The volume. Nick Wright is about ready to stop on by. We got a million things to talk about. Go chop it up for about an hour before he does. Download the game Time app. It'll take you ninety seconds. Put in the code. Grab your smartphone. Game Time app, take you ninety seconds. Put in the code Colin. That's the redeem code. That's me Coli in twenty bucks off your first purchase. What's great about game Time is the prices go down the closer you get to tip off or
first pitch or kickoff. A lot of times you get these killer deals and you want to go to a game, and you don't make up your mind until, like I've done this ninety minutes before a game. You call it buddy, and you're like, I want to go to the Dodgers. I got a ticket. You want to go to the Dodgers, or you don't have a ticket, and you go to the game Time app and get your tickets. It's just so easy. Zone Deals takes the guessing out of tickets. You show up, got your seats. Redeem code is Colin.
That's me Coli in easy stuff. Lowest price is guarantee, last minute tickets. Makes it so easy spur the moment, use the game time app, get in great tickets, zone deals, crushes. All right, it's my buddy Nick. Right, We're gonna chop it up for an hour. This is gonna be fun. We disagree strongly on a couple of things. I think he's gonna like one of my comps today. But let's just start talking about me. Yes, Tom Brady, it's just start.
You know what can we I have a confession to make and then you do whatever you want to do. I did something wholly unprofessional today, the guy under the guise of complimenting and congratulating my friend, which is the moment Collin's show went to break. When I knew for a fact he was within arms distance of Tom Brady and I assumed all of our bosses. I made the most opportunity mystic FaceTime call of my life.
It was they facetimed Colin because I knew he was he was with Brady, and I'm like, this might be my best chance, just because if I'm being honest, you know you said you you know you had a few cameos in one of Brady's documentaries.
I damn near deserve royalties for how often I was suppered and saying, oh, the end is nigh, and then he'd win a championship. And so I was hoping to maybe be like, Hi, Tom, We'd love to have you on the show sometime, but either way, glad you're a teammate. And Colin graciously answered the call while he was basking in the afterglow of thirty minutes with Tom. But I didn't get that chance. But now go ahead, and that I've made that confession, go ahead and say what you know your.
Day with no Well, what was? It was funny because you know I I've said before the only time not that I got nervous, but when I was doing Barack Obama twice, I came in and really prepared, like if he threw me a curveball, even political, like I preped for that for two days. And with Brady, I didn't feel I had to, but I knew the bosses would be watching. So the day starts and all of a sudden, I'm seeing management all over the studio. I'm like, guys, I got this, don't forget to do and remember, and
I'm like I started laughing at him. I'm like, you guys, come down here for one reason you're firing me, or I've got like somebody important on I've been doing.
This thirty years. I'm good.
It's Tom Brady, Tommy talks.
We're all good.
But it was funny to watch, you know, I mean, because Brady's important for the company, and you know they it's a big move. He's Tom Brady, it's Fox, it's the NFL. You know, Greg Golsen was terrific, so you want to make sure he's good. They'll I think they'll both be great. But there's just a lot of things going on here. So it was kind of a funny,
strangely tense day. But the great part about it is Tom, for all that hovers around him, is just about as normal as you're gonna get jeans, tennis shoes, you know, just comes in, He's like, hey, it's great to meet you. Just Tom's like a nice guy. He really you can you know how you've met people before and you think more they must have had good parents, sure, right, Like
you can tell he's just very very grounded. I mean, everywhere Tom goes, people are reaching at him and he just he's he just couldn't be more normal nice.
So here's so I I you know, my experience with the interviews obviously exponentially different than yours. You're doing it, I'm watching it, but my takeaway was different. And I think that you and I both have enough credibility with the audience built up to know like, we're not shills for anybody, We're gonna be honest about what we think.
But I found myself edge of my seat is probably touch too strong, but leaning in to every time he was even coming close to breaking down how he thought about football, and it made me really excited for how he's gonna call games, because there is this school of thought and Tom said it in in a kind of a kind way, but a lot of people are there is a school of thought among some people that think the play by play in the color commentator is almost
an overstated importance job because people are watching the game. People want to see the game, and I understand that in a lot of instances, and a lot of instances I think it doesn't matter who's calling the game. We're
watching the game. But I found myself just in this interview being like, oh, I really want to learn about how he processed and how his mind works when it comes to playing the quarterback position and the stuff he was saying about the how he would react to a different defensive look, and the pregame prep that it took all of that, and it made me super excited for to hear him in real time, to watch a football game and get to see because this is and now
I'm gonna be self important, You're gonna laugh at me. I think I really, I think I am an elite football watcher. And by that I mean I think I am top one percent in the world at watching a game and noticing things like oh, I think that guy might have just tweaked something. Oh I think they misspoted, the all of it. And to be able to see watch a game and that Tom's watching and commenting on and see how many times like what he said, like oh I was thinking something similar or I had that.
I'm really excited for it, like I am. I do think it is a massive It is having you know there we've at We had Magic Johnson call NBA games, but it wasn't really his strength, like having someone like that, and I'm gonna add one other thing. I also think a uniqueness of it is so much of his superpower was his processing, so it's less about I was able to do it because, like, I'll use Terry. I know
Terry doesn't call games. Anyone that's ever been a rheum with Terry Bradshaw, it's like, oh, a lot of the reason you're Terry Bradshaw is because I don't know how old he is. But even at this age, you could kick everybody's ass in this room, except for Howie Long. Like you are a big, strong and you know the But so much of Tom is I outthought, out prepared. So I and I that came across in the thirty
minutes you spent with him. I was worried you were going to take the interview into the first hour of First things first. I didn't think you were ever going to break. I was like, we might not be on the air today.
Boys, Yeah, no, it's I kind of feel like this sounds weird, But every time I interview Tom, I feel it's a chapter. So I tried to stay today because I'm gonna interview him several more times. I tried to stay in his I talked a lot about process today about broadcasting number one receivers offensive line, so I wanted him to talk about process today as a season comes upon us, it'll be more about the game the moment.
But I like today today all I thought about was I want to I want to introduce Tom how he thinks to the audience. This is a process day, and he just tends to be the best processed athlete have we have we've ever had.
Yeah.
So you know how you said you're a one percent football watcher. Yeah. So football is such a collation aberration sport that it is hard. That's why excellent gms can struggle on quarterbacks, first round wide receivers, first round tight ends. I mean, have you ever noticed the position that rarely misses in the first round? It's guard center, because that's if you have a weakness, you're protected. It's a strong unit.
But a quarterback, a wide receiver, you're often doing your own thing, a corner And so in football, even though I love the sport, it is hard to project how quarterbacks will work within the collaboration and the system. Are they smart enough? Are they coachable? Are they defensive insecure? Are they confident but not cocky? I think in basketball, though it's my second favorite sport to all footballs, I am pretty accurate on something. Is that because it's an
more independent sport. I really pay attention to personality and interviews and how you respond to questions. And a European player just because the culture is different than a domestic player. It's just different, the way they're taught, the way they grow up. They drink wine, they smoke more often. You know, it's a different culture. They tend to come in speaking
multiple languages. You know, the European Union, it's you're kind of it's a collective, whereas in America it's the South is different than the West, is different than the Northeast. It's the French school system. There's a lot of there's different. So I look at personalities and I've been right on a lot of players very early. Whereas I didn't buy Westbrook. I was very much don't buy Intomelo as a winning player or Derek Rose.
And the.
Avalanche of criticism comes down that you don't know the sport, you don't watch it. But I think personality matters more in basketball because the individual matters so much more. It's not as big a collective. The Celtics are very unique. It's a collection more than it is a star. And
this is where you and I disagree with Luca. I think you can coach people out of virtually anything except indifference, and I believe he is such an offensive prodigy, he is indifferent to defense and it will never be great. Now now you say, well, well, Kobe became a very good defensive player. Kobe's idol was Michael Jordan, who is a great defensive player. So players that idolized Michael all played defense. Most of them played the guys. The Kobe's
Michael played defense. That was part of his aura was he was a hard ass. Who is Luca? Who is his idol? Who is his is? I think he has much more in common with Melo that he is so gifted offensively. Mellow was better than Lebron offensively from initially he was just more better scorer that that. I'm not sure that you'll ever convince Luca the defense man.
So here's so, here's where I'm gonna push back. So Luca is on the record when he came into the league that he grew up idolizing Lebron. Lebron is who he modeled his game after. And you see it now. He then signed with Jordan Brand and all of a sudden, he's an mj Acolyte. It's amazing how that works out. But one when when Luca was, you know, unsullied by endorsement, he was a big Lebron guy. Now Luca is never going to be the athlete Lebron is like that, I I really And by the way, nobody is I am.
Anyone.
Hurlabab vulgaris who now owns a talk about the Golden Life. Man. Guy was a professional gambler, greatest NBA better of all time, made maybe a billion that's probably oversetting him, but close to it in crypto from his gambling winnings. Bought a Spanish soccer team and now they've moved up multiple divisions. What a life. But he also helped run the MAVs
when they drafted Luca. Hralabab tweeted out a clip a few days ago of twenty five year old Lebron James, like a four minute clip of his blocks and dunks and everything, like reminding everyone, like, guys, what this guy was at his peak athleticism. It was just it was un unfathomable and we haven't seen any like it since.
Yeah, Lebron is the only guarantee in American sports history. Let's just do basketball football. Yeah that there is no question that if he has chosen football, he would have been a multiple time Pro Bowl Oh yeah, no question, no question, not even debatable. He would have been one of the best tight ends of all time. Let's stop debating it. Six ' eight two fifty, fast, with great hands, envision, and.
Seemingly indestructible for fifteen for seventeen years. But okay, yeah, so there are obviously things Lebron could do that Luca never will be able to do because of the athleticism. But stylistically they're very similar. As far as I'm gonna have the ball in my hands, i am going to control an offense. I will try to pick on people in a pick and roll. I will spoon feed players open threes and lob dunks like all of it. He's
not gonna be the defender Lebron was. There was a five year period with Lebron was one of the every year was top five defensive player the year voting and I think twice or three times second place. It's not gonna be that guy. My argument is he doesn't need to be. Can't can can Luca be Steph Kerr? Defensively? Obviously, Can he be Magic Johnson defensively? Obviously? Has he already shown improvement for Romeros a few years ago? Yes, the the so I think that. So here's what I think
about Luca. I think that his bad defensive moments are so glaring and obvious because he's just not running down the court. He is just standing there. He's angry, he's and I also think every game he walks a fine line between I Am going to get so enraged with every fan, every ref that I end up playing my best basketball and I'm going to get so enraged with every fan, every ref that it takes me out of my game and I'm like almost playing in protest. He's
got to mature in that regard. But the part of the mellow thing that I the reason I pushed back so much on that comp is, is that Luca already has done more winning than Melo did. Luca made the Melo made a conference finals once. Luca did that in
year four. Luca's already made an NBA finals. And he is a willing passer of the ball and the guys who and a guy who has people bring up Harden because Harden was a willing passer of the ball the hardon though every single year of his career got worse than the playoffs, Luca, every year of his career except for this one, his numbers have gotten better in the playoffs. So I just think that there was there was never a moment where Mello was credibly a consensus top three player.
Luca is right now, and so I just I disagree with you on Luis.
Yeah and yeah, by the way I've said, I think Luca is a much better Carmelo Anthony. By the way, Michael was a better Kobe, not always much better, but better. Kobe had better range. I thought Kobe was a really clever passer when he decided to a very good ball handler. Michael was a better Kobe. I think Luca is a much better Carmelo. But there are traits and indifference to certain things like being in shape, indeed so concerned.
Being in shape thing. He has to grow up on that part. That part. So here's the deal. I think that there is. I think it is very very difficult for people who have succeeded at every step. I mean, this guy's playing in the second biggest league in the world at sixteen and one MVP of it, at eighteen, like and won the championship at eighteen, not in some small league, in the second best basketball league in the world,
to the NBA. He then gets to the NBA, wins Rookie of the Year and then succeed succeeds carries a team to conference finals. Last year they fail, but it feels more about the team. Was weird that he and Kyrie did in gel This year they make it all the way to the finals, and yes he was banged up, but he also knows he was a little out of gas. I think it is very hard for any if anyone has a bad habit that they are succeeding despite, I don't think they ever kick it until that bad habit bites.
I said, yep, I've said before. The only way you quit smoking is if your doctor says you're going.
To die right then. And there's a lot of people who I'm gonna gain used we were using dark analogies. There are a lot of people listening who were what I I'm sure what I would call very regular tipsy drivers. It was just I, you know, never didn't call cabs whatever.
He's like, oh my buddies, have a few drinks, drive home, and did it hundreds of times and never were and people were like, ah, you shouldn't drive and only stopped because they got pulled over and they got a dui like there is And again that's a dark analogy, but the point is it is if someone says to you, you've got to be in better shape, You've got to be in better shape, and you're like, oh, really, because I keep averaging thirty five points a game in the
playoffs and being first team All NBA. But this year and this year, I know they made the finals, but he did seem out of gas at times, and so in order to be able to play one hundred game seasons, which is what he's got to do, he does have to be in better shape. That part's fair, and he can't always be mad at the refs that part. But I just think the reason I thought the focus on the defense was overstated was that MAVs didn't lose this
finals because of the defense the MAVs. This craziest stat of the NBA season is the worst five game stretch Boston had all year as far as points scored, was the NBA Finals. They didn't have another five game stretch all year where they scored for killing and they killed the bosson. The MAVs didn't lose because of their defense. They lost because they couldn't score, which was because of Boston's defense. It was mav It wasn't that Dallas's defense
was a problem. It was that Boston's defense was a plus for four of those five games and strangled the MAVs offense.
So I'm gonna throw this at you. There's so many bad actors on the internet. It's so bad, it's.
Sweet christ Man. Can I tell you what happened before you even throw it at me? Because I don't think people know what happened because there there's always been bad actors, but it seems like out of nowhere it has gotten way worse quickly. And I it so I have, I think a very credible theory here. So remember how Elon made it so you can get paid off your tweets. So I don't think people really paid a lot of attention to that because people were like, I'm not paying
for that eight dollars a month check mark whatever. But so some of us a few months ago just got great, like got the check mark. It's like you're a notable account. We want you to have one whatever it is, So I didn't. I just got it. I got a I got a notification a week ago saying you earned eight hundred and ten dollars last month. Huh so, and I just tweet clips from the show and my.
Takes same here.
But because I got grandfathered into this program or whatever I'm like, it's monetization is available. So I guess if I give them my bank account info, which I don't know that I will do, but if I I have eight hundred dollars from my tweets in May, okay, So why am I to bring that up? That didn't used to be a thing. It used to be you could grow a following and then maybe sell ads whatever it is. But now it is direct deposit into your account based
on interactions of your tweets. So now you have the worst actors in America who are incentivized to say the shittiest things or dishonest things, or like the totally harmless version of it is. Oh man, people forget Peyton Pritchard is a problem like saying things just to get dunked on, like people said Steph Curry can't. But the worst version of it is I am going to try to stoke racial tension in America through this video that will go viral because I'm literally going to make a thousand bucks
off it. So that's not Yeah, that's not a theory. That's exactly what's happening. Yes, that that's not Listen, I'm not you know me, I make fun of conspiracy theorists. I have a theory on conspiracy theories that the as the world get AI is just going to enhance this. We're going to get more and more conspiracy theories because
there's been an explosion of them. Why because the fluidity and the changes that technology are doing to our life, and people want answers, and so when people don't have answers, they lose their job. Inflation, people are seeking stability and foundational truths and they don't have answers. So conspiracy theories give people answers. Is their life gets more filled with anxiety. Psychologists have talked about.
This technology is enhanced and dominates our society, you're going to get a more conspiracy driven in.
This is not from conspiracy theory. This is what's now.
This is just yeah, this is what. So what's happening is as AI is going to put a lot of people out of work. Social media is going to become a real income for a lot of people. I all, Bee, as you know, I make a massive TV income, radio income, volume income, DraftKings like, I don't need social media. There's no value in it for me other than to.
Promote my companies, right exactly right, right right right, So there's no I don't even care about it.
It doesn't matter to me. But for a lot of people that even successful people, they don't have a radio show, a TV show, they make six figures on social media.
If I could make a thousand bucks in a month by accident, right then I'm like, oh that, I was like,
so just think. I was like, what the average the average income in this country is like around fifty I'm like, so then, yeah, of course there are going to be people out there that are just going to all and what what do we know gets interaction and reaction because I don't know if you were taking this to Caitlin and Angel, I don't know where you were taking this initially, but what I know what we know will make waves on Twitter in particular, is anything to doing with racial
tension or racial or they in either direction and I just I see people tweeting out videos of clearly like obvious like skits like old skits or scenes from an old not Chappelle show, but something less famous, and presenting it as if this was a real life thing that happened purely because idiots will believe it. People who aren't full blown idiots will think, oh, I'm going to dunk on this person. Meanwhile, they're just like, I just made
forty bucks. I do ten of these in a day, and I make more money than I was gonna make up my job, and it is just flooded. They have flooded the song with nonsense and bullshit.
By the way, there are people in our industry who have credible jobs who are using YouTube to the same degree, making thirty thousand dollars on a YouTube clip talking about their sex, life, politics, all sorts of stuff. So it's some point your soul can't your foundational belief system can't be about the dollar sign like you have to care about. And I'm not lecturing you folks, do what you want to do. But here's where I was going. Sorry I took you, Oh no, don't be sorry. This is this
is why I do. A podcast is that there's so many bad actors on the internet that will just dunk on the NBA. They don't care. They got their money. When I hear people criticize Howard Stern, Howard makes one hundred and twenty million a year at sirius XM. Do you think he gives a shit that he doesn't have the water cooler currency. He's got a seventy to ninety million dollar home on the beach. I've seen it in
Boca ratone the highest. He's got the two highest real estate properties in the East, the Hampton sag Harbor and Boca Howard owns arguably the nicest home in both. He doesn't give an f And people are like, Howard doesn't matter, It doesn't matter. And I think about this, like the NBA got the bag they're gonna get. They're doing basically what the NFL did. They're going to get a fourth network to arguably overpay for it. They don't care. The ratings are up to the people who pay for the money.
That's up to NBCESBN, the owners in the league and the players don't give us shit. Don't watch it, they don't care.
So there were a lot of people highly invested in the idea that any company that pays even just lip service to the idea that you know, black folks spend money to and gay folks spend money to that that business model will fucking ruin them. And they even came up with a super unique, original one hundred and fifty iq slogan, go Meanwhile, we're at zero broke, We're at zero Companies that previously were rolling that are now like, goddamn, you know what, we put Black Lives Matter on the court,
and now no one will, nobody's going to games. And they then try to twist themselves in knots and act like that, oh they they're not doing it, or oh it caught, No it didn't. There is I now again, because I am not a bad faith actor, I will acknowledge.
I do think there was a time, and I do think it hurt the ratings in multiple sports where people felt there was too much, like we had overcorrected and there was there was too much, whether you want to call it politics, social justice, anything in our sports and
people got annoyed by it. I do think that happened, but was presented as if it's going to be a death knell when it was a paper cut and the and it was the same folks that and I the that when Nike uh signed Kaepernick, We're like, oh, check out Nike's stock today, It's like, oh, can we get an update on that? Hey, can we get a good Did Nike all of a sudden in the last four years start flying MAGA flags or are they still pretty much as woke of a company as there is? I
think they are. I think they're doing just fine. And and it is And this is where the people making that those arguments were either bad faith actors or morons. And I am that one. I'm comfortable with the the people making the argument of the NBA is killing big trup in big trumple like buddy, you could were the ratings for this specific finals down? Yeah, in the midst of it being down? Did they get seventy five billion dollars? Did they triple their TV deal? Was it was? It?
Was it extortion? No, In fact, you have you have company, you have major corporations who might end up making changes at the top of the company because they screwed up by not getting the NBA. So it was always bad faith. It was just always bad faith actors that don't ever that are very, very invested in the idea that everyone thinks like them. That's the that is the that's the So I'm aware like I and I try to be self aware of it, and I try to be conscious
of it. I'm aware that a lot of people who watched the TV show have very different politics than I do, which is why I think I keep it out of it almost entirely. As I've said to you before, I don't think talking about race is talking politics, so I will talk race, So I'm talking any politics on when you and I are talking, even though I understand there are people listening that have very different politics to me, I feel like, you know what you are opting into
a Nick Wright Colin Cowhard conversation. I am going to respect that and give you my true, authentic thoughts on everything, and hope we can understand that even if we disagree, we can you know, agree on other certain things. But I know that how I feel is not how the whole world feels. There is a segment of the population that is really invested in trying to convince people that eighty percent of the country plus agrees with them, and
this tiny minority that doesn't. Somehow oddly weirdly controls everything, controls all these major corporations in the sports leagues, the media, everything, And it's like, no, I just think Target has like done the market research. It's like, hey, we're gonna sell more T shirts if people think we're nice. Like, I don't think it's they're trying to do some social engineering. I think they're trying to sell as many things as possible. And so that's yeah, that's my answer.
Listen, even left leaning, I would say Saturday Night Live tends to lean more left than right. They've made fun of woke. Bill Maher's made fun of woke, like there are things that God that go too far?
Is that, you know.
My theory on America is that in the end, the more change you have in technology and the more change you have in the culture, the more people want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, macaroni and cheese and hang out with their dog. We seek simplicity as the world gets more complex. So I think, to me, one of the things I think about constantly on my show is simplifying complicated things. Is that people are on right, Like
that's literally what I think about. You know, whatever you think about I think about that constantly.
Which is why, which is a very smart way to go about it. But so that's where so I have, I hope the self awareness and the honesty to be able to be like, yeah, there are things that people that are in my political tribe, if you will, that
they say or espouse that. I'm like, yeah, I actually I'm I'm not with that, like like it doesn't kill me, but I you know, it's not where I would go what I what I feel like fundamentally though, most people, most people are more bothered by people that intentionally err on the side of mean then people that go out of their way to be nice, even if the way they're going out of their way to be nice, it's like, okay, that's a little much, you know what I mean, like
and and that's to me, that's why so I that that's why so much of the so much of the complaints about the NBA stuff was to me, people telling on themselves where I'm like, you're really are you You're writing on Twitter you saw end racism on the baseline where there used to be a YouTube TV ad and now you're like I'm turning the game off, like shut up, like it was if it was if at halftime of the game, you know, Jason Tatum came out, was like, now I want to, you know, give you a history
lesson about this. That'd be one thing. But I'm like, I just think you are. You are bothered by an idea that you can't quite explain, and it pisses you off.
You don't know why, And I think the smartest corporations and companies have been like, ah, that's actually just a loud contingent on the Internet, and the majority of people are either support us or like, eh, not my thing, but not enough for me to change the channel, or not enough for me to drive to the store down the street when this one, you know, oh they're flying
a Pride flag. Okay, well I actually they also have the cheapest diapers, so I just think I'm gonna go there, Like it's just so stupid the volume.
Thanks for listening to part one of the conversations with Nick. Don't forget the check back for part two.