Knicks Win Finals in 5, Hurricanes Kings Cup, Hamilton Back on Top, and USA Looks Good in World Cup Opener

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:04] Speaker B: Welcome back. Source from the sofa. This is Rome. We got a full podcast today. Big weekend in sports. We have NBA Finals, Stanley cup final. Everything wrapped up this weekend. Nobody went the extra innings. We did get a chance to at least have a Game 6 in the Stanley cup final, but NBA finals ending in five games and a really fascinating five games. Every game was so close, full of drama. Come back from behind all the Kim Kardashian stories. It was really beautiful. Speaking of Kim Kardashian, Ferrari also got a big win. Controversial at the end. I don't know. We'll let Jason talk about that later on. But it was a beautiful, beautiful weekend of sports. World cup kicked off. I got a chance to go to the game Saturday here at. Well, it's not Levi because I guess all the branding is like blacked out of every stadium. So it's the San Francisco Bay Area stadium. It's ridiculous. Dude. I saw like all the ketchups. They just like put like tape and like blackout on like all the condiments. There's no like condiments with like names on them. Whatever. But I did have a Michelob Ultra. They didn't black that one out because that's a sponsor. I brought a couple cups back home. Only had one though because it's hot. Levi's stadium is like a 10 fish can. Whatever it is, microwave. It is miserable in the middle of the day. Actually bought water. First time I bought water in a football stadium in my life. I think had two bottles of water. Cost me a beautiful eight bucks each. All good though. That was an epic Saturday for the Ultras there. Rome, 26 bucks with tip on tax [00:01:41] Speaker A: for one or two. [00:01:42] Speaker B: For one. One. [00:01:45] Speaker A: Steep. [00:01:46] Speaker B: That's steep. Dude. I only have one beer. [00:01:49] Speaker A: I was like, that's what you get for being a sponsor. Price goes up another 20%. [00:01:53] Speaker B: Duke. So crazy. Anyways, I think we were on the pod Thursday night. I think Thursday night we talked a little bit about F1. Kind of called some shots. [00:02:04] Speaker A: What would happen. [00:02:05] Speaker B: Jason. At least Carolina took care of business, so good call on that one. I'm not. I can't remember what Aaron picked out. Sorry that the spurs couldn't get out of Game 5. Man, it was just like they were up. We're just going to start there because they were up again, I think by 14 or 15 early in the first half. I think like 11. It climbed up to 14, 15 in in the second. Second quarter. Kind of maintain that again after a few runs in the second half. And then slowly but surely the Knicks Just don't give up. Dumb mistakes are happening. Wemby flying all over the court, having five blocks in the first quarter, losing energy as the game goes on. Shots hitting off the front of the rim and Jalen Brunson accounting for almost half of the points that his team scored. Game five, epic, epic performance for the ages. 45 points. First person to do that since Jordan on the road in a closeout game. I didn't think they were going to do it in a game five, but you know, you really can't count these Knicks out. Everybody else was like hustling. Not great performances by Kat, but everyone had like these little spurts, little plays here and there and it was quite fantastic. I was watching. So I met some, some Arab brethren at the World cup game and we decided to go, you have some Arabic food afterwards and then go straight to San Francisco to catch the game five at a New York Knicks bar. I recommended Aces. Aces was flooded, like outside blocking the street, actually. No one could get in. People are drinking. It was, it was pandemonium. You can't see the TVs inside. So we went to my other bar, rec room. It is a New York Mets and a Jets bar. So we went up there. My boy Philly then for sure packed. [00:03:47] Speaker A: Packed. [00:03:48] Speaker B: Dude, every New Yorker was in there as well. It was packed. Lots of beautiful women. My boy Philly behind the bar hooked us up. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Rome, Rome, Is that. Is that. Is this a woman you met for Jacuzzi night? [00:04:02] Speaker B: No, no. I know. I've known her for a while. She just came back after a year being gone. [00:04:09] Speaker A: Just had a check on the sources were, were going wild on that one. [00:04:13] Speaker C: You're dipping in the old controversy segment. [00:04:16] Speaker B: I know, man. [00:04:16] Speaker C: Very early in the pod. [00:04:17] Speaker B: That's the after hours section. We never got off the ground anyways. [00:04:21] Speaker A: It's just a tease, you know, just to keep it, keep it alive. The controversy. You just can't bury something that was so great 20 years ago. [00:04:28] Speaker B: This does the stress and that bar, man, throughout the game, I was just sipping on a Topo Chico with sparkling water, a little bit of pineapple juice if you ever had that. It is quite refreshing. I was trying to keep the alcohol low since I had to drive. It was great. It was great seeing all the New York fans celebrating as they just came from behind. Got up by three, held on by sheer luck. It was amazing. And that's all she wrote, man. Their first championship in 53 years. What'd you guys think? What, what were your thoughts before game five? As we're watching the spurs again take a commanding lead, Wemby having a dominant performance, and then everything just disappears again in the fourth quarter like every other game. [00:05:11] Speaker C: Yeah, you said it. That really was the story of the entire series. There was a stat, I think, immediately after the game where the Knicks had the first, third and fifth biggest comebacks in NBA Finals history. [00:05:24] Speaker A: All. [00:05:24] Speaker C: All in the same series. So three out of these five games, they scored a top five, you know, series comeback. So it was really like. We saw that. It was. It was the story of every game in the series. So while you felt. Every bit of me felt this was gonna end in New York, if you're gonna, if you're gonna say this league, which is. Always has the tilt of, you know, things are rigged, and, you know, whatever. Whatever you say about the NBA, okay, if you want anything from New York, you want the broadcasters to be happy because you get an extra game and you want, like, you want this in the Mecca, you want this in Madison Square Garden to end for the Knicks and everything like that. So you feel, all right, the spurs come out, they're going to give it everything you hand can to send this back, and then it ends in game six potentially, and you get. You get everything you want in there. But the. As you said, the Knicks team wasn't going away. And as. As much as it was in the first half, and you mentioned. Was Wemby tired, Was the team tired? I mean, they just lose it at some point in the middle of the game where they can't score, and they go to these stretches where they're just not getting anything, you know, so dominant early. But, like, they just figure, they just forget, you know, at a certain point how to score. And the Knicks defense becomes, you know, so locked down, whether it's, you know, OG or cat even. They didn't have the greatest game offensively. But you got to see from the defensive side of what they're able to do to contain Wemby and Fox and Harper, it was, it was just an overall deserving champion. Because you think back to what we saw at the beginning of. Of the. The playoffs, were thinking, hey, this is a Western Conference final, NBA Finals between the Thunder and the Spurs. And the spurs feel, you know, they get by and it's a battle. And, and, and Wemby basically unseats this dominant Thunder team. You're like, okay, this is going to be. It's gonna be over, like, very quickly. And it was, but not the way we thought it was. And, and this team from the Knicks, you Got to give it to them because they went and took the series. You can, you can say the spurs choked away a lot of certain things. But at the end of the day, to me, the Knicks went and grabbed the series by the throw every game and even down like there was no lead. Obviously that was insurmountable. [00:07:27] Speaker B: That was amazing. Part Aaron. [00:07:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a wild series. I mean really a tale of two halves, right? I mean the spurs plus 57 in the first quarter over all five games and just congrats to New York, right? I mean, Jason did it said it best. You know, this team does not quit. They didn't give up. They just kept fighting, fighting, fighting. And this kind of wore the spurs down. I mean, the spurs emotional seven game series against the Thunder kind of felt like their title. You saw how Wemby and everybody was celebrating off after dethroning them. They kind of like, hey look, we just beat the champs. Maybe. I don't want to say they weren't taking New York lightly or anything like that. I mean, I think they took New York very, very seriously. Really the difference in the series was, you know, close games. Spurs didn't have a closer. Mean the Knicks, they know game in, game out. Hey, we're going to Brunson, he's our closer. He won game one. He won game two. He won game five. Obviously game three wasn't great. Game four, OG Was huge in that game, stepped up for him. I mean, if you look at game five, I mean you would have told me Kat is gonna have two points and six fouls and they're gonna go on the road and win an NBA Finals game. I would have called you crazy. I mean he was great the first two games, but disappeared the last three. But Brunson stepped up. 45 points, hadn't been done since MJ98 when he took home the title there against the Jazz. But yeah, I mean, Brunson, the Knicks know who they are. They're confident going with them. If they need a bucket, they can get it. The spurs kind of looking around like, hey, you know, who's the leader? Who's going to take those shots? Is it Wimby? Is it Fox? Is it Castle? Is it Harper? Too many guys and too many guys passive in that game. In the fourth quarter, every game, I think the spurs had. The spurs had double digit leads by 10 points in three of those five games and only won one of them. That was game three. Tough, tough to watch if you're a Spurs fan. But there's something you learn Right. You got a 20 year old and 21 and a 22 are your three best players. Never been here before. Brunson, he's gone through the attrition. Got beat in the playoffs before second round Eastern Conference finals last year. Kind of the Knicks choked it away when Indiana took it from. They've been through the battles. Rome, you always touch on, touch on him. Hey, a young team. When are they going to get their, you know, their, you know, lesson learned here in these playoffs. And the spurs finally got it when they just look at, they just didn't have enough to finish off these games. Knicks better on the boards, less turnovers, clutch shots and just big, big makes from a lot of their guys. I mean the Knicks bench Shamet big Josh Hart, three or four from three point line. Who would have thought he'd been the best three point shooter in game five in that final closeout. [00:10:12] Speaker B: It was good. [00:10:13] Speaker A: So congrats to New York. [00:10:15] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I will, I will say on the heels of this championship and I think today you saw a lot of the Knicks, you know, doing interviews [00:10:24] Speaker B: a lot on X, stoned as hell [00:10:26] Speaker C: online, stone drunk, whatever it is. There. There was a tweet I saw about Jalen Brunson's toast to the team where he said, know, basically WBY or something like that if there's going to be the villain origin story of wby. And when he decided, I'm saying, what [00:10:42] Speaker B: was I saying after this like conference [00:10:44] Speaker C: finals, I say these guys are coming out in tempting fate right now and you, and you get him at whatever he is, 20 years old or whatever it is like that. And he goes to the finals already and you know, fails at this public level of just, you know, getting beaten in second halves and blowing these leads or whatever it is and you're going to have these guys rubbing his face in it. I was like this, this is your villain origin story where he just decides like, okay, I'm just gonna work harder and I'm gonna run the league now. [00:11:11] Speaker B: You know what? I had no problem with Wemby. But going into these playoffs though, there's a lot of talk about Wemby, Wemby the rival, Wemby. This is Wemby's NBA now. And they had some pretty big wins, obviously took out the champs. That celebration we talked about in this pod, that celebration was a little too much. It felt like a little too much. They, they let out and, and for good reason. You know, they went game seven on the road against a slightly depleted OKC team. But throughout this Playoffs though Wemby and those elbows, dude, he just looked, he looked kind of petty. He, he, you know, there's something, there's something different about him. I'm thinking like, you know, a lot of people like him, a lot of people like him and people got a chance to see Wembing in a different view now. And I, as far as everyone here or like, like everyone in the playoffs, I think he's probably had like the biggest or maybe like the second or third biggest arc of like transition of like what people are viewing him now because now people are going to be looking for him to be like a dirty player. Is he petty, didn't shake anybody's hands. Kind of talk in the presser ass as well. And he kind of talks down to everyone and well, he is 75 Romeo. Yeah, but the way he talks is just crazy. But I don't know, Aaron, Aaron can [00:12:22] Speaker C: correct me on the. I may be forgetting something from a historical perspective on this, but generally when it comes to the NBA, you have to take like these like playoff losses and you build a callus and experience, you know, to get all the way down and to win the championship. You think of, you know, for Aaron and I, the Jordan heyday, it was Jordan getting past the Pistons and getting, and getting beat up and you know, it was, you know, you know, Kobe and Shaq and what they had to go through in their careers in the playoffs and not getting over the hump and you know, dozens of different examples. So for Wemby, third year in the league, awful teams the first two years, they finally make the playoffs in his third year and he just runs it straight to the finals. And so generally you're going to get this, this loss. Hey, maybe it's the Western Conference finals or it's the second round or something. And okay, you're learning from that. He gets all the way to the finals in his first playoff period. So there, I mean there is some, there, there is, there is some like overachieving, I would say a little bit. If you think historically in the NBA you got to take some lumps in the playoffs as a young team to build on this playoff experience. So they do it all the way to the finals in their first run. So I, I think I would say if there's anything positive for the spurs, that's what it is. It's like, hey, this is our first time here with this really young team and we get all the way to the finals and we had the leads in all these games first time. [00:13:45] Speaker B: Yeah, but you know because it came this far though, I kind of feel like it kind of amps up the pressure a little bit on that team now because you got, you kind of hear some rumblings. The rival of Dylan Harper, probably their second best player. How come they couldn't put him in the starting lineup a little bit sooner in this playoff? Because he was a bonafide, you know, rising star in this de' Aaron Fox had some slip ups. All of a sudden on socials, you're seeing some slip ups that he had with the Sacramento Kings. And who was this Coach Brown calling him out and then he gets fired shortly after that kind of, you know, Aaron made a good point, I think about the guest about it, how he could have dribbled it out if he made that layup. He's getting praise, but he didn't. He got blocked. And there was just some other like bonehead plays at the end of that game. But now like does he get moved this year? Because now they got the young guys in. Do they try to get like another veteran leadership, an older veteran guy and into the fray? I feel like all that kind of speeds up. And then Mitch Johnson, you know, their, their coach kind of mismanaged a few of the games though, letting Wemby stay in. Getting tired in a handful of games, especially when they were up by. What was that game four, they were up by 29, 20, you know, whatever it was, that epic comeback, they should have won that game. You know, they would have sat his ass out for the third quarter, kept him fresh for the fourth quarter. That probably plays out a lot different, but just little things here and there. Not having Dylan Harper in, in like critical situations, letting the guys that were making plays in, in those critical times. And dearon Fox, not, not a great series. Wemby I thought had an okay series, like pretty good for his first time around. But it's the NBA, man. Who knows? What if this is his only time that he makes it to the finals? [00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, you never know. I mean Jason, at best, I think look at spurs weren't even expected. They were expected to be a playing team, you know, maybe a six seed in the West. Okay. They finished two games behind OKC for best record. What 62 and 20, I believe the record was. And then they go through a gauntlet in the West. I mean they beat Minnesota in six Minnesota back to back Western Conference finals. Yeah, they beat the team that wins the NBA championship. They're up, are tied in every game of two minutes or less to play and only win one of those games. I mean, if you look at numbers of all the games, like has that ever happened? This has the makings of a seven game series. Oh, and Wimby, I mean, yeah, it is year three, but it's really his first full year because he's only played what, 40, 50 games in both the first two years total when each one of those years. So maybe when he had 100 NBA regular season games because he had the bullet clout and then I think injury, they just shut him down. His rookie year and Rome we touched on Dylan Harper. I mean, Dylan Harper was great in these playoffs, but he has that crucial missed layup there with 30 seconds ago to tie the game. [00:16:34] Speaker B: That's a tough one though. [00:16:35] Speaker A: It is. But I think this goes back to what I said. Antonio is who is their guy, who's their leader that's going to close games. Obviously the team leader is Wimby, but he's not a guy that closes games because, I mean, you can't really play out in the perimeter and shoot threes. He's coming up short like you said, with jump shots. He's not a stabler really. [00:16:54] Speaker B: I hate that he's shooting out threes at, you know, at the end of the game. [00:16:58] Speaker A: I don't mind if we. I like when Wimby's decisive and when he catches and shoots right away, when he kind of sits there and holds it for five seconds, slows down, New York gets set on defense and then you get late in the shot clock. And that's what we had in the fourth quarter. [00:17:13] Speaker B: Right. [00:17:13] Speaker A: I think San Antonio tried to play too perfect. If you go to the first half and all the games, Fox, Castle, Harper, always in the lane. And when you get in the lane, what do you get? You collapse the defense. You can throw it up to Wimby, you can kick it out to shooters, champagne vessel, they can hit threes. That's what the spurs did. And then kind of of like I touched on fourth quarter. Hey, Wimby's got it now I don't want it. Harper, you got it. Well, hell, I'm a rookie. I don't want it. Hey, Fox, you have it. He's struggling, playing bad. So nobody was there to say, hey look, let me get a bucket. And we didn't Even touch on Ms. Johnson. This is his first full year. [00:17:45] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:17:45] Speaker A: So you're talking a rookie coach of all rookie really young players who are kind of learning and you know, I thought he did a poor job at a timeouts like in the fourth quarter, running Set plays to get some motion or action going. I just, they were too stagnant for me. And the Knicks were like, hey look, we don't care. We're going to go to Brunson, we're going to go pick and roll, we're going to run two man game. And that's, that's what they run. I mean they've been running that offense for the last four years since he's been there. And Brunson's like, hey dude, look, I don't care if I missed. [00:18:14] Speaker B: I've. [00:18:15] Speaker A: I've lost in the playoff second round. I've lost in the Eastern Conference finals when we choked away that first game against Indiana. He knows what it's like to lose and has those scars that Jason touched on. And the Knicks being down. What I think The Knicks have five 20 point comeback wins in the playoffs over the last two, three years was like in the most in the NBA, like in the last decade of all the teams combined. So this is a team that plays well from behind. They don't mind being behind. They believe they can come back. And when you got a young team that's playing against a team that knows they can come back, that momentum just shifted and San Antonio wasn't able to get it back. So yeah, look, we'll see what happens. Rome, I mean Fox, they got that contract of him that gets extended. Will they try to move him and, and get Harper some more time? A lot of young players, but Harper looks like he's going to be a star. Wimby, if he doesn't get hurt, we know he'll be a star. I think the big thing from game five we haven't touched on is where was Castle? I thought that was the worst game I seen him play all playoffs. He was terrible. [00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it worked. [00:19:14] Speaker A: Cost his team the game. I don't know what he was doing. Afraid to shoot the ball. Only 1 for 10. His disappointment in game five was a big reason why they lost that game and weren't able to force A Game 6. [00:19:24] Speaker B: New York Knicks had six comeback wins, trailing by double digits during this championship playoff run. That's crazy. That's wild. That is wild. Have you guys seen any of the clips coming from New York as soon as they won? [00:19:41] Speaker C: Just burning the city down. [00:19:42] Speaker B: Dude, did you guys see that spurs fan just destroying a whole bunch of Knicks fans. This big black guy. [00:19:50] Speaker C: I thought I heard that he wasn't actually a Spurs fan. He was a 76ers fan that just hates the Knicks so much. [00:19:56] Speaker B: So he wore the Rodman spurs jersey. [00:19:58] Speaker C: Yeah, he was just, he was just there for the love of the game. Just hating on New York. I, I don't know if it's the same one, but there was a story going around about that. [00:20:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw the original post that went viral and I saw his comment, hey, could you guys tag me? That's me. So I gave a little thumbs up and they probably tagged him. If you guys haven't seen it, it's on social. This guy's just trying to watch the game. He's wearing the only Spurs Rodman jersey I've ever seen in a long time. In the middle of Knickmania in New York and all of a sudden things get crazy. Knicks fans, they're like 13 year old boys getting drunk for the first time. That's how they're celebrating this championship, which I don't mind, I really don't care. Like it's been 50 something years. People might hate it, but it's gone over the top. They start trying to like gang jump this guy and this guy is a big boy. He started charging these guys, knocking one Nick fan after other, people swarming away. It's like a bull running through the arena. Everyone's waving the red flags and everyone's trying to gather away the cops. NYPD finally had to come. It looked like they were trying to protect the crowd from him though. It was so backwards. They're escorting him out, you know, making sure that he doesn't punch anybody else. Like this guy was yoked up, man. I haven't seen anyone handle a gang fight like that in a long time. It was really impressive. [00:21:13] Speaker A: The Knicks crowd obviously didn't read the room. If you got a big man wearing a Rodman jersey, stay away. Stay away. Any guy wearing a Rodman jersey, stay away. They're not mentally not right. [00:21:24] Speaker B: Except Philadelphia. [00:21:26] Speaker C: Like Jason, if it's true, he's a Sixers fan and obviously he's probably got something because New York is really going at the Philly fans for not showing up to Philly. And the Knicks were taking over that arena. Oh, they were, yeah, that series and stuff like that. So this guy had a point to prove and he's like, I, I, I'm going in for the love of the game and I'm going to just take the whole thing down. Like y' all messed with the wrong guy. [00:21:48] Speaker B: That's why I went to that Yankee game to watch the Dodgers win. I loved it. Worth having the dildo thrown across the bar towards my face. Totally worth it. Seeing other fans Cry. All right. I thought it was impressive. 163 is their playoff record, one of the best in history. I don't think they're like. They're one of the best teams in history. Like, I want to go on record saying that, but this was a really cool team. Some. A team that we can actually get behind. It seemed like all the whole country was going for the Knicks. It was really weird. San Francisco, these bars were more packed than the Golden State Warriors. Like, I couldn't believe it. There's so many Knicks fans out. Obviously I'm rooting for the Knicks. My homeboys are rooting for the Knicks. It. It was just wild to see, like, it just felt like, you know, I feel bad for all the World cup guys coming to the country for the first time, seeing the scene, America, especially New York, for the. For the World cup games over there. Then they just see the city burning down the first night that they get here. [00:22:44] Speaker A: Like. Like what. [00:22:45] Speaker B: What experience? [00:22:47] Speaker C: I don't know. [00:22:48] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:22:48] Speaker C: That's probably something they see every day. [00:22:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:22:51] Speaker C: The European soccer crowd right at home, man. Yeah. You lose like three straight in an EPL game. They're trying to like fire the manager and burn down, you know, London or something like that. [00:23:01] Speaker A: That. [00:23:02] Speaker B: Who fires coaches faster? Hockey teams or soccer teams in the European. [00:23:06] Speaker C: Soccer, I think soccer, man. Like, you know, I. I think that they didn't. They get rid of the guy from Liverpool and he just won like the last year. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Yeah, he just won last year. They kicked his ass out. One. One bad year. [00:23:17] Speaker C: People were hurt. [00:23:18] Speaker B: People were hurt. They're like, sorry, thank you. Get out of here. [00:23:20] Speaker A: Well, it's like, yeah, I mean, you got to win back to back champions leagues and then get beat in the quarterfinals and like, oh, the manager's got to go. He's got to go. [00:23:30] Speaker C: And I mean, even the international ones, I think it was. Is it Tunisia or Tunisia who's playing Sweden Yesterday? They lost 5 1. They already can. Their manager already. Like, they're in the middle of the World cup, man. I was like, you're playing like a European pile. Like, what do you think was gonna happen? Like, Like, I don't know. [00:23:48] Speaker B: It's amazing. It's amazing. [00:23:51] Speaker C: It's got to be soccer, but. Yeah, I forgot how we got under that. I had a. I had a different point to make about the basketball. Oh, I. I would say then, like, going back to the Knicks, I used to the country three for the Knicks. The Knicks are a very interesting thing for New York. For New York Because I think when you think of the Yankees and maybe even the Giants, like when from the football side, like New York's like, hey, it's. It's our biggest city. It is supposed to be like the championship kind of pedigree. But the Knicks, since they haven't won in so long and it. They've always, even when they were like, really good in the 90s, like, it's this, hey, it's this blue collar team that just like, you know, they do the little things and they play defense and it's rough and it's the working man, it's the middle class. Like, it's not like, it's not like the Yankees or it's like the pedigree. And we, you know, we gotta shave every, you know, everyone's got to be clean shaven. And it's a, you know, it's a corporate outing and we pay everything. Like, there's some ruggedness that's probably made more true. Like New Yorker. That's about the Knicks. And since, and since they had. And since they haven't won, like, you think National League about teams that like, don't win. You know, like the Cubs or if it was the Red Sox in baseball, like, that becomes the things really. Everyone just kind of feels sorry for you. And so, like, for right now, it's like, hey, this team hasn't won. They've never been relevant. We want them to be relevant because it makes basketball better as far as like the NBA and being hyped and stuff like that. But I mean, if this team goes in a dynasty, don't worry, Rome. They're gonna hate them eventually. But I think for now, you're happy to see all these people because, I mean, you look at like the celebrity row. I know. I think we talked about it a little while. I mean, the, the new, The New York celebrity row, I think outdoes your Lakers celebrity role. Man, these people are just like, they're going for the whole playoff run all over the place and everything with, you know, you got Gus freeing Gus, freeing G Car Esposito and like, you've got a whole crew there with John Turo and Shalom's just in the locker room just being. [00:25:39] Speaker B: Dude, that's the one thing I haven't seen is just a team just inviting celebrities into the locker room to celebrate with them. Like, that was kind of cool. I usually don't like that. But seeing Shalame and. And they also have Ben Stiller in there. I know he's shooting the doc for hbo. But a little bit different vibes. They really incorporated some of their bigger fans into that celebration. [00:25:58] Speaker C: Yeah, no, absolutely. It was cool. It was a cool portion. I think we'd get tired if they go on a dynasty. But for this one, like you. You looked at like Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. They're like kids out there, man. Just. They couldn't believe what was going on in the Garden and all that stuff. [00:26:12] Speaker B: So I'm happy they got one. I don't want to see them win another one. [00:26:16] Speaker C: I mean, based off this recent trend, you got to imagine this last. They showed eight years. When the Knicks run. Is it eight straight different champions? They've had like, never has happened in the league. Like, this is a league built on. This is a league built on dynasties. And now you've had a quarter of the league basically of different champion for the last, you know, better part of a decade. It hasn't been a true dynasty. And when you think the future facing. If you got the spurs or, you know, maybe some of these other teams that could potentially win the championship, that isn't part of those eight. Like, you can get a ninth different team potentially last year. Just because some of where the parodies at was with. With the NBA right now. [00:26:50] Speaker B: I think it'll be more likely we'll probably see a repeat champion from one of the previous eight next year. [00:26:56] Speaker C: I would have thought that, but, like. But we've been saying that the Celtics got tons of questions like, is Jalen? Is Brown gone? And like, they're basically done if they can't shoot threes. The Thunder maybe the most likely. They're probably the. The Aaron, you have to check the odds. I mean, the Thunder are probably the Vegas betting favorites I'd imagine right now going into next season. [00:27:19] Speaker A: Spurs, Spurs, Thunder, Knicks. That's your top three. [00:27:22] Speaker B: Top three. I think Boston's after them. [00:27:24] Speaker C: Okay. I mean, so like, the spurs would be the most likely. That's not that be part of that. But I mean, I. I wouldn't be. I'd be surprised if like the Thunder or maybe the Knicks are back at it. But it's just an interesting era of basketball because even thinking from the young. The youngness that some of these teams are and how young they are, like they're not even there. Isn't the clamoring over, like, putting together a super team right now or anything? Like these guys are just like building like, young dynasties that are just kind of going forward. [00:27:51] Speaker B: Yeah. We thought Milwaukee Bucks might have had a chance in that 2021. That was just. And then, and then Giannis was entered [00:27:58] Speaker A: every year to talk. They were the one, the oldest team, I think in the league or second oldest. They were at that time. [00:28:03] Speaker B: Golden State got lucky that one year facing Boston. That was a gimme championship. Denver Nuggets, we thought that was the rise of, of Joker and you know, he's had some pretty good teams. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Minnesota, now every team's got like a kryptonite. Right. So for the Knicks, they got lucky. Their Kryptonites, Indiana. And they didn't have to see Indiana. Yeah, we'll see what the Pacers do with Halliburton, all those guys, if they can come back and get, you know, play at the level they were before he got hurt. And the Celtics, I mean, if they do move Brown, they likely means they're getting Giannis since. Yeah, kind of the package deals being talked about. [00:28:37] Speaker B: I heard that's the rumors. Right. [00:28:38] Speaker A: Boston and Miami have put together packages all ready for them. [00:28:42] Speaker B: Yeah, Boston offered them a package this past week. [00:28:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So in Miami's already kind of said, we'll give you hero Vasquez and a bunch of draft picks and some other guys as well. I don't think Miami has enough, but supposedly Giannis is interested in going to Boston. [00:29:00] Speaker B: I would hate that. We'll see. I, I like, I, I like Giannis. I don't want to have to hate him. Any final comments on this NBA Finals run? Pretty fun playoffs, I thought, I thought it was pretty good. Pretty fun all throughout. [00:29:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I would definitely. I say as a cap off to the season, if you go back to our NBA preview a little bit, many, many months ago, and Rome, you were the other pod. You're the staunch defender of the NBA, where Aaron and I were a little pessimistic over the past couple years in the NBA's future. But I would say this playoff run, probably specifically the last, obviously the Finals in the, in the conference championship games and stuff like that, the early rounds weren't too great. A lot of blowouts and stuff that you're seeing, but. But definitely kind of this crescendo to the Final Four. And even some of those quarterfinal series were really competitive. This is, this is a really great season for the NBA when it comes to what this league potentially be going forward. You see a little bit of a change, obviously, a big changing of the guard, a little bit of a. Some different teams involved that hadn't been involved previously. And so I think you got to be really happy with the product. From an NBA perspective, even a pessimistic person like me and Aaron about where this league was headed. When we talked about like the growth where you had a almost meaningless regular season, but there was some meaning to the regular season as far as where the seating was at and how these teams are. I still think there's some definite improvements they could do because you have a pretty big imbalance for some good versus bad in this league because there's just so much bad. Especially this season. You saw the tanking. But all in all, like, you're really not going to remember a ton of that. When it thinks of like this 2020, you know, six season, you're thinking of the success of the last like four weeks. [00:30:43] Speaker B: I thought like the end of the season was pretty good and then going to the playoffs, pretty solid. This is the first year I didn't watch a lot of regular NBA season basketball just because a lot of the games were kind of bad. And everything you guys have been echoing for a while, it was just really prominent this year. Like the, like the flopping, especially the free throw merchant, you know, that, that, that became such a big storyline. Some, some of the flopping, some of the bad calls, the tanking. It was so obvious this year. Like, I don't think we've, we've seen this as many teams tank at all, you know, at once, at the same time. So it was just like the rich got richer and the poor, they were just throwing their money away. It was, it was pretty wild. But I, I, I hope they do make changes because having New York win, that's good for the NBA. Giannis, wherever he goes, that's gonna be good for the NBA. See what the Lakers do, that's good for the NBA. Boss is going to rise up. That's good for the NBA. And then now they have, I think they really do have a villain to look out for over the next five to 10 years, depending if he stays healthy, is going to be wembanyama. Because now they know, they kind of know, oh, this guy has like a little dirty side to him. He's kind of petty. It's kind of an. And I, I kind of like it. I don't like him, but I kind of like it for this, for the sport. [00:31:56] Speaker A: Not only is Wimby, you know, kind of that, you know, he's, he's vicious. He's vicious. He'll catch an elbow and he'll, he'll seek out an elbow from. If you're in his neighborhood. I like it. He's going to become a villain. But not only that, I Think Harper's the great sidekick to be a villain with him. I think if you look at how he plays, how he kind of throws down dunks and kind of looks at you, he doesn't say anything, but he kind of pulls his chest up and he looks at you like, I can bully you. [00:32:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:25] Speaker A: I think this 1, 2 combo is going to be special if they can stay healthy. As we mentioned. I mean, the NBA, look at the NBA. October, November, December is not a very good product. This is the first time Rome, we've actually had a champion that was actually the NBA cup champ, too. So give the Knicks credit. They won both of those. Right. That's the first time that's happened here in the double era. [00:32:45] Speaker C: Double champion. [00:32:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So, I mean, I would. Double banner, same team. Double banner teams. [00:32:50] Speaker B: Same teams, too. [00:32:50] Speaker A: Crazy teams. And one thing, Rome, since the NBA cup started, everyone that's been in that final, at least one of those two teams has made it to the NBA Finals. So I think it's something to keep a trend on if you're looking to make future bets kind of around that mark. Kind of a parameter of who's going to be good and who does not. [00:33:06] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:33:08] Speaker A: So I, I look at it that way. [00:33:10] Speaker C: I know you don't like it when we had this conversation before, but, I mean, you're. You're a little bit of a soccer guy. I like the format of these different, like, you know, trophies and stuff that they do kind of going around like Europe and things like that. It may not. It may not hit our generation. I think if the next level of basketball, you know, fan you see up, you're going to be start talking about, you know, how many, like in season tournaments or what NBA, the Emirates cup or whatever they call it. Like, you're gonna start talking about how many of you win these. It won't. It won't be as much as winning the championship, but they're going to start talking about that. I feel a little more like a generation down the line. [00:33:44] Speaker A: There will be a tally. I agree. And there's tanking Rome, obviously. The NBA, I think, is doing something with the draft to where you can't get a top five pick. [00:33:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I really don't like it either. I like the new rules either. [00:33:54] Speaker A: But look at. Everybody was going to tank this year because this is the deepest draft we've had in a long time. [00:33:58] Speaker B: They're loaded. [00:33:58] Speaker A: I mean, there's a lot of good players here. I mean, the Bulls got the number four pick. I mean, we called It Thiago Splitter. I told you it was good at that Bulls job. [00:34:06] Speaker B: Like congrats, Splitter. You did call it. [00:34:09] Speaker A: The only thing I got right here in the NBA over the last month. [00:34:11] Speaker B: Hey, dude, Portland up on that one. [00:34:14] Speaker A: Yeah, you can't pay a coach a million dollars expecting to stay. [00:34:17] Speaker C: I said we got to thank the new cheap owner from the Blazers, man. [00:34:21] Speaker A: Well, like hey, he did win a Stanley cup. So I guess he's doing something right in one of these leagues he's been [00:34:25] Speaker B: taking forever too now. Like, oh, I guess now he's on a finalist there because he took his name out. Good hire by the Bulls. I think that's a really good hire. We'll, we'll see if we can withstand the rest of whatever management is doing over there. All right, let's take a quick break. We come back, we'll talk little Stanley cup final and F1 and anything else. We'll be back. All right, we're back to talk a little bit Stanley Cup Final. The Carolina Hurricanes win their first chip in 20 years, winning in six games against Las Vegas Golden Knights. This is a really fun final for like the first three, four games. It was game four though when the Hurricanes won by two goals. It was five to three. It kind of felt like a little momentum switch in that game. And I think we talked a little bit after that game. Initially I still had the Knights going six or seven. But then that same storyline like the Hurricanes is kind of dominating all facets of the game. Kind of carried on to game five. They won by two goals again, four, two and then game six. It just looked like it was meant to be for the Hurricanes. They went 3, 0 and now they have to mail. The Knights coaches closed back to Vegas as that was making the rounds on ax. But Jason, man, you're like the probably the biggest hockey guy out out of all three of us. Aaron, you probably watched a lot of hockey in this playoffs too. Give us your guys thoughts on Carolina just clinching this for the first time in 20 years. [00:36:00] Speaker C: Yeah, like you said, Rome was a great series, especially those early games. You know, some big overtime moments. Turning point really. And it wasn't one of those early games was the goalie change in game four benching Frederick Anderson who had was I think 13 and 2, 910 save percentage or better throughout the playoffs. It really was the catalyst going through the Eastern Conference for the Hurricanes and obviously they're. Those first couple games are just crazy. The amount of goals and in that game four, obviously he let. I think it was like four goals and like 15 shots or something like that. It wasn't great. And so they, they put in Brandon Bussey and you know, at that moment this is a guy who was a waiver claim AHL call up and you're putting him in the third period to help force overtime and you know, makes 18 saves and they, and they even up the series. And then by game five, you know, he's the starter. Anderson's not in which either. You know, it's hockey. They don't talk about injuries. Maybe he was hurt and stuff. [00:37:10] Speaker A: I think he got concussed man when he got, Remember his head kind of got. Was down when he got ran over. So I mean Vegas might have done themselves dirty taking them out. You never take out a bad goaltender. You never do Rome. [00:37:21] Speaker C: Yeah. So I mean that could have been, you know, regardless of the reasons, the turning point of the series. And I think that's, that's what we saw. And a lot of the games just Carolina already was the aggressor and a lot of factors and they, you know, I, they, they lost it in moments and that's when Vegas was able to really capitalize in these spurts. And then Carolina was just continuously able to apply pressure. And then in this game six you just saw a lot of just unlikely heroes in different lines. You had you know, secondary lines putting up go goals and then Bussy able to, you know, shut them out in the final game and really put a stamp on, on a series. And he was, he was just unbelievable. You know, when it came to some big moments in that clinching game and really turned it up to. And I, I think I mentioned on, on a pod on one of these pods, I said I had a friend who doesn't watch any hockey just said like hey Jay, what happened to the days of like the dominant goaltender making the run? And really that was the moment where you know, it wasn't as dominant. But like you saw this was a little bit of the difference in the series because he got hot at the right time for Carolina. And they already had the, you know, aggressive, you know, offensive for you know, four checking and everything like that to make things happen in front of the net on heart. And so yeah, I mean Carolina Aaron could refresh me on the betting eyes. They were, you know, one of the best teams in the league the entire season. It was going to be a while where they can get done the playoffs. They were able to go to the Eastern Conference fairly unscathed and get this moment. And I, you know, I, you Know, I'll still say I thought it was going to be Colorado. Going into the Vegas thing was one of the most unexpected kind of runs for them. They were just salvaging this season, you know, to a point. Like I, I think the air and I don't even think they did. They, they lost more games than they won this year and still got in the playoffs. They just had so many like overtime losses or whatever. Yeah, yeah. So it was an unlikely run for them. They did the ninth hour coaching change, the Tortorella and got him in this position. But at the end of the day, they just weren't a goodest team as Carolina. And as this proved out over the six games, you know, Carolina was there and you know, the rifle champion, you know, Big Bill for, for Rob Rindemar, you said 20 years since they won the Cup. He was part of that team in 06 that won the cup as the captain and the player. And you got a kind of a full circle moment here as the coach of the team. So, you know, big ups for Carolina. I think after some of these years having to get trounced in the Eastern Conference against the Panthers and Tampa Bay and all these different teams, they've always had kind of the foundation, you know, to make a good run and they're finally able to put it together. [00:39:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, give Carolina credit. You know, coming in, they were, they were the favorites to win the Stanley cup. Here they went, what, 12 and one through the east. Their only loss was against Montreal there, the Canadiens in game one after being off, what, 12 days. No surprise there. They looked, they looked sluggish, they looked rusty. But after that they just took it to them. I mean, look, we talk about teams having kryptonite teams. I mean, Carolina's been in the Eastern Conference finals two years previous in a row. He couldn't beat Florida. Well, Florida doesn't make the playoffs this year, so it sets up perfect for Carolina to get to the final. They do Vegas, look, they, Jason said, look, they had more, what, losses than they did regular season wins and regulation. They fired, you know, Bruce Cassidy there. Maybe, maybe he gets the job back because they won't let him. They won't let him talk to any other teams because Edmonton wanted to hire him and he's still under contract for more years. So maybe, you know, they, they bring him back to coach one more year there in Vegas. But because obviously they think he's a good enough coach, they don't want him to go anywhere else. But yeah, I mean, I took Vegas to Win the series. Rome. I think we talked off the record why we weren't recording. I thought Vegas, you know, their discipline, defense and Carter Hart. We talked about goalies. What's the better goalie coming into the series? He. He struggled a bit, but more so, I think for Vegas towards Games 5 and 6, when they lost the series was just. They got undisciplined, stupid penalties in game five. Too many power plays. Carolina got going. Jason touched on it. They were always aggressive. Carolina attacks, attacks and attacks. They don't. They don't let off the gas. They only play one speed. So unless you're getting the four check and getting them off balance and pitting pressure on their goalie, which Vegas did a good job in the first half of the series, you're going to be in trouble because they're going to come back the other way. They're going to put pucks on the net. Game six. Correct me if I'm wrong, Jason. I mean, I was watching it 18, 20 minutes. Vegas didn't even get a shot on goal. It was some crazy stat there where it's like, man, you can't. You can't go 18, 20 minutes in a closeout game and not getting shot on goal. I mean, busy was great. I mean, he got. I mean, he made some great saves in this game. I mean, I don't know how Vegas didn't pit one or two in the back of the net. They were kind of looking at each other like, how did we not get that to go in? I mean, I think Stone had one Eichel or hit off the crossbar, and they just both were on a knee looking at each other like, you got to be kidding me. How does this not, you know, go in the back of the net? But Carolina, man, they just kept fighting. Boss, he did a great job. Carter Hart, that he finally had his best game. He'd given up four goals or more in the first five. It's the first time ever in hockey goalie had done that. He kept him in the game, but Vegas just didn't generate any offense. Like I said, no shots on goal for 20 minutes in a closeout game at home. Unacceptable. And Carolina's hosting the cup. [00:42:28] Speaker C: Yeah, PK Suban, I can't remember was the first or second intermission, but he really got on, on, on Vegas for just not being more aggressive when it came to, like, their offensive attacking and just getting something in front of the net. It was just like 17 passes to set up, like the perfect shot or something like that. And they just they weren't getting any of those things where hey, you put it in front of the put it on that and you hope something good happens. You get a tip. Different deflection, you know the, the stats of the game, high level stats, fairly even. You had 23 shots to Carolina versus Vegas is 22. You know the hits. Vegas is a little more aggressive in some of the hits. There wasn't any big penalties because you know they're pretty much split in six penalty minutes. You know a piece on there. So like statistically this like was a very even game. Even face off percentage was. Carolina had the slight edge but it wasn't huge. So like it wasn't like this overwhelming statistical thing from Carolina but it was just so much like you know meandering by Vegas to set up something purpose perfect. It was Carolina being aggressive in the right moments when they had to take care of their opportunities. And it just at the end this is what's going to matter. And like Bussy just being hey, a tad more good, you know, better than heart in these kind of key moments of when Vegas did have those opportunities, was able to shut him down. And then hey, like Aaron said, a little luck with it too because a one or two go off the crossbar. You're like man, where's my moment at this time? [00:43:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean Carolina had an advantage on the power play too. What? They defended it pretty well. Vegas couldn't take advantage. I think only were successful like a handful of them. [00:44:01] Speaker A: Well I think Carolina, I mean they had one of the better penalty kills all year. Yeah, but yeah, I mean I thought on the, I thought Vegas was like Jason touched on pk maybe two was looking for that perfect pass, perfect shot rather than just being aggressive and getting it to the net. If you go Back to game one, remember they were down 20 early first period. What did they do? They just started chucking shots toward the net. Now it's a different goalie and I think busy got in their head, right. I mean goalie's making all these stops. You're like dude, we got to make the perfect pass. We got to fake him out. I think Mark Stone had a play breakaway two on one. He's in front of the net. He actually tries to throw the puck back. It gets deflected by the defender coming in and you know, everything else is like dude, you got, you got to put a shot on goal. You're. You're 10ft away. [00:44:44] Speaker B: Right. [00:44:44] Speaker A: So I thought Vegas just bussy got in their head and then Carolina keeping the aggression Going forward was just too much for Vegas to handle, and they kind of welded. I mean, obviously they just couldn't. They couldn't put in the net. Busy. What, he gave up two goals, three goals in two and a half games. Something like that. So you're not. You're not gonna win the Stanley cup final. That many goals and lack of shot attempts, really an aggression by Vegas. [00:45:10] Speaker B: Nice. I got nothing else to add. Just congratulations, Carolina. Really good playoffs as well. Really fun. A lot of young teams in this year. Playoffs just like in the NBA. So it kind of feels like we might be seeing some more young talent come through next year. We'll see how that works out. You guys want to talk a little F1? [00:45:32] Speaker A: Yeah, we can do that. Both. Both 16 and three runs for Carolina and New York Knicks realm to win the. To win. [00:45:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:38] Speaker A: That's pretty crazy. Both championships. [00:45:39] Speaker B: So pretty wild. [00:45:41] Speaker A: Pretty wild. Pretty wild. [00:45:42] Speaker B: Droughts ending on back to back, Jason. Oh, no. [00:45:46] Speaker C: You mentioned F1. [00:45:47] Speaker A: I mean, droughts. We're about to end a drought right now. [00:45:50] Speaker C: Talking droughts right now, man. We're. The goat is back. [00:45:55] Speaker B: That's Alita, man, because I don't know [00:45:58] Speaker A: about all that, but congrats on the win. [00:46:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You know, droughts really leading it in to Formula one in Barcelona this past Sunday. What a race. Antonelli was leading it as well, and him and Russell were battling it out. We got that again. Russell seems like he kind of got a little more control of his car. Had a pretty good race. Hamilton, though, took over hell position. [00:46:28] Speaker A: The undercut was big by Ferrari. Jason can touch on that. [00:46:31] Speaker B: It was huge. A lot of people were saying that, that caution. It's not called a caution. I just can't think right now. Whatever it was. Yeah, yeah, the virtual safety. Yeah, the virtual safety was like perfect timing. [00:46:46] Speaker A: Dirty. It did him dirty because he came [00:46:48] Speaker B: out right on time and took advantage, and that kind of helped him seal the deal. His first win in what, two and a half years, I think it was. And now he gets to extend his lead to what, what is it, 107 wins now? So pretty fun stuff to see Hamilton back on top. All Brits and on the podium. Hamilton in first, Russell in second. Good to see him back in there. And Lando Norris, welcome back, dude. McLaren had a good day, at least for Norris. And unfortunately, Antonelli retired when he was doing pretty well. [00:47:27] Speaker A: Jason called it. He said that luck was gonna flip. And Antonelli goes right past Russell. [00:47:31] Speaker B: And you did say that, too. [00:47:32] Speaker A: I'm like, God damn it. And then all Of a sudden like, oh, oh, he's slowing down. [00:47:36] Speaker B: It's not that he did bad either. It's just, yeah, the other Mercedes. [00:47:40] Speaker A: One second. [00:47:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, the other Mercedes finally took a shit. Those bad, bad luck. [00:47:45] Speaker C: It was out of things I called. I mean that was just you, you thought of a year ago in the championship chase between Norris and Piastri in the Netherlands when Norris's engine blew. And we thought, hey, it was everything for Piastri in that moment. There was no chance for Norris. And you kind of felt that with George Russell a couple weeks ago when he's battling for the lead. But with the amount of Mercedes power units that have kind of taken a blow so far this year, you knew at some point like, you know, it was in for Kimi and if he didn't, it would have been like one of the luckier kind of runs in time. Given that pretty much everybody else in the top, you know, Mercedes engine power teams have experienced some sort of issue with reliability. So yeah, it was, it was in an entirely moment because ma', am, George, man, I, I just didn't love like where George looked at a certain point to that race, especially when Kimi was able to attack him and pass him. I'm like, man, like you went from leading and dominating this thing and now you're just giving a pass to Kimi in this moment. I, I think that was like the negative I think you take away from George in this game or in this race because you know you got the second great, you got points back on Kimi because he got 18 and he got nothing. And so at least there's some, some silver lining there. But when it was in the moment, Kimi still had him. I mean he, he had the race pace. And I don't know if it's just his, the way he can work these tires or way he's using some of the power components of the car and working in the right space to maintain some of the speed. But you know, he can get it early. But when it comes to these one on one battles, he has not been proven successful where Kimi has in a lot of instances. So. But yeah, the reliability, I think at the end of the course of the season if we took it out, you're going to have these moments. So they've each had this engine failure and that kind of maybe balances that, but there's still a big points gap at obviously for George at this point where he's going to need some, some wins and runs and Kimi and, and Kimi you know, farther down than second to be able to come back. But this thing's still wide open. There's a lot of races left. You don't know what's going to happen from a reliability standpoint. And obviously the Hamilton win, which we'll talk a ton more about besides the Mercedes. What's Ferrari's take gonna be on this? Because man, I, Aaron and I were foreshadowing the rumors last year that Mercedes gonna have engine dominance. And we looked at the first race of the year and man, they were dominant and they've won a lot, you know, because they won every race up to this point. But other teams have shown flashes of greatness within the year. And Ferrari from the first race was the, was the closest out of any of the teams because there was something particularly about their power unit. They were way better on the starts than the other team. They were just a step slower than Mercedes in a lot of key moments. But in this particular race, I think Lewis said they brought like eight upgrades into Barcelona. When Lewis got into the open track, man, he, he checked out when it came to like, you know, they neither. [00:50:35] Speaker A: I mean what kind of tires they pin them on. That second pit stop, I mean he was doing it two and a half seconds better than Russell around. [00:50:42] Speaker C: It was crazy. And it was a crazy strategy from Ferrari. And I said that he started on softs and then they went to the [00:50:50] Speaker A: hards on the second run and yeah, mediums. I think the finish or maybe hard, hard. I forget what it was. [00:50:55] Speaker C: But yeah, yeah, I can't too. But, but, but that strategy was like they knew from right away. And I was actually George was the one who called it out on the radio because they said Lewis is stopping. He's like they're going for. Yeah, they're going for the two stop, three stops. And I'm like are they Rosa? Are they really? Man, I was like Lewis is in great position at least I'm thinking, hey, get second, get third podium. Why are you going to take this type of risk? But I think they felt something about that qualifying where Lewis barely lost out on the podium that like, hey, we have raw pace and if we can get ahead of them and burnt and just burn through the laps and build up where they think. I think they felt they could cover the pit stop. I think the virtual safety car helped them. But I think there was an element regardless. Yeah, I, I think he either felt like we can cover the delta or we're gonna have better if we can get the tire life and get the lap Times out of this we can make it up and then beat them with a fresher set of tires and run harder at the end. So there, there was something that I think Lewis felt in the boldness of this strategy and, and he's just, I think there's a lot of input that you felt with Lewis in his later years in Mercedes especially he was super critical in the ground effect era that they didn't listen to some of his suggestions and he was very vocal about that and that put Mercedes, you know, behind the ball starting in 2022. And so going into Ferrari I think there was definitely a thing that hey, we're going to listen to what Lewis has to say. And last year was super tough when it came to what Lewis's performance was in that car getting out the window. But there was the build on to this year and it was kind of like, man, we need to see something from Lewis this year. But I think his stamp on this car and his input to what's going on and knowing Fred Vester was already in place and had a strategy going into this year that Ferrari was going to be successful as long as some of the right things were in place. And it really fell into this race like man, this car is going to be really good and the power unit's going to be one, you know, potentially rivaling Mercedes because I mean Ferrari hasn't had the overall retirements compared to Mercedes. When you looked at thing Lewis has completed every lap so far this year. Had some problems, Ler has some problems but I think he was pretty vocal in Monaco. Like we're doing things that aren't like Lewis that I'm not sure it's. If it's powertrain, you know, parts versus other components of the car that they're messing for. Like obviously he was pretty vocal about the brakes in Monaco but I think all in all man it was, it was a knockout for the Ferrari team when it came to strategy. Lewis obviously in his drive and, and yeah, just couldn't say enough, man. That was just, it was just a comeback for the, you know, for everything for Lewis and there was some great stuff. There was a fan last year told them like remember who you are. And he said in an interview after that I was like, man, that kind of really hit me and did a whole thing about like. Because he was just down in the dumpster I think mentally and everything from where he was at and I, and, and he was super emotional with this win and kind of back where he belongs because he's, he's the greatest of all time in many people's opinion, including mine. And I think when you get him in the right car and he has the right inputs, he's as best as you could be. And I, I think it's, it's getting to a right moment and if Mercedes doesn't have everything together right now and there's friction between them too and Lewis, I mean Lewis is way ahead of Charles in the standings when it comes to that. Like I, I think, you know, he's closer to Kimi Charles, I think he's closer to Pierre Gasly at this point when it comes to this. [00:54:14] Speaker A: Charles has official last two races. Correct? [00:54:17] Speaker C: Correct. [00:54:18] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:54:19] Speaker C: So I mean he's got his own issues but I think Ferrari's got something for Mercedes and it's not going to be the Mercedes potential blowout. They come and that's, I think that's the fight you want to see. And it's going to be a real, it's going to be an arms race on the development years we go down the stretch and who's going to bring the most effective upgrades. And if there's anything it comes to Lewis right now, it would be the qualifying aspect. He hasn't qualified great in recent seasons. He had a car basically that could have put him on the pole this year, this week that could have made this race maybe a little bit easier for him. So it'll be interesting on where they stand in some of these qualifying sessions over the next few races because this European circuit, just going back to the overall, I know I'm taking the buck of the time here but I mentioned Kimi last year, terrible in the European runs. You know, we went to the Europe, this is the summer is all in Europe right now. And this is where he kind of fell apart last year. These are tracks that Lewis has like all time records at as far as dominating. You're going to go to Silverstone here in three weeks, which he's, you know, it's his home track, no one's won more than him. I was lucky enough two years ago to see him win at that track. It was his, you know, basically his last real win for Mercedes. I know he won the week after in Spa, but it was a George Russell disqualification, everything like that. But that was just actual real last win for Mercedes from a, you know, from a bell to bell whistle aspect. And I think you're getting to a lot of tracks that could be favorable for Lewis. And if, if George and Kimi kind of don't got it together, we got Some battling go. You're leaving, you're leaving the window open for the seven time world champion that wants that eighth and that eighth with the Ferrari puts a stamp on his career that knows like undisputed will be the greatest driver ever. Being an eight time world champion. I mean in the pantheon of motorsports you got Schumacher, the seven time world champion. You go over to NASCAR where it's, you know, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jimmy Johnson, seven time world champion. The eight time world championship just puts you in I think another stratosphere when it comes to Formula One. He's the first, Lewis is the first driver to win a race for McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari, kind of the three of the premier brands of Formula One. He wins the championship with Ferrari. He would be the first driver to win the championship with McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari. [00:56:31] Speaker A: It just puts you, if you go down as a goat. Yeah, I agree, I agree with everything there. I mean look, it's going to be a three man race. I mean we saw last year with Norris and Piastri fighting it out for Stapp and snuck in late. Now here you got Hamilton's coming in. I thought Mercedes, I mean Jason could touch on this. Should have pitted Russell as soon as Hamilton came in. They did that the first time. He did. They kept the lead. They didn't the undercut, the tires were not great for Russell. Hamilton comes out, he's what, gaining two and a half seconds per lap by then it was done, it was over. Then Rome touched on the virtual safety car comes out. It was a wrap. The only way Hamilton wasn't going to win the races if he has some engine problems and doesn't go. Russell again passed by Kimmy. That's got to be getting in his head. Every time he looks up there's Kimmy coming, he's coming. I mean Kimmy was even gaining on Hamilton. So Kimmy, whatever. Like Jason said, whatever he's doing, maybe he's, you know, he doesn't care about tires and all that. He just keeps, he, he just keeps coming. I mean he go outside the track, track limits. I mean he was at track limits of like 20 laps. There's still 30 laps still to go. I mean McLaren was like, hey Norris, Norris. He's gonna get a five second pit. Only the announcers like I don't, I haven't seen anything. Stern's haven't noted him. He just keeps driving. So yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how this finishes up. I think Kimmy right now, man his aggression is good. I mean Jason said Look, you guys struggles here in Europe. We'll see what happens. But he's, he's confident Hamilton now he's got a car he likes. So. Yeah, be interesting. I mean, going back to Charles, he's struggling. Hey, he got that new contract. He's richer. Pressure's on. Hasn't performed up to standards here lately, but I think he'll get going to. In McLaren, they've been better as well, right. I mean, obviously they know they got to make upgrades. We'll see what happens along the way. But what are we, a third through the season right now? Still got a long way to go. [00:58:17] Speaker B: Are they going to make up those two races that we missed in the Middle east or now? [00:58:21] Speaker C: No, I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if like they can move he. You know, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the probably the states that could probably move heaven and earth to get it back in the calendar. I just don't know where you put those races. I mean, you could add them at the end, but then you're talking about doing these races in late December. I just, I don't know if the brakes are in there to make them up at this point. [00:58:44] Speaker B: Huh. Interesting. [00:58:45] Speaker A: I think they said they weren't going [00:58:46] Speaker C: to, so it's not a, it's not unprecedented. There was like, I forgot there was like fires or something like a couple years ago in Italy that was near for the one of the Italian Grand Prix is at. And they can't just cancel that race. So it's like, it's not unheard of, like just not having a race in the calendar and canceling and hey, this is where it goes. And yeah, I don't foresee them making it up. I know I had heard some from some sources about depending on what some of the stuff in the Middle east would be, would they run Qatar and Abu Dhabi at the last two? Like I had heard like potentially, like, you know, if those races don't happen, are there some things they could do at the end like running Vegas twice or some of that stuff? Like, you know, they did. They did weird things like that during the COVID season where they ran like the British Grand Prix twice during that season and stuff like that. So, you know, I, I don't think you'll get much more changes. It seems as if the Middle east stuff has calmed down a little bit. I mean, hell, WWE is doing a show in Saudi Arabia here like at the end of this month or something. So I think most of the side. They're gonna, they're gonna get these events in Nice. [00:59:50] Speaker B: Lewis Hamilton, seventh oldest to ever win. First over 40 to win in like 40 years. Pretty cool. First all British podium since 1968, I think it was. I can't remember the exact year, but it was a long time ago and I don't know, man. Now Lewis Hamilton has had four podiums this year. Definitely a bounce back here. He has a nice car. Seems like he's a lot happier. Is the car, is the Kardashian. I don't know. You know, a lot of good things going his way and I'm excited for the next one. I'm really glad. I ended up talking to some guys about F1 at the bar. It was after the Knicks one. I was at the drinking at the next bar and then we went to another bar and some guy was wearing a McLaren shirt. Then we just started chatting it up. All of a sudden it was like, [01:00:38] Speaker A: you post out your McLaren hat and be like, what's up, dog? [01:00:40] Speaker B: Man, I wasn't dressed for the bar, man. It was a nice bar and I'm like still wearing shorts and like trying [01:00:46] Speaker A: to go to aces, man. Aces. You just show up with socks. They let you in. [01:00:49] Speaker B: Well, I wasn't planning on going to the soccer game either, you know, I was just wearing like, like some ripped up shorts and like that leopard shirt. You guys made fun of me. I've been worn it like since then. I just. [01:00:58] Speaker A: Leopard shirt. [01:00:59] Speaker B: I had a leopard shirt. You like. What do you guys do? Like, like murder some MILF or something like that to get off her? [01:01:04] Speaker A: I got. I don't remember that. There's a clip on. [01:01:06] Speaker B: It was a clip on a social, something like that. But I haven't worn that shirt since then. It's like a bedtime shirt, you know, it's like really thin, see through. So I'm wearing that. So I put a jacket on. I wasn't prepared. But at least we were talking F1 in the bar again, which is so weird. The fact that I'm talking about F1 in a bar. This. Try to school people. [01:01:27] Speaker C: This happened. This has happened up a lot recently, man. You know, I just. Again, we say this a lot. [01:01:33] Speaker A: Another thing, Jason, before you touched on. Didn't Rome say he quit drinking and now he's back at a bar. Wasn't that the last pot? He said he was done drinking. [01:01:41] Speaker B: I don't. [01:01:42] Speaker A: How many times has he said that? [01:01:43] Speaker B: I didn't say I quit drinking. I said I was down. [01:01:45] Speaker A: I could have sworn he's like, I'm not drinking. [01:01:47] Speaker B: Right. I didn't really sworn. [01:01:48] Speaker A: I could have sworn I heard. [01:01:49] Speaker B: I had a light beverage. [01:01:52] Speaker C: Whenever he's saying he's quit drinking and then tells I'm going out Saturday night or so, hey, I don't know. I'm going out Saturday. Like the, the race starts at 6am don't know. That means he's gonna be drinking hard. Questionable whether he ever comes home. [01:02:05] Speaker A: He disappeared on us last night. [01:02:06] Speaker C: 100 disappeared on us last night. You know, we just. [01:02:09] Speaker B: I was ready earlier that. But you weren't ready till like late at night. All of a sudden. Like I got a text message like, hey, could I come up for the jacuzzi? [01:02:16] Speaker A: I'm like, yeah, yeah, why not? I got some time. [01:02:18] Speaker B: I thought I could fit it in. [01:02:20] Speaker A: Well, I don't know if you fitted it in Rome. We'll get to that later in the after hours show. But yeah, I want to leave. [01:02:26] Speaker B: Dude. She didn't want to leave. [01:02:27] Speaker A: Boom. [01:02:27] Speaker B: I was getting ready to record the pod like. And she's like, I'm chilling. Like, oh man. [01:02:32] Speaker C: We just had. Aaron had to wait for, you know, Freedom 250 extravaganza to be. [01:02:38] Speaker B: How was it by the way? [01:02:40] Speaker A: Event was great. Great event. [01:02:43] Speaker C: I have thoughts, but I'm not. I'm gonna leave this out of the pod. [01:02:45] Speaker B: You'll leave it out pod, I'm gonna leave this out. [01:02:47] Speaker C: We don't, we don't leave this political. [01:02:49] Speaker B: We could always cut it out and put in that patreon or patron I [01:02:53] Speaker A: don't think you can trust. [01:02:54] Speaker C: It was, it was a, it was a. Interesting setup. I'll say that to the lead the fight, the main event. I. Aaron's more of the MMA expert obviously this was a massive update or upset. Excuse me. The guy who lost, man, I. I don't know how they let him go another round. Aaron, that was like. [01:03:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that was, that was interesting to say the least. [01:03:17] Speaker C: Yeah. I'll tell you, I'm a. I, I'm. I'll just be a hater for my friends that are really of. Mm. I, I do like mma. Like back in college, like Aaron got me into it. We'd watch, you know, Anderson Silva fights and all that stuff. Do appreciate the love for like I [01:03:31] Speaker B: drop it out, sign out Anderson Silver Post or somewhere on here. [01:03:34] Speaker C: Interesting. I mean I have a love for the hand to hand combat and everything like that. Respect for it. I don't follow it nearly as close as Aaron does and, and some of that stuff. But man, I I do. I do. Will throw shade to my friends that are also big MMA guys, where this is the same company that owns ufc, tko, that owns wwe. And, man, you. You got. A guy's face is just busted to hell. Can't see out of, I don't know, either of his eyes, and basically saying, I can't see. And you gotta. You got a doctor that comes over that just dramatically. No, no, I'm calling it. And you got the cr. You know, you got the crowd saying, no, you got the. [01:04:11] Speaker B: Got. [01:04:11] Speaker C: You got the spot. You know, the corner guys are like, oh, he's good to go. Like, it was a whole WWE thing, man. It was. It was scripted. [01:04:18] Speaker A: They. [01:04:18] Speaker C: Triple H was there. [01:04:20] Speaker A: So, yeah, producers. [01:04:23] Speaker C: It was all scripted. I was like, man, they. They had to get something. It was totally something that I'd see on Monday night Raw tonight. [01:04:30] Speaker B: Surprised Trump didn't go out there to do a. A match on his own. [01:04:35] Speaker C: I don't know that. But, yeah. So we ended up going another round with this guy who couldn't see and just completely getting, you know, kneed in the ribs and all sorts of stuff. And then they call the fight the next round after. Okay, literally, this guy might die at this point if we don't call this fight. [01:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah, so it was. It was a weird scenario because this was after the third round. So. [01:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:56] Speaker A: So in the first round, Ilya got cut around his left eye, took an uppercut, cut himself. Never, never been cut really before. Really had never had much damage done to him in a fight before. He's just, you know, obviously he's the champ, undefeated, big favorite, like Jason mentioned. So that I got cut then round three. It was kind of weird because you could hear. I don't know, they had like a translator, right? The guy's from Spain. So, like, the translator guy was saying something. Oh, he can't see. He can't see. But then other people are like, oh, he can't see out of his left eye. And then he was like, oh, no, he's fine. He can see, see. So they bring a doctor in. So since this fight isn't under, like, a commission, state commission, like, typical most fights are. It's not like a real, like, MMA doctor, they were saying. So it's not like a guy who knows how to check fighters. So he kind of runs, like, it like a DUI test on the guy, like, hey, follow my finger. And he's like. And he's like, hey, I'm going to stop the fight. And then the guy, the fighter starts talking To a guy that's translator in Spanish. He starts talking to the referee and the referee comes in and goes, no, he can see we're fighting. Get out of here, let's go. And so then they pick up the fight and keep going. And then at the end of that round again, you start hearing, hey, man, I can't see, I can't see. And then the brother of the fighter is like, nah, he's good. He's going to finish the fight. And then the other guy comes in and waves his hand in his corner and tells the ref, hey, we're fucking done. We're done. And then the referee stops the fight. And then you find out the guy, that's Ilia Deportia says after, in an interview today, like, hey, dude, I was blind in both eyes after the first two rounds. Now, I don't believe that's true because he was still fighting pretty good. If he were blind in both eyes, he would have got, he would have got the beat out of him. But he, he was busted up bad. Yeah, he was busted up bad. I mean, that's one of the top, you know, busted up guys looking at. I mean, obviously I've seen guys beaten up more. I mean, it almost looked like, I mean, I don't need Jason. If you did what should look like his bone was sticking out of his cheek there towards his eye too, kind of towards round four. [01:06:53] Speaker C: It was bad thoughts on, I mean, his whole, like orbital and everything was just all like, I don't even know, [01:06:58] Speaker A: it was like, he's not, he's not gonna get cleared to fight for probably at least no hand to hand combat for at least six months, training wise, before he can actually probably take any punches to the face, like just scrapping. [01:07:12] Speaker B: Send me a clip. I gotta see it, I gotta see it. [01:07:14] Speaker A: Just go to CBS Sports and go to the UFC page. There's a lot of stuff there. [01:07:19] Speaker C: He's not gonna look it up. Aaron, he's literally telling you, I need the link. [01:07:22] Speaker B: All right, I need a LinkedIn. [01:07:23] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, you know, honestly, Rome. Yeah, I mean, I've been watching mixed martial Arts for a while. I just thought the ambience, the fighter entrances, it felt like a movie. Yeah, because you got guys, you basically had the guys walking out of the Oval Office. [01:07:39] Speaker B: I, I saw some clips, I thought [01:07:42] Speaker A: it felt like a Rocky movie to some degree, but it's actually. Yeah, like if it was like, if you had like basically Rocky versus Apollo Creed, like a rematch coming out of the White House, that's what it kind of felt like the whole event kind of surreal, but it was pretty cool. I did, like, the president's band playing every guy's entrance music. That was pretty cool. But, yeah, I thought it was. I thought it was an A plus event. All fights ending in knockout, so. [01:08:07] Speaker B: All right, A plus event. I like it. I think we covered everything. It's covered NBA, NHL. You know, I'm kind of glad that the Stanley cup final and, like, the NBA Finals are done. Dude, I just need, like, some regular nights to, like, get. [01:08:23] Speaker A: I mean, Rome, I don't know if you want to touch on it real quick, but USA in the World Cup. Is that the best we've ever seen from them? [01:08:29] Speaker B: All right, let's do a little World cup because it's here on our soil. I did get a chance to go to a game that no one was talking about. Like, by the way, everyone's talking shit on the. On the games here in the Bay Area. Like, they don't really promote them very well a lot. Most people I talked to don't. Don't even know there's games going on in Levi's Stadium. They're just, like, clueless, like, people that pretend to know about the World Cup. Like, I'm not gonna say, like, super liberal or anything like that. I'm stay away from it, but, you know, it's just a little much. And I was like, yeah, I went to the game on Saturday. It was actually really fun. I went to go see Qatar. Qatar is like, their. They are pronounced pronouncing and Switzerland. Switzerland. Tall white guys, dude. Big guys, like, so much taller than everyone else on the Qatar team. Dominated the whole match. But then Qatar just, like, fought through, man, and then finally scored it with 4 minutes, 2 minutes left out of the 6 extra minutes in the. In the extra time at the end of the second half, pretty amazing. I was adopted as an Arabic for the day, and now I'm gonna be practicing Arabic because they kind of told me, like, some words that are, like, very similar to Spanish. I'm kind of excited now. Beautiful Arabic women, dude, I would. I would totally convert in a hot. In a hot minute. If I can marry one of those Arabic women, like, no fucking doubt, like, I will quit drinking. I would do everything. Like, they're gorgeous. Jesus Christ. From what I learned, you know, you don't drink in front of everybody else. But what they do behind closed doors, which is what I learned with my Arabic friends, a lot of things happen. [01:10:00] Speaker A: You do a lot of things closed doors. We can't Talk about. So that's nothing new here. All right. [01:10:05] Speaker B: Anyways, fun going to the World cup game. I'm really glad I got to go on behalf of Qatar. Qatar, I guess, is spending lots of money to, like, pay for these tickets and send people there. Happy to be epic for the day. Anyways, usa, man, they did have a good opener in the last World cup as well. When it happened in Qatar, they had the first good game. They were up by a lot, and then they kind of, like, fizzled out. They got a tie. Tie, and then barely got, like, the second seating into the next round, which was not good for them. With that said, it's a young team. They did kind of pick some of the younger guys that had less experience. The goaltender or the goalkeeper. Really young as well. Not a lot of experience there. Pulisic. There's still something missing on this team, right? Like. Like that that separates them and like the elite teams. But they were really aggressive. I've never seen them this aggressive on the offensive side, I think almost ever. Like, we had some glimpses with, like, the 94 team. You had Kobe Jones, you like, some very famous names, actually, worldwide. Even though, like, it wasn't, like, a top five team, there's been moments. There's been really cool stuff happening. But this is a really young team and. And those guys still in the second half, man, they probably could have got two more goals. They just missed it. Like, the crosses just barely aired out a little bit more. The shots and goal were on point. I thought our goalkeeping was really great. And then we finally got one. It was a really fun game to watch. And this is the way that they're gonna be playing because I know they kind of had, like, some mishmashy, you know, games warming up to the World Cup. They haven't been great. I was talking shit, saying, like, they kind of ruined, like, the last four years because they kind of fumbled it a little bit with the coaching situation. And this coach is not locked in after the World Cup. He might go back to the Premier League, who knows? But if they can keep them, because if this is what they're doing, he kind of took a gamble, taking less midfielders, going more the offensive. They were attacking a really good defensive team that doesn't let a lot of goals get scored on them. So it's kind of like a shocker. I know the first one was a score on goal, but I'm excited, man. If this is the way the US Plays and they're going to be aggressive and not, you know, Being timid after they get up 1 0, which is what they usually do, then I could think they could go to the round of 16, maybe round of eight. Like this is a possibility. All depends on matchups. But it was a really great opener, a lot of fun. One of the better opening games so far. Everything else has been tight, you know, everyone has been like stinkers, you know, Spain today, my team. [01:12:30] Speaker A: What was pain doing today? [01:12:33] Speaker B: Letting me down. Letting me down after I talk shit on everyone else. But no, it's a great game. [01:12:39] Speaker A: This is, what, Cabo Verde's first trip ever to a World Cup. I mean, they're ecstatic to get a 00. [01:12:47] Speaker B: It's exciting, dude. They're excited just to be there. Because it's really hard to get to the World cup, guys. It's really hard. There's a lot of qualifying and there's some good teams that didn't make it in. Now there's new countries. [01:12:56] Speaker A: Italy hasn't been in three straight World Cups and they won it what, 20 years ago. So, yeah, it's difficult. [01:13:01] Speaker B: Has it been that long? [01:13:03] Speaker A: I think so. What? [01:13:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I think four, right? Something like that. It's like, it's like the one they won or something like that. Since they won. [01:13:09] Speaker B: That's crazy. I didn't realize that. Yeah, I guess. No, there was that stuff. [01:13:12] Speaker C: There was that stuff going on where like if Iran wasn't going to send a team or whatever, they were trying to petition of, like, I will be the sub in if Iran can't go. [01:13:19] Speaker B: Iran played good today. [01:13:21] Speaker A: That was a good game, I guess. [01:13:22] Speaker B: Good game. [01:13:23] Speaker A: The Netherlands. Yeah, that was a good game there. [01:13:25] Speaker B: Really good game. Surprised? [01:13:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:13:27] Speaker B: These. [01:13:29] Speaker C: Rob, you mentioned just being a young team, I mean, but the attacking style I think is something we haven't seen from USA Soccer. I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be some soccer expert, but generally when we get to the World Cup, I mean, we get to the World cup and like my, my amateur eyes watching soccer and I think this is, this is the event. Like as a sports fan, you just get up for like, we're not sitting here watching the Premier League every Saturday or watching MLS and stuff. Like, no, this is like the event the US is really getting up. We're like, hey, there's die hard soccer fans, like MLS soccer. Like, you see some of these stadiums that they're selling out and stuff. They, they got people they, they call supporters. They don't even call them fans. They like, they like. The Miami team got one of the wildest like, they basically helped birth that thing, like, joined the city council meetings and everything to get this, you know, kind of team, you know, into a section. So, like, soccer's got some passionate fans. It's like, hey, they may only get, like, 15, 000 people, but it's the same 15, 000 people that are going to every game, and they are passionate about the team. But when it comes to the World cup, okay, this is where us casuals kind of get in, and we're like, okay, we're all in. Where is it about? And every single World cup before, when I watched the USA team, okay, we got athletic guys in the field. Well, we're playing a game that's basically not to lose. We're never playing, to be exact. [01:14:37] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:14:37] Speaker C: We're just trying to. We know we always got, like, some of the best goaltenders in the world because, hey, you know, if it comes to using our hands, we're the best at it, all right? Give us the one position, use our hands. We got the best guys. So we always had great goaltending for the usa, but, you know, when it came to the game, like, hey, we couldn't score goals. We're just playing like, hey, we get one goal, and then we just sit out on one goal, like, this team the entire time. You know, Paraguay is not, you know, a terrible team. I think they're a top 50 nation when it comes to, like, rankings. This whole group that the USA is in, I think, is anywhere between, like, 30 and 45 or something when it comes to, like, world ranking. So it's a pretty, you know, level group as we go across. So Paraguay is not like, you know, one of these kind of pushover games that some of the others got, like. But there was an attacking moment where you just felt the entire time we are trying to score goals. We are putting it on the offensive on a team that's, you know, that. That was very competitive with the US Even though it was their B team in. In, like, a recent matchup, I think a year ago or whatever. But, you know, just. We do have something missing, and I would say that's probably. Hey, we don't have the star. I think I was arguing with some friends, like, is Pulisic really our guy? Is he really. He's supposed to be, I think, you know, advertising. He's obviously the biggest star. I think, skill wise. I think it showed up in the game where I think he. When he was on it early in the game, he cleared away, was making things happen, and it's Got to be our, our playmaker. But you got Adams, you got Weston McKinney. Like, these guys play for elite clubs in Europe. Like Weston McKinney's in an elite club in, in, in Italy. Adams is in a top club in the English Premier League. And so it's not where we got, these guys are just playing mls and you know, they're, they're, they're playing some versus the best in the world every week. I mean, you had Chris Richards, he was a defender that was kind of questionable. I think the guy, when he, he sent, he went 57 for 57 passes in the game, like set some sort of like USA record for that. Like, just like a flawless like passing accuracy across. So if you have this guy that's just gonna set up the right things, I mean, these are the type of athletes that are doing things that you're probably not going to know that the, that'll get the headlines of, of, of Pulisic and some of the others. But man, it was just exciting. The vibe and so far looked great. I was trying to figure out a way to go. I didn't end up going, but like, it was just, it had everything from a party atmosphere. [01:16:51] Speaker B: I had friends go and I'm like, how the hell are you guys affording this? They had nice seats. [01:16:55] Speaker C: It was crazy. The tickets were coming down. Going into, going into the game, I was like, man, we can go talking to a few friends and stuff. Like night before the game. Prices just started skyrocketing. So I think there was, it was kind of that last minute. You probably wanted to buy them like a week ago or something. You would have got your, your best value for success. But even then you're probably spending, you know, top of the, top of the stadium, 850 bucks minimum. There was some duns in the lower bowl for 1500 bucks or something you could have gotten too. So like it was, it wasn't a cheap ticket, but I mean, thing was sold out and it was a vibe. And prices have only gone up for the third game versus Turkey. [01:17:27] Speaker A: Yeah, in Turkey, they should be pretty good. I mean, they got Australia coming up here and Australia is coming off a 20 win against Turkey. So that could be for the winner of the group, whoever gets that match. But yeah, I mean, you guys touched on, I mean, USA Soccer. Aggressive, aggressive, aggressive. Attack, attack, attack. I mean, like you guys said, we watch the World cup, it comes around every four years, you know, kind of glued to the TV there for the six weeks that it's on. Exciting event but yeah, I mean, USA Soccer, kind of like you guys touched on, would play not to lose, get a 10 lead and then basically, you know, they would wear down and the teams would keep attacking them and then they give up the equalizer, then they'd get beat and then they get beaten, knocked out in the first round of the knockout. I mean, this is a team that looks like they can go to the knockout stage, obviously, but can they get to a, you know, quarterfinal cinema? We're going to find out. I'm excited. This, this is the best I've ever seen USA Soccer play. Parkway is not a run through team like you touched on Rome. I mean there, I think they had the most kind of contact tackles of any team in South America coming in to this World Cup. So they play aggressive and you look at the USA ran all over them. I mean, even Paraguay was kind of shocked. I mean they kind of highlighting this game. The big fight they had around Thanksgiving time last year leading up to this World cup showdown. But usa, they got a lot of slack. I was kind of one of them. Not real high on the team. I came away really impressed and I'm excited for them moving forward. Australia should be a good matchup. I believe that's a 9am kickoff there on the pitch there come Friday, so I'm looking forward to that game. [01:19:03] Speaker B: Australia's a good team. They should be able to win that one. Paraguay has really good defenders and midfielders. One of the better ones. So it was really impressive. I. Paraguay, you saw in the game, they look frustrated. They're like, what the. They're like, what the. [01:19:17] Speaker A: They didn't know what hit them. [01:19:18] Speaker B: They were expecting it. So it was really nice. I don't know. What's the update on Christian Pulisnik? I know he had like some issues with his leg. Calf or something. [01:19:26] Speaker A: Like calf or something. [01:19:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So. I don't know, man. Cavs are kind of scary, dude. I don't know. Hopefully. Hopefully it's okay. [01:19:32] Speaker A: I. I don't know how scared they are in soccer, but we know they are pretty scary in the NBA. [01:19:37] Speaker B: You're doing a lot of running, dude. [01:19:38] Speaker A: It's pretty scary. So. [01:19:39] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I, I think I, I hope Christian's out there because obviously like I said, he's the dynamic portion. But I mean, you think late in the game, you know, you had Gio Reyna, he was part of a lot of controversy in the last World cup and everything that went round and him being able to score a goal, like, I mean he, he was. [01:19:56] Speaker B: I was Nice. [01:19:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, he was, he was heralded as one of the big prospects and there was all that drama that happened with, you know, the previous coach, Burkhalter at the last one, and now he comes in. Plus, I mean, if he's gonna. Guy if he's gonna get regular minutes versus, versus Pulisic. I mean, he's, he's pretty dynamic in himself and plays against, you know, big competition too. I think he's in Germany still. But, you know, there's, there's a lot to like, I think the US when it comes to depth. I think we're not just solely reliant on, you know, Landon Donovan or, you know, one guy that's going to be like our whole thing. We got some different guys. I mean, we didn't even talk about, you know, the guy who scored two goals in the game. [01:20:35] Speaker B: Yeah. No, was that Adams? [01:20:38] Speaker C: No, that was Florian. I'm gonna, I'm Butcher. The last name, man. Is it, is it Baligun? [01:20:46] Speaker B: That's good. That's close, I think. [01:20:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:48] Speaker B: Okay, man. Now I get great goals. [01:20:53] Speaker C: Yeah. So, I mean, there's a lot to like, I think up and down with this team that, you know, I think we could, you know, I think we can survive without Pulisic. I think they saw that in the second half. You know, they got the goal, they were able to shut them down. It didn't look great at first, but I, I think the defenders. There was a lot of talk from the analysts early on. I mentioned Chris Richards and him being a kind of a game time decision because of an injury coming into the World Cup. I think that's probably where like we just need to make sure. From the United States. United States. Is the defense going to be the thing to set up some of these big breaks in the offense and keep things intact? If, if a game gets tighter, you know, versus Australia, that, that'll be some of the things to watch out for. But, man, it's exciting time, man. I think this is where you vibe up when the World cup or the Olympics, these things that every once every four years where, you know, it's countries and stuff, there's just a little, little extra level of, of intensity and kind of hype around it because there's just some, there's unity and stuff watching this games. [01:21:49] Speaker B: Yeah, Bullet. I'm trying to look up how to pronounce his name. Balugun. Florin. Flora Florin. [01:21:56] Speaker A: Well, he's a guy. He's got like, what, citizenship to like three countries and he chose the US Right Yeah, I think he. [01:22:03] Speaker C: I think he played on some of the English. The English teams. He was in the England, like U17 team or something like that. [01:22:10] Speaker A: Yeah. So he's got like dual citizenship to like two or three countries, and he chose the US and everyone was like, oh, yeah, he chose right. Thank God. And all that after he got the two goals. So. [01:22:19] Speaker B: Yeah, by the way, real quick, a lot of stars in that game too. I did not know Katy Perry was dating the former French prime minister. [01:22:28] Speaker C: Canadian. [01:22:29] Speaker B: Canadian. There you go. [01:22:31] Speaker C: Yeah, man. I mean, he. I mean, I mean, his own country's hosting part of this World cup and his team is playing in Canada and he's out in the US With Katy Perry. [01:22:41] Speaker B: So, you know, what a ball. [01:22:43] Speaker C: I guess. I guess if you're not the active prime minister, you don't have to show the country loyalty. We'll just show your girlfriend loyalty then. At that point. [01:22:49] Speaker B: I can't blame this. She looked really nice. Not a Carrie Perry fan, but she looked really good. Yeah. When's the next game for the U.S. [01:22:57] Speaker C: thursday, I believe, up in Seattle. No, Friday. [01:23:00] Speaker A: Friday, yeah. Friday in Seattle. Yes. [01:23:05] Speaker B: Yeah. One of the guys I went to the game with, he said he has the connections, but potentially for tickets in Seattle, he's like, could you fly up there? It's like, dude, I don't know, man. [01:23:14] Speaker C: That'd be a little bit of a pricey ticket. Private airfare, Hotel. [01:23:17] Speaker B: The airfare, Yeah. [01:23:20] Speaker C: I don't know, man. You're the driver, man. You'd probably be like, I'll just drive up to. Yeah, I mean, is it. Is it eight hours to Seattle from where you're at? [01:23:28] Speaker A: Seattle than SoCal, man. [01:23:30] Speaker B: I don't know what the drive is, man. In a Tesla. Jesus. Charging. [01:23:34] Speaker A: I think that's brutal drive. It's probably about 12 hours, dude. [01:23:38] Speaker C: You probably should be here to scare. [01:23:40] Speaker A: 20 hour drive. [01:23:42] Speaker C: It'd probably be scaring the Oregon leg because you'd be in the middle of like the forest in Oregon somewhere and Bigfoot out there. [01:23:50] Speaker B: I've already had two flat tires on this Tesla, and if I have a third one in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, like, no way, dude. [01:23:56] Speaker A: You don't know who come and change it. [01:23:59] Speaker B: Well, Tesla has to come pick it up. All right. Yeah, sorry. Spain. Spain sucked. [01:24:06] Speaker A: I forgot Germany looked pretty good. [01:24:08] Speaker B: They look really great. All my German friends there, they were celebrating. They were chatting in the bar the other day. [01:24:13] Speaker A: They hadn't gotten out of the group stage since they won it too, back in, what, 2014. [01:24:17] Speaker B: So, damn, we'll see. We'll see what happens. You guys have any picks or. Not yet. Just like, you know who you're rooting for? Obviously usa, but. Yeah. Is there like another team you're hoping does well so we can kind of make some gambling picks for the knockout stages? [01:24:33] Speaker C: I mean, the Germans look good, obviously against a team that they're far superior of. I think Spain's been the biggest shocker so far. [01:24:41] Speaker B: I was a big Sweden. [01:24:42] Speaker C: Sweden obviously came out, you know, pretty good yesterday and got. Got the manager of Tunzia Tunisia fired. So. I don't know. [01:24:55] Speaker A: Rooting. Rooting. [01:24:56] Speaker C: Interest is weird in international stuff when you're not rooting for your home team. Am I rooting for my ancestry? So I'm rooting for the German team. [01:25:04] Speaker B: I don't know. [01:25:05] Speaker A: I mean, Germans look good. I mean, I thought Brazil did not look very good. [01:25:09] Speaker C: I mean, no, I, I don't get, you know, I, I know Brazil is the capital of soccer and the most World cup of man. I mean, they obviously got some of the best players in the world, but it doesn't seem like they got like the guys like the, like. I think the French team's got like three of the top six players in the world on their team. [01:25:25] Speaker B: Yeah, Brazil. [01:25:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:25:26] Speaker B: They were really young in the last World cup and they. And they made some noise, but is still like a young team. They're kind of in transition. [01:25:32] Speaker A: To me, Brazil kind of lost their mojo when they got beaten that semifinal by Germany on their homeland, like 8 to 1. Remember, they got embarrassed on the World cup by Germany and it's just like. And then Germany, I think, went on and beat Argentina. That would have been like a nightmare in Argentina, one in Brazil. But, yeah, I mean, Brazil just. They don't seem to have that it factor like they used to as a dominating country. Spain. I'm not too worried about Spain because it's kind of one of these games where they didn't take this, their opponent, seriously. Maybe if it turns over to the next one, I might be worried. I mean, Spain's one of these teams. It's either these countries, these big countries that have been good in soccer for all these years, either they win it or they don't even get past the group stage. It kind of seems like a lot of these teams here over the last couple decades, so. [01:26:19] Speaker B: So Spain's on the way back up because they had like, a lot of guys age out. They didn't have a great appearance last time. Now they're back up. [01:26:26] Speaker A: They won the European thing. [01:26:27] Speaker B: Yeah, they Wanted another title. They look really dumb. They're one of the heavy favorites, but, [01:26:31] Speaker A: I mean, you got 27 shots up. [01:26:33] Speaker B: Luckily, a lot of good teams, like, have not been playing well in the first game so far, you know, so maybe people wake up in game two. There's only three games in group stage, so there's not a lot of time. [01:26:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:26:45] Speaker B: So it's put up or shut up. We'll see today. [01:26:49] Speaker C: Today was interesting, though, because I think these first couple days we saw, like, tons of goal scored, and then today we had three ties. [01:26:57] Speaker B: One of one. [01:26:58] Speaker C: Yeah. So there was. It was like, man, usually. I mean, soccer always has that. Usually this thing you clown about soccer. But the first couple days, like, man, like, we're just. We're just scoring goals out here, man. This is like MLS in the middle of the summer, where we're just throwing up some, like, big scoring. Like, you're just kicking the ball up and down. I'm like, okay. But then today we come back to reality and, like, we'll just get three. Three games. And we had a combined four goals. [01:27:21] Speaker B: That's really funny. [01:27:23] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I think we got spoiled early, the U.S. getting that four goals. But, yeah, I mean, I'm looking at the games. [01:27:28] Speaker B: A lot of one was wild. [01:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Was it like three red cards from South Africa or something? [01:27:34] Speaker B: I read about on that one One. Yeah. The Qatar game. No one was talking about that one, but a lot of people were talking about, like, that's like, one of the bigger upsets. That's really fun. Yeah, that was actually really fun. [01:27:43] Speaker A: I thought Japan versus the Netherlands was a really good matchup. 2, 2. [01:27:46] Speaker B: Surprising. Surprising. [01:27:49] Speaker A: Always plays tough, man. They always play tough. And Netherlands has been a team that's always kind of gotten to the quarterfinals, so, yeah, a little bit. Shocking. Germany looked great. Belgium, not good today. Own goal by Egypt to tie that one up. I thought, yeah, New Zealand, Iran. That was a good game. I was watching out here at Sofi or Los Angeles Stadium, whatever you want to call it, for the FIFA purposes. [01:28:12] Speaker B: Disgusting. [01:28:13] Speaker A: So, yeah, I'll say, too. [01:28:17] Speaker C: Some of the best part, I think about the World cup, the Olympics does this and everything. I think just the. The different cultures coming together. I think in the age of social media, I think this really just continues to shine, man. You had, like, what, South Koreans, like, partying with, like, the Mexicans out of Mexico City and everything. They were, like, doing Gangam style and, like, these parties out in Mexico City. You got this guy Freddy from Germany on Twitter that's been going through the South. He's getting. He's getting to meet everyone he was at Minute or whatever the Houston Astros park is called today at a game. J.J. watt hooked him up. I saw dude from Circa Hotel, offered him a free trip to Vegas or whatever this weekend and everything. He's going to meet. Was it Ella Langley, whatever artist. He's gonna go to her concert. [01:29:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I like her. [01:29:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:29:03] Speaker C: So he was. Because he was talking on the radio, like, oh, you know, he just turned around the radio and everything. Now he's gonna go to her concert and potentially meet her. Like, I don't know. Just. You're getting all these things, all these tourists coming, and it's just like. I think there's. There's something about the American hospitality. Obviously, we're probably not everyone's cup of tea across the world, but it comes. Everyone comes into our country and they're just. They're seeing the glut of America number one, because they go to every place and we're just piling pounds of food into you. And, like, you know, there's like Twitter posts about, you know, a Japanese tourist going to, like, you know, like a. A Mexican restaurant, and it's like free chips and dip, and they're just like. Like, hey, they chip their chip. They do three bowls of chips and don't even get an entree at this point. And they're full and just learning what American culture actually is. But it's. It's. It's hilarious coming. But I think just the. The hospitality aspect of it, we're just like, you got these American cities, and people are like, yeah, man, come over here and we'll do X, Y and Z. We'll show you what's up. And it's just like, it's one big party. And I mean, that's how. That's. That's the cool thing about these events. [01:30:02] Speaker A: Americans love to party. We want every excuse to party. So it's the perfect time, in event, to come to America. [01:30:09] Speaker B: Yeah. The one thing I see a lot is just everywhere there's like, Mexican fans especially, I think. I think Mexico is everyone's favorite fan base because they just get the music going on, the tequila flowing, and everyone just starts dancing. I think that's been my favorite clip so far on the Socials. They were loud at Levi's Stadium, man. They had a. Someone set up, a DJ set up just outside. People were gathering. Even the. The guitar guys in the white going over there and then dancing. It was wild. I never thought I'd see that. All right. This was a long second half, dude. Jesus Christ. [01:30:44] Speaker C: It was a big sports weekend, Roman. We had attack on the extra day because, you know, no called us yesterday, so no show. [01:30:50] Speaker A: No show. [01:30:51] Speaker C: No show. [01:30:51] Speaker A: Jacuzzi did us out. [01:30:53] Speaker B: I didn't even spend much time on Jacuzzi either. The worst part. All right, I'll do it. Let's see. Maybe we'll jump back on Wednesday, Thursday night. Is there F1 race this weekend? [01:31:06] Speaker C: No, no week from F1. Well, I wouldn't call it slow if you're. If you're going to the. Well, there's World cup and you know, you know me, Sonoma, I love a good. Yes, I'm thinking IndyCar, man. We're in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, One of the great road courses in America. Road America. IndyCar is out there. So I'll be looking forward to this one on Father's Day weekend. [01:31:29] Speaker B: Nice. Anything you're looking forward to this weekend, Aaron? [01:31:33] Speaker C: Wait. U.S. open, too. Isn't the U.S. open this weekend usually? U.S. opens, Father's Day weekend. [01:31:37] Speaker B: Golf. [01:31:39] Speaker C: Golf. Am I right about that? [01:31:40] Speaker A: I don't. I haven't heard anything. [01:31:41] Speaker B: A little behind, dude. A little behind. I did see Sorby is going to the NFL supplemental draft, though, so thank God that story's over. [01:31:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. [01:31:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:31:51] Speaker A: I don't know. [01:31:52] Speaker C: Yeah. U.S. open at Shinnecock this week starts the 18th. [01:31:57] Speaker B: Okay. I like it. [01:31:59] Speaker A: You got that? I mean, yeah, we got the World cup got that going on. So, I mean, got. We got a good next what month here? World cup plus. And then we kind of get to a little off season and then we get ready for football, American Football. So not. [01:32:15] Speaker C: Well, not to be discounted though. We still have a big baseball season in front of us and we're not going to talk about the pot that, you know, the White Sox, the rising Chicago White Sox being the best team in this podcast right now, beating Aaron's Braves last week. But not to be outdone, takes two out of three from the world champion. [01:32:35] Speaker A: I should go on the record. Jason, say the White Sox are going to the World Series because I think the White Sox are going the World Series. [01:32:40] Speaker B: Get out of here, dude. They're either going to face comments like [01:32:42] Speaker A: that my team, our Rome's team. And we'll settle this debate for sure in October. [01:32:46] Speaker C: The A. The AL is wide open right now. The White Sox are now clear buyers potentially at the deadline. [01:32:53] Speaker B: How good so fast. They just. [01:32:57] Speaker A: From the Dodgers, that guy who they were talking mad on the radio here about how. Oh you see how he's crying in Chicago. Then he hits, what, 10 home runs in 10 games. [01:33:07] Speaker C: Vargas and Colson Montgomery, I think, have been just game changers in the lineup for them. Obviously, Murakami, he's been out, but they're still winning games. Braden Montgomery, they, you know, he was the top prospect. They got the Garrett Crochet trade from the Red Sox. All four guys that the White Sox got from the Garrett for Garrett Crochet from Boston and have made their way to the major league team and are contributing in, like, big ways right now. So, I mean, it's, it's a lineup that has 12 guys called up so far this year. So the youth movement is here in year one. There's a mistake's going to be made. It's going to be tough for them given like the tracker. But, man, this is exciting. And I, I, I, as a White Sox fan, you guys know me, man, I'm sitting here thinking, two years ago we were talking on the pod, this is the worst team of all time. I think I was. [01:33:50] Speaker A: 120 games. [01:33:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I think they're 41, 121. There's. There's so many stats going around, but like, they, whatever game they won versus Dodgers last week, they won that game on like September 28th of the, of that season when they lost those games. And we're here in late June right now for how quick a turnaround in two years this team has came. So, yeah, exciting baseball for me. And obviously we got, you know, the fantasy team. Aaron and I will keep you updated. Rome on that. Not all the big stuff this week. You know, I'm still in first, lost a little bit. We talked o', Neill, Cruz gonna have to look at. [01:34:27] Speaker A: Jason's dominating right now. But things will get tight. Will get tight come come August, September. Jason, he's. He might be sweating out a little bit. You know, no one ever wins your first one. It's like the Spurs. It ain't gonna be no cakewalk. It's gonna get tight. It's going to get tight. [01:34:43] Speaker C: I won't, I won't lie, Rome. You know, I talk a good trash talk when I'm up, but we had a down week. We lost o', Neill, Cruz, he was the number one player in fantasy, so he went on the Il got a pain. [01:34:52] Speaker A: But why I got, why I got you here, Jason? I mean, are you looking to make a move? Are you. Would you be interested in trading pitcher Ashcraft? Would you be interested in moving? [01:35:00] Speaker B: All right. [01:35:00] Speaker C: No, no, I love, I Love, I love, I love my lineup, man. I got a lot of good value contracts. You know, a lot of potential trades have come through, but I got a little value. I gotta look ahead to next season. Aaron. I got a lot of money committed to Wood and Cruz and some of these guys. I'm really locked in cap wise. I can't take a. Had a lot of trades come to me for like $40 players, $45 players. It would be great ads, but I can't resign them in the offseason. I have to cut them. I got to think about not just this year, but I got to win a championship and then go back to back. This is a multi year plan and I learned from you the master, Aaron, because you had Ronald Acuna very young and all these guys and you kept in the core together, ran three out of five. I can't just be panicking, just try to get this one. I got to think about this year and next year. So I'm holding Pat right now. Now a little worried Rome. I do lose Cruz, Drake, Baldwin back this week. So kind of a flip in there. But I'll tell you what I'm worried about my pitching. I gotta like the Billy Bean strategy. I'm pitching. I don't really got a frontline, number one starter. Kind of got a lot of guys performing above their skis, pitching worried about. And James Wood, guy sucked in the second half last year. He's the number two ranked NL player right now. A little worried about his second half, but we'll see. All right, I'm done. [01:36:05] Speaker A: I'm not worried about James Wood. I'm not worried. Oh, Cruz, I am worried. What is it? Was it thumb, fractured finger, hand? What has he got? [01:36:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it was a fracture in one of his fingers. So that hurts a little bit. So yeah, that was the thing. I had Baldwin, Wood and Cruz, top [01:36:20] Speaker A: five players coming back, first game back after not swinging a bat for like six weeks. He hits a home run in aaa. Obviously if he was playing, they would have swept the White Sox. I'll just go on the record of that. But hey, he'll be back. He'll be back come October. So I ain't worried about that. [01:36:35] Speaker B: All right. [01:36:37] Speaker A: Difference maker. Mvp. He's the MVP right now. The nl, they'll do it. [01:36:42] Speaker B: Thanks for the update, guys. [01:36:44] Speaker A: You're welcome anytime. [01:36:45] Speaker C: Updates. We just want to make sure you knew what was going on in the league. [01:36:48] Speaker B: No, yeah, maybe we'll try to hop on Thursday night. [01:36:52] Speaker A: I mean I got a lot of good young players I just got no spots for them right now, so luckily, they got some guys going to the il. I could do some internal moves. [01:36:58] Speaker B: Nice. Nice. All right, that's Aaron and Jason's update for the NL fantasy season. Whatever league I'll do for us. Source on the sofa. We're out.