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Speaker 1: Welcome to a special edition of the No Dunks podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'mly Elis. I'm here with Skeets, Tass and the man

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Speaker 1: making the Magic Happen JD. Today we are joined by

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Speaker 1: a very special guest. He's a Canadian and sorry, Skeetzy,

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Speaker 1: he's more famous than you. Oh he's probably not quite

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Speaker 1: as famous as Justin BB yet, but it's a little

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Speaker 1: bit closer. He's one of the most accomplished journalists in

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Speaker 1: the UFC and mixed martial arts world, but his basketball

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Speaker 1: knowledge runs deep too, and we've seen him work the

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Speaker 1: NBA sidelines for ESPN. Yet, despite all his success in

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Speaker 1: his thirty seven years on Earth, he's never learned to

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Speaker 1: ride a bike. He is Ariel Hawani. Ariel, thanks for

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Speaker 1: joining us.

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Speaker 2: Wow, what an inshrow. That was amazing and all very

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Speaker 2: accurate too.

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Speaker 1: I heard you on a radio show last week and

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Speaker 1: someone brought up the bike riding and you said, you

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Speaker 1: know what, I've never learned to ride a bike. But

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Speaker 1: you were teaching your sons how to ride a bike.

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Speaker 1: So how do you do that?

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Speaker 2: You know, lied to them. They have no idea. It's

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Speaker 2: a big secret. They know that. Santa Claus and the

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Speaker 2: tooth fairy don't exist, but they're not quite aware of

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Speaker 2: the fact that I don't know how to ride a bike.

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Speaker 2: I don't know. I never figured it out, and I

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Speaker 2: remember many times people were trying to teach me in

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Speaker 2: summer camp. They would go, oh, we're gonna go on

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Speaker 2: a trip and all this stuff. Couldn't figure it out.

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Speaker 2: So here I am thirty seven years old and I

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Speaker 2: still can't ride a bike. And you know what, I'm

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Speaker 2: proud of it. Baby.

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Speaker 1: I thought there must have just been too much snow

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Speaker 1: in Montreal growing up, and the conditions were great for it.

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Speaker 1: But I guess not. You get you had your chance

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Speaker 1: in the summer.

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Speaker 2: I did. Yes, I wish that was the excuse, but.

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Speaker 3: No, it's better than me, Ariel. I've fallen off my

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Speaker 3: bike a billion times, and my friends would say to

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Speaker 3: me that I can't ride a bike, when actually I can,

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Speaker 3: and so I'd rather be in your boat.

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Speaker 2: I think, Yeah, never get on the bike, exactly. Never

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Speaker 2: get on the bike. When people say like, oh, it's

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Speaker 2: as easy as riding a bike, I don't know what

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Speaker 2: that feels like.

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Speaker 1: Who knows. Yeah, well, Aria, let's start in the NBA.

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Speaker 1: Will because the last dance wrapped up last weekend, and

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Speaker 1: you were a Knicks fan, so was it painful to watch?

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Speaker 1: I mean, what were your thoughts? What will takeaways from

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Speaker 1: the ten part documentary?

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Speaker 2: First of all, I loved every second of it, and

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Speaker 2: that has nothing to do with the fact that I

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Speaker 2: worked for ESPN. I really enjoyed it. But I feel

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Speaker 2: like I need to throw that out there in case

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Speaker 2: anyone says your shill, You're a corporate shill. I had

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Speaker 2: several feelings towards it because, number one, I know the

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Speaker 2: director very well, Jason Hare. When I worked at HBO

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Speaker 2: Sports as a junior in college and my first year

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Speaker 2: out of college, he was there working on a show

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Speaker 2: called Real Sports with Brian Gumbel, and we hit it

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Speaker 2: off and we stayed very close over the years. In fact,

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Speaker 2: when I first got a deal with ESPN, it was

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Speaker 2: March of twenty eighteen, and he first found out back

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Speaker 2: then that he was going to get this deal to

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Speaker 2: do this documentary. We went for lunch and he said

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Speaker 2: I have news for you, and I said I have

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Speaker 2: news for you, and we both shared these two pieces

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Speaker 2: of massive news in our lives. So it was cool

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Speaker 2: to see it finally come to fruition. I really enjoyed it.

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Speaker 2: I thought they did a great job. It was very nostalgic.

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Speaker 2: That's when I grew up being a basketball fan. That's

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Speaker 2: when I fell in love with the NBA. And even

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Speaker 2: though I was a diehard Knicks fan, and even though

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Speaker 2: my brothers would make fun of me all the time

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Speaker 2: that their quote unquote beloved Chicago Bulls because they were

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Speaker 2: the biggest front runners, would beat my beloved New York Nicks,

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Speaker 2: it still was a great time. I was sad when

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Speaker 2: it ended. I was sad every Sunday when it ended,

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Speaker 2: certainly sad this past Sunday when it was definitely over.

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Speaker 2: And it was just really nice to reminisce about all

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Speaker 2: these moments. I knew about a lot of them. I

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Speaker 2: lived through all of them. It was fun to see

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Speaker 2: other people react to them and to see Jordan in

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Speaker 2: that light, to see him or to hear him swear,

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Speaker 2: and to just see him with his guard down a

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Speaker 2: little bit, and to learn a little more about, you know,

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Speaker 2: what made him who he was. I'm really glad that

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Speaker 2: people got to learn more about him, because it was

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Speaker 2: really bothered me, even as a non Jordan fan. It

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Speaker 2: was bothering me that Jordan had become the butt of

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Speaker 2: the joke over the past few years, with the Jordan,

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Speaker 2: the crying Jordan meme and all this stuff. MJ was

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Speaker 2: never the butt of the joke, and I could admit that,

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Speaker 2: and it really bugged me that peeple well, just like

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Speaker 2: the new fans, just thought that he was some guy

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Speaker 2: who cried a lot and looked silly doing so. So

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Speaker 2: hopefully that puts an end to that silliness. Yes, overall,

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Speaker 2: I loved every second of it.

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Speaker 1: So you know, again, for people who don't maybe know

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Speaker 1: where you're from, like growing up in Montreal, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's a big hockey country for one, and obviously Montreal

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Speaker 1: is a big hockey city. So how did we even

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Speaker 1: become such a big and knowledgeable NBA fan?

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Speaker 2: Oh man? So yeah, So I did not grow up

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Speaker 2: a hockey fan at all. Hockey was probably my fourth

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Speaker 2: favorite sport, and the story that I always tell to

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Speaker 2: exemplify that is I remember vividly nineteen ninety three Nicks. First,

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Speaker 2: excuse me, I wish Bulls versus Suns Game one of

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Speaker 2: the NBA Finals happened the same night as Game five

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Speaker 2: of the Stanley Cup. Finals between my hometown Montreal Canadians

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Speaker 2: and the LA Kings, and that was the game that

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Speaker 2: the Canadians clinched their last Stanley Cup. I chose to

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Speaker 2: watch Game one of the nineteen ninety three NBA Finals

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Speaker 2: over the Stanley Cup, clinching victory for the Canadans. That's

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Speaker 2: how much I love the NBA. I grew up with

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Speaker 2: two older brothers, like I said, and they were into basketball,

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Speaker 2: and I'll never forget when I truly fell in love

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Speaker 2: with the sport. We walked into a shoe store in

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Speaker 2: Montreal and for some reason, they were selling Patrick Ewing's shoes.

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Speaker 2: And my brothers, who in hindsight I think were playing

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Speaker 2: a prank on me because they didn't want me to

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Speaker 2: wear the cool shoes that they were wearing, the Jordans,

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Speaker 2: they said, you should buy those shoes. And you guys,

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Speaker 2: remember the Ewing shoes. It was with giant brick. Yes,

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Speaker 2: they were not very nice, they were not nice at all.

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Speaker 2: To put them mildly, and I bought them, and then

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Speaker 2: I wanted to find out, all right, who wears these shoes?

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Speaker 2: And I remember ninety ninety one watching Patrick Ewing and

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Speaker 2: for some reason just falling in love with him, Like

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Speaker 2: I'm not just saying, oh, I was a fan, Like

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Speaker 2: I was obsessed with Patrick Ewing. Everything was Patrick Ewing

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Speaker 2: the Knicks. For me, I would only wear number thirty

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Speaker 2: three when I played basketball, and in school, I would

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Speaker 2: draw pictures of him all day long, like you would

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Speaker 2: think that he was, you know, my boyhood crush. I

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Speaker 2: was just so obsessed with that name team, and I

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Speaker 2: just fell head over heels for them and just got

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Speaker 2: immersed into the sport and to the point where, you know,

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Speaker 2: I would watch you know, like ESPN Classics, so we

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Speaker 2: had like an illegal first it was actually called Classic Sports.

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Speaker 2: Then it turned into ESPN Classic. We had one of

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Speaker 2: those like illegal satellites, so we got DirecTV in Montreal,

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Speaker 2: so I would watch the old games, NBA Finals, Lakers,

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Speaker 2: Celtics and back in the day early you know, Celtics

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Speaker 2: Nicks in the seventies. Like, I just fell in love

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Speaker 2: with the sport and loved playing it. Played on my

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Speaker 2: high school team, played for the Maccabi team, which is

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Speaker 2: sort of like the Jewish Olympics if you've never heard

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Speaker 2: of it, and just that's the best way to describe it.

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Speaker 2: Even though we weren't that good and just became obsessed

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Speaker 2: with the sport, just truly loved all things NBA. Like

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Speaker 2: I would have parties for the dunk contest and I

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Speaker 2: would hand out like flyers and give all my friends

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Speaker 2: like little bioblasts on each guy and try to explain

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Speaker 2: to them who these guys were. I remember in the

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Speaker 2: fifth grade, I taped the Slam Dunk competition Harold Minor.

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Speaker 2: I also loved Harold Minor for a brief moment, and

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Speaker 2: I was on this mission to get every single one

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Speaker 2: of his rookie.

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Speaker 3: Cards because he was going to replace Michael Jordan.

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Speaker 2: Obviously, absolutely it was baby Jordan. So I tape that

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Speaker 2: Slam dun competition in Minnesota, and I asked my teacher

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Speaker 2: if one upcoming lunch period we could watch it at

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Speaker 2: our school. And so we rolled in the TV, remember

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Speaker 2: the TVs, that big Rollie thing, and I showed my

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Speaker 2: entire class the nineteen ninety three NBA Slammed Dunk competition

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Speaker 2: because I wanted them to learn just how great Howld

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Speaker 2: Miner was. So that, in a nutshell, is why I

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Speaker 2: love the sport.

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Speaker 4: Did you gravitate towards the Knicks in part because you

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Speaker 4: said your older brothers were Bulls fans, Like were you

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Speaker 4: rebelling or like, that's just weird that you became a

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Speaker 4: Knicks fan. That's the part I can't wrap my head around.

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Speaker 4: So I think it was a little bit of that.

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Speaker 4: It was also I loved the underdog. I loved the

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Speaker 4: guys who seemed.

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Speaker 2: Like, Okay, the big bad Bulls were overshadowing them, and

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Speaker 2: these guys worked their butts off and they were just

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Speaker 2: kind of like gritty, that's my style. So the funny

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Speaker 2: thing is is that I was a Knicks fan, diehard

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Speaker 2: Knicks fan. They were Bulls fan. I was a diehard

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Speaker 2: Buffalo Bills fan. They were Cowboys fan. So I kind

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Speaker 2: of went against the grain. And of course in Montreal

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Speaker 2: we only got the Bills games, you know, because that

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Speaker 2: was during their prime ninety one, ninety two, ninety three,

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Speaker 2: ninety four, of course, and it was just torturous, Like

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Speaker 2: think about those early years, Bills losing to the Cowboys

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Speaker 2: twice back to back Super Bowls and the Knicks losing

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Speaker 2: to the Bulls, you know, almost every year except for

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Speaker 2: ninety four, but ninety four didn't really feel like it counted, right,

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Speaker 2: So I just there was something about you know, Oakley,

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Speaker 2: Mason Starks, like you know their backstory like Starks is,

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Speaker 2: you know, bagging groceries in Oklahoma and then goes to

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Speaker 2: the CBN and then all of a sudden pat Riley

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Speaker 2: finds him. I loved Xavier McDaniel. I was so sad

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Speaker 2: when he left for Boston. He was so cool when

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Speaker 2: he like stood to Jordan in ninety two. So there

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Speaker 2: was just something about their grittiness that I fell in

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Speaker 2: love with.

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Speaker 3: You were a bigger Patrick Ewing fan than you were

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Speaker 3: a Patrick Waffan, although you're wearing the number thirty three.

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Speaker 3: Both were thirty three. Did some people think you're just

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Speaker 3: a big Patrick Waffan no matter where you went.

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Speaker 2: No, my mom was obsessed with Patrick, while my brother

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Speaker 2: had a poster of him on his wall and she

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Speaker 2: used to kiss it before he went to bed. It

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Speaker 2: was very bizarre, but it's sort of a handsome man.

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Speaker 2: He was, I mean the hair, you know, you got

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Speaker 2: the little like flip and everything, and he was a legend,

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Speaker 2: I mean winking at people when he was remember that

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Speaker 2: in ninety fix Downy Cup Finals. But yeah, there was

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Speaker 2: just something about you Ing, and you know, it was

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Speaker 2: weird over time, youing kind of developed a reputation for

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Speaker 2: not being very nice, Like there were stories that he

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Speaker 2: wouldn't sign autograph for kids on game day and stuff

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Speaker 2: like that, and I just blocked all of that out

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Speaker 2: of like, no, this is my guy, and my heart

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Speaker 2: would break, like ninety five when he misses the finger roll,

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Speaker 2: and of course ninety four when they lose, like it

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Speaker 2: just felt like he can never get over, and then

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Speaker 2: ninety nine they make it to the finals but then

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Speaker 2: he tears his achilles. My heart just broke for the guy.

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Speaker 2: And in fact, to speed up to as I was

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Speaker 2: talking about HBO, I never wanted to go into TV

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Speaker 2: production when I was, you know, out of college, But

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Speaker 2: upon graduating, I got an email from someone at HBO

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Speaker 2: and they asked me if I wanted to work on

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Speaker 2: a documentary. Remember HBO Sports not that long ago, used

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Speaker 2: to be the gold dard as far as documentaries are concerned.

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Speaker 2: Sports documentaries, and I was like, yeah, I don't really

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Speaker 2: want to work in production. I want to be on air.

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Speaker 2: I asked him what's the documentary about, and they said

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Speaker 2: it was about the nineteen eighty five NCAA basketball Championship

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Speaker 2: game Villanova Georgetown about Villanova the you know, the eighth

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Speaker 2: seed makes it all the way and beats the big

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Speaker 2: bed Georgetown Hoyas. And even though that was a low

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Speaker 2: moment for Patrick Ewing, I thought, oh, maybe I can

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Speaker 2: be in his presence and meet him and learn more

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Speaker 2: about him. So I took the job just because it

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Speaker 2: was somewhat related to Patrick Ewing.

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Speaker 4: Did you ever meet him? I was going to ask you, actually,

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Speaker 4: have you met him? Did you meet him at that

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Speaker 4: time or have you met him later in life?

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Speaker 2: So funny question. They did interview him for the doc.

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Speaker 2: He was an assistant coach with the Rockets, so this

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Speaker 2: is two thousand and four, and they wouldn't pay for

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Speaker 2: me to go to the interview. They went to interview

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Speaker 2: him in Houston. So I paid for myself and I

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Speaker 2: went there, and I didn't really tell anyone that I

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Speaker 2: was like so obsessed with him. So I sat in

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Speaker 2: the room but didn't say a word to him, and

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Speaker 2: I kind of regret it. Oh wow, so you didn't

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Speaker 2: get a photo, nothing, nothing, wow. But I just sat there.

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Speaker 2: I was there. Yeah, I sat there. One dad loved

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Speaker 2: to meet him. I got to meet John Starks two

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Speaker 2: years ago and that was tremendous. My wife, who I

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Speaker 2: met in seventh grade. Her initials are JS, so when

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Speaker 2: I would speak about her to my friends back in

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Speaker 2: the day, we would refer to her as John Starks.

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Speaker 2: That was our code name for her. So, like the

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Speaker 2: Knicks were my entire life, I can't. March eleventh, nineteen

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Speaker 2: ninety five, I went to my first ever Knicks game,

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Speaker 2: Knicks versus Sonics at Madison Square Garden. If you've ever

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Speaker 2: seen the movie Rudy, when the dad walks into Notre

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Speaker 2: Dame Stadium and says, this is the greatest thing my

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Speaker 2: eyes have ever seen, That's what I felt like.

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Speaker 3: Ariel, You're clearly a huge, monstrous Knicks man. You work

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Speaker 3: at ESPN. I got to be your agent.

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Speaker 2: Stephen A.

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Speaker 3: Smith is always doing the media circuit after a big

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Speaker 3: Knicks event. James Dolan said this, let's go to stephen A.

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Speaker 3: Smith on Sports Center. Let's go to stephen A. Smith

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Speaker 3: on Get Up. Why aren't you that guy? You should

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Speaker 3: be the one. You should be the one commenting. No

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Speaker 3: offense to stephen A. But get some young blood in there.

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Speaker 3: There's got to be a way talk to Jason here.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate that. First of all, he's been around

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Speaker 2: way longer than me and has a lot more cloud

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Speaker 2: in that world than I do. And can I just

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Speaker 2: say one of the greatest byproducts of working at ESPN

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Speaker 2: is getting to meet these people that you see on

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Speaker 2: TV and Steven a pound for pound number one, to

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Speaker 2: steal phrase from the Fighting World, the nicest guy that

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Speaker 2: I've met at East Kim like goes out of his

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Speaker 2: way to give me props, says, hey, I saw that interview. Hey,

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Speaker 2: what do you think of this fight? What do you think? Hey,

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Speaker 2: my brother keep it up? Send me a nice email

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Speaker 2: one time after he saw it. Like, he doesn't have

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Speaker 2: to do any of that. So everything that you've read

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Speaker 2: about him about being a good teammate and colleague is

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Speaker 2: one thousand percent true. I just wanted to say that,

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Speaker 2: but he's I don't want to take his spot, and

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Speaker 2: to be honest, you know, as you guys mentioned at

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Speaker 2: the top, as we mentioned, you know, dipping my toe

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Speaker 2: in the sideline waters, so to speak, I don't want

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Speaker 2: to be a bias nixt fact, I want people to

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Speaker 2: view me like they view me in the MMA world,

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Speaker 2: where you know, for the most part, I have no

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Speaker 2: bias and people kind of view me as a guy

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Speaker 2: who calls it straight down the middle, and it's kind

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Speaker 2: of easy to do that these days with the Knicks,

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Speaker 2: you don't have to really be biased towards them, maybe

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Speaker 2: on the negative side. So I'm okay with where I'm at.

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Speaker 2: I really hope I can keep doing that sideline stuff

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Speaker 2: because it was it was amazing this year.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you, like,

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Speaker 1: how did that even come about that you were able

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Speaker 1: to start doing stuff like I imagine when you signed with ESPN.

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Speaker 1: They obviously wanted you for your MMA and UFC, you know,

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Speaker 1: clout there, But whatre you in the contract? Did you say, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I want to do some NBA stuff as well, And

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Speaker 1: how did it all come about?

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Speaker 2: There was no talk of MBA whatsoever when I signed

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Speaker 2: with them. It was just for MMA. And how it

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Speaker 2: came about it was very easy in this respect. I

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Speaker 2: got there in June of twenty eighteen. The reason I

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Speaker 2: went to ESPN obviously, you know you want to work

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Speaker 2: at ESPN you grow up. I'm a kid from Montreal.

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Speaker 2: ESPN to me was always, you know, the end all

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Speaker 2: be all, it's you know, the mothership, all that stuff.

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Speaker 2: But I had a really good job with Vox Media

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Speaker 2: and they treated me really well, and you know, I

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Speaker 2: was doing the MMA stuff there. But the reason I

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Speaker 2: wanted to go to ESPN in particular was not just

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Speaker 2: to do MMA, but was to expand and to show

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Speaker 2: people that I'm not just an MMA guy and that

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Speaker 2: I know a lot about other sports and in particular basketball.

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Speaker 2: So I never really said this to them when I signed,

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Speaker 2: but it was always part of my plan. And so

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Speaker 2: I got there in June of twenty eighteen. In September

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Speaker 2: of twenty eighteen, so three months I wanted to get

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Speaker 2: my feet wet and you know, just not really waltz

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Speaker 2: in there and be like, hey, I got other plans

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Speaker 2: as well. So I found out who the you know,

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Speaker 2: the head guy of the NBA on ESPN is the

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Speaker 2: executive producer. And I sent him an email and I

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Speaker 2: just said, hey, you know, I know you're super busy,

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Speaker 2: the season's about to start. I'd love five to ten

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Speaker 2: minutes of your time. He said, yeah, sure, come meet

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Speaker 2: me on this day. Went to meet him. Could tell

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Speaker 2: right away that he's like a straight shooter kind of guy.

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Speaker 2: His name is Tim Corgan. You may have heard of him,

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Speaker 2: and I sat in his office and I said, look,

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Speaker 2: you know, I don't want to take up a lot

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Speaker 2: of your time. I just want to let you know

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Speaker 2: that if you ever need someone to work the sidelines,

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Speaker 2: to do anything regarding the NBA on ESPN, TELEC, I

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Speaker 2: would love to be considered. I know I don't have,

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Speaker 2: you know, an extensive resume when it comes to the NBA,

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Speaker 2: but I'll tell you right now, I'm a massive fan.

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Speaker 2: I've been studying, you know, the broadcast. I've been watching them.

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Speaker 2: I've been dreaming of being Doris Burke and a Madrashad

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Speaker 2: and Craig Sager and all these people. And I would

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Speaker 2: just love to be considered. And he said to me,

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Speaker 2: He's like, you know, no one's ever really done this,

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Speaker 2: No one's really like walked in who doesn't work on

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Speaker 2: the NBA stuff and just has been this blunt. And

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Speaker 2: I have to be honest with you. I don't know

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Speaker 2: a lot about your stuff. I'm gonna look into you,

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Speaker 2: and I also have to be honest. We don't really

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Speaker 2: have any openings right now, but I appreciate you doing this,

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Speaker 2: and let's see what happens. You know, you never know

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Speaker 2: what happens in six months, so that was great. Didn't

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Speaker 2: hear anything back, and then maybe around this time, maybe

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Speaker 2: like May of last year, they reached out and asked

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Speaker 2: me if I wanted to do some Summer League sidelines

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Speaker 2: for them, and it just so happened that I was

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Speaker 2: going to be in Las Vegas for the UFC because

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Speaker 2: they always do events in early July. I said, one,

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Speaker 2: I would love to do it. I couldn't believe that

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Speaker 2: they were asking me to do this, you know, almost

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Speaker 2: six months later, as he predicted. And my first so

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Speaker 2: I get there on a Friday, I'm super nervous. They

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Speaker 2: give me like that polo that you wear, you know,

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Speaker 2: oh yeah, yeah there, yes, It's like I felt official

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Speaker 2: just getting the polos like I got the Summer League polo.

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Speaker 2: This is great. And my first game was with George Sadano,

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Speaker 2: who's incredible, and Vince freaking Carter as the color analyst.

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Speaker 2: And Vince was kind of nervous too because he had

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Speaker 2: this was his debut as well as a color analyst

380
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Speaker 2: for ESPN. They were kind of testing him out too,

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Speaker 2: and I got to do three games that weekend Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

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Speaker 2: The first day that I was there, I didn't do

383
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Speaker 2: this game, but later that night was the Zion versus R. J.

384
00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:41,920
Speaker 2: Barrett game when the earthquake happened, So if you remember that.

385
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Speaker 2: So I stayed a whole night at watch and I

386
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Speaker 2: got to see everyone walking around and so they you know,

387
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Speaker 2: it was good. It was they seemed to be happy

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Speaker 2: with me. Go back home. Don't hear a word from

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Speaker 2: them for you know, three months, and then all of

390
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Speaker 2: a sudden, I'm sitting at my computer. I get an

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Speaker 2: email from someone who works on the NBA side. It says, hey,

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Speaker 2: I hope you're doing well. These are your first two

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Speaker 2: games of the regular season. I was like, what. I

394
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:03,760
Speaker 2: didn't even know that, Like, I didn't know that this

395
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Speaker 2: was happening. I didn't know this was a thing. First

396
00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:12,119
Speaker 2: game is Mavericks at Pelicans, Zion's home opener in early October.

397
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Speaker 2: I look at the roster, how they have it laid out.

398
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Speaker 2: Is Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, and Ariel Hawani, and

399
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Speaker 2: I was like, holy crap. Breen I've been listening to

400
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Speaker 2: for like twenty something years, Jeff Fan Gundy my favorite

401
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Speaker 2: Knicks coach of all time. And me Zion's home opener.

402
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Speaker 2: Of course, he didn't play that game. He ended up

403
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Speaker 2: getting injured, but that was nuts. Also Kristaps playing I

404
00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:33,680
Speaker 2: loved Chris STAPs all that stuff. And the second game

405
00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:38,800
Speaker 2: is Christmas Day, Celtics at Raptors, first ever Christmas game

406
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Speaker 2: in our beloved home country of Canada, and I was

407
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Speaker 2: just like, I can't believe this is happening. Yeah it was.

408
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Speaker 2: It was mind blowing. Man. The first day when I

409
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Speaker 2: went there, I went to dinner with Van Gundy and

410
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Speaker 2: Breen and like, think of me, like I grew up

411
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Speaker 2: obsessed with the Knicks, but I was just obsessed with

412
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Speaker 2: the Knicks. I was obsessed with the whole thing, right

413
00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:57,960
Speaker 2: Wald Frazier, John Andres, Marv Albert, like the whole MSG

414
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Speaker 2: network all that, and I'm sitting with Mike Breen and

415
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Speaker 2: Jeff Van Gundy. Mind blowing. So yeah, it was. I'm

416
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Speaker 2: going on and on here because I could talk about

417
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Speaker 2: the experience forever. It was really incredible. And then to

418
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Speaker 2: get there and then to meet so many people who

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Speaker 2: are MMA fans, like like Steven Adams, like running after

420
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Speaker 2: me back in the locker room being like, hey man,

421
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Speaker 2: I need ten minutes of your time to talk about

422
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Speaker 2: Kabib and Connor and all this other Like for Steven Adams,

423
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Speaker 2: what the hell this is insane? It was nuts, man,

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Speaker 2: it was absolute. So Indiana, I got to do five

425
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Speaker 2: games before the season stopped, and it was a dream

426
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Speaker 2: come true.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it must have been, you know, because of your

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Speaker 1: you know background and growing up there. But that's what

429
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:33,679
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to you about as well. Like

430
00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:36,159
Speaker 1: a lot of basketball fans and athletes are just in

431
00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:38,359
Speaker 1: an mma and UFC fans, So when they see you

432
00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:41,639
Speaker 1: in an arena, they're probably thinking you're there, you know,

433
00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:43,520
Speaker 1: not to cover the game as such. They probably think

434
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:45,880
Speaker 1: maybe you're just there as a fan. So are they

435
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:48,879
Speaker 1: trying to talk to you about about the you know,

436
00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:50,639
Speaker 1: the fighting world and what's going on and trying to

437
00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:51,400
Speaker 1: get any scoops?

438
00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:55,440
Speaker 2: So Steven Adams to go back to him. I initially

439
00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:59,560
Speaker 2: saw him when I'm doing a walkoff interview with Chris Paul,

440
00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:02,159
Speaker 2: which is surreal. I'm standing there with Chris Paul and

441
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:04,800
Speaker 2: he's doing a walkoff interview with the local oka see

442
00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:07,919
Speaker 2: Fox Sports. He walked away. There's a clip online. He

443
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:10,360
Speaker 2: walked away in the middle of their interview and goes,

444
00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:11,400
Speaker 2: what are you doing here?

445
00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:11,800
Speaker 5: Mate?

446
00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:14,560
Speaker 2: I'm like, you're on the air right now. This is crazy,

447
00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:16,680
Speaker 2: and so yeah, it happened every step of the way.

448
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:20,000
Speaker 2: The first So I loved Chris STAPs. I was very

449
00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:22,520
Speaker 2: sad when they traded him, and Kristaps is a big

450
00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:24,720
Speaker 2: MMA fan, but we never really met or anything. But

451
00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:28,760
Speaker 2: over the couple months before my first game, he started

452
00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:30,840
Speaker 2: like liking my posts. I was like, holy crab, Kristaps

453
00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:32,520
Speaker 2: liking my post. This is nuts. And then we started

454
00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:34,120
Speaker 2: dming a little bit. It was you know, it took

455
00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:38,320
Speaker 2: the next step in the relationship. And so I slid

456
00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:40,680
Speaker 2: in his dms before that game and I was like, Hey,

457
00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:43,000
Speaker 2: would you mind doing an interview because we were doing

458
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,439
Speaker 2: like these layup line interviews which were really cool that

459
00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:48,480
Speaker 2: they started doing, and would you mind doing interviews? Said yeah, absolutely,

460
00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:50,960
Speaker 2: and so we did. My first thing that I did

461
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,480
Speaker 2: on air for a regular season NBA game was me

462
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:57,119
Speaker 2: interviewing Kristaps Porzingis. And the coolest thing is like, if

463
00:19:57,400 --> 00:19:59,600
Speaker 2: if you've interviewed people, and you guys have so many times,

464
00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:02,440
Speaker 2: you know there's a little like there's a little nod

465
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,000
Speaker 2: of almost respect and appreciation that you could get when

466
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,240
Speaker 2: you're interviewing something that I've always felt was really cool

467
00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:09,960
Speaker 2: is when someone says your name when they're answering your question.

468
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:12,320
Speaker 2: Like you notice how Lebron always does that with Doris,

469
00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:14,119
Speaker 2: He's like you know, Doris. It's like, man, that is

470
00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:16,320
Speaker 2: really cool that, like he respects that person and he

471
00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:18,520
Speaker 2: says their name. And Chris Aps did that in the

472
00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:21,119
Speaker 2: first answer, and I was like, holy crap, I can't

473
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,520
Speaker 2: like that. Maybe someone's watching that in the truck and

474
00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:25,800
Speaker 2: it's like whoa Christaps knows who Ariel is because he

475
00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:27,480
Speaker 2: could have just like you know, sometimes they do the

476
00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:29,200
Speaker 2: interviews and they're not even looking at the person and

477
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:31,600
Speaker 2: seems like they have no respect for the.

478
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:33,520
Speaker 1: Veryre like hey man, yeah, man, yeah man yeah.

479
00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:35,440
Speaker 2: So he's like yeah, you know Ariel. I was like, man,

480
00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:36,840
Speaker 2: and like this was a big deal for him. It

481
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:39,280
Speaker 2: was a second game back after the long layoff the injury,

482
00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:41,920
Speaker 2: so that was incredibly cool. And then every step of

483
00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:44,920
Speaker 2: the way there was just like another thing that happened.

484
00:20:46,119 --> 00:20:48,199
Speaker 2: You know, when I was I was doing so I

485
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:50,720
Speaker 2: was doing nuggets okay see, and like that one was

486
00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:52,600
Speaker 2: the weirdest one because it was like back to back

487
00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,800
Speaker 2: to back where we're sitting it's me Ryan, Ruco and

488
00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:59,119
Speaker 2: Dorris Burke, and we're doing the coaches interviews, and first

489
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:02,360
Speaker 2: walks in Billy Donovan and he walks in right away

490
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:04,720
Speaker 2: and he goes, you're a big deal in my household.

491
00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:07,040
Speaker 2: I was like, what the hell, Billy Donald? He said,

492
00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,720
Speaker 2: my son hosts an MMA radio show in college. And

493
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:12,600
Speaker 2: I said, wow, that's incredible. I did the same when

494
00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:14,520
Speaker 2: I was in college. I said, if he ever needs

495
00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:16,000
Speaker 2: a guest, I'd be happy to do. He goes, you

496
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:17,400
Speaker 2: would do that for him? And I was like, yeah,

497
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 2: for sure, I would do that for him. You're Billy Donovan.

498
00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:21,960
Speaker 2: So I gave like the PR guy my phone number.

499
00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:25,040
Speaker 2: Then next guy who comes up, Michael Malone and he

500
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:27,640
Speaker 2: sits down it's Ruco Dori. I mean, I don't say

501
00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:30,399
Speaker 2: a word in those meetings, because you know they're the legends.

502
00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,040
Speaker 2: I'm just sitting there. I'm a fly on the wall.

503
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:33,560
Speaker 2: And he goes, all right, I know, you guys have

504
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:35,640
Speaker 2: you know a lot of questions. This is a big game, okay,

505
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 2: soe he was doing great, Nuggets were doing great. Second

506
00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:39,280
Speaker 2: see it at the time. And he goes, I know,

507
00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:42,360
Speaker 2: you guys got a lot of questions. But I got

508
00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:44,439
Speaker 2: a few questions for you, and he points to me.

509
00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,119
Speaker 2: He goes, when's Connor Habib too happy? I was like,

510
00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:49,359
Speaker 2: what the hell? This is nuts, And then he proceeds

511
00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:51,000
Speaker 2: to tell me a story about how like when Flip

512
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:54,399
Speaker 2: Saunders was sick, they hung out a lot and he

513
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:57,960
Speaker 2: invited him and they watched you know, Connor. I think

514
00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:01,520
Speaker 2: it was Connor versus Dennis Seaver and all this stuff,

515
00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:03,240
Speaker 2: and I was like, wow, this is crazy, Like there's

516
00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:05,640
Speaker 2: so many connection. Then the Stephen Adams thing happened later

517
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:07,800
Speaker 2: that day, and it just seemed like every time I

518
00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:10,280
Speaker 2: was in Oh, this was great. I was in Toronto

519
00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:12,920
Speaker 2: for the Celtics game and I got to meet Eric Smith,

520
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,359
Speaker 2: who I'm sure you guys know what a nice guy.

521
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:17,000
Speaker 2: He was there with his son and we were talking

522
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:19,080
Speaker 2: a little bit about everything, and you know, he came

523
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:21,120
Speaker 2: up to me. Again. When I'm at these things, I'm

524
00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:22,359
Speaker 2: trying not to go up, you know, I want to

525
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:25,200
Speaker 2: say hi to people and be respectful, but I'm really

526
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:27,120
Speaker 2: very cognizant of the fact that I'm the new guy

527
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:28,800
Speaker 2: and I don't want to step on anyone's toes. So

528
00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:32,320
Speaker 2: it's just been it's been amazing. Man. I can't thank

529
00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:34,440
Speaker 2: the NBA community enough for how nice they were to me,

530
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,040
Speaker 2: and especially if I could just say this, you know,

531
00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:39,600
Speaker 2: the people who also work as sideline reporters for ESPN.

532
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:41,600
Speaker 2: They could have looked at me and said, who's this schmuck,

533
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:45,560
Speaker 2: this fighting guy coming over here? George Sadano, Cassidy Hubberth.

534
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:50,040
Speaker 2: Doris has evolved and graduated, and rightfully so from that position,

535
00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:51,960
Speaker 2: but she could not be nicer to me and send

536
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:54,280
Speaker 2: me text. Mike Breen sending me text on Christmas Day

537
00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:56,080
Speaker 2: so proud of you, Ariel that you're on team. I

538
00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:57,800
Speaker 2: was like, wow, I hardly even know these people and

539
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:00,240
Speaker 2: they couldn't have been nicer to me. So that's really

540
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:01,800
Speaker 2: what made the experience so great.

541
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:04,720
Speaker 4: Which which NBA player do you think is the most

542
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:06,800
Speaker 4: knowledgeable UFC fan?

543
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,040
Speaker 2: That's okay, there's a few that comes to mind. Christaps

544
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,880
Speaker 2: is a huge fan like hot hardcore. Yeah, he really

545
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:16,200
Speaker 2: follows the stuff and peppers me with questions like, man,

546
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:17,679
Speaker 2: you really know your stuff? You know? Who's also a

547
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:21,840
Speaker 2: really really big fan of Michael Carter Williams. I've seen him, Yeah,

548
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 2: I've seen him at a lot of events and his

549
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:27,160
Speaker 2: dad is a martial artist, and he's trained before, so

550
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 2: he's a really big fan. Shaq, believe it or Not,

551
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:33,600
Speaker 2: is a big fan. He's like there's footage of Shaq

552
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:36,360
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety seven at a local show in Hawaii.

553
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:39,760
Speaker 2: He made a famous fighter named Vitor Belford, and the

554
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:43,960
Speaker 2: Lakers were there at you know, for training camp, and

555
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 2: they all went to this show in Hawaii when they

556
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:47,800
Speaker 2: were doing training camp over there. So those are a

557
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 2: few names that come to mind. Michael Carter Williams, Like

558
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 2: I've seen Michael Carter Williams in the offseason at like

559
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 2: random cities, just like traveling with his buddies to go

560
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:58,920
Speaker 2: to these events. Believe it or not. Yeah, that was

561
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:00,600
Speaker 2: a really big surprise. You know. Who was also a

562
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 2: gigantic fan, Jonas de Rebco, formerly of the Jazz and

563
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:09,200
Speaker 2: Pistols and All trains too, right, I feel he trains. Yeah,

564
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 2: but you know it's weird when you ask them about training,

565
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:12,560
Speaker 2: they never want to talk about it because they could

566
00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:13,560
Speaker 2: all get in trouble for it.

567
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 4: Ah right, right, Yeah, it's probably in their contracts somewhere.

568
00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:19,639
Speaker 2: Yeah. And another guy who believe it or Not as

569
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 2: a massive fan is Darren Williams formerly of the Jazz

570
00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:27,280
Speaker 2: and and Nets Cleveland, Dallas. He actually owns an MMA

571
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,879
Speaker 2: gym in Dallas and and they're like a legit team

572
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 2: that you know, there's a lot of UFC fighters who

573
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:34,600
Speaker 2: trained there, and he trains there now that he's retired.

574
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,440
Speaker 2: I'll see him training from time to time. And Christaps

575
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:39,879
Speaker 2: now trains out of there on the d L like

576
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 2: he'll do. Like I seen a picture of him hanging

577
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:43,000
Speaker 2: out there, you know, in the off season. I'm not

578
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 2: trying to out him or anything, but they posted this stuff,

579
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,040
Speaker 2: so it's all good. So yeah, those are a few

580
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:47,920
Speaker 2: guys that come to mind.

581
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:51,119
Speaker 1: Is it is it different talking to like, I mean,

582
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:52,719
Speaker 1: their athletes all the same, or is it different when

583
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: you're interviewing an NBA player after a game versus a

584
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,480
Speaker 1: UFC fighter after a big fight, Like have they have?

585
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:00,680
Speaker 1: They just got the same sort of outlook after a result.

586
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,080
Speaker 2: So that's a really good question. You know, I've been

587
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 2: watching the NBA for so long, and I will admit

588
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 2: one thing that early on sort of turned me from

589
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:12,639
Speaker 2: going down this path was, you know, I watched all

590
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:15,920
Speaker 2: the postgame interviews and the postgame press conferences, the locker

591
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:19,280
Speaker 2: room interviews, and you know more often than not, you know,

592
00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 2: they're just kind of throwing out cliches, and it seems

593
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 2: like they don't really respect the media. They're not looking

594
00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:27,040
Speaker 2: at them, they're not really engaged. And if you know

595
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 2: anything about NME fighters, I mean, they're the complete opposite, right.

596
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,679
Speaker 2: They're very colorful, they're very open, they're very authentic. They

597
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 2: don't have a lot of pr people telling them what

598
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:36,879
Speaker 2: to say. So for the longest time, I felt, you know,

599
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:38,720
Speaker 2: I'm going to go down this path because they're just

600
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,199
Speaker 2: such great people to cover, the NME fighters, and so

601
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:44,240
Speaker 2: I was wondering how it would feel when I crossed over.

602
00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 2: And I have to say, man, you know, I haven't

603
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 2: really felt that about the NBA players. I have felt

604
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:52,679
Speaker 2: them to be very engaged and very honest and very forthright.

605
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 2: And you know, I'll give you an example. And I

606
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:56,920
Speaker 2: don't know if you know I caught them on a

607
00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:59,600
Speaker 2: good day or whatever. Maybe it was, I don't know.

608
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:04,520
Speaker 2: But so I did Heat versus Clippers in January, and

609
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 2: this was an amazing game because the Heat at the

610
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 2: time I think only lost one home game and the

611
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 2: Clippers were the Clippers. But earlier in that week, the

612
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,720
Speaker 2: Athletic came out with the stories, you know, detailing that

613
00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:17,920
Speaker 2: there was a little bit of dissension within the Clippers

614
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:20,359
Speaker 2: locker room, if you may recall. And this was the

615
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 2: first game since that article came out. So the game

616
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:27,000
Speaker 2: was incredible and I was shocked, like I couldn't believe it.

617
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:29,920
Speaker 2: When we have like a little slack group at ESPN

618
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,120
Speaker 2: where they like, you know, per sport and they throw

619
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 2: out like crazy stats. It's amazing what these people do,

620
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 2: the Stats and Info group as games are going on,

621
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:40,840
Speaker 2: and at some point they write that, you know, Kawhi

622
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,400
Speaker 2: just got his tenth rebound, that's his first triple double.

623
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 2: I was like, holy crap, Kawhi Leonard's been in the

624
00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 2: league for nine years, he hasn't had a triple double yet.

625
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:48,760
Speaker 2: I was blown away by that. But lo and behold,

626
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:50,399
Speaker 2: it was his first triple double. So in the end,

627
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:53,479
Speaker 2: the Clippers win and I get to do the walkoff

628
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:57,120
Speaker 2: interview with Kawhi, the the you know, the unofficial Prime

629
00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 2: Minister of Canada for life, and it was you know,

630
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 2: I was like, I was wondering how this was going

631
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:03,240
Speaker 2: to go because Kawhi, we all know about how he

632
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 2: is when it comes to interviews, and you know, maybe

633
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:08,160
Speaker 2: early on in my MMA career, I kind of got

634
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:10,960
Speaker 2: the reputation for being a guy who asked the quote

635
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,200
Speaker 2: unquote tough questions or isn't afraid. I never believed that

636
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:15,680
Speaker 2: to be true. I never thought that was a thing.

637
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:17,959
Speaker 2: That was never a mindset. I just figured, hey, I've

638
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,239
Speaker 2: been given this privilege to be here, I might as

639
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 2: well not beat around the bush and ask what fans

640
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 2: at home would want to ask. So first question, you know,

641
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:27,920
Speaker 2: we get to do three usually in the walk off.

642
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 2: The first question was, you know, congratulations on the win,

643
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 2: congratulations on the triple double. We'll get to that in

644
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 2: a second. But as you know, earlier this week, there

645
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:39,160
Speaker 2: was an article that came out detailing the dissension within

646
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 2: the locker room, and I asked him about it right

647
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,200
Speaker 2: off the bat, no no for play, no foot seat beforehand,

648
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,920
Speaker 2: like just oh, how do you feel? And he gave

649
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 2: me like a really good answer, at least a good answer.

650
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:51,440
Speaker 2: I thought it was a good answer and a good

651
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 2: answer by Kawhi standards. And then when I went to

652
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 2: the back after, they're like, WHOA, we can't believe you

653
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:57,240
Speaker 2: asked that. We can't believe you asked that right away.

654
00:27:57,359 --> 00:27:58,919
Speaker 2: I was like, why wouldn't I ask it? I was

655
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 2: genuinely curious out what he thought about that article, and

656
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:03,679
Speaker 2: he gave, you know, really honest and he was kind

657
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:05,120
Speaker 2: of annoyed by it. But it was just like, wow,

658
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:07,399
Speaker 2: that was a lot of emotion for Kawhi. And so,

659
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:10,719
Speaker 2: you know, just things like that where I've been pleasantly surprised.

660
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 2: And maybe I don't know, maybe when you are around

661
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 2: these guys long enough, you shy away. Maybe I have

662
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:18,760
Speaker 2: nothing to lose. Maybe I feel like this is gravy.

663
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 2: I just feel like you might as well just ask it.

664
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 2: And what's the worst that can happen? You know? And

665
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:25,919
Speaker 2: it's been great. And another cool thing very quickly was

666
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 2: when Chris Paul came to do his pregame interview with us.

667
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 2: Weirdly enough, he was wearing a Reggie Bullock Knicks jersey.

668
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 2: I'll never forget that. I don't know why he would

669
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 2: were I think they were like au buddies, but it

670
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 2: was just so weird to see Chris Paul wearing a

671
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 2: Nix jersey. And and so he starts talking to us,

672
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:42,800
Speaker 2: and he's talking to Doris and Ryan Rucco and at

673
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 2: the end they'll usually ask me like, do you have

674
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:45,920
Speaker 2: a question? You know, you want to ask a question,

675
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:47,720
Speaker 2: you know, like they kind of gather notes for the game.

676
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,800
Speaker 2: And I asked him about being a vegan, like, you know,

677
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 2: he's now like fully entrenched in this plant based diet lifestyle.

678
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 2: And he's like, ah, no, man, I don't want to

679
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 2: talk about that. You know, I don't on other people to,

680
00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 2: you know, to learn about my secrets. And I respect that.

681
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:05,120
Speaker 2: But then he kind of went on for like twenty

682
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:07,840
Speaker 2: minutes talking about it. So at the end, at the

683
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 2: end of the game, he has an amazing game they

684
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 2: win against the Nuggets, and I asked him, hey, you know,

685
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:15,720
Speaker 2: for the past five years, you haven't played more than

686
00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 2: sixty games in the regular season, and now you're you're

687
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 2: on a pace to play over eighty games. You know,

688
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 2: he'll only miss one game at that point, like, what's

689
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 2: been the secret to success? So he gives me this

690
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:28,360
Speaker 2: whole like Shpiel doesn't mention the plant based diet at all.

691
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:31,120
Speaker 2: And then I said to him after the answer, I

692
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 2: was like, and you know that plant based diet as

693
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 2: well has helped too, right, And he goes, don't tell

694
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 2: anyone about that and winks and walk off. I was like, wow,

695
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 2: I have an inside joking call. Oh it was so great,

696
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:44,120
Speaker 2: it was amazing. So yeah, that was a highlight for me.

697
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: You've you know, you're getting all this information out of

698
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,120
Speaker 1: these plays. You've got to interview Greg Popovich sometime soon

699
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 1: then and see how you go with him.

700
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:52,959
Speaker 2: I hope he doesn't retire by the time I make

701
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 2: it there, because like I'm super low in the totem pole.

702
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,400
Speaker 2: Like if they were giving me one game this year,

703
00:29:57,760 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 2: that was a massive success. The fact that I got

704
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 2: five still feels like a dream, and I hope it

705
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 2: doesn't end. But you know, I don't know how many

706
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:07,120
Speaker 2: years left, but I would love that challenge. I would

707
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 2: really relish that.

708
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 1: We'll be back with Ariel in just a moment. But first,

709
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 1: a word from responsors.

710
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:13,160
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711
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712
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714
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716
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717
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718
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719
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720
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721
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722
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723
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724
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741
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764
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Speaker 1: So, you know, we've talked a lot about NBA fans

765
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: being obviously UFC and MMA fans. What about the other way.

766
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:12,400
Speaker 1: There are a lot of good basketball is that you

767
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,480
Speaker 1: know of in the mixed martial arts world.

768
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 2: To be honest, no, have you ever seen fighters? It's

769
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,240
Speaker 2: so crazy, like they're so great at fighting, and they're

770
00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 2: so athletic, and then you give them any kind of

771
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,239
Speaker 2: ball of football, a basketball, baseball, and they look like

772
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:27,840
Speaker 2: someone who's never picked up a ball in their life.

773
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,080
Speaker 2: It's so bizarre. Like have you ever seen John Jones

774
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:32,760
Speaker 2: type in on YouTube? I think it's there. One time

775
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 2: John Jones was in Atlanta and they took him like

776
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:39,400
Speaker 2: on a pr thing to the Hawks you know, training facility,

777
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 2: and he was shooting baskets and I was blown away

778
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:44,600
Speaker 2: by how bad he looked, like no form whatsoever. And

779
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:48,040
Speaker 2: John Jones his brothers are pro bowlers, like his brothers

780
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 2: playing in the NFL, Chandler Jones, Arthur Jones. So you

781
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:51,959
Speaker 2: would think that he would have some kind of you know,

782
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 2: athletic ability other than fighting in his body. Nothing so

783
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 2: for the most part, Like there's maybe guys here there,

784
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,239
Speaker 2: but I have been consistently on the flip side. By

785
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 2: the way, there was a clip that came out over

786
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:06,000
Speaker 2: the summer where the Rockets went to the UFC Performance Institute,

787
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 2: which is like their training facility in Vegas, and Russell

788
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:14,960
Speaker 2: Westbrook and James Harden we're hitting off right and it

789
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 2: was horrible. It was like, on the flip side, they're

790
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 2: so stiff, they have no idea what to do, how

791
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 2: to punch. I think the punching and the kicking is

792
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:23,719
Speaker 2: a lot harder than the shooting baskets because I feel

793
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:25,400
Speaker 2: like you just kind of grow up with that ability

794
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 2: as a kid, you know, you just But yeah, for

795
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:30,560
Speaker 2: the most part, I've been very disappointed in the athletic

796
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 2: ability of the fighters.

797
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:35,360
Speaker 4: We're not going to see like a Dion Sanders esque

798
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:39,880
Speaker 4: UFC slash NBA player. Maybe, well, like what about James Johnson.

799
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 4: I thought he was supposed to be a yes.

800
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, so he's like a seventh degree Black Belty

801
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 2: kick chosing. So yeah, there are you know, some exceptions

802
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 2: here there, But for the most part, maybe it's because

803
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:51,920
Speaker 2: they're so tall, you know, it's just a little bit

804
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 2: awkward for them. But you know, the fighters have no excuse.

805
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,080
Speaker 2: I don't know what their excuse is. You know, they're

806
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 2: all like six one, six, five, ten, five eleven. Yeah,

807
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:04,080
Speaker 2: and for the most part they suck. Like really, So what.

808
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:06,560
Speaker 1: About your game? What do you do? You you good basketball?

809
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:08,600
Speaker 1: You got any any comparison you can share?

810
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:12,160
Speaker 2: You know, I don't like to do my own horn. No,

811
00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:14,239
Speaker 2: I did play in Look, first of all, I have

812
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:17,839
Speaker 2: to qualify the statement with this. I went to a

813
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 2: private Jewish school in Montreal, so there were there were

814
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 2: maybe like forty eight kids in my graduating class, so

815
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:27,279
Speaker 2: it wasn't exactly you know, the who's who of the

816
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 2: Montreal basketball scene. But that being said, I was on

817
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,719
Speaker 2: the team all five years. And for those that may

818
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:35,360
Speaker 2: be confused, I know you guys probably know. You know,

819
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,000
Speaker 2: high school in Quebec is seventh grade to eleventh grade.

820
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:40,759
Speaker 2: There's no twelfth grade and we don't have middle school

821
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 2: and all that. So I was on the team from

822
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:46,479
Speaker 2: seventh to eleven and I played. My claim to fame,

823
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:48,120
Speaker 2: or what I'm most proud of, is playing on the

824
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:53,000
Speaker 2: Maccabi team in nineteen ninety eight we represented Montreal and

825
00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:54,719
Speaker 2: again I kind of make a joke that it's the

826
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,120
Speaker 2: Jewish Olympics, but it's the best way to describe it,

827
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 2: where it's just like it's a sort of like olymp

828
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,720
Speaker 2: big style games, but just for Jews, which is funny,

829
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 2: but it was really, you know, I mean, the competition

830
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 2: was good. In fact, my first year we played in

831
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:12,799
Speaker 2: Detroit in ninety eight, we went oh for eight. I'll

832
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:15,760
Speaker 2: never forget the last game, my best friend was dunked

833
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 2: on and at the time we were in the tenth grade,

834
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 2: no one was really dunking on us in you know,

835
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,879
Speaker 2: tenth grade basketball. Mytre was dunked on by a young

836
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:25,000
Speaker 2: man who, let's just say, did not look Jewish at all.

837
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,880
Speaker 2: We come to find out that like his stepdad is Jewish.

838
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:35,280
Speaker 2: So I was like, this seems like a little bit unfair.

839
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:40,279
Speaker 2: And then well, let's just say he looked a lot

840
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:44,440
Speaker 2: more like a Marie sartimyer than I look same. And

841
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:47,440
Speaker 2: so the next year we actually I played on the

842
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 2: Pan American Maccabee team, and this time we were representing Canada,

843
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,640
Speaker 2: and that was really cool because you're like wearing the

844
00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:56,360
Speaker 2: jersey Canada. There's like opening ceremonies and all that stuff,

845
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 2: and that team was a lot better because we had

846
00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 2: players from all over Canada, not just Montreal, and we

847
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 2: actually made it to the bronze medal game against Brazil

848
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 2: and loss. But the cool thing about that was there

849
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 2: was there was like the senior division. There was like

850
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:10,840
Speaker 2: the men's division, and then the youngster division. I was

851
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 2: in the Youngster that wasn't the official name, but the

852
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 2: middle division was like college kids. And Doug Gottlieb, who

853
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:20,440
Speaker 2: you may know as you know, a media guy, he

854
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,000
Speaker 2: was on the American team because you know, he played

855
00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 2: at Oklahoma State and Notre Dame. And I'll never forget

856
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 2: that summer. This was nineteen ninety nine. South Park came out,

857
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:31,880
Speaker 2: the movie South Park movie and you will call the

858
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:34,840
Speaker 2: Blame Canada song, And we happen to share the bus

859
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:36,640
Speaker 2: with the American team, and so when we all walked

860
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 2: on the bus, Doug Gottlieb was in the back singing

861
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:42,560
Speaker 2: Blame Canada. And I know I knew who Doug Gottlieb

862
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 2: was because I was the big basketball fan. Was like,

863
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:46,200
Speaker 2: I can't believe Doug Gottlieb is making fun of us

864
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:48,120
Speaker 2: right now, this is amazing. I was gonna ask him

865
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,279
Speaker 2: about the credit card scandal in Notre Dame, but I

866
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:51,799
Speaker 2: felt like that would be a little much if you

867
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:54,799
Speaker 2: remember that. So yeah, it was a great There was

868
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 2: also another guy who played in D one college, David Bluthenthal,

869
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 2: played at USC and then went to play for Macabi

870
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:03,680
Speaker 2: Tel Aviv, So it was a really great experience. And uh,

871
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:05,640
Speaker 2: you know so so yeah, I did play a little

872
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,040
Speaker 2: bit and play now in a league like in New

873
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 2: York with you know, older gentlemen. But I'm almost thirty eight,

874
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:12,759
Speaker 2: so I feel like I'm slowing down a little bit.

875
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:14,600
Speaker 4: Well, who would you compare your game to if you

876
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 4: had to?

877
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:17,239
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, so this this is the funny thing. I

878
00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:20,239
Speaker 2: really tried to play like Patrick, Like I would do

879
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 2: the same point yeah, sweating. I would do the fade

880
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,520
Speaker 2: away baseline jumper that was so kind of ridiculous for

881
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:31,440
Speaker 2: a someone who was five foot ten to and like

882
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:33,640
Speaker 2: I would you know the form like with this, you know,

883
00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:36,120
Speaker 2: his right hand would be like really extended and he

884
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:38,400
Speaker 2: would be fading away. I would copy all of that.

885
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 2: I would like hold onto my shorts like him, and

886
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:44,440
Speaker 2: everything like him. And I so I copied him in

887
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 2: terms of shooting, and I copy I prided myself on

888
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 2: playing like Oakley in the sense that I would dive everywhere,

889
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:54,040
Speaker 2: like my elbows would kill after game, my knees. But

890
00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 2: it was kind of, you know, a point of pride

891
00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:58,759
Speaker 2: for me. I adored Oakley, and I will just say

892
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,280
Speaker 2: that it is breaking my heart hearing him and reading

893
00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 2: all these things that he's seeing about Patrick recently. It's really, uh,

894
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 2: it's really unfortunate to see dissension there. But anyway, Yeah,

895
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,040
Speaker 2: so I tried to I really tried to play like Starks,

896
00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 2: like okay, like everything you saw with those next guys,

897
00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:15,440
Speaker 2: like I was not pretty at all, setting picks, taking charges.

898
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:16,279
Speaker 2: I loved all of that.

899
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 1: Well, you know, the NBA, it certainly looks like they're

900
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:23,279
Speaker 1: heading towards some sort of resumption in a month or

901
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:25,879
Speaker 1: two months, maybe down in Orlando. It's not confirmed yet,

902
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 1: but certainly it seems like the league once that the

903
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 1: players want they want to try to end this season.

904
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 1: But in the UFC world, there has been already a

905
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 1: couple of events with no fans down in Florida. How

906
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:36,640
Speaker 1: has that been received? It looks like things have been

907
00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: going pretty well. So so, I mean, based on what

908
00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:41,480
Speaker 1: you've seen there, what do you think the chances are

909
00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:43,279
Speaker 1: that the NBA will be able to pull off some

910
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:45,200
Speaker 1: sort of you know, closure to this season.

911
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:49,200
Speaker 2: So a few things that it has been received well.

912
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 2: For the most part, the fighters really wanted to fight

913
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:54,000
Speaker 2: because a they don't make a lot of money and

914
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,239
Speaker 2: when they, you know, they fight, they get paid. They

915
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:58,920
Speaker 2: don't get paid otherwise, and so they were really eager

916
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 2: to fight. And I had my reservations. I thought when

917
00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:04,359
Speaker 2: they tried to come back in April, it was way

918
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:07,400
Speaker 2: too soon, And luckily that didn't happen this time around.

919
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:10,040
Speaker 2: Pleasantly surprised. They seem to have a good system. They

920
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:13,280
Speaker 2: were testing multiple times, all that stuff and more, and

921
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:15,239
Speaker 2: as of right this moment, we only know of three

922
00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:17,840
Speaker 2: people who tested positive, one fighter, Jacques ray Soosa, and

923
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:20,400
Speaker 2: two cornermen, so it seems like it went off, you know,

924
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:25,719
Speaker 2: pretty well. However, it's very hard to compare the UFC

925
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 2: to the NBA or the NHL Major League Baseball because

926
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:35,800
Speaker 2: Dana White, who often is incorrectly compared to say Adam

927
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,680
Speaker 2: Silver Roger Goodell, is an owner. He's not a commissioner.

928
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,400
Speaker 2: So as long as he can get you know, twenty

929
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,960
Speaker 2: to twenty four fighters you know, to have eleven twelve

930
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:47,799
Speaker 2: matches to sign up. He could put on events. He

931
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:49,680
Speaker 2: just has to find a venue, he has to find

932
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:52,040
Speaker 2: an athletic commission who will sanction it. It's a lot easier

933
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:54,879
Speaker 2: for him. There's no you know, there's no fighters union there.

934
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:56,040
Speaker 2: You know, he doesn't have to deal with like a

935
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:58,880
Speaker 2: player's association or a board of governors or fellow owners

936
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:01,040
Speaker 2: or all that stuff. I mean, he literally is the

937
00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:03,279
Speaker 2: judge and jury here, so he can just decide, all right,

938
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:05,719
Speaker 2: we're ready to go, let's go. And so that's why

939
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:07,600
Speaker 2: it didn't surprise me that they were first. That's why

940
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:09,640
Speaker 2: it doesn't surprise me that we're starting to hear about

941
00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:11,839
Speaker 2: boxing promoters wanting to come back in June and other

942
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:14,759
Speaker 2: MMA promoters and why it's taking the major leagues a

943
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 2: lot longer to come back. So a lot of people

944
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:18,120
Speaker 2: were asking me like, hey, do you think that this

945
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:21,319
Speaker 2: means because those events went off well, that we'll see

946
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:23,040
Speaker 2: the other sports? And I really feel like it's apples

947
00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:24,799
Speaker 2: and oranges that they're gonna have to be a lot

948
00:41:24,840 --> 00:41:27,440
Speaker 2: more careful. And I also think because the players make

949
00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 2: so much money, they're gonna, you know, they're not as

950
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:31,600
Speaker 2: eager to come back. They want to come back. I

951
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:33,960
Speaker 2: don't doubt that, but like for them, they need to be,

952
00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:36,480
Speaker 2: you know, one hundred percent confident that this is going

953
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 2: to be safe and healthy. So I think that maybe

954
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:40,719
Speaker 2: it gave people a little bit of hope, But I

955
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:43,600
Speaker 2: don't think that it is correct to look at what

956
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:45,799
Speaker 2: the UFC did and try to apply that to what

957
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:48,920
Speaker 2: the NBA is trying to do, because it's just completely different.

958
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:51,200
Speaker 2: It seems like I've read the same reports. It seems

959
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:52,759
Speaker 2: like they're moving in the right direction. I don't have

960
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:56,600
Speaker 2: any you know, insider info, unfortunately, but you know, I

961
00:41:56,640 --> 00:41:59,120
Speaker 2: hope that it does happen, and and maybe you know,

962
00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:01,600
Speaker 2: like that's why we're seeing Look, we're seeing NASCAR, we're

963
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:05,359
Speaker 2: seeing PGA, we're seeing fighting. They are the first ones

964
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:07,759
Speaker 2: back because it's you know, individual sports. A lot of

965
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:09,840
Speaker 2: them don't have unions and things like that. Pro wrestling

966
00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:12,640
Speaker 2: has been going on since the start, never took a break,

967
00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:15,759
Speaker 2: and it's no coincidence for me that there's no association.

968
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:18,400
Speaker 2: There's no union there, and so they don't have to

969
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:20,120
Speaker 2: go through the same kind of hoops that the other

970
00:42:20,160 --> 00:42:21,560
Speaker 2: major leagues have to go through.

971
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 3: On the sort of the event side, just the structure

972
00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:27,919
Speaker 3: of this bubble type thing. In Jacksonville, they had three

973
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:31,200
Speaker 3: events within eight days, so I guess people just liken

974
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,720
Speaker 3: it to hey, our own Shampsheron is reporting that Orlando

975
00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:38,839
Speaker 3: and Disney World has the lead apparently in this race

976
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:40,920
Speaker 3: for having a bubble sort of type event. Is there

977
00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:44,280
Speaker 3: something that the NBA can draw from like that, because

978
00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:47,520
Speaker 3: I've always been worried about this campus style thing that

979
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:50,960
Speaker 3: Adam Silver's talking about and not real strict guidelines about

980
00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:53,960
Speaker 3: staying in the hotel, not going anywhere. Is there anything

981
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 3: that the UFC has done, you know, within those those

982
00:42:56,560 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 3: eight days and in one city that the NBA can

983
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:02,960
Speaker 3: kind of emulated. Is there anything to draw from that?

984
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:06,319
Speaker 2: Honestly, I don't see a lot, because okay, let's take

985
00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:09,480
Speaker 2: the first event UFC two forty nine for example. So

986
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:13,399
Speaker 2: the fighters arrived Wednesday and the fight was Saturday, and yeah,

987
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:15,280
Speaker 2: they kept them in the hotel and they did multiple

988
00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:17,560
Speaker 2: testing and that was all well and good, but then

989
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 2: they all left Sunday and you know, never to be

990
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,640
Speaker 2: heard from for the next you know, two months or

991
00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:25,319
Speaker 2: three months, whatever it is. And then the next batch

992
00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:27,640
Speaker 2: of fighters came for the following Wednesday event, and then

993
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:29,759
Speaker 2: the next batch of fighters came after that event for

994
00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:32,920
Speaker 2: the Saturday event. In this NBA world that we're talking about,

995
00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:34,960
Speaker 2: players are gonna have to stick around for a very

996
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:37,759
Speaker 2: long time. And are they gonna get restless? Are they

997
00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:40,279
Speaker 2: gonna get bored? Are they gonna be willing to stay

998
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:42,400
Speaker 2: in the hotel and be cooped up for you know,

999
00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 2: the team that makes it to the finals over a

1000
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:46,480
Speaker 2: two month stretch. It's asking a lot of them, and

1001
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:49,200
Speaker 2: it seems like they're open to doing it. But man,

1002
00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:51,280
Speaker 2: that's that's a lot different than staying in a hotel

1003
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:54,280
Speaker 2: for three days. And you know, I love MMA fighters,

1004
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:56,600
Speaker 2: I really do, but let's be honest, they're not the

1005
00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 2: most hygienic bunch. You know, they've been training like this

1006
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:03,520
Speaker 2: whole thing, like, oh, we're opening the facilities in Cleveland

1007
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:05,800
Speaker 2: and this place in that place, Like how may fighters

1008
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:08,400
Speaker 2: never stopped training? And to be honest, it kind of

1009
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:10,960
Speaker 2: came across as a little bit selfish and reckless. But

1010
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:13,200
Speaker 2: you know, they're posting pictures on their Instagram like we're all,

1011
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:16,160
Speaker 2: you know, staying at home and our lives have drastically changed,

1012
00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:19,280
Speaker 2: and you know, they're all taking their after training photos,

1013
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:21,480
Speaker 2: all hugging each other and posting it on their Instagram,

1014
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:24,480
Speaker 2: Like life has not stopped at all. You don't see

1015
00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:27,640
Speaker 2: you know, Kawhi and Paul George doing that right now.

1016
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:30,840
Speaker 2: So I think it's going to be really interesting to see,

1017
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:32,640
Speaker 2: you know, if the players are going to be okay

1018
00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:35,239
Speaker 2: with sitting in these bubbles, campuses, whatever, and of course

1019
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:37,680
Speaker 2: they're going to have great accommodations, but it's a lot

1020
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:40,080
Speaker 2: different from what the UFC was asking the fighters to do.

1021
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:44,120
Speaker 1: You know, Dana White, through this whole sort of process

1022
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:46,720
Speaker 1: has kind of been, you know, sort of saying business

1023
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:48,399
Speaker 1: as usual the whole time. He's been trying to get

1024
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:50,720
Speaker 1: the fights up and running. And you know, you've obviously

1025
00:44:50,719 --> 00:44:54,239
Speaker 1: had a pretty you know, interesting relationship with him over

1026
00:44:54,239 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 1: the years. How is your relationship with him now?

1027
00:44:57,120 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 2: I would describe it as non existent. Wow, Yeah, you know,

1028
00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:05,360
Speaker 2: it's it's it's unfortunate, but it obviously hasn't stopped me

1029
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 2: from doing my job. You know, early on he was

1030
00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:09,800
Speaker 2: the nicest to me. Like, if I don't talk to

1031
00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:12,480
Speaker 2: Dana White ever again, and I covered the sport till

1032
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:15,719
Speaker 2: I'm eighty, I still probably would have talked to him

1033
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:18,200
Speaker 2: more than anyone, just because he was so accommodating and

1034
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:21,959
Speaker 2: so accessible to me over the years. But the last

1035
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 2: time we spoke was in twenty sixteen. In June of

1036
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, he kicked me out of the forum in

1037
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:32,040
Speaker 2: Inglewood and at the time banned me for life. And

1038
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:34,040
Speaker 2: you know since then, you know, two years later, I

1039
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:37,000
Speaker 2: got the ESPN job. So the relationship didn't preclude me,

1040
00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:40,240
Speaker 2: or the lack thereof didn't preclude me from going to ESPN.

1041
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:42,120
Speaker 2: And when I signed with ESPN, I had no idea

1042
00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:44,560
Speaker 2: that they were about to become the broadcast partner of

1043
00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:47,359
Speaker 2: the UFC. You can imagine my surprise when like two

1044
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,120
Speaker 2: months later I found that out and I was like, oh,

1045
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:52,239
Speaker 2: does this mean I'm done before even starting. But they've

1046
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:54,960
Speaker 2: they've assured me over the many many times I have

1047
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:57,320
Speaker 2: asked them questions over you know, things that have happened

1048
00:45:57,719 --> 00:45:59,960
Speaker 2: that you know, they're definitely behind me and support me.

1049
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:02,200
Speaker 2: And this isn't Fox like what happened to me at

1050
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:04,719
Speaker 2: Fox when Fox let me go after the UFC asked

1051
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:06,960
Speaker 2: them to let me go, or demanded if you want

1052
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:10,280
Speaker 2: to say, And so, yeah, you know, there have been times,

1053
00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:13,319
Speaker 2: I'll be honest, where I've reached out, whether it was

1054
00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 2: to him or to his PR people, it's like, you know,

1055
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,799
Speaker 2: can we just figure this out, Like, let's just sit down,

1056
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 2: Like I'll take the tongue lashing, whatever he wants to do.

1057
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:23,839
Speaker 2: Let's sit down, let's figure it out, Let's have our

1058
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:27,920
Speaker 2: airing a grievances and move on. But he's not willing

1059
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:30,080
Speaker 2: to do so, which is funny because like I'm the

1060
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:32,160
Speaker 2: one who was hurt the most, Like I lost jobs

1061
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:33,959
Speaker 2: as a result of this. I lost money. You didn't

1062
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:36,239
Speaker 2: lose anything. But I don't want this hanging over my head.

1063
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:38,640
Speaker 2: But I will say, like hasn't stopped me from talking

1064
00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:40,480
Speaker 2: to fighters or anything. He just he doesn't want to

1065
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,200
Speaker 2: talk to me, and that's his prerogative. That's great. But

1066
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 2: I'm happy that I'm still able to attend the events,

1067
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:47,840
Speaker 2: cover the events, get credentialed for the events, all that

1068
00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:49,080
Speaker 2: stuff and more. We just don't talk.

1069
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:51,959
Speaker 4: For the For the non UFC fan listening to yes,

1070
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 4: and I'm sure there are a ton because it's an

1071
00:46:54,080 --> 00:46:56,759
Speaker 4: NBA podcast, What is just a quick, quick sort of

1072
00:46:56,800 --> 00:46:58,799
Speaker 4: backstory to that conflict between.

1073
00:46:58,520 --> 00:46:58,960
Speaker 1: The two of you?

1074
00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to look over it well.

1075
00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:05,239
Speaker 2: I mean, in very, very short, I had a great

1076
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:09,320
Speaker 2: relationship with him. I take a job to work for Fox,

1077
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:11,640
Speaker 2: who then became the broadcast partner of the UFC in

1078
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:14,279
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, which seemed great, but I guess when I

1079
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:17,759
Speaker 2: took that job, there was like almost an unspoken rule

1080
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:20,880
Speaker 2: on his mind that I, you know, would kind of

1081
00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:25,200
Speaker 2: be pro UFC. But at the same time, I'm working

1082
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:27,400
Speaker 2: for Fox, just like the odd event here there, that

1083
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 2: wasn't my full time job. My full time job was

1084
00:47:29,600 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 2: with Voxmedia MMA fighting dot com and Vox was our

1085
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 2: parent company, Vox Espionation M Fighting. That's kind of like

1086
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:39,399
Speaker 2: the hierarchy there, and so they didn't They would get

1087
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:42,320
Speaker 2: increasingly mad when I would report about things like unions

1088
00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:46,200
Speaker 2: or Bellator, their their competition and all that stuff. And

1089
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:48,920
Speaker 2: so in twenty sixteen they told Fox to get rid

1090
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:51,680
Speaker 2: of me because a fighter, actually a fellow Canadian Rory MacDonald,

1091
00:47:51,719 --> 00:47:54,520
Speaker 2: came on my podcast and was very upset with his

1092
00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:56,080
Speaker 2: contract and they were like, we, you know, why would

1093
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:58,000
Speaker 2: you talk about this. I'm like, I'm just doing my job,

1094
00:47:58,040 --> 00:48:01,560
Speaker 2: like no one told me not to. So in twenty sixteen,

1095
00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:03,799
Speaker 2: in March of twenty sixteen let me go. And then

1096
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:05,920
Speaker 2: once I was let go from Fox, you know, obviously

1097
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:07,560
Speaker 2: I was upset about it and I didn't think it

1098
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 2: was fair. From from March to June of that year,

1099
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:14,680
Speaker 2: I went on like a rampage, like I could not

1100
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:18,080
Speaker 2: be stopped. I could not be I cannot be slowed down.

1101
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:20,600
Speaker 2: Like I just tried to break every single big story

1102
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 2: possible in the world of MMA at that time. And

1103
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,400
Speaker 2: it got to the point in June of twenty sixteen

1104
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:28,920
Speaker 2: where I'm at an event at the Forum in Inglewood

1105
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:31,359
Speaker 2: and I break the news that brock Lesner was coming

1106
00:48:31,400 --> 00:48:33,279
Speaker 2: back at UFC two hundred, and that was a really

1107
00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:35,799
Speaker 2: really big deal. No one knew about it, and they

1108
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:37,600
Speaker 2: were about to announce it that and I didn't know that.

1109
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:40,319
Speaker 2: And Dana got really mad that I broke the news

1110
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:42,759
Speaker 2: first and thought it was like me taking a shot

1111
00:48:42,760 --> 00:48:44,359
Speaker 2: at them. But I was just doing my job. And

1112
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,880
Speaker 2: I was told to go to the back, and you know,

1113
00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:49,400
Speaker 2: he said I was banned for life and that I

1114
00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:51,440
Speaker 2: would never be allowed back and all this stuff, and

1115
00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:54,440
Speaker 2: it was a very traumatic event. He told me that

1116
00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 2: his business partner, Lorenzo Fertita, I'd put a bullet in

1117
00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:00,680
Speaker 2: my head and that my career was over and that

1118
00:49:00,760 --> 00:49:03,080
Speaker 2: I would never, you know, be allowed backstage or anything

1119
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,279
Speaker 2: like that. And so, thank God times a million, it

1120
00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:09,759
Speaker 2: turned into a really really really big story, and you know,

1121
00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:12,960
Speaker 2: great people like Dan Patrick and Rich Eisen and Dan

1122
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:15,320
Speaker 2: Lebtard all had me on their show the following Monday,

1123
00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:18,000
Speaker 2: and it turned into like this huge media story to

1124
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:20,200
Speaker 2: the point where they had to relent and give me

1125
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:23,000
Speaker 2: back the credential and allow me back. And I think,

1126
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:25,080
Speaker 2: if I'm being honest, I think part of the reason

1127
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:26,560
Speaker 2: why he doesn't like me till this day is because

1128
00:49:26,600 --> 00:49:28,080
Speaker 2: Dane is the kind of guy that, you know, if

1129
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:30,680
Speaker 2: he does something controversial but he believes in it, he'll

1130
00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:33,279
Speaker 2: dig his heels in and you know, he almost doubles down.

1131
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:34,960
Speaker 2: And I think he doesn't like the fact that I

1132
00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:38,680
Speaker 2: was brought back by the people like he that Monday

1133
00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:41,239
Speaker 2: when I'm doing interviews, he's doing interviews himself saying that,

1134
00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:43,800
Speaker 2: you know, no way never coming back all that stuff,

1135
00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:45,799
Speaker 2: and now here I am. And I think that's part

1136
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:47,560
Speaker 2: of the reason why he gets a little bit annoyed

1137
00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:47,799
Speaker 2: with me.

1138
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:51,759
Speaker 5: I think wild wild, Yes, that's like I mean, I

1139
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:54,680
Speaker 5: know you're right, Dana White, not really a commission by

1140
00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:56,840
Speaker 5: any means, but obviously the head of UOC. But that is,

1141
00:49:56,880 --> 00:49:59,680
Speaker 5: this is like the equivalent of woes and like Adam

1142
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:01,080
Speaker 5: Sill coming in two blows.

1143
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:04,200
Speaker 2: You know this is crazy? Yep. I actually used WOJ

1144
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:07,160
Speaker 2: as an example when I was getting kicked out, because

1145
00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 2: I said to him, like, what did I do wrong?

1146
00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 2: You know? Was I wrong? Was my information inaccurate? Like

1147
00:50:11,719 --> 00:50:13,840
Speaker 2: what's the difference between this? I said, what's the difference

1148
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:17,279
Speaker 2: between this and when WOJ or Schefter break NBA or

1149
00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:19,960
Speaker 2: NFL news? Is no different? Like I'm not I'm not

1150
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 2: disparaging you guys, I'm not commentating on you guys. I'm

1151
00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:27,879
Speaker 2: not doing anything wrong. And his response, like you could

1152
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 2: have ruined the deal and all that stuff, which wasn't true.

1153
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:32,319
Speaker 2: The deal was done, Like who cares that someone broke it?

1154
00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:34,319
Speaker 2: Like then if this never happened, no one would ever

1155
00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 2: even remember that I broke it, you know what I mean?

1156
00:50:36,080 --> 00:50:38,560
Speaker 2: They would remember him coming back and all this stuff. So, yeah,

1157
00:50:38,600 --> 00:50:42,360
Speaker 2: it's unfortunate, but I'm just thankful that it didn't stop

1158
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:44,440
Speaker 2: me from because you know, I'd put all my eggs

1159
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:47,440
Speaker 2: in this basket. Yeah, covering him in May. And that's

1160
00:50:47,480 --> 00:50:49,680
Speaker 2: what was so devastating about I thought I was really done.

1161
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:51,360
Speaker 2: I was. I thought like, no one would want to

1162
00:50:51,440 --> 00:50:53,160
Speaker 2: hire me, I would get fired. All this stuff.

1163
00:50:54,440 --> 00:50:57,640
Speaker 3: You've covered it for so long, Aeriel, just going back

1164
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:01,839
Speaker 3: to watching events with no fans, not only covering MA

1165
00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:04,319
Speaker 3: but just watching every single sport. You know, since we've

1166
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,799
Speaker 3: been kids have had fans in the stands, And I

1167
00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:09,160
Speaker 3: know you've mentioned a few things. That was pretty cool

1168
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 3: in Jacksonville to have no fans in the stands. What

1169
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:15,120
Speaker 3: was that experience, like, what were the positives and negatives?

1170
00:51:15,520 --> 00:51:18,279
Speaker 2: Honestly, I've really enjoyed it. And now I will say

1171
00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:21,600
Speaker 2: I wasn't at the event. No one's traveling right now

1172
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:24,799
Speaker 2: as far as you know, my colleagues at ESPN. But

1173
00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:28,080
Speaker 2: and I'm not trying to be mean towards the fans.

1174
00:51:28,120 --> 00:51:29,680
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to put them down. I kind of

1175
00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:31,520
Speaker 2: enjoyed it a little more without the fans for a

1176
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:35,680
Speaker 2: couple of reasons. Number One, you can hear the punches,

1177
00:51:35,719 --> 00:51:38,880
Speaker 2: you can hear the kicks very clearly, and that adds

1178
00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:41,600
Speaker 2: a whole new element. Like I'm watching like these two

1179
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:43,800
Speaker 2: heavyweights go toe to toe I'm like, Wow, those knees

1180
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:46,520
Speaker 2: now sound a lot different and they look like they're

1181
00:51:46,520 --> 00:51:48,879
Speaker 2: really hurt, and maybe the fans kind of drowned that out.

1182
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:51,880
Speaker 2: So that made things really Number two, there was a

1183
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:54,000
Speaker 2: funny thing that was happening, especially at the first event.

1184
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:56,480
Speaker 2: So Daniel Cormier is one of the all time best fighters.

1185
00:51:56,520 --> 00:52:00,000
Speaker 2: He's also an analyst for the broadcast, and two fighters

1186
00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:03,360
Speaker 2: and their post fight interviews shouted him out. I was like, hey, Daniel,

1187
00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:04,879
Speaker 2: thanks for the advice. In the middle of the fight,

1188
00:52:04,960 --> 00:52:07,640
Speaker 2: so they could hear the broadcaster sitting cage side, and

1189
00:52:07,680 --> 00:52:10,560
Speaker 2: they heard Daniel saying like one of them was this fighter,

1190
00:52:10,600 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 2: Carlos Sparza, another one was this fighter named Greg Hardy,

1191
00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:15,000
Speaker 2: former NFL player, and they could hear him saying like,

1192
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:17,719
Speaker 2: they're not doing this correctly. They need to start doing this.

1193
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:20,200
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, the fight turned in

1194
00:52:20,239 --> 00:52:23,080
Speaker 2: their favor because they heard Daniel talking about it. So

1195
00:52:23,080 --> 00:52:25,720
Speaker 2: I thought that that was like a funny wrinkle. Yeah, crazy,

1196
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:28,440
Speaker 2: So that was a fun new wrinkle. And also one

1197
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:31,680
Speaker 2: thing that really bothers me about MMA fans, especially as

1198
00:52:31,719 --> 00:52:33,440
Speaker 2: the night goes on. You know, sometimes they can get

1199
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:35,680
Speaker 2: a little rude they could get obnoxious. They'll boo when

1200
00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:38,520
Speaker 2: there's no action. They're very bloodthirsty at times, and you know,

1201
00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:41,600
Speaker 2: walking in there and fighting another human being in the cage.

1202
00:52:41,640 --> 00:52:43,400
Speaker 2: To me, I don't care if the fight sucks, if

1203
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:45,279
Speaker 2: it's boring, if three punches are thrown, Like, I have

1204
00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:46,759
Speaker 2: a lot of respect for these guys because I can

1205
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:49,520
Speaker 2: never fathom even having the courage to do that. And

1206
00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:51,120
Speaker 2: it always annoys me when a guy goes through a

1207
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:53,320
Speaker 2: whole training camp, fights their butt off and gets booed,

1208
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:55,520
Speaker 2: and then you know, is trying to do a post

1209
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:58,040
Speaker 2: fight interview and is thanking his family and saying how

1210
00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:00,000
Speaker 2: happy he is, and like he's getting drowned out by boom.

1211
00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:02,520
Speaker 2: None of that is a factor right now, you know,

1212
00:53:02,600 --> 00:53:04,400
Speaker 2: like some of the fights aren't that great, but they

1213
00:53:04,400 --> 00:53:05,799
Speaker 2: don't have to worry about that. They don't have to

1214
00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:09,319
Speaker 2: apologize to these fans in attendance for you know, whether

1215
00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:11,319
Speaker 2: or not the fight was good or not. So there's

1216
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:12,880
Speaker 2: just like little things like that where it's like this

1217
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:15,120
Speaker 2: is kind of refreshing, And I also feel like it's

1218
00:53:15,160 --> 00:53:18,160
Speaker 2: affecting some of the fights too, like UFC two forty nine,

1219
00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:20,400
Speaker 2: justin Gai Chee fights, and Justin Gai Chee in the

1220
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:22,960
Speaker 2: main event, is one of those fighters that gets sometimes

1221
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:25,319
Speaker 2: a little reckless and gets a little too excited, and

1222
00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:28,399
Speaker 2: sometimes the fans are the ones who are contributing to that,

1223
00:53:28,719 --> 00:53:30,480
Speaker 2: and in this case, there were no fans, so he

1224
00:53:30,560 --> 00:53:32,640
Speaker 2: always stayed at like a seven. He never went to

1225
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:34,560
Speaker 2: an eleven and kind of fought a little crazy, and

1226
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:36,399
Speaker 2: I think that that helped him. On the flip side,

1227
00:53:36,440 --> 00:53:39,080
Speaker 2: Tony Ferguson, his opponent kind of needs the energy and

1228
00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:40,839
Speaker 2: the fans to get a little crazy, and he didn't

1229
00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:43,480
Speaker 2: have that as well. And so you know, obviously I

1230
00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:45,200
Speaker 2: want them to come back at some point. But I

1231
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:47,880
Speaker 2: do not think for a second that it is affecting

1232
00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:50,799
Speaker 2: the product or that we're getting a lesser product like WWE.

1233
00:53:50,840 --> 00:53:52,400
Speaker 2: I've watched it a few times, Wrestle May and all

1234
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:55,680
Speaker 2: that stuff. It's definitely affecting that product. It feels very sterile,

1235
00:53:55,719 --> 00:53:58,080
Speaker 2: it feels like it's missing something. In this case, for

1236
00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:00,560
Speaker 2: whatever reason, I don't feel like it's it's really missing anything,

1237
00:54:00,600 --> 00:54:03,040
Speaker 2: and it gives that gives me hope for the other

1238
00:54:03,080 --> 00:54:05,480
Speaker 2: sports that are to come. Like you know, you watch

1239
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:08,400
Speaker 2: Orlando Summer League, that's kind of what I feel like

1240
00:54:08,480 --> 00:54:10,600
Speaker 2: these games will will sound and feel like. And I

1241
00:54:10,640 --> 00:54:12,239
Speaker 2: don't really mind that all that much. I don't think

1242
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:13,359
Speaker 2: that that's really bad.

1243
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:17,680
Speaker 3: Interesting you talked about Gaichee there. I kind of flowed

1244
00:54:17,719 --> 00:54:21,319
Speaker 3: in out of NBA MMA fandom and I float out

1245
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 3: and I come in. I come out and you mentioned

1246
00:54:22,719 --> 00:54:26,279
Speaker 3: Gaichie and he's supposed to eventually fight Habib, who's you know,

1247
00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:29,200
Speaker 3: currently in Russia attending to his father. I don't know

1248
00:54:29,239 --> 00:54:31,440
Speaker 3: how good Habib is. I know you've said he's the

1249
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:34,799
Speaker 3: most dominant force in MMA. I don't I don't know

1250
00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:36,759
Speaker 3: if those are carefully chosen words, because I know you

1251
00:54:36,840 --> 00:54:39,680
Speaker 3: choose your words carefully. But how good is this Habib guy?

1252
00:54:39,800 --> 00:54:40,040
Speaker 2: Is he?

1253
00:54:40,480 --> 00:54:42,439
Speaker 3: Is he top of the charts? Or how is pound

1254
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:43,839
Speaker 3: for pounds? Is he going to be the best? How

1255
00:54:43,840 --> 00:54:44,239
Speaker 3: good is he?

1256
00:54:44,680 --> 00:54:47,440
Speaker 2: Yeah? He is incredibly good. When I say that he

1257
00:54:47,520 --> 00:54:50,440
Speaker 2: is the most dominant force, like I'm paying him the

1258
00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:52,560
Speaker 2: ultimate compliment because you could say best. We could all

1259
00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:55,160
Speaker 2: debate who's the best, who's you know, had the best resume,

1260
00:54:55,239 --> 00:54:57,520
Speaker 2: But that also kind of, you know, depends on who

1261
00:54:57,560 --> 00:54:59,960
Speaker 2: you've been fighting, your weight class, et cetera. This guy

1262
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:02,800
Speaker 2: is a freaking beast. I mean, he has only lost

1263
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:05,760
Speaker 2: one round. He has fought twelve times in the UFC.

1264
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:08,600
Speaker 2: He has lost one round in those twelve fights, and

1265
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:11,200
Speaker 2: that was against Connor McGregor the third round of their

1266
00:55:11,239 --> 00:55:14,320
Speaker 2: fight when they fought at UFC two twenty nine, and

1267
00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:16,799
Speaker 2: some people even thought that he won that round. So

1268
00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:22,279
Speaker 2: he is just so relentless. He suffocates his opponents. Now

1269
00:55:22,280 --> 00:55:26,360
Speaker 2: his style isn't you know, it's not exactly the flashiest style,

1270
00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:30,120
Speaker 2: but he is just you know, it's like if we

1271
00:55:30,200 --> 00:55:33,040
Speaker 2: compare it to the NBA, he's the glove in the

1272
00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:35,080
Speaker 2: sense that he's Gary Payton, Like he does not let

1273
00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:37,400
Speaker 2: you breathe, and when he takes you to the ground,

1274
00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:39,640
Speaker 2: he does little things like he'll do little things like

1275
00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:41,640
Speaker 2: put his hand over your mouth so that you can't

1276
00:55:41,680 --> 00:55:43,880
Speaker 2: breathe while he's trying to grab your neck like he

1277
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:46,040
Speaker 2: I mean, there's footage of him as a kid growing

1278
00:55:46,080 --> 00:55:49,160
Speaker 2: up in Dagistan, Russia, where he was legit wrestling bears.

1279
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:50,799
Speaker 2: A lot of people know this. I don't know if

1280
00:55:50,840 --> 00:55:52,760
Speaker 2: you guys said, but if you type in Habi bears,

1281
00:55:52,800 --> 00:55:55,480
Speaker 2: like you see this little kid wrestling a bear who

1282
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:58,520
Speaker 2: is chained up. But whose limbs are very free, and

1283
00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:01,239
Speaker 2: that's terrifying, but that's just the kind of guy that

1284
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:03,920
Speaker 2: he is, like, he is fearless, he is incredible, and

1285
00:56:03,960 --> 00:56:06,439
Speaker 2: he's really evolved as an MMA fighter in the sense

1286
00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:10,239
Speaker 2: that early on his striking was obviously, you know, kind

1287
00:56:10,239 --> 00:56:13,480
Speaker 2: of steps behind his grappling, his wrestling, his groundwork. But

1288
00:56:13,560 --> 00:56:15,640
Speaker 2: now his striking has gotten to be really good, and

1289
00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:20,160
Speaker 2: so that's making him even scarier. So there you get

1290
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:21,880
Speaker 2: right now as far as pound for pound goes, and

1291
00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:23,319
Speaker 2: for those that don't know what pound for pound means,

1292
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:25,799
Speaker 2: it's sort of like a fictitious list where you take

1293
00:56:25,840 --> 00:56:28,319
Speaker 2: all the fighters in the sport and you say, all right,

1294
00:56:28,360 --> 00:56:30,480
Speaker 2: if they were all fighting at the same weight, who

1295
00:56:30,560 --> 00:56:33,000
Speaker 2: would be number one through number ten? And obviously this

1296
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:35,840
Speaker 2: is very subjective, but for the longest time, John Jones

1297
00:56:35,920 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 2: was considered the pound for pound best, meaning if he

1298
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:41,279
Speaker 2: was fighting at heavyweight or flyweight one twenty five he

1299
00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:43,680
Speaker 2: currently fights at light heavyweight two of five, he would

1300
00:56:43,680 --> 00:56:46,279
Speaker 2: be the best regardless of weight class. But his last

1301
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:48,799
Speaker 2: two performances haven't been that great, and in fact, I

1302
00:56:48,800 --> 00:56:51,040
Speaker 2: thought he lost his last performance, And so there's a

1303
00:56:51,040 --> 00:56:53,239
Speaker 2: lot of people who are making the argument now that

1304
00:56:53,280 --> 00:56:55,920
Speaker 2: Kabib should be number one. He's twenty eight to zero,

1305
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:57,640
Speaker 2: like I said, never lost a round in the UFC,

1306
00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:00,239
Speaker 2: fought twelve times in the UFC, sixteen times out of

1307
00:57:00,239 --> 00:57:04,080
Speaker 2: the UFC, and is just like starching everyone, and so yes,

1308
00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:06,440
Speaker 2: he deserves all the credit. But I will say this,

1309
00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:09,600
Speaker 2: Justin Gaichie will be his toughest fight in the UFC

1310
00:57:09,600 --> 00:57:12,000
Speaker 2: because Justin Gaichie is a former D one wrestler. His

1311
00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:14,439
Speaker 2: wrestling is really good, his takedown defense is really good,

1312
00:57:14,480 --> 00:57:16,840
Speaker 2: and his striking is really good, and he is also

1313
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:19,439
Speaker 2: fearless and hits really hard. So I think that Justin

1314
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:22,240
Speaker 2: Gaichee has the best chance of anyone right now beating him.

1315
00:57:22,240 --> 00:57:23,800
Speaker 2: And that's why I want to see that fight so much.

1316
00:57:24,280 --> 00:57:28,320
Speaker 3: The way you commented about Habib's style, and maybe this

1317
00:57:28,360 --> 00:57:30,240
Speaker 3: is just because of my lack of knowledge of MMA,

1318
00:57:30,360 --> 00:57:33,320
Speaker 3: reminds me of our fellow countryman George Saint Pierre and

1319
00:57:33,360 --> 00:57:36,280
Speaker 3: that he, you know, not the flashiest of styles. But

1320
00:57:36,840 --> 00:57:40,080
Speaker 3: is GSP Mainly I'm just leading you on with this

1321
00:57:40,160 --> 00:57:42,200
Speaker 3: question because I want the answer to be yes, is

1322
00:57:42,320 --> 00:57:46,080
Speaker 3: GSP underrated forever? Because I don't think he was really

1323
00:57:46,120 --> 00:57:48,479
Speaker 3: appreciated during his run.

1324
00:57:48,880 --> 00:57:51,240
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, you've impressed me with your comparison,

1325
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:54,280
Speaker 2: because he is very GSP like in the sense that

1326
00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:59,560
Speaker 2: his wrestling is incredible, his takedown defense is incredible, strikes

1327
00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:02,880
Speaker 2: kind of similar to him. GSP wasn't very flashy, used

1328
00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:04,760
Speaker 2: the jab a loot, which a lot of people got

1329
00:58:04,760 --> 00:58:07,200
Speaker 2: bored of. But GSP was just really good, and he

1330
00:58:07,320 --> 00:58:11,080
Speaker 2: was somewhat defensive with his striking, but was just very effective.

1331
00:58:11,480 --> 00:58:15,040
Speaker 2: And that's actually a fight that when GSP retired last year,

1332
00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:16,720
Speaker 2: he said the only fight that he would come back

1333
00:58:16,760 --> 00:58:20,160
Speaker 2: for was Habib and GFP fought at one seventy Habib

1334
00:58:20,200 --> 00:58:22,360
Speaker 2: fights at one fifty five, but they were trying to

1335
00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:24,640
Speaker 2: like find a middle ground. Maybe he won sixty five

1336
00:58:24,760 --> 00:58:26,800
Speaker 2: or something like that. The UFC didn't want it to

1337
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:29,160
Speaker 2: happen because they were afraid that GSP would beat Habib

1338
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:33,000
Speaker 2: and then walk away. And if you can't capitalize on

1339
00:58:33,000 --> 00:58:34,840
Speaker 2: the guy who beats Rebib, then like what's the point

1340
00:58:34,840 --> 00:58:37,320
Speaker 2: of putting on the fight in their mind? So I

1341
00:58:37,320 --> 00:58:39,080
Speaker 2: would love to see, Like that's one of the dream

1342
00:58:39,080 --> 00:58:41,120
Speaker 2: fights that we will probably never get to see that

1343
00:58:41,160 --> 00:58:44,560
Speaker 2: I wish we had the chance of seeing. So it's

1344
00:58:44,600 --> 00:58:47,400
Speaker 2: a great comparison, and I think, and it's not because

1345
00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:49,960
Speaker 2: I come from the same province as him. I think

1346
00:58:49,960 --> 00:58:52,040
Speaker 2: he is the greatest of all time. I don't think

1347
00:58:52,040 --> 00:58:54,600
Speaker 2: there's much of an argument for a couple of reasons.

1348
00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:57,480
Speaker 2: He walked away in twenty thirteen as the welterweight champion,

1349
00:58:57,760 --> 00:59:00,520
Speaker 2: he walked away in twenty seventeen as the midway champion.

1350
00:59:00,600 --> 00:59:02,960
Speaker 2: Who walks away as champion, he avenged the only two

1351
00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:06,080
Speaker 2: losses on his record, and in very convincing fashion, and

1352
00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:09,040
Speaker 2: most important, the one thing that he has that John

1353
00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:13,120
Speaker 2: Jones doesn't have, that that Anderson Silva doesn't have. It's

1354
00:59:13,120 --> 00:59:16,120
Speaker 2: a clean rap sheet. He does not have any PD

1355
00:59:16,280 --> 00:59:19,320
Speaker 2: infractions on his resume and those guys do, and I

1356
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:22,640
Speaker 2: think that that should be recognizing and for that reason,

1357
00:59:22,680 --> 00:59:23,760
Speaker 2: I think he's the greatest ever.

1358
00:59:24,360 --> 00:59:25,760
Speaker 1: You know, on the men's side, there's a lot of

1359
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:28,560
Speaker 1: big names, a lot of big stars, like people never

1360
00:59:28,600 --> 00:59:31,080
Speaker 1: seem to go too long without realizing there's a new

1361
00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:34,280
Speaker 1: big name in the UFC. Well, but on the women's side,

1362
00:59:34,320 --> 00:59:37,200
Speaker 1: you know, Amanda Nunez is a star of Valentina Chefchenko too,

1363
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:40,240
Speaker 1: but does this women's sport. Miss Ronda Rousey and just

1364
00:59:40,240 --> 00:59:42,280
Speaker 1: what she brought to this to the sport.

1365
00:59:42,720 --> 00:59:44,840
Speaker 2: Honestly, I don't think so. I think she was great

1366
00:59:44,880 --> 00:59:47,760
Speaker 2: for opening the doors for the UFC to, you know,

1367
00:59:47,840 --> 00:59:51,240
Speaker 2: to start promoting women's fights, But don't I don't think

1368
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:55,240
Speaker 2: that she's all that missed, And perhaps it's because of

1369
00:59:55,280 --> 00:59:58,080
Speaker 2: the way she left. She didn't leave with a lot

1370
00:59:58,120 --> 01:00:03,200
Speaker 2: of grace. Would make the argument that in the history

1371
01:00:03,200 --> 01:00:05,960
Speaker 2: of the UFC, as far as big name fighters are concerned,

1372
01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:10,280
Speaker 2: no one ever lost worse than Ronda Rousei. Right the

1373
01:00:10,280 --> 01:00:12,840
Speaker 2: way in which she lost the first fight and handle

1374
01:00:12,920 --> 01:00:15,680
Speaker 2: the loss, I should say against Holly Holm, I mean,

1375
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:18,000
Speaker 2: she put out the blueprint as to how not to

1376
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:21,560
Speaker 2: deal with the loss, you know, just never congratulating her,

1377
01:00:21,720 --> 01:00:24,920
Speaker 2: never speaking to the media, blaming the media, covering her face. Now,

1378
01:00:24,960 --> 01:00:27,080
Speaker 2: I know that it was devastating. I know that, you

1379
01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:29,120
Speaker 2: know she was heartbroken, and I know she had a

1380
01:00:29,160 --> 01:00:31,600
Speaker 2: lot of attention and people were kind of rooting for

1381
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:34,040
Speaker 2: her demise at that point. So it's stung in social

1382
01:00:34,080 --> 01:00:36,240
Speaker 2: media and be horrible. I know all those things, but

1383
01:00:36,400 --> 01:00:39,320
Speaker 2: trust me, the same people felt the same way about

1384
01:00:39,320 --> 01:00:41,720
Speaker 2: Connor McGregor when he fought Nathan Diaz the first time

1385
01:00:41,880 --> 01:00:44,600
Speaker 2: and people were dancing on his grave, and that guy

1386
01:00:44,640 --> 01:00:47,120
Speaker 2: showed up there and freaking took it like a champ

1387
01:00:47,160 --> 01:00:49,439
Speaker 2: and answered all the questions and said I will be back,

1388
01:00:49,440 --> 01:00:51,240
Speaker 2: and did come back and did beat him in the rematch.

1389
01:00:51,280 --> 01:00:53,280
Speaker 2: And on the flip side, he put out the blueprint,

1390
01:00:53,280 --> 01:00:55,000
Speaker 2: in my opinion, how you deal with the loss like

1391
01:00:55,240 --> 01:00:58,560
Speaker 2: you deal with it with humility and grace. And guess what,

1392
01:00:58,600 --> 01:01:01,400
Speaker 2: I actually think that he gained more fans with the

1393
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:03,320
Speaker 2: way in which he dealt with the loss than he

1394
01:01:03,360 --> 01:01:06,360
Speaker 2: ever did after a big win. And so she comes

1395
01:01:06,400 --> 01:01:08,440
Speaker 2: back after that loss a year and a half later

1396
01:01:08,680 --> 01:01:11,120
Speaker 2: and fights Amanda Nunez and I've never seen this and

1397
01:01:11,160 --> 01:01:13,080
Speaker 2: I don't know if we'll ever see this again. Didn't

1398
01:01:13,080 --> 01:01:15,880
Speaker 2: do a single interview. The UFC excused her from all

1399
01:01:15,920 --> 01:01:19,120
Speaker 2: media days. They like, they make Connor, who's a gigantic

1400
01:01:19,160 --> 01:01:21,080
Speaker 2: megastar at this point, go to everything. He has to

1401
01:01:21,080 --> 01:01:22,760
Speaker 2: go to everything. It's part of the contract. They let

1402
01:01:22,760 --> 01:01:24,760
Speaker 2: her do whatever she wanted. When she showed up to

1403
01:01:24,800 --> 01:01:26,760
Speaker 2: the wayans like, she showed up with her head down,

1404
01:01:26,920 --> 01:01:28,680
Speaker 2: didn't look at any of us like she was It

1405
01:01:28,680 --> 01:01:30,760
Speaker 2: was almost like she was blaming us for the loss.

1406
01:01:30,800 --> 01:01:33,520
Speaker 2: It was very bizarre, but it also felt like the

1407
01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:36,320
Speaker 2: wound was still open. And so then she arrives at

1408
01:01:36,320 --> 01:01:38,080
Speaker 2: the fight and she looks like a shell of her

1409
01:01:38,200 --> 01:01:41,520
Speaker 2: former self and gets beaten in like forty somethings seconds,

1410
01:01:41,760 --> 01:01:43,600
Speaker 2: and we never hear from her again. And she goes

1411
01:01:43,640 --> 01:01:45,520
Speaker 2: and does the wrestling thing, and that's fine, but I

1412
01:01:45,560 --> 01:01:47,560
Speaker 2: think that the way in which she lost made people

1413
01:01:47,600 --> 01:01:49,560
Speaker 2: feel like, all right, like you don't really care about

1414
01:01:49,640 --> 01:01:51,200
Speaker 2: us anymore. And I'm not talking about the media. I'm

1415
01:01:51,200 --> 01:01:53,160
Speaker 2: talking about the fans. Yeah, you didn't like give us

1416
01:01:53,200 --> 01:01:55,520
Speaker 2: any explanation. You didn't talk about the fight, Like, all right,

1417
01:01:56,000 --> 01:01:58,320
Speaker 2: the sport is in good hands, Women's MMA is in

1418
01:01:58,360 --> 01:02:00,320
Speaker 2: good hands. You did a lot for women's ms. You

1419
01:02:00,360 --> 01:02:02,640
Speaker 2: open the door for these these women. But now we've

1420
01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:06,440
Speaker 2: got Amanda Nunez, We've got jiangway Lee, who's an incredible champion.

1421
01:02:06,680 --> 01:02:09,320
Speaker 2: You know, You've got all these great fighters like Valentina Chevchenko,

1422
01:02:09,360 --> 01:02:10,640
Speaker 2: and the list goes on and nine, and it's like,

1423
01:02:10,680 --> 01:02:13,040
Speaker 2: all right, it was a nice period, but you know,

1424
01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:14,800
Speaker 2: we're kind of over it and we can move on.

1425
01:02:14,920 --> 01:02:17,800
Speaker 2: So the notion that like women's mma needs Randa, or

1426
01:02:17,800 --> 01:02:20,280
Speaker 2: that we're desperately missing her or anything like that. I

1427
01:02:20,560 --> 01:02:21,720
Speaker 2: don't think that that's accurate.

1428
01:02:22,600 --> 01:02:24,800
Speaker 1: Okay, great, Well, what we're gonna do just before we

1429
01:02:24,800 --> 01:02:26,560
Speaker 1: wrap up, we play a little game with our guests

1430
01:02:26,560 --> 01:02:36,920
Speaker 1: called what You Got. What happens is I present you

1431
01:02:36,960 --> 01:02:38,920
Speaker 1: with a couple of options, and you have to tell

1432
01:02:39,000 --> 01:02:41,240
Speaker 1: us which one is right. So you've got to pick

1433
01:02:41,600 --> 01:02:43,560
Speaker 1: out of these two out of well the first one

1434
01:02:43,680 --> 01:02:45,360
Speaker 1: is actually three options. But I sort of think I

1435
01:02:45,440 --> 01:02:49,680
Speaker 1: know where you're gonna go because you'll.

1436
01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:50,280
Speaker 2: Wait a second, Lee, can you just tell your friends

1437
01:02:50,360 --> 01:02:52,760
Speaker 2: how much I killed it on the card game that

1438
01:02:52,800 --> 01:02:54,160
Speaker 2: we played. I mean, have you called them?

1439
01:02:54,480 --> 01:02:55,440
Speaker 1: Of course?

1440
01:02:55,440 --> 01:02:57,720
Speaker 2: Okay, I just want to recognition that.

1441
01:02:57,840 --> 01:03:00,160
Speaker 1: Was the first time ever that like I've just being

1442
01:03:00,200 --> 01:03:04,000
Speaker 1: totally owned by the guest. And also, and also the

1443
01:03:04,040 --> 01:03:06,800
Speaker 1: other thing was you wanted it open on another pack,

1444
01:03:06,840 --> 01:03:10,360
Speaker 1: So I did two packs for the first three.

1445
01:03:10,840 --> 01:03:13,960
Speaker 4: I actually specifically didn't watch the clip on our Instagram

1446
01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:16,120
Speaker 4: page because I saw it was thirty minutes long. Areal.

1447
01:03:16,120 --> 01:03:17,880
Speaker 1: I was like, jeezam, I got time from this man.

1448
01:03:17,960 --> 01:03:20,560
Speaker 2: Come on. It was great, it was great fun. I

1449
01:03:21,600 --> 01:03:22,480
Speaker 2: heard you were impressive.

1450
01:03:22,520 --> 01:03:23,240
Speaker 4: I will watch it.

1451
01:03:23,440 --> 01:03:24,240
Speaker 2: I'd like that, we'll have to.

1452
01:03:24,320 --> 01:03:26,400
Speaker 4: I'm gonna you know, I pray myself on knowing a

1453
01:03:26,400 --> 01:03:28,360
Speaker 4: lot of those cards too. Ley as does tasks we

1454
01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:30,080
Speaker 4: might have to have a battle here at some point

1455
01:03:30,080 --> 01:03:31,240
Speaker 4: with her any.

1456
01:03:32,560 --> 01:03:33,280
Speaker 2: Freaking day.

1457
01:03:33,600 --> 01:03:36,040
Speaker 1: I am telling you, Ariel will will shock you just

1458
01:03:36,120 --> 01:03:37,800
Speaker 1: how deep it goes. Like I said, I knew he

1459
01:03:37,840 --> 01:03:39,600
Speaker 1: was an NBA fan. I didn't know we were talking

1460
01:03:39,640 --> 01:03:42,160
Speaker 1: about who traded who was in the trade for Dominique

1461
01:03:42,160 --> 01:03:47,960
Speaker 1: Wilkins when he left the hall, Dandy Manning. That's right? Okay,

1462
01:03:47,960 --> 01:03:49,800
Speaker 1: Well the first one, like I say, it's three options

1463
01:03:50,040 --> 01:03:52,320
Speaker 1: and you kind of addressed it. But best pound pound

1464
01:03:52,360 --> 01:03:55,440
Speaker 1: for pound fighter ever John Jones, Anderson Silver or GSP.

1465
01:03:55,680 --> 01:03:57,680
Speaker 1: Who wins that fight? Who's the first out of the

1466
01:03:57,760 --> 01:03:59,280
Speaker 1: ring in a sort of royal rumble style?

1467
01:03:59,360 --> 01:04:02,280
Speaker 2: Oh my, hey, wow, we've never had a triple threat

1468
01:04:02,280 --> 01:04:06,000
Speaker 2: match in UFC history before it. Okay, I'll go in order.

1469
01:04:06,080 --> 01:04:09,680
Speaker 2: I'll say, I'll say Anderson gets eliminated first, and then

1470
01:04:09,880 --> 01:04:12,280
Speaker 2: our guy GSP beats John Jones.

1471
01:04:12,320 --> 01:04:16,480
Speaker 3: Right, Okay, our guy, Yeah, that's right, is Ander Anderson

1472
01:04:16,520 --> 01:04:19,600
Speaker 3: Silvaander appreciated because you, I mean, he's probably John Jones

1473
01:04:19,680 --> 01:04:21,800
Speaker 3: probably just too big for Anderson Silver, I imagine.

1474
01:04:21,960 --> 01:04:24,560
Speaker 2: No, that was a fight that was kind of bandied about,

1475
01:04:24,600 --> 01:04:26,440
Speaker 2: but they you know, John kind of came on a

1476
01:04:26,480 --> 01:04:29,320
Speaker 2: little later in Anderson's career. But Anderson fought at two

1477
01:04:29,360 --> 01:04:30,920
Speaker 2: o five. He you know, he was the champion on

1478
01:04:30,920 --> 01:04:32,840
Speaker 2: one eighty five, went up to two five. I think

1479
01:04:32,880 --> 01:04:35,520
Speaker 2: that Anderson is respected for for what he did, but

1480
01:04:36,160 --> 01:04:39,320
Speaker 2: I think later he had a couple of PD infractions,

1481
01:04:39,360 --> 01:04:41,400
Speaker 2: and I think that's tarnished his legacy a little bit.

1482
01:04:42,760 --> 01:04:44,720
Speaker 1: All right, back to the NBA. Will Now there's no

1483
01:04:44,840 --> 01:04:48,800
Speaker 1: Patrick Ewing in this one, but best centa Shack or

1484
01:04:48,840 --> 01:04:50,800
Speaker 1: a Keem.

1485
01:04:50,360 --> 01:04:55,080
Speaker 2: Shack easy yeah, easy, yeah, wow, easy yeah, way more dominant.

1486
01:04:56,160 --> 01:04:58,240
Speaker 2: And listen, you know Patrick beat a Keem in the

1487
01:04:58,400 --> 01:05:00,600
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four NCAA finals. Let's all forget about that.

1488
01:05:00,640 --> 01:05:02,560
Speaker 2: People want to bring up nineteen eighty four, but when

1489
01:05:02,560 --> 01:05:05,560
Speaker 2: it really mattered Georgetown versus used to that's when we

1490
01:05:05,600 --> 01:05:09,000
Speaker 2: got him. A quim was amazing. And you notice I

1491
01:05:09,000 --> 01:05:12,320
Speaker 2: said akeem in nineteen eighty four. He added the ah afterwards, Okay,

1492
01:05:12,360 --> 01:05:15,800
Speaker 2: I want that to be a noted was amazing.

1493
01:05:15,880 --> 01:05:17,080
Speaker 1: That's not that impressive.

1494
01:05:17,120 --> 01:05:18,760
Speaker 2: Now you're not You're getting Oh come on, come on,

1495
01:05:18,920 --> 01:05:22,479
Speaker 2: I'm trying to pat my own back. So the dream

1496
01:05:22,560 --> 01:05:24,840
Speaker 2: Shake was great. I thought his best years were in

1497
01:05:24,840 --> 01:05:29,200
Speaker 2: Toronto if I'm being honest, but I mean Shaquille was

1498
01:05:29,200 --> 01:05:32,520
Speaker 2: a force. If anyone is underappreciated, I actually think Shaquill's underappreciated.

1499
01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:34,880
Speaker 2: When Shaquille came in ninety two, ninety three, ninety four, like,

1500
01:05:34,960 --> 01:05:37,520
Speaker 2: this guy was a beast, ninety five he was incredible.

1501
01:05:37,640 --> 01:05:40,600
Speaker 2: So I would say, Shack, Yes, all.

1502
01:05:40,560 --> 01:05:42,320
Speaker 1: Right, one a little bit closer to time. I've taken

1503
01:05:42,360 --> 01:05:44,200
Speaker 1: youing out of this. I'm going with your favorite Nick,

1504
01:05:44,320 --> 01:05:45,760
Speaker 1: Charles Oakley or John Stocks.

1505
01:05:46,280 --> 01:05:48,560
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that is a really tough one.

1506
01:05:49,200 --> 01:05:51,760
Speaker 3: Oh Manick, between your two kids, Ariel.

1507
01:05:52,120 --> 01:05:55,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, See, this is the problem is I'm really down

1508
01:05:55,720 --> 01:05:57,240
Speaker 2: on Oakley right now. I don't know if you guys

1509
01:05:57,280 --> 01:05:59,480
Speaker 2: have seen, like he's gone on this crusade against Patrick.

1510
01:05:59,560 --> 01:06:01,880
Speaker 2: It's really he said so for that reason, and we

1511
01:06:02,000 --> 01:06:04,720
Speaker 2: had his back. He was. That was the lowest moment

1512
01:06:04,760 --> 01:06:06,960
Speaker 2: in Knick's history, not when they couldn't sign KD or

1513
01:06:07,040 --> 01:06:10,120
Speaker 2: Kyrie or anything. When they dragged Charles Oakley out of

1514
01:06:10,200 --> 01:06:12,920
Speaker 2: MSG like a piece of garbage. To me, my fandom

1515
01:06:13,000 --> 01:06:15,360
Speaker 2: died that day. It was really pathetic. It was sad

1516
01:06:15,520 --> 01:06:17,320
Speaker 2: what they did to him, and I feel like we

1517
01:06:17,400 --> 01:06:19,120
Speaker 2: had his back and what he's doing now just doesn't

1518
01:06:19,120 --> 01:06:20,560
Speaker 2: mean And I know he's mad that youwing didn't have

1519
01:06:20,640 --> 01:06:21,880
Speaker 2: his back and all this stuff, but can you deal

1520
01:06:21,920 --> 01:06:24,960
Speaker 2: with that behind the scenes. So for that reason, I'll

1521
01:06:25,040 --> 01:06:28,560
Speaker 2: go with Starks, because you know what, John Starks wouldn't

1522
01:06:28,560 --> 01:06:31,040
Speaker 2: be seen golfing with Michael Jordan. All right. John Starks

1523
01:06:31,160 --> 01:06:33,880
Speaker 2: is for life, all right. The man from Oklahoma State,

1524
01:06:33,920 --> 01:06:36,320
Speaker 2: he is for life. I was. I was devastated when

1525
01:06:36,360 --> 01:06:39,200
Speaker 2: they traded him to Golden State. Obviously the trade worked

1526
01:06:39,200 --> 01:06:41,560
Speaker 2: out because we got Latrell, but to me, he's a

1527
01:06:41,680 --> 01:06:43,680
Speaker 2: nick for life. So I'll go with John Starks.

1528
01:06:43,760 --> 01:06:46,160
Speaker 3: And Charles Oakley probably had his best days as a raptor,

1529
01:06:46,320 --> 01:06:46,560
Speaker 3: just like.

1530
01:06:48,360 --> 01:06:50,960
Speaker 2: But actually that's like a legit statement. Not I wouldn't

1531
01:06:50,960 --> 01:06:53,680
Speaker 2: say best days, but he was. I think it was good,

1532
01:06:53,840 --> 01:06:57,240
Speaker 2: a pretty good force. Yeah, but Mark Hamby what a

1533
01:06:57,320 --> 01:07:00,360
Speaker 2: trade that ended up being y nine. Camby was huge

1534
01:07:00,400 --> 01:07:03,160
Speaker 2: for us, so I was happy with it, but I

1535
01:07:03,320 --> 01:07:04,640
Speaker 2: was sad that it was kind of the end of

1536
01:07:04,680 --> 01:07:08,080
Speaker 2: the era when they traded him away. So but because

1537
01:07:08,120 --> 01:07:10,080
Speaker 2: of what he's saying these days, I'll go with Starks.

1538
01:07:10,680 --> 01:07:13,439
Speaker 1: Okay, two more here, one of these two a little

1539
01:07:13,480 --> 01:07:16,600
Speaker 1: bit closer to home. First one back in Montreal. Best

1540
01:07:16,720 --> 01:07:19,520
Speaker 1: Canadian staple poutine or Montreal smoked meat.

1541
01:07:20,520 --> 01:07:22,880
Speaker 2: Oh that's a tough one, and it could be from

1542
01:07:22,920 --> 01:07:26,520
Speaker 2: any place, right yep? Okay, because I thought you're like

1543
01:07:26,600 --> 01:07:28,680
Speaker 2: Schwartzes or stuff. You know, that's the one that everyone

1544
01:07:28,720 --> 01:07:32,600
Speaker 2: talks about. I'll go with poutine. I'm not as much

1545
01:07:32,640 --> 01:07:35,040
Speaker 2: of a I love the meat, like, don't get me wrong,

1546
01:07:35,360 --> 01:07:37,680
Speaker 2: I'll smoke meat is the best. But poutine. What's better

1547
01:07:37,760 --> 01:07:40,520
Speaker 2: than hot poutine on a really cold day and it's like,

1548
01:07:40,760 --> 01:07:42,840
Speaker 2: you know, like blowing smoke in your face and the

1549
01:07:43,120 --> 01:07:46,360
Speaker 2: cheese is melting and the gravy is burning. It's incredible stuff.

1550
01:07:46,440 --> 01:07:47,480
Speaker 2: So I'll go with the poutine.

1551
01:07:48,520 --> 01:07:50,520
Speaker 1: Okay. Last one here, I hope you get the reference.

1552
01:07:50,520 --> 01:07:53,080
Speaker 1: I'm sure you will. Best movie Finding Nemo or The

1553
01:07:53,120 --> 01:07:53,800
Speaker 1: Little Mermaid?

1554
01:07:54,800 --> 01:07:57,840
Speaker 2: Ah? Yes, oh thanks, I haven't heard that one since

1555
01:07:57,880 --> 01:08:00,960
Speaker 2: I was six years old. Of course, I go with

1556
01:08:01,360 --> 01:08:04,640
Speaker 2: the Little Mermaid. Not even close, Aria, I mean, she

1557
01:08:04,760 --> 01:08:06,240
Speaker 2: was incredible, she was a legend.

1558
01:08:07,160 --> 01:08:09,280
Speaker 1: Well that's I saw as well when you were interviewing

1559
01:08:09,600 --> 01:08:12,800
Speaker 1: Rampage Jackson and yeah, he was talking about it then

1560
01:08:12,840 --> 01:08:15,240
Speaker 1: because he was another guy. He was probably you know,

1561
01:08:15,320 --> 01:08:17,200
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, one of the first guys that

1562
01:08:17,240 --> 01:08:19,640
Speaker 1: you really had like some beef within the media, Like

1563
01:08:19,720 --> 01:08:21,960
Speaker 1: he often was pretty nasty to you and belittled you

1564
01:08:22,080 --> 01:08:24,679
Speaker 1: a lot. And there's some clips of you when you're

1565
01:08:24,680 --> 01:08:26,400
Speaker 1: a young kid, you must only be twenty five or

1566
01:08:26,439 --> 01:08:29,360
Speaker 1: twenty six, you know, sort of skinny kid there standing

1567
01:08:29,400 --> 01:08:31,720
Speaker 1: with a big UFC fighter and he's trying to kind

1568
01:08:31,760 --> 01:08:33,760
Speaker 1: of bully you and intimidate you. But you know, you

1569
01:08:33,840 --> 01:08:35,519
Speaker 1: held your ground all the time there, and I thought

1570
01:08:35,560 --> 01:08:38,400
Speaker 1: that was really really you know, strong of you to

1571
01:08:38,479 --> 01:08:39,080
Speaker 1: be able to do that.

1572
01:08:39,760 --> 01:08:42,040
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. Yeah, for some reason, a lot of

1573
01:08:42,080 --> 01:08:43,679
Speaker 2: people have asked me, were you ever afree of someone

1574
01:08:43,760 --> 01:08:46,120
Speaker 2: punching you or doing something to you? And Rampage just

1575
01:08:46,160 --> 01:08:48,080
Speaker 2: put his hands on me, like he choked me.

1576
01:08:49,280 --> 01:08:50,720
Speaker 1: And slapped you in that other one too.

1577
01:08:50,960 --> 01:08:53,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but I don't know. You know, when you

1578
01:08:53,240 --> 01:08:55,000
Speaker 2: come from the mean streets of the five one four,

1579
01:08:55,560 --> 01:08:58,960
Speaker 2: you grew up where I grew up, and you've seen

1580
01:08:59,000 --> 01:09:01,519
Speaker 2: the things that I've seen in these guys, can't you know,

1581
01:09:01,560 --> 01:09:04,479
Speaker 2: intimidate me? So I was never afraid. Honestly, I was

1582
01:09:04,560 --> 01:09:06,800
Speaker 2: never afraid of them. I'm still not afraid of them.

1583
01:09:06,840 --> 01:09:08,080
Speaker 4: I was in the Jewish Olympics.

1584
01:09:08,200 --> 01:09:10,160
Speaker 1: Ram that's right, that's.

1585
01:09:10,120 --> 01:09:13,360
Speaker 2: Right, damn it. Yes, I've seen it all. He tried

1586
01:09:13,400 --> 01:09:19,439
Speaker 2: playing the Jewish Brazilian basketball team and hostile grounds in

1587
01:09:19,520 --> 01:09:23,439
Speaker 2: Mexico City. That will rattle you to your core exactly.

1588
01:09:24,360 --> 01:09:26,280
Speaker 3: Oh that does sound a little intimidated, and got to

1589
01:09:26,280 --> 01:09:27,360
Speaker 3: be honest, it was.

1590
01:09:28,640 --> 01:09:31,800
Speaker 2: Trust me, it was hostile, but we power through. Yeah.

1591
01:09:32,240 --> 01:09:34,679
Speaker 1: Well you had those big patrick ewing shoes. Maybe that's scared.

1592
01:09:34,720 --> 01:09:37,120
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right.

1593
01:09:37,200 --> 01:09:40,080
Speaker 1: Well, Ariel, thanks so much for joining us. We had

1594
01:09:40,120 --> 01:09:41,599
Speaker 1: a lot of fun here talking to you and listening

1595
01:09:41,640 --> 01:09:43,840
Speaker 1: to all your stories about the NBA world and the

1596
01:09:43,960 --> 01:09:46,519
Speaker 1: UFC world. It's been fantastic. I wish you all the

1597
01:09:46,560 --> 01:09:48,800
Speaker 1: best and hopefully we can cross paths with you somewhere

1598
01:09:48,800 --> 01:09:51,120
Speaker 1: at some event, you know, I mean like whenever the

1599
01:09:51,200 --> 01:09:54,120
Speaker 1: NBA starts up again, and you know there's often uh

1600
01:09:54,960 --> 01:09:56,960
Speaker 1: you know, big cities hosting these events where there's big

1601
01:09:57,040 --> 01:09:59,000
Speaker 1: nbav as well, so maybe we can catch up and

1602
01:09:59,080 --> 01:10:00,560
Speaker 1: have a beer and talk about it to No.

1603
01:10:00,680 --> 01:10:02,360
Speaker 4: No, no, here's the problem with that, Lee, You're never

1604
01:10:02,439 --> 01:10:04,160
Speaker 4: gonna be able to have a beer with Ariel because

1605
01:10:04,280 --> 01:10:06,320
Speaker 4: he works till like four in the morning. And yeah,

1606
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:08,719
Speaker 4: and Lee, you're in bed by like ten o'clark, because

1607
01:10:08,760 --> 01:10:10,519
Speaker 4: we've tried to make this happen before, have we not.

1608
01:10:10,640 --> 01:10:13,439
Speaker 2: Ariel, Yes, that is accurate about the four am thing,

1609
01:10:13,479 --> 01:10:13,760
Speaker 2: and it.

1610
01:10:13,800 --> 01:10:16,400
Speaker 1: All works so late. Man, It's yeah, but it's different.

1611
01:10:16,439 --> 01:10:18,519
Speaker 1: It's different when I'm at a fight event. I was

1612
01:10:18,560 --> 01:10:20,800
Speaker 1: at time. I was in Manchester for Ricky Hatton and

1613
01:10:20,960 --> 01:10:23,439
Speaker 1: uh and cost Jazoo back in two thousand and five

1614
01:10:23,520 --> 01:10:25,120
Speaker 1: and that, yeah, that went into the night. It was

1615
01:10:25,120 --> 01:10:27,120
Speaker 1: eleven rounds. That was an incredible fight. And then we

1616
01:10:27,200 --> 01:10:29,439
Speaker 1: were staying like at the hotel where cost Yazoo was

1617
01:10:29,479 --> 01:10:31,519
Speaker 1: staying so well, he's entourage came back. I never got

1618
01:10:31,560 --> 01:10:33,760
Speaker 1: to see him, unfortunately, but we were staying up that

1619
01:10:33,840 --> 01:10:35,439
Speaker 1: late that night. So if it's a five night, I

1620
01:10:35,479 --> 01:10:36,200
Speaker 1: can stay up late.

1621
01:10:36,320 --> 01:10:39,320
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, all right, And let me just say, and

1622
01:10:39,360 --> 01:10:41,760
Speaker 2: I would love to do that, congratulations to you guys.

1623
01:10:41,840 --> 01:10:43,880
Speaker 2: You know, you guys are in inspiration and we were

1624
01:10:43,960 --> 01:10:45,560
Speaker 2: kind of coming but you were well ahead of me,

1625
01:10:45,720 --> 01:10:48,240
Speaker 2: you know when when I was coming up at around

1626
01:10:48,280 --> 01:10:50,320
Speaker 2: the same time, and the stuff that you guys have done,

1627
01:10:50,400 --> 01:10:53,240
Speaker 2: and how you've you know, pivoted and evolved and all

1628
01:10:53,280 --> 01:10:55,439
Speaker 2: the stuff, you know, all the stops, and I know

1629
01:10:55,520 --> 01:10:57,920
Speaker 2: that at times it could be disappointing when things don't

1630
01:10:57,960 --> 01:11:00,320
Speaker 2: work out, and you you you, you pick yourself up,

1631
01:11:00,320 --> 01:11:02,080
Speaker 2: you do yourself off. It's amazing and I love the

1632
01:11:02,120 --> 01:11:04,200
Speaker 2: fact that you're Canadian as well, So I just want

1633
01:11:04,240 --> 01:11:06,479
Speaker 2: to congratulate you. And it's an absolute honor to be

1634
01:11:06,560 --> 01:11:08,200
Speaker 2: on the show because I've been listening to it for

1635
01:11:08,320 --> 01:11:10,840
Speaker 2: so long and enjoying it. So I wish you all

1636
01:11:10,880 --> 01:11:12,680
Speaker 2: continued success and I hope that you keep doing this

1637
01:11:12,800 --> 01:11:13,360
Speaker 2: for many years.

1638
01:11:13,760 --> 01:11:15,479
Speaker 1: Thanks man, it's been a lot of fun having you on.

1639
01:11:15,760 --> 01:11:16,679
Speaker 3: Thanks for the kind of words.

1640
01:11:16,680 --> 01:11:18,240
Speaker 1: If any listens out there, if you want to follow

1641
01:11:18,320 --> 01:11:21,640
Speaker 1: Ariel obviously on social media, he is just Ariel Helwani,

1642
01:11:21,760 --> 01:11:23,800
Speaker 1: so check him out everywhere and follow along.

1643
01:11:23,960 --> 01:11:27,479
Speaker 2: Thanks Ariel, Thanks guys, appreciate it. You could stay.

1644
01:11:29,320 --> 01:11:34,200
Speaker 6: Every day, Danie happy, every minute.

1645
01:11:37,240 --> 01:11:40,360
Speaker 2: It's been so long with your Wana.

1646
01:11:40,240 --> 01:11:46,639
Speaker 3: Way, It's happened already. It's gonna be great.