This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me.
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me.
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me.
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? This is on.
Leash, are you listening? What's up, everybody?
BT Unleashed. I'm fired up today, man.
I'm fired up today because I cannot wait to watch the Knicks
tonight. Hey, listen, I got a memo for
the Knicks. At this point, there's nowhere
else to hide. The Giants made their move.
The Giants were in the headlines for a good month or so.
Who are they going to hire? Then they get horrible.
Then the press focus on the Giants, the Yankees and the Mets
moves and everything that they did focus on the Yankees and the
Mets. Obviously, it's a little bit of
a dead spot here in the sports period.
If you're into the Olympics, all that, by the way, Team USA, wow,
I was getting a little dicey there for all coming back and
scoring those two late. Good job by them.
But there's really not a ton going on unless you're a devout
Knick fan, because now it's time to get some answers.
There's nowhere to hide. You can't duck the smoke.
I like, I want to see what the Knicks have because tonight at
Madison Square Garden, you're facing the team.
Granted, no Isaiah Stewart, which things to grant that no
Jalen Duran, which which actually, I wish that they were
playing actually. But tonight the Knicks have had
a couple of days off. I know about Cat and I know
about Brunson obviously playing, but I want to see what these
Knicks are made of because let's call for what it is.
They're not catching the Detroit Pistons.
So in that regard, it's already, it's already a less than season,
regular season. It's already disappointing.
Like if I told you before the start of the season with the
additions to the bench and all the things that the Knicks did
and based on how they finished a year ago, that the Knicks in
middle, that was slightly past the midpoint of February, The
Knicks would be not one, not 2, not 3 and a four to six games
behind the young Pistons. And I, I've got a lot of respect
for the Pistons. Knicks need to start respect to
the Pistons because it doesn't seem like they take them very
seriously. And every time the Pistons show
up to face the Knicks, they absolutely swat them.
They swat them like a family at the BBQ.
I don't think Detroit has any sort of fear or reluctance.
I think they're actually salva salivating.
I think they would love to play the Knicks in the playoffs.
And quite frankly, I I don't know that the Knicks share that
enthusiasm or that confidence. It's got to start changing
tonight. All right, you got Alvarado, you
got Sohan. Mike Brown said Sohan's going to
play. Can't wait to see what he's got.
Unfortunately, it's going to be at the expense of the aura.
OK, we could deal with that, but it's not only the Pistons like
you, we we have to understand here the Boston Celtics.
Now, granted, it's only a half a game, it's not that big of a
deal, but think about the perception when the great Jason
Tatum went down and, and, and it sucks for the Celtics and it
sucks for the NBA. And I would rather I, I, I just
don't like seeing guys get hurt. I know some of you disagree with
that. Hey, if your team benefits,
that's fine. I, I don't like tempting the,
the sporting gods in terms of fate and in terms of injury.
So I'm never going to be one of those guys.
Oh, so and so is out for the year.
Oh, advantage Knicks or advantage Yankees or advantage
Mets or Jets. Like, I don't know, maybe it's a
little different in the NFL. Like if a guy twist his ankle or
he pulls A hamstring and he can't play the next week, I'm
like, all right, that's not bad. But that's different when you
actually root for injury. And I know that some of you do.
And it drives me nuts. Matter of fact, I, I remember
was it who that I don't think it was Tatum.
Somebody went there as a no, it was a couple of years ago.
He was only like 7 or 8 and my son was got, he got a little
excited that somebody got hurt. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You, you're, you're just starting your athletic career.
You'll be playing a lot of games.
We don't do that in this house. We don't root for injury.
And he, it's funny how quickly he changed.
So now when somebody goes down, even if it's like St.
John's playing somebody or one of the teams that he obviously
roots for, he always says, I hope that's up.
So that that's what we preach in this house.
I think anything other than that is very weak.
And again, you tempting fate anyway when when Tatum went
down, right? As much as it stinks for the
NBA, you want your stars to be out there.
Can somebody explain to me, even though it's only a half a game,
how the Knicks are looking up at the Celtics in the standings?
Can somebody explain to me why that's happening?
So you look right now, they're they're pretty jumbled.
They're not catching the Pistons.
As I said, I don't really know where they're going to finish.
I would say probably second, maybe third.
But I think you've even got to be careful and watch out for the
Cavaliers, who are right now a game behind the New York Knicks.
So Pistons up six, Celtics 5 1/2 back at Detroit, Knicks, 1/2 a
game back at the Celtics and the Cavaliers 1/2 a game behind the
Knicks. And the way this is gone so far,
it's just been ugly, man, Unacceptable.
When you've got the resources that you have, when you've had
the the playoff success the Knicks have had as a group, when
you've got the, you know, the allotment, the sheer volume of a
very, very good basketball players to just get absolutely
throttled not once but twice by the Pistons.
I got to see something tonight. Garden's going to be on fire.
It's message time. And I really listen.
I don't say that about the NBA at all.
I'm not an NBA alarmist. I understand the flow of the
regular season. I'm not saying that there aren't
some games where there's a, a little bit more focus.
What I really have said over the years is that depending upon the
team and, and depending upon the year, there's probably 7 or 8
games that you really need to pay attention to.
Like if you're a fan of a certain team.
Like, you know, back in the day when Steph and Clay and the
Warriors were humming, like, all right, let's see how they do
against the Rockets with Harden and that crew, you know, the
Knicks and the Bulls, Knicks in the Heat, Knicks and the Pacers
back in the day. But right now it's Knicks and
Pistons. And if it was like one one or
Knicks had won the first two games or really even if the
Knicks had lost the first two games, but it was very close, I
think I would process this differently.
This is about gut checkpoint. This is pride.
Now, one thing I real, I thought it was time for Tom Thibodeau to
go. I'm on the record with that.
I've said that. I said that.
As a matter of fact, I was saying that during points of
last year and even the year before.
And I may have jumped the gun on it a little bit.
And Tom did a really good job. It's not to drag Tom Thibodeau,
but I can promise you because I'm going to compliment them.
Now, one thing that I know for sure, while I think that the
ceiling certainly offensively and the stats bear that out,
could be better for the Knicks as they move forward, especially
as you include the new additions with Alvarez and and and and
Sohan and but but I don't necessarily know that the Knicks
are going to receive the marching orders from their coach
because Mike Brown and I respect this for MM went out and said
paraphrase, Yo, it's it's it's it's not a punch back here.
Like enough is enough. They you know, they they
basically dismantled us here. So it's a big game And and I
like that Mike Brown did that. I think the Knicks will play
really hard. I think the Knicks will win
that, especially with the two players missing for Detroit.
But I know that if Tom Thibodeau was coaching tonight, the Knicks
would unequivocally, absolutely, no questions asked, be ready to
compete tonight. They have played the Pistons
twice. They lost by 31.
They lost by 38 the two games. Now, OG wasn't there.
Cat, I get it. Understood.
Figure it out and don't lose by almost 40.
I mean, if you lose by 6 without your second best player, OK, I
can understand that. But then the other thing too, is
that not only did they get absolutely mopped in those two
games, but those two games against the Detroit Pistons
represent the two lowest offensive output totals for any
game this year. So like the Pistons right now,
I, I just honestly, I think that the Pistons think that the
Knicks are soft because there's a lot of me up until Alvarado
was brought here and you know, I like the Sohan.
I mean, listen, 10 teams wanted him.
So I, I'm very happy that he's here.
And I do think that they'll morph into a tougher team as the
year goes up. But you know how I feel about
Cat. You know how I feel about
brought about about bridges terms of floating, you know, no
real personality on the team. A lot of guys who are fairly
quiet and don't really project any sort of edge.
And that that's going to change with the two guys they brought
in and that's really good. And then it will allow the other
guys to just do their job without having to be that guy to
inject whatever into whatever needs to be injected too.
So you're damn right that I'm looking forward to this game.
I won't hear it. Like if the Knicks lose tonight,
that's a massive problem. And by the way, even if the
Knicks win tonight, I don't necessarily think that it's a
foreshadow of of things to come in terms of a Knicks Pistons
matchup. Like, let me ask you this.
Let's say now it obviously wouldn't be round one, but let's
say let's say the Knicks fall to the four seed, right?
And it's possible they're a game up on the Cavs, as I said, and
they're playing the Pistons in Round 2.
So instead of playing them in the round one like they did a
year ago, they got them in Round 2.
Based on what we've seen so far #1 Pistons have the homecourt,
who's Vegas favoring? Vegas is favoring the Detroit
Pistons, and rightfully so. I mean, we can, I mean, you can
sit here. I'm not going to do it.
But I say we just to, you know, make it a collective Nick
fanbase thing. We could sit here with the
orange and blue pom poms. Ah, Brunson's a killer.
Brunson's going to figure out cats going to start.
You know, I know he's rebounding well, but cattle, anal business
cattle get it done. This guy will do that.
You know, you got to see it. So it's not I don't have any
blind faith in the Knicks. I don't now to contrast that
into to weave something else in one of the topics we've had
recently, do I have blind faith in the Yankees basically year to
year to find a way to make the playoffs?
I do I do now, I don't have any blind faith that they're going
to win the World Series. But there's a different level.
And of course the Knicks will make the playoffs.
But for me, there's a different a much different level of equity
within the Yankees, like they've earned that.
The Knicks really haven't earned that yet.
And you know, I, I would, I would look at it this way.
I think a better example is like, OK, and I know that the
Yankees have made some moves and all the other teams in the East
have made some moves. I the Yankees need to show me,
forget about the Red Sox and the Tigers and the Orioles and the
other team. Forget about them for a minute.
The Yankees need to demonstrate to me that they can go on a
field with Toronto and beat them because the way the Toronto Blue
Jays slapped them around last year, that's where I'm not
looking to cash in the equity. Right.
And it's beginning to apply the same way to the Knicks in the
Pistons. Yeah, of course.
I believe the Knicks would be very good company.
You know, I said like 54 wins, whatever my whatever my number
was with Sal on the fan. I, I think I said, I think
initially I said 60, yeah. And then I, I walked that back
very fast. I may have even settled on 56 or
57. I don't think that they get
there, but the faith was there that the Knicks would be really
good this year and they're good. But like that's that's the bare
minimum expectation. This is championship robust and
the Knicks have been able because of all the other
storylines going on in our city and there's always a ton of
them. Knicks have been kind of pushed
to the side of the road a little bit and we'll get to the Knicks
when it's time to get to the Knicks.
Well, I got news for everybody. That's what I'm saying today.
It's now officially time to get to the Knicks.
What are you made of? What do you have?
What's the ceiling? Where we going now?
We start to I, I am beginning now, starting tonight to dissect
the Knicks on a night to night basis.
You know, because they've got 2 new players, which means a
different rotation, which means we're past the halfway point,
All Star games in the rearview mirror, Mike Brown said, yeah,
we should take this personally. We need to show pride tonight.
I'm going to see. We're going to learn a lot not
just about tonight, but about the other match ups that the
Knicks have the rest of the way. So I can't against good teams.
Can't wait. I'm not going to get wrapped up.
You know, the, the Hornets or, and while it did bother me when
they lost to the Pacers before the All Star breakdown, when
they went to all, when they went to overtime and Indy, you know,
without their best player, one of the best players in the NBA,
Halliburton, one of the best, kind of one of the best, but
certainly their best and a thorn in the Knicks side.
And you go to overtime. Let's wake up.
You let the slumbering Pacers team, you know, walk into the
Garden and have their way. And somehow you find yourself in
the game here and you get to overtime, You get this reprieve,
you get this last second respite when Cat hits the couple of free
throws to give you 5 extra minutes and you don't show up.
You get outscored 9 zip. Like to me, that's a character
flaw. That's where a team that I've
got supreme confidence in would say, all right, let's let's stop
messing around here, guys. You know, we had four quarters,
we've been in a coma. We got the extra session.
Let's go to work, let's school them.
Didn't happen. It was the exact opposite.
So I, I really don't think and this is a guest and I want to
get some of the comments obviously got some other stuff
for you want to say about my chat with Sal last night.
Had a good time with Sal on his YouTube show.
Stan Van Gundy said something interesting, although I think
it's and that's kind of code for idiotic, but I'll get to that
about rearranging really overhauling the NBA draft.
They got a little something for last night's Saint John's game
as well, but it's mostly a nick day here because think about
this guy's horrible has been hired.
He has been introduced. I know the draft is coming and
that's going to be massive content and I can't wait.
You know, I'm, I'm matter of fact, I was reading a mock today
and I complete maybe I'll do this a little bit tomorrow
because I, I really want to focus on the Knicks today.
But the, the pick that they had and really not only the pick
because that that's less important.
It's more about the direction. I disagreed with who what they
had The Jets doing at two at 16 and the Giants at 5:00.
So I'll do that a little bit more tomorrow.
And, and the draft is going to overwhelm us and take over and
the Yanks and the Mets spring training games.
We get excited that it's the regular season, that it's
Selection Sunday, before that the Big East tournament, and
there's going to be other things that are going on that will at
least partially obscure how we view these Knicks.
Not today, not tomorrow. Like it's it's got to be go time
here. They've got to realize that it's
now time. This is about a championship.
This is not about a little incremental baby steps.
This is not about, oh, wow, what a cute little story.
Tom Thibodeau came in, changed the culture, Julius Randall's
bowling, a bunch of scrubs, you know, playing above their heads.
And because it's COVID and the world spinning in a wacky way,
not everybody's ready to play on a night to night basis.
And one thing we know about the NBA, if you bring the energy and
you play with some pride and purpose defensively, an average
team can elevate themselves, which really isn't the case in
football and baseball. But it's very apparent in the
NBA that we're not talking about that that COVID season.
We're not talking about, you know, a return to competence by
the Knicks. We are talking about the the
ability or the inability for the Knicks to deliver what they are
finally supposed to deliver. You got the roster, you got the
superstar, you got the depth, the circumstances are in your
favor. Figure it out.
Like everything you've been handed this on a golden platter.
Really. Next year's not going to be this
way. Tatum's going to be back.
Other teams will recalibrate. You know, it's it is what it is.
Some of the players that Nick's picked up, they're expiring
contracts. Who knows if they're back.
We got to get this thing cooking.
I like the Knicks. Not what I mean as a fan.
I love the Knicks. You know that I love the Knicks.
I'm a massive Knick fan, always will be.
But what I said a while ago, and and I stand by this, they've got
to prove me. It's not up to me change my
opinion on the Knicks. It's up to the Knicks to force
me to change my opinion on the Knicks.
The onus is on them. It's incumbent upon them to do
that. Not just for me, because I don't
think I'm alone here. It's up to them to do it for us
because second round ain't going to cut it getting better that I
mean, forget about it. If they get bounced in the
second round, Mike Brown's got to go next, all right?
If they lose in the in the Eastern Conference Finals, not
good enough, not good enough. And if it's not incredibly
competitive, then Mike Brown's got to go bare minimum NBA
Finals. That's what this is all about.
It's been built out for the money, the contracts, the
position, the roster, interchangeability, if you will.
All the you got rid of the previous coach.
You brought some anybody else in?
Let's see it. And it's got to start tonight.
So yeah, I'm revved up. Can't wait for the game.
Now let's get some of these some of these texts cranked in here.
I'll pull my Guy J Rod in a moment, see what he's up to
today. See if he's awake at Omar
Yousef. Omar, what's going on?
Crazy to think how far we've come with the Knicks.
Yeah. And I'm very appreciative of the
steps that we've taken with the Knicks.
Now what list? You got to understand this.
And there are a lot of people I won't name names.
I mean, I could, but I won't. I won't be that guy.
I'm I'm really not that guy. There are a lot of people in our
business that all those years that the Knicks were wretched,
they didn't watch the Knicks. And it like some of these people
don't even pretend that they watched the Knicks.
They checked out all the Knicks. I never did and I never will.
Right. Whether it was Van Horn's teams
or Eddie Curry and Jerome James and Moreberry and Q, Rich and
Jamal and Nate or other iterations with with not MP.
What the what the hell is that? What was the point guard, that
Alpha Payton? What was that dude's name?
He stunk. What was it?
The New Orleans Noel team? Alfred Payton.
Alfred Payton I. Don't know why I had Gary
Payton. I had all sorts of that.
I had Joel and beat in my head late night.
I was late night. Well, it was a busy night last
night for me Looked like fun. It was so.
Check this out right, so and it's not a complaint, it's just
it's just an observation. So yeah, I do the show, I do the
post game, rap, whatever. It's a workout day.
So I get a good lift in the basement just trying to, you
know, feel good and I do that. And then we had baseball
practice at 4:30 for one of my son's team.
This is the one team that I coach, right?
His travel team locally in town. Love the kids, good team.
We're, you know, just God, I'm going to miss coaching these
kids because they're, they're a year older than him.
And it, you know, eventually the, the lead that we're in ages
out and, and I've coached these kids since he was 6 and they
were seven. God, I love him.
But anyway, practice last night from 4:30 to 6:00 and then I get
a text while I'm driving to practice for my wife.
Hey, by the way, it's Ash Wednesday.
There's a 7:00 Mass at so. And so I'm like, all right, I
know I'm going to go right, Do it for the kids, do it for
myself as well. Do it for my, do it for the
family. So now I, it's funny, I run to
church. Well, I come back from practice,
do some more work, run to church, and now I'm when I was
growing up, you just go in, you get hooked up with the ashes and
it's over. That's that.
This was an. Old, this was an hour mess.
I would get what I mean, we're getting the messages, we're
getting the the readings, we're getting 5 songs.
I'm looking at my now I've got now I wouldn't care ordinarily,
even though long messes, I, I do get a little frustrated when
they're too long. But you know, honestly, it's one
thing on a Sunday, it's another thing it's on it's a Wednesday
night. So I also know that I've
committed to go on South show at 8:00.
So the Mass is at 7:00. So I get there, I'm like, I will
be out of here in 1520 minutes, maybe 30, right.
And we took two cars in case I had to leave early, which of
course I had to, I'm looking at my, I'm looking at my phone,
which I never do in church. I'm like, alright, we'll talk
because I don't wear a watch day-to-day.
That's my, that is my watch. I'm like, alright, it's 7:30.
We got time and alright, 737. This guy hasn't even, they
haven't even had the, the offering yet where you could
donate to the church. Somebody's getting late.
And the 742, my legs just start like I get, I get that nervous
energy. My wife's like, it'll be fine,
it'll be fine. Jen's like it'll be good, don't
worry. 743-740-4745 I'm like, I got to go.
So what I do is, and I really wanted to get the ashes.
Like that's why I was there means something to me, right?
So as now I'm I'm like, alright, guys, I got to go.
I tell my son, my daughter, my wife, I'll see you at home.
I walked to the back of the church.
There's a woman packed. This was funny.
There's a woman back there who's getting ready to take the tray
to get the money. Like she's not the priest or
pastor. She's not gonna necessarily do
the ashes. She's just kind of a, a support.
What? I don't know.
I don't even know what she does. Whatever, but she's awesome,
right. So I walk up to her.
I said, hey, I've got to go to work.
Is there any chance I could get, I could get the answers early
because I know we're still 10 minutes out.
No, I'm not going to tell her. Well, yeah, I got to jump on a
YouTube show and, and I've got 9 minutes and my former partner,
I've got to go to work. She's like, let me see what I
can do. So they had like 5-5 pastors
last night and they were all reading the the one, the main
one who who we, we go to Christmas Eve, whatever.
She's not reading. So she walks, it's up to him and
evidently she's like, hey, you know, somebody got to go coming.
He comes to the back of the church.
He hooks me up with a little drive through, you know, go, you
know, and then I run out, you know, and, and I, I walk in the
door at like 756. I want to pour my and I don't, I
don't drink during the week at all, but I'm like, you know, I
want to have a little Scotch with Sal pour myself a little
Scotch. I wanted to, you know,
reposition the camera so we get a different look.
I kind of, I kind of twisted it over over over that way, you
know, liked it. Oh, good God almighty running
around. Then Saint John starts at 9.
I go to bed at 12. I'm up.
I drive the kids to school. Holy shit, It's just a lot.
It's been a lot. Wait till you get married,
buddy. If, if you want to get married
and if you want to have kids, wait.
Now it's it's the best. There is nothing like it.
But you never have a chance to breathe, especially if the kids
are playing sports. You can't get a chance to
breathe. We'll see.
Also on the Knicks, something I
got to say. I mean, it's exciting.
My my. Thing is.
How how are people like you know, Shamit, obviously so Chan
going to show up Alvarado now, by the way, everybody says.
Sohan. I I.
Know there's AC there and I'm not calling you out.
I, I was a little confused myself to the point where I went
back and I looked at old Spurs highlights.
I remember him at Baylor's, as I told you, when the Knicks got
him and but you see the Spurs twice a year with the Knicks
here. So and when I looked and every
time he scored a bucket or you know, hey, nice play by Sohan.
So I'll just go with I'm pretty sure it's Sohan.
But anyway, keep going. I wasn't sure either.
I'll go off with Sohan. But yeah, I mean, I think this
season is going to be 1 in like those moments where Cat is in
foul trouble and Mitch Robinson needs to stand up.
Like, that's really where these minutes are going to matter for,
you know, Mitch, for Shamit. You know, those boys are going
to be absolutely necessary to to make this happen.
Well, they are. And I'll tell you, I do like
what Mike Brown. Thank you for that.
Jay Robbins, get some text up there, pal.
I like what Mike Brown said and I like the approach that Mike is
taking tonight where or at least for the next couple of weeks,
whatever he's like, hey, you know, playoffs are coming.
It's basically almost March 1st here.
It's around the corner. Playoffs start the middle of
April. I got to figure out Mike Brown
knows what what kind of player so head is, but he's got to see
how he works with whether you go with a small lineup with him at
the five or him at the four. If you want to go big with
certain spots with Mitch or Cat, like he's got got to understand
how this is going to play out. He's got a, you know, the
allocation of roles is going to be a very interesting juggle for
Mike Brown. But that's one area I've got a
lot more belief that he'll figure it out than somebody like
Tom Thibodeau would have because Tom Thibodeau was just
inflexible, which is one of the reasons why I thought it was
time for the Knicks to move on. Again, no disrespect toward Tom.
I'll always have great respect for Tom Thibodeau.
He brought us back here. Not looking to bag on the guy,
but the ceiling was a very important ceiling to me, a very
important checkpoint. And he didn't involve, he didn't
evolve like Kolek would have ever played.
There were points this year Kolek was playing pretty well.
You know what if he got so hand right, Let's say that they Tom's
coaching and he got so in and he got Alvarado.
I mean, I know both play defense, so maybe he would have
been more willing to do it. But Deahuar is going to lose
minutes and if Tom Pippa, which I'm fine with for now, even
though he's played well and I like him, good second round
pick. Deahuar could play.
But like, if Tom's still here is he, would Diawara even got a
chance to show that he's a viable player?
My answer is no. So there's gonna be a lot of
juggling and there's gonna have to be a swallowing by some of
some egos. But in terms of minute
distribution, some guys are going to get burned, at least in
the short term. But you have to do it because
you need to figure out what you have and you've got to kind of
accept it's kind of like microwave chemistry.
And, and I believe that they'll get there because I think that
Brunson's a really good leader. Same with heart.
You know, I think they've got good internal leadership.
But until it happens, you know it, it really hasn't happened
yet. Which is why one of the reasons
I think tonight is so intriguing and at least perceptually
incredibly important for the Knicks.
James 555K. Of course.
I remember Moody. Yeah.
Geez, they used to have some
scrubs. You.
I mean, tell me about it, man. Tell me about it.
I watched all those teams and they were brutal.
You know, every time they drink Frank, Neil, Lakita, every time
they dread the high. Maybe this is going to be the
guy. You know, I am appreciative
where we are that came up with just tuned in, like contrasting
where they are now and more importantly, the expectation of
where they're going to go. Like, it's not about being
greedy or not being happy with the Renaissance and the
resurgence of the Knicks, You know what I mean?
Like it's, it's not that at all. It's just a very it's a very
clear understanding because they've said this and they've
showed us this, that it's next level time.
You know, and I'll and I'll say this about about the the NBA
contrasted to the other sports for a second, like the the NFLI
do think this is just a random, you know, little offset here.
I think you guys, I think you I think you'll enjoy it.
You might not agree, but I think you'll find it somewhat
interesting. Like when the Knicks are really
good and they're really good now, we'll see if they could
become great. The NBA is better.
It's just better now. It's also cyclical.
Like when you had Magic and Bird poppin in the mid 80s and and,
you know, vying for championships.
The Knicks had Bernard King, but they didn't win anything.
And then he got hurt. And like, the NBA flourished
without the Knicks. But you do notice to me a, a
pretty significant uptick in viewership and energy, whether
it's, you know, the first take, Stephen A talking about the
Knicks. Like when the Knicks matter, the
content is better. The NFL doesn't need The Jets.
I mean, yeah, sure. I mean, if you have a Monday
night or Sunday night game, Jets in Miami or Jets in whomever.
If The Jets are really good, you'll get some more of New
York, New Jersey, Connecticut, tri-state viewership.
But the NFL doesn't need The Jets.
I think the NFL certainly needs the Giants more than The Jets.
Like when the Giants are good, I think that that resonates more
in terms of viewership and popularity.
I think when the Rangers are are really good, like championship
ish viable, I think the NHL certainly feels that.
Of course, the Yankees, it's a given.
Yeah. I I think when the Mets are
really good, I think that that, that that helps for sure.
But then there's no doubt like when the Knicks are at this
level and, you know, hopefully even a step or two beyond, they
really do impact the NBA. And while ratings and like the
monetization of the sport and the global expansion and the
branding, that literally doesn't do anything for us as consumers.
It like in terms of putting money in our pocket.
It it does add to, you know, the flavor of the NBA And, you know,
it's it's a litmus test here for these Knicks tonight.
See what you got. Let's see what you got.
I thought this was pretty interesting.
And I know he's going to get paid here.
Oh, my God, Yeah, I remember he. I remember him.
Oh, Guy Barniani, that guy.
No, Yvonne lay up there. Jeez.
I think it was with the Magic before the Knicks got him.
Either way. Yep, I know.
Hey, there's a lot of real ones out there.
There's a lot of real ones out there.
Come on. But there's also a lot of
phonies. And if the Knicks aren't good,
they they don't watch the Knicks.
Whatever. That's that's their prerogative.
So did you see the IT, it was very benign, but it's it's
interesting. I want I want to open up to a
discussion here, at least a small one, because it's going to
happen. But part of the reason why the
Knicks really need to pop through now.
All right, maybe you extend that championship window the way
they're built into next year. But after that, I mean, you're,
you're flipping coins like the randomness of what could happen
for these Knicks moving forward. It's very worrisome.
And I'm talking about the impending contract situation for
Jalen Brunson. Now, Jalen's killer, Jalen's,
he's going to have his number retired.
I don't even care if he doesn't win a championship.
Like, to me, what Jalen Brunson's done for the Knicks.
I mean, you want to contrast that to come.
I'm not going to start going on the Carmelo, you know, shade
trail again. But I mean, think about the
difference. And there's many of you who
think Carmelo's number 7 should be hanging in the rafters.
I don't at all. You know that.
That's something me and Sal, one of the few things we've really
agreed with when we got to these conversations.
But to me, if you're going to do it with Melo, well, you got to
get Bernard King up there first. And as long as you get Bernard
King up there and then you throw Melo, all right, I won't fight
it too much. But Brunson belongs up there
over Melo. He's going to be up there
someday, is the point. He has become a great nick.
He is. He is just so I mean, he's
everything that you want in the superstar.
He's selfless, he's clutch, he's incredibly emotional,
emotionally dependable. I think he's he's a very quiet
leader. Guys take his cue.
He sets the tone competitively. He's the man.
I mean, he's just, he's amazing, but he's also up for a massive
contract. Now, the Knicks won't do him
dirty. And if they did, wow, they won't
because number one, he's, he's too good.
But also what he did for them, I, I think that that's going to
be traced back and he's going to be hand and they're going to
handle it the proper way. But when you talk about Jalen
Brunson's contract extension, so yeah, it was four years and
about $155,000,000. He signed that last July.
And as we know, the big story there was that he left about
$115 million on the table as a concession and wiggle room for
the Knicks to build out a championship team.
Carmelo, by the way, I mean this, I have to insert, I'm not
trying to beg on him, but I can't.
I can't say that and then ignore this.
Carmelo did the exact opposite instead of waiting for the
summer where, you know, he could come here and keep some of that
roster, he flexed, he pushed, you know, he kicked and
screamed. He's got his way out of Denver
and the Knicks had a break up accord that I thought was pretty
interesting. So Carmelo in that way is the
anti Brunson. All right, Jalen Brunson is just
I, I, I mean, God, how do you not love the guy right now?
He's the 46th highest paid player in the NBA.
Think about, think about how incongruent that is. 46th
highest salary in the NBA. It's amazing.
And last year I think it was worse.
He finally got a little kick up this year.
Last year he was in the 20s. This year he's up to 34.
Anyway, he's got a player opt out for 2829 and of course he's
going to opt out. When he opts out based on what
he did in the summer of 2024, he is going to be eligible.
J Rod, do you know the numbers on this?
I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to let you guess he's
going to be eligible for a five year extension.
What do you think the totality of that deal is going to be?
Not AAB, five years at total. What?
What do you think of it? OK, let's guess.
Like. 60 million a seat, so you're talking about. 300 at
that .60 I'd go. Like I'm going to go
320,000,000, keep going, keep higher, yeah.
Look, keep going. Five years. 350, keep going.
Five years 3. 70 Keep going. 400 Keep going 410 Keep going. 450I.
Like the way you played? The game there way to sell it
there that boy. J Rod 4/17 Oh my.
Goodness, you talking about 8? Well, say 80 * 5 is 400, it's
going to be a little more than $80 million a year.
Now understand the cap will go up so it won't it won't be and I
know you know that you're a big NBA guy, but it won't be as
punitive as it as it sounds like what you like.
Eighty $80 million What? And by the way, I think a lot of
people overreact even with the NFL, like what a quarterback, it
gets 50 or 60, as long as it is maintained within a certain
threshold percentage wise, it's like like the quarterback making
even if he's making 100 million a year, as long as it's 17 or
18,000,000, you know, or 1718% of the overall cap, that is not
untenable. And, and this will not be
untenable at all, but it's going to limit them a little bit as to
what they could do, would it not?
Be the largest, I guess at the time, you know, obviously
something will surpass it or potentially surpass it within
the same offseason, but will it be the largest contract in NBA
history if it does get signed at the time?
I don't know the answer. To that, I would surmise that it
probably has to be. I mean, what?
What's hard making sixty? I think at this point, something
like that. I think James Harden, you could
check that. I think James Harden's making
60. So I I laid as as Jay Rod's
looking that up and he's worth every penny, right?
I mean, hell, if the extension was five years, 517.
Yeah, I'm going to give it to you.
You're Jalen Brunson, but he's going to be older, OK.
And and I say this because this why this little window this year
and next year? And to me, I think that that's
it. I think that that's it.
The given the finances and given his age and eventual
deterioration, the, the ability for the Knicks to build around
him as they have pretty well so far, that will become more and
more of a challenge. And by the way, he's going to
get older and you know, as you get older, he's had some ankle
issues. I'm, I'm not projecting bad
health for him, but you just never know.
It's in front of you this year. It's bad enough the Pistons are
six games in front of you. It's bad enough they beat you by
31. They beat you by 38.
You had 80 points in one game or 81 and 90 in another against
them in their house in Detroit, which represents the two lowest
offensive outputs of any game the Knicks have played this
year. Cuz their offense is really
good, as we know. You know, you barely beat them
late. You barely scrape by last year
against the team that was young and not really ready for the
bright lights. They're ready this year.
So I'm I'm worried about the Pistons.
I'm even going to show enough respect to the Celtics.
I'm not going to sit here and say, Oh yeah, even without
Tatum, I know he's on the way back with the GG league working
out. He might play in the playoffs.
But even if he doesn't play a second this like Jaylen Brown
and this crew and that coach, they're used to their champion.
So I wouldn't say the Knicks will absolutely smack the
Celtics in this. I don't know.
So you just you got to cash in on the opportunities in front of
you. J Rod, the worst thing to do.
And you're young, right? So it's a little bit easier for
you to do this. But like, you know how many
years I've said, you know, whether it's whether I mean,
really not with the Yankees for decades.
So the Yankees are a special rarefied spot.
But like The Jets, hey, you know what?
Trade this guy, Trade that guy, Strip it down, start over.
It sounds good. And I do like what The Jets did
with Q and with sauce. You know that and and and really
resetting, starting over. But it it, it's funny how it
gets away from you. Like you can say it and it
sounds good, but then you look up 10, twelve, 1520 years later
and nothing's changed. No.
Exactly. I mean, and that, you know, as a
Boston fan, I guess I've gotten pretty lucky with this.
But yeah, I mean, those things are scary.
You know, You think, you know, with this Knicks team, oh, we've
got all the opportunity in our hands right now.
But, you know, you look down five years down the line from
now and shoot, I mean, everything could be different.
Oh my God. Did you did check out little BT
and Sal 2 point O last night on Sal's channel?
So I. Saw a good amount of like the
Steve Cohen discussion, the King Cohen kind of stuff, and then I
saw a little bit of like towards the end, busting out the Scotch,
talking a little fan. So those are kind of the two
segments I caught of it. What do you think about?
It booms. You think that somebody could
mess around and have a little fun with love?
Yeah. I mean.
I, I haven't personally like spoken to him, you know,
obviously on like a phone call yet.
But yeah, I mean, seems like a super fun kid.
He did a great job last night and, you know, excited to,
excited to, as I said yesterday, build out this universe some
more. That's right.
But what do you mean super fun kid?
You're I mean, you're the same age.
You're the same age I. I don't know.
That's what I guess that's just how I like refer to people of my
same generation. I'd be like, he's a he's a fun
kid. Oh, I got you.
I. Got you.
I got you. Yeah.
No. OK.
Yeah, we had a we had a blast last night.
You know, it's funny too. So full transparency, and we
talked about it last night, so I'm not talking out of school.
Like if it if it was something that Sal and I talked about
privately, I wouldn't divulge this, but he listen, of course,
we're doing our own thing. Goes without saying.
We did the BT and Sal live show rousing success sold out.
Boone came phenomenal Vogel theater, Red Bank.
We're planning, we're actually getting on a call today when I
drive out to St. John's to, to interview Pitino
for the show, which airs tomorrow.
The Red Storm reports. I got to hustle and by another
busy day. So good.
Got to make a move. We got to you got to you got to
embrace the grind, right? But we're going to talk about
the next one, which will be Long Island area and some dates and
some other things and something new that popped up, which we
have to discuss. Anyway, I am of the mindset and
I can see it's starting to change a little bit where, you
know, Sal's like, I don't know, do people really want to hear BT
and Sal? And I'm like, dude, yes, they
do. They do.
And he brought it up last night and he was doing the Super chats
he got monetized. So he's now he and by the way,
you guys, I mean, banging in $30 super chats, I mean, he's
getting some good, good loot last night.
And we were talking about maybe, you know, not maybe doing some
more stuff together. And I'm like, dude, just just
read the comments. Just look at the just feel the
energy like to me and, and I think he, I say this, I think
he's starting to see it a little bit more, a little bit more.
I don't want to say my way. It's not my way.
I don't mean it like that. But I think he's starting to
truly understand now that people want to hear BT and South.
We can do it once a week, especially during baseball
season. We got to figure out a way to do
this once a week. That would be awesome.
I think what people respect and obviously you know, you know,
this, this is kind of what people always say, like they
love just the level headed real discussion.
I know you kind of went into a bit of like your politics
debate, but yeah, I just love that it feels like 2 guys who
like 1 genuinely like each other and two, genuinely know what the
fuck they're talking about sitting down, talking it up.
Yeah, You know, what does it say here?
What's that say, Sal Rails on, basketball on, B on?
BB Bada booms. Oh.
On bada booms. Yeah, you go.
That'll be rails on him. He holds them to a higher
standard. Yeah, I.
Mean I hold you to a pretty good.
Standard as well here just by the mention.
You got the Super chat right now I'm not looking.
For that, it's all good. I'll read that and say keep that
up man. I what I what I brought him on
this show. I'm like he can't help yourself
Dude you're working with bada booms for like 3 days and you
know the needle they do the same thing.
Would hop like if hop would mess something up, how about half
like, I don't know if that's like a Mad Dog thing or a or a
or a Francesa thing that he just kind of saw all those years.
But and by the way, I used to do that all the time.
I used to really do that to to my producers, my guy.
Well, no, listen, you mess up when you mess up because
everybody messes up. I will let the whole world know
that that my Guy J Rod messed up.
But it's funny and and and I think Bada booms, you know, has
a good personality to deal with that.
It's all good fun. It's all good, spirit.
What do we got here at Telly lot 77?
Telly What's cooking? Yeah.
There's no doubt about this. We need more BT and Sal great
job last night, BT keep it going.
And I very, you know, I, I, what I do is just in terms of getting
a sense of, of this show and building this show out and
learning and refining and tweaking all the things that I'm
constantly doing that you guys don't necessarily know.
And I'm not just talking about the lighting and all the other
stuff, the aesthetical stuff, talking about the comments and
really getting a sense of, of what's working, even looking at
the advanced data, you know, like, all right, which shorts
pop, which topics pop, what graphics look better.
It is a never ending process that I embrace that I don't
profess to know, you know everything about like I'm still
learning. He's still learning J Rod as
well. But anyway, what I I do like to
do that. And while I will watch some of
the show back just to get a sense as as I said, I don't read
all the comments now, I will respond to comments right as
they pop up, but I'm not like sitting there every single
comment. I don't I don't do that on
Instagram. I don't do that on on Twitter.
I will select things or maybe certain times I'll carve out
time to respond When I purposely went back and I looked at when
he was on unleashed the comments and, and I when it was available
on on his show last night, about an hour or so after we ended it,
I went back and I read the comments on his channel about
what he and I just did together. And it's so abundantly clear, so
apparent. Again, there's logistical
hurdles. I get this, you know, he's doing
his thing. I'm I'm doing my thing.
I am. I am really, really.
I am probably at nothing fully but as confident as I've been
since the show broke up. Their.
Decision not ours since the show broke up that we are going to do
something with a little more frequency then maybe we thought
that we would. I don't know I don't know how
you know what I'd like to do. Can you explain to me quickly
because I don't want to waste a lot of show on this, but like
say if we do something like once a week, right, I mean it would
be great now next time he'll be on my show and then vice versa.
Hot potato. But and I think I asked you this
one other time. Can we do it with where like
we're both streaming simultaneously with?
Absolutely. We can do, I thought.
That we could do that, yeah, I mean.
Because you could also what I discovered the other day, I
mean, I don't know if you'd want to do this just because Twitter
is so toxic, but you could Twitter sucks.
You could stream simultaneously YouTube and X and have the same
stream going on. I don't know, not not like you'd
necessarily want to do that. Also quick sideswipe watch watch
soul power yesterday, the second episode, because my you know, my
roommate was watching it. Spencer Haywood got absolutely
like, Oh my God, yeah, this guy got not screwed.
I know Spencer. Haywood, he's one of those names
like, you know, Moses Malone who came out early, was in the ABA,
you know, and of course even I knew like Doctor Ji didn't know
about Lou Alcindor, the the flirtation with him.
Yeah, talked about that, you know and I also I don't I think
this was Part 3. So I don't want to give too much
away, but one of the teams. Yeah, you definitely.
So you said you saw the 1st 2, right?
I saw a second. Episode and then my roommate
caught me up on the first OK Got.
You I'm like pretty. Up to speed, up to three.
OK, so. There was, I forget their names
right now. They own the Saint Louis spirit,
right? And they obviously dissolved
because the NBA only wanted the Spurs, the Pacers, the Nets.
And I think what I think they took 4, whomever, the 14th,
whatever it was, but they took a few and then the other, like the
Kentucky colonels, they got dissolved, as did the spirits of
others and the owners of the spirit at that.
That's where Bob Costas started his career.
He was the voice of the spirit. And the owners came up with a
very interesting plan because they thought, and I don't blame
them. They're like, hey, you know,
we've been in this thing together, man.
And now they want you. Well, you know, how about you do
a little something for us? And it was really largely rooted
in TV rights. The ABA was local and the NBA
was national. And can you tell me which one's
more profitable now? Not the ridiculous price tags we
see today with like Prime and the Yankees on Opening Day on
Netflix, but relative to that point in time, obviously
lucrative. So Long story short, the one of
there were two brothers who owned the Spirit.
One of the brothers said to the other one.
He said, hey, I, I, I want to do this that.
And they put it in writing and they convinced the other teams
to give them 1/7 of the of the of.
Is that me or you? Is that you?
Come on, Jay. Rod, what do we now?
I'm going to have to get on you, buddy.
Come on. It's a rookie move.
Convince the other two to contractually agree for
perpetuity, which means forever. One seventh of all the TV
rights. What the hell is going on here?
Is that me? I mean, I don't know.
I think it's me. I mean I got S texting me and oh
I see I don't. Know it's.
It's you, it's me. Anyway, it was like $800 million
overtime. So they, the Saint Louis spirit,
who were they were dissolved in the mid 70s.
They were getting money up until I think the NBA finally bought
them out in like 2014. And they banked 800 mil because
one of the one. Yeah.
And I think they paid like, you know, one or $2,000,000 for the
ABA team back in the day in the late 60s or early 70s.
And and Mark Cuban, who was on the episode, he's obviously a
business businessman. He's like, it's the best.
It's the best deal in the history of deals.
Great. So keep watching.
You'll like it. Really good.
It's really good. Get a couple of more tweets up
here. What do we got here?
We got to please get back with crazy Sal.
Well, I mean, yeah, we'll do. We'll do it as much as we can.
You know, Sal's not crazy. If anything, Sal is calculated.
I mean, we're all a little bit nuts.
I think anybody who does this for a living has to be a little
bit off, don't you think? I mean, to just stare into a
camera and perform and, and speak in an empty room to, you
know, hundreds and thousands and 10s of thousands of people and
hundreds of thousands and eventually millions on, on
YouTube as this stuff floats around the entire world.
You got to be a little wacky, right?
It's it's an unconventional job, which means you probably have a
have to have a bit of an unconventional mind to do it.
Any thoughts on the Winter Olympics at Gabba Ghoul?
Gabba Ghoul 56? Not really, not an Olympic guy,
really don't really care. I want us to always win.
Go Team USA. Just don't care.
I was, as I mentioned, we had baseball practice yesterday and
one of the guys that I coached with, Mike, played hockey.
He played baseball at Seton Hall Prep, played hockey at Seton
Hall. Great guy, been coached with him
forever. And he, he played D2 hockey
goalie, right? And he loves hockey, loves him.
And while we were, I'm hitting fungos, he's checking I guess.
I guess Team USA was down 3/2 with like 4 minutes to go in
hockey against. Was it the Sweets?
Well, I think we're like the eighth seed and we were down 32.
We banging one late, we tie it up, then we get another one, we
win. I think it was 4th grade, and
maybe there was an empty net or either way, I was more
interested in the fungos than I was to score.
But it was a game that would have been viewed as a massive
world upset. Yeah, I mean, I did see the I
did see the documentary on the 1980 Olympic team, Lake Placid,
which was phenomenal. I thought it was really good.
Like I love the footage of how they were training and you know,
how they were making cuts and you know, Herb Brooks, I didn't
realize that he was I didn't realize he was that tough.
Like they really couldn't stand him.
They respected him. They couldn't stand him.
I just didn't really know that. And and I thought it was equally
interesting where, you know, a lot of the guys at the
University of Minnesota where that what you would think were
sure to make the team. They're like, I don't even know
if I'm going to make the team really, really good.
So I like stuff like that. I remember years ago there was a
documentary on how then USSR screwed us in the 72 Olympics in
basketball. Like that stuff always piques my
interest. Boxing, like Breeland back in
the day. Obviously basketball I pay
attention to, you know, like the 84 Summer Olympics, like Javelin
or Carl Lewis, long jumps, Dan and Dave with the Reebok
commercial back in the day. The triathletes.
I, I, I mean, I actually know a lot more than I let on, but it
just, I don't know. I'm just, I'm not really into
it. I haven't watched it for one
second. I, I do, I do find ironically,
like the, the gymnastics I find interesting.
I'm not seeking it out, but when it's on and my, my wife has it
on, I'll watch it. Like what they do is amazing.
And like the speed skating is pretty.
I'm not looking for figure skating that's boring as tears
to me. But like the speed skating, I
mean, like, yeah, some of these crazy jumps they make in the
like, you know, Lindsey Vonn tearing up her knee.
But no, I I I really don't think I've watched one second now.
J Rod, you're a lot younger than me.
And I think each year, I think, I think each Olympics, there's
been a diminishment in terms of whether it's pride or attention.
Like there was a point where the Olympics were everything.
Mark Spitz, swimmers, Greg Laganis, diver.
Are you into it at all? At all?
No, I mean. We, we throw it on, you know,
intermittently. I I, I find some of it cool,
like what was cool the luge, like I thought that was
entertaining to watch. I feel like, yeah, like this
guy's saying like there's some beautiful women in the figure
skating. So I think that's fun to watch
sometimes. But honestly, on the whole it
doesn't really. I, I'd say Summer Olympics is
really what catches my eye more. I'd say, you know, obviously the
basketball. Yep, definitely the.
Sports like that, you know? Track and field, it's kind of
more exhilarating. It's more exhilarating, I guess,
to watch. The hockey's cool sometimes, but
yeah, I like, I like the Winter Olympics for like the
interesting sports like the bobsled and or the luge that
like you just never even think about.
You know what I find? Interesting.
Like you look at some of these crazy, you know, so like the ski
jumps, right? Anything or even like
gymnastics, like a like a whether or not, I mean, not that
this is gymnastic, but like a pole vault or something of
incredibly high degree of difficulty that's very
dangerous, like where you are fighting gravity and incredibly
vulnerable, where you're upside down, whether you have skis on
your feet or whatever you have. I always find that interesting.
Like how does somebody work up to that point now?
And, and like think about this. Let me explain that a little bit
better because you practice. That's the easy answer.
But all right, so you have somebody who throws 98 miles an
hour, you know, they were throwing, you know, 40 and then
50 miles an hour when they were a little kid.
And then you hit 60 as a benchmark and then 70.
Then you start hitting puberty and you can maybe you start
sniffing 808590. You got the right genes, you got
the right body, all right. That's how you incrementally
work up to 95. But there's no, I mean, yes, you
can hurt your arm, but there's No Fear.
Like, OK, if I throw this pitch, God forbid, like I'm not going
to be in such a vulnerable physical state where I'm trying
to make this jump and, and flip over five times in the air.
I find I don't even know if I explained, explained it
properly. It's, it's, it's hard to
communicate, but I see some of the things that they do and I'm
like, how do you get to that point?
Knowing, knowing, knowing that you can actually get to that
point. Yeah.
No, I mean. It's wild because it's like you
build yourself up and it's like there must have been so many
near death encounters within, just like the training of, you
know, pushing yourself to be able to do whatever it is, like
a double backflip. Wow.
On skis. I mean, I guess a lot of baby
steps are necessary, but like, yeah, to finally hit that first
flip or whatever it is, it must be it.
Must take. A lifetime it does it.
Does it as the pursuit of the Olympics sure at withdrew NBCNBC
knows exactly what they're doing here they totally focus on the
smoke show athletes I'm looking at you Italian women's curling
team. I've seen a few, I've seen more
images of a really attractive young women.
Not that I'm really looking for, but when I see it, I'm of course
I'm going to look for it. Then I've or what?
Or look at it, then I've actually seen Olympics.
Like I easily, I mean, not even close.
I mean, in the world of social media, that's really all you
see. And I mean, every country has,
you know, beautiful people and every country has ugly people.
I mean, it's the world. I mean, it's it's human nature.
But the I saw that the Olympic Village ran out of condoms in
three days. You see that?
Yeah. No, that's.
Absurd. I mean, listen, a lot of future
generations of athletes, I guess, no, I guess they're not
being made. No, no, they're.
Not being stopped for being. Made.
Yeah, but you know what? Hopefully, hopefully some
beautiful athletes who come out of this.
I mean, think about that. All you do is try imagine
training, you know, for 4-5 years, whatever it might be.
And I'm talking about like you're a gymnast.
I mean, you're getting up three in the morning, 4:00 in the
morning. I mean, God, oh, everything
you're doing it from the time you're 3 or 4 and you get there,
whether you win the gold or you don't medal or you just have,
you know, you you fall short and and you're, you know,
heartbroken, right. Think.
But you have no more responsibilities for the
Olympics. Yeah, think about that.
What else do you think? About that, we're probably just.
Tossing bag. Drinks, partying, having the
time. I would train for the Olympics
just to be able to do that. Just to go to the village, yeah.
I mean they're all young, none of them are married or very few.
Although I young and in. Shape that's like, yes.
Yes, there's like the, the two requirements.
You're right. Yeah.
Oh my God. And with like minded people and
they, they know that they're not going to like burn them on
social media. Like they're all like there's
like a code of like respect. And you know, it's not like they
go to a bar and they meet somebody and they don't know
that person and that person. Yeah, I might try to get a
little, little slick with the phone, whatever it might be.
I did see that and this was, this was interesting.
I don't want to shame the guy cuz a part of me, I can
understand it. There was some dude, I, I think
he was from Sweden. I don't know the sport, not even
sure if he's a Swede, but I evidently he cheated on his
girlfriend like a year ago or I don't know.
He definitely cheated on her and he I think he got the bronze,
whatever event it was, who cares?
And he was like begging for her back.
Like dude, have a Oh my goodness.
Yeah, yeah. Again, I, I, I, I mean, listen,
if you're really in love then and, and I respect that, then
that's, that's a good thing. Like you're using that, that
platform where you're so vulnerable.
And if you're trying to get her to take you back because you
stepped out of bounds, you probably have to do so and you
really, really, really want her back.
Well, maybe you got to do whatever it takes to get her
back. That's very public.
You know, some people are like, it's a little weak, man.
I'm not going to say that. I will say it's very unique and
I don't know if it worked. I mean, if that doesn't work,
nothing's working. Yeah, if it.
Works. He's a hero.
If it doesn't work, then he's kind of a chump.
Yeah, You know what I mean? Like you kind of embarrassed?
Yourself like because if if you're doing it doesn't work,
it's like she probably maybe even would have preferred to do
it like privately or something like that.
But you know what? Hey, you got to take a shot,
take a risk. All right, let me get this in
the air 'cause I I've got to go a little earlier today.
I got to get out to Queens and boy, I hope Rick is going to be
exhausted. I mean, they played at 9:00 last
night. Good job by St.
John's. They just keep winning.
UConn lost, by the way. So St.
John's now is atop the Big East by half a game.
Creighton Saturday and then a week from yesterday up at
stores. UConn.
St. John's keeps winning out.
St. John's is going to win the the
Big East regular season title again, which is just amazing
because we all know where they were, which was nowhere before.
Rick. Rick came to Queens, but they so
they played at 9:00 our local time.
It's an hour difference in Milwaukee.
And so I'm thinking about that. So 8 I'm now I'm in Milwaukee,
WI time 89101030 shower, meet the media 1120 get on the team
bus, get to the get to the private airport, take the
charter back about an hour 40 about two hours there.
I mean, and then Rick has to drive back to Westchester.
Kids go back to their dorms, off campus housing.
I mean, Rick probably got in around 334.
And if that's that's if there's no delays, He is just his energy
is just boundless. So I can't wait to get to talk
to him. He's got to be in a great mood.
Johnny's humming. You know, Zooby didn't do
anything in the first half. And then he just showed why he's
the player of the year. There's no doubt he's going to
win it in the conference. And, you know, very curious,
they've got to win Saturday, but I'm very curious and they should
take care of Creighton fairly easily, I would think at the
Garden. New tip.
I want to see where they are in the rankings because you're
starting to see a lot of top 20 teams get knocked off a little
bit. Been a very volatile week.
And I know that like UConn, there are certain schools and
they've earned that, that branding, if you will, and
they've earned that benefit. But you know, UConn, when they
lost the Saint John's, they didn't really drop as much as I
thought that they would. And conversely, I didn't think
that Saint John's moved up as much as they would based on
where UConn was in the rankings in the NET rankings, all the
other metrics, right? So now Uconn's lost twice in
their last three games here. And like I, I mean, can we make
a case for UConn to maybe drop outside the top ten?
I think that you should, I mean, at the very least 9 or 10.
Like they've got to drop four or five spots.
They have to. And I would think as long as
Saint John's beats Creighton and they he should this Saturday, I
think St. John's could jump, I'd say maybe
from 17 to about 12:00-ish. You know, those, those, you
know, now he's starting to get creeping towards the top 10,
which obviously is going to be a good thing in terms of seating
as long as St. John's continues to win.
All right. Did you see what Stan Van Gundy
said? So Stan Van Gundy, you know,
listen, I, I appreciate ideas. I I do, I appreciate the ideas
here. I always say I'm, I'm an idea
man. I'm an idea person.
Anybody could come out and rail and rant and rave and shout and
scream. And if, if you don't bring
anything else in terms of, you know, a possible solution, it's
hot air. It's a hot take.
It's predictable and it's boring, right.
So anytime there's something to discuss, if I got, if I'm going
to criticize Stan's positioning or at least poke a hole in it,
which I'm about to, I want at least give him credit for coming
up with some solution because the NBA obviously needs a
solution. So basically what Stan said was
he thinks it's time the NBA eliminates the the basically the
lottery, right? Or the actually, I think he said
the entire NBA draft he did. Well, how the hell do you do
that? Interesting concept would never
happen, wouldn't even work. I don't I don't think it's
economically viable and I'll tell you why in a minute as I
give you a better solution. But at least the man's thinking
and try to solve this because again, you know, you saw a
couple teams, Utah, maybe Sacramento, couple of teams got
fined about a half, $1,000,000 right before the All Star break.
The lack of competitiveness, which is why I'm really excited
about the Pistons, Knicks tonight.
There's so many non competitive games.
And not just because one team's a lot better than the other, but
because, which happens in every sport, but really because one
time one team, not only they not trying to win, which is very
different from what they are trying to do, they are actually
purposely trying to lose. Now how do you police this out?
It's not easy. What Stan said was by
eliminating the NBA draft, which is what he proposed just get rid
of, it ceases to exist. Now it won't happen because the
NBA draft is a benchmark and they monetize it and it's an
extension of their season and they get the night back.
Even though the draft is not like it used to be, like when
these kids were there for three or four years, you know, even 2
years, like, you know, I knew every player getting drafted.
I do college basketball games and some of these kids getting
drafted, I'm like, I don't, I don't even know who he is.
I don't even know like, oh, he was, he's at he's at what school
now? Oh, that's right.
He was at that school last year. It's very convoluted.
So when I was a, a, a young, you know, blossoming sports fan, the
guys that were getting drafted, you know, Mullen, Ewing, Pearl,
Washington, you know, Chuck person, I'm just throwing names
at you like that, that Ronnie cycle.
Those were guys I watched for 3-4 years.
And you just, you haven't. Yeah, Chuck, you have Wayman
Tisdale, you have Lenny Bias from Maryland.
You have an opinion that you formulated for years.
So there's more interest in the draft.
There's because when you can identify with something or
somebody inherently, there's more interest.
So I admit the NBA interest has waned.
I want to see who the next draft did.
I want to see if anybody from the Big East got drafted.
That's really all I care about. I'm not sitting there watching
the NBA draft. I get the answer on the on on
social media, but let's just say they did dissolve the NBA NBA
draft and they were able to do what Stan wants them to do.
He basically said, hey, keep the salary cap.
Every everybody that enters the draft is a free agent.
So let's say last year, let's say Stan said this two years
ago, they somehow implemented it, which will never happen.
And Cooper flag clearly target 1 Dallas, right?
Well, anybody, including the Knicks or including the world
champions would have been able to draft him, number one, or
really not even number one. Just get him, get his right, so
to speak, because they could offer him whatever they want.
So you could offer a Cooper flag, you know, $30 million a
year. You need to be able to sit or
fit it within the parameters of discovery cap.
So it's an interesting concept because it would do away with
the lack of competitiveness. Why I don't think it's going to
work. Number one, that's not going to
get rid of the draft. But the other thing that it
would I think would be an issue is that all that like the you
would still have, I think, players who let's say the Knicks
give you an offer of 20, the Celtics, the Warriors, think of
the bigger markets, Chicago and a few others, Miami and they
offer you 20. But the Utah Jazz or Memphis
offers you 30, $10 million more to go someplace that you
probably won't find this desirable because the markets
not as big, the cache is not quite the same.
So it's a very imperfect solution, but I appreciate
staying trying to come up with one.
What I would do, this is very easy.
Number one, you keep the NBA draft because again, you have to
work within the framework of what's realistic and what's not.
It's not going to go away. So you keep the NBA draft, but
instead of having the weighted draft ball lottery system, you
know, the worst record gets this amount of balls, the second
worst, they get more than the third worst and it decreases.
So the odds to land favorably obviously increase the worst
that you are. So there's the incentive to
lose. So if you go 12 and whatever,
whatever the mat, 12 and 62, am I doing that right?
12 and 70. Wait, 12 and 70, is that right?
Yeah, 12 and 7082 game season. If you go 12 and 70 and somebody
else goes 23 and whatever, you've got the same amount of
percentage possibility based on the Bulls that are in that
little machine that they do with Ernst and Young to determine who
gets drafted where and which team gets the first, second, 3rd
sequentially. To me, that's the best solution
because you keep the drafts, you keep the money in the
advertising stream there, but what you're also doing is you
are now dissuading entirely there's no benefit to finish
with the worst record. It doesn't behoove any team to
go out there and get your brains kicked in or, you know, sit a
veteran or even a couple of young ascending players the last
two weeks of the season because you want to make sure you don't
win. No, you can finish the season
with integrity and you can finish the season with pride and
purpose. And those young players.
And and if there was a veteran or two mixed in with that group,
they will benefit because they'll they'll play with, you
know, again, with purpose the entire season.
And and I think that that will will kind of elevate them for
the next year rather than pulling the plug and being
select selectively competitive. And here's a maintenance day,
and this guy's going to sit out because we don't want to win.
Like, how the hell does nobody come up with this?
It's the easiest solution in the book.
You got guys like Stan Van Gundy jump in the hoops to come again,
which I appreciate. It's just it's nonsensical.
It's not going to happen, but at least the man's trying.
People, you know, falling over themselves, twisting themselves
into knots, you know, try to do mental, physical gymnastics, try
to come up with a solution. I just gave you one in 30
seconds. Attach the same value to every
team that doesn't qualify for the playoffs.
Problem solved. You're welcome.
Adam Silver implemented. I mean, what is so hard about
this? Jay Rod?
Why I I really, I have a question.
Why am I not a commissioner at this point?
I don't know. Man, you got to.
Maybe you got to hit that link, then start filling it out.
Get in the seat, you and Silver. Yeah, well, Silver's the number
2. I mean, I know he's literally a
number one, but if I was going to go and work for the NBAI
could not work. Well, yeah, I mean, I couldn't
work under Adam Silver. Adam Silver's.
I would have to relegate, with all the respect, Adam Silver to
where he belongs, which would be #2 He is a #2 disguised as a #1
because he's let all the players walk all over him.
He's lost control of the NBA and the product has become
incredibly diminished as a result of his leadership.
So I think he's a good man. I want to preface that it's not
personal. I do think he's a really good
person. I think, you know, morally, I
think he's in the right spot. I don't agree with everything he
says, but I think he's a good human being.
He's just not a commissioner. See, when you're a commissioner,
you can't try to make friends. You got to drop the hammer and
not care about the repercussions.
He's trying to be buddies with everybody, trying to be boys
with everybody. It's not how it goes, dude.
There's a reason why David Stern's the best commissioner of
all time. That's why.
And even Goodell, now Goodell softened a little bit here, but
there's a reason why Goodell, I think, runs a better NFL than
Silver runs in NBA, because Goodell's not looking to be
buddy buddy with everybody. And the quicker that these
people can figure it out, Same with same with, you know,
Bettman and same with Major League Baseball.
I just don't think there's a lot of good commissioners.
It's very. Yeah, I could do the job.
I know that I could. And Speaking of LinkedIn, do you
know that I've never once been on LinkedIn?
Not once you go you. So you don't even have a profile
now? I don't even have an.
Account I do not. Congrats.
Well, I. Mean it's it's different like
when you do what I now if if if I was just entering the
workforce now trying to be a broadcaster, I'm sure I would be
and and I don't mean this to sound pompous at all but you
know when you when you've been on the air for as long as I've
been people kind of think they're like alright we like
them or we don't no, I've worked out there I have a feeling if
you made. An account, it would just be so
many Marist kids hitting you up. It would be.
Oh, that's true. Too.
Yeah, you would have. A bunch hitting you up?
Yeah, I'd have. Time for that I I always get
time for the kids. I've got time for the kids, like
I am pretty good with that, where I and I do get emails from
from Mara students and some DMS and you know, I've jumped on
some, some podcast and, and I'll continue to do this younger,
even though I'm not even necessarily young, but you know,
starting out podcast. Hey, I'm a big fan.
I'm, I'm looking to transition from this line of work.
It will mean the world. Can you hop on and they might
have like, you know, 329 subscribers, but if they
approach it the right way, I, I will I, I enjoy that because I,
I want to, I believe in paying back and I believe in and
pushing things forward. So I would have a LinkedIn
account if I was just starting now.
I don't need it though, thank God.
Well, I mean, I hope I don't need it.
If this YouTube thing doesn't work out, I might have to go for
that something totally different, but I really probably
could do it for motivational speaking.
Maybe that's something I should look at.
You think? I mean, I think.
It's a good way to just expand horizons with connections.
It's also just like. I think it's a way to really,
you know, not that I'm doing an ad for LinkedIn right here, but
I think it's a great way to like, just like immediately
directly message somebody you're trying to get in contact with.
You know, they will likely respond to you.
OK. That's what I, that's what I've
liked about it. What else we got?
Cooking besides you guys making sure you hammer the like button,
get the likes up hammer the way Avery.
Summit's got a good question for you.
All right, all right, BT. If you were the MLB
Commissioner, how would you solve the impending lockout?
I mean, that's a long way. I mean, I can't get into that
now. Maybe I shouldn't be baseball
commissioner. I, I don't, I don't know.
That is something listen, when you talk about the legal stuff
and I, I, I say that I could be commissioner and I mean it like
a lot of me, me believes it, but there are things that I just, I
don't have a legal background. Sterns did so like that, you
know, these guys are are are legal oriented.
So I don't know. I think I would start with
probably with transparency and I would, I mean, there's things
that I would do. I would be amenable to shave it
a few games off the 162. There's other things that I
would make sure I don't do, like having the Yankees play opening
day on Netflix. And I love Netflix, I love it.
But what are we doing? Like I would I would remain
beholden to an extent to as many people as as I can that help
build the sport. Now that's also a very easy
thing to say when I'm not, when I'm not really looking to, cuz,
you know, I, I speak for the owners as the commissioner and
they want to make money. So I can sit here in my office
and say, well, I wouldn't have the game on prime and this and
that. I don't know, maybe I would if I
was in the moment. And you got you, you saw the,
the contrast, the contrasting between, you know, conventional,
like, you know, regional TV versus more streaming stuff.
I get it. My biggest issue with the
commissioners is when they don't address things properly, when
they don't show any sort of backbone, whether it's
suspensions or certain issues that they've allowed to get
hijacked on occasion or whatever it might be.
Like. That's where I think I would
flourish, but I'm not going to be egotistical enough to.
I don't have a clue. Like with the legal stuff.
I'll tell you one thing I wouldn't do is I wouldn't be
pegging my brother's wife if I'm Tony Clark.
There you. Go from the union.
Side when we did this yesterday I thought it was mistakenly
erroneously. My bed it's even worse.
Wait, it was his? Brother's wife, yes.
I thought it was his wife's sister, which is bad enough,
which is. You know, which is still
obviously that that's completely ruins their relationship, but
your brother's wife completely ruins your relationship with
your brother. Yeah, you're done.
Can you imagine? That you're done.
I mean dude, I don't want. To get too crass, like, you
know, I'll have a little fun. I don't want to get, you know,
filthy here, but I mean, jeez, I mean, how do you how do you ever
look him in the eye again? If you're if you're Tony Clark's
brother, I don't care how profusely he apologizes.
You suck with my wife. You look at him beat your
freaking I'm going to I'm what I mean wow, I would this first of
all, her we kick her to the curb.
We never look at her again. You handle what you have to
handle as a dad. You take care of that.
Do the right thing. Obviously you I have 0 respect
for you get lost him. I could never speak to him
again. I really couldn't I.
Mean it would just be like 1 like I mean the two people who
you've probably loved some of the most in your life.
The trust is gone. Like you can't you can't trust
your brother after that terrible who can't trust no one.
You're probably it's probably scary scary.
I was always good. With that man, like I never
messed around my buddy's girlfriend, so it was always off
limits, you know, I think that's.
As you said, honor amongst thieves, yes.
With you, which Tony apparently does not have.
I like hating to what happened. This is a funny comment I would
have got. I like to see BT reenact the
cover for Queen 2 or the game Queen 2.
I don't even or the game with Sal.
What? The hell does this even.
Mean here J Rod and Bob Bob booms, which will make for an
excellent group. Oh, for their interconnected
shows, All right. What do you mean?
Queen the band? Yes.
Wait, it's. I'm not a big fan of.
Queen, I'm not a big. OK, I know.
Now let me just let me back that up because, you know, I've got a
very eclectical musical taste. I appreciate music.
I'm not saying that I don't think Queen is incredible in
terms of their artistry, their impact.
I'm not saying that at all. And the documentary was great.
Great. I did see that.
I just I never really liked their music.
No, it's fair. It's.
It's a little grandiose, you know?
Yeah, just not really my scene. He was.
Oh, you know, of course I know that one.
Yeah. Yeah, I know that one.
Yeah. It's a cool picture.
I I have seen. That a million times true.
That is a cool picture. Anything else before I hit the
old the old road ski and get out to St.
John's for the nothing but? The John sequence Slam that
like, slam that. Subscribe and keep this trainer
rolling. Something on Van Gundy.
Let me see if I missed one more thing here.
Yeah, the Queen cover here. All right, we started just get
redundant. It's all good.
Hey, you heard what I said about these Knicks.
Let's see a little spirit, let's see a little fortitude, let's
see a little heart, let's see a little push back.
They haven't beaten you. They have owned you.
They have embarrassed you. And you know, I mean, to really
get worked up for a regular season NBA game is kind of rare
tonight. The soon as I get back from
coaching my daughter's game, which will probably be if I had
to take a guess, 10410 five if the final score.
I am coming back and I implanted my ass on the couch and I'm
watching every second of this game and I, I, I, I, I have an
expectation of what I better see and what we better see.
And if not, we're going to have some questions.
We'll have a good show tomorrow either way.
Obviously do some mix. I've got some NFL draft stuff
for you tomorrow as well. Hey, spread the word unleashed
hammer the like subscribe it, get the comments going and
that's it man Have a great, great Thursday and I will catch
you guys tomorrow at 10 unless something wacky happens in the
meantime, J Rod, everybody else BT unleash fam be well.
I'll check you tomorrow. Peace.
This is Unleash. Are you listening?
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