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Speaker 1: This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What is up,

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Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight Fire for Thursday,

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Speaker 1: July first. Oh, the month of July is such a

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Speaker 1: great month. July four this weekend. Hope everybody has an

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Speaker 1: amazing July fourth. I gotta start with some house cleaning.

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Speaker 1: First of all, major shout out for all the props

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Speaker 1: on the Cuffs the Legend interview. You guys really like

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Speaker 1: that guy. Um, he doesn't hold back. I like the

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Speaker 1: truth tellers. I got where I am primarily by being

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Speaker 1: a truth teller. Cuffs didn't hold back. If you missed

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Speaker 1: yesterday's pod, yeah, you're gonna like it a lot. Check

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Speaker 1: it out. And we have a special guest today diverting

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Speaker 1: briefly from the NBA. I mean, it feels like we've

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Speaker 1: been heavy NBA for like a month now, but you know,

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Speaker 1: I've declared this summer soccer this weekend. We have the

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Speaker 1: Copa America quarters and semifinals, we have the Euro quarters

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Speaker 1: and semifinals. I'm geeked for it. So we have a

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Speaker 1: soccer guest, Yes, a soccer guest, Eric Winalda, one of

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Speaker 1: the I mean, listen He's on the shortlist of the

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Speaker 1: greatest American soccer players UM in the history of US soccer.

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Speaker 1: Like that's just a fact. Goal scoring machine. He went

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Speaker 1: over to Europe early in the nineties. Great storyteller. He

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Speaker 1: is another guy who does not hold back. I think

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Speaker 1: you'll like the interview. Take some shots, um everywhere. He

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Speaker 1: doesn't really hold back. You're gonna love Eric Winalda. But

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Speaker 1: first we have to tear down the Phoenix Suns for

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Speaker 1: going to the NBA Finals. The listen, listen. Okay, first,

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Speaker 1: let's let's start with the props. Congratulations Chris Paul finally

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Speaker 1: breaks through, finally go to the NBA Finals. Masterful performance

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Speaker 1: from CP three, thirty one points in the second half

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Speaker 1: of Game six in l A, where he was banished

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Speaker 1: the Clippers role in Game five, everybody thinks Clippers have

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Speaker 1: a chance. They're coming home Colors. I like them. In

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Speaker 1: game fun, No, Sons, this was a layup, folks. Devin

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Speaker 1: Brooker was good and Chris Paul was phenomenal. Thirty one

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Speaker 1: points in the second half and the Sons go to

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Speaker 1: the finals for the first time since n Someone texted

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Speaker 1: me a crazy stat. This has never happened before. A

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Speaker 1: team makes the finals after not making the playoffs for

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Speaker 1: ten years straight. I mean, that's phenomenal, it really is.

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Speaker 1: There were some fun subplots, right The Pat Bev dirty

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Speaker 1: factor always an issue. Patrick Beverley got ejected for it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, listen, he's just he's a problem. That's what

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Speaker 1: he is. Like. He is an angry bloke. Last year

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Speaker 1: they were yucking it up, laughing in the bubble at

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Speaker 1: Damian Lillard and then they get bounced by the Denver Nuggets.

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Speaker 1: And this year, you know, the guy gets tossed for

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Speaker 1: basically cheap shotting Chris Paul. I don't think Chris Paul

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Speaker 1: said anything either. I've looked at the replay multiple times.

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Speaker 1: It looked like maybe a smirk. Maybe he said something

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Speaker 1: under his breath. Um. At any rate, my big takeaway

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Speaker 1: from the Sun's going to the finals for the first

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Speaker 1: time since Berkeley got them there in nineteen is that

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Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns had the easiest path to the NBA

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Speaker 1: Finals in the history of basketball. And that is not

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Speaker 1: an exaggeration when you look at the facts. Let's just

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Speaker 1: stick to the facts. First round, they're down two to

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Speaker 1: one of the Lakers. They're in deep trouble and Anthony Davis,

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Speaker 1: a top ten player in the league, goes down. That

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Speaker 1: was a series Suns roll. Okay, next round, they face

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Speaker 1: a busted up Denver Nuggets team without Jamal Murray, who

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Speaker 1: was their second best player, and they're starting backcourt was

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Speaker 1: a couple of guys who weren't even factors on the

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Speaker 1: NBA in twenty nineteen. Okay, Austin Rivers and Compozzo beaten

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Speaker 1: up Nuggets and Chris Paul and Sons eviscerate them, sweep them.

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Speaker 1: By the way, Chris Paul was great in that closeout game,

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Speaker 1: thirty seven points. And now they faced the paper Clips

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Speaker 1: in the Western Conference Finals without their best player, Kawhi Leonard.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not going to bring up a Baka

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Speaker 1: or zoobots um, but Kahi Leonard is a top I mean, listen,

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Speaker 1: I say he's the top ten players. Some people would

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Speaker 1: argue top five. So just to recap the path that

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Speaker 1: the Sons have to the finals, Chris Paul and Devin

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Speaker 1: Booker were phenomenal. DeAndre Aton was outstanding. They beat the Lakers,

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Speaker 1: who were missing a top ten player. They beat the Nuggets,

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Speaker 1: who are missing a top fIF team player. And Rob

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Speaker 1: g can check me on that if he wants to

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Speaker 1: try on Jamal Murray. And they beat the Clippers without

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Speaker 1: a top ten player, and again you could argue top five.

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Speaker 1: I cannot recall an easier path. Okay, some people say, oh,

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Speaker 1: the Warriors had some easy paths, that's balderd ash. I

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Speaker 1: just looked at the Warriors. Rob and I were chop

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Speaker 1: chopping it up before the pod and there were some

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Speaker 1: minor injuries, Okay, Patrick Beverley, Mike Connley who played almost

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Speaker 1: the entire series but was wearing a mask, and like,

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Speaker 1: this is nothing compared to that. We're talking about elite

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Speaker 1: superstars in the NBA missing the series, and that's how

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Speaker 1: Sons are getting there. Now history will be on Phoenix side.

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Speaker 1: All anybody cares about who went to the finals, who won,

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Speaker 1: who was the MVP. Nobody cares about any of the

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Speaker 1: other stuff. Yes, people will remember the seventy three win.

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Speaker 1: Warriors did lead three one and they blew it. But

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Speaker 1: we're now, what four years removed from that five and

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Speaker 1: it's already like, oh, well I forgot Yeah, Andrew Bogan

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Speaker 1: got injured in that he's there starting center and rim

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Speaker 1: protector and Draymond got suspended and the Calves ran a

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Speaker 1: layup line in game six and then in games Oh

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Speaker 1: that's right, yeah, I mean, like people forget that again.

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Speaker 1: We're five years out of that. I had just moved

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Speaker 1: to l A. The Worriors were the greatest show in

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Speaker 1: the in sports, and then Lebron comes back and beat him,

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Speaker 1: of course memorably. After the Calves and Lebron win that title,

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Speaker 1: that's when we really started hearing Lebron's gonna catch Jordan's.

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Speaker 1: And of course, the day after that Calves parade, Michael

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Speaker 1: Jordan's gave the green light for the last dance, and

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Speaker 1: of course we all know Michael Jordan's had final say

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Speaker 1: on everything. In the last dance, it was basically a

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Speaker 1: pr for Michael Jordan's because he was worried about Lebron

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Speaker 1: encroaching on his territory. And maybe Lebron wins one more

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Speaker 1: next year. But this is not I'm not knocking the suns.

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Speaker 1: It is hey, you gotta go through whatever path you

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Speaker 1: can to get there. Okay, you run a marathon and

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Speaker 1: somebody's leading the entire way, pulls up lane with a

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Speaker 1: mile togo and can't finish, and you win, you win.

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Speaker 1: Who cares? It's unfortunately, but that that was the brakes.

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Speaker 1: This is sports, this is what happens. The best part

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Speaker 1: is the Phoenix Suns will face in the finals either

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Speaker 1: a busted Hawks with a limited Tray Young. Although I

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Speaker 1: think there's gonna be about seven days maybe six in

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Speaker 1: between the end of the Eastern Conference Finals and the

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Speaker 1: and the start of the finals, so maybe Tray is healthy,

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Speaker 1: but it could be the Bucks, who are unlikely to

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Speaker 1: have us for Game five. He's listed as doubtful. There

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Speaker 1: was no the m r I revealed no structural damage.

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Speaker 1: But the bottom line is Janna is ain't close to

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Speaker 1: a Trey Young ain't close to and the fact will remain.

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Speaker 1: The Phoenix Suns will go through four teams win the

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Speaker 1: NBA title, the first in their franchise is history, and

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Speaker 1: the best or second best player will be missing from

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Speaker 1: every series. That's staggering. I mean again, it doesn't matter.

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Speaker 1: Suns fans are gonna get angry. Be these are just facts.

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Speaker 1: It's not a huge deal that this is the reality.

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Speaker 1: These are just facts. If these facts hurt you, I'm

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Speaker 1: sorry about that. But that is the reality. The Suns

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Speaker 1: had the cushiest path to the Finals in NBA history

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Speaker 1: and the Toronto Raptors. Folks, if you remember they take

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Speaker 1: down the Warriors. Everybody are you know, basically forgotten that

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Speaker 1: the Raptors won the title. And then it's like, oh wait, wait,

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Speaker 1: that's right. Kevin Duran played like twelve minutes I think

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Speaker 1: fourteen minutes, twelve or fourteen minutes in the entire series.

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Speaker 1: He was the greatest player on the planet. And then

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Speaker 1: Steph Curry somehow keeps them in the series, and then

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Speaker 1: Clay Thompson goes down. I think it was it was

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Speaker 1: a game six rob I think Clay tore up his

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Speaker 1: knee at the end of Game six, and the Raptors

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Speaker 1: pulled it out, and Drake is celebrating blah blah blah.

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Speaker 1: But uh, you can't really compare to that because they

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Speaker 1: did take down the honest the round before. Um, they

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Speaker 1: did get super lucky to beat the Sixers on the

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Speaker 1: prayer of all prayers, the Kawhi Leonard Corner shot. Um,

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Speaker 1: but these are the Brakes. Um, we won't do a

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Speaker 1: post mortem on the Clippers today. Um, And I don't.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how you can kill them, right, What

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Speaker 1: am I gonna say? Like Kawhi Leonard was not on

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Speaker 1: the floor, like he's their best player. I don't even

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Speaker 1: know if Kauai all of a sudden becomes like on

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Speaker 1: the move this off seat, like is he gonna have surgery?

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Speaker 1: Like there's so much unknown um no baka no zoo.

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Speaker 1: But like you can't kill them. Paul George was terrible.

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Speaker 1: Um tour Charles barks Like said he was awful by

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Speaker 1: the way. Um let's put out an ap B for

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Speaker 1: Terrence Man. If you guys remember, Terrence Man had thirty

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Speaker 1: nine points his career best by a mile in college

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Speaker 1: or pros in the close out Game six over Utah.

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Speaker 1: In the six games against Phoenix, Terrence Man had a

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Speaker 1: total of fifty points. In Game six against Utah, he

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Speaker 1: made seven threes. In the series against Phoenix, he made five.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if you're the Utah Jazz, you have to

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Speaker 1: be kicking yourself. They were down Kauai, we got conly

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Speaker 1: back and we couldn't beat those guys. How did that

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Speaker 1: happ Terrence Man happen? That's what I mean, Like he

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Speaker 1: becomes a footnote in history. But it's just it's staggering.

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Speaker 1: What a crazy NBA playoffs and Rob. I know people

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Speaker 1: are gonna hate me for this Sun's take, but again

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Speaker 1: it's I don't know how much of it take it

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Speaker 1: is as reality, No I would agree. I mean, you

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Speaker 1: are going to get hated on. I mean, rest in

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Speaker 1: peace to your mentions later today. But um, you're right.

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Speaker 1: I mean I can't refute the fact that they did

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Speaker 1: have a clean path to the finals and and most

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Speaker 1: likely do the championship. You know, That's just the way

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Speaker 1: it is sometimes though Unfortunately, I mean, I can't say

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Speaker 1: the Lakers didn't get some breaks last year. Damn Lillard

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Speaker 1: got hurt. Uh you know, um gor and drag Itch

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Speaker 1: and bam atter bio you know, hurt a little bit

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Speaker 1: in the finals, and these things happen. It's rare that

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Speaker 1: you get it in every round of the playoffs. They

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Speaker 1: will say that you know, um, and you know what,

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Speaker 1: but you gotta you brought a good point up. You know.

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Speaker 1: I tried to push back on you before we started

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Speaker 1: recording about the Warriors and how they went through the

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Speaker 1: entire postseason without playing a healthy point guard or healthy

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Speaker 1: starting point guard. But who who talks about that? Now?

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Speaker 1: You know me when I debate you about Steph Curry, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and again we went through it. Guys. It's like I mean, honestly,

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Speaker 1: it's Mike Conley played in the series, but he missed

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Speaker 1: one game and he had like a mask on. Patrick

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Speaker 1: Beverley I think was injured to miss the whole series.

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Speaker 1: But he was like their seventh leading score. But he

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Speaker 1: was in their defensive stopper on that the one defensive

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Speaker 1: guy they had on that team. And in the opening

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Speaker 1: round Drew Holiday missed a game and had to come

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Speaker 1: off the bench because he wasn't healthy. Tyreek Evans was

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Speaker 1: their starting point guard. He was hurt and he had

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Speaker 1: to get surgery after the series ended. I've told the

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Speaker 1: story a million times. My favorite Tyreek Evans story. So

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Speaker 1: before the you know the story before before the Curry draft. Um,

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Speaker 1: the Memphis I think it was memphisis no Sacramento. Sacramento

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Speaker 1: had in Tyreeke and Steph Curry for a workout and

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Speaker 1: they had them play one on one. Okay, remember Steph Curry, Davidson,

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Speaker 1: Tyreek Evans, Memphis. Tyreek Evans was a monster. Steph Curry

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Speaker 1: was a great shooter, but not a great one on

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Speaker 1: one guy. He's frail, and they played one on one.

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Speaker 1: I don't know why that would happen. I guess Evans

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Speaker 1: was a lot to go like top three and Curry

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Speaker 1: was like, you know, an afterthought in the top five,

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Speaker 1: and Tyreek Evans just murdered in one on one. Like,

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Speaker 1: you know, Steph Curry has no chance guarding Tyree Evans

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Speaker 1: one on one. But like that just shows the stupidity

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Speaker 1: of that franchise. Why have Tyreek Evans played Curry one

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Speaker 1: on one and annihilate him and say, oh, it's our guy.

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Speaker 1: Tyreek Evans goes on I think he won Rookie of

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Speaker 1: the Year and then never made it All Star Game. Curry,

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Speaker 1: you know, two m vps, three titles, Greatest Shooting Industry,

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Speaker 1: No big deal, just a whiff. I wonder where that

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Speaker 1: GM is today. Um, you know what's funny, I think

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Speaker 1: you know what. I think he parked my car yesterday. No,

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Speaker 1: I'm kidding that. But you could run that one on

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Speaker 1: one matchup like even five six years into their career

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Speaker 1: and Tyreek Evans would still win, probably and it would

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Speaker 1: mean nothing. Now Luca and Trey Young played one on one,

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Speaker 1: Luca would kill him. He would murder him. Now what's

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Speaker 1: interesting is, you know Tray Young pretty freaking awesome in

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Speaker 1: these playoffs, do you get. I mean, I don't really

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Speaker 1: think much needs to be said. You know, we're not

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Speaker 1: going to dive into Patrick Beverly vers Chris Paul. I

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Speaker 1: do need to note Rob well, we know that, but

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Speaker 1: it's Chris Paul is just such a flopper. It's so annoying.

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Speaker 1: You know, he just dust. DeMarcus Cousins put him in

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Speaker 1: a spin cycle scored and then he like after the

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Speaker 1: balls coming through the hoopie like gets close to him

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Speaker 1: to say something, and Cousins is basically get out of here.

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Speaker 1: And Chris Paul's like he's been shot like by a sniper,

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Speaker 1: and then he goes down. He's like holding his head like, dude,

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Speaker 1: come on, like I know you do that, but that's

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Speaker 1: such chicken ship. Man. I don't like a lot of

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Speaker 1: people don't like Chris Paul. And listen, I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: say I don't like the guy. Don't personally know him.

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Speaker 1: I've never interviewed him, but like it's crap like that.

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Speaker 1: There's just like, come on, man, like I know there's

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Speaker 1: gamesman ship. Yeah, he takes games within ship a little

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Speaker 1: too far. It cuffs the legend is a big Chris

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Speaker 1: Paul guy because they're from Carolina. If you heard yesterday's pod,

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Speaker 1: But like, let me give some props to Jay Crowder

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Speaker 1: by the way, real quick. Jay Crowder, if you guys

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Speaker 1: remember closed out the Lakers in Round one by going

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Speaker 1: six for nine from three. If remember, he just couldn't miss.

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Speaker 1: He just went ballistic. He went five of nine from

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Speaker 1: three against the Clippers. And Jake Crowder now owns l A.

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Speaker 1: He owns Los Angeles. Jake Crowder is going to be

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Speaker 1: an NBA champion And that's kind of cool because Jake

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Speaker 1: Crowder is put in the work. UM really fought for

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Speaker 1: everything in his career. And I'm just super proud of

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Speaker 1: Jay Crowder. I was impressive. Um. Any final thoughts on

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Speaker 1: the paper clips? Does Kauai consider opting out? I'm definitely

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Speaker 1: positive he's gonna opt out. I just don't know if

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Speaker 1: he's gonna leave. I don't think he's gonna leave. I think,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, financial it makes sense for him to opt out.

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Speaker 1: I should have rephrased that. Do you think Kawhi Leonard

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Speaker 1: entertains other offers to leave? No, because I don't think

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Speaker 1: anybody has cap space that would be worth going to

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Speaker 1: I think that he's definitely a Way York. No, I

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Speaker 1: don't see him going to New York. I think that

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Speaker 1: he likes the control and the power that he has

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Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. The fact that he only was on

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Speaker 1: the sideline once this entire series, and that was last

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Speaker 1: night in Game six when they got smashed by thirty points.

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Speaker 1: You know, it says a lot um. If the Clippers

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Speaker 1: do make changes, I think it's going to be centered

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Speaker 1: around Paul George, not Kauai. Interesting because I'll just say this.

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Speaker 1: They had their full team against the MAVs and Luca,

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Speaker 1: and for the second year in a row, struggle nearly

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Speaker 1: lost that series to Dallas. They were down O two

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Speaker 1: and three d they got I mean, Coui bailed them

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Speaker 1: out in game six he went ballistic um and then

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Speaker 1: with Kauai again struggled mightily against Utah. Like, let's stop

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Speaker 1: acting like this team is some kind of juggernaut. They're

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Speaker 1: just not that great of a team. They're really really good.

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Speaker 1: But the Nets are better. A healthy Lakers team is good.

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Speaker 1: Is it better? The Nuggets will be healthy by the

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Speaker 1: All Star break when Jamal Murrie back. They are better? Yes,

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Speaker 1: the Nuggets are better than these paper clips, and if

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Speaker 1: Luca gets them out, the Maths might be better. So, folks,

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Speaker 1: I just I don't know that the Clippers can this

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Speaker 1: same incarnation. I don't see how they can go into

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Speaker 1: next season as even a top four team in the league.

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Speaker 1: Frioplyin Lakers and Nuggets are for sure three, and Rob

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Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns, well, this Phoenix Suns seem is really good.

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Speaker 1: Now they're not going to have the you know, the

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Speaker 1: the animal spirit to come after it next year after

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Speaker 1: they win the title. But I just I don't know

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Speaker 1: about the clips. Man. They also may not have the

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Speaker 1: animal spirit to attack the best player on every team

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Speaker 1: before they play them as well. And it's so funny

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Speaker 1: that the Suns are gonna win the title, Rob, and

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Speaker 1: they were probably on their way out in the first round.

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Speaker 1: I don't like talking about because I want to sound

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Speaker 1: like a bitter Lakers fan, but it was a rap

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Speaker 1: the Lebron Andre Drummond. We're clowning them, yeah, you know

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Speaker 1: in Game three because they knew what was coming. That

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Speaker 1: it gets over and then and you know, Sons fans

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Speaker 1: can put up the good fight and say, oh, well

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Speaker 1: that's fine. But I just know that y'all were gonna

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Speaker 1: get bounced by the Lakers. Like that's the reality. I know, hindsight,

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Speaker 1: who cares? You can wear? You can wear your sons

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Speaker 1: are champions gear and all that fun stuff. Enjoy the

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Speaker 1: finals when you're facing the Hawks or Bucks, And um,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna have to start talking football next week, roub.

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Speaker 1: I think that that's where we're head. All right, without

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Speaker 1: further ado, let's let's move on from the NBA blowout

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Speaker 1: and get to our summer of soccer. And here's an

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Speaker 1: interview with Eric Winalda. Jason likes to think he knows

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Speaker 1: everything when it comes to sports. I know what sports

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Speaker 1: fans want, but for everything he doesn't. He knows a

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Speaker 1: guy who does. Let's just say I know a guy

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Speaker 1: who knows a guy who knows another guy. All right,

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Speaker 1: let's welcome into straight fire. A guy who's one of

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Speaker 1: the best players in the history of US soccer. Um

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Speaker 1: I new him at Fox. He's just awesome guy to

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Speaker 1: talk about soccer with, supremely confident in everything. One of

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Speaker 1: the first Americans to play soccer in Europe. Eric Winalda, Eric,

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Speaker 1: how are you man? I'm good. I'm uh. It's great.

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Speaker 1: To see you by the way. Yeah, yeah, and we've

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Speaker 1: we've already been over this but it's been a while.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, everything's good, you know, just trying. We've we've

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Speaker 1: survived the last year and a half. I think things

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Speaker 1: are getting back to normal. It's great to see sports again,

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Speaker 1: live sports, especially with wheverything's going on with soccer. Uh,

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Speaker 1: It's it's been a it's a very interesting time, but

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Speaker 1: it's been fun to watch. Yeah. I'm calling this the

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Speaker 1: Summer of soccer because you know it's returning in full fource.

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Speaker 1: The Euros are happening. Copa America Gold Cup is coming up.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the World Cup is on the horizon. Um,

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Speaker 1: it just feels like soccer is having Uh. I don't

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Speaker 1: want to say a reintroduction, but the last year and

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Speaker 1: a half, like you said, was just crap for sports,

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Speaker 1: from the NBA bubble to NFL limited and and soccers.

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Speaker 1: Now you know, the stadiums are packed and watching that

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Speaker 1: England game this week, um, just an unbelievable scene at Wembley.

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Speaker 1: I'm just curious, did you watch the game? What what

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Speaker 1: were your thoughts? Um? And just the state of Euros

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Speaker 1: as we head into the summer soccer. Well, yeah, we

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Speaker 1: didn't think the day before yesterday could get out done

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Speaker 1: and then but you know I thought, I thought that

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Speaker 1: was a special game for England, you know, just just

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Speaker 1: the the passantry of all of it. You know, you

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Speaker 1: got edge sharing watching the game with Beckham, you got

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Speaker 1: royalty there and and it really just was a perfect

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Speaker 1: storm for for England. And now everyone everyone's saying all

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Speaker 1: the cups coming home. I got to stop. So he's

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Speaker 1: got it gone down. But it's cool because you know,

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Speaker 1: look what what we've seen, uh in this tournament already. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it's just just highs and lows of of of the

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Speaker 1: way it couldn't can be for for certain teams that

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Speaker 1: we expected to go further in the competition, you know,

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Speaker 1: and Bobby missing the penalty kick. Um, we were all

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Speaker 1: expecting just to be a German of you know, France final.

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Speaker 1: And I think it's cool as Swiss is in there.

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Speaker 1: I think it's awesome. Then, Uh, yesterday with Ukraine, that's

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Speaker 1: that's that's why you play the games. But and if

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Speaker 1: of course the Denmark story, everyone rallying around Erickson, so um,

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Speaker 1: it's been what's really unfortunate. I guess if I'm really

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Speaker 1: being honest is Ericsson's condition and the whole focus of

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Speaker 1: oh my god, non soccer people saying, oh my god,

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Speaker 1: a soccer player has just collapsed on the field and

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Speaker 1: almost died, and as tragic as that was, brought so

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Speaker 1: much attention to this competition that maybe more so than

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Speaker 1: than than under normal circumstances. Then those are, of course

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Speaker 1: horrific circumstances. But people that I they were calling me

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Speaker 1: and asking me like, are you watching this? There's a

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Speaker 1: guy died on the field. Those are non soccer people.

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Speaker 1: And what ended up happening is the tournament delivered on

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Speaker 1: so many different levels that non soccer people got a

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Speaker 1: taste of what European soccer is all about. So and

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Speaker 1: there's if there's a silver lining in that, um that

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be it. A lot of people who normally don't

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Speaker 1: watch soccer have been paying attention to this summer. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a great point. Uh, we'll get to the US

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Speaker 1: team and all that fun stuff in a little bit,

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Speaker 1: but I want to stick with the Euros because you know,

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Speaker 1: we saw Ronaldo lose. He's out, Uh, Messy's putting on

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Speaker 1: a show in Copa America. But you know this new

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Speaker 1: blood that you you kind of referenced here, I mean Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: I don't personally know too much about Denmark, um even

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Speaker 1: Switzerland to an extent, I'm not that familiar with. I'm

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Speaker 1: more of like a national team guy as opposed to

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Speaker 1: a club although I'm getting more into club soccer now. Um,

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Speaker 1: I don't know just your your thoughts on on how

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Speaker 1: how this is propelling the sport um, you know, kind

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Speaker 1: of this new blood England pushing through. I like this

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Speaker 1: Belgium team a lot, but everybody knows them, right, you know,

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Speaker 1: Belgium is is you know what Martinez is doing over there?

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Speaker 1: They just have so many weapons. I don't know what

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Speaker 1: the status of the Brillian's ankle is right now. I

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Speaker 1: didn't like that tackle. That's actually exactly how I broke

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Speaker 1: my leg in Germany, So I kind of cringed when

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Speaker 1: I watched that. But look, if you look at a

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Speaker 1: team like Ukraine, for example, yamlinco over so or, they're

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Speaker 1: just the players that are scattered within each each club,

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Speaker 1: I mean, or each country. So you're kind of reminded that,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, that guy Swiss I forgot you know that,

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Speaker 1: Actually they do have a very good team and that

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Speaker 1: guy scored a lot of goals this year. And Jacket

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Speaker 1: really is as bad as people think he is what

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Speaker 1: he played for Arsenals. So there's uh, there's so many

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Speaker 1: little layers to that that you get reminded of where

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Speaker 1: all these guys actually played one of their countries, where

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Speaker 1: they're where they're they're from, um, and that always makes

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Speaker 1: the tournament interesting. But I think, I think again, I

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00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:57,159
Speaker 1: thought that the England performance. Um, you know, if you

421
00:22:57,200 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: look at the first couple of games and all the

422
00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:02,399
Speaker 1: heat that Sterling has taken prior to this competition, and

423
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:04,520
Speaker 1: and he's just handled it with grace. Thank god. He

424
00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,439
Speaker 1: hasn't you know, blasted anybody on Twitter or responded to

425
00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:12,560
Speaker 1: the pure done something stupid. But it's it's been great

426
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:17,840
Speaker 1: to see a real in England that that that had

427
00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:22,200
Speaker 1: a plan. Um, they didn't deliver against Scotland. Clearly it's

428
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:24,880
Speaker 1: a boring game, but Scott had a number on the day.

429
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,280
Speaker 1: But for the most part, um, that's what this tournament

430
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:31,040
Speaker 1: is about. To take care of of of business when

431
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 1: you play against the likes of Germany, which they've never

432
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 1: been able to do before. And by the way, did

433
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:39,160
Speaker 1: you see Yogi Love pick his nose again. Did Yeah,

434
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:44,280
Speaker 1: that's his day. Man. It's what do we go from that?

435
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:46,199
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean we all saw what happened that

436
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: viral thing well the last time, and he decided to

437
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:55,320
Speaker 1: go into his pants and then yeah, weird. It's I mean,

438
00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: I can't get a job as a coach, and that

439
00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:01,080
Speaker 1: guy's out there and he's but never I don't know,

440
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 1: I don't want a couple listen, a couple of openings down.

441
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,359
Speaker 1: I have nether lens. I think as an opening, uh

442
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:09,280
Speaker 1: that that shouldn't surprise anybody. But that was unfortunate. I

443
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:13,359
Speaker 1: think the red card, yeah, it's a bad play, and

444
00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 1: and and the boar is gonna end up, you know,

445
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,720
Speaker 1: really taking the front of a lot of criticism for that.

446
00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:23,119
Speaker 1: But he really has not had a successful run in

447
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,359
Speaker 1: anywhere he's been as as a manager, whether that be

448
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:30,720
Speaker 1: Crystal Palace or even Atlanta. You could say that wasn't

449
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:34,160
Speaker 1: a very successful stint. But I mean Josie Marino called

450
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:37,760
Speaker 1: him the worst manager in the but you know, he

451
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,880
Speaker 1: kept landing, you know, on his feet. But I think

452
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:45,200
Speaker 1: this is it. Even though the team was really performing well,

453
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:49,919
Speaker 1: um and they really looked apart. I don't know if

454
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:52,320
Speaker 1: if the Boar ends up doing a job in the

455
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 1: near future, maybe it's maybe it's middle tier holland maybe

456
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,240
Speaker 1: that maybe this Ray needs to go. But that was

457
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,440
Speaker 1: unfortunate because I think that that guy's really just had

458
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 1: a bad run. But like you said that, the drama

459
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,280
Speaker 1: is always going to be there. Um, you know, coaches

460
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: are gonna are gonna lose their job over some of

461
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,200
Speaker 1: these performances. But again, I'm still happy with the tournament.

462
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:15,960
Speaker 1: The tournament is delivering. Uh, there's a lot of great

463
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,960
Speaker 1: storylines for for for all of us to pay attention to.

464
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:21,440
Speaker 1: So it's been fun. You know, I've been playing a

465
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 1: lot of FIFA with my kids recently, and you know,

466
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 1: Man City is stacked on FIFA and then you look

467
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:31,639
Speaker 1: at the Euros and everybody who's dominating plays for man City.

468
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:35,959
Speaker 1: Right Are they again ignorant on this question? Are they

469
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,639
Speaker 1: the greatest club team in Europe? Right now? Well, I

470
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: think we'll look when when you watch the history of Pep.

471
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 1: Let's just go through that, okay. And I was very

472
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:47,399
Speaker 1: fortunate because I was working for Fox at the time,

473
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,880
Speaker 1: so I got to experience Pep at Barcelona, Pep at

474
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:54,439
Speaker 1: Byron and Pep at Man City so and and what

475
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:57,400
Speaker 1: I will tell you is nothing changes with that man. Nothing.

476
00:25:57,760 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, we we were very fortunately have meetings

477
00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: with all the coaches. We had a Klapp or Encelotti

478
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:05,680
Speaker 1: or or all these guys. And Pep was the guy

479
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:07,439
Speaker 1: that was like, no, you have to do this and

480
00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: this and this, and he's moving stuff around and say well,

481
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:13,159
Speaker 1: and he's just an energy is crazy. But there is

482
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:18,160
Speaker 1: a contagious energy about pep Um and what it does

483
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:21,399
Speaker 1: to players. And I think if you look at someone

484
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:25,320
Speaker 1: like Gundawan, who's who's to me? It was fantastic and endorsement.

485
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:27,720
Speaker 1: And he's always been a good national team player, but

486
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:32,679
Speaker 1: he really found a home with a with a school

487
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:34,960
Speaker 1: of thought. You know. So you if you watch the

488
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:38,639
Speaker 1: way they play collectively as a club, they're gonna be

489
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: far better than what you see them, uh for country.

490
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,400
Speaker 1: And and that's even though those guys are are all

491
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,120
Speaker 1: performing um. What Pep does and what Pep was able

492
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:51,040
Speaker 1: to do in Byron, for example, I mean, I was

493
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:52,920
Speaker 1: I'm a purist, so I'm I'm I played in the

494
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:55,439
Speaker 1: Buddhist again and I'm watching this happen. And one of

495
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 1: the things that we've always celebrated about Byron was it

496
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: was a very German team. It always had six seven internationals.

497
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,879
Speaker 1: He changed that up completely. The only there was one game,

498
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,480
Speaker 1: I think about six years ago where there was not

499
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,160
Speaker 1: one German player on the field for Byron and Pep

500
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 1: was in charge, and and that was something that kind

501
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: of rubbed me wrong at the time. But watching the

502
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 1: way his teams perform, it really there is something to

503
00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 1: be said about his methodology and the way that he

504
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: trains and the way that he believes in his players

505
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,200
Speaker 1: and the way that he scolds them when they act up.

506
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,320
Speaker 1: But he is he is still to me one of

507
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 1: the one of the the greater managers because he's he's

508
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:39,640
Speaker 1: almost changed the game. He took what Kreis started and

509
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 1: kind of mutated into his own school of thought. That

510
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: that is, when you watch it and you talk to

511
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:47,879
Speaker 1: him or you you really understand what they're trying to

512
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:50,439
Speaker 1: accomplish that and then they do it. Um not a

513
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:52,879
Speaker 1: lot of coaches can teach like that. Yeah, the method

514
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,120
Speaker 1: to his madness. Now, you were one of I don't

515
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:57,520
Speaker 1: know if you were the pioneer, the first American to

516
00:27:57,600 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 1: play in Europe. I was able to find that you

517
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 1: were one of the first. Hopefully you can clarify that.

518
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: But um, how do you how much do you think

519
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 1: it's changed now? Is the perception of American players? You know, oh,

520
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:09,359
Speaker 1: they can't compete here. It's kind of changed, right, I

521
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 1: mean I would I would say this, it's completely changed.

522
00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: I mean I was I in ninety two. That's how

523
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: our back this goes. I was the first American born

524
00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:25,920
Speaker 1: player to play in the Buddhist lague. So upon arrival,

525
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,960
Speaker 1: even then, my coach Peter Norder, who hired me in

526
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 1: the first place, literally pulled me aside and said it,

527
00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:36,159
Speaker 1: don't tell people you're American. Tell him tell him that

528
00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:39,440
Speaker 1: you're your Dutch h but don't tell him you're American,

529
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: because that's that they won't believe it. So the perception

530
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,040
Speaker 1: back then, and that was harder for it was really

531
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: hard back then. Ninety two is before the boss and

532
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 1: rolling that came in, which meant that there was only

533
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: three foreigners allowed on each team. That's it, that's all.

534
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: So it isn't like if you're a part of the

535
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 1: European community, you don't count on the the foreigner scale.

536
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 1: So I was there with the ury Savage iv and

537
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 1: uh Stratos. So I had a Greek guy and a

538
00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 1: and a Russian guy and me and that's and there

539
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:14,080
Speaker 1: was only three of us. The rest of the team

540
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 1: was completely German. And that's the way that they used

541
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 1: to do things. Nowadays, Let's let's face it, Man, we

542
00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 1: got players on Man City, Barcelona, Chelse Dormant, Leipzig, Juventus.

543
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 1: We have um a team of of of youngsters. If

544
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:30,680
Speaker 1: you're gonna call them that, and we're gonna say, well

545
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: their inexperience. Don't fall for that. These guys are experienced.

546
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:37,440
Speaker 1: They've already proven that with this tournament that they just won.

547
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 1: But because they just they're playing at the highest level

548
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 1: they're playing in and I'm forgetting way out way, I

549
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 1: just won the French League. So our guys are are

550
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 1: already are already in the biggest clubs because of all

551
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 1: the work of the Clint Dempsees of the world, and

552
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 1: the Brad Friedel's and the Casey Keller's and the Claudio

553
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:01,120
Speaker 1: Rainas and all those guys that or the Brian McBride

554
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:05,080
Speaker 1: who came before that. It was always the scenario, Okay,

555
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 1: you're good enough to play in Europe, but you're you're

556
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,680
Speaker 1: not top tier. Yeah, you're not in the top tier team,

557
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: never starting yet. But now you know what with Christian

558
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 1: Polistic wins the Champions League and he and he plays

559
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,840
Speaker 1: a part in it, especially the game prior to getting

560
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:23,520
Speaker 1: him to the final. Um, it's a different it's a

561
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:27,800
Speaker 1: different um. It's a different perception because the perception used

562
00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:30,600
Speaker 1: to be that the Americans can't do it. And now

563
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 1: Western McKinney and Postage are proven everybody wrong that that, hey,

564
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:38,720
Speaker 1: you know what, there's more to this American that. It's

565
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 1: not about it's not about because they're American they can't

566
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:45,280
Speaker 1: do it. It's hey, they're American, let's tap into that.

567
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 1: So you've seen as a trend over the last four

568
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: or five years is an extreme effort to try and

569
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:56,760
Speaker 1: tap into American talent. And you know, Shalika is doing

570
00:30:57,040 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 1: a great job with that. Western McKinney was a part

571
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: of that that movement. Unfortunately they went down, but they're

572
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 1: still um really kind of rolling their sleeves up and

573
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: saying okay instead of instead of trying to stay within

574
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 1: our bubble here and figure out who our team is

575
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 1: going to be, and and and then most teams would

576
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,280
Speaker 1: rely in Africa because they would just go find African

577
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 1: talent and hope that those kids where players can can

578
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 1: acclimate to to the weather changes and all that stuff.

579
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:27,719
Speaker 1: Go find the Americans who might have a passport that

580
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:30,120
Speaker 1: would allow them to to not count as a foreigner.

581
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 1: Let's see how that works out. And I'll tell you what,

582
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: We've been the beneficiary of their work by our team

583
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: coming together in a great way and being able to compete.

584
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:43,280
Speaker 1: So I have to answer your question in a roundabout way.

585
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 1: The perception is totally different Americans in our commodity. They're

586
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 1: not a m what would you what would you call

587
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 1: them a A I don't know what the right word is.

588
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 1: But if if as far as when we look at

589
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:57,600
Speaker 1: American players we say, okay, that's a guy that can

590
00:31:57,640 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 1: help us, not that's a guy that might hurt, it

591
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 1: doesn't happen anymore so. And it's weird because you know,

592
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 1: the perception when the US missed the World Cup was

593
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:08,560
Speaker 1: a soccer is never gonna catch on here. There's just

594
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 1: not any good players. And it's I don't know, Eric,

595
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,320
Speaker 1: it's almost like you had to go to that bottom.

596
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 1: You had to hit rock bottom, right, don't I mean

597
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 1: not making the Olympics was was to me. Everybody's talking

598
00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 1: about how great we're doing with the development of our players,

599
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:28,720
Speaker 1: and in my last look, I'm gonna be the only

600
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:30,239
Speaker 1: one I can say this, and I can say this

601
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: now that I'm not attached to Pian or Fox or

602
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:38,760
Speaker 1: a network. You cannot give Terry and re Pire low Uh,

603
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:43,680
Speaker 1: Stephen Girard, Beckham Lampard, we can list goes on and on.

604
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 1: You can't give the rooney. You can't give these guys

605
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 1: six seven million dollars a years. Just basically throw a

606
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy million dollars into the fire and say

607
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:56,400
Speaker 1: that you're working on the development of American players. You

608
00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 1: want to know why we didn't qualify, Blame those guys.

609
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: That's we didn't We were preventing the opportunity for sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,

610
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 1: nineteen year old players to play in Major League Soccer

611
00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 1: and they had to sit and watch somebody, you know,

612
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:14,680
Speaker 1: limp around. And that's why that that's why we didn't

613
00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 1: qualify for the Olympics. That's why we didn't qualify for

614
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:19,760
Speaker 1: the World Cup. But now that we we look at

615
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 1: where our team is, all the success we're having are

616
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 1: the guys that went over there and again real experience,

617
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: and they don't have somebody saying, oh no, no, no,

618
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 1: Terry on resals jerseys. So you're gonna to sit this

619
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 1: one out to an eighteen year old kid who might

620
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 1: be a player. And then after a year. You know

621
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,600
Speaker 1: what what I find really ironic is that they've called

622
00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 1: they call this new thing MLS. Next. That's what it's been.

623
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:47,600
Speaker 1: The wait for the twenty years old like, okay, next,

624
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:49,240
Speaker 1: let's go get the other one and ruin that one.

625
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 1: So that's that's that's not that you cannot sit here

626
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:57,280
Speaker 1: and celebrate Major League Soccers inclusion of this when they've

627
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:00,760
Speaker 1: done what they've done. And you been on both sides,

628
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 1: right Eric, the business side, right and the developmental side,

629
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:07,239
Speaker 1: and you know you can understand the business side. Hey man,

630
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 1: if we bring in on Reid, we're gonna sell jerseys,

631
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:11,239
Speaker 1: We're gonna sell sell out stadiums to put them on TV,

632
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:14,359
Speaker 1: TV deals, blah blah blah. Business side is we want more,

633
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 1: But the developmental side is hurting. And that's where the

634
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 1: Olympics comes into. How do you think that his name,

635
00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:22,960
Speaker 1: I won't say his name, but he's a left winger,

636
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:27,439
Speaker 1: and he's currently and he's very good. I've I've flow

637
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:29,719
Speaker 1: all the way out to Florida to watch him play.

638
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:33,319
Speaker 1: How old is this guy? This kid's nineteen and is

639
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:38,239
Speaker 1: sitting there watching Nannie play, but he doesn't get to

640
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,439
Speaker 1: play because no, he's playing. Now you want to really

641
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: get dig in and you want to say, Okay, why

642
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:47,560
Speaker 1: didn't us qualify for a World Cup? How about all

643
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:51,839
Speaker 1: the players that we through our league, Costa Rica, Honduras,

644
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,960
Speaker 1: all these teams have gotten so much better because they're

645
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,879
Speaker 1: playing in our league and now, and not that they're

646
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:01,240
Speaker 1: taking jobs from him Rigans. I'm not going that route,

647
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,359
Speaker 1: but you could see Costa Rica getting better because they

648
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 1: have a better league to play in. There's benefits to

649
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 1: to this when you look at Major League Soccer and

650
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 1: how far it's come. I'm not completely bashing it. What

651
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 1: I'm saying is you can't say it's all about development

652
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,440
Speaker 1: if you're giving all the money to a bunch of

653
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:21,880
Speaker 1: old guys. You can't do that. So how do you

654
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 1: strike that balance? Uh? You know you did run for

655
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,440
Speaker 1: president of US Soccer. I think you might have made

656
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 1: a great uh president. Uh, but how do you strike

657
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,839
Speaker 1: that balance? With keeping the fat cats the billionaires while

658
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 1: multimillionaires happy, while promoting the young guys like how how

659
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:40,920
Speaker 1: I don't know how you strike that balance. It's difficult.

660
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 1: It's not actually um if you look at the um,

661
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:48,560
Speaker 1: look at the whole thing, right, and you say, all right,

662
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:50,960
Speaker 1: what is major League soccer? How far it has come?

663
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,839
Speaker 1: Did we need maybe big names to to really like

664
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 1: like a Kaka. You're never gonna have me say anything

665
00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:00,279
Speaker 1: bad about that guy. I love that guy, and he didn't.

666
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:03,560
Speaker 1: He did great things in Orlando. So there's the fine

667
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:08,040
Speaker 1: balance is get the right guys, the right guys that

668
00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,160
Speaker 1: are actually going to to to be a part of

669
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:12,240
Speaker 1: their community and to be a part of the fabric

670
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:15,040
Speaker 1: of that club. That that's not easy to do. But

671
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:17,840
Speaker 1: but what happens when you're in a franchise system is

672
00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 1: everybody wants one right and and it's always the same story.

673
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,719
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, it's MESSI and Ronaldo gonna come to him.

674
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:28,160
Speaker 1: And then here's what happens. Well, there's three options, Miami,

675
00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:30,160
Speaker 1: New York, or l A. That's it. I'm not going

676
00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:33,319
Speaker 1: anywhere else. You're I'm not going to Kansas City. So

677
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:38,680
Speaker 1: you got Kansas City, and Columbus and and Minnesota. I'll say, well,

678
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:41,480
Speaker 1: hold on, you know what about us. So there's that,

679
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 1: there's that that it's the same thing as the NFL.

680
00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:46,760
Speaker 1: It is the NFL model when you got Gary Jones

681
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 1: down there saying, well, my my franchise is worth this

682
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:53,080
Speaker 1: ditting you know, number of billions of dollars. There has

683
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:55,200
Speaker 1: to be a profit share somewhere in there to take

684
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:58,360
Speaker 1: care of Cleveland. So it's the same kind of model

685
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 1: that that that will always be celebrated in this country

686
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:04,759
Speaker 1: where whether whether I mean whether being the president of

687
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 1: of US Soccer and some of the the ideas that

688
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:11,400
Speaker 1: I had as far as changing the schedule and figuring

689
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,799
Speaker 1: out ways to get uh to get our players in

690
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:17,239
Speaker 1: a better platform, to figure out how to do the

691
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:20,920
Speaker 1: real business of football soccer, and we've never done that.

692
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:22,880
Speaker 1: We've never done that. We've always figured out ways to

693
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 1: move our players in a in a winter window when

694
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:28,799
Speaker 1: they were maybe you know, a quarter on the dollar.

695
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:31,240
Speaker 1: You're you're not going to get full value for those guys.

696
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 1: And you know, there was opportunities in the past, not

697
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:37,080
Speaker 1: just the Clint Dempsey's of the world, but several of

698
00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:39,320
Speaker 1: our players could have gone to Europe for big numbers.

699
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:43,320
Speaker 1: But then you had you had a marketing machine saying,

700
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:45,439
Speaker 1: or a coach at a GM say, I can't lose

701
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:48,760
Speaker 1: my best player in July. I still have six games

702
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,279
Speaker 1: on the schedule. How do I replace it? The only

703
00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 1: way you do that is you change the schedule to

704
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:55,759
Speaker 1: allow that window to be there. So now you don't

705
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,799
Speaker 1: have a bunch of people, you know, freaking out every

706
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:01,440
Speaker 1: time that they get to do the business. They have

707
00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:04,840
Speaker 1: an adequate time to recover. So it's it's it's a

708
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:09,200
Speaker 1: weird thing. It's it's it's America. It's not changing anytime soon.

709
00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in

710
00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,680
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports

711
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:19,879
Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.

712
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:23,400
Speaker 1: Search f s R to listen live. Eric while we're

713
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:28,759
Speaker 1: on US Soccer realistic ceiling for the US at the

714
00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:31,960
Speaker 1: next World Cup. What we're realistic like, either we didn't

715
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 1: qualify last time, but it's different. You know, we got

716
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:39,400
Speaker 1: this Golden Generation allegedly coming up. Um, what do you

717
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:44,319
Speaker 1: think final, semifinals, finals, Yeah, we'd said at the same time,

718
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:45,880
Speaker 1: I think that that's you know, I think when you

719
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:47,640
Speaker 1: get to the quarterfire. You look, you back to the

720
00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 1: two thousand two World Cup. A lot of people will

721
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:53,359
Speaker 1: we'll go back to that and say that was our

722
00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:56,839
Speaker 1: maybe our best performance. It really wasn't. It wasn't. We

723
00:38:56,840 --> 00:38:58,759
Speaker 1: We should have got knocked out of the competition when

724
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:00,319
Speaker 1: we lost a poll in three to one on and

725
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:04,160
Speaker 1: we kind of backed into into the next round and

726
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:05,640
Speaker 1: we got the one team that we knew we could

727
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:09,479
Speaker 1: beat in Mexico. So um. And you know, if if

728
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,640
Speaker 1: if torsen Fring's gets called for a handball at a

729
00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:16,280
Speaker 1: red bard, who knows what happens. Maybe we are playing

730
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,320
Speaker 1: against South Korea. Uh it to to have an opportunity

731
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,359
Speaker 1: to get into a World Cup final. But all that

732
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:26,279
Speaker 1: being said, I think I think this group um in

733
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:29,640
Speaker 1: every position outside of left back, which has been our

734
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:35,440
Speaker 1: problem forever. Uh, they are ready and I'm and I

735
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,439
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting. I think that when you talk about

736
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:40,799
Speaker 1: qualification or you talk about cocky calf, are you talking

737
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,880
Speaker 1: about how difficult that can be? You know, I I

738
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:45,719
Speaker 1: sent a message to Greg Burholt to right in the

739
00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:48,239
Speaker 1: middle of the tournament that said, now I know your

740
00:39:48,239 --> 00:39:51,319
Speaker 1: team is gonna qualify. And he said why, And I said,

741
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:55,480
Speaker 1: watch the twenty six minute against Honduras when Zach Stephan

742
00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:59,399
Speaker 1: comes out and and completely misjudges across the ball gets

743
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:02,319
Speaker 1: saved off the line by sergeant. You will make a

744
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 1: great tackle of brave tackle to keep the ball, uh,

745
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:08,279
Speaker 1: and we'll get the ball out of out of a

746
00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:11,320
Speaker 1: dangerous area. And then I don't I'm sorry, I forgot

747
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:13,360
Speaker 1: the name of the player. But he takes a dive

748
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:17,239
Speaker 1: because Western McKinney comes into the play late. But then

749
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:19,320
Speaker 1: he's been in Italy, so the guy knows how to defend.

750
00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:22,520
Speaker 1: Now guy going away from the goal, there's no reason

751
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:25,520
Speaker 1: to touch him. He goes like this. The guy goes down.

752
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:28,400
Speaker 1: The guy who had the best view of it was Geoana,

753
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:29,920
Speaker 1: who goes over there and gets in his ear and

754
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:33,319
Speaker 1: tells him get up. U s ob that was not

755
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:37,840
Speaker 1: He suddenly isn't hurt anymore. So now he's up and

756
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:41,960
Speaker 1: he's got an attitude, and incomes John Brooks and Brookstie

757
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:47,040
Speaker 1: just basically handles it. And for me, as a guy

758
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,160
Speaker 1: that went through the qualification process who understands how difficult

759
00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:53,600
Speaker 1: these games can be, knows what Honduras is and and

760
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:56,680
Speaker 1: and how difficult that can be. As well, you understand

761
00:40:56,719 --> 00:40:59,160
Speaker 1: that these games are gonna be ugly, but you've got

762
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:04,399
Speaker 1: to stick together. And in those twenty five seconds, that

763
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:07,400
Speaker 1: team proved to me that they have the fabric to

764
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:09,359
Speaker 1: do that. So a lot of people are going after

765
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:11,360
Speaker 1: Greg Burrholter right now and saying this and that, and

766
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:14,520
Speaker 1: maybe tactically he proved that he is a tactician in

767
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,239
Speaker 1: the game against Mexico in the final. He did. He did,

768
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:21,439
Speaker 1: But more more important was the sixty seventy yard run

769
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:23,880
Speaker 1: that Western McKinney made just to come hug his coach.

770
00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:28,640
Speaker 1: That's when I knew we got something. I'm on the

771
00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:30,520
Speaker 1: other side of this because I've spoken to Greg on

772
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:33,960
Speaker 1: numerous occasions about building a culture within the U S

773
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:36,680
Speaker 1: national team because everyone's criticized these guys. They don't have

774
00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 1: enough fight, they don't have no fight. You know, there's

775
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,360
Speaker 1: all these things to say about about the old guard,

776
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:43,839
Speaker 1: and you know the teams that I was a part

777
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:45,960
Speaker 1: of that we had to go out there and literally

778
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 1: start a fistfight. Um that that that fabric is still

779
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 1: there in this group and now they're they're uber talented

780
00:41:55,520 --> 00:42:01,200
Speaker 1: so in every position, and to me, I feel like,

781
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:03,919
Speaker 1: if if we're ever gonna get behind our country. Now

782
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 1: is the time. I know, I get it. I know

783
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:09,360
Speaker 1: we just went through the Olympics, didn't qualify and in

784
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:11,719
Speaker 1: the last World Cup. But this group, this group is

785
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 1: special and they have created a culture in my opinion

786
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:19,520
Speaker 1: through their coach that will equate two great things. So

787
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:22,680
Speaker 1: I have very high expectations and I'm sure that's going

788
00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:24,759
Speaker 1: to get a lot of people very excited. UM. I

789
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 1: am also curious. You know, MLS has taken its lumps. Uh.

790
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 1: It's still only been around for like twenty five years.

791
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:33,800
Speaker 1: It's still in its infancy compared to Major League Baseball,

792
00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:36,560
Speaker 1: the NFL and b A all that. But there has

793
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:40,480
Speaker 1: been a lot of talk recently about the MLS joining

794
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:45,000
Speaker 1: forces with Liga MX and joining like a super North

795
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:49,279
Speaker 1: American league to rival what's happening over in Europe and

796
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:51,960
Speaker 1: and form like a really strong league here. I don't know,

797
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,520
Speaker 1: have you given much thought to that? Where are you?

798
00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 1: You know? Where? What have you heard? Where are you

799
00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:59,719
Speaker 1: on that? So? I know that there has been also

800
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:02,440
Speaker 1: been entertained with Belgium and Holland. I think they're trying

801
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:06,080
Speaker 1: to to um to do something very similar. UM. But

802
00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:08,760
Speaker 1: I think with the Super League idea came out and

803
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:14,640
Speaker 1: this was this was something that was driven by American ownership.

804
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:19,080
Speaker 1: I mean that, let's let's face it, UM, whether that

805
00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:24,600
Speaker 1: be UH Liverpool, Arsenal, some of the ownership groups that

806
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:28,319
Speaker 1: were involved in that super League idea that that I think,

807
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 1: I think maybe we would be having a real conversation

808
00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:35,800
Speaker 1: UM about Mexico and American joining forces and having a

809
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 1: league if that would have worked. But it was such

810
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:42,879
Speaker 1: a epic fail that I just don't think. I think

811
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:44,840
Speaker 1: they'll do what they always do. They'll say, well, that

812
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 1: didn't work, let's let's wait TiO more years and we'll

813
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:50,719
Speaker 1: try again. And that's that's probably their thought process. I

814
00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:53,600
Speaker 1: would totally and completely disagree with it. I would want

815
00:43:53,680 --> 00:43:57,440
Speaker 1: Major League Soccer to stay within their own borders, outside

816
00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:00,840
Speaker 1: of those our friends to the north of Montreal, UH

817
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 1: Vancouver and Toronto. But I think that this league has

818
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:07,720
Speaker 1: a history, and you could say the twenty five years,

819
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 1: but you look at the Earthquakes for example, they tried

820
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:14,840
Speaker 1: to rebrand, they became the class was something I was

821
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: a part of. UM. But if you go to the

822
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:20,479
Speaker 1: stadium now right and you go get a hot dog

823
00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:23,240
Speaker 1: or you go get a beer, and you look around,

824
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:28,279
Speaker 1: you're gonna find a couple of people that we'll still

825
00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:32,680
Speaker 1: call this their club since the eighties, in the seventies,

826
00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 1: back when George Best played at Spartan Stadium. That that's

827
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:41,080
Speaker 1: how far this goes back. So just because collectively it

828
00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:43,440
Speaker 1: looks like it's only been organized for twenty five years,

829
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 1: Vancouver and Seattle, okay, those have always been Portland's. It's

830
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:52,120
Speaker 1: called Soccer City USA for a reason. It's been around

831
00:44:52,160 --> 00:44:55,799
Speaker 1: for a long long time. And just because the Cosmos

832
00:44:55,840 --> 00:45:00,000
Speaker 1: failed doesn't mean that ny CFC's gonna fail or Um,

833
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,160
Speaker 1: you know, Red Bull has done done their thing, but

834
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 1: it's still there. Soccer fans never went away. They just

835
00:45:06,719 --> 00:45:10,359
Speaker 1: needed something to gravitate too, and Major League Soccer has

836
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:14,960
Speaker 1: delivered delivered on that. With the country getting increasingly brown,

837
00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:18,560
Speaker 1: the population much more mixed than it was I don't know,

838
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:22,719
Speaker 1: fifty years ago. Um, it feels like there are actually

839
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:25,440
Speaker 1: big eyeballs on Lega MX when you look at the

840
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:28,560
Speaker 1: Univision numbers. I mean, three million watched the Lega m

841
00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:31,799
Speaker 1: X Championship and we got the NHL Finals happening now,

842
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:36,160
Speaker 1: and I know the you know the methodology for registering

843
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 1: the ratings is a little antiquated, but they're getting like

844
00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:41,719
Speaker 1: one point two million people watching NHL finals, you know,

845
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:45,480
Speaker 1: the Stanley Cup versus Lega MX, and it's being dwarfed. Um,

846
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:49,720
Speaker 1: I don't know, are you sure? Business wise MLS couldn't

847
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 1: benefit from that boost of adding teams from from the South.

848
00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:57,319
Speaker 1: I'd rather see us earn it on our own and

849
00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:01,280
Speaker 1: that's that's And look, I'm in Las Vegas, right, I've

850
00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:03,880
Speaker 1: been living here for a couple of years now, and

851
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:07,880
Speaker 1: I can tell you without hesitation that, uh, soccer is

852
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:11,680
Speaker 1: thriving here, um. And one of the great benefits my

853
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:14,200
Speaker 1: son's twelve. And when we got here, we didn't know

854
00:46:14,239 --> 00:46:16,200
Speaker 1: what team to join, and we didn't know where to go.

855
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 1: I had a couple of friends that said, there's a

856
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 1: couple of good clubs in this, that and the other.

857
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:22,479
Speaker 1: But not until my son played in the Mexican League.

858
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,440
Speaker 1: So on Friday night did he get a real taste

859
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:27,880
Speaker 1: of what soccer is. And it was probably one of

860
00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:31,960
Speaker 1: the coolest experiences, um that that he could go through.

861
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:36,040
Speaker 1: Now when you really try to figure out what people

862
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 1: are watching and you know, the diversity of this town,

863
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:42,200
Speaker 1: for example, and how Hispanic it is uh in the

864
00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:46,040
Speaker 1: soccer in soccer terms, what are they watching and what

865
00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:48,840
Speaker 1: do they care about? I mean when we did the test,

866
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:50,560
Speaker 1: I guess you would say a couple of years back

867
00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:54,120
Speaker 1: with I guess it was who came here? It was

868
00:46:54,160 --> 00:46:58,200
Speaker 1: Cruso Swul played against um. You might have been Monterey.

869
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:01,200
Speaker 1: I can't remember anymore. But did that game all? You

870
00:47:01,239 --> 00:47:06,120
Speaker 1: know out at the Silver Bowl, right and and everybody

871
00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:09,080
Speaker 1: was a walk up the well, of course it was.

872
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:14,280
Speaker 1: It was a predominantly Hispanic crowd. But man, we didn't

873
00:47:14,680 --> 00:47:16,920
Speaker 1: they if they had a hundred and fifty thousand seats,

874
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:19,080
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have been able to get them all in.

875
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:22,600
Speaker 1: Look at what's happening now with with the Gold Cup

876
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:25,920
Speaker 1: final that things sold out in eighty one minutes, and

877
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:28,879
Speaker 1: that's in Las Vegas, and people are saying, well why

878
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:33,799
Speaker 1: is that? And and it's look, this town alone in

879
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:36,200
Speaker 1: Las Vegas has has more talent that I would I

880
00:47:36,239 --> 00:47:39,080
Speaker 1: would argue in l A. And that's down. That's that's

881
00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:40,799
Speaker 1: people would say, well, you're crazy, and I say no,

882
00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:44,680
Speaker 1: Vegas is just more organized and it's because of the Hispanics.

883
00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:48,600
Speaker 1: It really is. Now, let's go back in time when

884
00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:50,880
Speaker 1: I was eight years old. Man, I got up and

885
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:54,560
Speaker 1: I watched Channel six on a Sunday, Carta Blanca and

886
00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:57,160
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But I watched the Mexican League. Nothing

887
00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:00,200
Speaker 1: has changed people that want to watch good football. We'll

888
00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:03,480
Speaker 1: find it. What what the challenge for Major League soccer is,

889
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 1: because you've got to compete with that. Just make the

890
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 1: soccer better, man, make the soccer better. Our fans in

891
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 1: this country have grown up a lot and they know

892
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:15,600
Speaker 1: what they're seeing now. You can't fool them. You can't.

893
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:19,400
Speaker 1: You can't roll out, you know, Pilo at the end

894
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:21,200
Speaker 1: of the and and say well he made five good

895
00:48:21,200 --> 00:48:24,279
Speaker 1: passes and walk around the rest of the time you

896
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:27,759
Speaker 1: and those fans see that. So what they would rather

897
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:31,520
Speaker 1: see is good football, and they'd rather see young, vibrant players.

898
00:48:31,560 --> 00:48:34,120
Speaker 1: I don't care where they come from. And if they're

899
00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:36,880
Speaker 1: from Central America or South America or the American or

900
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:39,719
Speaker 1: Canadian it doesn't matter. What it matters is that the

901
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:42,720
Speaker 1: that the level goes up because our fans and our

902
00:48:42,760 --> 00:48:45,799
Speaker 1: spectators they now know what they're looking at and you

903
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:48,600
Speaker 1: can't fool them. All right, Eric will wrap up with

904
00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 1: Copa America Messy of course, looking to exercise demons has

905
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:57,600
Speaker 1: never won Copa with Argentina. Uh you know, Argentina would

906
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:02,640
Speaker 1: possibly face Brazil in the final. Um any thoughts on

907
00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:05,640
Speaker 1: on Messy Copa all that fun stuff, Well, well, I've

908
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:07,239
Speaker 1: watched a little bit of it. I haven't been help

909
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:08,759
Speaker 1: to you know. I do have six kids in my

910
00:49:08,800 --> 00:49:11,640
Speaker 1: life's a little bit. It gets a little nuting around here.

911
00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:14,600
Speaker 1: I try to catch as much as I can. Um.

912
00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:17,480
Speaker 1: I think Messi is just a freak of nature, he

913
00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:20,239
Speaker 1: and Ronaldo both. But I think he'll last even to

914
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:23,759
Speaker 1: three more years. He's not at is he gonna be

915
00:49:23,800 --> 00:49:26,239
Speaker 1: at the level um that we saw him maybe five

916
00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:30,000
Speaker 1: years ago now. But um, I remember when Maradona got

917
00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:33,880
Speaker 1: he got up there in he could not run past anybody.

918
00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:37,160
Speaker 1: But if the past that he made to Kenesia with

919
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:40,240
Speaker 1: his right foot, when he realized he couldn't, he couldn't

920
00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:44,760
Speaker 1: get through all that still that was that was about Adonna,

921
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:46,640
Speaker 1: you know. And and there was pieces too that what

922
00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:49,680
Speaker 1: we got to see in the game against Nigeria where

923
00:49:49,719 --> 00:49:52,239
Speaker 1: in little tight spaces he's gonna wrong foot you and

924
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:53,879
Speaker 1: put in the top cor and then run right into

925
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:57,279
Speaker 1: the camera. Um that's what we'll probably see at the

926
00:49:57,360 --> 00:49:59,800
Speaker 1: end of Messy's career. But he just needs good pieces

927
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:02,200
Speaker 1: of round him, really good pieces around him, and and

928
00:50:02,200 --> 00:50:03,960
Speaker 1: and hell, you will still get something out of him.

929
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 1: But I love watching him play. I always have. I

930
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:08,239
Speaker 1: got in trouble. I'll leave you with this, but I

931
00:50:08,239 --> 00:50:12,040
Speaker 1: remember I got in trouble at Fox because we did

932
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:14,800
Speaker 1: a whole panel, right. We had Warren Barton and Brian

933
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:18,600
Speaker 1: mcbrine and stew Holden and uh, we were all trying

934
00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:23,000
Speaker 1: to give our thoughts on how do you defend Messy Now.

935
00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:24,880
Speaker 1: Of course I'm at the end of that table, so

936
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:27,680
Speaker 1: I think it was like, good idea, good idea. Okay,

937
00:50:27,719 --> 00:50:29,399
Speaker 1: I get it, I get it. And Rob Stone looks

938
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:31,480
Speaker 1: at me and says, Eric, what do you got? And

939
00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:34,080
Speaker 1: I said, well, here's all I got. Have you ever

940
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:37,160
Speaker 1: tried to kill an aunt with the point of a pencil?

941
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:41,640
Speaker 1: And everybody went, what are you talking about? Ever on

942
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:44,440
Speaker 1: aunt with the point of a pencil? Two things happened.

943
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:46,719
Speaker 1: The ant starts moving faster and you end up with

944
00:50:46,760 --> 00:50:49,799
Speaker 1: a broken pencil. That's what's like to defend Messy. Now.

945
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:53,440
Speaker 1: The hard part for me was this was a tape deal.

946
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:55,720
Speaker 1: We had to do it completely all over again because

947
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:59,680
Speaker 1: apparently according to the producers, I was violating animal right.

948
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:03,560
Speaker 1: Oh get Eric getting in trouble on TV. We can't

949
00:51:03,560 --> 00:51:06,440
Speaker 1: say that because somebody out there is going to be

950
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,440
Speaker 1: worried about some and I went wow, and then we

951
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:10,960
Speaker 1: had to do the whole thing all over again. But

952
00:51:11,440 --> 00:51:14,240
Speaker 1: that's to me. I think when Messi was at his

953
00:51:14,239 --> 00:51:17,200
Speaker 1: his his height, uh, and he still had he had

954
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:20,760
Speaker 1: um you know, jobvy and and he has the Pedro

955
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:24,719
Speaker 1: bosquets and David Ba around him. That was just that

956
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:27,640
Speaker 1: was that we we will never see again. Of course,

957
00:51:27,719 --> 00:51:31,120
Speaker 1: Danny Almos who who was who was believing or not?

958
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:34,440
Speaker 1: I think I think when you look at all the

959
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:37,960
Speaker 1: assists in that group, Danny Elmos had more than anybody.

960
00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:40,799
Speaker 1: It was like thirty eight or thirty nine percent of

961
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:44,680
Speaker 1: all the Messy's goals were on assists from any Almas.

962
00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:47,400
Speaker 1: So people wouldn't think about that. But that team was special.

963
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:50,839
Speaker 1: But what happens to Messy, Let's just enjoy it as

964
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:54,800
Speaker 1: long as we can. He's a great player's ever lived, alright,

965
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:57,040
Speaker 1: he is Eric Winalda. Eric, thanks a lot for your time, man,

966
00:51:57,160 --> 00:51:59,400
Speaker 1: enjoy the summer of soccer, and we'll hope to have

967
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:01,239
Speaker 1: you back any time. I mad