Alex and Jason’s Kids Join Us For a Father’s Day Special!

0:00Get the news you need in just 15 minutes. Start your day with Bloomberg Daybreak, the podcast with a global view on the stories that matter. I'm Nathan Hager. And I'm Karen Moscow. Join us each morning for curated stories on current events, politics, business and foreign relations. Plus one conversation on the day's biggest developments all in just 15 minutes. Subscribe to Bloomberg Daybreak for a precise, thoughtful take on the stories that matter. Listen to Bloomberg Daybreak each morning on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you listen. Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

0:41Welcome back to The Deal. I'm Jason Kelly alongside my partner, Alex Rodriguez. All right, Alex. So we've interviewed a lot of important people on this show, some of the literally most famous athletes in the world, billionaires, entrepreneurs. But today, something a little bit different. We've been talking about this for a couple of years. I can't believe it's finally happening. Maybe the toughest interviews we've ever done, or at least the most worrisome, are children. Why are we doing this? That's a great question. I'm not sure whose idea it was, but here we go. We're going to do it. Jason, I'm usually very excited about all our interviews.

1:18Today, I'm both excited and nervous, especially my little one, Ella, you'll see, that's going to be a freshman in North Carolina next year. She is spicy, to say the least. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So Natasha and Ella, your two daughters, they are in, as you said, Ella's getting ready to go to college and Tasha is already in college. And then you have my two sons, Will, who's 23, Henry is 21. And then the real wild card, Alice, she's eight. She's got a lot of thoughts and she's got some questions. She's got a lot of answers. and what's fun about this is I'm going to ask your daughter some questions.

1:54You're going to ask my sons and daughter some questions. We don't know the questions that each of us are going to ask. That's the most worrisome part because, by the way, I know my questions for your daughters and so I can only imagine what you're going to ask my sons. But they're excited too. Yours are spicy and this is the part of the game show that I don't love, but here we are. It's going to be a great one. And I have to say, I know it's the case for my boys. They love sports and Alice. I mean, there's going to be a lot of Knicks talk. I can predict that because they've been laser focused on that.

2:26I think your daughters are more theater kids, but, you know, they obviously grew up in the, not just in the shadow, but practically on the fields of Major League Baseball. So they've got some takes on sports as well, I would imagine. They do, and they have strong opinions, and you'll hear them. Strong opinions about you. I know them enough to know that that's true. All right, so coming up, our kids for a special Father's Day edition of The Deal.

3:03So, Alex, as discussed, this is a very special episode of our show. We've talked to a lot of important people, no more important people in our lives than our children. And so we're going to do our first segment with your daughters, Natasha and Ella. So before I ask them some questions, why don't you introduce them to our audience? Well, thank you, Jason. Yes, this is very exciting. I'm usually very excited to interview all our guests as we speak about offline. But this one, I'm excited and nervous because my daughters can say anything at any point. I'm going to start introducing Natasha Rodriguez.

3:40She was raised right here in Miami. She's at the University of Michigan. She's a rising senior next year. She's in musical theater, which they have a great program. And right now she's in Wichita doing a little bit of musical theater. On the other corner, I have Ella Rodriguez, who just graduated high school. She has a great passion around sports management. She's very excited to start at the University of North Carolina next year, where she'll be a freshman. Go Tar Heels. I know. You guys, I mean, you picked two very good sports goals. All right. Nice job introducing them, Alex. You know, although I have to say, girls, I'm going to say this to start.

4:19Your dad is pretty cool, calm and collected, like on the field and on this show. He's the most nervous I've ever seen him on this show, by the way. Like, we've interviewed Magic Johnson. We've interviewed Bill Belichick. Ella, your future coach at your school. Like, no, he's cool. Cool as the other side of the pillow. He's like, you know, up to bat at Yankee Stadium. But, you know, you two get on and all of a sudden he's like, uh, uh, mm, uh. So this is good. I like this. I like this. I must admit, I'm sorry to interrupt you. I wrote to both of them this morning and I usually write like something like, you know, good morning, gorgeous or whatever.

4:56How'd you sleep? And, you know, what do you have planned on your day? And Natasha wrote back and said, you don't know what we're doing today? I said, yes, besides that. So they've been ready. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, Natasha, I'm going to start with you because your dad mentioned your musical theater and all that you're doing in the theater. It sounds like you're having an awesome summer there between years at Michigan, Go Blue. And so this is a musical theater question. Okay. If you had to cast your dad in a musical or to write a musical about it, like, what would it be? What's the musical theater interpretation of the Alex Rodriguez story?

5:37Oh, wow. I might have to write that. I don't know if that exists yet.

5:45Well, my dad was in a musical in his lifetime. He was in Greece in eighth grade. He played Danny Zuko. And he's told me that he remembers. Yes. And he, right. Yes. But he remembers picking up a girl and that would have been whoever played Sandy. I don't know who she is or where she is right now and I don't have footage of this like I need it and so if anybody watching this has footage of Greece at St. Thomas in Miami right yes yeah please send it our way we need it I know someone has footage of that so I don't think there's a character that encapsulates his personality and his life but if he had to play a character I'd probably put him in hairspray as corny collins who is the host of the corny collins show and i love her i'm actually going to be in it later this summer you can see it right ella i can yeah i can see daddy doing that because like he doesn't have to dance he doesn't really have like it's all personality it's all personality it's kind of like hosting this show it's like hosting a podcast or like commentating which he has experience with he just like introduces a lot of confidence too which we can get on that a lot of content.

7:06He always gets to wear a suit. Daddy loves to wear a suit. Yeah. You know? So I think... Perfect. I think it'd be a perfect role for him. I think this is great. I mean, first of all, this footage is going to come to light. I am confident that someone has a VHS tape. I mean, if those even... I mean, I don't know. Maybe it's Betamax, Alex. We're not young men. So, I mean, who knows? It's not like someone could record it on their phone. But, all right. So the St. Thomas production of Grace. We need a little AI. an AI of him playing that character. We need someone to get him to make that. Right. So now this is the answer to the trivia question.

7:44What do Alex Rodriguez and John Travolta have in common? They both play Danny Zuko. All right, that's good. There you go. So Ella, I think you and your sister were prime architects of this via social media that your dad got into some TikTok dances and trends with a lot of encouragement from you guys. which one do you think he was the best at and which was he the worst at we did them a lot in quarantine because not much to do around the house so we resorted to tiktok dances and i think i think what made them fun was kind of just like us doing whatever and we didn't really stick to the dances i kind of just told him like just have fun in the background like it'll look good wait i know which one was the best which you go first I won't forget I know I'm just remembering that he he like ended up meeting like a really famous tiktoker charlie d 'amelio and I remember when I watched their video I was like wow like daddy's actually doing this pretty well like better than he ever did with us so I I feel like I've watched him do better tiktoks than what he's made with us if that makes sense so you guys were good trainers you're good teachers you you sort of like put him out into the world Yeah, we prepped him well for, like, the big TikTok world.

8:59But, like, within the house, like, I just remember, like, kind of just goofing around. I can't remember, like, one that he, like, nailed. Do you remember one? I know it's not a dance, but my favorite TikTok that we've done as a family is the one where you get in a group and, like, you say this line and then everybody hypes you up when you say it. But then, like, the last person to say it. the last person to say like no hype and did we ever post it all or did we just take it for us no i can this one i can explain this one my cousin nick posted because my cousin nick is a big tiktok star and and there was a trend i'm sure like i'm sure like if you're watching this you know the trend but you have to say like just give me my money and like kind of like a funny voice and we all went around and we like, when you say it, you get like a big applause and then we all planned prior that when my dad does it, like none of us laugh or clap and you came out like really full force, like ready to go, ready for the applause and like, it was just like silence, crickets.

10:05I can send you guys the video. Y 'all give me my money! Just give me my money! Yeah! Just give me my money! King Roddy, give me my money.

10:28Yeah, that one might need to resurface. That one was the best one for sure. Oh my God. This is the most revealing interview we've ever done on this show. This is amazing. It's a roast. I love it. You nailed it. You nailed it. That's great. All right. So the next part is actually there are some visual aids required for this. We're going to have some things pop onto the screen here. We're going to show you three photos of outfits your dad has worn over the years, and we need you to rank them from worst to best. I'm excited. Oh, it's loading. Oh. Oh, wow. Wait, these aren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be.

11:08These are kind of good. Okay, Tasha, hear me out. Listening. I'm going to put like the classic daddy uniform, just suit and tie number one. Okay. Can you get behind that? I can get behind that. I'm between suit walking down the street and the call because that's just like so of the time. Iconic. So iconic. This other one is absolutely atrocious. No, no, no. What is that out there? I don't know what's going on there. That's horrible. era that was who just got dressed in the dark i don't like that at all it's like you took the word like the most contrasting three articles of clothing and just like threw them on i feel like i'm cyberbullying that's awful no but it's fine i think i'm gonna go number one sue i'm gonna go number two iconic call and i'm gonna go third just that atrocious distant distant third yeah Now that we've torn him to shreds, I will say I really do love my dad's style.

12:14And, you know, there are days where I guess we catch him in an off moment. But I can proudly say that that is an off moment. Like, if I saw that person from the back, I would not say it was my dad. That's a rare occasion. It's a very rare occurrence. He is very stylish. He's very stylish. And the suit, like, how well it fits him is, like, very true to his brand. And I would say I've seen my dad, I was going to say more in a suit than anything else, but that's not necessarily true. But if he's doing anything for work, even if it's not too formal of an event, he's in a suit, which I admire a lot.

12:59Yes, confirmed. Yeah, I think it's a cool character trait of his. I like to think I got my sense of fashion from my dad. Oh, that's nice. All right. So the last two questions for you guys are, each of you say, your favorite memory of your dad. Natasha, do you have one? I mean, I have a recent memory, but it's not my favorite of all time. We're so blessed. We've had so many wonderful memories. A great recent memory is perfect. Well, my 21st birthday was in November and I was at school and he came to Detroit just for the day and had lunch with me and gave me a beautiful handwritten card, which is my favorite gift to receive.

13:49And I just appreciate that quality time, especially as we've gotten older, is like what we value most. and he's a busy, busy guy. So the fact that he just made that special time to come to me on my birthday was very special. That's a great one. Bella? Okay, so again, not my favorite, but I think the most recent one that I can recall. So the first time we visited Chapel Hill, UNC, when I was figuring out if that's where I wanted to go, which I fell in love immediately. But my favorite thing that my dad does with my sister and with me is that we'll go to the gift shop and he will terrorize that gift shop like there's no tomorrow buying all the UNC dad, Michigan dad, Tar Heels, like Chapel Bill, like he was buying all the merch and he's just always so supportive of like because he's a big college fan, you know, he didn't get to have his own college experience.

14:52So he's obsessed with college. He's so supportive. And you can tell how happy he is that we picked two, like, awesome state schools that are so great with sports. And I remember with my sister, even before she got into Michigan, even before I got into UNC, I'm telling you, like, we must have manifested that because the amount we bought from each gift store. And it was all him. It was all him saying, oh, my God, this would look so good on you. Can't you see yourself wearing this? And I just think that's so fun because it gets us really excited. Even if that's not where we ended up, which it was, he got us feeling really hopeful and really optimistic.

15:29So I definitely enjoyed that. Just a cool thing that my dad has instilled in both of us, and Ella kind of just brought it up with buying all the merch. It sounds ridiculous, but he's always taught us to visualize what we want and has instilled the belief in us that we can really do whatever it is we imagine. um and then you know on the way to school in elementary school and we were both young he would always and maybe this is like a memory that we share that we both enjoyed like we both will never forget these rides to school where he would just like lay lessons into us yeah maybe not enjoy but remember um we would be going to school you know him in the front both of us in the back and he'd start talking about like investment banking and be like this is what you You know, when we're like, you know, like five and eight.

16:22And then especially like we learned a lot about stocks at that time and what it means to invest. And it sounds crazy, but he's a very good way of verbalizing things. And I remember pairing like business with imagination. And it's like, if you can imagine it, then it can be true. Or if you can visualize it, it can be true. and he's very skilled when it comes to passing lessons on and I think we'll both remember that even if we didn't enjoy it at the moment.

16:58All right Alex last word to you any questions for the girls? Well I would just say I'm going to answer the question because as they were thinking I was thinking and it's impossible to have a dad girls relationship into one memory but the one that I think brings it all together for me because it kind of summarizes my playing days, my growth as a person through my therapy, and also kind of becoming more of their friends now slash dad is August 12th and 2016 is the day that I retired from the New York Yankees. And after the game, like forever, I remember the two girls coming across the field. And that like basically summarized 25 years of my work with my two favorite people in the world.

17:41And that was pretty cool. yeah i've seen that picture it's it's iconic for sure it's it's almost as like it's even more iconic than you and that denim shirt and your tie taking the call natasha and ellie you guys are the best thank you so much i think alex i have this sneaking suspicion that we're just gonna like spin off shows from our show and that our kids are just we're gonna create a podcast network so um natasha great uh break a leg this summer thank you i'm so excited for you and ella good luck getting ready for school. Thank you. Thanks, girls. I love you so much. Thanks for having us.

18:16Bye.

19:01All right, Alex. So for the next segment, we've got my boys. I've got two segments because we're going to talk to our boys. and then we're going to get a chance to talk to our daughter, Alice. So introducing you to Will and Henry. Will's 23. He's a paralegal in New York. And then Henry is 21, just graduated from University of Rhode Island and is going to work in communications in New York City later this summer. And these are my guys. I mean, these are my golf buddies. These are my pride and joy. and I'm excited for them to be here for this Father's Day edition. Well, I love it, Jason. Thank you.

19:42You can go on mute now. I'm going to talk to them. I'm not kidding. Will and Henry, good to see you guys again. I'll say a couple of nice things before I ask you a few questions about your father. So he's been an incredible, incredible partner to me, and I've learned so much from him. He's obviously a great teacher, and he's very patient with me. You need patience. Obviously, probably not so much with you guys. But I've also met your grandpa and your grandma, Jason's father and mom, who I think Jason's mother may be my favorite person in the world. When she speaks with her twang, she's amazing.

20:13I just love her to pieces. And of course, I know your mother. So this is going to be fun. So I guess my first question starts with you have to. I see, Henry, you're rocking the Knicks shirt. What was your favorite moment from this Knicks run? I mean, it has to be coming back from down 29 in the garden. I mean, it looked bleak for a while. I almost turned off the TV, but I knew that we were going to be able to come back and pull it off for sure. But just the grit from this team, Jalen Brunson especially, to come back and put the team on his back like that is just incredible. So that's probably my favorite moment from the series.

20:50I will say, Alex, to Henry's credit, we have a text chain. Everybody's got their family text chains. We have a text chain with my two brothers, Wynn and Sam and Henry and Will. And Henry was like, threw out. Like there was a lot of chirping in that text thread, Kelly boys with a Z. And Henry was standing firm that they were going to come back. So he's got the receipts. Love it. I knew after we were down 22 in the fourth quarter against Cleveland, there's no way we weren't going to be able to pull this one off too. So got to always believe. Will? Yeah, I think for me, it's the easy answer, but it's the only answer, is that game four comeback.

21:31I was with a bunch of my buddies. I sort of dragged them out to the bar, especially after the Monday loss. Dragged them out to the bar on a Wednesday night. We were there. It was so busy. They go down. They keep going down. They keep going down. And by halftime, the whole bar leaves. A bunch of them try to go, and I'm like, guys, let's just stick it out. Who knows what's going to happen? Like, these guys are clutch. They love it. They're starving. You never know. And we waited it out. And third quarter gets going. They get a little hot. People start coming back into the bar. People start coming back in.

22:04And that just builds into these last 30 seconds where the whole place explodes. And then everybody just piles on the street at midnight on a Wednesday. and like cars are honking, fire trucks are coming by, lights blaring, and it feels like nothing I've ever experienced before. And I think that's when everybody knew like, oh, it's over. They had like broken the spine of the Spurs. The team had come together. All those videos that you see on Instagram of Brunson down 29, bringing the team together, just chip away. Let's just chip away. We've been here before. So that game going on the street after all the videos of like, That is what makes the Knicks this season such a special team is them just sticking together and never giving up.

22:49And Henry in the chat the whole time, he knew it. Never a doubt. So, Will, we're going to stay with you here. How would you describe your dad's level of Knicks fandom? Somewhere between casual and anti. I remember Henry a couple weeks ago. Well, Henry, a couple weeks ago, a couple months ago, we were watching a game. and I forget who was against, but the Knicks were on and they were playing and Henry's locked into the game. He's staring right at the TV. My dad's not even watching. And then my brother forces my dad to break down not only the Knicks, not his top team, but they're not even in the top two because of you and the T-Wolves and then Atlanta.

23:32And then I guess somewhere way down there is the Knicks. So that's what I would rank his fandom at. Oh, I love it. but Alex don't you appreciate that I think like that's legit it's like the Hawks are my hometown team and then you're my partner and I root for you and like I have a vested interest in your success and so I root for the Wolves I no apologies I love it I love it I appreciate that of course the level of mutual respect between business partners but come on we've been lived in New York for how long and we're still rooting for the Hawks and what are we doing that's where I stand on it but teach their own by the way alex henry was mad i mean he was like legitimately like i think he walked out of the room like he was like i don't even i how can you even say that to me i love it i love it well we'll go henry will and then jason best starting five in your opinion of all time i mean i really that's such a tough question i'm gonna defer to my dad on this one and then come back to me.

24:32All right, Will, you take it. All right. Let's see. I think I got to go with the game changer. Best shooter of all time. Curry at my one. At my two, I'm trying to think. I do like his chemistry with Klay. He's sort of fallen off, but I do like the two of them together. But honestly, I want maybe not a real shooting guard, but I like the two of them play style. I'm going with Kyrie at two. three i'm gonna go kobe four i'm gonna go lebron and five i'm taking kareem that would be my those are my five good one will henry you want to you to jump back in yeah i think i'm ready to go i'd say my top five i'm gonna go brunson uh gotta have lebron in there uh i love kevin durant that's just a silky shooter if i've ever seen one um i think shaquille o 'neal this isn't my top five all time these are just players i love to watch but i'm gonna put shaquille o 'neal just for entertainment factor and then my five i guess we'll we gotta have mj in there if we're talking top fives we have to all right do i have to do mine this is hard okay so my i mean i'm gonna go with basically my five favorite players of all time and i'm gonna say magic mj dominique shout out atlanta i'm just doing that purely to troll henry um and and will i love steph and then the fifth i'm definitely playing to to the audience here to this audience of uh three gotta go and he's the future oh yeah i love that that's probably I love that.

26:23All right, so now if the three of you were the three starters for the New York Knicks, I'm going to start with Will. A, what position would you play? And two, who would be the other four and five to fill in this Kelly All-Star team? Ooh, that's a good question. As much as I wish I was Brunson, I think I see myself more as a heart archetype. maybe not the height but that sort of energy is what i really try to go for that sort of defense like do anything for the team dive in the floor all that kind of stuff so i see myself as sort of like a josh hart archetype character if i had to i love that and and alex that actually totally tracks because will played college lacrosse as you probably know and he was ferocious on defense he He was a defensive midfielder and he could get a little scrappy.

27:20And I think in his first ever college game, he like clocked somebody who had like gone up against one of his boys. And he's definitely got some. He's got some Josh Hart in him. Those Nova Knicks, as much as it pains me to say as a Georgetown person, those Nova Knicks. There's a lot to love. I mean, Henry's wearing his Brunson jersey, though. All right, Henry, what's yours? What kind of player would you be? What position? and then give me who would be your four and five. I'm probably not starting if I'm being honest. I'm probably coming in off the bench when energy's a little... Alvarado. Yeah.

27:54Alvarado. I'd say I would love to be an Alvarado, Shamit, Deuce McBride kind of guy, six man off the bench, but coming in, hit some huge threes towards the end of the game. And as for players to finish our four and five, we're probably going to need a cat and a Mitch just because we don't have a lot of height in the Kelly family. So that could probably help us out in the post a little bit, but we can facilitate down to them. Okay. Jason? God, I mean, listen, I'd love to say I'm OG. I mean, just because I think that's going to go down as one of the most iconic plays in the history. I love the finish.

28:34I love sticking with it. I would definitely want to have – I love Cat, you know, and I know, Alex, you know him well from the Minnesota days. I just think he was such an incredible glue guy for this team. And I think his willingness to show emotion and authenticity is just really, really amazing. And I love Alvarado. I mean, in part because he landed on our boss's lap, Mike Bloomberg's lap during the game, which was one of the great memes of the entire series. So I'd love that five. I think I texted you about Alvarado landing on Mike Bloomberg's lap. Yes. And you gave a very response, very funny response to that text.

29:17Yes. Yes, exactly. All right. So we're going to start with you, Henry. With your dad, what is your favorite part about watching sports with your father? I just think he loves sports so much, but he's emotionally invested in just the right amount. and like he's never getting too high or too low about sports, which I think is something that I've really taken from him. And then also just picking up on all like the little niche behind the scenes stuff that he's kind of learned about that just gives it, it's a really cool angle to watch any sport from really. So that's what I appreciate about watching sports with him.