The Carpool Guys

The New York Knicks Are the 2026 World Champions!

• Jon Ackerman

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Emergency Episode: The New York Knicks Are World Champions

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming because the New York Knicks are the 2026 NBA World Champions, and the Carpool Guys could not let that go unmarked.

Jon, Asher, and Dave jump on for an emergency episode the morning after, and the energy is exactly what you'd expect. Asher has been a die-hard Knicks fan his entire life and is fully in his feelings. Dave, a self-described "Knicks fan since last week," brings the perspective of a Nets-Knicks-Nets-Nets fan who got swept up in the run despite himself. And Jon, a lifelong Timberwolves fan with zero skin in the game, brings the outsider's view of a city losing its mind in the best possible way.

The guys talk about the crossing guard who stopped them on the way to shul to share the news, the shul security guards who somehow always know the score before anyone else, the WhatsApp groups that have not stopped buzzing for a week, and the wild story of someone who rented a hotel in Seattle just in case Game 7 fell on Shabbos.

There's a real conversation about the Jalen Brunson story, why an underdog who was written off by everyone resonates so deeply, and what it means to say "we" when your team wins. Plus: a debate about New York sports rivalries, Dave's complicated Knicks-Nets history, a tribute to the Dallas Mavericks for the Luka and Brunson draft disaster, and a very memorable story involving Rebbe Hecht, a basketball hoop, and a coach bus.

Question of the Week from Asher: What are the top three sports moments you've ever watched live or experienced in real time?

Mazel Tov to Knicks Nation. And to Asher, Steven Mermelstein, and Meir Simcha specifically. Enjoy this one.

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⏱️ Chapters with Timestamps

0:25 — Welcome to an Emergency Episode: The Knicks Are Champions

1:22 — Asher Has Been a Knicks Fan "Since Last Week"

11:19 — Are the Knicks New York's Most Universal Team?

12:06 — The Brunson Underdog Story and Why It Resonates

13:43 — Izzy Calls It at Halftime: The Comeback Theory

15:45 — Why Years of Losing Make This Run Mean More

21:53 — Ranking New York Sports Rivalries

29:48 — Question of the Week: Top Three Sports Moments of Your Life

37:43 — "We Did It" vs. "They Did It": The Great Sports Fan Debate

38:36 — Closing: The Brunson Pose, a Logo Idea, and Mazel Tov to Knicks Nation


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SPEAKER_00

We alluded to this narrative with Brunson. I relate to him. I know he's 6'2, but I relate to the fact that he's like this underdog short guy. I assume he's a middle child. We're basically the same. We do our hair the same way. We're like the same person.

SPEAKER_01

Hello and welcome to the Carpool Guys podcast, where three dads just trying their best to talk about life, work, family, and all the detours in between. We've made mistakes, lots of mistakes, but we've also learned a few things along the way. We don't have it all figured out, but that's never stopped us from sharing our two cents anyway. The Carpool Guys Podcast is hosted by Asher Dworetsky, John Ackerman, and Dave from Flatbush Tenenbaum. Buckle up, it's Carpool time. Hello and welcome to an emergency episode of the Carpool Guys Podcast. We are really excited to jump right in. The New York Knicks are the 2026 NBA World Champions as of last night. Asher is jumping out of his socks, ready to go. Oh my god. Dave, not as excited, but uh I'm excited to hear his take.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I have been a Knicks fan since last week, and it's been amazing. I've loved Since last week. I don't know what 53 years. It's been a long time for me since uh last week, so I'm very excited. Alright, Asher, why don't you kick us off?

SPEAKER_01

What's it like? You're you're a big Knicks fan. This must be an amazing feeling. I don't know. Such a thing.

SPEAKER_00

So it's it's interesting. I I much I happen to just like sports, and I like sports that it's a unifying thing. This was like very exciting because you know, I I'll root for the Knicks or the Nets in the playoffs. Um, and this was fun, and it just was like this awesome positive vibe. Last Shabbos, we were walking to Schul, and the crossing guard like stopped us, and she's like, the Knicks won! And it's like this positivity that's everywhere right now, and it was just a great vibe, and it was fun to be on this ride. Um, I love the Jalen Bronson story. I'll talk more about that after, but it was fun. I watched the game with my kids last night, but I I happened to have my brother-in-law, uh Steven Mermelstein, and Mayor Simcha are huge, huge Knicks fans, and like I'm rooting for the Knicks for them. So it was like very exciting to win in this way. Um, it's been a while since the Giants won the Super Bowl, so for me, you know, I the Mets are never gonna win anything ever in my entire life. But it was exciting. Dave, what did what are you feeling, man?

SPEAKER_02

Everybody knows I'm a sports addict, and I really am very passionate about my sports. It just so happens, and and I think it's it's a discussion to be had, that I am of the opinion that you can't be a winter sport diehard fan of two teams. And I don't believe that you can be. I mean, maybe there there are the exceptions to the rule, but I'm a I'm a huge Islanders fan. I'm not convinced that you could be an a huge Islanders fan and a huge Nick fan or a huge Ranger fan and Nick. I think they just like totally construct each other.

SPEAKER_01

That's my NFL. How does the NFL fit in there?

SPEAKER_02

The NFL's every Sunday, it's like a different, I mean, obviously now it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, but you know what I mean. It's it's it's a weekend thing, it's one game, and you're done. So I think it it doesn't conflict as much.

SPEAKER_00

Modern day basketball feels like you play a game a week. That like it takes forever.

SPEAKER_02

I hear that. But um, when it comes to basketball, I have a a strange love-hate relationship with the Knicks. I mean, growing up, I was a huge Knicks fan. Um, Larry Johnson, you know, Anthony Mason, those are two of my favorite players. Um, and then and then, like, oh whatever, it's a mix for another day, but a long story happened, and I switched over to the Nets, and then I switched back to the Knicks, and I switched back to the Nets, and now I'm a Nets fan, I'm a Knicks fan, and I find myself more of a like what Osher said, I'm more of a New York um casual basketball fan. This past month, really the past few months, have really drawn me in so much that I've been a big Knicks fan. I've been really rooting hard for the Knicks. I've been um it's a lovable team. Obviously, I know I I think we're on the same page with the Brunson story. I could just only imagine what you're getting at. Um I think that I think that the whole idea, and I love the fact that everybody wrote him off there's some great videos going off when they signed him. Yeah just from a Knicks perspective. And I've been really going strong, and I've my son, I've been watching a lot of games with him and all the excitement. But I had a very sad reality last night. And I think I I told you guys about it. The sad reality is we've been religiously watching every single game, and I kind of felt like I was back to my roots as a Knicks fan. Simmy's been getting into the Knicks, even though, you know, Knicks nets, Nick's nets. And last night happened, and I'm I'm all excited, and and really, if really it starts, I was super excited, you know, by the OG uh tippin'. That was so insane. I really put that on like one or two of all time. Oh my god, it was unbelievable. You know, unbelievable. And and then last night happened, the championship, and and like we like slapped five, and that was it.

SPEAKER_00

I mean it it's sad because it's also like it's over. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02

But like I I wasn't like jumping, I didn't want to go I didn't want to go to uh X, I didn't want to go to Instagram, I didn't need to post pictures, and I came to a real a real honest reality, which is with sports, with life, they always say with learning Torah to be the rabbi in the room, even though we already have one. But the more you put in and the more you invest is the more you get out of it. For sure. And I have not been a Knicks fan, and I have not I've not uh you know cried when when they lost, I've not you know watched terrible seasons of of the Knicks. I haven't been as invested. And once they won, yeah, I was rooting for them this year, but I I had no like strong to the bones connection to the Knicks. So once they won, they won. It was great. I'm happy for all the fans, I'm happy for New York, I'm happy for really everybody. And I and I was I was I enjoyed the moment, but personally I could honestly say I didn't feel anything after the after that initial. I hear it.

SPEAKER_00

I hear it. I just for me I there's something about this vibe of the of being in New York right now.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I yeah, and if this bomb the Nixon, Nixon 4, Nixon 5, whatever it was, and I could carry my own, I could talk to you.

SPEAKER_00

But let me ask you something. Did this not feel like basketball from our youth? It was much more gritty. They were playing both sides of the of the court. There was so much more defense than I'm used to seeing in the last several years with three pointers, this, that, and the other thing. It was such there was a like a narrative of you're like sitting there rooting for Brunson. It was there was something newer to it. It was great, it was and you had an enemy in in uh Webon Yellows.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I just I won But they went, but there was a great, yes, basketball-wise, it was great quality basketball. They also had you also learned, you know, that a team beats an individual player, which is something that that that is huge, especially in basketball to stay. Although the Spurs were a great team. They were a great many weapons. They didn't have they didn't have the same, they didn't have the overall depth that that the Knicks showed to have. There were there was another guy every night. Besides, obviously Brunson was the MVP, and nobody can argue that. But there was another guy that stepped up in every game. OG in game in game you know four, you know, um in the first two games of this series, you thought Towns was gonna be MVP. Right. There was a lot of things going on. But but what I will say, and just to close out my my thought, is it's it's really how much you put into it is is the long the long lasting. And I really just it gave me a taste of what I really want when like the Mets finally float off. The Jets in my lifetime or the Islanders, and I really think that then I will I will have like the floodgates will come out. There I've actually invested in.

SPEAKER_00

Shochi turned to me last night and she goes, Ugh, now we have to watch the Mets again. It's like it's true, it was just such a fun run, and it was like I I enjoyed this positivity. There was an enemy, it was like good versus evil. The Spurs were so terrible, and it was like, and and last night with screaming and yelling at the TV, they are fouling that they called that on Brunson and Wemin Yama is such a dirty player, and they had to break a record for for free for flagrant foul reviews of a series.

SPEAKER_01

Well, they know Scott Foster, the guy who refed last night, is known in the NBA as the extender. They bring him in always when you want a series to keep on going. The NBA always brings him in. It's it's I mean, it's uncanny that they do it and that everybody is in on the joke and that they continue to do it anyway.

SPEAKER_00

I don't think Johnson was in on the joke. He looked very upset at him last night.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, he was he was very upset. I look, I have a very different point of view from you guys. I'm not a Knicks fan. I never was a Knick fan. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but you actually like basketball more than we do, probably. I love basketball. I happen to be.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I do. I just like I think college is a better game.

SPEAKER_00

I was proven wrong last night in this series because I have always said that a basketball game could be 10 minutes long and it would be the exact same thing. And this entire series proved my entire theory wrong because they're all behind and it brought this crazy tension.

SPEAKER_01

This game was crazy. I'll tell you, from for me, a lot of this was really about kind of the avira of what's going on. Because like I'm not a Knicks fan, I'm a Timberwolves fan. So for me, our playoff friend was over a while ago. Watching it through the eyes of my daughter Nava, who is a Timberwolves fan, but also is a big Knicks fan. Uh, she had a blast, and especially our across the street neighbors, shouts to the Beers, uh, who were having outdoor watch parties basically every night. Um, by the way, I heard a crazy story. Uh, I it obviously never came to pass, but there was a chance that if the if the Spurs would have won and the series would have gone till till next Friday night, it could have been, I think game seven would have been Friday night. Somebody rented out a hotel in Seattle, Washington. Did you hear about this?

SPEAKER_00

I heard you told me about it.

SPEAKER_01

That they could, yeah, that they that so that they could start watching the game before Shabbos, because in Seattle they'd be like a time zone or two behind, and they'd get in most of the game, and then at least the TVs would be on and they were gonna have to. Why don't you just go to Lane?

SPEAKER_02

If the games played out, you'd get nothing.

SPEAKER_01

You'd get nothing.

SPEAKER_02

You'd be like points and you wouldn't see them win.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right, right, right. Well, they obviously wouldn't be turning the TVs off, but uh I think I think that that was but I think that the the vibe was really cool and like it's kind of fun. You know, in New York you have Yankees Mets, um, so so it's not universal. You know, you have you have Rangers and Islanders, it's not universal. Jets Giants, it's not universal. The the Nets, I feel like, are not on that same level where where Knicks are much more of a universal.

SPEAKER_00

It's not such an intense rivalry, at least it doesn't feel like anything.

SPEAKER_02

I just got I think the whole this whole ordeal proved that there are very few net fans out there. Is literally jumping around. I mean, it oh for everybody you talk to, you have to have an uh you know an opinion on the game. You you don't all the net they're either hiding, and I and and I and and and I could be classified as one of them, you're either hiding or you just like said, hey, listen, go to New York, go to New York, go. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

It was a good thing. I mean, look, I I know that whenever the Timberwolves come to New York, I go see them uh when they play the Nets, not the Knicks, because I'm going, you know, from my perspective, same product, I'm going to see the Wolves. The tickets in the Nets are like an eighth of the price of the tickets to see the Knicks.

SPEAKER_00

We alluded to this this narrative with Brunson. I it's more than like an underdog story. Like for me personally, he is like, okay, I I don't, you know, I don't look up to sports people in that way, but like I relate to him. I know he's 6'2, but I relate to the fact that he's like this underdog short guy that everybody knows he's 6'2. He's like the tallest Jew in the world, but still, he's well you both marry Jewish women. Yeah, he's married to a Jewish woman? Yes, yeah, yeah. I didn't know that. Yes. Oh, really? I did not know. I assume he's a middle child. We're basically the same. We do our hair the same way. We're like the same person. I I love this narrative, like you were saying, that all when he was brought to the Knicks, they all wrote him off. That he was like, it's like, no way, he's this short guy in this big league where everybody's big, and he's such a hustler. It's so incredible to watch him that and he doesn't care. He has so much fight, and they were so dirty last night against him and fouling him so much, throwing him down, and he's like, No, I refuse to relent. And there's something so powerful, and like I dare I say, like Jewish, like about being in Gullus and then fighting it constantly, and it's like heartwarming to see that come out on top over Wembyama.

SPEAKER_01

By the way, did you guys see the meme from uh friend of the show Ellie Leibowitz, who put up on on uh on Twitter and on Instagram, and it was a picture of Wemby guarding Jose Alvarado, and he labeled it like uh like uh like one of the Miraglium versus the Giants of Kanai.

SPEAKER_00

That is funny. But yeah, I mean it was unstoppable. There it was crazy. I see I was walking to Schul yesterday and I said to him to Izzy, I'm like, there's no way Izzy's my son, my oldest. And I'm like, there's there's their the Nick's um strategy of falling behind every game is not sustainable. He's like, no, you're wrong. That's not true. And they're like, we're walking to shul, and he's like, You're wrong, whatever. He was my son is right, he's gonna listen to this a thousand times before he goes to sleep. He was 100% right. I don't know how they do it, how they go down every single game and then just kill their kill them on defense, just chip away, chip away, chip away. It's crazy, and it's so exciting. And at the same time, like, I don't understand it. During halftime, Izzy recorded me. I was like, there's no chance, they're not coming back. Both of their big men are fa are gonna foul out of the game, they're so down, they're not gonna do it again. He has me on on record. Maybe John will post it to embarrass me even more, but it was so insane. I it's just such a fun run in that way that you could talk about it.

SPEAKER_02

It was a hundred percent, and I and I I agree with you a hundred percent. It was an incredible run. It was an incredible, you know, just every game was excitement. It was must must-watch TV, must-watch. And basketball, like you, like you alluded to, was literally like it was like 25 years ago basketball. Yeah. You know, like you had you had visions, even more. I don't even know. I'm I guess I'm dating myself. You had visions of like Charles Oakley. Like, like it was it was a physical game. Oh every minute counted. It was it was just it was just great basketball. It wasn't like you just have to tune into the last five minutes. It wasn't just shoot threes and that was the whole game. Oh, it was blowing. It was it was incredible basketball. It was also it was exciting, you know. You watch it with friends, you watch it with family. It was it was literally muscle. Those fouls. The only thing, and I'm gonna just back it up again. The only thing that me, Dave Tannenbaum, Dave from Flatpush, yeah, only thing I was was wanting more is is is if I was a bigger fan of the case.

SPEAKER_00

But that's also a feature of the fact that for years they were not good for so long. I see, and I could relate to where to where like the Mets have dipped into the Mets have dipped in being good, being not good, and like for us, we've been connected to it, then we don't get connected to it.

SPEAKER_02

Same way though, they were in the conference finals.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, we got excited when Carl Carmelo Anthony, Jeremy Lynn, I was there for Lynn Sanity. I went to a game with my wife, that was insane.

SPEAKER_01

By the way, speaking of bad, speaking of bad, and I the Spurs are gonna be back. I I mean the Spurs and the Thunder out of the West, it's crazy. But can we just say, can we pour one out for the Dallas Mavericks for a second? Because the Mavericks had Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson from the same draft, and they lost them both for basically now nothing, and just I feel so good for my friends for the Knicks fans, and my god, if I have any friends who are Maveric fans, this is just what a disaster.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I you could argue that OKC had the same thing when they had Harden, Harden, Westbrook, Durant, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Right, that's true, but I'm saying like Brunson's a Brunson's a champion, won a championship. Like, I mean Brunson drove the car of for the championship, you know, with respect to to Cat and to Bridges and to OG. It was really this was Brunson's except for that tip that tip in the street. Yes, the tip for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_00

I don't even know. Like, it's hard to even comprehend. Like, I looked at my wife, I was like, did that just happen? It was so insane. And then after the game was over that you were like watching that nobody wanted to go home, it was just that crazy positivity that you felt. I I don't want to be a Spurs fan in that moment. It must have been brutal, but it was so fun and so exciting from a different era, like Dave is saying, totally different era. So fun, so fun to share with my kids. One thing that I want that I didn't write down in our show notes, but uh thinking about shout out to all the security guards of all the shoals. They are like the source of information for all of us, and like I love talking sports with them. The guy by the Ingaso of West Hampstead is awesome, and the guy by uh Anche is incredible, like, and they're just special people. Last night I like you saw they were still working, and like last night you they could have gone home early, but they were there at 8 30 before you know until Marav was over, and you you gotta give them credit. You shout out shout out to them.

SPEAKER_02

Why don't you say that last week last week I got I I get the newspaper and the the news day had the Knicks won and just had like like some information, nothing it didn't have it was too late for the full box scores and everything. And I was talking to the security guard, the the other security guard by the Young Israel, and I was talking to him, and he's giving me information that like you had to watch. And I and I was telling it to one of my friends, and I said, like, yeah, they were dead, they you know, the the Knicks blew a lead, but they came back, and then this, and then he uh Brunson missed the foul shot, and then this, and I'm like telling him, like, uh, you know, and then the buzzer shot, you know, and and like, Dave, did you watch this game? Like, what's going on here?

SPEAKER_00

One of the comed one of the comedians did a whole routine. One of the comedians did, I think it was uh Dove Newberger who was like, This is when you find out who's really watching TV on Shabbos. It's like when you know way too much way too much. I mean, Dave, we know that you were 24-7 and your phone is on 24-7, but I mean, yeah, I cannot, I I cannot tell a lie.

SPEAKER_02

There are times in the morning when I like change it from loud to vibrate, and I'll see the Mets won. And then like Sidmy will be like, How'd you know that the Mets won? It wasn't in the paper. I'm like, um the paper told me something else. Go, what happened in the game? That I don't know. I didn't click on it.

SPEAKER_00

I didn't click on the link. Uh I don't know how you do that.

SPEAKER_02

I would be very tempted to just click and read and I get those like certain alerts I get, like um, it just says like Mets in close game. I don't know, like it's the ESPN app or something. Mets in close game. You know, it's funny. Mets win 3.2, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01

Speaking of all these alerts, Dave, so we're all we're all in, I mean, we're probably all in 90% the same WhatsApp groups, but the the one that I've been getting the most dings from recently is our uh shouts to our uh the Stead Fantasy Baseball Group, which is which is my favorite WhatsApp group, but oh my god, that group has not stopped, I think, for the past week, um, with uh with everybody going crazy. It's kind of fun, you know. It's it's fun from my perspective. Again, I'm not really bought in though. Um I I will say that uh my National League team of choice is now the Mets. I think I've kind of uh absorbed that from you guys.

SPEAKER_00

That's a huge mistake. You should have gone Dodger. I'm a Minnesota fan for what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Am I gonna become a Yankee fan?

SPEAKER_00

I tell kids nowadays I give them a free pass this year. They can become Dodger fans for life. Dodger fans? No. Just become a Dodger fan. It's not worth it.

SPEAKER_01

Wait for the salary.

SPEAKER_02

That's terrible.

SPEAKER_01

No, I would never I would never be a Yankee fan. Um, but look, I it's fun to watch. I feel good for my friends. I'm happy. You know what? The truth is, I feel mostly good for my friends. There's a small part of me that's happy when my friends are miserable about sports. I'm gonna say I feel 90% happy for all of our mutual friends, and I know some of them are listening right now, and one of them even wrote in the group that he cried a little last night. Like a little bit I want it to be that that to be tier pain.

SPEAKER_02

I I agree 100%, but I think it comes down to the teams. I think I think the Knicks being that they're New York's team in a sense, it it's it gives you a sense of like, okay, this is my this is a team that we're we can get behind. Um, if it's the Yankees, like I would I would love nothing more than the Yankees winning like 3-2 game seven of the World Series and give up like an error to lose the game. Oh my god. Right. Like that would be great for me.

SPEAKER_00

I was so excited when the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in 2001. I ran around my house screaming honore Mets, and my mother looked at me and said, You're not a patriot. We just went to 9 11. What type of person are you?

SPEAKER_01

Rank for me the the New York team vicious rivalries. So I think Mets Yankees is For sure, number one, right? Number one.

SPEAKER_02

Nets Yankees, and then and then I mean the Rangers, Islanders are huge, but hockey is like the fourth sport in just in America.

SPEAKER_01

Are the Giants and Jets rivals? I feel like it's not a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02

It's a rivalry, but it's not as much as those other two. Because in in that in um in football, they play they yes, they play in the same stadium, but they only play each other every four years.

SPEAKER_00

I agree. Like Mets and Genesis.

SPEAKER_02

Islanders and Rangers are in the same division. So every game actually matters.

SPEAKER_01

I a little bit wish the Mets and the Yankees were in the same division because I feel like that would be insane.

SPEAKER_02

Um I would say Yankees, Mets, Rangers, Islanders, Jets.

SPEAKER_00

But baseball has been diluted because it used to be the interleague play like mattered, and now it's every year and it's not as fun. And it's the same division.

SPEAKER_02

The Knicks Celtics, Knicks 76ers is a bigger rivalry than Knicks Nets.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You have to be relevant to have a rivalry.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Even though the Jets haven't been relevant.

SPEAKER_00

I mean the Jets are never relevant. And the Knicks had never been relevant until this, you know, okay, they had the run with Brunson. They've never won the channel. They had a run with Brunson before. This this is unreal. But this was also like the nature of it and how gritty they were and how fun. And not only that, but we didn't talk about this. Brunson's humility is unr unbelievable. Whether he is really you humble or not, when he comes off on camera and he talks about it and you know, and he'll talk about the team. There's something really special about that. I actually saw Rebe Shlomo Katz from Israel actually wrote about that. He's like that you see him talk about his team, and it's like good for kids to see that somebody will speak about that and that that is humble and cares what what's going on. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_02

I just want to say one thing. Okay, I you're giving a lot of praise to Brunson. He is the MVP. He is, I think, I mean, this has been a debate on sports. You know, obviously, I'm not a Yankee fan, but I think he he's the king of the town for now. Uh more than definitely more than judge. You know, he win a championship, but then we'll talk. Um but actually play well in the playoffs in the next one. I full I once we're being honest, you know, it's a it's an honest podcast. Everything's out on this pod. I think I have to be honest. I'm really curious if anybody agrees with me. Brunson looks a little bit grumpy. He doesn't look like the kind of guy I want to have a beer with. He does look grumpy.

SPEAKER_00

He does. I think he's a guy who has played for his. I mean, he won two championships in college. I feel like he's he's the type of guy who played with a chip on his shoulder his entire life. Like I agree with you, just like me. I relate to it. I relate to it. I do. I play with a chip on my shoulder.

SPEAKER_02

You know what a smiley kind of guy. I mean, I'm this a little grumpy to me. Everybody knows.

SPEAKER_00

I think I told this this story on the podcast the other day. I was out with the kids playing basketball a few days, a few weeks ago in recess, and we played until I scored. 45 minutes later, when I scored for the first time, after I took many, many shots, they were celebrating me, and I was playing with the chip on my shoulder, and like I'm this small guy. The middle schoolers in seventh grade are already taller than me. I can relate to it. It's it's it's tough. It's tough when they hit the channel.

SPEAKER_02

I'm just picturing everybody like sitting there, like crowding around you. You know, someone's so excited. They were like some moments on on YouTube and stuff, like where they have like a special needs individual hits a home run, it's the best moment. Or the guy hits a layup or a three-pointer, it's the best moment. You heard it too. But sometimes you're watching it and they've shot like the six shots or seven shots with Ashu sitting there, they're all giving him the ball. He's shooting layup after layup, bricking them, hitting the bottom of the rim. Finally, they scroll.

SPEAKER_01

It's like the reverse. You know that journey song about like the Rebbe played third base and he dominated? He's like, this is the reverse. This is backwards. But the Rebbe who came into play, but instead of dominating, the kids bullied him.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know what to do with that.

SPEAKER_00

The story is Rebbe used to teach us Torah each and every day. Then he came outside to play, and we lost all respect for him because he buried the shot.

SPEAKER_02

Rebby, Remy's airbowling layups. He's bricking he's hitting parts of the rim that are supposed to be never there.

SPEAKER_00

That's exactly what was happening. Oh my god. Oh God. I was bricking layups. No, the best basketball moment ever.

SPEAKER_02

You know, it's the first time in the world, it's the first time in the history of the world where the kids were like, Rebby, I think we played enough basketball. That's what it was happening.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm like, no, we're staying out here until I score. And then they like all moved out of the way. And they were like, come on. And then 20 minutes later, I actually did score. It was exciting. Oh my gosh. Now, the best basketball moment ever. Rebbe Hecht and I relive this every year when we go on our trip. One year we were going on a trip to Philadelphia, and we get on we board the coach buses, and we used to board the buses in the back, and it used to be on the basketball courts in Uniondale when we were when Hank Middle School was still there. And we get on the bus and we're driving out, and in slow motion, Rebbe Hecht and I are looking at each other and we're like having this telepathic conversation. Is the bus about to drive into the basketball hoop? Is the bus about to drive? And we just went right into the basketball hoop, shattering the front window of the bus. And we're like, how did he not see the basketball hoop right there? It was it was epic.

SPEAKER_01

It was epic.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Then we drove to Brooklyn. Okay. Now that the Knicks are like checked the box, they won a championship. Like, who who are you waiting for? Although I feel like for you guys it's both the Mets.

SPEAKER_02

Can I ask a fun thing? A fun thing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's a great question. It's a good question, John. I do think it's the Mets, but I don't think it's ever gonna happen in my lifetime.

SPEAKER_02

What, next next championship you just asked?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm saying who's now that the Knicks have checked the box, they're not on the list of like teams that have not won a championship. Who are you guys waiting for to win? Like who are you most excited for for that championship? I am also waiting for the Mets.

SPEAKER_00

But I don't think it's gonna happen. I don't think it's gonna happen. It's like after this year, it's been so demoralized. They spend so much money, and look at what they have.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's it's kind of weird, actually. It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Gotta believe. What's your question of the week? Um for me, it's a good thing. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02

I think I have an idea. It might be a work, and you could tell me no. If you want to put it out there on the Facebook, Instagram for people to give you like literally a three-second like excited cheer or something for the next.

SPEAKER_00

Let it go. I was frozen, so I started singing frozen. What is happening right now? I was frozen, so I started singing frozen. That's how you know where to go with that. You said to be high energy. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Um Dave, you want to say your idea again? This is staying in the podcast, by the way, but Dave, say your idea.

SPEAKER_02

Um, no, the idea of you ask people to send you a quick clip of their of their comment or reaction or enjoyment of the Knicks.

SPEAKER_00

By the way, I I am very tempted to skip the last day of school and just go to the parade. I have been to parades in New York. They are incredible. And shout out to my father's client, Manny Milan. He was a photographer for Sports Illustrated, some of the most iconic pictures of Michael Jordan. My father's client. True story.

SPEAKER_02

Who, Michael Jordan?

SPEAKER_00

No, Manny Milan. Sports Illustrated photographer. Amazing. I have a question.

SPEAKER_02

Congratulations, Nick fans. I have a question of the week.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, Asha's got a question.

SPEAKER_00

I have a question of the week. My question of the week is of in your life, in your entire life, what is your top three sports moments? Oh wow. That you remember as like epic.

SPEAKER_02

Like you were watching live.

SPEAKER_00

That you watched as they played out. Or listened to.

SPEAKER_01

Um It's hard in Minnesota, there's not.

SPEAKER_00

I guess there's a couple. There's a couple. John literally watching Fish Out of the Ice Fishing A Fish.

SPEAKER_01

The Ice Fishing World Championships was uh, let me just tell you, in 97. 97. That was uh 1897. Alright. Should I go first? I'll go first. Um top three? Yeah. Okay. Um I'm gonna say I'm gonna say one was um I'm gonna do okay, I'm gonna do one from baseball, basketball, and football. That's that's what I'll do. So basketball, uh I think it was two years ago, the Timberwolves were were against uh Denver in the playoffs, and I think you guys can relate from this year, and they were they were down in game seven to the Nuggets. They were down by I think twenty-five in like the third quarter, and they came back in one, and that win won the series. So it wasn't just like they were down in one of the games and they came back and won. Uh, they were down twenty-five in game seven. It was two years ago in the playoffs, and they beat the Denver Nuggets. That actually sparked a rivalry. So the the Minnesota and Denver have a great basketball rivalry. So that was that was my basketball one. I'm gonna say for for baseball, the twins are always bad. So my memory is not like a uh you know, championship or or playoff win. It was actually I was at a 22-inning game and uh it was Twins, Indians. At that time, they were called the Indians, and we stayed for the whole game. It was me, my dad, uh, my brother, and my uncle Steve, ala Vashallom, and we had a great time. We spent nine innings uh on the first baseline, like 10 rows up. We spent uh nine innings behind home play, and uh Pedro Munoz won it on a home run in the bottom of the 22nd inning. And they played like the Star Wars theme, and it was just like the coolest. It was like one of those moments. And in football, it has to be the Minneapolis miracle from a few years ago, um, where Case Kingdom threw a touchdown pass to Stephon Diggs to uh advance the Vikings, I think, to the umbe it was the NFC finals, but that was uh that was awesome. Those are my big three. We have no championships.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, we lose people on this question.

SPEAKER_01

What?

SPEAKER_00

What'd you say, Dave?

SPEAKER_02

Those were three great moments that I got really bored.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, what are your answers? He's from Minnesota, that's his own fault. That's all I got. We don't have a lot of good moments. I don't need to figure up.

SPEAKER_02

I don't have any good moments. I mean I'm not gonna be a good one. You won championships, you know? I think of I didn't know I didn't. Okay, so this is my but I was two years old when the Mets won the World Series.

SPEAKER_00

That's true, me too. Right.

SPEAKER_02

And that was it.

SPEAKER_00

I will say these are my these are my moments. Number one is I would say this is on my list of and it's not game five, but game four. That tip in was unreal. I have I don't think I've ever experienced anything like that. Number two is when Osama bin Laden was killed. I was listening to that game on the radio. It was a sports moment. It was a sports moment when the Mets were playing the Fitlies, I think, if that if I'm not mistaken. It was unbelievable that moment. It was like a unif another unifying moment. And when the Giants won their first Super Bowl in my uh my tenure as a Giant fan with Eli Manning, uh, that I was like, I didn't know what to do with myself because my teams had never won anything. And I was right, it was unbelievable. Yeah, that's that's me.

SPEAKER_02

So so um the the Ford Bronco when they were chasing OJ City. Oh, that was fun. That was fun.

SPEAKER_00

Also naked guns and a half. Uh I mean, I would I would say Oh, come on, mine was legitimately a sports moment. The naked god singing of the national anthem, right?

SPEAKER_02

I I mean, I think that that for me it it's really messed up because the endy Chavez catch. Oh, that's for sure on him, and then they lose like an inning or two later.

SPEAKER_00

So like that was so sad, right?

SPEAKER_02

But the endy Chavez catch was epic. Um John Tavares's goal in double overtime to beat the Panthers in advance, that was huge a few years back. Um, so that was hockey. You know, I mean we stink. I mean, I mean a Mets Jets Islanders fan, so like like what I mean the the the I mean there have been there have obviously been moments where I've lost my mind. Um I was at a game when when the Mets were down a run and then uh down two runs and then and then Reyes hit hit a home run um to tie it and then they were down again, and then um who was it? It was uh Asdrubal Cabrera hit a two-run home run, and that was a huge moment. I was like physics physically there, but I've been to really more like train wrecks. I mean, I was at a game when the Mets were up by five-nothing in Philly and they blew it. I was at the butt fumble. I was at like so many like like horrible moments. I was at an Islander game where all they needed was a point next episode in Philly, all they needed was a point to make the playoffs, and they were up three goals with like eight minutes left, and they managed to lose in regulation.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So it's been uh it's been rough being a New York man.

SPEAKER_02

I think I could tell you my pain more than more than my also like everybody roots against us.

SPEAKER_00

Everybody roots against us. It's terrible. One thing I want to we didn't talk about it, are we can we can a person say we did it? I saw somebody post that on their status last night.

SPEAKER_02

I mean I don't think I don't think a fan that woke up uh this year could say we. I mean, I don't think anybody can. You're not playing shortstop for the for the team, but like I don't know, we've invested a lot. And we're we're you know, these players leave tomorrow and they're on another team.

SPEAKER_00

That's true.

SPEAKER_02

Like we suffer through this consistently.

SPEAKER_00

So you're saying we, you can your team, you can say you say we can say we can.

SPEAKER_02

I don't say we. But but I but I I understand when people get extremely passionate and and and and John, what do you hold on that matter?

SPEAKER_00

Slip a loop.

SPEAKER_01

I can say we did it. I will ask this, uh, let me phrase it. Because you're invested. You invest in them.

SPEAKER_00

I will phrase it this way when Hank won the the hockey championship this year, shout out to Morty Harris, unbelievable Rebbe, unbelievable coach. I still felt part of the team. I sit on the bench during the championship. I didn't say we did it. I said they I didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_01

No, but you know what? You're a shareholder. Like I think that there's something to that that being uh a big sports fan, and if you're a fan of specific teams, a little bit you're an owner, right? You're not obviously like an actual owner, but a little bit you own a piece of it.

SPEAKER_02

Shout out to John Slicker, who's a little bit of an owner of his Green Bay Packers. Green Bay Packers, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

But all of us are a little, we're not renters, right? You don't like like one team then and then give up your allegiance all of a sudden, like if one of you guys moved to New Jersey. Well, I did say for bed.

SPEAKER_00

Wait, what John? What what team do they root for in Dogwood?

SPEAKER_02

That said I were owners allowed to say we?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, because I did it. The owner is the only person who can say I did it. That's the only person. But I'm saying I think that if you're a big fan, you are a little bit an owner, you can say we. That's what I think. Okay. Look, I'm just gonna be.

SPEAKER_00

If you're not a big fan, if you're like a casual, then you can it's funny because I do really respect the players and the owners and whatever when they give shout outs to the fans because they're acknowledging that that energy enhances it. But I do not believe in weekends.

SPEAKER_02

The fans are a huge part.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, that's I'm not a fan of we did it. And I think that this is a good what's uh um a YouTube short. Yeah. Are you are you a we did it person or are you they did it? I think it says a lot about who you are.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. Who you are. Want to hear from everybody.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, guys. Great job. Skyakh have a great day, everybody. Mazel Tov to all Nick fan nation. Uh, and thank you for letting me join the ride. I did not realize that you play basketball above the uh Penn Station, but I guess they do. What are you doing with the three fingers in front of you? The Brunson. Oh, that's what it is?

SPEAKER_01

You're doing the Brunson. Isn't it like it's tremendous podcasting right now? I don't know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00

I'm doing Brunson, yeah. What? What are you doing? That's what he does. Three, because three? Because he hit a three-pointer?

SPEAKER_02

That's what he does.

SPEAKER_00

In honor of, I'm just gonna say, in honor of him, can we can we tailor the um the the card, whatever it's called, our our logo with Brunson hair on all of us for for this episode, John? Can you tweak it?

SPEAKER_01

I'll see if I can, but I'm not gonna lie, I will not be investing a lot of time in this. That's unfortunate.

SPEAKER_02

You could probably do it on your chat GPT.

SPEAKER_01

I probably could. Try to do it with your chat GPT. I think we can replace for one. I I don't know. We'll try. Try it. Do it, Osher.

SPEAKER_00

We'll just put it on our status.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yes. Do it. Do it. You do it. I'll I'll post it. Thank you, everybody. Thank you guys. Don't forget everybody, like and subscribe.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, wait one second.

SPEAKER_01

Excellent. Well done. All right, thanks, guys.