Nick Wright on Lakers $10B Sale, Caitlin Clark, NBA Finals, Thunder Dynasty | Colin Cowherd Podcast

Nick Wright on Lakers $10B Sale, Caitlin Clark, NBA Finals, Thunder Dynasty | Colin Cowherd Podcast

all right we get Nick right for an hour and it’s a it’s a newsbreaking day the Lakers just sold for a10 billion evaluation which I’ I’ve believed for a long time Nick all these sports franchises are undervalued whenever they say you know the Cowboys are worth $7 billion my take is if somebody in Saudi Arabia had a good month with oil they buy them for 13 billion because you don’t know if Google is going to be around in 20 years or Microsoft you know the Dallas Cowboys are going to be around in 20 years in fact I remember reading a story years and years ago they went back to like 1980 and they took the 30 leading companies on the Dow Jones and 25 years later only one was still like a really it was like Chevron or something and so my point is the Mark Walters group is the Dodger owner it’s a really good group and it does make me think okay the mom and pop Lakers are over because that’s been the big knock in LA is that I mean people forget Dan Gilbert could buy the bus family four times they’ve been one of the poorest NBA ownership groups
correct and one of the poorest from a net worth perspective and I would argue that they haven’t they have been one of the more poorly organizations in the league and I know that’s weird because they have the second most championships and they just got Luca and LeBron went there but I think that they have squandered a lot of opportunities i think that since Dr bus passed they have there are very few things you can say the Lakers do top notchotch in the league and while they have been you know willing to spend I think they’ve you know the last decade they’ve spent like the seventh most money they should be sp they the seventh most for Los Angeles Lakers is not maximizing the market and the brand i understand it’s not baseball so there is a cap like and in the new NBA with the aprons just spending recklessly can really hamstring you but this is a massive net positive for the Los Angeles Lakers for their fans in my opinion you should not have they they’re in a weird spot where similar to the Cowboys where ownership’s primary source of income is the team and that’s one of the reasons I think the Cowboys don’t necessarily spend the way they should and that’s how I have felt about the Lakers so listen I don’t know much about Mark Walters i know that he bought 26% of the team from I think an shoots or whomever with the guarantee part of that was if the buses sell I get the first opportunity and now he’s in now I I agree with you historically sports franchises have been undervalued i wonder if we are now getting to where 10 billion’s 10 billion dollars kind of like that’s a lot of money
well think about this
the the Celtics sold for6 billion the GDP of Boston the gross domestic product is 600 million annually it’s a trillion in Los Angeles the Los Angeles economy would be the 20th biggest economy in the world meaning it would be bigger than about 185 countries so and and and
they own the the Lakers own their arena so that’s an important So like you just if the arena’s worth 2 billion given where it is in the real estate and whatever so now it’s not six versus 10 it’s 6 versus 8 and you take the fact that LA’s a bigger market and you know as much as this will pain our buddy Bill Simmons the Lakers are the biggest brand in basketball listen the Celtics were in the finals two years ago it didn’t get a good rating
it didn’t get a number
i mean when the Lakers are in the final regardless of who the star is it generally gets a much bigger rating
well yes it’s also true the Lakers have never been in the finals without one of the biggest stars in the league it’s not like oh that Lakers time they made the finals with that scrappy underachieving team no it’s LeBron or Kobe or Shaq or Magic or Kareem or Wilt but still your point stands yeah no they are they the This is a fun one cuz you did your Mount What was it mount Crush mount Just More
just More because they’re just more than everyone else um if we were to do God this is this is corny and make funable content it also I’m sure will crush on Tik Tok or something if we were to do the Mount Rushmore franchises in American sports four four to me there are three nobrainers and then people would argue about the four fourth but the three no-brainers are the New York Yankees the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Lakers those to me and Do you think I’m missing anything there i I think those are the three brands that are truly every corner of the world they’re you know somebody’s walking around wearing a t-shirt even if they’ve never heard of the team
yeah i think I will say this um I think the LA Dodgers because of the Walters group perfect spring summer fall weather otani now is you know Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Dodger games are now an event there are fans from the Pacific Rim every home game road attendance for the Dodgers is number one in the league they played the Yankees i think it was last year it felt like 25% of the crowd was Dodger fans they travel incredibly well i think the Dodgers over the last eight since they’ve been purchased um from the Mark Walters group i think they have become and I and I mean this i think they’re a step ahead of the Yankees they don’t have all the pennants they don’t have all the titles but this ownership group is much more it’s got deeper pockets it’s more aggressive i mean the way they are pushing contracts down the road they are revolutionary
but they’re not a bigger brand than the New York Yankees
i think they’re getting close i think Otani changes it i really do
well if the idea is like Otani brings in and a whole similar to I understand once Japanese brings in the Pacific
yeah like what Yao Ming did for the Houston Rockets where all of a sudden it’s like you have this whole new market but if so the because I really the maybe eventually the Dodgers get there if it’s Yankees Cowboys Lakers is the three the teams across sports competing for that fourth spot dodgers definitely are in the contention the Celtics are the Warriors no probably not cuz that’s good the Warriors are like the Chiefs in that it’s the supernova of the moment in Mahomes or Steph Curry but they don’t have a history to where they’re this big brand so do you think you think the Dodgers now have surpassed the Cubs as the second biggest brand yes in baseball okay
yes because again remember Chicago wanted the Olympics why couldn’t they get them because they were not considered a global city they were considered uh maybe our there like Chicago has won best North American city seven years in a row from Kai Nas architecture it’s a it’s an unbelievable city but it’s not viewed as an international city DC San Francisco LA New York Boston similarly is not necessarily seen it’s seen as kind of provincial provincial parochial
so I think they’ve surp and the Cubs the Ricketts family which by the They live about 5 minutes from where I’m sitting right now they are um it seats 36,000 their revenues just don’t they’re not close they’re just not close anymore so um and I think the Cubs are historic and they matter domestically but I don’t think they pull a big
That might be right i and it also might be a lot of the benefit of the Cubs um went away or benefits the wrong word but brand recognition for lack of a better term of the Cubs had to do with if you’re a millennial when you were growing up with like basic cable for some reason you got the Cubs games because of WGN so you could like watch your team and the Cubs and so they they had that and now people can watch whatever teams they want i just saw the who who who do you sorry for this slight detour but after the Cowboys what do you think the biggest brand in football is like I I hesitate the in the moment it’s obviously the Chiefs but you wonder like if Mahomes retired like then the Chiefs
it’s an interesting story
nobody cares if you bought the Chiefs today well you would have to consider Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes part of the buy
yes so this idea well the brand well what is the brand right now Jerry Jones is 80 they’re dysfunctional their roster’s bad there’s value to it but Kansas City’s got the best quarterback in the league for the next 10 years so I mean the the when LeBron James went from the Miami Heat back to Dan Gilbert in Cleveland i talked to somebody in that
equity space he said that was a $400 million day for Dan Gilbert the Cavs without LeBron even with Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell LeBron changed the it was a paradigm shift economically for Cleveland literally Ken Griffy saved baseball in Seattle lebron James changed the economy taylor Swift Stewart I give you an example
made $2.1 billion sold 10 million tickets that is double the next biggest tour ever so it’s only big because of one reason the artist
so if you count I mean let’s be honest if you bought a soccer franchise 10 years ago and Ronaldo had an eight-year contract it would make it worth half a billion dollars more so I think the Chiefs with Mahomes that adds to me that adds half a somewhere between 500 billion and a billion dollars they go from six billion to seven because of Mahomes well so that’s the other piece of this the other piece of this is if the if the most valuable team in the NBA is now worth $10 billion what is the most valuable team in the NFL worth is it 15 billion like you honestly like what is if this is the new cuz you can’t tell like as much as as big of a brand as the Lakers are and I understand the NBA’s new TV deal i get all that there is nothing that is the machine that is the NFL so if the lake if we now have Lakers 10 billion Celtics 6 billion you know as the metrics then the if forget the Cowboys I’m trying to think of a good you know a good if the San Francisco 49ers were for sale are they a $10 billion franchise is that worth
I think they are so I’ve always argued I’m looking this up right now the Ridge Wallet I just got mine in the mail is the sleek minimalist powerhouse that stan Kroni owns Sofi Stadium
well yeah so owning the stadium is a big thing so if you bought the Rams
I get Sofi Stadium which can house a hundred concerts a year and the Chargers and the Rams so you have to consider that when you buy the Rams so I would say in the number two market in the country I get Shawn McVey I get a well-run operation I get SoFi i I’m sorry but that’s over10 billion i mean
it’s got to be has to just it just has to be if they now that the Lakers are worth 10 the biggest NFL brands have to be worth more you know what I it just it just has to be and to your point and then we can like move on to other things I’m sure just because this makes me laugh so much the So and I looked this up the other day this is why I have it um when David Glass bought the Royals hold on the which was it wasn’t a lifetime ago cuz he sold him for a billion dollars six years ago or whatever um to John Sherman so David Glass by the way this is to your point that franchises at one point were undervalued and I understand it’s the Royals i understand it’s small market i get it it’s still one of 30 major league baseball teams right
um and it’s a team that has some history it won a World Series
he bought the Royals not in 1954 he bought the Royals in 2000 and you know like how did David Glass get the money for buying the Royals and it’s well he was the CEO of Walmart which obviously is a high-paying job but usually like CEO is not highpaying enough to buy professional sports team except for the fact that in the year 2000 the Kansas City Royals were sold for $96 million is
that crazy
like can you believe it like can you believe it 2000 that it’s quarter century ago a professional baseball team like what’s it worth i don’t know certainly not a hundred million that’s crazy and like the it’s it is the Royals were sold for slightly more than Juan Sodto will make in a year it’s just banana and then he sold it for a billion uh 6 years ago and now they’re probably worth two just because the like you’re saying the price of these franchises it’s also why for the cheap baseball owners I’ve always been frustrated because they’re like well you know you know we don’t have to make money but we can’t be losing money i’m like man you the money you are making is on the eventual cash out in that you are going to 10x this with inevitability and the value of the sports team is the fact that there are every super rich guy in the world can buy a yacht every super rich guy in the world can buy the sick house and the fanciest cars all of it the the exclusivity of you want to you know sit courtside at the NBA games as the team owner you want to be in the luxury box as the team owner you know at a football game well there’s only 30 spots or there’s only 32 spots that’s what people are paying for yeah i I I’ve always thought this stuff um is undervalued and and that’s not a shot when I talked about the Celtics going for six billion um I think if I have Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown and the best young GM arguably outside of Oklahoma City and Brad Stevens that has to be considered all of it’s considered um and it’s I mean a company’s as valuable usually as their technology and their people and so when you have you know when you have stars in their prime that adds value to it right i mean right but it is But it is crazy and then we can move on how quick when Balmer bought the Clippers yeah 10 years ago
people freaked out it was two billion and I remember going on the air saying “Exactly right
it doesn’t matter that he overpaid he paid cash so it’s a true two billion.” Secondly he’s never selling it so it will be worth 10 billion in the future he’ll make five times the money and as long as it works on an operating level on a on a positive cash flows a dollar a year it’s a steal at $2 billion in the LA market and now you play in the same now now they built their own arena now but and also you have to remember about Balmer i read a story once about uh Steve Balmer’s net worth
he makes I I I I swear to God he makes a billion dollars a year on his Microsoft dividends
oh I buy that
his dividends so it’s like guys if the the idea that these guys like Mark Walters doesn’t know what he’s doing like they know what they’re doing well the and again it’s just the the NBA franchise values going like this this quickly where 10 years ago 2 billion for a team in the number two market that at the time had stars you know it’s not like the Clippers were that was the Lob City era um and then a couple years ago the Hornets sell for three billion and it like and now the and the Prestige franchises here’s the other interesting angle to this man lebron has always said “I want to buy a team i’m gonna buy a team i’m gonna buy a team.”
Man it the expansion fee is going to be $6 billion like no m I know LeBron has done incredibly well and all that but like he doesn’t have billions with a plural also how much I mean the truth is when Mark Cuban bought the Mavericks he only owned 51% so none of these guys own all of it right
yeah i mean it’s it’s Elon Musk when he bought X or Twitter he had he had Saudi money he had also he didn’t buy all of it he’s not going to spend all his c $44 billion he didn’t have $44 billion of cash everything the smartest people in the world get good rates everybody i mean you know when I hear people b pay off their home that’s what normal people do rich people don’t pay off anything they don’t pay off anything right like
what do they do share the secrets people aren’t supposed to pay off their home what are you supposed to do
well I mean it’s just when you can make 9% in the market and and your rates and 5% okay sure so the rich are borrowing money for everything and they don’t you know they’re not giving you all their cash they want to be as liquid as they can to buy their stuff okay caitlyn Clark obviously a huge story in the controversy around it um and I was thinking of I was pretty hard in the WNBA when Caitlyn Clark came in and I and I thought guys you can’t open up with a New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun you want to groove her into some wins because remember she went from the final four into camp into playing she and and the WNBA they probably knew she would be good they didn’t think she’d quite be this good sure
but it’s getting to be a little bit like MJ is that and they’ve done a better job this year they had an easier schedule they’ve put the games on television so the WNBA took a lot of heat a lot of heat and Val Arian the commissioner is like “Okay we got ourselves a complete Taylor Swift and tennis shoes rockstar.” And they’ve done a much better job this year the officiating is not great but the league’s now just starting to make real money now right like so it’s the officials maybe the last part you know it’s
Well yeah i wonder what it and I don’t know i’m not educated enough on this about what the hierarchy of officiating is but obviously the best basketball officials in the world
to officiate in the NBA
right
the let’s just I shouldn’t say the world just let’s just do the US i assume the second best like men’s college basketball well yeah i I would imagine the third best might be women’s college basketball because up until recently that was a far bigger industry than the WNB like so has the and and again I’m I am just speculating here but is the WNBA simply not
picking from the you know are the people who are the best officials are like well it’s way better jobs in officiating than I can get so I assume that’s going to be the case they flew commercial airlines a year ago
and I Yeah I think some
the NBA moved out of that in like the 80s so it’s like it’s it’s just a different um ball game but but I was thinking about this most of the time the media gets it right when it predicts an all-time star um in fact I would argue and I think people listening to this would push back that we undersold Tiger nobody thought Tiger was going to have the lowest scoring average ever was going to have the mo tied for the most career wins ever um has the greatest earnings ever nobody not even Nike would have guessed no and within five years have the scoring record at all four majors do I mean you know the Tiger Slam yeah no no no you’re right tiger was Tiger Serena I LeBron i would argue all the the all-time greats that turned into all-time greats also actually kind of exceeded expectations
now it’s time for 16 was considered arguably the best baseball prospect ever he’s turned out eight-time all-star two-time National League MVP 340 home runs plus that is a If you would have said that when he was 16 on Sports Illustrated he’s going to be an eight-time all-star two-time MVP you’ be like “Yeah for the best prospect ever that that that’s that’s in that elite class.” But I think Caitlyn Clark LeBron and MJ I think they’re better and I I thought Caitlyn was going to be good but Gino Oramma Yukon’s coach came out and said and this guy knows basketball he’s an he’s the best recruiter in the history of the sport he’s like this idea she’s going to walk into the WNBA crush people but it was so here’s the thing all the Yukon folks had like the you former the legendary Yukon players who were then in media and then Gino they all kind of in my opinion had a bias of man this was supposed to be what everyone was saying about Paige Beckers a year ago but Paige had blown out her knee and she missed time and the and all of that and so they I think that they and and they also underestimate ated what a badass Clark was going to be and I think they also looked at it and said
“Well she’s great and going to be great but she’s not better than Brianna Stewart or Diana Terazzi.” And they you know if they had a transition she will do and the answer is she’s a she is already one of the four best players in the league oh yeah she is already uh an absolute and I say this in the kindest words an on the court like the way you kind of need to you don’t need to be but it’s something people historically like in their athletes like a trash Larry Bird Michael Jordan a trash talker you know hard ass and she is already impacting winning i think she has the best per game plus minus in the league of everyone that’s not on the New York Liberty crushing people so the quality of WNBA play in the last 10 years has improved more than any league anywhere the players are the nutrition’s better the strength is better you go YouTube and WNBA game 10 years ago they did not pass like this candace Parker 10 years ago led the league in assists at five and a half a game a a game not only is Caitlyn Clark the best shooter the best guard the most influential she’s also dealing nine assists per game so what she’s done is she’s really changed the tempo she’s doubling these all-time assist numbers or close to it and giving you threes and shooting 9 ft beyond the ark so I mean as much as I liked her and I thought she would be really good I I remember saying on the air she’s going to be she gonna be really good top 10 player really fast I didn’t think she’d beat this
no I listen she I I agree with you that I do think she is and in contributing to winning
uh exceeding expectations i also think that and maybe eventually we’ll get there but there so much in my and I don’t know I what you said on the air about this today cuz I missed it but so much of the social media pearl clutching Yeah
of basically we need to pro like protect Caitlyn Clark i just think it’s so I I think it’s patronizing and I also think it fails to recognize this is in my opinion the best case scenario for the league the fact that
yep
she is has this swagger that there and Brew made this point and I thought it was a really good one the fact that yesterday’s altercations primarily happened with Caitlyn against other white players was actually a really nice thing because it removed any of the like oh do the are the black players don’t like her no you know who doesn’t like Caitlyn Clark most of her opponents you know you know who historically is not that popular in sports the young awesome swaggery trashtalking player that player usually has allies on their team and their fans
larry Bird got choked by Dr j everybody hated Larry
right and so a and so that’s awesome here’s another thing that’s awesome this is only going to make Caitlyn better and tougher and stronger that’s great the fact that it is hard and that like cuz the idea cuz some of Caitlyn’s like like there is a real lunatic fringe on the internet about this conversation and and I hate doing in life I don’t actually really think both sides are a problem very often in the Caitlyn Clark thing it is both sides it is people on both ends of the spectrum are out of their minds and the biggest Caitlyn fans are like the league this is the league’s cash cow and if they if they’re not suspending these other players that she could get hurt like give me a break it was a light shove she fell down she She’s going to be fine the Fever are going to be in big games for a long time it is she is sustainably drawing eyeballs and I do think it is note while people pointed out correctly oh man when she was out the ratings dropped the the other piece of this is the ratings dropped but we’re still higher than preKaitlyn Clark WNBA which means while yes some people are just showing up for her some people showed up for her and were like “Oh I like basketball and this is a pretty good product I’ll stick around even if she’s not there.” At least some people did it’s the best thing imaginable for the league it’s the best thing imaginable for her and it is for us you know here in hockey ended last night basketball probably ends tomorrow in the NBA it’ll be nice to have like a captivating sports story for the summer other than baseball so I’m excited about it sorry I don’t know why this popped into my head but I was watching just the relentlessness of OKC’s defense and how they were just blocking every shot and creating turnovers and I thought to myself I bet if you took the college basketball national champion they could not score 20 points on Oklahoma City’s defense and I also thought this if you took the Euing John Starks you know
was it Anthony Mason Charles Oakley Knicks they don’t score 40 points in a game and you think I’m crazy they were held to the 70s by the Pacers if you don’t have four ball handlers against OKC you are effed that’s why when Hallebertton’s hurt it’s over the series is over is their defense their perimeter pressure picking up the ball at half court they don’t even need to trap is so intense that the only way to beat them is to try and spread the floor have multiple three shooters or have a kind of transformational Hallebertton herkyjerky long weird stop start guy this defense if if you if you would have put Oklahoma City’s defense against a magic and we all know players are now more skilled they I mean seven foot guys now handle the ball and shoot threes nobody the Knicks never had a jump shooter a consistent Starks was an inconsistent
Starks was an undrafted player if you put Oklahoma City including Jordan’s team if you put Oklahoma City in that era I’m not saying they’d beat him they would be holding teams Michael’s teams to the 70 point range they don’t have enough shooters and ball handlers back then
well so they are I don’t think this Oklahoma City team is like one of the three or four best defenses in the history of the league i do think they are defense but Right exactly what I was going to say
crazy almost all of those teams that you consider the best defenses ever had as a common denominator a dominant rim protector so people bring up like oh the 04 Pistons defense you had fourtime defensive player of the year Ben Wallace they you know the ‘ 08 Celtics were not an all-time defense but a really good defense you had Kevin Garnett down low and I’m not act listen Chat does a good job and Hardenstein does a good job but they are a great defense
that is because of what it does to you on the perimeter and the team that it does remind me of is the ‘9s Bulls the second three Pete Bulls who did not have a dominant rim protector what they did have was Pippen and Rodman and Michael who could just swarm you and get to you like make it so hard to get across half court and trap you and those things and so that’s what’s so unique and special about this team and it is the fact that the guys who come off the bench for them are it’s such an interesting and I think smart thing Prey did which is most teams like their seventh or their eighth man it’s a guy like Cam Payne who he’s on your team because hey he might be able to hit a couple threes he might give us a burst of offense and Preie was like “You know what we’re gonna have enough offense what if the guys we have who come off the bench are just more they are defense not only but mostly guys and so that way you never get a breath you are just for 48 minutes if you’re a perimeter player on the other team your night sucks because it goes from Dort to Caruso to Wiggins to W
and that’s my point they wouldn’t beat the Bulls but they are so uniquely built to stop the 70s 80s 90s era where your forwards and centers couldn’t handle the ball
right
they would be just in they would be I mean again Michael was never a great ball handler he wasn’t and and Pippen was Pippen was great in transition kobe was a better ball handler than Michael and and so I’m not saying Michael and those guys wouldn’t win and Michael wouldn’t score
but this team defense
Oh it’d be it would those games would be like Bulls 78 you know OKC7 it would be
Oh
it would be like what what you’re des it would be like what a lot of the Knicks Heat playoff games in the ‘9s looked like where it’s like going into the fourth 61- 58 like for real I’m not even knocking it i grew up on that basketball um
and but that that’s what it was and that was for different reasons but uh but yeah I am I am really and one thing that I have been I’ll admit it shocked by I was shocked by Jaylen Williams scoring 40 in a finals game like in the history of the NBA Colin number two options to score 40 in a finals game kyrie did it twice chris Middleton did it oddly and gosh darn it there was one other one that now I can’t remember um James Worthy did it but James Worthy did it in a game Magic was out injured for kobe scored 40 in a finals game once his whole career and it was in ’09 so it wasn’t when he was the number two option to Shaq a guy as the second option only 30 people ever have scored 40 in a Finals game and 25 of them are the some of the greatest players you’ve ever seen
and so for Jaylen Williams to do that
in a game that Chase still had 30 that was that was remarkable and it made you think about what this team is going to be long term and his both his parents were in the military name the last athlete who had both parents in the military i got Jaylen Williams Santa Clara i think I looked it up online guys you can check that but when I watch his game you know what I see i see parenting grinding literally it’s seven a game at Santa Clara 11 18 14 18 you can see the time he’s put in the gym you can see his discipline he has the I said this today to J-Mack he’s a better offensive player now than Scottie Pippen his you can to be a good
His career high in the in the playoffs with on the Bulls was 32 i covered him in Portland i never trusted him on jump shots ever
sure jaylen Williams when when I see a player you see this with LeBron that can go to his off hand off the glass with touch over Miles Turner do you know how long you have to work at that in the gym
sure
i mean do you know it’s one thing if some guys some you know a lot of bigs they work on their low post games the Pete Newell camps when I was a kid growing up but when I see perimeter players the first sign a guys put a lot of time in the gym is often when they play bigger than their size dwayne Wade Jaylen Williams is 6’5 he plays like he’s 6’8 and a half he plays incredibly big that is discipline that dude is put and if you look at all his you know the last thing he got good at in basketball shooting
scoring he was good at he defended he rebounded he could handle the ball like I went back and I looked at his career i’m like the last thing he got good at was scoring and that tells you his mindset it wasn’t about what the bag is his mindset was be a great basketball player it’s it’s unbelievable and this I if there was any like that 40point finals game was a quarter of a billion dollar game for him not that he wasn’t going to get a ton of money but now in two weeks he’s going to get the max he’ll get 5 years 250 uh and he’ll just be like and they’ll resign Chad he’s going to get the max shay’s going to get a contract that’s going to make people’s eyes because
by the way you you’re not going to have any bench there’s no way you can afford no bench
well but that’s why you’re not going to have you’re not going to have a bench of second contract guys but that’s why we’re prest so what your bench is going to be
young guys you draft that are on their rookie deals you know what I mean and that you cycle through essentially um and that’s sharp like that’s the only way you can do it in OKC um
but you know what that’ll that’ll what what that’ll make you do and this is not a bad thing he will draft older college players he wants guys that can come in and play immediately he doesn’t need because all his guys are young so Prey’s is going to draft like Villanova guy or guy that’s been three year yeah like that’s the way you do it now is is okay let’s we need a two-year college starter who can come in and give us 13 minutes off the bench as a rookie
and so and so he’s but they are Listen I’ve said this to you and we can leave it at this every time the for the last 5 years when a team’s won a title people have been like “Well they’re about to win a bunch of titles and every time that team has gotten clipped in round two or earlier the next year.” So I’m not like the dynasty stuff I think we get too I don’t think we are in a dynasty era i do think that if the Oklahoma City ownership is willing to do something it wasn’t willing to do 15 years ago and pay a price they are as they are incredibly well set up with Sheay being 26 about turn 27 with Jaylen with JDub and chat both in year three this year and there that’s just going to be their team and we’ll see how long they can run it blending Vice’s signature dynamic storytelling with the high octane world of sports Vice Sports brings an exciting and diverse range of programming beyond the game behind the scenes documentaries uh hard-hitting investigative pieces in-depth profiles of athletes coaches teams Vice Sports is capturing raw energy drama passion that make sports unforgettable recent Vice Sports premieres include Brady vers Bellichic The Verdict with host Christopher Mad Dog Russo and a sixth season of the hit show Dark Side of the Ring that’s not all vice TV also televises live sports arena Football 1 uh BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing feel the adrenaline of Arena Football One fast-paced highscoring kinetic environment then brace yourself for the raw unfiltered intensity of bare knuckle boxing every punch counts these events bring audiences the excitement and unpredictability of live sports no holds barred so whether you’re a diehard fan or a casual Vice Sports offers a fresh bold unfiltered approach to sports you’re not going to find it anywhere else catch these action-packed live events other exclusive sports programs only on Vice TV go to vicev.com vicev.com to find your cable channel okay here’s a topic and I don’t do this a lot like I don’t talk about other announcers
um I I just don’t I I don’t get into it i don’t care i think it’s hard
i do sometimes yeah I I don’t but I will talk about this is that I think I can say this uh because of my Sports Nation days i’ve had multiple co-hosts on The Herd um I think um not that I’m exclusively or even primarily qualified to talk about it but I think I’ve earned the right to talk about chemistry not talent chemistry i don’t like the chemistry on the ESPN NBA broadcast it’s not the people it’s the chemistry as you know there’s a reason Mike and Tony have been a hit show for 25 years or plus their chemistry is amazing uh there is a reason um Buck and Aman went Fox to ESPN together they have tremendous chemistry madden and Summer all it’s really really hard being talented look at you you worked for years the chemistry on your show Beyond Talent the chemistry is really what makes the show jeff Van Gunny Mark Jackson and Breen had remarkable chemistry and for 24 years or however long ESPN’s had the NBA they have struggled with pregame shows postgame shows the perfect pairing and they had it and then they blew it up my guess is that Van Gundy could be critical of the league there there was David Stern from time to time push back on critical interviews by Bob Kostas or others um which needed to be done and this is this is one thing that I wonder about the NBA i don’t think broadcasting crews change ratings but as now the NBA moves to other networks I am really interested to see it at Amazon and see it at NBC because ESPN does a lot very very well in my opinion i think they’re so good at the Little League World Series Sports Center the NFL draft Scott Vanpelt show Mike and Tony they’re just a lot of really talented people there the college game day there’s just they’ve just built really really solid foundational um pieces of broadcasting i have great admiration
sure
i do not think they’ve been good with the NBA now I think Mike Brain’s as good as anybody including Marv Albert I’ve ever heard do basketball
yep
but I think for 20 years and I don’t do this I think they’ve under prodduced and underdelivered with the NBA
so all right so I am I it seems like a much bigger fan of the actual booth the the brain Doris and RJ than you are and maybe other people are i know there have been reports about ESPN once again changing that you know I mean they they one of it’s very interesting reportedly one of the reasons they initially shook up Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy was because they didn’t like the fact that I think it was Mark maybe it was Jeff but I think it was Mark was always like his name was in coaching searches and they were like no you know we don’t want you flirting with other jobs and then the two guys they brought in one guy in Doc Rivers to to replace uh him and then during the season he took a job and then they put in JJ and then JJ right after the season he took a job and so they’ve obviously moved it around a lot i under I do understand that any group and I don’t remember the first year of Brain Van Gundy and Jackson but I’m sure it wasn’t as good as the fifth year the 10th year and Hand Down Man Down and Mama There Goes That Man and those guys and for me the best broadcast crew ever was growing up with Steve Snapper Jones and Bill Walton be when I was a little kid on NBC because of the chemistry between them and the chemistry between them was actually it seemed like Steve Snapper Jones wanted to kill Bill Walton every single day and so it was like it was great so I so I am far less critical of the actual game like the playbyplay color commentary than I think others cuz I actually like it i also am really I think fairly critical of Reggie on the TNT broadcast so I think the ESPN actual playbyplay in uh color is is good the overall presentation of everything though i think it is totally fair to criticize and I think it is totally fair when people say you need to show me with how you present this that this is a big deal and the lack of pageantry as you know it’s like the Go ahead
how about this why don’t I know more why pregame postgame remember Run Arlage on the Olympics up close and personal
sure
like I want to know the players more i want to I want cameras in their house i want to go deep on the players not just this superfluous 8sec halftime show and by the way I’m there’ve been 15 different halftime pregame postgame a couple years ago I they didn’t talk it was a series of commercials and I’m like this is not a criticism of the company or the individuals i know the guy that directs it he’s a great guy gone out to dinner a few times Ann and I with his wife great guy um but I just think I thought before Bucken Aman ESPN underserved the NFL and so did the NFL i think Fox NBC CBS seem like a big deal like a big deal so that’s So I’ll again I’m gonna sound like a company man here and I don’t mean to but I’ll just use but company man and self-s serving kind of a double dip of annoying I’ll be for a moment um did did sending first things first to the ND500 draw you know more people to watch the ND500 i don’t know maybe I saw the number and it was like whatever it was it was like an e it was call it 8 million i have no idea what the number was but I know at the end of it there was 50,000 it was like 8 million50,000 or 4 million 50,000 and I joked with wild bro like hey that 50,000 that was us like we did like the so I don’t know if it actually drove audience what it
they made it feel big correct it made it was a signal that hey you know what I mean we are we’re sending a show that never talks Indie car out there we’re going to do right we’re going to make it feel like an event
and I think so when I saw I don’t know if it’s at NBC or Amazon whichever one just announced hey guess who’s going to be part of our basketball coverage michael Jordan i know some people are going to are like well how much did you spend on that and like is that going to actually draw more people it will make it feel important
yes and so like I do when people when Twitter says you know why aren’t there pregame introductions when they haven’t shown those by the way in 12 years but all of a sudden it’s like where’ the trophy go on the floor and the final script it’s little things and here’s where I’m surprised the NBA drops the ball a bit they clearly think some of those things matter because they do them for the commission the cup like the the they’re like “Oh I know this is a inseason tournament game because the court’s different.” Like so they’re like “We’re gonna key for the audience this is important for the in for the Commissioners Cup in the NBA Finals it looks like a regular like so that those types of things they could do better.” The other thing is and this was you know famously uh you know this was one of uh our pal Bill Simmons biggest you know frustrations when he was part of the pregame halftime postgame is there’s just so much they use that and listen I’m not a businessman and I’m sure it’s smart business it’s about commercial inventory load for the halftime show in particular okay so that’s that’s totally fine if you’ve like crunched numbers that’s the way to do it but it’s in I would say if that’s going to be the case instead of having four people give 40 second opinions
then that’s the spot for hey here’s a really really well prodduced 4minute feature
you know a special interest or a personal interest or whatever it is and I also again I’m you know I’m a Bob Kostas stan uh I met him when I was 12 years old he was incredibly kind to me i I think he’s the goat broadcaster as far as all things but I miss the like mini essays that he would give
in the leadup to a finals game where he’s like setting the table for the stakes of the event and and so yeah I do think that that type of thing could be done better and I also think that I do I think there is real value to for the finals for your major events for your major contributors for that to be their signature event and by that I mean like so you brought up Scott Vanpelt scott Vanpelt you know does an amazing job on his show he also has a signature event which is the the golf he does for ESPN
and it’s like that’s that’s his thing each year is the major tournament on ESPN uh or the majors on ESPN i think that if you’re if you are and this isn’t because I have recently you know I think fairly you know take I don’t know if taking some shots is the right word but it voice my frustration with some of the things Stephen A has done this is not about Stephen A individually but if you use Stephen A for all of your big stuff then it if if everything is him it doesn’t feel special it
It’s why it’s why former President Obama will not endorse every Democratic candidate or will not run to a microphone he doesn’t want to dilute his opinion he is the He is the most popular Democrat and his take is always everybody’s like “Where’s Obama?” Well he doesn’t want to latch himself on to the the crazy lunatic fringe wing of the left he’s not going to endorse losing candidates and you can’t have an opinion on every time Trump offends you because he offends you seven times a day so he makes it a two to three time a year strong opinion and I and I think that and this is again I Stephen A smith is a friend i text him reasonably regularly regularly that’s not it and this is not uh uh in any way I’m not harboring uh um ever any resentment at ESPN i I have friends there i really respect it i really do i I talk to people there all the time but I do think they make the SEC Championship feel like the effing Super Bowl
if you’re watching Fowler and Herd Street
so that’s what I’m talking about
no Sabin McAfee uh uh Herb Street it feels big
yes in the NBA it’s like you had a great crew you blew it out the chemistry with this is eh your halftime shows musical chairs it just doesn’t feel big enough and and I don’t think this about them often that’s back to my initial point why I want to see Amazon and NBC i’m fascinated to see their presentation because I think they I think NBC has a history olympics Sunday Night Football NBC’s always made things feel big in my lifetime and I think they’re going to make Jordan is a classic NBC move is I I’ll turn in i’m going to watch Jordan
of course of course and it’s in a very fractured attention economy yeah making things feel like events is so wildly important and a lot of that really is to do with again the fluff the pageantry the the the all all that stuff and I think your point about the SEC championship is a great one it’s obviously it’s obvious that they can do this and they can do it very well and they understand the importance of it by the fact that they paid whatever they paid to get Buck and Aman because Buck and Aman it was like that stamps us as
as we are taking this seriously we have these two super respected voices and so it is odd it just odd that they have been a little a drift on this
yeah no and and and again I I have always thought um game day and SEC championships i mean I think ESPN makes the Little League World Series feel gigantic
and and I think I
I told I told our boss Eric Shanks when I first came he said what would you take if you could take anything from ESPN and I said the draft would hurt their soul and I want a couple weeks off in August go get the Little League World Series yeah you that’d be perfect for you uh yeah that’d be really good that’s a fun one did you you know this is I keep sidebarring your podcast but this would be a fun podcast to do a draft of like the coolest events to broadcast we don’t have to do it right now but like down the road like that and the other the the you mentioned you know our biggest boss Eric Shanks i I don’t know if uh Michael Movill is a like our one of our bosses but he’s certainly one of the smartest people at the company he’s been on your podcast or on your TV show um the draft that they do an actual draft of college football games that the different networks do
is is fascinating not only not only do I want to one day be in the room for it again I’m not trying to ruffle any feathers here i’m a little offended that no one wants has been like “Hey Nick you got a you got a mock you want to send over like we’d love to pick your brain on it.” Like if there’s anybody that can 5D chess the rating and the window and the weather and all of it like I fellas I’m available just another another brain in the room for you if you want it like that would be so and if you don’t know what I’m talking about the different networks it’s like okay with the first pick and again I don’t have it exactly right
in the big 10 it’s always Ohio State Michigan
Ohio State Michigan and then who has the second pick and that’s how that’s how for the games that could go to different networks they have an actual draft and a couple years ago I know like Fox traded a pick they’re like we’ll trade you the third pick for like the eighth and the ninth it’s super fascinating that’d be super fun
i will say in terms of big events I go to about four UFC fights a year and that’s why Dana White among other things brings Trump he wants it to feel big he gets a reaction it makes the news
it’s It’s all over cable television so like him or not it’s smart i think the UFC of all the events I’ve been in my I’ve been to in my life I’ve been to I’ve been to everything except the Kentucky Derby and that’s just been a time issue i just I’m always doing something at that time of the year um the UFC does a great job onsite i I I so every time I go to a UFC fight I take a new friend to introduce him to the sport all of them are like c can I come again to this can you get more tickets dana’s always understood the value of that that and and and there was a run not that they’re in a slump now but without Connor and Jon Jones there’s always
they don’t have they don’t have a mega star right now they don’t have a crossover star
but it’s such a well-run company and event it’s like wrestling right now you get you get a Hulk Hogan once every 15 years right you just don’t and so WWE similarly Roman Reigns you know he was he was good he looked the part but for a while I don’t think they felt like Roman Reigns was quite it so Nick and Dana White
that’s right so Nick Khan and and and I mean uh and Dana White you you
I don’t care how well you’re run and both the WWE and UFC are brilliantly run sometimes I mean who could have guessed The Rock would have been the biggest star in Hollywood right
right some of it’s just you know crazy luck so um but I think the UFC does a I mean every time I go to the UFC fight never not had an A++ time love the environment love the people everybody and it’s cool because you’re I’m sitting by A-listers i get good seats and they’re all in t-shirts and jeans there nobody’s precious nobody’s
that I and this is I I have never been to to That’s not true i went to a UFC fight when I was a teenager like when the company was kind of in its infancy uh that I think in Atlantic City I don’t even remember why I was there but as an adult I’ve never been and the other thing and and I’d love to and the this is me saying you know I’m one of those friends you should invite basically if you can’t pick up on it the NBA playoffs are heating up and if you want to catch the action in person and I know you do and I do go to Game Time they make getting tickets faster and easier even for hard to get playoff tickets prices on the Game Time app actually go down the closer it gets to tip off so last minute deals killer all-in prices uh views from your seat uh lowest prices guaranteed game time is great it takes the guesswork out of buying professional basketball playoff tickets and you don’t want to go there guessing they have zone deals you can save even more when you choose a section let Game Time choose the seats and with Game Time ticket coverage your price is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the entire ticketing industry take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time download the Game Time app create an account the code is Colin for 20 bucks off your first purchase terms apply again create the account the redeem code lin 20 bucks off download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest prices guaranteed um the other the other thing is I I would love now that I make decent money I would love to have six seats to a big boxing match so I’ve been to I’ve been to boxing but I
UFC is better than boxing because bec I’ll tell you why because you can you can get I went to I went to seven Pacquiao fights and I went to Haggler Hearns and I went to Tyson a lot of Tyson’s
but the undercard nobody gave a about since the women’s division has exper huge boxing match to me is still as cool of a thing as there is in sports there aren’t many of them these days but like six seats to a big time fight be sick but there it’s also that’s another East Coast West Coast thing where so much of it disproportionately is in Vegas it’s so much easier if you’re in LA to shoot up to Vegas than if you’re in New York i am in Vegas pretty often though so I guess I could go
yeah you I never outside of the U only thing that gets me to Vegas is UFC and I go there i fly in probably four times a year i love it well it’s harder for you now now that you’re a Chicago in
how’s that going oh I love Chicago it’s I mean the weather’s you know you get lightning weather’s great right now
humidity and you you have weather here you don’t have weather in LA you have weather here
but you’re still liking it still taking the train
oh oh I love it i love it
uh the traffic by the way this is just my take traffic’s worse in Chicago than LA and it’s not close because Yeah the north suburbs into the city and downtown to the airport is worse than anything LA produces
oh hold on i
I have to push back on you for a second you are as the kids would say right now your privilege is showing you are only saying that because of where you lived in LA in relation to where you worked and where you would go if you like for you the traffic in LA you you lived on close to the beach and you worked in West LA so you avoid you never got snarled you were never like “Oh man I’m coming from the valley i’ve got to go through downtown.” Now you live in a nice cushy suburb if you’re coming into the city yeah you’re dealing with it you’re in it buddy you You’re You’re in it i’m in the the so but it’s similar like so Manhattan where I live is very people talk about New York traffic but I don’t think they totally understand like I live in Harlem which is upper Manhattan and I work in Midtown and it takes me 18 minutes if during rush hour 28 minutes work to home or home to work and it’s not because traffic in Manhattan is not bad it’s because the worst traffic in Manhattan is not going north south it’s going across it’s going east west from the east side to the west side or the west side to the east side or it’s lower Manhattan where Wall Street and Soho and all those places are that’s where you can be just take an hour to go two blocks and so it’s very for me personally traffic’s no problem at all for a lot of people it’s a huge part of their life uh you now in Chicago are dealing with it ann’s loving it
yeah i mean it’s Chicago’s I think Kai Nosta said it’s Did I say this earlier it’s the best city in North America seven straight years i read a piece in the New York Times um yesterday they were talking about mayoral candidates and the New York Times acknowledged New York’s not the same it’s declining bill Delasio was a really bad mayor um K through 12 uh regressed um there’s a sense the schools aren’t as strong i have a friend that goes there on a twice a month basis and he said it smells like pot everywhere well that part listen I think New York I think the the downfall of New York City is greatly overstated i also think the New York Times what they’ve done in this mayoral election is a little cowardly but we don’t have to get into it nobody cares about my thoughts on the New York mayoral race or maybe people do but this isn’t the platform for it um what is true is it does smell like weed everywhere
that part that part that part is undeniable and what’s also true is as a guy who doesn’t smoke weed but does occasionally like to bum a cigarette from somebody because I don’t like to buy cigarettes but you know occasionally I like to smoke a cigarette
it is maddening to walk outside and to walk a few blocks and come across a dozen people smoking and not a single one of them are smoking cigarettes yeah
I’m like I I I I there’s no one to bum a cigarette from i could easily ask “Can I hit your joint?” But there’s no one to bum a cigarette from these days so that part the fact that the idea that the city smells like weed that part’s true i’m very smellfluent i’m weather and smell influenced
i Some people smell really affects me
um like I I I don’t like to be in places
i’m very sensitive we listen the the the the true legalization of marijuana here I don’t know if it’s had many actual like negative impacts on the on society or how people act or anything like that it certainly is true that it smells like weed all the time that’s that’s not that undeniable
that would drive me crazy because downtown Chicago doesn’t la doesn’t i was in Boston recently boston doesn’t um I’m trying to think of the last I mean I’ve I haven’t been to New York in 2 years but I have heard it’s just at times
Listen it’s just a lot there is a lot of people smoking weed that part is true
and there’s garbage on the streets in New York and
that’s always been the case and by the way we just got bins we just got bins a new thing in New York we just got bins so the the again
nobody really cares about my take on New York mayors i will tell you that I don’t think the one we have right now is that great one thing it seems like he did a decent job on of um is I think he was really good at corruption and getting rid of rats
and so and and by when I say good at corruption I don’t mean like rooting out corruption i mean like he’s skilled at corruption um but also he got rid of rats that was good i you know it’s I I joked when I people think LA is Looney Tunes but when I was um and I remember moving there’s always been a reputation that you know LA is hippies and crazy and drugs and uh you know unethical behavior and affairs i never forget moving out east the governor of Connecticut got thrown out of office for building a hot tub on state money there was Elliot Spitzer the New Jersey governor got run out of office for a controversial relationship it was an ass show politics in New York Connecticut and Jersey were an just an insane unethical well right now one of the guy who’s probably going to win uh the race probably is going to win the race for Cuomo who was the governor but he got he got run out uh you know not exactly in glory um yeah and I do think that multiple senator I do think this the longtime United States senator from New Jersey just yesterday started an 11-year prison sentence cuz when the feds raided his house he had literal gold bars i got to tell you that’s kind of awesome like look not the not the bribes but I do think that like if of all the stores of value one could have if I if I went to someone’s house and they’re like “Hey here’s my flash drive of crypto.” I’m like “Okay.” You go to someone’s house and they’re like “Hey here’s my gold bars.” I’m like “That’s sick.” Like that is like the gold the the gold the gold bars being How am I going to hide this bribe what if I just take it in gold bars that’s pretty awesome well it it’s just interesting because as somebody that now lives who grew up in the West Coast traveled a decade in the East Coast now live in the Midwest i lived in all four corners now I’ve lived in everywhere in the country the Midwest the corners everywhere is that it was interesting the perception of LA it was it was just hippies and everything was a P diddy party the corruption in the Northeast politics is there’s nothing like it it is wild and I think I’ve said this before the Northeast is really intense like Chicago is a big city and they’ve had corruption and politics but people here like in the northern part of town it’s all golf courses it’s very recreational you have a beach on the city in New York even to go to the Hamptons is hard new York is a it’s a grind and what that grind
what the grind creates work hard play hard and in New York there’s a sense I have a harder life the weather the taxes the rent the intensity the competition i’m going to reward myself for that and it often becomes bad behavior and think about the West Coast seattle’s on the water san Francisco’s on the water san Diego’s on the water la’s on the water you can work 60 hours a week you’re on the beach
well so that’s our our mutual one of the one of the I thought smartest things I’ve heard about the difference between New York and LA was from our mutual friend Maverick who lives in LA
and is he’s from the Midwest but seems lived Yeah has lived in my lived a bunch of places but seems to really love LA and he said to me he’s like “There’s no Sundays in New York.” And I’m like “What do you mean?” He’s like “In LA on Sunday if you didn’t know what day of the week it was but you woke up and you looked outside and you listened you can sunday just feels and sounds different it’s quieter there’s less going on it’s Sunday.” He’s like “There’s no Sunday in New York.” He’s like “You w you wake up in New York and you look outside every day is you know what I mean it’s intense.” And and I was like “Oh
that’s like that’s a very interesting but I think smart way to put it.” And that is true but I I have I you listen I went here’s the places I’ve lived 0 to 18 years old Kansas City 18 to 22 Syracuse for college 22 to 27 back to Kansas City 27-32 31 Houston Houston 31-32 LA and 32 to 40 New York I when I first moved here I did not like it I felt overwhelmmed helmed by choice it was like there’s so many options i I I there’s nothing there’s so much to do there’s nothing to do whatever it is I now feel like having lived here for as long as I have there are very very few cities in the world I could ever live again because I’ve become so spoiled by the food theater culture event options that like I I I I think in the US I could live in LA or Vegas maybe Miami but Miami would have to be like for retirement and anywhere like else I go it just feels a little I don’t know slow now maybe again I’m 40 and I’m in the midst of like the grind of my career maybe when I’m 50 I’ll be like man I want I want something different slow you know what I mean whatever but I after a Midwest kid that never thought he’d live in New York I now feel like this is probably where you know I could live for a very very long time yeah i going back to what you said you felt overwhelmed and what Maverick Carter said there is no Sunday that is at the heart of why I’ve always theorized there are more affairs in Northeast politics there is no stepping off the treadmill the richest people in California just go to Monaceto it’s a 1-hour drive up the road there’s there’s all every time it’s amazing how often like Hollywood how often do you work you have a movie a year like the industry in New York is paper Wall Street venture capitalism it’s art in LA it’s all art and creation that’s a more joyful experience than trading paper i mean think about West Palm Beach is the richest area in the Hamptons or the richest areas kind of in the East Coast the people that live there litigation the biggest attorneys the they’re fighting constantly and you’re on Wall Street with that intensity and clients the richest people on the West Coast can live in Beverly Hills they’re in entertainment they’re in they’re in I mean Netflix
am you know like like like a lot of what it is
the other group is tech in the in the Silicon Valley
but that’s creation that’s a more joyful experience than fighting people in court or fight so I’ve always said a 55y old in New York looks 59 a 55 year old guy in LA looks 50 and there’s a nine 10 year swing there in in New York the more money you make you buy a nicer tie in LA once you make money you no longer have to wear a tie it’s a different culture what a line that’s a great That’s a great coward line that’s great
when you’re rich in LA you don’t see Bob Iger wearing a tie you don’t see Steve Balmer wearing a tie donald Trump always wore a tie mike Bloomberg always wears a tie it’s a different culture it’s way more intense yeah well that ain’t good for me buddy because I looked I didn’t look exactly great before I moved to New York now you’re saying you know I said I I talked um for the first time ever I talked to I’d never talked to him in like actually we texted or DM’d but I was on with Levitar today and on the show with him was Tony Reali and I’d never talked to Tony i I had always
Oh yeah yeah yeah um I had always you know kind of admired him from afar and one of the I gave Tony a very big compliment about kind of his run on around the horn but then I told him I was like with all that said I fervently believe that if I had gone through my cuz oh this is what it was cuz he is a very positive person and kind of exudes positivity and they were giving me a hard time for being a little more I don’t know jaded or negative on certain things and I said to reality I’m like “Well yeah man.” I was like “When you walk around for 40 years or however old you are looking like you do you think the world’s great.” I was like “You’re just everybody’s nice to you you’re always a handsome guy.” I was like “When you walk around as Nick Wright you have a little bit more of an edge to you don’t you?” I was like “We we switch bodies for a month i doubt you’re quite as positive as you are right now buddy.” Uh which
you you look like if I would have said in the history of movies you would have been in a movie you are built for uncut gems you look like a guy who is behind the scenes going to a jewelry store making bets you’re on the go you’ve got to smoke you I’m a little stressed out i’m a little stressed out i’m the you know I probably have you know between5 to $10,000 in my pocket but it’s also possible that’s my total net worth like you never know like there’s the the Yeah absolutely that’s the aesthetic not only I’m going for it’s the authentic one so thank you for that i appreciate that [Music]

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Colin Cowherd & Nick Wright react to the Los Angeles Lakers selling for $10 Billion and discuss the Mount Rushmore of sports franchises. Next they move on to Caitlin Clark and say she is even better than expected. The Thunder can close out the Pacers in the NBA Finals with one more win but will they become a dynasty? How does their defense compare to Michael Jordan’s Bulls? Colin & Nick give their takes on ESPN’s Finals coverage and share why they are looking forward to NBC & Amazon’s productions. Lastly they debate which city is better: Chicago or New York?

TIMELINE
0:00:00 Lakers sell for $10 Billion
0:20:00 Caitlin Clark
0:30:08 NBA Finals Pacers-Thunder
0:41:54 NBA Finals Media Coverage
1:01:41 Chicago vs New York City

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