing like having a glimmer of hope. I'm not going to I'm not going to get rid of that for you.

But I would say that like you could also make the argument that your win last night was everything that you needed because it was in Milwaukee in front of Aaron Rodgers. Big Cat did that. You can you're well within your rights during basketball season to tell Aaron Rodgers, I own you. Yeah. No, I counted that as a playoff win for the Bears. You own as well. Him as a basketball fan.

Yeah, it was tough, though. The bulls were like, I don't know. Maybe I don't think it was the bulls official account. It might have been a blog or maybe NBC Sports Chicago was like Aaron Rodgers used to witnessing L's like, all right, I listen, guys, we got to we got to crawl out of ownership of, you know, before we can we can start saying that type of stuff. Those are my favorite accounts, too.

The ones that are from local sports channels that use like the official team logo. And they're trying to go viral. And every time I see I'm like, damn, the the real avatar, the real account is feeling spicy tonight. Right. It's like, no, it's Comcast Bulls. Yes. But I listen, Chris Middleton's injury is significant. And he is I'm not going to. I don't care if we beat the box without Chris Middleton.

I'm not going to apologize for injuries. Lonzo Balls are. No, of course not. Yeah. Why would you? But that has that. If the bulls had just won and Chris Middleton didn't get injured, I wouldn't have been in belief mode. Now I'm fully in belief mode, which for the AWLs, Jake just mentioned, it's all for the AWLs. There's nothing better than me believing

because I will get my heart ripped out. And that will be must watch for all of you. It's good content. Yeah. Jake, do you the thought occurred to me earlier today because I guess I've become the de facto lifeguard here on part of my take. I know Big Cat thinks of himself as like the father. I'm the granola, crunchy mom. But I'm also becoming like the lifeguard.

I saved Billy's life after the video came out. We all saved my foot. I saved your foot. I saved TJ Watts life when Big Cat tried to poison it with almonds. That's true. Do you want me to take your tin during the Wampus bet? Do you want me to do two tins and save you? Or do you want to do it yourself?

Like Big Cat said, the answer, but in the seats. Yes. OK. All right. I want to walk this specific thing. Obviously, you guys are. I will save your life. We'll do our YouTube channel. We'll get some subscribers. We'll get the whole thing going.

Maybe we'll play a game of Mario Party while we do Wampus cats. That's what we'll do. Yeah. Remember, there's a guarantee because Billy does it if you're seven. No, if Billy does it, we're not even going to tape it to make him do it. Then we're going to be like, that was awesome. He really just wants to do it. Yeah. Yeah.

He's going to do it no matter what the team really wants. Yes. And then the other the other game, I mean, the Sixers, Hank, that's the other part, the Sixers, your nemesis are looking pretty spicy. If the Celtics play their best games and the Sixers play their best game, the Celtics win. And again, we're focused on the Nets.

We'll focus on wamping this series, winning this series with the wamping. And then we have to play the defending champion. So whoa, whoa, whoa. Then we probably have to play the defending champion. Whoa. I bet on the Sixers last night when they were down. So I was rooting for them. I'm not like my Philadelphia hate is not really turned on. It's, you know, I'm paying attention, but I'm not like worried about them.

I don't care about them if they win or lose, whatever. Because I still think you don't even think about them. No. Ever. No, I mean, like having a star player foul out when you're going over time, that's not a great. Well, that was actually by design, because James Harden didn't want to have anything to do with that last shot. That's almost more disrespectful to the city of Philadelphia. The fact that you're saying that you're not even worried about them right now.

It's the first round. We wouldn't play them until the Eastern Conference finals. I do. If they make it that far, I'd be surprised. I do love the Sixers are winning these games and James Harden is just ass. He hasn't been total ass, but it is funny. Like he's not even say. No, he hasn't been total ass. I shouldn't say that.

He's like, yeah, he's he was a non. He was he was a non factor in the fourth quarter. It's just it's funny because that's usually later in the rounds. James Harden. So it's good that maybe he's doing a switcheroo on everyone. Like what if he just goes nuclear next round? Yeah, it's too early to say these ass. He's had he's had like some average.

He's Gooch right now. Not like Gucci as in like. Yeah, he's tight. He's tight. He's close to us. No, I just want. I love storylines and James Harden sucking in the playoffs is one of the funnest storylines we have. So that was a premature ass call.

But still, what was he last night? Yeah, he wasn't that bad last night. I still want to call him ass. He's asked compared to what James Harden's supposed to be. Peak James Harden is not. Yeah, exactly. He had he had 19 and 10 last night.

So he's not asked. That's my favorite thing that they do on like first take is they're like, Chris Paul, supposed to be a superstar. We were told Chris Paul is the best point guard of all time. And that's like a debate that you've created in your own head. Right. And so, yeah, we're creating like, yeah, James Harden's supposed to be able to carry a team on his back in the playoffs. He's not peak James Harden.

Well, guess what? He's also like five years, you know, older than peak James Harden. So yeah, he was he was actually pretty good last night. Peak James Harden might suck worse in the playoffs than wash James Harden. Yeah, true. He was just he was washed early. And then the other big news we had rocked the basketball world. Jay Wright retired. Class act.

Exit stage left. Releases a note. That's it. No retirement tour. Goes out as probably, you know, one of the I don't know where he'd rank all time. Top 20 coach all time, Jake. I don't I don't know. I mean, he's he had four final fours, two titles. He owned an entire.

That was his decade. This last decade, Villanova became a true blue blood under Jay Wright. So I I just love the fact. Not even not even how he went out. Just the whole thing. Never did anything wrong. Everything you hear about him. The media like he always gave the media time.

He never belittled anyone. It was incredible. Why are you rolling your eyes, Hank? I'm talking about Jay Wright. Can we talk about Jay Wright for a second? I think I think he aged gracefully. Yeah, I think that he always had his his student athletes. I can't remember any time they got in big trouble off the court or anything like that.

Yeah, right. You know, no, no infractions, nothing. No, he went out, you know, losing with grace in the national semifinal game. I thought that was crazy. Is that that we want watch his last game? We got to be in the building and we didn't even know it at all. Yeah, now it would be very funny if if Jay Wright were to then coach for the Lakers or the Knicks.

Yeah, some people are speculating. Yeah, in fact, we speculated in 2017. Would you write that he would end up as the coach of the New York Knicks? What about that? Actually, Jay Wright to the Knicks, tibs to the Lakers. Do you think? Tibs, yeah.

If you brought tibs in like halfway through this, what's the runtime on tibs before players get sick of it? It's like, well, this time with the Knicks, it's it's it's lessening as we go along. So like the bulls, it was for a few years there. Then the wolves, I think it was for a year. And the Knicks, it was like a year at Max. So I think, yeah, bring bring them in at like the All-Star break. Yeah, here to coach the Lakers.

And Timbs will be the perfect guy for that job. Get Joe Keem on the team. Have him be like, hey, look, Timbs can do this. But yeah, Jay Wright, all class, all class. The guy is as well. You have to actually ask, like, was part of it, the fact that, you know, his tailor unfortunately passed away last year and he stopped wearing suits. Good point.

He lost his he lost his Robin, right? I mean, COVID kind of went away from the suits, too. But I guess that could play a factor. Yes. Now, would you say, I mean, have you ever heard a bad word about Jay Wright? No. Great guy. He did a great job recruiting maybe the best player in the history of the Herndon Rest in Virginia area in Scotty Reynolds. Never forget the elite eight.

Never forget Alan Ray. When his when his eye popped out. I don't remember that. You don't remember that? No. Oh, my God. It was very gross. It was very gross. I think it was Alan Ray.

How do you not remember that? I don't remember that. You remember you remember like the complete opposite things that we remember. It was Kevin Ware before Kevin Ware. Yeah, it was. Dude, how do you not remember that? His eye literally popped out. You remember all this eyeball like all the stuff or that makes sense.

His eyeball fell out of his eye. It was like he was in a haunted house. Look at where his eyeball is, Jake. Look at that. It's it was a while ago. So I don't really see. Have you ever seen that Kimbo Slice video where he punched the dude's eye out of his head?

No, that's what he looks like. Yeah, his eye came out. His eye. Yeah. His eye. Well, his eye traveled across the lane. Like they scooped it up and threw it back in there. His eye got three thousand six big East tournament. Yeah, it was bad.

That's like right when I started enjoying the sport, like when the Gators went back to back. It's like my first like memory of watching. Yeah. So. But you're right. Very cool. Class act. What's your favorite memory? Jay Wright, Hank.

Class act. Don't you think the way he retired? Probably the Alan Ray one. Yeah, the most significant. Yeah, didn't just went out. What did you you like? I one of my early Barclay memories is you mushing. I feel like you mushed Villanova.

So the V's up thing and then everyone hated you. Yeah, in 2015, I called them frauds and I was like, they're not going to make it out of the first first round. The crying pic logo. Yeah, they lost to NC State and I was dead right. And so Villanova fans were mad at me, but I was also right. So they couldn't do anything about it.

And then 2016, I picked them to win it all. So we made up and it became family. I think it's at family came together. I think it's a it's a good time for Coach K or excuse me, for Jay Wright. I don't know why even brought up. We didn't even bring them up. Different letter of the alphabet entirely.

Hank thinks we did because he just kept rolling his eyes. But we were surprised you didn't mention him being at the Celtics. Only talking about Jay Wright. Jay Wright for Coach Jay. Well, though, we were talking about the Celtics. Coach Jay, I thought did a great job of, you know, he's letting all the recruits know like,

listen, there's not going to be a lame duck year. If you want to transfer, you can transfer. You don't have to feel like you have to come back and have my presence supersede your season here, especially if you're returning senior coming to the team. I thought it was nice. I would like to see a coach just Irish goodbye his team. Yeah, just just not show up for the first game.

Bobby Petrino kind of. That's true. I don't think he told his team. Yeah, no, there's a few people out there like, well, he should have stuck around to for a transition year because it is tough. Like, I don't know. I'm going to throw out a random program.

UNC Roy Williams left in Hubert Davis. They didn't even make the tournament, right? They weren't playing that well, but then Hubert Davis actually coached the boys up because he had that experience. Oh, yeah. OK, so, oh, all right. And Jay Wright hired a guy who knows Villanova because he was assistant and actually was the head coach

of Fordham. Yeah, seems like the transition is going to be fine. Yeah, poor Fordham, by the way. Poor Fordham. They went 500 this year. Good season for Fordham. Yeah, and they just lost him. Yeah, I mean, Coach Jay, what can you say about the guy?

Class act through and through. Everyone in the media loves him. Everyone who was college basketball lost a giant yesterday. They really did. Yeah. Hank, anything? Nothing? No.

You're so mad that we didn't bring up anyone else. Well, Coach Jay also did a phenomenal job with USA Basketball. He did. So we call him Coach Jay. We've always called him Coach Jay. Yeah, you know that. Coach Jay. Jake.

Yeah. No, Coach Jay. Coach Jay also made a. Not to rain on his parade, but I did find this Virginia Men's Basketball board. This looks like a big cat piece. It says, why Jay Wright is not clean? Huh.

Oh, it's a message board. So you're just trolling now. Got it. In 2009, he received multiple endorsements from convicted felon and former head of AU outfit DC Assault. Why are you trying to bring down Coach Jay? No, it's something to think about. He gets one day retirement tour, and you're going to bring him down?

2011, 2012, Villanova goes 13 and 19. OK. Have you guys factored that in? Well, yeah, we did, because in fact, those losses are on his record. Yeah, he coached that whole season, right? I don't know. He's reading.

I'm just reading this message board. Mm-hmm. OK. Anything else? Number two, he's definitely willing to play the AU game. He tried to hire an ex-AU coach as an assistant, which is generally a shady practice. Unsurprisingly, it backfired on him.

OK. Case closed. This sounds like this person's done extensive research. Shout out Coach Jay. What a fucking legend. I mean, the sport has lost a true giant. Jay always comes with 4K. That's true.

We're not even bringing up. Why would you bring that letter up? We're not. Letters are relevant. It's making some people very upset. For those who don't know the alphabet, just some context. Yes, there are some people who, yes, that is true. All right, Coach Jay, happy trails.

Crazy that, last thing, crazy that we now only have two coaches in college basketball. We'll have multiple titles. Yes. Wild, Ethan. Rick Petino and Bill Self. Rick Petino and Bill Self. Excuse me.

Well, Rick Petino, asterisk. Yeah. Also love that Jim Bayheim's just going to outlast everyone. He'll be coaching longer than the new Villanova coach. He's like, fuck it. I'm just going to keep. I hope Bayheim keeps coaching until, because if you look at the trajectory, they keep getting worse and worse.

I hope he just coaches until they're 0 and 30 in his last year. You can't fire them. Yeah. Right. Well, this is their first non-winning season. No, but they've been trending that way. Have they not? Tournament runs save them.

All he needs is one more tournament run to like the elite eight. The elite eight. If he gets to the elite eight next year, it's like, OK, that's another 10 years that he can stick around for. You can't, he's a legend. He is basically a warlord in Syracuse, New York. He runs that town. You can't fire him.

He's going to have dudes rolling up in the back of like 1988 Toyota pickup trucks with machine guns. He's a good coach. He's been a good coach. He knows the zone. Waiting for it. He knows. Just waiting for it.

He knows the zone. I was going to say, he's going to roll up himself. Waiting for it. There it is. I don't know what you're talking about, Hank. There it is. Just smirks the character of a legendary coach. Before the card jokes come in.

Yeah, I wasn't going to say it until you prompted it. I just knew it was coming. I don't know what you're talking about. I wasn't going through, though. Hey, the Bayhimes are AWLs, so just keep that in mind. I love the Bayhimes. Jimmy and Buddy. Jimmy and Buddy.

Do you got another year of eligibility? I don't believe so. Damn. OK, let's go to our interviews. We've got great interviews. We've got Kirk Goldsbury talking to some NBA playoffs. And then we have Manchester City, Goalie, and US men's national team, Goalie, Zach Steffen.

Big week of sports on this show. Huge week. All over the place. It's sports week here on part of my day. We're a sports podcast, baby. Yeah. Before we get into our first interview with Kirk Goldsbury, we want to talk to you about sport clips.

I love sport clips. You know what drives me crazy? Walking into a haircutter and guessing if there's a weight. When I freaked out, I had my brief nervous breakdown. After Carson Wentz became a commander, I decided I was going to go get a haircut. And I absolutely hate waiting for haircuts. That's not something that I'm ever going to do.

If you're like me, you can use sport clips. And you can go to the website or app and claim your spot in line ahead of time. Long wait, short wait. Doesn't matter. You can see your spot on the list. You can do whatever you want. And sport clips will send you a 15-minute text

when it's time to arrive. Opt-in is required. Message data fees may apply. Go to sportclips.com or use the app and claim your spot online today. Now, here is Kirk Goldsbury. All right, we now welcome on our good friend, recurring guest, and the man who single-handedly

ended the Nets dynasty last year. It is Kirk Goldsbury. You can find him on ESPN. You can find him on Twitter. He's got the best Father's Day gift you can buy out again this year. It's the NBA map, the Nasmyth International Park. Go buy that at, what's your website, Pornhub?

Thegoldenhexagon.com, big yet. We'll just find it on the top of my Twitter page. OK, perfect. So Kirk is here, talks some NBA. Hates to start with injuries, but I think we have to, because there's two big ones. Devin Booker with the Suns, Strain Calf, Chris Middleton with the Bucks.

I don't know what, was there any update on it? He has a strained MCL. Yeah, we're waiting for the update. And don't forget Luca Doncic, still not playing as well. So for those guys, in terms of what they do for their teams and what it changes in terms of the ceiling or even the series they're in right now, how do you see that playing out?

Let's say Devin Booker doesn't play the rest of the series. Let's say Chris Middleton doesn't play the rest of the series. Do you still think Suns and Bucks advance? I got to say yes for the Suns, Big Cat, but man, that is a big loss. I'd ask anybody, any playoff team, you take away their number one score, are they still getting out of the first round?

The Suns are the best team in the NBA when they're healthy. But with Devin Booker on the shelf, obviously they're not healthy. And New Orleans is frisky. So they have a big couple of games coming up in New Orleans without Devin Booker, and it remains to be seen how they'll perform. The good news is they have Chris Paul.

The good news is they have Monty Williams and one of the best defenses in the league. This is a deep team, arguably the deepest team. So I think they'll be okay in round one. I would not say that in round two. And as for Chris Middleton, he won them big playoff games in their championship run last year.

They don't get there without Chris. Same thing I would say. I think they have enough to get by Chicago, but that's not guaranteed, especially the way Chicago played last night. It's those future rounds. The Eastern Conference is stacked too, Big Cat. So I think they'll get out of the first round,

but they better get well soon if either of those teams wants to get to the finals. Now for the Booker injury, this seems like almost a perfect storm for the Chris Paul debate that rages on, where people that probably understand the game a little bit would say missing Booker is a huge part of the Sun's success.

And so if they were to lose in the second round, it's legitimate to be like, yes, this was a guy that could take them to the next level, he's a great player. But then on the other side, you've got the Chris Paul haters, or at least the people that like to have the Chris Paul is not a clutch performer debate

that can then use that as further ammunition and say, look, Chris Paul couldn't get on his way. If he's supposed to be great, he should have won this series all by himself. Which side would you say would have more ammunition? Oh man, the haters always have more ammunition. It's a lot easier to be a hater than a supporter, especially when the guy hasn't won one championship.

So therefore he's trash, right? In today's discourse, PFT, but I am, I'm not quite Rosillo levels of Chris Paul support. No one is. Yeah, not even his parents aren't even. Chris Paul isn't. Yeah.

Chris Paul's like, I have some weaknesses as a human being. Like I could probably be around my family and more. And like all these little things that Rosillo's like, nope, perfect, perfect, perfect. Except for those hamstrings. And now it's Devin Booker's hamstrings that threaten Chris Paul's postseason run here. You know what?

The Western Conference is stacked as well. You have teams like Memphis and Golden State playing as well as anybody in the NBA right now. It always comes down to the old NBA cliche. The best ability is availability. If Devin Booker, again, their number one option, how many teams can survive this guys? How many teams could lose their number one option

and still get through a playoff series in this league? Not many. And if Chris just gets them to the second round or the conference finals with a hamper Devin Booker, that's an achievement unto itself. But Phoenix wants to win their first career, the franchise's first title this year. And I think they can't if Devin Booker can get back

from the hamstring injuries. So talking about, you know, the Chris Middleton and you mentioned the Bulls played great last night. It was an awesome game. I find myself unfortunately believing again, which I shouldn't do. But you are a nerd. You break down all the stats.

You have all the beautiful charts. How much does DeMar DeRozan break the nerd community's brain? Because he is truly like, he's like a 90s player where it's like ISO, long two footers. The lost are the mid-range stopper. Insane efficiency. Last night, 41 points. How much does that break your brain?

It does in Big Cat and I'll explain why. Analytics are agnostic. We don't care about shot selection. We care about efficiency. And for the last few years, DeMar DeRozan has been one of the most efficient offensive players in the league, particularly as an isolation scorer. And he's one of the few guys that could dribble

into a mid-range shot and hit it at acceptable rates, like Chris Paul, like Kevin Durant, like Kauai Leonard, where he gets the whole scoring area and all the nerds are happy. He's that good at it. He doesn't break my brain. And as what we saw last night in the biggest possession of the game after a few offensive rebounds,

I should say in game two, we saw that DeMar DeRozan still can get to the rim and make a big play as well. This guy is one of the most talented and versatile offensive weapons in the league right now. And along with Alex Caruso, the defensive leader of that team, it started to look like those early season bowls in game two, Big Cat.

I'm not mad at you for believing because they looked great. They were getting all the 50-50 balls. Caruso was making big plays, but DeMar scoring over 40. Man, that was great. So I'm not mad at you for believing, but jeez, they were not playing well

at the end of the regular season. No, they weren't. And people have given me shit and it's like, I watched them. They were not, they weren't a good team. Like, what do you want me to say? Caruso, by the way, he's the honest stopper if you want to just refer to him correctly, even though he didn't act.

Well, he did it. He stayed in front of him enough. The thing that does break my brain about DeRozan is how good he is as a mid-range jump shooter. And then when he shoots a three, it's like, how can't you just hit this like six feet farther out? It's crazy.

It's crazy. Kevin Garnett, I would say the same thing about, for some guys, it's psychological. For other guys, it's mechanical. DeMar is obviously an incredible jump shooter, but you're exactly right. For whatever reason, he can nail 20 footers all day, but 24 footers, he can't make them.

Toronto spent a lot of time in the last year or so there trying to get him to expand his range. It just never happened. And to his credit, in the face of a bunch of people telling him, you can't shoot mid-range anymore, he's built another four, five, six, seven years into his NBA career defying that sort of new fangled conventional wisdom and playing beautifully, by the way.

The last start of the mid-range is gorgeous to watch when it looks good. And he is one of the most striking players because of that shot. What about the net sticking in the East? So I feel like we have a golden opportunity here as a podcast. You can be part of a moment in sports talk history.

Can we be the first to say that Kevin Durant is officially washed up now? Kevin Durant, I don't know if he's washed or he just can't win without Joe Harris, guys. It's one of those two. I actually did some exclusive analytics for you guys. We'll call them Womp politics because I know you guys have been talking a lot about the Womp talk.

So I looked at the history of the seven game first round series. There's been 152. As you know, exactly 50% of those guys ended in either four or five games. And the other 50% ended in six or seven. So 21% ended in sweeps, 29% ended in five, 31%. The most common, six, and only 19% ended in seven.

But if you consider a Womp, four or five games, it's a coin toss. Whether a first round series will end up in a four or five game series. As it relates to Kevin Durant, if they don't get their offense going, and Kevin Durant especially, this could be a sweep or a five game series in the first round. Now, Kevin is one of the best offensive players

on planet Earth. But what he's been doing and what Boston's defense has been able to do, PFT, has sort of made Kevin look washed. Now, nobody in the right mind is obviously going to say Kevin Durant is washed. But he's 13 to 41 in the series. He has 12 turnovers, and he has eight assists. And he played one of the worst halves

of his playoff career in game two. As the Celtics came back the other night and stole that one. So he is not washed, but he hasn't played up to his standards here. I have a coaching tip. And you could tell me if this is the dumbest thing ever, but it's a true meatball.

It's the perfect for this podcast. It's meatball combined with our allegiances. They need Blake Griffin to get in there and get dirty on them. Because they're playing really physical with Kevin Durant. I think that bothers him a lot. Like, they are running him through a lot of screens. They're making sure that he gets hit constantly. They need to hit back.

Old school hockey, like Blake Griffin needs to come in and do the same to Jason Tatum. Yeah, for whatever reason, they've gone heavily with Claxton and moved away from both Lamarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin here in this series so far. And you're exactly right, Kevin's post-game comments after game two. He was describing that was quicksand out there.

He was getting beat up on every cut he was trying to make. And yeah, welcome to the Eastern Conference playoffs. And the other thing I'd say is another NBA cliche is defense wins championships. The thing that great defenses do is they make great offensive players and great NBA offenses look bad. And that is what they've done so far.

They've made Kevin Durant look bad. They've pretty much suffocated Kyrie in game two, at least. And they've been just ugly physical games in ways that Brooklyn isn't thriving. I would say this is not like the 86 Celtics. This is more like the 85 Bears. The Celtics are just a brutal defensive team, even without Robert Williams, one of the best defenders.

They're very fun to watch. I wish that I could be rooting for them. I fully admit, like I picked the wrong side, not just in terms of, you know, the Whomp is off the table now for the Nets, but also I would much rather be rooting for a team like the Celtics that are playing so hard defensively. To me, that's fun to watch in the playoffs.

The good news is for the Nets, if they need a spark on offense, looks like Ben Simmons is coming back on Monday night. So I expect that to fully turn around. What impact, if any, do you think that Ben Simmons could make on the series? Yeah, well, I'll have a piece on that exact thing coming up on ESPN this weekend.

It remains to be seen. Obviously, there are big question marks. But the big thing is he provides depth. He provides defensive strength. Remember, this is a guy who almost won defensive player the year he finished second in the voting, his last full year in the league, PFT. So I think he brings a perimeter weapon,

especially on defense, to slow down people like Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum on that end of the court. They don't need much from him on offense. So I think if it's true that the Nets' weakness is defense, PFT, the simple answer to your question is Ben Simmons helps on that end of the court, matching up against two of the best wing scorers in the Eastern Conference and Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown.

The other thing I'd say, if Brooklyn wins their home games, the whole narrative of this thing is different coming out of the weekend. And all of a sudden, all the pressure is immediately back on Boston. And if Ben Simmons is part of that lineup going back to Boston for a game five,

that is going to be one of those intense games I've ever seen in the first round. Yeah, it is funny though, because going into this game, the Nets are coming back home and you think, okay, what are the two X factors that can help them? Well, they've struggled offensively, so you're going to get a guy that can't shoot, and then they need home court advantage,

so they're going to play in front of a fan base that doesn't care. And so it's like you're over two on those. Yeah, it is true. I'm curious to see what the vibe is at Barclays this weekend, right? That is not Madison Square Garden, that is not TD, where you can count on the home fans to go crazy.

I'm really interested, maybe Brooklyn fans show up and make that a very loud pro Brooklyn crowd, or we see a little more green than we're expecting. I don't think we've seen quite a big, intense Eastern Conference playoff matchup with a team as close to Brooklyn as Boston is. There's a lot of Celtics fans in New York, you guys know that, and they're going to come out

and make some noise there. I think that's going to be interesting. Do you have a MVP vote? No, I don't. In fact, I'm glad I don't, because then you get all this talk about bonuses and players and guys' money, and I don't have it. That's it.

I think anybody who's picking between the three main candidates has a good choice this year, but yeah. So have you, what would your pick have been if you voted? Because we've talked about it on the show, but it's annoying that the MVP discourse continues into the playoffs, where it's like, that's not what the award is. It's a regular season award,

because you know, and Sixers fans are just defending their guy, but they see Embiid hit a buzzer beater and be utterly dominant in Toronto, and they're like, how's he not the MVP? It's like, well, that's not what the award is based on. Yeah, I'm not going to cop out, I'll answer your question, but my vote would be for the playoffs to be part of the consideration.

Agreed. It's a regular season award crap. Yeah. Well, then what else is a regular season thing? But we're going to kill guys who don't show up in the playoffs. We already do. Yeah, I agree. If Embiid is getting his team to the finals,

and all my friends, all the nerds are for Jokic, because the numbers are simply outrageous, and he carried that team. I think he was the first player ever to lead in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and field goal percentage. This guy is just killing it on the regular season. But if they're gone from the playoffs in four games and Joelle and Bede is in the finals,

I think a lot of people will wish they could change their vote, and I wouldn't be mad at them. So I get that it's a regular season award, and under that sort of condition, that precondition, I'm going Jokic. But if Embiid keeps doing what he's doing in these playoffs, man, that's not going to look smart in a few years, is it? Yeah, but that's, yeah, I mean, the hindsight thing,

I get what you're saying, but it's like, you know, like when Dirk won his MVP as the one seed and they lost, and it looks stupid, but it maybe make a regular season MVP in a playoff MVP, but obviously the playoff MVP would just be whoever's in the finals, but I just, it's a regular season award. I agree it should count the playoffs, but it doesn't. So Jokic, as bad as it's been for the Nuggets,

that shouldn't count against what the season he had. No, those are the rules, as they say, and by those rules, yeah, Jokic is definitely as a representative of the nerd community, clearly the nerdiest choice out there. And, you know, it's too straight for him. He's an incredible player. He's one of the funnest guys to watch too.

You don't have to be a nerd to appreciate. He's so skilled, but man, like everything. The other thing I'd say is just one of the big themes in the NBA right now, guys, is it's up for grabs. Everything's close. There's no dominance. You know, think back to the end of the last decade. It was Warriors and Cavs.

And we kind of knew it every year before the season started. We're here in the middle of the first round. Nobody has a strong finals play. Nobody has a strong MVP pick. And I think that's sort of fruit from the same tree. We're just in a really high parity era of the NBA. And I think it's great. Yeah, I agree.

And now that's actually good for your profession. Now stats are more important than ever. When the margin between, you know, making the finals and bowing out in the first round was so small. As a nerd, what is your favorite stat? Oh, my gosh. Well, in this era of basketball, I think you have to look at jump shooting efficiency.

I'm obsessed with shooting day. That anybody who follows me in my writing or my social media knows I'm over-indexing on shooting content. So I think what I've really started to do is really isolate inefficient and inefficient jump shooters, sort of like the Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook paradigm. And I think that really helps us understand the efficiency and inefficiency of today's superstars

in an important way. And it sort of bakes in the shot selection stuff we were talking about earlier. So I'd say jump shooting efficiency, PFT. OK, so along that same line, who is the superstar or the biggest remaining star in the playoffs that has the worst efficiency on their jump shooters? Somebody that goes out there will get their points,

is looked at as being a team leader. But ultimately, according to your numbers, he actually sucks. Can I guess? Yes, please help me out. I've got one, too. I would. I mean, he doesn't suck, but his efficiency, I feel like, is a little out of whack, Donovan Mitchell. That's a very strong choice.

That's a very strong choice. PFT, you said you had a guess, too. I was going to say Trey Young. Those are both strong guesses. Now, both of these players are very young, and this is a metric where you have to let these guys grow up a little bit. So both Donovan and Trey are at the stage of their careers

where inefficiency is part of the equation. Very few young players, especially jump shooters, are dominant. Donovan Mitchell reminds me a little bit of DeMar. His shot selection is tough, and his shot making isn't as good as DeMar's. So I think that's the right answer. And Big Cat, I like it, too, because Utah is teetering,

not just this year, but as a team-building experiment. They feel like if they don't get out around one, especially against a Lucalus Mav Squad, it certainly feels like this Donovan Mitchell Rudy Gobert experiment is ending, too. So I like that answer. And yeah, Donovan's jump shot isn't as good as it will be in a few years, and overall, I would

say he's inefficient as a jump shooter. He's a hell of a player. Oh, yes, it's not a knock on him, but I do think game two, he was like 30 points on 30 shots. He's like, well, that's just you can't live with that in the playoffs. No, that's old school in a bad way. That's like end of the career Kobe stuff, where we got 30,

but man, it took 30 to get him. Right, so all right, I can't believe it took us this long to ask this question. Are the Warriors back? Sure looks like it doesn't, fellas. I'll give you two reasons why. I mean, Stefan was not there at the end of the regular season. They played very few minutes together.

This was supposed to be the spring where Clay came back. Stefan and Draymond got the vibe together, and that just really never happened. And now they're trying to make it up on the fly. Everybody's been banged up. Now they mix it in Jordan pool, but the early returns in round one, it screams yes. This is looking like not only a very, very dangerous

offensive team, but once again with Draymond there, a very good defensive team. And that was their formula to get to five straight finals. And what I keep telling people is if the Warriors get out of the West, that's six trips to the finals in eight years. Is this really a surprise? Yeah.

Are they really back? Did they really go anywhere other than to the orthopedic office? This is a great set of basketball players. And with Stefan coming off the bench early in the series, Jordan pool becoming such another great score. Andrew Wiggins is now a fourth or a fifth option and Clay back in there.

Got, it seems like they're back guys and that's bad news. And the last point I'd say, in the context of a weakened Western conference where you have Luca, big question mark, Devin Booker, big question mark. I also think the Warriors are rising by default there. Yeah. You used a word right there that I'm shocked to hear

come from an analytics guy, because it's like a term that I would fully embrace, which is vibes. I think that the Warriors vibes are the highest in the West. I would say the Celtics vibes are the highest in the East right now. Maybe the heat, he'd have strong vibes. We gotta mention the heat.

Gotta mention the heat. I think the others actually have a segment coming up about that. But in terms of vibes, how do you quantify vibes? And would you agree that the vibes of the Warriors are actually at championship level? Well, like John Madden said, winning is the best deodorant. And I think good vibes come from enthusiasm on the court

and both the teams you mentioned, in addition to Miami, Boston, Miami and the Golden State Warriors have had great two game runs. There were a lot of question marks in Boston. Could they get over those two games? They had that huge win in game one. Obviously that brings some good vibes into game two and the heat just destroying Trey Young.

That's gotta be very enjoyable if you're a heat player or a fan. So I think that's fun. But Golden State's always had those vibes. They've always had that edge. They've always had that insane camaraderie and that sort of confidence that only comes with PFT. Here's the number, three championships.

That's how you quantify vibes. You can go into a playoff series with some kind of confidence that a team like the Grizzlies or the Sons or a player like Chris Paul just can't bring into a series because these guys have been to the top of the mountain. Chris Paul, bad vibes. That's the stat that I'm looking for.

That's why you're a heavy hitter. Yeah, good point. We're gonna put that on a quote card and tweet it out, blast it out at Rasil. Chris Paul, fact sheet, send it to Ryan Rasil. Great player, no rings, bad vibes. You mentioned something with the Warriors and I'm curious from an analytical perspective,

how do you quantify Draymond's impact on the defensive side as a whole? Because I think we all know he's one of the best defenders in the league and it's not just who he's guarding. It's everything that he's doing, switching, getting his hands in the lane, protecting the rim. Is there a way to quantify what he does

for the entire team when he's on the court and playing healthy? Like, and how does that work? Just as a stupid brain question. Well, ultimately it comes down to defensive efficiency. How many points per possession are they allowing when Draymond is out there? He is far and away the defensive leader of that team.

He's the most important defender on that team. But that doesn't really explain his greatness and we're getting a little bit better at that. Quantifying exactly what you mentioned. So Draymond enables the Golden State Warriors to do the cool thing on defense, which is to switch everything. His versatility as an athlete,

his intelligence as a leader of a defense enables them to do what they wanna do on defense, which is a pretty aggressive switching scheme, which you can't do if you have Brook Lopez at the five, for instance. You can't do that if you have Vuchovic or somebody like this who can't go out and keep a great player in front of him.

So it starts with Draymond's individual sort of uniqueness as a defender, as a small ball center, and his versatility to almost guard anybody in the NBA and hold his own. And that's been his calling card in addition to he keeps getting smarter and smarter. If there's a Chris Paul on the defensive side of the ball, it's Draymond.

He knows what's gonna happen. He knows everybody's plays. He knows their calls. He knows where the rotations are. And he helps mentor guys in practice. You watch Draymond at a practice with his teammates. He's like another coach out there, especially on defense,

teaching all these guys the right way to play on that side of the court. So there are some quantities, but ultimately it comes down to his IQ and his ability to do almost everything on the floor as a defensive player. And a side question from that. I saw the NBA nerd community was a little upset

that Marcus Smart won defensive player of the year. Who would have been your defensive player of the year? Who is based on your metrics alone? So don't even, no opinion. I'm not making you give an opinion. So people don't get mad at Kirk. I'm just asking for your numbers, truly numbers. I'd say bam out of bio was the most versatile

and most influential defender. There's a reason the Heisman goes the quarterbacks every year, you know what I mean? With a few exceptions. But if you look at the last 20 Heismans, that's what we're talking about here. The center position, the big man position as we just discussed with Draymond

is the quarterback of the defense. They are by far the most important defenders. And I don't think Marcus Smart is even the most impactful defender on his own team. He might be the best perimeter defender in the league. I'm not mad at people who think that. But Robert Williams, Jason Tatum, these are guys who are also truly elite.

Players like Bam out of bio, Draymond and Rudy Gobert, the numbers suggest they're defensive efficiency in a can. If you have a defense with those guys anchoring it, you start off on third base. And you can't say that about a perimeter player. And that's what I think the nerds are saying out there on Twitter. No disrespect to Marcus.

He's phenomenal as we've seen in the last few games. But I think that's the main point. That centers are like quarterbacks and quarterbacks always win MVPs and Heismans. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. That's a great answer. It's a fair point. This is the segment I was alluding to earlier.

It's called Remember to Talk About the Heat. Because I feel like at this point, the heat has become... Are they even in the playoffs? Yeah, they made it. I think they're like probably a six-seat or something. I haven't checked that out recently. But I feel like they've been talked about a lot

in the sense that everyone is saying no one's talking about them. So at some point, the pendulum starts to swing back. And we are talking about the heat, but we're just talking about how disrespected they've been. You mentioned Jimmy Butler shutting down Trey Young. I feel like that is the type of statement. If Jimmy Butler gets his dog, his inner dog going,

that's another advanced stat for you, he's able to completely emasculate another player and get so far in their head that they lose their confidence entirely. I feel like the heat are gonna have a cakewalk this round. But do you think that when we put them in the conversation with the Celtics and the Bucks, you think that they would have a chance against those teams?

Oh yeah, nobody wants to see these guys. They won these two years ago. They are healthy. They're firing on, they have Kyle Lowry now. They have one of the best coaches in the league and they have, of course, the vibe, the culture that's gotten famous. And Jimmy Butler, as Dreymon loves to say,

there's 82 game players and 16 game players. Jimmy Butler is built for this and he proved it. Trey Young is gonna be built for this. He's proved it in flashes, but I don't think he's ready for this smoke in Miami. I don't think he can handle it. And at the end of game two was any indication, Jimmy's gonna come and take it from him.

I think in game two, Trey Young ended up with 25 points and 10 turnovers. Jimmy Butler had 45 points and zero turnovers, took the ball out of Trey's hands, intercepted a pass, dunked it, and then just picked on him in a pick and roll setting at the end of a close game and just went out there and took it, guys. This team is mean.

The kind of mind tricks that Trey Young was able to play against Cleveland and New York and Ben Simmons in earlier playoffs last year, that's not gonna work here. That stuff's not gonna work against this vibe. This is the toughest team in the NBA, in my opinion. And it shows up on defense. So statistically what we see with Miami is one of the best defenses in the league, just like Boston.

So it's very hard to score on them. And they have offense. Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, Bayamatta Bio, they could score. Tyler Hero's having a great year as well. So this team is built for a deep run and nobody wants to see that in the bracket, a seven-gamer against this team.

Yeah, the East looks, I mean, incredibly loaded. The Sixers, which we haven't even mentioned, except a quick note about Embiid's buzzer beater, they've looked unstoppable. And it's series that I know that once we get to, the Sixers are up three, nothing, everyone would be like, oh yeah, of course, they're a better team.

But going into that series, there were a lot of people who were picking the Raptors. That was absolutely a take that was happening. But yeah, oh, there we go. I know. Ken, the Tyrese Maxi, we know Embiid is Embiid. I called him the most dominant player right this second in the NBA

because it does feel like when he wants to take over a game, there's no one who can stop him. You could probably say it's Giannis, whatever. But Tyrese Maxi, is this gonna just keep going on for the playoffs? Because if it is, then the Sixers can absolutely win the title. One of the cool things about the playoffs,

is guys like Tyrese Maxi show up and we're talking about him. And he's been awesome so far. This series, obviously Joelle has been even better with that shot to win game three. But the big question for the Sixers is depth. And one of the things that Maxi does is he takes some of the pressure, not only off the bench or Harden,

who's not playing great, but Embiid. If they can count on him for 20 points, 25 points a game, that's gonna be huge for them. He's electrifying, he's showing remarkable signs of growth and potentially most important. He's one of the few guys that seems to get better in those big situations. He loves these moments.

And I was one of the people who picked Toronto, hand up as you guys like to say. They were a hot team coming in, 12 at the last 15, the regular season they won, they were great defense, okay on offense. The loss of Scotty Barnes, Gary Trent's inability to go and be himself, they just haven't been right. And if they had won game three, maybe they have a chance.

But that shot that Joelle and Embiid made, the signature shot of the playoffs so far, aside from maybe Tatum's, is the difference of a two, one or a three, oh, and now he's teasing Drake as we saw about taking the sweep in the six, which will be a pretty interesting situation. And what is that, game four? Yeah, game four.

I wanted to look out west again at a team that I was high on earlier this year, mostly because I just put a future on them, the Nuggets, because I kept expecting them to get healthy. You were high on the Nuggets. Yeah, I was very high on the Nuggets. And they're just, turns out they're mids. And I'm hoping that this is a team,

in order to make myself look smart, that this is the season before the season for the Nuggets. That next year, they're gonna be a team that can actually do some damage. Am I completely insane to be like, keep your eye on these guys, or is it gonna be one of those things that you think that looks good on paper, but never comes to fruition?

Well, it could be either one. I think the nerds have loved the Nuggets for years because the on paper big three of Michael Porter Jr., Jamal Murray and Nikolay Okic is arguably one of the best big threes in their prime anywhere in the NBA. And who's gonna stop these guys? We saw how good Jamal Murray was,

seems like a thousand years ago in the bubble. And he's an all-timer. In terms of a score and getting hot and playoff games, just go watch some of those highlights from the bubble. You'll be reminded. And Michael Porter Jr. is an absolute stud. He can shoot it, he's big, he can score. And then of course they have Nikolay Okic,

arguably one of the top three or four players in the world right now. So these guys are all young PFT. I'm thrilled if they're gonna be healthy. The thing I'd say is the West is stacked. Not only do you have the Warriors, but the Grizzlies aren't going anywhere. Look at the Timberwolves, the Phoenix Suns.

Whatever happens to the Lakers, if the Clippers come back whole, nobody's walking through the West for years. So you need to be healthy. And that's something that these three dudes haven't been able to say in years. So that would be the hater's take on the Nuggets. Yeah.

All right, so this has been great. I have one last question. It's the rowback question. Use promo code TAKE for 20% off your first purchase. Promo code TAKE, R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com. And you get a Q-Zip hoodie. They got great stuff at Rowback. We'll send you some, Kirk.

Great stuff, rowback dot com. We never actually send it. Yeah, we never actually send it. Just so you know. Do you want some? We can make an exception for you. Well, yeah, I'll send you my address after the show. Well, are you gonna come up for dead in company?

Oh, yeah, definitely. All right, so then we'll do it then. Yeah, yeah, we'll do it then. Because I think this is their last year. The T-Wolves. Let's talk about the T-Wolves grizzly real quick because we never mentioned their series. We have, we've been, we're not raised by wolves.

We're adopted by wolves. We adopted them. Yeah, we adopted them. We've been rooting for them. It's like a rescue situation. Yeah, it's one one. You're gonna, I'm gonna put you in a spot because you might look dumb.

We're gonna air this tomorrow. Give us your game three prediction and take guess what, you might be wrong, but guess what, you know, you were very, very wrong about the Nets last year and we don't bring that up every time we see you. To be fair, injuries cost me my Nets take last year. I will go out on a limb and say Minnesota holds court

in game three. This team has a big chip on its shoulder. They've had a big personality transplant. I love Ann Edwards. Pat Beverly is obviously just like a menace and a can for a team that needed somebody exactly like that. So credit to them and credit to Pat Bev for changing the vibes.

That's the theme of our talk today. This was a soft team and now it's not. Now it's the opposite. And it's all because of Pat Bev and Ant-Man. And it's funny you bring up the Wolves you adopted. They remind me of like the Josh Allen bills. A lot of people love them. They're very exciting.

The future is bright and they're in a smaller market. They haven't seen the top of the mountain in a very long time. The NBA hipsters always latch onto one series that the casuals don't like. And it's the NBA TV series where you're subjected to a bunch of ointment commercials. But hey, that's a start.

It's so perfect. You're 100% right. Everyone likes to have that one series where they're like, oh yeah, Nets and Celtics. But have you been watching Griz and Wolves? That's what we're talking about here. It's a reason it's the last segment. I love both of these teams.

One of them is going to lose. Both of them are going to be a problem for a long time. It is like Josh Allen and Pat Mahomes. These guys are both going to be a factor in the West for years. I love the cross-sport analogy. It always helps our stupid brains. It does, yeah.

Anytime you can tie that in, it's not even cross-sport. Just like relate to football for me. It's just always great to be like, this one sports thing is like this other sports thing. Yep, got it now. Like you take somebody in like a top three pick. Oh, they hit a home run with this pick. Thank you for making that.

Now, what about one last thing? Team not in the playoffs, but people talk about a lot. The Lakers, they're looking for a head coach. Is there a head coach that you think that could become available that could step into that role and actually be able to turn this? Was it chicken shit into chicken salad? I always heard chicken soup as the last part of that.

But yes, potentially, I mean, you have LeBron James. I mean, so it starts with a pretty solid number one piece on the roster. There's still a lot of question marks there. And one of the crazy stats about the Lakers right now is between 1948 and 2013, I think that's 65 years. They missed the postseason five times. In the last nine years, they missed it seven times.

This is a franchise that is sort of reeling based on its own illustrious past. Now, of course, they won the title in the bubble, named LeBron James, but the organization itself, there's a reputation around the league that, man, this is kind of a sketchy place. It's a weird blend of this is the most prestigious franchise in the sport.

And man, in the context of the West, like this is pretty brutal, especially when you consider is LeBron James going to be there in two years? So there's big question marks. That said, PFT, if anybody calls any coach in America, they're going to pick it up when it's the Lakers. That's my opinion. Quinn Snyder, Doc Rivers, Nick Nurse,

these are the names that they've mentioned. Joanne Howard, and yes, there's a couple recently retired college coaches coach K. Coach K, he flirted with him. You remember that like 10 years ago, 15 years ago? Might have to get out the fact sheet and add a few more bullet points, folks. Yeah, you know coach K.

Do you think he killed that puppy, right? Like, did he ever give you those vibes? We were talking about vibes. He never gave me the puppy killing vibes. Now, I haven't spent enough time with him to really get to know the real coach K. Maybe that's layers deep. No, he won't let you in.

He's got that hard exterior, but he's got like a very close circle. You don't know if he kills puppies. It's basically like bad news kennels. But I'll say this, guys, anybody who gets the phone call is going to be serious. But ultimately, it's questionable for a coach like Nick Nurse or Quinn Snyder has pretty stable

situation or choices of if they want to move a very tenuous stressful situation with Russell West Brooke, Rob Polinka, Magic Johnson doing stuff. That is not that attractive right now. So they're going to get somebody. I'm not sure who that is, but they need somebody to build the defense back up. That's what they were when they won the championship.

And this year they were a tire fire on defense. It wasn't Frank Vogel's fault. That roster needs some work. And whatever coach comes in there is going to have their hands full as if they don't. You know, they lost Caruso. Look at what we see from Caruso this week. That guy is like Pat Bev.

And they just dumped these guys and brought him Westbrook. And there's a lot that needs to be cleaned up there, PFT, before any coach is going to have a successful 2022, 23 season in Los Angeles. And you also know going out there that if you coach that team, Skip Bayless is going to be talking about you every day. And he's going to come up with hilarious nicknames for you.

Does he like LeBron? Yeah, he's a big fan, huge fan. He loves LeBron, actually. Without LeBron, James Skip Bayless doesn't have a job. That's true. So he depends on him. It's like farmers depending on the rain. Hillary Clinton for Sean Hannity or something.

Yeah, right, exactly. You need him to survive. Can you just real quick rank? Give me your top three Vibes teams right now. Oh, I think we did it. Oh, Golden State, number one. They have the party, the party's back. And like we said earlier, they have the confidence

and swagger that only comes with being a champion. Then I'm going Miami. I think they're an ultimate chip on the shoulder team. They have a very strong brand. And then Boston is third because they still have a dangerous situation in front of them this weekend in Brooklyn and that could turn. If Brooklyn wins both those games,

their vibes are going to change real fast. And Boston, you know, they're accustomed to some pretty crazy vibes there. So those are my top three. And then Chris Paul last. Phoenix with the Devon Booker situation. So just Chris Paul as an individual. Chris Paul's individual vibes.

Bad vibes. He just reeks of them. Yeah, he just gives them everywhere. He hands them out. Who you got one on one? Chris Paul or Bob Coosie? Oh my god, JJ. I love JJ.

My co-worker JJ Reddick definitely got one of the lines of the year out on Mike Russo on our airways yesterday when the plumbers and, what was it, plumbers and firemen? Yeah, JJ. He can't dribble with his left hand. JJ was like, he went like podcast. It was an ambitious crossover, but he's like,

thought he was on a podcast, was on TV. And that's why everyone was like, how could you say this? Like, no, that's actually very funny and a good point. And it's like, that's what you talk about on a podcast. It was brilliant. It just goes to show that JJ is quickly becoming one of our best NBA voices on ESPN. And you know, I don't think Matt Dog Russo knew what to do

when he hit him with the, he didn't know how to dribble Yeah, it's a great point. And Bob Cousy, you have to imagine God rest his soul. Still left. Yeah, he's like 93. Is probably like, please stop bringing me up in comparison to these players. Like the only time my name gets brought up,

it's because somebody is about to dunk on me and be like, no, Bob Cousy could not be an equipment manager in today's NBA. Yeah, it's like, who's a better quarterback? George Blanda or Patrick Mahomes? Right. Patrick Mahomes checks down a lot. Yeah.

I'll respect to these pioneers. And I mean a lot of respect because all of us are standing on their shoulders in weird ways. But yeah, when you try to figure out who would win one on one or if you drop Bob Cousy into the 2022 NBA playoffs, it's pretty painful to think what that would look like. Yes, yes. Well, Kirk, thank you as always.

Everyone go buy the best Father's Day gift you can buy. It is really, really cool. The Naismith map. What's the website again? Thegoldenhexicon.com. Yeah, or you can find the link on his Twitter and follow him because he's a great follow because he puts out great NBA stuff that's

very easy to understand. Nice graphs and cool colors. If you like everything. If you are intimidated by numbers, Kirk has figured out the magic, which is you can just take numbers and then turn them into pictures for dummies like us. Yeah, so Kirk, thank you.

We'll have you back on for the finals and we'll get you some row back. Hey, thank you guys. Have a good weekend. Kirk Goldsbury is brought to you by TaylorMade. Are you ready for the ultimate giveaway? This is what I love about TaylorMade. They just stay giving away stuff to our listeners.

It's a great thing that they're doing. They love the AWLs. I hope you guys love TaylorMade too. I'm gonna be getting a set of clubs this summer. Gonna be hitting the course. Gonna get into golf. Maybe just a putter, but I'm gonna be getting into golf. We're teaming up with our friends from TaylorMade

for the ultimate season opener sweepstakes and giving away 50 prizes to 50 different winners. It's 50 prizes. Prizes include everything from a grand prize, full bag of new TaylorMade clubs, to a new stealth driver, which is awesome. We have one here in the studio, to the TP5X golf balls and everything in between.

So now through May 10th, go to TaylorMadeGolf.com slash Barstool Sweeps to enter and celebrate the season's first major and the unofficial start to the golf season. The Sweeps is running across a number of podcasts here at the Barstool Network, but we want our loyal followers to win. We want AWLs to win this.

So head over to TaylorMade.com slash Barstool Sweeps right now for your chance to win. Be sure to let them know that you heard about from us here at Part of My Take. I don't wanna hear that a listener of Anus is taking home these TaylorMade golf clubs. No Anus boys, I want it to be part of my take, award-winning listeners.

Let them know that you heard it here from us. Make this golf season better. Fill your bag with the best. Of course, that's TaylorMade. Now here is Zach Steffen, goalkeeper for the United States Men's National Team and Manchester City. And now for something completely different.

Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. He is the goalie for the U.S. Men's National Team, also Manchester City, and he also has a great foundation called Voice Now. It is Zach Steffen. Zach, thank you for joining us. We gotta start with qualifying for the World Cup. So there are some people in America

who are saying it would be hilarious if you guys didn't qualify again. What do we say to those people? Congrats, by the way. I should have started with a congrats. Thank you. What do you say to those people? Just let them talk.

Yeah, let them take more. Just suck it. You just say just DX them. Yeah, idiots. DX them. Yeah. Not us, we weren't the ones saying that. Yeah.

I was actually rooting really hard for you guys in the qualification. I love international soccer. I don't really follow club soccer that much, but when it comes to any of the major international competitions, that's like, it gets me going. I feel like it's one time

when we can all just pull together and be unabashedly American about things. So I'm really looking forward to the World Cup. I was watching the draw to see what pool we were gonna be in. And one of my favorite parts about the World Cup is when they unveil the new ball. And I remember back in 2010

when it was the Jablani ball down in South Africa, and every goalie fucking hated that thing because it was like a butterfly. When do you get the chance to try out the new ball to see how it's gonna fly? I'm not sure because we have camp in June, we have camp in maybe September or October this year, so they might give us a ball then.

I don't know. That's a really good question. They might not break it out until like a week or two before the World Cup, but I actually have a funny story about that Jablani ball, Jablani ball. The first time I ever tried training with it is in the summer with the Philly Union

and the first ball I had told. Probably went up and it moved so much, went right through my hands, hit me on the forehead and went back to my coach and the coach called it. We're like, okay, that's what we're dealing with. That ball was insane. This is different. So yeah, the World Cup coming up in cutter,

what is it like for a goalie in terms of the heat situation? Because I know they'll talk about it, how hot it is and the players maybe needing water breaks. Goallies obviously don't move around as much, but does it suck just standing there being like, man, this is hot and you got to wear the long shirt? Can you maybe go without the long shirt? Can you do that? Is that legal?

Sometimes I go out without the long shirt when it's really hot. I sweat really easily. So yeah, I get cold very easily and I sweat really easily, but I would rather play in the heat than the cold any day. Yeah, yeah. So when we have athletes on, I like to ask like, what is the part of your job

that idiots sitting on their couch, myself included, think it's like an easy part? Like, oh, I would have saved that. Or what part of goal tending is the nuance that we don't understand that it's hard to understand unless you're actually doing it? It's tough, man, because like field players, they can go out there and make all these mistakes

and give the ball away and miss everything. As goalkeepers, if you make one mistake, it's usually going to end up as a goal. So I would say us goalkeepers would have to stay pretty much perfect back there if we want to win the game. Or obviously there's some shots you can't stop and obviously mistakes happen,

but yeah, I would say the hardest part is just like being mentally strong and yeah, not thinking about making a mistake or being negative because when that happens, your ground is making a mistake. What about dealing with the Nats? I feel like Nats in the summertime when it's really humid outside,

it would be tough for a goalie because everyone else is moving around and you're just getting swarmed by all these bugs like your Joba Chamberlain out there. Yeah, I know. They tell you about like, they go to the highest point so sometimes I put my hand up. Yeah, Nats are annoying, but like I said,

I hate the cold. I'd way rather play in insect-infested warmth than be out there not moving in the cold. Who would you say is the enforcer on this team? Because I've noticed in qualification, Pulisic's taken a couple of cheap shots. They like to go after him. They like to knock him off his game, get him angry.

He's a small guy that likes to get into fights, but I don't know if I'd trust him in a fight. I feel like he needs like a dude that's ready to step in at all time and take care of the heavy business for him. Yeah, I mean, I'd like to be that person. I'd also say, I'm just so far away. I'd say, what's the McKinnon likes to get into it with the other guys?

And he's a rider that he'll always be. He's always got your back. Playing in the EPL, what's the craziest away stadium or experience you've had? Or maybe if it's, you know, you've played at other places in Europe, maybe it's some other stadium. Cause I love the crowds, especially overseas.

Someday I hope that we can get that type of crowds at MLS games, but what's the one where you went to and you're like, holy shit, this is insane. That would have to be Liverpool at Anfield. Yeah, their fans are insane in the way they sing. You'll never walk alone right before the game starts. I mean, it's like deafening and, you know, it's crazy. The whole everybody in the stadium is singing it.

And it's like, all you can hear and when they stop singing, it's just like, you can hear a pin drop in the stadium. It's insane. What about West Ham when they blow the bubbles? When there's just bubbles everywhere. Is that intimidating at all? West Ham was actually really good.

We played that Wednesday night in a caraport cup, maybe like eight o'clock and their stadium was full. In London on a Wednesday, it was crazy. And yeah, they played the bubbles at the end when they beat us in the PQAs. But now that was a beautiful night and they were, I was really impressed with how they filled it out and they were loud and really passionate.

So if we, we don't play soccer, but say we went and did penalty kicks on you, how many would you save out of 10? I'll tell you about at least eight. Eight? I mean, that's so hard. Yeah, cause that's penalty kicks. Does it bother you that like penalty kicks

are probably the one thing in soccer where everyone's like, dude, that'd be so easy. Like I could easily do this. Uh-huh. It's not as easy as it looks, obviously. But yeah, I mean, that's cold keepers with all the new rules and everything. We don't, we don't like the kids.

Yeah, I mean, it sucks when they, when they were doing the VAR thing and monitoring your heels to make sure that your heels were on the line. At that point, it's impossible to dive to a corner in the time that it takes the ball to even get to the net. So they're like handcuffing you. Are we just like, we're an anti-VAR podcast in general.

We don't like robots. So are, is there any circumstance where a goalie is in favor of VAR? Whenever, maybe if there's an all sides and a goal called back that they scored. Yeah. That's it. VAR, yeah.

I mean, it's kind of getting into our, like it's the norm now in the game, which is kind of nice. Cause in the beginning, the first couple of years, it was like, oh, we hate this. This is just stopping the game. This room that's low play, but they're getting better. They're going to quicker at it.

But yeah, it kind of ruins the flow of the game sometimes. Now, I know this is usually like in a bad situation because it's when your team is down. But if you had the situation where you've run down the field for like a last second corner kick, how is that? It's, to me, when I see a goalie added to the, like offensive side, it's kind of like a reliever running in from outfield.

Is it, do you have that same type of rush? And have you ever had a moment in any part of your career where it actually was successful? I've never seen it be successful. I've seen it be successful once or twice where the goalie is actually scored. But no, I have never been successful. I've only gone up a handful of times.

And yeah, it's kind of like you're like, let out of your cage and you're kind of ready to let loose and try and score. But I feel like the ball never comes to where I am or where I'm going. So I've never had a chance to score. I think the goalie should be allowed to use their hands in the opposing penalty box, as long as they punch it,

as long as you're striking the ball, not like catching it and throwing it. Yeah, I think that would add a nice little wrinkle to it. Yeah, that's good, because we're not great at heading, so I'll be way better. So if you guys, let's just say miracle run. America goes and wins the World Cup. What's more, what's like more important to you

in your trophy case, the World Cup or the Big 10 title? That's a tough one, man. Yeah, very tough. No, I mean, of course the World Cup. I mean, I would trump everything. But you won the Big 10 title. That's, I mean, that flag flies forever. 2014, right?

The tournament, yeah, in the tournament, in the league, I guess. Yeah, double. So if we do win the World Cup, we're already calling it the golden generation because we're dumb soccer fans. We don't really know that much about the game, but we hear people refer to other countries

as having a golden generation. So we're just taking that and we're declaring it ours. If we do win this World Cup, how long are you going to stay drunk for? How long is that party going to be? Oh, man, that was last weeks. I'd say years. I'd say years.

Oh, in America, I mean, yeah, that would be insane. You can't even imagine. Yeah, yeah. So looking ahead to your group, when do you start watching tape on England? We won't start that until, I mean, the coaches have probably already started, to be honest. But as players, we won't start that

until we get into camp before the World Cup. What does tape look like for a goalie? Like, are you going down to the detail of every single player's tendencies and what, obviously, what foot they like, where they usually score? Is all of that covered? I mean, yeah, we'll look at how they attack,

how they, like their set pieces, their penalties. We'll look at their free kicks, who likes to kick it, or we look at just how they press, like their forwards kind of press our goal kicks and stuff. And other than that, it's really just team meetings, and it's not really too much of a video, as you imagine, to be honest. Huh, would you consider England to be a rival of ours?

Or I know that, like, Mexico and the United States, we've had some awesome rivalry games going back to, like, I mean, I remember watching 2002 in the knockout round. There's been a lot of bad blood there. Is there any bad blood between us and any of the countries that are in our group? Well, besides, Iran would be, yeah. Yeah.

Not really, honestly. Really, it's just Mexico, who's our biggest rival in it. Yeah, we don't like them. But countries over here, like, in Europe, we don't play in too many European countries. So, like, when we get the chance to play them, it's not like a rivalry. It's more like, okay, let's compare ourselves

to the competition over here and see how close we are. So, in the qualification process, do players on the United States team, do they learn how to speak Spanish so that they can communicate with the other players on the other team and, like, talk shit to them? Because against England, that's not gonna be a problem. There's no language barrier there.

But do you, like, do you learn how to say, like, you know, all the, like, chupamipenga, all that stuff so that when you're ready to play against Mexico, you've got some insults loaded up? I don't, but I know a lot of guys on the team that speak Spanish just because of their background or just where they have been in the world. So, they've got to go.

I've always thought that being a goalie, playing a game in Mexico would be kind of fun because the altitude's so high that on goal kicks, you just get to kick the shit out of it and see how far it goes. How far can you kick a goal kick down there? Down there, it was, it was far, man. Way past that field just because of the altitude.

I loved it in the ball we played with with the, you just, boy, it was like, it had a lot of pop when you hit it. So, yeah, I mean, it was fine. It was fine, it was fun. Can you explain to myself and listeners who maybe don't watch all soccer, the difference that you noticed going from the MLS to the EPL?

I mean, Manchester City, one of the best teams in the world. I watch, I watch the Premier League. I, though, don't know, like, the distinct difference, like, how I could explain it to someone. So when you came over, like, and you see the level of skill, and it's no knock on the MLS, but what is the specific thing that's like, oh, these guys are faster or stronger?

What is the thing that you can point to, like, yeah, that's totally different? I mean, I would, I would say it goes back to coaching, like, when you're a kid in the academy system growing up. Over here in Europe, they just have such good coaching and academies that the kids are like, it's crazy. It's crazy. There'll be, like, 14, 13, 14, and they'll be playing for free,

kind of doing, like, living my life, kind of, but also doing schoolwork. So they'll be training almost every day. They'll be missing out on school. They'll be traveling for games. They'll be staying in hotels. And so their academy system over here in the club system over here is just really set up and really,

like, the foundation's really good. And I would say in America, like, when I was a kid, they were just like, I'll go out and play, go have fun, work with parents, and I'll get it, yeah, get off my hands for an hour and a half. So over here, there's just more purpose into, like, training and playing the game.

They play the game over here, but, like, differently. They know it better. And they just understand it more than I was taught growing up. But I think America's getting better with the coaching and the academy system now. But when I was growing up, to what I see over here, it was night and day. I've also heard it described as, like,

it's as simple as the first touch. The first touch in Europe is, it's just different than the first touch in the MLS. Like, when you actually receive a pass, it's the control of the ball is immediate instead of, like, a little bit of a gather in American soccer. Yeah, I think, yeah, the technical abilities of these players over here are insane.

I mean, some of the guys on my team are just, they do shit, like, every day in training. And, like, the first year, half a year, my mind was blown, like, in training almost every day. I was like, wow, how did he do that? And so, yeah, yeah, I would say the technical ability and the tactics and just the knowledge and the understanding of the game is superior over here.

What about from a goalkeeping perspective? Because we've had a lot of players from the U.S. that's, like, been our most successful position in terms of guys that have gone overseas and excelled. A lot of the, you know, old U.S. national team goalies have had really good careers in England. Is there anything that you had to change since you went over there to adapt to that game?

Like, anything about your game that you had to improve on? Yeah, I mean, I think we're all always evolving and trying to get better and become better players. So I'm always evolving. So, yeah, I mean, they've changed my game a lot, just technique-based. Because with goalkeeping, there's so many different aspects and what would be ones in crossing and headers

and angled shots, playing out. So, yeah, they've changed my technique in some situations for the better, and it's helped me a lot. Well, what's your favorite time-wasting tactic? My favorite one is when a goalie catches a passage just dribbling into them and they catch it with two hands and then they fall on their stomach and their chest

and they just stay down there for like 15 seconds, catching their breath before they get up. I would do that, but it's just because I'm out of shape. You guys do it under control because you're trying to take time off the clock. Yeah, yeah, I mean, that would probably be my favorite one. I hate when I have to do it because it's just like, but it's like games and shit, but it just looks stupid.

Is there like an internal clock that's like, okay, you need to get up now or like, do you know exactly how many seconds you can be down there? Well, technically, when we catch the ball, we only have six seconds until we have to release it and get it out of our hands, but no ref really counts six seconds. You get more like maybe 10 to 15 seconds.

But yeah, I mean, you're always kind of wary of the referee and I feel like I always get kind of picked on or I have gotten picked on in the past with giving yellow cards for time wasting and stuff. When I'm really not time wasting, I'm just like really laid back and nonchalant and the ref thinks I'm just too chill. Yeah.

You get a yellow card for being chill. Yeah. Yeah. Um, dumb question. Does it ever hurt to get hit by the ball? Some of those shots are just insane. Sometimes it does. Yeah. Sometimes it definitely does. Yeah.

Getting hit in the lower region is something that happens more than you think. And that's, yeah, that's not fun. Yeah. Like these, especially the guys who just have a rocket and they're coming, it's coming from, you know, outside the box and it feels like it's just, you know, going in different directions.

I don't, I don't know how you guys do it sometimes when I see these shots in slow motion. Those shots are easier. Like when it's outside the 18 or whatever, you have more time to like prep yourself. It's the shots that are like when it's 1v1 and it's close distance and they hit you in the stomach or they hit you in the face or they hit you in the nuts.

I mean, that's, that's not fun. That's interesting because I've always, uh, similar to like the annoying person watching a hockey game, being like, shoot the puck. I've always thought like, why don't they just shoot more? It feels like they should shoot more in soccer. But what you're saying when they're shooting from outside the box, like it's a lot easier for you than, than anything inside.

Yep. Yep. Okay. So I'm wrong. I'm very, very wrong. So who's your goat, Messier Ronaldo? Um, I mean, just the way Messi plays and played at Barcelona for me was, he's the goat. But Ronaldo for like all the work he's put in and from where he's come. Nope.

To his, on his abs, on his diet. Yeah. On, on tapping it in. On waxing his eyebrows. Hitting, hitting a bunch of penalty kicks. He was, uh, yeah, it was fun to watch at Madrid. I mean, I love when Messi and Ronaldo, and we have the classic codes with Real Madrid and Barcelona back in the day growing up. Those were the best.

Yeah. So much. Can I give you a little bit of scouting on, on England? Harry Kane. If he has the ball outside the six yard line, he's not going to score. Yeah. Not a threat. So we call him the tap inside the six. He can tap it in or he can, he's a header merchant as well.

Outside the six, not a danger. Yeah. You're good with that. Um, all right. So Zach, I had one last question. This has been a lot of fun. It's a rowback question. Go to RHOBACK.com. You code take for 20% off your first purchase.

Um, I mentioned at the start, you have a foundation. Can we talk about that for a second? So you, when did you start it and, and, and what do you guys do? Uh, so I started after the, uh, the killing of George Floyd. Um, and it was all just about to all just about, um, Staying up for what's right. Um, and at the time we thought enough is enough, just like so many people, um, as well. And, um, so I, I got, I connected with like about a hundred and

150 athletes that I've kind of come, um, come into contact with just through my career and traveling and one that and teams. Um, and so we talked and, um, we just want to kind of help the future generations, um, who are underprivileged in America. We wanted to help those kids and those families, um, and just give them resources that, um, that I had grown up that was able to give me to, to Manchester and to these heights. Um, so we just, it's all about just coming together and raising

money and, and, um, we partner with the boys and girls club of America too. And just force those funds to those, to their kids and to, for whatever they need, backpacks, wifi, food, um, whether if it's to keep the, the club open for an extra hour or two after school, so kids stay off the, uh, off the streets. Um, but it's all about just giving back to the underprivileged kids, the next generation and making sure that they have everything that

they need to be successful. I love it. Yeah. Go check it out. Go support it. Um, my last, last question, just testing your soccer IQ, what is the most dangerous lead in soccer? Two zero. Two zero. Absolutely. So when you have like, I learned that when I was like 10, cause I got beat that way. And I, ever since that, that day, I, it's just been a great month.

It's my favorite when you're up like one nothing and you're like, you score that second goal. You're like, Oh man, I'd rather not be up to nothing. Well, you kind of would, but yeah, it is dangerous. It's funny. Yeah. You ever like yell at your guys for scoring? It's like, Hey, we had him right where we want. If you're up one nothing, one nil, excuse me, against England. And then you score a second goal. I want to see like screaming at him back

there. I will. I will. I'll make sure that they're on their toes. Also, I like to bet on corner kicks over corner kicks in games. So if every now and then you just want to hit it out, that would be nice. I keep that money. I always don't do that enough. Like we don't get enough cheapies because you guys are too skilled. It's more of a critique on how good you are.

Yeah. Well, we get yelled at if we make them a second. Not by me. Not by me. All right. Well, Zach, thank you so much. We appreciate it, man. And best of luck rest of the season and we're looking forward to the World Cup next time. Appreciate you guys. Okay. Thanks to Kirk Goldsbury and Zach Steffen. Great show today, boys. Let's wrap up with some firefests. Billy is in the middle of competing on the lowering the bar

championship. So tune in for that. That is why he's not here right now. He may pop in at any moment. Maybe not. Is it a drinking competition? I don't know. He thinks it is. We were taken. We were asked to take some promo pictures of our Cores Light t-shirts and the girl taking the photos was like, oh, will you grab a Cores Light? And he's like, oh, I'm going to start drinking because I have to do the lowering the bar anyway. And I didn't know. I couldn't tell if that was

like a... Well, you would think that given Billy's history this week, he'd have some PTSD from lowering the bar himself. That's true. Get it? The shirts behind you. They're great. Oh, yes. Cores Light shirts. Yeah, so firefest. Billy, tune into lowering the bar finals though. Billy's in it. Our guy Vibbs does a great job with it. I don't know when that's coming out. We'll tell everyone to watch it when it does come out. I'm just going to guess

what Billy's firefest would be this week is that the Internet saw Billy's brain in action as somebody who is... I think he would have got the bar out. Irrational. Big Cat, you saw the clip when it buckled. No, he definitely was going down. PFT saved me. It was funny because I came in and I was hanging out in Chicago on Tuesday and Wednesday and PFT was like, you should have seen Billy just, you know, make excuses. I was like, so just Billy. Yeah.

It was just Billy. It was a little bit more than an excuse to do. Like he was mad at me for saving his life and it was like, you remember in Forest Gump when Lieutenant Dan gets pissed off at Forest for dragging him out of the jungle? He's like, I should have died in there. Billy was like, I should have died trying to get that max up. You stole that honor from me. Well, also the just, he didn't realize that you like picked the bar up for him. That was crazy too when he was

like, did you touch it? Yeah. Yes, very much. All time crazy. All, all time crazy Billy, but that is very much Billy did to have a video come out that shows the truth and him being like, well, that's not exactly how it happens. And he was just going around to people like making the excuses and they're like, what are you even talking about? Yeah. He's proactively informing people before they even heard the news that it was about to be fake. There was a strategy. It

wasn't very like funny lead split cast online of people being like, no, he actually could have gotten it up. Yeah, it's just good, good debate. But then you know what? He did get it up. So he got 275 on the show, Oswald and Inswell. Hank, your firefest. Yeah, so I'm holding one in my hand, the car stick, 2.0, 3.0 actually. Whoa, let me see it. Is it different? Whoa, whoa, whoa. As you can tell, it's very different. It's a sleek new design. We've we've changed the wood, but the

problem is it's expensive wood. It's wood from a foreign land and it there's only so many trees. China. Is this from China? We could only make a limited amount. So it's like people have been clamoring every time I go out in the streets every time, you know, I open my DMs. It's like, when are we gonna car stick? When are we gonna car stick? There's a wait list of people that have been waiting for this to get re released and my firefest unfortunately is that there's only a very limited

amount. So they are on sale today, but depending on when you listen, they might be sold out. I tried to get more made. It just was like it would have taken years, years longer to get anything more. Yeah, that was we actually use the last trees in the Amazon to get these. So yeah, don't let them die in vain. Yeah, I mean, the earth's dying because of these car sticks. They're flood diamond trees. Yes, go save the yeah, the very good boys in the Amazon are all all filled. Yes. Okay. So

car sticks go buy them. Yeah, if you can, and I'm sorry if you can afford it. No, you can afford it. They're reasonably priced, especially for you know, all the multi uses you can get I'd say they're probably underpriced. That's true. That was gonna be my question. Hank, is that you know, is that only for use and digging things out between seats? Well, it's basically a Swiss Army knife. Yeah, you can hit someone. You could get something out. You throw it. Well, you could scrape ice off a

windshield with it. You could lose it. I think you could lose that. No, you could lose it. If you were like work at like a grocery store and you need to like you have one bathroom and you attach a key to it so that people don't lose. Oh, that's good. Yeah. That's good. You can let the boys know that you're down for a little hockey. What does have a little keyhole in there like a for a key ring. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, maybe like drop something down a sewer. You could maybe attach

something and lower it if you've ever got some tape on it. If you've ever gotten a key to a city, that's actually the perfect key chain for you. Yeah, that's right. When we finally go get the key to Toledo, we'll put it on a car stick. Alright, Peter, your Firefest. My Firefest of the week is I got two. My first is that kind of similar to what Hank said. I feel bad because I'm kind of bullying the Pirates this year and if you've taken the Pirates booty bet right now, it's five and one on

the season because the Pirates really stink on the road. They're playing at Chicago tonight. So we'll see what happens. I think the Cubs pitcher has an 18 ERA. So I don't know what's gonna happen with that. Oh, it's I think it's Mark Leiter Jr. Okay, there you go. Son of Al Leiter. So we'll see. We'll really test the bet out tonight. I'm I'm feeling a little bit guilty, but everybody from Pittsburgh is like, no, don't feel bad. These are the Pirates. Yeah, we want to bet on it.

Continue bet, but I'm just I'm certain that five and one is not going to hold up and this, you know, like it might end up positive like it was last year up 24 units, but I feel like there are going to be some lean times ahead. So I'm thinking about switching it over at some point to just betting the under on every Baltimore Orioles game, which is now 11 oh and one damn to start the year. Damn. I just need a cool name wall, cool name for it. Yeah. The Baltimore the Baltimore

Munder doesn't work. Build that wall. Build that wall. Yeah. Oh, Baltimore less. Baltimore less instead of Baltimore. Yeah. Baltimore fewer. I don't know. I'm still workshopping it. And my other firefest is that the NFL is back. The NFL draft is a week from yesterday. Yep. And I'm woefully behind on my draft prep. Yep. Because I've been just consumed with college basketball and NBA basketball. I need to get back and and really dig in. Fortunately, we have Daniel

Jeremiah and we're going to have Tom McShay on as well. I'm okay. You know what though, PFT? I'm okay with this. I think we as sports fans in a sports podcast, we need to normalize the fact that there's a lot of sports on and the experts in each field trying to shame the true sports guys like ourselves. I'm sick of it. Like people like because I I put my hand up. I had the Zion Williamson situation backwards that the pelicans are actually keeping him out because they don't want

him to get injured before they possibly trade him. And like one guy was like, this is what happens when you just jump into the NBA. It's like, dude, I like all sports. I was watching fucking college hoops in March. What do you want me to do? You're casual. Yeah, like, but guess what? I'm a casual. It's okay to it's okay for us to hop from sport to sport. Guess what we're going to be talking about in a week? Hockey. I'm going to bring Stanley Cup to to to Canada. I've already

said I do that but I I'm done with the people shaming like the the draft nerds who are shaming our lack of draft knowledge. They didn't watch a second of March Madness. You know what I mean? It's impossible to be a well-rounded human being and be an expert in every sport. I think we're pretty well-rounded in sports on this show. We had a fucking tennis player on. Do you know how much I hate tennis? We had a soccer player on today. Yeah. Same. Yes. Extremely well-rounded

right and and we have a website that's debuting for one of our guys. Yes. Next week. Should we have we I I haven't done any. All I did was text and say make this website. So I think we're still waiting on on the final. I didn't follow up rendition of the website. Okay, let's wait till next week. It's got a couple features. Yeah, I think one of the features is still in beta testing right now. Alright, we'll wait till next week. It's going to be it's going to be a great site. Yeah,

it was a big time like I had an idea in for like 20 minutes and then texted someone that we should do the idea and then never followed up again. So that's good news that it's happening. Alright, my firefest is actually it's not me. Well, it is me but it's a friend of mine. A good friend. I want you guys to rule on this. A good friend of mine. First time dog owner got a dog got a puppy and then I see three days later he's on a trip out of town when he should be bonding with his

puppy and teaching his puppy, you know, training it to pee outside and all these things and I kind of want to tell this fucking guy who's a friend of mine. I want to tell me he's a fucking asshole and he should give the puppy back because he clearly doesn't want the puppy if he's taking these trips. So the puppy was he went out he adopted the puppy because he wanted to save a puppy's life. He was gifted to the puppy. Oh so he didn't want to save the dog's life. Correct. He was he was perfectly

fine letting the dog die. Right and he doesn't really work anymore. He still has his office but he doesn't work anymore. Yeah. So I just like dude, what are you doing? You gotta be there for that puppy. Well, he sounds like an absentee father to a certain extent. It does. So you have to wonder like is this puppy gonna grow up to make the right choices with the people it hangs out with and its behavior. So what should I do? I want the AWLs to maybe you know chime in like that's a real

dickhead move. You get a puppy. You get a you get a new dog. You gotta be with that dog for at least a month before that puppy's gonna be scared. The puppy is probably gonna either one thing turn on your friend when your friend comes back and well yeah he's kind of an asshole. God forbid actually attack your friend. God forbid. God forbid latch on to his throat God forbid and pull out his trachea and that would be I would be devastated. And then urinate into the hole where his

windpipe used to be. Yep. God help us all. God forbid. But yeah, I think that your friend sounds like a real prick. He's a real prick. You guys have anything to weigh in on that? Any thoughts? You guys have had dogs various points in your life not you Jay because you're hyper allergenic. I agree with you. You do. My family has one. Alright. Okay. Thank you Hank. Would you ever abandon your dog? No, not the right thing to do. Three days after? Four days after? No, not right.

Would you leave your dog? Would you leave a puppy alone in a house for five days on its own? Yeah, right after you got it. So, that's my firefest. I'm dealing with it. I don't know what to say because I want to step in and tell this person he's an asshole but I also want to be respectful and not, you know, get involved in something like this. Yeah, he doesn't deserve dogs. No, no, definitely doesn't. Finish this off Jake. Yeah, so I'm on this podcast and I got dragged into

a bet where if a certain team loses four or four one in their series, I have to do dip. Ah, sounds like a good podcast. Yeah. What flavor do you want? See, like, the flavors really matter. It's all garbage anyway. Yeah, I was going to actually say you should do like a peach or something. That would probably be like if you do, if you do wintergreen or straight would make you puke almost instantly which I guess would count. PFT says under a minute for me. Yeah, I think

so. Now, is he allowed, is Jake allowed to put nothing but pouches in his mouth just entire? Yeah, I'd allow that actually. I'd allow that. Is that better? Yeah, it'd be less messy. Yeah, it's cleaner. Yeah. Alright, I'm a lot excited. I also said you can. That's a lot of things. Yeah. Should we let him do black buffalo because it is nicotine. It's no tobacco. I'd also allow that. In that case, it's not garbage because they're a friend of the show. Yeah, and it's not

tobacco. So I want to backtrack on my comments one minute ago. Well, no, it's not tobacco. It's not tobacco dip. So it's not, it doesn't have the same. Doesn't have the sign that says. Yeah, correct. Yeah, uh-huh. Uh-huh. Big C on there. Yeah, no, just take, you'll take the entire, you'll do the wampus cat, but it's tea leaves. It's not. It has nicotine though, so it will make your head spin. Yeah. So maybe we'll allow that. Oh my god. Yeah. How about this? As if, if the

Celtics sweep them, you gotta do the regular stuff. If they do, if it's five, you do black buffalo. That's fair. That sounds fair to me. That's fair. Nets are gonna win one game. For Hank's bet. It's, Hank said it's crazy for the Nets to get this one. Yeah, Nets will win. Nets will win. Nets culture. Yeah. It's a net positive. Yeah. Alright, we'll see. Okay. Um, that is our show. Daniel Jeremiah on Monday and Tom McShay on Wednesday. We haven't booked yet, but we're

gonna book it. Uh, so we're gonna get draft week going hot and heavy, uh, next week. Everyone have a good weekend. Safe weekend. Numbers. Love you guys. Five. Six. I would pay any seven for sixty nine to come up. Twenty five. Thanks. Just a reminder. It's actually on the top right now. Oh, perfect. Uh, twenty two. Hank's never gotten it. What number was it Wednesday? Uh, fifty four, I believe. Hank, what'd you guess? Five. I'm just going. Oh, that was five. You see five. Twenty

eights. Daryl Green. Have we almost gotten everything? Uh, no, we have. That's the third time by the way. Six, twenty, twenty two, twenty six, twenty seven, twenty nine, fifty one, seventy eight, eighty eight. It's a lot of twenties. Okay. Not twenty eight. I'm going to start doing that. That's your cane. All right. See you everyone Monday. Love you guys. I'll be coming for you. I'll be coming for you.

Take me up. I'll be gone in a day or two. Take on me. Take me up. I'll be gone in a day or two. I'll be gone