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Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: Every one. I'm Jason Kelly, and I'm Mike Lynch and

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Blar and this is the Bloomberg Business of

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Speaker 1: Sports podcast where we explore the big money issues in

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Speaker 1: the world of sports. And welcome back, Mr Barr. Nice

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Speaker 1: to have you back with us. You're gonna educate us

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Speaker 1: on all that you were doing, including you know you

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Speaker 1: were watching some race and we know you were um

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Speaker 1: while you were away from us. But we've got a

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Speaker 1: lot to talk about, for sure. I want to start

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Speaker 1: with the NBA Lynchy if we can, because you know,

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Speaker 1: we had the CEO of b SC Global of course,

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Speaker 1: which owns the Brooklyn Nets on with us a couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks ago, John Abamandi, and you know, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of enthusiasm, but man, the business of sports can

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Speaker 1: turn fast because you are talking about players here, and

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Speaker 1: you're talking about players who can get hurt, and the

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Speaker 1: Big Three, at least for the moment in Brooklyn is

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Speaker 1: now the Big one. Katie is all by himself because

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Speaker 1: hardened and irving, they are down. This is obviously a

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Speaker 1: big sports story, but you're talking about an investment that

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Speaker 1: at least at the moment, feels like it's going sideways. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's an investment, as you said. And when we had

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Speaker 1: the conversation a couple of weeks ago, there was great

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Speaker 1: talk about the future. What we're just coming up in

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Speaker 1: the next couple of years, the Crown Club at the

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Speaker 1: Barkley Center, Uh, the expansion that they've done inside, and

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Speaker 1: it's all based on the success of the Big Three

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Speaker 1: and right now with Irving out and Hardened out, it's

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Speaker 1: the big one as you mentioned, and they're dead even

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Speaker 1: now with the Milwaukee Bucks, and that doesn't bode well

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Speaker 1: for Brooklyn for all their their their stores of Brooklyn

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Speaker 1: style that they that they want to pump up the

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Speaker 1: riding coattails on the success of this basketball team. But

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Speaker 1: if they're they're out of this playoffs. There's a major

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Speaker 1: market that has gone. And there's only one major market

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Speaker 1: left of the of the All the eight team and

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Speaker 1: that would be the l A Clippers. And l A

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Speaker 1: is still a Lakers town. Yeah, I mean, Michael Barr,

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Speaker 1: we we talked a little bit about this while you

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Speaker 1: were gone, just this idea of you know, it matters

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Speaker 1: where these teams are and with all due respect your

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Speaker 1: beloved Midwest part of the country. Um, you know, Detroit

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Speaker 1: is a bigger market even than Milwaukee. You know, listen,

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Speaker 1: the Bucks have a lot of enthusiasm because of Janice.

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Speaker 1: And yet if we see the Bucks move on instead

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Speaker 1: of the Nets, Uh, that's not great for for business

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Speaker 1: in many ways. Well, let's be blunt. The TV exacts

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Speaker 1: do not want to see that. Obviously, they want to

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Speaker 1: see New York and it's because you get that draw.

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Speaker 1: But oh my goodness, the Kyrie Irving injury, It's I

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Speaker 1: would be totally amazed if he comes back from that.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's hard to watch. And yes, of

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Speaker 1: wor Is, you're gonna try to do everything you can

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Speaker 1: because you're in the Eastern Conference finals. You're going to

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Speaker 1: try to do your best to get back to it.

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Speaker 1: But you want, you want New York in there. And I,

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Speaker 1: like you said, Detroit might be a better draw than Milwaukee. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a tough beat for the NBA. I mean, there

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Speaker 1: have been some great storylines and and interestingly, you know,

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Speaker 1: the Nets seemed to be and you know, and I

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Speaker 1: say this, uh Lyncha, you and I root for teams

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Speaker 1: who are who are also in the East, and it

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Speaker 1: was who were who were in the playoffs, and it

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Speaker 1: seemed like a little bit of a foregone conclusion that

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Speaker 1: we were going to see the Nets. Maybe the Sixers

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Speaker 1: give them a bit of a run um, but this

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Speaker 1: could be this could be a very different look for sure.

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Speaker 1: I gotta tell you. An unexpectedly positive storyline though, is

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Speaker 1: happening out in the West with the Phoenix Suns and

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Speaker 1: Chris Paul, who you know, unwittingly turned into this superstar journeyman. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He's been one of the most successful off the court

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Speaker 1: players in terms of his investments, in terms of his endorsements.

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Speaker 1: He is obviously incredibly visible in the league given his

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Speaker 1: role as the president of the players Association. He now

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Speaker 1: has the Phoenix Suns go figure headed to the Western

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Speaker 1: Conference finals. Yeah, incredible job that they have done. Um,

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Speaker 1: they await the winner of the Utah l A Clippers.

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Speaker 1: Not a major market again, Chris Paul is a star

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Speaker 1: and that's what that that marketing has been all about

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Speaker 1: in basketball since Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. It's spent

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Speaker 1: a stars game and individuals game, as opposed to other

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Speaker 1: sports which really market teams and franchises NBA. The face

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Speaker 1: of the NBA is the individual player. Yeah yeah, and

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Speaker 1: and so bar I mean I've spent a fair amount

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Speaker 1: of time thinking about this over the weekend. You know

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Speaker 1: that that Chris paul is is this really interesting face

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Speaker 1: of the NBA because in terms of the commercial app

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Speaker 1: heel literally in feriorally those state farm commercials. He is ubiquitous.

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Speaker 1: I mean, he is one of the faces that that

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Speaker 1: people really recognize. Um, even setting aside his his labor

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Speaker 1: role with the league. You know, this is a guy

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Speaker 1: who who people know who he is. And especially with

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Speaker 1: you know, Lebron being out of the picture, with Steph

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Speaker 1: Curry being out of the picture, with these playoffs, this

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Speaker 1: could be the guy um who emerges and and and

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Speaker 1: literally I would I want to go a little bit

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Speaker 1: deeper on one of the things you said, which is

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Speaker 1: it is a player driven league. And so in some

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Speaker 1: ways maybe that will help and maybe help counter some

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Speaker 1: of you know what we've seen if the Nets do

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Speaker 1: go on to lose that you do have this well

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Speaker 1: known player, even though he's playing for you know, a

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Speaker 1: franchise that doesn't have a huge following, uh in Phoenix.

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Speaker 1: Although I will say to to argue with myself a

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Speaker 1: little bit. The travel crowd, the crowd who was in Utah,

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Speaker 1: excuse me, the crowd who was in denver Um last

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Speaker 1: night for supporting the Suns was pretty amazing. I mean, granted,

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Speaker 1: they're not that far away um from each other, but

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Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe we're gonna see some Bandwagon fans

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Speaker 1: for Phoenix. I mean, the Sons is not is not

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Speaker 1: one of those storied franchises. Bar No, no, it's not.

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Speaker 1: But if you are an NBA fan, you're gonna watch.

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Speaker 1: If you're an NBA fan, that doesn't make a difference.

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Speaker 1: But if you're one of the let's say casual fans,

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Speaker 1: and you said it earlier, a lot of people know

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Speaker 1: Chris Paul's face from those commercials, so they're going to

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Speaker 1: see him. It's like, oh wait, is that the guy?

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Speaker 1: I know that guy? So they'll they'll That's one reason

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Speaker 1: why those endorsements mean a lot. Obviously from the money,

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Speaker 1: of course, but you get that face time out there,

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Speaker 1: and that's important. I want to talk about a player

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Speaker 1: in a different support who I'm sort of fascinated by,

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Speaker 1: who had a huge win over the weekend and yet

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Speaker 1: has not really in a in a different way from

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Speaker 1: Chris Paul maybe hasn't been given his due, even though

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Speaker 1: he is clearly on part to be one of, if

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Speaker 1: not the best players in his sport. Talked about Novak

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Speaker 1: Djokovic Lynchy, you know this guy is He's got nineteen

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Speaker 1: Grand Slam wins. I mean, he's one away from tying

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Speaker 1: Nadal and Federer, and yet he's always the sort of

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Speaker 1: third banana. Part of it is his personality, but part

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Speaker 1: of it is he's just been oddly this also ran

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Speaker 1: and yet the record argues differently. What do you make

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Speaker 1: of that? Well, I think that you know, he's he's

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Speaker 1: a competitor. I mean, he has a boiler inside of

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Speaker 1: him that at the pilot light never ever goes out.

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Speaker 1: I had an interesting to come across, an interesting stat

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Speaker 1: with him. He is this of course, went five sets

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Speaker 1: in the French Open. He is thirty five and ten

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Speaker 1: in five set matches. Already. Two of those thirty five

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Speaker 1: wins have come in majors, and that just tells me

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Speaker 1: something about the guy inside. I mean, you know, because

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Speaker 1: he said, there's always when you play tennis, there's always

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Speaker 1: two voices inside your head. I can't go anymore I

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Speaker 1: can't go anymore. Come on, let's go, let's go. We

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Speaker 1: could we could we win this set, we can change

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Speaker 1: the whole momentum. And tennis, as you know, is a

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Speaker 1: game of momentum, and when it shifts, it's almost like

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Speaker 1: somebody like the Lilliputians are holding the other end of

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Speaker 1: the court and they're tilting it. So you're always playing,

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Speaker 1: always hitting and running uphill as opposed to downhill when

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Speaker 1: things are going your way. It was amazing to watch me.

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Speaker 1: You think about what he accomplished in winning the French Open.

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Speaker 1: He beats Nadal, who is I think widely considered by

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Speaker 1: far the best player ever to play on clay. I

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Speaker 1: mean he has owned rolling garrows like that, no question,

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Speaker 1: best player to ever play there. So he beats him

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Speaker 1: in the semis. Then Djokovic goes down two sets in

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Speaker 1: the final and comes back and wins in five. I

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Speaker 1: mean it is an amazing accomplishment. And yet I feel

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Speaker 1: like the fan base and ultimately the consumer base, because

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Speaker 1: we're talking about the business here, it's like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that guy, you know, there's not I mean head Federer

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Speaker 1: done that. I mean it would have been on front

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Speaker 1: pages had Nadal done, it would have been on front.

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Speaker 1: But he's just not celebrated and yet I mean he's

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Speaker 1: obviously been very successful financially. Um so, so we'll see it.

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Speaker 1: It's a it's a funny thing. Uh, funny thing to

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Speaker 1: think about. Uh, can we do a beat on hockey

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Speaker 1: before we move on Lynday? The Islanders? Uh wow, here

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Speaker 1: they come. Yeah. They won Game one against the defending

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Speaker 1: champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Um. It has been just a fun,

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Speaker 1: fun experience watching them that old barn, the Nasau Coliseum

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Speaker 1: where they want four Stanley Cups in the nineteen eighties.

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Speaker 1: And next year they're moving into the UBS Arena, which

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Speaker 1: was shown prominently during the coverage of the Belmont Steaks

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Speaker 1: with the aerials, and it's right next to the racetrack.

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Speaker 1: They are going to hit their limit of season tickets

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Speaker 1: at fifteen thousand, probably today or tomorrow. It's a seventeen

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Speaker 1: thousand CED arena and they're gonna max out due to

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Speaker 1: the success. Now when they played in the Barkley Center

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Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, that was a disaster. Thirty

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Speaker 1: hundred season ticket holders now fifteen thousand and a waiting list. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: what does that tell you? Bar, I mean, like is it.

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Speaker 1: It's about the place, but it's also about winning, right,

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Speaker 1: It is always about winning if you unless you're in

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Speaker 1: a in a I'm using this series like a big

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Speaker 1: name town like out in the West with l A

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Speaker 1: or New York for that matter. I mean, if you

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Speaker 1: don't win, people aren't going to show up and give

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Speaker 1: you an example. And if you remember now the defunct

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Speaker 1: Minnesota North Stars, it was sad to watch the last

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Speaker 1: few games there because the stands were empty. And I

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Speaker 1: and I'm and I'm not making light of this. There

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Speaker 1: were more fans during the COVID era here and they

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Speaker 1: were in those last few games and they just simply

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Speaker 1: were winning. The fan base just gave up on the team.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, winning means everything. Trust me, I'm from Detroit.

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Speaker 1: Winning means everything. Yeah. I mean I think about like

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Speaker 1: the waning days of the Montreal Expos and you know,

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Speaker 1: everything that that happened or didn't happen there and in

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Speaker 1: front of essentially nobody. Uh So, all right, Bar, tell

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Speaker 1: us about this, uh this million dollar race that happened

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Speaker 1: in Nascarland, good old All Star Race. Now, usually the

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Speaker 1: All Star races held in Charlotte. This year was held

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Speaker 1: at the Texas Motor Speedway and uh, Kyle Larson, he

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Speaker 1: held off Brad Kislowski and he won the million dollar paycheck.

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Speaker 1: Now if that name sounds familiar, is because he won

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Speaker 1: Kyle Larson the Coca Cola six hundred before and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know he's on a tear. Rick Hendrick picked this

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Speaker 1: guy up after he went through his troubles and and

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Speaker 1: anybody who doesn't know he he uttered something he shouldn't

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Speaker 1: have said while we were in Covid and he was

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Speaker 1: during a virtual race, and uh, he was put on

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Speaker 1: time out for a while with NASCAR. Once he came back, though,

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Speaker 1: I mean, he has been on a tear. So anytime

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Speaker 1: you see that five car, he's been out there. And

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Speaker 1: by the way, I want to add this too, and

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Speaker 1: I wanted to go back to something you talk about

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Speaker 1: Djokovic in the wind in in the French Open. That

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Speaker 1: all is gonna be that that that attitude that he

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Speaker 1: has and that persona is all gonna be shot to

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Speaker 1: to smither reens when he gave that tennis racket to

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Speaker 1: that eleven year old boy, and god, that that was great,

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Speaker 1: that that kid was like, oh my god, oh my god.

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Speaker 1: So now it's like, you're a big softie man. Come on.

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Speaker 1: So I just wonder if now that that's gonna warm

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Speaker 1: people up to to Djokovic. I think he needs to

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Speaker 1: do more of that. But I don't know if he'll

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Speaker 1: win people over with one thing, but if that is

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Speaker 1: an indication of maybe where he's gonna head. Look, I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is a guy who who has, as Lynch she

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Speaker 1: alluded to, has sort of carved his own path. He's

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Speaker 1: got an incredible work ethic. You know, he grew up

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Speaker 1: in in to say the least modest circumstances, I mean

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Speaker 1: war term war torn circumstances, I think is a is

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Speaker 1: a better way to put it. He did not grow

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Speaker 1: up um like Roger Federer did, or even even a

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Speaker 1: dollar or certainly a lot of the the players in

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Speaker 1: in the US. And uh, and yet he has just

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Speaker 1: he's ground out like just an incredible career. And that

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Speaker 1: certainly has something to do with with his public persona.

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Speaker 1: But he cares about other players. You know, He's tried

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Speaker 1: to do a lot on the organizing side, and you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe he softens a little bit with age, and especially

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Speaker 1: once he reaches this milestone, and maybe he feels more

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Speaker 1: responsibility to represent the sport and and listen, you know,

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Speaker 1: this is the business of sports. It's it's in his econo.

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Speaker 1: I'm like interest to be liked. That's just true. I

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Speaker 1: mean like people, uh, you know, it's it is one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons going back to Chris Paul that people

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Speaker 1: like Chris Paul as he seems like this very friendly

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Speaker 1: guy on the state farm, commercials and other things that

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Speaker 1: that he's endorsed, and even on the court, even though

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Speaker 1: he can allegedly be sometimes a bit of a difficult

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Speaker 1: um teammate and competitor. But you know this is this

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Speaker 1: is ultimately a very public facing business and go ahead.

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Speaker 1: So so this being the business of sports, you're the

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Speaker 1: eleven year old boy, I've already seen estimates and what

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Speaker 1: that record is worth. You hold onto it or do

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Speaker 1: you let it go someday for an enormous amount of money. No,

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Speaker 1: he's going to hold onto that for a while. I hope,

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Speaker 1: he hop Yeah, I think it's I think it not.

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Speaker 1: I was about to go in an area. I'm not

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Speaker 1: gonna go there because I was gonna bring up baseball cards.

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go there. But yeah, man, I mean

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Speaker 1: he's that was special and and that video was great.

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Speaker 1: That's one of those things where if it's not on

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Speaker 1: the mantelpiece, it's definitely in the attic. Well, I'm reading

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Speaker 1: all kinds of crazy numbers like and even up to

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Speaker 1: put us to if he if he surpasses Nadal and

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Speaker 1: Federer is at the all time major champion, it could

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Speaker 1: be worth a half a million dollars. Well, maybe take

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Speaker 1: a picture and make it an n f T and

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Speaker 1: sell that business sports podcast off. Michael bar on Twitter

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Speaker 1: at big Bar Sports. I don't have any baseball cards.

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Speaker 1: Maybe actually get myself a tennis racket. Anyway, I'm Mike Lynch.

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Speaker 1: You can follow me and Lynch w CVB, and I'm

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Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. Find me at Jason Kelly News. Here each

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Speaker 1: and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday exploring the world of

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Speaker 1: money and sports drains. Again at the end of the week,

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Speaker 1: speaking of tennis, we're going to catch up with John Wortheim.

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Speaker 1: He is the executive editor of Sports Illustrated. He's the

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Speaker 1: author of a new book, Glory Days, The Summer of

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Speaker 1: Nine and the ninety Days That Change Sports and Culture Forever.

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Speaker 1: He is a guy we've had on this show and

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Speaker 1: on our Business Week show. He knows tennis better than anyone,

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Speaker 1: So I want to talk Djokovic with him and Serena

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Speaker 1: and all things tennis, as well as uh, this terrific

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Speaker 1: new book. And also we're gonna catch up with the

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Speaker 1: chairman of NBC Sports Group, that's Pete Bavaqua, and we'll

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Speaker 1: catch up with him about all things going on in media,

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Speaker 1: talk about the upcoming Olympics, and so much more of

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Speaker 1: the summer of sports. This could be a summer that

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Speaker 1: we don't soon forget. As well. I know something that

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Speaker 1: happened in nineteen in the Troy Tigers. You're listening to

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports on Bloomberg Radio around the world

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Speaker 1: and online wherever you get your podcasts.