00:00I always love hooking up with the famed scribe, Mike DeCorsi of the Sporting News.
00:04You can catch him on Fox Sports during the college basketball season and on the Big Ten Network.
00:09He's on the take for the Indiana Hoosiers.
00:11I actually was just telling you that I was reffing last night, Mike.
00:15And the point of this is, so, you know, when, like, you look at around, like, basketball in the NBA, in my opinion,
00:23and in college particularly, high school for certain, there's always, like, a lot of older refs.
00:30And I think that guys, like, I felt last night when I was doing these two games on this NBA court as I ran five miles,
00:38I thought to myself, you know, after the first game, I'm in the second game and I'm running up and down this court
00:46and I have to be ahead of the play at all times, so you, like, have to hustle.
00:50And I was like, oh, my God.
00:53And then I thought to myself after the first game, and then when it was over, I was driving in my car
00:59and I went, you know, I wonder if I should retire from playing and just do this
01:05because I felt like it was the most grueling night of running, way more than just playing.
01:11And when you play, you got, you know, guys hammering you.
01:15Then if you make a mistake, you got teammates screaming at you.
01:18If you miss a shot, you're going to basketball prison.
01:22If you throw the ball away, make a turnover, they blame you for a week.
01:26And then when you're the ref, like, I felt like, you know, this isn't too bad.
01:31You know, I'm in charge.
01:33Like, some kids started yelling at me last night.
01:34I was like, shut up.
01:35Tell your mother.
01:37And then that was it.
01:37It was over.
01:38And I was like, I got a lot of, got a lot of power here.
01:41Uh, do you think I should retire from playing in the league and just start reffing at my ripe age of 60?
01:48No, based on what you're saying, it sounds like you should get better teammates.
01:54Well, we win titles.
01:55We win titles.
01:56We won four straight titles.
01:58But I'm like the sixth man.
01:59It doesn't sound like it's a happy experience.
02:01It isn't because I'm the oldest guy and I play like 15 minutes.
02:04I average 12 and I've been averaging double doubles.
02:08But the thing is, it's just such a pain in my ass.
02:11We play late at night and I don't like it.
02:14And then when I did the reffing last night, I did two early games and I was home watching the Knicks by 9.15.
02:21I was like, and I got paid like 50 a game to do it.
02:24I was like, I don't get paid to play.
02:28Well, that's, I mean, that may be the decisive factor because you can put that hundy to good use.
02:33I know.
02:33Right.
02:34You know what I mean?
02:34If I do two weeks of games, that's a new pair of basketball shoes.
02:39There you go.
02:40On them.
02:41I don't have to buy them.
02:42So let me ask you your opinion of the one percenters once again winning in life and getting Cooper flag.
02:51They had a 1% chance and they get him.
02:54And these teams that are poor and broke and can't win and can't draw fans and never make the playoffs and they're horrible.
03:00They lose out and this guy Harrison wins after what he did to those fans in Dallas.
03:06And now they get Cooper flag.
03:08It, you know, it's interesting.
03:10I was thinking about this this morning that a lot of people are reflecting on the fact that they did this massive screw up by trading Luca.
03:20And it was indeed just incomprehensible.
03:23Right.
03:24And they, and it led them to be into the lottery.
03:27And so they have a chance to win Cooper flag and they do.
03:31And what we're overlooking is the fact that most of the teams that didn't get Cooper flag or nearly all of them had their own degree of incompetence or failure or inconsistency or whatever.
03:45That led them to be in that same conversation.
03:48I mean, my goodness, the Washington wizards, like they didn't even know how to blow up the balls in Washington.
03:55It, they have been so bad for so long.
03:59And the, a lot of these teams have been there for so long that it's amazing.
04:03And honestly, Scott, one of the things that I respect the most about what we're seeing from the, from the Knicks and especially the Pacers is that like, they never got horrible.
04:15The Pacers picked six.
04:17It's the first time when they got Benedict Matherin, it picked six a few years back.
04:22And it was the, one of the only times that they've picked in the top 10 in the last dozen years.
04:26And the Knicks, again, they have guys who've played at that level.
04:30I mean, Towns was one of the first picks.
04:32I think he might've been the first overall pick in 15 and, but they traded to get him.
04:38And a lot of the guys that they have are players that they built, uh, by acquiring through trades and that sort of thing.
04:45They, they, they certainly haven't had great teams over the last 20, 30, maybe 50 years.
04:51Uh, but, uh, they have not been one of those teams that have been consistently slogging in lottery territory.
04:58And they've built this opportunity to perhaps play in the Eastern conference finals.
05:02I respect them.
05:03So let me ask you, uh, I want to shift gears dramatically to soccer.
05:09What did you think when, cause I, I got, I stopped in my tracks when I saw that Madrid coach leave and take the job as the coach of the Brazilian national team.
05:22Here's a guy that, uh, I mean, does this guy not win everything in, in Real Madrid?
05:28I mean, the guy, all he does is win.
05:30They must've paid him a ton of money or something.
05:32I don't know the details.
05:33How did they lure him out of Madrid to go to, uh, Brazil?
05:39That Madrid job is, you think of all the difficult jobs in college sports or professional sports here in America.
05:47And you mount, and you put them all in a mountain and that's being Madrid.
05:51Like the, the, the, the head coach at Madrid is, it's in such a difficult position that I think that you just can only survive in that spot for so long.
06:02Uh, Zinedine Zidane, uh, the great, uh, uh, the great Zizou, uh, he was in that position and won three consecutive champion league, champions league titles.
06:12And just said, that's enough for me.
06:14I, I don't need to do this anymore.
06:15It's, it's just an excruciating position to be in, uh, when you're in it, you have the opportunity to win everything.
06:22Uh, Real has won champions league more than any other team by far, uh, but it's, it's really a hard position to be in.
06:30And I think certainly he's not going into a low pressure situation with Brazil, but in that circumstance, you're expected to do one world cup cycle.
06:39Maybe if you do well, then you can stick around for one Copa America cycle, but it's not considered to be a year after year.
06:45After year thing, you build up toward, uh, next year, uh, 2026, and then maybe you stick around for a year or two after that.
06:54It's not expected to be long-term.
06:55So I totally get what Ancelotti is doing.
06:58Uh, it's just a difficult position to be in it, which is interesting because the juxtaposition is, uh, Trent Alexander Arnold, Arnold is leaving Liverpool.
07:06I, I, I, a Liverpool kid who grew up there and who went through their academy and who won the premier league twice and champions league once and multiple cups.
07:16And yet he's leaving because Real Madrid is the place every player supposedly needs to be.
07:21It's kind of lame.
07:22If you think about it, that's my, that's my view on it.
07:25If you're a great player, you don't need to be on the best club to prove it, but that seems to be the ethos in European soccer.
07:32And so he's headed there.
07:34Meanwhile, his coach is saying no mas.
07:37Well, and how about this, but this guy's leaving Liverpool.
07:41They just want another premier league title.
07:43I mean, what's the matter?
07:44You're bored winning.
07:45So who do you like on the 31st with PSG?
07:49I know you gotta be rooting for inner after the stories of you and your wife going to, uh, Milan to watch him play.
07:55I rooted for them the entire champions league tournament and that game's in Germany, right?
08:01I think the games in Munich or something is where they're going to play the final.
08:04Who do you like in that PSG inner game?
08:06Yeah, they play it on a neutral field, just like the Superbowl.
08:09Uh, a lot of people dream about one day having that game here.
08:12I'm not sure that'll ever happen, but I, I, I, I just have been so impressed by PSG, Scott, Paris Saint-Germain.
08:18They have just, they have this ability to, to just strangle games when they need to, to control the ball when they need to.
08:27Uh, they don't generate a ton of goals, but I think they'll score enough, uh, against, against inter.
08:33I, I really love this matchup.
08:35It's a lot of fun, but, uh, PSG, I think has finally figured out again, you don't have to have an all-star team to win.
08:43That's what they did a decade ago.
08:45They tried to win with an all-star team.
08:47They tried it and then they added onto the all-stars.
08:50They said, okay, we don't have enough all-stars.
08:52We need Lionel Messi and Neymar.
08:54And it still didn't work.
08:56Then all those guys left and now they've got a great shot to win it.
09:00Uh, so we'll never get a Champions League final.
09:03And they said the same thing about, we'll never have an American Pope until we got a guy from the South side of Chicago running the Vatican.
09:12Mike, great stuff, buddy.
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