[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: What's up, everybody? This is Rome, and you're listening to sources from the sofa. We're recording Tuesday night, August 18th. Lots of action in the last week since we last recorded. We also got Jason Aaron. So full starting lineup tonight. A lot to talk about. Mainly NBA.
It's been the summer of Adam Silver.
Lots of drama around the association.
Got updates on the Clippers as well as the sudden drama around the Lakers. Definitely caught me off guard. And I just been having, like, an extra dose of anxiety since then.
Have stayed away from the extra Adderalls from the neighbors to not heighten up my awareness even more. Got mlb, some interesting stuff. Dodgers slumping a little bit more, but some bats are starting to heat up. And Snellzilla is starting to heat up as well.
Classic Chicago.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: They made two starts. Rome. I mean, I don't really call it heating up. I mean, I just finally got on the mound.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: He's doing good, dude. He's doing good. Way better than his Salt Lake rehab assignment. Remember you were talking smack last time?
Or maybe that was Jason. He's like, oh, this guy doesn't follow mlb, but he has minor league updates.
[00:01:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: And then. And then we'll of course.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Sounds like he's like. He's like in our baseball league right now. Ever since we talked fantasy baseball, minor league draft. He's like, oh, man, minor league league. This guy's in single A tearing it up. Hitting 320 with 12 stolen bases and 19 RBIs over the last two months.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: I'm gonna go get that certification so I could be an agent since we got all this nil money. And then I'll definitely be up on the minor leagues after this one.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Definitely, man. Nil money's legit. Rome. I mean, they just kind of released college football salaries. Teams getting up in the 40, 50 millions as far as playing players. So, yeah, I think nil agent towards at.
You know, the sources from the SOFA Sports Nil agency is hot and running.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: I know. So much for that 20 mil cap. And then we'll, of course, with F1, ending their summer break, we go back to Germany to kick things off.
Not as much drama.
[00:02:09] Speaker C: The Netherlands.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Downtime, Netherlands. There you go.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: The final, final race. Netherlands.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: That's the final one.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: They're.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: They're done.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: They are not on the calendar for future years to come.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Wow, that's tough.
That's tough. I'm not a big fan of their soccer team, so I don't really feel bad for them anyways, so. Toodaloo, Netherlands never Again.
But let's go back to the NBA first. We'll go with like the softer subject because I think what was it over the weekend or early this week? It was probably over the weekend, right. That the Clipper stuff. NBA foundation allegedly.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Was it yesterday?
[00:02:49] Speaker B: I think it was go. Yeah.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: I mean it seems like stuff. So much information's popped up.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: But everything in l. Everything in LA is a fraud. That's all I know we just talk about between the Clippers, Lakers and Dodgers. Just everything is a fraud.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: Finally Jason's caught on. Finally.
Even fake gambling thing investigation was a fraud.
Mark Walters must have paid for that too.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: I mean, no comment right now. I don't want easy up on my, on my LA teams, guys on the city of LA here. Let's start with the Clippers though, because ESPN lots of drama with like who's reporting what because the NBA is kind of battling back on what ESPN's reporting. They're saying like, hey, that's not true. That's not true. ESPN's getting hammered and different avenues here, but ESPN found out that some sources.
NBA doesn't have anything hard evidence on Ballmer filtering some extra cash into these subsidiaries into Kawhi's pocket, thus circumventing the salary cap. Although I could have sworn Pablo Torres. Pablo Torres, Pablo Torre, Paul Tori. He had dates when Steve Ballmer put in 30 million into this new shell company and then they gave it to.
I'm forgetting the name. Asperger's. I'm just calling Asperger's. Right?
[00:04:17] Speaker C: Aspiration, Aspiration.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: There we go. And then like a few weeks later, that same amount, maybe just a little bit shorter, ends up in Kawhi's pocket. But I guess besides that though, there's no evidence to be seen. Nothing has happened. Amazing.
The first time in history an athlete has been sponsored by multiple teams and has done nothing for the millions of dollars just because the kindness of their heart. They want to give Kawhi the. The least spoken superstar of our generation all that extra hundreds and millions of dollars of money.
Thoughts on that first before we go into my Lakers self imploding.
[00:04:56] Speaker C: Well, that was the, that was the biggest pushback when Pablo first did his reporting. I think it was over a year ago when the first episode he dropped on his P.O.
around that was. And that was your guy. Bill Simmons was basically this is a nothing. Nothing happened. He's just all speculating. The evidence isn't there. It's like they have documents that Ballmer was giving money to a company that, that Kawhi did nothing for.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:21] Speaker C: I was like. And so it's always circumstantial. You don't have, you don't have the smoking gun to clearly say Steve Ballmer wrote the check that says to Kawhi, make sure you put it. I'm like, that's what everyone's expecting you to look for. I was like, that's not how this works.
And so I think that's just ties it back to the original story. At that point. It's like, yes, you, you aren't having the link where you're not going to have the note that says Ballmer told somebody to pay, you know, to make sure this money goes to Kawhi on an email that. That's from Steve
[email protected] you know, straight to, you know, at aspirations.
Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Like when they're breaking this whole thing down, I'm running Chappelle show is like, R. Kelly's innocent. Unless you had this person's grandma and the cousin and the sister watching him purposely pee on the. You know, is like, that's what it feels like. It feels like a playing cover up in front of everyone.
[00:06:13] Speaker C: 100 like in the, the NBA. Of course. I, I think you said the brush back to espn. Yeah, they don't want ESPN talking about this because originally when the story came out, it wasn't on espn. I don't think it was on FOX Sports or any of these. Like, no one wanted to talk about it.
And then it just kept getting grumbling and grumbling and Pablo kept dropping new episodes because people kept coming and you know, giving him more evidence of people that used to work for this aspiration company of more and more things that like, happened and like stuff that went behind the company said, yeah, we have validation that this was supposed to go to Kawhi. And he did nothing for. You had everything with Uncle Dennis that came through. I think you had all this circumstantial stuff around. Like I think Jeannie Buss and we'll get into probably more of her later were rumors where she, she was asked, you know, during the, the recruitment of Kawhi during that free agency year.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: She was actually public about that. She was the only one that's like, oh yeah, we couldn't work with him because he wanted extra stuff.
[00:07:07] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: He was the first one that spilled the beans.
[00:07:09] Speaker C: And so it wasn't, it wasn't like, oh, this was, you know, it was circumstantial around, you know, Kawhi and his, his family representatives. Like, that was the whole thing when he was going to free agency is that they wanted all this stuff. So I don't know it like, it's just. It's just they want some sort of smoking gun, but the NBA just wants it to go away. And like, no one wants to take on Ballmer. That's the thing. Like this. He is. He is the richest owner by far. You know, they're not. They want him in the. They want him in the sport. And so. But they need to approve, like, oh, we did some sort of punishment and, you know, the NBA just wants it to go away.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: He's not a Donald Sterling. He's not this new owner that's in Portland.
He's not like one of the worst owners that we've had in a while. He's just a little crooked. It seems to be a common theme in LA with. With billionaire owners lately.
Aaron, thoughts on this?
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Is there such a thing as a billionaire that's not a little bit crooked? Rome.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: You know, I don't blame people for betting the rules every once in a while. You know, it's the only thing you
[00:08:09] Speaker C: say with Ballmer, like, you can. You can trace where his billions came from. Oh, like. Like he has like a direct line. I'm not gonna say, like, you're right about the cricket portion, but like, I mean, he was away, got rich in a certain way. You talk about. We'll talk about the other Laker or the, you know, the current Lakers owner. You don't know where some of these guys, they get like, you know, what is it? Hedge funds and private equity. And this is like, you know, magic bucks in the sky and stuff. At least like, for Ballmer is like, okay, he helped founded a company that was one of the biggest companies in the world. And this is how I got rich. You get all these other guys come. You don't know where the heck this money is coming from. Half the time. There's. I mean, I'll get more into the Lakers, but, like, there's a lot of questions about where the 12.5 billion for the Lakers is coming from, because Iger and Kushner aren't that rich. So where is the extra money coming, you know, from them on that? And they're pointing to some.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: You know, Kushner has the money.
[00:09:00] Speaker C: Ah, no, he doesn't. But like, he has backers that have money and where does that money come from?
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Yeah, they're the two, what face of faces of the ownership. But yeah, kind of like Jason said, where's the private equity? Who's got money coming in. I think we talked about this briefly. FIFA was trying to do something with World cup and stuff and selling off private equity, but going back to Balmer Rome, I mean, me and you talked about this about a year. We've had a number of conversations. I told you nothing was going to come of it. I'm not surprised by this.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: You said this is all a hoax though. You didn't believe anything.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: I, I do believe in. I do believe it is. Oh, I do believe it is a hoe.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: The cameras turn on you and, and, and you turn heel. Huh?
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Look, Rome, I've said look, if I'm Ballmer and I wanted to play Kawaii off. We had a conversation yesterday. He comes in my private office. There's just a suitcase there full of cash. Yeah, there's no, there is no third party. There is no, hey, I'm doing this, I'm doing that.
Ballmer invested in that company aspiration or whatever, it went bankrupt. But like I said, you can just basically, if you wanted to privately pay Kawhi or hey Kawhi, go take a vacation and they came in the Bahamas, whatever, Switzerland. Here's a key. Go see Mr. So and so at a bank. It's on me. Nobody has to know about this stuff. I would not go through all this stuff about hey, I'm trying to circumvent the cap. I mean, if you listen to the source of stories, they're totally BS on it. When I, when that's why they came out with this false story three weeks ago because they already knew that they had nothing on Palmer so they just keep making up stories. I believe if you listen to the high executive who's mad he got fired from the Clippers, he's like, oh yeah, we openly joked about doing this. Hahaha. I knew right away that guy was full of. He used words like oh, 1,000%. Nobody uses 1,000%. That was like it's so in the 90s. So I knew this guy was full of or whoever this source was. I told you back then that the ESPN whoever was going to release it that they had nothing. They're just now starting to make up more stories because they know they have nothing originally. And Ballmer and the Clippers would be cleared. It sounds like they are. I believe ESPN's telling the true story. NBA is mad about it, trying to, trying to find something or trying to do some kind of deal behind back doors. But yes, Ballmer and the Clippers will get cleared of this and there's nothing to See, and as we probably talked about, look, the Clippers are irrelevant. They did not win anything. They really did not turn the league upside down. They're moving off of Kawhi. He goes to Toronto where he was a savior. And everybody's kind of, hey, Ballmer built the greatest arena right now in the NBA. He's a richest owner. He's a good guy for the most part. Bit of a nerd, but he does invest in the team, invest in LA and the surrounding area.
Obviously they're not going to do anything to kind of hurt his legacy that he's built so far.
[00:11:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm confused and I'm confused in Aaron's narrative on this. Like, he says it's a hoax, but it's true. Or I, I don't know where he's going with this. Like 100%. Ballmer was doing something. 100. The Clippers were circumventing the salary cap to get Kawhi to come there and do everything like that.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: I don't think they were circumventing it in the way that, like, you, like, I'm gonna pay you to pay him. Right. It could be one of these things where, like, I'm gonna invest in your company, quote, unquote, not to pay my guy, but hey, my. I'm gonna introduce you to my guy, but take care of my guy. I mean, everybody does that for every company.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: No one asks for investment money to then sign another guy. That's the circumvent part.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: No, but I believe Palmer put his own money to invest in the company, not to, hey, invest in Kawhi. That's not. He never did anything that.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Oh, that's your take.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Ballmer got hosed himself and whatever deal, if you listen to the guy, the CEO of the company before he stepped down, basically denies everything as well. Like, hey, yeah, we were talking to Kawhi, but it was not a no show deal. That wasn't part of the original agreement. He stepped aside. And whoever came in, I don't know what that deal was. Even Ballmer, right. If I introduce you to a customer Rome for marketing and you guys do your own thing, I'm out of it. I don't know what happened. I just, I just set up an introduction. Introduction. There's nothing wrong with setting up an introduction. There's nothing wrong if you're in a business like we know that. Anybody else that goes, hey, you're taking a client out to dinner, show them a good time, take care of them, that can mean 100 different things. Depending on the client and what they like to do.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: Yeah, but this was not dinner. This was a 30 million dollar contract to do nothing.
That's totally different as, as who?
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Have we seen the contract? Have we seen the literature of it?
[00:13:28] Speaker C: I mean I'm not gonna go back on the Pablo Torre episodes and stuff, but there was stuff releasing how much he didn't get. I mean Kawhi even said I didn't get all my money from them and everything like that because there planned, right. It turns, it turns south where like the company started struggling financially and he wasn't getting that money. But what did he do to endorse the brand and everything like that? Like it's all c. It's. There's a circumstantial aspect to it, but it 100% was dealing with the ways of circumventing salary cap. Now at the end of the day, like I don't care. Aaron doesn't care. I don't think most of the NBA fans don't care. I mean, and probably, and I think the bigger thing is I don't think the other owners care because they're probably some of the richer ones are doing something of something, you know, to get them three. Now maybe it's not the no show job, but to Aaron's point, like if you're, you know, when Giannis was playing in Milwaukee, hey, everyone wants Giannis, okay? I'm setting up different introductions to, you know, sponsor whatever locally in Milwaukee and you're going to be able to get that stuff. But there's probably some show up value to or minimal show up value that's going to get it there. I think there's always kind of these introductions. I mean, but this is basically kind of taking like nil type stuff where you know, we're just paying off the college kids in a certain point. I mean this is what almost this deal is from Ballmer. It's just at a bigger scale because Ballmer wants to win and the league wants him. And I think everyone is fans. I'm not a Clippers fan or I don't think you know, and Rome you're not. But you want this guy in the league because he's, he's an owner that like this guy wants to win. And if this was a non cap sport, if he was a baseball owner right now, I mean he'd be like Steve Cohen would probably better. He probably spent a billion dollars to
[00:15:01] Speaker A: get like are the Dodgers going for sale? I mean they've got, I mean might be interested in buying Maybe.
[00:15:06] Speaker C: Maybe.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:08] Speaker C: Yeah. So, I mean, he, he'd be in a sp if this wasn't a cap sport and so difficult to manage a certain ways. Yeah, he'd be one a guy that wants to win. So, I mean, you, I think you want an owner like Steve Ballmer that has that passion because I, I, I have a litany of crappy Chicago owners that wouldn't spend a penny on anything to get, you know, that, that weren't going to make profit where this guy's openly probably losing money on the Clippers. As Aaron said, the investment in, you know, one of the best arenas in all of sports from a, you know, an indoor side, you know, the, the infrastructure around that arena in Inglewood that supported, you know, what's around Sofi. And so there's a ton that, you know, he asked. There's a business aspect to him, but at the end of the day, like, he wants to win and he was going to do everything he could to win. So, like, for the NBA, okay, yeah, this looks really bad. There's a ton of circumstantial esin that leads to this guy got paid circumventing the cap. There's a lot of, like, questions around it. And I think right now is just like, hey, what's the punishment that we're gonna, we're gonna deliver? It doesn't have to be like, you know, overt, because you're not going to punish, probably not punish Kawhi. I don't know why they would, I mean, is he supposed to not take free money that people are supposed to go to him at that point, why
[00:16:13] Speaker B: he would be punished?
[00:16:15] Speaker C: Right? It was like, hey, I was supposed to give money to, to endorse this brand, and they never told me to go nowhere. I think it's the easiest, like, you know, he can go around. I think it's just more into the owners. If you guys truly want to argue from a cap perspective, you know, this gross. I think it gets a tricky place potentially for the union because now does this turn into, you know, how you are, you know, putting revenue or something outside of, you know, what the split is under the collective bargaining agreement. There's probably some legality stuff that I don't even know if anyone's probably touched on there because, you know, that's where like, money supposed to go into a certain spot from the split to, to the owners of the union. So I'm sure there's some, you know, shakiness there. But I mean, the NBA just wants this to go away and Maybe the Lakers made that happen this week.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Yeah, nothing else to add on that one. Just we'll, we'll see what the punishment is. They do got to do something. I guess that that's what they're negotiating. Toronto fans already cheering for the arrival of Kawhi.
I assume they're have to do some slap on the wrist thing on Ballmer and the Clippers though because the evidence is there. This is not a direct paper trail so.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Well, I mean the only evidence now that they're looking into is whether or
[00:17:23] Speaker B: not introductions are fine. That's normal.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Yeah. But no, I guess the introduction, the Clippers can't introduce Kawhi. They can only share his information and then aspiration has to go out and make the contact themselves.
So I guess they're trying to view, to see if it was the other way around. It's the only punishment that they, they can do. But according to emails Ballmer has from, I guess Jason has his email at Steve
[email protected] or whatever it is.
That's, that's good to know. So that is good to know I guess. You know, Ballmer is saying, hey look, we, we, we did not set up the initial thing that the sponsor did so they're willing to fight it if it needs to.
So we'll see what happens. I mean it sounds like Ballmer's not, not going to get any punishment here. I, I don't see him. He'll, he'll fight this to the end.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Pablo Torre, his flowers he did mention on the Dan Patrick show he didn't think Ballmer is going to see any if much discipline from the NBA because of how powerful and how respective an owner he is.
But he does lay out on his show and he has evidence of emails and shell companies and all that leading to the circumvention. So he did win a Pulitzer Prize for it for his investigative reporting.
But I don't know man.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: We'll see what happens to Pablo. Well, we'll see. I mean I don't think there's going to be any legal action taken against him. But I know some people have mentioned that on the Internet, maybe somebody will go after him.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: They're not going to be able to, man.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: I don't believe, I don't believe they will.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: They don't want to have all that evidence in court. I don't think so.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: It's not, it's not worth opening up other cans of warrants if you just win this one. If you're ball burn the Clippers.
[00:19:12] Speaker C: Oh you you think you're trying to save people going after Pablo for reporting this?
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Yeah. No.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: Yeah. That's a loose situation.
[00:19:18] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He has, he has documents and stuff that you have explained that in court. That's a, that's a losing.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: If they were fake, there would be a lawsuit.
[00:19:27] Speaker C: Yeah. But like I think the documents that they revealed throughout the entire time of what's going on and like a lot of it was open ended of kind of drawing your own conclusions in a couple podcasts I listened to. But yeah, there's way too much evidence that these guys don't want in court. They want the story to go away. Like it's not that big a deal. Like the NBA doesn't want out there. Ballmer doesn't went out there because you remember Balmer said it was nothing early on and then by the time they dropped like the second podcast, he's like on Sports center like trying to explain something and none of it.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: And it was bad.
[00:19:54] Speaker C: Yeah, none of it made sense.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: I think, I think it's bad because Palmer's just not a guy that's, he's not a public figure. I mean, if you watch him at the games, he's, he's basically on like pins and needles watching games. He's not the type of guy that can go out there and just do public and look all smooth and put a suit on. You're like, man, this guy, I believe every word he says. He's not a smooth talker like that. No.
[00:20:14] Speaker C: And, and I think the, the conversation you mentioned as far as like what his punishment would be, as you said, Pablo said, I'm the Dan Patrick. She wasn't getting punishment. People were saying, oh, he's gonna lose the team. I was like, there's no one taking this man team away from this guy. Like the Sterling situation was such like a like exception to the rule that almost like probably at any other time probably would have landed in court for years. But because they basically got Sterling's wife and other portions to take the team away to, they could go away, but they're not challenging a billionaire in court over something that's going to be as mundane as this.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: Yeah. You know what's really funny though? The dodgers with the McCourts, really shaky ownership just because some of the bad business dealings that were going behind the scenes in the infight, bickering with the marriage between the husband and wife.
Mark Walter tried buying the Clippers at the same time Palmer outbitted him. Mark Walter ends up buying the Dodgers.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: Well, Ballmer bought what he buy the. What did he buy the Clippers for? Was it two and a half billion?
[00:21:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Or something like that. Yeah, he outbid everybody before.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: And what. What year was this again? He bought them.
How long's Balmer owned them now? Is it 10 years, 8 years?
[00:21:25] Speaker B: More than 10 years, at least.
Because that's what. That's when Mark went to go buy shares, a minority stake in the Lakers about 10 years ago.
He bought it from another executive that was facing some legal issues, and that's how he got into the Laker business.
[00:21:41] Speaker C: So 12 years ago, 2014, for $2 billion. Okay, so that set the thing about this. That set the record at the time at $2 billion, surpassing the Milwaukee Bucks being sold for $550 million right prior to that. Now, think about that Lakers selling price we talked about on last week's pod.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: And they're. And they're talking about, like, how that one might have been a little low, but, you know, they said.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: They say low, but, man, you're. You're going to the. We're blending stories with the Walter situation, but Walter buying with, you know, stuff on an asking price that not even. Potentially even having the money. And now we're. This 12.5 billion is coming. It's like we're in the records of funny money going around all the time like this.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: That's where I'm going to, you know, two franchises, franchises in Los Angeles having some shaky ownership.
The same franchise. Right. And then now we fast forward to today a decade later, Lakers potentially on the move again. Or not. Lakers. The Dodgers.
According to you, Jason, we were talking before we jumped on the likes.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: I want to hear what Jason's got to say. Man, I just saw this text message, but I love anything that's bad news on the Dodgers.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Yeah, we already know, Aaron.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: I got to hear it on the show.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Was it last week? Last Thursday.
Is that when the news broke out?
[00:23:01] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Everything's a blur.
Everything's a blur that the Lakers last minute sold for 12 and a half billion dollars. I don't know if we actually recorded the pod because maybe it came out on Tuesday and we actually had some notes on this. Yeah, we did talk about it last week.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: It came out. It came out Wednesday.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: Wednesday, yeah. That's recorded.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Recorded the pod on Wednesday night. Thursday night, yeah.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: So, okay. You know, they got sold.
Everyone just thought, all right, that's the end of the Bus Family as well. It came out, I think, on Monday that the Bus Family Trust and it was a weird press release Actually saying that, you know, we're just trying to get out what we can and save face. It was just awkward. I was like, wait a minute, that's not something that Jeannie would say that they're going to sell the rest of their shares. 17.8% of the Lakers, in order to be the managing. What governing whatever it is, owner, controlling owner, you have to have at least 15%.
Jeannie comes out later on that day saying, like, not so fast. I got this court order from 2017 saying, I got the last say. Or all three of the trustees, the final trustees on this particular trust have to give the okay to sell. And I'm not doing that.
Other siblings are saying, well, there's an add on provision because no one's expecting Mark Walter to sell the team within 12 months.
If he sold the team, they can add on their shares and sell it for the same valuation as they did. So this is really ugly because the kids, the rest of the siblings came out today on Wednesday or Tuesday saying, we are all united and we're going to move forward through the proper channels. A lot more polished this time. It wasn't as rushed as last time. They thought they could squeeze by. Genie, I'm sure, has a hell of attorney because they answered it right away with the proper things.
But this is definitely going to court arbitration, whatever it's going to look like.
Typically, contracts that are the original ones, newer ones have to supersede it, like override those. It's really hard to get newer ones to debunk older ones. So I'm kind of liking Genie's stance on this one, especially with the way the trust was written up. It's basically the last man standing.
But it is very messy to say the least. And it's not going to be solved anytime soon. And with the Lakers stuff, we'll get into Mark Walter a little bit more because more news has came out. Jason shared a little tweet.
It just came out today that he just, he, he's looking to sell 12, 12 and a half per percent of his ownership in Chelsea.
I guess he's looking to possibly unload the TV contracts for the Lakers and Dodgers as well for cash. Right away I'm like, dude, like this,
[00:25:57] Speaker A: all the signs, man. It's a lot of cash.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: All the science point, like, dude, you already made a lot of money. How many billions of dollars did you borrow against these loans against your own companies? Like, that's not good, man. I'm guessing it's jail time or like a big penalty fee and A trump pardon come coming his way since they're buddy buddies, but very, very alarming. I don't know. I. I know I kind of rambled on on that one, but where should we start?
Let's start with the Bus family.
[00:26:31] Speaker C: Yeah, the bus family.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: I mean, succession in real life, baby.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: 100. That's what I was just gonna go with there. I.
[00:26:38] Speaker B: The.
[00:26:39] Speaker C: The best thing on Twitter, besides all, like, the drama crapping all over your LA teams on this, was that they canceled. Did you watch the show winning time Rome?
[00:26:47] Speaker B: I didn't, no. I want to watch it. No, I didn't. I heard it's really good, though.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: It was really good. Like, I mean, you want to give the casting director on this. They literally found, like, the best person to go to be Magic Johnson. One of the best people to be Kareem. Like, Adrian Brody was Pat R. Like, it was one of the best. It was. It was one of the best casting shows I've ever seen for basketball. It's really hard, too, given, like, hey, you got to find these guys that are just, like, you know, 6 foot 5, 7ft tall and everything to do it out. But.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Well, we all saw the Cat Clipper show, though. That was.
[00:27:18] Speaker C: Yeah, that was awful. That was awful. But, yeah, the winning time was great. First season, second season was a little bit thing, and then I think it was in the middle of the writer strike, and the show got canceled, really, before it really kind of hit its stride.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: And.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: But this is where, like, man, it ended way too soon. Because on Twitter, they're just talking about, like, this is when the show really would have got good. Because if you looked at post Jerry Buss, like, you know, passing away and the drama. And I think we talked a little bit about, you know, the Suns running the team, and eventually it went to Genie, even though Genie was the one a part of the organization pretty much her entire life. But the sun's can. It came in from the outside, and now you're going to this portion of it where it's like, Genie's the only one involved. There's a lot of, like, rumors. She basically pushed all the siblings, like, out of the way, basically. And so. And now this is kind of their. You know, there's rumors like, this is kind of their revenge is like, that we're voting to sell the team. We want our cash. Like, we don't give a crap about. About this where things are at. And so, I mean, this was. This was, yes, the real succession kind of coming to life right now.
That would. That probably Will make for a good TV show probably in 20 years if
[00:28:18] Speaker B: they pick it up.
[00:28:19] Speaker C: Pick up. Winning time.
[00:28:20] Speaker A: Yeah, Winning time was a pretty good show. Agree, man. First season was kick ass. Second season not so good. But yeah, I kind of, yeah, they jumped in what when Magic got drafted and then kind of just breezed through the 80s and called it quits. But yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how this Genie bus thing plays out. Rome, I mean all the siblings, they're on board, they want to sell.
Genie's like, no, we're not. I want to keep running this thing till 20, 30 at least.
Yeah, I mean, well, I, I don't think if that's what her original contract was, I don't think the new ownership of the Lakers is going to extend it. And given the mess that they're having with the siblings now, they probably, I think Jeannie's probably going to come in an agreement and eventually step aside and maybe have some, some kind of role within the organization. I don't think it's going to be the governor, but she'll have some kind of role. They'll give her something to do for a year or two before she quietly goes away.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Remember that weird quote that we were reviewing right when they sold and like Kushner and I, I go there like, I agree. Yeah, yeah.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: If anything happens, you know, she.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: In case anything, you know. Yeah, sure.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: I think, I think, I think the family already reached out and said they were going to sell. That's my guess.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: I think Cushion Iger pushed it. That's my guess.
I guess there's like a weird meeting that they had with the finance director. I'm not sure I have to re reread the article or the articles I was reading because it was kind of worded weird. I'm not sure if Genie asked for the LA Lakers finance people to have a meeting with all the bus siblings. It was either to like we're not selling. It was like a reassurance that they're not going to sell. And then the news broke out that the Lakers sold the next day. That was on the Tuesday before the Wednesday the news broke out. Or if it was the other way around, where they've already been in talks of trying to sell the rest of it and it was just another follow up meeting.
And then news broke.
They feel a little embarrassed because Walter basically made two and a half billion dollars in profit. Made them look silly with like initial valuation.
So maybe like a little hurt from there. By the way, though, every Bus sibling has made out after taxes with half a billion dollars with the initial sale last year.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: So another thing, Rome I don't get. I don't know why they would agree to it or not if that's what the contract is. Why have a family vote if your vote doesn't count? It's only one person gets a vote on final say.
I mean, what's the point of having a vote if you know that one person's not going to sell the team, like, ever? She doesn't have to. What is the why? I have a vote. And when it's 5, 115 to 1
[00:31:03] Speaker B: 21, however, that's why I like Genie's chances, because that's an old provision and they're trying to. They're gonna fight that. This, you know, add on, you know, overrides all that stuff. And the reason why they agreed to the cell in the first place, because, you know, let's face it, Genie did this backdoor deal again. They did the Luca trade and, like, you know, she was talking the Mark Walters sold the.
Sold. The Lakers got all the.
All the siblings involved because they felt pressured, quote, unquote, to say yes. I mean, if you didn't want to, then why say yes?
Why would Jeannie sell it initially? Like, did she feel like this partnership was gonna be better? Well, I think they. They did kind of push out the
[00:31:41] Speaker A: family vote back 10, and two or three people voted or initially were yes on board and two weren't. And then Genie was yes, I believe was the final kind of vote on it.
And like you said, it was rushed. And I think now it doesn't look good for Genie if she just keeps going around and selling and doing all kinds of different stuff. It doesn't make it look like you have really good control of what you're doing.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: Well, after they sold, that's when she kicked the rest of the family out that still had jobs of the Lakers assistant general manager, her sister that had some type of role.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: I think a brother in the scouting department, too. Right?
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Brother. They all got, you know, texts that say that they're gone.
[00:32:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So after last fall, you got that going on. I mean, like you mentioned, they did get over half a billion dollars. And, like, Jason touched on, like, this is kind of their way of like, oh, like, you're gonna kick us out now.
This provision gives us a chance to kick you out, so we're just going to stick it back to you. It's going to be a messy legal mess, and it's not going to look good for the bus Family and how the end of the Lakers go. Like, it's one of those things. Like if you read how he bought the team basically in the form and all that, it's all funny. If you go watch him, watch winning time, how he's basically making a back room deal, like, hey, I got to come up with the money. Like Walters, he's got to come up with the money and keep paying these loans off to keep the team and trying to find ways to make money. And now the team is kind of in the same boat where the family's fighting over governorship for the team and wanting to sell and the sisters and brothers are just going neck and neck at each other.
Yeah.
[00:33:17] Speaker C: And winning time and stuff. It wasn't like, you know, like, it was like, you know, get signed off by his ex wife and like all sorts of other things like that when he was trying to make that move.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. They had to adjust the books and everything to act like he had so much money. And then.
[00:33:30] Speaker B: Yeah, it was back in the day. That was a little easier to do back then.
[00:33:34] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, apparently if you go by the Dodgers, it's, It's easy to do now at a bigger scale, so. But just shell company after shell company, just rotating money out in a big circle. But yeah, yeah, I, I don't know. I mean, at the end of the day for the Lakers, I mean, the. I, I've talked about this, you know, before a little bit on here and you know, with my friends and stuff like that too. Like these, these teams now are they, they can't be mom and pop organizations. These aren't family businesses anymore, you know, and all these owners that were like, running these things as family businesses like you, you got to have more capital and you got to be independently wealthy to be able to do some of this stuff. And for like the Buss family, their wealth is tied to the Lakers. You know, there's, you know, similar things when you talk about, you know, for me In Chicago, the McCaskey family that owns the Bears might be next.
They should, I mean, they should be like, they're not independently wealthy. They're billion, they're billions in net worth as a family is tied to owning the Chicago Bears. And so if you don't have money outside, you're very tied to what's going on. And then the teams does do not have, you know, the resources potentially involved. And we've talked about this in the pod. If you're looking at the Lakers over the last, like, you know, recent history like they got the bubble championship, you know, Rome. I know you'll tout that Aaron, and I probably dismiss it a little bit. But like you didn't have the bubble.
If you didn't have the bubble championship, you're talking back to, you know, their title at around like, you know what 2010 or whatever it was. And they went through like long periods of kind of, you know, mediocrity towards the end of the Kobe years and then before they got LeBron and like where was the direction of this franchise and overall. And so to compete in the NBA now it's not just about being in the big market and stuff. You need to get free agents. But if you look at Oklahoma City and San Antonio, like how these teams are building and infrastructure and scouting and, and all that type of stuff, like that's where, that's where some of the baseball money comes into. If you look at the Dodgers, because the Dodgers just are buying people and I'm going to give you all this crap about that. But the Dodgers also put a ton of money into like the scouting department and analytics and things like that where they can find all these like minor league guys where the teams that are only investing like five dudes in like a small office, like running numbers on some spreadsheets, you know, versus a team that's got an army of scouts and everything like that that's going out and finding people. That's what gives the advantage. And these into these, you know, families that are running the business like that. All their profits tied to a team just doesn't work anymore. And the Buss family, I think is always kind of been on the hook for that is like they're known for owning the Lakers and that is pretty much it.
[00:35:57] Speaker A: They're known for running the Lakers like they did in the 1980s. You go watch winning time. I think that's how the Lakers are still running under the genie, boss. That's why they've been kind of a laughing stock behind closed doors amongst, you know, owners groups, managements, executives in the NBA. Just how they are ranked.
And you know, Walter's group, to your guys's point, was brought in to kind of bring in like the Dodgers infrastructure, more scouting, more eyes, more, more money, funding, everything, get everything up and running. And that's kind of what they were doing. I mean, Rob Palenka really had nobody overseeing him. Then he got two guys now. I don't know what's going to happen to them with the Walter group basically out.
Like I said on the last show, I think Rob Polinka will be fired at the end of the year and J.J. redick will go from head coach to GM. I think that'll be a good trans for the Lakers and I think that's where they're headed towards a rough season, but we'll see what kind of changes they make within the ownership group with, you know, it looks like the Buses. It's going to be a messy legal battle like you guys touched on.
It's going to take a while to go through. We'll see if the NBA steps in there. Let's see if they quietly make a deal to get Genie Bus to kind of step aside.
[00:37:12] Speaker B: I don't know. They really like Genie, though.
She has a pretty good rep, I think.
[00:37:18] Speaker A: I think of all the selling that's going on Rome, you're saying a lot of Laker fans are looking to jump ship? I think a lot of Laker fans are going to turn on her.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: I don't think so.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: I. I think. I think so.
[00:37:28] Speaker B: Would be crazy, though. Jason mentioned something. I don't know if you're watching the Chicago game. Jason.
[00:37:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not paying attention.
[00:37:36] Speaker C: Again, the game restarted.
[00:37:38] Speaker B: So if Ballmer bought the Dodgers, you want to see LA fans turn their heads upside down? That would be crazy. A lot of people wouldn't know what to do.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: I think if we stay in a no salary cap error, it'd be the greatest thing for the Dodgers.
[00:37:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't. I don't know if.
I mean, there. I. I've had my conspiracy theories about the way this lockout's gonna go. I think I shared on there, like, The Dodgers. The MLB's positioning the Dodgers to be the biggest big. The big bad wolf that's going to make the salary cap come true. If they really have, like an ownership group that doesn't have the money behind it, what's going on too? Like, I don't know what it does with the narrative because, like, you got. You got Major League Baseball running commercials of what for, like, on a fan's behalf. Basically. Like, basically my teams aren't competitive because, you know, we can't spend any money and this isn't fair. Oh, you haven't seen. Oh, yeah, they got commercials out there. The owners are running right now for basically advocating for competitive balance in the salary gap and stuff like that.
[00:38:37] Speaker B: The team is going to the playoffs. Look like it's pretty competitive to me.
[00:38:40] Speaker C: I, I would.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: It's a tough loss for them.
[00:38:43] Speaker C: I would, I would. I would disagree. I. But I, I think there's some Guarantee, but we'll see in the off season. But, like, this is gonna. This. This definitely is an interesting wrinkle with the Dodger situation going into those negotiations.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
All right.
I think that's all I got right now.
[00:38:59] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't know. More to come, I would say. Aaron, I don't know if you read the text I said about the Dodgers, but allegedly Walter owns, like, $20 billion by, like, December 31st.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Let's see here.
So 20 billion by the end of the year.
[00:39:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: And he just. Well, we know he picked up, what, two and a half billion from the sale of the Lakers.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: He actually made close to four because he got another 20% a decade ago
[00:39:28] Speaker A: for.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: That's profit.
Yeah,
[00:39:34] Speaker C: but there's a. There's a lot of stuff looking into Walter right now of, like. I mean, you can. You'd have to. I don't want to explain in the pod for everything, but, like, reading to some of the stuff. It's like a circle of insurance companies and different stuff like that that goes into a thing of where this money's kind of going into an endless loop of, like. And then ends up, hey, the bill's coming due all of a sudden, so he needs money and needs money now.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: Well, do we know how Walter, I mean, got as wealthy, supposedly, as he did? Oh,
[00:40:05] Speaker B: it's one of the biggest companies that out there.
They have a lot of assets. They basically find diamonds in the roughs or brands that are hard to acquire.
They put in.
They reinvest.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah, we talked about reinvesting, but it sounds like he doesn't have that money to reinvest, or he's taken out of places, you know, money that he's not supposed to be taken out of.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: The reinvest insurance companies, though, the point is, they have the money, and you reinvest it. What you can't do is have other shell companies that you personally own. If you own the insurance company and have them reinvest into your companies without disclosing that, everything comes down to disclosures.
That was never disclosed on any SEC filing. That's the issue.
The money's all there. It's just all backdoored and tied up without the proper disclosures. And now he has to clean all that up or it's jail time, allegedly.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: So, yeah, I just got to pay a big fine.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: Which sounds like 20 billion.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: It's what it seems like.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: I'm sure more is gonna be coming in, but it's nuts.
[00:41:15] Speaker C: Yeah. I have to go look out. There's. There's a lot of stuff out there that's a little bit, I don't want to say conflicting, but like it's, it's just a lot of like there's, there's money he owes within six weeks, there's money he owes by the end of the year, whatever those amounts might be.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: When I found out he was selling Chelsea, that's when I was like, okay, this is not just like, hey, we'll buy the daughters off your hands.
I was skeptical from the beginning.
Now it's like, okay, now he's doing a fire selling like the sports assets. I'm really curious how that works out with Guggenheim, what they own because they own some like really high end luxury brands. I worked with them with some, you know, celebrity backed fragrance brands back in Hollywood. So really big company. They have a lot of powerful people behind them.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: I mean the deal he's got with Charter Communications, that's what, for 8 billion.
[00:42:00] Speaker B: That's what I'm reading on Jason's tweet, if that's correct.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:42:07] Speaker B: dude, if he over the TV deals, there's gonna be a lot of people unhappy with him and there's gonna be a bad dock on him on Hulu or Netflix like ASAP once this whole thing settles.
[00:42:17] Speaker C: I mean the TV deals, we've, we've talked in this several times in the podcast. That's where like the circle of like where the Dodgers competitive advantage because of like, of where, you know, the McCourtz you mentioned earlier, the fallout from the courts is basically baseball trying to secure the Dodgers because they're about to go bankrupt.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Right.
[00:42:34] Speaker C: I was like, and they get gifted in this TV deal that's like what's fueling this or up there. But like you need that much money that you're hard off take, you know, basically get out of this TV deal early just to get cash. Like if that's true, that's, that's, that's a, that's a hard look for cash.
[00:42:51] Speaker B: All right, time to talk a little F1 as we return back from summer break.
Going back to the Netherlands as we go to the Zamford Circuit.
Jason, I was kind of surprised. Not a lot of drama spilled out during the break.
Heard some drivers partied. We've talked a lot about who we liked going down the stretch before they went on the summer break. I guess Albon doubled up on Williams. I think that came out yesterday or today.
[00:43:18] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah, he signed at least through next season.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: No changes. Everyone's kind of locked in anyways. There wasn't much Movement except for there must be close to unanimous opinion that no one really likes the new engine for F1 and that's about it.
Jason, what do you got for us going down the second half?
[00:43:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's more, you know, more than just the engine. I think just the overall car, the cars. And you're talking about the, the, the balance between electrical power and a traditional internal combustion engine. I think the cars have, you know, balanced out a little more throughout the season. But Mercedes obviously still with the car to beat and seemingly with the driver to beat with Kimi Antonelli. But yeah, I, to your, to your point? Just trying to talk to the like the off season and the drama when it comes to the silly season of teams moving like yeah, like there's no one really under contract much beyond this season except for you locking the both Ferrari drivers. They're locked into next season and beyond because the Claire signed an extension. Lewis I think had a minimum of a three year deal and considering how good well he is this year, you, you know, you're just saying he's definitely going to be back next season.
Kimi Antonelli obviously with Mercedes is locked in there and now Williams bringing up Albon. But I think, you know, there isn't really a ton of certainty amongst the rest of the field. We can make some assumptions in some certain places.
Lando Norris probably locked in McLaren but questions are on Oscar Piastri on whether he, you know, he wants to go be the number one driver somewhere. Is that going to be Red Bull? The big linchpin I think is Max Verstappen and that's probably why you haven't heard anything is because Max hasn't been committed one way or the other. I think we talked about last week or the week before. Max was, you know, seen with Total Wolf team principal CEO of Mercedes and they were vacationing for the second year in a row off the coast of Italy. And I seemingly, I think Kimi Antonelli was there. So George Russell not there but Max Verstappen and you know, Kimi Antonelli vacationing with, with the boss of Mercedes at that point. So I think Max Verstappen is the domino because if he's going to go to Mercedes and replace George Russell and you're going to have a dominant lineup there at Mercedes. Okay, where does George Russell go And then from Red Bull. How do they respond? Are they in the market to try to get Piastri? Do they want to just maybe just go after George Russell. Carlos signs seemingly unhappy with Williams. He would Love to get to one of the top four teams too. He's uncommitted to Williams beyond this year and so I think Verstappen is the domino to fall. So when he makes a decision, I don't know, he could be waiting until after this week at Netherlands because this is his home Grand Prix. I mentioned the pre pod. This is the last Dutch Grand Prix for the foreseeable future.
The Dutch Grand Prix will be off the F1 calendar as they've added, you know, some different venues back to the calendar, but also new venues too. They're going to be upcoming up in future seasons. So maybe he wants to make sure this one last race. I know he's got a special helmet Max does for this race and everything goes and maybe after that he makes his decision to go elsewhere. But I think it's a lot of questions. Mercedes isn't really known to give out the massive contract. Not to say they weren't paying Lewis a lot and everything, but they were non committed to Lewis, a guy that won six world championships for them. You know, the basically public face of F1 for the last decade. Plus the most recognizable F1 driver to the mainstream is Lewis Hamilton. And Mercedes was unwilling to give him a commitment, you know, beyond, you know, a one in one deal at the time a couple years ago and was unwilling to give him some, you know, ambassadorships and different stuff for a guy in a partnership that was so successful. So is Mercedes really willing to give a small fortune, you know, to Verstappen when, hey, we got the best car, we got the best young driver, we got the prodigy in Antonelli. Do I need to spend to get Verstappen? That maybe takes Kimmy off his game. So I think that's the question. You could put the dream team lineup out there.
But as we saw Last year with McLaren, is it worth having two 1A 1A drivers? That turns into drama because Max ain't coming in to be second fiddle for no. 1. And I think Kimi, while getting young into the role, you've seen him get a little testy here and there.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: He's got a lot so far this year. He's got a little attitude and so
[00:47:43] Speaker C: as he grows into that, he's not going to be happy playing second fiddle into it as well.
[00:47:47] Speaker A: So I think there's Drivers Championship, right?
[00:47:51] Speaker C: The reward of Mercedes is you, you buy the best driver. But if you have the best car, do I need the best driver I could get? You know, I can have an A, I can have an A driver Instead of an A plus driver, save $50 million and still win the drive in the Constructors Championship. So I think there's a lot to consider for Mercedes. I, I've probably given every opinion in the book on where Max can go. I think it the best, the best story is he goes to Mercedes and this is just an insane team because they are just gonna, there's gonna be probably drama there.
There's. It's gonna be, you know, you're loading up Mercedes to just go on an insane run with probably two of the best drivers.
But Max leaving the sport, I think is just a real, as a possibility too after this year. So I think a lot to look forward to on the, on the other teams.
I don't think we've talked about Audi as much. Gabriel Bortoletto probably staying. I don't know if Nico Hulkenberg does.
And Carlos Sainz, before he went to Williams a couple seasons ago, he was rumored to go to Audi. Audi was going after him, but. And his dad, Carlos Stein senior drives for Audi in some other, you know, other racing series and stuff like that. So there's kind of some family ties to Audi to a degree there. And at the time, like he wasn't going there. Audie was still the Sauber team. They weren't very good. He went to Williams. It seemed right for year one because they were great and they were, you know, basically locked in as the fifth best team. Now Audi's looking better. First year, the new regs got their. Their own ending. Manufacturer kind of control, their own destiny. Are they going to go after signs now and kick Hulkenberg to the curb? I think that's a question out of them.
The Cadillac team. Interesting. Rome. Do you know who owns the Cadillac F1 team?
[00:49:31] Speaker B: I do,
[00:49:33] Speaker A: yeah.
[00:49:34] Speaker B: To the initials start the MW.
[00:49:37] Speaker C: They do. They do.
[00:49:39] Speaker B: So that's not for sale yet.
[00:49:41] Speaker C: That's the question. Because not only there's no value right
[00:49:44] Speaker A: now based off what they're doing on the F1 track.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: You can still watch that in jail.
[00:49:50] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I mean, that's the other thing. Besides they own that they also own, you know, I'm the only IndyCar fan of this. They, they own Andretti, Andretti Global as well too. In the IndyCar there. There's, there's some, there's some racing assets in here too. So for Cadillac, they just fired their team principal.
That kind of started the team, you know, here halfway through the season and it's brought in a new guy in. Do they keep the lineup the same? I think they do they're there's still a lot to learn about that car and you want veteran drivers doing that and their plan B.
Colton Herta who worked, who drove for Global Sport, he was kind of like the, you know, hot American prospect guys. He, Colton's dreamt of going to F1 best finish. He finished second in the IndyCar Series thing but he needed super license points and so when Ferrari or I'm sorry when Cadillac started this journey, you know, they moved him from Andretti global out of IndyCar to drive F2 to get supers license points and he is just not been great in F2 will not get enough super license points to go into F1. So if they were trying to make him the basically the American driver for the American team to have that kind of that story from a branding standpoint, doesn't look like he's going to be eligible next year and that experiment may be dead. So the Cadillac lineup may stay the same and they're going to be probably in the bottom of the points because Aston Martin while was awful for the first like half of the season, some big upgrades in this last race, probably getting a little better. They're probably going to be fighting potentially for you know, ninth in the constructors for Williams. So they were, they were pretty much like 10 seconds slower than everyone. But a few upgrades here and there. Aston Martin's getting a little better and so for Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso is the name you're gonna kind of talk about there too. He's 45 years old. a certain point is this team good enough where he's going to want to come back? Did they look for a potential replacement for him?
Lance Stroll, his dad owns a team. Don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon but I, I resulting through some driver shuffling but looking forward to the championship. Roman for not talking about driver movements, I, I don't know. Hakeemi Antonelli doesn't win the title at this point but on Mercedes reliability and I think that's what you're looking week to week. I think Ferrari and McLaren still a step slower to the Mercedes. I think they can get some goodness. But to pass Kimi in the standings last year Verstappen was you know, 100 plus points down to to Lando and Oscar down the stretch and he had to win like you know, more than half the races remaining in the schedule. But I don't know if anyone's got that kind of dominance. I don't think Ferrari is great at every track. McLaren's kind of been Hit or miss at every track too, where they're going to have some moments, but you're going to need to have a run of a ton of wins and I don't know if any of those cars or drivers are going to be that dominant to pass Kimi.
[00:52:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Going back to the Verstappen, Jason, I mean you talked about him going to Mercedes possibility. Do you think Mercedes jumps in to try to take him so he doesn't go to McLaren?
Is that kind of like a move right there? That way he doesn't team up with, you know, Lando and stuff and they have him and like you say, create quote unquote, the super team.
[00:52:58] Speaker C: I don't know if Mercedes fears McLaren in that way. They should, but like I, I think they think if they put Verstappen on McLaren that kills Lando. Lando's not going to care. I mean you mentioned some F1 drivers partying. The, the images online is Lando just getting lit at part on boats and everything during these, during this time off I was like, you put Verstappen on McLaren. I don't know if there's much controversy. Verstappen's the number one driver and Lando takes a clear back seat. And I'm not sure Zach Brown does that to Lando like Lando, Zach Brown's guy. And I think everyone knows what that would do.
And then from, you know, from a McLaren standpoint, do they get everything out of that Mercedes engine this time around that the Mercedes works team does. So I. It's a great question, Aaron, but I don't think Mercedes goes to block that move. I think it's whether do we want to have this driver or not for us not to try to block anything.
[00:53:51] Speaker B: Any predictions for this weekend as we return back on the track in the Netherlands,
[00:53:59] Speaker C: I would say it's tough to go against Max in his home track. Farewell the Red Bull. As much has gone on, you know, this is allegedly according to the. The engine reviews. The, the Red Bull Ford engine is the best engine.
So I. Does it have enough in this time for Max to get the lead?
Not sure. Might be podium. I think you see Mercedes come out of the blocks pretty well and I think Ferrari still got hanging around in there too. And Lewis, you know, from a competitive standpoint. So if I'm gonna guess, I think they've done this podium before. I think you're gonna get Kimi, Max and Lewis on the podium this weekend.
[00:54:40] Speaker A: I think you're gonna get Kimmy, Max, Lando podium.
[00:54:48] Speaker B: I like Lando to get a few podiums down the stretch.
[00:54:50] Speaker A: So you're gonna win like four of these final races down the second half room. So. Yeah. You're big on Lando. Yeah.
[00:54:57] Speaker B: I think you guys talked me down though. Well, we did like what the over, under. What? We said half.
[00:55:00] Speaker A: We did three and a half.
[00:55:01] Speaker B: You, you.
[00:55:04] Speaker A: I said I would take over one and a half. Yes, but you said, you said he would get four. So I said it at three and a half and I both took the under and you said he would get at least four wins.
[00:55:14] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:55:14] Speaker A: In the second half.
[00:55:15] Speaker B: I gotta find that clip.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: But now that Jason says he's out here getting lit on boats, I, I think the unders definitely got some more juice on it. You gotta, you gotta lay more money on.
Went from minus 120 to minus 150. Just off that information. I just got the updated IODs right now. Cal, she just. Boom. They hit me. Jason's odds.
[00:55:34] Speaker B: That's hilarious, dude.
Thanks for wrapping that up, Jason. Appreciate it. I'm excited for F1 man to get back it up, up and running because it's been like a lot of NBA drama.
Baseball's heating up.
Just a lot of NBA drama.
[00:55:54] Speaker A: No matter where you go in the sports world, MW is involved. That's just the bottom line. He's involved in some way or fashion right now.
[00:56:02] Speaker C: It's very fair. I, I was, I, I didn't get around until I got, you know, I got some friends that are big basketball guys and obviously I talk a ton of racing and they had no interest in racing and stuff. I wanted to say like, hey you guys, big Lakers fans and Dodgers fans, you should be rooting for the Cadillac F1 team, you know. But I guess now they're probably not even gonna have that tie up here by the next couple months. So.
[00:56:24] Speaker A: Chelsea gone now too it sounds like. So yeah, dude.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we covered a lot today.
Anything else?
[00:56:37] Speaker C: No. I mean outside of F1 Rome, like I said, I throw my IndyCar and we have the America 250 this weekend.
IndyCar is going to be racing on the streets of Washington D.C. so a fairly an event that has got a little, a little bit of controversy behind it that thrown together by the.
It was just thrown on the calendar. The President United States obviously, big a big pushing behind this and we're shutting down the streets of Washington D.C. to put together a race around the capitol for the 250 years. So it's kind of a one and done race. I don't think this is going to be an annual type thing. I think it's pretty cool. I mean regardless what everyone's kind of thinks of like you can get a. You can get a race on the in the streets and any of the kind of these places. I think it's fun and I think it's a stage for IndyCar.
[00:57:26] Speaker B: Nice. I might, I might watch it actually.
[00:57:29] Speaker C: Yeah, it'd be interesting. I mean like I said one and done. Who knows kind of what happens when they do these. When they set up these tracks you know on. On a street course. It's anything happen. I'm sure the backdrop racing kind of around the capitol and stuff will be. Will be a pretty cool site.
[00:57:44] Speaker B: You know.
They'll never be a race in Oakland, man. Because the streets over here are God awful.
God awful.
[00:57:53] Speaker A: God awful room.
[00:57:54] Speaker B: God awful. Aaron, you got anything else to put in?
[00:57:58] Speaker A: No, I mean I think we covered a lot on the pod. We talked basketball, baseball, mw, Mark Walters, not to be mistaken with Marky Mark Mark Wahlberg. So we'll get that initials right so nobody gets confused there.
A little F1.
We did have a little UFC action over the weekend to Rome. So we did have the two championship belts that both champions did retain their title in that action. So yeah lovely.
[00:58:32] Speaker B: Some things to we got coming up. We're gonna be gearing up for another round kicking off year three with the preview of college football. So we'll be going through every conference again. Aaron's going to be releasing his Heisman favorites.
Maybe top five, maybe more.
And there's only one.
[00:58:52] Speaker C: There's only one Heisman favorite.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: There's only one Heisman favorite.
[00:58:55] Speaker C: There's only one Heisman.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: He makes. He makes a list. He makes a list.
[00:59:00] Speaker C: He is the list.
[00:59:01] Speaker B: He is the list. Can't wait to talk about that.
I'll have some quarterback rankings coming out as well probably right.
[00:59:09] Speaker A: Rome for the NFL.
[00:59:11] Speaker B: For the NFL.
[00:59:12] Speaker A: I. I hope, I hope you got your ratings right this year because last year they were abysmal in Vegas. Took you to task on that.
[00:59:20] Speaker B: What are you talking about?
What are you talking about last year in Vegas? Quarterback rankings.
[00:59:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:28] Speaker B: I don't remember.
[00:59:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:30] Speaker B: What you did not like about the list.
[00:59:32] Speaker A: It was. It was a terrible list last year. Wrong.
[00:59:35] Speaker B: That's.
I did see Dave Port Noiseless. It kind of looks like Aaron's list.
That's garbage.
[00:59:41] Speaker A: I haven't seen it. Go ahead and give me, give me, give me some names on it Rome
[00:59:44] Speaker B: if we want to talk about Dave Portnoy's list.
[00:59:47] Speaker A: Yeah, you brought it up. You said it was my list. You put me in the same sentence.
[00:59:53] Speaker B: All right, let's see if we can pull it up. Man, it was so funny when they, when Barstool was like interviewing people what they thought of the list. Some people just smiled like, oh, this, this guy's brilliant. I don't know how he came with this list and other, other people were kind of trashing it.
It was pretty funny. Let's see. All right, I got it.
[01:00:11] Speaker A: Go for it.
[01:00:14] Speaker B: You want me to go 10 to 1 or 1 to 10?
[01:00:17] Speaker A: Go 1 to 10.
[01:00:19] Speaker B: All right.
According to Dave Portnoy, el presidente of Barcelona Sports, the top NFL quarterback heading to this season is Matthew Stafford of the LA Rams.
Okay, number two from the New England Patriots, Drake, maybe.
[01:00:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:00:40] Speaker B: After a dominated performance in the playoffs did take him to the Super Bowl.
Number three, my number one from the Buffalo Bills, Josh Allen.
Number four, Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes.
All right, five from the Wendy City, Caleb Williams.
[01:01:06] Speaker A: Okay, six, I think, I think those two guys are a little high. But
[01:01:15] Speaker B: number six, he's getting bashed on social media.
I guess there's no five dollar footlongs anymore. Out of respect, Jaden Daniels.
[01:01:27] Speaker A: Daniels ain't even the top 10. You gotta get him out of that list.
[01:01:30] Speaker C: He's so mad. He's not. He's so mad. He's not number five, though. That's the biggest thing. Like, like, how is he there? Actually 100. Dude, I'd swap him and Caleb just for that joke. I don't. They're. At this point, Jaden needs to like, just like not talk in public for like over a year. Him, his mom too, at the same time, like. Yeah, I think you had like national parks dunking on him or something like that that I saw too.
[01:01:54] Speaker B: I've never seen so many corporate brands just like dog on him.
It's been crazy.
[01:02:00] Speaker C: I mean, it's one of the more ridiculous things ever. Like, I, I don't. I like people try to defend this. This is like indefensible.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: I think your White Sox also said something like when they won like 41 the other day out of respect for Jaden Daniels. We only won 4:1.
[01:02:13] Speaker A: Like.
[01:02:14] Speaker B: All right, number seven, who I think is gonna have a big bounce back gear from Cincinnati, Joe Burrow.
[01:02:24] Speaker A: Okay, I like that.
[01:02:26] Speaker C: Over under 11 games Joe plays.
[01:02:30] Speaker B: We can talk about that later.
[01:02:31] Speaker A: I'll go over.
[01:02:32] Speaker B: I'll go with it later. Talking on Joe Burl. Leave him alone.
Number eight, probably the most on quarterback in the NFL from the city of brotherly Love. Jalen Hurts.
[01:02:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:02:46] Speaker C: Too high.
[01:02:47] Speaker A: I want to have him in the top 10.
[01:02:48] Speaker C: Nope.
[01:02:49] Speaker A: I don't even think he's top 15.
[01:02:51] Speaker B: All right, then we could debate them when I come up with my rankings.
Number nine from Seattle, Sam Darnold.
And to round out Dave Portnoy's top 10, cheesehead Jordan Love.
[01:03:09] Speaker A: They got rid of the wrong quarterback. Me and Jason already touched on that.
[01:03:12] Speaker C: No Lamar Jackson, huh?
[01:03:14] Speaker B: No Lamar.
No Lamar.
Pretty wild list, huh?
[01:03:23] Speaker C: I think it's a list definitely. When Caleb has a really big year this year and I'm, you know, Drake Mays obviously a homer pick for him. I think that's where like he can look good.
[01:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:35] Speaker C: And then not talk about it later where he'll be like, I told you.
I think, I think Caleb's a very trendy pick. I'm sure I'm going to talk about him every week for the next four months. But obviously we're the Bears office for him in year two and stuff. I think that's the thing, the Jaden thing. I agree with Aaron. Guy shouldn't be in that top 10.
[01:03:54] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[01:03:55] Speaker C: But you know, I got you. You know, I got long beef with, with the Kayla versus Jaden argument.
[01:04:01] Speaker B: I, I slightly do remember. I think you were giving me an Aaron Year one. Can't really remember. He didn't really play last year, so I totally forgot that he was on the Commanders.
[01:04:11] Speaker A: But Jaden.
[01:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah, but you know, RG 5.0. Thank God his mom and his family did a season letter.
[01:04:20] Speaker A: He doesn't have the ACL injuries.
[01:04:21] Speaker B: Right. So do you guys have beef with someone wearing his number five at lsu?
[01:04:28] Speaker C: No, no, it's college. You were, you play there like he played there for what, one year? Like I'm sorry, you, you win the Heisman. Like college is weird. Like usc, they retire everybody's uniform. Like you win a Heisman, you automatically get it retired or whatever like that. But like Notre Dame, Alabama, I think Oklahoma, a bunch of the other like blue breads, they don't retire any numbers.
[01:04:47] Speaker B: Oh, Albow.
[01:04:48] Speaker C: So.
[01:04:49] Speaker B: Dude.
[01:04:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:04:50] Speaker A: Well, the problem too also is you got like 120 guys on a roster. So you can't retire these numbers. They gotta wear these and they gotta wear these. There's no like 53 man roster active on game day.
[01:05:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Pretty wild.
[01:05:01] Speaker C: And he might have. And he might have won the Heisman, you know. No, he had a great season at lsu. But also they didn't make the playoff. They didn't win the national title. So I think you know, whether I don't know if his mom or whoever said it or not. Like, there's. Compared to. Oh, Joe. They have more Joe Burrow's number. Like, Joe Burrow led one of the greatest teams in college football history to win the national title in LSU and won the Heisman. It was a little more than just like, hey, I won the Heisman. So no one could wear this number. Like, you know, to Aaron's point, 120 guys in the roster. Like, we shouldn't be retiring numbers. Like, we can honor the numbers. I think, you know, the Cowboys do that. Like Michael Irvin, you know, everyone. I think where every good wide receiver of The Cowboys wears 88 now.
[01:05:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's. The whole argument's pretty stupid.
Agree. I mean, look, he's a San Bernardino kid who went to Arizona State and then luckily transferred over to LSU and had a great year. And they still lost, what, three games that season.
[01:05:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[01:05:57] Speaker C: Number retiring in sport. Number retiring in sports is, like, totally overblown, too. Like, this is speaking at a White Sox fan. Like, okay, like, for me personally, they retired. Like Mark Burley, Paul Can Erco and Ozzy Guillen's number. Like, none of these guys are making the hall of Fame. But they retired. They're at the White Sox. They're retired numbers. Like, the bar is very different in these different places on this retiring numbers.
[01:06:18] Speaker A: Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
[01:06:21] Speaker C: I think the Whites has got a whole outfield of numbers they've retired and for their three World Series, Like, I mean, all of those guys are important for me, but, like, you guys don't give a crap about the guys I just named. Like, right? They're like, you're talking.
[01:06:34] Speaker A: They're good players. They're good players.
[01:06:36] Speaker B: Paul Canary.
[01:06:37] Speaker A: Yeah, but yeah, I mean, I agree they're not. They're not hall of Famers, but yeah, I mean, teams have ring of honors for all their.
Everybody has it. I mean, look, if they want to.
They want to honor Jaden number five and pit number five and Daniel's up on in the stadium there in Death Valley. Hey, I got no problem with that, but somebody's still got to wear your jersey. They're not gonna do it now.
[01:06:57] Speaker C: The only thing. And this could be Internet. I will. I will defend Jaded on this is. I don't know the whole complaint they did against this, but a lot of it. What I saw in the story that things unmissed is about LSU using his name, image and likeness.
And so if that's true, I don't hold any ill will against LSU profiting off of Jaden at this point, you know, past that. If it's more about him not getting compensated for using his name, image, and likeness, then I think it's more of a problem versus, like, them playing because these college programs are run amok with, like, you know, making money off of you for, like, doing nothing, for how. How valuable. LSU football at everything league. So, like, if the. If the crux of the position more is like, hey, you're giving this number out there and I'm. And you're selling this, my. My name and everything for free, then there's maybe more of a business decision behind this. If that is the chief component of the complaint.
[01:07:53] Speaker B: I think. I think he did that because someone ended up wearing number five and they're trying to get Lane Kiffin. Yeah. This guy can't avoid controversy at all.
[01:08:03] Speaker A: The player was promised number five by the previous coaching staff when he came to lsu.
[01:08:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[01:08:08] Speaker A: And then Brian Kelly kind of heard rumblings that we're hearing now, pulled it from him.
[01:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:08:14] Speaker A: Because he was like, I didn't want. No, I didn't want the backlash.
[01:08:17] Speaker B: Right.
[01:08:17] Speaker A: And then obviously, Lane Kiffin comes in, and Lane Kiffin's a player's coach, and it's like, he's like, yeah, you promised a number. Here you go. Take the number. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, it's in practice, you know, whatever, fall camp. And then Jaden Daniel sees like, what the hell? When my number five is being worn, Like, I. I want a Heisman. Like, what's going on with that?
So I agree, man. Look, he hasn't won a national title.
He's got bigger fish to fry in the NFL. He's gotta. He's got to step his game up for sure. I mean, he had a terrible sophomore year. We've seen a lot of quarterbacks have good freshman years, suck the second season in the NFL. I mean, it's. This is a big season for Jaden Daniels because we'll get in more of the NFL stuff, but if he's not careful, he could be going down the CJ Stroud strap, going down that path. And that's a lot of things for
[01:08:59] Speaker B: a lot of young quarterbacks this year.
It's a big year for a lot of young quarterbacks, Ton.
[01:09:05] Speaker A: Even some veteran guys, too.
So we'll get into that when we talk about the NFL here in two weeks or whatever.
[01:09:11] Speaker B: You want to do a little teaser of one of those veterans, it's your guy, Rome Purdy.
[01:09:19] Speaker A: No, Rogers. No plays in Tampa.
[01:09:26] Speaker B: Mayfield.
[01:09:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I think they give him extension.
[01:09:32] Speaker B: I think they messed up.
[01:09:34] Speaker A: I don't really, I don't think so either. All right.
[01:09:39] Speaker B: I think a big year.
[01:09:41] Speaker C: I think, I think he's a big September like he did last time, and then it falls off the wagon really quick.
That's the funny thing about the NFL, man. You'll just, People just remember. Even this high of highs or low of lows in the narrative stitches you like, like, yeah, Baker was an MVP candidate in September last year and then like a dreadful second half.
[01:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I got banged up a little bit.
[01:10:03] Speaker C: He does. It's part of it. Like, you pay.
[01:10:05] Speaker A: He's an undersized quarterback.
[01:10:06] Speaker C: Yeah, you pay for availability. The guy's got heart and he grinds it out there, but you're paying for availability. And if he's not out there or if he's asked to play hurt to a degree that's affecting performance, like it's, it's part of what you're paying for.
[01:10:18] Speaker B: Well, apparently he, he looks really healthy and it's in the zone this year so far. That's what.
[01:10:22] Speaker A: Apparently he turned down a what, two years, 100 plus million extension.
[01:10:27] Speaker B: It was a two. I, I didn't look at the, at the number, but it, I guess we, we could pull it up for the NFL pod. But yeah, he did turn out a tier.
[01:10:34] Speaker A: I mean, to me, that was.
That's a good deal to give him.
[01:10:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:10:39] Speaker A: I mean, you're talking two years. I think it was, I think they offered him $52 million a year. It was like two year, 104 million dollar extension.
[01:10:46] Speaker B: Let's look it up real quick before you sign off.
[01:10:49] Speaker A: That was a rumor, but he wanted, he wanted, I think four years. I think three or four years.
[01:10:55] Speaker B: Let's look it up real quick.
I'm just reading 50 mil, but it's not saying whether it's just for one year for.
[01:11:01] Speaker A: It was a two year. It was a two year deal.
[01:11:03] Speaker B: So 50 million for two years.
[01:11:05] Speaker A: No, each year 100 million. Yeah.
[01:11:08] Speaker B: If it feels 50 million a year, then he should have taken it because.
[01:11:11] Speaker A: Yes, he was offered. He was offered. I've heard 50 to 52 million dollars a year. Two year extension for 100 to 104 total.
He wanted, he wanted, he wanted a third year or a fourth year.
[01:11:25] Speaker B: Okay.
All right.
[01:11:27] Speaker A: Well, I think it. Deal. I think the deal is fair by Tampa, to tell you the truth.
For a quarterback that's won, what, one playoff game is a career?
[01:11:39] Speaker B: I don't know. Don't know. Great question.
I think I'll do it.
Sources from the sofa.
We are out.
