Knicks/MSG Value Surges, NBA Finals Economic Impact, Steph Curry's Huge Shoe Deal and Ohio State

00-04:   MSG market cap soars
04-20:   Economic Impact of NBA Finals
20-38:   Steph Curry's Blockbuster Shoe Deal
38-50:   Ohio State Football

#ohiostatefootball #ohiostate #nba #knicks #newyorkknicks #nbafinals

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Yo, what's up everybody? Welcome to yet another episode of the bottom line on sports, our little show about the intersection between sports and money. He's Jeremy Pink. I'm John Jacques Taylor, and he's got a number for you. First, though. Subscribe, rate, review, five stars only. We can use your help. Now, my friend, what number do you have for us this week?

SPEAKER_00 0:31

In pure Austin Powers, my number is one billion dollars in pure Austin Powers uh world.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

And that's a whole lot.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Billion dollars, that is the increase in the market capitalization of MSG stock from April at the close of uh the market on April 17th until the close of the market today, which is Wednesday night. We're about an we're taping about an hour before the Knicks and Spurs play game one. MSG is the parent company of the New York Knicks. And their stock has gone up since when they started the playoff from playoffs from $336 a share to almost $381 a share. That is that represents a billion dollars in market cap just over that playoff run.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

That's what a 12-win 12-game winning streak will do for you. Now, I'm curious because for whatever reason, I never thought about it being public. Who why do you invest? Who invests in Madison Square Garden? Is that like a good investment, like Apple or Nike or whatever?

SPEAKER_00 1:36

It's a very different type of company, but they MSG owns you know the sphere in Las Vegas. Yes, I've heard of that. They own, you know, diverse entertainment type and sports properties and everything. But I think their marquee, their marquee property, and they own MSG. Their marquee property is um the the Knicks. And I think it's uh, you know, the market has gone up since April 17th. So the MSG stock is up third, I think 13.3% over that time period from April 17th until uh market closed today, uh, Wednesday night. And uh the SP 500 is only up about six percent. So MSG stock has over has more than double the performance of uh the SP 500 and uh since the Knicks started their playoff run.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Now, what does this really mean? Does that just mean people are so excited about the Knicks, they're just like, I gotta give me some some MSG stock?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Um, I I think it's A, it's probably coincidence. That's certainly part of it. But B, I do think that the value of the Knicks franchise, which is going to be reflected in the market cap, probably has increased since the Knicks had this run. Um I think that's I think that's probably part of it. Also, MSG earnings have been pretty strong too over the over the time period as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Now, the other question is does this make James Dolan any more likable?

SPEAKER_00 2:56

What do you think about that? Because I'll tell you, James Dolan was a guy who pushed Tom Thibodeau out because he thought they needed a new coach. Now, granted, I think Mike Brown was maybe the 18th choice, but he still hired Mike Brown. So what do you think about that? I I think there isn't the I don't think there's the visceral hatred toward Dolan today that there was maybe two years ago.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Okay, now here's another question like at the Cowboys, Jerry Jones, highly visible owner, polarizing owner, camera pants to him quite often because they know exactly where he seats, sits. He sits on the opposite side of the Cowboys bench in a little booth right above a clock. So you can find him right over there. Does James Dolan have a spot? And does the camera ever double pan to him? Because I haven't watched enough Knicks games to pay any attention.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah, he's not sort of the high profile type owner, plus, he's you know, not that I'm anything to look at, but boy, you don't want to look at James Dolan. You you just you just don't. Uh but you know, he's not very well liked here, but you have to hand it to the guy. The sphere was a great idea, and they've implemented that very well. MSG earnings are doing well, and and the Knicks are doing well. You know, you have to you have to give it to, you know, under Dolan's ownership. The Knicks have been pretty good the last couple of years.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Well, another round with that. That, my friend, is a great number, and that leads us to a good segue into what's the economic impact where the Knicks are doing what they're doing all over and is it just Manhattan or is it all the boroughs?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Well, I was looking at the economic impact in New York City, and according to some estimates, let's say let's assume the Knicks play all three of their home game. Let's it's like a seven-game series, and the Knicks play their home games here. I mean, the city projects economic activity could reach $460 million, so half a billion dollars in economic activity, um, with each home game, according to the numbers that I read, uh accounting for nearly $90 million in spending on tickets, concessions, transportation, and lodging and stuff. So it's a pretty big economic impact here.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

No, that doesn't surprise me at all, though, man. Not the way one New York, especially uh, I guess the city being a big basketball town, the love for the Knicks rivaling the love for the Yankees. Although let me ask you a very quick exit rant. If you if people had to vote, uh do the Yankees outrank the Knicks or the Knicks outrank the Yankees?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Oh, today the Knicks outrank the Yankees, no question.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

But I mean in general, because everybody's riding an emotional crest right now.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

It's it's a good question. I would say that the New York, New York City at its heart is a basketball city. Um and I would say that for many years, though, the Yankees were the were the number one. Uh I would I I it's probably today, just because of where the Knicks are today, yeah, Knicks are probably at the top, but I would say it's a very good question. I would say it's almost one and one A, but if I if somebody held a gun to my head, I would probably say over the last 25 years it's gonna be the Yankees.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Well, I was gonna say it's probably been the Yankees over the last 25 years because the Knicks haven't been good enough. And now, but if the Knicks and the Yankees are both equally championship contenders, I would say given that it's a basketball city, it'll it'll it'll flow back to the I think that's exactly yeah, I think that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

I think that's exactly right. I I was in, I was living on the upper west side of Manhattan during I know, I know, during the uh uh Latrell Sprewell, Allen Houston, 1999 finals. Wow. It was it was that was insane. Uh and the Knicks, the Knicks were huge because I lived in New York. Well, I've I've lived in New York forever, you know, on I've been in and out of New York for or the New York City area for many years. And when the Knicks are good, it's totally transformational. It it transforms the town. I mean, that's how you know when the Knicks are good and they're playing well, that that's that's what everybody in the town talks about.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

No, that's I was gonna say that's interesting. When you say transformational, what do you mean? Give me an example.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, I think you have every every so to give you an idea, this is you'll be shocked to hear it. I was at a wedding in New York, uh, in Manhattan this weekend. And I was actually at a wedding on Saturday night. I was at a dinner on Saturday night while the well game seven of the Spurs OKC game was happening.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

You're good me.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Well, well, however, I'm not I'm not that good of a man because I took my phone and I actually put it on the table and I watched the Spurs OKC game. And this was a wedding where you wouldn't think anybody there would particularly care that much about the Knicks. It wasn't sort of your traditional New York City crowd that was there. Right. Every single person was wandering over to the table to take a look at the score. And they were looking at the score not so much because they were interested in whether, you know, not so much they had a rooting interest in this, although a lot of people wanted the Spurs to win, they just wanted to see who the Knicks were gonna play.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

And even to the point where waiters kept coming over to me and saying, and I I I drink almost nothing, you know, I mean, drink almost no alcohol. And the waiters kept saying, You want some more wine? And I said, No, no, I don't have, I don't, I don't want any wine, but they just kept coming because they're so interested in what's happening. And, you know, even even now they uh uh there's like a huge number of watch parties there. The sports bars are going, you know, insane there. Um, the the city allowed watch parties to happen outside of Madison Square Garden. They just announced that, I think, today or the last couple of days. So there's a huge amount of interest in what happens there. And it's just it's it's a galvanizing, you know, what's great about it, and what's great about sports in general is they can often create a galvanizing force in a time when you know the country is very divided, as we all know, or at least appears to be very divided.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah. No, I was gonna say I'm I'm not surprised at all about the economic impact. Um, just because you know, either you're trying to get to a game, or if you if you can't afford the $3,500 ticket to get in, you want to be in the atmosphere. So that means you're going to be in the city, at a bar, on the streets, you're just gonna be around other like-minded Knicks fans soaking in the atmosphere, which means you're gonna be at restaurants, buying drinks, buying dinner, hanging out, and all of that is good for waiters, waitresses, you know, business owners, all of that.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

What about Dallas? I mean, what what what are what would things be like if the Mavericks uh not that that's gonna happen anytime soon, but if the Mavericks Well, I mean, we were in the finals two years ago.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

That's true. And then we decided to trade Luca Dante's being a lot of it. Um in Dallas, it was uh, you know, the nature of Dallas and its size and the fact that it doesn't, it has a mass transit system that nobody uses because we all grew up driving our cars and we need to get where we need to go on our schedule, not anybody else's schedule. Uh so the beauty of Dallas, however, and if you include the Fort Worth metropolitan area, and it's about 50 miles from downtown Dallas to downtown Fort Worth, with Arlington, Texas, where the Cowboys play right smack dab in the middle, Dallas has got a zillion pockets of places where you could go and have a great time. And so, you know, when you have a game or a situation like when the Cap when the Mavericks were in the finals or when the Stars were playing for the Cups, people tend to go to those different pockets. Although, because they play at the uh American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas, you will have a group of people out there hanging out, and they'll show the game on the screen outside the thing. And there's actually a big bar, literally a hundred feet from the arena. And so you'll have a bunch of people.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Is that the same place that you and I went to last year?

SPEAKER_01 11:00

It was kind of like we went to a place right up the street.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Okay. I mean, literally, the place we went at uh happiest hour, I think is what they call it, was like uh half a mile from the arena. Uh oh, that's right, that's right. Yeah, because we had to walk up there as well. Yeah. Um, and so you know, Dallas, Dallas does it like that. There's nothing like Midtown or you know, Times Square. There's no spot like that, but I mean there's not many spots like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Well, the the population density is so great in New York that you probably get it's probably much more tangible feel than in Dallas.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Yeah, but you know, they make up for it by it being so big that it's it's everywhere you go and it's all consuming. And um, no, you definitely get a vibe, but it's nothing like what it is cranked up in New York City. And again, I think the point is the population density makes it like that. Like it's literally one spot, everybody's there. You can't, I mean, I was uh I was fortunate enough to be in the city one year. Uh the Cowboys were playing the Giants, uh, and it and for whatever reason, maybe Saturday night was Halloween, uh, and I went down wherever all Halloween stuff is in the city, and I'm just like, I mean, it was I mean, you couldn't really move side to side because it's so many people down. Now it was cool, it was a fun time, but that's just an example of how I can get in the city, and it would never be like that in Dallas because it's it's too much room and too many pockets.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

But but I would say it pales in comparison to Ohio State, Michigan weekend in Columbus. It does. It does.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

That is there's there's nothing that's I haven't been there, I haven't been to one of those in so long. Uh maybe I need to go this year and just hang out in the city.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Uh we'll see, we'll see if Ohio State's any good this year. But uh, but yeah, but that's that's that's for later in the show. Uh yeah, so I I I'm not I'm not surprised by the economic impact. What I think what what I'm also gonna look at is you have the World Cup happening, and you have a you know the host, one of the host cities is you know, some of the games are like you know, 15-minute drive for me. The the final game is uh the final World Cup final is about 50-minute drive for me. I don't think you're gonna see anything near that kind of economic impact um, you know, for for the World Cup for a lot of these cities. Because I know there's a lot of games in Dallas, too.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah. No, matter of fact, um, it's getting ready to get cranked up, obviously. And to be honest with you, not a lot of buzz around the city just yet. I mean, from people like you have corporate people trying to generate buzz.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

But like, I don't have people walking around to me talking about, hey, you gotta hook up on some tickets, you know how to get some tickets. And I think most people have decided that, and it's interesting about the World Cup, is I don't know, like I know some people that would pay $3,000 to go see the Longhorns play football, or you know, maybe if the Mavericks were in the championship. I don't know a lot of people paying that much to see a World Cup soccer game. And so if they were really betting on um people coming from other countries to watch the games and pay all that money because of their passion for the game, I think uh the way our government is set up right now, people are like, yeah, I don't know if it's worth going over there and and taking a chance that something goes wrong. And so we're just gonna stay right here and watch it. Let's go that money we're gonna spend, let's spend those Euros on a big ass TV and some surround sound and make sure that we're good because it's kind of unstable in the states right now if you're not an American citizen.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Yeah, I yeah, it's uh FIFA also it appears, and I haven't done a lot of you know reading or looking into this, but it appears that FIFA is keeping ticket prices kind of you know artificially high, um, or the ticket prices are are very much higher than they should be. There isn't like a real, doesn't appear, and again, I haven't looked into this enough, but it doesn't appear to be sort of the real secondary market for tickets like you see with the Knicks, you know, or or I haven't seen the secondary market in the Spurs, but certainly the Knicks tickets, you know, I you know, just to get in the door now is pushing four grand. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Which is insane.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Whereas the FIFA tickets have a certain face value or certain price that seem to be artificially high, which I also think is kind of curbing demand there as well.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

I think if you want to go check out a FIFA game, you should take the Jeremy Pink method, which is just go out to this, go out to the stadium and hang out around for kickoff and wait for 10 minutes after the game starts. If you're not a soccer fan, games last 90 minutes. And the first 10 minutes, they're just gonna kick the ball around to each other and and try to, you know, try to see how each feel each other out. And then uh see if you can pick up a ticket at face value or below face value, just because somebody wants to get rid of them at that point.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Right. That's the that's the idea with like regular season NBA games, particularly with like not so much the Knicks, that's too hard of a ticket, but like if you want to go to a regular season like Brooklyn Nets game, just take a subway out to Brooklyn, out to uh out to the Barkley Center, and if the game starts at seven, go on Stub Hub at 630, 640, and ticket prices start to plunge. You can buy them and you can get right in.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

That's no, I think I think that's a fine play.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

That's that's the sacred, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

No, so I I think uh the economic impact's gonna be good. Uh, I think you're right about the World Cup, man. Um, I'm really interested to see the numbers um because Dallas has got like a pretty good draw. But again, I just I don't feel it around town. And uh, I mean it's it's almost here.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

So it seems like a bit got two more weeks. I think I think if we don't start to see a lot of the hype toward the end of next week, then I think it'll be uh that that's gonna be a problem.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yeah, and uh I don't know, it's it's interesting. I have some people who are who are handling uh their company's handling a lot of the PR for the world for the FIFA in in Dallas in the World Cup. And uh I'm gonna check in with them and see what the real buzz is. Um because I'm telling you, man, I don't feel it yet. Like now I need to get out a little bit like to see if it's all over the streets, you know, signage and all this stuff. So a couple weeks ago, now I was in downtown Fort Worth hanging out for a weekend, and they had some huge soccer balls in their kind of downtown area. And so that was a sign, like, okay, the World Cup is coming. There were like 20 of them, they had different countries and stuff, and that was kind of a cool little look. So that to me was an indication like, okay, the World Cup is coming, but that was it. There wasn't like a bunch of stuff around it or surrounding it. So uh you're right, man. Uh, it couldn't, I mean, geez, that would be a disaster if they don't sell any.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah, I think they'll end up, they'll end up people will attend the games because I think they'll make the tickets affordable just to sh just to get a full crowd. Um, and I think you will you there's such a demand for this product, I think, inherently, maybe not with a typical American, but with lots of people who you know are if they're traveling to America or uh, you know, maybe you know, are first generation or you know, or weren't born here or you know, yeah, first generation. I think there's a lot of demand for the tickets. Did you know that my first job at TV Sports was at CNN Sports way back when, when there used to be a CNN, you know, big CNN Sports A7, a nightly show. And I had the job of watching all the World Cup games in 1986.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Did you?

SPEAKER_00 18:32

And that was the year that Diego Maradona went wild, and that was the hand of God year for Diego Maradona.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

I was gonna say, I thought it I thought '86 was Maradona's year.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

It is, it was, it was, it was, it was absolutely amazing. And there were about six people in the country who were watching the World Cup. And you were one of them. Yeah, I was I was one of them because I don't think anybody else at CNN Sports wanted to wanted to watch the World Cup. And I was like, you know, some 19-year-old intern or something there, and they they said, Can you do it? I'm like, Yeah, yeah, I'll watch any game, it doesn't matter to me. And it turned out to be turned out to be an amazing. I mean, that's really how I got introduced to soccer.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Wow. And then look at you spend a lot of time in Europe, nothing less soccer around you.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Speaking of that, did you have a team in Europe? Did you group for a team?

SPEAKER_00 19:17

I I lived around, not around, I live very close to Chelsea, so that was our team.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

You know, it's kind of dumb. I didn't take a trip over there just to go to some soccer games.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Yeah, I was there. You could have come anytime. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

It's kind of dumb. Missed opportunity. Uh, bottom line for me, economic impact in the city is going to be wild. So as a former Bellman, don't spend all that money at once. Enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Save it. Uh bottom line for me, uh, I think the uh I think this is gonna be great for New York. Uh, I think it's gonna be bring the city together, and I think it's gonna be very, very uh economically positive for a huge range of businesses in New York, and I think that's great.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Now we've talked some in the past, maybe a month or so ago, maybe two months ago. We did some kind of sneaker conversation about signature shoes and who has them and who doesn't. And uh, you know, I was thinking about ranking my all-time favorite sneakers the other day. Uh and you know, it wouldn't be basketball shoes, but just my my sneaker love. I may put that out there on Twitter the next few days. But dude, I was just scrolling the other day.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Well, hold on a second. Would my would my new balance 1080s uh version version 14 pop up?

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Would not even make the top 500.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yeah. Um but I remember, but I remember when we were at Ohio State, you bought a pair of Adidas red high tops that you used to wear all the time. Do you remember those?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Okay, here's the deal. They were Reeboks, not Adidas.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Oh, I thought they were they were no. Were they Reebok? Oh, maybe at that time. Yeah, they probably were Reebok. Yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

But I am so impressed, uh-huh, so duly impressed that you remember that because I did wear them all the time, right? Uh all the time, right? And they were great. And it's uh, but what happened is I used to be a very, very heavy guy, and I started working out with a guy named Chris with a K. And Chris uh he was a cool dude. Uh matter of fact, that was 20 years ago, 25 years ago. I still talk to Chris all the time, not all the time, but I talked to him frequently now. And Chris used to say, Come on, Taylor, look good, work out good. And so he said, You gotta get some shoes, man. And so I went to the mall, to the outlet mall one day, and I bought three pairs of Nikes, different colors and stuff. And I started rotating them in, and he just went bananas. And that started something inside of me about look good, feel good, work out good. And then if you don't work out good, at least

SPEAKER_00 22:00

looked good and you felt good uh and so at my at my apex i needed an intervention bro at my at my apex i probably had about a hundred and fifteen pair and uh yeah and uh but i used to wear them all the time like that it wasn't like they were just sitting there idle i mean i was i was rotating them in and out and then they're fairly fashionable then my son sadly he and i had the same shoe size starting in about the uh yeah ninth grade eighth grade and so i'm sure people thought he was rich because he was wearing a different pair of shoes every day and so uh so that's where my love for tennis shoes started uh I still got a lot but I got most of them in storage now I backed off I only have about eight pairs around the house and you're probably like eight god that's a big number yeah I mean yeah I I never I never bought any I never was into that but if you have a lot of shoes you can you can wear the gold ones oh I see I see here hold on hold on my right I don't want to see those new balance you want to see some these these are these are mine can you see them my new balance 1080s yeah um but uh those are shoes for every 80 year old man yeah I was gonna say that's like right exactly like nobody in my age group or demographic any nobody wears those shoes you know I'm not targeted at all um but uh yeah but I have to wear certain I have a strange size foot so that's New Balance is one of the only brands that I can wear. But in any case but it my son used to buy and sell uh shoes all the time so he knows he used to know everything about it. I I knew I just don't know anything about them. So I mean yeah so anyway we're talking about the reason we brought it up is that Steph Curry just he broke with Under Armour a while ago and he signed a deal with uh Chinese uh sports apparel uh shoe company called Lee Ning 12 years 1.19 billion would it be and it includes yeah and he's you know Steph Curry's really smart man because he's like my NBA career is just about over yeah but what he loves to do is play golf yeah and so he's got included in this is a golf line and it's just um you know he's uh I mean he's done the damn thing man so now do you know do you know who Lee Ning is no panda bear no Lee Jesus Lee Ning is uh I I this is what I thought but I wasn't sure if so I just looked it up he was a uh Chinese gymnast really um he won six medals three golds in the Olympics in 1984 and started a sportswear brand a few years after that wow so this is an individual this is like Phil Knight of Chinese yeah well no this is like uh this is like the equivalent of a Jordan brand this is like a leaning brand you know and uh yeah it's pretty it's pretty amazing I just I just remember when I because I lived in Asia for a big chunk of the 90s and I just remember lots and lots of leaning shoes and apparel and everything uh across the region. You know and it's and I also looked up that I didn't know this but I looked this up uh earlier today Shaq signed with Lee Ning in 2006 so 20 years ago Shaq signed with Lee Ning he broke he broke he you know he broke from one of the big guys signed with Lee Ning to sell shoes in Asia and then ended up having his own like affordable shoe brand in the United States that he sold mostly at Walmart.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

And he killed it on that you know one day we'll have to devote a show to Shaq and his business and how he did it right and there you know there's so many stories about athletes who did it wrong yeah that Shaq Junior Bridgman uh Dave Bing Dave Bing who's my guy Jamal Mashburn Jamal Mashburn yeah there's a few guys Steph Curry now Magic Johnson there's a few guys man yeah who figured out the deal and were like nah man let me show you what I'm gonna do with these M's you're about to give me and uh you know and they they they're like when guys come into the league you know once you're in the league and you're in the fraternity man instead of listening to your homeboys or your friends talk about hey Jerry go get your parents matching Benzes man man you should be sitting at you know whoever you think is the baddest businessman in Badman good out there in your business and be like hey mr mr o'Neal I just got signed by the Cowboys can I get a word with you next time you're in town right of course and 99% of the time because you reach out to them like that they'll sit down with you of course and uh and tell you here's what to do with your money and then you just need to listen to them. You know Deion has done great with his money um you know I mean because again this we've we've heard a zillion stories about guys who blow it but you know some of these guys are just phenomenal with their money and their wealth and they understand how to make it work for for sure for sure Johnson was like that you know what Keystein's thing was no because we used to talk about in the locker room Keystein's thing was you can bring me anything bring me any business opportunity you want Jeremy you can use my name I'm not putting any money in it right you know what I mean right and so you know so he ended up getting paid because yeah you can use my name to do whatever you do but I don't have any equity any financial investment except for if we if it makes good then you got to pay and that way you protect your assets and you don't get caught up in it and because I used to ask somebody I said well what if they get sued and you know he had some something in it so that it was clear that yeah he was indemnified against any legal action yeah yeah yeah all of that stuff yeah you know you look at somebody like uh Rob Gronkowski he apparently never spent a dime of his salary he saved everything and then any sort of external external business dealings that he had he lived on that and so he was in the same with I think Kawhi Leonard also they don't they just they don't spend money they they are Marshawn Lynch did that you know I didn't know Marshawn Lynch did that too yeah Emmett Smith did that oh I didn't know Emmett Smith did that either that's amazing no and they did it Emmett did it and I know this for a fact is um he was making so much marketing money he was like I'm not gonna spend any of my NFL salary and I just I use my marketing money for everything to live to just marketing money and so his NFL salary stacked up and you know I'm sure he's worth that's great so but back to back to the curry deal um what do you make of it? I mean he's you you're right he's got golf as part of it he's 39 do you think this was just uh you know what it does is man is um these guys and I think they get as competitive about business once they're in it at a certain level um as they are about sports because it's it's another way to compete and it never has to end. You can compete in business for as long as you want to um and I think man I think he's a guy uh who's always been revolutionary in terms of you look at the way he played basketball he kind of changed the game you know kind of he changed the way the transformed the game yeah yeah and so now I think he's looking for ways to transform business because it's been easy for him to stay at Nike I mean in under armor been easy for him to sign with Nike for a bunch of money or did this a rebot and he just like well how can I expand my thing oh I can go global because what the NBA all of that's a global game now I'm recognized over in Europe I'm recognized in Asia um huge and huge in China huge in China and so let me just expand my brand expand my reach and you know it's untapped over there yeah I thought I thought it was a phenomenal deal for him yeah I thought he's like a likable superstar like you've never heard anything like oh Steph's a seven letter customer Steph did me wrong he's like a likable guy I mean you know he's I mean he appears to be a great dude I thought the fact that he signed with a Chinese company and not a you know an American company I thought that he would get a lot of backlash on that none zero and I think that's Steph Curry. I was gonna say exact because exactly what you just said because he's Steph Curry he's not getting that he's a likable guy and you know I think part of his likability is um he's 6'3 200 pounds there's a lot of people out there who be like I can do like I can relate to Steph I can be Steph yeah you can't be Wimby you know you can't be Shaq you can't be LeBron you can be Steph Kerr and so I think because he's got what appears to be a great disposition and the fact that he's the everyman athlete it just it all funnels and he be and he was a winner and a champion I think it it just all worked together and when you look at his early career you see that he worked his way to where he got so you can see the hard work he put in whenever they show you those pictures of him at at uh Davidson when he's a freshman and you're like he was so skinny yeah that's what I'm saying like dude there is no way possible you can be weighing 155 pounds and end up playing in the NBA right and so you can see all that maturity and all that growth and all that stuff man and you even forget that his dad was an NBA player so it ain't like he grew up broke it and his dad was a very good NBA player yeah yeah so he's a child of privilege yeah but because he worked hard you don't really you don't view him that way and all of that all of those things make him a very likable person he's been married he's got three or four kids I mean he's I mean dude if you were writing a story about how to how to make it all fit and how to how to do it he'd be one of the characters you you'd you'd write about in terms of here's how you do it from start to finish.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

100% I I wonder if what kind of distribution the leaning shoes the Steph Curry leaning shoes are going to get in the United States. I wonder what kind of sales volume they're expecting here uh that that will be that will be really really important because Under Armour and Under Armour kind of tailed off as a as a a company and and kind of a popular company and a you know a brand that people talked about and curry's curry you know kind of went went with that so I wonder if this is going to rejuvenate the Curry shoe brand I wonder if it's gonna rejuvenate not rejuvenate I wonder if it's gonna you know you know have have Lee Ning penetrate a little bit more here because you know Dwayne Wade also signed with Lee Ning I want to say uh a long time ago probably 2012 2013 so there have been athletes who've signed with them but it hasn't really permeated the marketplace here in any meaningful way and that may not matter it may only matter overseas that may be enough for the brand but I think I think it'll permeate the U.S.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

market a lot more than other players who've signed with leaning have in the past I think I think now this is a very basic point I think it's just a matter of what they look like like is it a good looking shoe do you think even if it's got a leaning brand on it I don't care I think if people think it's a good looking shoe it's aesthetically pleasing it's got some bright colors but it's an aesthetically pleasing shoe I don't think they'll care what the logo look like I don't even know what the Lee Ling Lee Ning logo is. Matter of fact we should look at that I don't even know what it is but it doesn't matter if if you think the gear is cool or makes you look good or it's it's it's a cool you know because in today's world it's how about color scheme and look you know um and I you know I I'm using myself as an example the shoes that I like are the ones that are aesthetically pleasing to me um you know once they're aesthetically pleasing I'll figure out if they fit right and all this other stuff but if they're not you're not you're not sort of loyal to a brand you're loyal to a look I'm uh I'm I'm pretty loyal to Nike because Nike one to me looks good and two I've worn them for so long I don't have to try them on I just like I need 10 and a half I can go I don't have to worry about is it too narrow is it too this too that um and and Nike to my to my knowledge was one of the first shoes even way back when 10 15 years ago to let you customize um and make your own. Now it took a little bit longer for them to come but now they can come in in a couple of weeks but before it used to take about six weeks but I always like to make them because I always liked a little more color than you could buy in a store.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

So so let me tell you a story about customizing shoes. Because I have like really strange feet not strange I mean they're fine but they're just they're they're they're big and they're wide and I have a high end anyway whatever. So they're they're very difficult for me to find shoes that fit and that's it doesn't really matter. So when we lived in London we lived not too far from Herod's which is the big department store there. And Adidas came to Herod's one day at we know one weekend or for a week and said we'll customize any shoe for anybody we'll do we'll customize and I was like fantastic I'm gonna go and I'm gonna customize a shoe they took one look at my foot and said we can't do it for your foot. Yeah yeah and there's and it and I don't have a deformed foot it's nothing it's just it's just a very unusual shit you know it's just it just it's got all the attributes that don't work for traditional shoe making um but but I think you're right I think the uh customization was a really critical turning point in the in the shoe industry for sure in the and and I think that really like ushered in you know that ushered in actually the brands taking the cue from their consumers in terms of how yeah how they how they you know put out their new models and everything.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

They used to use you know basically black and white red and white I mean it's not a lot of options you know um and I was a guy who always wanted options so Nike allowed you to do that and so I became pretty brand loyal uh to them the the only the only curries that I remember is my daughter played a lot of basketball and she and her teammates for one season wanted the curry birthday cake shoes I don't know if you remember those at all the curry birthday like I don't remember any yeah I don't remember any Steph Curry shoes like I I had I loved the Kobe I think it was the Kobe 9s or something um but uh and I like the Jordan 11s those are the only Jordans I really liked um but um I don't even remember Steph Curry shoes.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Yeah my both of my kids wore uh curry shoes when they because he they were playing basketball at sort of the height of Steph Curry and uh my daughter wore and her teammates wore the Steph Curry I think they were called birthday cake shoes with the funky multicolored soles yeah yeah yeah those are those are pretty cool so they're those it was funny to see her and her teammates all wear the same color you know the same shoes now those those those are nice I like I like those souls my son uh when he was playing he was all in the Kevin Durant so he was he was into into the KD KD line uh I like the KD line but I I didn't like him enough to buy him um and I only like one line of Kobe's enough to buy him but here's what I do if I like a shoe like Kobe whatever those came out in that style I bought like all three all three pairs he all three colors that he had because the style was so nice.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Right right yeah anyway what's the bottom line for you on uh curry and leaning bottom line for curry and leaning is the man's a marketing genius and he's going to stack money after money after money because when this deal is up he'll get another one because he'll only be 50.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

Yeah I was gonna say something very similar the bottom line for me is if you're a 39 year old NBA player who's been in the league for 17 years I think that's roughly what Curry has been in and you're shine signing a shoe deal of this size at that age at probably in the last year or two of your career you're a smart guy.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

Yeah. And that moves to our favorite topic of the week every week Ohio State.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

I was a little surprised by this Chris Carter is not in the college football hall of fame yeah so so we saw the story broke this week that two Ohio State players have been nominated for the College Football Hall of Fame AJ Hawk and Chris Carter.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

I was I was surprised also I was shocked Chris Carter's not in the college football hall of fame Chris Carter was a star receiver the year I covered the Buckeyes uh 1987 I think um and then he got suspended early now we didn't talk a lot but he was a star um Chris film was on that team too um but uh you know uh he was a phenomenal receiver in college he was a phenomenal receiver in the NFL his only problem was drugs and partying once he gave that up he became the superstar that he that he was and that's why I'm just I was just shocked that he wasn't in already because he was dominant at Ohio State.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Yeah do you think in terms of Ohio State receivers which have been a ton of good ones in the last you know 10 15 years where do you think Chris Carter ranks in terms of all-time great ohio state receivers man you know that's a uh that's a hard thing to do because I'm not gonna lie to you he has so much recency bias um he's definitely top five like when I say recency bias most people are thinking you know JSN and Alan Wilson and Marvin Wilson Jr.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

and yeah Garrett Wilson and all that crew I'm really thinking like Terry Glenn and Joey Galloway you know what I mean yeah and David David Boston was unstoppable when they had him and so Terry Terry McLaurin yeah um so when you talk about Ohio State receivers you know Chris uh and I like I can't remember any of the stats because it's been so long but I would say he's definitely top five probably top three who do you think who do you think are the top three?

SPEAKER_00 40:35

Because I agree with you that Carter's certainly in the top five maybe the top three like I think uh I think Joey Galloway is in there uh I'd say Joey Galloway and Chris Carter and then whichever one of the young guns you want to throw in there from uh from the like JSN can't be in there because they only had one season uh I think the Marvin Harrison have two seasons or one season he had two seasons yeah I I think I think Jeremiah Smith is in the top I think if he has another season like this well see I need him to have one more season yeah I think if he has one more season I think he's number one I think certainly I think he's in the top five right now yeah I agree with you I think Joey Galloway Chris Carter um although Marvin Harrison had a you know if again if Marvin Harrison wasn't hurt in the Georgia game Ohio State would have won the national title I believe that because they couldn't stop him that's why they knocked him out yeah yeah and so so I think Marvin Harrison Jr was probably I mean I guess that's recency bias that he's probably up there probably no he was a great college receiver he hadn't been he hadn't busted grave as a pro but as a college receiver he was uh he was phenomenal and then who who was running with Chris Olave was that Garrett Wilson Garrett Wilson yeah Chris Olave was a great receiver too Chris Olave came out of nowhere he blocked him two punks and then he turned into a receiver he was amazing he was a great hands Chris Olave you know uh yeah there's a lot of Ohio state receivers who are really good but I was I'm with you uh that I couldn't believe Chris Carter isn't in the College Football Hall of Fame.

SPEAKER_01 42:12

All right see what we need to do now is just be like next week's topic would be let's do a deep dive on the receivers then we can actually know what have a have a real have a real conversation because it's it's a hard i because you start to think about it now because I'm guaranteeing you there's some people we forgot. Of course of course but I you know I JSN's final college game against Utah where he had you know what whatever 15 for 350 or whatever something crazy was granted it was against Utah um but that was one of the best games I've ever seen any receiver ever have but I'm telling you the the the the weirdest thing about that is you're absolutely right okay there's no dispute I'm telling you I've seen a bunch of Texas high school football and he did the exact same thing in high school he was playing the team that Kyler Allen went to Allen High School which had a graduating class of 1700 last week they've got 7000 students they refused to build another school so they could be a football power and he was playing for another school and his school always had good offense no defense they're the kind of team that would lose a couple games during the season 5148 right but they're playing Allen which is a traditional power and so I literally went to that game because I've been hearing about this kid all year. He's going to Ohio State they're playing Allen let me see what he can do against the big boys this is no exaggeration he had like six for like 200 yards and five touchdowns in the first half now when you when you saw him play because sometimes that well I guess he's playing against Allen so so it's different but when you saw him play did you know immediately that this was NFL talent or not? No but I knew he'd be good at Ohio State right because he, I mean, he wasn't like sometimes guy has six or two fifty, he's bigger, faster, stronger. Right, that's what I mean. No, no, he made some one-handed catch and toe-tapped in the back of the end zone, and then he ran some razzle-dazzle route. I mean, he was just I mean, it was incredible. I was like, dude, I can't believe this guy's doing five touchdowns in the first half. This was a playoff game, so this wasn't like a regular, this was a playoff game. Um, and they still barely won because they didn't play no defense.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Now, did you see this is a little off topic on Ohio State, but it's USC, and I have uh kid at USC right now. See the Drake London signed three.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Oh, yeah, that's big news in Dallas because George Pickens, the Cowboys receiver, is unsigned. And I mean, he signed a franchise tag, but uh he's going to want a new contract next year, and he's much better statistically uh than Drake London. So Drake London's new money is four years and 140 was about 35 uh and a half million dollars a year.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

100 million guaranteed. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

Yeah, George Pickens is going to he's going to want that's like his. Can we start talking there? Because his numbers are better than Drake London in every category.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

If you were starting a team today, would you want to have Drake if you had to choose between Drake London and George Pickens? Who would you choose?

SPEAKER_01 45:22

Oh, I'd take George Pickens.

SPEAKER_00 45:24

I take Drake London every single time.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

No, I take George Pickens. George Pickens, man. He's a phenomenal talent.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

He is a talent, absolutely. Uh, but what do you think about A.J. Hawk? I mean, you mentioned, it's funny, you mentioned Chris Spielman, who I thought was probably the best linebacker at Ohio State, but A.J. Hawk.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

I thought A.J. Hawk's a really good player. I don't have any memories of A.J. Hawk.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

I had I feel I was gonna say the exact same thing.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

Like he doesn't have a single, he doesn't have a like I could tell you about Chris Spielman hitting Harvey Williams out of bounds and trying to kill him against LSU at Death Valley. Uh, I could even probably come up with some Andy Katzenmoyer plays. I don't have a signature Katzenmoyer. Wow. I don't have a signature Randy Gratishar. No, yeah, no, I don't have a uh Jim Steelwagon, I don't have a signature much.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

AJ Hart play.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

I know he was an outstanding player. Was he a first-round pick?

SPEAKER_00 46:22

Oh, I'm sure he was.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

Yeah, I'm uh yeah, but Bobby Carpenter was a first-round pick.

SPEAKER_00 46:26

Yeah, but but I it's it's amazing. I remember uh Chris Spielman. You know who I remember? The two linebackers that stuck out to me, college linebackers in not that anybody may remember, they might remember Chris Spielman was Chris Spielman and Brian Bosworth. You know, right? They they both kind of they were both around the same time. They both were kind of larger than life linebackers, and you know, Bosworth, unfortunately, you know, had you know, it looks like he, I think, I think he was you know, had some uh performance-enhancing drug issues, but uh Spielman was was a remarkable talent.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

Okay, we should both be ashamed of ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Who have I forgotten?

SPEAKER_01 47:09

AJ Hawk. Now, one, I should be ashamed because his birthday is the day after mine, so we're some we're some of Kindred Souls.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

AJ Hawk drafted in 2006, first round, fifth overall.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

I don't remember that. I just don't remember that.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

He was he was a baller. Like, we should be ashamed that we don't remember AJ Hawk. Um okay. You know why we don't remember AJ Hawk? I mean, I can tell you why I don't remember AJ Hawk. That draft, oh, I mentioned Bobby Carpenter. They were in the same draft. I don't remember that draft because that draft, AJ Hawk got lost. And he got lost because the draft was all about do you want Mario Williams, Reggie Bush, or Vince Young?

SPEAKER_00 47:57

Oh, that's what that was that yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

So nobody else existed in that draft.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

Big defensive end, you want the electric running back, or you want the unstoppable quarterback. That was the conversation, and you could make a case for any of them. And um that so if you weren't one of those three, nobody remembers you got drafted.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

I had some gaps in my Ohio State knowledge over that time because I this was kind of as the internet was emerging, but it wasn't really there, and I was living overseas, so I only I have and he AJ Hawk is in the gap of time where it was just I kind of didn't really see him that much because I just I couldn't. Yeah. So that's my that's my only excuse.

unknown 48:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Bottom line for me, I can't believe Chris Carter's not uh in the college football hall of fame. And hey, AJ Hawk to be the fifth pick in the draft, he must have been pretty damn good. At least we get in too.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

Uh but bottom line for me, Chris Carter will certainly get into the College Football Hall of Fame next year. And uh I wonder how many receivers from Ohio State are ultimate over the last from the 21st century, how many for the first 25 years of the 20s uh 21st century, how many Ohio State receivers are gonna get in?

SPEAKER_01 49:12

I don't know. Could be we didn't even talk about Mike Thompson. Uh he was in there. So uh yeah, we need we'll we'll talk about the receivers next week. Write that down. Yeah, let's do that. Uh so uh before we get out of here, we want you to please subscribe, rate, review. We use all the help we can get. He's Jeremy Pink. I'm Jean-Jacques Taylor. Go next, I think.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

Yeah, go next. We will see you all next week.