In short
The episode is a live-from-ESPN pregame show for NBA Finals Monday in New York City, centered on Game 3/next game hype, matchup expectations, and what it means for Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama after the Spurs are down 2-0.
Guests and backgrounds
- Kendrick Perkins (former NBA champion; 5 Finals appearances; Celtics title experience).
- Pete Thamel (college sports reporter; “authority on college sports”).
- Mike Greenberg (ESPN host/analyst).
- Erik Johnson (ESPN NBA analyst).
- Quinton Richardson (former NBA player; Knicks background referenced).
Key claims and notable examples
- New York Knicks fans are described as extremely loud and the Garden as “ready to explode,” with the Knicks seeking their first multi-game Finals lead since 1973.
- Jalen Brunson is argued as the true MVP-type performer despite not being the regular-season MVP pick; Perkins says Brunson’s late-game scoring is elite and that his season numbers weren’t “eye candy,” but his clutch impact over two years is unmatched.
- Wembanyama is criticized as not yet “dominating” in this series; Perkins says the Knicks’ defensive scheme (load up boxes/elbows) limits paint scoring, so Wemby must win defensively and create a signature offensive move.
- A specific crunch-time example is discussed: Brunson’s late-game steal/lead sequence in the Finals, contrasted with Wemby’s earlier costly late-game pass off Castle’s back.
- On the college sports segment, Pete Thamel discusses an injunction upheld by a Texas judge allowing Brendan Sorsby to play despite NCAA gambling suspension, calling it a major precedent for local rulings overriding NCAA rules.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOInside ESPN Bristol
0:45 to 2:10
Exploring the unique atmosphere and history of the ESPN campus in Bristol.
“So I don't know if that was directly to me.”
NBA Finals Atmosphere
2:10 to 4:48
Discussing the excitement surrounding the NBA Finals and the Knicks' performance.
“Now, obviously, this is a massive ordeal for not only the sport, the league, but the biggest city in the United States of America.”
Knicks Game Analysis
4:48 to 6:57
Analyzing the Knicks' chances and the historical significance of their current performance.
“We were doing it in the Thunderdome at one point.”
Knicks Game Analysis
7:08 to 7:27
Analyzing the Knicks' chances and the historical significance of their current performance.
“So we've got to this point of Pat McAfee.”
Game Predictions and Insights
7:41 to 8:45
Discussing betting lines and predictions for the upcoming game.
“That is a crazy amount of money, but obviously it's going to be a legendary night.”
Player Performances and Matchups
8:45 to 13:22
Analysis of player performances, including Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama.
“Yeah, I think tonight shall be exciting strictly because we're going to be in the garden.”
Analyzing Key Player Matchups
14:00 to 17:30
Explore the dynamics between key players like Wemby and Cat in their matchups.
“you're kind of leading him right to the sideline.”
Kendrick Perkins Joins the Discussion
17:30 to 19:59
Kendrick Perkins shares his insights and excitement for the upcoming game.
“I can't believe that we are allowed to be there.”
Jalen Brunson's Impact and MVP Conversation
19:59 to 23:19
A deep dive into Jalen Brunson's performance and MVP candidacy.
“So I'm getting that, but I just want to be in the building.”
Wemby's Performance and Expectations
23:19 to 28:00
Discussing Wemby's gameplay and the expectations for him in crucial moments.
“Because it's not a shot that he's afraid that he's not going to take.”
Show all 43 chapters
Wemby's Performance and Potential in the Finals
28:00 to 36:19
A deep dive into Wemby’s recent performances and the challenges he faces in the finals.
“Y 'all tapped out on the guy that was giving y 'all 25 points and 12 rebounds a night.”
Mitch Johnson's Coaching Decisions and Future of College Sports
36:20 to 42:00
Discussion on Mitch Johnson's strategies and the state of college sports amid changes.
“And when I say spread his wings, like at some point you got to say, here, young fella, take over the show.”
Breaking Down the Soresby Case
42:00 to 45:50
Discussion on the unprecedented ruling allowing Brendan Soresby to play college football despite gambling issues.
“It seemed like, of course, it would be super corrupt.”
The Implications of Gambling in College Sports
45:50 to 50:00
Exploration of the broader implications of the court ruling on gambling in college sports.
“Now granted, I'm sitting with a DraftKings helmet in front of me.”
Future of NCAA Rules and Local Rulings
50:00 to 53:40
Analysis of how local court rulings may challenge NCAA authority and the potential changes in enforcement.
“So the judge didn't get into a ton other than basically agreeing with that core argument from Kessler and anyone.”
Reflections on Gambling and Player Integrity
53:40 to 56:00
Discussion on the importance of maintaining integrity in sports regarding player gambling.
“And obviously it's interesting you bring up Cody Campbell.”
Discussing the Impact of Gambling in Sports
56:00 to 57:02
The conversation revolves around the implications of gambling by players and its consequences.
“But that doesn't mean that we should ever think it's okay for players to be gambling.”
Previewing NBA Finals and Player Performances
57:53 to 1:00:08
A detailed breakdown of the NBA Finals, focusing on key players like Jalen Brunson and Wemby.
“Jibman, obviously, showcasing this beautiful studio that we are in.”
Baker Mayfield's Contract Situation
1:00:08 to 1:04:16
The hosts discuss Baker Mayfield's contract negotiations with the Buccaneers and implications for the team.
“where he thinks he potentially wants it.”
Chicago Bears Stadium Development Update
1:04:16 to 1:10:00
Insights into the potential move of the Chicago Bears to Indiana and the implications for the franchise.
“Some big news happened over the weekend.”
Discussion on Bears' Move to Indiana
1:10:00 to 1:12:24
Exploring the implications of the Chicago Bears potentially moving to Indiana.
“The way they describe it, it's like we're trying to create the area, you know, because that whole area calls themselves Chicago anyways.”
Greenberg's Take on Team Moves
1:12:42 to 1:19:08
Discussing the emotional impact of teams moving cities and personal experiences with it.
“I have not welcomed the New York guys, although you are, well, you're as close to New York as Hammond, Indiana is to Chicago.”
The Gambling Controversy in Sports
1:19:08 to 1:24:00
Addressing the complexities around sports gambling and its impact on athletes and fans.
“Colts don't want to become the chargers of Indiana.”
NCAA's Loss of Authority and Player Rights
1:24:00 to 1:25:40
Discussing the NCAA's diminished power and the implications for college athletes.
“And I don't know if people agree with us or not, but we naturally fall into the same boat there.”
The Importance of Player Compensation
1:25:40 to 1:27:10
Exploring the evolution of college sports and the need for players to be compensated.
“That's a crazy thing to, like, publicly witness because I've never been a super, hey, the NCAA is the right people to be making decisions.”
Brendan Sorsby's Situation and Future
1:27:10 to 1:29:00
Analyzing Brendan Sorsby's case and its implications on player eligibility.
“and who the hell knows, that suggests that other players can do this.”
The New York Knicks and Upcoming Finals
1:29:00 to 1:30:50
Discussing the Knicks' unexpected playoff success and the excitement surrounding the finals.
“I don't know what the right setup for all of it is.”
Madison Square Garden Atmosphere
1:30:50 to 1:32:30
Describing the electric atmosphere of Madison Square Garden during critical games.
“Yeah, we're talking about Chicago, Soldier Field, obviously Madison Square Garden, most famous arena in the world.”
Impact of Fan Energy on Game Performance
1:32:30 to 1:34:00
Examining how crowd energy can influence player performance during games.
“And so it's going to be incredibly loud.”
Expectations for Tonight's Game
1:34:00 to 1:35:30
Setting the stage for the Knicks' playoff game and what to expect from the fans.
“and steals the finals, happiness, and joy out of the world's most famous arena.”
New York City's Unique Sports Culture
1:35:30 to 1:37:20
Discussing the cultural significance of the Knicks in New York's sports landscape.
“It's going to be a night unlike anything you've ever seen.”
NHL Stanley Cup Final Insights
1:38:55 to 1:41:05
Eric Johnson shares insights on the Stanley Cup Finals, including player performances and critical moments.
“New York Knicks are about to do something that's bringing an entire city together.”
Analyzing Goalie Decisions and Player Dynamics
1:41:06 to 1:44:24
Discussion on potential goalie changes and the dynamics within the NHL playoff teams.
“I love that you guys naturally try to eat pucks, but also we'll take it in the nose if we have to, right in the forehead.”
Celebrating Eric Johnson's Transition to Media
1:44:25 to 1:45:44
Eric Johnson talks about his transition into the media world and camaraderie with sports personalities.
“I mean, I have one, and it was the greatest day of my life.”
Fan Reactions and Criticisms
1:45:45 to 1:47:15
Hosts react to fan criticisms and share their perspectives on sports analysis.
“Yeah, they would say he's throwing a fit.”
Previewing Tonight's Knicks Game
1:47:25 to 1:51:49
Quinton Richardson discusses the atmosphere and expectations for the Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.
“You need to get over to Madison Square Garden now.”
Travel Plans and Helicopter Jokes
1:52:00 to 1:53:39
The hosts jokingly discuss their unconventional travel logistics for an event.
“I haven't heard much about the amount of time it would take.”
Reflections on Bristol and Upcoming Events
1:53:40 to 1:55:40
The hosts express gratitude for their experience in Bristol and discuss the upcoming NBA Finals.
“Goodbye Alright, I think we hit that Now we actually have to get on those helicopters And get down there Is DJ TGJ You alright?”
West Virginia Baseball Experience
1:55:46 to 1:56:47
The hosts talk about their positive experiences at a West Virginia college baseball game.
“Had a good you moment when West Virginia took out Kyle Pauly.”
Highlights of the Super Regional Game
1:56:48 to 1:58:58
Detailed recounting of the excitement from the college baseball super regional game.
“He was fucking hysterical and obviously all in on the Mountaineers.”
Previewing Omaha and College Baseball Teams
1:58:59 to 2:01:09
Discussion about the teams heading to Omaha for the college baseball tournament.
“And I believe that – I don't want to say it's over, but, yeah, okay.”
Atmosphere and Fan Engagement at Games
2:01:10 to 2:02:55
The hosts describe the lively atmosphere and the engagement of fans during the games.
“The other team will move into the loser's bracket.”
Cherishing the Experience and Shared Moments
2:02:56 to 2:05:26
The hosts reminisce about their shared experiences and moments at the games.
“I had people saying they were impressed with everybody up there knowing the words.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to Bristol, Connecticut, the ESPN studio for this NBA Finals Monday that starts now.
0:14Pat McAfee:Sports are happening all around us, and we are in a place that is an epicenter of sports coverage since 1979. Yes, we are in the home of ESPN up here in Bristol, and I'll tell you, every time you come up here, you wonder, How the hell was this the place that they decided to put this conglomerate that would obviously showcase sports more so than any other network on earth? And I'll tell you, it has a nice little novelty to it. It feels like you're driving literally past somebody's house. You get down a back road, you turn in there, boom, college campus of sports. This place is glorious. There's a lot of people working here.
0:45Pat McAfee:Very nice to see everybody. A lot of hellos unanswered. So I don't know if that was directly to me. I'll take the Midwest, baby. That's a nine-year NFL vet. UConn Husky legend Darius J. Butler. Hey, Buczy. Hey, Buczy. They weren't saying hello to you either, but I just wanted to let you know that was going to happen in the last time. There was some friendly, obviously, interactions. The cafeteria here is phenomenal, but I think everybody's so locked in on their jobs. Now, what does everybody do here? Could be anything. I mean, we walk past rooms of people doing different stuff. I forgot how many different talents you need to be in this particular space.
1:14Pat McAfee:I forgot how much space is needed to be in this particular space. And in the sky right now above us, every light that is in Connecticut is in the studio above us. Right. This board right here is the highest of highest of class. I mean, it is absolutely glorious and beautiful. Obviously, the commitment to sports coverage is very real by ESPN and has been since the beginning of time. Can you do that light thing? Can you do that light thing that we just saw right before we went live? Just so everybody can understand what's kind of going on over here. I wonder. Go cool lights. That's what we're doing.
1:43Pat McAfee:Now, they're trying to welcome us in here. They're like, hey, listen, let's get this thing excited and celebrated. They turn these things up. I believe Vibe Check is kind of shot right over there. They got, I did college game day, I think, shot on this side over here. And this is just one building. There's a hundred of them. Okay, there's a hundred of these buildings. And it's an honor to be here, especially. Go with the lights. Can we cool with cool lights? Jeez. I like the Undertaker there kind of on the corner. Today is a glorious day. Obviously, it's a huge day. NBA finals have come to New York City.
2:14Pat McAfee:Now, obviously, this is a massive ordeal for not only the sport, the league, but the biggest city in the United States of America. There's been parties happening in New York that I think are really bringing people together like we've never seen before. Now, obviously, Fat Joe said something along. He saw acidic Jews dancing in the Bronx, I believe. This has brought us closer than anything he's ever seen since 9-11 is what he brought up. He said the city has come together to rally around this Knicks team more than anything he's seen. This is people coming out of the city of New York saying to the world, like, hey, this has been incredible for us.
2:48Pat McAfee:It's been fun to watch. The parties are in the street. The parties are all over the city. The parties are – there's a watch-along going on. And obviously, Madison Square Garden is going to be outrageous tonight as the alien travels in down 2-0 to take on this inevitable Jalen Brunson. You know, we did a whole MVP conversation. Funny, okay, because obviously that's a regular season award. And we're like, is it going to be SGA or is it going to be Wemby? Wemby's getting disrespected in this entire thing. SGA, is that ethical hoops to be the MVP back-to-back? Nobody even mentioned 6 '1 Brunson here in New York.
3:16Pat McAfee:He's going to be a god here. Oh, yeah. I mean, G-A-W-D with all capital letters in New York City, if he's able to bring a title here. And what he has done in the final two minutes, there's some stats we got from Hembo. Within four points, within the final two minutes or something like that, Jalen Brunson has ten points. The next person who has any points, Victor Wembeye, is three. So in crunch time, in the clutch time, whenever you need him, this guy just rises to the moment. Two-time national championship in college. Now he's got a couple of his college teammates. Obviously, his dad, not only on last year's coaching staff, that coaching staff gets fired at the finals.
3:52Pat McAfee:Then this year's coaching staff, Coach Brown, who has obviously immense respect around the world. His dad has obviously been there. I mean, this has been a family affair for Brunson for a long time, and he's inevitable. This guy doesn't stop. It's fantastic to watch as a sports fan, and tonight we'll be calling it live from inside of Madison Square Garden alongside Q Rich in Perk. It'll be myself, D-Butt, and also the Toxic Table at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. it, Ty, feels like a glorious day for sports. And we understand how lucky we are to be in there to do this. A lot of people kind of attacking us for getting us.
4:25Pat McAfee:Oh, boo-hoo. Sorry. Although, on the flip side, I do understand because. Because we'd be killing us, too, if we were getting this opportunity and we're sitting in their seats. We think it's ridiculous that we're getting to do it. But I want to let everybody know, this isn't us being assholes here. We are trying to be an asset to society. We've had an incredible opportunity to be able to do this for college football in their biggest games. national championship game. We've had a chance to do it. We were doing it in the Thunderdome at one point. We're doing it as a watch along like others have done in the past.
4:52Pat McAfee:Once we got like boots on the ground and like in the building, it did feel as if we were able to provide something that maybe the main telecast wasn't able to provide. We're going to try to do that as well tonight. We're not trying to say that we are going to be a main broadcast, but you're certainly going to be able to watch the game with us. And we are going to certainly create some moments. I think that people will appreciate in the sports world. What we're saying is I understand your natural inclination. Whenever you see my face on something and maybe Connor and Ty as well and say these assholes are going to ruin it.
5:17Pat McAfee:We're trying our best not to. And maybe at the beginning we might think that that is the case or you might think that is the case. We're trying to crush this tonight. And Perk and Q Rich, we've been on the horn. I've been FaceTiming with Perk while he's driving. Dangerous. I know. Shouldn't be doing that. But he holds that thing every FaceTime. He always holds it up to his ear like this. So I never know what I'm doing. We're trying to make this good. Like legitimately trying to be an asset where you two boys are going to be tonight. I think will be a perspective that not a lot of people have maybe seen before or know before.
5:45Pat McAfee:But that building is about to be outrageous. I think we're going to try to showcase that. Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's one of those things where if you're afforded this opportunity, what are you going to say? No, you really can't. And, yeah, sure, people are going to be pissed or whatever if they see you or me and Connor. But, like, Perk and Q Rich, like, that's 27 years or 28 years of collective NBA experience. And, like you said, we, in our kind of pre-show, not today, but when we were talking about this, Q Rich, who played for the Knicks, was like people will remember this Knicks game for the rest of their lives.
6:16We've seen the ticket prices. Like I'm sure there are, you know, something off the top of your head or, you know, there are tickets that have maybe been more expensive in the past, but like this is arguably the most coveted ticket maybe in like the history of sports or in my lifetime. So the fact that we get to be in the building for this, like, yeah, I would assume. And the way you look at how all these games have gone, it's going to be unbelievable.
6:36Pat McAfee:Yeah, it is going to be unbelievable. And obviously what the Knicks have been able to do, First time the Knicks have been favored in a final game since 1990-something. Four or something like that, I believe, is the time. So we were talking about history, history, history. But you put that SeatGeek thing back up, by the way, you can get$30 off. Boom. There you go. You're welcome. There you go. Thanks. Welcome to the game. Yeah. Now I can go. Uh-huh. All you got to do is use promo code PATMACFE just straight across. P-A-T-M-C-A-F-E. We've had 1 ,000 different promo codes because what happens is every time we put a promo code up here on the screen, Somebody rips it and then puts it into a super coupon people's world.
7:12Pat McAfee:And then that thing just hits. Red it. Yeah, and then everybody starts. And by the way, red it can roll. They can do it if they want. Sure. Yeah, they can red. They can go and get. And then it gets. So we've got to this point of Pat McAfee. 30 bucks off for these final tickets. Not a bad idea. Wow. Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea. $964, you can get it. See? Boom. That's not counting fees. In this economy. Get a beer. Yeah, the fee's probably more than 30 bucks, actually. Yeah, certainly. But we're talking to them. But still. Fighting the fees. Exactly. Fighting the man out there. That's right. Shout out to SeatGeek for the ticket prices.
7:40Pat McAfee:Also, shout out to the people that are going to pay for that. Yeah. That's a lot of money. That is a crazy amount of money, but obviously it's going to be a legendary night. We can assume that. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Tone. Line has moved from two and a half to one and a half. Nick still favored for the first time in a finals game since 1994, but it moves a point. What does that mean? What are we finding out right here, Tone? Normally when it moves a point in that direction, it means that the money is coming in on the Spurs. That is not the case, though. Last time I checked, it's more on the Knicks.
8:09Obviously, when you go and you win two games on the road, the public money is most likely going to be on you. The over-under has ticked up a bit as well to 216.5 is now the over-under on this game as well, even though the first two games went to the under. And let's see here. In the last 43 games, the under is 29-13-1. So the money's coming in on the Knicks and the over, but it's going the opposite direction. So, you know, we'll see what happens tonight. But obviously game one, game two have been very, very close. Blown leads or comebacks, however you want to look at it, in each game. Close games in each situation.
8:44So very, very exciting game tonight.
8:46Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think tonight shall be exciting strictly because we're going to be in the garden. But what if this just becomes a runaway? You know, the Knicks have been winning by an average of 17.6 points this playoff. That would break the record of 14-point-something from, I forget what year it was, 2000-something. Lakers. Yeah, it was back in the day. It's like they are dominating people. and in the garden. I mean, who knows who's going to be sitting courtside tonight? Yeah, yeah. I mean, who knows who's going to be sitting courtside in there? And these courtside fans, the New York ones, and I'll give them some credit because we hate the Super Bowl is so corpo because we think you lose out on a lot of good fans.
9:18Pat McAfee:I think you lose out. Here in New York, like the celebrities actually are – like there's clips of Chalamet as a child outside Knicks games, you know, putting on – and he will go crazy for – Ben Stiller, they got pictures of him flexing. He's definitely on something. Yeah, jacked up. He's got a good character coming. Oh, yeah. Hopefully Tony Perkis. Yeah, there's a chance, too. I mean, there's certainly a chance. And with the modern science, I mean, he's going to continue to look like that. Fat Joe's going crazy. Tracy Morgan goes crazy out there. I mean, yeah, he's jacked. Come on. They're saying Fat Joe's arms just like that, too.
9:49Pat McAfee:I saw Fat Joe on the plane, okay, when everybody's hands go, oh. Same arms. Yeah, same arms. So maybe they did just put Fat Joe's arms on Ben Stiller there. But their celebrities do get into it. And they expect everybody else to. And the New York fans, we're around one of them. Yeah. They are very active. Oh, yeah, a lot. Let's go back to the control room in a different building with Foxy and the lads. Bruce Brown, congratulations, pal. Here we go, Bruce. Hey, Bruce, sir. Big night tonight for you and your Knicks. But I feel like you would say that the Knicks fans are very loud in public at games.
10:25Pat McAfee:You think that's a good descriptor of Knicks fans and New York fans as a whole? Definitely. I mean, even in – Jesus. Is it super loud? Hot there, bro. Yeah. Come on, man. That's what I'm talking about. Exactly. Exactly my point, by the way. New York guy. Exactly. New York fan right there. You hear how loud that was? So loud. He's also in the position to be able to control how loud he is. He chose to be louder. Don't quite know how, but I could, in theory, control it. Here comes the human. Now, listen, Madison Square Garden is going to be a scene tonight, Bruce. Is that how we should expect this evening's environment to look like?
10:58Yeah, absolutely. It's the first multi-game lead in an NBA final since they last won it in 1973. The Knicks have been bad for most of my life, and this is the big breakthrough. It is going to be a building ready to explode. You even heard the fans in San Antonio when Deuce McBride hits a big three. There's a massive Deuce chant for an away game. So, yeah, tonight the atmosphere will be absolutely biblical. I can't wait for everybody to experience it. It's going to be amazing.
11:31Pat McAfee:Shout out to – I don't think this New York team is as heelish as they could be. New York, big city. Okay, 13 straight. Haven't lost since April 23rd. Feels like a majority of just the fans as a whole are like pretty wild shit happening in New York with this Knicks game. It's hard not to just kind of recognize that. 13 straight in the hardest time of the year. This is when all the ass teams are no longer playing. Okay, this is the good teams playing basketball. You can game plan for them. And you get multiple, multiple, and you just continue to steamroll. And is it strictly because Brunson is an absolute bucket getter late?
12:04Pat McAfee:Like, is that the conversation? Is it because the young lads just a couple of series ago when Chris Paul came on, Wemby got a rebound at the end of the game, and there was like six seconds left on the clock. I believe they're in their own end. And everybody on the team looked over at Mitch Johnson to see if they were going to call a timeout or not, and then they drove the ball up the court. And I think they ended up hitting the shot or whatever. But Chris Paul pointed out, he's like, nobody knew if they were going to call a timeout or if they were going to go. This is like a young team kind of doing their shit.
12:33Pat McAfee:That Wemby pass off of Castle's back, that feels like a young moment. That feels like a young moment. These guys have done this, what, 10 ,000 times this year? Kind of go up. He's obviously point guard. And then there's an alternate angle from the back where Castle's definitely looking at him and showing his body as if he would, I think just like wide receivers, kind of give a target, give a window of where your ball is. Then I think he thinks, nope, he's not going to take it. So he turns back this way. And I think Wemby was looking – it was just terrible timing. It was just like very unlucky.
13:04Pat McAfee:It felt like – now, obviously, they're getting cooked. Wemby's getting cooked because it did feel like he was maybe half a step late on the pass where he could have held back on the pass. But it did just feel – like here, you see him looking at him. It's kind of showing his body. And they're saying he's saying calm down, maybe telling him to slow down. But he does look back again like, hey, huh, you going to give this to me? And then Castle does like, nope, I don't think you're giving it to me. Wemby might be looking somewhere else. Then he passes, like, I think he's a half a step late on the pass.
13:29Pat McAfee:But it certainly ends up being the worst-case scenario of all time. And Jalen Brunson becomes one of the only players in the history of basketball to get a steal in the final 10 seconds and then a shot to take the lead in the final 10 seconds or whatever it is. So it's like an unfortunate situation. But it does feel like, ah, a young guy. Like they're going to learn from this entire situation, you think, going forward. Yeah, I mean, that's the main thing I'm looking at, how this young team responds on the road. Because obviously you drop two at home. That's tough. Maybe you go on the road and there's less pressure on you.
13:54But that situation right there, I think it's just bad timing. Obviously, Castle's looking back, doesn't show his hands. And then if you're Wimby, and if you are passing, kind of leading him there, you're kind of leading him right to the sideline. So Wimby's kind of a point center, so he can bring the ball up. He brings the ball up a number of times. That's just a very, very tragic mistake at that point. But I'm excited about tonight. You talk about Brunson, and obviously it always starts with the superstars when you look at this team, just like it starts with Wimby with the Spurs. But it's the other guys, like Kel Bridges.
14:23He's a guy who's taking a lot of heat because they gave up five first-round picks to get him. He's showing up. He's been balling. Josh Hart hasn't been shooting or scoring the ball well. He's doing everything else. Big Cat, you know, he came in. He was kind of supposed to be a generational guy. He was the number one pick. He's showing up in the biggest moment.
14:40Pat McAfee:How's he in the matchups against Wemby? Dominant. He's winning it right now. The stat that Hembo sent over on the matchup between Cat and Wemby and then Wemby versus Cat. I forget the exact, but Wemby, I thought we were going to be able to have that right there. I think Wemby's 7 of 20. 7 of 20, and then Cat is 8 of 13. So whenever you talk about just matchup, it's like, hey, Cat actually winning. And then you hear Cat talk afterwards, and he's like, yeah, I just felt an incredible sense of confidence and just peace when I'm out there. Jalen not breaking it all. Just no – they feel like they're built and ready and calloused for the moment after the heartbreak, heartbreak, heartbreak that has happened with them in the NBA the past couple years when they run into a Celtics team or they run into the Pacers team or they don't have enough depth.
15:23Pat McAfee:So whenever they give up five picks or whatever for Mikael Bridges, it's like I think they all understood, get how Jalen plays, understands how Jalen plays from college, but also perfect asset because everybody seems to be – they're like dominant and everybody's on the same page and nobody seems to be happy. Yeah, Ango, serious bunch. It is an incredible New York team because you would think with New York there'd be so many things like kind of pulling you out of that. They've maintained this mentality. It's fun to watch. I think that's why you have to respect it. I think you have to respect what the New York Knicks are.
15:53Now, if they were to win, and there's a parade here in New York City,
15:58Pat McAfee:the videos are going to come out of that. Because I heard something about the religion of a mayor. Then I heard something about a bagel. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I heard about some Dior. It's like, it does feel like this city is about to, or New York City is about to explode. We haven't seen that in so long. So long. Damn near never. It's very Buffalo Bills Mafia-esque when you think about their fan base. We talk about how their team could be heels, should be heels, but their fans damn near make it not that way because of the videos that come out after the game. But you mentioned Mikael Bridges and kind of their entire mindset.
16:31Mikael Bridges was up 2-0 in an NBA Finals with Chris Paul at the Suns, and then they lose four straight to Giannis. And he said after the game on Saturday night, like, yeah, no, we're not satisfied. It's a 0-0 mindset. We're not up 2-0 in our own heads. and I feel like that's the biggest thing. But then you also think about Wemby. Like, yeah, they're down 2-0. Wemby's drawing photos of butterflies in Grand Central Park, whatever the hell it's called, with his sister having a good time. I'm not so sure. He's an artist. No, I know. I think it's great. He's an artist. I think it's fantastic. I think because of that, I all of a sudden think, okay, well, where was he probably drawing last time?
17:06Maybe with the monks. Maybe he's going back to, hey, when I was down in the depths in the temples of Mordor or wherever the hell he was, whatever it was called, like Ace Ventura. Bumblebee tuna. Bumblebee tuna, sure. He's drawing stuff that's taking him back there. So I almost think, too, Wemby has foretold, foresaw this moment, and so it's hard to even write them off. But, yeah, the Knicks just win games. I know. I'm pumped for tonight.
17:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, tonight's going to be special. I can't believe that we are allowed to be there. It's that man, who's certainly not from here, tries to become the next young legend. If he's able to come back from after being down 2-0 in Madison Square Garden against New York Knicks, You know, everybody started talking about LeBron James loves playing in Madison Square Garden. We talked to Tyrese Halliburton, loves playing in Madison Square Garden. I couldn't even imagine what this is for Wemby. French guy, Paris guy, in New York City, taking your team into the finals, down 2-0. Everybody's calling you soft.
17:56Pat McAfee:Everybody's saying you don't know how to win. Get your big ass in the paint, Wemby. That's what I hope he was drawing. I hope he's drawing the paint. Maybe he was painting. Maybe that's what he was. Oh, good call. Yeah, maybe he was dying there in a paint. Maybe he was painting the paint. Doing some gardening tonight. Yeah, here we go. Join us now. NBA champion, co-host of tonight's NBA Finals All Access, ladies and gentlemen, Kendrick Perkins. Kendrick Perkins! What up, fellas? What's happening? Hey, are you ready for this evening? Are you ready for this evening? Are you pumped? Are you excited?
18:27Pat McAfee:How do you feel? It's the calm before the storm. The calm before the storm. Look, I just got off the plane, and I'm telling you right now, the energy is crazy. The energy is crazy. It's one-on-one. I've been on social media more than I've ever been in my life just to look at the Nick fan base. They crazy. Yeah, the weather's perfect, too. Oh, it's sunny outside. It's sunny outside. I thought about that. It's June in New York City where, you know, not a lot of wind. I don't think that's kind of the thing. It gets a little sticky in there. It's going to be packed out. And, hey, we're going to be suiting and booting tonight, right?
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19:05Damn right.
19:06Pat McAfee:We're suiting and booting tonight for the affair. We're coming tonight, right? You know I got mine out. I got mine out. You know, hey, listen, Pat, let me tell you something. Back in the day when I used to be in school, you know that first day of school outfit? You know, we used to stay flow our jeans so we could have the hard crease. And you used to put your clothes under your bed and you sleep on them so they could be real crispy. That's how my suit hanging up in the closet tonight. Look, real talk, I'm excited about experiencing this. You know why? Because I've been a part of five NBA finals, obviously won the championship with the Boston Celtics.
19:44But this energy that I'm getting from this Nick fan base, I'm ready to see what the hype is all about. Like, I'm ready to feel the energy in Madison Square Garden in the NBA finals, the energy around the arena. You can feel it getting off the plane. I felt it in the output. I felt it in the lift. So I'm getting that, but I just want to be in the building. I feel like it's one of those moments that you cherish. Grateful that we're a part of it because we're going to be live on location tonight. We're live on location, baby. 830 sharp.
20:18Pat McAfee:That's right. People are saying we're going to be courtside. We are not. No, no. We are up in the 200 level and also up in the clouds. Yeah, up in the 900 level. Yeah, the toxic table is going to be up there on top of Madison Square Garden. So we're going to have it all access for sure. We're going to have it certainly all access. We're going to be in there. I saw some people saying they're wasting courtside seats on this. We don't have courtside seats. No, we're paying$300 ,000 for those courtsides. Do you think they're letting us in there? No way. We are very thankful to be in there. We're excited to be in there.
20:46Pat McAfee:And I think we are going to showcase the place. Okay, let's talk about the players. Jalen Brunson, never talked about as the MVP this year. It was SGA or Wemby. Wemby was actually giving presentations on the three points on why he should potentially be the MVP. Defense matters. I think this matters. If you were to play this, you're supposed to do it. And we all bought in, ourselves included. You know, certainly we aren't the most, like, authority on basketball, but we certainly bought in on it. We didn't even bring up Jalen Brunson. This guy's outrageous, dude. And I should have remembered this, but I think during the offseason, during football season, I forgot about what he did to the Pacers last year.
21:20Pat McAfee:Anytime the Knicks have lost, I don't think anybody's ever said it's Jalen Brunson's fault. And always down the stretch in a bucket-making game, right? If you make buckets late, you're going to win the game. That's seemingly what this is. That's all he does. Late in games, he makes it. Hasn't been great, basically, the rest of the games yet. I don't think he's had his best game yet. He's getting triple team, though, on every single time down the court. But down the stretch, the guy never misses. Is that just mentality? Is that guy? How many of these guys are in the game? And why was he not talked about as MVP?
21:47Pat McAfee:Did he not have as good of a season as he's having a playoff right now and we just didn't really see that? Well, the problem is that his numbers, they weren't eye candy. And when you compare it to the rest of the guys that was in the MVP conversation, They were just, their numbers was there. But that was part of the sacrifice that he did, you know, when they brought over Mike Brown. Obviously, Mike Brown came in. He put in this new system where everybody was eating. Josh Hart, OG Ananobi, Mikel Bridges. So it somewhat took away from JB, but I still think he was average 26 on the season. But let's be real here.
22:24Over the last two seasons, he's been the best player in the Eastern Conference. Like, if we look over the last two seasons, forget, you know, how far the run that they had last postseason going to the Eastern Conference. If you just look at overall, regular season, what he's done in the playoffs, over the past two seasons, he has been the best player in the Eastern Conference. He's definitely been one of the most clutch, if not the most clutch players. Like, I just think about even what he did against Philly, what he's been doing against the 76ers over the last two years. And here it is now on the big stage.
23:01And guess what? We haven't even seen the best of him yet. He still haven't had, to me, a good Jalen Brunson game. He had a good Jalen Brunson moment in the fourth quarter of game one, but he still haven't balled out. And when you think about his mentality, he give me Kobe Bryant-type vibes. when you talk about his mentality. Because it's not a shot that he's afraid that he's not going to take. It's not a player that's standing in front of him that he feels like he can't score over. And he's a three-level scorer. If you want the tray ball, if you want the mid-range, if you want post-ups at 6 '2", he's going to give that all to you.
23:41That's JB.
23:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, and he gets to his spot. You talk about him being 6 '2". Yeah, 6 '1", 6 '2". And he doesn't go faster than everybody. Nobody speeds him up. Plays at his own pace. At his own pace. That's kind of what Chris Paul was talking about. Now let's talk about the other superstar, certainly the one that is maybe being crowned already as the next superstar of the NBA. Let's go down to San Antonio with the alien that they have. D-Buck, go ahead. Yeah, Wimby, you're looking at the numbers, and he has decent numbers, I feel like, on the box score, but I haven't seen that moment in this series where he's dominating the game.
24:12All the superstars we've seen in the past, all the people that have been crowned, you can see them dominate games and dominate series. What do you want to see tonight from Wimby in Madison Square Garden to kind of take over the game? And how do you get him to that point where he can take over his game? Well, it's two things. It's two things. One, I keep hearing everybody talk about him getting to the paint and him being dominant in the paint. It's not going to happen. It's hard. The Knicks' game plan is to load up boxes and elbows. They're going to help weak side action. Yes, he's going to be able to score a couple buckets, but we're not going to see 15 or 20.
24:53So, like I said, he has to be the defensive player of the year. He has to be the defensive player of the year. Like, at some point, he's going to have to buckle down and match the intensity of Carl Anthony Towns. Like, we gave a lot of heat to Chet Holmgren last series, and rightfully so on the way that Wimby punked him.
25:20But one could argue Carl Anthony Towns is doing it to Wimby right now, punking him on the big stage because Carl Anthony Towns is loud about it. He's loud about it. He's talking noise. He's being aggressive. I've never seen anyone take Wimby off the dribble as much as I'm witnessing from Carl Anthony Towns right now. He's too comfortable. with Wimby Gardner. And he's making them look like a defensive liability. I'm not saying that he is. I'm just saying what I'm witnessing. And if this was Rudy, Pat, fellas, Rudy Gobert, we would be giving Rudy the heat right now for not holding up on the defensive side of things when he won defensive player of the year.
26:04So we got to keep the same energy.
26:06Pat McAfee:And certainly, Chad Holmgred, too, you know, which I think the way you say his name is incredible. and you talked about him a lot. Why do you think Carl Anthony Towns is having such a better kind of, you know, showcase against Wemby? Is it because he's bigger body and he can body, but he can also shoot, obviously? Like, why? Because you think about Hartenstein, he kind of gave Wemby some problems, but we're not worried about him shooting a three-run. No, no. And he's not really wiggle, right, either. He's got that high floater, mid-range thing he's got. Cat can hit from deep. He's also got body and he can wiggle.
26:39Pat McAfee:Is that why Wemby can... I'm taking this personal, too. You can obviously see that he's taking the shit. Just the same way we saw Wimby taking it personal with Chet. Yeah. You see that out of Cat. And Cat is taking a lot of shit from everybody. Hey, get in the paint, stop being a cigar, shoot through. And you see him kind of almost imposing his will on who everybody – because I'm sure he hears everybody crowning Vic too. And Cat was that guy coming in, being number one pick. But you can watch the game and see he's – in the postgame, in the press, he's not talking shit. But his game, the celebrations, the eye contact, we see what's happening.
27:11I don't know.
27:12Pat McAfee:Yeah, he's doing a lot of shit. I mean, I don't know him that well. They're muting because of him, right? He's the one that's swearing down there. Like, he's the one that's every time he's down there, basically, he's talking. I didn't know that about that. I had no idea. Yeah, and he is taking it personal. And you know what's crazy is every single time Cat has to go against another big that, you know, he feels like he's better than, he always goes at them. Remember two years ago, you know, he somewhat outplayed Jokic in the semifinals when he was with the Minnesota Timberwolves. You know, Cat is playing with a chip on his shoulder.
27:51You got to remember, like, he was the number one pick. Minnesota traded him. And they could talk about, yeah, it was because the money that he was making, basically y 'all tapped out on him. Y 'all tapped out on the guy that was giving y 'all 25 points and 12 rebounds a night. And the New York Knicks embraced him. You don't think Tom's been listening and hearing all the gossip about Giannis Antetokounmpo, you know, throughout the course of this season? Should they trade cats? Should they bring Giannis in? Now, all of a sudden, on the big stage, if the series ended tonight, I mean, no one could argue that he's the finals MVP.
28:29And he's getting it done on both ends of the floor. It's not just what he's doing offensively. Yes, tomato chest, tomato chest, tomato chest with a couple of tray balls. But it's the other end. It's mano y mano. I'm one-on-one defense. Wimby, I'm sliding my feet. You can't get in the paint on me. You're not going to beat me off the dribble. I'm bodying you up where you're not even getting the opportunity to get to the low block. And then I'm making you take tough, contested twos and threes. And I'm barking. I'm barking. I'm barking loud. and I'm biting. Look at this. Who does this to Wemby? Real talk.
29:09Who does this right here to Wemby? And then look at his reaction after. I'm going to look you in the eyes. I'm going to yell at you. Yeah, I want it. I want it.
29:18Pat McAfee:And then here's the clip, too, of him obviously saying that Wemby can do nothing to him. Obviously, he was caught. Yep, he can't. He can't. This guy can't. I didn't know this was Cam. I like it. I had no idea this was Cam. And I think the reason why he was kind of shooed out of Minnesota or whatever after being drafted, and then goes to New York Knicks, and obviously last year we saw him. I saw him running his ass back and forth. I did feel like he got a bit tired against the Pacers just from watching it because the Pacers were running like this, so maybe he wasn't in his most cat-like, but I think everybody thought he was soft.
29:49Pat McAfee:Isn't that what everybody thought about? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Everybody thought about cats? I didn't know he's the one that's muting the microphone because of what he's saying underneath with rebounds and blocks. I didn't know he's talking shit to Wemby like this. I had no idea this is what cat is. Especially because he has, like, a gentle giant face. You know, like, the way he looks. I had no idea he's killer under there. This guy real, especially in the finals, is the biggest stage. He's talking his shit. He's dominating. He's beating the best player or the next best player in the world or whatever it is.
30:16Pat McAfee:It's like, what a moment for Cat this has to be. This has to feel really good, especially, obviously, with his mom passing away and everything. I mean, this has to feel fucking awesome. Now, if you crumble. Oh, no. We don't want to bring that up. We don't want to bring that up. Best of seven. It's still a best of seven, though. We have to remember that. We don't know what Wemby's going to do in this game. We have no idea what this guy's going to do in this thing. In the Mecca, the world's most famous arena, the world. He's from Paris or whatever. He's grown up watching shit in Madison Square Garden, understanding what this is.
30:46Pat McAfee:Now he's in the finals there. First time forever that the game has been played in New York City. Everybody understands the stories of who you become if you have a big-time garden moment. It's like, this could certainly be the case. Do you think that is possible? or what do you think about what we've seen from Wemby over the last couple games? Some people are saying he's done. Some people are saying maybe he's cooked this game. Whoa, whoa. That's what some people are saying he quit. Well, that's crazy. Some people are saying he's done. I think that is crazy to think about because we know nothing about this guy.
31:13We don't know anything about this guy. It's not like they were blowout games either.
31:15Pat McAfee:No. The pass off the back, everybody immediately, because Kevin Garnett did kill him for a good reason. And by the way, Kevin Garnett certified, so whatever the hell he says, he's allowed to say. That is something he's – so whatever he wants to say, he's allowed to say. But he pointed out – he made some good points. He was like, hey, Wemby's crying after the Western Conference and all this. I don't want to see this shit. We need to win the entire thing. So that, Kevin Garnett starts a narrative like, hey, maybe this guy did celebrate a bit early. Then he passes off a guy's back in the biggest moment, 10 seconds left in the finals.
31:42Pat McAfee:Everybody starts killing it. Like, yeah, he's not. And had a chance to win it after that. Yeah, and he still has a shot, misses the shot too. It's like, this guy isn't what we thought he was. I feel like he's a guy that hears all that, right? Probably. So we have no idea how Wemby's going to respond. This alien could go absolutely bananas tonight inside of Madison Square guard. That is all possible, right, Perk? Or should I not think that that is all possible? I mean, he can, but, you know, I don't want to hear sweet nothings no more in the interviews. I don't want to hear those sweet nothings.
32:12Well said. Now it's time for him to show up. Because let's be honest, over the last three games, if you go back even to game seven, Wimby has not been dominant. Like, in game seven of the conference finals, he had 22 points and seven rebounds. That ain't that ain't a dominant performance that, you know, we've grown to like watch for us watching Wimby. But again, like it's going to come down to his defensive impact. Like it's not just call Anthony towns. That's been aggressive and taking the ball to the basket. Jalen Bronson is getting to the rack too. Mikael Bridges, OG and Anobi. Like the Knicks are doing whatever they want to do.
32:53Offensively guys are shining. Mikael Bridges is having a, a great moment. Landry Shammott, yes, it's three-point shots, but they are mixing it up. So again, yes, this is the stage for Wimby to shine, but I do remind myself all the time that he's young, right? And then you have to have a – I start to have a different level of respect for guys like Steph Curry and LeBron James when they was making – when they was basically living in the NBA finals and what you have to do, the preparation, what you have to do to sacrifice and to take care of your body to get to this point. Because it is times that I do see Wimby looking for T.
33:36But the one thing that I would like to see from Wimby is, I don't know if it's going to come in this series, but maybe this offseason, I need to see a signature post move at some point.
33:47Pat McAfee:What do you want it to be? Elbow to the throat? Because that is kind of his signature. Bring that back. That's kind of his signature move. Elbow to the throat. I need to see a jump hook, a running hook, some type of something off the low block, mid post, something to show me that he has a signature move. I don't know what Wimby's signature move is. You're telling me if he was the boom bang? Oh, my. Call Kareem now. Where's that? Where's that coming? Where's that? Nine feet? Is that at nine feet right there? Unstoppable. Need it. Need it. Kareem. Boom. It might be higher than nine. Is that 10 feet?
34:24Pat McAfee:Is that a dunk, I guess, because he's throwing it? Yeah, like a line drive. Oh, my God. It looked like you could really get down in 24-hour fitness, though. Like the footwork, the base. I'm checking you out a little bit. Athlete person. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd be handing out buckets in that low post in 24-hour fitness. You're not going to see me in the paint ever, but, yes, I could if I had to. But, yeah, I mean, our studio has a basketball court in it, you know. I did see a lot of that. Come on down. Yeah, it's like, hey, yeah, we do sometimes get buckets as well. We understand the sport of basketball.
34:59Pat McAfee:Okay, we are. But, hey. We'll see tonight. We shall see. I'm excited for tonight. Let's not be ass. Let's be assets. Yeah. Here we go. Okay. Let's see. I like this. Yeah. That's our goal for tonight, huh? All right. Assets on three. Yep. One, two, three. Assets. Assets. Yeah, let's move on. Okay, go ahead, Con. Yeah, Perk, I love the Wemby fodder, and I don't know if you saw him drawing butterflies in Central Park, but he does seem to be in a very good mindset. I believe he was with his sister. I don't know if he was drawing a statue or a butterfly specifically, but he was seemingly calm. Here he is.
35:35They need to build benches for him. He does not fit on that bench. It looks miserable. But when it comes to Wemby and the Spurs in general, for Mitch Johnson, what is he going to do to maybe change up their game plan a little? It feels like we went into this talking about Mitch Johnson being the next up and coming great coach. now, you know, down 2-0. Should he call a timeout after that rebound before Wemby throws the ball off of Castle's back? People are kind of debating that a little bit. Like, what do you expect out of Mitch Johnson to maybe change? Is he going to, hey, Wemby, if you don't move your ass to the block and stand there for 48 minutes, we're taking you out.
36:11Like, what is kind of the maybe adjustments they're going to make to what the Knicks have done? Well, one, you're down 0-2, so you have to do something. And I'm leaning more towards, you know, at some point he has to release and let Dylan Harper spread his wings. And when I say spread his wings, like at some point you got to say, here, young fella, take over the show. Handle your business. Because the one person that they haven't, that the Knicks, they haven't had an answer for is Dylan Harper. Anytime he's gotten two feet in the paint, it's been a bucket. This is a guy that you drafted with the number two overall pick.
36:53This is a guy that has been playing outstanding basketball offensively throughout the course of these playoffs and in the NBA Finals. One could say he's been their best offensive player consistently in the two games. On top of that, he's playing with a chip on his shoulder, right? He's from the New York area. He went to high school in New York. He went to Rutgers College in New York. I mean, like, and all of a sudden, you know, he grew up idolizing and being a fan of the New York Knicks, and now he's playing against them on the biggest stage. At some point, and I'm not saying it's De 'Aaron Fox, but at some point one of those guys, and not Stephon Castle, but one of those guys need to move aside in that starting lineup, and Mitch Johnson need to let the young fella go ahead and spread his wings.
37:40Pat McAfee:I mean, he was so much fun to watch. Fuck it. I mean, obviously, Rutgers guy, we knew he was in Big Ten. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we knew. Stayed in school. We knew he was a big brother. Younger brother. Basketball player. But we looked into it. I think his mom's a high school basketball coach at Bosco, I think, which is a pretty big score. On Bosco? Yeah, and dad, obviously, five titles. And it's like, oh, this guy, he's Christian McCaffrey. This guy was created literally to be. Older brothers in the league. An NBA player. So that's why in the finals when he's going ham. Oh, yeah. Just look very casual and comfortable in the moment.
38:16Pat McAfee:It's like, oh, he's been here. Like, this is literally what he was – he's been preparing for his entire life. And then he goes to the bench. And it's like, all right, that was fun watching that guy. Yeah, bring him back out. That's what I was thinking of being. And then he comes back out. And then you start learning more of his story. And then everybody starts attacking Coach Johnson. I'm happy I don't have to be in that situation. Wow. Because – I was just off his – defensively. Like, his perimeter defense is strapped. Yeah, Ron's not going to let him. You think high school coach mom and Ron Harper are going to allow him to not be great on the defense?
38:44I think he broke the Spurs' still record. Was that the first series? He also broke the record for most points, rebounds, assists by a rookie.
38:52Pat McAfee:Johnson is sixth man of the year, right? Yeah, and Calvin Johnson, yeah, and he's been nowhere. He's got sixth man of the year on the team. He's got Harper on the team. He's got De 'Aaron Fox on the team. It's like Mitch Johnson. Hey, fucking. National champ. Sit down, De 'Aaron Fox. Come on, you got to do it. Sorry. Have you seen what he's owed the next few years? Yeah, I've seen it. Yeah, he's on the court. He's gone. He's banged up. All right, Perk, we'll see you tonight, man. We can't wait to get in there with you. We appreciate the hell out of you. Let's get it. I'm ready. Hey, it sounds like the city's ready.
39:20Pat McAfee:Are you, Perk? You bring that title ring? Hey, what's the mantra? What's the mantra for tonight? What you mean? Okay. We live on location, Pat. No, what's the mantra? What's the mantra of tonight for us? Let's not be ass. Oh, that's not assets on three. There it is. One, two, three. Assets. Kendrick Parkins, we appreciate it. Big bird. It's actually not a bad line. Not at all. It's not be assets, let's be assets. Because that's what we are trying to be tonight. An asset to sport. We are an alternate cast trying to provide some stuff, maybe, that the main cast isn't. But also, it's a game. It's not us.
39:59Pat McAfee:Yeah. That's right. The game is what we have learned through field pass is the importance. Speaking of the game and field pass, What we were able to do for college football was certainly something we love because we got a chance to experience everything that makes college football great and college sports great, let alone the passion and tradition and pageantry and everything like that, but also the integrity of college football. That's right. It's something that obviously we love. Yes. But a lot of people are starting to wonder about it. That was a different time, wasn't it? Yeah, because we got obviously, you know, we got a lot of money infiltrating.
40:31Pat McAfee:We got contracts that seemingly have no cap, but also no guarantees in them for them to be paid if player doesn't do great. We hear great stories about how much guys are getting paid, but we very rarely hear the story about guys going into transfer portal, signing bad deals, not getting money, and also foregoing 20%, 25 % of their future earnings with somebody that was bad. So we're in a crazy time right now in college sports, but the product is incredible. The athletes, remarkable. Best ever. Seemingly the training and the ability to get better is at a higher point than it's ever been. Anything we could fathom, every sport has gotten better.
41:06Pat McAfee:I'm watching softball, and they're talking about a pitcher doing something that's never been done before. I'm like, of course. We got every sport. We are at a great spot, especially in college. But is it going to kill itself? Joining us now is the authority on college sports. And I'll tell you what, a man is going to be able to give us a lot of information about an injunction that was upheld by a judge, Ken. Cool. Ken Curry. Ken Curry in Texas. Let me double check that. It is Curry. It is Curry. A University of Houston grad, I believe, from Fort Worth, Texas, who is the second judge that was placed on the Brendan Sorsby injunction of the NCAA suspending him for gambling.
41:42Pat McAfee:First judge was recused from the case because, I guess there was a bunch of Facebook photos of him throwing up the double gun. Yeah, he was shooting. So they said that. Did the right thing. Can't do that. That feels like that's out of a movie. We thought they weren't. We thought it was going to be like a movie. We thought they were going to put the Texas Tech judge in there. Texas Tech judge is going to hear the NCAA and go, that's cute. What do you want to do, kid? You want to play ball for Texas Tech? Yeah, sweet, you're in. It seemed like, of course, it would be super corrupt. Judge recuses himself.
42:09Pat McAfee:University of Houston judge comes in. Got you out of Fort Worth, Texas. Now, we were getting a ruling just one day after the NCAA basically comes out and says, this guy's not allowed. Okay, we're not doing this. This judge comes out and says, actually, can play. Ladies and gentlemen, to tell us more about that and what this means for the future of sport, What does this mean for a game? The authority of college sports from college game day, Pete Thamel. Yay! I tried my best to lay out kind of the scene for everybody. Now, if you could fill in the gaps and also let me know what today means. So, a judge, the second judge that was put in for this case, heard everything and ruled that Soresby is allowed to play and also said the NCAA is prohibited, actually, from stopping him from playing.
42:58Pat McAfee:Can you tell us more about how we got here and what we think this means for a precedent going forward? Well, Pat, thanks for having me. This is certainly an unprecedented day in the history of college sports. And I don't want to sound overdramatic here, but gambling has always been a thick red line. And the fact that Brendan Shoresby, who admitted to placing thousands of bets for$90 ,000, including 40 bets on his own team while he was at Indiana. The fact that he is going to be or has been legally cleared to play college football this season at Texas Tech is simply something that we've never seen before.
43:36And it's the latest manifestation of one of the biggest issues in college sports right now, Pat, which is local rulings overruling what the NCAA rules are supposed to be. And this one feels the most significant, Pat, because gambling cuts different than a medical red shirt, than an age argument like the Betty Aco case, for example. I don't think I've gotten more text on my phone about a breaking news story unprompted ever, or certainly not in the last five years. My phone did not stop ringing. And the general tenor, Pat, around college athletics, I would say, is one of disgust. One Big 12 AD texted me today, we lost our soul today.
44:19And look, there was a lot of hyperbolic reaction to this, but gambling had always been the, I joked, it was like the Goodwill hunting thing. You hit a cop, you're going to jail. There were always significant consequences for gambling and that changed today because of this. Now, Brendan Soresby's case, argued successfully by Jeffrey Kessler, who was often successful against the NCAA, laid it out very clearly. They laid it out as a mental health case and they won. The NCA is expected to appeal this case. Now, whether the timeline of that appeal matches with when it matters is what remains to be seen.
44:57Correct. Like the NCA could get a hearing in February and Brendan Sorsley will have to combine. He doesn't have to go. It doesn't matter. It would be it would be rendered moot. And that had always been sort of part of the expectation with this is if the temporary injunction was granted, then once the injunction was granted, he would roll and play and then everybody would kind of move on. So we'll see if the timeline of that gets expedited in Lubbock County. I have certainly reason to be skeptical of that. But, yeah, this is certainly a day, Pat, that is certainly going to have ripples for a long time.
45:32Pat McAfee:Well, thank you for putting your big boy pants on and your big boy tie on to break this news. Because obviously this will be something referred to in the future with these types of situations. As the day in which a player who gambled on his own team was ruled to continue to be allowed to play. That is a crazy thing. Just as somebody. Now granted, I'm sitting with a DraftKings helmet in front of me. And I mean, ESPN logo is over my head on a beautiful LED board, obviously, in this entire thing. so like me saying that can easily be attacked by people that this is what sports gambling is this what sports gambling is it's like no sports gambling is going to be very prevalent in sports going forward okay we just need to understand that it has been very prevalent in sports for a long time in a lot of cities okay i know some people grew up in cities where maybe it wasn't but sports gambling has been very prevalent in a lot of places for a lot of sports fans for a long time now with it being obviously federally legalized and monitored and everything you can track and keep up with bets and there's, you know, restraints I can put on there.
46:33Pat McAfee:But I don't think with how easy it is to gamble, we should ever say it's okay for athletes to be gambling on the sports in which they're playing. Cause then it's all over. All of it's over. Everything is completely over. And people are going to attack me as a former player for saying that with this traffic, it's like, no, like I'm a retired player. I'm on very lucky to be on the internet and on TV talking every single day about it. This is a very real part of sports coverage and sports as a whole. I mean, the line and everything is talked about and has been talked about forever, but now it's a very part of society and the sports culture, and it's only going to be more.
47:06Pat McAfee:So we would like to be an avenue for, like, responsible gambling. Like, hey, don't be assholes. Okay, we're not trying to do this. This is just a part of it. If you want to make the game a little bit more interesting, you're good. But that doesn't mean that I ever think that a player should ever potentially put the outcome of everything in doubt. Like, the ref case with the NBA, that almost ruined the NBA. Yeah. It still held over that. We took them several years. They're still held over their head. It's like when you lose the thought that this is actual competition, everything's over. So I just – and I think I feel that way because I've had to sit through all the fucking things about don't beat Pete Rose.
47:41Pat McAfee:And it's like, yeah, don't actually. And to all the guys that are playing sports right now, I know how hard it's to say no, especially if you're at the bottom of the roster. You can make more money quickly. And obviously there's ways – they're going to find out. You're going to get caught. And it's going to be a terrible situation, which I think is what Texas Tech is saying. And it's like, this guy had an addiction problem. Like, he was addicted to this, clearly. Look at his thing. 60 ,000 bets. This guy did his entire thing. He came forward, too. And maybe after once he thought things were going to happen.
48:07Pat McAfee:Went to rehab, came forward, was very loose with it or very open with everything. And they're like, I think what they're saying is, so now we're going to shun people from the future from being, like, transparent about their transgressions and their young boys becoming men. It's like, man, I guess there's so many different arguments. But for me, it's the sport. the sport needs to remain like we can't be thinking that every game is great. That just can't happen. We talk about the integrity game so much. And when we were in those locker rooms, obviously you had different violations, whether it was performance enhancing drugs.
48:37But the main thing that we were most afraid of was the gambling thing. It was something we would never even think about getting into entire locker rooms. So, yeah, here now where we are in the media space, of course, we have the partnership and all that type of shit. But when you're talking about what we used to call it protecting the shield in the NFL, So to me, in my opinion, this is bullshit. This is absolute bullshit. Now, do I want the kid to be able to play football? Do I want his entire future ruined? No. But to set this precedent for guys in that locker room doing this type of shit is definitely bullshit.
49:05But what was the mental health, I guess, argument, Pete, if you can go a little bit more into that tweet? So the mental health argument, D-Bot, was fairly linear. Uh, Brendan Sorsby obviously went to an inpatient rehab facility in Arizona for 35 days. And Jeffrey Kessler argued that being away from the team would, uh, would hurt his recovery. Um, and they called it irreparable harm. That was really the legal argument that was here. They said this, you only, you know, not playing college sports again would be irreparable harm. Now, Judge Curry from Tarrant County, which is 300 miles from Lubbock, as Pat noted earlier, did not really give a lot of valid legal reasons.
49:50When I checked in with some lawyers today who obviously read a lot more of these rulings than you and I do, guys, they just basically said the judge was a little light on the whys in the house. And that's just the way it was. It was only a four-page ruling. So the judge didn't get into a ton other than basically agreeing with that core argument from Kessler and anyone. Soresby will be suspended for two games. Texas Tech opens with Abilene Christian at home, then travels to Oregon State week two. Tough. I don't know if he's suspended.
50:24Pat McAfee:Is he? Well, that's what it says in the legal paperwork. And the one thing that... Does it say that? It really does. Yeah, it really does. Okay, because I thought that that was just what they offered up to the NCAA as like a... Original. Like an original. Yeah. So if you look at number five, it's a little fuzzy on my screen, But it says not participating in game day of the first two games, the Texas Tech 2026 football season. So and that is what initially when Swarsby's camp engaged with the NCAA, that's what they proposed. They said, OK, you know, he will become the face of this. He will speak out about gambling addiction.
51:01And, you know, that was sort of the start of what we assumed would be like a back and forth, potentially counteroffer. Now, the NCAA didn't really engage on that. The NCAA said pretty clearly in their court filing they didn't feel like Brendan Sorosby should play again. They drew a very clear line, which was not expected. It was not unexpected, right? The NCAA doesn't want what you and what you and DeBott are referring to here. They don't want other ripples of this case. They need those lines to be clear and bright to operate as an organization. And quite frankly, look, I've heard from everybody today, commissioners, coaches, different folks.
51:35these billion dollar television deals that, you know, run college sports, much like they run professional sports run because people believe that the games have integrity to them. So look, yes, it's very clear. So I don't want to be too hyperbolic and, you know, say the world is the world is ending today because I don't really think that's the case. But what this does, it just continues to open up the possibilities, Pat, for what local judges can do for schools. and area judges can do for schools.
52:07Pat McAfee:On that note, Tone has a question for you, Pete. Yeah, Pete, we've obviously seen how that worked out today for Texas Tech and then Trinidad, Chambliss, and Ole Miss. It worked out kind of in a similar way. So the NCAA basically has no power. That's kind of what we've found out here because they ruled two days ago that he's ineligible and then today the local judge overturned that and he is eligible. Thank God he's got two games suspended. At least there's some sort of something. Sure, I guess, but they have no power. How much are schools going to test everything now? Pete, and how important now, who Cody Campbell is actually a big part of, is the Save College Sports Act that they're talking about in D.C.
52:44Yeah, it's pretty interesting. So, look, I had a coach call me within 10 minutes of this breaking today and be like, why can't I go sign an NFL player? Like, why can't I get – guy gets cut off the practice squad somewhere. Why can't I sign him and get a local judge to put him in? So, look, we'd be naive to think there's not going to be continued tests of the NCAA rules. Now, NCAA President Charlie Baker came out today and said, we need congressional help, right? And that has been, throughout all these cases, sort of what the NCAA has said. We need help enforcing our rules. In theory, any college sports bill that passes should be able to eliminate these local rulings and help the NCAA, through an antitrust exemption, enforce its own rules.
53:26Whether the Protect College Sports Act actually does that remains to be seen. I've heard I've heard varied things and that's obviously above my pay grade legally, whether this actual act that is being discussed right now, the Cruz Cantwell bill would actually prevent something like this. And obviously it's interesting you bring up Cody Campbell. He'd been a big factor in the Soresby situation behind the scenes. And he's also in D.C. lobbying against something that that just occurred here. So it's a fascinating moment in time right now because at the school level, those who are aggressive view this as a free-for-all.
54:02And, look, we've seen the competitive nature of these college sports, these college teams. Look, Texas Tech's president was behind this. You can't cheat. There's no rules. Give me a call, Coach Candle. Boo-hoo! What are you boo-hooing? Let the boys play. Look, the kid made a mistake, all right? 2022, it was a bad year. He was at Indiana. I don't give a shit. I want to see the best players on the field, and I want Texas Tech to continue to be a different program.
54:29Pat McAfee:Okay, yeah, but you're not saying that this can happen. It sucks. I agree. I'm not saying that it can. You can bet on your own team, and then the playbook is kind of just big. Hey, say your feelings are going to be hurt, and you can't do it, and then they'll suspend you two games, and you can play. No, well, the suspension of two games is actually what Texas Tech offered up for this. So they didn't even do that. Abilene Christian and Oregon State. Well, I believe Christian people think is going to be like IU this year. Okay. People think they're going to be good. Nobody thinks that. Pete, we appreciate you coming in here and informing us of all of this.
54:59Pat McAfee:It's a crazy day in the history. And obviously, Sorsby, like, we are very pumped that you got the help and are on the other side of this entire thing. And we thought he would go and have a good NFL career in the supplemental draft. Like, we thought there was no way that college would let him back in there. Him getting another opportunity and him going on and spreading the word of what could possibly happen and what your life could become is obviously good as we continue to transition into this era of sports gambling being a part of everything. You're the man. We appreciate you. That's the authority, ladies and gentlemen, Pete Damel.
55:29Pat McAfee:It's just very real. It's a part of sports. It's a part of society. Not for the players, it shouldn't be. Agreed. No, but that's what I'm saying. We have to just, we're allowed to continue to have a society that's evolving with sports gambling becoming more and more prevalent, which it is and has been for a long time in a lot of different cities. The city I'm from, I'm not going to say it's because there's a lot of Italians there. However, shout out us. There's a shit ton of Italians there. Normally, if you go to places that have a plethora of paisans, there is normally going to be at least some conversations around it all.
56:01Pat McAfee:But that doesn't mean that we should ever think it's okay for players to be gambling. That is not a good – there is a clear can't do it. Or coaches or trainers. Anybody in that building. Like that just can't happen. That's why it has to be congressional. And their teammates don't want it to happen either. Like, I don't want to know that my teammate is gambling on this. Especially when you look at how they've been dealing. Like, Iowa, what was it, two years ago, they had a two-year starter at T-Tackle. He bet on the women's basketball team when they were going to the Final Four. That got found out.
56:29He got suspended the whole year. And that was from the NCAA? Exactly.
56:32Pat McAfee:And it turns out Iowa could have just said, no. Fuck that. Wrong. How about that? And that's what the NCAA has kind of been chirping. Charlie Baker had a response about how this is – You see what I'm saying? We need it. We need help. It's crazy. That is crazy. Sorsby, once again, though, happy for you. Turn your life around. Happy you're in a much better place. Legitimately very happy you're in a better place. Happy you're going to play football again. We thought it would be in the NFL. For college, boys can't happen. Girls can't happen. Wait. Let's do the sports. It's finals Monday.
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57:53Pat McAfee:Storm! Are the absolute greatest. Shout out to Jibman. Jibman, obviously, showcasing this beautiful studio that we are in. We have an opportunity, obviously, to go live here from the home of sports media since 1979, Bristol, Connecticut. it. Fascinating place. Beautiful campus. Obviously, the cafeteria. Oh, man. Had cheesesteak yesterday. Personal pan pizza. This morning had a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. The people working back there are very quick, very efficient. Take a lot of orders. Speaking of that, a lot of people here. A lot of people on this campus. Thanks for everything, guys. Thank you, guys.
58:31Pat McAfee:They're so locked in. You say hello, don't expect one back. They're thinking of the next idea. they're figuring out what needs to be done why if I don't work wait 20 minutes watch this it's going to be better than you've ever experienced in your entire life that's the talks table at Boston Corner and at Dye Schmidt one half of the hammer Cowboys AP Tone is here nine year NFL vet Darius J Butler D but huge day in the history of our program is tonight we'll be NBA Finals NFL That'd be cool, too. Yeah. Keep your eyes peeled. We will see how tonight goes. Obviously, NBA finals, all access as we go inside the garden for game three as the Knicks are up to over the San Antonio Spurs.
59:15Pat McAfee:Jalen Brunson, the potential god of New York City for the rest of his life, has a home finals game. We're going to be there as Wemby gets a chance to showcase who he is. Okay, this is a real moment here of us learning exactly who Wemby is. In the world's most famous arena, will he respond, will he answer, will the San Antonio Spurs young bunch be able to bounce back after kind of a juvenile mistake with 10 seconds left in the game as Jalen Brunson obviously gets the steal off of Castle's back where Wemby does it and then buries home the take the lead shot, which then Wemby could have answered and missed.
59:44Pat McAfee:It's like everybody's calling Wemby maybe a fugue. No. Yeah, they are. People are saying a lot of rude stuff about Wemby, and I don't like it. As somebody who thinks he is an alien, as he is the next person that we need to go ahead and enjoy the ride alongside of in the sports world because he's 7 '4 and has the capability to do things nobody else in the history of sports has. He's big. He's bigger than you. He's faster, seemingly smarter. He's more in touch with the universe and his soul. And every once in a while, he'll pass it off his teammates back where he thinks he potentially wants it. That's the point guard, 10 seconds left, maybe a little bit late.
1:00:13Pat McAfee:His castle turns up. Where's he going to go? Jalen Brunson's also standing right there. Hits him in the back as if this was a pickup basketball game somewhere at Equinox or LA Fitness or 24-Hour Fitness, and instead that's at the NBA Finals. How does he respond? We shall see we'll be in there tonight, team. We shall see, and I'm excited, man. But Wimby, obviously, you know, people are or have been crowning him for all the right reasons. He loves the game. He's bigger. He's faster. He can dribble. He can shoot. He can do everything. But history kind of has shown us over the years, even with the great ones, the first time they get here, it's tough to get over that hump, even maybe the second time.
1:00:44It takes a while. It took MJ, what, seven years to finally get there. LeBron, I think he got to the finals at 22. I believe he got swept his first time. So, yeah, he got some bumps in the road. And Mike Brown, we talked about everybody on that Knicks side of the ball as far as players go. But firing Tom Thibodeau and then going to get Mike Brown, a two-time champion in his own right, he's been great for this team. All the things that we've seen from Cat, from OG, from Mikael, from how they're even attacking offensively against this defense and this defensive freak in the paint, that comes from the top with Mike Brown.
1:01:15And you can tell this team is locked in. I'm interested to see how the young Spurs respond on the road. I'm also interested to see how these kind of savvy vets of the Knicks organization respond at home as well in front of this crowd, but I can't wait to be in the building tonight.
1:01:27Pat McAfee:13 straight for the Knicks. Also, stats tell us that the under has been doing rather well. So that means tonight, guess what? We like the overtone. Why do we like the overtone? Yeah, because it's due. Yeah, the first couple games of the series have gone under, and it's been on the last 43 finals games. 70 % of the games have gone under. So it's due for an over, especially this is the first time we're back in the garden this century. Yeah. All 2000s. We've never been in the garden. Guys love shooting at the garden. People love scoring at the garden in front of all these people paying 10 grand a pop to get in for tickets.
1:02:04In front of all these stars. Hoop's going to look really big tonight.
1:02:06Pat McAfee:Okay. That's flying over tonight potentially. Okay. I hope so. Let's not be that common. Remember, let's be responsible. Let's not be an asshole. here. Read this entire thing. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Do it. Got good summer coming up. Great summer coming up. Don't need to be feeling like an idiot. I've called. They're great people. What's that? The gambler people? Also, DraftKings has a video they show you that basically breaks down what's happening to you in real time. And then they say, would you like to put a little self-handicap on yourself? Certainly should utilize that option if you get there.
1:02:38Pat McAfee:And also, don't be scared to bet 10, 5, whatever it is. A couple of shackles. It's good. It still makes the game better. And guess what you got? The crime. That's right. So tonight, 216 and a half points. We're looking for the over. We are looking for this thing to be celebrate time. It went back down to 215 and a half. That's big. Okay. It's at 215 and a half. Okay. And it's also at minus two and a half now again. Okay. And minus one and a half. It's changing it as we speak. Okay. So we're live odds kind of taking place. Whenever we went live, the Knicks were favored by two and a half. We were live for four minutes.
1:03:08Pat McAfee:It went to one and a half. Now it's back to two and a half. It's spread 216 and a half. thing goes to 215.5. Now it's back to 216.5. What does that mean? A lot of money coming in? A lot of questions happening by the DraftKings? Yeah. As we sit this second, it's 1.5 and 216.5. It's been moving literally all the time. Earlier in the day, the Knicks were getting over 60 % of the money in the bets, and now it's 50-50. So, I mean, when you get to these NBA finals and you get to the Super Bowl and all these huge things, there's people betting a ton of money. So there's a lot of swings in the money and the percentages and the odds just because, you know, the draft or the sports books, they have to, you know, kind of mitigate the risk for all of their things.
1:03:50So they're always trying to get 50-50 on both sides as far as money is concerned. But, yeah, there's a lot of big bets coming in. Obviously, New York, you got a lot of money there. Texas, you got a lot of money there. So, yeah, we're going to see some movement all day long.
1:04:00Pat McAfee:I like a little bit of action happening on these live lines. Shout the DraftKings, obviously, providing us their lines and also a platform for us to gamble responsibly, which we would like you to do over with us if you'd like to ride with everything we have going on. Shout out to points tonight. Shout out to celebration. Let's go to the NFL. Some big news happened over the weekend. Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not going to be negotiating once training camp starts. This is not abnormal. I think people tried to make this seem like this was a bigger deal than it actually was. They're not anywhere close.
1:04:32Pat McAfee:And then there was reports that he's asking for$65 million a year. And then his people came out and said, I'm not asking. We're not asking for$65 million a year. What are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offering? How long ago did Baker sign a deal with Tampa Bay? It felt like it wasn't that long ago. But it was a shorter deal, obviously, because now he's in his third chapter, which has become his home and his perfect place. We've heard Jason Light, the general manager, come out and say that he absolutely loves Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield is the perfect quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Obviously, they lose Mike Evans.
1:04:58Pat McAfee:So maybe there aren't a little bit of a turnover. but they still have incredible offensive weapons all over the place, including Reuben Bain, I believe, getting drafted for the defensive side. So whenever you think about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South, you like them. You think Baker and Tampa Bay like each other. Then this news comes out and you get a little bit worried. I don't think we're anywhere near done negotiating. If you say in training camp, we still got time. And there's been a lot of players that have said, I don't want to go into the season negotiating because that's a lot of drama.
1:05:21Pat McAfee:Like I don't want to do that. So I would like this to be done by training camp. And if not, we'll wait until after season. I don't think it's necessarily the most negative thing on earth that this is happening. The last guy I can remember, at least, that ended up getting paid was Jamar Chase. I think then he'd go into the year and didn't get paid, and then he broke the bank and reset the market at$40 million at the wide receiver. So, yeah, this is not abnormal. It is abnormal with a franchise quarterback, though, or guys that we deem or view as franchise quarterbacks, especially in the age range that Baker Mayfield is in.
1:05:51I'm sure him and his team feel like, look, I've proved myself. I've earned it. You want that security going into the season. Especially, like you said, losing a guy, a pillar like Mike Evans.
1:06:01Pat McAfee:Nobody's – we haven't talked about that at all. I know. Now we look at – Nobody has talked about the San Francisco 49ers having Mike Evans. You look at Baker as, you know, obviously he's a franchise quarterback, but he should be that next pillar with Levante David retiring, Mike Evans going on. So you got him. You know, Ibuka probably going to be the number one goblin. So I expected something to get done, and we still have time up until training camp. But if he goes into training camp, I mean, that's just more motivation for a guy that seems like he's always got some type of chip on his shoulder when he's playing the game.
1:06:28Yeah, and it's also tough, too, just because they have so many guys that they still have to pay, not even the guys you listed, but like Vita Vea, we're assuming, is probably going to get. I love Vita Vea.
1:06:35Pat McAfee:Let's give him the ball more. Maybe now that Mike Evans isn't on the offensive side, let's get a little bit more Vita Vea on the offensive game plan. Put him on offense, but it would make more sense to pay Baker now, right? Like you have – we talk about the quarterbacks being on the rookie deal being such a big deal, but we just mentioned Abuka. They're going to have a number one receiver on a rookie deal, So that kind of frees up a little bit of space. I think Kate, and who's on the screen right now, I believe he is back. I think he got a deal in free agency from Tampa Bay. So if there was ever a time, it's right now, big news, Chicago bears coming to Indiana.
1:07:05Yes. Let's go. Kind of feels like it.
1:07:08Pat McAfee:Come on. Doesn't just feel like it. Yeah. The bears board of directors, but it Thursday to advance the stadium development in Hammond, Indiana with the exact to be selected. The exact location probably to be selected. this is the first time that the Bears board has voted on any stadium site as one source said there is more work to do but barring anything very strange it's a done deal now remember Governor Braun of Indiana came on our show at the combine and said like Chicago they're not going to be able to put together a deal that's better than our deal they've been trying to do it for three years he said so this is basically a done deal but we thought that Kevin Warren who I don't know how everybody in Chicago I think they're calling it the Warren He could potentially go back to Big Ten football if you want to kind of dive in there.
1:07:53Pat McAfee:I don't think we're very well liked by that particular office, but obviously he was working on the Sweets Mojo. Remember? Fonk Chou. Yeah, Fonk Chou. He was gone taffering there for a little bit, had his hands in everything. But we appreciate the fact that Indiana is becoming a home of two NFL football teams. Yeah. Now, granted, the way the deal was set up by Governor Braun is in a fashion in which there's going to be taxes that are going to pay back. The Bears don't have to put a lot of upfront money at all up into this thing. You're going to have a brand-new stadium. They're going to have plazas and areas and shops and malls.
1:08:21Pat McAfee:I assume there's going to be hotels. They're going to create this Chicagoland attitude, and they're not going to change the name, obviously, but it did move into a state that was being a lot more friendly with the economic benefits that could take place. And Indiana's always been like this. Indiana's open for business is one of the main taglines, basically, since the beginning. There's a lot of international business that happens in Indiana. There's a lot of hubs to a lot of businesses in the logistics world in Indiana because there's good tax breaks. It's not 0 % state income tax, but they like business.
1:08:48Pat McAfee:Indiana likes entrepreneurs. Farmers are some of the most old school business people of all time. So it's like Indiana has always been able to say that we do good business. But now it's actually being shown like years and years and years of Illinois government trying to put something together for the Chicago Bears to stay there. All changes and gets an answer quickly because I think it took them like two months, Indiana, to kind of piece this deal together. Don't blame them. We want you. And it's not even and people are saying the Indiana taxpayers are not going to pay the bill. It's like, nah, the way it's drawn up from our understanding, the governor told us, is that area basically is going to have taxes on food, beverage, hotel, all that stuff.
1:09:27Pat McAfee:That money is what's going to be used to pay it all back. But Indiana has certainly given billions to kind of front this entire thing. They're betting on the long-term investment. They'll still be able to get the taxes. And I think long-term, the Bears are going to be able to make a lot of revenue. If this works out how it should, how Governor Braun and the team at Indiana, the state government put together, this should be beneficial to both states or both kind of entities here. And hopefully we'll see if that's the case. But Indiana getting another team is crazy. That sucks. Chicago Bears coming to Indiana is insane.
1:09:57Pat McAfee:But it is like it's only 20 minutes down the road. The way they describe it, it's like we're trying to create the area, you know, because that whole area calls themselves Chicago anyways. I think Chicagoland is like a conversation up there. 20 minutes. But it is crazy. 20 minutes? Yeah, it's 20 minutes. You go to like 2.30 a.m. Yeah. 3 a.m., no traffic. I think maybe 15. It's going to take you an hour and a half to get there from the city now. It's closer than the one in Illinois that they're potentially going to go to from downtown Chicago. It felt like there was never going to be really an offer that the Chicago Bears were going to feel terrible not accepting from Illinois.
1:10:30Pat McAfee:And as soon as Indiana got in there, that felt like it. Governor Braun came on our show and was like, they're never going to be able to compete with our deal. and he was like no well don't you think they're going to use your deal as leverage and he goes yeah sure if that's what they want to do but there's no way they'll get it passed they were close a couple times right yeah and then there was uh opposition that came through and it's like i think this is going to take a little bit chiefs are moving to kansas yep bears are now kansas city chiefs not that big of a deal but missouri's been the home of that oh yeah for a long long time a lot of the beginning of time yeah beginning of football basically they're going to kansas bears coming to indiana obviously new york teams are all in new jersey it's a fascinating little thing, but Indiana becoming a home of two NFL teams, I think, just points out the business of Indiana, just being like, hey, we would like your business here, and we'll be willing to make things work.
1:11:15Yeah, right now, I put it in, it's 33 minutes from Soldier Field to Hammond right now, and now Hammond is south, obviously, so if you're one of those northern suburbs, you're absolutely screwed. Good luck getting to a game these days, but, you know, it doesn't feel right that the Bears are not going to be there. Now I get it. All these teams are still doing it with all these, in the casinos, and it's going to be great for the team. It's going to be great for their business, but it just doesn't feel right. Even great for the team, great for the business, and it will take time. I don't think you can emphasize how awesome it is when your team has an entire little town.
1:11:48Like for New England and Patriots Place, same with even the Cowboys, same with Lambeau and Green Bay. That's different. Yeah, because it's legendary.
1:11:57Pat McAfee:That's a Packers fan talking about the Bears right now. You need to remember that. I feel bad for – they're the New England Patriots. So all of New England claims them. So it's like they don't need to be in Boston. They don't need to be. Like the Bears are one of the oldest teams in the NFL. And I get it. We've talked about it. I mean, financially, sure, it makes a lot more sense. It's bullshit that they couldn't figure out a way or see eye to eye on something to keep the Bears in Chicago. Joining us now, Northwestern grad. Obviously a man who has a lot of roots in Chicago, but also certainly deep in New York City.
1:12:30Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, New York Knicks fan. and a man who's never won a sports Emmy. What? Or nominated. Yeah, I don't know if he's been nominated, has he? Mike Greenberg. Hey! How are you, Mike? All right, that's correct. I have not welcomed the New York guys, although you are, well, you're as close to New York as Hammond, Indiana is to Chicago. That's what they say. That's what they say. Green, tell me about that. Tell me about that. Obviously, you've been covering sport and setting the conversation for sport for, what, 50 years now or something. You look younger than ever, but you've been doing this a long time.
1:13:03Pat McAfee:Teams do move. I mean, we just mentioned the Chiefs are moving to Kansas. Nobody really cares because it's Kansas City Chiefs, so Kansas, we're okay with that. Some people probably thought it was in Kansas to begin with, but it was in Missouri. That feels like a bigger deal for the history of the game as opposed to, like, public outrage. Chicago Bears going to Indiana, though, insane. I think even when Governor Braun came on during the combine and was so confident that the Bears were going to Indiana, we, as people who live in Indiana and obviously enjoy the state, love the state, I even felt a little bit weird about it.
1:13:30Pat McAfee:I couldn't even imagine how your friends that you know that are Bears fans or maybe even you feel as somebody that lived in Chicago and has history in Chicago. Your thoughts on this? And is there anything like this in the past? So my tweet is on the screen. I posted that on Friday when I saw this news. So in my childhood, my favorite team, of course, is the New York Jets in football. And they played in Shea Stadium, which is in Queens, which is in New York City. And they moved after the 1983 season. So I was a sophomore in high school. The first really good run of Jets playoff that I ever got to see took place in Shea Stadium.
1:14:03And when they moved to New Jersey, it broke my heart. And what I posted, what's on the screen that you'll see there is it's never the same again. And I spent a lot of the weekend thinking about that. And here's what I don't know. What I don't know is, was it the fact that they moved out of the city or was it the fact that they moved at all? That stadium had been the only stadium I had ever known. It's the only place I'd ever gotten. It's a place that my father and I sat next to each other every Sunday, no matter how cold it was, no matter how bad the Jets were. And when I was little, the Jets were always bad.
1:14:36And I think it probably had more to do in retrospect with the stadium than it did with them moving out of the city. Now, I'll say this. We were all just in your beloved hometown of Pittsburgh, Pat, for the draft. And there's something so magnificent about having all of those stadiums right in the city. And I wish more than anything as a city person that that were possible, that you could find a way in Chicago to do that. But I'm with you in that it just had become painfully obvious that there was never going to be a way that was going to work out that was going to make people satisfied. The move to Arlington Heights, I don't think was going to be appreciably better for anybody.
1:15:18So I what I wonder now, I sort of regret posting what I posted because I don't know if what upset me so much or what changed everything so much for me was that they left the city or was it they just moved out of the only stadium I'd ever known.
1:15:33Pat McAfee:Yeah, the nostalgia of that stadium is obviously something that you always think about. And it wasn't moving, and you just mentioned Pittsburgh having everything figured out. You're right, okay? Including some of the meteorologists, you know, that was a big thing. The storms come and go. I think, by the way, safe decision is made, even though everybody gets really pissed off about that. Also signed autographs until 1 a.m. Yeah, the night before, nobody's talking about it. But, okay, nonetheless, the injuries are going to be pissed. The injuries and people from that area are going to be pissed.
1:15:58Pat McAfee:I think if they end up having a storm and something terrible happens, I mean, that is. Yeah, not good. And it's obviously not great, but nobody's going to see that whenever it was a perfect night, I guess. But when three rivers went down, okay, when three rivers went down, that was like an emotional moment. When the igloo went down in Pittsburgh, it was like an emotional moment. I think what you're saying is the place potentially has the memories. It's like Soldier Field is obviously always going to be something that is going to be remembered as the home of the Bears. In Chicagoland, wherever they're building over there, it can always try to replicate Soldier Field, but there'll never be Soldier Field.
1:16:27Pat McAfee:It's always going to be the thought, I think. But to Connor's point, down there in Jerry World, where they got everything, he owns everything. Up in New England, when you're at Patriot Plaza, you're staying at the hotel there. You're shopping at his stores. You're going into this. You're with all like-minded people. You know, in Lambeau, everybody that's there is because of the Packers. There's a museum to go see things. There's this to go do that. If they end up doing that, I think inevitably it'll be worth a trip in there, especially if Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson continue to be good. That's a big part of this.
1:16:58Pat McAfee:Have to be good at football. Yeah, Caleb is on the mat. That's a good thing. Superstar. His team is in Indiana in the future. But they've got to be good. If they're good, this could become a very special, special, special thing for Bears fans. But if they don't fill those museums up and fill the stores up and everything like that, it's just going to be a big, you remember when they made a terrible decision. But it's all about if they're good or not. Is it not, Greeny? If they're good, nobody will care. Yes. People will care. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I don't want to speak like that again. The Bears are a founding franchise of the National Football League.
1:17:28They've been around since the late 20s. So there will always be and are always Bears fans, not just in Chicago, but all over the country and all over the world. And that will never change. And a new generation of fans will be born that won't remember Soldier Field. Look, most people who are listening to this conversation don't know that the Bears haven't played at Soldier Field since 1912 when it was built or whatever. the Bears have used to play at Wrigley Field when Mike Ditka and those teams were winning the championship in 1963 and whatever it was they played at Wrigley Field they didn't move to Soldier Field until sometime after that so there's a whole generation of fans that don't remember that when they built a new Yankee Stadium here in New York about 20 years ago it's 18 or so years ago people were up in arms and now there's a whole generation of fans that don't remember the old Yankee Stadium.
1:18:18So, I mean, time goes on and I think you have to fight the natural inclination to think that any time change happens, it is for the worse. I sometimes struggle from that. And so that's why, again, I sort of regret what I posted on Friday because I don't know that I think it's such a terrible thing. I understand if you are a diehard Chicago City person, my wife was born and raised in the actual city. The fact that they're moving out of the city offends her sensibility, but time moves on and, and it was never going to get done there. So Hammond, Indiana seems like as good a place as any.
1:18:53Pat McAfee:They finally got the franchise QB. They got the next best coach. It's all happening. Move to Hammond, Indiana. Just know this Indiana will respect the hell out of the opportunity to have the team. And there's never going to be a time where they're the Indiana bears. Okay. That's never going to happen. Colts better step their game up. Colts don't want to become the chargers of Indiana. Well, you start looking at the IU Hoosiers. Watch your mouth. Hey, you know it's true. Watch your mouth. Yeah, you're a big-time Chargers fan. I've yet to hear you pick them for a Super Bowl. Let's go out of the NFL.
1:19:23Pat McAfee:Let's go to college. You talk about change and automatically thinking it's a terrible thing, and we all kind of have a habit of that. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Greeny, you were off air of GetUp, so you haven't had a chance to react to it. I don't know if you've had thoughts about it yet. The Brennan Sorsby news that broke after GetUp was over, that he is not going to be ineligible this season after making bets on his own team when he was at IU. The judge ruled that on today. It's going to be a two-game suspension. Then he's going to be eligible to play for Texas Tech the rest of the season. Have you had any time to think about this and kind of what the impact on college football could be moving forward with this ruling?
1:20:00I'm not going to lie to you. I am learning of this literally. See? Yeah. So I'm reading it. I'm reading Pete Thamel's tweet right there. NCAA cannot prevent Texas. Well, I don't know. I mean, look, we have entered a really, really complicated place. And I have been, I'll give you my own personal history on this. I started hosting talk shows locally in Chicago in 1992. And when I started doing that, one of the first things that I campaigned for was legalized sports gambling. I felt that this was something that was already going on and there was no reason why it should be kept in the shadiest and darkest corners and bring it out into the light and and let it be taxed and let it be public and let it become an enormous industry and it has obviously exploded to something that was beyond even my wildest imagination since then with that with the direct connection that sports teams and leagues have with these, with these, with these, you know, with the DraftKings and the FanDuel's of the world and now these prediction markets and all the rest of that comes what is obviously a very slippery slope because it is very difficult out of one side of your mouth to say you must stay away from this.
1:21:21It is the worst thing you can possibly do. And on the other side, say, and make sure that you check out the parlay that we have right now available for new customers only. that said i think all athletes and you guys would know this i mean mcafee you would know this way better than i would although having been in locker rooms and clubhouses all my life i'm aware of this there's it is the number one rule right it is the number one thing everyone knows you cannot do you get the professional death penalty for gambling on your sport so i suppose i have mixed feelings on that. What has the general reaction been?
1:21:59Like, what have you guys... So for us,
1:22:00Pat McAfee:so it's a juxtaposition, you know, here as we look at it and everything you just mentioned there, you said you started in the 90s in Chicago. Obviously, a lot of Italians there, paisans there, and you understood that gambling and sports gambling was just a part of the sports culture. You understood that, but obviously there was no regulator and you could potentially end up in a bad, bad spot, both in debt, betting too much, and potentially even dangerous situations that have happened in the past of gambling before it was legalized. I'm from Pittsburgh, so very similar. I understand that this is just a part of sports culture.
1:22:30Pat McAfee:And I think the juxtaposition that we are in with DraftKings, we were seeing green with you. We've seen green. We've seen green with you before. It is an interesting situation because I've got DraftKings helmet right here. I've got ESPN on an LED board right here. We're up here in Bristol, the home of sports media, basically since 1979 or something like that. So it is a much different time where gambling and sports gambling is very prevalent in everything. But we, our reaction, and I think everybody kind of feels the same way that we, I don't know. I haven't seen the reaction online from our reaction.
1:23:01Pat McAfee:But I think everybody knows that gambling responsibly and not being an asshole is a big part of what our future is. And it has to be. And we, as people that are talking about it and in the sports world and having a platform in the sports world, I think we got to be a big part of that, Greeny. I think we got to tell people not to be assholes. Like, hey, you're not going to become a millionaire of this, bro. Like, this is just to make the game a little bit more interesting. I think as we can continue to be those types of people, like, hey, 21 plus, obviously, and let's not be assholes. But the players just cannot participate.
1:23:28Pat McAfee:Like, it is just a, as former players, B and D by both, our entire take was like, hey, if we're going to talk about gambling with people, we got to make sure we tell people how to do it right. Okay. You're not going to be a bazillionaire off of this. Okay. And the history has been like three people that have really won consistently, and they've all been arrested for winning too much in this entire thing. So it's like, you're not going to win every single bet. Don't act like you're going to win every single bet. Let's just enhance the sports experience with it. Let's be smart about it. But players cannot.
1:23:57Pat McAfee:Like, that is just the entire thing that can't happen, D. But that was kind of our entire take, Greeny. And I don't know if people agree with us or not, but we naturally fall into the same boat there. Yeah, the integrity game, obviously, is top. And Greeny said it just like we said earlier in the hour. That was the number one rule. We saw it with Pete Rose in baseball. Like, he was one of the best players ever. But once you kind of cross that line, that's something you can't do. Now, we are in a very, very different space. I understand that. And there are certain things. I know it's the mental health part of it as well, addiction and things like that.
1:24:24But there are other addictions or other things that if you dabble into that space, you can't play ball. There are penalties. There are violations. There are things you have to pay. So I get it. But, yeah, I'm firmly on the side of, you know, I don't like the precedent that's being set, honestly, if I'm speaking transparently. But, you know, this is the world that we live in now. I didn't know that the NCAA didn't even have that power to make that ruling. I didn't know a judge would just come in and say, nope, actually he can't play. So it's wild.
1:24:50Pat McAfee:Yeah, from our time, me and D-Bot, we used to have to sit through these NCAA meetings. Okay, Greeny? And I don't know if you've ever had to sit through these or not whenever we were in college. These people would come in here with 150 pages, hour and a half meeting, and they were in charge. Hey, we can do whatever the hell we want to you. Okay, that is basically what they were trying to tell us in that entire thing. We're scared to death about everything. And I naturally had a hatred for the NCAA. I think everybody that ever had to sit through those meetings, listen to them. And I watched Pat White.
1:25:18Pat McAfee:Congrats to him on getting his number retired. He deserves that. I'm fucking so happy for him. And Steve Slayton, build up West Virginia, okay, and then not really reap the benefits of it ever and never really get paid. So I'm for, like, players getting paid. I'm for, like, the evolution of sport and college sport. I'm for all these things. But the NCAA just being a nothing burger, that's a crazy thing to witness here. That's a crazy thing to, like, publicly witness because I've never been a super, hey, the NCAA is the right people to be making decisions. I've actually had a chance at JMU against the NCAA.
1:25:51Pat McAfee:I didn't know that they got nothing. So now, Greeny, the question is, like, are teams just going to abuse, like, the NCAA? Like, what is a rule then? You know? That's kind of the next question. And then this is all happening at the exact time that shit's getting voted on in D.C. So it feels juxtapositioned. Yeah, yeah. And we're certainly in here. From the eligibility standpoint, the NCAA obviously already has absolutely no authority, right? There's nothing they can do. The minute they lost in court, they went from having, to your point, from telling universities you may provide a player with bagels and butter, but not with bagels and peanut butter because that changes the definition of a meal.
1:26:33I'm not making that up. That was legitimately a rule at one point to now where there are no rules. This feels different. This is not a matter of, well, I guess it is about eligibility, but it's in an entirely different way. It's about benefits. It's about the ability of a player to benefit from his or her likeness and all the rest of that. So I'm a thousand percent in support of players getting paid. I'm a thousand percent in support of players having the opportunity to take advantage of their name, image, and likeness. Being able to gamble on the sport, the more I think about it, the more I think you guys are absolutely right.
1:27:08This is a terrible precedent to be setting because if indeed it is precedent, and who the hell knows, that suggests that other players can do this. It makes other players feel like they can.
1:27:23Pat McAfee:Let's not just automatically go to the worst outcome. Remember, we just did this with Chicagoland. So maybe this will actually, because this way, and I think this is like Soresby. I'm happy as hell for Soresby. You know, made a mistake. Obviously made a mistake for a while. clearly was addicted. I mean, this was a... 35 days in rehab. This is a... 35 days in rehab is a long time. So him getting a chance to reprieve himself and also hopefully try to right some wrongs that he potentially did publicly and go be a spokesperson for it. I think that's good. We're happy for him. We thought he was going to have to do that in the NFL.
1:27:55Pat McAfee:We thought that was going to have to happen in the NFL. We didn't think that he was going to be able to maintain eligibility. But now that these judges just feel like, yeah, they're good. And NCAA, actually, you know what you can't do? Anything. It's in there. Read it. Yeah, I'm a judge. Who are you? Charlie Baker? What were you? You used to be a governor? Shut up. And then Charlie Baker responds. He told us when he was on our show, he's like, if we make any ruling in this modern day, we just get sued. That's it. So we have no power. He said that on the show. He was like, we'll just get sued. Because when it came to amount of years that guys wanted to play, it was like, oh, you're going to take away work from these guys?
1:28:27Pat McAfee:So then there was some labor stuff that was getting in there and all this stuff. And they're like, they're just getting caught up against sued. So that's why this Protect College Sports Act or whatever the hell it is, I think gives them antitrust ruling, which makes sure that they can have power and authority. Good luck, everybody. Go get them. I think they're going to figure it out, Greeny. I think they're all going to figure it out. Okay. Go ahead. It shouldn't be this complicated to be a fan of college sports. They're asking you to understand a lot of things because I'm not going to lie to you.
1:28:53I have a feeling everything you just said is right, but you lost me. I have no idea what we're even talking about anymore. I don't know what the rules are. I don't know who has authority. I don't know what the right setup for all of it is. I don't, I think I agree with you. Brendan Sorsby probably did not, you probably don't want a young man who makes a mistake to forfeit and sacrifice everything that he's worked for for the entire rest of his life. Maybe he could have done that on the pro level. It's a complicated issue and it's one I think we're going to be dealing with a lot in the future.
1:29:24Pat McAfee:I hope not. Hey, no, let's not automatically go to the negative. Come on. We've been talking about this. We're not, this is the last time everybody's going to learn from this. they're going to understand that this was not good for the game not good for the sport, not good for anybody thank you players for not doing that anymore thank you players for not doing that anymore now listen to me if I may, and I don't mean to hijack this conversation but last year, when your Indiana Pacers are in the NBA Finals you've got me on, and that's all we talked about, I have been on this show now for a while Deepon has a question for you, please Greeny I have not made mention of the New York Wickerbockers who currently sit two wins away from erasing a 53-year drought and winning an NBA championship that absolutely no one saw coming 45 days ago.
1:30:15I would like to launch. I need to launch some sort of protest. I think that there was, I don't know exactly what my avenue is here, but it feels to me like this should have come up by now. You're saying I'm filibustering right now?
1:30:30Pat McAfee:You're saying I'm filibustering to get to the main point here of NBA. Well, I will say this, though. We did plan on ending the conversation with the Knicks, obviously, because we're very lucky that we're going to be in the building. I believe you're going to be there. You love the team. It is historic and everything like that. We ran out of time, though. Hey, Greeny. Thank you so much, man. Thank you so much. What's that? This is not right. I refuse. I stand fastly refuse. Listen, I've been at ESPN 30 years. I run the place. I say you stay with it. I say. Hey, Mr. Bossman. Mr. Bossman, Debon has a question for you.
1:31:03Yeah, we're talking about Chicago, Soldier Field, obviously Madison Square Garden, most famous arena in the world. We will be in the building tonight, luckily. What should we expect going to that building? You talked about the 53 years since the title. Now you're two wins away from another one. What should we expect? And what do you expect tonight for this home finals playoff game? So it's going to be an incredible scene. You're obviously aware that the president is coming. So you guys are aware that you need to get there super early. I mean, get there. The second you guys are done today, get down here because it's going to take longer to get into the building.
1:31:35The streets are closed down all the way around in the neighborhood. So people who are traveling here from anywhere are going to have a harder time. So that's the first thing. That's just my own words of caution to you. As far as the fans, here's what I don't know. I assume you've seen how much money it costs to get into the building. So, I mean, Madison Square Garden is an expensive ticket at any time of the year. But this is something other than that. I've never even seen anything like this. The last I had seen, the seats all the way upstairs in the 400 level were going for something like$10 ,000.
1:32:12So what I don't know is exactly how that's going to change the noise in the building. In my experience, and I have been both attending games and covering games in Madison Square Garden now since the 1970s, there is no place in the world quite like the garden when it really gets going. And so it's going to be incredibly loud. When the game starts, it is going to feel like the building is shaking. And you have to remember the things that have taken place in this building from Ali Frazier all the way through Willis Reed limping out onto that court all the way through many of Michael Jordan's most magical moments all the way through the Rangers finally winning a Stanley Cup in 1994 and all the way through to tonight.
1:32:57So all of that goes into the conversation when you start thinking about what the building is going to feel like. Now, what I don't know is how that impacts the game, because when I covered those Bulls teams, Phil Jackson always said he loved playing on the road in these kind of spots. He felt his team focused better and played better on the road. When you're not dealing with families, you're not dealing with any friends and ticket requests and all that stuff. It's just you against the world. And if you can start taking the air out of the building, the home team feels it. So that's what I'm not 100 % sure of.
1:33:35If the Knicks play great tonight, if they jump out to a big lead, I will tell you right now, you will never in your life have heard a louder building than you will hear tonight. But if this thing starts to go the other way, then I think the air in the building, the energy in the building could change. And sometimes I do think those things impact the players.
1:33:53Pat McAfee:I love that. Okay, I hope we get a chance to experience whatever happens. If Wemby walks in there and is the big, bad French villain and steals the finals, happiness, and joy out of the world's most famous arena. What a scene. What a night. What a historic day in the history of hoops. If this guy does crown himself. Hey, we think you see Miss Stacey. Stacey! Stacey! Stacey! Her hand was just in the corner. She's in here doing all my stuff. You guys have all these people that do social media, and I've got my wife. So that's pretty much it. So she's doing whatever social media I get out of this.
1:34:28that's from her with her iPhone standing over there. But you know she's your biggest fan, so she's upset about the Chicago thing. But she is very, always, as you know, very excited whenever I'm on the show.
1:34:38Pat McAfee:Well, pro-Indiana then, a little bit at least. She's at least pro-Indiana. A tiny bit has to be in there. We appreciate the hell out of her just like we appreciate the hell out of you. We'll see you down in there tonight. Yes, come, I'll come find you. You'll be easier to find than I will be, I would assume. And I'm not sure what it'll be like moving around the building. Where are you guys going to be? It was reported that we're going to be courtside. And if that was the case, that mean people would be spending like two, three million just on seats for us. We're up in the second floor, I believe, second balcony.
1:35:07Pat McAfee:There's a little area we're going to be in there. And then the boys are going to be up in the... We're hanging from the banner. Yeah. The boys are up in the... The Raptors. What's it called? It's called like the... The Delta Sky Lounge. The Delta Sky Lounge up there is where the boys will be up there. So we got it all access points for kind of figuring it out. It's a great place to sit, actually. I will come find you guys. assuming we can move around the building freely depending on the security situation. It's going to be a night unlike anything you've ever seen. I mean, I think I've told you this before.
1:35:37If I have 30 seconds left, let me just make my one last little story.
1:35:41Pat McAfee:30 years. You got all the time you want. You built this place. Thank you, boss. Three and a half million bucks, Brandon Studio. Good job, Greeny. Thank you, Greeny. Thank you for this, Greeny. Hey, this LED board, I don't miss a single stitch. Not a single pixel is gone here. You did an incredible job, Greeny. Thank you for your service. people will refer to pittsburgh as a sports town they'll refer to indianapolis as a sports town to use the two that are most near and dear to your heart new york city is not a town there's nothing about this place that feels like a town when you walk the streets you are surrounded most times by international tourists it is it is most common to hear people having conversations that are not in english because it is an international city the own and and because of the fact that there are two teams in all the sports that the whole city doesn't gravitate towards one team in this way when the Giants win the Jet fans are unhappy when the Yankees win the Met fans are unhappy in my childhood the rivalry between the Rangers and the Islanders was the most passionate rivalry I was aware of as a sports fan it was incredible to this day they chant nasty things about each other at these games 50 years later New York the Knicks are the only team that owns the entire city.
1:36:52They are the only team that makes this feel like a town. So when you get here tonight, what you're going to see everywhere you go, find some way to take a walk. You're going to find people everywhere you go wearing Nick's hats and Nick shirts and looking at each other and smiling like we're in the Andy Griffith show. And this is Mayberry. They're the only team that brings the city together in that way. And I have this to demonstrate just sort of the way it is this this is the kind of thing that everyone that you see will be wearing today um and so the knicks make new york feel like a town and as one who grew up here there's something very nice and special about that so i really hope that you guys get a chance to experience it and i hope it's
1:37:35Pat McAfee:a normal really fun night to quote a new yorker going viral your mayor is muslim your bagels are Jewish. You're Christians. Do your Nixon for legendary line. I hope it takes place, but also maybe the alien says I don't think so. Maybe your basketball is otherworldly with the alien coming to town. We are so thankful and lucky to be there and we appreciate the hell out of you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is multiple time Hall of Famer. Nevy never sports Emmy award winner. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Greenberg. See you, Graney. He kicked his ass out quick. Shots fired at the Brooklyn Nets. Yeah. They were Jersey for so long.
1:38:16They were, but they're in Brooklyn now.
1:38:17Pat McAfee:And that last one was way more than 30 seconds. He's been on air for a long-ass time. Yeah. That was like a minute and a half. Yeah, he laid out of it. His internal clock might be going a little. Oh, is he long? Oh, no. Longer than two? I didn't say that. Joining us now is a man who found his fastball and is just getting into the clap-on territory. You saw him on SVP, I believe, 1-2 a.m. Yeah, there. night. He was on a little bit of the kickoff coverage, ladies and gentlemen. Stanley Cup final winner. A man who played 18 years in the NHL. Now ESPN hockey pundit, Big Horn, Eric Johnson.
1:38:55What's going on, boys?
1:38:57Pat McAfee:I don't know if you heard. New York Knicks are about to do something that's bringing an entire city together. What's going on in hockey? You got anything that can top that or how's the NHL right now? Well, I feel a lot worse than I look, so if I look like shit, just imagine how I feel. It's not good. Five nights in Vegas. I thought playing was tough. This media business might have just knocked my socks off. Five nights in Sin City. Way too long. I need a shower, and I need a cigarette in about two minutes. Yeah, I understand. I appreciate the fact that you guys did five days hard time out there in Sin City.
1:39:31Pat McAfee:That's a two-day max, three-day max city, but you got to do what you got to do for hockey. Back-to-back overtime games, including a double overtime game, obviously. This series has lived up to the hype, and obviously we had record-breaking timing. Mitch Marner had a hat trick in like six minutes in the second period, and then Carolina scored three goals in 36 seconds at one point. At this stage, obviously it feels like Big Mo has gone to both sides. It's coming down to the very end. How do you feel about who has maybe the edge in this NHL Stanley Cup final between the Canes and the Vegas Golden Knights, and why do you think we're getting the best of the best of the best right now of hockey between these two?
1:40:07Yeah, I think like a lot of people were saying that this was going to be a bit of a snoozer series not exactly big names as far as cities where these guys play like LA New York maybe more sexy right but this is shaping up to be like literally maybe one of the best Stanley Cup final of all time like what we're seeing every game blows the previous game out of the water like I just I can't believe what we're seeing like we're seeing own goals we're seeing challenges Vegas don't forget had two goals wiped off the board with challenges offside and goal interference so they won 5-4 but they put up seven on the canes so I mean just there's literally something for everybody Braden McNabb had half of his nose fucking blown off and he comes back and plays the next night I mean he got I think 30 stitches right down the side of his nose looked like a crime scene back there and to see him come back and play and play as well as he did and and help Vegas get the 2-1 series lead this is this This is literally the best final I think I've seen in a long time.
1:41:06Pat McAfee:I love that you guys naturally try to eat pucks, but also we'll take it in the nose if we have to, right in the forehead. Clap bomb. It was 84 miles an hour. Mouth was open. Something like that. He was trying to eat it. Literally trying to eat it. Hey, that's for the Lord Stanley Cup. Now, obviously, we've got players eating pucks. We've got magical dangles taking place. We've got scoring records happening seemingly every single period in game for these guys. The Toxic Table kind of have a combined question for you, Big Horno. Yeah, Horno, just curious. I mean, I think Connor will cover one side of it, but is Vegas considering a goalie change?
1:41:38Carter Hart, obviously, they're up 2-1, but when Carolina has scored, it's been in bunch, as we mentioned, the 36 seconds, and then the other night he let in, I think, three goals in like six minutes. Is there any chance that they're going to, you know, maybe switch things up for game four, or what do you think? Fair question, but you have a better chance of seeing me at Thunder Down Under tonight than Carter Hart not playing tomorrow. it's a good show. It's a good show.
1:42:03Pat McAfee:Do you think you could perform? Do you think you could perform? You think you could bring it? It's a little cold in there. I heard, so I don't know. Oh yeah. Tiny dangles. Like there is no doubt that Carter Hart plays tomorrow night in game four zero, zero chance. He doesn't play unless he's hurt. But the, the, the big question is, does Bussie play instead of Anderson? Had a big debate at dinner last night with Subban and Messier and Steve Levy. They think that Bussie's going to play. I think you ride with the guy that got you there in Freddie Anderson. I think we see Freddie Anderson tomorrow night.
1:42:33That goal right there, probably the only one he should have stopped on Mitch Marner. Other than that, I don't place a lot of blame on him, but that's the big question for Carolina is who's going to start in goal.
1:42:42Pat McAfee:Okay, Leaves, Moose, Subban, you. Good group. Cash Patel. How's this? What's that? He was with PK. Cash and PK were just yucking it up. On PK's goal. Scott loves hockey. He does. He loves hockey. Don't we got some stuff going on? He loves hockey. There's nothing more important than North Stanley's Cup. Okay, so you guys talking puck off show and on show. What's going on at dinner? We're debating hockey the entire time. Feels like you guys have a good group. It feels like you have been a great addition to group. I don't know if you feel. How have you felt about the media world that you've lived?
1:43:16Pat McAfee:Because we enjoy the hell out of your coverage. We appreciate you. You were on SVP the other night. Now you're with the boys. I think it's a good thing. Hey, Horno, I think things are going well for you. Let's not get too hungover out there. Yeah, I mean, I should probably back off the sauce a little bit tonight. What got you to the dance? Come on. Grow up. Responsibly. Well, I tell you what, though. I went on a heater of all heaters at the blackjack table with Messier last night. And so Suby's sitting next to me. And Levy and I are playing blackjack. And Suby's like, how did you win that hand?
1:43:50Levy had a better hand than you. So PK thought I was playing blackjack against Levy and not the dealer. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is not how it works. But honestly, the dynamic between us all is really fun. They welcome me with open arms. It's fun to be on and chop it up with those guys. And we had a nice little Barolo last night, a little ribeye. Fantastic dinner. Great guys. And I've had a lot of fun with them in Vegas. They welcome me really, really nicely to the set. And it'll be fun to chop it up on the desk with them again tomorrow.
1:44:17Pat McAfee:That's a great group of lads. Happy you joined them. We can't wait for that game tomorrow night. Thank you so much for joining us, Horno. Yeah, enjoy the game tonight, boys. Go Knicks. let's go or no are you front runner is that i didn't know you're minneapolis right you're minnesota big t wolves guy mark messi will kick my ass if i don't cheer for the next night let me tell you that mr game seven that's captain too right that's captain you automatically look at him as captain whenever you're around is that not yeah captain my captain yeah you have to kind of do that i mean what moose did in hockey outstanding right i mean absolutely living icon in your guys's world for amongst hockey players unbelievable really cool for me you I was six years old when he won that cup in New York in 1994, and he has six Stanley Cup rings, right?
1:44:59I mean, I have one, and it was the greatest day of my life. I couldn't imagine him winning six and the fun he had before the smartphone era. So I'm jealous of Mr. Game 7.
1:45:12Pat McAfee:He was up there with Wainel and then in New York to be able to do good for Moist before the cameras were on the phones everywhere. Go ahead, Tony. Yeah, Horto, real quick, because the Internet was dying to know, Is it true that PK sailed in an old wooden warship to the game the other night? Was that true or was that false? Yeah, he cleaned the decks on the pirate ship with that jacket. Jeez. Thank you. You're the best. We appreciate you, ladies and gentlemen. That's Stanley Cup champion, Big Hornel, Eric Johnson. Big Hornel. Thank you, Hornel. PK's got some fits. Yeah. Yeah, they would say he's throwing a fit.
1:45:50Pat McAfee:every time he's out and about. Speaking of throwing a fit, there's people that are not happy about us doing this tonight. Let me read. Here's Brett Pickarts out of Wisconsin. No one asked for this. Show the highlights. Bring back real analysis. Stop doing debate-styled shows. All your content at ESPN. We don't care if a guy wears a cutoff on a national television or hear Kendrick Perkins babble about nonsense during the NBA Finals. Hey, Brett. Suck our dick. How about that? I don't like that guy. Why is the guy killing us? We're not debating. I don't think we debate ever. What the hell? And the cutoffs, now would be the time.
1:46:29Pat McAfee:It's hot out. It would be the time. It's basketball. Yeah. And Lawrence pretty jacked right now. Too bad he has to watch. We're trying to say, yeah. Does he know you can just put on ABC? No, Brett doesn't. No, his house only has ESPN. A lot of people saying that. Don't tell him. Everything these jackasses do is behind a paywall now. It's like, well, actually, ESPN, you know, if you have cable, you'll be able to find it. It's the greatest. Just know we're going to try to be assets and not assets. Ass hats. And Brett, shut up. All Canada, too. I got a couple people up there in Canada coming up. Oh, who gives a fuck about Canada?
1:47:00Not me. Yeah, exactly. Idiots. Wisconsin might as well be. He's just sour the Bucs aren't in the finals.
1:47:09Pat McAfee:I don't know. He is sour. I felt like it was pretty much personal. Lose a Greek freak, too. There was a couple others, obviously. Has he been traded yet? Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, Man 1, 3.2 in competition, played in the NBA for 100 years. Will be joining us tonight on commentary, ladies and gentlemen, Q Rich. Thank you, Rich. What's up, Q? How you doing, buddy? I'm good. I'm good, fellas. I have arrived. I am here in NYC. That is the New York City behind me. Okay. You need to get over to Madison Square Garden now. I've heard it's going to be tough to get in there. Obviously, tonight going to be electrifying.
1:47:39Pat McAfee:What are your thoughts on how this game goes, Q Rich? What do you think is the pace of this entire thing? I'm excited, man. I think it's going to be a great game. it's going to be interesting to see. I want to see how, you know, what impact this crowd has on the game because I know it's going to be maniacal and it's going to be crazy. And it could go either way, obviously. I mean, I think obviously, you know, they're going to be there in support of their Knicks and ready to go crazy for them. But I've also been in that building when they excited like that. And if it doesn't happen soon enough for them, that energy can kind of get weird for the home team when they're ready to explode, but they're not really getting a chance to.
1:48:20So it'll be interesting to see.
1:48:22Pat McAfee:I appreciate the fact that we're betting the over tonight. Yes, sir. I don't know if you know this, so we'll be celebrating every bucket that has got in there. Do you think this will be a bucket-getting evening in Madison Square Garden where people tend to go crazy, especially potentially Wemby, from all that we know, there is a chance that his personality profile is one that would go crazy tonight. Do we think that's going to happen on both sides, or do you think this continues to be a cagey affair as they double and triple team Jalen Brunson? I do think it's going to be a fight. I don't know that it's going to be some high-scoring situation, and I also know that every player, especially somebody like a Wimby, when you come in, you want to perform well at the Garden.
1:49:04And so there's an added layer there, and then it's going to be, you know, this atmosphere is going to, I don't even know what it's going to be. It'll be something to see once we're in there and see it, but it's supposed to be like something we've never seen. So it'll be interesting to see who draws from that and who thrives in that hostile environment, in that chaos, in that frenzy, and all of the fans going crazy. It'll be interesting to see who settles in and who can hoop in the midst of all of that.
1:49:31Pat McAfee:It feels like Brunson can do it in the fourth quarter. D-Bot has a question for you. Yeah, Brunson has been captain clutch, seems like forever now since he's been in that Knicks jersey. But how can you see him get going earlier? Pat talked about getting doubled, coming across half court, but how can Brunson kind of get off earlier in Madison Square Garden tonight? I like them taking him off the ball. Like, they got other guys that could initiate the offense. I like him coming off screens and coming off down screens, down pins, and pin down screens and doing different things, not where you can just hone in on him when he has the ball dribbling up.
1:50:05Like you say, he crossed half court, we can just hit him with a double and get the ball out of his hand. I think putting him in movement and running him around a little bit will give him a better chance to get busy as far as get loose and score some offensive points.
1:50:17Pat McAfee:Let's get busy tonight. Let's get busy tonight. Let's be an asset. Let's not be asked. Let's enjoy the moment while also showcasing everything that Hoops has done this not just season, but this lifetime. Because that's what we're experiencing tonight, the finals in Madison Square Garden. It's been a long time coming. First time they've been favored in a finals game since 1994. Looks like 32 years. That's a long moment. This is the moment, fellas. Like, first I got to give y 'all in person the appreciation for adding me to the crew, letting me hang out with you cool dudes for the night. But, like, listen, this is a privilege right here.
1:50:55We get to be in the building and experience everything that's going to go on, fellas. This is going to be some once-in-a-lifetime type situation, I feel like.
1:51:03Pat McAfee:Yeah, I concur completely, and we're treating it that way. You suited and booted tonight? You know, Perk said he's got his first day of school fit. I remember it was Q Rich was like, hey, we need to be suited. Yeah, he was. Q Rich was the one that – Yeah, I told y 'all, we got to look the part, man. You know, I know a thing or two about pulling up to the garden in a nice suit. So, you know, I mean, Big made that mandatory for us when we was with the Knicks. The whole team, we had to show up like the Yankees, show up in a full suit and everything every time we assemble. So, yeah, I'm going to be suited and booted, man.
1:51:33I'm going to come back like MJ when he puts 55 in the garden with the retro ones on his feet. I got them for y 'all tonight.
1:51:40Pat McAfee:LeBron used to just crush in Madison Square Garden too, didn't he? That was kind of his thing. That's awesome. We get to talk about both those guys. You're the best. We'll see you tonight, ladies and gentlemen. Koo Rish. Koo Rish. I am excited. So pumped. I'm pumped for tonight. Yeah. How we're getting there is going to be a bit wild. We're all going to have to kind of maybe take a – Train? Too long. City bike? I think that would be faster, maybe. Waymo? I don't know. I haven't heard much about the amount of time it would take. No, I believe we're, I think, yeah. Taking a couple Blackhawks in?
1:52:12Oh.
1:52:13Pat McAfee:Yeah. Apaches. I don't know. Could you imagine if we end up, people would be so mad. They're using military helicopters with what we got going on. We're not. Same guy flying by Kid Rocks. But we are coming in through the sky on a smaller plane that has choppers on top of it. Okay. Oh, a water plane? We're going to escort it by toppers? We're not laying in the water. TC's picking us up with a blue angle. We're not doing that. We're flying helicopters from here in because airports and stuff. You know, because there is quite a thing happening there. Sure. We've experienced this with the national championship.
1:52:47Pat McAfee:When the president goes to something, it does become like, hey, we got to lock this thing down because there's a lot of stuff going on in the world. So hopefully, you know, we'll be able to get in there in time. And the national championship environment was ridiculous. They were calling for people to be late. They weren't. It was filled up. I think the scare and the fear of how long it's going to take is more than it actually is. But it certainly is an added element of adversity. New York City is going to be absurd. So we cannot wait to get down in there. We're lucky to be there. We understand that.
1:53:15Pat McAfee:Just like we're incredibly thankful to be here in Bristol. Everybody that was part of the team that helped set this all up, we can't thank you all enough. This is fantastic. The set was outrageous. The things were beautiful. Walking around campus was spectacular. The cafeteria is so good. Shout out to the opportunity to everybody FOSO, FOSTA Boss And tonight we will honor The sport that we get to call The NBA Finals on ESPN With this group of idiots We will win, we'll see you tomorrow Goodbye Alright, I think we hit that Now we actually have to get on those helicopters And get down there Is DJ TGJ You alright?
1:53:52Excuse me Is the president still picking the toxic table up? I think that's the plan. I don't know if it's changed at all. I think we're going one and one, right? Yeah. I think Joe is supposed to pick me up. Just to even it out. I'll tell you what.
1:54:05Pat McAfee:I remember his family has gotten very active on X, I think. He's really good at X. Oh, yeah. I learned a lot about Johnny Cash. Yeah. I didn't know that. Kind of born for it. He was like. Yeah. Is that who's flying you? HB. Yeah, HB. But we're driving. Be careful. Heartbreak kid. We're driving. He's got a fast car. I do like him clearing some things up. Okay. With him or just in general? I just like when people just clear him. Never leaving his drugs behind. That's what he said. Those were his? I was just saying, these were his tweets. We are not making anything up. No, no. Sometimes people attack us for things that other people say that we tell people that they said, and everybody thinks we're lying.
1:54:43Pat McAfee:We're not. But if somebody does say that, it's going to make its way into our algo, and we're going to see it.
1:54:54Pat McAfee:on that note president's going to be in a building tonight it's going to take a while to get in there so i think we need the stanley cup final on abc is more than a quest for the cup it's 134 years of putting it all on the line and the heaviest 35 pounds ever lifted it's broken curses and broken hearts. But for those chasing it, it's everything. The only question is who will take it? You just have to watch the Stanley Cup final presented by GEICO on ABC and the ESPN app. Take the trip down here. Okay. Into all of you! Including Jibbon. Thank you so much for allowing us to do this. You're the greatest people on earth.
1:55:40Pat McAfee:The fact that you! Allow us to do this is a beautiful thing. Had a good you moment when West Virginia took out Kyle Pauly. Eat them. Shite. Got to talk about this. Okay, before we hop on any chopper, I can't believe we haven't even talked about it yet. Obviously, this is NBA Finals Monday. We're live in Bristol. This is beautiful. Getting a chance to see a super regional game in Morgantown, West Virginia, is something that I never even thought or broached the subject of. But what Randy Maisie was able to do and then passed on to Steve Sabans with what Ken Kendricks, the Arizona Diamondbacks owner, who's a West Virginia billionaire, what he has invested in this baseball team and what they have going on and with how much the fans in the city and the state have just kind of adopted them as their own.
1:56:27Pat McAfee:I mean, that's huge. Those AirPods in my ear, we'll tell that story a different time. But that was electrifying. I had the time of my life. I obviously know more about baseball now than I ever have in my entire life. So getting a chance to watch it from right there was spectacular. Shout out to Ren Baker for the hospitality, Steve Sabins, Randy Mazey, everybody in West Virginia for the hospitality. Kids getting thrown. Rich Rodriguez was sitting there next to us. He was fucking hysterical and obviously all in on the Mountaineers. He was talking to me about obviously the football team. I got a chance to go see the football team.
1:56:56Pat McAfee:Football team looks good. Hey, it looks a lot different than it had been looking. We got some dogs out there. It does appear as if we got dogs. Pat White's number gets retired. They make it to Omaha for the first time. I mean, it was maybe one of the best things I've ever experienced. And shout out to West Virginia being in this magical moment right now where it's only up and to the right. Remember the men's basketball team won a crown. That's true. People forget that. That started this. People do forget. Yeah, they won 20 grand at the crown out there in Vegas. They won an April basketball tournament.
1:57:30Pat McAfee:Okay? Everybody forgets that. But they are up and to the right. Ren Baker should get a lot of a round of applause. He looks good, by the way. This guy looks good. Jacked. Thank you. Yeah, super jacked. The home run was super jacked. The pitcher super jacked here. You're saying Ren Baker's super jacked? Yeah, he looked at it from that photo. I don't think anybody's saying Ren Baker's super jacked. Slim. Yeah, look at that. I think he's just slim. I think he's fit. I think he's super fit. I don't know if he's super jacked, but maybe he is under there. He'll be. But he is super fit, and that was a blast to be a part of it.
1:57:58Pat McAfee:I never watched a college baseball game before. We had a three-run shot early. We had a grand slam by a guy who hit his second home run of the year of that, and then the next day he hit another home run. Pitcher. And then Cole, yeah, Chance and Cole, this guy, I bet him to have six strikeouts, okay? He had none in the first inning. I thought I was potentially, you know, kind of bamboozled. Then this guy struck out six straight in the second into the third inning. So all of second-inning strikeout, all of third-inning strikeout. And when he hit a 6-1, hey, which one is the 6-1, Foxy? Do you have it in a – That's four right there.
1:58:32Pat McAfee:That's four. Okay, I'm getting excited. What's that? That's five. I was going to say you're leading four. Okay, here comes six. No, that's replay five. Okay, here's six. Boom, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just went absolutely crazy. The guy was phenomenal. I assume he's going to pitch in Omaha. I don't know how this whole thing works. So, Omaha's coming up. Obviously, West Virginia just started. Friday's the first day, Ty. What do we need to know who's there? Correct. So, as of right now, seven of the eight teams are finalized. And I believe that – I don't want to say it's over, but, yeah, okay. Two games, so West Virginia, and then right here we got Georgia.
1:59:10They beat Mississippi State. Georgia is a very high-ranked team, so they're going. We also have North Carolina, who had a big comeback. They have solidified their spot. Texas, they advanced the record 39th time that they've been. Texas is kind of the old guard here. I watched this guy pitch.
1:59:31Pat McAfee:He hit 96, 95. That one's 96. This guy's got the sauce. Exactly. So Texas has been very good for a very long time. And then also Alabama earlier today, they won big, and then their game got rained out, I think, in like the sixth inning. So they had to finish it today. They advanced. Who else do we have here? First time since 1999. Exactly. They've invested a lot of money in Alabama baseball. I think whenever we were down there for college game day, I went and see the stadium and everything like that. They're trying to get very good at baseball. Obviously, first time since 1999 going to Omaha. Roll tag.
2:00:06Pat McAfee:Congrats to them. And they have to because the SEC obviously is going crazy. West Virginia will play Troy, who swept Little Rock. That is in the first round. And then the last game, Oklahoma currently leads Kansas 8-1. That's the final spot. We talked about this a couple weeks ago. I said something about, like, hey, the Big Ten's coming. The SEC's death was, you know, it's just not true. Five out of the eight teams in Omaha will be SEC teams. Ole Miss upset Auburn as well. That's the one I forgot. So, really, there's – I mean, you never know. A lot of teams that people thought were going to make the field this year didn't make it.
2:00:43So, a team like West Virginia, like, at this point, I really do believe anyone could win. It kind of just – West Virginia's playing their best ball of the season right now. You have a lot of these, you know, kind of true powerhouses from the SEC who people think will be good. But, yeah, we'll find out. Games start Friday, 2 and 7 p.m. are the games. And then you kind of just put that on repeat for the next 10 days or so. Very similar to the Women's College World Series. It is double elimination. So if West Virginia wins their first game, they'll move into the winner's bracket. The other team will move into the loser's bracket.
2:01:15And then we kind of just go until we get to the championship series where it resets and it's a best of three.
2:01:21Pat McAfee:Yeah, I loved it. The environment was outrageous. I mean, sunburned. It was three hours and 45 minutes out there. It was a long one. And obviously with where we were sitting, a lot of points or a lot of runs. They had 29 runs, which is the sixth most or the fifth most or something like that in the history of the NCAA for the amount of runs that you have in a two-day Super Regional. They just absolutely smacked this Cal Poly team. Cal Poly had a lot of good players. I appreciated them too. They brought good juice. They brought good energy. But that environment was spectacular. I mean, I had never been personally to a college baseball game.
2:01:53Pat McAfee:That was my first college baseball game as a whole. So much fun, D-Bud. Oh, yeah. We got chants. We got chants. We got yells. Me and Rich Rodriguez chugged a beer at one point. I mean, we weren't the only ones. Because we looked up at the scoreboard in the back, and we were halfway through the second inning. And I just saw a lot of empty boxes. Third, fourth, eighth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth. And we were probably already there for about 45 minutes. Oh, yeah. 345. I was getting burnt. I was getting absolutely cooked in there. I was like, holy shit, there's a lot of game left. There's a lot of game left.
2:02:23Pat McAfee:Because the boys are playing good. There's a lot of game left. And then, you know, we just decided we had to hammer beers. That's just kind of what we decided we ended up having to do. Yep, come on. Let's make it disappear is what he said. Okay, so we chug a beer out there, obviously. And you sweated out. And right here, I'm saying you to the pitcher. Yeah, he was the man. Obviously, we had a good time. There was a seventh inning stretch. I guess there was a camera behind me. Didn't know that until he put us up on the, oh, shit. Yep, I said, you know, obviously, we had a time of our lives out there.
2:02:48Pat McAfee:Thank you to West Virginia. Coach Steve Saban's coming over saying what's up. And then obviously the reason why we went was to sink country roads at the end. It was loud. It was a good time. I had people saying they were impressed with everybody up there knowing the words. It's like, how do you not? Everybody knows the words. Rich Rod, I hate that guy next to him. Yeah, that was my first thought, too. So that guy came down on the stairs, I believe. So I think he came down late after we had already kind of locked in, I think. Because there was a staircase there next to the Rod. And that's the president of West Virginia there to the right.
2:03:18Pat McAfee:That's the president of West Virginia and the white polo there to the right. Shout out to him. I got a chance to hang out with him. He was right behind home plate the entire time. I mean, he's pumped up about the West Virginia Mountaineer athletics. Look at Bruce really having the time of his life far left. He's enjoying it. Gumpy's over there trying to capture him. Big Dusty, I don't know if he was singing loud enough, but we need him to start belting it out a little bit more. And I think he brought it, certainly the energy, but it was awesome. The people behind us are every game, so they knew everything.
2:03:44Pat McAfee:Sure. They came up and basically told us. Good info. Yeah, this guy's been a little cold, but he's kind of been seeing it a little bit better. Bang. Home run. It's like, yep, thank you for that. Then we got a guy, Lumsden, I think his name, his walk-up song, Smooth Operator. And I think that's him, like, telling himself, like, hey, be smooth here. Absolute. He's a ball player. Yeah, absolute ball player. Gavin Kelly, he wasn't even that hot with the bat, but he was making plays. He was getting around there. We had Guzman, I believe is his name. He has, like, third most stolen bases in the history of Mountaineers.
2:04:17Pat McAfee:Not a power hitter. Hits a home run. It was like, hey, West Virginia might win this whole thing. Top bats. West Virginia might win this whole thing. And I've never been a baseball fan really until recently, which Team USA kind of brought me into that. Shout out to everybody. And obviously, I don't think anybody really knew West Virginia had a baseball team until this recent Randy Mazey kind of run that he had whenever he was hired. And it's become something special. I mean, the whole city's showing up out there. Now, that hill is steep. The Randy's Ridge where people are sitting at. Mountaineers.
2:04:45Pat McAfee:I mean, that's the name of the team. So it is mountains. Like, it is up on top of each other. I can't wait to see what they end up doing with that because it is a special environment, and everybody can kind of come there. Those storms obviously got very scary, very, very scary, but that's going to happen in West Virginia whenever you're at the altitude, baby. It's going to be coming and going in there, and the baseball team, I think it's staying for the long haul. Shout out to them. I appreciate that. Okay, let's get the hell out of here, boys. Let's go do something. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go, boys.
2:05:11Wake up. Sick. Gong show. Yeah, it's a gong show, boys.
2:05:18Pat McAfee:Last night, we were hanging out in the cafeteria, and then we sat on the patio, and we looked around, and we realized we're kind of the only ones on the entire campus. Yeah. Could have become a little bit of a gong show. Bit of a gong show. But instead, what it became was a great time. And if you have a negative attitude, all we got to say is get the out of here. Well done. Tonight, we're banging. Yeah. Tonight, we're clanging. What? Tonight, we're having the time of our life as we're hanging. Oh, yeah. Out of Madison Square Garden. Thank you all so much for letting us do this for a living. Shout out to the entire crew here.
2:05:56Shout out. Yep. Thank you.
2:05:57Pat McAfee:Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And you. There's more. Yeah, there's more. Thank all of you. You, you, you, you.
2:06:10Pat McAfee:And vibe check for this gong. Yeah. Hell yeah. And for letting us use this entire thing. Grease it. To the boys back in the control room at another building. Great work, boys. Hey, this one's for you boys.
2:06:23Pat McAfee:What's that sound like in a microphone? Terror boys. Probably. Tonight we're going to try and not sound like that. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice might change your life. We're on ESPN tonight for the NBA Finals in Madison Square Garden. So stupid. Thank you all so much for allowing us to do this for a living. We will try to be an asset. We will try not to be. Asses. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. T. Goodbye.
From the publisher
On today's show, Pat, AJ, and the boys are live from Bristol Connecticut before Heading down to Madison Square Garden for game 3 of the NBA Finals. In the first hour, Kendrick Perkins joins the show to share his thoughts on the first 2 games of the series and what to expect from the game tonight. Also in the first hour, ESPN Senior CFB Insider Pete Thamel joins us to break down the latest legal ruling impacting Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sosrby’s eligibility. In the second hour, we are joined by host of Get Up and ESPN legend Mike Greenberg to discuss the future of the Chicago Bears and their decision to move to a new stadium in Indiana, the Knicks in the Finals, and more. After Greeny, former number 1 overall pick in the NHL draft and current ESPN analyst Erik Johnson stops by live from Vegas to break down the Golden knights 2-1 series lead over the Carolina Hurricanes and what both teams need to do to close out the series. To close out the show, Quentin Richardson stops by and previews the upcoming Altcast for Game 3 with him and Kendrick Perkins joining Pat, Darius Butler and the boys to enjoy the game on ESPN.
Join us tonight, and make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you and will be back live tomorrow. Cheers.
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