Speaker 1: Welcome back all the smoke LA audition. We're at the
Speaker 1: top of LA as you guys can see with the
Speaker 1: Morning Only Michael Rubin, thank you for having us in
Speaker 1: your own good to be here. We appreciate it. Understand
Speaker 1: you literally just got back from Paris. What were you
Speaker 1: doing out there?
Speaker 2: Went out to see Victor, which is one big dude.
Speaker 2: You're an impressive guy. Was there for two days. We
Speaker 2: actually visit our LID stores, our PHG stores, our NBA store,
Speaker 2: spent good time at Victor, went to one of his games,
Speaker 2: got to be there when he saw a team he
Speaker 2: was going to play for. Normally we went just assume
Speaker 2: when someone gets the lot of first lottery pick there,
Speaker 2: I'm acically going to be there. But I think it's
Speaker 2: pretty safe to say he's going to resper.
Speaker 1: But you also share with me that he's a lot
Speaker 1: deeper than meets the eye and a lot more mature
Speaker 1: for his age. Speak to me with you know what
Speaker 1: you're telling me off camera?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was blown away, like to see a nineteen
Speaker 2: year old kid who is just so intelligent. He's talking
Speaker 2: to me about not only what he's going to do
Speaker 2: on the court and what he believes him from a
Speaker 2: basketball perspective, but how he goes home and he wants
Speaker 2: to write books, and he wants to be an artist,
Speaker 2: and he's designing a power product that we're going to
Speaker 2: make together, and he's thinking about what he's going to
Speaker 2: do in trading cards with us. I mean, this was
Speaker 2: a deep and thoughtful individual, amazing family, great parents. I'll
Speaker 2: tell you what, if I were a basketball team and
Speaker 2: getting him, not only would I be excited about his
Speaker 2: incredible athletics skills, but I'd be like, this is somebody
Speaker 2: I want to build my tired business business.
Speaker 1: Yea, the visual side, and that's where you excel at.
Speaker 1: Obviously a ton of business questions, but we kind of
Speaker 1: want to start, you know where you started as a child,
Speaker 1: just growing up a fan of the Sixers, and then
Speaker 1: the dream come true when you were able to actually
Speaker 1: be a part owner of the Sixers.
Speaker 3: Talk to us about that process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, for me, I was really like one of
Speaker 2: the most awful students known to mankind.
Speaker 4: Actually people don't believe in that.
Speaker 2: It was telling people launch I actually got a seven
Speaker 2: eighty on my sets combined. It's very hard to get
Speaker 2: the seven eighty combined comedy that was after six seventy
Speaker 2: the first thing.
Speaker 5: It was the same gang, not even close to him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, way, or you didn't get a lover on the success.
Speaker 5: I got my name right, that's four hundred.
Speaker 2: By the way, that's four hundred for your name r Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's something right.
Speaker 4: So So look, I was a terrible student.
Speaker 5: I was.
Speaker 2: As athletic as you guys are. I'm the most unathletic
Speaker 2: person in the planet Earth. So I was always good
Speaker 2: at one thing, which was business. So I always loved business.
Speaker 2: And so I grew up a fan of sports obviously,
Speaker 2: and so the Sixers of my team as a kid.
Speaker 2: So getting a chance to you know, kind of just
Speaker 2: be a part owner and pretty you know, involved in
Speaker 2: a team that I grew up with being a fan,
Speaker 2: it was super special, super special.
Speaker 1: Obviously, you came in ten years ago. You just gave
Speaker 1: up your share. Was that last year? Yeah, So talk
Speaker 1: to us just about what that journey was as a owner.
Speaker 1: You know, you were right in the mix of the
Speaker 1: process and getting Joel and having been and having Jimmy
Speaker 1: come through and now having James come through and Doc
Speaker 1: and Doc's gone. Now, what was the process like of
Speaker 1: just being an owner? Obviously a fan, but did it
Speaker 1: almost not a business, but it is a business at
Speaker 1: the same time.
Speaker 2: Well, it certainly took any fun out of it, that's
Speaker 2: for sure. But the thing is you just want to
Speaker 2: win so badly. It look if you look back and say,
Speaker 2: you know, we were at it I was part of
Speaker 2: for ten years, we didn't win shit. So you can't
Speaker 2: look at it and say we've been successful. I mean
Speaker 2: we've had a perennial you know, kind of second seed
Speaker 2: playoff team. And to me, if you're not winning championships,
Speaker 2: you ain't doing shit. And so I look back and say,
Speaker 2: team hasn't succeeded yet. But I'm still helping him still.
Speaker 2: You know, I think everyone knows, you know, Joe's family
Speaker 2: to me, James family to me, you know, Josh Hires,
Speaker 2: David Blitzer, you know, really important guys to me, family
Speaker 2: to me. So I want to do everything I can
Speaker 2: to help them. But I'll say, you know, over the
Speaker 2: ten years, I learned a ton. I think it helped
Speaker 2: me develop. We made lots of mistakes, you got to
Speaker 2: learn and grow from those mistakes. But most importantly, I
Speaker 2: think it's got you know, the organization. We're more motivated
Speaker 2: than ever to say how to get championships to phildelphiacause.
Speaker 4: That's the only reason, you know, on a team like
Speaker 4: you got to win.
Speaker 1: Championships especially, and that's the that's thee that that fan
Speaker 1: base is very intelligent, but they don't put up bullshit
Speaker 1: like there.
Speaker 4: Philly has great sports fans.
Speaker 2: There are not a lot of cities that has just
Speaker 2: fans that are so passionate Philly fans are. They're amazing fans.
Speaker 2: You know, they have high expectations and they should and
Speaker 2: so you know, when we, you know, got bounced in
Speaker 2: the second round of the playoffs, they were rightfully disappointed.
Speaker 4: No, you know, we were win playing for championship.
Speaker 1: How happy obviously Joel being family to you to finally
Speaker 1: see him get over that MVP hump could have obviously
Speaker 1: won it in previous years, but this was his first year.
Speaker 1: How important was that to him? But also you as
Speaker 1: you know, being someone who's close with him.
Speaker 2: Look, I think it was a real accomplishment, but at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, he would trade it for
Speaker 2: a championship in you know, one second flat, and so
Speaker 2: you know, I think it's a nice to do, but
Speaker 2: I'm not you know to me, you know, the only
Speaker 2: trophy of the matters is the chip for the big
Speaker 2: So you know, look, obviously I'm super happy for him.
Speaker 2: I love him. I think he's super happy. But you know,
Speaker 2: if you ask him, you know, you want a championship trophy.
Speaker 2: That's he wanted to you know, he wanted two trophies
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 1: Now I hear that kind of the future not necessarily
Speaker 1: up in the air, but you know, whether we'll see
Speaker 1: James back, what are your thoughts, you know, being close
Speaker 1: to the situation, close to him, I'm still kind of
Speaker 1: helping out. You know, there was words in him and
Speaker 1: Doctor necessarily get along. Doc is not returning, are they are?
Speaker 1: Are you guys hopeful that James will be a six
Speaker 1: er next year?
Speaker 2: Look, I think it's a little unfair for me to
Speaker 2: speak on, you know, james personal situation. What I'd say is,
Speaker 2: you know, I think James has done everything he can
Speaker 2: to help Philadelphia win. I think you've seen adapt the
Speaker 2: way he plays basketball. It's look, you guys could tell
Speaker 2: me better, and I didn't understand this. I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people don't get it. Great basketball players don't
Speaker 2: a lot of times they don't work together. And so
Speaker 2: what you got to do is you got to find
Speaker 2: people who each committed to how do we each adapt
Speaker 2: our play to win together? I think, yeah, I think
Speaker 2: you know, both Joe and James made a lot of
Speaker 2: sacrifices and that makes me actually proud. I've seen like
Speaker 2: James develop a lot and his willingness and like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm here to win championships. I'm not. This isn't about
Speaker 2: you know what what numbers I put up. It's about
Speaker 2: how I can help the team to win championships. So
Speaker 2: I think, you know, obviously I'm hopeful that everything works out,
Speaker 2: but I just think that I'll talk about just about anything.
Speaker 2: But I don't like, you know, with with this coming up,
Speaker 2: this this is one thing I think it would be
Speaker 2: unfair fore you talk.
Speaker 1: On And I just just think, as a fan of James,
Speaker 1: he's been put in a tough situation because he heard, Okay,
Speaker 1: well you put up a great, amazing numbers, MVP, but
Speaker 1: you can't win that way. Now you come to a
Speaker 1: team and you adapt your game and now you're a
Speaker 1: twenty and ten point guard, and oh have you lost it?
Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So I think he kind of gets stuck in the
Speaker 1: middle sometimes like I haven't lost it, but again I'm
Speaker 1: sacrificing for the betterment of our club.
Speaker 4: By the way, You're right, and I agree with you.
Speaker 2: And I think you saw what James was capable of
Speaker 2: in the first game and the fourth game when he
Speaker 2: had you know, you know James numbers when he was
Speaker 2: the only superstar in or not the only superstar.
Speaker 4: That's that's wrong.
Speaker 2: Actually when he was, you know, the number one superstar
Speaker 2: in Houston. So I think James still has incredible talents
Speaker 2: and you know he's I'll tell you one thing. It's
Speaker 2: interesting when you get to really know people know, like
Speaker 2: how do they just there are a lot of basketball
Speaker 2: players who don't really.
Speaker 5: Give a shit.
Speaker 2: Okay, you guys know that that people you see like
Speaker 2: who just really really wants to win and who like Sworta,
Speaker 2: wants to win it.
Speaker 4: Who doesn't give a shit. I've seen all three.
Speaker 2: James is dying to win championships, and he gets a
Speaker 2: bad rap, you know, like the guy goes to Vegas
Speaker 2: to decpress for a day and it's like he should
Speaker 2: like different people decpressed in different ways, and so you know,
Speaker 2: I'm a you know, I thought haven't been a brother
Speaker 2: in me real you know fan is and think you
Speaker 2: know he's you know, he's still incredibly skilled.
Speaker 5: What's the day in the day in a life like
Speaker 5: for you?
Speaker 2: I've never worked hard on my life. I've never had
Speaker 2: more fun doing it normal day for me. I'm just
Speaker 2: you know, yesterday I woke up, I went, I left
Speaker 2: Sunday night after a very first time, I actually broke
Speaker 2: electronics in my house.
Speaker 4: During the six Ers.
Speaker 3: I refused.
Speaker 2: I thought I did the right thing by for the
Speaker 2: first time in my life not going to the Games
Speaker 2: of the Garden because the Garden I think that I
Speaker 2: saw something. It was a magic documentary. Someone's where they
Speaker 2: said the floor is jinxed. I actually just where they
Speaker 2: were like monsters or ghosts on the floor. I actually
Speaker 2: think I sort of believed that. So I said, I'm
Speaker 2: this gonna be the first year I'm not gonna go.
Speaker 2: And when we won the first game there, I was
Speaker 2: like super excited. When we won game five there, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm definitely not going to game seven. Obviously it wasn't
Speaker 2: me because we did not have a very good game,
Speaker 2: but I I Sunday afternoon, I threw the remote as
Speaker 2: hard as I could into the TV. Some things kind
Speaker 2: of broke and then my three year old Saidaddy, why
Speaker 2: did you throw the remote? And h I tried to
Speaker 2: talk myself out of that didn't so well. I was
Speaker 2: not very happy with what was on TV right now.
Speaker 2: But that's not what you should do. But anyway, I
Speaker 2: got on a plane, went to Paris, had two great
Speaker 2: days of meetings there, and then flew right back to
Speaker 2: LA And that's like kind of normal for me. I
Speaker 2: mean I'm always grinding. Like, look, I got the greatest
Speaker 2: job of the waters and plast I get to work with,
Speaker 2: you know, the best athletes in the planet, the best
Speaker 2: you know, we're around culture. I get to you know,
Speaker 2: learn and grow every day. I mean I just got
Speaker 2: done you guys. You know, two hours ago, we just
Speaker 2: had an incredible lunch. I just had the four top
Speaker 2: quarterbacks that were drafted this year. So we had Bryce Young,
Speaker 2: CJ Anthony, and Richard and Real Levis together with Tom Brady,
Speaker 2: you know, came all the way out to spend time
Speaker 2: with them at Travis Scott talking about how to build
Speaker 2: your business off the field. And it's so fun for
Speaker 2: me to just like listen to the conversation, learn from
Speaker 2: the conversation.
Speaker 4: I mean by the way you listen to each.
Speaker 2: Everyone knows about Tommy because I mean everything you think
Speaker 2: about him and more is true about just how smart
Speaker 2: and focused and how he just outworked everybody. But then
Speaker 2: people don't know about Trive. People think of Travis as
Speaker 2: an artist and a rapper. I think think about him
Speaker 2: as a business business guy. Yeah, he's a huge business guy.
Speaker 2: Like we're always learning from each other. So you know,
Speaker 2: for me, you know, that's like a day in my
Speaker 2: life with just being around really smart people learning from
Speaker 2: each other, having fun. But I'm doing it, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, I slept four hours yesterday. I'm like my
Speaker 2: throatheart's right now because I haven't slept for a.
Speaker 4: Couple of days.
Speaker 2: And it's just like that's just who I'm but I
Speaker 2: love it. It's like I'm lucky to do it.
Speaker 1: You said something interesting, though, because you said you had
Speaker 1: all the young quarterbacks here and and some but you
Speaker 1: said to learn from them, And I think that's something
Speaker 1: as you know, as we get older, sometimes we kind
Speaker 1: of have our ways, and especially with the jobs situation
Speaker 1: in particular, like learning this younger generation's point of view
Speaker 1: I feel like it's so important, and I feel like
Speaker 1: sometimes when we get older, we could disconnect, and I
Speaker 1: have teenage boys that kind of keep me in the loop.
Speaker 3: But elaborate on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, first of all, being that I've said that
Speaker 2: I got a seven eighty combined on my SAT.
Speaker 4: He's the second time, six seventy the first time.
Speaker 2: I By the way, I don't believe that you got
Speaker 2: four hundred because four hundreds name only, so you definitely
Speaker 2: if you just close your eyes and did multiple.
Speaker 4: Choice, you probably would have beat you.
Speaker 5: Pretty something.
Speaker 2: We gotta go back and check SATs score, SAT score
Speaker 2: some My money is on that you were the better
Speaker 2: performer of the SATs. But look, I love having diversity
Speaker 2: of backgrounds around me. So for me, that's the way
Speaker 2: I learned. Like I'm a sponge, I'm always asking questions,
Speaker 2: I'm always learning from people, and it's funny if you
Speaker 2: just if you listen to this conversations, like everyone's asking
Speaker 2: each other's questions, and that is hell Like my company.
Speaker 2: I've been at Fanatics for twelve years. But like I
Speaker 2: just watched the movie air this weekend, which by the way,
Speaker 2: was pretty inspirational for me to watch that movie, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, Phil's in his eighties now I'm fifty. Like,
Speaker 2: think what I could do with fanatics over the next
Speaker 2: thirty five years if you look at like kind of
Speaker 2: where Nike is.
Speaker 4: So to me, having young.
Speaker 2: People around they it's it's great because it's it's I
Speaker 2: can learn from them, they can learn from us.
Speaker 4: And that's exactly what happens. And it was amazing just
Speaker 4: to watch.
Speaker 2: And obviously, look, nothing's better than having Tom Brady sit
Speaker 2: with the four top quarter backs in this year's draft
Speaker 2: and give them so many great lessons. And these guys
Speaker 2: were just sitting there like, you know, mouths open, and
Speaker 2: it was kind of amazing, you know, just to listen
Speaker 2: to the conversation. But then you know Tom's picking things
Speaker 2: up and Travis picking things up, and we're kind of
Speaker 2: all learning from each other. And that's you know, that's
Speaker 2: what you know. I think that's the type of personality
Speaker 2: everybody was at the table. People just want to keep growing,
Speaker 2: and you know, we're never satisfied by We talked about that,
Speaker 2: like you know, Tom, you know, like everyone's been telling
Speaker 2: we haven't done shit yet. Like I don't feel like
Speaker 2: I've done shit yet. I don't think Tom feels that
Speaker 2: he's done shit yet. He's not sitting here, you know,
Speaker 2: celebrating the seven Super Bowls. He's wanting He's saying, like,
Speaker 2: you know what am I doing next?
Speaker 5: Next? Yeah? Right?
Speaker 6: Yeah, especially if you can walk straight from football the
Speaker 6: three hundred million in box.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: Any hobbies? Working, that's it. I love it.
Speaker 4: But you know, to me, like, listen, is this I mean,
Speaker 4: is this work or is this fun?
Speaker 2: I'm having a great time with you guys. You know,
Speaker 2: it's having this lunch. I just had workers. It fun,
Speaker 2: like I'm you know, I'm twenty four to seven. Actually,
Speaker 2: my team was just talking to me yesterday about I'm
Speaker 2: doing a day on a show coming up later this
Speaker 2: fall on a TV show, and they were they want
Speaker 2: to shoot some stuff at my house next week, and
Speaker 2: they were trying to get into the persons of like,
Speaker 2: but I want this to be authentic, like you know,
Speaker 2: like like my life is basically work, Like I'm always
Speaker 2: I'm hustling, I'm grinding. It's what I but it's what
Speaker 2: I love to do. And I don't I'm mountain. I
Speaker 2: don't look at his work. So one of my hobbies,
Speaker 2: I mean, I love sports, But I don't know when
Speaker 2: I when I go, I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't see a game through the lens of fun.
Speaker 2: I see it get By the way, the most enjoyable
Speaker 2: basketball game I've been to in the last ten years
Speaker 2: was Victor's game two nights ago. That was peaceful. I
Speaker 2: just want to root for him to do well, and
Speaker 2: by the way, they happened to win. It was the
Speaker 2: last game of the season. But like you know, I'm
Speaker 2: always rooting for the players. We're behind the teams. I'm
Speaker 2: behind the outcomes that are best for business. So, I mean,
Speaker 2: sports has worked for me, but it's fun.
Speaker 5: It's fun work.
Speaker 6: Legendary potter as you have, How did how did start?
Speaker 6: I mean, we have some groupies on our staff that's
Speaker 6: been talking about your parties for the last couple of days.
Speaker 5: That's dying again to your party.
Speaker 2: Well you know what I've actually figured out, Like, if
Speaker 2: this fanatic thing doesn't work out, I think I could
Speaker 2: be a good.
Speaker 1: Party kidding me, Yeah, Like I think I already got
Speaker 1: the white suit in the closet, So just let us
Speaker 1: know what's happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know what it really comes from. I
Speaker 2: love bringing people from different backgrounds together and that's something
Speaker 2: I enjoy doing it.
Speaker 4: Whether it was this lunch we just.
Speaker 2: Talked about, whether it's my super Bowl party, whether it's
Speaker 2: the White party. For me, it's a great time to
Speaker 2: It's like I just I enjoy bringing people from different
Speaker 2: background together. And by the way, I benefit from because
Speaker 2: I'm always learning from people there. And so that's really
Speaker 2: where it started. We started with our super Bowl party.
Speaker 2: And in our super Bowl party, by the way, this
Speaker 2: was like this year's super Bowl party. I was like,
Speaker 2: when I had many the owners of the football teams
Speaker 2: come up and tell me this is better than the
Speaker 2: game itself, I thought like, literally, that's what people were saying, right, yeah.
Speaker 5: We are.
Speaker 2: Look, I think what we like to do is bring
Speaker 2: the right people together in a room and then great
Speaker 2: things happen. And you know, there's so many things that
Speaker 2: I've watched materialize at the different things that we put
Speaker 2: together that are great for the people in the room.
Speaker 4: And I love that. That's great.
Speaker 2: Like and by the way, people always giving back to us.
Speaker 2: It's like it's you know, very mutually beneficial. So so
Speaker 2: much here let's not telling them about the rule with
Speaker 2: the phone and the prone left.
Speaker 6: I'm saying, so who got to take the who gotta
Speaker 6: take the cush us for the doorbell?
Speaker 2: That's a great question. My push ups skills aren't bad now,
Speaker 2: I mean I could.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm push up pushing for two different things.
Speaker 5: Forgot who's taking that for the doorbell?
Speaker 2: It's a great question. I'm thinking about that.
Speaker 5: We'll get back to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's only I think it's only fair
Speaker 2: that somebody takes it.
Speaker 6: You know, you know everybody's has it been anyone that
Speaker 6: you were like in all of meeting.
Speaker 2: You guys know this answer, This is the real answer
Speaker 2: when you do what you've done for so long.
Speaker 5: Michael Jordans, I mean.
Speaker 2: Love, love, lots of respect. Yeah, but.
Speaker 4: Really yeah, I mean I'm just I don't know. How
Speaker 4: about you, guys?
Speaker 3: Me and Michael?
Speaker 6: Yeah, well I was playing against him and how you
Speaker 6: how'd you play? I killed them for like them the
Speaker 6: thirty eight and he came went out the game and
Speaker 6: grab me from behind.
Speaker 5: Good game, motherfucker, good game.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 6: I turned around like black Jesus and I almost passed out,
Speaker 6: but he caught me. I almost passed out. Seriously.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, how about you?
Speaker 1: No, I haven't necessarily fannedom. I mean, again, a lot
Speaker 1: of respect and admiration for people. But you know, luckily,
Speaker 1: you know, came to LA in ninety eight and kind
Speaker 1: of been blessed enough to be and meet amazing people.
Speaker 1: I mean, I take it for granted to get a
Speaker 1: chance to meet you and I mean a lot of people.
Speaker 1: But similar to you, just respected and enjoy meeting different
Speaker 1: types of.
Speaker 2: People right back out. You know. I think when I
Speaker 2: was younger, by the way, I was like if you
Speaker 2: asked me this twenty years ago, for sure, Like I
Speaker 2: wasn't used to just being my everyday job. But at
Speaker 2: this point there's really you meet everybody in the sports entertyer.
Speaker 2: Everyone comes through eventually, and so it you just kind
Speaker 2: of get used to it. But it's you know, I'm
Speaker 2: lucky to do it, by the way, It's more like
Speaker 2: who do I learn the most from it? I have
Speaker 2: a lot of really good friends that I learn a
Speaker 2: ton from. Like that's kind of the thing that's me excited,
Speaker 2: Like when you have a great meeting with somebody, like
Speaker 2: you walk away so much smarter for that meeting.
Speaker 5: Like that spunk for me.
Speaker 1: Yep, absolutely A born hustler first million was made at sixteen,
Speaker 1: bought a Porsche before you had a license, started selling vegetable.
Speaker 5: Seeds at eight.
Speaker 1: I mean you, squeak used ski equipment as a teenager
Speaker 1: on the.
Speaker 5: Seeds at a young age. Too different, different kind yeah.
Speaker 3: Years had you locked up? His is just having any
Speaker 3: make money?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: But by the way, if I grew up in a
Speaker 2: different way, mine would have me up to that's where
Speaker 2: keep it, keep it right, said my friends all the time.
Speaker 4: I grew up in a very middle class family.
Speaker 2: I had two parents that were doctors, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: like we like we lived a you know, you know.
Speaker 2: And by the way, the house I grew up inta
Speaker 2: a cost a half million dollars. It wasn't it.
Speaker 4: We were truly in middle class.
Speaker 2: But like, if I grew up in a tough environment,
Speaker 2: I'm sure would have been on drugs and just keep
Speaker 2: it real, like I was a hustler.
Speaker 3: You would have been good at it.
Speaker 2: I agree, would have been great.
Speaker 1: But where do where'd your mentality come from? Just to
Speaker 1: want to start making money at an early age?
Speaker 2: You know, I think, honestly, you do what you're good at.
Speaker 2: I always believe you gotta do things that you love
Speaker 2: so knowing that I was, like god all for shitty student,
Speaker 2: and knowing that I was the least coordinated person on
Speaker 2: planet Earth. Like you gravitate to what you're good at,
Speaker 2: I was good at working. So I just loved it
Speaker 2: from when I was a young kid, and you know,
Speaker 2: I was I kind of was born with it, to
Speaker 2: be honest.
Speaker 4: I kind of had that entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker 2: And you know, if you're good at it, you just
Speaker 2: keep working on your craft. The great thing about business,
Speaker 2: by the way, different than sports, and you guys look
Speaker 2: at the way you guys are really meant it yourself now.
Speaker 2: But the great thing about businesses there's no like, I
Speaker 2: hope I can be the shop when I'm eighty or
Speaker 2: ninety and I'm gonna you know, and I think the
Speaker 2: second I stopped doing I think I die.
Speaker 5: Mm, well, I agree, I can understand that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you feel like there's no where to learn.
Speaker 1: Yeah, can you remember a pivotal decision or what if
Speaker 1: in any early business moves you made?
Speaker 2: Well, I made so many dumb ones as a kid, like,
Speaker 2: I mean from those yeah, but I mean I've like,
Speaker 2: I mean, I almost went bankrupt, you know, ten different
Speaker 2: times in my life. You know, I've run out of
Speaker 2: money multiple times in my younger days. I've you know,
Speaker 2: I mean I had it when I was sixteen. I
Speaker 2: went out of money for like the second time I had.
Speaker 2: I had a three month string where the sheriff became
Speaker 2: my homie because she would drop off the lawsuits each
Speaker 2: day from the one hundred and fifty people that were
Speaker 2: suing me, from one hundred and fifty ski vendors that
Speaker 2: I would money to.
Speaker 4: It's like I've seen it all, so but.
Speaker 2: Those are great experiences, by the way, you know, six
Speaker 2: months later, I bought another ski shove that went out
Speaker 2: of business for I bought two hundred thousand dollars inventory
Speaker 2: for thirteen thousand dollars, barrot it from a neighbor to
Speaker 2: one thousand dollars a week interest, hustled that inventory out
Speaker 2: three weeks later, paid all the money I would back,
Speaker 2: and like became you know, by the time I was
Speaker 2: twenty one, was doing over one hundred million dollars a
Speaker 2: year selling clothes out footwear. So like, to me, every
Speaker 2: failure always leads to the next success. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: I was just saying this today, it's kind of crazy,
Speaker 2: Like I kind of like failing sometimes. I mean, I
Speaker 2: know that sounds demented, but like those are great learnings.
Speaker 2: You try to obviously not fuck up the really big things,
Speaker 2: but like failings, like you just want to fail fast
Speaker 2: and quick and then learn from that experience and grow.
Speaker 2: You know, obviously, look, I want to have more wins
Speaker 2: than I've loaned. But like, if you're not failing a
Speaker 2: decent amount in business, you're not trying to well.
Speaker 1: To me, it's not I've never looked at losses or lessons,
Speaker 1: you know, as long as you supply something, you know
Speaker 1: from what you lost about so.
Speaker 2: But I'll go back and analyze the shit out of it,
Speaker 2: like you know, what did I do wrong? Why did
Speaker 2: I get wrong? Why did I do this? And then
Speaker 2: I learn and I'm better as a result of m H.
Speaker 1: If you had one piece of advice for young entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: what would that be?
Speaker 2: So many people are scared to fail. It's stupid, Like
Speaker 2: go for it, like you just got to go. Like
Speaker 2: if you sit there wondering like is this gonna work?
Speaker 2: Should I do this? Like what's gonna happen if doesn't work?
Speaker 2: Like keep asking what if you're never gonna get anywhere
Speaker 2: in life, you just got to go for it. Probably
Speaker 2: I'll I'll throw one more other. You got to get
Speaker 2: great people around you. Like one of my best skill
Speaker 2: sets is attracting like the right people to like learn
Speaker 2: and from grow from work together. So to me, it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, my entire strategy is like I'm gonna outwork everybody.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have some pretty good common sense and I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna go for it with great people around me.
Speaker 2: And I think if you do those few things, I
Speaker 2: think your odds are pretty good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that's a lot of problem athletes.
Speaker 6: And I even put myself in the category we don't
Speaker 6: it's not that we don't know, but we don't put
Speaker 6: ourselves around the right people till we retired.
Speaker 5: And it's for some people's too late.
Speaker 4: So we talked a lot about that too.
Speaker 2: I agree. I could tell you talent as an athlete
Speaker 2: only takes you so far. I think the right people
Speaker 2: around you get you to where you want to go.
Speaker 2: And if you have the right people around you, they'll
Speaker 2: help you to achieve it. You want to get the
Speaker 2: wrong people around you, they'll take you to places you
Speaker 2: don't want to be. So to me.
Speaker 4: That's probably been I suck at a lot of things.
Speaker 2: By the way I suck at a lot of things,
Speaker 2: I mean that I've been pretty good at attract tracking
Speaker 2: people around me that have been additive to my life.
Speaker 5: That's a gift.
Speaker 4: It is a gift.
Speaker 2: I gotta say it. Something's a gift that keeps giving
Speaker 2: so to me. So many people get themselves in trouble
Speaker 2: because they don't have the right people giving them good input.
Speaker 2: So I actually, I think one of the responsibilities I
Speaker 2: have at Fanatics, in the position I'm in is to
Speaker 2: try to, you know, be helpful to others. And by
Speaker 2: the way, people helping me all the time too. It's
Speaker 2: not just like in the early days. People helping me
Speaker 2: today all the time. But I think the right people
Speaker 2: around is everything. That is. You get the right people around,
Speaker 2: it's a completely different outcome than if you have the
Speaker 2: wrong people around. So same talent, right people versus wrong
Speaker 2: people completely changes your outcome.
Speaker 1: Definite outcome question real quick, And I want to ask
Speaker 1: you this from a business perspective, because that's what you
Speaker 1: excel in the job morant situation, not necessarily what he
Speaker 1: did or what he's done, but as someone who builds brands.
Speaker 1: Can you speak to why what he's doing is obviously,
Speaker 1: because I feel like there's so many people that are
Speaker 1: back and forth. He didn't break laws, didn't do this. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's a moral clause when you're in the NBA and
Speaker 1: someone in his you know, he's the next to kind.
Speaker 3: Of carry the flag for the league.
Speaker 1: So speak from a business side of why what he's
Speaker 1: doing is setting them back?
Speaker 2: Well, first, like, it's actually great that you ask that
Speaker 2: question because I've been thinking about that one in the
Speaker 2: last couple of days, and that what you just said
Speaker 2: having the right people around versus not having the right
Speaker 2: people around. Look, my belief is this one's gonna unfortunately
Speaker 2: hurt him more than he I could too, but I
Speaker 2: think it'll also help him and that he'll really learn
Speaker 2: and grow from this. Like, I don't think he's making
Speaker 2: this mistake a third time now. Sometimes, by the way,
Speaker 2: people could just be fundamentally flawed people. I've spent a
Speaker 2: little time with him, not a lot of time with him.
Speaker 2: He seems like a good guy, you know. I just
Speaker 2: it's it goes back to who you pick to have
Speaker 2: around you. I think he's not going to get out
Speaker 2: of the situation say fuck, this really hurt, and it's
Speaker 2: going to teach him that lesson that says, Okay, I
Speaker 2: got to pick more carefully to people that have around
Speaker 2: me to help me go to where I want to go,
Speaker 2: not to where I get.
Speaker 4: I keep getting taken too.
Speaker 2: So look, Jah is you know, incredibly important to the
Speaker 2: sport of basketball. He's one of the most talented players
Speaker 2: in the universe. And you know, my hope and belief
Speaker 2: not just hope, My belief is that this will end
Speaker 2: up being a good experience for him. And you know,
Speaker 2: I hope that he, you know, does get the right
Speaker 2: people around him. And look, sometimes you see people who
Speaker 2: just can't get it through their head, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's hard to come in. Like think about the way
Speaker 2: a lot of people grow up who play sports, and
Speaker 2: then you come into this incredible fame and success and money.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, everyone who listeners can say, oh,
Speaker 2: that's bullshit, Like but he's still a kid, and like,
Speaker 2: you know, he needs support to help make better decisions.
Speaker 4: So, you know, but I believe we'll get there.
Speaker 6: I really do the things we were doing in twenty three,
Speaker 6: we lucky we didn't have social media.
Speaker 5: I've done worse.
Speaker 6: For sure, I've done worse, way worse, And while I
Speaker 6: was in the NBA, I made mistakes. I think he'll
Speaker 6: be fine, But taking the game away from him, that's
Speaker 6: going to help him. Being suspended thirty games from that
Speaker 6: broad shit like that with me. That made me sit
Speaker 6: down and really look at do I really want to
Speaker 6: play basketball? Do I want to be at home with
Speaker 6: the rest of my friends. So I think taking the
Speaker 6: game away from fun lil while will help him. Me
Speaker 6: think of the blessing he has.
Speaker 4: You're one hundred percent right.
Speaker 2: By the way, if they didn't give him something that
Speaker 2: was meaningful, then I think he would think he could
Speaker 2: keep doing it and he would make the changes.
Speaker 4: That he needs to make.
Speaker 2: But I say this with huge respect and love for him.
Speaker 2: I want him, you know, playing as soon as he's
Speaker 2: ready to play, except when he plays the six Ers.
Speaker 2: Other than that, when you're playing this, I think the
Speaker 2: actual right suspension should be he's not suspend other than
Speaker 2: for all games against the six Ers. I think that
Speaker 2: would be fair approach.
Speaker 4: I think it's logical.
Speaker 2: It's like he keeps getting reminded of his actions and
Speaker 2: then he just you know, when we play you know,
Speaker 2: a few times a year and then yeah, that's it
Speaker 2: innovative suspension to you.
Speaker 6: It might work back to ownership in the NBA. NBA
Speaker 6: is seventy percent black. What's your take on only having
Speaker 6: one owner.
Speaker 2: I think you need more diversity, for sure. I think
Speaker 2: diversity is so important. I mean, if I look at
Speaker 2: the way we build our company, you know we have
Speaker 2: we have, you know, a very diverse leadership team.
Speaker 4: I think it's important.
Speaker 2: Like, look, at the end of the day, we have
Speaker 2: a business that's dependent on you know, seventy or seventy
Speaker 2: five percent of our revenues derived from black and brown athletes.
Speaker 2: We better have a team that's you know, representative of that.
Speaker 2: So I think we need to keep pushing for more.
Speaker 2: I think there's not been enough progress made. And you know,
Speaker 2: one of the problems is I think, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: excited when I see I have so many friends that
Speaker 2: are you know, that are doing well now that I think,
Speaker 2: you know, could afford to be owners over time. But
Speaker 2: I think, you know, look, you want majority owners, not
Speaker 2: just minority owners. But I think it's I think it's coming,
Speaker 2: but not fast enough, and I think you need more
Speaker 2: of it. Look if you're in a sports business and
Speaker 2: the business is built around black and brown athletes, like
Speaker 2: you have to you know, you have to build your
Speaker 2: team around that as well.
Speaker 5: I have to give you some ownership down.
Speaker 6: I have to give you some of your flowers too,
Speaker 6: because just to be able to see owner be transparent
Speaker 6: and embrace you know, rappers other athletes, and be able
Speaker 6: to spend time when them enjoy we like, we've never
Speaker 6: seen that, Like and I've been on NBA teams, but
Speaker 6: I've never even met the owner, right, so so to
Speaker 6: see that is refreshing as the NBA athlete.
Speaker 4: So first, thank you. Number two. I'm stunned by how
Speaker 4: painful so many rich, out of touch people are, Like,
Speaker 4: I mean it, just keep this real.
Speaker 2: I mean, there are a lot of people I know,
Speaker 2: so many people are so financially well off, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: I couldn't spend a half an hour with them because
Speaker 2: I'd want to, like literally just crawl on my own skin.
Speaker 2: It's so boring. I mean, like for me, like, i
Speaker 2: feel like I'm lucky to spend time with all the
Speaker 2: guys I do. And again, I'm always you know, I'm
Speaker 2: having fun, I'm learning, and I'm growing they're learning, they're growing.
Speaker 4: So to me, it's like when I'll tell you a
Speaker 4: funny story.
Speaker 2: Actually, this year, the Sixers asked me to come in
Speaker 2: and as you guys probably remember, once a year they
Speaker 2: bring in an outside guest that would speak to the
Speaker 2: team for the team to learn from. And you know,
Speaker 2: Darryl and Doc actually said to me, listen, just I
Speaker 2: want to forewarn you, like, these guys are gonna do
Speaker 2: their eyes gonna be rolling, they're gonna have no interest,
Speaker 2: they're gonna they're gonna be asleep. I said, guys, you're
Speaker 2: so dead wrong. So I had a meeting with The
Speaker 2: meeting was schedule for an hour. I I flew in
Speaker 2: from New York. I had to get back to New
Speaker 2: York because it was at a practice facility. And after
Speaker 2: an hour and fifteen minutes, probably had fifty questions. Everyone's
Speaker 2: writing notes asking questions. So like, to me, you know,
Speaker 2: that's just the good stuff when you get related with people.
Speaker 4: We need more relatable.
Speaker 2: Owners in sports. We need younger owners in sports. Like
Speaker 2: it's very hard to look at somebody who's you know
Speaker 2: and look, my biggest metro's probably been but he's an anomaly, right,
Speaker 2: he's an eighty one year old guy who's got the
Speaker 2: heart of a twenty five years old Right, he's relatable.
Speaker 2: You go talk to Robert, He'll sit here and talk
Speaker 2: to you guys all day long. And by he's like me,
Speaker 2: he doesn't want to talk to the boring rich guy who,
Speaker 2: like you know, is just like been there and done that.
Speaker 2: So but that's just the way I'm built. And again,
Speaker 2: I don't know how you build a consumer business, Like,
Speaker 2: how could I actually be successful building fanatics?
Speaker 4: And by the way, I got lots of work to
Speaker 4: do to be.
Speaker 2: More successful, But how can I be successful doing it
Speaker 2: if you know, I wasn't relatable and learning from people
Speaker 2: around me all day. So you know, to me, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm lucky to like I love walking to the locker rooms
Speaker 2: talking to people, and you know, it was actually fun
Speaker 2: the first time ever after I had a good memory
Speaker 2: of playing the Celtics at the end of the year.
Speaker 2: This year before in the regular season, I walked to
Speaker 2: the Celtics locker room because now I was an owner,
Speaker 2: I was comfortable and I went in to see Grant
Speaker 2: Williams and I went to see Jayalen Brown. I went
Speaker 2: in to see Tatum and like, by the way, Grant's
Speaker 2: talking to me about business and Jalen Brown's talking to
Speaker 2: me about business. They're both on the you know, NBPA
Speaker 2: executive Committee, And like, I love to see any way
Speaker 2: these guys and they're asking questions and they want to
Speaker 2: build their business and they want to keep you know,
Speaker 2: building with they're budding.
Speaker 4: Like to me, that's so exciting.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that that's new because we came in
Speaker 1: during the generation late nineties early two thousands where business
Speaker 1: and all that wasn't the conversation in the locker room.
Speaker 1: But like you said, now it's an everyday thing, not everything.
Speaker 1: It's team meetings in the locker room, shooting the shit investments,
Speaker 1: and I think that's dope. And obviously that's going to
Speaker 1: help break the stereotype and stigma and actual facts of
Speaker 1: athletes going bro. Before it was something that wasn't spoke
Speaker 1: of and it wasn't cool to know all this, But
Speaker 1: now it's like, okay, everyone wants to do it, so
Speaker 1: it's a little bit cooler.
Speaker 2: Every And look, the business guys want to be like
Speaker 2: the athletes. The robbers want to be like the athlete.
Speaker 2: Everyone wants to be the other person. But like, that's
Speaker 2: good because everyone's learning from me. And look, people have platforms, say,
Speaker 2: social media's changed, for the most part for the good
Speaker 2: because people have big platforms where they can communicate directly
Speaker 2: with their fans. Ultimately, you know, they can build businesses
Speaker 2: through social media. That's also made people. It's also the
Speaker 2: shot you talked about that none of us could get
Speaker 2: away you know what I did, you know, because we're
Speaker 2: all kind of same age ish, you know, we can't
Speaker 2: get away with that.
Speaker 6: You know, a little younger than you got mad at
Speaker 6: me when I go ahead them.
Speaker 2: No, I'm just trying to be younger. So I'm just
Speaker 2: trying to go. I think I'm twenty five. So it's
Speaker 2: just me trying to you.
Speaker 3: And went to high school the same time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's fucked up, but I'm forty five.
Speaker 4: Yeah I'm fifty twenty.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm like I think, Yeah, I agree to dye
Speaker 2: my hair is working.
Speaker 4: The shot I take to be skin of all the
Speaker 4: ship's working.
Speaker 2: Drugs, all the longevity drugs, they're good. Thank god, I'm
Speaker 2: only fifty now. The longevity drugs. I'm a big believer
Speaker 2: in all this stuff.
Speaker 5: Better.
Speaker 2: We're gonna invest hard in longevity drugs.
Speaker 3: Now, I'm gonna need I'm gonna need to plug on
Speaker 3: those one too.
Speaker 2: They're good, but I mean there's nothing other than f nows.
Speaker 2: There's nothing I believe more. And then the weight loss drug,
Speaker 2: the hair dye and the longevity drugs. And I've never
Speaker 2: had botox yet, but I'm ready to go.
Speaker 3: I'll side of the hair dye.
Speaker 1: I'm with you, you know. No, I'm just I like
Speaker 1: my salt and pepper coming in.
Speaker 3: I'm good with that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, ain't help me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's over for you.
Speaker 5: It's yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you took it like I'm glad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not taking on like take like a chap.
Speaker 5: You've been a champion in the criminal justice reform. You were.
Speaker 6: Key in getting Meek out. How did your passion start
Speaker 6: for that? And how did you and meet form a
Speaker 6: relationship where you cared that much to help get to
Speaker 6: help to get him out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I had no passion for it before I
Speaker 2: met Meek. Thanks, And so it's not don't give me
Speaker 2: too much credit. It was really like what happened was
Speaker 2: me could become one of my closest you know boys.
Speaker 2: You know we were hanging for I don't know, probably.
Speaker 4: Four years, you know, pretty rankly.
Speaker 2: I was talking him on the phone most days, and
Speaker 2: you were just you know, he was my he was
Speaker 2: my boy. And you know, look, I think everyone knows
Speaker 2: the story. But you know, he called me and by
Speaker 2: the way, both our lives, you call me that Monday morning, says, hey, can.
Speaker 4: You come to court with me today? I said, you
Speaker 4: really want me to?
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, I want you see what happens when
Speaker 2: a black person goes to you know, to court. I
Speaker 2: was like, do you really want me to come? He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I really want you to come. And so I didn't
Speaker 2: think anything of it. I was just like and we
Speaker 2: talked about him like like you popped wheeling on a motorcycle,
Speaker 2: like you're fine, Like you're not, you know, like you're
Speaker 2: gonna be fine. And he had this crazy ass judge,
Speaker 2: I mean, she was crazy as could be.
Speaker 4: So I went to court with him that day.
Speaker 2: And I watched a probation officer recommend no sentence. I
Speaker 2: watched a district attorney recommend no sense, and then I
Speaker 2: watched a judge fight with the probation officer district attorney,
Speaker 2: and ultimately he by the way, they asked me to
Speaker 2: get up and speak. I talked about my relationship with him,
Speaker 2: how he knew my mom. He's been around Adam Silver
Speaker 2: and Robert Kraft and all the rob math for all
Speaker 2: the commissions, like he'd been around my what like, yeah,
Speaker 2: this guy's not perfect, but like nor am I, And
Speaker 2: like I thought I'd give an incredible speech to the judge,
Speaker 2: by the way, like I thought, I was like, I
Speaker 2: was like, I'm killing it here. She's like I got her,
Speaker 2: Like she's not even looking at me. And she sends
Speaker 2: him in prison for two to four years. And that
Speaker 2: was the most out of control I ever felt in
Speaker 2: my life, because like when you're in business. By the way,
Speaker 2: this is in Pennsylvania where I'm from, where I've created
Speaker 2: probably ten thousand jobs, Okay, Like I would think my
Speaker 2: word would mean something. And she sent him in prison
Speaker 2: for two to four years. And I was like, no,
Speaker 2: this sayn't happening. So I didn't care until that second.
Speaker 2: By the way, the craziest thing was Meek called me
Speaker 2: three hours later and I get a call like I
Speaker 2: was calling everybody. I was called the governor, the mayor,
Speaker 2: the attorney general. I'm calling everyone Like I thought, I
Speaker 2: I have him out a prison in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 2: like getting the black person out of jail. It ain't easy.
Speaker 2: Let me just tell you, let me tell you, Let
Speaker 2: me tell you that right now. So I was lucky.
Speaker 2: I was sitting in the court next to Desire Prize,
Speaker 2: the CEO of Rock Nation, who's jay z partner. I
Speaker 2: looked at Meek and I looked at his his his mom.
Speaker 2: As they were taking to prison, I said, look, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to stop until I get you at of prison,
Speaker 2: and Desrous says, hey, I'm Desire Present. We spoke on
Speaker 2: the phone. Once you know I'm not going to stop
Speaker 2: till I get him out of prison. I said, great,
Speaker 2: let's do this together and let's go. And you know,
Speaker 2: the first couple of months was only about getting him
Speaker 2: out of prison. I didn't understand the system. I didn't
Speaker 2: care about it. And then when we'd hired maybe the
Speaker 2: twentieth investigator that was going back and look at it,
Speaker 2: and me kept saying to me, like, I know you're
Speaker 2: focused on killing this judge because you're what you saw
Speaker 2: was so wrong. I never did. When I was originally
Speaker 2: charged with he was charged for pointing in a gun
Speaker 2: at multiple police officers.
Speaker 4: Now, I think you.
Speaker 2: Guys would probably tell me if you're pointing gun at
Speaker 2: multip police officers, that's called suicide, right, And so he's
Speaker 2: always said I didn't do it. So we a couple
Speaker 2: months into it, we started interviewing the police officers. The
Speaker 2: first cop said, oh, no, he never pointed the gun.
Speaker 2: The whole thing's a lie. He said, huh. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: he didn't point the gun. We're like, we signed autfi Davi.
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, but you know, our entire squad was
Speaker 2: like stealing money from like drug dealers.
Speaker 4: We've all been fired and gone to jail. And so
Speaker 4: at that point I called me.
Speaker 2: By the way, the Eagles were playing the Patriots in
Speaker 2: the Superbow called me and I said, great news, You're
Speaker 2: getting out of prison in the next couple of days.
Speaker 2: I explained the whole thame with the cop came forward.
Speaker 2: Took another three months to get him out of jail.
Speaker 2: And that between those three months when we said wait
Speaker 2: a second, when you finally get out of prison, we
Speaker 2: have to do this is like, by the way, you
Speaker 2: were sent to prison like God. And I'm not a
Speaker 2: religious person about like you got sent to.
Speaker 4: Prison for a reason.
Speaker 2: We got to take this and we got to turn
Speaker 2: this into something. We've got to fix this for the
Speaker 2: millions of voiceless people. And so we've had a pretty
Speaker 2: big impact. I mean, we started the Reform Alliance, you know,
Speaker 2: the year he got out of prison. We've raised you know,
Speaker 2: well over one hundred million dollars. I put tens of
Speaker 2: millions of my own money into it. Now Fanatics, my
Speaker 2: company is a huge you know supporter of it, and
Speaker 2: we've already created a pathway for six hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 2: people that are on probation parole that shouldn't be to
Speaker 2: get you know, out of the system, because what happens
Speaker 2: is when you're stuck on probation and parole like Meek was,
Speaker 2: you keep getting sent back and by the way.
Speaker 3: For dumb stuff.
Speaker 6: I'll tell you this right now, big business, that's how
Speaker 6: to keep you in the system.
Speaker 5: It's true.
Speaker 2: And if you put me on probation and parle. But
Speaker 2: Meek was on it for twelve years, he had another, uh,
Speaker 2: he had another I think eight or ten to go.
Speaker 2: He was he was like entire adult life on probation.
Speaker 2: You put me on probation prol for two years. I'm
Speaker 2: fucking something up. So I'm pretty sophisticated. So you know,
Speaker 2: there's just no there's no there's no way that anyone
Speaker 2: who lives any life, like maybe a saint could like.
Speaker 5: Be on probation or programs.
Speaker 2: It ain't It ain't me. So I feel great about
Speaker 2: what we've done. And we've also attacked the most straightforward
Speaker 2: part of the criminal justicism because with crime rates going
Speaker 2: back up, like like bell is a really complicated issue.
Speaker 2: Like you know, I'm not trying to say, hey, a
Speaker 2: violent offender who you know, should you know, be off
Speaker 2: of bower. I'm not getting into that. Like what I'm
Speaker 2: saying is like, look, at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: it is mathematically proven that first twenty five percent of
Speaker 2: people that go to prison and jail each year are
Speaker 2: coming from probation and pro technical violations. They did not
Speaker 2: commit a crime, they were late to see the probation.
Speaker 2: I met somebody who got married without authorization and got
Speaker 2: sent to jail for it. Okay, Meek used to go
Speaker 2: pick his kid up and I used to listen to
Speaker 2: the probation officers say, if you pick your kid up,
Speaker 2: I will say to prison because he lived in Philadelphia
Speaker 2: and his kid went to school in New Jersey. So, like,
Speaker 2: probation is supposed to help rehabilitate you. And so what
Speaker 2: we want to do is get the people off that
Speaker 2: shouldn't be on probation and parrol and then have the
Speaker 2: probation officers. And by the way, there's many, so many
Speaker 2: great probation officers and prole officers. Have them focus on
Speaker 2: helping rehabilitate the people that really need that rehabilitation. So
Speaker 2: I think we're doing great work. It's a team sport.
Speaker 2: There's lots of great organizations working together. I think, like, look,
Speaker 2: having me go to prison for this, having Jay z
Speaker 2: as your founding partner, Robert Kraft, you know Meek, you know,
Speaker 2: we got an all star team. We got great I mean,
Speaker 2: we have so many great people with Claricize amazing Mike Novagrats,
Speaker 2: John and Laura Arnold. Laurnold has been like, it's so
Speaker 2: helpful to spend so much time on this We've had.
Speaker 2: I mean, Jack dors has given a ton of money
Speaker 2: to this organization. It's just it's it's honestly, I look
Speaker 2: back and say, because I always I keep saying I'm
Speaker 2: never going to start anything new again, and I keep
Speaker 2: starting new things, and this is one of the things
Speaker 2: I'm I'm you know.
Speaker 4: We got a lot of work to do, but I'm
Speaker 4: proud of the progress rooms.
Speaker 6: Some states even stopping cash bail because people coming to
Speaker 6: jail with enough cash to bail out, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying.
Speaker 5: They stopping that in some states.
Speaker 2: So it's Look, the problem with the criminal justice system
Speaker 2: is it doesn't make sense, just like, bring business logic
Speaker 2: to it, Like, like, why.
Speaker 4: Would meek Meek was like he hadn't committed a crime.
Speaker 2: He'd done his two years in jail for not for
Speaker 2: pointing the gun that didn't point at the multiple police
Speaker 2: officers when he was nineteen, twenty twenty one. You know,
Speaker 2: I met him at twenty seven or something like that.
Speaker 2: He'd been on probation for another six years. I lived
Speaker 2: through him being on probation for another you know, six
Speaker 2: years in addition the six he was early on.
Speaker 4: So it made no sense.
Speaker 2: But I mean, he's making tens of millions of dollars
Speaker 2: at this point. He's he's creating lots of jobs for people,
Speaker 2: and we got this guy in probation, Like what.
Speaker 5: We shit, it makes sense.
Speaker 3: So as we stayed it earlier.
Speaker 1: You left the six Ers about a year ago to
Speaker 1: be run Fanatics full time. Recently bought a sports book.
Speaker 1: Congratulations Mitchell and Neess. What's what's in the future for
Speaker 1: Fanatics you guys contents?
Speaker 3: What's going on with everything you do?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, first, we're just getting started. I mean, I
Speaker 2: feel like I've been at this for eleven years. I
Speaker 2: feel like this is you know, anyone you know, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't even say early first quarter. You know, we have
Speaker 2: three businesses. Did the first business of merchandise business we
Speaker 2: call finax Commerce. In that business, we do own Mitchell Ness,
Speaker 2: we own lids, you know, obviously the Flaship Finacs brand.
Speaker 2: We operate all the leagues e commerce businesses, so you
Speaker 2: go to NFL Shop, NBA Store, NHL Store, MOB Store,
Speaker 2: nine hundred individual team sites, but our biggest sites. Fanatics
Speaker 2: is primarily a direct consumer business. And by the way,
Speaker 2: we've gone from two hundred and fifty million dollars when
Speaker 2: I started to over six billion dollars this year in
Speaker 2: that division and we're just starting. And by the way,
Speaker 2: there's so many things we need to do better, Like
Speaker 2: I look every day and say like, not, what are
Speaker 2: we doing well?
Speaker 4: What are we not doing well?
Speaker 2: How do we get packages to customers more quickly? How
Speaker 2: do we improve everything that we do? We g got a
Speaker 2: lot of things we need to do better. Like you know,
Speaker 2: we are far from a perfect company, but we're working
Speaker 2: our asses at every single day and just getting better
Speaker 2: every day.
Speaker 4: That's our first business.
Speaker 2: Second business the collectible's business, which is really trading cards.
Speaker 4: That's a really exciting business.
Speaker 2: Today we own tops so we operate the baseball trading
Speaker 2: card business. F one bundeslige you for bote. Soon we
Speaker 2: have the NBA rights coming over, the NFL rights coming over.
Speaker 2: You have c launches January first. Wwe all the college
Speaker 2: right So it's super exciting business.
Speaker 4: I'm having a last with that.
Speaker 3: That's so dope.
Speaker 2: And then we just we just started in the online
Speaker 2: sports betting business. We launched in Tennessee and Ohio. We've
Speaker 2: got Massachusetts coming soon and look, we'll be in all
Speaker 2: the states within a year. And look, I think for fanatics,
Speaker 2: you know what's our dream like are what's our north star?
Speaker 2: We want to have that Fanatics app where you can
Speaker 2: go and you can get your merchandise, and yeah, it's
Speaker 2: one stop shop. You can get your merchandise, you can
Speaker 2: get your collectibles, you can trade them, you can you
Speaker 2: can bet your on your sports, you can watch live sports.
Speaker 1: That's really dope, man, I love it again, like the
Speaker 1: way your mind works. I mean, every time you talk
Speaker 1: about something or a situation, you talk about learning, and
Speaker 1: it just seems like you're constantly learning and also giving back,
Speaker 1: which I think is dope.
Speaker 4: And if you don't, you're dead right.
Speaker 2: And the second the second I stop learning, I'm irrelevant
Speaker 2: and useless and like in the pasture.
Speaker 1: So in twenty thirteen you said Fanatics will be worth
Speaker 1: ten billion. By twenty twenty, you were wrong. It was
Speaker 1: worth more. It was worth thirty billion. What's the goal here,
Speaker 1: obviously to have a one stop shop? What itever to sell?
Speaker 1: Or is this something that's never.
Speaker 4: Never never, no, never sell.
Speaker 2: We'll be a public company in the midterm, you know,
Speaker 2: not near term, like not in the next you know
Speaker 2: quarters but not it's not long term ei there it'd
Speaker 2: be you know over the next you know, several years,
Speaker 2: will become a public company. I want to do this
Speaker 2: till I die. I think if we have a massive opportunity.
Speaker 2: For me, this sounds weird. I actually will kind of
Speaker 2: makes sense. It's like money is kind of a way
Speaker 2: of keeping score of how you're performing.
Speaker 4: So for me, what's the north star?
Speaker 2: Hundreds of millions of fans maybe billions over time that
Speaker 2: are you know, just love using the Fanatics product and
Speaker 2: everything we do and to be great not good, Like
Speaker 2: right now, there are a lot of things we do.
Speaker 4: I think we're mediocred. That's not acceptable. We need to
Speaker 4: be great.
Speaker 2: We need to keep pushing them book and so you know,
Speaker 2: I look at that and it's like, Okay, how do
Speaker 2: we deliver packages customers more quickly? How do we make
Speaker 2: sure that every product we sell is perfect for a customer?
Speaker 2: How do we make sure customers delighted when they buy
Speaker 2: from us? How do we like, look at the innovation
Speaker 2: we just did in trading cards. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you guys saw this, ye like and it was actually
Speaker 2: it's actually a great story because we bought tops fifteen
Speaker 2: months ago, and you know, the CEO of our collectible business, Mike.
Speaker 4: Mayhann, said, Hey, I've got this great idea.
Speaker 2: He said, I want to take every time a rookie
Speaker 2: debuse plays the first game. I want to put a
Speaker 2: patch on their jersey for that first game and then
Speaker 2: take that patch and make a one on one card.
Speaker 4: And we went to tops.
Speaker 2: And by the way, we make all the baseball uniforms,
Speaker 2: so anytime you buy it, but you know we make
Speaker 2: everything Nike in baseball, in football, in college.
Speaker 5: So when you.
Speaker 2: Buy Aaron Judge jersey, you know Tony jersey from US,
Speaker 2: you know we're making all of that that that product.
Speaker 2: And so that was a great idea. And the team said, like,
Speaker 2: are you kidding me? Do you think baseball is never
Speaker 2: going to let you put a patch on it? This
Speaker 2: is the this is a dumb idea. I called a problem. Manford, Like,
Speaker 2: Rob got a great idea. I think we should put
Speaker 2: a patch on a jersey's Like, so, how's it going
Speaker 2: to work?
Speaker 4: Explain to him.
Speaker 2: It's like Rob and Nogarn were like, go, let's go.
Speaker 2: It was done on the spot, and so like because
Speaker 2: of the position where we can and that was a
Speaker 2: great innovation. Now we're creating three to five hundred, because
Speaker 2: there's three to five hundred baseball player's debuting per year,
Speaker 2: we're creating these one to one cards. It's an amazing product.
Speaker 2: We're innovating that business like crazy, Like no one's ever
Speaker 2: marketed the collectible's business before. Like you guys, you guys
Speaker 2: weren't marketing. You guys were like you signed cards because
Speaker 2: you got paid, you know, a bucket card or three
Speaker 2: bucks a card to sign right right for us.
Speaker 4: Like none of this is acceptable.
Speaker 2: Like I look at our partnership with athletes as pivotal
Speaker 2: to what we do. We have a couple thousand athletes
Speaker 2: that I think we can build up. We can like
Speaker 2: help them communicate with fans and they can help us
Speaker 2: communicate with our fans better. We want to like completely
Speaker 2: innovate the experience of how we do when we launch
Speaker 2: a new launch in trading cards, now we treat like
Speaker 2: the video game launch, it's like who we need into
Speaker 2: the cover, you know, like you know, it's an honor
Speaker 2: and you get.
Speaker 4: Depending rights and experience absolutely so so.
Speaker 2: And then in the gaming business, in the honest sportsman business,
Speaker 2: we're just starting.
Speaker 4: So there's so much for us to do.
Speaker 2: And that's why probably I work with a maniac right
Speaker 2: now because I'm just every second thing what we're not
Speaker 2: getting right, what we need to keep improving on.
Speaker 1: I know we're up against the clock. We're coming down
Speaker 1: to the end. I'm going to give you a few names.
Speaker 1: Just give me a few words to describe this perse
Speaker 1: these people.
Speaker 5: Jay z.
Speaker 2: Beast so much respect for I learned so much from him.
Speaker 2: And people think of him as an artist. He's absolutely
Speaker 2: he's an artist. He's a business person with a platform,
Speaker 2: which is him being an artist. I can't say enough
Speaker 2: great things about him. He is he always does the
Speaker 2: right and there's more than a few words, but I
Speaker 2: just tell you he's one of my most respect and favorite.
Speaker 4: People on planet Earth.
Speaker 2: He'll always jump into a fight to do the right
Speaker 2: thing for his people. He cares so much like me.
Speaker 2: He doesn't he wants to you know, he doesn't care
Speaker 2: about money. He just wants to win and do the
Speaker 2: right thing. And watching what he's done in business is
Speaker 2: just it's inspirational. It's aspirational, and he's helped us a lot.
Speaker 2: I remember sitting with him. I'll tell you a great story.
Speaker 2: I sat with him last summer. We were actually having
Speaker 2: to meet him and baby at my house talking and
Speaker 2: I was talking about, you know that we own lids,
Speaker 2: and I was saying, like I was worried about like
Speaker 2: where head where was going. He's like, Michael, you don't
Speaker 2: even think of headwear the right way is like, like
Speaker 2: you get dressed, hack goes on your head, that's part
Speaker 2: of your wardrobe. Like you don't think about head where
Speaker 2: that when I went back to our Lids team and
Speaker 2: I'm like, we're not thinking about this the right way.
Speaker 2: And here's jay Z teaching me about I don't know,
Speaker 2: a billion a business more than a billion dollars the
Speaker 2: lids is and jay Z's teaching me about the head business.
Speaker 4: That's Jay He's that girl.
Speaker 2: Drake another beast, you know, one of the you know,
Speaker 2: most incredible artists in the planet. Great friend, a blad
Speaker 2: to have so much fun with him.
Speaker 4: Hate his raptors, fucking hate him.
Speaker 2: My worst memory of Drake is in the middle of
Speaker 2: game seven of the playoffs, he sends me a picture
Speaker 2: of himself were in six you shorts. He said, I'm
Speaker 2: coming for you. As soon as I saw him the
Speaker 2: sixty shorts, I said, we're losing this fucking game. And
Speaker 2: chicks asked, motherfucker, just put just put on these shorts.
Speaker 2: And I knew it was rapping by the way. I've
Speaker 2: never seen someone facetiming more times than me, ignore him
Speaker 2: more than it. After that game and he had he
Speaker 2: had no chill. We just lost.
Speaker 3: Why hit the shot the bang bang bang correct?
Speaker 2: And he facetimed every two seconds. That has just never
Speaker 2: picked up. I just went home depressed.
Speaker 5: That's funny.
Speaker 2: Kevin Hart hardest working guy. I know, there's nobody work right.
Speaker 3: Was that you're taller than him?
Speaker 4: Slightly?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's by the way, he's the only person that
Speaker 2: actually makes me feel tall is Khart. You know, great friend.
Speaker 2: You know, I think I work like an animal. He
Speaker 2: works like iework. He he is twenty four to seven,
Speaker 2: whatever you call Him's always pick the phone up. He's
Speaker 2: always hustling.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you guys know we're doing a harthouse together
Speaker 2: here in California. It's been a dream of his. And
Speaker 2: by the way, I wouldn't get involved talk about Kevin's
Speaker 2: influence on me.
Speaker 4: Kevin called me three years ago and said, hey, I've
Speaker 4: got this great idea.
Speaker 2: Uh. He said, I need you involved with it. And
Speaker 2: I said, keV, like, look, I don't have time to
Speaker 2: do anything but fanatics. He says, look, I just think
Speaker 2: you know it's my idea. I want to do this,
Speaker 2: but I think you being involved would really help it.
Speaker 2: And he told me his idea, which just look. He said,
Speaker 2: fast food is a huge category. He said, plant based
Speaker 2: is where the world's going healthier food plant based And
Speaker 2: he said, I'm a marketing machine. I want to build
Speaker 2: a harthhouse. And of course he you know, you know
Speaker 2: you listen to him talking. He was his energy.
Speaker 4: It was contagious.
Speaker 2: So I did it. By the way, now Robert Crafts
Speaker 2: has involved with it as well. We just brought in
Speaker 2: so you know, he's a beast. I just talked to
Speaker 2: him last night. He was in Ohio getting ready to go.
Speaker 2: He's on the move, always on the move.
Speaker 1: Shout out hard Ventures boss, the whole crew. Those those
Speaker 1: are my people.
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you one thing. I'm on one outside board,
Speaker 2: only one out sideboard, and I get asked to be
Speaker 2: on a board every week, like literally some some friend
Speaker 2: of mine, can you be on my board?
Speaker 5: And you do this.
Speaker 2: I've never done a board other than my own companies.
Speaker 2: You know, you have basically fanatics. Kahrt said to me,
Speaker 2: you're joining the Heartbeat board for his production business.
Speaker 4: I said, do I have a choice? He said, nope.
Speaker 2: You're doing it.
Speaker 4: You're gonna help.
Speaker 2: Like crazy, I said, you know what, anything I've ever
Speaker 2: actually do, you've always done. So I'm in let's go.
Speaker 1: That's awesome, Little Baby really interesting.
Speaker 2: Baby is so smart and like you talk about growing up,
Speaker 2: you know, in different backgrounds. I mean, no one could
Speaker 2: have a different background growing up. Maybe me and Baby.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't Actually this will shock you. I
Speaker 2: don't actually listen to the words of music. I'm not
Speaker 2: my attention spanges. I can't like I don't know this
Speaker 2: is no one believes about me. But ask Baby as meek,
Speaker 2: ask any of my real friends. They would say, Michael
Speaker 2: is like there was something the matter with his brain,
Speaker 2: Like I don't know two lines to any song, like
Speaker 2: even dreams of the Nightmares, like I you know, I know,
Speaker 2: like the first sentence to it that that's where I stop.
Speaker 4: Because my head just broken.
Speaker 2: With Baby is like he's such a brilliant artist and
Speaker 2: he's got he also great thing with Baby is like
Speaker 2: we were just talking about this a couple of days ago.
Speaker 2: When Chic goes wrong for him, he just shakes off
Speaker 2: his right back at it. You know, you know, he
Speaker 2: was just you know, you know, look he told the
Speaker 2: story ready, so he's not gonna get mad at me
Speaker 2: for telling it. He was just in the casino and
Speaker 2: a little bit out of control and calling me. He's like, fuck,
Speaker 2: I fucked up. And by the way, I'm right back
Speaker 2: at it, like let's go. Like you know, He's just like,
Speaker 2: right back to work. I'm just gonna I want to
Speaker 2: outwork everyone in the house wavy, and I think he's
Speaker 2: going to look again. I don't really know music at all,
Speaker 2: but I see how talented he is.
Speaker 5: Quick hitters.
Speaker 1: First thing to come in to mind, let us know
Speaker 1: and we're finished. You're gonna get you up out of here.
Speaker 1: When they make a movie about your life, who plays you?
Speaker 4: Nobody? I don't want to move about my life. I
Speaker 4: just want to keep living my life.
Speaker 1: But if it comes, hopefully be some younger looking dude,
Speaker 1: at least there you go.
Speaker 2: Now, someone who's accepting to be old and the grays
Speaker 2: of it. I'm not accepting that shit.
Speaker 5: There you go, bobbed in, I guess or alive.
Speaker 2: Five dinner guests, dead or alive. I want them to
Speaker 2: be of all backgrounds. They probably be a lot of
Speaker 2: my friends today because we have such great conversations I mean,
Speaker 2: you gotta put Jay on it for sure. You know,
Speaker 2: the only artist I've never met in my life, which
Speaker 2: is kind of crazy, iss Eminem, So we got to
Speaker 2: throw him on there. Yeah, I know, he's kind of
Speaker 2: introverted and doesn't leave his house, so so I put
Speaker 2: him on there. Phil Knight, so much respect for him.
Speaker 2: Robert Craft, He's everywhere I go, So I gotta have
Speaker 2: him and my dinner. And you know, I just I mean,
Speaker 2: Brady was so good today listening. I got to add
Speaker 2: Brady to it.
Speaker 4: So those are my five. I'm gonna add a six.
Speaker 2: You know, I've got to spend a lot of time
Speaker 2: with Recently, I'm so oppressed with Kim k She's a beast.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm thinking, I just started thinking to myself,
Speaker 2: I was having a dinner with five guys, pretty pathetic.
Speaker 2: So we should have we should have, we should we
Speaker 2: should have.
Speaker 7: Checks a lot of different boxes. But but Kim's Kim's
Speaker 7: a beast. I mean, like talk about her business acumen.
Speaker 7: I mean, there's nothing happened for her by accident. Everything
Speaker 7: with Kim is by grind intellect. You know, She's been
Speaker 7: so helpful to the Reform Alliance. She just jumps in
Speaker 7: whenever we need her. We just went to visit a
Speaker 7: prison in California together. We just together paid off fifty
Speaker 7: moms who had that ye who had They'd been stuck
Speaker 7: on probation only because they couldn't afford to pay the restitution.
Speaker 4: She's awesome. So I'm doing six and add and kim do.
Speaker 5: What over there?
Speaker 1: You want appreciate that first trading card or most prized
Speaker 1: card in your possession.
Speaker 4: I need my phone, I got a car. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: show you right now.
Speaker 2: It's not that it's gonna blow your mind away. Hold on,
Speaker 2: so I'm gonna tell you something. My God's gonna kill
Speaker 2: me for doing this, but I'm gonna show you something
Speaker 2: that's gonna freak you out. So tell me what's the
Speaker 2: oddest thing you know about Tom Brady about sports?
Speaker 3: He likes to take pictures in his underwear.
Speaker 4: That's a good one, by the way. But that wasn't it.
Speaker 4: So Tommy was straightfted to play baseball?
Speaker 2: Do you knew that? You know that?
Speaker 5: Me there?
Speaker 2: So he did this one on one card. I really
Speaker 2: showing up. I'm showed to you. Now this is going
Speaker 2: to a set. So this is a one on one card.
Speaker 3: Read it.
Speaker 1: If baseball doesn't work out, thanks, always football.
Speaker 4: There's always football.
Speaker 3: Oh, there's always football.
Speaker 2: If baseball doesn't work out, there's always football. Wow.
Speaker 4: I mean that's a pretty that's a pretty close.
Speaker 3: What year is that?
Speaker 4: I guess it was Shraft in two thousand?
Speaker 2: Here you gotta it's I mean that guys got push ups?
Speaker 4: Since what are they.
Speaker 2: Called push ups?
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's go, I got the joints ready?
Speaker 2: Whoever?
Speaker 5: It was Montreal? That's crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well that's a dope card right there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I probably shoud up.
Speaker 5: But fuck it, absolutely all right, good job for me.
Speaker 4: Absolutely on my phone.
Speaker 5: I should be releasing there you go.
Speaker 6: If you could see one guest on our show, who
Speaker 6: would it be? But but you have to help us
Speaker 6: get your answer.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be shit because this dude knows everybody.
Speaker 2: So this is one guest on your show.
Speaker 3: You don't want to help us get them?
Speaker 2: You know, I want to do more of these things
Speaker 2: Robert Kraft because he's so young at heart and by
Speaker 2: and by the way, I've told Robert I do one
Speaker 2: of these months. And you know, I'm always meaning great people.
Speaker 2: I'm learning they're fun. It lets us you know, connect
Speaker 2: with people that are important to us. I think Rob
Speaker 2: would be amazing.
Speaker 1: We'll go to him too, whether it's in the Antons,
Speaker 1: wherever he's at, Will will be there. Well, Michael, Man,
Speaker 1: we appreciate your time. Continue to inspire, continue to educate,
Speaker 1: continue to be.
Speaker 3: A great energy and light.
Speaker 1: And oh yeah, we've got some all the smoke gear
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: This back feels a little heavier. Is that a reason why?
Speaker 6: Yeah, special guest.
Speaker 2: So number one, thank you for the kind words.
Speaker 5: Yes, the store, make sure we go shout but.
Speaker 1: No, but honestly, thank you man again to letting us
Speaker 1: in your house and everything you do for the community,
Speaker 1: for our people in particular, uh you know, sports, social
Speaker 1: justice and business.
Speaker 5: We really appreciate you and you you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Thank you for warmly welcoming me in. And I look
Speaker 2: forward to this be in the beginning of a long
Speaker 2: relationship and.
Speaker 3: Wait to see you do some push ups. Here we go, man,
Speaker 3: and that's a wrap.
Speaker 1: All the smoke Michael Rubins live from this beautiful home
Speaker 1: in LA. You can catch us on Showtime Basketball YouTube
Speaker 1: and the iHeart platform Black Effects.
Speaker 3: We'll see y'all next week.