Exclusive: We Found the Knicks' Top-Secret Tapes for Kawhi, Kyrie and KD

If you thought reuniting The Sopranos and Wu-Tang to recruit LeBron James and Kevin Durant were the ultimate celebrity pitches, just wait until Pablo unboxes this time capsule for Desus Nice, Frank Isola... and you. Previously on PTFO: • Share & Wu & Tell with Method Man and Dan Le Batard https://pod.link/1685093486/episode/NjkzYTM0M2JhOWQwMDM4ODljMjI5MzU0 • We Found the Secret Tape the Knicks Made for LeBron https://pod.link/1685093486/episode/OTUyY2I3MWUtODRkZC0xMWYwLWFjNDUtNTM0NjkwNDhhYjFi More PTFO: • Subscribe to Pablo Torre Finds Out on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@PabloTorreFindsOut/ to watch all three Knicks videos and get special holiday bonus content • Subscribe to Pablo's newsletter https://pablo.show/ for exclusive access, documents and invites Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Pablo Torre?

  Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre and today we're gonna find out what this sound is. I heard 3Ks and I...

• 0:09Pablo Torre?

  Listen.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  He's getting ready to run out.

• 0:10Pablo Torre?

  Audio-only audience. Listen, I'll take a ring any way possible, okay? I'm not asking questions.

• 0:17Pablo Torre?

  Right after this ad.

• 0:20Speaker 02

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone. And including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 0:52Pablo Torre?

  This episode is brought to you by apollo.io. A lot of the stories on this show start the same way. Something that looks pretty simple turns out to be a mess once you look under the hood. Well, it's no different in the sales world. Your team has a tool for finding prospects, a different tool for reaching out to them, and a third for keeping track of it all. On paper, that's a system. In practice, it's a salesperson spending the better part of the day copying names from one tab into another and not much of it actually selling. Apollo.io is a platform that helps sales teams find the right buyers and reach out to them. It brings prospecting, outreach, and follow-up into one place instead of several separate tools. It's used by sales teams of all sizes,

• 1:36Pablo Torre?

  from small businesses to larger organizations. And it's built for teams who want less manual busywork and more time with buyers. If your marketing and sales teams are trying to work from the same view of the customer, it's worth a look. Sign up for free at apollo.io. That's apollo.io.

• 2:01Speaker 03

  I'm not gonna even tell you what I did for you.

• 2:04Speaker 03

  Come on, man.

• 2:04Pablo Torre?

  Frank, it's an honor for you to be here. You, you... You said, "I can do it over Zoom," and I said, "You have to be here in person."

• 2:10Speaker 01

  I respect that. I respect that.

• 2:12Speaker 03

  Drove in?

• 2:13Pablo Torre?

  You drove?

• 2:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm not gonna... I asked him, "Who's paying for the..." He said, "Well, you know, do the..." I don't know how to do that stuff, so well now, I'm gonna be out of money anyway, so.

• 2:20Speaker 01

  And you had to do the congested pricing.

• 2:21Pablo Torre?

  I said, "Sell me." I said, "Venmo me, Frank Isola."

• 2:23Speaker 03

  I have NYPD. I have New York press plates. So I parked on 37. Then I walked to 48, to Sirius, then I took the train down here.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  Real New York stuff right here.

• 2:31Pablo Torre?

  I mean, just the most... Like a diplomat. He parks like a diplomat.

• 2:36Speaker 03

  I'm sorry, testing, testing. One, two, three. Oh, oh, close on me.

• 2:39Speaker 01

  There's like this family at Yankee Stadium this summer, and

• 2:41Speaker 03

  Got it.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  they drove and parked on 42nd Street and then took the Metro North up. And I was like, "That makes absolutely no sense, but you have your reasons." Like, I guess you don't wanna go to the heroin McDonald's across the street from Yankee Stadium like the rest of us.

• 2:56Speaker 03

  On River, right?

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:57Speaker 03

  They have NYPD parking there.

• 2:58Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:59Speaker 03

  But you have the mall there.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 3:00Speaker 03

  I waited people out.

• 3:01Pablo Torre?

  Oh, alright.

• 3:02Speaker 03

  For them to leave. A guy came with a bunch of, like, groceries. Pull them right there?

• 3:05Speaker 01

  Pull them right there?

• 3:06Speaker 03

  I'm not paying for parking.

• 3:07Speaker 01

  I'm gonna get one of those things.

• 3:07Speaker 03

  I'm like George Costanza.

• 3:09Pablo Torre?

  There you go. Another New York legend. This is already the most New York conversation we've had on the podcast. We're just talking about parking strategy in and out of Yankee games. Frank, do you... You don't know Desus. You've never met him before.

• 3:20Speaker 03

  No, watch. I've been supposed to be really phony and say, "I really admire your work."

• 3:24Speaker 01

  I appreciate it.

• 3:24Speaker 03

  No, you're really funny.

• 3:26Speaker 01

  Thank you. Funny in like a ha-ha way or funny like a...

• 3:28Speaker 03

  Well played.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know.

• 3:30Speaker 03

  Like a clown? I make you laugh? I'm here to amuse you? No, you're very good.

• 3:33Speaker 01

  Thank you. I appreciate it.

• 3:34Speaker 03

  Very new... But I think he's very New York. Like, you've lived in New York your whole life. I look like New York, but he kind of is New York.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  Yes, but I, I'm very familiar with you, read your work, not even bull****. Like, I know Frank. When he said it, I was like, "Yo."

• 3:47Speaker 03

  I'm still depressed that I got laid off. I kinda, I like working for a newspaper.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  Unfortunately, you work with words, and there's no longer any reason for words.

• 3:55Speaker 03

  I know, nobody reads.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  No one reads.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  Everybody tweets.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  Everyone tweets.

• 3:57Speaker 03

  Pablo's doing a great job with his podcast, but I guarantee you. But people took you more seriously, or they, you like when people take you seriously when you worked for Sports Illustrated. I think people took me more seriously when I wrote.

• 4:07Pablo Torre?

  Frank and I used to go, during Insanity is where Frank and I really developed a relationship.

• 4:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, because you were beating everyone in the story, so I hated you.

• 4:14Pablo Torre?

  And Frank was taking shots at me, and it's, as a New Yorker, it is an honor when Frank Isola personally tries to drone-strike you.

• 4:24Pablo Torre?

  In the pages of one of the city's great tabloids. It really, Frank is somebody that we both grew up reading.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 4:30Pablo Torre?

  If you're, if you grew up a Knicks fan, Frank Isola has another nickname.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  Yes, Frank Asshole.

• 4:36Speaker 03

  I was gonna say, is that it?

• 4:37Speaker 01

  Frank Asshole, or if you're old enough, Frank Ayatollah. I don't know if that works.

• 4:41Speaker 03

  That works, yep.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:42Speaker 03

  It's weird, like, my wife and kids call me the other one.

• 4:46Speaker 01

  No, I remember this, sometimes I would see tweets from him, and I was like, this motherf- And I was like, I had to realize, I was like, that's your thing.

• 4:53Speaker 03

  But here, here's what's weird. When they were terrible and dysfunctional, I was pointing it out.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  The Knicks were terrible and dysfunctional?

• 4:59Speaker 03

  And last year, I was praising them for how well they did. I was surprised they got rid of the coach and everyone was killing me.

• 5:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:04Speaker 03

  I thought that last year they had a good year. I thought when they won 24 games, that was a bad year.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  Right. You know what it is? Have you ever been to an animal shelter? And they have like a rescued dog? And like, the dog is like, getting cared for and getting food on schedule? And it lashes out. It doesn't know how to act. So that's as Knicks fans. Like, literally, you could be like, yo, that was a good year. You're like, what do you, what do you mean by that?

• 5:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  Really? That's funny to you? Like, we, we're very, we're very caustic, we're, we don't trust this. Like, me right now, like, I'm like, everyone's like, oh, you guys won the cup. I'm like, what is this, are we, do we have the cup curse now?

• 5:34Pablo Torre?

  How do the Knicks maximize their natural advantages? Being that they're in New York?

• 5:39Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 5:40Pablo Torre?

  I mean, how the Knicks have approached the acquisition of superstars is really the premise of why I've been summoning you here. The thing we did in 2024, back, this was in April 2024.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  Excellent.

• 5:53Pablo Torre?

  We got the tape that the Knicks made for LeBron. And I just want to refresh people's memories, because you two, I think, are just in the Target demo. But if you haven't seen it, what the Knicks did to recruit LeBron James in the summer of 2010, it did involve this.

• 6:09Speaker 04

  Now, we just gotta find a place for your friend LeBron to live. What's he like?

• 6:13Speaker 05

  He's a modern guy, but he respects tradition.

• 6:17Speaker 04

  He's something classy on the east side.

• 6:19Speaker 05

  Was it big enough? It's gonna be entertaining a lot of people in New York.

• 6:23Speaker 04

  It's very expensive.

• 6:24Speaker 05

  Oh, that's not gonna be a problem. You gotta find something magnificent. Something there's nothing in the world like it, one of a kind, like he is.

• 6:35Speaker 04

  Well, here's a place. Says it gets really loud there. Take a look.

• 6:41Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's it. That's gonna be perfect for him.

• 6:45Pablo Torre?

  Showing Madison Square Garden on a laptop in this modest apartment that the late, great James Gandolfini was filming this scene out of. Yes. In which they're in witness protection. That was the premise of this, by the way. My favorite part that I think people overlooked, though, is the fact that when the Knicks were recruiting LeBron James in 2010, they were also recruiting two other stars. Mm-hmm. Frank, Chris Bosh. Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade. And Dwyane Wade. And I wouldn't say they tried quite as hard when they, uh, did some some alt-takes on that same series.

• 7:18Speaker 04

  Now we just need to find a place for your friend Dwyane to live. What's he like?

• 7:23Speaker 05

  He's a modern guy, but he respects tradition.

• 7:27Speaker 04

  Now we just need to find a place for your friend Chris to live. What's he like?

• 7:31Speaker 05

  He's a modern guy, but he respects tradition.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  I feel like they were running out of time in the studio, and it was like, yo, we'll fix it in post. We will fix it in post.

• 7:39Pablo Torre?

  The list of famous faces they got. It didn't just, you know, start and stop with The Sopranos. The first face you saw in the video, of course, was Donald Trump. Rudy Giuliani's in there. Chris Rock is in there, Spike Lee. But I do want to highlight one of the faces that I don't think aged nearly as well as any of those, actually, because you may recall him from his work in Hollywood and beyond.

• 8:04Speaker 06

  New York is such a universal city. And I know LeBron, I mean, I read his book, you know, and I know that he's tight with his buddies. The idea of those friends coming to New York City, those guys sound amazing. Loyal, smart, bright.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  Well, Weinstein Sanity was a bleak period during the Knicks.

• 8:23Speaker 01

  That's the guy from Jersey. Don't wear that often.

• 8:24Pablo Torre?

  Weinstein Sanity was another tabloid sensation. And in case you're wondering how poetic Harvey is when it comes to those other two superstars.

• 8:35Pablo Torre?

  They also taped that.

• 8:37Speaker 06

  You know, when I think of the road not taken, Robert Frost's great poem about a man who makes the decision, the road that he'll travel down. And I think that Dwyane Wade wouldn't come to New York City. I mean, I love Miami, but Miami's a suburb of New York. I think of that Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken, about someone who doesn't take the big road. And I just wonder if Chris Bosh, sitting there and going, wow, I could have gone to New York. I could have played on the world stage. And I didn't do that. I didn't throw my hat into the greatness ring. You know, I can see him being, you know, 70-year-old guy and going, wow, I should have done that, shouldn't I? Well, you know what? Don't be the 70-year-old guy. Just do it.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  I feel like he quotes his Robert Frost poem for everything. He's just like, oh, my food's late. You know, like Robert Frost said, the meal not discovered. He's like, all right, we get it, Harvey.

• 9:29Pablo Torre?

  And he quoted Nike at the end.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  Just do it.

• 9:31Pablo Torre?

  Just do it. I just think there's a greatness ring he referenced, which feels like the thing that the Knicks should put in the rafters of MSG. That's where the Emirates banner should go in the greatness ring. The reason you're here today, though, is not because I just wanted to replay that video, those videos, all of them, for you, although I do. I bring you here because the Knicks actually, quietly, have learned their lesson. So the next big free agency summer, Frank, where three stars were available of that caliber, right? That was 2010. The next time it happened was 2019. Frank, could you remind us what was going on in the summer of free agency in 2019?

• 10:06Speaker 03

  You had Kevin Durant telling people he wanted to team up with Kyrie Irving to come to New York.

• 10:12Pablo Torre?

  And you also had someone else available that summer, too.

• 10:18Pablo Torre?

  We're doing a Kawhi Leonard episode.

• 10:37Pablo Torre?

  The question of how do you recruit three stars if you're the New York Knicks?

• 10:41Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 10:42Pablo Torre?

  Frank, could you just give a sense for us of how much celebrity matters at Madison Square Garden?

• 10:48Speaker 03

  All of it. All of it matters. Look at, you know, during the game, they're gonna show celebrities during timeouts. That's a big part of it. The celebrities all wanna be a part of it. I never knew Ben Stiller was this big of a fan.

• 10:58Pablo Torre?

  Oh, he's huge.

• 10:59Speaker 03

  I was covering the Knicks for 20 years. I never remember seeing him at a game. Now he's everywhere. Now he's everybody's best friend.

• 11:03Pablo Torre?

  You can't have, you can't throw a Knicks jersey without hitting Ben Stiller. And the funniest thing is like, he's a huge celebrity. You can just do the smallest tweet, be like, "Let's go Knicks." And it's like, Ben Stiller liked it. It was in 30 seconds. I'm like, you are so tapped in, man.

• 11:16Speaker 03

  I almost feel, now that they're getting better, I feel there's a little competition now among the celebrities.

• 11:21Pablo Torre?

  Oh, Shalhoub's coming.

• 11:22Speaker 03

  Who's the biggest, who's the biggest Knicks fan? So that is, that is certainly a big part of it. And part of the whole thing with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, people were, the All-Star Game that year, I'm gonna forget where it was, but it was in February and everyone, it might've been in Charlotte, and everyone was saying Kyrie and Kevin Durant have already decided to come into the Knicks. That was in February.

• 11:41Pablo Torre?

  Yeah. As a delusional Knicks fan, that sounds like something I would've believed just from, with no sources, just someone in my barber shop said it.

• 11:47Speaker 03

  In fact, the two of them before the All-Star Game talked in like a hallway where everyone could see them, everyone in the media, and they were kinda wishful.

• 11:56Pablo Torre?

  In the tunnel, yes. It was in Charlotte, by the way.

• 11:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was, yeah.

• 11:59Pablo Torre?

  That viral video of them just like having a sniper.

• 12:01Speaker 03

  Yep, I was standing right there. It was Mike Francesca. I was there. Yep, I saw the whole thing.

• 12:04Pablo Torre?

  Big Francesca, the guy at the pool. So 2019, it's not LeBron, Wade, and Bosch, it's Kyrie, it's KD, and Kawhi Leonard. And the Knicks, Frank, had a ton of cap space.

• 12:17Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 12:18Pablo Torre?

  And I've been looking at the summer of 2019 because that was a summer when Kawhi Leonard chose to go to the Clippers. That's the rabbit hole I've been in for pretty much all of this year. It's a summer, by the way, that in retrospect, kinda changed the NBA.

• 12:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:30Pablo Torre?

  Kawhi goes to the Clippers, Paul George goes to the Clippers, the Thunder get everything. The Thunder are now in position to own.

• 12:38Speaker 03

  Kevin Durant blows out his Achilles.

• 12:39Pablo Torre?

  The next decade. And yeah, people, people's ligaments blow up. What I didn't know about that summer, though, was how big a player the Knicks were in terms of free agent superstar recruiting, in terms of like...

• 12:53Pablo Torre?

  You saw what they did in 2010. Mm-hmm. What did they do in 2019? What I am told that the Knicks spent seven figures as part of a top-secret campaign to not just get Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but also Kawhi Leonard. And you guys are both here because we're gonna watch these videos that no one has ever seen for the first time today. Let's go. So 2019, the Knicks, what they do, as they often do, and Frank knows this, they turned to a marketing and music mogul with the initials S and S. Steve Stout. Steve Stout. Yes.

• 13:28Speaker 03

  Oh, that's right.

• 13:29Pablo Torre?

  I thought you were gonna say PD. I was like, I gotta go.

• 13:31Speaker 03

  That's the guy. That's right. That was the guy that was best friends with LeBron. He was gonna get him here. Then the Knicks hired him.

• 13:36Pablo Torre?

  He was arguing as a Knicks surrogate on First Take at one point. Remember that?

• 13:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's right. And he criticized one of the active players on the roster.

• 13:43Pablo Torre?

  He fired Mike Miller, basically, on television.

• 13:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:45Pablo Torre?

  He got hired. His agency got hired. His agency's name is Translation. It turns out that this agency got hired. And we know this because we just spent months, three months now, just calling around the league, trying to figure out like, okay, I heard there's a Kawhi Leonard video that they made that no one's seen. And we got in touch with the guys who made it. And one of them agreed to come on camera.

• 14:08Speaker 07

  Yeah, so I'm Chaucer Barnes. I'm Chief Marketing Officer of Translation. And this all started with a conversation between Steve Stout, our founder, and I believe Jim Dolan. Obviously, the free agency window is coming up. And there was a desire to create some like, I guess what you would call,

• 14:32Speaker 07

  like, more intimate assets to talk to a couple of superstars than they would normally produce. And, you know, they had a lot of cap space at the time, and they wanted to go after some big stars. And so they highlighted the 3Ks, you know? And they're like, yeah, we wanna get after them. Can you write me? It was kinda like the Cyrano de Bergerac. You know what I mean? Like, but not being able to talk to Roxanne, not being able to follow her around. So, you know, what would be persuasive to these guys?

• 15:02Pablo Torre?

  A lot of literary references in this episode. Robert Frost. That guy's name is Chaucer. Listen.

• 15:06Speaker 03

  But by the way, if you're thinking you're gonna get through to Kawhi Leonard, come on now. Nobody knows what makes him pick.

• 15:13Pablo Torre?

  Well, this was the challenge, right?

• 15:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, come on.

• 15:15Pablo Torre?

  Well, okay, so the 3Ks.

• 15:16Speaker 03

  This is the challenge. This is what's gonna make him.

• 15:19Pablo Torre?

  For the audio-only audience, Frank Isole is making a motion in which he is rubbing his fingers. Rubbing the fingers. The three Ks, Jesus. Kawhi, KD, Kyrie.

• 15:29Speaker 01

  I heard three Ks and I...

• 15:32Speaker 01

  Listen.

• 15:32Pablo Torre?

  He's getting ready to run out. For the audio-only audience, Jesus is grimacing.

• 15:35Speaker 01

  I'll take a ring any way possible, okay? I'm not asking questions.

• 15:39Pablo Torre?

  But, under the hood of this operation, so to speak, the question was, how do you recruit Kawhi Leonard? And Steve Ballmer had one answer. I've been reporting the contours of that. It involves Uncle Dennis Robertson, who was reportedly asking for no-show jobs and equity in private companies, and the team itself, and real estate deals, and all of that. Many episodes about that separately. But the Knicks clearly thought they were in it because they invested in what was called, quote, "a highly personalized gift." They wanted to do this thing bespoke. And what they decided to do, we love unboxing videos on this show, what this company did was they got a literal box, a pizza box.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  It's a Knicks pizza box with Knicks gear, Knicks merchandise, a little kith on it. You know, they said, "Hey, here's some free swag." And it says, "Please watch the film below." Oh, is that a monitor inside? Ooh.

• 16:32Pablo Torre?

  There's a monitor.

• 16:33Speaker 01

  We've heard all the stops.

• 16:34Pablo Torre?

  There's a monitor inside of this custom bespoke pizza box. And when you open the box and you begin to watch, you see this.

• 16:44Speaker 08

  We're here at Madison Square Garden and the season opener, probably the biggest ever. Why? Because it's Kawhi Leonard's first night wearing the blue and orange. This city is in a frenzy. Kids everywhere are putting their hair in cornrows. In fact, I tried. It didn't work. But let me tell you, this is the big one. What's up, Kawhi's chain? Welcome to New York, baby.

• 17:07Speaker 09

  What's up, Michael Che?

• 17:12Speaker 09

  See, in my head, I was like, how did they have him watching this? But no, no, no, it's a, it's a doppelganger.

• 17:17Pablo Torre?

  It's Jay Pharoah.

• 17:18Speaker 09

  Jay Pharoah, shout out to the homie right there.

• 17:21Pablo Torre?

  It is Jay Pharoah, Michael J. Uh, there's a lot of SNL in what we're about to watch here. And I just gotta say that Jay Pharoah, so far, is a very compelling Kauai letter.

• 17:30Speaker 09

  He's great. The braids are very authentic. From the back, I didn't know it wasn't him.

• 17:34Pablo Torre?

  He's a method Kauai.

• 17:35Speaker 09

  Yeah.

• 17:36Pablo Torre?

  And from there, the video proceeds.

• 17:43Speaker 09

  I don't wanna draw too much attention to myself, alright? Oh, oh, I got you, I got you. Low profile, I forgot about that. Hey, man, you ready to see the city or what? Well, I was actually about to head to Madison Square Garden, so... Oh, no, man, we got plenty of time to do that, man. Right now, I just wanna show you New York. What about Goodfellas? Uh, what about, what about Mean Streets?

• 17:59Pablo Torre?

  Yeah, both, you know, those are good New York movies. Can I get some sauerkraut, please?

• 18:01Speaker 09

  Yeah, sure.

• 18:02Pablo Torre?

  I'd have to say for me, favorite New York movies probably between Muppets Take Manhattan and Rocky. Leaning towards Rocky.

• 18:07Speaker 09

  No way.

• 18:09Pablo Torre?

  Why not?

• 18:10Speaker 09

  Rocky's from Philly.

• 18:11Pablo Torre?

  He's from Philly, but he's, no, he's originally from New York.

• 18:14Speaker 09

  No, it's Shaun, Philly, he's a Philly guy. Oh, yo, hey, Jay.

• 18:17Pablo Torre?

  That's the New York, that's totally New York. Can I have that, please? I gotta go, it's Kauai's first game, so I gotta go see it. I'm not paying for this.

• 18:23Speaker 09

  Always the rich ones.

• 18:24Pablo Torre?

  There he is. There's Mr. Ben Stiller. Showing a claw at the end. They are, they are going for it. They are. They're like... All the stops are out. So, we were told that Ben Stiller just rearranged his whole day to shoot that scene. They considered, apparently, Spike Lee, but only briefly, because it was, quote, "just too obvious, almost, to get Spike in that." Yeah. And so, the question I'm contemplating, uh, and I'm curious how you guys would respond if you were Kauai Leonard, like, you're watching a video in which someone is impersonating you, and so you kind of gotta thread the needle on a respectful impersonation. Yep, yes. That is also convincing you, "I wanna join this organization." And they decide to go north.

• 19:09Speaker 09

  Oh, snap, we got that champ in the house? What's up, champ? What's up? Well, you see, I'm representing for you already, you see that?

• 19:17Speaker 08

  Welcome to New York, man. Congratulations, man.

• 19:19Speaker 09

  That's what's up. What y'all doing around here, man? You need a fade or something? Wait, Keenan, you work here? Yeah, man, it's New York. You know, everybody got a second job. Hey, Jay, you take this man and get some pizza yet? No, we're actually heading to Madison Square Garden. Jay, you better take this man and get some pizza, he need to eat. Look how big he is.

• 19:40Pablo Torre?

  Grinjo's Pizza, they're uptown, now they're downtown.

• 19:42Speaker 09

  I know you don't like to eat before a game, but you gotta try some New York City pizza.

• 19:47Speaker 09

  Hey, everything good over here? Well, it's great.

• 19:49Speaker 10

  Hey, Paulie, let me get a pie.

• 19:51Speaker 09

  I told you, Biggs, no more pies for you.

• 19:54Speaker 10

  All right, I promise I will eat it this time.

• 19:56Speaker 09

  No, Biggs.

• 20:00Speaker 10

  Oh, what is up, champ? Hey, let's bring one back to New York, all right? Let's go Knicks, come on, my dude, my dude!

• 20:10Speaker 09

  Get out of here, Biggs.

• 20:11Speaker 01

  I like how everyone in this video talks the way people in New York talked when Marikoch was around. It was like, yo, I'm walking, whoa, Madison Square Garden, pizza. Like, no one talks like that anymore. Nobody went to school back then. By the way, does he know anybody?

• 20:27Pablo Torre?

  Does he know any of the people in this video?

• 20:29Speaker 01

  Maybe Michael Che. Yeah, after that, you're just like, no way. There's no way he knows who Al Roker is.

• 20:35Pablo Torre?

  That's very, that's very local.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  It's very low, maybe from like the Macy's Parade?

• 20:40Pablo Torre?

  Maybe.

• 20:41Speaker 01

  Kawhi Leonard's getting up early on a Thursday, Thanksgiving.

• 20:44Pablo Torre?

  Watching a giant Snoopy.

• 20:46Speaker 01

  No chance.

• 20:48Pablo Torre?

  This is clearly oriented around Kawhi Leonard comedy fan. And like, movie enthusiast? Like, so Jason Biggs, I didn't know, did you guys know Jason Biggs was a Knicks fan?

• 20:57Speaker 01

  Well, I didn't even know it was him. You know what, they will show him on like the jump trail, I'll be like,

• 21:03Speaker 01

  the guy from the movie. American Pie. It's kind of, but he's like six or seven into the game that they'll introduce. Yeah, not the first.

• 21:11Pablo Torre?

  There is, there is a, yes, the, the-

• 21:12Speaker 01

  He's a second quarter, third quarter guy, not a fourth quarter guy. We're not talking Steve Sharip.

• 21:16Pablo Torre?

  Nah, nah, nah, nah.

• 21:18Speaker 01

  Edie Falco, come on, come on. Only the best here.

• 21:21Pablo Torre?

  That is, uh, yeah, it's Jason Biggs making a joke about how he [BLEEP] pies, but it's a pizza pie, and, and so-

• 21:28Speaker 01

  I didn't even catch that, see? Neither did Kawhi, believe me.

• 21:31Pablo Torre?

  There are levels, levels, nuance. It's elaborate, and geographically, they're going from north to south, and then back up north to Rucker Park, where Jay Pharoah slash Kawhi Leonard decides to make an appearance.

• 21:48Speaker 11

  Heads up.

• 21:50Speaker 09

  Y'all need one more?

• 21:51Speaker 11

  Nah, we good. You handle what you gotta do at the Garden tonight. We'll handle things here.

• 21:57Speaker 09

  Alright, kid. Do your thing. I'll be over here if you need me.

• 22:02Speaker 11

  Kawhi, that's money!

• 22:05Speaker 08

  See, champ? I got moves. Okay? Boardman gets paid. Let me know if you need me at the Mecca. I got your back, Kawhi. Yo, come on, y'all. Let's play, man.

• 22:18Speaker 03

  That part was good.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  That worked. That worked. Like, you could've just had that scene right there. You need all the other stuff.

• 22:24Speaker 03

  And I would throw in a couple good-looking women. Seriously.

• 22:28Speaker 01

  It's very dude-friendly.

• 22:29Speaker 03

  Yeah. There are women who live in New York.

• 22:32Speaker 01

  We have no female Nick fans in this thing.

• 22:35Pablo Torre?

  There is, there is an audience of one mentality here, where you're like drilling down to what would this guy like? And I do feel like there's some obvious cards left on the table.

• 22:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:44Pablo Torre?

  But Tracy Morgan showing up to block a kid's shot, I enjoyed it. If you're wondering what it's like to tape with Tracy Morgan at Rucker Park, while, by the way, Jay Pharoah, again, is trying to be so restrained in his impression without like crossing the line.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:59Pablo Torre?

  So he's like, kind of a, he's a good dude.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  He doesn't want to be insulting?

• 23:03Pablo Torre?

  No, he's like helpful to the kids.

• 23:05Speaker 01

  He definitely feels like an SNL sketch that at any moment is about to go very left. Very left.

• 23:10Pablo Torre?

  And something that went left was an experience taped with Tracy Morgan as one of the creatives from the translation agency named Chris Mendez decided to tell us about.

• 23:19Speaker 12

  Tracy Morgan pulled up in like a half a million dollar Ferrari. As you've heard, he's done. He pulls up to Rucker Park. He parks it sideways and just like gets out the car. And he's like, where do I go? And we're like, yo, go over there. And people are like, are you worried about your car getting towed? And he's like, that car is too expensive to tow.

• 23:36Speaker 12

  And he kind of just left it there. And it's funny because like you could tell like the local cops knew him. Like, everyone was like down. It was just such an, and again, it was like such a New York moment because down to like people walking down the street, like wondering what we're shooting to like cops. Everyone was like, the minute they found out I was for the Knicks, they were like whistling, looking that way. They're like, do your thing, you know, so.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Sounds about right.

• 23:58Pablo Torre?

  I mean, parking again. You could be Frank Isola with special, you know.

• 24:01Speaker 03

  He needs those New York press plates.

• 24:03Pablo Torre?

  That's right.

• 24:03Speaker 01

  I used to work at the library, the Spite and Dive Library, and Tracy Morgan's kid went to school across the street. So he would just come in like a drop top Bentley and just park in front of the library, not locking the door or anything, roof it off, and who's gonna steal his drop top Bentley? I'm like, I don't even know how to drive that.

• 24:20Speaker 03

  I thought he did that during the playoffs last year.

• 24:21Speaker 01

  He does it. He has so many cars and he's so rich and he just drives around, no security, just chilling. He's Tracy Morgan.

• 24:26Pablo Torre?

  Outside MSG, you'll see him like dap up kids. He'd give like an inspirational speech to like one of those kids or something like that.

• 24:33Speaker 01

  He'll change your life.

• 24:34Speaker 03

  Yeah. I think he would resonate with Kawhi. So far, nobody else. I'm sorry.

• 24:38Pablo Torre?

  So at this point, with I think that being a concern, the assembled actors and entertainers decide to basically just break the fourth wall and appeal directly.

• 24:49Speaker 09

  Yo, what's up, Kawhi? Uh, listen, I'm Jay Pharoah. As you know, I'm the guy who plays you this whole thing. You should come to New York, man. Look at the Garden. You see all them people in there? I'm one of them.

• 24:58Speaker 08

  If you are here in New York, I will personally come to your home and give you a forecast every afternoon.

• 25:05Speaker 09

  A humble New York Knickerbocker fan, and we need you at the Garden, brother.

• 25:10Speaker 10

  I don't need to tell you about basketball, but I can tell you about New York. First of all, the weather's awesome.

• 25:16Speaker 03

  He's holding an umbrella.

• 25:17Speaker 10

  The Knicks won a championship when I was eight. So I'd like another one before I die. Time is running out.

• 25:26Speaker 09

  Man, you need to come to New York, man. You need to chill your ass out in New York. Come play, you know what I'm saying? You gonna get all the women. I mean, I know you married, but you know that everybody have a little sad piece. You know what I'm saying? You can't have a value man without having a little, you know what I'm saying, some Whopper fries. But yeah, come on to New York, man. We got everything for you. Uh, we got lots of barber shops, so you know you'll be tight for every, every game.

• 25:44Speaker 10

  I'm kind of a big deal, all right? I walk down the streets, people go nuts.

• 25:50Speaker 09

  What else do we got? Uh, Puerto Ricans? I know y'all ain't got no Puerto Ricans in Toronto. We got several left, so come on down, bro. Play with the Puerto Ricans.

• 25:56Speaker 10

  You are next level. Like, I'm like here and you're like...

• 26:01Pablo Torre?

  Here.

• 26:02Speaker 09

  You need to get on Drake's plane. That's what you need to do. You need to fly that plane from Toronto. You need to bring that ass to New York. There's nothing like winning in New York. Just try it. It's a good idea because I said so. Ah, and I can give you a private jet. Know why? I got money. Bam. You want money? Come here. Come see us. Holler at me. I'll be waiting for you. When I think of Kawhi Leonard, I think of prosperity. You know how many crackheads there are in the city? You know how many people stopped doing crack if you came here, Kawhi?

• 26:36Speaker 01

  Where was Harvey Weinstein? What was he doing? He couldn't be in this video. Come on, Harvey.

• 26:41Speaker 03

  Let me answer your question. All right, this happens to me. Somebody, I have somebody come up to you. They start talking, "Oh, I thought you were so-and-so."

• 26:47Speaker 01

  I said... All the time.

• 26:48Speaker 03

  They'll say, "Oh, I know a guy that looks like you." I said, "The guy better be good-looking." All right? That's not Idris Alba. That's no offense to Jay Pharoah.

• 26:55Speaker 01

  Right.

• 26:56Speaker 03

  So like, don't you, I think Kawhi Leonard would be insulted by that. I really do.

• 27:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:00Speaker 03

  But not that the guy's gotta be better-looking. He doesn't have to look like you. He's gotta be better-looking.

• 27:04Speaker 01

  But if he's funny, it's not as threatening.

• 27:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:07Speaker 01

  Because if he was, if it was just like some gorgeous model, like...

• 27:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  I'm hip, like, no. It's like, oh, the comedy softens it. And you're like, okay, I can, I can take a little light ribbing, that kind of thing.

• 27:19Speaker 03

  But this is Kawhi, though.

• 27:20Speaker 01

  It is, but also, we don't know anything about Kawhi.

• 27:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, we found out. Pablo reported, he pulls at the dirt with one hand, plants a tree with the other.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  He is. He's the tree god.

• 27:28Speaker 03

  That's those big, that's what, now we know what that big claw is for. Digging, digging that hole, sticking the tree in there.

• 27:34Speaker 01

  Tree man gets paid?

• 27:37Pablo Torre?

  Unfortunately, for those who don't remember how that summer went, uh...

• 27:42Speaker 03

  Not good.

• 27:43Speaker 01

  Wait, we didn't get KD? We didn't, we didn't get Kawhi?

• 27:46Pablo Torre?

  Speaking, speaking of what the Knicks did try to do to get Kyrie and KD...

• 27:52Pablo Torre?

  That's after the break.

• 28:00Pablo Torre?

  This message is brought to you by Apple Card. With Apple Card, you earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases, like groceries, or merch, or tickets to the game. Plus, it can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted. No matter your team, no matter where you shop, Apple Card is here to help you tackle game day. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at applecard.com.

• 28:33Speaker 13

  I've got big news. I switched to Verizon and got the new iPhone 18 Pro. Shh. I can keep my old phone. And I also get the latest iPhone every year. Shh. Anything else? Verizon let me choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on them. Everybody, listen up. Shh. Switch to Verizon and get the new iPhone 18 Pro now. No trade-in needed. And the latest iPhone every year with Simplicity Plan. Plus, choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on us. Simplicity Plan with Simplicity Pro required. Plan and device payment purchase are separate agreements with separate terms. Service plan for Watch or iPad required. Additional terms apply for all offers.

• 29:03Speaker 14

  Cash Flow Crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 29:42Pablo Torre?

  Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, they're playing footsie all, you know, all year, basically. And I do want to show what the Knicks prepared for Kyrie first. Because again, they don't just do it as if like, here's an email attachment. They made, you know, for kids who don't remember what this object is, D'Sus, what is this object?

• 30:01Speaker 01

  I was about to date myself and say it's an Apple II, but it's not. This is a TV with a built-in VCR?

• 30:07Pablo Torre?

  Yeah. Wow. It's like, uh, it's sort of, uh. The. The parent. Crack is whack. Yep, exactly. All around, it's like origin blue. Yep, all these, you can see the. I got the. Eye open. Yeah, got the Kyrie Irving KI. Oh, that's right. That's his logo. Yep, street artist Eric Hayes is the artist who put work into this. That's actually not bad. Yeah. I don't think, I don't know if it's gonna impress him, but. Well, and when you press play on this thing, what it was designed to do was show you this.

• 30:42Speaker 09

  Kyrie Irving was made for the New York Knicks.

• 30:44Speaker 08

  New York City basketball is in Kyrie Irving's blood. Was rooted for here. He's a guy that played in the park. When Kyrie was young, his father used to bring him to the gym, and he was too young to play with us. That boy used to watch me. He has that mental toughness, a heart of the lion. The grit, the hunger. All that stuff he does, it came from the playground. The crossover, the jelly. He has New York City flair. And the DNA of New York City is Kyrie Irving.

• 31:12Pablo Torre?

  This is very street ball oriented. They decided to appeal to that. Speedy Williams, Rucker Park legend, Earl the Pearl Monroe, who's also, yes, legendary on the outdoor court. Blackjack Ryan, also very famous in the street ball world. That's the angle they're going with. And it's sweet. It's like, okay, they're appealing to tradition, and then they're gonna imagine also a future for Kyrie Irving if he decided to join the Knicks.

• 31:41Speaker 15

  Hey, my name is Kyrie, and I was named after my favorite baller of all time.

• 31:48Speaker 15

  Why do you think I named both of them after him?

• 31:51Speaker 08

  Kyrie. Kyrie's so gifted, he rapped it. Living in the future, the present, he passed it.

• 31:58Speaker 09

  Kyrie. Kyrie Irving, man.

• 32:05Speaker 01

  I love that it's just like, oh, we're gonna get Kyrie and it's gonna be so much unprotected sex in New York City. My god, we're just naming the kids left and right.

• 32:14Speaker 03

  That one's not, that's actually not bad.

• 32:16Pablo Torre?

  It's a vision of 2027. They put the aftermath on there, like, this is what happens if you win in New York, you get a Wheaties box. Um, I will point out that the Wheaties box lately is less sort of, I mean, do we have the?

• 32:27Speaker 03

  Timothy Chalamet's on it, right?

• 32:28Pablo Torre?

  Exactly. Chalamet has a Wheaties box.

• 32:30Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 32:31Pablo Torre?

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're just, look, hold on, we have a, let's just get.

• 32:36Speaker 01

  I mean, I haven't looked at a box of Wheaties in quite so, what, $19 now?

• 32:39Pablo Torre?

  Here is the spawn con.

• 32:41Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  Yeah. Listen.

• 32:44Speaker 03

  I went to that last night.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  Look at him.

• 32:46Speaker 03

  I didn't take one, no, yeah.

• 32:47Speaker 01

  Was it right? Timothy Chalamet courtside all the time since he was a child, a real New Yorker.

• 32:53Speaker 03

  And it was where, you know, the big thing is orange. They wanted everybody, you would have fit in perfectly last night. They had. Everybody wore orange today.

• 32:58Speaker 01

  The Empire State Building was orange last night. Listen, it's like, they bring him on to talk about other things.

• 33:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:03Speaker 01

  They're like, talk about, you know, childhood cancer. He's like, y'all, childhood cancer's really bad, but you know what's not bad? We're in the NBA cup. And you're like, alright.

• 33:09Speaker 03

  He was on in London on a show just last week and he mentioned the Knicks. He can't go, he can't go 10 minutes.

• 33:14Pablo Torre?

  I love it. That's a little.

• 33:14Speaker 03

  He's like you.

• 33:15Speaker 01

  He's a real Nick fan, real Nick fan. Like, we're gonna talk about it when you don't wanna hear it.

• 33:19Pablo Torre?

  So Kyrie was appealed to in that regard and I, yeah, I think, I think that was, that was largely well done. Kevin Durant, what they provided him in terms of what the object was physically, it was a literal key to the city with a plaque. And the plaque says, Kevin, the city is yours. Continue your legacy in the mecca of basketball.

• 33:39Speaker 03

  He did. He went, he went to Brooklyn.

• 33:42Speaker 01

  Just in the wrong borough.

• 33:44Speaker 03

  He got lost.

• 33:45Pablo Torre?

  So this key, this golden key in this beautiful case was a thumb drive, it turns out. When you plug it in.

• 33:52Speaker 03

  Clever.

• 33:53Pablo Torre?

  When you plug it in, you get a full-on music video. And some of this has already come out. We reported this, actually broke this news earlier that they made this whole custom thing involving the Wu-Tang Clan and Fat Joe and a bunch of other people about the 2019 Knicks roster.

• 34:13Speaker 08

  Let me tell you something, man. I was outside in the Rucker. KD scored about 81 points out there. Just shooting miles away. I mean, miles away. That's when I knew he was the real deal. It's only one place to play is the Knicks. There is nothing else, man.

• 34:32Speaker 07

  That's why you know he belong here in New York.

• 34:35Speaker 08

  What's up, KD?

• 34:36Speaker 07

  Come through, babe, bro.

• 34:37Speaker 08

  We need you.

• 35:04Speaker 01

  This is the music in the background when you're changing the settings on NBA Live. You're like, let me turn down the sliders.

• 35:10Pablo Torre?

  There are so many people in that video that they hired to do it. And it goes on and on and all that stuff. But the problem with this whole thing, Frank, I need you to help explain the timeline issue with free agency. So these videos were all shot from late May to late June, I believe, in 2019, as we were told. But the free agency window for the NBA legally, officially, opens on June 30th.

• 35:35Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 35:36Pablo Torre?

  At 6:00 PM. One problem with what happened in 2019, as often happens in NBA free agency, Frank, is what?

• 35:45Speaker 03

  Well, Woj was breaking stories before even 6 o'clock.

• 35:49Pablo Torre?

  Yes.

• 35:49Speaker 03

  So how could Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving be going to the Nets having not even spoken to them? How was that even possible?

• 35:56Pablo Torre?

  4:56 PM.

• 35:57Speaker 03

  That's what the time was?

• 35:58Pablo Torre?

  Woj tweets out, "Brooklyn is making a clean sweep tonight. Brooklyn will sign Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and DeAndre Jordan, league sources tell ESPN." An hour before the thing actually opens. And this is an issue because it turns out that if you're this agency and you're the Knicks, like preparing these videos, there was a concern about whether they would actually ever see them.

• 36:22Speaker 07

  Definitely play by all the rules. Definitely play by all the rules. Um, the Knicks obviously handled that, but they were, they were definitely buttoned up in that respect. Nobody's looking for, um, you know, the unforced error there. We were all throwing our fingers on the table, waiting to get the feedback. Like knowing that we might have had a thing and when the phone never rang for us.

• 36:44Speaker 07

  Kawhi loves it. Uh, KD's like, when that never happened, that was, um, I don't know. You know, to this day, I don't know who got what. I don't know anything.

• 36:57Pablo Torre?

  And what I did was I made some more calls. We, as a show, decided to keep reporting this story. And I got to Rich Kleiman, Kevin Durant's agent and longtime business partner and New Yorker.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 37:08Pablo Torre?

  And I said, had you ever seen any of this stuff, the KD stuff? And he said, quote, "Nah, he never saw it. I haven't even discussed with him. But as a native New Yorker, I just saw it yesterday and Wu-Tang can do anything and I'll like it."

• 37:22Speaker 03

  Right.

• 37:22Pablo Torre?

  End quote. But what we are learning, given that Kawhi Leonard clearly was being frank, the Clippers were courting Kawhi Leonard.

• 37:31Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 37:32Pablo Torre?

  Long before 6:00 PM.

• 37:35Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 37:35Pablo Torre?

  On free agency opening day. And the Nets clearly, and Kyrie and KD, they had been planning something long in advance. And then weirdly, what I'm here to say is that I found out that the Knicks really didn't tamper enough. I don't think.

• 37:52Speaker 03

  And I agree. We, all right. So if you go back to LeBron, I wrote Charles Oakley's book for him. Thanks for reading it. And Charles Oakley talks about, uh, talking with LeBron the summer before.

• 38:05Speaker 03

  Free agency and he told Charles, I'm gonna go to Miami.

• 38:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 38:09Speaker 03

  Charles knows Pat Riley, he ran into him in Miami, told him that. Pat Riley kind of ignored it because he was worried about tampering and things like that. I remember walking into, running into Mike Miller. Mike Miller said, he ran into LeBron like in May. LeBron saw him and he said, what are you, what are you gonna do? I'm gonna go to Miami. The players, the players all know.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:28Speaker 03

  It's amazing how they all know because the Kevin Durant and Kyrie stuff. February was a going to the Knicks and then all of a sudden by March, April, there was a shift where people saying, they're going, they're both gonna go to the Nets. I was, I was saying, really? Yeah, no, they're gonna go to the Nets. And by now you've heard the Knicks, but everyone said, no, they're switch, they're, they don't wanna go, they're gonna go to the, uh, they're gonna go to Brooklyn.

• 38:48Speaker 01

  Right.

• 38:48Speaker 03

  And play for the Nets. So all this stuff that they do, the intentions are good.

• 38:52Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:52Speaker 03

  But all this stuff behind the scenes, it's just like your guy Uncle Dennis. We all heard, it was like the, I always feel like it was the Mark Maguire, Barry Bonds thing about, guys are using steroids, but everybody in the media ignored it. Everyone was hearing Dennis is asking for the moon, he's asking for the moon. Everyone ignored it. Obviously the Clippers gave him the moon because that's where he ended up.

• 39:10Speaker 01

  Right. I love that also as a regular fan, as a casual, you're just really thinking like everyone plays by the rules. The tampering rules are so serious. No one's sending any text messages, no conversations happening. And then once you actually get in the business and you start meeting, people are like, oh, I know where I'm gonna be three years from now.

• 39:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:26Speaker 01

  You don't have to recruit me, I know exactly where. You're like, oh, it's not all hunky dory like that. And also, as you said, we need to tamper more. We need to tamper more.

• 39:33Speaker 03

  What did Fred VanVleet just recently say? He said that when we first met with Kawhi, he says it's gonna be a one year thing. I'm not gonna be here next year.

• 39:39Speaker 16

  He did what he came to do.

• 39:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:42Speaker 16

  Yeah. And he said it from day one, I'm not staying here.

• 39:48Speaker 01

  You know what? He never said he was gonna stay, so.

• 39:51Speaker 16

  He, from, from day one, I don't know why they traded for me. I don't wanna be here, I'm not staying here.

• 40:00Speaker 03

  So a lot of us thought it was between Toronto and the Clippers. Obviously it wasn't. Still a great trade though. Would you trade a guy for one year to win a championship? If you haven't, if you've never won one and they probably won't win one ever again? It's worth it.

• 40:12Pablo Torre?

  Absolutely. I mean, the Kawhi thing though, what we're finding out is that it is very likely that the first time Kawhi, and Kawhi. If you're not subscribing to Propel Torre Finds Out, you're missing a lot of information about your own life. But the first time he may ever see this is this way.

• 40:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:31Pablo Torre?

  Like, so KD never saw that, Kyrie probably never saw that, Kawhi probably never saw that. Like, they were on to the... They weren't opening up, like, Knicks marketing recruiting packages?

• 40:42Speaker 01

  Also, when you got the key, did he even know it was a USB stick? Also, you can't just be opening... You can't just insert a USB stick into a random computer if you don't know where it came from, so...

• 40:51Pablo Torre?

  The Knicks are so good at getting famous people into the building as fans.

• 40:57Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 40:58Pablo Torre?

  But the question of, like, how do you actually leverage what makes this city special from the entertainment perspective? This is now a decade of trying to do this stuff, but not quite getting the game correct.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:11Pablo Torre?

  And so, I don't... Yeah, Frank, I don't know. I don't know. Do you... The Knicks now are in a different place.

• 41:16Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 41:17Pablo Torre?

  Desus is celebrating... I mean, Desus is, I believe, now working for the United Arab Emirates.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  You know, I knew, ever since I was a young child, growing up, I always wanted the NBA Cup. I just remember growing up in the Bronx, and, you know, it's finally come true, so I have to pay them back.

• 41:33Speaker 03

  He wants a first-class ticket on Emirates. That's why he keeps mentioning Emirates NBA Cup.

• 41:37Pablo Torre?

  They have great airlines.

• 41:38Speaker 01

  It worked for Eric Adams, so, you know.

• 41:42Pablo Torre?

  Where is... Can Eric Adams pop up in a Knicks recruiting video at some point?

• 41:46Speaker 03

  He might be. You're gonna have to tape it in New Jersey. I think he's in Fort Lee, right? Isn't that where he lives?

• 41:51Speaker 01

  He... No, right now, he's like, he is like a parent whose child is going away to college. He's out every night, he's going on trips. Like, we don't know... New York won every morning, and they're like, "He might be here."

• 42:03Speaker 03

  Your boy will do it.

• 42:05Pablo Torre?

  Zaron?

• 42:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:06Pablo Torre?

  Oh, yeah.

• 42:06Speaker 03

  And he's a footballer, too.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. He... Listen, he sent that tweet out right when the game ended yesterday.

• 42:11Pablo Torre?

  Yeah.

• 42:12Speaker 01

  He did not have to wait for the PR people. He didn't... You know, Eric Adams would have got in a row. He would have been like, "Oh, we're proud of our champions from Barclays Center", and then they would have edited the tweet, and then like, "The Madison Square Garden", something like that. So, we got some things going on here. We were in a new place.

• 42:25Speaker 03

  You think professional athletes at that level, that much money, really care about guys, like actors and singers and rappers recruiting them? I don't think they do.

• 42:44Speaker 13

  I've got big news. I switched to Verizon and got the new iPhone 18 Pro. Shh. I can keep my old phone. And I also get the latest iPhone every year. Shh, anything else? Verizon let me choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on them. Everybody, listen up. Shh. Switch to Verizon and get the new iPhone 18 Pro now. No trade in needed. And the latest iPhone every year with Simplicity Plan. Plus, choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on us. Simplicity Plan with Simplicity Pro required. Plan and device payment purchase are separate agreements with separate terms. Service plan for Watch or iPad required. Additional terms apply for all offers.

• 43:13Speaker 02

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone. And including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. LeBron more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 43:52Speaker 01

  Shout out to Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx. I went there in elementary school because my elementary school had asbestos. So we had to be on the top floor of Harry S. Truman High School for a year. We did not see the sun. We were just indoors.

• 44:07Speaker 03

  I put in security cameras there.

• 44:09Speaker 01

  Did you?

• 44:10Speaker 03

  I helped my father run the line. This is like a million years ago. And you're right, I kept thinking, there's no windows in this school.

• 44:16Speaker 01

  There's no windows. It was like a prison.

• 44:18Pablo Torre?

  No, it's a greatness ring. The true greatness ring is the top floor.

• 44:23Speaker 01

  That's the real Mecca. The next video, they're gonna have like little kids like, yeah, come to school here, man. We got no windows. We see a window for a championship.

• 44:31Speaker 03

  And I'm like a punk kid growing up along that. I'm like, wow, they need security cameras in the high school. Wow, what's going on here?

• 44:37Speaker 01

  There was a lot going on in that school.

• 44:38Pablo Torre?

  You were laying wire? That was...

• 44:41Speaker 03

  It was like my father's second job. So I think I might have got 10 bucks an hour. I'm not gonna say how long ago it was.

• 44:46Speaker 01

  Dude, I have uncles and family members like, "He was doing wire at a young age? Doesn't get better than that." Don't talk about the athletes. Tell them more about that. Like, what was the price of copper?

• 44:56Speaker 03

  Dude, 10 bucks an hour?

• 44:57Speaker 01

  Listen, you can't beat that. You're on the L I double R, smoking a cigar.

• 45:03Speaker 03

  I'm in the beer car.

• 45:04Speaker 01

  You're in the beer car. You're waiting for my tracks, like, eh, what's going on tonight?

• 45:08Speaker 03

  Got a change at Jamaica again.

• 45:09Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 45:10Speaker 03

  Dog it.

• 45:11Speaker 01

  Oh, is it peak time?

• 45:14Speaker 03

  I tried to cause more money to peak. He knows.

• 45:17Pablo Torre?

  I guess what I'm left thinking at the end here, well, I guess I'm left thinking about a poet, a poet by the name of Robert Frost.

• 45:23Speaker 03

  How interesting.

• 45:24Pablo Torre?

  Who once said, "In the road not taken, I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood." And Kawhi, Kawhi took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

• 45:40Speaker 03

  Robert Frost. Well done.

• 45:43Speaker 01

  This hour, every time you think of Robert Frost, you think of Harvey Weinstein.

• 45:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:47Speaker 01

  That's his legacy.

• 45:48Speaker 03

  And running wire in Howard Truman High School.

• 45:51Speaker 01

  In L I. Listen, I could call Mike Fresson and talk about this for an hour. I'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you even understand how good a job like that was? Like, that's generational, Mike.

• 46:01Pablo Torre?

  I dare say that Harvey Weinstein, much like Frank Isola and Desus Nice, all familiar with what it's like to be in a room without windows.

• 46:08Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 46:20Pablo Torre?

  Pablo Torre Finds Out is produced by Walter Avaroma, Maxwell Carney, Ryan Cortez, Juan Galindo, Patrick Kim, Neely Lohman, Rob McCray, Matt Sullivan, Claire Taylor, and Chris Tumanello. Our studio engineering by RG Systems. Sound design by Andrew Bersick and NGW Post. Theme song, as always, by John Bravo. And we will talk to you next time.

• 46:54Speaker 02

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone. And including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. LeBron more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage, HMO, and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.