Fanatics Fest 2026 with Jalen Brunson & Roman Reigns: Jalen's INJURY update, Parade Stories, Reigns Retirement

13:25Jalen Brunson:And I think game four, after we did that, we're like, all right, let's build off this. And we kept building and building and then rattle off like 13 straight.

13:34Shannon Sharpe:Hey, one more, one more. We talk about late game closers. and in the fourth quarter of probably every game, every series that y 'all had in the postseason? Under five minutes. Under five minutes. What was your thought process, bro? Even if y 'all were down by 15 or 20, it seems as though, you know, you always came through in the clutch. Like, what are you telling yourself in those moments?

14:03Jalen Brunson:One, I've always – one thing my dad always taught me is just never be afraid to fail. Yeah. And so just having the mindset of whatever happens in these moments, it's going to happen, you're going to learn from it. And even if it goes successfully, you're still going to learn from it. There's something you can always learn from. But I just found the way to be comfortable in the situations. I learned in plenty of situations where I failed. And I've learned from them, and I've gotten better. But I felt comfortable. I found the way to just kind of keep my mind at a good spot in those moments when people call it pressure.

14:41Jalen Brunson:I just feel comfortable in those moments. Jalen, you guys win a championship. You have a parade. There has to be one story you can tell us that we weren't able to see. That was surprising and shocking to you at the Knicks parade because I know the city was upside down. I need one good story that surprised you at the parade.

15:05Shannon Sharpe:We seen cats sucking toes and all. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. No, not cat. I thought you said cat. I thought you said cat. I thought you said cat. No, no, no. Hold on. I mean cat. No, no, no, no. Jordan, it wasn't your cat. It was a cat.

15:30Jalen Brunson:the wildest thing from the parade would be i didn't see this but i i mean i guess the the woman that was on the light post i didn't see that with my own eyes but but i saw it I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah, y 'all are crazy, man. Y 'all had the fans stripping? No, no. You didn't see it. I didn't see it, but it looked like it was a fight. It had turned into a strip club, but I don't know. I don't know.

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16:59Shannon Sharpe:Roman, we see the Knicks when they have a championship. You win a championship, you have a parade. When you win a championship, how does Roman Reigns celebrate?

17:18I wish we had parades and all that, and I wish I had a really cool story to give you, but we usually work the next day. And a whole lot of time to celebrate, huh? I go straight to the bus and I get naked. That's what happens. But yeah, no, there's just really no time. It depends, because every once in a while, you might have a day off, and then you go and, you know, if you were to work Saturday, then you have Sunday off. I've done that a couple years ago, which was pretty cool. And then you go back into work Monday. But, yeah, I mean, you know, no matter what you're doing, for me, if I have the people that I love around me, the people that I like to talk to, maybe a couple cold beverages to take the pain away, take the edge off.

18:01Yeah, we hear you. And then, yeah, Manoia. And then let's get to bed and get ready to do it again. Get ready the next day.

18:09Shannon Sharpe:Jay, let me ask you this. If you could, if there was another sport that you could play, what would you play?

18:18I have been with Rasmussen University since 2013. All virtual. All of my professors throughout the entire journey have been nothing but supportive of making me reach my dreams. Rasmussen professors, they want to see you grow so that you can be what you went to school to be. I'm so thankful for Rasmussen University for being able to make it so easy and seamless. Rasmussen University. Find your seat and start now at rasmussen.edu. Hey, Donald. Really flying on that treadmill. I'm trying to run as fast as T-Mobile 5G home internet, Zach. Well, you better pick it up because now T-Mobile has the fastest 5G home internet according to Ookla Speed Test.

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19:39Plus taxes and fees. Fastest according to Uglo Speed Test Intelligence data, second half 2025. All rights reserved. Guaranteed for monthly price of 5G internet data on eligible plans. Find exclusions and details at T-Mobile.com. This is Tab Ramos from Inside American Soccer. And this summer, Topgolf is turning into the ultimate soccer destination. They're not just throwing games on in the background. Topgolf is going all in on soccer. They've got a new soccer-themed game you can play with your group, special in-venue activations, exclusive food and drink items inspired by the global game. And at more than 60 locations, they've even installed full-size soccer goals so you can try to hit golf balls right into the net.

20:19And every match all summer long will be on throughout the venue. So it's a great place to watch with friends, hang out, compete a little bit, and enjoy the atmosphere. And if you want to keep the fun going all summer, you can get the Topgolf Summer Fun Pass, which lets you play every single day and bring up to five guests every visit. Get yours now at topgolf.com slash fun pass. Summer hits different at Topgolf. Summer is here, which means we all want to look and feel our best. A GLP-1 may be right for you. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more about which GLP-1 you could be eligible for. Getting started is fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals.

21:01Check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com slash podcast. That's orderlymeds.com slash podcast. Taking care of yourself feels great. Compact and medications are not FDA-approved. Eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details. The official language of football is trash talk. Late night group chats, memes, and unbelievable highlight clips. That's why Boost Mobile brings you our new global connection plan. The first plan ever made for WhatsApp. Get unlimited data, talk and text, international roaming, and calls to over 100 countries for just$40 a month.

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21:49Shannon Sharpe:I can see you as a running back.

21:51Jalen Brunson:I'm not fast at all. I'm not a lot of y 'all. Y 'all see me move out there. Quick first step, but that's it. That's it? That's it.

21:59Shannon Sharpe:That's all you need in basketball.

22:01Jalen Brunson:I would say, honestly, probably golf. Golf.

22:08Jalen Brunson:I only say that because, I mean, I played all the different stuff when I was younger. I kind of, I moved a lot as a kid, so it was tough to find different teams to all different sports. Basketball is obviously my number one. But now I truly wish I picked up golf when I was younger.

22:28Shannon Sharpe:Right.

22:28Jalen Brunson:Because a lot of good things, business-wise, can happen on a golf course. Yes. You can beat a lot of your best friends and take a lot of their money as well. So, yeah, I wish I would have picked up golf sooner.

22:42Shannon Sharpe:Well, you're learning at the right time because if you get too good, the people that might do business with you are not going to want to do business with you if you're beating their eyes out.

22:49Jalen Brunson:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm not that good yet, but I wish I would have picked up sooner.

22:52Shannon Sharpe:All right. Hey, Rome, between travel, training, like eating, how do you maintain a great balance without burning out, you know, in the sport that you play? Well, it's year-round. So, I mean, that's kind of like the battle that I'm personally going through now because, look, it's been a great summer. We're trying to have fun, too. I mean, I got to show the wife a good time. So and it's tough being on a diet when you're in situ. Like yesterday, we're at the Yankees game and they got a full spread and I'm just looking at everything and I'm like, oh, I can't have any of this stuff. You know what I mean?

23:33So it's there's a happy medium. I think the 80-20, kind of like, you know, if you grind through the week and you take the weekend off as a civilian, that's great. And I think you can kind of look at that annually. So I try to keep the work in. I try to not get too far out. That way we don't have to kill ourselves to get back in. But you have to be a human. You've got to be normal. And especially with this life, it's been a storybook. It's been so blessed that if I can do anything normal, I try to. So even with the schedule and even just the downtime and getting out of the diet, getting out of the training for a little while and just being a human for, you know, being a dad, being a husband and not trying to just be a superstar the whole time.

24:14I think it definitely helps. You know what? I got it. I got it. I got a question. It's kind of personal, but I like to get in people's business sometime. No, when it comes when it comes to sports, when it comes to the corporate world, obviously we have colleagues. We have people that we work with. We don't always get along. like sometimes I want to fight Joe right? Is there anybody in the WWE that you really personally don't like?

24:45I mean if you're a fan I think that's an easy one to guess but you know honestly

24:57we don't do that here Yeah, that's a quick way to get me to leave. Now, honestly, it's weird because years ago, it was a different story. I'm in a different place, you know what I mean? It's a locker room. There is a camaraderie. It is a show, and we are all working together. So there is that friendship, and in the business, we call it being one of the boys, being the boys, you know what I mean? And early on, you could easily say that's exactly what I was. but there was around a time when I kind of transformed into the tribal chief around COVID. When I came back, I had to make a choice of, do I want to be one of the boys or do I want to be responsible for the championships?

25:41Do I want to pull the wagon? Do I want to make this business better? Do I want to advance the industry? And I had to make that choice. And I'll cleanly say now I don't really have many friends anymore. I mean, I have my family. I got my blood. And that's real. We're not a faction. We're a family. People wonder, like, how long is this going to go on forever until I'm gone? I like it. But, no, I mean, I'm not in the friend business. We're in the conflict business. We're in here to sell tickets to get you out of CES, go at it. And I don't really have too many. I'm a businessman, and I'm cordial with the locker room, but I'm not really trying to hang out with anybody.

26:17I like it. I like it.

26:20Shannon Sharpe:Jay, we all play sports up here, and when you win a championship, How long did you give yourself? Because I didn't give myself a whole lot of time to enjoy the championship because I was already thinking about because I wanted to be special is the repeat. Because there have been a lot of teams that's won one in a row. You become special when you can repeat and three-peat. Well, let's do the repeat. How long did you give yourself before you started thinking about 2026, 2027 season?

26:48Jalen Brunson:Honestly, I'm not going to lie. That first week was a very fun week. I'm not going to lie to you. It was a very fun week.

26:54Shannon Sharpe:You remember that first week.

26:56Jalen Brunson:Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. I had to.

27:02Jalen Brunson:But what do I say? I think week two is when, like, I'm kind of, like, not over it, but everyone's like, let's take a picture with the trophy. I'm tired of looking at this trophy already. I'm like, so week three, I usually give myself about, like, two, three weeks. Okay. But beginning of week three, I started to lift the workout again. And then I shot the ball jokingly. And then I realized that I needed to do something. And I got that procedure done. But, yeah, I'm already back at it.

27:36Shannon Sharpe:You're already back at it.

27:37Jalen Brunson:Yeah.

27:37Shannon Sharpe:So how long is this, the procedure that you had done, how long is that going to keep you really away from basketball activities as far as lifting, probably, you know, dribbling, going through your drills and doing things like that? How long are you off?

27:48Jalen Brunson:I mean, I'm already back in the gym. Okay. Obviously, this is very limited as well, but I'm doing whatever I can to make sure that I'll be good once this is off. You know what? Hey, my bad, Joe. My bad. I'm going to let you go. It's the off season, right? You're back in the gym already. The thought process of wanting to repeat again. Obviously, the pieces you guys have right now are excellent, right? But you can always add more. You know, it's like cooking food. Ain't nothing wrong with adding a little seasoning to it. Did you pitch to a certain player who's in free agency right now that has yet to decide where he wants to go to probably come to New York?

28:28I'm just asking.

28:29Jalen Brunson:You guys want to know? You guys want to know? All right. You guys are going to love me for this. I got asked this question recently, and I answered it perfectly, truthfully. My job is to go out there, drill the ball, put the ball in the hoop. Yes. try and play a little defense.

28:54Jalen Brunson:There's people who are above me that make jobs who determine who's on the team and who's not. So I leave the pitching to them.

29:05Shannon Sharpe:Hey, JB, there's been some changes in the Eastern Conference. Y 'all lose Mitchell Robinson, but you get drumming. You look at what Philly's done getting JB. what do you think what do you think is going to be the biggest challenge for you guys in this Eastern Conference this year

29:23Jalen Brunson:most importantly it's our mindset honest to God it's our mindset because everyone's gotten better every team gets better in the off season especially the East East looks really good but I think the way we approach this season is very important like Chad Shannon said repeat I have not said that word until just then Like, we didn't say championship all last year. Like, it's just it wasn't in the team, like, the players' vocabulary. Like, we weren't speaking on that. What's most important is, like, how do we come up every single day and try and find a way to improve ourselves and to be the best team we can be?

30:05Jalen Brunson:It's just it sounds cliche, it sounds boring, but that's how you keep all the extra BS out of the way, and that's how you remain focused.

30:15Shannon Sharpe:You said when Ocho asked you about a certain individual being in free agency, you said my job is to play basketball, get the guys ready to play, try to put the ball in the hoop as well as I possibly can. But you did something very unique that not very many people have done. And now people are like, hold on, JB, you shouldn't have done that. You took a little less money in order to be able to keep the team together or build the team that you felt that could win a championship. and now you see teams like using that BS excuse about the second apron, about not wanting to go in the second apron, and you see that's one of the reasons that the Boston Celtics gave for trading Jalen Brown.

30:55Shannon Sharpe:What are your thought processes? And it seems like the Players Association said, we're going to try to get rid of that second apron because teams are using it as an excuse to potentially not to play individuals. What are your thoughts on that?

31:06Jalen Brunson:I think there are pros and cons to it. Obviously, because of Second Apron, we had to lose Mitch, but I would obviously love to have him back. He was a big part of what we've been able to do. Yeah. I think it's just the way you look at it. Everyone was talking about prior to the Second Apron, prior to the last eight teams being different champions, like we have too many super teams, you have too many players going to one team, and then you have these dynasties, and now we have eight different teams winning, and now it's like a participation trophy. What are we doing? You guys want competition or you guys don't want super teams.

31:47Jalen Brunson:What is it? So there's pros and cons to it. For me, I just navigate the best way I can and just control what I can control. I mean, it is what it is. It seems to me like they want someone they can hate.

32:02Shannon Sharpe:It's kind of hard to hate somebody that just wins one. You see when the Lakers started winning, Man, we hate the Lakers. Or when the Bulls win. We hate the Bulls. They hate when teams win. The Warriors. People hated the Warriors because that's too much. That's too much. And now, like you said, you get parity. You get teams winning every year and you don't really know. At the beginning of the year, like, ain't nobody beating Shaq and Kobe. Nobody's beating KD, Steph, and Klay, and Draymond. Nobody's winning that. So now we really don't know who's going to win at the end of the year. And seemingly people are getting upset because they don't know.

32:41Jalen Brunson:yeah i i don't know it's like when i feel like when something happens and then um it becomes a norm it's people tend to like switch like all right what's what what can we find something new what can we complain about now but uh i mean it is what it is honestly i mean i do it all over again. I don't care. I sacrifice whatever. I mean, we won. It was worth it.

33:04Shannon Sharpe:Roman, you versus Seth, SummerSlam. Did that title, does that title match feel any different? 16 years ago, I started working as a CNA in the hospital. I loved it. On the day I decided to enroll in the nursing program at Rasmussen University, it was afternoon, my 35th birthday. I was hanging out with a friend and they just questioned me what I was going to do with this next chapter of my life. I immediately had and I want to go to nursing school. So I actually had contact information from an advisor at Rasmussen, contacted her, and actually ended up starting like three weeks later. My name is Cherish Adams, and I'm a Rasmussen University graduate.

33:39Learn more at rasmussen.edu. Hey, Donald, really flying on that treadmill. I'm trying to run as fast as T-Mobile 5G home internet, Zach. Well, you better pick it up, because now T-Mobile has the fastest 5G home internet, according to UCLA Speed Test. Really? How's this? T-Mobile's faster than that, bud, and it's still just$35 a month. Speed up! No! Plus, they've got a five-year price guarantee. Come on! Faster! How can I go any faster? Channel the speed of T-Mobile 5G home internet. Think 100-meter dash fast. Think drag racing fast. Think speed skating fast. Now let's bump up your speed a notch.

34:17Hey! Whoa! Whoa! That's too fast! You'll be all right. Just walk it off. Get on the fast track. T-Mobile now has the fastest 5G home internet, and it still starts at just 35 bucks a month with auto pay and a voice line, plus a five-year price guarantee. Plus taxes and fees. Fastest according to Uglo Speedtest Intelligence data, second half, 2025. All rights reserved. Guaranteed for monthly price of 5G internet data on eligible plans. Find exclusions and details at T-Mobile.com. This is Tab Ramos from Inside American Soccer. And this summer, Topgolf is turning into the ultimate soccer destination.

34:50They're not just throwing games on in the background. Topgolf is going all in on soccer. They've got a new soccer-themed game you can play with your group, special in-venue activations, exclusive food and drink items inspired by the global game. And at more than 60 locations, they've even installed full-size soccer goals so you can try to hit golf balls right into the net. And every match all summer long will be on throughout the venue. So it's a great place to watch with friends, hang out, compete a little bit, and enjoy the atmosphere. And if you want to keep the fun going all summer, you can get the Topgolf Summer Fun Pass, which lets you play every single day and bring up to five guests every visit.

35:33Get yours now at topgolf.com slash fun pass. Summer hits different at Topgolf. Summer is here, which means we all want to look and feel our best. A GLP-1 may be right for you. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more about which GLP-1 you could be eligible for. Getting started is fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com slash podcast. That's orderlymeds.com slash podcast. Taking care of yourself feels great. Compounded medications are not FDA-approved. Eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider.

36:08Individual results may vary. See website for details. He's dribbling the ball with everything on the line. He's driving down the pitch. He's facing price hikes and cuts past him. Carrier Contracts tries to block him. Oh, he leaves him in the dust. He's at the edge of the box. He cuts past the nonstop group chat trash talk. He clears on goal. He shoots. No! Unlimited data for$25 a month forever! Visit your local Boost Mobile store today to get unlimited data with a price that never changes. Boost Mobile. After 30 GB, customers may experience lower speeds. Customers will pay$25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost$25 Unlimited plan.

36:47Yeah, I would definitely say so. I mean, if you just look at it from a basic standpoint, we're different performers now. We're veteran performers now. We're very experienced. We've gone through the fire on many occasions. So you're going to see two guys who came in together, went on their own routes, but I wouldn't say we're in the same destination. My promised land looks a little different than his, but we're both at the top of the industry, and I think that's what you're going to witness. You're going to witness two of the best live performers to go at it, and the work in the ring is going to speak for itself.

37:36Hey, speaking of SummerSlam, what are your thoughts on Brock versus Oba?

37:50Well, like, you can hear it. So I always pause and take a heartbeat to hear, especially if we have a live crowd, because I'm just, that's what I perform in front of constantly. So it's immediate response. You get feedback and you say their names and immediately there's something that happens. So that means it's working. And you have two guys and this is kind of it works perfectly when it's this way, when you have a veteran and then you have a newer superstar who has that thing that we know it's it's just waiting to take off to the stratosphere. And that's what we have in Oba. He's still very new.

38:25He's still a very, you know, I wouldn't say a shallow character because we just haven't had him around enough to go into the depths of that character of Obafemi and what that looks like. But any time you have two huge athletes, you know, going at it like that, like Brock Lesnar against Obafemi, it's once in a lifetime. And we've been able to see it a couple times this summer, but that's the way it works. In wrestling, it works in threes a lot of times. and any time you can have it good enough to have legs to go three times, you always want to crescendo and make it the very biggest. So that's what I'm expecting out of those boys.

39:03That's the next question. Roman Reigns versus Oba. Well, look, I just said it. Oba's very new and Oba's got a lot of work to do. Me. You know, I'm as consistent and as tested as they come, so you already know what it is. I'm going to be there. The question is, can Oba make it all the way through? Can he find his way through the wilderness and find his way to the championship destination?

39:34Okay, now, is there any downtime?

39:38Shannon Sharpe:Vacation, you go get away, or are you back into the football? You and your wife and the kid, the young one, did you get a chance to get away and enjoy this championship?

39:47Jalen Brunson:Not yet. Not yet. Soon. Soon. I've made it very apparent to be around New York to feel this energy. This is amazing. You know your life will never be the same again.

40:05Shannon Sharpe:You understand that, don't you?

40:08Jalen Brunson:Yeah, I think so, yeah. Yeah. I think so, yeah.

40:11Shannon Sharpe:You're now the ninth wonder of the world. I mean, this is crazy. Do you understand? Because think about it. When they talk about Willis Reed and they talk about Walt Clyde and they talk about Earl of Pearl and all those guys that won that championship 53 years ago, do you really, really feel and understand what you just accomplished?

40:32Jalen Brunson:Absolutely not. I don't think it's going to settle for – I mean, obviously it's settled that we won, but to understand the magnitude of what this means to the city, what it means to the fans, I haven't really grasped that yet. But like I said, just being around the city, feeling the energy, like each and every day, like it becomes more and more real.

40:53Shannon Sharpe:Yeah. When you go into a restaurant and you don't have to pay and you go to the gas station and you don't have to pay, you realize it like, okay, you get an opportunity to go to Rayos. You're like, oh, really? So that's Rayos. Okay. I like this.

41:08Jalen Brunson:I pay for gas. I pay for gas.

41:20Jalen Brunson:No, it's really been special. But I haven't really fully, really, really tried the whole, am I going to pay for a meal yet in the city? And I'm not going to walk in and say, hey, I'm not paying either. No, that's just arrogant. But the city has definitely treated me right. Right.

41:44Shannon Sharpe:JB, aside from physical talent, what's the mental hurdle that a player has to get over to play professional basketball?

41:58Jalen Brunson:I would say, yeah. I would say it's obviously your mindset. It's your approach. It's your confidence. and I feel like for me confidence comes from like your work ethic so how I would explain it like to kids like hey like you guys have a test coming up if you cram then if you came and sleep sorry if you came and study night before the test you're not going to feel as a period not gonna feel as confident walking into the into the um the test but if you prepare well beforehand you do the homework and you're studying and doing your stuff by the time the test comes it's like all right I'm I'm ready to go, I'm locked in, I'm ready to go.

42:38Jalen Brunson:So how I always felt, you know, especially when I'm missing shots or I'm not feeling the best, I just quickly remind myself, like, I go through my routine. I do everything I have to do to be mentally and physically prepared for this game. My confidence comes from my work ethic. I always – like, I say that to myself, and it kind of snaps me back in place.

42:58Shannon Sharpe:Well, this weekend culminates with an event that's happening on Sunday. Obviously, it's the biggest event in the world. is going to be watched by a billion, a billion five, almost two billion people. Who do you have in the finals? You have Argentina and Messi, and then you have the Spaniards led by Yamal.

43:19Jalen Brunson:Honestly, it's going to be a great game. I'm really excited to see Bieber at halftime. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to lie to you. It's really hard to go against Messi, man. It is, man. It's really difficult. But, like, I've – it's really difficult just watching the things he's been able to do for this long. It's special.

43:44Anybody but Bieber, you know what I mean? I'm from Florida. I live down in South Florida now, so I'm going to get on that Messi train. I'm going with Argentina. You ready? Messi, Argentina.

43:56Shannon Sharpe:Man, it's been unbelievable. Jalen, you were here the other day. So what's been the biggest thing that you've noticed about Fanatics Fest? Michael Rubin has done a great job, I mean, putting this on year after year. It gets bigger and bigger and better and better every single year. But what's one thing that when you come out and you see all these fans and they're wearing Nick's jersey and they're shouting your name, what does that mean to you? What has it been like to see this thing grow over the years?

44:20Jalen Brunson:It's been unbelievable, honestly. It's something that I definitely enjoyed. And to be able to meet the fans and spend some time with them on Thursday, it was really cool. To be able to do my pod on Thursday as well was awesome. So I feel like it's a great thing for fans to come and see their favorite athletes. And so, I mean, for me, honestly, like Roman said, we just met backstage and I kept it cool, but this man's an icon and a legend. And so as athletes, we're all fans of things too. So to be able to see people like that, it really brings a full circle. So I can imagine how some of you guys feel.

45:05Shannon Sharpe:Roman, is there – I mean, you can wrestle to your 50. I mean, most sports you don't get an opportunity. 50? Is there an end date inside? Have you said, like, you know what, I got another five years. I got another three years. Is there an end date inside of you just says, I'm going to go as long as I feel I can do the job? That's how far I'm going to go. I definitely have a few more years and, you know, what I'm doing now. I guess it just depends on what the schedule would look like. And you've seen other performers, you know, I just talked to Undertaker a few minutes ago, and he was like, I'm working more than I did in the past ten years because he had a very nice schedule, but he put in a lot of work to get to that point.

45:54So I guess it just depends with that. I guess it depends on what the outside projects look like. But I mean, I definitely feel comfortable with a couple to three more years of just elite level top performance. You know, I'm still in my prime. I still feel very good. I think it just gets to the point of where do I want to put my attention? I have a lot of children. I want to be able to give back that time to my wife that she sacrificed while I've chased this dream. So I think in three years or so, we'll be able to figure out exactly what I want to do and what are going to be the variables that, like, make me do that.

46:30You know, do I want to – how's my body feeling? You know, where am I mentally? Where am I at spiritually? Where's my family at? Where are my children at? You know, what are they doing? What's the schedule look like for them? So we'll see. But I still feel good, y 'all.

46:41Shannon Sharpe:And plus, you kind of, like, you did the wrestling, then you went to the movies, and then you come back to wrestling. And are you going back into the movie scenes? Or, you know, is that a big aspiration? The other you saw with DJ did. He was, you know, wrestling and he went to the movies and came back and he comes back and forth. Is that something you'd potentially be interested in? As I continue to grow and elevate in the wrestling space, I started to feel all these different tools and skills being developed and sharpened. So for me, when the opportunity came, it was just like, man, it makes sense.

47:14And it will help my wrestling star continue to rise. but it was always just I wanted to wrestle. And then once I got into wrestling, I was like, I want to be the very best wrestler, not only just in the industry, but from my family. And that, I mean, that's a tall task in its own right.

47:28Shannon Sharpe:Yes. But, yeah, I mean, that's kind of where I'm at now. You're a wrestling fan. Give me your Mount Rushmore. My Mount Rushmore. Your Mount Rushmore.

47:42Jalen Brunson:My Mount Rushmore. Hmm. Wow.

47:50Jalen Brunson:I'm going to put Roman Roman

47:56Jalen Brunson:like you said my matchmaking I'm putting Rhea I'm putting Rhea Ripley Rhea Ripley Rhea Ripley Jeff Hardy Jeff Hardy

48:13Jalen Brunson:I'm going to say Undertaker

48:14Shannon Sharpe:those four Take her. Yeah, those were. That's the Mount Rushmore. Those were. You get asked that all the time. And you know the wrestling because your family was in it. So you go back 30, as long as you can remember, you know wrestling. And you watch the transition of go from the old school, the NWA, and the Georgia Championship Wrestling, and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. So who were some of your favorite wrestlers when you were growing up? Well, I mean, yeah, it's hard for me not to be biased. But, I mean, within my own family, my bloodline, I mean, we have to always go back to Dwayne's grandfather, the high chief, Peter Maivia.

48:51He's the foundation of our family. Without him introducing it to my father and my uncle, Afa and Sika, I wouldn't be here, you know what I mean? So it's tough to go down that line. But, yeah, I mean, because I was so biased. I love what my family did, and I could see, you know, my athleticism through them. But, I mean, you know, I would say as far as a Mount Rushmore that I'm not on, because I would just throw me. You all four heads, huh? Just put a big-ass head, one of them, just me. But, no, I mean, it's different because if you're a real fan, you know there's a couple of different shades and layers to this.

49:35Are we in ring? Are we just talking about the money and the business? So I tend to. Are we talking about, yeah, the charisma and the talking? But to me, it's got to be the overall package. You got to have all of that. And, I mean, you know, we could go back to Cody's dad, the dream. He was up there. Ric Flair. You know, someone for me that was big. And, you know, a lot of people do throw him in the Mount Rushmore talk. But Bret Hart. Yep. A different hit. That was more of a technical type of athletic in-ring guy. He wasn't the most charismatic, but you believed in what he was telling you. He was authentic to his character.

50:17Steve, Stone Cold. Ain't nobody like Steve. Nobody did it like Dwayne. No one ever came in and did three years and was like, Hollywood, here I come. You know what I mean? And it worked, and it stuck. and then you got Cena, and then you got me. So, I mean, if you look at it, all the top guys, there's no way to put four of us on there. Yeah, it's tough. But we're all very similar, but we're all our own thing in our own right. You know what I mean? We all have that same fabric, but it just looks a little different. Thank you.

50:48Shannon Sharpe:Before we get out of here, I gotta do this one more time, guys, I'm sorry. We're moving like the speed I do. I don't always get a lot of lead time. That is why Amazon Prime can make the difference. It makes easy to say yes when the moments show up. Same day delivery is on Prime Available in select areas Terms apply Visit Amazon.com slash Prime To find millions of items delivered fast Thank you guys That's it for Nightcap Thank Jaden Bruce Roman Reigns, the tribal chief Thank you guys

51:59We'll see you next time.

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