Frank Kaminsky Talks Life and Basketball On and Off the Court

in college basketball. That was crazy. We're gonna get into that, especially at the end of the show with Peter Andrew, because something tells me that was a good day for the folks at bet MGM. Actually seven out of the top nine went down. That includes St. Mary's taking down top Rankedkins Daga. And You're honest, you can't say their school name, but I know you're like watching him play. What do you see? I love watching good Zaga. They got beat down. You know it was I mean, those

guys look good. They pounded it inside. You know, I think there's probably a lot of NBA scouts watching hule Green. That's his name, right, if I'm pronouncing it right, Hulgron Hullgreen. You don't pronounce you don't even pronounce your own name, right, So yeah, yeahs. You know he was getting pounded. I mean his weight is a real liability. You take him down low. I mean he's like a feather down there. So I watched that game. It was exciting to watch

such a big upset storming the court. Though I'm not a big fan Olivia. I'm not a big fan. I just feel like there's a whole team that just lost and then they're getting attacked by fans. It's just a dangerous, unpredictable situation. If I was a losing team, I would just feel like a little threatened. If fans running on the I just feel like it's unprofessional, unprofessional. This whole thing is unprofessional. This is just this is kids. These

are eighteen year olds. Yeah, I think they should. I mean anybody tries to get on the court, I think they should get stun guns and get them stung, like just sting them with the stunt gun like they did an old school, just one by one. That would be fun to watch college kids getting a stun gunned. You know what is really scary as a sideline reporter when you're on a football field and they storm the field and you just are looking over your shoulder, you're doing

your postgame interview. You're like, oh, hell no, they're coming right for me. Scary, That's what I mean. Isn't it illegal? I mean if I was a player, I wouldn't like that. Is it? Is it? Are you allowed to do that? Technically illegal? But they do kind of line up cops there. But I think on a basketball court it's worse. You're right, it's a hard surface. Someone can get hurt. There's less,

you know, surface area. Anyways, you know who knows a lot about excited fans storming the court all this excitement is our guest today and Janice, I'm really excited about this. This is one of those episodes I called in a favor for. I'm a friend Frank Kaminski, former unanimous National College Player of the Year, current member of the NBA's best team, the top seed Phoenix Suns, is joining the show today and I mentioned he's a friend mostly of

my husband's. I've gotten to know him over the years. He played at Wisconsin with Sam and I've been meaning to ask Frank for three years if he got romantic with any of my cute friends at our wedding, because let me tell you that weekend was like an episode of Love Island. It was like Noah's Ark if the flood had been vodka. Everyone seemed to couple off, if only for one special night. And you honest, we've been married three years. I'm still hearing about stories from our

wedding weekend. So I've got to have Frank way in. I'm excited. I got a lot of questions. We got something fun lined up that you don't know about. I can't wait. Yeah, we got some surprises. Me and the producers, Joel, we spoke behind your back. And since Frank is such a good friend of Sam. You know, when I used to watch those Wisconsin games, I called them the Ivory Towers. And now that we got him, we're gonna find out some interesting inside info. It's gonna be fun for the

fans of the show to listen to. So yeah, and I promise Olivia knows nothing about it. I really don't. I'm a little bit nervous. But now Frank is such a great guy. Glad he can do it for us. This week he played in two final four, so we've got to pick his brain on upcoming March Madness in a big ten tournament especially. Uh, he's just a beast in college. And I've also got to say big heart on that big seven foot dude. He has donated every year to our children's cancer Family Foundation. He's just he

is all right in my book. But you know what we do when something's not all right in our book. Honest, Olivia, I think we unleach. It's time to leach. If you say that every week? Yeah, can I go first, my friend? Absolutely, young lady. Alright, alright, everyone has seen the Kyrie Irving is back kind of. He's had a limited season thanks to the vaccine requirements in Brooklyn, New York City, he hasn't been able to play in his own home games. He had the best game of the season this weekend.

He dropped thirty eight on the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks the Nets one by three in a big one after the All Star break. And this was not only big for the Nets, it was big for Kyrie, who got hurt in the Eastern Conference Finals against this very team last year. He was done for the season with an ankle injury, so this was his first time back in that building. He said, it was obviously, you know, very emotional.

You can imagine. And we all saw that great video of him hugging his dad on the court after it was It was awesome. I loved watching that. And he says that he sees the light at the end of the tunnel, because unless you've been living under a rock, you've seen that New York City and there may are planning on phasing out vaccine requirements by March seventh, that's this week. But that still doesn't include people who work at Berkeley Center. So to me, this makes no sense.

Even NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said it's just not logical that unvaccinated players from away teams can play in Barclay Center, but not Nets players, not Kyrie. This is so stupid. This is not political. This is one of those things where we're just not being pragmatic. How does that make any sense? How does that keep people more safe? And I'm totally kidding as I say this, but the Nets

really have been robbed of some wins. I think they could file some kind of suit to get back some wins from the games that Kyrie could have directly impacted their season. So when in doubt, whenever it comes to anything like this, I like the saying you don't need to be right, you need to get it right. And this was not right. And now we're people try to correct and everything in these big cities, you know, New York City is following Boston and other cities that's phasing

this out. And I'm just speaking to this from a sports standpoint. You know, I'm not I'm really I'm not involved or care really about all the politics of this. But from a sports standpoint, this has been an interesting story to watch. You know, when we looked at the NFL, did you notice in the NFL playoffs we never heard about players getting COVID? Isn't that convenient time? In the honest they stopped all mandatory testing, all the protocols for

unvaccinated players, and Rogers fell on a sword. So many asymptomatic players missed games in the regular season because they tested positive, saying I feel fine, I feel fine, I've been vaccinated, blah blah blah. And then playoffs hit and I was thinking, when I was watching the Super Bowl, I wonder how many players out there don't feel so hot today but are obviously not going to go get tested.

It's a Super Bowl, like I'd love to know if there was some way to retroactively test someone for COVID. If there were any players on the Super Bowl field who had active COVID, we'll never know because the NFL said this isn't working for us. So anyways, as the NBA is trying to deal with city laws and ordinances, this has been This has been kind of sketchy with the Kyrie stuff, and I know fans for any team

are hoping he can play. He's an incredible player. By the way, the Nets are expecting to get Kevin Durant back from injury this week. He's missed one and a half months. They have new acquisitions like Ben Simmons, backup veteran point guard Gore and drag So just watch out the Nets are coming and keep an eye on the politics in New York City because if Kyrie is able to play in home games, that's really big to finish up this last quarter of the season. But come on, Mayor,

this is ridiculous. Yeah, at this point, it's ridiculous. I agree with you. Even when you look at tennis, it's like Djokovic is getting robbed. You know, he probably would have won the Australian. He probably would have just won an Acapulco. I mean, I'm a Nate Dolphan, so hey, I'll take it, but it's getting ridiculous. I look if the nets when it there's one person in this country is pretty famous who's gonna be happy about it, and

that's Joe Rogan. You know he's rooting for Kyrie anyway. Uh, I'll be back on Rogan at the end of the month, so that's good. Yeah, yeah, alright, So it's time for me to unleash on what I want on Lesha. But it's less of an unleash and uh, it's more of the elephant in the room. So I'm gonna take my comedy hat off for a second, and um, just really give a huge shot out this. You know, this is

the perfect time to mention this. If we're gonna mention this on this show is right now during our unleashed segment. But some pretty amazing is happening in the world right now. You know, often during times of darkness, there's certain things that inspire, and um, it shows the best of us, the avry and us and the humility and loyalty of people.

And right now you've got four, four absolute champions, four the best boxers of our era and that is not hyperbole, who have decided to go back to their home country. In the case of Vitality Klitchko, he's the mayor of keV and his brother. Of course, everyone knows the Klitchko brothers, Lomanchenko, who's currently i think ranked eighth in the pound for pound best fighters in the world. And also now we got Alexander Oosik who just beat Anthony Joshua, who's set

to fight him again I think in May. As of right now, that fight is still on, but all four of them are back in the Ukraine fighting against the Russians in this war, and um, that's just an unbelievable thing for them to do that. I'm sure that's inspiring the people in the Ukraine. It's really inspiring the world and really making Vladimir Putin look bad so and that's

what we need right now. This was a horrible act of aggression and I just want to take a moment too for us that unleashed in myself to our hearts, go out to the people in Ukraine who are suffering because of this unjust war. It almost feels like war is antiquated, like you just can't do it anymore. It's like,

come on, guys, just boxers fighting in this thing. You know, you got kids underground and bunkers going to school, and uh, it's just a beautiful thing to see sports highlighted in such a way during such a horrible time by these four brave young champions deciding to put their fame and riches aside and go fight for their country to make a point, and their points being heard the world round. So I just wanted to say it's an amazing thing and shout out to all four of those absolute Ukrainian

beasts fighting for their country and for what's right. That is awesome, be honest, very well said it's it's crazy to see you get deep. Sometimes I'd never take you seriously, but it was hard not to their Thanks so much. Let's go ahead and bring in our guests to switch it back over to hoops. Frank Kaminsky's next. He's a former men's National College Player of the Year from the Wisconsin Badger's top ten NBA draft pick and current member of the best team in the NBA, the Phoenix Suns.

Frank Kaminski is here. Frank, thanks for joining Unleashed. Hey, thanks for having me. That was a very nice introduction. Thanks. That's fine to pay me so much. I teased earlier that I'm still hearing funny stories from our wedding weekend. You were at the wedding obviously three years ago. I swear I'm still hearing crazy stories. It seems like all of Sam's Wisconsin friends and all of my Georgia friends just kind of coupled off like an episode of love.

But I never heard did you find love that weekend? I did not. I did not find love. I was at that time. I was not searching for it. But there was definitely with some individuals I'll keep names out of it, there was definitely some Love Island type situations going on. It's like good episode of the Office where Michael's like, Jim and Pam's wedding is going to be the single greatest hook up destination on planet Earth, and your wedding was a great spot. There was a lot

of bachelors and bachelorettes that were enjoying themselves. Yeah, Lebby, I was about to say loves a little I mean loves a little bit. It's the wrong word. You were. You used the wrong word. I would advanced differently. I would did anyone it was fun? Yeah? Did anyone smash There was a great time. I'll just say that that one was a great time. There was just there's so many funny things. I mean, both of them just have Sam and Olivia both have like great friends, good people,

good personalities. I think you know Sam's friends are. They're kind of like me. They're just goofballs, like John. We had a tiny T shirt from Sam's bachelor party in Mexico that he decided to wear under beneath his black tie suit and this bust out. At one point it was about six sizes too small. It's just just funny goofy stuff. It's a lot of fun. We have this funny picture framed in our house of like the dance floor of everyone dancing and Frank's head is like two

heads above everyone else. Really Jesse, Frank and it. But it's a it's a great picture. We're glad you were there. There was a lot of fun. Yeah. I gotta give a shout out to Jerry. Jerry's my favorite. Jerry is my brother in law who has never met a stranger. He's this kind of handsome Italian guy who just everyone loves and at our wedding, the whole wedding party started chanting Jerry, Jerry. We have no idea why, they just love him. Jerry's the best. Yeah, alright, Frank. So we

were talking a little bit before. Um, you know, there's this myth out there that you're Serbian because you played in the Serbian League. But and you're not Jewish, even though your last name is Commitsky. Me and you met, like we were talking about TI asked you about your bar Mitz fun. You told me you didn't know what you were talking about. And I still don't believe you. But what are you exactly? What's your background? We're all over the place, told you this all my great grandparents

are somewhere different. We've actually tried to do like the ancestry dot com, like find out where everyone's from, and it's just it's all over the place where just those Eastern European immigrant Chicago families, like we got Polish, Irish, German, Serbian, Croatian. My grandma I think is part Czechoslovakia, And it's just it's hard to know because especially on my dad's side of the family, there wasn't there pretty poor, so there wasn't a lot of records kept, so it's hard to

truly know, but it's it's a lot. So you won't be playing for the Serbian national team. You're going to be in the US of A. Um, I mean I could. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, we'll see what happens. I don't know. I read that they were like they were leaving it open ended, like, yeah, maybe Frank will play for the Serbian national team, and that's funny, You're not even Serbian.

That's hilarious. I mean I I technically I am, but I mean the hold up on that stuff is, I don't know, you have to give away your summers basically to go to a different country, you know, training camps and stuff, you know, especially like I couldn't imagine doing it after this last season where we only had like a seven and a half week off season to just go basically. I know, guys from like Devon went from our team, he went from playing in the finals to two days later he's on a plane to go play

in the Olympics. Like that's that's that's that that turns into a lot And wasn't he on the same flight as some Bucks players that Yeah, he was. It's just god, yeah, the competition. You don't want to see those. I think Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday, We're on his flight with him afterwards. It's just that's tough. You gotta get beat by somebody and go play with them on the same team. That's tough. Speaking of tough, I feel like I have good insight to it from Sam over the years of

how grueling mentally a season is. And just think you guys have been like many pros since college because you were so in the spotlight at Wisconsin. You went to two final fours. You had more attention than most college players. I've noticed lately you're off social media. What has that done for you? How has that helped you? You know, there's just so much for me, it's become it became

like kind of overwhelming, you know. I I'd slowly have like gotten less and less involved with it over the course of time to like, I think a couple of months ago, I just deleted the apps off my phone. Nice, you know, I have my ways to get my news and things that like. I just there's so many opinion based things out there, you know, especially with like politics and stuff like that. I don't like waking up in the morning and reading and seeing like bad things happening.

I like starting my day off on like a good note. I've gotten really into like mindset training and stuff like that. So I think just getting rid of social media for me help me just kind of be happier, you know, see the things I want to see in the stories I want to see, and I can control it a little bit more Like when you sign into Twitter and you're just reading negative stuff. It just got it just got old and to be too much for me, and

I don't I don't really like it that way. So Instagram, I don't really go on there at all anymore either. You know. That one's a little bit harder because especially you know, I got friends that are getting married and having kids, and they post stuff about their babies and stuff like that, and I don't get to see a lot of that stuff. But I also don't want to see a lot of I just don't like what social media has turned into. So that's basically what it boils

down to. What's mindset training. It's a lot of different stuff. You know, It's about like controlling your thoughts, your breathing, you know, especially I've I've always done it well with basketball, but I've kind of incorporated it into like the rest of my life, you know, because the last couple of years it's gone through a lot like hardship wise, being injured two out of the last three seasons. You know, it just kind of weighs on you, and you know,

especially right now. I'll like what I'm this season. Our team is the best team in the NBA, and I haven't been able to play since November, and it's it's

it's been tough. So I'm just trying to mentally train myself because I know I'm gonna come back at some point this season, like kind of keep myself with the same mental approach every single day, try to attack rehab like I would attack like a basketball game, Like kind of shift my mindset around to be able to stay in the same mental space so that when I do come back, I'm right where I need to be. Yeah,

you were playing incredible too when eighton went down. You were playing incredible, So I assume that it's extra frustrating because you were on such a streak playing some of your best basketball. Yeah. Yeah, that definitely, uh definitely makes it a little bit harder, you know. It's kind of like right after that I had a thirty one point game, which was my career high, and kind of right at it's like the game after I started feeling something weird in my knee, and then like the next game after

that was like the last one. So it really did happen fast. So like the emotional high too, like kind of an emotional low happened really fast. But I did what. I ended up having surgery this year so that I could come back this season. So that's it's all been the goal of trying to compete for a championship. Because Olivia knows this. We've been close. I've been close a couple of times, and I really want I just really

want one really badly. Yeah, well they're getting one. It would be like against the universe if you retire without without a ring of some kind. I don't want to harp on this too much, but we recently had Ryan Lee, former NFL player, on the show. He battled addiction, he went to prison, and now he's an advocate for mental health, especially mental health when it comes to athletes. And like I said, I get it with trades and being waived and injuries, and even politics on the team and all that.

I mean, it's so much you guys deal with. But to the average fan, they're probably like, what do you have to complain about. You're a millionaire, you're happy, you know, girls want you, Your life's good. How do you explain to someone who doesn't get it why a season is so taxing. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all still human beings, like we have, we go

through the same struggles that everyone else goes through. Obviously, you can look at money in any situation and think that should you know, I think to an average person, you would think that would cure all your problems, but it doesn't. The same real world problems can follow literally any single person. You know, it's just different types of frustration for athletes, you know, sometimes like things that bother us may not bother someone else, but also things that

bother the regular people definitely still bother us. So it's hard to explain because I only know the one way obviously, going from Wisconsin to getting drafted. But I see like my family and everything, and like what they go through, and obviously the money makes things nice, but also you know, like being in a situation like I hate to keep bringing this one up, but like the situation I'm in, like everything, You're on the best team in the NBA.

Like a lot of people dream about being able to play and help and do everything, and I'm kind of sitting on the sidelines right now watching it all happen. And that's and that's difficult. That weighs on you. That can like that stuff can definitely follow you home because at the end of the day, our careers are kind of our lives, and basketball kind of it doesn't just stop when you leave the gym. It kind follows you everywhere you go. Yeah, yeah, Well, wishing you the best man.

You guys got a good chance this year. You're what's the timeline for you coming back? Right now? Hopefully I'll be back in and I think it's like three weeks from now. That's what I'm aiming for, you know, I'm I'm in that ramp back up to play because when you've been out for so long, you've got to go through the whole ramping back up to play process. So

that's kind of what I'm in right now. I'm back on the court and everything, which definitely feels good because there was a good ten weeks span there where I couldn't do anything, literally just every single day just basically walking around doing nothing. You're watching any good shows if you're not on social media, I know you like to watch it with the subtitles on. By the way, I do the same thing. I watch every show at the subtitles on, and now I got my wife into it.

I don't know why I like it, but I do. I speak English, it just makes it more enjoyable. Why do you watch it with the subtitles on? I actually have a good reason. My grandma can't hear very well. So when we were kids, every single thing we had to watch on view with my grandma had subtitles on, and I just liked it, so I kept doing it.

So I've been watching TV with subtitles forever, and I know a lot of people it's like you watch a show like Peaky Blinders where you can't understand what they're saying, and that's why people is like I had to watch subtitles with that. Now I do it with everything mine was. My grandma can't here very well. That's a great that's a great reason. Yeah, the British shows are almost the worst.

You're like I know this is my language, but there are there are some shows it's really tough like there and you know those things too, Like I'm sure we've all listened to songs before and think that the lyrics are one thing, and then the lyrics are something totally different. It's kind of the same ways with movies sometimes, like what you hear sounds so much different than what they're actually saying. Yeah, yeah, I know you're right. Okay, you

mentioned your grandma. What a lot of people don't know about you. I think too. You always talk about being from Chicago, the Chicago area. Your aunt worked for the Bulls in the Jordan era. You grew up a fan in the Jordan era. I've always wanted to ask you, how did that shape the way you view the n b A, the way you loved basketball. I don't remember what it's like to not like being I was born into that situation where my aunt worked for the Bulls.

Like all of our birthday parties growing up, when we were little kids and family were like at the practice facility. My mom would just take us there and let me and my cousins just kind of like run around and burn off all of our energy, Like you saw so

much stuff when we were kids. And obviously, you know, my aunt always got us tickets to games, and you know, especially when I got into high school, I would used to call my aunt at like my lunch period and be like, hey, can I get a couple of tickets to come to the game tonight. I just drive, like right after school, I just drive down and go to Bulls games with my friends. So it's just like I I mean, I always wanted to play in the NBA.

That was just like a dream of mine because you know, I was kind of born into having a family member be a part of everything. And obviously Michael Jordan and Chicago everyone had posters of him all over my wall when I was growing up, Like my aunt used to get all like the giveaways from the games and like grab me one and give it to me. And it's just I don't know, I was a fan from day one. That's amazing. Why why Wisconsin? Why did you pick Wisconsin? I knew I wanted to play in the Big Ten.

That was, you know, being a Midwestern kid, I always wanted to play in the Big Ten. I'd be lying if I didn't say Illinois was would have been my number one option, but um, they never offered me a scholarship. So I had some other scholarship offers from Big ten schools in Wisconsin. I just felt like fit me the best of all those. And I mean I went and visited on campus, and if you've ever gone to the campus before, you would know why anyone would want to.

I went on the campus in the middle of summer and I was like, I'm I looked at my dad. I was like, I want to commit here. I was ready to commit on my first visit, but my dad wouldn't let me because I needed to take my mom there first. And then I went with my mom like two weeks later and committed like two days after that. When I got back home, I called and was like, I'm coming here. John. If you've been in Madison, he said he loved it. Oh, I love Madison. Yeah, I

loved it. I've I've done shows there. It's great. It's great. Yeah. But about the camp, this is so great? Is it just beautiful? We're talking about there's a lot of dime pieces walking around. I mean to a seventeen year old kid getting recruited that there was a lot of good scenery between the lakes between it was bikini season. Yeah, it was. You know, you have the two lakes there on campus. You go around, you see everything. Everyone's just happy.

I mean it was, and you know, being it was only two and a half hours away from home, it was important to me that my mom and my dad be able to come to games and my family be able to do that. So I think that was why I was wanted to play in the big tents so badly, because I had never been far away from home, and I don't think I wanted to go that far away from home. So you go to Wisconsin, to one of the best places on earth, Madison, Wisconsin, and your career

blows up, especially your junior year. And fast forward, I think it was your senior year on route to play in the National Championship when you made the s I cover with Frank the Tank written behind you. What did that cover mean to you at the time? What did that feel like at the time, like you were a kid, you know, it all happened so fast, ye that it just felt like I don't know, it was just it was definitely a weird feeling because it was like I always wanted to be you know, one of those guys.

You know. I remember, you know, you come out when you're high school class with a lot of people and you see people from your high school class that you played against already like going one and done and two and done and already playing in the NBA, and you're just like, it's just like a competition thing. I wanted to be one of those, like one of those guys. And then you know, when everything started happening, it was

just like I couldn't believe it at the time. And then I think the first time it really hit me was you know, when I was I think it was it was me and Josh after we made the Final four that we were on the Sports Illustrated cover, like the first time we were on it, like just going

crazy after we beat Arizona the first time. And that's when I like it kind of hit me that when we were going to the Final four and every and it's like, wow, like we're really like doing this because we used to talk about it, like about changing the culture in Madison, but like talking about and doing it were like two completely different things. And then starting to get more and more notoriety and everything. I just I don't know, I just liked playing. That was that was

the phone and Olivia. I'm sure Sam's told you we were just a bunch of idiots, Like we didn't really realize, you know, like a lot of the stuff we were doing. We were just like having fun and just enjoying ourselves and just everything that came along. It was cool. We

all did it. It was fun. I just like, I literally looked back on my college career and it makes me smile and like kind of want to cry at the same time, just because of how much I enjoyed it and how much fun I had, and like the relationships that we all have now, and it's like it's cool seeing everybody like grow up and start to move on and have families and start their own thing, and it's just, you know, it's I have a lot of

pride about what we did and what we accomplished. I mean, not only have I heard this all retold from the Deckers, but also media members have come up to me when they found out I was married to Sam and said, I've never enjoyed covering a team as much as I did those two Wisconsin teams, the fourteen fifteen teams, and it was you guys were just a bunch of vidiots, genuinely friends, and it's like you were playing backyard basketball and just having way too much success. Yeah, I mean

you go. You even go to like the tournament press conferences, like you see the other teams, like you're all on the same thing, and everyone's like in the thing like serious like this, and here we are just like joking around with people, like not answering any questions seriously. You know. I even remember in the last final four, we had golf carts taking us around the stadium and we were literally like trying to hijack the golf carts and like

driving around ourselves and just like goes righte them. I remember, like we were just nothing was too serious. Like it was like off the court, everything was like a joke and it was like our time to have fun. But then like when on the port happened, it was like serious and like go time. And that's why if we would have been just serious and not friends, are not close. I mean, I don't know if we would have enjoyed the experience as much as we did. That that was

what made it so fun. We were so close enjoying ourselves so much, and we were having so much success, and I wish we could have won one of the two. But I mean what we did and what we accomplished, I don't think anyone expected out of us, So it's just it's amazing that all that happened. Well, now you're on like you said, like we all know, you're on another great team. How do you compare those two teams? Is the vibe the same? I mean, obviously you were in Charlotte, you were on a bad team for a

little while. Is being loose and being friendly because from a fans perspective, all you see is the talent out there. You're like, oh, these guys are talented, they're gonna win. But that's obviously not enough. Is it the chemistry? And is part of that chemistry being loose and having fun and liking each other. Absolutely, I think that's a huge part of it. Like what your culture is as a team,

and I've seen it in the NBA. One bad one bad egg can kind of spoil it for everybody, and especially from what I got here my first year in Phoenix, we missed the play us. We weren't very good, But like that bubble team, like it gets talked about a lot, we went eight no in the bubble, and that's really what did it. Like, we spent so much time together in the bubble, you literally couldn't spend time with anyone else.

Everyone got close. And then the next year we traded for Chris and Chris came in, and Chris has been just like a huge mentor and like another great personality to have in our locker room. And it's just been it's been great. Like I see a lot of similarities, Like I don't want to compare the two and say they're the same, because I mean, I don't think any team in the world could be much closer than our Wisconsin team was. And obviously the NBA is different. People

have wives, children, kids, different things. But this team is very close and we got a lot of great personalities on it. It has been a lot of fun to be a part of it. You mentioned the bubble year, but the next year, you guys go to the finals and you got to contribute and did great. Obviously it was against the Milwaukee Bucks and a state that's been so good to you, a state that loves you so much. Did the moment in weight of that ever hit you or was it more after wrapped up, you're like, whoa,

what just happened. It's definitely more after the fact for me. That's what kind of how it's always how it's been. I get so focused and like kind of into it when it comes to basketball that you don't really take a moment to stop. And especially in the finals, everything is kind of coming quickly. It's like game after a game and you're preparing, Like the second a game is done, you're already preparing for the next game. So it's just happening being after thing. It was just cool to be

back in Wisconsin. You know, my family could drive. It's like an hour and ten minutes away from home, you know, having all my family and everybody there. You know, I saw a lot of the familiar faces from Wisconsin and everybody. It's just it was so cool. It's just it's weird how that works out. The first time you play in the finals, you play against you know, the team that's close to where your college was. It's it was it

was a pretty cool experience, you know. And and it used to be funny when I was working, When I was warming up in the finals, there used to be fans there and everyone would scream out, hey, Frank, I hate I love you, but I hope you lose. It's it's just nice. There was a lot of people cheering for me, which was really cool because there's obviously so many die hard Wisconsin fans. But it's hard to put into words like kind of how that experience works out.

It's just it's very cool, but you also still want to win. At the end of the day, where there's some red jerseys in the crowd, they definitely were. Yes, it was it was cool and it's crazy. Like what I tell people this all the time they ask about Wisconsin. Actually, somebody just asked me this. It's like Wisconsin fans are crazy.

Like there's some crazy college fans. I know, the Kentucky people are probably just nuts, but like Wisconsin fans will support like the second you leave and you go somewhere else, they'll still support you no matter what. It doesn't matter which pro team you go on to play for, what else you do. They're still very very supportive of you. And that's cool. Like I still feel all the love

from Wisconsin and everything. Oh yeah, yeah, I remember when I recorded I actually recorded my first album there and in Madison, and I remember walking around and I think it was basketball season. I remember correctly. The whole town looks like they're on the team. I mean everyone's just in the apparel. All you see is red. I mean, you guys really do have some great fans for sure. Did you buy a jersey? I didn't buy jersey. I didn't buy a jersey. I should have. But now I'm

gonna buy yours now and I'm gonna get its signed perfect. Yeah. And I want to Turkish. I want to Sam Decker Jersey to Olivia. I want both of my my I used to call you guys the Ivory Towers, so I want both, Jane, what do you call Sam's team in Turkey? What do you call them? Bops? Yeah, we're not very PC around here. I don't know how much our Turkish listenership is. Yeah. Well I'm Greek. It's good ribbon. Yeah. Yeah. Greeks and Turks really don't like each other too, so

it's a little got a little thing. Yeah, it's like Duke in North Carolina. Just speaking of the Bucks, and when people look at what could be the NBA Finals this year, you know a lot of people nets Bucks Heat Bowls. There are so many good teams in the East this year, you guys are a favorite to win in the West. What team matchup wise do you think would be the toughest handle for the Suns? And if it is the Bucks again, what will that mean the

second time around for you personally? From like a competition standpoint, I mean, I think I said this. I remember after our junior year. It's like when we got into the tournament our senior year, we saw that we had the ability to play Kentucky again, and that's obviously like who we wanted to play, Like you want to play that team that beat you, And that's just like from a competitive standpoint, like I'd love to be able to play Milwaukee again in a series and beat them. As far

as matchup wise, you know, it's different. Every different round of the playoffs brings a different type of matchup. And that was the cool part about, you know, our run last year. It's like every single round we played we saw something completely different. The Lakers playing against Lebron and them having Anthony Davis, and then going against the Clippers. Obviously Kauai was out, but they played smaller on us. Then we went to Denver and had to play against

your kich and the problems that he brings. And then we played the Clippers and they played smaller on us, and just like adjusting of that, having to then go play the Box who are playing way bigger, and just adjusting to all that because out of Honice is a matchup problem. So you just kind of have to be I think that's a good part about our team. We're able to adjust to pretty much anybody we've played against so far in the past two years. So it's hard

to truly know. Obviously, Janice caused a lot of problems for us last year, so I think if our team is super competitive, so I think anyone would say we'd want to play Milwaukee again. I have a question I'm very interested in actually, Like in my error, I'm a little older than you guys, somebody who was six and eleven seven ft like you. They're in the block their whole life. You're very good in the block. I mean, you've got great footwork in the block, but you also

can shoot your modern big man. What's the prep like now? Is it mostly outside shooting mid rangers or do you do a lot of work in the block? I mean, are all plays just you know, cheat out to the three point line and get a kick. I mean, what's it like now being a big man. I still do everything, you know, And I think that's a good part about our team. Everybody kind of works on everything because the way offenses go and the NBA big has got to be able to score kind of in multiple positions. You

gotta be able to screen and roll. You gotta be able to catch the ball in the middle of the paint and be able to kick it out and pass. You gotta be able to kind of see the floor. Especially the modern big man has to be able to be comfortable with the ball in his hands. And I think a lot of my game came from I was I grew late. I grew later on in high school, so I was always a guard growing up. So I was just comfortable playing that position. I kind of kept

it with me as I kept going. Personally, I love shooting threes. I just always have, you know, And I wasn't a big jumper or anything like that, so I just knew that wasn't gonna be a huge part of my game. So I just felt more comfortable playing on the perimeter. But I think you see in the NBA more and more big guys keep stepping further and further away. Some of them shouldn't, but they do, and they think they're a little bit better shooters than they are. But

it's that's kind of how it's becoming. And you know that's good because that fits right into my game. Okay, I've got to ask you when you watch the college game, I'm not sure how much you're able to catch. I know it's really tough the pro level. But the Big Ten Tournament starts March nine, that's Wednesday, next Wednesday. Who do you like right now Wisconsin is on a role

winning their last four. I mean, yeah, I'll never say anyone other than even if they were in last place, I would say Wisconsin is gonna win the Big Ten Tournament. That's just kind of me. I'm I'm a super loyal fan, and obviously you know I went there accomplished things there, so but it's good to see them back playing really well. I know last year was kind of tough for them, you know, just with the whole everything that went down

towards the end of the season. But I love seeing him playing well and they got a good team and hopefully they can make a run, because that's that's what I want. I love being especially I got so many friends that went to different Big ten schools at this point. I love it when they play. One of my best friends played it. You know you were there at my

Jersey retirement night. One of my best friends went to Purdue and war was Perdue Letterman jacket when we played perduing Perdue that night, and he wanted he always felt like crying. So I hope they played Perdue in the championship game and end up beating him. That's what I'm hoping for. Al Right. Well, I didn't ask what you were hoping for. I asked what you think. Like, Yeah, Olivia pretty good too. Yeah, so people can pick who they also root for. You know, it's a little heart

and its it's Alma mater. Al Right, Frank, We've had a great time with you man, so much insight. Now we're gonna switch to something a little more personal. We're gonna have a little fun with you since you know Olivia personally, so I'm sure you used to go one on one with Sam and practice back at Wisconsin all the time. Well, now you are going to take on Olivia one on one in a different game. Yeah, it's

a different game. It's time to find out who knows Sam better, his former teammate for his wife and a little Yeah it's Baby's Baba and a little Sam Decker trivia show. Okay, I love it, all right, So here we go. Okay, first up, so I'm going to ask what number did Sam Decker air at Wisconsin. We'll start easy, Okay, they both know. Alright, we're starting easy and we're getting gradually harder. What did Sam say? And Frank will go first? And Olivia, what did Sam say his favorite class was

at Wisconsin? H Olivia, you're both wrong. Oh my god, I hope he doesn't see this. It's entomology. Yes, yes, well you know you can't get it right now. Yeah, he had to raise the bug. He had a caterpillar in his room that turned into him off. So the kid likes bucks. All right, here's another one on Draft night, Who did Jalen Rose compare Sam too? That made Kyle Lowry tweet? Is Jalen Rose just comparing people that look a like Andre Carolinko? Good gas because they do look alike. Olivia,

I don't know, no, no clue, no clue. Okay, it was he works for the Knicks now Wally Zerbiac. So at this point, so far, neither one of you guys know Sam. Hard question, it's got better than this? Yeah? Well, hey, listen, you know what I mean we got this is we're talking about friendship. Who knows Sam better? Okay, we gotta go with the good ones this one. Probably Frank's gonna have the advantage. How many points did Sam score in his first career NBA start? Well, actually, Olivia made of

the advantage. How many points did he scored in his first start? Olivia thirty against the Memphis Grizzlies. We were dating, I don't think engaged yet? Yeah, is that what one? You over right there? You're like, I'm a married this guy kid can play. Yeah, we weren't even close to getting married until that game. Now, I was watching in Wisconsin with his sister Hannah. We got together at a bar in Milwaukee to watch the game Sam's first start.

We didn't know he was starting until like thirty minutes before. We're like, oh my god. And then they played the Bucks next, and he was flying in Milwaukee after and uh that that was an awesome week. He was very happy that week. That's incredibly I remember watching that too, Yeah, he had. He was on twelve or nineteen shooting. It was against the Grizzlies. Incredible, incredible start, incredible debut. All right, Which restaurant did Sam once say is home to his

favorite hamburger? Frank Culver's, Olivia, Yeah, Culver's. If we're going with just like a chain, is that what you mean? Yeah, you're both right, you're both right. Okay, we're getting there. We're getting there, alright. So like if you know, because let's just say somebody had kidnapped, you know, he's playing in Turkey, someone kidnaps him, and they say, if you entered these questions, he lives. He's doing okay right now. At first that he's gonna be gone, But now we're

getting back, We're getting them back, all right. What team once hosted a Sam deck or bobble Head Night? The Rockets? The Rockets, Oh boy, I'm worried about Sam's well being right now. It's the Wisconsin Timber Timber Rattlers minor league baseball team. I've got it over here. You should have known that one. You should have known that one. All right. That's a big, a big gift in Wisconsin. Is he's holding up brought Zuka. It's it's a machine that shoots

brought worst. That is very Wisconsin. I'll give you a signed one. Yeah, I mean he probably would rather I have it at this point, since you didn't even know it existed. All right? Who made headlines when they trolled Sam for not graduating from college? Me, me, what do you say? I think he tweeted it to me something at me once and I said, I'm sorry, I don't respect the opinion of a college drop out. That's really good. That's fair, Olivia. You have a guess or an answer.

It was me, Well, no, it's I mean, it's got to be that well, according to Samon it was his mother. According to Sam, it's his mother. Yeah, so I don't know. I wasn't there. I remember tweeting something at him about that too. Didn't his mom make a mow the lawn too? I think it was like two days after he was drafted or something he had to mow his parents law And come on, well, you know what, Frank gets that

one because he also did it. You get negative two points because you didn't even know that Frank did it, so that you're now you're I'm taking I'm taking a point away like what they do in boxing. All right, last question, where did Sam take Olivia on their first date? Don't answer this yet. I want to guess mm hmm, and you honest, I don't think whatever answer you have will be accurate. Well, I just hope you know it capital girl. No, No, I take it back. I don't know.

I don't know. Well, I'm not. I have no idea what answer you have, be honest, but it was just to a Mexican restaurant. Our second date was to watch a Packer game. No, no, no. Our first date was to watch a Packer game in Houston, and he brought his roommate Max Nice. He was serious about you at the beginning. Was that the answer you had? Well, I don't know, there's no answer, but I was just I

just knew that you would know. Yeah. Yeah, I would just say thankfully he didn't ask you, because I know if you you would have been like take me, flyw me on a private jet. We're going to New York and I want to go to a steakhouse. Because you're what they call I see. You don't look like a back Sam. You're not a two for twenty at Applebee's. I'll tell you that. Sam will tell you that I bought a bucket of beer. You got buckle beer. I

see you were trying to downplay. You're trying to just you're trying to play it off like you were just like, hey, I'm blow maintenance and little did he know. That's what as as girls we do that. We do this thing of like you're you gotta be cool girl for a while,

right right, and then you get married. Yeah, You're like, I'll go anywhere and take me to Applebee's, anything for twenties fine, and then a couple of years into marriage, you're like, Okay, I want to go to Paris and I want you to take me to one of the two sushi chefs who are Michelin rated in Paris. Now, well, that's it. So I think Sam's okay. A good date though, Yeah, I think he survived. He survived, he made it. He's gonna be okay. So that's the game. Yeah, good job,

be honest. Well that's it. Thank you so much, Frank. Frank, that was a lot of fun. Thanks so much for joining us. Yea, thanks for having me. Okay, I hate to start this segment off on a bad note, But we've got to talk about it because it rocked the betting world this past weekend. Peter Andrew from bed MGM, what happened to all these ranked teams losing on the

same Saturday? What did you see? Well, it turned out all right for us, but first first time ever the top six seeded teams in a given week on a given day all went down. I don't think it's as crazy and as big as surprise as some people will think. Some of those matchups. I think probably the Arizona Colorado one is the most peculiar. Colorado was at home, so that's the one I considered kind of an outlier. But you know, people don't realize sometimes a team like St.

Mary's you're in, you're out. Give teams like Zagga Trouble that is the only team in the w c C that's even remotely close to beating them in a in a conference game or a conference tournament game. So some of them not so crazy. But you saw teams like Alburn go down to Tennessee, Michigan State beat per Due, Baylor Kansas kind of a toss up between them two in terms of how good they are. I think both top ten teams at the time, and then the real surprise to me or the team that I really like

going into next week and into the tournament. Arkansas over Kentucky j D note is awesome. I think you look at that team, they have a legitimate shot at being a real threat in the tournament right now. I think if you're looking at value, you want to take teams that could make some noise in their respective conference. Geames men could make some noise in the tournament. I think that's you have to consider for some value in the future.

So Arkansas forty two one right now five dollar bet when I mean they're they're a good team, and they're only going to get better if they make it to the finals in the SEC tournament or they get a four seed in the actual n C Double A tournament. They are going to be way better than forty to one. I promise you that. So good time to take teams kind of in that level of that caliber. I watched

that Gonzaga game. Do you think St. Mary's offered a blueprint for how to beat Gonzaga by pounding it inside? They kind of went inside out? Or is it just that if Gonzaga plays a team with three white starters, Gonzaga's in trouble. Yeah, for a team that's got to almost seven foot guys or seven inch foot guys, they can be a bit soft the time. So I think it kind of is the blueprint. But that's also the kind of game that Gonzaga needs is a bit of a wake up call. So happening towards the end of

the season. I think we mentioned this even last year. Losing a game in a conference tournament. That's great when it's happening before the n C Double a tournament, because that's how you get, you know, kind of whipped into shape. But you're not totally wrong. I think that is the blueprint, and that's what teams are going to now look to do when Gonzaga is inevitably a one or two seed and they're looking to try to, you know, try to scare them off. Joannest, I know you're so excited we're

talking hoops again. I can hear in your voice, and we are just getting into the crux of it. Now that All Star Break is over in the NBA, let's take another look at futures. The Warriors are the favorite to win it All at plus four that's better odds than the Sun's, which surprises me. I know everyone's excited about Golden State, but it just seems like the Sons are head and shoulders above the rest, regardless of the

Chris Paul injury. Which team would you put your money on today, Pete Man, It's it's crazy on the West is interesting because Warriors do not look good right now. So I think they're five and five in their last ten. I mean, maybe don't have a pretty good skid. They lost some pretty embarrassing games. You have to look at the Suns. I still love this Warrior's team and similar in a different way, but similar to the Gonzaga issue. I mean, they need this kind of stretch to kind

of get their stuff together. But the difference is Gonzaga is not facing a team like the Phoenix Suns in a conference tournament or in the first rounds of the first couple of rounds n C Double A tournaments. So Sons are legit when you go to the East, though, heat look awesome. Plus four fifty to win the Eastern Conference right now, that is a great value bet. You don't know what's going to happen when it comes to the embied and hardened connection. It looks good so far.

The Nets, I still don't know what to expect of them. They're not to get political or COVID here, but they still don't know what's going to happen with Kyrie, with the sanctions that are going to get lifted in New York City. Pete, there's no room for that kind of talk on this show, don't you know. We don't go there any any reason to not take the nets. I'm all in, I'm kidding. I just unleashed on it in the open. It's like my main thing I want to talk about today, So i'd know, I don't know what's

gonna happen. I do know, indeed, plus a hundred two an m v P. That's my lock. Even money right now, it's only going to go down in a way. Playing with Harden is gonna help him because less doubles, more shooters. I think he's going to get the looks and I think points wise, he's gonna, you know, continue to accumulate. So that's the one I feel real comfortable about. I know,

I think it's joke. It's that's probably right there with him at probably like plus one nine years so maybe a little bit more, but I think in bids are really safe. Bet Yeah. I mean this year, this is a good year to put put your money on a sleeper because injuries are such a factor this year, Like I got, the Sun's winning at all. But it depends, right, it depends if Frank to Take comes back the way he played when Aton went down. It's all about Frank

to Tank. We just spoke to him. If Frank Kaminski is not healthy, I'm not I am not betting on the Suns because that kid looked good when he was playing. I think it was DeAndre eight and went down, and then he stepped in he started playing well. Because the Suns is all about the That's what I see. Chris Baul, DeAndre Aden and Frank the Tank. Baby, I'm a Phoenix Suns fan. Now forget about the Turkish League Wisconsin Star, I'm about Frank the Tanks fan Peter. Last week he

was all North Carolina with Tate Frasier. Joannis is as as much of a sellout as anyone I've ever known in the sports world. Come on, yeah, Olivia, you're rubbing off on me. I'm picking up some moves from you. You can't lose if you root for everybody. Yeah, I told you guys before the show too that I was a huge frank to Tank guy because of his time in Charlotte. I hope, I hope you got me that

autograph in that little cameo video. That's really what I'm looking for as we get into some craziness at work for the next couple of weeks with marsh Madness, I want to just revisit m v P one more time. You talked about Joel Embiid. We just saw him dunk on the entire Knicks team. That was so gnarly. I'm pretty sure the people who worked concessions and sell tickets were on the court as well. There were just a

lot of bodies that he was flying over. He is the favorite, as you mentioned, Can you give us a couple of sneaky value picks? Maybe of m v P odds. You mentioned Yoki. He's obviously won it before, Janice has won it before. Is there anyone else we should look at? It's gotta be John Moran. I'm pulling up his odds right now. John Moran is freaking awesome. So he's plus eighteen hundred. I mean, I think it was yes So

we're recording on Monday. I think it was yesterday where they had that little give and go and he spun around the defender to lay it up. He is electric. Even you look at them as a sleeper, maybe you take them plus dred to win it all. I mean, they're right there in third place. They can easily go on to run and get hot. But but John Moran is awesome and for the next fifteen years is gonna be awesome in the NBA. Love it. Yeah, if he stays healthy again. That's a it's a running theme with

the guy who plays like that. You know he uh, he reminds me of a lot of guys who like to play above the rim. And you know that in that league, that can that can be a little bit

of a liability. Yeah. I wouldn't compare him like for like with Westbrook, but like you've seen the decline of Westbrook over the last two years versus what he was, and he was that high flyer again, kind of different player but above the rim of the time, it feels like, so hopefully it doesn't happen in the fizzles out like that. He's got a little bit of a Derrick Rose vibe a little bit, you know, and that's what scares me sometimes. Yeah, yeah, well, Pete,

great stuff as always, Thank you so much. Next week we'll dig even further into March Madness and conference tournaments obviously, and then selection Sundays here before we know it, just two weeks away, so I can't wait for that, Peter, and thank you so much. We got some treats for you from bed MGM, so for the next couple of weeks you're ready. I love it. We like treats with free stuff. You're honest love free stuff, especially a T shirt. Yeah, you should see this guy at an NBA game with

a T shirt cannon. You've never seen someone moved so fast. T shirt cannons can end all wars. Just send them over right now to the current conflict and just say, don't say it, don't go there. And Food is listening. I think he is a big, unleashed listener. Yeah, okay, see all right, that was a lot of fun with Frank Kamenski. We learned a lot about Olivia's wedding and you know, they both barely know Sam, which was hilarious. But I hope Ni gets better. He's a big part

of that team. And yeah, he's not serbian, so the rumors are not true. He's about his serbian as Elizabeth Warren is Native American, so that's that. As for you guys, fans of our show, we need you to vote. Vote for us for Funniest Sports Podcast. The link is in bio. Follow us on Twitter at bet MGM. On Instagram bet MGM, Follow Olivia Harland Decker, follow me from my upcoming road dates. Come into account near you to make some funnies. We love you very much and we'll see you next week.

The sations in the past in the mis