0:00

A message to Dan Levintard. I want to be with him for a

0:02

second. Our money better

0:04

be fucking on time, Dan, better

0:07

be on fucking time.

0:19

Welcome back, unplugged, our

0:21

weekly look around. What's going

0:23

on, what's going on out there in sports,

0:26

what's going out there in the world. Jack just

0:28

got back from Oak Hill Hall

0:31

of Fame jersey

0:33

retirement. Had some of the other homies up there.

0:35

I got Steve Blake, Brandon Jennings,

0:38

Quinn Cook, Jeff McGinnis to name a few.

0:40

Coach Steve Smith, how was it.

0:41

Shout out Kat too as well. Kat was

0:44

a part of that class. He just didn't graduate

0:46

from ok Hill, but he still is in the Hall of Fame.

0:48

It's just honor, man. That's something I wanted, you know.

0:50

What I mean. I was glad we was able to deal in. I

0:53

was able to come down there and grab some

0:55

footage and document this whole thing. It was

0:57

special to be back because my first time being back since

0:59

I graduate, so a lot of memories,

1:02

great times. Get the time to see coach and his

1:04

wife and their family, and getting

1:06

my jersey retired there or something I really wanted.

1:09

So now I feel a peace with basketball. I love

1:11

it.

1:11

Congratulations. What about the white

1:13

guy that gave you guys moonshine and mushroom

1:16

weed. A little bit about that experience.

1:18

Shout out to the homie chad Man. We're gonna get back. Well,

1:20

we're gonna get back out there and rocket Chad. He's

1:22

he's a fishing guy, trout

1:25

and big mouth bass. He

1:28

does a fishing guy and he has a big old house and

1:30

a lot of land on top of the hill

1:32

where he wrints his house. I was the Airbnb

1:34

and he does a lot of great things. But we

1:37

met him and had a couple of drinks with him. He was a big fan. Been

1:39

watching OK for a while and he

1:41

said he meet us when we get done, you know, come back.

1:43

He has some shrooms for us and some moonshine and

1:45

some weed. So I'm like cool, you know, I

1:47

like the little moonshine from the country. You know.

1:49

His moonshine was nay one, you know, you know,

1:51

I was the smoke of course, the smoke weed.

1:53

I dabbled in the shrooms and the gummy shrooms. But it

1:56

kind of he this was different. Matt.

1:58

When he went out when he was handing, he handed

2:00

us the moonshine bam, and I'm thinking, okay,

2:02

he's gonna do two more. Handed off, He's going to hand

2:04

off the weed. Didn't hand off the shrooms,

2:07

well, I would, sir. He handed off

2:09

one bag and he had the stems of the weed.

2:12

I mean, if the shrooms grown in the weed said

2:14

you gotta smoke them, no, cirt,

2:17

no, sir, scared.

2:18

No, I wasn't scared. I wasn't doing it.

2:21

I hit it one time just to see where it takes

2:23

me. I wouldn't smoke ale a whole joint,

2:25

but I hit it one time to see where it takes me.

2:27

I didn't know. I didn't know that you can do that or they

2:29

go together like that.

2:30

I never heard. I never heard of it either.

2:32

It can't be no worse than the uh than

2:35

the butt naked you did that one time?

2:37

Yeah I know, yeah, yeah,

2:39

yeah, okay, So if so, if

2:41

if if the mushrooms steming

2:43

weed, I ain't gonna have me tripping like the shrom.

2:45

Had me, then I might try.

2:46

Nah, I think you'll be all right, But you said you ain't been been

2:49

the same since he still had that little that that nervous

2:51

twitch. Anyway,

2:54

you guys can check out Jack's journey coming

2:56

out of all the smoke productions YouTube,

2:58

So it's show some little behind it t s of

3:01

that also, Jack, Urban legend

3:03

or not rumor has it? Urban

3:05

legend has it that you're the only player in Oak

3:07

Hill history who had on the road to

3:09

room with the coach.

3:13

Yeah, that's fun. Yeah, man, I'm

3:15

the only player. You know. That's

3:18

cool because you know, I wait, Bro,

3:21

I was writing letters home.

3:22

I felt like I was in jail, so I was trying to escape

3:24

any chance I got.

3:26

Bro.

3:26

Yeah, we went on the road, man, Coach Price had

3:28

to make sure he put his bed.

3:30

In front of the door and all that. Bro, I was a nuisance.

3:33

Oh that's funny, funny. You missed,

3:35

we missed. We missed you out here in l A at the How

3:38

was your weekend?

3:38

Man?

3:39

Man, we had a great We had a great.

3:41

Hey, I couldn't be there, broreak house. Yeah,

3:43

we got it in the crew was there. We ate

3:45

good, we smoked good. We took some gummies.

3:48

They weren't intertwined, but I had

3:50

a really good time. No, they wasn't intertwined. We wasn't

3:52

playing with that. We had a good time, man, and ended

3:55

up eating some good dinner. Everyone had good time. Johnny

3:57

was there. We got it in so we

3:59

had a good time. Show

4:01

Love DJ.

4:03

Quick, DJ Quick.

4:05

DJ Quick. So it was another dude and I forgot

4:08

his name. I feel bad, but DJ

4:10

Quick came because I just wanted Quick to come chill. So

4:12

he you know, he's there, and he starts

4:14

kind of like, so, m B, you

4:16

think I get on, you think I can DJ, I'm

4:18

like, ship, you want to DJ? I wanted you to just come

4:21

cheers like now, hell no, I want to get on the thing. So he gets

4:23

something. We're about to set up, and the motherfucker spills his drink

4:25

on the mixer and fries it.

4:27

Wow.

4:29

So he ended up.

4:30

We ended up trying to get we got something else to replace,

4:32

and he did one live song, uh,

4:35

and then a couple couple of songs.

4:36

And then he was chilling. But that ship, we

4:38

had a good time.

4:39

I'll be there for the big day. I ain't gonna miss that one.

4:41

Oh yeah, yeah no, that was just to tune

4:43

up man.

4:44

Big shout out to our brothers, Pat McAfee

4:46

man who obviously came through and blessed us

4:49

for All Star and Indy.

4:51

You know you've known him for a while.

4:52

I've been a fait him for a while, but his

4:54

audience was heavily involved. He's got a colt

4:56

following and I love it. You know, a lot of they were

4:58

in the comments and he was in the comments and just

5:00

great feedback with our fans. So hey

5:03

man, shout out his fans because hopefully some of

5:05

them are now are fans.

5:07

Yeah, he's something nice masters to me and appreciate

5:10

that.

5:10

What happens on the show, you say, and John himself probably one

5:12

of the best interviews he had, so yeah.

5:14

Well that worked out.

5:15

Moving on, Phil Jackson, the zen Master

5:18

used to have a saying about the

5:20

forty twenty role, and we're

5:22

about the sixty game mark of the season and

5:25

to be considered a true contender, he

5:27

felt like you had to have forty wins before you had twenty

5:29

losses. And to back that up, the last

5:31

twenty seven out of thirty NBA champions

5:34

have lived up to that. Only three haven't, the

5:36

Pistons. So the Pistons, the

5:39

Heat, and the Bucks. Right now, currently

5:41

there's four teams that fit that build, Denver,

5:44

Boston, OKC, and Minnesota. Jack

5:47

thoughts on the forty twenty and

5:50

do you see any of those four teams winning

5:52

it, and is anyone left off who's not in the forty

5:54

twenty.

5:56

I mean, the proof's in the put. He got a point. I

5:58

mean, look at those teams. Denver definitely have a chance

6:00

to winning. Boston Show. Okay, see is the

6:02

best team in the West right now, min is the second

6:04

to third. So yeah, I mean, all

6:07

those teams definitely have a great chance. So it makes

6:09

a lot of sense with Bill Jackson talking about if

6:11

I had to throw one more team in that, Matt, for

6:15

me, I

6:17

think it would be.

6:20

I think it would be the Lakers.

6:22

M dark horse.

6:25

Right now.

6:26

I think when I ain't mad at that, I

6:28

feel like they're built for the playoffs. I feel like they're built

6:30

for the past. I'd probably throw the Clippers in that

6:32

mix. Although they're five and five in their last ten

6:34

they struggled a little bit, but they've been the hottest team

6:36

in basketball since that that hardened trade,

6:40

and then possibly me

6:43

and Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference that they can kind of find

6:45

their rhythm, get hot, and dot can help

6:48

get them to the Promised Land. But yeah, I'm definitely not

6:50

mad at that. You know, I picked the

6:53

Clippers don't win it all, but Boston's looking

6:55

tough. And then you can't rule out you got to beat the champs to become

6:57

the champs. So Demmer's right in that mix.

7:00

Will be interesting to see what okay See in Minnesota could do. They're

7:02

both young teams, so to me, they still got to prove it.

7:04

But definitely having great season so far.

7:08

There was an incident jack Jalen

7:10

Green and Bradley Beal and I was getting

7:12

tagged all weekend. I didn't know what the fuck was going

7:14

on. And it was you know, Bradley Beal faked

7:16

the ball in Jalen Green's face, but he

7:18

actually like hit him a little bit with the ball like it

7:20

was a love tap. Yeah, yeah, it was a love tap. But

7:24

thoughts thoughts of just those two going

7:27

back. You know, obviously Jayden Green the young hungry

7:29

dog, Bradley Bell is a proven killer

7:31

in this league.

7:33

Thoughts about that, and so you get a chance to see it.

7:35

It was cute. I mean it was cute. I knew

7:37

what was gonna be no hands thrown, so yeah,

7:39

it was cute.

7:39

It it was.

7:40

It wasn't as intense as your you and

7:42

Kobe, I know, I told him.

7:44

I would have liked that could have cleared the ben.

7:46

If I would have really hit him that sh it would have probably broke his

7:48

nose because I was I put that ship

7:50

hard. But I like the competitiveness.

7:53

Again, I'm a fan of Jaalen Green. I think he's super talented.

7:55

Obviously, Bradley Bill has been injured, but he's proven

7:58

what he what he means to this game, what he could do. But

8:00

I just liked the back and forth because there's there's so much

8:02

buddy ball out there these days.

8:03

I like him.

8:04

There's a little bit of fight between

8:06

the guys. Brian went Horse, someone

8:08

who actually liked I used to work with over at ESPN.

8:11

I wasn't a fan of what he said, but

8:13

what he says, if AI were to play today, he'd be heavily

8:15

criticized. He played a lot of minutes

8:17

and chucked up a lot of shots that would not fly

8:20

the day. Crazy

8:23

statement, But I'm gonna let you have that one

8:25

first.

8:27

Well, Brian, I mean, have

8:30

fun, because

8:33

the days of people looking at you and

8:36

listening to you talk about sports,

8:39

it really ain't adding up, okay talking

8:42

about AI be heavily criticized

8:44

while you're just sitting there heavily.

8:46

Look, bro, we're

8:48

not doing that, okay, Brian.

8:50

Yeah, and again, I like Wendy, I just didn't like

8:52

this comment, you know.

8:54

And the first time he said some off the wall lass shit

8:56

like he got fifteen to twenty rebounds a

8:58

game.

8:59

Yeah, but I mean t Mac, Vince, Paul, Pierce,

9:01

Gilbert, all these guys you know, shot low

9:03

forties back then.

9:04

He was talking about the shooting percentage. I also think the defense

9:06

was a little bit more physical.

9:09

Back then. But I mean, I think if Ai played

9:11

today, he would be probably arguably, you

9:13

know, up there with Lebron is one of the biggest players

9:15

in the world because his ability to cross over on

9:18

and off the court, what he meant,

9:20

the culture, who he is, what he

9:22

stands on. So definitely didn't agree

9:24

with that, but hey, I guess

9:26

everyone's entitled to their opinion. Jack

9:29

Boxing Canelo

9:32

Benavidez. Canelo

9:35

has turned down a ninety two to eight

9:37

split, which would mean Canelo

9:40

would got ninety two percent of the purse. Benavidez

9:43

would have only got eight, and Canelo

9:45

denies that is he running

9:47

jack.

9:49

I mean, you know, that's basically how it looks

9:51

to everybody like you gotta you gotta give Canelo's credit.

9:54

He's been fighting for a long time. He's damning fight everybody

9:57

definitely wanted to, you know what I'm saying. So definitely

9:59

one of the great he and he has the

10:01

right to choose who we want to fight

10:03

and direct his crib, to direct his career

10:05

the way he wants to and fight he wants right, and

10:08

he wants to fight a Meskan fighter because he says

10:10

he wants to respect, respect Messican fighters

10:12

and bring some of that revenue to Mexico.

10:14

And all that, and we all get all that.

10:16

But Bena Videz is probably the biggest

10:18

Mexican fighter next to Canelo, So

10:21

why wouldn't you fight him? So to the fans,

10:23

Matt to the fans when

10:25

Bena Videz is, We're willing to take five million

10:28

from five millions your fifty five million just

10:30

to fight you and beat you, because he says that he know the money

10:32

will come after. To the fans,

10:34

yeah, he's running from him. But to a person

10:37

like me, who I love being to Videz, I'm good

10:39

friends with his pops.

10:40

I want to see him fight Canelo. But if Canelo

10:42

don't fight him.

10:43

I don't lose no respect for Canelo because he had

10:45

he has earned the right to call his own

10:47

shots.

10:47

Yeah, I'm not mad at that. He's been in the game for a long time.

10:49

But you know, we all always want to see these

10:52

big these big fights. But to turn

10:54

down a ninety two eight, I don't know if there was I mean,

10:56

what ninety five to five? I mean shit,

10:58

But I mean what else is there? Definitely not about the money.

11:00

I don't think for Canelo either. He got so much

11:03

money. So we'll see if

11:05

that eventually happens. Man, I wanted to send out,

11:07

you know, thoughts and prayers or Ryan Garcia.

11:09

He just released a video as we were coming on air

11:12

talking about it. He's okay, but there's some shit going

11:14

on where he's locked out of his phone, locked out of

11:16

his IG, his bank account,

11:18

people, his credit cards are frozen. So

11:21

somebody's over here fucking with him. But Jack,

11:24

I don't know if any of this, You know, it's hard to say. Is

11:26

this is this a play to bring attention to

11:29

the fight? Is it is it?

11:31

Is it funny business? Is it is it

11:33

real?

11:33

Like we don't know.

11:34

Again, we don't want to make any accusations because all this is

11:36

alleged. But uh, you know, what are your thoughts

11:38

when you hear obviously he's supposed to be fighting Hainy soon.

11:42

Thoughts on this situation with Ryan Garcia.

11:46

To me, I've

11:48

met Ryan, He's a good you know, We've got a chance to interview

11:50

him and spend some time when Ryan's a good kid man,

11:53

and it's going to be a superstar and the mega star you

11:55

know.

11:56

From from from uh to go on for a long

11:58

time.

11:59

I think Ryan is gonna

12:01

have two or three more fights and become a superstar

12:04

as far as acting or something like that on TV.

12:06

I don't think he's gonna fight for too long.

12:07

But I actually think he's more

12:10

scared of scared of this fight than he was with

12:12

Tank. But it's simple fact that yeah, yeah,

12:15

you know you're going to You're going into a situation with

12:17

Tank with you the bigger fighter, and as you if you know

12:19

anything about boxing, the way he came out, he

12:21

came out confident. He really felt

12:23

like he was gonna be Tank. You know what I'm saying, because he was the bigger

12:25

fighter. You're not the bigger fighter no more.

12:28

And you and you know, what Devin Handy and you know

12:30

how good Devin Handy has gotten. And

12:33

I think, I honestly think everything that's filing

12:35

down that's happening right now with him is because

12:37

he's worried about this fight. He's I think he's scared

12:40

of Devin Haney. I don't think. I don't think all

12:42

this stuff is coming from outside nothing. Matt, he

12:44

know, he know he didn't sign the contract to fight

12:46

somebody, and he canna get his ass with Ooh.

12:49

I mean the pops has been going at it too.

12:51

I guess uh Garcia's pop says something

12:53

out of pocket of Haines's dad. I guess Haydes's dad

12:55

was just on it is what it is with Cam and Mace.

12:58

Gotta make sure we check that out. But yeah, it's gonna be a good

13:00

fight. Man, It's definitely gonna be a good fight. I

13:02

mean, it could be the Floyd Floyd Mayweather

13:04

Jake Paul playbook, you know where you're just stirring

13:07

up, you know, some ship before the fight to get more

13:09

eyeballs.

13:10

But uh, I agree this

13:12

should look real ry.

13:17

Yeah, Ryan well Man with definitely

13:19

saying prayers out to him. Man, hope see he's able to

13:21

get through this and and and lock back in on

13:24

on the fight.

13:25

Yeah, definitely rooting for him.

13:28

All right, now, Jack, we want to welcome one

13:30

of our brethren from the Metal Lark

13:32

Family, former ESPN analyst

13:35

Pablo Tory. Thank you for taking

13:37

time. Who's the host of Pablo Tory finds

13:39

out? Also

13:41

I heard I don't know if it's it's true or not, but you're

13:44

a cannabis consumer and you

13:46

enjoy partaking in cannabis

13:48

at times.

13:51

I have the argument, guys, thank you for having

13:53

me. I have the argument that I'm ready to make that New York

13:55

is now the most weed friendly state in the

13:57

Union.

13:59

And I lived at experiment every day.

14:03

I mean, I'm taking we're gonna have to battle

14:05

this. I'm taking walks down the streets smoking

14:07

joints and cali and they're not saying nothing.

14:09

I don't know.

14:10

Let me, I'm gonna both. And

14:14

it's been legal. We've been smoking in restaurants since

14:16

then. So I don't know what y'all talk about.

14:19

I don't know in a restaurant actually, but was

14:22

like.

14:22

An episode of my show that I need, I

14:24

need to litigate for real. Yeah, all

14:26

I know is that bodega's.

14:28

You know, all I know is that we got bodega's here that

14:30

sell weed and growing

14:32

up in the city. This feels

14:34

like literally a dream journal entry that I had

14:36

once like one day, one

14:38

day this would be the case and now and now

14:40

it's real. So until until all three of

14:42

us get arrested for various things that we've just

14:45

said and implied, we can

14:47

continue the debate.

14:48

Yeah, there you go.

14:48

Hey, Well, recently, uh, you know, you shoot

14:51

a show about four times a week where

14:54

you go down rabbit holes and and and find

14:56

out interesting things and report. I interested think one

14:58

thing that came to our team's attention was a

15:00

former scorekeeper from the Vancouver Grizzlies

15:03

who admits they were juicing the

15:05

stats in the nineties.

15:08

Talk to us about that interview, what you took away

15:10

from it and was

15:13

it really that? Was it the norm

15:16

back then?

15:17

Yeah?

15:18

Yeah, this is just one of the craziest stories I've ever worked

15:20

on. And so I got a shout out Tom Haberstrow, who's

15:22

the correspondent we had on this piece. Because Tom

15:25

did the interviews, did the data analysis,

15:27

and I had the reaction that

15:29

I think a normal person would have, which

15:31

is I cannot fucking believe that this went

15:34

on like this. And so the story

15:36

is about a guy who posted on a message board

15:38

back in now years and years ago that

15:40

he was juicing stats. Remember

15:42

that there's a famous game. He

15:45

worked for the Vancouver Grizzlies as a scorekeeper,

15:47

but he was a Laker fan. And I don't know if you guys remember

15:50

the Nick van Exel twenty three assist game

15:52

from back in the day. So van XL

15:54

had twenty three assists and this guy

15:57

posted on a message board anonymously. His name

15:59

was Alex from then that was his user name.

16:01

He said, I'm the guy responsible

16:03

Van Xell did not actually have twenty three assists.

16:05

I'm the guy who boosted the stats. I

16:07

invented many of those assists. And

16:10

so this became a story on the internet

16:12

at that point. And what Tom and

16:14

I did was go and

16:16

figure out, like who Alex from the Navy

16:18

actually was and what his whole deal in

16:21

reality was. And it turns

16:23

out that Alex from the Navy

16:25

was a real person. He was a real

16:27

guy. His name was Alex Rucker, we

16:30

revealed in the episode. And

16:32

if the name Alex Rucker rings any sort

16:34

of a bell. It's

16:36

because this man went

16:39

from scorekeeper to the actual

16:41

Navy but then he went on to

16:43

become the executive vice

16:45

president of basketball operations

16:47

of the Philadelphia seventy six ers under

16:49

Brian Colangelo. Wow, and

16:52

so that guy is the same guy. I

16:55

lead our discussion with that because we he confesses

16:57

to what you asked about, Matt was

16:59

how how prevalent was this? He

17:02

says it happened everywhere in the nineties because

17:04

he was a nineteen year old dude

17:06

who was given the power to basically

17:08

track NBA history. So I'm curious

17:11

if this is surprising to you guys that

17:13

one guy had this kind of a power in the first

17:15

place.

17:16

I don't, and I think I'll take this first. It

17:18

doesn't surprise me.

17:19

You know, you look at the refereeing

17:22

situation where they only try to say it was one person,

17:25

but you know a lot of guys that played in the

17:27

league would would like to say that's some bullshit.

17:30

And then you look at this and it makes

17:32

sense. I mean, that didn't makes sense, but I

17:34

understand it. I mean, it reminds me of when

17:37

my high school coach used to give me five dollars and let

17:39

me do my stats in high school. You know, I'd watched the

17:41

film and I'd had three or four rebounds here, a couple

17:43

of assists here, a block or two here, and it's just

17:45

like I got the five dollars for lunch and I was cool. So

17:48

this is crazy to hear, and if

17:50

it is true, or it is true, I

17:52

wonder, like who benefited the most? You know,

17:54

obviously I heard I saw something. I didn't get see

17:57

the whole interview, but it was obviously you know, this is entertainment

17:59

and they want to start to be stars, and that one

18:02

nine assists or nine rebound looks a lot better if

18:04

it says tim, you know what I mean, especially for the particular

18:06

stars. So I just wonder, as a

18:08

fan of the game in the nineties and someone who

18:10

went in the early two thousands, like who

18:12

benefited the most from those you know,

18:14

from juicing the stats what they

18:16

say?

18:17

Yeah, I believe it.

18:18

I believe It's there's so much politics in the game

18:20

and so much bullshit in the game.

18:22

I'm not surprised.

18:23

I'm not surprised there was boos and stats, and was surprised

18:25

they wouldn't giving people stats. Shit, I'm not

18:27

surprised to anything from that. You tell

18:29

me about the league today, because I tell you, as time

18:32

goes on, you're gonna be hearing more and more in bullshit,

18:34

just like you heard about the shit about the league

18:36

trying to downplay the Big Three.

18:37

So you're gonna continue to hear more and more shit. Trust

18:40

me.

18:40

Well, this is the thing, Like I wasn't

18:42

a guy who smelled bullshit where whenever

18:44

I came around the game, right, Like you guys have

18:46

an internal perspective of cynicism because

18:49

you guys have seen some.

18:49

Things I felt. I just feel

18:52

naive.

18:52

Because what this guy was saying was he got

18:54

trained to be a scorekeeper. He went to this big training

18:57

that the NBA held, and the examples

19:00

he was taught as to, like what's an assist?

19:02

Right, so we're really talking about here are number statistics

19:05

that are up for human interpretation. So that

19:07

means assists, that means blocks,

19:09

that means steals, and so let's

19:11

just talk about those numbers.

19:12

And so with the assists, what he was saying

19:15

to Tom was.

19:18

He was shown a video of John Stockton and

19:21

it was one of those plays where like the

19:23

assist is made quote

19:25

unquote, but it's like far

19:27

more time passing between

19:30

the assist that they want the scorekeepers

19:32

to give out and the actual basket. And

19:35

the explanation told to them was, this

19:37

is John Stockton, this is

19:39

a star, like it's entertainment,

19:41

Like we need to get our stars

19:44

to be valued and treated as

19:46

such. And so what Matcha said about the round numbers

19:49

is one hundred percent apparently part of the

19:51

thinking here that John Stockton is

19:53

a guy who's famous for assists. We got

19:55

to give John Stockton to Carl Malone that

19:58

assist, even though there were a couple dribb and

20:00

a couple more seconds passing in between, which is

20:03

just wild to me.

20:04

Mm hmmmmmm. That's definitely

20:06

interesting.

20:07

And and you like, like Jack said,

20:09

to be able to pull the sheet down and and

20:11

kind of see the inner workings.

20:12

I think it's all mafia.

20:16

Well okay, well listen, listen.

20:18

I cannot confirm or deny the

20:20

family the familiar part of this, but

20:23

I'll answer your question about who

20:25

benefited the most, right, and so think

20:28

about it through this lens. So this guy comes to

20:30

us and he says, okay, I did

20:32

it. I'm a Vancouver Grizzlies stack

20:34

keeper and the So there are two groups

20:36

of people that I think benefited the most.

20:39

One group was, of course,

20:41

the Vancouver Grizzlies, and so shred Raheem

20:44

had his stats boosted. I

20:47

mean, all you go down the list and it's well,

20:49

I think I think it's that era. But let me let me let

20:52

me give you the thinking. Right, this is an

20:54

expansion team. The Grizzlies

20:56

were just founded. And so even

20:58

he said, even when he gave Van Excel

21:00

the twenty three assists and this is the opposing

21:02

player, what he was told by his bosses

21:05

within the Grizzlies was great

21:08

job. That makes it more likely that

21:10

we're gonna be on Sports Center.

21:12

Right.

21:13

So the team, the logo,

21:15

the very basic fact that these Grizzlies

21:17

existed. They just wanted

21:19

any kind of exposure because an expansion

21:22

team needed to advertise itself. And

21:24

so that's the level of thirst that

21:27

people had in the nineties for just

21:29

getting any sort of television attention, which

21:32

again I don't know when you guys played

21:34

in Canada, when you were playing the

21:36

Grizzlies of the Raptors, if you noticed anything

21:38

fishy, But you go to the stats and

21:40

the Raptors another expansion

21:42

team huge enormous

21:45

discrepancy between home and road splits

21:47

when it came to the when it came to those stats

21:49

being interpreted, Canada was

21:51

one of the big beneficiaries of the stat inflation

21:53

of the nineties.

21:54

Just the whole country,

21:57

the whole country.

21:58

The exchange rate was wh Yeah.

22:01

Another one

22:03

that you just did something recently.

22:06

Uh, you gave your brutally honest

22:08

review of athletes and alcohol.

22:11

Uh.

22:11

You know, Jack and I and our team

22:13

are about to drop a mescal soon,

22:16

so we were kind of interesting to hear your

22:18

your breakdown and your reasons why. But you

22:20

you know, just some of the athletes you

22:22

reviewed were Steph's bourbon, Harden's

22:24

wine, Lebron's tequila, MJ's tequila.

22:27

Take us into that and what you found.

22:29

Okay, I have questions for you too about this, because

22:33

I'm gonna have to disclose when I taste test your mezcal

22:35

that I'm compromised by being in am

22:38

glad.

22:39

Of getting this out of the way.

22:40

Hey, hey, hey, the rest of the world

22:42

is always compromised somewhere another our

22:45

favor.

22:45

We'll we'll go with it for real, for real,

22:48

for real.

22:49

But it's funny, So Okay, So I'll

22:51

center on on on on Michael Jordan

22:54

here because I can bridge the two episodes that we're describing.

22:56

So one episode is about stat inflation, the other one

22:58

is about uh Me and Katie No and in an alcohol

23:00

expert named Jason Wilson just reviewing,

23:02

actually are these athlete alcohols any good?

23:04

Right?

23:05

And I would say that

23:07

the biggest beneficiary actually of

23:10

both stat inflation and

23:12

alcohol review

23:14

inflation is Michael Jeffrey Jordan.

23:17

And I'm gonna connect these two dots, right,

23:20

So, Michael Jordan, you look at his DePoy defensive

23:22

player of the Year stat from eighty seven eighty eight,

23:26

enormous, enormous home road

23:28

discrepancy hit one hundred and sixty five

23:30

steals at home eighty four

23:32

blocks. Okay,

23:35

away ninety four

23:37

steals forty seven blocks. So

23:39

just a crazy discrepancy in terms of

23:42

just Michael Jordan's defensive stats from

23:44

the year that he is now hailed as

23:46

like best defensive player of the year. Lebron

23:48

could never because he doesn't have a defensive Player of the Year award.

23:51

Michael Jordan benefited in our analysis

23:53

from the home cooking So just crazy.

23:55

How does that make you guys feel before I get to then

23:58

getting to his tequila, because that one was

24:00

a big bob from here.

24:01

I mean,

24:07

like I said, like

24:10

I said, it's dope that you guys, you

24:12

know, were able to bring that that that inflation

24:14

of life. But I just kind of always felt like it. You know,

24:16

I would see stuff and obviously looking back now and

24:18

thinking about this, I mean I would see I'm just like, damn,

24:20

I don't recall all those you know, I don't call all that.

24:23

I don't call all these steals. I don't call that.

24:25

You know, he had that many blocks, you know what

24:27

I mean.

24:27

And you think about it because no matter what you said,

24:29

a lot, but ninety eight percent of the players look

24:31

at the stat sheet at halftime and after the game,

24:33

you know what I mean, So when you sometimes you do see some weird

24:36

shit on there, like oh okay,

24:38

so but like Jack said, I mean, it's still MJ.

24:40

But yeah, the discrepancy, the numbers don't lie, The

24:43

numbers don't lie.

24:44

It's just it's just very conspicuous.

24:46

And I grew up, I should say, I grew up with Jordan

24:49

Stan you know, I'm a child of the nineties, even

24:51

though i' from New York.

24:52

So I worshiped at as.

24:53

Altar, right, and so I'll

24:55

take us to the tequila now because.

24:59

I thought his shit would I'm

25:02

sorry.

25:04

I'm sorry,

25:08

of Metal Lark, send your

25:10

questions and you're a mail to him.

25:11

I'm playing, that's right, I mean,

25:14

I'll take it.

25:14

I'm already at war with various members

25:16

of the Jordan family because of this Larsa

25:19

Pippen Marcus Jordan episode we did, which

25:21

was not received.

25:22

Warmly by the estate.

25:25

But Yo, this tequila,

25:27

man, it's like one hundred and ten something dollars

25:30

and it look

25:32

I'm not I'm not a professional alcoholic critic.

25:35

It just wasn't good.

25:36

It didn't It didn't taste like what I thought tequila

25:39

would taste like. It felt like it was trying to be very

25:41

smooth. It felt like it was trying to be you

25:43

know what. You can tell something's trying to be expensive.

25:45

But it's like.

25:46

Just it just it just feels

25:49

it feels like synthetic in that way doesn't feel

25:51

I don't know, I want

25:53

to know how you guys said about

25:56

trying to figure out how to make a mescal.

25:58

That feels like, you guys, that's not trash,

26:01

because I can tell you, at the highest level of this

26:03

alcohol athlete game, there's

26:05

some ship out there that I was stunned.

26:07

By, as far as good or bad,

26:10

as.

26:10

Far as bad, as far as

26:13

look, it's just.

26:15

There are a lot of people who are trying to tell UH

26:18

stories about and again

26:20

I look, there there's

26:22

a mythology around athletes, which

26:25

I think is of course part

26:27

of the branding, But then when it's

26:29

applied to the alcohol, it's just hard

26:32

not to like laugh and just be like, but

26:34

is this any good? And so for me,

26:37

I was just disappointed that all

26:40

of this money did not result in better alcohol.

26:43

Not for so you didn't find any You didn't

26:45

find any that were solid

26:46

or at least decent.

26:48

You know who's you know, this ship was good? So Lebron's

26:51

wasn't bad.

26:51

Lebron's was pretty good, the Lobos

26:53

tequila not bad.

26:56

I thought.

26:56

Among wines, CJ. McCollum did

26:59

a great job. I think he was actually the one

27:01

who's I'm not a huge wine guy,

27:03

but in terms of like the consensus

27:05

and the reviews, I would say that that one

27:07

deserves the highest grade

27:10

of all the things we tried. But

27:13

how how did you guys approach the idea

27:15

of a mescal then, because all of this stuff

27:17

is is you know a.

27:19

Lot of people they just want to put somebody name

27:21

on it and trying to make money of it and not

27:23

really worry about how.

27:24

The actual product tasts. It's a big

27:26

difference.

27:27

You know, some some you can you can come up with some stuff

27:29

and just put a big name on it and it might sell.

27:31

But then you got some people that that's our game, that

27:33

really care about the product and that care that you're

27:35

putting what you putting their name on. So it's a big

27:37

difference. So I think we follow in the category we

27:40

care what we put our name on.

27:43

Yeah.

27:44

Yeah, it took us a while not to cut

27:46

you off, Jacket took us a while. We met down, and we went down

27:48

and met with some people in San Diego, and actually we're taking

27:50

a trip out to Mexico, I think in April

27:53

to kind of go see the the the origin

27:55

of you know, where all of our stuff came from.

27:57

But I'm a huge cannabis guy

28:00

off the rip, you know what I mean. So crossing

28:02

over into alcohol, I'm a social kind of If I

28:04

do drink, it's a social cheers or but you

28:07

know, nine times out of ten, I'm smoking weeds, So

28:09

our thing was all lead.

28:11

He still leaves smoky.

28:15

Obviously the smoky part came with

28:17

all the smoke.

28:18

You know what I mean.

28:19

But at the same time, when we started trying now just like

28:21

that, like too much smoke, I wasn't super

28:23

fan of like smoky, smoky smoky,

28:25

So we took some of the smoke out,

28:28

and you know, we'll have to

28:30

let people decide, you know, what they think. I

28:32

think, you know, everyone has their opinions

28:34

on it. But I feel like our stuff is best because

28:36

I wasn't a huge you know, we we thought tequila,

28:39

you know, do we do dark and they

28:41

said the specifically,

28:44

yeah, the fastest growing spirit is

28:47

mescal at the time, you know what I mean.

28:49

So that's what kind of made us jump in and

28:51

deter from tequila and the other stuff. But

28:54

I feel like ours is and I'm like, again, this

28:56

is coming from someone who's not drinking

28:58

his life. I feel like ours is best when it's mixed

29:01

like with like fresh fresh juice. We have three

29:03

or four different flavors with the juice. Obviously we have the mescal.

29:06

But when it's mixed with like, you know, a

29:08

little.

29:08

Bit of juice.

29:09

Oh man, that's that ship go. So it'll

29:12

be interestinct, you know, Like I said, you have to be biased. Now,

29:14

you have to be biased now when you taste started. You can't

29:16

come on someone else's show like ship.

29:18

The most I was I

29:20

was processing Matt. I was processing

29:22

you talking about how actually too

29:25

smoky is a problem, which is a jarring

29:27

thing for me to hear from.

29:30

With the whiskey and ride that's it needs to be

29:32

smoky, but not with tequila.

29:34

Yeah, tequila family.

29:35

And then I was processing Stack's

29:38

face as he was remembering

29:40

mixing your mezcal with watermelon, and

29:42

I was like this, man, is.

29:46

That is what sells your product?

29:48

Is right?

29:50

What you don't know is we have shows where we'll

29:52

talk about stuff and I'll just go off into my ponder

29:55

moments. Well, I just get to put myself into

29:57

exactly what we're talking about, not just living

29:59

it fus second, live in it for a second.

30:02

That's what that was.

30:03

How did you guys, Okay, wait, so as a

30:05

as a tag team on this project,

30:08

how do you deal with disagreements

30:11

of taste? Because I imagine you guys

30:13

are not your ponder moments from

30:15

you want.

30:15

To work with me, bob blah, because I'm going with the flow

30:18

type of guy. I don't complain about much. The only

30:20

thing I can play about the money being late. Everything

30:22

else that got me. I got a million

30:24

ideas. I'm rocking with him. I don't even have to know what it

30:26

is. I'm behind him. But when that money late, you got

30:28

to see me.

30:30

Yeah, so

30:30

I.

30:32

So soll levantard that. By

30:34

the way, that's real, right, lebtard.

30:37

This fucking money is laid.

30:38

You gotta see stacking in behind him somewhere

30:40

hiding as me, but in front of me is

30:43

stacked right.

30:45

No, I mean Jack, you know, Jack kind of trusted

30:47

the team, you know, me and a couple of other people went out there

30:49

and tasted and saw where it came.

30:50

From, and then and and and and and.

30:52

Tried different kinds and and actually learned

30:55

about the orange and cinnamon at the same time. Because

30:57

have you ever ever ever you had orange and

30:59

cinnamon after a shot of anything?

31:01

Oh man, no, get

31:04

with it. Orange and cinnamon all right, there

31:06

it is. Yeah, we got our little

31:09

labeling right here. Check

31:11

that out, bottle.

31:13

Yeah,

31:17

let me see it.

31:19

Anios as that

31:23

doubles.

31:27

That's it right there, man, there

31:31

it is so so

31:33

anyway we'll get you. I feel like you got so this

31:35

is this is what I learned. It's what I found out in my alcohol

31:38

reviewing.

31:38

Is at the field? Why it's wide open?

31:40

Man, everyone's trying to do it, but like there

31:42

isn't actually a bunch that's really good, like Steph

31:45

stuff is okay.

31:46

I guess it's.

31:47

Just I think, really what it is, it's

31:49

what it's lacking for. And you guys have this like coming out

31:51

of your pores now literally I think, Matt

31:54

just to concept, so I think, what's coming out

31:56

of your pores? Authenticity and just like, hey,

31:58

this is how we use it. This is what we're

32:00

not, this is what we are, and

32:03

enjoy it like we would enjoy it as

32:05

opposed to the mic. Again, I don't

32:07

know, maybe you guys can put a photo of it at some point in the edit

32:10

on this, if there is an edit. But like the Michael Jordan

32:12

Sincoro bottle looks

32:14

like a trophy that you get

32:17

winning like an All Star game event, and

32:20

it's just.

32:20

Like what is this?

32:22

And so it's promising the greatest

32:24

tequila you've ever had?

32:25

From the greatest player who's ever lived, and

32:28

what you get is just like it let

32:30

me down.

32:31

It was like finding out that his stats were inflated. It

32:33

was a little bit like that. To be perfectly honest.

32:35

With you, I

32:38

think it's a fine line between quality

32:41

and not taking you too serious, because this is

32:43

not any really union.

32:44

I mean, so listen the self seriousness

32:46

which you guys do not have about your shit, about

32:49

your products, about your brand and selves.

32:51

Like that's the thing.

32:52

It's really hard to I guess,

32:55

look, enter a business that you're not in in the case

32:57

of alcohol, for all these guys, it's not

32:59

their thing, and so they go into it like I'm

33:02

gonna be the best. I'm going to

33:04

compete in this like it was and it's just like that. You

33:07

know, Michael Jordan has many ANI

33:10

hosts, right, many rings, but not

33:12

not not in this field, not in this middle.

33:17

Can't be good at everything.

33:19

And it's okay, Yeah,

33:22

absolutely, he's got a lot of win

33:25

he's got a lot of wins. There's a lot

33:27

of blocks that he didn't necessarily

33:29

earn, but also a lot of wins that he did.

33:33

I'm in so much trouble by the.

33:34

Back to how do you how

33:37

do you guys, you know, figure out

33:39

what story? Because I'm sure you get a ton of stories. How

33:42

do you guys figure out what stories to actually, you

33:44

know, go down the rabbit hole on and and and

33:46

bring my curiosity.

33:48

Man, Like, I'm a curious person. So I didn't play

33:50

sports at any high level in any way. Like,

33:53

let's be real about who I am, what I can and cannot

33:55

do. But what I am is a guy who is super

33:57

curious about the way the world works. And so when

33:59

someone as to me, that's

34:02

right, if only, if

34:04

only I went.

34:05

To high school with Lebron

34:07

James.

34:08

I love Brian, by the way, but Brian

34:10

is a biographer who also has other talents

34:13

as a reporter, and he's a great storyteller.

34:15

But I came into this I didn't.

34:17

Have a personal

34:20

story like that, And so I'm

34:23

just the guy who tells stories and uses journalism

34:25

to report them. And so for me, what

34:27

I want to do is always like Tony

34:30

Kornheiser taught me this, because

34:32

I do PTI sometimes and you

34:35

know, the thing I want to be is just smart and

34:37

funny, you know, like make people laugh

34:39

and take yourself too seriously. Like so It's just as

34:41

simple as that. But my whole goal is,

34:43

like, if you listen to an episode, so I'll mention this,

34:46

this, I'll go back to the Jordan well for a second

34:49

year because I referred to this right. So I did

34:51

a story about Marcus Jordan and Larsa Pippen.

34:53

What do you guys know about Marcus Jordan and Larsi Pippen

34:55

when I mentioned their names to you.

34:59

The day? And is Jordan's Dan

35:01

Pippin's ex wife? Yep?

35:05

And so for me, it was this reality television

35:07

relationship and I wanted to find out, like, what's going on

35:09

here?

35:09

Is this real? Is this love? What's going

35:12

on?

35:12

And so I interviewed Marcus and Larsa together and

35:15

we had a conversation that was great, and

35:17

they sat down and we sort of put in the

35:19

context of their lives. And that

35:21

was an example of this episode where I was like, Okay,

35:23

this is ridiculous. This is like reality television

35:25

show trash on the one hand, but also two

35:28

real people who hadn't been like actually

35:30

interviewed in this way.

35:31

Like what if I took them seriously? Was the question I asked myself.

35:34

And they were great and the only problem was

35:36

that in the New.

35:36

York Post afterwards there was a headline in which

35:39

Larca Pippen called me miserable. And so

35:41

outside of that, I'm on good terms with these people called

35:43

Yeah, yeah, I'm

35:46

in various. I should say I'm in various. You've

35:48

you've aligned yourself with a very dangerous person.

35:50

It turns out.

35:54

You might have to have bodyguards.

35:56

You know what's funny about Uh? You

35:58

asked me a question that nothing to do my answer. You asked me

36:01

how my two story ideas. It turns out

36:03

I two story ideas in order to

36:05

one day talk to two guys who lead the league

36:07

actually in beef and try to

36:09

outdo them by mentioning all the people.

36:10

Who your

36:17

well.

36:17

Man, we appreciate you jumping giving

36:20

us some of your time today. Definitely looking forward to continuing

36:22

to collab with you guys and Dan

36:24

and the whole meatalw Lark family and continuing

36:27

to drow, you know, grow our side.

36:28

And it's definitely a pleasure to be working

36:30

with you.

36:31

Yeah, man, I got two things at the very end here. Number

36:33

one is four twenty a

36:35

week.

36:35

I have ideas. I

36:37

have ideas for us. Okay, just the tease.

36:41

The second thing is a

36:43

message to Dan Levittard. I want to beef with him for a second.

36:47

Our money better be fucking on time, Dan, you

36:51

better be on fucking time.

36:52

Have that signed by It's coming from you.

36:55

Sign big big

36:57

five. Hey,

37:00

that's Jack's guy now too. Jacksonan gonna fly out

37:02

to Miami spending time with them.

37:03

They've been.

37:05

I am the officient of Dan Levantard's

37:08

wedding. I married him in Valerie. I

37:11

was the priest at that wedding. I love Dan,

37:13

I love Dan, I love his love. All

37:16

I'm saying is that his money better be fucking on top.

37:21

You could love a lot of ship and fuck up.

37:23

The one thing you can fuck up is the money to fox all

37:26

the other good things up. All

37:32

right, follow man, Thank you for your time today,

37:35

and we'll catch up with Well.

37:37

That's a wrap. Thank you to our guest Pablo Jack.

37:40

Congratulations again on the Oak Hill stuff. You

37:43

can catch this on All the Smoke Productions

37:45

YouTube and the Draft Kings Network.

37:47

We'll see y'all next week.