This is the down labor part, sure, we've still got Sparkasse. I honestly, I know that guys like a very successful entrepreneur, and I know that he, like you, always see his videos like trending on the on the Internet, like I know him to be like an extremely famous entrepreneur, like motivated speaker guy. Yeah. I feel like maybe we shouldn't have dismissed him.

Write the book on being Patrick Mahomes next time. Oh, my. Know what you guys feel like you could be like Mike. You feel like he could be a help to us. Oh yeah.

Well, I think he knows the show and gets the show like he knows the show gets the show, goes to Knicks games with Jamal Adams. It's getting good with him.

And he paid a nice compliment to us. And then we're just like, who the hell is this guy? He knows the show that he knows what we're going to do. I mean, I think he's fun.

I don't think I must admit, I was more happy to see a Gary in the Zoome than even Patrick Mahomes just because I had Mel Brooks to see here. He's staring at me. I'm like, wow, this is perfect.

I mean, I was happy because I get to keep my job.

We believe that Adam Lefko actually takes notes watching Ernie Johnson. It sounds great. It's just what you say. If you're Adam Lefko in that spot and I believe he watches and I believe he is trying to learn from Ernie. But do we believe he's physically taking notes like he said?

Yes, Chris, not everybody approaches things the same way. And Adam left like his take away from our show and what he learned from Dan. Those are I mean, no one flattering to Dan, but tried and true observations one would take if they were truly stunning.

You realize why he's your age and where he is. Rahila He's really good at the stuff. The studying of stuff like he cares about it deeply applies the professionalism to it that I want to see those handwritten notes.

He's a different dude, Chris. Right. I'm not certain, but I understand what Chris is saying. I don't think he's sitting there put in, like, you know, pen to paper, jotting down notes.

Here's a way to turn to what difference you got. He's different. Do you see him? He definitely has a notepad, a full notepad of everything or any Johnson does.

He has a notes app on his phone.

And he probably puts, you know, what's funny about what just happened there. And I'd be curious what's going to happen with our audience on this one, because some members of our audience are going to be super geeks out excited the way that Lefko was that Gary the Jets fan was on with us. And I don't know how many more of those people are going to be like Stuart and Billy and Chris. Who was that guy? One of the great entrepreneurs.

Get me Travis. Kelsey, I believe. I don't know. Mike, which way do you think our audience is going to split on that? Because I do believe the next evolution of this show should be talking to people like that about their sports fandom and then wandering off and talking to them about the things that they're actually famous for, because there are any number of people who have ended up near our show, weirdly like George R.R. Martin, just because they have an interest in the silliness of sports.

But it's a side hobby. They sort of dedicated themselves to sculpting a different skill and they love sports as a hobby. So the idea there's almost a feeling of envy among some of the people who end up near us where they're like, man, I would love to be doing that for a living, that my hobby for a living as opposed to this unbelievably cool thing that I do for a year.

I need to reach out to Adam Lefko because I think he tried to put someone in our universe that might be able to help us.

This is one of the world's foremost entrepreneurs, has a media division, Gary Vaynerchuk, and that's someone that could be useful to us and build out a relationship with. And when the story gets told, the show might be more influential than just having Travis Kelsey on. We call them Gary the Jets fan. But my home's Mike, I mean.

Well, I would say that we are the pirate ship filled with idiots like look at Chris right now, look at his face, how pleased he is that he that he's ignorant, basically.

What are you talking about? I'm the one who knew who Gary was. I love how you're putting this on me. You and you got to the ones like this Gary guy.

Well, I was going for the bit there.

I was not I was not going to just slow down on his Gary's Twitter. And he he said, you do this within text, that it has like two thousand followers. So it's not there's no.

It is weird, though, that Lefko thought that our particular constituency would be more interested in Gary than Kelsie or Wade.

It was as a sell job by him that he was just totally selling because he couldn't get the other guys. These guys I know you're going to love this. It's Gary. It's my friend Gary. Totally better than the athletes that that said. No, it's Gary.

Mike, can we get someone else here? Can we bring someone else here to audition or that we nominate to replace Stewart as this show careens out of control and Stewart may be fired by the end of the day, even though I don't know who would fire him.

But would it be me, I guess? Would it be Skipper? I don't know.

I read a sports business journal thing that I think it's skipper now.

So Skipper now, skipper is Progressive's skipper is somebody who for those of you who do not know and this will be the only place that you get any information on all this stuff, because we do want an undisturbed thing to arrive at the ears of our audience. Me and Skipper are not going to be doing any conversations with anyone else where we're going to talk directly to you about what our future holds and what it looks like. But, Skipper, for those of you who do not know in terms of what the history is, he put us on ESPN because as part of putting Jimal and Michael on the six and as part of empowering minorities and women, it was important to him to get out of sort of the Bristol lifestyle of the way things had always been done and to empower some people with his privilege that did not have that kind of power.

So, of course, he would gravitate toward helping me and us because I've been doing the job he hired me to do for eight years at ESPN, which basically anything you guys saw in terms of talent curating that I was doing, I would tell you the audience that was the job, the job, the reason stewards wasn't on highly questionable more. And you'll notice that seat was always filled by somebody who was a woman or a minority or Hank Azaria like it.

It was never anybody other than somebody being I was reaching down and pulling them up so that they could have more power and influence at ESPN with the privilege that John Skipper had handed me.

One of these things is not like the other now.

Well, yes. And so Stewart was hurt and frustrated by the fact that he was not. Well, what needs to be said on the front end is the only reason highly questionable exists is because Stewardson in were negotiating with the competing radio station. Like the only reason I even went to Skipper to start a television show is because Stukas was doing two days with HOK and thought that that was the way to go. Like that's the only reason that television show is even I don't want I don't like televisions to God, I did not.

Do you know, part of my relief over the last week is that I don't have to go and do any television. It was a it was not something that I enjoyed. I shouldn't say I didn't enjoy what we were doing specifically. But the act of doing television is not this.

It's no, it's not. You don't have the freedom. It's not as liberating. It's not as enjoyable. It's more confining then than doing radio or podcasting. But that explains Bomani. That explains Skipper saying to me upon meeting me that he wanted you to do the radio show with Bomani Jones. That was a nice first meeting, but it doesn't explain. Hank Azaria. It just there is explain that to me. I wanted to start using comedians and it was not something we were able to get off the ground.

I actually had I had ideas to God for what I wanted to do with that television show. Once my father left the television show, I actually wanted to make it a bit like The Daily Show for sports because our correspondents were so smart and I thought that we could do something else with the evolution of that television show where we had, you know, all of these people, Katie and Mina and Pablo and Bomani and Amien and I wanted to do something that was a little larger than the reps.

You know, there's a bit of creative death involved, no matter how much fun you're having in doing the very same thing for nine years. It's why most people leave Saturday Night Live after a couple of years. Our show, our radio show, this is quite the aberration in that it has evolved a number of different times in ways that has kept us entertained. And the relationships haven't become fractured because this is an absurd amount of time to do what we've been doing in a tight creative space.

It is an unusual thing, but I think we should have some conversations, Mike, as we get nostalgic here and start talking about some of the history of the show, because so many of the people who are with us now are so new to God that they might think I am kidding about the reason highly questionable exists. From your vantage point, what are you comfortable saying? Because I want to. So at some point through our entire history and all of us talk about this stuff honestly, because I think our fan base, especially from the beginning, would love to hear about how this thing grew into what it grew into, specifically because Stewart started a radio station.

Stuckert met me at a coffee shop because he thought, OK, the newspaper columnists, two guys created a loaded lineup. I was laughing about this the other day. Two guys.

Hmm. It was a great line. Well, I'm super proud, but not you should be proud of it. But I'm laughing that on the day we leave ESPN that Boog Champi was taking the job to universal applause in that market for that baseball team where they're like, yep, you're the best dude.

Like, yeah, no, no polarizing higher. No, you replace Len Casper, who's been here for 16 years. And it's just applause from Theo Epstein and Eddie Vedder and everyone, these people who really love baseball saying we just got the best and you had you had those guys, you had Sedano, you had you had all of these people in a lineup that you created and then tell the story of how it is that that evolved into where it is that highly questionable, ended up coming into the picture.

By the way, everything that happened here strengthened my relationship with Stuart's. It's one of the many reasons that I value stewards more than just about anyone else. I think values to Godse in terms of what he does, he brings to this radio show. And our relationship has survived what at the time was something that was, you know, hurtful because that's where some of those relationships end up breaking apart their spin spinoffs. People go do their own thing.

That's where I broke off from Tony and Mike to create a highly questionable spin off instead of doing pardon the interruption with them. Right. I mean, the lineup was it was something I took a great, you know, great amount of pride in because it felt it was a local lineup that to me felt like a national lineup. But I wanted talented people in there, all of it leading up to the big show in the big show being Dan, because I produced Hank Golberg show.

And Hank at the time had one of the most popular sports radio shows in the country and certainly maybe the most popular Jimmy Neil Rogers down here in Miami. But towards the end, Hank did his entire show on dad and Dan's opinions and Dan's columns. And I didn't know Dan, but I thought to myself, hey, if Leadbitter could piss this guy off so much on a daily basis, his opinions must be extraordinary. And so I started reading it and I started reading you.

And then you put us in touch because you and I had never met and I would not have started that station without having you in afternoon drive. But that lineup felt like a national lineup. But it also felt like a lineup that really got and respected one another where every show seemed to flow into the next. And everyone, for the most part, was pretty friendly. And that's always what I wanted to create a lineup that kind of where all the hosts got along.

There was a lot of cross promotion, a lot of crossover. And then as it relates to the to the television show, I desperately wanted to be you had created this radio family that I was not expecting and it was me and it was you. And then Mike came in and he was there. And Roy has been there basically since day one. And naturally, when you were when we were coming down here to do TV, it was something I thought I was going to be a part of and a big part of pretty much the same role that I play on the radio show.

But it did not work out that way, I think, in large part because the executive producer didn't want to drive to Miami. And so I have no problem saying that.

Well, that is a different conversation about whether we had a hard time. Right. We had a hard time, to be honest. It still bothers me a little bit to this day that I was not a part of the show. But once I saw Bomani on that set with you and your dad, I was like, man, that guy's so much better than me.

Well, the skipper's first order of business was to try and create a radio show that was going to be me and Bomani and not you and me. And I think that is something that in the coming days I will be able to discuss with him for and with the audience where we're able to talk about. I remember where I was when I got that phone call because he's the most powerful man in sports and he's calling me and I'm not sure I want to go to ESPN.

I'm not sure I want to do any of that stuff. And he's saying I get one phone call at the end of negotiations. Dan, are you sure are you sure that you won't put Bomani in the place of God? And I'm like, I hadn't had that conversation with him to that point. That was just a conversation I was having with my agent. And I told him I can't and I won't do that. I won't. And I it was a it was a thirty second phone call.

And I realized when it was done, oh my God, that was two shots being fired right there. That's, that's where that would have that's where that would have ended up.

And I learned about it in his office face to face of it. It would have been a lesser show. It would have been, it would have been a different show. It would have been a very smart show. But I don't know if Bomani and I would have killed each other like it would have tested our friendship in ways that I think would have been hard and. Also also wouldn't have had the specific vibe that this show has, because, again, I really value even though we're interviewing replacements today, Adam Lefko and we've got another one coming up here that we're about to interview.

I really do value. But you're leaving out the part of what it is that you and that executive producer actually did. That hurt my feelings? That ended up with me choosing television, even though I didn't want to do a television show. We were doing two days.

We were doing mornings. We were doing afternoons. Me and Hok were doing during a heat championship bronchus 2.0 had left and he had moved on to ESPN. And so we were doing two days, two shows. Dan, unfortunately and rightfully so, started to get annoyed that he was getting the the exhausted parts of us he was getting. I mean, I'm not great when, you know, I have 12 hours of sleep, but I've done nothing else leading up to the show.

But now I'm doing four hours in the morning, waking up at three thirty in the morning, taking a nap, coming back to do the show with Dan. It was totally unfair to Dan. He was not getting the best me. He was not getting the best HOK And then what ended up happening and the reason Dan started thinking about TV and putting that show together without me is because he thought perhaps, maybe I would just stay in the mornings with HOK, which is something that I was considering because the show had great success over.

It was a good show month. It was a good show over a two month run. But we also we were buoyed by the heat. So I was like, listen, for me, I didn't know if we were doing a good show or if the Heat were carrying us and we had these great, amazing numbers in morning drive. But once I really sat down and thought about it, you know, it was kind of like, OK, you left your own devices.

Do you want to do that or do you want to sit next to this guy who's as good as anyone in our industry and see where that takes you? And to me, that was that was an obvious choice. Might sit next to you.

Chris is writing in here in the chat. Can we call Skipper Skip? He's our manager. Do you think that's a good idea for Chris Cody to be calling you? Oh, yeah.

OK, well, I mean, we I mean, we had a meeting on today is very friendly. Like, I just like instead of like, hey, Jon or Mr. Skipper, like, what's up, Skip? I just wouldn't call him.

OK, well, hold on a second, Chris, because you haven't had this particular experience because two guys just mentioned being in an office with skipper Mike and Stewart. And I went to that office in Bristol. Why don't you, Mike, tell people what that experience was for you to so that Chris has an idea that this is not a person, no matter how friendly or charming he is that you should be calling Schipp.

I'll let me take it from here. But this man does not mince words. I mean, he also told me to call him John, and I just refuse never call him John. It's always going to be Mr. Skipper. And I'm always going to be apologizing for not calling him John. He's like, call me John. Yes, I'm sorry, Mr. Skipper.

I mean, I'm sure Joe Tauri had an aura about him as well and commanded respect, but I bet people still called him Skip for some.

I met Mr. Skipper in his office. There was all sorts of growing pains with this studio and confusion about what our show was. And things weren't working properly. He turned to me and said, what's going on with my studio?

And I was I soiled myself and want to do you guys look scared? Both of you. I remember you guys and I'm usually great. I was surprised. I walked in there the most confident male little girls. The both of you looked so scared. I looked at my posse, my entourage, and both of you had shrunk to the size of a postage stamp.

Well, quite honestly, it was the disarming question, not one that I expected. I kind of felt like if there was someone in charge of that skipper would have known that person, but apparently not.

I mean, would you want us to do how you want us to react? The first thing he says the mike is, how's my studio doing? The first thing he says to me is I wanted Dan doing the radio show with Bomani.

Yeah. Yeah. It didn't go well for us.

It was not good for us. But you were having a ball. You too. I don't know.

It started with a big hug between the two of you.

Yeah, that just killed me. And Mike, you mentioned something here that is interesting as we wait here for a lot of you missed our next audition here, Mike. What can you tell people without telling people about who is the next person who's going to audition for the steward's role in the event that Mr. Skipper Skip, as Chris likes to call him, ends up firing the gods for telling his wife to make it more, saying, well, I like playing the king of the mountain right now.

We started with Lefko, but he got thrown off the top of the mountain by Gary the Jets fan. So I think right now, leader in the clubhouse is Gary the Jets fan. The next person is going to come for Gary, the Jets fan, and try to supplant him as a clubhouse leader. And these two guys replacement. This person knows our show probably. Better than Gary, the Jets fan. Well, what I like about this person that is now, and I don't think Stukas knows who it is we're going to interview to replace him next.

But the part that I'm excited about, Mike, I think the audience is going to be excited to hear this voice. Some of the audience isn't going to be excited to hear this voice and is going to wish this voice wasn't around us. But there is going to be a voice that appears here in moments that will be the first of its kind in this new pirate venture that we are doing. We are out there exposed right now. Our show is floating in open waters.

There are no rules. There are no regulations. We're going to build this thing as we go and before we get to this voice that I'm going to be excited to get to because it's going to feel a little bit forbidden when this voice makes an appearance. I want to go back to something that's Douglas was saying about Hank Goldberg and Neil Rogers, because I want our show and everyone on our show, the Billy Roy, Chris, Mike, to absorb this portion of where we are in the journey because we have somehow managed through great, great fortune to be one step ahead of the awful crashing waves in industries.

Right. Newspapers died on me. I got out. Terrestrial radio became a problem. We're getting out just a little step ahead before everything closes down on us, because Neil Rogers was the most popular radio show in Miami for a long time and wasn't able to evolve. And when the next measurements made an appearance to God that moved from diaries to elsewhere, Neil Rogers, who was doing a morning show from Toronto midday midday show, making millions of dollars, not even in Miami, doing it by himself in Toronto.

Then the ratings came out where the measurements were more accurate and people realized he wasn't worth that and his show immediately died.

Neil was so Arbitron, who used to handle the ratings, used to do it with with books they literally would send you. There would be trends and then you would get a book every three months. And Neil Rogers really thrived under that system. I mean, he had some of the biggest numbers meant 25 to 50 in a day part that wasn't that didn't even make any sense.

People shouldn't have been listening to the radio. Ten to one.

He was on from 10 to two. And so when you put up numbers like the numbers Neil was putting up, I mean, they will put you in morning or afternoon drive very, very quickly. But Neil, because he was getting those numbers, could work wherever he wanted. It was like, hey, I'm going to work from Canada. I'm going to work half the year here, half the year in Florida. I have fifteen shares. There ain't nothing you can do about it.

OK, so this is the part, though, that I want Roy, Billy, Chris and Mike, the specifics of this to absorb and those of you who have been with us since we started in Miami who have been on this particular journey with us for close to two damn decades. OK, Neil Rodgers and Hank Goldberg were unspeakably mean to me. Neil Rogers specifically with an assortment of clear and obvious racism. Big fine.

That's five dollar fine for me because my phone is ringing. Now, one of our executives doesn't know that I'm on the radio at eleven o'clock in the afternoon. It's kind of concerning. Yeah. So let's skip the skip.

Yeah, no, it's one of our other executives. We've got we're going to have an assortment of announcements here over the course of the next six weeks. But I just want you guys to absorb joyously and emotionally the fact that when Stewart came to me to start this radio station, the reason I wanted to do it is because these white dudes were being so bad to Hispanics in this market where Neil Rogers would say things about, you know, he should put a couple of million notches underneath each arm and head back to Cuba like it was just straight racism and they were profiting off it.

And I want you guys to absorb as the minorities, Billy, Roy, Mike, Chris, you're just nepotism. I want you guys to absorb, we win. Dude, we've won like the game is over. It's not just that we took over Miami. We from that starting point of now, I needed Skip's help to come and grab us and give us some of that privilege so that minorities can have power so that we could elevate that power.

Cool. Super excited about everything. Can I ask Skip about health insurance or not?

You know what happened with you and Cobra the other day was a clean call for me. I just called Disney Benefits. I talked to Joe Hsueh and I got scared. I skated.

I skated right. Joe Hsueh I've never got before.

Joe Suanne. That sounds so soothing. Yes, it was soothing. I got someone that told me the exact opposite of what I was told for several weeks. So working on it. Yeah, same here.

I had access still and that ceased to exist about a week ago. You have Joe Swayze?

No, I mean, I said he said it to us, but he sent us a number that goes to a lot of people, not just Joe Hsueh. You notice that, right? I sent you an extension. That's just not an option, right? It's not an option. No option.

There was also one time that I called tech support just to see if they took your voice off of it. And not yet.

There is a situation here where they're ignoring the ignoring our phone calls, like what is happening here? No, no, no. ESPN has been very happy with the transition, but there's a lot of moving parts. And this was very clearly a top line negotiation. And you were very clearly the priority. And, you know, it's not unlike my eighteen years with this show and there's pieces that need to be picked up.

Speaking of ESPN, I just got a text here from the producer of College Game. They told you they had big plans for me down here because the national championship game is tonight.

They need an official pick for me by one o'clock Eastern because all their celebrity guests, pickers have to make a pick on tonight's game. And they're not put me on television, but they are simply asking me for my prediction before 1:00 today. Your prediction should be stupidity. Find on all platforms, Apple, Spotify, subscriber rate review.

That's why I brought it up here, because I would like to come up with something like that, you know. That's it. That's it right there. Your your prediction is stewpot do this due to it's some sort of prediction.

Libertarian friends, podcast networks through poddy Alabama. Thirty four. Thirty one mystery. Great.

Does anyone have a direct number for Joe Hsueh question mark.

All right, Mike, let's set this up here for the audience here, because very soon in the Zoome, whether it's Travis Kelce or Dwayne Wade or Gary the Jets fan or I don't want to tell people just yet, I want them to be excited by the big reveal. How many people on this in this conversation might know who is about to make an appearance to audition to replace?

Oh, you've been very mysterious. I think most people are assuming it to be Dan Rather because we had a guest request out for him. So, no, it's it's not Dan Rather, although I would love for him to audition for the role.

Can we do this thing since we're this pirate ship where if we don't like the person auditioning, they have to walk the plank?

I love that they are of the mind.

They have that imaging. Well, this person would be particularly perfect walking a plank and ending up submerged. This person would be I think in the history of our show, there has never been someone more equipped. You guys have a guess here, someone more equipped to walk off a plank and end up submerged? Yes, Billy.

Well, no, if it's the person I'm thinking the person could just enter the ship and just keep walking right off the plank. Who are you thinking of? But I don't want to ruin any surprise if it's who I'm thinking.

Is it Captain Slappy, the guy that we would always bring on for talk like a Pirate Day?

Let's empty that file. Do you have to talk like a pirate? If you have, let's empty the library because we have all of our library. Poor Roy has been going through all of this stuff, trying to organize it. It is a job that is going to take an eternity going through our library and finding all the captain slapping. So this is going back, I don't know, fifteen years to international talk like a Pirate Day where we went to some guy as our guest, whose name was Captain Slappy and wasn't very good at talking like a pirate, I might add, and was just a random person who's coming on and doing a very poor pirate impersonation.

I searched Drive, which is where our library is just Captain Slappy. And apparently we had Captain Slappy do a sports flashback in the seven ninety days I got it here.

It's right here in the library. OK, so this is international talk like a Pirate Day. And again, this is a guest we're having on who's just some random dude who likes pirates and does a very bad pirate impersonation.

Here's your sports flash from 790. The ticket with is happy inventor of talk like a Pirate Day. So I was just the bed very loud. I mean, you popped my face like a broken orbital bone, orbital bone that was unbelievably loud and overproduced, as well as an added bogey to take on our show.

It was it really was totally overproduced. Let's see what else we find in the Captain Slappy file, because we really did obsess with piracy.

You have a pirate already, Mike. Whoa. What do you mean you have a pirate already? All right. Who's on the air here? I was. Oh, yes. Captain Slappy is this chum bucket? No, it's not chum bucket. It's captain slapping.

Oh, I'm sorry you said that already. I I'm from Puntland.

This is this is one of those guys who created that national pirate days to God.

But this is international talk like a Pirate Day. No, I'm sorry to write this. So how do you feel about pirates being in the news? What's your name? Captain Slappy. I'm Captain.

OK, I'm sorry. I know you mentioned so well.

At what point how do you feel about pirates being in the news so much, Captain Slappy?

Well, I'm happy for it because it sells books. As an entrepreneur, this is not the kind of pirate I wanted on the line I ended up with.

No, really, it's really it's really a crappy pirate art show deserves to be honest with you.

And you deserve a Somali pirate captain slapping. Thank you for being always so good.

All right.

Okay. You know, I remember what happened there. I remember we were fascinated by Somali pirates and the idea that in the 20, you know, that in this century we would find ourselves in a position where Somali pirates were actually through their desperation, they were hijacking cruise ships. Isn't that how we developed a relationship with the aforementioned Dan Rather, who reported on it and then told us about Djibouti? That is correct.

And and I can find that audio for you, too. But playing back to Captain Slappy stuff, I realize that the pirate that we had on our show was Chum Bucket. And I have tracked down an interview that you did with Chum Bucket that's shorter than three minutes. So you want to relive your interview with Old Chum Bucket. These are very limited pirate impersonations.

These guys, do you have a chum bucket was the pirate you really want. OK, chum bucket.

Let's talk to the chum bucket joining us now on 790 The Ticket. Let's make this quick, please. Old chum bucket was dreadful last time he was on with us. He didn't sound anything like a pirate. Today is national talk like a Pirate Day. And now he's joined by some guy came in laughing. Damn it.

It's got the Pirates of the Caribbean theme behind that.

I can't use that again. Unfortunately, it's just the whole thing the whole time it's got the Pirates of the Caribbean theme.

I mean, given how I know Hawk's production, possibly give me a second to listen offline. We are moments removed from saying everything in our show was overproduced.

It was so overproduced. We were very heavy handed with the production elements on this show.

I sound like an English guy. We're just trying to be an Irishman. But it's not it's not an English Irish pirate. Captain slap all the other pirates make fun of our little jumbuck. It sounds like a pirate.

You're the only one that does that. OK, well, you guys invented this crappy day, right?

We invented it. And and we're having a lot of fun with it.

All right. But it is. And how does it actually get made? National talk like a Pirate Day. Do you have to do you have to write to the government or something?

No, we had a little help from our friend Dave Barry. Oh, so wait a minute.

So, Dave Barry, just how does it become official? Dave Barry, the Miami Herald columnists talk to you guys and you made it national, but it's it's a national holiday. How does that happen? It's an international holiday.

It's been embraced by the entire planet.

Yeah. And so how does that work, though? Like, do you do you have like a plaque or something or a certificate that says that this is actually so damn.

What part of pirate don't you understand? We don't wait around for permission. We just do it.

It's done jumbuck it like because you could not sell any less like a pirate.

You said you could not find any less like an interesting personality, but you don't hear me complaining.

Oh I want to talk to Captain Slappy. I talk to me Danny Boy are you guys in the same place.

Are you right now in the same place that we are. Are you together.

We are in the same building within about eight feet of each other. How are you dressed? Are you dressed? Do you dress like pirates on this day? This is the happiest day of the year for you clowns, right?

I well dressed like pirates when we go out drinking tonight.

All right, go do that now. Get out of here, both of you. All right. We'll be going to visit our Web site, talk like a pirate. All right. Who knew that? Pirated websites.

I mean, listening back to that jumbuck, it was right. I mean, they're pirates. They don't ask permission. You wanted all the I's dotted, all the T's crossed the line. Right. Have you guys done what needs to be done in terms of licensing official official government or ordaining any of that? No, you're pirates. You do whatever you want. Mike, are you ready to unleash upon the audience? Are you ready? We are going to do this in seconds.

We are going to unleash upon the audience a new applicant for the Stewarts position, next.

So over the years, you guys have probably noticed that whenever one of the ingredients is missing around here, the show is just a little bit different. It's rarely better. It's usually just a little bit different. And so when Stewart is out, we might get somebody to play the Stewarts role. But it's not exactly the way Stewarts would do it. And if I'm out or Mike is out or Billy, Roy, Chris, anybody really you can tell that there is something of a difference.

I just take phone calls. One of the people, though, who has come in here and most successfully replaced Stewart because he gets the show and he understands what we do around here, and right now he is Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire. We are not allowed to have anyone from ESPN on.

We have made some requests for people, people who are our friends. We have to make the requests as a courtesy to ESPN. And so far, the answers have been no. But right now in the Zoome call with a goldfish in his bag, having left his job to be the first one on the pirate ship, I mean, Alhassan is with us because he wants to be around what it is that we're doing in this next incarnation. And I mean, we're having you on specifically because Stukas has said some objectionable things.

John Skipper has joined the company. Stewards might be fired by the end of the show today, even though there are no rules.

So welcome aboard the pirate ship. I mean, we are very happy. I don't know how much you can say or will say are allowed to say, but you're doing a brave thing to come and support us and ride with us, basically sight unseen, because it's not like the company doesn't even exist yet. We're just floating in open waters. So can you take us through your process here on how it is you ended up here before we start interviewing you for replacing the stewards?

Yeah, I think the Jerry Maguire analogy is apt. You know, you got up and you stood up and you said, hey, I'm gone. Who's coming with me? And everyone kind of turned around and just stared at you. And I said, you know what, I will. And I stood up and I cleared out my desk kind of sheepishly in front of everyone looking at me like, are you nuts? Including my parents, by the way.

They were kind of they're like, wait, you're leaving ESPN for this this man? This is the same. You remember then a couple of years ago and I told you I've been telling my father about how what an influence you've been and how what a great kind of guiding light in my career you were. And then he watched an episode of of highly questionable and I think I can remember what you had on. But you you just looked ridiculous. And my father said, this is the man who is your inspiration and your guiding light.

I said, well, he's not always like that. So it's one of those things where I had a great time at ESPN. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed working for the Walt Disney Company, as we all did Free Disney passes and going to Star Wars premieres and all that stuff. But the most fun I had was going to Miami to work with you guys. And I don't think I've ever told you this is the last serious thing I'm going to say before we can get into shenanigans.

I don't think I've ever told you guys this, but on my original contract, I used to get paid per hour. I was on radio whenever I was co-host on a radio show, and I had to submit the slips, say I did two hours on Ezzy and Sudano show and I did an hour here with Brian when her son Markstein and I get paid for those hours. And the only radio show I never submitted slips for was you guys, because I was afraid that if I did too much, they would say, well, we're spending all this money for me to go to Miami and they'd stop allowing me to be on.

So I never entered those slips and I never got paid for all those years I was doing the show, I said, all have to say back pay. And well, it's funny that you say that because it's interesting.

Sounds like you got used to working for free. Yes. That's what we established the precedent. And now we're going to go on into the future with that is the precedent. You have negotiated your deal terms and free is the way we're going to freedom and just free. You get to be free, but you also are free. We are paying you nothing.

I mean I mean free. Then I have no doubt that he's going to get the job because I do it if you're not doing it.

I want to give some people some of the history here because and I can't talk to Bomani about this on air, but I think Bomani did something similar where I don't think Bomani Jones ever collected any of the checks. I got to ask him I've never asked him this. When he was doing Wednesdays with us on 790, the company was paying him. And I don't think that he ever cashed any of those checks for whatever it is that his reasons were.

It wasn't because he had some principled reason for not cashing the checks and he did not cash them. But what I wanted to tell people about, specifically about I mean, it's in the context of everything we're talking about with Lefko and the doing of television, the things that I remember about my first conversations with the mean. Sedano sent them down, said, you guys are going to love this guy. He fits with everything it is that you guys do.

He has. All the sensibilities that you guys have, and I mean came down here and we went to dinner and he was talking about just the general frustrations of walking out onto a television set and having to stand on a mark and then give the delivery of takes. And he didn't like the rigidity of that.

And over wine and and dinner one night, he just said flatly, this is very early. Anything you guys are doing, red eyes. I got to take whatever hour in the morning, anything you guys are doing that needs me. I want to be a part of anything that you guys are doing. And look at him. He's the first one on the sinking ship. He's the first pirate on the sinking ship. So proven it like saying just just said just wiped his hands and said, I'm done here.

I'm going with those guys wherever it is those guys go.

Well, then the news reports over the weekend must have been very reassuring.

I mean, yeah, now that definitely there was an element because I'm talking to Dan and I'm talking to my and they're saying we're building this thing. It's going to be great, but they can't give me any details. 032 Not so part of me. I mean, part of me is I trust you guys. You guys are my friends. You would never steer me into something that was unsure. And then part of me was just like, are they really your friends?

Are they a little forgotten? Everybody, whether that's buddy, buddy, you got to do this. This is great. I mean, wait a minute.

I mean, no one was selling you on this. You chose this. It's not like I was in your ear the whole time saying you got to do this. You chose this. I chose it. But it's based on my conversation with you. It's you know, it's, hey, is this a real thing? Because I want to be a part of it. And you said, yes, it is, but you didn't give me much detail outside of that.

So even though I'm the one that approached. Yes, you're right. There still is an element of trust that I'm going into this whole process.

If you make it if it makes you feel any better, I have less details than you do.

I mean, OK, have well, it's to me it's two guys had the same agent. These two guys have the same agent. And I lose my agent who knows nothing.

They Blue Lou doesn't know anything either. I had a conversation with Lou. I didn't want to be talking to Lou. That's not look, man, that's not what I want to be doing with the next stage of my life is talking to agents. Yeah, my agents are concerned about me. He doesn't know you the way I know you. We want to speak with you.

It's a it's an unfortunate setup in that the person that's building our company has zero interest in running a company. Wait a minute.

I just got us a great white shark. I'm doing well now. I think we can all rest easy on. But there was a lot of motivational platitudes being spoken and not a lot of. Hey, who can answer my question here? That's right.

So, I mean, this is brave of you because people should probably know you didn't know shit, dude. You jump you jumped off the cliff without knowing much of anything except you want to be around what we're doing. Well, then I don't know if you know this. You are one of the few humans on this earth who's ever seen me cry as a as an adult, you, you and Valerie. And so implicit in that, I think, is a level of trust that, all right, I like this guy.

Whatever this guy is doing, I think I can go along with. And then and I will sink with the ship. The ship sinks, so be it. I at least I feel confident in the decision that I made, knowing that whatever we do, whether it's successful or unsuccessful, it's going to be good content wise. I want to make good content. Well, we were talking earlier before you came on because Billy was saying in honor of the pirate ship, if you failed the audition to replace the gods, that we should have you walk an actual plank.

And I was saying that in the history of our show, we've never had someone more qualified to walk a plank and fall into a body of water than you. The guy who on American Ninja Warrior still has the most viewed clip of all time. So if we were to be interviewing right now for replacing Stewart because he's just been fired by a guy that Chris very erroneously has decided to call Skip, it's right. If he is gone by the end of the day, what makes you qualified to replace Stewart in the Stewart's role?

Well, this is this comes down to something very simple. This show is built on chemistry, right? You don't want to introduce an element that would upset the chemistry. Yes, Billy, Billy's got his hand up, but that was an awful answer. I'm going to take over this part of your interview here. Adam Lefko was on before he told us that he could potentially get Patrick Mahomes or Travis Kelsey to join the show. You got some guy named Gary to come on this show.

So who can you get to come on this show? Knowing Stu got his most recent contribution was Aaron Rodgers.

Hold on, though. I mean, just so that you know and we will get to that in a second. I love that. As you're talking about the chemistry that was that Billy fouled up the chemistry immediately by holding up a hand and just staring at everybody, wanting to talk, but not saying anything. It was it was art. As I was saying, the chemistry is more important than the the flashy things. Oh, I got Patrick Mahomes basketball.

Just not why this show is great. Aaron Rodgers is not why the show is great. The show is great because Stewart is a grifter because who got is cut corners and because to God, this is Daniel. Well, I feel like I can accomplish all three of those things at a high efficiency level and just be down.

And he's right about that. So I guess what Billy was doing is he just wanted you to go into your phone and just call somebody to be on the Zoome call a special celebrity in order to show off during your interview.

I think what Billy is saying is no one's ever going to be able to piss Dad off the way I am able to pissed in off. It's a gift. I have a gift. I mean, I really pissed him off. There are times where I don't think he wants to be around, and Chris's dad does a good job of it, too.

I need to stop enabling and employing these people. I really do.

So you'll never you'll never achieve those standards. It means. So you have to bring a little something extra. And what Billy is suggesting is guest. And I'm telling you, Lefko, try to get Mahomes and Kelsey. He gave us Gary the Jet fan. The last contribution I had was Aaron Rodgers. In terms of gas, is there anyone you think maybe perhaps you could bring to the table today on a Zoome? I think that's where we're at it.

And maybe share something today, right now? No, I can't get check, but maybe if you leave, I could get check.

Oh, I see how play general. Yeah. I can give you titans of the entertainment industry. You know, everyone could get an athlete. Oh, the guy threw a ball into a wrinkle. I can get you the host of The Late Late Show. I can get you the star of Family Matters. I can get you the man who was the object of everyone's desire. She's all that I can get you all of these guys and more. Yeah, yeah.

We know who to go to if we want Freddie Prinze Jr. and Turtle from Entourage. I mean, your friend with James Corden.

Hey, man, look, I'm not naming names. I'm not a name dropper. I'm telling you, I can get you these people up.

Oh, I have it. I mean, just out of curiosity, you're holding up the goldfish bag. You're on on board. You're on the pirate ship. Dorothy Boyd, do you know what you're doing for the new company? Because I don't know what the new company is, and I don't know yet what you're doing for it. Holy shit. I'm scared.

I figured I just got to come hang out. Is that what you're paying me for? Just hang out. And every once in a while, ask me a basketball question and I'll give you a basketball answer and then go back to the shenanigans. Well, let's not overcomplicate this thing, guys. If it ain't broke, don't break it.

Mike, go ahead and play. I mean, knows basketball so we can ask him a handful of questions here. And I don't think that. Has he succeeded Billy in his interview to replace to God? Sir, is this going to be are we going to have to continue the interview? We'll continue it tomorrow. It'll be. We'll ask you back for a second interview since we can't get rid of you and since you're a part of the new company.

But we also don't know what the hell you're going to be doing yet for the new company.

Let's play the Amien Knows basketball song because this comes with time to talk basketball basketball to basketball expert. And I've got a basketball question for basketball expert.

I mean, Alhassan, I mean, the NBA got all sorts of credit for what they did inside that bubble. They gave us a true NBA champion that outside of the premise, people weren't able to discredit because everybody had their players available. Now that they're outside of the bubble, teams are traveling and you're having games canceled. And situations were like last night were the Miami Heat can't field eight players in uniform. The Celtics, Celtics? No, the Miami Heat were the ones that actually undid it.

That was a report because the Miami Heat all of a sudden because of contact tracing, because their game with Washington couldn't field big players. It's not things we're going to play that game with an abomination of a roster. Is the NBA now the worst league in handling the pandemic? No, because they're taking all the all the right precautions and all the right steps in suspending these games, the reality is the NBA knew going into this that there was going to be positive tests and there was going to come a time where we're going to have a rash of positives all across the league.

And it's no mistake that this is happening a couple of weeks after the holiday season. This is exactly when we thought this would hit. If you think about what happened nationally early in after Memorial Day, a few weeks after that is when we got a spike. We get spikes after there are moments of great concentration of people. So we knew this would happen. But I will say this. The protocol for covid for the NBA requires a contact tracing officer, a testing officer, a facility hygiene officer, a bunch of extra roles.

And what most of the teams, if not all the teams have done is take these roles and go on to someone who already has a full time job and said, here, now you got to do this as well. I think that's a terrible mistake by the teams. I think these people are overworked. Many of them are athletic trainers. They're complaining about being overworked. They're complaining about being stressed because you get all these updates that come in 15 page memo form.

And I think that's the one area the NBA could do better. Also, I want to point out, the Disney company is world renowned for never giving up IP, right? They never give up the rights to anything. Why did they let go of this? What could they cut that song? Could they just tuck that one away with the whistle while you work and all that stuff?

They said specifically, please take that song. We'll keep you. We don't want it. You can have all of your freedom and all of your intellectual property as long as you take this song off of our premises and him and we don't have to be linked and preferably also him. What do you make of the nets? I mean, tell me what you've seen from the nets. Well, obviously, when there are going offensively, they're they're amazing, they're incredible, they're deep, but defense needs work.

Absolutely. The big thing is when you talk about Kyrie Irving and his Mercure reality, let's use that term instead of other harsher terms. This is why Steve Nash got that job. Because when you're dealing with someone like Kyrie, who is a very different dude, you have to have a different approach. And that approach has to come from some level of understanding. And I think of all the candidates who are available to the nets. Steve Nash was the guy who most approximated someone who could understand what Kyrie is coming from.

An example I gave is during a time when it wasn't cool for athletes to speak out on social issues. Steve Nash spoke out on the Iraq war as the superstar, as an MVP of this league, and was very vocally against it when when not only among athletes but nationally. The whole thing was we all got to unify in this fight against terrorism. And Steve Nash was one of few people, public figures, who said, no, this is wrong, this ain't right.

And so fast forward to Kyrie and whatever he feels like he's doing for social justice in this country and the backlash that he's received and kind of however emotional he gets about things that are happening. Steve Nash is a guy who could sit with them, said, I know how you feel. I've been there before as the MVP of this league. But I also got through it and helped my team out. And so while this is a critical time, I think this is a time where Steve Nash is going to prove why he was the man for the job.

Do you think they end up trading LaVert for something they need? That's a good question, but they got deferred, don't they? I mean, what's that they kind of need LaVert based on the way, you know Kairys kind of in and out, not there in transmission.

He played 19 minutes the other day and had seven turnover, but it's good to have LaVert there in the event those guys those two don't play.

Yeah I think that's the case of these two guys. But the bigger thing is Dan said for what they need. If you tell me James Harden is what they need because I don't think they need that. It's nice out James, but they don't need that. What they need is someone is going to make them better defensively. I mean, I know we're 10 games in, but the Knicks are five and five, they've lost two straight, which. No, no, no.

Which means at one point when they were five and three.

And it was really exciting question. Really another playing pretty good basketball. Jesus Christ, I can't ask a question. Oh, all right.

Forget it. No, you've got. No, no. Still got still got. This is the time to do it. Ten games from now, it'll be over. We'll be talking about the draft when we talk about Kate Cunningham. Right now is the time. You got to ask all of you who are the next four real questions? Go. I just want to know, was it as simple as getting someone in there, Tom Thibodeau, who holds his players accountable and runs them into the ground, think it's fixed?

I know we're in the playoffs right now. Did my succeed ever that you got to let them live right now?

He's going to breathe in a week? No, here's the deal. There is a minimum amount of structure and order that Tom Thibodeau brings with him. Right. As a dude who's coached for many, many years in this league and a respected voice, he walks in, he's not hemming and hawing. He knows exactly what he wants to do. And players are going to respond to that. But that's only going to take you so far. And now this is the part where, as we see, it's going to all fall apart.

And again, in about two weeks, we'll be talking about Jalen Green versus Kate Cunningham. You got to be a draft expert all over again. But for now, Strugatsky, you are firmly in the playoff picture. You embrace it and you run that flag up the pole saying, yes, we can do that.

Yeah, I love that. With our newfound freedom a week removed from ESPN, we're talking jets. And Nick Stewart says all of his dreams are coming true even as we try to replace him. I mean, we are happy to have you aboard, sir. Thank you for everything, but mostly thank you for your friendship, buddy. We are very happy to go on the next part of this journey with you. I know I saw all the smiles on the faces in the room when you popped in.

We these we love you. And we're very happy to have you with us, buddy.

Thanks a lot, guys. I'm excited for this. Again, thank you for everything you've done for my career, Dan. And next time I'm here, I'll bring a black in my day with me. How about that? Yes.

Well well, I tell people where they can find your stuff so that they can find you doing the things that I assume you're now going to be. All right. I hope you're going to be making for us if we figure out what your job is. Yes. At Tharthar, I mean, on all the Sociales, my big stuff that I'm doing right now is I've got Black Opinions Matter, and that's my podcast. It's my podcast network. I have a lot of great diverse voices there about issues from the black perspective and also xenophobe.

The podcast will review movies that are poorly rated on Rotten Tomatoes. Stew Godse has been a guest. Roy Bellamy has been a guest. Me, Zach Harper, Anthony Maze. We take awful movies and we make chicken salad out of good talking to you.

I mean, and good seeing you again. We look forward to this part of the journey, sir.