WEBVTT - Don't Bite the Bait 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:05.440 Ka boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:08.640 a week was enough, I think again. He's the last 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:12.360 remnants of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:15.440 He treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.520 the rich pill poppers in the penthouse. The clearing House 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.240 of Hot takes break free for something special. The Fifth 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:28.680 Hour with Ben Maller starts right now, a fire cracker 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.360 hot edition of the Fifth Hour with Ben Mallard. We 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:36.280 are in the air everywhere the vast power of the 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.840 I Heart Podcast network, because four hours are not enough 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:42.280 on the overnight show, and we're doing this eight days 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:46.800 a week. And yet again we are joined by David Gascon. 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:51.120 He was writing Shotgun in this operation, and he is 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.559 with me, and this is guest. I'm excited about this. 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.360 I'm looking forward to talking to our I don't know 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:58.600 if we call him a guest or a friend hanging 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.279 out with us, but I will put the caveat here. 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:03.480 I have to put these caveats at the disclaimer at 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:07.280 the beginning. If you are easily triggered by political content 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.480 and polarizing issues, this is not the podcast for you. 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.160 Surgeon General's warning you should have already known that by 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.880 already downloading the podcast. But we are going to chat 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.839 here in a couple of minutes with Dave Rubin, who 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.920 has been a a successful He's got a huge following 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.319 on social media. He is a contributor, he pops up 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:34.280 on UH, Fox News and elsewhere. He's a political pundit. 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:39.560 He's he's got some interesting opinions on everything, and I 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.479 think he's the perfect guy to have on Guesscon because 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.720 everything has been intertwined now in sports and politics. The 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:51.280 sports leagues are on board with politics, whether we like 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.760 it or not. They have embraced this, and so I 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.000 figured we should have Dave on here, not you Dave 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:03.080 gesc but the other day, UH, to get some perspective 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.880 from someone that's in the mud, in the political mud 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.000 and deals with this stuff every single day, every minute 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.400 of every day. And the nice thing is is that, 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:13.640 you know, he's a New Yorker, so he's got a 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:18.520 great perspective East coast, West coast, uh and everything in between. 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:20.959 So this will be a lot of fun. I'm excited 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.519 about it. Yeah, absolutely. And he's got a book out 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:25.840 that we will talk about. We'll ask him about the 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.400 book here at some point it's don't burn this book 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.440 written by Dave Ruben and the man that will be 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.480 on here. He's also available on Twitter. You can follow 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.760 him if he probably already you follow him Reuben Report. 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:43.639 That's rub I n Reuben Report. He's on there. We're 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.000 on Twitter as well. We don't have as many followers 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.240 though as he does. Ben Maller at Ben Maller. You 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:53.200 can follow me on Twitter. Guesscon. You're on there on 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:57.440 Twitter at David J. Gascon. Alright, so without further ado here, 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.880 let's welcome in. The man will be hanging out with 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:02.240 hopefully a good amount of time. We'll see how long 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.320 we go with him. Dave Ruben, who joins us in Dave, 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.480 welcome in. I this is supposedly kind of a sports podcast, 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.600 so why don't we start with that? And uh, yours. 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.119 You have a background as a sports fan, So what 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.320 teams do you like growing up? Give me a little 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.440 history on Dave Ruben the sports fan. Oh yeah, well, 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.240 I was a huge Yankees fan. Baseball was was my 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.440 first love. So you know, the Yankees were had some 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.120 pretty terrible teams when I was growing up. I was 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.519 born in seventies six, so those you know eighties Yankees 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.800 teams had Mattingly and nobody else basically for a long time. 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.360 And then by the time I was in college, I 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.360 think ninety four, the Yanks won the World Series and 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.840 then obviously pretty great. Since then, basketball is really my 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.280 my true sport. Although you know, in a crazy way, 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.760 I turned out to be a Portland Trailblazer fan because 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.600 I saw Clyde Drexler playing. I think this was the 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.760 eighty nine or nine day off, so it was the 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.160 first time I ever watched basketball and I saw this 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.800 guy dribbling with his head down. It looked like he 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:09.160 was barely paying attention. And he had like forty points 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.280 and twelve rebounds and eight assists that I just loved. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.560 How cool and calm, no show voting and uh and 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.800 actually we we text every now and again now, so us. 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:20.200 You know, it's kind of cool when you get to 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:22.720 connect with some of your heroes from your childhood. That's 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:24.640 pretty cool. Yeah, and I guess so he were around 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:26.640 the same age day, so that's like the Stump Merril 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.640 Yankees of the nineties right when he was Yeah, yeah, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.800 they were there pretty terrible. So I wanted to have 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:34.960 you and I love your stuff. And and there's so 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.560 much going on right now in in sports that are political, 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.320 like uh, and I do an overnight sports radio show, 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.200 and very really obviously we haven't had sports since March 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:51.200 team sports, but it's all been politicized here And why 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.719 is this taking place? What is your theory on why 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.920 this is now? This is now hip? Yeah? Well, first off, 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.600 I would say it's it's really deeply dy injurious. The 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.919 fact that politics has leaked into everything, I mean, every 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:10.800 corner of our society. You know, sports media, every Netflix show, 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.840 you open Apple TV and there's a political message. Um. 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.320 The fact that that politics and the sort of day 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:21.600 to day machination of what's happening in Washington, d C. 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.039 And this culture war has has steeped into everything else 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.120 is very dangerous because, you know, a healthy society, we 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.760 need escapes. There's a reason people love sports. You may 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.120 love sports because you love playing sports, and you love 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:36.880 the competition and you love getting out there and sweating 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.039 and and all of that stuff. But the other reason 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.200 we love watching sports is because it's an escape. You know, 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.040 even now when I do cardio, I've got a cardio 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:51.400 machine in my office and when I do cardio, I 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.880 watch old NBA games. That's what I watch. I watch 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:58.080 late eighties, early nineties, you know, Bowls, Championship years, um 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.279 NBA games. I've I've been the mid watching the entire season. 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:03.960 Right now, I'm just picking old games that I know 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:05.919 are great and I watched. And what happens is my 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.080 brain is allowed to escape the day to day craziness 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.560 and the fact that now you know, the NBA is 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.080 gonna come back and it's gonna say Black Lives Matter 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:15.839 on the court and some of the players are going 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.359 to have social justice messages on their jerseys and the 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.680 rest of it. It's really dangerous because a society that 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:27.920 can never escape politics, I think is a very unhealthy society. 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:31.160 And it's really disappointing what's happening with the NBA right now. 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.560 And I saw even I guess it's outside was it 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.760 outside Fenway Park? Now they're gonna have a big Black 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:39.880 Lives Matter UH banner or something. And it doesn't really 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.560 matter what you feel, whether you believe in the Black 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.800 Lives movement, black Lives Matter movement, or you don't believe 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:47.240 in it, or you don't like the messaging, or you 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.320 do like the messaging. It's more the broader point that 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.440 we need moments to escape, we need sports to escape, 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:55.800 we need art, we need music to escape. But if 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:57.440 all of our music is going to be about this, 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.360 and all of our sports, we're gonna be about it. Man, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:01.719 We're gonna be at each other throughout twenty four hours 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:03.680 a day. You know, I've been ringing the alarm on 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.880 this thing for a couple of years, and here it is. Yeah, exactly, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:09.800 you know, And and you look at I've worked in 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.760 the sports world for a long time and talk to 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.160 a lot of these guys. But the popular TV trope 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.880 is that you've got the dumb jock right in all this. 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.920 And and now we're supposed to believe that these guys 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.280 are on top of everything, Dave, that they they are 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:26.400 on the pulse of society, and we're supposed to listen 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.120 to them. And they have so much influence? Do they 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:31.240 You think they have as much influence as they think 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.160 they do. You know, it's hard to say. I I 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.960 think that especially young people can be influenced. But you know, 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:43.920 I remember around Dream Team time when Barkley was outspoken 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.080 about everything, and he used to say, I'm not a 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:48.360 role model. And I remember as a kid, I was 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.400 about sixteen years old or so, and it didn't really 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:51.680 make sense to me because it was like, what do 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:53.760 you mean, Like, you guys are all my heroes. I 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.200 of all you guys, you know, everybody on that team. 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:58.080 How could you not be a role model. But in 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.040 a certain sense, he Shuli was telling the truth. And 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:03.000 by the way, Barkley, even in the last week, he's 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.280 been speaking up about some of this stuff, and as 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.360 always he's pretty on point. I mean, Barkley, Barkley really 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.160 does seem to get it. Um. It's not even a 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.240 specific matter of whether some of the athletes have more 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.800 insight into it or not. I don't mind people speaking up, 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.240 you know, I'm a free speech guy. But it's more 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.280 the broader point. It's that if we if you show 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:26.960 up to an NBA game and they got Black Lives 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.960 Matter on the court and you got social justice warrior 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.199 this on his jersey and the other one on this jersey, 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:37.000 that basketball will become secondary. And as I said, sports 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:39.920 are the great escape. So it's right. Well, the other 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.319 and the other bigger issue I think is that once 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.680 this this social justice virus, and that is what I 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.080 call it. It is a virus. A virus is very 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.400 easy to catch and very hard to get rid of. 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.240 Right we're dealing with the pandemic right now. Coronavirus is 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.840 very easy to catch and hard to get rid of. 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:59.839 That's why we're taking these precautions once this thing gets 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.040 to any system. So right now, it seemingly has infected 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.160 the NBA, it seemingly has affected the NFL. I mean, 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.440 the NFL is saying they're going to play the black 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.360 national anthem. No nobody heard of a black national anthem 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.280 two weeks ago, and putting that aside, whether there was 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.960 some underground black national anthem. We have one national anthem. 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.400 It's the American national Anthem. That's what we stand for. 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:22.360 You're not forced to stand if you don't want, but 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.000 most people do at games, and that's what brings us together, 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.320 that that's what causes national cohesion. But now we're gonna 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.280 have a black national anthem and an American national anthem. 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:32.640 How does that make sense that we're gonna have an 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.080 Asian national anthem a white national anthem. I mean, this 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.040 is dangerous stuff. But once you go down this road, 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.959 because it's not based in in fact, it's not based 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:47.000 in common decency. It can take you to some pretty 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.280 scary places. Well and absolutely, and Dave with that is 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.040 the back dropping. I'm not saying, yeah, you know, shut 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:55.079 up and dribble and stick to sports and all that. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.160 But there's got to be like a fine line here. 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.559 And once the toothpaste is out of the too, if 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.280 you will here, is there any going back? Is this 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:05.400 just going to be the way it is and people 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:06.719 are just gonna have to deal with it. If you 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.600 don't like it, don't watch sports. You know, savvy, I 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.280 actually think that that is what's going to happen here. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.240 But as I said, this thing wanted in the system, 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.360 it destroys the system. So you can sort of see 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:20.719 what's happening with the New York Times right now. It 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.800 at one time was was the paper of record, and 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.559 although you know it probably always leaned a little bit left, um, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.320 you know, people thought it was pretty reputable. Now it 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:35.000 has been just completely infected by this thing. Every day 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:39.120 there's wall to wall coverage of racial issues and how 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:42.240 bad white people are. Just this morning tweeted out another 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.040 piece of you know where they're blaming poor schooling on 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.160 white parents. I mean, just this crazy nonsense. So it 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.200 infects these institutions. And by the way, of course, it's 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.520 not just The New York Times. This has infected almost 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:58.480 every academic institution. You know, Harvard openly discriminates against Asian 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.559 people because they, Asian apparently worked too hard and studied 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:05.520 too much. They had quote unquote too many Asian people there. Now, 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:07.600 I don't believe in that. I believe if your work hard, 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:09.640 I don't care what color you are. I thought that's 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.400 what that Martin Luther King Jr. Guy was saying. But 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.280 they institute these things. I think what is going to 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:18.640 happen is the more that they go down this path, 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:21.440 the worse and worse their ratings are going to be. 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:25.120 I think you're gonna see the NBA ratings absolutely tumble. 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:26.920 People are sick of it, they don't want to put 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:29.359 up with it, and to watch a bunch of millionaires 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:34.000 run around and complain. Um yeah, I just think I think, look, 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.079 we know, we know that the ratings are going down 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.560 because the NFL ratings were way down last year. So 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:41.439 the more that you infect any system with this thing, 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.720 the more it will destroy itself. And I think at 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:45.440 the time of Corona, where we've all been, you know, 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.000 pretty quarantined for the last four months or whatever it is. 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.560 People are finding other things they're going. You know, maybe 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:52.640 I don't need to pay three hundred dollars to go 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:54.880 to an NBA game. Maybe that that is a waste 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.640 for the five bucks acost to get a freaking hot 0:11:57.640 --> 0:11:59.760 dog and a coke. Maybe maybe this isn't the best 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.320 amount of time. And I'm telling you, man, if you 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.120 watch old basketball games or whatever your sport is, you know, football, 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:07.720 go watch watching old football game. You will enjoy it 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.080 just as much. Even though you could probably remember every 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:12.480 play and every call, it will it will remind you 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.040 of something that these new ones where they're infecting you 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.120 with with all this other stuff, just don't have to 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:19.480 be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.679 Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m Pacific 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:26.520 on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. David, 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:28.280 I'm want to jump from the free real quick with this. 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.040 I had a couple of lighter questions, but with what 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.920 you're saying to piggyback off of it, I guess if 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.520 you're a commissioner though of any major sport, whether it's 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.439 Adam Silver in the NBA, or Roger Goodell in the NFL, 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.000 or Rob Manford a Major League Baseball or Gary Bettman 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.680 the NHL, what do you do? What would be your 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.600 solution to what's going on right now? Because in one instance, 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:51.600 like you've been saying, like you want to have these 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.359 voices be heard, and you want to make sure that 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.720 that you're prominent players who are marketing your league and 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:02.120 propelling it to higher levels, especially monitor early they're the faces. 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.480 But at the same time, you don't want to sequestion 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.680 your other individuals that have a different opinion. So what 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.679 would be your solution, not an end all, be all, 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:13.800 but what would be a solution or an alternative for 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:17.000 you to get those players messages out if it's not 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:18.800 on the court, if it's not on the jury, that 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.720 are not on the helmets. Yeah, well look, the simple 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.520 answer is that there is no simple answer, right because 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.080 what I would do is I would say, look, guys, 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.320 you can do what you want off the court. Off 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.560 the court, you know, you could do what you want 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:36.680 on Twitter. You can do what you want on Instagram 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:40.000 and everywhere else, on YouTube and in in interviews and 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.080 all that stuff, and you know there's gonna be some 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.480 repercussions for it. If you just keep getting into hot water. 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:46.640 Maybe a Nike doesn't want to do a contract with you, 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.080 or this or that. Like that's all just that's what 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:51.160 freedom is all about. I would say, you guys have 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.680 maximum freedom to do whatever you want. You're you're paid 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.840 as basketball players. But what they have made the mistake 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.640 of doing is saying, no, this is literally going to 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.280 be on the court. We are going to paint a 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.640 political message on the court. We are going to play 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:12.080 an alternate national anthem before a football game. That's where 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.640 the dangerous thing is. You know, it's funny because a 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:16.880 couple of years ago, when the Kaepernick thing was really 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.880 blowing up, everybody kept saying, oh, this is such a disaster, 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.120 it's such an infringement on a free speech and everything else. 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.680 But I actually was saying the reverse the entire time, 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:26.560 because if you think about it, think about what happened. 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:29.920 Kaepernick was allowed to kneel or not kneel. That was 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.600 completely on him. Nobody came to drag him away. The 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.000 owners were allowed to decide whether they wanted to have 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:37.880 them on their team or not. The fans were allowed 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.520 to decide whether to boo him or not boo him, 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.880 or or buy jerseys or not buy jerseys. Even President 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:46.880 who was tweeting about it, he didn't stop anyone from 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.720 doing anything. The President has uh free speech as well, 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:54.440 so everybody got to exercise their free speech. And that's 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:57.480 actually a beautiful thing. You know, free speech has consequences. 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.640 So if other teams were like, you know, pretty sure, 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:02.720 maybe he could play here still because he's got some 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.360 skills left, but it's going to cause us just such 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.920 a freaking headache, well then that's a that's an economic 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.920 decision that they make. But in fact, everybody's free speech 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:16.120 was respected. That that's the bizarre thing that we find 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:18.760 ourselves in these days. Well, the lighter lighter side of 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:20.600 that too, Davis, I want to ask you, since you 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.760 are a part of of what's going on today's climate, 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.320 correct me if I'm wrong, and I think I saw 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:28.880 this a week or two ago, were you or were 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.200 you not playing heads up against Senator Ted Cruz some 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:36.640 pro wrestling old school process from Nintendo. I'm sitting I'm 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.600 sitting in my office right now and I've got my 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.200 old school Nintendo here. It is my childhood any s 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:46.400 that I got in on June twenty six, my birthday, 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:49.800 I was nine years old, and I had that thing. 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.080 I you know, you know all those old school Nintendo's 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.000 they stopped working at some point. You gotta blow in 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.920 the cartridges and you gotta whack them over the top 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.880 and all that. I watched the YouTube video I read 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.680 he's this thing. I took it apart, fixed it myself, 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.560 and yes, I had Ted Cruising here and we were 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.840 playing pro wrestling on Nintendo. It was one of the 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.040 original games that came out with Super Mario Brothers. And 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.040 the funny thing is he he craimed he had never 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:14.680 played it before, although he is a bit of a 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.640 video game guy, and you know, I'm We're live streaming it, 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:19.640 and I was like, you know, maybe I'll let him 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:21.560 like pin me once or twice before I beat him 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.520 at the end. But then the second he knocked me 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:26.960 down once he jumped on me, and the system prose 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.760 it actually just completely froze. So it appeared that Ted 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.320 Cruise beat me. But for the record, Ted, if you're listening, 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.080 you know I had your number. Yeah, And speaking of 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:40.120 Ted Cruz, he had a huge dust up with Mark 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:44.120 Cuban recently on Twitter. They were going back and forth, 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.840 how did you grade that fight? You know, Cruise has 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.720 become a real Twitter warrior. I gotta tell you, you know, 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.040 I wasn't a huge fan of his. I said this 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.440 to his face when I sat down with him, uh, 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:57.360 you know, during the election, and I kind of regret 0:16:57.360 --> 0:16:59.720 it because I've really come to like him. I think 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:03.480 that something about getting the beard, uh, something that turned 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.520 something on in him. Um. I think his broad point 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.159 of you know where where basically he was saying a 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.160 Mark Cuban. You know, it's like, well, where are you 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.040 Mark Cuban as an NBA owner and where are the 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.600 NBA players and other owners when it comes to standing 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.440 up to China, which is which is doing all sorts 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.359 of terrible things. Right we know that there's about a 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:26.240 million Muslim people that are in concentration camps right now. 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:28.480 I mean, these these videos are being shown. You can 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.080 find these videos online, and it's like no one from 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.200 the NBA is saying a word about that because they've 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.159 got seriously lucrative deals over there. I think ted with 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:40.800 calling out that hypocrisy, and uh, I don't know that Cuban, 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.600 you know, backed it or backed him off his position 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:47.240 in any real way. Yeah, he did a little tap 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.840 dance there. It's it's just everyone who's in. You're obviously 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:53.800 the NBA guy, and I like the NBA obviously were 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.359 talking about all these sports. But it's like they're big 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:58.479 hypocrites and they don't seem to have a problem with it, 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.439 which is very very Yeah, it's like their cherry picking 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:03.800 certain things and other things they're going to completely ignore 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.399 because it obviously don't touch the money, right, isn't that 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.200 the golden rule they have, don't touch the money. Yeah, 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.080 you know, it's tough. Look, all of these things are businesses, 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.240 you know. I think the kid and all of us 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:17.800 wants to think that it's all about what happens on 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.159 the court and all of that kind of stuff. But 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:22.280 at the end, at the end of the day, the NBA, 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.520 the NFL, these things are businesses, servers making a business 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.960 decision when he decided to put Black Lives Matter on 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.439 the court because and I think in Silver's mind, I'm 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:33.560 not a mind reader, but I think it's probably something 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.280 like this. I think it's probably like he's gone. Man. 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:38.560 If I don't if I don't do this, they will 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.040 come from my head. And in many ways, that's what's 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.160 happening here. The reason this this sort of tear down 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.920 the monuments, you know, defund the police, all of these 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:49.760 things that we know we're wrong. We all, all the 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:51.760 adults know these things are wrong. But the reason that 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.160 they keep spreading is because everybody sort of thinks, oh, 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:57.879 I don't say anything, I'll be okay. This this thing 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.920 will just pass over me. So Silver is actually inviting 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.960 the monster into his own home, and the monster is 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.040 actually going to rest the whole place, and then and 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.320 eventually it will come for him no matter what I mean. 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.480 I guarantee you you can mark my words on this 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.000 clip the hell out of it. The social justice thing 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:17.200 will come for a child at the end of the day. 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.440 He's a he's a millionaire white guy, and he thinks 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.040 that if he can throw them some stuff like black 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.920 Lives Matter on the court, that that will buy him 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:27.639 some time. And he's right. It will buy him a 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.320 little time, but it will not buy him much time. 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.720 They will take him out at some point, and we 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.159 see this across across all the boards. I mean, they 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.159 will take out all of these guys when they want to. 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.080 So you know, the hypocrisy there for everybody. And I 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:43.880 would say, I would say, if I was an athlete 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.640 right now, I think I would be so freaking thrilled 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.680 to be doing what I love, making millions of dollars 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.840