We lost the legend. This past weekend, Ricky Henderson passed away from pneumonia. Oakland, A's legend. Town Legend had a field named after him at the Coliseum. Nineteen nineties MVP, two time World Series Champ, all times runs leader and
stolen based leader. The style he brought to a game that was kind of dry back in the eighties, with the Jerry curl, the batting stands, the way he used to snap people off in the outfield, the way he would get these monstrous leads with his lime green gloves and wigless fingers, and the pictures can throw over ten to fifteen times, and no matter what that one time they didn't throw over, he was gone. Ricky's energy and
smile can light up a room. I recently got a chance to finally meet my idol about a month ago at the Reggie Jackson celebrity softball game, and I didn't ask for a picture, and I'm kicking myself to this day. Did get a chance to sit down and talk to him a little bit. I mean, everyone was kind of gathered around him as he was telling stories and talking shit. But to hear other players talk about him and what he meant as he sometimes talked about hisself and the
third person. I heard Harold Reynolds tell a story about a year that Ricky got hurt and Harold Reynolds ended up winning the stolen based title with like sixty something stolen bases, and Ricky called them and told them, Hey, this is Ricky, only sixty bases. Ricky gets that at all Star Break and hung up on him. It just some of the you know, legendary stuff you hear about Ricky Henderson. But I'm sending my deepest condolences to the
Henderson family. Alexis's daughter. We were actually scheduling sit down with Ricky, but unfortunately that didn't happen. So I want to send my deepest condolences, my thoughts and prayers to the family. And Ricky will be missed. Now let's welcome in and my brother from another Steven Jesse, Ulysses, Jackson.
Betholomu, barth Oloby.
What up, bro?
How was vacation? Man?
It was a blessed and man I didn't want to go, but found out that it was much needed.
I needed to unplug.
I needed to go brainstorm and collect my thoughts and the different spas and the time where white peoples definitely needed.
Bro.
I had a great time. Bro.
You always be talking about how you don't want to go somewhere, and then every time you do, you always have a good time.
Yeah, I had a great You just.
Be trying to set yourself up.
I'm glad.
I'm glad you guys got some family time.
Man, Let's get to it.
This past weekend, Juju versus page sc versus yukon big game, two of the brightest young stars in the game. Jack, what was your takeaway from this game?
It was much CTV.
I mean, I didn't it was that day was a big sports day, but everybody was talking about USC versus juicr on page Buckets versus Juju. That was a highly anticipated game and everything that it was supposed to be.
Mad it was I think Juju for Juju, she showed.
How she's really ready to jump out there and be the face women's college basketball and be the best player because she had USC ready to play in a big game like that. You know, when you playing big games like this, Matt, you're gonna get each team's best shot, right, And USC came out and played it, and they showed they wanted to win that game, but also the big
girl from Yukon Strong. She showed, you know, the experience and the championship pedigree that they come from a Yukon where they fought back in the game, and she basically dominated and got him back in the game. And the Page start playing well too of her and Juju was going back and forth, but USC was able to pull the game off. But that was that game was probably one of the most entertaining games I've seen this year, and I'm happy to say it came from a women's basketball game.
I was disappointed.
Man.
The twins played at the same time, so I was checking, uh, I was checking on my phone to kind of watch, but I saw at one point sc was up or was it twenty or almost twenty points And then next thing I know, here comes Page and you come and Sarah Strong is at her name. Yeah, the big freshman that was out there working on that low block. And next thing you know, it's coming down to the wire. So a big game. Juju twenty five points, seventy five
percent from the three point line. Page finished with twenty two. Juju is now averaging twenty five six boards for Cysts, two blocks and two and a half steals.
Jack.
I really feel like she I think obviously everyone does. She's next in line. I feel like, obviously with the entry of Andrew Reese and Kaitlin Clark this year, it kind of reminded me of Magic and Bird back in the day and kind of shifting the viewership and and you know the explosiveness of this game, and then you have Juju coming down the pipeline. Sc is now eleven and one. They took a tough loss to Notre Dame
if I'm not mistaken early in the season. Yeah, but you know, obviously this is a big bounce back against Gino and Page. So Juju is one player who Jack is her game strong enough to change the rules? You know, all women have to go to school for at least four years before they can make the jump. Is Juju someone that can possibly push the line with that rule?
Yeah, well, I mean I think, you know, yeah, I look at it different. I think she's definitely ready to for the WNBA. Now she could be you know, if it's time to change the rule, why shouldn't she be the face of it. But you know, I've always felt like, if you can go to war at eighteen to put your life online. You should be able to take your family and play a sport at eighteen as well.
And you got to think too, she's like the legitimate age in the day and age where there's whole backs and double hole backs and super red shirts and people talking about juco players get eighteen years in college now like Juju is someone who is really if I'm not mistaken, she's still eighteen or may just be nineteen, so she's her actual age.
In the right grade.
So to be able to see her talent, she's really special. So really excited to continue to see what this season holds for college basketball.
On the women's side.
Christmas Day, Jack, did you get a chance to play any Christmas Day games?
I think I did. Maybe if I did, it was one. If I did, I don't know. Maybe if I did, it was one, But I might have it.
I don't think it happened, you know what. No, I did. I had Christmas Day shoes when I was in Charlotte.
Okay, they just gave you shoes. Doesn't mean you had the game though, did it?
No? No?
No?
Because they were red and we had to wear it because it was a Christmas Day game.
Okay, it looked the bombcasts on TV for Christmas must have had a hand in that.
On TV. We probably had a Christmas game, he said, he wasn't on TV. Yeah, we just had a game on Christmas.
Motherfucker's had a scrimmage on Christmas Day. I was lucky enough, man, I got to play in like I think like four or five maybe even more. I got to play a lot on Christmas. That was amazing. But recently Charles Barkley, obviously with the ratings where they're at, Barkley said to fix the ratings issue, that the season should start on Christmas. If I'm not mistaken, Jack, our twenty twelve season started
on Christmas, and I actually loved it. I was with the Lakers then or the Clippers, one of the two. But I know we played on Christmas. But I think Jack, obviously, there's a lot of different things that go into the ratings, and you can blame it on whether you want to blame it on the election, the NFL, college football, the style of play, the Hornets, and the Bullsmith seventy five three pointers combined the other day, something has to be done.
What are your thoughts on possibly shortening the season to you know, gain the most traction and hopefully bring some fans back.
That's just crazy.
But somebody you can even say that about a professional game a right, nuts.
That's because all they want to do is shoot threes.
I mean, like you said, it's any it's a million things that need to change, But what it boils down to is the players.
What it boils down to is the players. They depends.
The players are allowed to do whatever the fuck they want from play when I want to. I don't want to play like it's just it's just to me. They can get the appreciation back for the game. You know, everybody, regardless how much money you make, and you're gonna go out there and put your life on the line every night. When you get started to get more of those guys back because the guys like that they're not in the league.
They pushing those guys down.
They want the good guys, although yeah, those guys are on the way or out. Those guys are on the way out.
Yeah.
So when the game gets back to that and they get away with stop launching a half court shots.
Everybody who can shoot the furthest.
Like I hated Matt, and I'm glad it's low because I ain't watching it. Nobody want to watch that bullshit. Shit is bad. It's bad basketball. There's no IQ basketball. All these kids out here are super talented, all the talented, super talented, all the talent in the world, but think passed the fucking pre throw line. So it's a lot that they can fixed, Matt, But for me, I would say they need to get their hunger back, and they and their appreciation for the game.
I got a chance to see yesterday. I just really took the day off from life and just watched a ton of TV and I saw the two thousand Damn. I don't remember the year, but it was tamac on the Magic See where it was on the kings A. I saw that All Star Game where these dudes were going at it in the All Star Game or like really Garden trying to block dunks and like they was
really going at it. And I'm thinking, like I probably saw one time ten Hall of Famers on the quarter once, and I'm thinking, like, if these guys can play this hard for an All Star Game, like what is the excuse for the current All Stars? But then the league as a whole man, I mean, obviously.
I don't mean to cut you off, but I don't mean to cut you up.
But you're talking about to me the best All Star game ever because I played in the rookie game that year. That was in two thousand and three. That's when Steph, Steph Ai, Vince car That's when they came back right with the small line, Vince Carters, Tracey McGrady, Steph, Steph Ai, and somebody else.
Yeah, bro, you exactly right. That was the best game in the West. The West had Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Chris Webber as there as they're from.
Time.
Shit was insane, bro, But you know it's it's to me, Jack, is it? You know it's you never want to point a finger at you know, Steph because he's been incredible for or what he's been able to do for this game itself. But I think a lot of people think that they have that Steph Curry or Klay Thompson ability. And this is a copycat league. So remember when the league, when we first came to the league, you couldn't even shoot the ball unless the post touched it first. Rarely rarely,
I mean they're beagle. Probably name five guys in the league. They can come down and just pull up. Used to have to go inside out and work your offense. Now people are running three on one to get three pointers.
They're winning the.
Three on one fast break one defender with three offensive guys, and these guys are running to the three point line and just pulling three after three. So I definitely think this is an issue jacking, and to be honest with you, the issue can grow even next year because next year you're gonna have to chase the games. You're gonna have to go. There's new streamers, and it's gonna be all over the place, so it's not gonna be the normal
place that you find it. So I think Adam Silver really has a lot of work to do this offseason to try to figure out how to re store because the NBA has been on a hell of a trajectory.
You know, obviously with the new money and the new partnerships, the growth of the game is going up, but the viewership is trash right now, and it's because I think the main reason, like you said, is that the product in which they're putting on the floor, which brings me to Christmas Day, and normally Christmas Day is for just the NBA. But guess who's snuck in on Christmas. The NFL said, fuck that, we're gonna come get some of these ratings. So now the NFL is on Christmas Day too.
But here's a slate. You got the Spurs at the Knicks, the Wolves at the MAVs, the Sixers at the Celtics, the Lakers at the Warriors, and the Nuggets at the Suns. And I'm right with you, you don't. You don't beat that. What game is she performed? Does anybody know what football game she's performing? It's a Texans It's a Texans game. Jack, Are you gonna make time to watch any if these this slate of five NBA games I just threw at you for Christmas Day?
Absolutely not. I'm glad my family it just chilling out. I think I gained more of my day play a call of duty than watching that shit cood.
So you're gonna be killing and not chilling, Yeah, killing and not chilling. Oh, Man, I might grab a couple of these. I might peak at a few, Jack twenty twenty four. Man has been obviously coming to the end of this year. It's been a tremendous blessing for our company. We launched All the Smoke Productions January won, twenty twenty four, and as I'm here in La sitting in our new building, it's beautiful. What has been your thoughts on just our elevation in twenty twenty four?
What?
Just two things me, I'm just appreciating everybody on our team, like just be here. You know, a lot of a lot of people in this face. A lot of people are trying to do the things we're doing, but we're actually doing it, and we all a lot of things that have worked in our favor, you know, from from Brian Delly on down. So I'm just honored to be a part of this team. I'm honored to be in
this situation because I never expected it. You know, I never expect to be doing what we're doing and being a part of a great production company, great shows, Like I did something that I never even thought of after basketball and two, I ain't gonna be the one to fuck it up we here, this shit is crazy. I ain't gonna be the one.
To puy not me.
Huh. Now it's been dope.
I mean to echo what you said, I mean, the whole entire All the Smoke team. We love you, We appreciate you guys, because obviously we couldn't do it ourselves. But it's been a crazy run, you know. Also also shout out DraftKings for forgiving us the opportunity to really build, you know, build this situation. But twenty twenty four has
been great. Right now, we wanted to talk about who had a great twenty twenty four, Who owned twenty I'm gonna give you a list of some people, and you tell me who you think had the best twenty twenty four, maybe the top three. So obviously Kendrick, you know him and Drake went back and forth, and you know, from May on, not like us has been a problem. Caitlin Clark broke multiple records in the w n b A and the NCAA has kind of changed the game as
far as viewership and opportunity in the women's game. The Kelsey's and the Swifties, We're gonna put them together, the biggest music artists in the world. Best selling tour of all time, two billion, Travis Wentz a super Bowl. The Kelsey Brothers get one hundred million dollar podcast deal.
Amazing.
Shout out to Fellas. Jason gets his own show, on ESPN Anthony Edwards gold medal. First thing that Jashoe future face of the NBA, Pat McAfee got, the ESPN execs fired College Game Day and WWE he's doing this thing, show Hal Tani biggest contract in Major League Baseball history, in Woner World Series. And our brother Dion Sanders shutting the haters up, turning this whole organization around, and him and Travis excuse me, Shador and Travis could possibly go
one and two. Jack, you shook your head on everybody I mentioned. Who am I missing the person at all?
Twenty twenty four And congratulations to him because he's owned it with Shannon Shark.
Shannon Shark ooh got to keep I'm not mad at that, Jack, I'm not mad at that. That's a good call. Shout out Shannon Man. He definitely changed the game him and you know, obviously Shannon has been doing this thing. But I think that that Cat interview opened up the door to what is catterprophet is? Can you see the future? I love well, Jack, you know the crazy shit was
That's the trip I got sick. Remember we were supposed to have Cat the same time we had Warren g I remember I got sick that one day and I couldn't come in, and Jolanni field in for me. You know, we're supposed to have cat that trip, and then like two weeks later he was on Shannon's thing.
But that's a great call.
Shannon definitely did his thing this year, definitely established his brand, his company, obviously the big deal with ESPN in first take Man's that's a that's a really good call. Who else do you think? Who are a few other people? If we got Shannon number one? Who else do we got to kind of round this out? We got Pat Showhy, Dion and Edwards, Caitlyn Clark, Kendrick. You gotta throw Kendrick in there.
You got.
Caitlyn in there. Not mad at that? So those three, Shannon, Caitlyn, and Kendrick, Yeah, I'm not mad at that. Shout out everyone else who had a solid year.
Jack.
Who comes to mind when we think about twenty twenty four When they asked me this question this morning, I'm like, you guys, got no God damn we I don't even remember who we interviewed in twenty twenty four, But does anyone jump out for best all the time? Smoke guests in twenty twenty four. Our throw a few names, obviously, Kamala, Sean Kemp, Dianna Shadoor, Pat McAfee.
Mike Epps. In Indy.
We did Mike Epps twice. People don't know, man, we had Mike Epps at the same ship, so we were supposed to have Cat. We were supposed to have Cat the same two days. We had Mike Epps the first time, I remember. So we filmed so y'all little story. We filmed Mike the first time in La and then he hit us up and said he was too wild and could we redo the interview, And we're like, damn, we never had that happen before. So we're like, all right.
And then we were able to get him in uh, get him in Indy and he was to me, he was even more cracking in All Star Weekend.
It was way more popping.
It was a fun run and Mike was classic Bro. Mike had me rolling. Then he didn't. Pat mcaveee give us some some some some butt sweat gummies that we ate with them.
Yeah, the whole weekend.
I said, you know, hey, hey, we cracked in Indiana.
Bro.
Indiana was a fun little trip. It was cozy shit. But Indiana was fun and we had great guests that run. So does anyone Yeah, does anyone stand out in twenty twenty four for you? I mean, obviously we did our live shows in twenty twenty four. Anybody stand out?
Yeah? I'm a one that stood out to me was a LJ.
There Johnson, Oh live show that was.
That was a side of interview, great kept pride. LJ was Yeah.
You know, that was my first time getting a chance to spend time with him and Bill Ron. So it was that interview on that show was more than I thought it would be.
What about when Sebastian Telfer threatened to kick your ass after the show? Man, I'm just praying for him, and he said, you gave him counterfeit?
How much?
How much money of these.
You can with?
One thousand dollars a counterfeit money.
Pray for that boy, man, Pray for that boy.
Oh Man, Bassie Man, We love you, bro. Hope you're well. Happy holidays? Oh shit, that was funny, Jack. You get all your shopping done?
Yeah?
You know, man, you know, I really don't too much celebrate Christmas. You know, it's really for my kids and my family, you know, with me being mug and I don't celebrate Christmas.
But at the same time, I love the family time.
You know, I don't. I don't get away from the kids. You know, my wife still does the things for the kids, so I don't have to. But I'm just here to continue to spread joy people love around and just happy to be here. You know this, This is what I really enjoy about this time of year, Not really the holidays, just been able to spend time with family and see how grateful we are, how blessed we aren't just be happy to say that you live to see another year.
Yeah, man, it's the little things. Well, unfortunately I'm not Muslim, and you beat all sign the world absolutely. I signed an application. I'm gonna be working at home depot to get a second job after all the goddamn money I just spent this Christmas on all seven of my kids and family and helping friends out and helping all these motherfucking people out.
Man.
So starting twenty twenty, you guys catch me at a home depot in Chatsworth.
I'll be running sho.
I'll be running shifts out there you can find me. I also be selling weed out the store, So just let me know what you need, man. But Jack, has been a.
Great year, Bro. I love you.
I appreciate you. Continue to take this shit to the next level. Obviously, we launched all the Smoke fight this year. We got the NFL side jumping with Deshaun and Shady, hoping to add MMA this year and also golf in twenty twenty five. Man, So be on the lookout for all the smoke productions in twenty twenty five. We continue to grow, we continue to elevate, continue to do.
It the right way. Jack.
Before I get you out of here, one new Year's resolution.
To make the best of every opportunity. There you go. I like it.
My new Year's resolution is to be more disciplined. And it's really only on the eating side. Everything else. I'm pretty disciplined. I beat bullshit and when I eat, Bro, and I hate it because I work out so hard and I'm just like, yeah, why is it shit not coming off like you used to in your forties. That shit just don't be falling off.
I didn't know you all the time. I've never really seen you snack.
I'm not I just it just depends I get in these moves where you know all go in the pantry. We know, we got eighteen kids, so there's always gotta be some bullshit in the pantry late late nights, I'm up watching my shows or you know, I just you know, I just be doing shit I shouldn't be doing in that pantry. So my dedicated my New Year's resolution is just dedication. I think I'm really dedicated at every other aspect of my life, and I need to tighten up
on the bullshit snacks. Well, I appreciate you, bro, love you. Happy holidays, and shit, I'll see you next year.
I love you more.
And everybody in the background in that studio, I love y'all too, man, Happy holidays.
I want to welcome in now Frank Correllia, someone I found on social media, maybe like two or three years ago, and what drove me to your content was just the in depth storytelling you find hitting gems with former players, current players, guys who didn't make it interesting stories just all around sports and really do a deep dive in tone. But you do it in a little compact package in just a few minutes.
What if I told you it takes just one minute to prove why Michael Jordan is the goat. Seeing NBA history, only one guy ever has averaged forty points per game in multiple playoff series. It was Jordan and the last time anyone else even did it once was Rick Barry in nineteen sixty seven. Also, only four times in NBA history has someone won the scoring title MVP, the Finals Finals MVP, and was first Team All NBA and All.
Defense in the same season. Every single time.
It was Mike, and I remember reaching out to you saying, bro, I don't have a company yet. I'm going to build a company. But once I do build a company, I want to work with you. And shit, all the smoke Productions is here now and we have the ball rolling. So Frank, first of all, welcome and thank you for your time. And where did that passion for these stories and your story intellian ability come from?
So yeah, thanks guys so much for having me.
All of this started back in early twenty twenty when I was a sophomore Seaton Hall. I got into collecting sports cards. Didn't know anything about the space, and now as I was learning, I saw no content. It was hard for me to find information. So I said, screw it. I'm going to be the one that makes the content. So I started a daily newsletters, started making videos on just market trends. Some cards are going up in price,
down in price. But as I went through that journey of collecting, I realized how many rich stories there are in the space of why is this baseball card worth a million dollars? Right, there's collectors out there that have put together fifty million dollar collections. How did they find these cards? So built a whole business out of it with Trove, and now we work with all the top collectors, all the top auction houses to bring these items truly
to life. And by doing that over the last four or five years, for fun, I was like, you know what, I love sports stories too, right, obviously sports is my primary passion. So just for fun on all old NBA players. I love what happened to this guy? How did this guy make the league? All these people have such incredible journeys and it's just fun. I just try to make cool short videos that people want to share with their buddies and hopefully you learn something new in sixty ninety seconds.
Yeah, definitely. I mean again, that's what drove me to you. I mean I went down a rabbit hole on your page one day, I was like, Yo, this dude is dope. But I heard just so many different crazy stories. I'm just like, we got to do something together. We actually sat down with Uncle Luke not too long ago, and Uncle Luke, aside from you know, being the leader of two LIVEE Crew and all the cool shit he did with that, he was INIL before nil and they used to have a bounty program, oh b at Miami. He
would take care of the guys here and there. So we tasked Frank to do a deep dive with this story, and Frank went in with his hard hat and did some research. So tell us about a little bit about what without giving it away, tell us a little bit about what you found and how fun was this story for you?
Yeah, it was awesome.
So yeah, we're gonna be dropping a longer video on this, going into the full story, but just short. In the eighties, Miami football was the greatest dynasty in college football history, right, they're coach that came. Coach Snellenberger came in nineteen seventy nine and he completely changed the program. And he said, Miami, all we have to do to dominate is if we just get all the top recruits in South Florida. Don't worry about recruiting anywhere else.
We get all these guys, we will be great.
And from eighty three to ninety one won four national championships. So Uncle Luke was biggest Miami football fan and he wanted to help the guys out because they were getting no money back then. Players in the eighties you would get thirty bucks to feed yourself and go out on the weekends, which isn't possible if you're a three hundred pounds star football player at Miami going out at night life, right,
So he would look out for them. So what they had was this pay for big play bounty program where let's just say you get a sack, you make one hundred bucks.
You get a big touchdown five hundred bucks. And every week they had a big.
Play are or whoever is the biggest hit that week gets all the money. So maybe it's fifteen hundred bucks. Whoever knocks out the quarterback.
You get the fifteen hundred bucks. Fine.
The thing was, you have to win the game. If Miami didn't win the game, nobody.
Gets paid no money. I like it.
That may be a reason why Miami from eighty five to ninety four fifty eight consecutive home games.
They didn't lose. They want to get paid.
That's nuts. I love that.
Well, Frank, thank you man. Along with obviously this story, we're going to be clabbing on much more. You bringing more stories to life about the Collectible space. So Frank, before we get you out of here, you know, tell everyone where they can find you. Obviously, Trove is your mothership, so tell everyone where they can find you.
Yeah.
So for Collectible's content, it's find your Trove on all platforms, and for my personal handle it's Frank Rallia.
Well sounds good, Frank, definitely looking forward to work with you. Thank you for your time today, bro, and we'll talk soon.
Sure, Thank you guys.
Before we get out of here, I want to give you guys my picks for this holiday week bed last week, guys, I apologize one in three nasty work, but I'm gonna get better. Starting with the Chiefs. So someone lied to me, man, Someone told me Pat Mahos wasn't playing. So I went against them, and although who they play, yeah, I feel like they should have won. There's a few very questionable calls down the stretch, but it shows me that's what I get for going against the Chiefs. But this week,
I'm not gonna make that mistake. Kansas City at the Steelers on Christmas Day minus two and a half, I'm gonna go with the Chiefs. Ravens at the Texans on Christmas Day, I'm gonna go with the Ravens minus four. Packers versus the Vikings. On Sunday, let me take the Packers plus two and the Falcons versus the Commanders. Commander's coming off a big win against Philly this past weekend,
let me take the Commanders minus five. Appreciate you, guys, Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones, and we'll catch you guys in twenty twenty five.