NBA Schedule Concerns, New Memphis Quarterback | Gary Parrish Show
The boy is mine. You ready? I’ve been ready. What are we waiting for? Let’s go, Chris. Let’s go. Oh, John Moran just broke the rim with that finish. Defense break. Defense break. Jared with a rejection. Give me that. Digs at it. Knocks him away. Picked up by Tipp. Sonic Radio. Welcome back to Sonic RN Dio. That spells radio with me, the CIO. This just in. The new Sonic $1.99 menu lets you build a craveworthy meal for just a $1.99 an item. Whether that’s a creamy shake, crispy tots, or a quarter pound double cheeseburger. This just out. Ostriches. They’re mean, not very cute, and in my opinion, way too big for a bird. Don’t miss the Sonic Fun 99 menu. Five items, always $1.99. Live free, eat Sonic. Tax not included menu for details. We get to the main event and you hear the crowd. There’s some rumblings in the crowd. Here we go. They say, “We want truth.” I love how John Cena said when they were chanting, “We want truth.” You can’t handle the truth. There you go. I loved it. He texted me off. Boom. Takes the mask off. Boom. And it’s our freaking truth. God, man. He cost John Cena of the match. Tune in to Grind City Wrestling Weekly on the Grind City Media app and on the Grind City Media YouTube channel. Live from the Built Ford tough studio at FedEx Forum, it’s the Gary Paris show presented by Ortho South on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. Now, here’s your host, Gary Parish. All right, I’m here. My name is Gary Parish. I’m speaking from the Bill for Tough Studio, FedEx Forum, downtown Memphis. Ben Doyle right there producing the program. Glad he’s with me. Glad you’re with me. Hope you’re getting through the day best you can. Daddy lost everything. And I hope you you didn’t love hourong episodes of Inside the NBA. If so, if so, I hope ESPN’s television schedule is incomplete because Sports Media Watch has gotten a hold of ESPN’s upcoming schedule for the NBA season and it suggest it suggests inside the NBA could be very limited at least early in the 202526 season. I’ll tell you more about it momentarily. First though, quickly, let me set today’s schedule for you in the next segment about 20 minutes. Chris Vernon is going to join me. Oh, big mouth. He’s the host of the Chris Vernon show. Weekdays noon grind city media. He’ll pop in here. We’ll chop it up with him. Chris Vernon. He’ll be here in the next segment. Finish talking to him, take a break, come back, do five more things you need to know, at which point we’re going to discuss five previously undiscussed stories. Among them, Nevada transfer. Brendan Lewis has reportedly been named the starting quarterback at the University of Memphis. So, he’s now set to take the Tigers first snap of the season against Chattanooga. That’s coming in 17 days. We’ll spend some time on that in about 40 minutes. Zoe Kravitz, she went on a Seth Meyer show last night and told a wild story about the time her mother lost a snake inside Taylor Swift’s house. It’s a nice opening act for Taylor making her New Heights podcast debut later today. I’ll tell you the snake story. We’ll do that a little later on in the show. Michael Porter Jr., older brother of Jonte Porter, who has been, of course, banned from the NBA for violating its gambling rules, went on a podcast and discussed the issue of gambling in in sports. He had some interesting comments based on what happened to his brother. I’ll share them with you. We’ll do that in just a bit. Do you remember the teenager from here in Memphis who tried to become the youngest person to ever fly solo to all seven continents? Yes. It turns out he’d just been stuck in Antarctica for a while. Oh, damn. Since June. But we have an update in the legal proceedings. I’ll share them with you. We’ll do that in the third segment. And congratulations to Pete Alonzo who hit two homers last night and became the New York Mets all-time home run leader. He passed 80s legend Daryl Strawberry. We’ll show you the record setting home run during a segment we call five more things you need to know. Then we’ll eventually do GP’s carry out. We’ll call it a day. So that’s the rundown. We got a lot to get to, but I did want to start in the NBA where the following headline appeared at si.com this morning. Quote, “Early ESPN NBA coverage schedule has fans worried about inside the NBA.” Big Bet Bennett, you are an NBA fan. Yes, I do dabble. Yes. Are you aware of ESPN’s early NBA coverage schedule that’s been published? And uh if so, are you concerned like other NBA fans? Well, I don’t know. Is it It’s not what we saw yesterday. This isn’t what you’re talking about. This is not what I’m talking about. This is a new development that would be repeating a show and I try my best not to do that. No, I So I don’t know. I’m unfamiliar. Okay, so let me walk you through it. Here’s the deal. According to sports media watch, inside the NBA is currently scheduled in a 30inut time slot following ESPN’s first double header of the season. Okay. The show, which of course is is being licensed from Turner, it’s going to air from approximately 11:05 to 11:35 p.m. Central and then lead into Sports Center. Now, you might remember in years past inside the NBA, Ernie Charles, Shaq, and Kenny, they would handle pregame on these TNT double headers, both halftimes, and then do a postgame show that sometimes lasted an hour. On average, it was about 50 minutes, and it was almost never fewer than 40. The suggestion all along as Turner lost the NBA, NBA went over to NBC and to Amazon Prime and then stayed on ESPN, that Inside the NBA would continue to be produced by Turner, then licensed to ESPN. And the suggestion all along has been that nothing will change, that we’ll more or less get the same show we’ve been getting just on a different channel. But now, at least based on the schedule, that doesn’t appear to be true. I should emphasize and I hope I am that all of this is just speculation and it’s merely speculation based on schedules being released and the schedules obviously could be altered at any moment. Still, as Sports Media Watch points out, the schedules do typically offer an accurate glimpse of what to expect. And for whatever it’s worth, these schedules that ESPN is posting are very different from last season’s schedules when inside the NBA ran on TNT. They don’t line up. Right now, according to the schedules, how about this? The NBA season, as you know, opens on October 21st. We’re going to get a double header. Rockets Thunder, Warriors, Lakers, double header, NBC. No inside the NBA on that night cuz NBC will handle it. Next night, the following night, we get another double header. This one on ESPN, Cavs, Knicks, Spurs, Mavericks. Inside the NBA will get, based on the schedule, 30 minutes after that. But the next night, after another ESPN double header, the second ESPN double header of the season, the games are scheduled to lead right into Scott Vanel Sports Center, meaning Ernie, Charles, Kenny, Shaq won’t be there on the third night of the season, like they would have been there in previous years. And then there’s this, and this I think is the big headline. I think this is the part that gets people quote worried about Inside the NBA. According to the schedule, after Inside the NBA handles the postgame of ESPN’s first double header of the season on October 22nd, it isn’t scheduled to appear again on the network until Christmas Day. Whoa. They could work in theory based on the schedule October 22nd and then theoretically be off for more than three months which means we might go three months of the NBA season based on the current schedules without hearing a word from any from from from anybody on that TNT show that we’ve all gotten so used to watching specifically Ernie Charles Kenny and Shaq. Not saying that’s guaranteed. I’m just saying that’s what ESPN schedule is currently projecting. And now according to si.com, NBA fans are quote worried about inside the NBA. Here’s a question for you. Do you think it matters? Um, okay. So, I don’t know how much it ma, you know, we kind of like, and obviously I care about the whole season, right? Like I care about the whole thing. I know you do. But but we do typically the whole country really starts paying the paying attention to the NBA around Christmas time. Yes. Yes. Right. There is been smart people including at least one NBA owner who has strongly suggested many times for years that the NBA season should be pushed back. Oh, I I completely I’ve been saying that. I agree. Do not start before Halloween. start either just before Christmas or if you wanted to make it perfect Christmas day every year. That’s when the NBA season starts. You start with a bank. Everybody’s off work. Everybody’s in homes. Everybody’s around TV. And yeah, I know the NFL has gotten in on Christmas recently and kind of, you know, stolen the day. Mhm. Not only from Jesus. Yeah. But also from the NBA. That’s That’s a headline. The NFL hates Jesus. You said it, not me. You said it, not me. But still, you would get um a big launch on Christmas Day theoretically. And the argument behind all this would be, and I think you would co-sign this one, every week of the season that you are not competing with football is a good week for you. And by definition, if you we know now you start on October 21st. All right. If you start a week later, that is one less week of your season that is overshadowed by football. If you start two weeks later, it is two fewer weeks of your season relative to now that is overshadowed by football. Push it back three weeks, you get the point. Yeah. push it back three months. That’s three months of your season that every morning they wake up on ESPN and they’re talking about football, but now football’s over and they need something to talk about and it’s more likely to be you than it otherwise would be if football isn’t really an option because the season has been over. So, that would be the argument um behind all that. And I guess that might be the argument behind if these guys really don’t work for three months allowing that to happen. Hey, they’ll be there when it matters. But the truth is October, November, December NBA season, that’s really just for the hardcores and not much else. Football dominates the conversation both at the professional and college levels. So, I’m going to be honest with you, like I obviously that is like the best studio show. We all have always acknowledged that. It’s they’re great. inside the NBA is awesome. Um, I don’t know if I necessarily need the 50inute post game after the second game of the night. Like that I go to sleep, dude. That’s late. I mean, sometimes that thing goes into like goes like 1:00 in the morning. It goes a long time. Um, so I, you know, I I think that’s okay. Uh, but having like a long hiatus without them when that was such a big deal for ESPN to acquire that, that does seem weird. It does seem weird. Again, these schedules could be adjusted. They could be incomplete. I’m just telling you what Sports Media Watch is reporting and it has created headlines on every basically every sports website in the country because what the schedule suggests is that Inside the NBA will be delivered to us uh more infrequently than it ever has. That’s what the early schedule suggest. As for whether it matters, I don’t think you can talk out of both sides of your mouth on this. You can’t. As the negotiations between the NBA and Turner were falling apart and it became increasingly clear that the NBA was not going to remain on TNT, basically everybody or at least lots of people who care about the NBA talk about the NBA said among the many reasons this is not great is because we could be losing inside the NBA. Mhm. Everybody loves the nostalgia of the NBA on NBC and we hear that music and that’s going to be cool. And I think NBC is going to do a terrific job with it. Among other things, they’ve announced they’re going to be bringing back like starting lineups in arena. Like they’re going to show that on TV. And I’ve always been a proponent of that. It just makes it feel like a bigger event. M and if one of your problems in the NBA is that nothing in the regular season feels like a big event, well, what can you do to try to make it feel different? This is one thing. Small thing, but it’s something. I’m a fan of that. I think NBC is going to be great. But one of the concerns with the NBA going from TNT to NBC and from TNT to Amazon Prime was that we could be losing the TNT show because Ernie Johnson had made it crystal clear he ain’t working for anybody other than Turner and Charles Barkley had more or less said he’ll retire before he goes to work at ESPN. Right? So that’s how those conversations got started. But eventually they figured out a way. And I think this was pretty predictable, but they figured out a way. We’re going to continue to make the show. We’re going to continue to make it over here. We’re going to keep all these people employed over here at Turner that have been working with us for 20 plus years, and then we’ll just hand you the show and you just rer it over here. Mhm. And it’s like, okay, problem solved. My point is this. You can’t spend those months when it looks like we might lose inside the NBA saying things like, “Oh, no, we can’t lose the in inside the NBA.” And then when a schedule comes out today that suggests we might not be getting inside the NBA very much in October, November, December, say things like it doesn’t matter. Well, you spent all last year telling me it does matter. So, how you saying today it doesn’t matter? So, I I think clearly it has to matter on some level. I will say there is a counterargument to inside the NBA that I’ve heard from people and I think it’s an interesting perspective about yeah fans love I think I know what you’re going to say Charles and Shaq and Kenny and Ernie sort of keeping that you know within the lines to some degree because they’re hilarious and um they’re they have incredible chemistry and they’ll push each other but then like laugh at each other but then push each other and maybe one night it looks like they’re about to get into a fight but you know you’re not they’re not going to but like it looks that way and then the next night they’re like laughing at each other and we’ve been watching this for a long time and people broadly speaking love it. I agree with you. It’s the best studio show in sports television. It’s one other networks have tried to replicate on some level and just can’t do it. Just cannot do it. I don’t know whether that’s strictly because of Ernie. I don’t know whether it’s you can’t replicate that unless you have Charles Barkley. Like he’s the key to all of it. It’s probably a combination of mostly those two. I think those two are the real keys to it. Shaq’s great, Kenny’s great. I think those two are the ones that make it what it is. Um it’s a tremendous show, entertaining show. Isn’t great for the NBA though. And what I mean is people have made this point. They sit up there and don’t watch the games. Well, I but the point that people are making, right? Well, first up, they don’t I don’t want to speak to Ernie because Ernie is a pros pro and like immensely prepared and and Kenny is very smart on the NBA. He’s sort of like the of course, you know, when Shaq and Charles can be the court gestures, if you will, Kenny can step in and talk real basketball stuff. But they do constantly make a point of I don’t really care about these teams. I don’t really know who that is. I don’t know who these players are. And there’s a a real feeling among some that there are college kids with podcast about the NBA who follow it more closely than the guys who are on TV every night talking about it. And the bigger issue cuz that can sometimes kind of be funny. Like, man, I ain’t watching the Washington Wizards. Like, that can be funny. Yeah. But when it also gets twisted into everybody sucks, all these teams suck, all these players suck. I mean, they’ll be talking about a a team that wins 53 games and be like, they can’t play. They don’t know how to play. And then you just get this constant perspective that often gets turned into older players don’t think, younger players get it. And the truth is like in the history of sports that’s never really been true, but it is something retired players like to think is true all the time. Same thing with music. Every generation of music fans think that when they’re young, the music being made right now is the greatest music that’s ever been made. And it doesn’t matter what generation you’re from. I I if you were growing up in the 60s, you probably thought the Beatles were the greatest thing ever. And you’re probably right about that. Um you get to the 70s, it could turn into, I don’t know, Led Zeppelin. You know, you get into the 80s, it could be Prince or Michael Jackson. You get into the 90s, there are people my age who try to tell you Pearl Jam’s the greatest band of all time, or the Dave Matthews is the greatest of all time. Um, now there’s somebody 17 years old who I promise you will tell you nobody’s ever made an album like the last Playboy Cardi album, but they believe that. Mhm. Mhm. Um and everything that was made it just you you hold and then and then as you age, oh man, they don’t make albums like Pearl Jam’s Vitalology anymore. Yeah. You look back on these things and you just reach these conclusions about nobody does it the way we did it and the way it was done when we were young and it’ll never be the same and obviously not as good. And like every generation goes through that. your grandparents, your parents, you either are going through it or will go through it. Most people do. We have a big basketball show on throughout the season that dominates the coverage. Like this is the show that creates the headlines. This is the show that creates the narratives and they are constantly talking about everybody sucks. Nobody knows how to play and nobody knows how to post and nobody knows how to do anything. Like Shaq thinks every big man sucks outside of Jokic. You know, Charles thinks everybody’s soft outside of like the handful of guys he says aren’t soft. Y and it’s just I’ve heard people argue, is it really great for the NBA when your dominant NBA show is filled with people who constantly talk about these stars of your current brand aren’t strong minded enough, aren’t available enough, they’re too soft, they’re whatever. Is it really good that the the main people people watch talk about your product are often just [ __ ] on your product? Is that really as good as you think it is? I think there’s probably some truth to that. Maybe so because I I don’t know where else that happens. Like you we don’t we’re not on inside college basketball and I’m like and it’s like GP. So Yukon is on a 14game winning streak and ranked number one in the country and on their way to winning perhaps a second straight national championship, becoming the first back-to-back national champion since Duke under Coach K. What do you think about Yukon GP? And I’m like, well, all I know is like if they were in a league with 85 Georgetown, they’d get the [ __ ] kicked out of them. So like, congratulations on dominating in 2024, but it ain’t like they’re playing Patrick Ewing, you know? It ain’t like they got to deal with Chris Mullen at St. John’s and so like you know I don’t even know if they know how to play shoot too many threes if you ask me. Like we would never do that. We’d be like Yukon’s amazing and they’re probably about to win a second straight national championship with a different cast of characters. What a story. We just celebrate the things that are to be celebrated and that’s the way most of these television shows go down. But that one doesn’t and some people think it’s a problem. I so I the reason that I don’t is because if anyone that’s watching that is is an NBA fan, right? Like they’re they’re watching that because they came for NBA talk, right? So I don’t think that they’re by saying everybody sucks or, you know, half the teams in the league suck. I don’t think that they’re necessarily turning people away like, oh man, they’re they’re right. I should leave because those people are there for the NBA anyways. No, but I do think it can shape the perception of something. I think I could buy that. If my kids are sitting in front of a television watching them and my and they hear Charles Barkley and Char and Shaq over and over again say Rudy Gobear sucks without any context, my kids would just be walking around the world thinking Rudy Gar sucks. That’s true. Okay. Like like that. Okay. Like and we’ll get to Vern in a second. I’m running long. But like this this is I think illustrates my point. There’s like a little funny thing that happened over the weekend. So, me and my little guys go out to the golf tournament on Saturday and we hook up with Vernon and and Haley and we’re sitting with them over in the Birdies and Bubbles area by the 14th uh uh green and that’s where they had the grand stand set up. Mhm. And for every birdie at 14, you get like $5 beers. Beers cost, let’s say, $13 at the golf tournament. But if you get a birdie on 14, it doesn’t matter who makes it. Everybody can run up and get $5 beer. So, it sort of became pretty awesome. It became a scene like Lucas Glover cuz I think he was the first one I saw birdie on Saturday, former champion. He uh you know, T-shot at 14. It’s a difficult part three, but he puts it within reasonable birdie range. And as he’s walking to the green, it’s a short walk part three. like the crowd starts chanting birdie birdie birdie and it’s like a it’s like the waste management event in Phoenix light you know it’s not like like a party but it feels like something other than a traditional golf tournament you got thousands of people chanting birdie birdie to not because they care about Lucas Glover but because they want to see if Lucas Glover can get $5 beers get him $5 beers right and then he makes the putt the place goes wild and Lucas Glover is like pointing at the curl it was awesome all right here’s my point. We got there and we were probably six groups, seven groups ahead of Scotty Sheffller and we wanted to hang out there because it’s shade and it’s just that that’s the among the best places to hang out unless you have access to like the great tents and whatever. This is a great public place to hang out. You’ve got wonderful food with Andy and Michael. You’ve got uh you know the cocktails, the bars. They’ve got fans and mist machines. There’s tree coverage. You can watch 16 fairway or the 14th green. It’s a great like that’s a great place to hang out. So, we want to hang out there and we’re gonna wait for Scotty to come through and when Scotty comes through 14, then we’ll just walk 14 15 16 17 18 with him and let my boys watch the best golfer in the world. That was our plan. As we’re waiting for Scotty Shuffler, we’re getting sort of caught up in $ five dollar beers on birdies. Not that we’re trying to drink them, but just like it’s it’s a thing that the kids could attach to. Oh, like here come three more guys. Because they were in in in pairs of in three on on Saturday because of the weather the day prior, I guess. And it was like, okay, here comes three more guys. Let’s see if they can get a birdie. And they’d put one close and and make the putt and the kids would go crazy. The kids were excited because they just saw the birdie happen. And then somebody would miss and they So Scotty Sheffller puts one right in front of the green, his t-shirt. And at this point, like it’s all about birdies or nothing. That’s the way the kids have interpreted this. The 14th hole. You either birdie it and you’re great or you don’t and you’re not. That’s the way this has been broken down. Mhm. So Scotty T-shot leaves it a little short, just off the green. Chips it up to a foot. Tap in par. Did not birdie. All right. And we had sort of spent the previous hour. If somebody birdies, they’re awesome. Woohoo. $5 beers. And if somebody would not birdie, it’ be like, “Ah, he sucks. A he sucks. Ah, I could be better than that. Like, this is the whole thing. And we’re just sort of laughing and joking. And this is like, oh, look at uh Ludvig Oorg. He he sucks. He didn’t birdie. Like, we’re just having fun. Had the whole golf tournament. Watch Scotty Sheffler. Best golfer in the world. I get home. We’re watching the replay. My 11year-old is talking on the phone to one of his buddies, like while they’re playing games, they’re talking. And I I’m overhearing it because his little friend’s on on uh speaker and I said uh and and this and and the the Oliver’s like, “Yeah, I just got home from the golf tournament.” And the kids like, “Oh, who’d you see?” And he said, “Uh saw Scotty Sheffller.” And he goes, “Oh, how was that?” And Oliver goes, “Oh, he sucked.” And it was only because he had heard people around there be like, “If you don’t birdie, you suck.” 45 minutes later, Louis’s talking to Kelly who was out of town and she’s like, “Hey buddy, how how was the golf tournament?” He’s like, “It was fun. We had a good time. Who’d you see?” Saw Scotty Sheffller. He was buns. Both my kids walked away from that day thinking Scotty Sheffller sucks. Because we had set the context at if you birdie 14, you’re great. And if you don’t, you just cost people $5 beers, you must suck. And because they had heard people sort of just jokingly say that, they were walking around the rest of the day thinking Scotty Shuffler sucks at golf. How different is that than if you turn on TNT and you just hear people every night say, “This team sucks. That team sucks. These players suck.” It it it it it penetrates somebody and you’re just walking around thinking, “Nobody’s good at basketball anymore except the Oklahoma City Thunder.” And even them, they they get fouled too much. I could buy it. Yeah, I could buy it. Yeah. Um, I still think that like that show is just so unique that people understand. But no, I mean I again like casuals like it I I could see it. I I I I still think take it or leave it, you want inside the NBA. Yes. As often as possible. But I do recognize that argument against it. Like this is the biggest NBA show that exists and they trash the teams and the players all the time. Is this really best for the growth of the sport? Hey, I know somebody who hosts a NBA podcast for the ring. I’ll ask him next. Going through the draft process the first time, they give you the answers to the test like this is what you need to work on. This is what you do well. They told you like they tell you here’s what you want to get drafted. Here’s what needs to happen. Yeah. They tell you. So, it’s like if you’re not listening, it’ll go right over your head. But for me, I’m I made sure to soak up all information and everything possible so I can give myself the best shot. The Chris Vernon Show live on weekdays at noon on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of trash talk in basketball, but the great teams let their performance do the talking. like Ford F-150 with Pro Power on board. A class exclusive industry first feature that turns your truck into a mobile generator and leaves the competition speechless. Ford F-150, official truck of the Grizzlies. Greatness starts here at your Midsouth Ford dealer. Classes full size pickups under 8,500 lb. GBWR shine down. Dance Kid Dance Tour. Dance Kid live in Memphis. FedEx Forum. Saturday, August 30th. With special guests Bush and Morgan Wade. Get tickets now at livenation.com. Shineown live in concert. For more, visit shinddown.com. Speaking of Adidas, are these the hardened tens? Yes. Uh, yeah, I guess so. From what? Uh, you guys don’t sound too excited. It kind of looks like when you flush the toilet in the water. It’s like a whirlpool. Want to be pers? Yeah. Want to be positive or artist just making a paint up and they just It’s like phone puzz. Yeah. Or a thumb print. The Sneakfest Show live Tuesdays at 2 PM on Grind City Media on X YouTube and the official Grind City Media mobile app. Did you know the Grizzlies were going to try to get up and get you? No, I have no clue. I thought the Grizzlies loved me when I worked out because it was like super fun and everything was, you know, just natural. We were just having a conversation. It wasn’t like said, you know, what’s your favorite color and you know, like all that stuff. What’s your favorite color? It wasn’t interview type. Yeah. It wasn’t interview questions. It was just like, hey man, how you doing? Like it was just real like real easy to talk to him. It was real easy to talk to coach Thomas. The Chris Vernon Show live on weekdays at noon on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. Welcome back Gary Paris show presented by Ortho Southside the Bill for Tough Studio and on Wednesdays in the second segment I’m joined by Chris Vernon host of the Chris Vernon show weekdays noon grind city media I don’t think I told you this but I just mentioned it in the in the opening segment because of the way we spent Saturday sitting over there by 14 and basically simplifying the entire golf tournament down to if you birdie this hole, you’re awesome cuz you get $5 beers for everybody. And if you don’t birdie this hole, you suck. My kids went home on Saturday night. I overheard both of them talking to their friends. And they’re like, “Yeah, we saw Scotty Sheffller. He sucks cuz he didn’t birdie number 14.” And I finally had to pull them aside after I heard them separately both say, “Scotty Sheffller sucks.” And I said, “Hey, listen. Scotty Sheffller does not suck and we’re not going to talk about him like that. He he missed a chip on 14. It’s not a big deal.” I did wonder I did wonder if people that were watching it on TV were like, “Why is that crowd going bonkers for Justin Rose, right?” And so Justin Rose that was in that streak of birdies that he had on uh on Sunday and you know he stuck it and then he made the putt and it was twofold. A they all get $5 beers, right? But more importantly, they said that that was the that was the second one the whole day, right? Two guys birdied that hole, right? You got the 69 best players in the world, right? And two of them got a birdie on that hole. And so when Rose made his birdie, it was pandemonium, right? Cuz they they had been, you know, imagine camping out there all day to try to get $5 beers and then nobody can do it. It is smart that they’re doing they’re doing stuff like that. It’s cool. It just turned it turned that into How about this? I Haley was out there. I had an 11-year-old and 8-year-old and they had something to attach to. It was like they had something. They weren’t trying to get $5 beers, but they knew if this guy makes this putt, these people will go crazy. That’s fun to see. Let’s go. Like that kind of stuff works. Of course it does. Of course. Any any kind of extra thing to care about. That’s right. Right. That’s right. It was a good time. is for for sure good time and that that whole setup they got at 14 15 16 in the shade is great great that’s the place to sit we’ll get to basketball stuff in a second one more thing on this coming out of the tournament which was awesome and dramatic and all of that um there was some speculation and even on there comments that suggested they might be looking the PJ tour to moving this event once again and the suggestion was taking it out of the playoff making it a signature event. So big purse, all the top players, but moving it earlier in the calendar, playing the tournament at TPC Southwind in May as opposed to August. Do you have an opinion on whether that’d be good or bad? I mean, I wouldn’t want I wanted it just cuz that’s where our season’s still going on. I mean, obviously if you’re in the playoffs, right? Right. Right. If we’re in the middle of the playoffs, I mean, look, I I certainly wouldn’t mind it not being as hot. I I looked at I looked at temperatures like, you know what it was last week? 95, 96, 98, whatever. Average temperatures in May in Memphis, you’re looking at like a high of 82, high of 83. It It would change. I do like being part of the playoff, though. I like getting the 70 best. Well, you don’t. I You got the 69. Yeah. Right. And they’re going to adjust that. They’re going to do something to force those guys to come. So, you got the 69. Yeah. They’ll just make it so that you have to, right? Right. In order to play in Atlanta or you’ve got to play in uh in Memphis first. But yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I I I certainly wouldn’t want a reduction in the amount of good players that come here. So, the hope would be the hope would be since it’s a signature event, you still get all the big names. You just get them when it’s 82 outside instead of 98 outside. I mean, yeah, because the players, this is one thing I My whole my whole life here, the last 20 years, it’s been hotter than hell. I know. It’s just hot. It’s just But one of the golf tournaments are during the summer. I mean, it’d be our luck we switch it to May to be 98. Right. Right. It rains every year. It rained all of It rains all May. All spring this year. It’s crazy. The The one thing I I have heard, not directly from golfers, but from people who talk to the golfers, is they don’t love walking four days in Memphis and then two weeks later walking four days in Atlanta. Right. Like that beat in August. Like that beats you up. Of course it does. Of course it does. I mean, like I like I’m older than most these guys. So, but like I I it would be hard for me to walk. It’s too hot. It would be hard for me to be out there four straight days playing. Oh my god. By the time me and Haley got back to So, I parked in parking lot I which is over there in front of the clubhouse. Remember, we’re walking from 14 there. It’s as long as as far away from where we parked. The deepest you can get into the course from where you park. That’s same with us. Man, we were dead. Yes, we were dead. By the time we got back to my car, oh, I was drenched. I was like, man, I can’t wait to turn this AC off. I was trying to overdose on snow cones just cuz I thought it would help. I’d be like, can I have another $15 snow cone, please? And it wasn’t even that terrible on Saturday. No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t like horrendous, but I felt it. No, I felt it. Like I I ain’t built for that. If you if you told me just for four days as a spectator, I need to go walk the course, four straight days, just walk it with Scotty, I’d be by by like day three, I’d be like, I don’t want to do this. This is awful. It’s too hot. It’s too hot. So, I I get it. Um there’s pros and cons to moving it and keeping it. We’ll let them figure it out to the basketball stuff. There are reports this morning and it’s based off of ESPN schedule uh that sports media watch has obtained that suggest even though they told us inside the NBA nothing’s changing other than the channel that it it is going to be in a limited role based on the current schedule it will be there after ESPN’s first double header of the season so night two of the season 30-minute episode postgame and then isn’t scheduled to come back until Christmas is this a problem no they did this last year similarly People don’t even remember cuz my buddy Adam Leco was the one that did the TNT. Nobody even cares. Nobody cares. No, because it’s during football and they have Thursday Night Football. They try to get away from according to Sports Media Watch. This is diff, but that’s what it was last year. They tried to get away from it. But they say this is even less. This is even less. I mean, maybe, but I mean, they don’t do much until after the calendar turns because of the Thursday Night Football, right? People just didn’t notice cuz guess what? We’re watching football. That’s right. That’s right. Honestly, I don’t I don’t care as long as they’re there in the spring. I I could as long as they are there once the calendar turns because once you get to January, we ain’t got no more Thursday night football. To that point, I have experienced this reality in my own life. College basketball season starts in November. They might ask you to come on in Louisville. You might get a text message from a producer in Indianapolis or in Kansas City. Y by and large they don’t want to talk to college basketball people on these radio shows in these markets in November and December. Super Bowl’s over. I got 30 requests the next week from radio stations all over the country because it’s like now we’re talking about basketball. But they don’t care about anything I have to say until football’s over. This is this happens to us every year uh with the mismatch. I would say, you know, spike at at the very beginning season previews, all that stuff. Huge, right? Beginning of the season, maybe first week of the season, huge, maybe second week, right? It’s really a trade deadline. Yeah. After that, and then it goes bonker. Right. It’s really February on, right? Right. Is where when you hit that Allstar break trade deadline area. That’s when you can tell. That’s when everybody starts locking in to what’s going on in the NBA. So, I would just say I don’t know. I don’t I don’t I don’t think that as long as those inside the NBA guys are going to be there once the calendar turns, I’m fine with that because honestly, there is college football on Thursday nights. There’s NFL on th I mean, you know, like Thursday night does not become like a standalone like, oh, it’s Thursday night, we’ll see what the TNT games are. It really doesn’t become a thing until the calendar turns anyway. So, I don’t I don’t care all that much. I think that people are waiting for ESPN to screw things up, which I mean, in fairness, they have screwed things up before, but I don’t think this one is. I mean, they they’re pretty limited because uh you know, last year, I only know this because I’m buddies with Lefgo. Lefco was doing that show with Vince Carter and with uh with Dwayne Wade and Candace Parker and whatever. I mean, and they were doing Tuesday nights and then Thursday night would be like a rotating cast. You don’t really get Ernie, Shaq, Kenny, and Charles until the spring. What do you think of the opinion by some that yeah, we all love inside the NBA and those guys are great, but they do just kind of [ __ ] on all the players and all the teams all the time and like is that really great for the NBA? Because I’ve already heard some of that this morning. There’s one reaction, oh my god, we’re only getting inside the NBA in a limited form and the other reaction is good because they ain’t good for the NBA anyway. Okay, I think those people are stupid. All right. They’re hilarious. They’re funny. I watched that show to be entertained. That’s right. Am I entertained? Yes. Like, what are you what what are you talking about? Like, I mean, what do you what do you want? Right. Like, and now we are going to have a plethora of different people, right? Like, we’re going to have all manner of different people that are going to be uh that are going to be on the air. I bet the Amazon thing will find its form. the NBC thing will find its form. Like, so there’s going to be, but so far all we’ve had was the TNT crew and the ESPN crew, right? And I one of those is virtually unwatchable and the other one is probably outside of College Game Day, my favorite sports show that that is on. I mean, the people that want Look, anybody that doesn’t like Inside the NBA, you understand what it is. And that’s part of the reason we like it. The part of the reason we like it is because it’s not so serious, right? And I find it to be incredibly entertaining. And I couldn’t care less if they, you know, come off as haters or whatever, right? Cuz they’re funny about it. They are funny about it. I do understand the argument of we got a 58- win team up 11 at halftime. Sure. And they’re saying they don’t know how to play basketball. Right. No, I got it. I got it. But I mean to me it’s also infinitely more interesting that way than it would be if they’re like, “Wow, this team is so great.” Right? Like what do you want them to, you know, mean? Like I like that they have these opinions that I don’t agree with. Right. We have gotten to this, you know, people want things to be so homogenized that they have to agree with everything. Right. Right. That’s what we like. People get bullied into where everybody agrees on everything. I love having the reason Charles Barkley and Shaq or Charles Barkley and Shaq is because they say things you don’t agree with, right? Like that’s why you like them and that are sometimes nonsensical. Yeah, of course. Like they’re goofy. They say things you don’t agree with. But what would it would be horrible if we like watch it and be like, “Yeah, yeah.” Like nobody cares about those people. Why have they never been able to figure not out at ESPN how to make that show, but how to make any show that people like because they switch it all the time. I mean, they never they never give it the opportunity to have any chemistry. That’s a real thing in television. I when when I first started doing TV. Yes. It was like I’d go up once in January and I’d do like a Tuesday and Wednesday and then I wouldn’t go back until February. Right. And I just remember like I’d go in on Tuesday and it would take me that day to get comfortable. Then the next day I was comfortable. Then I was gone for a month. And I just remember going if I was ever with these people, these these three people and we sat here every night, we would get very comfortable with each other. And I and it would just the whole show would be different. And then we committed to that. That became my schedule. And now I sit in that studio and like you know I’m not trying to pretend anything but like we are very comfortable with each other. And the only way you get that comfortable with each other is by sitting next to each other a lot. It’s the per one of them is so it’s twofold. The personalities obviously and then the the personalities and then the chemistry, right? The commitment to it and just saying, “All right, we’re going to make this, right? And it’s going to get better and better and better and better and better, right?” Like I mean, you find any of the good TV shows that had this, you know, there used to be I used to get up and watch in the mornings that uh Good Morning Football, right? They had K Adams, they had Peter Shrager, and they had uh uh Kyle Kyle and they had uh Spotsworth was there for a while. Yeah. And they were great. They were great though. But I mean like they but that took a little while, right? Like I mean it wasn’t like I was there on the ground floor watching their first shows. Um I’ve always liked the Fox guys uh for the pregame show in the NFL because I like Kirk Meny. I like the Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long thing and whatever. And so I think and and the other thing is, you know, I’ve always thought that part of that and part of the brilliance of the TNT thing is they’re not oversaturated. I think that’s really something that people uh I I think that’s something that is valued, right? Like so I I’ll give you an example, right? Like so the TNT guys, you you might see, you know, uh you know, you’ll see Shaq do some like podcast stuff or you’ll see uh you know, Barkley go on uh Dan Patrick, whatever. But the only TV really that people are watching that he does is you see them on that TNT show, right? It was the same thing with those Fox guys, right? I I never see Terry Bradshaw, Harry Howe Long, Jimmy Johnson, like none of them. Michael Straan. I never seen your point being the ESPN guys. We see them every day. It’s oversaturated. I’ve already heard what Stephen A. Smith has to say about LeBron. Right. Right. I’ve already in fact I’ve heard it five times today and I’ve seen the clips online. Right. Kendrick Perkins, same thing. I mean, they they oversaturate all these people and then they throw them into the mix. It’s like, bro, I’ve already seen them all day, every day. That’s why I bet you I bet you that my my guess is going to be the big new hit is going to be the Amazon one. I bet you that though that crew with like Blake Griffin and Durk and all that crew with Taylor Rook, I bet it’ll be great because Blake Blake Griffin is funny. Hell yeah. Durk Dirk is like Durk’s pretty funny. Blake has done like standup. Yes. Like he’s like legitimately like a funny person. Yes. Right. I bet it’ll be really good. Again, you got to find the right personalities and then like they it just feels like they just they just send you a bunch of people that you’ve seen all day. I mean, hell, they even like Malikica, they’ll have her do that NBA TV today show. Well, that was two hours before. Mhm. Your pregame show and then they don’t let the thing breathe at all. And they don’t even use like they don’t even use their I I could I could go on for days but like they there was a torn Achilles in the biggest game in the history like you can’t get bigger than Taran Gir Achilles as the star in a game seven right Bob Meyers is on the deis right they don’t even talk about it right bro he literally was running the team that had Kevin Durant do this exact same thing. If there’s anybody I’d want to hear talk about that and what that’s like right now, it’s Bob Myers. Well, there was another one and they just didn’t even acknowledge that Bob Myers like what? Like this is actually here’s the moment where his insight would be most valuable. Well, there was something I want to make sure I got it right and I’m not sure I don’t so forgive me. But there was something connected to the draft coverage as well where I just remember somebody making the point you employee a former general manager of a dynasty. Yes. Who has been through these nights? Yes. And drafted like Hall of Famers. Why is he not up here talking about these players? It’s crazy. It’s crazy. Jay Bis. Yeah. Yeah. Like what? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I I there they do a lot of things wrong. Last thing before I get you out of here. NBA schedules come out tomorrow. Um 82 games, 41 home, 41 road. I got it. I don’t usually care one way or another. Give me the What’s the first game of the season? What’s the first home game of the season? When’s Steph going to be here? When LeBron going to be here, when KD going to be here? I do think it matters on some level. Like, do you open is it difficult? Do you open is it easy or or not as difficult? because of the question marks surrounding Jiren Jackson and Zack Edy. How the season starts, how the season ends, uh when do you have a lot of home games, when do you not have as many home games, and then uh and especially like you know like again it ended up mattering a great deal that the last six weeks of the season were murder, right? Like that record they built up last year was a facade. That’s right. And then they had to. So part of obviously you had some injuries, you had Wells go down, you had Clark go down, you had whatever. But the biggest reason that the season went the wrong way is you started playing all the good teams, right? And so you kind of look at it and you go, “All right, when are we going to learn about this team?” Cuz it really took I mean they were able to be the two seed until they had to play the schedule. So that one that one matters uh a great deal. In addition to that, um you know, it’s usually like, you know, the big stars when those guys uh come into town. Um how that whole Europe trip is going to affect like kind of everything, right? Right. Cuz that’s going to be a weird deal. That’s a like what do you do when you come back from that? Because I can tell you college coaches, they think like you you pay a price going to Maui and coming back from Maui like like you pay a price coming back from that. Your bodies are different. The tra like it there’s it takes a minute. Yeah. And then uh like UCLA like UCLA Mick Cronin did a study on this of because I don’t think he loves being in the Big 10, but he was like, “Go look at not my record, but UCLA’s record.” Oh. When they get the when they have to go across the country and then come back, what happens after that? Like that European trip, it’s awesome, but you might pay a price for that. Yeah. Yeah. And so you see kind of like and and also the way that affects the rest of the season because it’s a 10day trip and you’re playing two games, right? Right. So, does that end up back to back to back to back where you start playing a lot of those and then the big thing is the national TV games because as you mentioned yesterday, they’re not listed on any of those. So, it’s like have they just abandoned the Grizzlies where you’re going to have to get flexed in in the second half of the season because you saw if if if the early indications are what ends up being the case, you’re going to see a lot more of Wimby. You’re going to see a lot of Cooper Flag. It seems like Yeah, you’re going to see a lot of Sha Gil Alexander and it seems like uh you know the the Wolves and the Pistons, right, have gotten a little extra love, right? Like who are those? Because look, there’s some premier teams that aren’t going to be there. Uh the Celtics aren’t going to be nearly on TV as much. Uh for good reason. And Indiana, typically a team that was just in the NBA finals would get a big uptick. And I wonder what they’re going to do with that, right? Um, so yeah, that’s that’s going to be another one, especially with there’s going to be so many more national TV games. It used to just be are you on ESPN, TNT, and then we would get these crappy, you know, NBA TV games. Now it’s going to be Amazon Peacock. Yeah. How many times are you on Peacock? How many times you on Amazon Prime? How many times are you like how many times you got a stage? Right. Right. And I don’t guess I’m surprised surprised by the Grizzlies not being included in opening night certainly, but even in the game uh night two, night three, double headers, nothing there. MLK, nothing there. Christmas Day, nothing there. Not surprising. But I do think if I were a television executive, if the arguments against the Grizzlies were, you never know if Jaw’s available and they might not be that good, I’d say let’s get them on early. Yeah, Jaw’s more likely to be available early than maybe later. And if they’re not good, we won’t know in week one. Yeah. You know, you can I mean, and and honestly, the way the way the season plays out, you know, a couple years ago, those two years in a row where they were the two seed, they flexed us into a bunch in the spring. Right. Right. If he’s the wave, if he’s starting the All-Star game, if he’s on his way to AllNBA, they’ll put us on. I would have just tried to get him on early if I were given the the undeniable popularity of John Morant and everything I’ve seen this summer. I’d have just been like, I don’t know. He’s your most viral guy. We can’t place them on Christmas and we they’re not going to be available for MLK day. We don’t want them on opening night, but like let’s get them on ESPN, ABC, NBC in the first two weeks of the season while their record is still, you know, one and two, two and one and John’s healthy. Let’s do that. I mean, they’re obviously they’re obviously pushing a couple of the young player, right? It seems like Cade, Anthony Edwards, Wimby, right? Right. I mean, are going to get the push. So, we’ll get the At least from what it from what they’ve released already and so everybody’s schedules come out tomorrow. It’s afternoon, right? I think so. I’m not going to be talking about this at 10 o’clock in the morning. I don’t think. No. All right. Well, then we’ll get Unless Sh’s like search reporting everybody’s schedule. He may put out all 82 for every team. I You never know. I That’d be nice. That’d be just get it done by like 9:15 tomorrow morning. That’s Chris Vernon. He’ll be over in a big studio at noon. Chris Vernon’s show, Grind City Media. We come back. Brennan Lewis, Nevada transfer, as expected, has reportedly been named the starting quarterback at the University of Memphis. Season starts in 17 days. First opponent, Chattanooga. We’ll talk about it next. Gary Paris show presented by Ortho South. Preseason box to row coaches poll has come out. Jackson State sits there at number one. This is the third time in the poll’s history that Jackson State has been the preseason number one team in the nation. And then Tennessee State being at five. That that really surprised me. Get all of your H.B.CU sports and culture news by tuning in to H.B.CU Huddle with CJ Hurt and Mike Wallace. New episodes drop every Thursday on grind citycdia.com, YouTube, and Spotify. The boys night. You ready? I’ve been ready. What are we waiting for? Let’s go. Let’s go. Oh, John Mor just broke the rim with that finish. Defense break. Defense take that ball. Jared with a rejection. Give me that kicks at it. Knocks it away. picked up by Tipp. Catch us if you can at Southland Casino Hotel and win your share of up to $1.8 million in free play and prizes. Join us for drawings every Saturday in May, June, and July. Each month, over 900 winners will take home free play or drive off in a new car or motorcycle. Be there for all six grand finale drawings and try to catch us if you can only at Southland Casino Hotel. Must be 21 up. Play responsibly for help quitting. Call 8005224700. The NBA announced their dunk of the year yesterday. It was voted on by the fans and it went to John Morant for his double clutch through Porzingis and Derek White. The call of it was excellent. That game we hung on to for a long time last season. Uh, but it was a spectacular dunk. Tune in to the Jessica Benson Show with CJ Hurt live every weekday at 8 a.m. on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. Orthopedic injuries can be unpredictable, unforeseen, and unscheduled. And Ortho South understands this better than anyone. Since your injuries don’t make appointments, you don’t need to either. That’s because Ortho South welcomes walk-ins during the weekdays and the evenings and even on Saturdays. So, next time an unforeseen injury makes an unscheduled appearance in your life. Visit orthosouth.org to find your nearest urgent care location. Just walk in and Ortho South will take care of everything, especially you. Learn more at orthosouth.org. That’s orthosouth orthosouth.org. Now, I got five more things you need to know. Number one, what has been speculated on for months is now official according to Pete Thamill, ESPN confirmed by Jonah Dylan over at the Commercial Appeal. Nevada transfer Brennan Lewis is QB1 at the University of Memphis. He will start behind center in 17 days when the Tigers host Chattanooga at Simmons Bank. You fired up about the Brennan Lewis era? It’s here. It’s here. Uh I mean, I’m not going to have to say fired up, but I’m glad that they announced this and I think it’s obviously the right move. Uh this guy has a lot of college football experience. Um you’re expected to be good this year. Uh you know, on paper you got a really good roster. I know that it’s a lot of new faces starting on offense and defense, but it’s supposed to be a lot of really good players, especially in the league that you’re in. And so, it makes complete sense that you get a veteran quarterback in here um to to run the show. And that seems to be the most obvious explanation for why and how Brennan Lewis won this quarterback competition to the extent that it was a competition. He has started 35 games. Yeah. At the division one level uh at Colorado and at Nevada and the other men competing for that job, have started zero games at the division one level. You ready? Have thrown zero passes at the division one level. I mean, look, AJ Hill and Orange and Maiden, they’re both big time recruits. So, like, I hope this doesn’t discourage them, you know, about their potential futures. I mean, look, dude, like it’s, you know, freshman quarterbacks like you you the the great ones do start like we we we see that, but you know, I think but not even always. Not even always. I mean, Arch didn’t, right? So, like I hope that, you know, I hope they can see the vision. Um, I’ll just say that, you know, you see a lot of guy you guys see guys transferring all the time that think they should have come right in and start whatever. So, I think I think this is actually pretty easy for Ryan Silverfield if if to try to handle that delicate situation in the era of NIL and transfer waiverss and all that. Um, Brennan Lewis is a six-year quarterback. This is it. Yes. And so, you just go to your younger quarterbacks and you say, “All right, he’s the starter now, but you know, it ain’t like he’s ever won a bunch of games at the collegiate level. Uh, you’re still competing every day. uh he could he has this job now, but he could lose it to either of you. Beyond that, injuries are a thing. I need you to stay prepared. Beyond that, if you are discouraged about your place in this program, just know that the guy who just in our eyes beat you out for the starting job, he ain’t going to be here next year. Yeah. So, keep working um and try to stay prepared for this season, but also know this guy will be out of your way heading into next season. Now, obviously, they could go out and get another transfer portal quarterback and just that’s the way sports works at the collegiate level these days, but I don’t think this is uh the type of thing is once you name Brendan Lewis your starting quarterback, you got problems in your quarterback room. If you and I, who ain’t been in that quarterback room a second this preseason, have known for a while that this is the way this is going to go, then I suspect most people in that quarterback room, including the backup quarterbacks, have known for a while this is the way it’s going to go. It’s not a surprise. This was always um all indications suggested we were headed down this path. And it I’m a big believer in if you know what you’re doing. I don’t I I don’t want to say there’s no point to being elusive publicly because coaches would argue otherwise and talk about keeping your opponents on their toes and unsure and blah blah blah. But Chattanooga Chattanooga has been preparing to the extent they’ve been preparing preparing for the University of Memphis. They’ve been preparing for Brendan Lewis. All right. They’ve been watching Brendan Lewis tape. And so I think Memphis has known what it’s going to do for a while. I think Chattanooga has known what Memphis is going to do for a while. I bet the quarterbacks have known how this is going to go for a while. And every day you don’t announce it. Every day you don’t make it official. It’s just another day people are going to ask you about it, them about it. And if you can end it, I would I would lean on the side of just end it. And with 17 days to go before the opener, they’ve decided to end it. I think too uh one thing that’s kind of exciting about it is the fact that um we’re going to have a starting quarterback that can use his legs. like we haven’t had that in a long time. So, it’ll be kind of fun to see that first and foremost. Plus, with like all new faces on the offense and a brand new receiving core, like you’re going to need a quarterback that can maybe make some plays with his legs if guys aren’t open downfield. Like, I I think that that’s kind of exciting. It’s something we hadn’t seen in a while um from a Memphis quarterback. So, I’m I’m really looking forward to it, man. If you want some numbers, last season at Nevada, he threw for 2,290 yards, 16 touchdowns while running for 775 yards and eight touchdowns. So, he can, you know, score with his arm, he can score with his legs. Interesting quarterback and he’ll take the first snap of the season, barring injury, of course, when the Tigers open in 17 days, August 30th against Chattanooga inside Simmons Bank. Number two, Zoe Kravitz. The lovely Zoe Kravitz. Love Zoe. Who doesn’t love Zoe? Let’s stop there for a second. Doesn’t everybody love Zoe Krav? Yeah, I love her. She’s great. Um feel like she was done wrong with the uh what what did she do recently? I was She was done wrong with that highfidelity show. That was a good season of television. I swear to God. Yep. I wasn’t trying to be rude while you were talking and typing while you were talking, but I was genuinely handtoart trying to remember what was that Zoe Kravitz television show that I really really liked. High Fidelity. It was High Fidelity. It was awesome. It was great. I don’t know why it got cancelled. I don’t get an opportunity to say this too often these days, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to tell you something. High Fidelity. Mhm. I read the book. Did you really? Damn, I’m jealous. I read the book. That’s really good. I mean, I don’t want to come across as one of those guys that’s like trying to tell you every time that television show movie that I I read the book. But I told you I I pretty much stopped reading books. I read tweets now. Yeah, I read tweets and Instagram captions, you know, that’s it. I don’t read books anymore. Too long. I read tweets and Instagram captions. But I used to read books and I read High Fidelity. No big deal. That’s pretty awesome. That’s pretty awesome. Yeah. Book was great. Book was great. Better than the Much as I love Zoe Kravitz. I think the show was actually the movie is like directly from the book. I think the show is more loosely based. I don’t know. Am I correct? Do you remember? Okay. No, but I mean she I remember thinking it was great. She’s great. She was in Big Little Lies. She’s Catwoman. Like she was in Big Little Lies. I liked her in Big Little Lies. Me, too. Who doesn’t like Zoe Crab? She’s awesome. She is awesome. She is. Yep. So, her mother’s Lisa Bonet. You know that? Yes. What? When she Wait, was she married to Lenny Kravitz? Was that right? Yeah. That’s how they got That’s how Zoe got the last name. Kravit. Kravitz. That’s got that I didn’t think I was going to have to piece that together for you. Yes. She is the daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet. But she also dated Aquaman. Lisa Bonet did. Lisa Bonet dated Aquaman. Yes. Jason Mamoa. Jason Mamoa. Lisa Bonet was married to Lenny Kravitz, who hosted the final Black Sabbath Aussie concert, by the way. This is crazy. Did you know that? How would I know something like that? Well, I ordered the paper. You know, he hosted it. It was pretty cool. I was like, whoa, I can’t believe he’s hosting this thing. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. We’ve gone too far. Okay. Hold up. Did you know this? Did you know who Zoe Kravit’s cousin is? Her second cousin. Her second cousin. A second cousin. I guess we all do. is I don’t know. I can’t Al Roker. Imagine your mom’s Lisa Bonet, your dad’s Lenny Kravitz, and your second cousin is Al Roker. That’s wild. What a wild life that is, huh? I see Al every morning. I hope he’s doing okay. He’s doing great, man. Seems to be. Seems to be. No, he’s doing great. Seems to be. Still got his charm. So, Zoe Kravitz, everybody loves her. You might have You remember when California caught on fire? Everything burned down. I do remember. Okay. Among the things that were lost in that tragedy apparently was the uh home belonging to perhaps the homes belonging to Lisa Bonet and and Zoe Kravitz. At the very least, they were displaced by the wildfires in California. All right. Mhm. Well, at the time, guess who’s on a tour? I think I don’t know. She wasn’t there at least. Taylor Swift has a home in Beverly Hills. Beautiful home in Beverly Hills. Okay. And uh she’s close friends with Zoe Kravitz. Zoe even got some like writing credits on her last album. So she’s close friends with Taylor Swift. And Taylor’s like, “Hey, I I know you’re displaced. I know you need a place to stay. You know, I got the house in Beverly Hills. You know, I’m living in Kansas City with Travis or out on the Aerys tour or in Nashville or in Rhode Island or wherever you might New York City. I’m not going to need the home in Beverly Hills. Why don’t you guys just go there and make it your make it your own? Oh, Taylor, that’s so sweet. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had friends who were own mansions in Beverly Hills that just let us stay there for two minutes? That does sound great. Yeah, it does sound great. Anyway, so Zoe Kravitz says, “All right, you’re being serious. Me and my mom can just stay at your house in Beverly Hills until, you know, we get back on track.” And she said, “Of course, Zoe Kravitz. It’s the least I could do.” So Zoe Kravitz and Lisa Bonet, this is Zoe Kravis telling the story last night Myers. They go to stay at uh Taylor Swift home. Lisa Bonet has a pet snake. Of course she does. A pet snake and um she seems like a snake owner. Kind of does, doesn’t she? Yeah. Yeah. Like not the most surpris gives off that vibe. Like I wasn’t shocked to hear that. No, at least has a snake. I’m not surprised. Snake’s name is Orpheus. That makes sense, too. That makes sense, too. Makes complete sense. So, Lisa Bonet, she’s like, “All right, Zoe, let’s go over to Taylor’s, but you know, I’ve got to bring Orpheus.” Mhm. And uh Zoe’s like, “Okay, but Jesus Christ, this is Taylor Swift’s house.” Taylor Swift’s house, Mom. Does Orpheus need to go to Taylor’s house? But is there no one that can watch the snake? Sidebar for a second. Uhhuh. Rude to bring your pets to other people’s homes. Yeah. The first time you’ve said that, this is an issue for you. I agree. I went through a little phase where people were bringing pets to my house. Yeah. We’d say we’d say, “Hey, you guys want to come over and like hang out at the pool? We’ll cook some food and dip our feet in the pool and drink some drinks. And if you guys want to come out, we’d be h happy to have you over.” And they’d be sure. And then they show up with their dog and then their dogs running around everywhere. Well, if you ask bothering my dogs, if you ask me if you can bring your dog, I’ll say yes. I you ready for this? Rude to ask somebody if they can bring their dog your dog if you can bring your dog to their house. Because here’s the truth. Nobody and I mean nobody wants your dog at their house. It’s maybe not nobody. Most of us I like dogs. I like dogs. I like dogs, too. I don’t want your dog at my house. I want my dogs at my house. Your dogs are going to bother my house. You know I’m trying to get into the dog sitting. I know you. I picked up on that. I’m trying to dab. I love dogs. I picked up on that. Yeah, I saw J what JB’s making. I’m You know, I picked up on that. Yeah, I picked up I know what it’s called. I know what it calls to board a dog, buddy. Yeah. Rude to take your dog to another person’s house. Rude to even ask if you can. Mhm. Like I had a young woman one time, she said, “Uh, hey, do you mind if my dog goes swimming in your pool?” I’m like, “I don’t even want your dog. I don’t even want your I don’t even want your dog here. I really don’t even want you here. I don’t even know why you’re here. I didn’t even invite you. I I invited your sister. I don’t even know why you’re here. Damn. And now your dog’s here. I definitely don’t I’m okay with you being here, but don’t need you here. But like don’t need your dog here. And now you’re asking if your dog that I don’t even want here can get in my pool. No. What is wrong with you? Where were you raised? Yeah, I don’t like that. I don’t like it either. I’m not going to take my dog to your house. Don’t take your dog to my house. All right. Okay. back to Zoe Kravitz and Lisa Bonet. They brought Orpheus to the house to Taylor’s foot. So, at some point, Zoe Kravitz is like yelling for her mom. Hey, mom, come downstairs. I’m cooking eggs or you know, whatever they were doing. Mom’s upstairs. She’s like, “Zoe, you got to come up here. Zoe, you got to come up here and help me.” She comes up there and she sees her mom like crouched down in the corner of a room and she’s like, “Mom, what on earth are you doing over there?” She’s like, “Oh my god, Zoe. Oh my god. What?” I let Orpheus out for a minute. There’s a It’s like a 1930s home. There’s a small crack, like a opening in like a corner of Taylor Swift’s room in her home. And guess who done climbed in the wall? Orpheus. Orpheus is in the wall. So, they’re trying to get Orpheus out of the wall, like jerking his snake tail, the whole deal. But he slithers away because snakes can slither. Mhm. And um so they finally call like I guess if you’re Taylor Swift and you own a bunch of mansions, you have people who like take care of them and stuff while you’re not around. So they call that guy and they were like, “What can we do?” And he’s he’s like, “Well, we can’t leave the snake in the house.” And I think everybody agreed with that sentiment. You can’t do that. You can’t call. In fact, Zoe Kravitz told Seth Meyer, she said, ‘I had this moment where my options were call Taylor Swift and tell her that I have lost a snake in her home or tell this buddy here, tear out the walls. Mhm. Get the snake and then get a crew over here to fix the walls and Taylor can be none the wiser. It can be fixed before she’s even back here and she don’t never have to know about it. So they tore the wall out. They got Orpheus. Good. Fixed the wall. But Taylor found out about it anyway. Oh. She called Zoe. She said, “Is it true? Why does it look weird in here?” She said, “Is it true that you lost a snake in my house?” She’s like, “I guess I got to plead guilty to that.” So perhaps that’ll come up on the New Heights podcast tonight. Yeah, maybe so. Oh yeah, that’s tonight. I forgot. Oh yeah, this was a this was a preview. Zoe Kravitz telling Taylor Swift stories on TV the night before Taylor Swift tells Taylor Swift stories on the New Heights podcast six o’clock tonight. Yeah, we got to watch or listen. I mean, we got to run those numbers up. Have to have to. We’re going to make it. You and I and hundreds of millions of other people perhaps. We’re going to make it the most listened to podcast episode of all time. And I’m sure we’ll get incredible content out of it. I’m confident it’ll show up in five more things tomorrow. Good. All right. Can’t wait for that. Me either. Me neither. Number three, Michael Porter Jr. jumped on a podcast just like Taylor Swift. He’s like the Taylor Swift of the NBA and uh discussed gambling in sports. And it was especially interesting given that his brother Jonte Mhm. has been banned from the NBA because he violated gambling rules and regulations. More specific. Former Grizzly. I want to say Jonte. Jonte was a former Grizzly. I believe that’s true. Yeah, I believe that’s true. I hope he wasn’t betting on stuff inside the grind house. This happened with the Raptors, I believe. Here’s what Michael Porter said. Michael Porter said, “You have to understand that some of these athletes come from nothing and all of their friends come from nothing. Some of them also have vices. And when you combine everything I just said, you can really get yourself into some awful situations. Michael Porter Jr. said, “Let me be clear. Gambling’s never been my thing. Money’s never really been my thing.” You want to know my vice? Women. So, the reason I’m not married right now is cuz I struggle with that aspect of my life. And that is my vice. He seemed to suggest I couldn’t possibly be in a proper relationship or at least the kind of relationship most people imagine right now because I would mess it up because my vice is women, right? Mhm. He said, “But uh my brother,” his vice was always money and gambling and Yep. Then he wasn’t talking specifically about his brother, but he said, “Now, you take somebody who’s got a a gambling addiction already. They’ve been gambling for years and then suddenly because of where they work, you tell them they can’t gamble anymore. All right? But they are still friends with all the friends they’ve forever been friends with. Those people are all still gambling. They also come from nothing. And you come up with an idea or somebody comes up with an idea, but either way, the idea is it’s here in this space. And it’s like, yo, you you realize you’re an end of the bench NBA player anyway. You might not even get into the game. If you do, you’re playing limited minutes. Do you realize there’s a system in place where they’re putting point totals, rebound totals, assist totals on me? And I can go out there, pull a hamstring 45 seconds after I enter the game, take myself out of the game cuz got a hamstring. Or it doesn’t even have to be that severe. Just turn my ankle. Doesn’t feel right. Got a stinger. Doesn’t whatever. And then all those unders are going to hit. So, what if me and or not even me, but my six buddies can throw $10,000 each down on Jonte Porter under three and a half rebounds tonight’s game. I might not even play, but if I do, I can take myself out of the game immediately and it won’t really impact the team that much. It’s not like I’m on the court missing shots or creating turnovers, throwing the ball out of bounds. I’m just going to enter the game, hobble about 45 seconds later, take myself out of the game, act like my ankles messed up. Unders cash. Boom, boom, boom. And all my homeboys got $10,000 winnings right now. We’re all rich. Michael Porter was like, can you see how that happens? And it will only get worse. What do you think of that? I can definitely see how it happens. I can definitely see how it happens. I can definitely see how it happens. I mean, you know, and and and he like you said, like he says that, you know, his basically um saying that his brother had this addiction like before he you know, was in the NBA and doing this. Um I think you just had to like choose what you wanted to like if you want to play in the NBA, you can’t gamble. Like I mean that’s your vice like you got to lose your vice. Well, the point he was trying to make with that, I think, by by explaining the vices like mine was women and his is this. It’s he was more or less I I think trying to say gambling is a real problem in this country. Athletes sometimes are among the addicted. Yeah. And this stuff is so accessible now that it becomes easy to make terrible decisions that will ruin your life. It’s very easy to say you should know better, but leaving a phone with a FanDuel account in the hand of an addict is like throwing a bag of Coke in a That’s true. Like, hey, I’m going to set this right here on your coffee table. You could grab it whenever you want, but you better not. Mhm. Like that’s what you’re doing to addicts when you put this stuff on their phones. Yeah. Like it’s like, “Hey, you’re not supposed to be gambling, but you can. It’s right in your phone 24 hours a day.” Like Michael Porter Jr. said, “My vice was women.” Imagine if instead of uh they put G they just unlimited women in your phone 24 hours a day. Just hit a two buttons and they just pop. They’re just there. That’s what that’s how easy gambling is. You want to make a bet, you make a bet right now, whenever you want to. And Michael Porter Jr. said, “We can keep telling people you can’t do it. Shouldn’t do it.” you know better, but addicts are still addicts. Financial problems are still financial problems and this stuff is going to continue to happen. I think that’s probably closer to true than because here’s the thing. You can say, well, you should learn from Jonte Porter or you should lo learn from Malik Beasley or learn from anybody else who’s been caught up in this stuff. But like what it’s not like a secret like if you gamble on the NFL and you’re an NFL player, you will pay a price for that. This is not a secret. Malik Beasley knew that when he did it, right? Jonte Porter did knew that when he did, they did it anyway. Either because they were so desperate or they quite literally could not help themselves. That’s what an addiction is. When you can’t help yourself, you know, I you know, you shouldn’t drink, but you do. You know, you shouldn’t anything that you should not do, but you can’t stop yourself from doing it. Like, we all know people like that. Oh, yeah. And gambling is a more normalized version of that. That’s what it is. And I I say this as a gambler. Like I’m not out here like gambling is wrong. I’m just saying I have watched it destroy people’s lives. Oh yeah. And it has wrecked Jonte Porter’s career. He’ll never play in the NBA again. And here was his brother just offering a an alternative perspective on it. Instead of saying, “You idiot, you should have known better. You ruined your life. If you’re an idiot and you’re stupid and you’re an idiot, how about you basically just dropped a bag of coke in front of a coke addict and dared him not to do it. It’s, you know, and you can say that these guys making hundreds of thousand dollars or millions of dollars like well they should never be in a position where they have financial problems except they are. They just are. Like have you seen Malik Beasley? Malik Beasley was about to sign like a $60 million contract. He was also getting evicted from residences because he wouldn’t pay his bills. He didn’t have the money. He was taking loans out with incredible interest rates. Yeah. He had made millions and millions of dollars. He was underwater. And what’s one way out? At least in theory. Somebody knows you’re underwater. Somebody knows you need money bad. Somebody says, “Hey, if you can go under this number, under this number, we can get you 40 grand here, 70 grand here.” you get when you don’t know where else to get the money from and people are banging on your door asking for it. I It’s just not hard for me to understand how this stuff happens. I think the initial reaction every time is like Malik Beasley, what are you doing? What an idiot. Yeah. But like it’s not hard for me to see how people end up in these situations. I I think ultimately the big sports books, they’re going to have to take these totals off of individual players, particularly role players. That’s it. I think maybe maybe maybe for the Stephss and LeBron and the starters and the guys who play 30 minutes a game, you don’t have to worry about it certainly as much. But for the guys who might get in the game, play four minutes, you can’t you don’t need to have point totals and rebound because they could so easily manipulate it just by check in, turn an ankle, check out those cash and you’ll catch some of them, which is what we’re doing now. But you will never catch them all. Can’t catch them all. No. So, I think at some point you’re gonna have to get away from the totals on role players at the very least. Like, start there. We’re not going to put these totals on role players anymore because that seems to be where many of our problems exist. Yeah. Anyway, Michael Porter Jr., interesting comments. I’m sure you can find the podcast wherever you find podcast. Number four, you remember this uh teenager from Memphis? Yes, I remember. Ethan, who decided to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by becoming the youngest person to ever solo fly to all seven continents. You remember the story? Yes. Okay. Well, we’re getting somewhere with it. Did you know he’s been stuck in Antarctica for since June? I had no clue until I saw this story today. Okay. So, you sent it to me from CBS News. that published um uh yesterday afternoon because there was a legal update on this Monday afternoon in Antarctica, a part of Antarctica that is controlled by Chile. By Chile. Yeah. Who knew that? Is it? It’s Chile. Chile. I don’t think I can. By the Chilean. Chile is like that’s redneck to say it like that. I think I think that’s a part of Antarctica controlled by Chile. Chile. It’s my bad. It comes out. Sometimes Chile. Yeah. How about this? It’s a part of Antarctica governed by the Chilean government. Mhm. Run by the Chilean government. It’s under Chilean control. Chilean’s a pretty good one. I like that. That’s good. Chile. It’s under Chilean control. They’re not far. They’re down bottom of the continent. But but if I would have just asked you say three days ago, Ben, what part of Antarctica is controlled by Chile? You’d have been like, what the why are you asking me? I don’t even know the state capital of Minnesota, right? What is the state capital of Minnesota? It’s not Minneapolis, is it? Uh, we’ve been over this one. Did we do this one before? Yes, I remember this one because we did this one. Did we? Come on, Bennett. St. Paul. Yes, of course it’s St. Paul. It’s St. Paul. It’s the Twin Cities. So, all right. I’ve studied up. What part of Antarctica is under Chilean control? How did Chile Chile How did Chile get a control of Antarctica? That seems crazy to me. I don’t feel like they should own any part of any control any part of Antarctica, but they do. All right. So, anyway, a little I always wanted to go to Antarctica. Antarctica. I had friends who moved to Alaska. Not the same. Okay, Bennett. I know it’s not the same. I know it’s not the same, but it’s both got I They both got ice. Yeah, I think both cold. One probably way colder than the other. Yeah, but they’re both cold. Yeah, you need a coat at either place. Yeah, you’d need a coat. You’d need a jacket at least. Yes. You need some mittens. Yeah. All right. So, I don’t know nothing about the Chilean government controlling part of Antarctica, but here we are. Learn something new every day. So, our little buddy Ethan from here in Memphis. I guess Antarctica was the last continent he needed to get to. That makes sense. You go to all the other ones first. I would go to all the other ones first. Antarctica seems challenging. It does seem challenging. Do you have any desire to get to all seven continents? Do you have any desire to get to all 50 states? Do you care about that? Let’s see. I’ve been on three. Three continents. I’ve done three continent. That’s pretty good. I wonder how many continents I’ve been on. Yeah, I’ve done three. What continents could I have done? North America. North America. South America. Been doing North America for a while. I’ve done Europe. Uhhuh. South America. I don’t know that I’ve ever been to South America. Damn. I mean, certainly Central Certainly Central America. Certainly all the little islands down there, but have I ever have I ever been to Per Peru? I never been to Peru. Never been to Argentina. Never been to Brazil. I I think I might be reduced to two continents. I’m not as worldly. Step your game up. I’m not as worldly as I thought. I’ve been very close to Asia, but I don’t think I’ve been in Asia. I haven’t been to Asia. I’d like to go to Asia. And I’ve been very close to Africa, but I don’t think I’ve been to Africa. I haven’t been to Africa either. And then what else is there? Well, we name all the continents. Yeah. North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa. What do we consider Australia? That’s I think that’s one. I think that’s like Oceanania though. We’re going to call that a continent. Um, and Antarctica. That’s very good. I I was forgetting Australia for some reason. I think I might have only been to two continents. I’m not very worldly. Damn. Bennett, you’ve been to more continents than me. Yes, I have. What in the world? And I got I got And I want to go to more. And he wants to go to more. God, I’ve already done three, dude. I could knock them all out. I don’t think I could knock out Antarctica. That’s that I think that is very challenging to get there. Evidence being this story. Evidence being this story. Back to this fellow. Yeah. All right. So, Ethan, he gets to Europe and he gets to Australia, he gets to all the other ones and now he’s got to go to Antarctica and you have to submit a flight plan. Apparently, this is important. Mhm. And he has been accused of submitting a false flight plan and flying into a part of Antarctica controlled by the Chilean government that you that he was not allowed to fly into. He put other people at risk. And they’ve detained him since June. He’s just been trapped. Yeah. In the Chilean part of Antarctica since June. Our little fella from here in Memphis. He’s just sitting in I want to give the Chilean government credit here, okay? Because I read the if when I first started reading the story, I was like, God, they like got my guy detained in Antarctica and won’t let him leave. And I think it’s I think it’s more along the lines of it it’s it’s hard for him to get out of Antarctica. Like I think they want him to leave, but it’s it’s kind of logistically. Okay. So, the Monday update is he is now legally allowed to leave. Yeah. He’s going to have to pay a fine and like do some stuff and and pay back some money. It’s going to get I think St. Jude was going to get shorted a little bit out of this deal maybe. But they’re getting the good pub, I guess. Yeah. So, he did a bunch of stuff he’s not supposed to do. He has been punished for it, but he is now legally allowed to leave Antarctica. They’re they’re like, “Bro, get out of here. All right, go home.” The problem is they he can’t leave because they can’t get flights out of there because it’s too cold. And I like I just from And his plane is reportedly not it’s compromised. His plane’s been compromised. Yeah. Which I mean you fly it all over the world. I would that thing’s probably a little banged up. I don’t think he took care of his plane. Maybe not. I don’t think he took care of especially flying into Antarctica, dude. Like I would assume the winds and like you probably taking a beating on that thing going uh going into Antarctica. But it does appear like that they do they have to find him and all this stuff. But it does appear that they there is an understanding like we know he just made a mistake here like we’re not it doesn’t seem like he was trying to blow up anything as much as like he just did something he’s not supposed to do. Yeah. And there’s a price to pay for that. I don’t love the idea of like a teenager jumping in a plane and putting other people at risk. Like that’s kind of crazy. Like you know we’ve been have had too much people at risk in planes lately. Seems like his heart was in the right place. I think it is in the right place. I think it’s right place trying to do something to make history to raise money for sick kids. I’m gonna have a hard time coming down violently against that young man. Me too. But he is also considered a quote influencer. And uh Oh god, I hate those. I hate I don’t hate influencers. I don’t either. I’m just kidding. I don’t hate influencers. I’m just kidding. I do think we we have an issue in this country. Mhm. Feel free to be an influencer. Influence away, but if your influencing gig interferes with my life, now you’ve taken it too far. In other words, you see these prank all the time, right? Oh, the prank people. Yeah. Like they’ll they’ll be sitting at baggage claim at an airport and they’ll just go grab somebody’s bag and act like they’re walking off with you. My favorite are the ones when they get their ass beat. I’ve seen a couple of those. I’m for that. Those are good. I am for watching a teenager get beat up at baggage claim if you grab somebody’s bag. That’s what I mean. I don’t mind influencers and people being funny and you know interviews on the street. I like those interviews on the street. I watch those all the time. They they just take like three girls off the street and be like, “How many people you slept with?” Yeah. I watch. That’s how the hawk to a chick. Yeah. That’s how she became an influencer. Yeah. Yeah. I I watch all those videos all the time. I don’t know why. They’re weird. I know. I watch them, too. I don’t know why. If you were a young woman, wouldn’t you Like you ever think like these young women are going to have this is going to live forever on the internet. Yeah. And you’re talking about a bunch of stuff you might not but maybe they just don’t care, right? Or maybe they’re too drunk. I don’t know what’s going on. I watch all of them though, man. You you take you take women standing or men. I watch people standing out of bars getting interview outside of bars getting interviewed. That’s good stuff. That’s good stuff. I watch them all the time. So I don’t mind that. But like if I’m sitting at baggage claim, I’ve been on the road for four days. I’m tired. I just woke up. I’ve been sleeping on a plane. I’m just ready to get home. And now some 16-year-old there grabbing my bag and acting like he’s walking off with it. Like, he deserves to get beat up over that, dude. I saw one the other day. I can’t remember what it was, but it was something like that. And like the dude just starts whooping his ass and he’s like, “It’s a prank. It’s a prank.” All right. You ready? This is a prank, too. Here’s a prank. Here’s a prank for you. Here’s another prank. I love that. But we’re pranking each other right now. Look at me. Now I’m pranking you. You were pranking me, but now I’m doing the pranking. Yeah, I’m for I’m for those people getting beat up. Me, too. Me, too. I’m not going to be the one to do it because, you know, I got I might not win. Yeah, I got it. Got too much to lose, all that stuff. But I wouldn’t mind it. Like, if an influencer stole my tried to prank me by grabbing my bag at baggage claim and somebody else took it upon themselves to beat up that person, I’d buy them a Starbucks. Hell yeah. I’d get them a Starbucks gift card. Yep. So, I don’t like those kind of influencers. I don’t know that we know Ethan’s that kind of influencer. I’m not going to label him that way. I I’m going to continue to believe his heart was in the right place. He was trying to raise money for sick children in downtown Memphis and got a little carried away with it. Yeah. Probably learned a lesson. I think he’s probably learned an important lesson over the past few months. and I look forward to having him home soon, just as soon as the ice melts a little bit and we can get Ethan back here, you know, close to the mighty Mississippi. Number five, history was made last night at City Field in Flushing, Queens. Pete Alonzo, dude, is now the alltime leader in home runs for the New York Mets. See, I didn’t know that he was going for this because if I would have You didn’t have a home run prop on Pete Alonzo, dude. I would have bet it every night until he hit it. He hit two last night. 253 and 254. The record breaker was the first one. Kyra, if you have it queued up, let’s watch together. Let’s watch history together. And Pete drives one deep right center field headed back toward the wall. It’s out of here. Out of here. Pete Alonzo stands alone. The polar bear on his own private iceberg. Pete Alonzo, the most prolific home run hitter in New York Mets history. That’s a happy polar bear. Pretty good. This a big moment in history for the franchise. Passing the great Daryl Strawberry, 80s legend. Daryl Strawberry released a video last night. You know what he said? He said, “Pete, you have worked hard. You have stood up in the pressure of New York City and you have played well. It’s welld deserved. You’re a homegrown player. Again, congratulations and continue to have great success. All the best, buddy. Back in June, Daryl was asked about the possibility of Petonzo passing him. And he said, “I’m rooting for him. He’s great. This is his time. That was my time. This is his time.” That’s the main reason I wanted to use this story, not because I want to make everybody watch a Pete Lonzo home run. I know most people don’t care. I love it because we were talking about the the inside the NBA guys earlier. Yep. I think it is so much more impressive and just cool when the older players, the retired players talk about the current players glowingly. Celebrate it. Like you know that undefeated Dolphins team. Yeah, I was just I hate those guys. What’s the guy’s name? Mercury Morris. And that is I hate Mercury Morris. I do too. Like the idea that you sit around Not really. The idea that you sit around every year hoping people lose so that they can’t break your record just feels like a empty existence. Like I want somebody to go undefeated in the NFL. Not because I have a favorite NFL team, but because I want Mercury Morris, if that’s what that guy’s that fell’s name is, I want him to be upset. Dude, I don’t want him to ever pop another bottle of champagne. I want the Eagles to go undefeated so that Mercury Morris never gets to celebrate again. Yeah, dude. Like like Aaron Donald would would literally like knock your head off. You know what I mean? Like it’s Yeah. If you tell me you can handle these types of moments like Daryl Strawberry did or like Mercury Morris does, I would say handle it like Daryl Strawberry. He was asked about it. I told you back in June and he was just completely complimentary. I can’t wait till Peter Lonzo breaks my record. He deserves it. He’s amazing. Oh man, I could never hit a ball like that. Even if you could just It just sounds better. It just sounds better to say like I would Magic Johnson’s pretty good at this. Like Magic Johnson is an all-time great who will go on TV and be like Steph Curry’s amazing, LeBron’s incredible. Michael was the best. Never really talks about himself that way. Just other people, particularly younger people. It just comes across better. Damn. Did you burn and just text us? Mercury Morris died last year. Rest in peace. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. That was See, that’s Rest in peace. Yeah. Now I feel bad. I don’t I still never liked him. No, I I feel bad. I didn’t like the way he handled all that. No, he was a great player. Aaron Donald would not have knocked his head off. Like I I take it back. I take it all back. I’m sorry. You hear how he died? How Aaron Donald ripped his head. Yeah, that’s what happened. He’s talking too much about that undefeated record. Oh man, they’ll still always have that. And the Dolphins ain’t winning [ __ ] anymore. Rest in peace to Mercury Morris. That’s what we were trying to say. Congratulations to Pete Alonzo. Yeah. Rest in peace to Mercury Morris. You remember the time Brad Carson tried to book Walter Payeyton? Yes, I do. Was it Who was it through? just like some PR person, bro. Could not stop laughing. Brad, who used to produce the Gary Parish Show, he got into a habit and I I appreciated what he was doing, of course, what he was trying to He would This is topical. We’re talking. No, no, not even that. He would email me every day trying to book so and so and so and so and so and so for tomorrow. Yeah. Nothing yet. I’ll let you know when it happens. Two hours later. Still waiting to hear back from so and so. Four hours later. Okay. Okay, I got some and I I finally had to say, “Listen, I don’t need the playbyplay on this stuff. You just you text me when you got somebody booked. I don’t need to I assume you’re working hard. You don’t have to prove it to me with emails.” Okay? And he’s But but before we got to that conversation, he was constantly keeping me updated on everything he was trying to do. Again, heart was in the right place. So, I get we get an email and it’s like, uh, the Walter Payton Foundation is having a golf tournament down in Tunka and wanted to know if if we wanted to have somebody on to discuss it and promote it and all that stuff. So, before I can even look at it, Brad’s already hit reply all. And so I get to see this email too and it’s like, “Oh, really excited about the Walter Payeyton golf tournament. U if it’s cool, we’d love to have Walter on. Um, you know, we could take him live at 4:20 day or we could pre-tape in the afternoon.” And it hits me pretty quickly. I’m like, I think Walter Payton’s dead. Yeah. And has been for a while. He’s been dead for a minute. Yeah. Like 10 years at the time. Yeah. Okay. And so I like privately like text Brad or something. I’m like, “Bro, this is so funny.” But like the W the Walter Payton Foundation, which you can reasonably assume is run by a woman who was like tight with Walter Payton. Like might be a sister. Mhm. You just asked to book a dead man. I can’t wait to see how she responds to this. Do we know how she responded? I I think he probably re responded quickly. Yes, he responded before she responded with the Oh, I’m sorry. I love that story. I love that story. Didn’t realize Walter I’m sorry. Of course, Mr. Payton, the legend. Yes. Has has left has left our earth. Um but like we’ll take John Dailyaly if you got him. Whatever it was, I don’t know. I don’t know. Anyway, rest in peace to Mercury Morris. Congrats to Pete Alonzo. And if you’ve ever find yourself as a aging human who once held a record and now it’s broken, just say complimentary things about the people who are breaking your record. Like Joey Chestnut someday. He ain’t going to be Joey Chestnut King at a hot dog eating competition forever. No, there will be another Joey Chestnut someday. All right. And I would like to think that when I see Joey Chestnut pop up on TV in 30 years and there’s a new Joey Chestnut that when they ask Joey Chestnut about the new Joey Chestnut, he says, “Man, this guy’s amazing. He would have wiped a floor with me. I could have never ate hot dogs like that. This is the best hot dog eater I’ve ever seen.” Just comes across better. As opposed to Joey Chestnut being like, “Well, they don’t eat hot dogs like they used to in my day. They don’t eat hot dogs like this anymore. They don’t play the game the right way anymore. The hot dog eating game just never plays the right way. Yeah, it does not. Rest in peace to Mercury Morris. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We’ll be back with GP’s carrier. All right. What is the biggest uh summer league accomplishment so far for this Grizzlies team? Toumomas Iselo filling out his coaching staff. The Ryan Saunders hiring was essential. It was big time. You have a veteran NBA voice there. Hey Grizzlies fans, be sure to tune in to Grisby where the panel and I break down all things Grizzlies and take a look at the rest of the NBA as well. The show is live every Wednesday 2 p.m. on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. Kroger shoppers and Grizz fans want exclusive last minute discounted ticket deals texted straight to you. Sign up with the new Kroger buzzer beater deal. Fans can sign up by texting Grizz to 636479 or visit your local Kroger store in the Delta division and scan the QR code. By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated promotional and personalized marketing text messages from the Memphis Grizzlies. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Shine down. Dance kid dance tour. Dance live in Memphis. FedEx Forum Saturday, August 30th with special guests Bush and Morgan Wade. Get tickets now at lenation.com. Shineown live in concert. For more, visit shindown.com. Let’s check the over under totals. Alabama, Georgia, and Texas all at 9 and a half. LSU, Miss, Tennessee at 8 1/2. I love Miss over the 8 and 1/2. I think Miss can win nine. But Miss, they’re going to, you know, miss, they’re going to lose to Arkansas week, but they could go nine and three. Like Miss winning 10 games crap like that. Miss winning 10 can seem a bit of a stretch, but they can win nine. They’re going to lose at Kentucky week two. The Odds Couple live at 2 p.m. on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. We get to the main event and you hear the crowd. There’s some rumblings in the crowd. Here we go. They say, “We want truth.” I love how John Cena said when they were chanting, “We want truth.” You can’t handle the truth. There you go. I loved it. He takes the knee off. Boom. Takes the mask off. Boom. And it’s our freaking truth. God, man. He cost John Cena of the match. Tune in to Grind City Wrestling weekly on the Grind City Media app and on the Grind City Media YouTube channel. Welcome back to Gary Paris show presented by Ortho South. Let’s wrap this up with GP’s Carry out. It’s time for GP’s Carry out. One final segment filled with stuff to take with you. It’s not everything you need to know, but it’s most of it. What did we miss today? Let me hit you with some breaking news. Tom Dundan, the owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, has agreed to buy the Portland Trailblazers from the estate of Paul G. Allen for a valuation of just more than $4 billion. Sources confirmed to ESPN about 10 minutes ago. Reportedly, Dundon plans to keep the Trailblazers in Portland as opposed to move them to another market, perhaps Seattle. So, like seriously, this is good. I uh you know, Portland is not New York, LA, Chicago, Miami, and because that franchise has been up for sale, there’s been some real concern among that fan base that they could be losing their their franchise, right? And so this must be celebration time in Portland and Oregon throughout the state because uh again the report is that Tom Dundan is going to buy the Trailblazers but he’s not going to move the franchise. It will remain in Portland. So big NBA news, you can read about it. Seam’s got it. ESPN.com. What’s today’s biggest game? Taking you to the WNBA. Oh, let’s go back cuz I’m on a roll. You are on a roll. Yep. You had Paige Bakers rookie of the year. You had Paige Beckers last night. Big underdog went into Cambridge Fieldhouse. Straight up. Straight up. Victory over Sophie Cunningham, Aaliyah Boston, and the Indiana Fever, the Caitlyn Clark Indiana Fever. And you see the Fever’s coach. What’ she say? Yapping again. What’ she say? What she used to say? I think Caitlyn Clark gets the worst whistle in the WNBA. And now you know what she says. What? I think Aaliyah Boston gets the worst whistle of any front court player in the WNBA. Have we reached a point where all Indiana Fever stars get the worst whistle in the WNBA? It might seem that. It seems that way. Or is this coach just yapping a little too much? I think she might be yapping a little too much. Maybe yapping a little bit too much. Paige Beckers gets the win last night. That’s a victory for Big Bet Bennett. Let me give you your record. I don’t feel like we’ve been focusing on this enough. You’re now 249, 220, and four. You’re 29 games above 500. Let’s go. You’re up 6.3 units. Remember when it looked like I would never that I would always just be in the negative forever? People were saying I should reset you so that maybe we could give you hope to get your head and your beard above water. But now look at you. You dug out of your own hole. Football season’s right around the corner. How does it feel? I could have dug you out of that hole at any minute. But how much better does it feel to know you dug yourself out of that hole? Uh, it feels good. It feels good. It wouldn’t feel the same if I got if I dug you out. Oh, no. It wouldn’t be fair. It It wouldn’t It wouldn’t feel the same if I handed you a fish. You caught you a fish. Yep. I didn’t hand you a fish. You caught a fish. I’m proud of you. Thank you. I don’t think I tell you I’m proud of you enough. Thank you so much. I’m proud of you about this. Thank you, man. Liberty’s Aces 8:30 tonight on ESPN. Okay. We’re going to do it inside Michelobl Arena out in Vegas. The aces are minus two and a half. Yep. Sabrina on one side, Asia on the other. Oh, it’s a marquee matchup. It is a huge matchup. It’s a huge match up in the W. Acesus two and a half. Total 172.5. How you going to act? They’ve won four in a row. Um, give me liberty or give me death. Bennett says he’s taking the New York liberty on the road. Yep. He’s not worried about I think it’s I think they’re I think they’re getting into championship mode. You’re not concerned about the hostile environment inside Michelobl Arena. No. Okay. Okay, Bennett. Fine. Bennett says take the liberty plus the two and a half on the road. Tips at 8:30. You can watch it on ESPN. What are we watching on TV? I mean, I guess we’re watching the New Heights podcast, right? I think so. I mean, what are you talking about? I think so. It’s It’s Taylor Swift and a couple of football players. Yeah. One current, one former talking for, you know, about an hour or so, I guess. Yeah. I guess that’s what we’re doing. 6 o’clock tonight. I’m in. Where do we watch it? YouTube. I guess YouTube, right? I think it should be on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I’m going to YouTube tonight. 6 o’clock. Yep. As well. Oh, man. I can’t wait. I can’t wait either. What’s the best thing we’ve read? You read this Aaron Donald story from this morning. No, I was just talking about Aaron Donald. I know. Yeah. Uhuh. What’s going on? Story in the athletic. Really interesting. And by interesting, I mean crazy. So Aaron Donald for years now has been getting stalked by a woman who claims to have married him. Um sends things to his home, sends things to wherever he was working, shows up in places that he’s at. So much so that he’s filed a restraining order against this woman. The Athletics got the whole story um with documents and the whole deal, but this is the first time this has been told in this way. You think of Aaron Donald, this big strong man. Yep. Well, like that big and strong stuff only works so well until a crazy person shows up with a gun, right? And so he’s had to file a restraining order against this woman. She contacts him, contacts his wife, his kids. Dang. She claims to be his wife. Obviously, it’s not true. um she filed legitimate legal documents asking for a divorce. Like this all got caught up in the system and they’re like, “Hold but you’re not married.” Yes, I am. She’s cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, right? But Aaron Donald like in these court documents is like, “I am scared for my life. This woman has showed up where I’m at. She has showed up where my children are at. She has threatened me.” in one email slash messaging thing, she said, “You’re gonna have to pay for your son’s life.” Meaning, you give me this money to keep your son alive. Or at least that was the how that’s how he interpreted it. And so, it’s just a well-reported story about like who’s who’s if you think of the scariest athlete in the country over the past 10 years. Yeah. Like it might be Aaron Donald. like other football players talk about there’s no way to stop that guy as a football player and here he is scared of a woman because she’s bananas and saying bananas things and this has been going on for years. The athletic story wraps up cuz she knew the athletic was working on this story. Mhm. And the way the story wraps up is with her contacting The Athletic on Saturday night, claiming that Aaron Donald and another football player showed up in her backyard over the weekend and she’s now thinking about filing a restraining order against him. Obviously, Aaron Donald did not show up in her backyard. Now she’s crazy. And like that’s like here’s the scary thing about America. If somebody is cuckoo and they want to take your life, there ain’t really much you can do to stop it. No, they can get you. You know, it’s true. That’s scary. Dude, you should read this. It’s a wild story. Yeah, I’m going to check that one out. The Athletic Aaron Donald. You Google those things, it should pop right up. What’s on tap for tomorrow? But tomorrow’s Thursday. Michael Wallace will join me, senior editor, Grime City Media. We’ll get the schedule release tomorrow, but probably not until after the show. So, that’s not ideal, but we will know at some point tomorrow exactly when and where are all 82 games for the Grizzlies or at least, you know, we’re going to have a schedule for the Grizzlies and all 30 NBA teams. Big day in the NBA tomorrow. I’m ready. I’m ready too, Bennett. I’m ready, too. Enjoy the rest of your day. I’m going to try to enjoy mine. We will meet back here tomorrow at 10. Till then, be careful, be kind, be good, wrap your hood.
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